paulsf

I'll keep it going....I arrive in 10 days.

I love using Uber in The US as its much cheaper and reliable than taxis . But I'm in Bangkok now, and here Uber costs more than taxis, and takes longer to get to you. But cars are better than the taxis.

If you think that's incredibly daring, have you tried crossing a street in Bangkok or Pattaya at rush hour?

Thunder, lightning, and raining in Bangkok tonight. Kind of slows down an already slow night.

Last night turned out to be a beautiful night in Bangkok. Seems like a lot of people stuck home with the rains this week decided to get out and about. Soi Twilight was quite busy. Not high season busy, but close. My friends were saying more boys were taken off last night than anytime in the last month. Lots of Chinese and So.Koreans out. Maybe holiday weekends? Decided to go over to Soi 4 to eat. Wow. There it was high season. The Soi was packed. We couldn't get a seat at Telephone or Balcony. Most of the other smaller places were quite full also. We were told to eat, go upstairs at Telephone. We were able to get a table there. Don't let Vinapu see this, but the waiter said they didn't have any chicken and cashews. Ran out of cashews. But he told me to come back tomorrow and they will have plenty. A lot of signs for beer at 45 baht. Seemed to be a lot of different deals going on but we knew what we wanted and I didn't pay to much attention . When I got back to Hot Male, I told my friend I know where all his customers are. Soi 4. When you can look at drinks from 45 baht on Soi 4 then look at prices from 150 - 450 on Soi Twilight. It's not hard to decide if your out for a drinking night. After a late and big meal and a few drinks, bedroom fun was not happening. Other than a quick fun shower. We got to bed at 2:30 and then I was up at 5 to watch some sports on tv from the US. My friend has a little part time job mornings, usually at 7, but on Sunday it's 9am. So he went flying out the door at 8:30. Tonight when the sun sets, I probably will to.

It's a beautiful day here in Bangkok also. Firecat I feel I wrote your post for you. I had a good Thursday ,Friday, Saturday. Told my friends last night, I won't see you till Tuesday or Wednesday. I can't do 7 days a week. Age is creeping up. I'm also sitting here watching Jason Day make a mockery of this weekends tournament. Talking about being hot....

I stay in Bangkok fairly cheaply . But yesterday I contributed quite a bit to the Thai economy and the rains have stop today, so I'm headed out the door to spend a lot more tonight.

I know many reviews have said Hero has mostly straight boys , but there are usually a good choice of gay boys. I don't think you will have any problem finding what your looking for, as Vinapu said, talk to Mamasan. I think they are the best of any massage place in Bangkok. The 2000 is my choice because of how hard this boy works. I tend to tip 1500 if I get what I ask for. With him, I get what I ask for and a bit more. He is the only boy I have given that amount to and I only go there a couple of times a week, so not a bank breaker.

Rain has been a topic in the forum the last few days. Here in Bangkok there has been a lot but not the flooding variety. I finally got tired of staying indoors and decided to head over to Hero for a massage. I got a taxi right away and considering rain and rush hour, made it in about 20 minutes. Sometimes train is better, but considering rain, I like door to door service. I was looking a Uber and was going to give it a try, but had problem getting my address in correctly. Was quoted 85 baht, paid taxi 120. Again was going to try Uber leaving, but was quoted 20 minuted wait, traffic at 7:30 was a disaster. Went to Nana and took train. Hero was amazing as always. I have a boy I usually see. He was with a client and would be about 30 minutes. I decided to wait. I know what I get with him (basically has no limits) . Mamasan kept apologizing for the wait. I had no problem. There were about 35 boys behind the glass. Several were working the weights. Just doesn't get any better. Only 2 customers came in while I was waiting. Was told it was very quiet and is common when raining. So I got to sit there for 30 minutes and stare, smile, make faces with all these hot guys. They knew I was waiting but they were working me. My guy showed up and off we went. His massage isn't perfect, but everything else is. Room 700 baht, boy 2000. Supposed to be 1 hour, but we were 1-1/4 hours and he still was in no hurry. Left Hero and headed over to Soi Twilight. Meeting my boy and needing to eat. Seems the police made a pass thru last night. All non Thai boys had to be totally clothed. But with rain, it was very quiet anyway. Was told tonight will be back to normal. You may have heard about the new crackdown on Visa Runs. Seems the word is really being taken seriously by non Thai boys working on Soi Twilight. Many have runs coming up this week and are packing up and figure they won't be allowed back for quite awhile. My boy is Vietnamese. A couple of his friends went back a couple of days ago and couldn't get back. His stamp runs out on Oct 1st and he has planned on moving back in with mom and dad. He spent the night last night and fell asleep right away. I had already been to Hero so had no problems. He woke up at 5 am and said He was working for the day with a friend and off he went. Said he would make up falling asleep on me. It's still mostly cloudy but the sun is showing quite brightly, so I think a good time to head out for breakfast this morning. Sure the rain will be back.

We've been getting our fair share of rain here in Bangkok also. Sunday night we had a thunder/lightning storm that was real bad . I didn't lose electric, but cable TV went out. Soi Twilight went out. Everyone sat around with cell phone flashlights. Last night rained for about 12 hours straight. Today sun poked through for a bit, but about 3pm, hit again big time. Getting ready to head on out for this evening and it looks like it's about ready to start again.

I've traveled all over for work and jet lag was never really a problem. But it is in Thailand. With a 12 hour time difference it just throws me off. I just need to keep busier during the day and skip the nap. I like sports a lot and with the time difference, they are morning games here. I did get to bed at midnight last night, but had to get up at 5am for Monday Nite Football. Know here as Tuesday morning football. I stayed in last night so I could try to get back on track. My friend said he was going to play soccer but would make it by 1am to help me to sleep. I told him reluctantly no. Ambian worked just as well, though not as much fun. They are saying we are going to have a couple days of heavy rain starting this afternoon. If I can get out and about I'm going to try to hit up a massage parlor or 2 . The way I look at it, if you have sex with a boy, massage, sweat with the heat and humidity, 5 " of rain shouldn't slow you down. You gonna get wet some how. I prefer, boy in shower. For TotallyOz, I went to Cute and Beauty yesterday for mani/pedi . I've been stopping by each trip now, and the boys recognize me when I come in. I was talking to another customer that had been there for hours, doing a complete spa day. He said he does it once every other month. 9:30 am, 2nd football game starting. I'm glad I don't drink much. Having a beer watching games at 5am could lead to an uncomfortable day. Time for 2nd pot of coffee.

Got tired of sitting around the pool in Ft.Lauderdale, so decided to trade it in for my pool in Bangkok for the month of Sept. Sitting here watching Sunday night Football at 8:30 am Monday morning. That's my biggest problem this trip. Love football, get a few games ,but start around 5 or 6 am. Flew over Bos-Dfw-Hkg-Bkk. Business class upgrades came thru in the last hour. Thought my run of sitting up front was over. Arrived in Bangkok at 12:30am. No lines at that hour. I'm sure most of you have heard of the bombings here.Uptick in security has been very noticeable . Immigration asked for mobile phone numbers to be put on landing cards and luggage was screened exiting airport. I had to spend the first night in a hotel. Usually pick up keys to my apartment from the security desk in the lobby, but because of new security rules, keys kept in office and can only be picked up during the day. No problem. Got a $58.00 rate at the Courtyard by Marriott. Next morning my friend showed up for as he puts it "my vacation" with you. When I'm in town he doesn't have to work and makes enough money to last a few months. Courtyard has a buffet breakfast. Don't know where my friend put all the food, but he now loves buffets. Time to head over to apt. Head up to room for quick shower and get my stuff. Friend decides I shouldn't shower alone. After eating I'm not usually in the mood, but it started big time raining outside, knew we would be delayed and needed something to do. And we did it. Sept is monsoon season . I've always avoided this time, but decided to give it a try. It's a lot like south Florida with everyday storms for short periods of time. Except, more severe in Thailand. Rain ended, got to apt. Sun came out and hit up the pool for awhile. We were about to head out for dinner and the evening when the early evening round of showers hit. Sit tight for an hour and it's dry again. Headed to Soi Twilight so I could say hi to my friends. Business has been very bad do to bombings. Early week nights have had no customers at all. Some clubs have not had shows. Thursday was a bit more promising as we get closer to weekend. Friday ok, Saturday better. Outdoor bars and restaurants looked crowded on the weekend, but the shows were not close to full, but did go on. We ate at Dicks on Friday and Saturday. I really like it. Decent food, comfortable seating and lots of eye candy walking around. Because business is so slow, boys are treating customers like eye candy. They are a lot more aggressive than usual. Smiling and starting conversations. Thoughts of $$$ dancing in their heads. I should say not aggressive in a bad way. Asians can be on the quiet side, but now are more open to starting the conversation. The owner of Hot Male opened a beer garden at the end of the street. Fenced in with white picket fence and bench type seating. Looks really nice. Will hit it up in a day or so. Food and alcohol I've spend the first few days hanging out with my friends and my special friend has come over a few times for some fun. But now it's Monday and I'll be getting out and about more and hit up some of the massage places. Being here a month, don't need to do it everyday. But will update this scene a bit latter in the week. Last night monsoon season hit in a big way. Living in So.Florida, I'm used to lots of daily rain. We had a storm hit Bangkok last night that was nothing short of a Hurricane for an hour. My apt is top floor corner and all around glass. We had non-stop Lightning for an hour. A little scary yet beautiful. I couldn't see a block do to downspour. Street below disappeared, becoming a lake up over the curbs. Lost my tv in the first minute and was waiting to lose electricity. But fortunately didn't. Friend from Hot Male called and said don't come by. To much water, no customers and a mess. Would of had to swim anyway. My friend said while we get storms everyday, we only get a couple this bad. So this was all the boring part. I hope to get to the fun stuff in a day or so and will do some more posting at that point.

Firecat will be landing today so we will have to see how he gets treated on arrival. Screening for show is exactly the way I looked at it. They were throwing the bags on the belt as fast as they would go thru and yet, barely looking at the computer screen. As for phone number, woman handed back my landing card, putting an X on the line for visa. I pushed it back saying I don't have or need visa. She snapped back, I want mobile number. At least I'm not the only one that thought of giving wrong number. I have 2 phones, didn't give Thai or American number. But did make it look like American number.

That's the way it has always been for me. Not sure when they set up for screening, I'd be curious if someone arriving this weekend could share their experience. Because there were very few people around not an inconvience, but I can see where baggage screening could be.

Thankfully the rain cleared out by 8:30 or so. I don't mind going out in the rain, but when it rains so hard your umbrella cant handle it, the fun is kind of gone. I headed up to Soi Twilight around 9:30. Got taxi right away and seemed very quiet out. Turned out to be a decent amount of people out and about by the time I got to the Patpong area. The outdoor bars in Soi Twilight seemed to be quite busy. But again it appeared shows were running less than full. I was trying to find out how Boys Bangkok was doing, but seeing the people leaving after show, imagine it was full. The far end of the Soi seemed very quiet. There is a new restaurant and bar at the far end,,that was Balls. Now Hot Male Beer Garden. There were a few people in there and is a nice looking place. I'll hit it up in a few days. I wanted to go to Dicks last night. Same as always. Decent and comfortable. Lots of eye candy at the massage palors. There does seem to be a lot of boys around. Hot Male had more boys on stage than I have ever seen. New underware. White, grey waist band, and very small and tight fitting. We were headed back to my place around 1am, when a bunch of my friends friends, caught up to us. They are all Vietnamese. We wonder what they share with each other about us. I only know a couple of these boys, but they all come up to me like they have known me for years. They seem to know I am a decent tipper, will buy drinks, and I like Vietnamese boys. So word does get around the community. But a fun time was had. Headed back to Apt. I had figured this would by my first big sexual night. Started off that way, but by the time we finished up in the shower, not much left to do. I do like my big shower. Off to bed at 3:30. I'm up at 7. He sleeps till noon. He headed back to his place so I went over to Siam Paragon. Today is the most sun I have seen since being here. Pretty nice day. Quite crowded. Restaurants packed. Security is stepped up a bit. Metal detectors and lots of visible police walking around. But no big deal though. Did some grocery shopping and will stay in tonight. Sleep has been messed up. With 12 hour time change, at night it seems like I'm at home where it's daytime, so no nap today, and hopefully can get back on track tonight. No company tonight. Boy is playing soccer tonight and said he would be here around 11pm. I told him, it's early to bed and will meet up tomorrow, I'm going to try to make it to Hero tomorrow . My favorite massage boy said he would be there. He has very few limits. He can be very gental and vanilla, or very aggressive and not so vanilla. I just let him know my mood. I'm pretty tech challenged. I consider dialing the phone a good feat. I use Line a lot and know others do. But my friend set me up with WeChat, last night. Same principle as texting, but it has a translation button to translate each text. Really fast and really simple. So much easier than other translation apps I've used before. First time I have ever had long conversations with my friend. He speaks little English. If any of you don't know this ap, it's worth checking out. Sorry I haven't hit up much of the massages places yet. I don't go everyday, but as I get into the 3rd and 4 week, I start going more often. I like to get my fill when leaving rather than OD the first Week. I still have 2 more trips this year after this, so lots of fun times upcoming.

I rent an apartment in Bangkok for my month long trips. It works out to about 1300 baht per day. But I have full kitchen, 1 bedroom. washing machine and swimming pool right outside my door. The street I stay on is a turn around for taxis and I never wait more than 1 minute even in the rain. 7-11 and all sorts of street food at my door step. Walking distance to BTS and Soi Twilight. With a little searching, you can find a lot for a few baht more than very basics.

There are several trip reports going now about Bangkok/Pattaya, so rather than hijack those, I figured I'd start another. My trips are a bit different from most as I spent about 4-5 months in Bangkok over the year and stay in an apartment. So I'm not out and about getting massages and being in bars every day. I have several friends that work in Soi Twilight, so hang there a bit or here at the apt. Right now it's almost 7pm, Sat.evening in Bangkok and it is thunder and lightening and big time raining. I can barely see buildings a few blocks away and my tv is out for now. So looks like this Saturday nights dinner and playtime will be off to a much later start. I arrived a couple of days ago. Flew in from the U.S. on American Airlines. One the best flights I have had here in terms of a smooth flight. Barely a bump the whole way. I had business and though I rarely sleep, got in about 4 hours. Cathay brought me to Bangkok from Hong Kong. Arrival at 12:30am. We arrived at a gate right by immigration. I'd pay extra to get this gate. 2 minutes walk plane to immigration. Couple of different airport procedures since visit a couple months ago. Changes because of the bombing.. People had to write mobile numbers on landing card. Also they ran all luggage thru screening departing the airport. They had machines at the declaration exits. No line at this early hour, but would imagine it could back up when busy. 2 people in taxi line. No traffic, just under 400 baht to hotel. I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott the first night. I usually pick up the keys to Apt from security desk, but since bombing, keys are kept in office and nobody there at 1;30am. I have a boy that spends a lot of time with me here. Works well, I have a boy and yet we both have lots of freedom to do as we wish. He came to hotel in the morning and we had breakfast and then headed to Apt. He has told me business since bombing is very bad. Boys have been saving money for food and rent and not spending on anything else. With me visiting now, Nov and Dec trips coming up, he won't have any issues and I have already seen him giving some baht to 1 of his roommates. As was mention in other postings, boys do help friends when business is bad. I stopped by Hot Male Thursday night . There were only 3 boys working outdoor bar. It was slow, but they told me Tue/Wed nights were the slowest they had ever see. Almost no customers all night. Hot Male and a couple of others have not had shows many nights because of lack of customers. Curious to see how the weekend goes. Last night wasn't to bad. All had shows, but no where near full. People are out and about, but don't seem to be stoping by for a drink or boy. Boys are a little more aggressive than I have seen in the past. A lot of boys that just know me in passing have been stopping and acting as if we were best friends. I wish I had the stamina and money to take them all. Getting closer to high season, hope it goes well. I don't do much sightseeing anymore, so I don't have daily reports of running around all over the city. I hit up a couple massage places during the week. Usually Hero and Adonis. Usually can't go wrong with these. I don't do many offs, as I have my boy. But do get a couple a week in. We usually will do a couple of 3 ways while I'm around. So it's looking like tonight is going to be a flip flop and umbrella night in the city. Water about ankle deep on my street, but rain showing signs of letting up . My tv is back on. Starting to get a few messages from Line asking if I'll be out. Don't worry about rain. We help keep you dry. I guess that's all code for, will you take me to dinner and maybe take me home with you tonight. When boys are aggressive it must be hard for newbies to say no to them. I can remember when I fell for a lot of it. As I said earlier, I'm not a daily sex machine, so don't have as much to post as many others, but will try to keep up with what I see going on in the city for the rest of the month.

I stayed at the Courtyard last night, and my boy was all smiles as he devoured the breakfast buffet this morning. I was all smiles because they have a great shower, complete with a bench. Makes for creative showers.

I was at Soi Twilight hanging out at Hot Male tonight. I was told several places had no shows the last couple of nights because lack of customers. I've seen slower nights in the past than tonight, but people seemed to be doing a lot of walking and not much spending.

The new Courtyard in Pattaya has some almost equally low prices. The Marriott resort has rates starting at $100 U.S.

5 trips from Miami to Bangkok at 20k round trip. A few flights to Boston for famiy visits. A couple trips to west coast to visit friends. Adds up real fast. Retired, so all travel is now for fun.

I'll be in Bangkok the last week in September. I'll be pearched on my favorite seat at the bar at Hot Male on Soi Twilight. Stop by and say hi, and I can help point you in the right direction. From what my friends have been telling me, I might be the only customer there quite often.

From Europe also look at Finnair. They do a lot of discounted business fares thru Helsinky. I've done it twice and was very happy. Also happy with a 9 hour flight. Tomorrow I'm doing Boston-Bangkok. The 24 hours of flying day . I envy the European flyers.

I actually booked there for 1 night this Wednesday. I've got an airbnb apt, but I don't arrive till midnight and they want to give me keys during the daytime. But I got a senior rate of 2040 baht. I know you got a way to go for senior rates, but every baht helps. I don't know if you have stayed here before, but I really like it.

But this is were everybody is different. I stay in Bangkok a month at a time and wouldn't spend more than 2 or 3 nights in Pattaya. I think when people ask which is better, it's best to tell them what we like about different places and let them decide what's best for them.