Smiles

Thank you so much. Unlike your article and it's List, I try my best to be original.

LoveThailand: It is far from that (and certainly no Voice of Reason) . . . starting off with that the points made are hardly 'different' whatsoever. I've heard all these shallow little cliches discussed continually on many a message board for years now, and certainly in the specific context which Mr Barnes addresses them, i.e. that they are all nonsense. Agreed, the list is nonsense, but the list is not new stuff at all . . . but it is cheap journalism: i.e. the fantastical generalization that all (or even most) 'aging sexpats' believe heartily in the efficacy ~ perhaps a creepy deliciousness ~ of the items on 'The List' above. Utter nonsense, cliched balderdash, factually unproven, shallow extrapolation. I could drag out a dozen or so friends who, like myself, live full time in Thailand and would laugh this so-called 'Breaking News' out of the the nearest coffee shop. Perhaps a new Editor is needed for this publication.

Now now Bob, you are being too disingenuous by some number of degrees: As you are aware .... click here to find yourself literally surrounded by numerous examples of airborne fucks: http://markmanson.net/not-giving-a-fuck#RWcOZy:pB7 (Don't give up on this article boys ... it starts with a squeamish tinge of language-handicapped Ozark mountain good ol' boys running off at the mouth and morphs into some kind of reasonable depth which might even be characterized as 'a philosophy'.) I also was taken aback ~ can I say 'shocked'? ~ by Michael (that dear old fuddy-duddy him) completely giving up, hands in the air, on the earlier deadly serious debatin' and letting his Inner Lewdness come flying out ~ like a toothpaste tube squeezed tightly ~ with fuck this, fuck that, and fuck Fountainhalls every-fucking-where. Priceless.

I would have kicked your big farang ass down the stairs whining that many times. Perhaps that was your problem after all ... I would not doubt it.

Sperm buildup? Let 'er rip I say: at Firecat's advanced age one must take great advantage of the first few explosive incidents. The parabolic curve heads down the Other Side quite rapidly. After that, he's (Khor)Toast.

So stop asking ... pushing for answers you want will never work. You just come across as needy and juvenile.

Very funny Bob. Actually, Spermaholic (a charming handle if I ever swallowed one) is NOT a Canadian, he is from Edmonton and true Canadians are never from there, and in fact would never go there. Anyway, his fetish is bland in the extreme: hang out in Vancoooooooouver for a few weeks and you'll trip over fetishes which put sperm-swallowing at about the same level as inhaling a much-too-large whiff of 'Terre D'Hermes' cologne for men. For Sperm .... : Bob is not Australian, he is from close to the same area in the USofA as the mass murderer in Fargo ~ you know, the wood-chipper dude in gumboots. Which explains quite a lot.

You should ask Firecat about that ... he's an expert on that point of view. Board looks kind of OK ... slightly Baht-Stop-ish. Nice to see the international prostitute lineup has been ditched, at least from the forum opening page, when logged in. I'll no longer have to avert mine eyes. The two Thai guys are cute. Will they be recycled occasionally? Where'd you get the smart-looking bamboo motif idea? I've see that somewhere before.

Agree with Koko. A troll windup post if I ever saw one ... all the right ingredients.

I flew United for years, either Vancouver>>Bangkok or sometimes from Seattle. That puppy was never once late getting into BKK over eight years ... usually pretty much on the button (which I've heard is almost unknown for United's domestic flights). But over the years the service deteriorated noticeably (and I am decidedly not high maintenance), and worse, the legroom grew smaller as they tried jamming in more seats in Econ (and I am decidedly not large). The cabin staff were ancient and sometimes unnecessarily grouchy. Tried Air Canada once, never again. Tried EVA, OK, not particularly special and their 747 to Taipei was a rattle trap. Lastly ~ and now forever, I hope ~ Korean Air is The One. Lots of legroom in Econ., the food is pretty good, and they now seem to have a few connections going east which do not necessitate an 8 to 10-hour layover. By the way, Incheon Airport provides free showers ~ and luxurious they are ~ if you do happen to get caught there for a few hours waiting for the next flight. Incheon, as airports go, is the best!

Why was the train ticket free for 'your' boys? Surely not just-because-they're-Thai. Or ... ? This certainly happens in national parks and monuments etc etc, but Thai Railway ain't no monument. Hell, it's hardly a railway!

Michael wrote: "I am sure the new owner will do a great job there but the past owners all seem to participate there don't they?" No, not at all. I owned Sawatdee for 5 years but stopped posting there while Neal pretty well degraded the place beyond recognition. Elephant spike owned it for a further 6 years and since he sold it to Neal has not made a post ... and that has continued over the last week since Surfcrest took over. I have made 2 short posts there in the last few days, one of them being a one-liner congratulating Surfcrest for his new venture in Boardie Land.

The email address in the quote above is correct. Why you didn't get a response (which would be highly unusual) I don't know: I'm his Old Man, not his business manager. Perhaps you put him off by asking whether his car seats are First Class or Economy.

The 2013 edition of the Surin Elephant Roundup & Festival takes place during the whole week of November 11~17, but the Really Big Shoe part (the denouement, climax, pinnacle, orgasm, zenith etc etc) happens on Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th. I believe the wild and woolly-mammoth buffet brunch (first photo below) takes place on Friday the 15th. Don't miss that! During the week, and during the last three days there are also many other odd things going on both in town and out in the environs: light shows, fireworks, crazed markets, bars a-baring, Mularm music All-The-Time. As you possibly already are aware, my old man, the exquisitely spoiled Khun Suphot, has a tour guide business ... and a most successful one indeed. For the last 5 years he has always had customer(s) from these various gay Thailand message boards who book his tour service for this extremely popular festival in the very heart of Khymer Isaan. Once booked, he has invariably had to turn down other enquiries because they were too late. So I post this ~ admittedly an advert ~ blurb here to let anyone who is really keen on taking in the Elephant Festival this year to get their names in as soon as possible. Once booked Suphot can also ~ in advance ~ book you a reasonably priced hotel (he has a network facility unmatched in Isaan!), or at the very least, give you many options vis-a-vis price; level of accommodation: Hi-So (or Lo-So) Quotient, etc etc. Herein find some photos of snippets of the Festival and 'things to see' around Surin, of which there are many, including Isaan school children on the very precipice of disaster ... and a photo of the esteemed tour guide/driver himself, holding up ~ without help ~ an 800 year, 7,000 pound old door lintel at Phanom Rung. The man is indeed a ham, par excellence. Mother and Child gorging on vegetables at the buffet. That kid has it's nose right up mom's mouth, looking for ... For a small fee you can ride an elephant the length of the trip down to Buffet Central. Check the straps on the seats: a couple of years ago two (that I know of) fell off half way to the food, spilling screaming farangs down onto the pavement. Nobody hurt (that I know of) but scared for life, poor dears. Thais gathered around, nattering, pointing, wilting in laughter. The very rare elephant twins. These two cuties were slathered over by every Thai kid from miles around. Born just a week or so before the Festival, their presence attracted photographers from all the Thai papers and was all the rage, hugely auspicious . . . like baby pandas in China. The festival ends with a battle between Thailand and Burma. Er ... guess who wins? The field lay littered with Burmese dead, the elephants under orders to stomp on any would-be corpse which moved. Which they did with enthusiasm. The supremely majestic central Khymer temple at Phanom Rung. About a half-hour drive from Surin City. One feels-the-robes walking up the long pathway, then stairway ... and one feels-the-burn after the summit has been conquered. But it's well worth it. Sit peacefully in the huge bamboo groves which flourish on the shade side of the temple and ~ if luck lives with you ~ get a fleeting glimpse of the ghost of Khymer King Phibunsamuklalawardeeprasartphrayasimilkonverabunkrunthep ('The Great'), who apparently haunts the central chedi, still ~ after 800 years ~ not having been able to master the pronunciation of his own name. View from resting in said bamboo grove ... Yup, this shot was taken at a quite unreasonable speed for all the relaxation, straw-sucking and jabbering going on in the back. One quick brake to avoid 'something' up ahead and at least three of these dudes are shit-outta-luck. Thais NEVER believe 'it' will happen to them ... and when it does, it's off to the temple for some merit-making, all scratched and bleeding and bandaged. Good enough, let's do it again! The ever-smiling Mr Suphot, resting, posing, happy that his customer (in this particular instance, me) is wildy content. I posted a flogging-the-business post back last November, so all the important details of Suphot's tour guide business can be viewed here. Within the post you'll find different options for contact information: http://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3967

Nope. 50.

55555555 You call that an attack? It is to guffaw. Au contraire. That was the use of a straw, a pea, and a grin, not a WMD. I had no idea a Mod would go to such a foolish length just to protect Certain Members who's skin is as thin as spring roll wrap. That Certain Member should be most upset and take you to task for your use of a bazooka, when a smilie would suffice.

Guess the money ran out. Click on it and one gets this: 'This Video is Private'. Anyway, this: And 'we' would be 'us' I suppose ... the great amorphous/ubiquitous Gay Mob which is out there ~ every night ~ in Sunnee, Soi 4, Twilight and run down host bars in Saphan Kwai throwing loot around willy nilly and searching sadly sadly sadly for, ready for it? 'An elusive thing'. So what is he "elusive thing"? Enlighten me ... or 'us' I guess you mean. A list which may help the enlightening process: ~ A great firm bubble-butt-ish Thai ass ~ A kind Thai heart ~ A huge Thai cock ~ A Thai guy with no hair on his, er, thighs, chest, arms, BUT thick Black Bush is OK! ~ A Thai love Forever ~ A short time dream lover for 2 hours ... while you're head's on the pillow thinkin' 'Forever'. ~ A Thai guy on his fourth sick buffalo ~ A Thai guy who's never worked 'In the Business' ~ A Thai guy to flip over ~ Mr Right, preferably Thai ~ Mr Right, after all this elusiveness, ANYONE!! ~ A twisted Thai (in knots ~ AKA a Tied Thai? Latterly from Cirque de Soleil? From being flipped over one too many times? Thai searching for Thai ~ must be twisted up in blue? ~ A 'promisable' Thai (SP, but you get it) ~ A Thai with a lovable Mother, 7 sisters (one dead, one on the edge ), 3 brothers, a father or three ('somewhere'), 679 cousins, some epileptic ... all hungry. ~ A Thai guy, sweet-face, sweet-talker, works in a bank, straight acting ~ A Thai guy rough trade sweet-talker... comes in quartets, a dime-a-dozen, stands around sweet-talkin' at 7-11's, 24-7, sucking back 'Leo yai' and leaving the empties for environmentally aware Farangs to pick up ~ A Thai guy who wants to buy a Tuk Tuk, no, A Som Tam cart, no, a 7-11 franchise, no, a portable t-shirt business beside the Hong Nam at Central Chit Lom, no, a Khao Mun Gai stand at On Nut Sky train Station, no, a special coat ready made for the 'Look-I-Have-No-Arms' begging franchise at the overhead walkway at Siam Square, no, a lady bar, no, oh no, oh no, oh no ... NOT another fucking gay bar!! ~ A Thai magician who pulls a live 15-lb seagull out of his ear, while you're busy chatting/feeling up that Thai guy with the huge cock ~ A genteel and hi-so Thai guy who ends his sentences with 'Khrub' rather than 'Kap' and turns out to be a news announcer on Bangkok Channel 3 and you meet him by serendipity at the rooftop bar at Le Bua ~ I could get into this: #1 above, that is. All night. (He said Joyce-y-ingly)

The beach in front of the Intercontinental is not private. It's a public beach and the lower classes can quite easily mingle with the upper .... at least on the beach. Wander a little along the beach and you'll find many umbrella stands which will feed you well ~ and far more tastily ~ at a tenth of the price of the Intercontinental, and more fun as well. Besides the dozen or so Thai boys which Michael seems to have in tow, the only other Thai folks in the hotel will be those servicing your every need. Too bad. Hua Hin has much more to experience than just another one of these farang-centric over-priced infinity-pooled so-called 'resorts'. I mean ... heaven forbid one should actually 'wander away' from one's hotel. Do they provide sniffer dogs to round you up and herd you back just in case you get lost in some sand dune?

Apologies! For some reason I thought you were someone else ... someone I'm thinking of now ... someone a lot older ~ at least 50 ~ yet not particularly the sharpest splinter in the wood pile (hence my incomprehension regarding not holding a retirement visa). I'm glad I have a retirement visa, but to be frank, I guess I wish I were younger (and not be able to get one ).

I assume the OP is at least 50 years old, so why not just get a 12 month Non Imm visa (i.e. essentially the 'retirement' visa)? You can come and go as you please, but no need for visa runs anymore.

No idea what's going on in Britain regarding applying for various visas (in your case, a 90-day Non Imm), but I don't think the visa itself is not available any more. It is in fact, front and centre at the Thai Consulate in Vancouver (and I assume the Embassy in Ottawa as well as other Consulates in Canada). Go to: http://www.thaicongenvancouver.org/cms/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=121 Under 'Travel Visas' click on 'Visa Information: 'Non Immigrant Visas'. Once there, scroll down the list of Non Imms and come to the last one, 'Other Activities'. That's the Non Immigrant 'O' visa. After that you'll find the particulars for applying and receiving it. I've dealt with the Vancouver Consulate a number of times over the years and their website has always been spot on information-wise. So, it seems that for some countries, the Non Imm 'O' may not be available. Don't ask me why, but at least you can be fairly certain that they still exist. ________________________ But ... he says as he reads all the way to the end of the thread I see that you have found your nirvana after all. Happy holiday!

Comments from some of the poor dupes who put money into Ocean 1 (ranging from 2008 to 2010): http://pattayajomtiencondos.blogspot.com/2008/09/ocean-1-tower-jomtien-gone-bust-or-just.html

Mr Asbury is retiring from Thailand: good luck and good for him ... for whatever are his reasons. But Bob is absolutely correct: the site of Ocean 1 is an almost-vacant lot, home to a small cement facility which is supplying it's product to other developments, but not the Tallest Condo in Pattaya. There is not as much as an ant nest dug on the rest of the site, nor even a pretence of activity, nor as much as a cornerstone. These shots taken last March, but the joint still looks exactly the same.

Just a guess (perhaps even a semi-educated one?), but I think the dynamic with long term expats in Thailand goes something like this: Gay dude discovers Thailand while still working (probably applies to straights as well) Starts coming to Thailand regularly and around the same time discovers gay message boards Loves all his trips, discovers 'Butterflyism', OR, finds a longer-term Thai guy Has a visceral need to talk with other gay guys 'about everthing Thai' ... the best vehicle being the message board. Addicted to reading everything, often posting replies on most threads, asking questions of Long-Termers Decides to retire to Thailand full time. Needs even more information ... i.e. becomes a 'Regular' on multiple message boards, now providing info as well as asking for it. Retires to Thailand ... then starts a delicious learning curve of his own. Discovers things on his own, treads the mean streets more confidently, starts speaking more and more Thai, breaks the bonds of culture shock one by one, on his own. Spends lots of time nuturing a new found relationship. Still reads and enjoys message boards, but begins posting less and less as the info on the boards becomes 'bin der, dun dat'. Visits boards much less frequently, posting only once in awhile. Losing interest, but still going back to boards from habit. Slowly breaks the addiction.

'Happiness' may be relative, but I know it when I see it . . . if, at the very least, only because I know ~ probably better ~ what unhappiness is. So, as a short and sweet answer: extraordinarily happy. The 'why' is of course the the more difficult part, but I can truthfully say he is at this point everything that a great partner could ever be: not perfect but close enough; not the Best Sex I've ever had but top 5; smart, street savvy, generous, a cheap date, not needy, gentle, tough, funny, (to me) most handsome etc etc etc. This year in fact is our tenth together ... 7 years of long distance discovering and now into starting our fourth year of living together. Things are better this year than last, and last year was better than that before. I can hardly think of a better criteria for measuring happiness together. If I may indulge myself a bit ... and kind of public celebration of our 10 years together: This shot was taken in Bangkok in 2000 (at Wat Arun. You can just make out the spires of the Grand Palace in the background acfross the river). Obvious younger then ... a baby faced 30 years old. Not sure if you see what I see now, a sly twinkle in eye and smile. It's still there. This picture was 'around' 2005. Taken at Hua Hin, we are standing on some rocks surrounded by a low tide. By this time we had already begun talking ~ vaguely ~ about the future, about how much we liked Hua Hin and possibly a great place to start a business and how clean the beach was and how 'not-on-the-farm' it was and what do you think? and what do you think? and what do you think? And then, we got old! Together ... always a happy thing. This shot was us again, last year. This was not posed, snapped by my Australian cousin, and the body language and the smiles and the leaning in and leaning on and close and comfortable seem ~ for me ~ to tell all. When I showed him this photo, blown up because I liked it so much, his first quick reaction was this: " ... good good. We look so happy ... " Rich's comments above hits most of the marks on the 'happiness' metaphor. He was very honest to add in the part regarding the Sex Thing: his, not uncommonly, seems to have settled into that oddly comfortable landscape where a lot of men and women in long time relations gradually let sex slide into 'just cuddling' and seem quite OK with that. Mine has not gone in that direction, thankfully. We've had many excellent converstaions about this and seem to have come the conclusion that sex is part and parcel of a healthy relationship, and both of us do our best to keep it that way. Nobody on this earth turns me on like him ... and ~ and this is the best part ~ the same seems to be the case for him. Inexplicable I know, but there you have it. This dude ~ like Maggie Thatcher ~ is not for turning, away that is, at this stage in the drama. You will not see me stamping off into the wilderness and away from This Excellent Life we've built together . . . I'm just too damn lazy to start all over again. It (and he) are keepers. I agree very much with Geezer above (although a lucky man to have never had crossed words ... I cannot say the same for me the pig-headed and he the Thai Expert): I also feel hugely lucky ... to have taken the chance and grabbed at the most serendipitous way we originally met. Suphot feeling the very same way is quite one of the best inner psychic tendernesses one can ever indulge in.