Smiles

Ironically, in the 'normal' Thai social/cultural milieu, standing tall over, or being at a higher level than the person you are interacting with is, in general, considered bad form or even rude. Thais will often make a good attempt in some way to reduce their height over you if they find themselves put in such a physical position. It's one of the reasons why Thais squat a lot together when engaging in general conversation . . . they are physically lowering their presence in the group: not out of deference, but out of politeness. What many gogo bars have done with the raised stage concept is to (unwittingly?) place a young Thai in a social context that is very foreign to them: i.e. to be (uncomfortably) forced into a circumstance where they are raised above those considered customers. I would think any Thai young man would be feeling very uncomfortable to be forced into such a position. He'd not be particularly happy. And it may also explain why gogo bars where the dancers are at least on the same level as the customers feel more like natural fun time ... they're more relaxed and easy going when their social interactions are happening in a more physical setting more in tune with the 'Thai way'.

It may be quiet (compared to Pattaya et al) but Hua Hin is still home to the greatest natural Bubble Butt I've ever had the pleasure of tripping over in my life. Discovered at Red Indian Bar in 2009 (March 14, 11:07PM) this was easily the most lusciously rounded, sculptured, jean-filling, perfectly protruding ass I've ever had the pleasure of drooling over (and my guy's is pretty decent I should add). The poor boy went to the army later that year and I'm afraid has not been seen again. The Men of Company 46 are undoubtedly getting all the benefits ... as we speak!

Krung Thai Bank (KTB). Never refused me any request, always helpful, fees no different than any of the other thieves, easy to set up and view my account from overseas, simple to set up utility auto payments, lots of excellent english-speakers (at my branch), my fave gal always asks me if I want to buy her house (perhaps I will), a block away from my place. These qualities can probably be at least equaled at most of the banks mentioned here (and others not mentioned), so I think the 'block-away' thing was ~ in the end ~ the deal maker.

The throbbing gay nightlife of Hua Hin just got a bit more throbbing-er with the Grand Opening of the newest gay bar in town: 'LITTLE CHOICES' It's been open some months now, but the owner ('Skip') put some Baht into the place to brighten it up and make it more inviting from the street. Not a host bar as such, there are still quite a number of handsome Thai guys hanging around most of the time ... enough to keep your offing skills honed to a sharp edge. 'Oh' behind the bar aims to please, and a pool table in the back will help you with getting to know the customers, the employees, and the ready-willing-and-able (whom I assume are not too little, er, choices.) Here's a map to get you there:

Pure naiveté. 'Smiles' came from "Land of ...", so long ago I can hardly remember ... back on the original Dreaded Ned line-item message board. It was 'Smiles' then, and it's 'Smiles' now. Turns out Thai 'smiles' come in all kinds, with multi meanings (not all 'happy' by any means) but I didn't know that back then. Also turns out the 'smiles' in Thailand seem fewer and further apart during these sad and fractious days lately: but I'll stick with 'Smiles' nonetheless ... in some hope. And that gun to the head avatar stays as well, in spite of the many suggestions to pull that trigger.

Perhaps, but "it's been said" (By whom? By what?) sounds like a far-stretching generalization to me. Sunglasses look good on this sweet Thai dude ... IMHO. He'd look hot, gorgeous, sexy, blind, indoors, or both. Thanks to somebody's Facebook thing.

Thank you Gaybutton for pointing out that this is a Board for adults ... who sometimes like to make a point as stark as they can without worrying about the puritanical forcing of dainty little *****'s on one and all. I do not see GayThailand board flooded with four letter words even though the policy is very liberal. A mature philosophy, nicely encapsulated.

The City Hall in Ubon:

Forget the rationalisations. I think the answer is rather obvious: there are lots of farangs in the sea ... many of them (I'd speculate) more handsome, more pleasant, more wealthy, better in the sack, than you (or I, or any of us). Given that reality, he's a potential threat to what you have now. A fling with another Thai on the other hand is much less of a threat (statistically wise) ~ except perhaps in the 'handsome' department Given that reality, you can allow yourself the luxury of not being overly concerned that your guy will be swept away. Somewhat of an elitist perspective you might say, but probably the cold hard truth nonetheless.

The video in the post directly above was shot as close as one can get to the Pinnacle Hotel without being in the lobby. Every gay person familiar with Thailand knows that the Pinnacle is a favourite Bangkok for gay folks. Keep your heads down boys!

Firecat, I could have easily just written my first sentence (" ... Why not just quietly apologise ...?") and just left it at that. But, my experience with Gaythailand's many instances in a similar vein (i.e. tripping the 'money' route, rather than the 'heart' route) leaves me to wonder why he never even mentioned a 'sincere apology' as one of his options. Perhaps he did, but did not say. Perhaps he never gave the simple road a second thought. Who knows? Therein, I think, lies a 'discussion' ... as you say, what the Board is about.

Every faction involved in this whole sad affair are now falling all over themselves denying any involvement in the shooting (possibly killing) of Seh Daeng: ( Parties deny role in hit on Seh Daeng ) The red supporters will obviously blame the government entities, and the government 'groups' will just as obviously blame the reds ... or at least a small sub-group of the reds which they dub 'terrorists' or ~ my favourite Thai phrase ~ 'Invisible Hands'. But for the close-to-objective folks (there are still many around ... the ones who view the government is weak and do-nothing, deserving of losing the next election. And can, at the same time, see the Reds as a out of control mob, badly led, undemocratic, corrupt) one can easily acknowledge good reasons for either of the groups wanting to get Mr Khattiya out of the picture: to the army and the government Seh Daeng is/was a longtime serious trouble maker, traitor (unsaid), big mouth, a denigrator of the 'establishment' army, a wayward macho Rambo figure. People in Thailand get shot for much less all the time. To some of the reds (i.e. those who don't buy into his hero-worship of the general mob) he was either a completely loose cannon disobeying many of the red leaders, or a huge threat to the red 'peace' faction, or a dispensable figure who's violent martyrdom at the hands of (obviously!) the government could be a rallying point for greater upheaval (i.e. read: 'winning'). Knowing Thailand reasonably well ~ though sometimes I wonder ~ I can easily see any of the above scenarios being a cause for Khattiya's shooting, though I have no idea which one (or one not mentioned, or a combination of some of them).

Why not just quietly apologise and leave it at that? Is that a possibility ~ the 'quiet' part that is? I feel (but could be wrong) that everything about you is 'loud'. You make such a big to-do (many more times than once) regarding throwing your money around GayThailand ~ I get it OK, you're rich already. Why not, for once, let some sincere words alone do the talking.

Very much agree with Fountainhead, as well as his concise way of putting it: a proverbial nutshell. One point though: Abhisit has always struck me as a very weak and do-nothing Prime Minister. Let's face it, he's had over a year to "do something" vis-a-vis his party's very low popularity in the entire North and North East area of Thailand but has stupidly neglected doing that kind of leg work. He's squandered a political opportunity and he'll probably pay for that whenever the next election is held ... and his inaction in this area was so lazy, and ultimately self defeating. However, I don't think he gets quite enough credit for his wary and careful tip-toeing through the maze of complication and chaos surrounding this whole red shirt occupation of the very heart of Bangkok . . . that is to say, the underlying possibility ~ close to the surface ~ that things could go incredibly wrong at some level on the street and end up blowing up into a Thai version of Tienanmen Square. If there was an "above all" scenario in this whole coloured-shirt debacle it was that that horrible disastrous result did NOT happen. Twenty seven Thai (and foreign) folks have lost their lives, but it could have been much much worse. Perhaps Abhisit, with his seeming 'take it slow' reactions to some very dramatic provocations deserves some decent amount of credit that a doomsday scenario on the Chinese scale has been avoided. I do agree with Fountainhead that there is a lot of shameful behavior from both sides ~ often inexplicable (to 'western' opinion) ~ which has happened here over the last two months on all sides. The reds, the yellows, the government, the police and army, should be down on their knees now apologizing to the Thai people as a whole. Bjut we all know that's not going to happen.

True. It would seem only common courtesy for the Board owner to send out a mass email informing the members ~ many of whom have contributed significant upkeep money over the years ~ that the Board was either temporarily or permanently suspended. Sawatdee was around for a lot longer than Passion, and hard as it may be for folks to believe, had a pretty large and loyal membership (at least until about 2 years ago). I would have hoped that Elephantspike would handle the demise ~ if that's what it is ~ in at least that simple way. On the other hand ... it may pop back up again. Outta the blue. A joke on the speculators, a la sawatdee style.

Exaggeration. Twice I'm aware of, and Sawatdee has been around (with two different platforms) since 2002.

Although I have absolutely no knowledge of what goes on behind at Sawatdee (I write this because so many seem to think I still do) and I don't know the real reason for the suspension, there are some speculations which seem obvious: The bill has not been paid. This has happened twice (I think) before, and each time it was taken care of fairly quickly. BUT ... I've never seen a 'SUSPENDED' notice, just a 'Temporary' webpage. The 'suspended' notice seems a bit more on the permanent side. But at this moment, I'd probably put a bet on that this is the reason for the downtime. A major overhaul of the Board (for whatever reason), software-wise and/or perhaps a cleanup of the philosophy of the operation. BUT ... up until now Elephantspike has never touched the (very outdated) Board Guidelines, nor speculated in public that the Board needed such a going-over. Elephantspike just got sick and tired of administering it. This one I can understand: the Board has been inundated by new handles lately (much more so than is normal), most of them one-line wonders trolling and flooding the Board with inane posts. The only help Elephantspike received was from Jinks, who more than often made matters worse with his unpredicatable and completely idiosycratic moderating decisions. He was getting a lot of heat lately about that, and perhaps decided to toss in the towel ... which left Elephantspike alone ... with the usual financial and personal issues which perhaps overwhelmed him. So he pulled the plug. Something else unknown to anyone except Elephatspike. Even I (who started Sawatdee ... a baby of mine) has been visiting and posting there less and less lately. I used to read every thread, I now read hardly any. The Complete Wankers have become rather the majority in the last ~ let's say ~ year, and decent and thoughtful posters are few and far between. It's certainly a different place, and not often my cup of tea anymore. Sawatdee has/had it's place in the firmament of gay Thailand message boards ... mostly because it was very loosely moderated (in a sea of over moderation) and very free in what it put up with. That I'll miss. But the dark side to that philosophy can lead (and in Sawatdee's case, has) to the dolts taking over in too great a swarm, overwhelming the ambiance, eating away at the civility. I hope the Board comes back. But that 'SUSPENDED' notice is not a hopeful sign.

I think there's a great load of embarrassment to go around on both sides. Were only my eyeballs rolling when I witnessed the long lines of thousands of Red Shirts holding up their arms to give blood, then to see it all splashed over government buildings, fences, and the odd soi dog. Embarrassing and shameful rolled into one. A day doesn't go by that I don't witness video clips of the most screeching, maniacal outpourings from the Red opera stages. Hardly a moment goes by that my guy doesn't sit glued to the TV and registers total disdain for both sides when he translates some other nonsensical talking-head pronouncement from one more Top Cop or High General or ugly well-fed Politician ... undoubtedly the same ugly well-fed Pol being pulled down a rope escaping from the 2nd floor back porch of the hallowed halls of their own Parliament building. An utter (but deadly, now) farce by any reasonable measure ... on both sides.

I assume that includes your own 739 posts on Sawatdee, Zed? Haaa! You wish!! I'd enjoy a run for the money with you GayThailand, but alas, it will not come to be. Amongst other things, 500 loonies are hard to come by these days ... the Beloved gets more fucking High Maintenance every year.

It's all made up ... to wind you up. (I don't mean just 'you' cdnmatt). Taylor has been on other Boards (under other handles, and not just Sawatdee) and wound other people up in exactly the same naivete tinged way ... he lives on gullibility . On some Boards he is recognized immediately (SGT), and on others he keeps on going until someone like you or Gaybutton asks 'The Question.'

ElephantSpike has apparently been doing some much-needed updating on Sawatdee. The Board is a software-based ppHB system ... a very good product when all goes well, but also quite complicated when things go to hell in the night. Even right now (11:35AM Thailand time), although the Board is up and running fine, a few of the less important items are still not exactly right ... for instance, some of the avatar images are not showing, and some of the posted images also do not come up. The problems started when some posters complained that the Search Engine was not working properly. When ElephantSpike started trying to fix that ... other things started to get complicated! Luckily, ElephantSpike has ~ over the years ~ gotten pretty knowledgeable with the intricacies of the ppHB system and I'm sure all will be well in the next day or so. As I write now, posting and replying (i.e. the main Big Boys) both are running well.

Well, I've kinda/sorta seen you. And you kinda/sorta look like that picture ... from the back anyway. Hey. cheer up. It could be worse. But thanks for the Old Spice / Irish Spring scuttlebutt.

Actually, that photo of you someone posted on Baht Stop kinda/sorta tells me you do! But I digress: if someone can tell me where I could buy good old Irish Spring Soap in Thailand I'd be willing to purchase that person a very generaous gift certificate to, well, let's say Dunkin' Donuts. Irish Spring is one of the best selling soaps in North America, and I'm quite surprised I cannot seem to find it here. The same goes for Old Spice (roll-on) Deodorant . . . a gigantic seller at home, but seemingly non-existant in Thailand. Perhaps I live too far out in the boonies. (Hua Hin??) But I've never stumbled across them in Bangkok either ... and not for any lack of trying.

Why do you need a top notch podiatrist when you've already diagnosed the problem and decided on the treatment? What you need is an enabler. Cheers ...

Horses know that rule as well .... along with the rest of the barnyard. Anyway, a completely coincidental thread on the normally dull-as- dust Baht-Stop seems to make a very similar point: << http://www.baht-stop.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6385 >> (And don't go giving me any flack for being any of those posters. To my probable detriment I am 'Smiles' on all the Boards I participate on). Cheers ... B)