NIrishGuy

"I wouldn’t say I’m gay. I have sex with men" Sorry to break to it you but you're gay ( or at least Bi) - you can dress it up anyway you want or deny your sexuality all you want but that's the bottom ( or top ) line, welcome to the club.

🙂 Which of course is EXACTLY the reason you need a good Thai massage in the first place !

If you've been with your BF a while I'm guessing you do already know that the whole "I must help my family and my family comes first. - and certainly before any white guy" thing is MUCH more deeply rooted into their mindset from a very young age than anything we in the West can ever imagine. So for us to try and stress the point that their family may all just money grabbers is in general a total waste of time and even though your BF may well be fully aware of that fact he STILL will feel obliged to "be seen" at least to help out, no matter what and any kindly advice we might deem to offer in that regard will be politely - or not so politely just depending on how hard we push the topid - be totally ignored, so best just let him get on with it ( while keeping your own finances well out of their / his grasp.)

As well as the usual low season lull there also seems to be quite an increase on "influencers" now posting videos on Youtube showing a lot of police checkpoints being set up and them getting pulled over and fined now (quite rightly) every hands turn for no helmets and or for getting breath tested for alcohol etc. All of which is perfectly legal and normal etc but in this new apparent youthful arrogant view of "I can do anything I want and how DARE they or the police try stop me" attitude that seems to be being pushed more and more now on youtube for views I just wonder how many younger people are being put off Thailand as a destination now by all the look at the "scammer police" videos that seem out there now. It's ironic that the police who for many years got a bad press for plenty of goods reasons are now it seems getting a bad press for actually doing their actual jobs all of a sudden !

Out of interest have you ever actually sat down and read the T&C's on your bank insurance coverage. I was given it once with my card and on reading it it was almost worthless, absolute bare minimum coverage amounts for things and most of the areas I choose to pay a bit extra for on my usual policies weren't off course on there too so I didn't bother taken them up on it and stuck with my own insurer. This just in case you're ever caught out and THINK you're well and fully covered using the bank card insurance when that not not actually be the case !

And it seems they have actually started that process - as to how big, long or REAL that wall is or will ever be is I guess a whole other question, but PR wise at least they're getting the story out that building of said wall is now 80% complete no less ! My guess it will be like someone else's "wall" where after a lot of talk and bluster only something like 102 miles of NEW wall were every ACTUALLY built in the end ( from 2017 to now) with the other 375 or so miles of wall just being a make over of what was already there. https://www.facebook.com/reel/2506258256481651

Trust me I'm not, as "experts" like him I "usually" just let go right over my head on the whole but to generalise like that was a bit ridiculous so needed corrected on behalf of the many decent fellow Country men and women that live here.

Sorry but as I come from N.Ireland I can assure you that you've obviously very little idea about what you're talking about here and or the background to what caused the fairly minor rioting that took place ( by N.Ireland standards) - but as I just can't be arsed getting into it with you I'll leave you to rant away and fix things there to your hearts content.

Yeah in general I agree with you however as a lot of video's are showing said backpackers "skateboarding" down the only main road in the place I'm guessing no matter how chilled I may be I'm not THAT chilled anymore and would worry more about breaking a hip than getting laid if I was to try it ;-) i also would disagree with you re Irish backpackers as you rarely hear a bad word said about them as most have good manners and enjoy a laugh. And as for maybe GETTING laid as I'm visiting there with my Ph's BF all I can say to that is that "chance would be a fine thing!" lol

Yeah I've noticed those same videos and actually the more I look at the place in general I'm thinking of taking myself to the outskirts just IF AT ALL even as its starting to look just a little bit TOO much of a backpacker vibe for my liking ( including the people you were speaking of there too and their current besties across the pond as well perhaps)

Yep, heading back again in September. A few nights in Manila, a week or two in Davao and a week in Siargao ( the trying to be Bali of the Ph's). I think i'm looking forward to it but not quite sure yet as could do without the horrendous flights either way from Europe. 😞

So what was the name of the website so we all know to be aware of same ??

As an additional to our conversation about booking.com not being the safest anymore ( if ever) here's an current article from WHICH which lays things out very clearly and shows we must remain on our guard ( if not use a different company even perhaps due to booking.coms apparent lack of "giving a shit" about trying to change things for the better! https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/what-went-wrong-with-booking.com-aYOyv4Q7Ua2D?utm_campaign=scams&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQfqFRleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQAAC_F_iu3OHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7qi2VQb6iV_7EdDoL0yJVXX805K0iQBMzLfBGzA02LSJNPBns2Zyj2Y6k3gw_aem_v9eQfIFUB9BWkb9cyio_aQ&utm_id=52523832924000&utm_content=52527419169000&utm_term=52523832924400

Aside from the pricing issues above everyone should be aware and take care now when using hotels and hotel booking sites re such scams as they are unfortunately becoming an everyday experience and have been so for quite a few years now, myself having experienced it several times already too. Booking.com and the likes state clearly that its the hotels email that has been hacked in some form of phishing attack from a fraudster sending an innocent looking email to the hotel which is then followed up by an infected attachment, which when opened at the hotel gives the fraudsters access to ALL their emails and booking info, making it easy for them them to send out a secondary email to all new bookings ( from a spoofed hotel email address) quoting all necessary info and booking reference numbers to make us THINK it's real but ultimately then them asking us to send money under some false pretense. Booking.com etc say there's nothing they can do as it's not their system being compromised ( personally I'm not so sure about that sometimes too!) but they advise that we only communicate with the hotel withIN their portal "chat window" and NOT be separate email etc and once you move away from their platform they'll wash their hands of any damages claim you may try to make later. Below is just one other random example of this happening, but there are thousands of examples on line and it's a scam that's becoming very common now. - so always be on our guard when asked for anything such as money or copies of passport info etc. I should add too that ( annoyingly) there are times when hotels DO genuinely need you to reconfirm your ID / booking info with them and I've experienced that and each time I've just contacting booking.com directly ( good luck with that !) to double check that's been required first, but that usually never requires any actual money or credit card details to be sent so that can be the red flag to watch out for perhaps. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6zr59m49vo