macaroni21

I recognise the slab tower block and the name of the soi (phluk jit). There are several blocks like this in the area, beneath one of which is/was a row of massage parlours. I have had good times there and I hope the businesses are not impaired by the incident.

What, may I ask, is the alternative to getting old that is worse?

It's interesting to see how variable our routines are, and how they've shifted as one passes through the decades. Since, more often than not, my visits to Thailand are linked to work, my days in Bangkok have a different rhythm from the extra weekends that I manage to tack on in order to escape to Pattaya. In Bangkok my hours will largely be dictated by the needs of meetings, at least in the day, but it also means that I really cannot stay up late if I have appointments the following morning. It's no big loss; I am well past the age when I had any interest in dancing through the night. As will be obvious, doing sleepovers with an escort (a.k.a "long time") is also out of the question. Which is no great loss either. I've done that in the past and found little real value in it to compensate for the morning inconvenience when boy needs to sleep and I need to be up and out. When I manage to add some extra days in Pattaya, it is to escape Bangkok. My sleep pattern then changes. I catch up on sleep and may not rise till 10 or 11 am. After a cup of coffee, I will likely be off to spend the entire afternoon on the beach, reading a book and/or watching people. It's my alone-time. Brunch/lunch is also a light meal at the beach. In my view there's not much to do in Pattaya in the daytime anyway. That's fine for me. I am there to unwind. As evening approaches, I get busier. A massage as the sun goes down, then dinner, then I hit the bars and go hunting for a companion (short time). I see discussion in this forum about places like Dragon where the party doesn't peak till 3 or 4 am. That's not for me. Never really was -- and I've been to several of its predecessors. I am not a good drinker and I've always found the noise level too loud. Not my scene. So, even with a good lad from a gogo bar for short-time, I should be able to get into bed no later than 2 or 2:30 am. That would mean some 8 - 9 hours of sleep before the next day.

The idea of the guy(s) having newborn grandchildren actually gives me a warm feeling. I hope the income he earned from me and others - White spa was reportedly very popular in its heyday - gave him a good start in life.

They are still showing guys from Prince Spa....

I have actually been to 2 places in this general area, plus minus 1 or 2 kilometres. One was the first location for Hero, or at least the location before they moved to Sukhumvit Soi 11. The other was White Spa. Indeed the travelling time didn't make it all that worthwhile though even today I remember the fantastic massage I had at White Spa. That might have been in the 1990s or early 2000s.

But I want to see the boy douche himself properly...

Vinapu - your "only once" assessment is probably correct. You may discover that he spends most of your short time hour or hour-and-half admiring himself in the mirror, haha. I speak from experience with one such guy some years ago.

Here's a graph from Thaiwebsites.com. The numbers (for quarterly arrivals of tourists) are in millions. The Dec - Feb peak is not pronounced. It's only about 20 percent more visitors than the lowest quarter.

Thailand has three seasons. There is the "cool" season between December and February where the midday temperature is about 31 or 32 degrees and little rain. Then there's the hot dry season from March to May with daily maximums reaching 35 to 37 degrees. Humidity rises month by month till it gets quite uncomfortable in May. Not much rain. The monsoon arrives in June. This is warm rain coming down in buckets for about 1 or 2 hours a day, about 4 or 5 days each week. Often with thunder and lightning. Quite different from the gentler but more persistent rain seen in Europe. Between rainstorms, it tends to be hot ( max 33 or 34 degrees) and humid, but after it has rained, the rest of the day is cooler. Rainy days reach a peak in September. That month and October is also when Bangkok is most likely to flood. The amount of monsoon water coming down the Chao Praya river is huge. My observation is that the cool season tourism peak is largely a farang (westerner) phenomenon. Partly it's because, as others have said, the weather is the best of the three seasons, but I think an equally important driver is the fact that Europeans and Canadians are keen to escape their winters. Pre-covid, the mass migration of Russians each winter to the beaches of Thailand was impossible to miss. Asian tourists - and they are the majority of visitors that Thailand gets - are more used to higher humidity and tropical weather. I don't think there is much of a peak for them, with the possible exception of a trough in March and April when the daily maximums are too hot even for them. Most Asian countries also have monsoonal weather patterns, and rain is hardly a deterrent to them. They are used to it and know how to cope. Summers in Taiwan and Japan are not different from Thailand's monsoon season. Then there are the farang visitors who through experience have adapted to Thailand's temperatures and moisture levels, and they are quite happy to come in any season. Adaptation includes knowing what to wear for warm humid days: the lightest possible cotton t-shirts, shorts and sandals. Have a broad-brimmed hat if you want to avoid sunburn on the bald patch. Learn from the Asians and always walk in the shade, never in the sun if at all you can avoid it. In Europe the sun is your friend; in the tropics, the shade is your friend. Scoot into air-conditioned malls regularly to cool off and hydrate frequently. I don't think there is all that much difference between the conditions in Bangkok and the close-by beach towns. The main difference is that the beaches get a steady sea breeze which even in the hottest months, is very pleasant. But if one is not a beach aficionado and spend little time on the beach, then the built-up parts of the beach towns feel pretty similar to built-up Bangkok.

Ever since I stopped saying in the Boyztown area (noise!) and preferred Jomtien, getting from the gogo bars of Boyztown back to hotel has never been a problem. More often than not, the gogo boy himself has a motorbike, so I ride off with him. If he does not have his own transport, we use motorbike taxis. Since I don't fancy the idea of 2 pillion riders behind the driver, so we'd hail 2 Motos. The songtaews outside the school run well past midnight - or used to, anyway, when bars stayed open till late - but they take too long to fill up and move out, the later the hour. Several times when the gogo boy had his own bike, he didn't have a spare helmet. If caught by traffic police, I might have had a problem, but so far so good. As one boy cheerfully said to me once: "no problem. Late already. Now police no have, all sleeping."

Like others have advised, you should be tipping them for the opportunity even if they are agreeable to being groped. I would also wonder if, these being karaoke type bars rather than gogo bars, there is more resistance to being seen by their mates as the one being groped. Many of them may be straight, and even in such environments, have all sorts of macho hang-ups. Perhaps the best thing to do is to off the chosen guy anyway and then in the comfort and privacy of your room satisfy your hands. Nothing says that offing must necessarily lead to full blown sex. Naturally, the boy should be compensated with a rate similar to any other off.

It's going to be tricky drawing conclusions from experiences of members flying long haul routes from Europe or North America to Asia, when one is planning a Canada to Texas trip. There are innumerable factors that can impact pricing of Asia routes that may not apply to intra-North America routes. One that I can immediately think of is the re-routing many airlines have had to make to avoid Russian airspace. Another is the fact that travel into and around Asia only resumed quite recently, whereas in the US, it never really plunged to the same degree. The weak passenger demand of late 2021 would have meant depressed prices, and consequently today's prices may look high simply because one is comparing against a low base. By sheer chance, I took a number of intra-US flights in April and May. I may be able to give you a different perspective. I pulled up data on what I had paid, then checked for prices of the same flights for July period, taking care to match day of week and avoid holidays. The July prices varied considerably from the prices I had paid, but on average, they are 20 to 25 percent more. That having been said, there are all sorts of deals available, and if one shops around on Expedia, etc, one can even get lower prices today compared to what I had paid. Most, though, would involve flights at unpopular hours.

I found the opening post inadvertently funny. I'm sure it was unintended. Photos of cross-dressers in a show immediately following the thread title "Long pants are officially off ..." only made me think: Yeah, the pants are off, to be replaced by skirts. 😂

What is it about their rooms that disappointed you?

I can recall at least two occasions when getting assurances from hotels in advance didn't work. Both instances were several years ago. In those times, hotels had smoking floors and non-smoking floors, and I specifically asked for a non-smoking floor. There was even an acknowledgement of my request. But when I checked in, I could detect stale tobacco and when I asked, I was told by reception that it couldn't be helped since it was a room on the smoking floor. I don't remember the details now but it took much effort on my part to make them acknowledge that I had firstly made a specific request and secondly, that they had replied in the affirmative. The other occasion was with a hotel where I was quite a regular visitor, so I knew that their rooms facing the pool tended to be a bit noisy -- children squealing in the day and poolside barbecues (with entertainment) in the evenings. It's a low-rise hotel so there were no rooms high enough to escape the noise. I asked in advance to be reserved a room on the other side. Of course they didn't assign me such a room, nor did the check-iin clerk have any access to the email exchange -- "I cannot access my manager's email, sir". The hotel was full too which made an immediate solution difficult however apologetic they were, but fortunately, a top-floor suite became available the next day, the manager returned from leave (thankfully) and I was given an upgrade. It's good to try getting assurances, as reader suggested, but I remain a little skeptical, scarred by experience.

Indeed, customers would consider windowless rooms to be a different category from rooms with windows even if the size is the same and they are fitted out in the same way. So, by that measure, hotels should display windowless rooms as a class by itself -- and say so plainly.

Thanks, all. The combined knowledge and experiences are really helpful. That's the asset of this board. The one concerning thing that's emerged is that some Raya rooms have no windows. Clearly, to avoid this, one has to choose a better grade of rooms.

Oh, the stuff of nightmares!

I am resurrecting this topic because the Raya is one of the two hotels I have never stayed in and would like to give it a try. The other is Quarter Silom. Both have received pretty good reviews, but I would be grateful if anyone who has stayed at both could offer a comparison and perhaps updated information. (As can be seen above, this thread is from 2016). 1. It's been mentioned in some other posts that Raya's rooms are bigger and better appointed than Quarter's. From the photos on their website, Quarter's aren't too small and quite habitable, but would these pictures be inaccurate or misleading? 2. They both seem to have a glass window from the room into the bathroom. Is this the case in all the rooms you've stayed in in either of the hotels? Or do only some rooms have this feature? 3. Wifi in Raya has been reported to be excellent. What about the wifi in Quarter? 4. Has anyone ever noticed package tourists in either of these two hotels? 5. With its new facade, I wonder if Raya's rooms get daylight. Do their windows let in light? I don't expect much of a view, but would not want to admire a blank wall one metre from the window sill. Vinapu reported sometime back that he didn't get a blank wall, but what about others who might have stayed in different rooms? I am assuming (from its location) that Quarter's rooms have decent light. 6. I am a little perplexed by reports that after hours, entry into Raya is not by the main entrance but via a service elevator in the car park at the back. What time do they close the main entrance? Does this mean that check-in reception is also closed after a certain hour, creating a problem for late-nght flight arrivals? 7. Members have reported no issues bringing boys back to rooms in Quarter. However, I am conscious that policies change and wonder if anyone who has staye there recently can confirm this? Do they take or check the boys' IDs -- not that this bothers me, but just wondering whether the practice is to register them or simply to pretend they never saw the boy? At Raya, reports here are that the security guard at the service elevator has no issues with boys being brought in. Are the boys registered or ignored? 8. Reports here have spoken about Raya's 5th floor rooms. Whilst the service elevator can go straight to rooms are higher levels, if one is given a room on the 5th floor -- the same floor as reception -- then one will have to walk the boy past reception nonetheless even though ascent was via the service elevator. Has anyone ever had issues with reception regarding bringing back a boy? 9. Has anyone experienced issues with cleanliness or the state of repair at either of these two hotels, e.g. low water pressure, choked drainage, noisy airconditioning, un-adjustable airconitioning, etc? 10. Raya has discontinued its breakfast and I don't see any breakfast option in the booking form. What's the situation in Quarter from your experience? It offers breakfast deals but from your experience, is it a basic breakfast with, say limited options, or a reasoable buffet? Thanks for any information you can help with.

I believe this is the video you're referring to? https://www.facebook.com/Jupiter2018/videos/1403856163422852/ Yes, the briefs are a welcome improvement, but more than half the boys are so disfigured by massive tattoos, it's such a waste!

@Jimbillp How full were the flights in each direction?

I would wait at least 2 weeks into June for reports to filter out as to whether what is intended as 'immediate' is in fact immediate. Or would they need to find a Finnish translator to read the Finnish text of the insurance policy to check that it is XXX euros, equivalent to 10,000 $, and that it covers COVID. If so, that is going to take time 😳

Hope Indonesia's latest move to drop requirement for pre departure tests effective today will push Thailand to stop dragging its feet. I put the link to the Reuters story about Indonesia's move inside the Gay Bali forum.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-drop-outdoor-mask-mandate-covid-19-infections-drop-2022-05-17/ Quote: Indonesia will drop requirements ... for vaccinated travellers to show negative pre-departure tests... The new relaxed rule comes into effect today, May 18.