Next Year Somewhere New

[williewillie]

Bali has lots of interesting sights, but traffic is heavy so it takes a while to get around. Seminyak is pretty crowded. Ubud was a bit more laid back. I enjoyed Yogyakarta as well...it's the education center of Indonesia so lots of cute university boys around.

 

I was a bit disappointed by the boys in Bali. The bars in Seminyak are VERY LOUD. I didn't stay long the night I ventured out to them. There's a massage shop upstairs from the bars and I was propositioned frequently walking down the street by some queeny guys working there every time I went past. Anyone who is a size queen is likely to be very disappointed. I had a massage at one of the massage places and the guy I got had the tiniest little penis I have ever seen.

 

The moneyboy I met on Jack'd (I think) was somewhat tiresome. At first I wasn't sure he was a moneyboy until we got back to my hotel and then he suddenly became "shy" and started asking how much I was going to give him. Met another guy on one of the apps who was very pushy before I blocked him. 

 

 

It all just seemed like too much work compared to Thailand. Plenty of handsome guys around though. And some really amazing scenery.[/quote

 

Very late hours, very loud music, and to make it a grand slam, is cigarette smoking allowed in the bars?

[firecat69]

As usual making assumptions with no basis is dangerous.  According to numerous reviews of the Gay Bars on Trip Advisor , the shows start from10pm.

 

Anyone care to find a show in Pattaya or Bangkok that starts much before 10pm or mostly later..  Pretty sure most are later .

 

Shows by definition have loud music , if you don't like music you don't go to shows.  Really pretty simple.  Does appear certain Bars allow smoking , Gee none of the Bars in Thailand allow that!  Right!!

 

Seems to be pretty similar in those respects.  I choose to go with Irish and A447 on other Boards that Bali is a lot of fun and completely different from Thailand.  That is the point of going to a new place.

 

 

I tend to discount comments by people who spent 1 or 2 days in a Location and have nothing but negative comments.

 

Certainly I can find many comments like that about Pattaya etc ( some from esteemed members here) before they visited and now magically they keep returning every trip.

[Guest]

Shows by definition have loud music , if you don't like music you don't go to shows.  Really pretty simple.  Does appear certain Bars allow smoking , Gee none of the Bars in Thailand allow that!  Right!!

I've never seen that definition before.

I like music but do not tolerate loud music. For a start, the show in Copa does not have LOUD music. I've been to various other shows, although rarely staying for long.

Music is guaranteed. Loud music is not. At least in Thailand. Some of the bars know their customers.

[Moses]

Music is guaranteed. Loud music is not. At least in Thailand. Some of the bars know their customers.

 

I had stop to visit Venue right cuz I has too loud music...

[firecat69]

Pretty clear that everyone has a different level of what they consider loud.  My point is that if you go to a show , you can expect there will be music and some people will think it is loud and others will not.

 

It is my experience that most of the comments I have seen complaining about Loud music especially in Pattaya have not necessarily had anything to do with shows but just loud music.

 

If I wanted to waste my time I could find many posts about bars like Nice Boys etc in Pattaya where posters here and other Forums complain about the Loud Music. Last time I checked there were no shows at these Bars.

 

Yet those same posters regularly go to those Bars . Why because they offer something despite the loud music and thus Shows in Bali, if the music is actually loud in reality instead of in ones imagination can only be determined by someone who has actually attended.

[biguyby]

There is loud and there is deafeningly loud. For instance I can tolerate the loud music in the show at BBB but the

X-Boys Show is just way too loud for me.

As with everything each to his own.

[vinapu]

There is loud and there is deafeningly loud. For instance I can tolerate the loud music in the show at BBB but the

X-Boys Show is just way too loud for me.

 

I agree, I recollect our visit there in May, noise level at X BOYS Pattaya  was bordering on being painfull. And I have high noise tolerance living on bust street and facing multi lane highway

[vinapu]

... you can expect there will be music and some people will think it is loud and others will not.

 

particularly deaf ones will not complain about noise level

[vinapu]

 

 

Certainly I can find many comments like that about Pattaya etc ( some from esteemed members here) before they visited and now magically they keep returning every trip.

that would be me, in comparison to Bangkok I consider Pattaya waste of time and money and yet gladly waste both on Pattaya every trip, few days at the time.

 

Don't treat less then thrilling comments about Bali, Kuta and gay scene as discouraging you from going, always best to go and see by yourself. Advantage of Bali over Pattaya is they if you find yourself bored or not happy with gay scene there are are tons of attractions to visit and keep you occupied.

 

It's obvious that not everybody will like everything, there are Pattaya lovers who are  spending all their time in the Sunee and those who never bother to go there.

 

The same goes with Bali, it's more to the island than just BaliJoe in Seminyak.

[firecat69]

That is exactly my point. I give no credence to negative opinions from posters who have spent little or no time in a location. I prefer to get my opinions from posters who have spent numerous days and multiple trips in a location.

 

In that case posters like Irish and a447 are posters who I would look to for opinions.

 

If I was a first time visitor to BKK then I would look to posters such as you for pluses and minuses especially in regards to massage parlors.

 

You certainly made it plain in the past that you had no desire to visit Pattaya probably based on 1 sided comments by people in person or on Boards such as this. 

 

Yet you not only continue to return but have increased the number of days you spend in Pattaya.  So it is totally ridiculous for you to continue to say Pattaya is a waste of time and money.

 

Now to be clear if you had spent 5 days in Seminyak and had attended all the Bars and had spent multiple hours in bed with Indo boys then I would certainly have given credence to your comments.

 

That does not represent your experience and thus , those comments and comments from posters who have never been there are useless at least to me.

 

When I am looking to visit a new location , I am looking for the relative weight from reviews by many sources as to whether I want to spend my time and money there.

 

For instance in Hotel reviews I give much more weight to Booking.com reviews because it is impossible to post a review until you have paid your bill and checked out.  Thus no reviews from competitors or posters who have never been to that Hotel.

 

 

In the case of Seminyak there are so many positive reviews of the Town from multiple sites as to the beaches, restaurants , sightseeing etc and the fact that of course it happens to be a Top destination for visitors from Australia.

 

As to strictly Gay Activities , there are much less valuable sources for that info and thus Boards like this and Sawatdee etc , hopefully provide some insight .

[vinapu]

 

Now to be clear if you had spent 5 days in Seminyak........ 

 I rather had all my remaining 31 teeth pulled without anesthetics or gladly traded 5 days in Kuta for 5 hours in Ubud

[firecat69]

But that is the whole point. You did not spend 5 days there. You did not go to the Clubs. You did not have Sex with any of the Boys , you had no massages and basically your impressions are worthless to anyone who is going there for whoring around.

[vinapu]

As for somebody who never been there your devotion to the place is exemplary and truly moving

[firecat69]

Not as ridiculous as you who passed through for a few hours and decided in your infinite wisdom that the place sucks.  Many posters on various Boards disagree with you and they spent many days and trips there.

 

Now who would you listen too if you were looking for a new destination for whoring in Asia. Someone who spent such a short time that he never went with a boy, attended a club or got a massage or posters who have actually spent time there and experienced all those things.

 

The choice is easy. Your opinion has no weight to me and those other posters at least have been positive enough for me to explore the location. 

 

Who knows I might end up agreeing with you but I certainly would never avoid a place because of such a review as yours which for the most part was useless!

 

I can still remember reading reviews of visitors to BKK complaining about crooked Tuk Tuk drivers, taxis, touts at the Grand Palace saying it was closed for the day and touts about specials on suits that turned out to be terrible quality.

 

Luckily I did not pay any attention to those type of reviews since I already had armed myself with what to look out for on my first visit.  Because of that I did not experience any of those problems and 15 years later I am still visiting.

 

Something tells me the millions who visit every year to Bali including Seminyak and Kuta must  have also found many good reasons to visit which outweigh any negatives that all countries have.

 

Just a thought?

[hanan]

If I wanted to waste my time I could find many posts about bars like Nice Boys etc in Pattaya where posters here and other Forums complain about the Loud Music. Last time I checked there were no shows at these Bars.

 

Nice boy bar in Pattaya actually had a short show at 11 pm Friday to Sunday last time I was there, in May. Maybe they don´t do it anymore, I don´t know, but perhaps start again when high-season arrives.

[Alexx]

I can still remember reading reviews of visitors to BKK complaining about crooked Tuk Tuk drivers, taxis, touts at the Grand Palace saying it was closed for the day and touts about specials on suits that turned out to be terrible quality.

 

Luckily I did not pay any attention to those type of reviews since I already had armed myself with what to look out for on my first visit.  Because of that I did not experience any of those problems and 15 years later I am still visiting.

Yeah, but if nobody had ever complained anywhere at all, how could you have armed yourself? You could do that precisely because others had shared their bad experiences. In other words, negative reviews have value, too. Not to deter you from visiting a place, that I fully agree with, but to know what to watch out for specifically. It certainly helped me, just as being pretty cautious by nature also helped.

[firecat69]

I agree with you if any useful info is provided.   "I personally  hate Kuta / Seminyak which are nothing else than tourist trap full of drunken farangs and enterprising locals out to  shortchange you at every turn. I'm no fan of Pattaya but  in comparison Kuta is shithole"

 

That is not useful information . Nothing specific that I can see to warn me . Just a repeat of something that could certainly be said about Pattaya and many other Tourist destinations.

 

Not Helpful!

[Guest]

Both the positive and negative comments are useful to me, although specifics are obviously helpful.

 

The only comments that are not useful are those telling other people their comments are of no use.  

 

Perhaps we might just get back onto reviewing Bali rather than bitching?   

[vinapu]

 

 

Now who would you listen too if you were looking for a new destination for whoring in Asia. 

from members of this forum I'd start with Xiluzer , ChristianPFC, you , z909 nad biguyby - all met in person as I tend to put more weight to what people I saw eye to eye have to say.

 

Next would be contributors to this and others forums I read regularly.

 

I don't put much weight on what unknown people have to say on TripAdvisors, hotel review sites etc  

[vinapu]

  vinapu

 

 "I personally  hate Kuta / Seminyak which are nothing else than tourist trap full of drunken farangs and enterprising locals out to  shortchange you at every turn. I'm no fan of Pattaya but  in comparison Kuta is shithole"

 

 

since quote is from me I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that I inserted words " I personally" , indicator good enough that this is my  opinion for my  personal use.

 

Reader can take it for  a face value, reject summarily or ask for reasons if interested but certainly not assume that somebody is trying to ruin  his perceived opinion about the place like you did acting like part time board bully. 

 

My apologies  if you read my responses as upsetting ,  which was never my intention. And I found your hostile reaction as undeserving and unnecessary. 

 

I don't think you  targeted me , rather it's part of pattern we observe recently  with some concern. People disagreeing with you are not your enemies , they are fellow board members with different preferences, be it cost of taxis, tipping habits or place of Kuta on world's map.

 

 

Perhaps we might just get back onto reviewing Bali rather than bitching?   

you think somebody will be brave and naive enough? I will try

[williewillie]

I highly value vinapu's comments, observations and opinions and cannot image denigrating them as valueless and

wasteful. This thread has turned bitchy and nasty. Somehow, I'm certain my positive comment about vinapu will be perceived

otherwise and some nasty mean spirited comment will follow. It would be nice to be wrong.

[vinapu]

 I personally  hate Kuta / Seminyak which are nothing else than tourist trap full of drunken farangs and enterprising locals out to  shortchange you at every turn. I'm no fan of Pattaya but  in comparison Kuta is shithole. At least this was my impression and best I did was to move inland to Ubud.

 

 

Since this passage rised firecat's blood pressure to 320/190 here's my account on my first day in Kuta as a reason I'm not backing from  what I said above.

 

I strongly believe if was just accumulation of bad luck but Kuta will not have second chance to make first impression on me.

 

1.   2 days before arrival booked through Agoda room with A/C in small hotel close to airport due to late night landing. Cost twice of fan cooled room, 490000 vs. 250000. Room did not have A/C unit but at least had hole in the wall where unit once was.  Spider web inside looked older than 2 days  

 

2. In the morning hearing commotion over breakfast which was supposed to be included in price but hotel demanded payment from that guest. Not sure who was right , by time I came to the table it was settled and my breakfast was free.

 

3. knowing about money exchange scams decided to change 200 $ in two different counters.

100$ was roughly 1 000 000 , in first place all given in 20 000 notes which is good but instead of  50 of them there were 48 only

 

next counter few blocks apart, this time change in 50 000, 19 only instead of 20.

 

difference given without the fuss but neither 'mistake '  was coincidental because both places used electronic counter

 

4. there's shopping mall between the beach and main road in south Kuta, despite early hours group of four handsome but drunk already farangs run through screaming and almost naked -  dicks  barely covered but pubes in plan view. Not unpleasant sight for me but locals seem to be disgusted. Immediately I  think about Bali bombing few years earlier and I'm a bit less surprised it happened than previously.

 

5. Arranging with taxi driver day tour to few temples . He has plan for 5 of them for 400 000, I suggest leaving only 2 but adding Ulu Watu which is in the opposite direction to the rest. I agree on the price quoted 450 000, upon return he  demands 500 000. I'm paying gladly because I was planning on tipping him 100 000  but still feel cheated.

 

At Ulu Watu finally bright spot - monkey is trying to steal my glasses but I'm fraction of second faster managing to hold on to my baseball cap with other hand at the same time.

 

6. In the evening arranging taxi to Seminyak to see the same bars firecat is aspiring to, 3 taxis  quoting 70000 and not budging but I'm not paying armed with knowledge that it should be 30000, finally 4th was reasonable.

 

Next morning went to Ubud inland and next 7 days went without a glitch in tropical paradise. 

 

If anybody disagrees with my right to assessmnet of Kuta quoted above feel free to,  but don't even try to change my mind.

 

And no , I'm not novice tourist easy to fleece and I visited  plenty of places I can compare Kuta to including Pattaya , that paragon of honesty and modest behavior. 

 

Numbers taken from my travel diary and rounded for easier reading

[forky123]

Personal opinions are just that, personal. They are never worthless, though their value is always going to be different to different people. The same information can be highly esteemed by one and of little value to another. The weight of value someone places on another's opinion is going to be based on their experience of how often their opinion coincides with your own, assuming you've previously acted on their opinion and undergone similar experiences. If a person goes through life relying entirely on other people's opinions there will be much enjoyment missed on the say so of others. Personal experience is often how we learn.

 

I find most of Vinapu's comments and opinions of value to me. There are some that may affect my actions such as on massage places, since he has wide experience of them and we have similar tastes in both massage and masseurs. That doesn't mean I won't experiment and try some place not recommended as there are simply too many variables and people experience things in different ways. Other of Vinapu's comments and opinions are less valuable to me, such as on hotels. We don't have the same taste in them and he prefers to move from place to place and I prefer to settle in one hotel. That doesn't' make his opinion any less valuable for lots of people, just not for me in this one area.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say in a particularly long winded way is that comments and opinions, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder.

[firecat69]

Finally some specifics for the reason Vinapu has his bad feelings about Kuta.  I might feel the same way if I had those experiences.

 

I am still sad that he did not experience the Bars, Boys, Massage which of course are the things I am interested in and his opinion s would be valuable I certainly do not go to Pattaya for the beaches, restaurants etc which is why I rarely post anything about those.  There are far better sites then this one to find the best sightseeing opportunities, restaurants etc..in any new location.

 

I have read numerous reports about money changers trying to short change you . Certainly not the only place that happens and the reason why I will only use ATM cards .  Same reason why I know that if you are to use taxis then BlueBird is the one you stick with in Seminyak because they are honest . All things I have discovered a year before my trip on Travel Forums.

 

Same way I knew about the touts and cheats in BKK before my first trip and thus it was not a problem. Traveling to new places is not easy and gaining information from various sources is the best way to insure an enjoyable visit.

 

When I look for info about a location on this Forum, I am looking for information on Boys and Sex.  I think that is what most people on this Forum are looking for.  Yes along the way you make pick up some hints about Hotels and rarely tips on a restaurant.

 

I apologize if some think I come off as bullying Vinapu. Certainly not my intention but I felt then and still feel now his initial post had absolutely no value (at least to me). Since he has gotten more specific about the reason for his feelings , I can sympathize with his feelings.

 

I am sad he had the initial bad experience which resulted in him not being able to comment on The Bars, Shows, Boys, Massages  all of which would have been invaluable for my future visit as have been many of his posts on Thailand.

[anddy]

I can only reiterate to advise people not to confuse Kuta-proper with other parts of the general "Kuta"-area. Again, from the airport up there are Jimbaran (presumably where vinapu's first cheap hotel was), then Kuta-proper, followed by Legian, Seminyak, Kerobokan.

 

In my opinion in Seminyak you'd be highly unlikely to experience a scene of obnoxious drunk Aussies in the morning that vinapu described. 

 

My advice is simple: stay away from Kuta-proper and limit yourself to Seminyak-Kerobokan and you will be fine.

 

My perosnal bet is that firecat will like it there.