PeterRS

I agree tipping may have - stress "may" - little to do with your financial wealth. But it is for some people. But to compare it with going to a hairdresser is frankly nonsense. Similarly you cannot compare a tip for prostitution the equivalent of a daily wage. Most people on a daily wage get precisely that - the same amount each day guaranteed for at least a decent peiod of time. Someone seeking sex may go for days without any customer - and we know from what has been written here in the past that there are boys who get no customers for a week or more. We all know that you tip at the lower end of the scale. That's perfectly fine if the boy you are with is happy with it. But you live here, you speak Thai and you know all about negotiation. Most customers are very different.

I really do not follow that argument. Bangkok properties are generally not ghost properties with one exception I know about. When the Chinese were floooding Thalland, they were permitted by their government to take up to US$50,000 out of the country. Many wished to buy in Bangkok but apartments were generally above that figure, So property developers soon put up large apartment blocks with units of between around 25 and 30 sq. m. usually near the end of MRT and BTS lines. Initially these proved popular, even with couples from Singapore and Hong Kong where housing is so incredibly expensive. The Chinese from the mainland basically wanted to park their cash outside the country. The thinking of South East Asians was they could sell the apartments after ten years and make enough of a profit to finally get on the property ladder in their own cities. I suspect with Thailand now much less popular with Chinese, quite a number of these small units are empty - but that's merely a guess. I have no idea about the situation in Pattaya.

A member of the Finland Parliament, Paivi Rasanen, has several times over the last two decdes claimed that homosexuality is a "developmental disorder". Finally taken to court, the Supreme Court ruled that she was incorrect and fined her. Ms. Rasanen was aided in her defence, should we be surprised, by an American organisation - the US-based conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has tried to use her case as an example of censorship in Europe. The group has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns after successfully overturning Roe v Wade, which protected the right to abortion, in the US. Having made a shambles of much of the USA, these right wing groups should be banned from becoming involved in non-American issues. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/26/finnish-mp-paivi-rasanen-convicted-homosexuality-developmental-disorder

I encountred similar situation more than once. As @macaroni21 points out - in Japan go with the flow. Do not expect conditions to be the same as other countries. Japan is a great country and Tokyo an amazing city. Just do not expect it to operate exactly like cities elsewhere. And as @macaroni21 also pointed out, foreigners come low in the pecking order. Just don't get annoyed and don't lose your temper. Keep calm! If some organisation does not work, do not atempt to make it work. Go elsewhere. AAdditionally you quote a list of spas prepared by a member who had not been to any of them (I believe) as he state clearly he was based in the Kyoto/Osaka area and only had a brief stopover in Tokyo. So do not regard his post as a recommendation. Having made the list, it is up to you to check each one out.

Non Thai nationals are severely restricted as to the type of paid employment they can enjoy in the Kingdom. Most require a work visa or a special visa permitting work for a shorter period of time. My Burmese bf has a visa from his employer and has recently had it renewed for a further year. WIth the best will in the world, I cannot see massage work being acceptable as Thais can very easily do this. Unskilled labour working on construction sites is frequently mentioned. In that case I assume the employer obtains the necessary paperwork. ASEAN is supposed to facilitate mobility of labour, but this generally applies only to skilled labour.

My advice for Japan escort establishments is never try to make a booking more than about a few days ahead. Many of the boys work or study and simply do not know when they will definitely be free before then. I have never had a problem with the usual agencies (I had never actually heard of the three you mention until this thread) but then I am not into the hunk types that you obviously prefer. My suggestion? If olive-salon is screwing you round, go somewhere else! Never try to get a Japanese agency to fit in to what you want. You follow their rules.

Out of curiosity, do you ever eat anything else? LOL

My neighbours opposite in Bangkok recently purchased a second home and dolled up their existing one to rent. They had been informed by more than one estate agent that while the rental market in Thailand is buoyant just now, the selling market is flat. They rented their flat after just one day. I wrote some years ago of the two western guys who lived in a very large 210 sq.m. flat next door to mine (it was a double flat). Why they purchased it goodness only knows but it took them three years to sell and they had to lower the price from Bt. 13 million to Bt.9.5. All this time their pot of savings was being reduced. Eventually they moved into a large rented flat (another really stupid move) but come covid they had insufficient cash to pay for their visas. In their 80s they ended up being deported.

Long time ago I was on booked on a Hong Kong/Melbourne flight. It was cancelled almost at the last minute due to a petrol tanker drivers' strike in Australia. The flight could thus not be refuelled. No airline will fly into any airport unless certain it can be refuelled.

For some years I went to bars to Sundays with a long time friend. He seemed to love teasig the boys, most of whom hadn't a clue what he was saying and some were certainly uncomfortable. I tied so many times to get him to stop, but it must have been ingrained in his DNA.

Having looked at all the guys and their descriptions, I reckon that are all bascially top but some will bottom. If you click on each photo, you get a description that incudes whether they are bottom or top. For example, one guys has this - Interaction, top, bottom Top ◎ / Bottom ◎ which i take to mean he is both. Some have an x against bottom and again I assume that means he will not. Another is described s a gay guy and he has - Back-up Top (△) / Bottom (◎) One guy with a triange has in his description "He's basically a versatile top, but he says he can also be a bottom for guys with average-sized penises." I frankly would be wary of assuming this and other guys with similar triangles will be very effective bottoms. Note that some will not take reservations from foreigners. Only my personal view but 150 minutes with one guy whom you have never met nd may not be blessed to converse with seems a very long time. Why go for that length on a very first date? I would definitely not go beyond 90 minutes first time around, but that is just me.

I'll try and negotiate down to 10%. Is he worth more, do you think?

Where else but in the USA would anyone consider queuing for hundreds of meters underground before getting up to second level and another few hundred meters queue. Then another level. By the time this level is reached there is a notice saying approximate waiting time will be a further 250 minutes. Madness! https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/23/us/video/houston-airport-security-checkpoint-lines-vrtc-digvid

Darn it! I forgot to add him!

Youtube still has it fortunately - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyos-M48B8U but for some reason does not allow it to be embedded. A quick click and paste job shows a masterly summing up! The TV series is also excellent -