PeterRS

I said in my earlier post that I have mine done is a small shop on Saladaeng. It's on I think the first corner on the same side as Senso and probably around 50 meters or so prior to Senso. Cost earlier this year was I think Bt. 4.

According to an article on today's CNN site, a prisoner due to be executed by firing squad in Utah in September, had his death delayed because the prisoner was suffering from dementia. A new "competency hearing" had been set for December but the prisoner died two days ago. I am against the death penalty, but primarily because there have been too many cases where it was subsequently proved that the murdered prisoner was in fact innocent. I agree that number is very small, but I cannot accept any state has the right to end a person's life without cast-iron proof - and that is near impossible to obtain in most cases. Even confessions are no guarantee of guilt. Apologies and monetary payment are no substitute for wrongly taking a life. In this most recent case, there is another issue. The prisoner had been on death row for a staggering 37 years! That is more than double the average of 18 years which death row prisoners have to wait prior to execution. I find this utterly absurd. The mental pain and anxiety anyone must go through having to wait 37 - or even just 18 - years knowing that at some time in the future you are going to die must be ghastly. I admit some of the crimes allegedly committed were probably even more ghastly, but in my view that is no reason for the state to punish a condemned person effectively twice. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/27/us/menzies-utah-dementia-inmate-dies

This seems rather like a post I made some months ago about the online stripchat site. Quite recently a number of Chinese have appeared on the site, many in groups of three or four, all very young, very skinny and play rather silly games before eventually stripping off. They get much higher tips than almost all the westerners. Solo Chinese are also becoming common. A couple of days ago, my bf asked me to look at the screen. It was the page of a young 20ish Chinese who got from the same viewer two 'donations' of 2,200 tokens. He ended up that session with a masturbation show and 5,100 tokens. I understand from the web that 'models' on stripchat earn 5 US cents per token. By my reckoning he earned $255 for about four hours 'work'. Yet most young western models spend longer online and are lucky to end up with between 100 and 200 tokens. So clearly there are some in some countries very hppy to pay way over the odds for whatever tickles their fancy!

Rainfall in the south of Thailand is far from uncommon even into the middle of December. I recall a 5 night stay in Phuket in mid-December 1996 when it poured with rain every day.

Being here on a long term visa, my answer is simple. I take a photo of my passport details page and another of the visa. I cut to size, back one to another and then have it laminated. I always carry that in my backpack or back pocket. There are shops offering lamination all over the place, even one on Saladaeng just before you come to Senso. I realise this is less easy for those here on short trips visa free. Then it is the arrival stamp the police are interested in. So just a quick photo copy of that and the details page should suffice. No need to risk losing your passport and it saves a trip to a police station if for any reason they ask for it.

A real probem for this complex is that it housed mostly elderly people. The largest age grouping was those aged 65 and above. CNN has reported that of recent buyers, the youngest was in their 60s. It was one of the government's low cost housing complexs of which there are many in Hong Kong. Private rentals are so high that a broom cupbord in the city centre is basically unaffordable for most. Government public housing is sold at very substantial discounts resulting in long waiting lists. Residents of Wang Fuk Court became concerned about the cladding and fireproofing over a year ago when they started writing to the government about it. Between July 2024 and November 20 2025 the Labour Department had carred out 16 safety checks, the latest reminding the contractors of the need for fireproofing of materials. The death toll is now 94 with that total expected to rise to several hundred. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/27/asia/hong-kong-fire-survivors-questions-intl-hnk

The fires have now been brought under control in all but one of the towers. The death toll has now risen to 65 with nearly 300 still unaccounted for. Fear remains for those on the upper floors who would have had no means of escape in the burning heat. The fireman who died had been overcome by smoke after entering a building to look for survivors. Locally, the sentiment has changed from one of horror to anger., How did this happen and how were fire alrams not heard, if indeed they went off? There is some concern about a possible building collapse but this is regarded as remote. Major corporations in Hong Kong and mainland China have been quick to make donations to help those who have lost so much. Jack Ma and his Alibaba Group have pledged almost US$7 million, other Chinese companies $1.25 million each. A Hong Kong consortium of companies has already pledged $12.5 million. Photo: Yan Zhao/AFP/Getty Images

My view, and it is only my view but based on what others have written here, is that any visit to Saranrom for cruising is now a waste of time. It is after all quite far from the centre and, again according to others, if there is activity there it starts quite late. One post mentioned 10:00 pm. I doubt if translation apps will be much use. There's plenty of cruising elsewhere in Bangkok and clearly a lot of activity on the apps. Just keep your gaydar working.

@ChristianPFC should give us an update on Saranrom. But please note it has been stated in several previous posts about Saranrom that the boys there do not speak English. So if you do not speak some Thai you are likely to have a problem. You also have to work out the local hotel and cost of room etc. With the fee being so low, I doubt if they would consider going to your hotel. As I understand it (and of course I may be wrong) they go to a local hotel in that area.

I am surprised that @ChristianPFC still visits the Saranrom area. Back in 2017 there was correspondence on this Board about Saranrom. One guest member said that @ChristianPFC had once been threatened with a knife there. @ChristianPFC pointed out that the poster had got it wrong, but there had been some form of altercation. He wrote on August 25 2017 - "I never had an encounter that involved a knife, or other weapon. That incident in Saranrom was bare hands/feet first, and later he picked up a piece of wood (?), that's when I decided to take the next taxi to get away." As was stated then, Saranrom was/is primarily a place for older Thais to meet younger Thais. Foreigners rarely visit now. As I said earlier AYOR.

You should go to Japan. I remember the first time I had fried green tea ice cream - or I suppose I should say tempura ice cream. It was delicious.

For a city that has some of the most crowded parts of our planet housed in a vast number of high rise buildings, major fires in Hong Kong have been relatively uncommon. Yesterday afternoon, though, a massive one broke out spread out over seven tower blocks in the Tai Po district not far from the China border. 44 have been killed including one fireman and 279 remain unaccounted for. Many remain trapped in the upper floors which firemen are having difficulty reaching due to the intense heat at that level. With air-conditioning units having melted and no power, those on the upper levels still alive must be going through absolute hell. Photo: Getty Images Just after 7:00 am today Thai time the blaze had been raging for 16 hours and was still not under control. It is believed to be Hong Kong's deadliest fire since World War II. The cause of the blaze has not yet been identified. But experts have been saying it was made worse by the bamboo scaffoding surrounding the tower blocks which were having exterior renovation. Another has been inflammable polystyrene boards that have been covering many of the windows and which did not meet fire safety standards. Bamboo scaffolding is universal in Hong Kong and has been in use in mainland China for centuries. Two directors of the construction company and one of its consultants have already been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Location of the tower blocks Photo from CNN website https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/hong-kong-tai-po-buildings-fire-11-26-25

Is Saranrom still in existence as a cruising place? I know it was years ago and the price then was Bt. 500. I also know it could be dangerous as shown in a vdo posted on this Board around that time. If it is still on the go, how has the price remained unchanged for around a couple of decades? Have you recently taken someone off from there? About 15 years ago I once went with a friend in his car (I don't drive in Thailand) around 9:00 pm on a Sunday evening. There were then no more than half a dozen Thais hanging around. As the old Spartcus Guide would have added, definitely AYOR.

That vdo is absolutely horrible. My heart goes out to all whose homes have been flooded and familes who have lost loved ones. I have a Thai friend whose home was flooded for 3 months during the massive flooding in parts of Bangkok in 2011. It took weeks afterwards to render his ground floor habitable again. 13.6 million people were affected by those floods.

Agree with @llz. Unless you were flying due south for at least 30 minutes, it would have been impossible to see the flooding in the south. To the north of Bangkok there is a much lesser degree of flooding after the Chao Phraya dischage rate was increased. Even though that took place three months ago, some parts of Ayutthaya Province remain under some water.