NIrishGuy

I almost feel guilty reading your reports above as it's starting to feel like a personal travel recommendation blug 🙂 This as I've literally just booked 8 nights at the Fairways and Bluewater Resort in Borocay for us and reading your report is giving us lots of great tips (again) and also backing up a lot of the research we'd carried out before booking too re nice places to eat etc. Keep up the good work ! lol

"I thought that was me all sorted" I'm assuming that must have been an issue with the Sarrosa website maybe just as I was able to go into Agoda ( and Booking. com) and see availability there, so booking now made - and after a quick google maps recee you're right, perfect location for all the things we'll be doing ( mainly thanks to this post I have to say !

"Here is the link to the hotel that Mr. B works at: https://www.sarrosahotel.com/" Again thanks - and I thought that was me all sorted as that hotel would have suited me perfectly, but just went on to book and I see it's block booked as sold out for almost five months !!? So there's either a problem with their website or their closing for renovations perhaps, I'll drop them an email to check. Thanks again.

Thank you for that info - I'd actually read every line of your previous posts and so had already spotted your three reviews and googled them and they're already down on my to do list to form part of our evening activities so thanks for that useful info 🙂. And all noted too re the CBP and again from your posts and videos on there it looks spot on for what Im looking for too - you should work for the PH's tourist board as your posts give better info than their websites !! 🙂

Thank you, I will do that as bot Grab and Uber are my go to taxi's in nearly every city I visit now as just SO much handier ( and cheaper) than the local options usually.!

Advice Cebu hotels - ??? Guys - just while we're talking about Cebu, can someone maybe give me some quick updated advice re that. On my last visit I stayed close to Mango Square area ( where the gay bars / red light area was - with my kind of people lol ) but I recall talking to a local from there a while back who'd mentioned a lot of the ( gay) bars had now closed down and that whole area was a shadow of it's former self ( and it wasn't that great to start with lol). They also mentioned that they thought some of the gay area / bars had now moved somewhere around "the docks" area but they weren't sure about that. I seem to recall the traffic in Cebu could get pretty backed up so if staying there ( for 4 nights) would anyone have ny general tips or advice re that re "yes staying in Mango area is still a good idea - or elsewhere in the City - or the nightlighe there is all a bit of a bust now and you'd just be better staying in some nice resort hotel with a good pool and taxi'ing to whereever you fancy or an evening ( I can already hear my BF saying that resort hotel and pool is a GREAT idea ! lol Likewise if I may - same question re our two nights in Manila - I'd previously stayed in the Makiti area when there we several gays bars there, but again believe that's a thing of the past now too, with the likes of O Bar etc now moving to Pasig. I understand the ( quite ropey) gay go go bars are more situated in Quezon City, so might I just be better staying that side of two and being down with it ( or again a standard corporate hotel in the centre somewhere and taxi'ing it ( which is probably never a great idea when in Manila for 100 different reasons). PS this isn't me planning hooking up or bringing back action ( much to my disgust -just more for a good night out with a bit of fun and viewing action going me around us while there. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated. thanks.

Ha now where were you guys when I needed you for back up last night ! - This as my BF and I were sitting down to book our full itinerary and internal flights for our month long Ph's trip - for him to be sitting booking 5 nights in Davao ( where he comes from and is boring as shit) plus 4 nights in Cebu ( again nothing special) plus 4 nights in El Nido ( great beaches snorkelling - I don't snorkel !) and 8 nights in Boracay with another few nights seeing friends elsewhere up Country- all with also great beaches and a few beach bar areas - so me, I'll get bored by day 3 I'm guessing ) and then finally jsut 2 nights in the flesh pots of Manila = and it was only around midnight as we tired and heading going to bed that I realised I'd been hoodwinked and out maneuvered in my "flesh pits over beaches" please request ! So looks like I'm going to have to suck it up on this one for not paying enough attention. I'd look over it but out trip right before the PH's is to Dubai where I'm guessing there'll be even less flesk pit activity going on ! I think my BF is trying to sneakily turn me STRAIGHT and he hasn't even been really gay this last 11 years and his true boring self is now starting to show itself as he's getting older - FUCK THAT !! lol

@bkkmfj2648 Thank you so much for taking the time to write and upload such an enjoyable post, I've spent a nice relaxed Sunday morning reading the whole lot from start to finish and loved your detailed content. I'm actually heading to the Ph's / Cebu / Boracay with my Flipino BF for a month in July and your detail info re flights, hotels, areas and eateries, along with all the links you posted has already been REALLY useful and there was actually stuff in there my PH Bf wasn't even aware re travel details and the online visa links and thinks so thanks again, really really useful ( as well as a great read too of course. You come across as a really sound bloke ( as we say here in the UK and Ireland )

Oh a look of horror as they WEREN"T expecting you and instantly realise they've a problem for the next 2 weeks as they'll be double boooked - and so start all the lies about how they can't meet you for lunch as they have problem with stomach and can't eat ( which clears up by dinner time) and that they'll can't stay over night with you tonight as they have to go look after a friend who's sick but he live far outside Pattaya so they will be away for 3 nights to take care etc etc . Bless em 🙂

So the lesson seems to be here that before entering into any dangerous or possibly even illegal shennanigans in our room with anyone before sure to tickle them first to illicit a strong "hehehe" reaction, resulting in you being able to check are there six burly policemen hiding behind your curtains or not ! Ok, got it, thanks lol

OR a 40 minute "moan" if you picked the wrong Soit 4 local Thai companion to bring back and you decided to walk it as you fancied a wee "dander" in the night air before bed and he cried all the way back with you about "OMG, why you no not get us a motobike, your hotel too far for walking, how much further o your hotel anyway - as I never been there yet so I dont know it !!" Yeah RIGHT SURE you haven't ! lol

To be fair to the Thai police that seems to be reasonable police work for a change in finding the the suspects and the body, albeit a little too late perhaps for the poor victim of course.

The receptionist did nothing wrong, assuming she handled things in a professional discrete way and didn't scream her question all over the lobby then she's both entitled to ask and also should be congratulated for bothering. in an way you should consider yourself lucky as it makes a change from the opposite where my BF gets asked in gay bars "so, where did you dig HIM up from!' 🙂

Although considering over the years that n some of the cases having been 'investigated" by the police where the jumpee's live in (Thia) lover or overnight companion had both been in the room, with the safe being left open and empty and the jumpee's wallet having being emptied too along with the smashed with clear signs of a struggle and STILL "no crime was suspected" it seems the bar, historically anyway, was usually set quite low for finding much evidence of anything other than suicide anyway!

A lazy insult and slur on all Irish people there of course as the wake ( as the name implies) is a centuries old traditional, designed to allow sufficient time for the family to ensure that deceased was actually dead, this being before the presence of medical professionals of course mainly - and a wake is and was applied to all people that died here, young and old, male and female alike, with all of those people dying of course from many various ailments that can kill people. So it certainly wasn't and isn't just to ensure 'the man wasn't just drunk" as you suggested.

Re the UK and possible overstays etc I douby the UK Government will have to worry too much as any Thai I know who has ever visited the UK generally cant wait to get home again after seeing what it is they've arrived to ! This relates to longer stays relating to visiting BF's etc perhaps more than a quick two week holiday perhaps - but even if I'm wrong some Thai's decide to overstay - personally I think that would be a positive net result not a negative one, especially based on what other nations are rocking up on our shores illegally these days perhaps.

They were stupid enough to get caught !

Re Frankie Vallie still touring - makes you wonder just HOW big that debt was that he took on when agreeing to pay of Mob's 'loan" back then if the poor guy is STILL having to tour at 89 ?! Oh well, at least he doesn't have to actually sing to much as it seems most of his tours have been lessons in lip syncing for several years now - and why not I say, poor man is entitled to a rest ! 😉

Yep and having had a family member die this very week from picking up a simple infection when in hospital which turned into sepsis - and this after they were flooded with just about every antibiotic humanly possible, I can confirm that antibiotics certainly aren't a get out of jail free card any longer 😞

Yeah they might - right after they've finished paying for the wall !!! Oh no wait.....funny how that all seemed to just quietly disappear eh and all you hear is Trump shouting about what a great deal he got for the plane, but strangely the wall is never mentioned anymore.

Yep, ok, I think you can safely assume that £ rather than a $ was a simple error on my part as we were talking about Air Force One of course.

As with all these things no doubt the final figures will be well and truly fudged to ensure that everyone both saves face AND ends up with a nice healthy profit into the bargain. No doubt a bill of £3.2 billion WILL be presented and paid so the Government can show how hard they had negotiated with their supplier - and then a month or two after that a few quiet bills for "the supply of napkins" or "supply of replacement carpet as ordered" or " repainting of edgings" or some other bullshit bills will be quietly presented and processed for another Billion or two here or there ! They must think we the public don't KNOW their crafty games.

Likewise same happened to me on one of very first trips to Bkk many moons ago, where the guy I was with had apparently recorded me / us at various times, both clothed and not and sure enough when done and he tried to do me over for WAY more money then would ever be acceptable to any of us. Then he then turned nasty of ocurse, telling me that he knew the hotel staff and could get my home address details and threatened to send all the pics plus details of "what we'd gotten up to" straight to my "wife" !! I think my howls of laughter and my firm "ha you go right ahead, this should be interesting considering I'm single and gay" threw him somewhat. But it was quite obvious that this was a game he'd played many times before, obviously factoring in that if even just 20% of his customers WERE straight men perhaps "experimenting or playing away from home" then they'd probably be more than happy to pay up whatever he asked just to avoid the risk. Pleased to say that this was after some great sex and after his vain attempts at blackmail he left ( almost) empty handed with the hotel staff throwing him onto the street after him throwing over a few light fittings and things in the room all o try and intimidate me. He then threatening to "find me" no matter where I was in Thailand ! ( although looking back now that probably wouldn't have been that difficult to achieve if he had of actually wanted to of course !) Interestingly, we bumped into each other in DJ Station a few years later and he actually apologised and admitted it had been a bad time in his life and he'd been on a lot of drugs etc and asked would I accept a beer along with his apology ( which I did) and we parted the best of friends and have actually bumped into each other a few times since and always stop to say hi and catch up. Ha I sometime wish I'd of asked him a copy of whatever pics he said he had so I could look back on them fondly in my dotage but alas that moment has passed 🙂

So me sitting here in the UK at 54 year of age and with no real plan to retire to Thailand but thinking "but maybe, some day that might happen and so why apply for an Elite NOW ( fast) and also immediately upgrade it to the 20 year option just to keep the option open". BUT on reading this thread then also realising that the Elite visa office / Thai Government could ( and probably will) move the goalposts again at ANY time and many times over that period, with as PeterRS has already pointed out zero regard for existing holders (as they seem to be doing already here) so now thinking "so what's the point in risking that money". and I'd just be better letting things roll and deal with things as they are a the time I'd ever think of moving there - or am I wrong ?

It seems you were right about the whole biker vibe thing there A-447, below is a link to a tictok video of "Pattaya's finest" making an arrest of a suspect in relation to the murder - in what appears to be a bikers type bar. All with a TV crew in CLOSE attendance of course as per all such events in Thailand ! Just as well the bikers didn't opt for a shoot out or there could well have been quite a lot of Thai police and TC crew casualties by the looks of it ! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJ4VTeww/