Back in Bangkok

[pong2]

On 4/2/2022 at 11:03 AM, Milk78 said:

It was a lazy start. I have usually been down to breakfast at about 7-7.30am but this morning it was a good couple of hours later before I made it down. Stuffed my face (with food!) and went back to bed. I was still a bit weary and ended up sleeping for another couple of hours. River journey recommendations gratefully received from @thaiophilus I headed to Sathorn Pier at about 3pm. Caught the Orange Flag boat up to Nonthaburi. What excellent value for an hours trip up the river. I didn't stick around long in Nonthaburi.

    Nice. NTB is not in BKK proper, but is a separate province. What most do not know is that it also has a kind of red-light area not too far from that boatstop and that includes/d also some guy-massage places, purely local and much cheaper. 

There was a bit more Thai life going about its daily business; plenty of street food. Restaurants mainly closed. I was the only non Thai face around. I had a wander round the market for a little while. I debated whether to get the boat back but in the end elected to jump in a taxi and head back into BKK. 

Just walk along that busy road straight on-about 1,5 km (1 mile), you´ll see yet another BigC superstore and after it-a T-junction the ´sky´train which is in fact a subway/metro line that you could have taken back to Ram IV# Silom. Or just board any bus along there.

For those who read and stack it for maybe later trips. Last boat @18.00-they do not go in the night after dark.

On 4/2/2022 at 11:03 AM, Milk78 said:

Another recommendation took me to Siam Paragon and I finally found where all the crowds are! It seems that the majority of the tourist life is zoning in on the sprawling complex. A fair few locals as well as there was some sort of celebrity event going on which had drawn a big crowd and lots of cameras. I am not sure who it was but was told it was a sponsorship event for Under Armour - possibly a Thai football player? 

That is some brand of foot or clothes wear. Perhaps Japanese.

 

[thaiophilus]

16 hours ago, pong2 said:

Just walk along that busy road straight on-about 1,5 km (1 mile), you´ll see yet another BigC superstore and after it-a T-junction the ´sky´train which is in fact a subway/metro line that you could have taken back to Ram IV# Silom.

 

That wasn't there when I last went to Nonthaburi! Thanks for the tip.

Not strictly "skytrain", that would be the BTS. Actually it's the new MRT Purple Line which runs to the Bang Sue district and connects with the underground Blue Line at Tao Poon - very close to the Joncharoen swimming pool someone mentioned recently!

[Guest]

I took the ferry to Nonthaburi and then the MRT Purple and Blue lines last year. 

There are some photos below.    What I believe is a new parliament building ?    Plus a double crematorium (?), a clock, boring. bodging and Bang Sue from Ta Poon station.

Oddly, the Purple line does not terminate at Bang Sue, but at Ta Poon, where the user has a long walk to catch the Blue Line, then after riding one stop, he probably has another longer than necessary walk to get to Bang Sue.    

That's no problem at all for tourists like me who have all day.   However, if Bangkok wants to encourage residents to commute by public transport, they need to design the interchanges properly to cut the time wasted commuting.   Like in Japan. 

Of course, in Thailand, the main objective is to dish out construction contracts to cronies.  The benefits from the finished system are irrelevant and as a result, the interchange stations tend to be too widely spaced out, presumably because no one cares.     Not a problem for us, but it would be less fun for those commuting each way, every day.

Once on the Blue Line, I then went back to Sam Yan on the anti-clockwise loop, which is mostly elevated and is more interesting than the underground section.

[Milk78]

My week in Chiang Mai was great. Lots of great food. There definitely seemed to be more non-Asian tourists in Chiang Mai than in Bangkok. 

I stayed in an AirBnB which was great. Lots of space, decent Wifi, balcony, washing machine, kitchen etc, and for very little money for the week. 

I spent most of my time with a boy I met a couple of years ago and with whom I have been in touch with ever since. He is a university student and his English is very good. I met him on Grindr (not a money boy). We spent most days with him coming over to my apartment, going for lunch and then off to an art gallery or other local attraction. It was a very chilled out few days. On Thursday, he had to go home to BKK to see his mum and sister.

I had a couple of days to myself so checked out Grindr to see what was about. I hooked up with a few guys over the next three days. There are plenty of guys on the app so didn't have to try to hard to find someone. Lots of massage boys on Grindr in Chiang Mai and the prices are about 50% cheaper than in BKK. One money boy got in touch with an initial price of 2000 thb but i wasn't really interested. He kept trying though and was down to 700 by the time he got the message and looked elsewhere. 

I didn't really check out the gay scene in Chiang Mai. I did go to Orion Bar which had a cabaret show on at about 9pm? It was empty when i sat down for a drink at 8pm ish but by the time of the show it had filled up quite a bit and there was a bit of a crowd. 

I like Chiang Mai it is an easy place to hang out and relax. And there are some signs of life returning. Venues appear to be filling up again. There was excellent Thai restaurant near my apartment. They do a Burmese style curry which is one of the best things i have ever eaten. Having been there twice already, I thought I would treat myself on my last night and go again. I turned up to find a queue to get! It was way too hot for me to stand around so found another venue. This is the place if you are interested - https://www.facebook.com/TongTemToh/ It is right next door to an Italian restaurant called Why Not? It is also excellent - http://whynotchiangmai.com/

Back to BKK for one night and stayed at The Raya. What a fantastic little hotel. Very good value, large room and you can't beat the location. 

I caught up with a forum member for drinks in Soi 4. It does seem to be a little more lively than it was when i was there a week before. Maybe the impact of a few more tourists and Songkran in a couple of days? My drinking partner let me depart early as I had important "errands" to attend to. 

I managed to hook up with the birthday boy I mentioned in an earlier post. We had planned to meet straight after his work at 6pm but he then had to take overtime at work and was not able to meet until later. Sadly, that meant that our hook up was much curtailed in terms of time together. Still, he was as excellent as the first time we met. 

My flight back is not until late tonight but it has been a low key day. It is blisteringly hot today and I feel complete; I don't feel the need to be doing much more. Checkout at The Raya is 12pm but you can have a later checkout time at the cost of 100 thb per hour, which feels like excellent value to me. It means I can hang out here and take sanctuary in the air conditioning! 

I have just ventured out to the @vinapucommended, 5* dining experience, and now back in the room. I have Grindr on and a few messages coming in but I think I am done now, I have had my fill. 

Some reflections on a couple of weeks back in Thailand: 

• Print all of the documentation out. I can't imagine trying to manage it all off the phone. On the way out my papers were checked 5 times and not all the same combination of documentation. 
• The testing is a nightmare and a waste of time and without a doubt killing tourism.
• I bought a phone sim at the airport - dtac have a shop by baggage reclaim. It turns out the deal i got was better than i thought it was and no more expensive than buying from a 7-11. I know this because I thought i had only got a 2gb data limit. It turns out it was Unlimited data. My phone had an odd setting which made it appear to be limited to 2gb. When i went to a dtac shop to increase my data she couldn't really understand what/ why I was asking. It was only then i realised my (good) mistake. 
• It was a good job i did get the sim card at the airport, as my first trip outside of my room after Day 1 PCR test confinement, I got locked in a stairwell! Luckily, I was able to phone reception and they sent someone to let me out! 
• Like everywhere else, Covid has hit businesses. That compounded with only a trickle of tourism, many shops, bars, restaurants have closed and show little to no sign of returning anytime soon. Many of the tourist dependent shops have gone - the night bizarre in Chiang Mai is half the size I remember it being and many places even though they say are open in Google have just disappeared. 
• Grindr worked really well for me. Lots of local guys not trade to hook up with. Yes, there are money boys and massage guys on there as well and very easy to find, but plenty of local guys just looking for fun as well. 
• I learnt on a number of occasions to go with the flow. Two local guys I nearly ignored turned out to be two of the best hook ups ever.

This is my second time in Thailand and I know that I will be coming back. My first visit, two years ago just before Covid, was spoilt a bit by a heavy cold that I came down with the day before I flew out. It really hit my first week in BKK. This time, once the testing had been successfully navigated, I was able to have a much fuller experience. Yes, there are some restrictions and things not open, but there is still plenty of things that are still standing to enjoy. 

Hopefully, travel restrictions will ease over the next few months and people will start coming back. I am already planning my next trip out and have got my boss to agree to let me work UK hours in Thailand, if possible for a month. I can think of no better escape from the UK winter!

 

[khaolakguy]

Great report, glad you had fun and thanks for sharing

[Londoner]

Thanks. I'm so pleased you enjoyed Chiang Mai and recognised that it "life was returning". It's one of our favourite places, though  I prefer Chiang Rai- similar but smaller and less commercialised.

It is certainly a city where it's probably best to have a companion. The gay scene was quite something twenty years back but now....well, you were right to have your own entertainment available. 

[vinapu]

16 hours ago, Milk78 said:

 

I have just ventured out to the @vinapucommended, 5* dining experience,

 

I'm glad that ranks of forum members fond of Foodland Patpong are growing

[paulsf]

If some other restaurants don’t start to open they may have to start taking reservations. Almost a full house when I stopped by last night. 

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, paulsf said:

If some other restaurants don’t start to open they may have to start taking reservations. Almost a full house when I stopped by last night. 

big change in comparison to December when on several occasions I was there at various times of day and night it was at most 1/3 full

[18past19]

On 3/30/2022 at 8:48 AM, fedssocr said:

For a couple of years I used to stay at the Siri Sathorn apartments

it seems Siri Sathorn by UHG has recently changed its name - now the Quarter Saladaeng by UHG.  

Have you stayed there lately? Many of recent reviews commented on the need for maintenance especially carpets, towels and furniture inside the rooms. 

[vinapu]

26 minutes ago, 18past19 said:

it seems Siri Sathorn by UHG has recently changed its name - now the Quarter Saladaeng by UHG.  

Have you stayed there lately? Many of recent reviews commented on the need for maintenance especially carpets, towels and furniture inside the rooms. 

not recently but I stay there on my last pre-covid trip and was impressed by spacious rooms, in fact junior suite was like sizable apartment

[18past19]

No doubt about the size. Their one bedroom deluxe suite is something like 600 Sq ft. 

[fedssocr]

54 minutes ago, 18past19 said:

it seems Siri Sathorn by UHG has recently changed its name - now the Quarter Saladaeng by UHG.  

Have you stayed there lately? Many of recent reviews commented on the need for maintenance especially carpets, towels and furniture inside the rooms. 

No, I have not stayed there in several years. I also wouldn't be surprised that it is in need of some renovation. It looks like they are still Siri Sathorn according to their website http://sirisathorn.com/

 

[18past19]

It is confusing.  the name has changed on Agoda and Booking dot com sites. 

[vinapu]

as they stupid at booking.com ?, it says " 3 miles from center ", isn't Patpong point ZERO in BKK ?

[18past19]

i thought it was Jupiter to be exact or at least Moonlight. 

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, 18past19 said:

i thought it was Jupiter to be exact or at least Moonlight. 

while I agree with you I wanted to be more inclusive with twink admirers included.

On the merit , I still place Moonlight before Jupiter, specially after meeting Y , my last night last trip discovery

[mixskin]

On 3/30/2022 at 10:06 PM, Milk78 said:

I have always loved small guys with big dicks and he didn’t disappoint.

Hey, would love to have his contact :))

[zoomomancs]

On 4/1/2023 at 2:47 AM, 18past19 said:

it seems Siri Sathorn by UHG has recently changed its name - now the Quarter Saladaeng by UHG.  

Have you stayed there lately? Many of recent reviews commented on the need for maintenance especially carpets, towels and furniture inside the rooms. 

I think the two hotels are in completely different locations and it would take 20 minutes to walk from one to the other. The Quarter is a new hotel, round the corner from Tarntawan. But I don't remember what was there before The Quarter was built.

[floridarob]

7 hours ago, zoomomancs said:

But I don't remember what was there before The Quarter was built.

Mostly a parking lot .....

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7284335,100.5302142,3a,75y,325.4h,83.64t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ss9itJ8SPiP2Clv0d70CLxg!2e0!5s20110901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

[macaroni21]

10 hours ago, zoomomancs said:

I think the two hotels are in completely different locations and it would take 20 minutes to walk from one to the other. The Quarter is a new hotel, round the corner from Tarntawan. But I don't remember what was there before The Quarter was built.

'The Quarter' is a chain, so there are several. The one on Tarntawan is called The Quarter Silom. What is being discussed here is The Quarter Saladaeng. I know of one more: The Quarter Hualamphong.

[18past19]

6 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

called The Quarter Silom. What is being discussed here is The Quarter Saladaeng. I know of one more: The Quarter Hualamphong.

thank you. i used to know only two quarters. now i know three quarters. i am almost there. 

[macaroni21]

I think there's a The Quarter Sukhumvit too. I vaguely remember walking past it in December.  That makes four and completes the set?

[reader]

And The Quarter Ari at 428 Phahonyothin Rd.

[EricV]

It's a chain that grew before and during CoVid, there are seven Quarter hotels by UHG all over Bangkok...

http://uhgholdings.com/hotel.php