pong

This mornings BKKpist had an article about a new law that is to ban alcohol on working premises-it was mainly about clothing sweatshops, where it seems common to keep up ''spirits'' by that stuff later in the day. Now I wonder how this (if it has any real effect-we all know how things work here in TH) may apply to customersbuying boys drinks (or the 19 times as much str8 sector for the Isany working girls) etc. Or even a cordial offered round of drinks by daBoss to his staff....

in BKK about all the Thai aimed gay discos/pubs have them-at set times or for speical shows-they may rotate between those places, like former ICK=now Singapoire, SeeK, Ratchda8, Castro (on RCA). You can also buy VDO/DVDs with those shows by the million in about any Thai nite-market (mainly the girls, of course). If they look ''better'' is more a matter of personal taste-many are much tattooed.

ganz kurz und klar; geht nicht. Or: this is NOT possible-anymore. The idea hat a single would be 50/60% of the cheapest return is nonsense. ONLY-in the past AirBerlin did it from Europe, and even had on some days direct flites BER-BKK (tegel then). But thats a thing of the past.My dear-as you clearly come back some day, whithin 1 year after dep, you are best off with still a return-but with changeable return date-maybe that may cost you 50 or 70 or 100 eur or US$ to do so-but its still the best deal. Call or even better (if in DE) GO into a real brick reisebuero and ASK and be German enough to not be skipped off with some young girl knowing nothing. Some airlines are known to be much more felxible with changing return dates (this also depends on the FARE class-the lowest price may not allow it) as others-notably (as a rough approximation) the Mid-east airls like GF, EK, EY and the SAsian ones-notably TG. IF you insist on the cheapest single into BKK-then its likely best to try via LON-book first from UK-start with a general site like westeasttravel or travelsupermakret-then check what the airline that shows up charges on its own site, if booked, find a cheapo BER-LON, AB, or EZ or Gerrywings-whatever. anderswo rate ich dir die DE www-Thailandforen, wie nittaya, TOP-forumTHailand, thailand-reisetipps oder so. Flugpreise sind ja nicht abhaengig ob man sich als schwul oder nicht anmeldet.

about anyone of you will have visited a massageplace. there is always-beside the mattras, either on bed or on the floor, a clock-as you buy it by time and nearly always piped-in music. IN real massage-only shop never missing-even though most masseurs have a set routine set to the time ordered anyway. My regular often exceeds-''program not yet finsihed'' he declares. Fine for me. Not so last time I went: to a m2m place both were now replaced by the hit of 2011 and '12: the Ipad. Boy had himself programmed various of those green music on it. Set to 1 hr cycles-on which he more or less also timed his program. PLus there was the added small ''benefit'' of the ''wallpaper'' (I guess they call it that-even though they are smaller as even a wallpaper design) with soothing views-as if he himself was not soothing enough. Next time I'll ask him if he also has naughty pix or naughty music on it?

1.this applies as such to many, if not most Thai workers 2.as many above allready point out, its also the friends&co and general atmosfere 3.another reason how Thai bosses keep their staff is not yet mentioned: many of their workers are in deep debt with them-wages paid advance and have to be paid off. BTW-Micheal last sept I did a Espana visit and also to that famous MAD sauna which has a load of Brasil boys working-and many more from about anywhere on earth-except Thai.

clearly a topic for this part of this forum. Flew over to BKK last week-by EK-in the AB380 and also with a long wait in an overcrowded Dubai airport. In Bkk/Swampy it took me less as 50 mins from deplaning till getting into the airpttrain. EK has a splendid onboard entertainment system. So I watched a JPNese movie (sadly they were very thin on Thai things-Etihad has that better), which was about a Roman architect of the bathhouses=THERMAE (thats at least a connection to BKK) who was comiisioned by caesar Hadrianus to renovate them-or die. The movie went that he seemed to drown in the bath and was taken into a current JPnese Onsen=hot bath. Really very funny (of you know how those JPNese bathes work) to see how a Roman struggles with it. But he could catch plenty of ideas on how to improve the Roman bath-and won the emperors goodwill. he later returned and then took a gaggle of elder JPnese with him-and they succeeded in getting the Roman soldiers heathy by other JPNese wellness-bath things. And love appreaed-of course. They have a load of good looking JPNese able to look like Romans. And as befits a real JPNese movie-the all-imposing idea is that we, the proud flat-faced people of the Nihon, are best in allt hose things-if just the world would listen more to us.

POO=crab is also the common nickname of the current PM-the well known sister of some former PM on the refuge in Dubai and/or HKG.

then add Madrid and Barca: both have sauna's with masaje-men-by rent for the half or whole hour (30/45eur), and all assuming that Thai-style more is being wanted. Barca has the sea and its independent-seeking Catalan atmosfere, but Madrid is also splendid and can easily beat Paris for its culture and musea. Agree with your ideas about Brussel-about dead in weekends anyway. Go for Antwerpen instead.

in several parts of BKk streets ARE raised (notably on the Thonburi side, I think)-which is clearly visible when you walk there and see make-do stairs going down to entries of houses. To z909-BKK has-for Thai stdd, about the heaviest and best water protection there is. I still wonder how they did that last year-coming from the north, that filthy water came down to kasert uni-also engulfing DonMuang airpt-where the office to regulate it all was located-and then miraculously was to disppear in a week or so-also by ''bigbags'' and other pumpings. Which at least show they are able to handle giant masses of waterfloods and to more orless protect the inner city.

Have witnessed it last year-due to floods etc in BKK. It was GREAT and quite different from BKK, where its only 1 evening. Still in doubt if I skip BKK this yr for it and go there again. I stay low-cost and there was not any prob to find a big choice of accomm. But you have higher stdds. you do NOT need to get tickets-except for 1 rather far from town set-up show-which is quite superfluous and only for stupid tourists. Engage a local lad and let him show you around-far better. Or simply ask the program at tourist-info or any hotel. Half of town is made carfree that big eve. There are -for PLU really very interesting-parades (floats carried or drawn by local highschool etc classes)- a feast for our eyes. There were some pix about that last yr-in this or any of the other fora. Bob is also right about the firecrackers, which often ruined any peaceful views. You still hear them at other locations though. As I did this very morning by 6.00-thinking another revolution was being made here, it turned out to be a really giant Chinese ''vegetarian'' procession, 10.000s of locals, all dressed in immaculate white, going donating at temples-with ear splitting firecrackers. But thats quite another thing.

a.no b.no c.I did not really see that much of banter-but I am quite selective in reading. Of course, all regulars who follow all the other well-known same content boards, know that S-g-t was once plagued by quarrels and twists, but this has been effectively terminated by the new owner since a year or so. Beside tingtong (which now even does not have at least daily postings anymore) of the 3 boards I seek new information, or some hilarious ''reviews'' or stories. Sadly, this board comes out nr 3 in that ranking.

Not much INTernational then-completely omitted here in Europe. BUT: YESterday 11/10 (if i got it all right) was yet another INTernational day-a little more in the perspective of this forum- Coming Out Day. Specially centered on football (aka as soccer) and the male vigorance there so prevalent that apparently there is since many years not a single gay footballing star. But some Puerto Rican boxer confessed to belong to our club-but I know nothing of that ''sport''. However- it also did not seem that much INTernational-as apparently in TH it was, 11/10, girls day or so- lauding the growing nr. of girls getting higher eductation-and lamenting (and likely asking for donations) the many who are still lagging behind. Somehow it seems that about any day in september and october are devioted to some kind of good cause, also whole weeks. We have the day of the bread, a week/or day for sustainability and organic foods and evebn a day for the opticians/glasses day! And something for a rather supect (is all that money well spent and not corrupted?) pink ribbon for ladies breast cancer-or against it, i rather guess.

interesting challenge-who is gonna check anyway I have not yet been there? It omits all of Europe and all of SEA for me then. And on this topic: new country? Or new city in country that has been visited before? Once I tried to get pretty fast to gain entry to at least 100 countries-I am now at 88 on my personal list, and have more or less stopped. There simply does not seem any really promising new destinations left. Well, oh-no, now that I think again there thus has to be 1 left; Brasil, Rio de J. But I hesitate: would a personal bodyguard also be provided for? Leaves me a bit too scared about all the criminality reported from there.

Yes-for sure, but most people wont know how to recognise it. And sometimes words get another scrpt that really hides their original source. But Dutch and Spanish can easily topple that French list. Dutch esp. in english-many seafaring terms, and perhaps a little less world-wide spread as those French words are.

last year iondeed the floods hit north of BKK-incl the DMK fields (where the office aginst the floods was located at that time..............) and also K-male (and likely more) a (well, my personal favorite) male-massage shop, just to the south of it and pretty well under the rumble of its apporach lanes-so that will mean much more noise there. BUT; these were not flash floods due to extra big rains-but a giant blob of water that came down (like on the map) from central TH into BKK-roughly all along the main Chao Praya river-up to 20/30 kms on both sides. Then suddenly logic thinking as the BMA seems able to do came in, they won from that flood-burocrazyness and started to pump-and saved central BKK from those waters. Which means it would be daft easy to foretell when the waters would come back ths year.

re Su-Ri in BKK: MAIN ofice is in a sidesoi, to the left of fht giant BigC opporite WTC/Central World, look for the orange signs.THIS (in fact these 3) offices offer the best raies-slightly higher as the other smaller SR outlets, like in silom, but ONLY for REAL cash (TC not even looked at), and ONLy mo-fr office hours (roughly 10-17 or maybe 18 hrs). Then the rates are set a little lower-this may explain the difference in posted rates.. Also for both € and US$ higher rates are given for high bills-100 and more. AND they want to see your passpt and make a copy of it-and now also want the name of place you stay-for those of you privacy-challenged. SR is mainly VERY competetive for other valuta that normal banks sniff at, like the Chinee yuan etc. Also for buying those-I started with € and chanegd in SR-into THB and then into CNY-and got a better rate (amount of CNY for 100eur) as I would get in China! VASU is AFAIK simply another outlet of SR offering the same rates- a simple google will easily tell their Sukhvit location-I guess (from memory) its near to soi 11-that side and along the main rd-can easily be seen from bus or even BTS. There is yet another office named SIAM-just a little beyond the white BCC=Cultural centre, north of MBK , opposite Siam Discovery for fast and direct cash money exch. Pattaya-there used to be a similar exchange somewhere along walking street-left side, probably an Indian tailor-but thats so long ago its likely to have changed.

FYI; tipically, in the US acquired miles never expire-they invented that system there and are more or less struck with the rules of the time-and vehement protests if they change it. For about anyone else miles expire after 2-3 years-so you need to grow enough miles to be able to have enough for some award in that time. Here in continent Eur govmts are not very much after taxing those miles-much more the companies/or govmt. institutions that see the miles on their bisnis-trips go to the individuals-for some holidaytrips- and not to them are more sour after that. I have about given up on going after them-I pay myself, scout for lowest fares on acceptable airlines and these fareclasses nowadays hardly give any or 0 miles. But it was a nice time when I had gold on THAI-I made my sums and at that time it paid off, also as TG was about garanteeing you could use your miles at the time and routing you wanted it. Nice reminder-I am still about to donate the leftopvers on M&M/LH to some good cause.

1.several of those breakaway republics are even worse in old-commy style maintaining law and order (and of course much more protecting the priviliges of the reigning burokratsya-now likely CEO's). Do not forget that well over half of the Russky admire Putin due to his ending of the ''mafia style chaotic period'' under that alcoholic Yeltsin. These young people are simpyl too young to know much about that time-when even hunger was a real danger. 2.some 30 years ago anyone assumed that communism would be forever-how long forever would last. 100 yrs is just some legal formulation without much meaning in Russky. Its more like : not over my dead body in plain US-anglicky. Your rant is about the same as when a certain mr. Bush reigned that US from a Texan oil-driller viewpoint and Europe was against him (well, most)-then most USAers were surprised that Europeans would be against a democaratic chosen presidient.

just heard on the local radio this morning here that in some nearby town bees had chosen a bus-shelter as their home with result that passengers now had to stay aloof and not protect from rains. in general in Europe there are numerous stories that bees are waning and that ''something has to be done'' (I presume by some govmt.?)

hello kwok, no, did not try it, but have read extensively about (and I presume the very same shops) in another forum. 1.the main branch (still assuming its the 1 and the same) has moved-a little out of the Silom main area, but closeby,. The 2nd shop (sam sen sidesoi nr-xxx-very far) has closed-long ago. The website does not look to be updated very often. The discussion with more explanation and some reports from those who had done it (but possibly not in BKK) are on another ''specialised'' forum, of which i am not sure if it may even be mentioned on this.

really like this writing/person- frank and non-PC views. Currently though it seems that in Europe the regions were HIv/Aids still spreads fairly rapidly are in druggie-scenes in east-Europe, notably Ukrayna. Also it seems to me, that the more open a society is-not just for gays, but for any possible threat of values and morale, the best this seems for rapid action against further spread of virus. Do not know if the reverse then would also hold: the quicker this virus spreads in a country-the more homofobe it may be considered? or maybe I confuse with complete ignorance-like rural mainland China probably (still) is.

in every mag/newsppr etc tipically there are supplies ''fill-ins'' on the shelf lying there for some empty spot. I once had a short job for a kind of travel mag and also produced a load of them-travel bargains, some overclearly labelled'' summer-season only'' or etc. So what they did was printing them midwinter with some duhh office girl not able to read even the clearest signs. Did not bother me-was paid already. But in TH much moreas in EUR its a hell of a job to even check positively that some once noted things are still in existence, nt changed or moved or whatever.

when still really young but having money from first job, i once bought a Spartacus guide-and some of the mags of its first and since rather depreciated foundr/writer-about those infamous Pagsanjan falls in Phiillippine. I really hesitated to go TH-after first and very nice visits to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam even. First time was South TH-a litttle trip out from MY, and was not nice at all. years later I decided to try again, hit BKK and was ''found/spotted'' the very evening by a young gay THai, could not really be called tout, but we soon agreed on a little kind of guided tour to BKKs gay places-SuperLek ncluded. You open eyes and see more-and 2-3 nights later i went back on my own to find out more about those other palces (that soi with SuperA and Golden Cock). Then saw an ad-and this opened eyes wide, for that famous series of books (still have them)- TMOT-The men of Thailand, of Eryc Allyn, the best listing and explanation one could think of. It even after a while succeeded me in cinvincing that Pattaya was not just str8 bad sex and I tried too-and was delighted. Must have been around 1990

2nd trial then as 1st one was aborted after 1 yr or so, when it brought in too high losses-flights to India and VNam, if I remember well. BTW-Chinese lowcosts have now also started to fly into BKK-Swampy 9a very, verty lowly rated Spring airls, i think).

youve probably read the same item as I have now: it has not closed, but relocated-and this might very well be the full turn of the cycle to where it all started-some 20 yrs or even more ago-or it may have gone to the smaller side-room where that msg/underage/then another msg or so had very short lives (and maybe KHUn of notorious fame also for some time). Does not read like it has closed. In the same type of offerings is still nature boy-just a litttle further around the corner and beyond GoldenCock, unless this has now also gone bellyup.