NIrishGuy

I would love to know the no doubt weird and wonderful reason for that daily build and strip routine. I've always assumed it was either as there's some law that prevents there being a permanent market there unless approved by the authorities / Palace etc OR that the landlords perhaps rent the land to the market owners on the condition that they get the contract to provide all the kit and the manpower labour to build and strip it all every day of the year and THAT is how they're making the REAL money from the deal. As when you consider that the strip can be going on well until the early hours of the morning sometimes, with the build then starting to happen sometimes well before lunch time again on the same day with only a few hours gap in between there must surely be SOME reason behind it happening like that as it makes zero sense otherwise, even when factoring in the whole TIT thing !?

Thanks for all the very useful info there which I'll certainly take note of. The hustlers I guess I'll have to pass on this time as I've been reminded by my BF that we're going away for a "normal" holiday together and NOT one of my whoring trips you know ! - "apparently !" 😞 lol But the bars I will check out for sure. And as you say yes I'll try and watch the wallet and all that stuff too 😞 Actually once I started reading up with so many people saying the same thing I started instantly regretting my choice of even going near Mexico as no matter what i was reading it was all just negative and about scams, robberies, staff with bad attitudes and crap but expensive accommodation, but I'll give it a whirl and just hope it's more a case of bad reviews from the type of people who like to leave bad reviews on Tripadvisor and the like rather than it "actually" being the case - hopefully. We're staying fairly central on Av Tulum 4, which if I've did my homework correctly looks reasonably central to downtown and the bars etc and hopefully shouldn't be "terrible". But I do get what you mean re some of the hotels being crap. From the pics you think hmmm maybe, not to bad, and then you read the reviews and OMG do the people who own the hotels not read them, nor care !? Is there just THAT much business in Cancun they just dont have to give a shit perhaps about the condition of their places or what seemingly genuine issues multiple people had raised, as that's certainly what comes across time and time and time when reading multiple different hotel review site for hotels there. As I mentioned I think Bali / Thailand etc has just spoiled me in terms of value for money and pleasant ( on the face of it at least) service. And I'm with you on the Miami prices along the hotel zone, I couldn't believe my eyes some of the hotel and tour prices etc for the dates we were travelling - and they weren't even THAT exceptional in terms of some of the hotels either. I'm more surprised that Americans, who usually expect and demand a reasonably high standard of service and pricing still all seem to flock to Cancun, there's obviously some golden nugget of fun there that I'm missing so far, but we'll see I guess. I'm trying to go with an open mind ( not that you'd think that from reading my above lol) and as always a trip is just what you make it so Im sure it'll be just fine ( after I leave my three spare credit cards and second wallet in my hotel safe in case I'm robbed when out at night that is just in case perhaps ! lol)

Although the below is a UK website the products on there are now being sold widely globally it seems and I've noticed that girls here ARE now starting to use the glass cover sticker ( or variations of those) around various nighttime venues now. While the stickers and the like are perhaps a bit much for the average guy to be seen using stlill the drink testing strips could well be a useful addition to a gay mans "travel kit" if you're having visitors back to your room or feel there's something not quite right in a bar you're in ! Sad what the world seems to be becoming eh 😞 https://www.drinksafe.uk

Ha ha all of that - and just from you reading one sentence, wow ! You're obviously a little bit unhinged it seems, that explains your various posts to date at least I guess. Have a nice day 🙂

Go live in Russia and post under the same user name but change it to Russia and see how that goes for you there and then come back and talk to us perhaps eh....

While I realise that it's more of a straight white US citizens tourist trap than any genuine Mexican trip experience, it seems that for a variety of reasons ( of which I am still unaware it seems) my BF has decided that he and I are visiting Cancun for Christmas and New years from the 21st Dec to the 5th Jan for or Christmas break this year ( i.e me having to ensure an actual normal holiday rather than my going off to whore about somewhere with multiple cute guys in abundance 😞 ). So, just wondering does anyone have any tips or suggestions as to where we might go while there bar wise (straight or gay) etc? We're actually staying in Cancun City rather than at the hotel zone ( mainly due to the eye watering prices of the beach hotels over our dates!). We're already booked on several of the usual tourist trap type trips such as swimming in the Cenotes and visiting Chichen Itza etc, so it's more as to if anyone has any recommendations for nice restaurants or good (safe) fun gay bars perhaps ? After reading several reviews for a few gay bars there most were enough for me to think to give them a wide berth due to excessive overcharging / ripping off of tourists and then operating blatant scams and even carrying out some assaults on tourists around the City area, but perhaps they were just random bad reviews for what are ok bars, I dont know. The one thing I am getting so far though is Cancun hmmmm Pattaya / Bangkok it most defintely is NOT thats for sure ! So, any tips or suggestions ( aside from WTF are you thinking even going there to what to me from youtube videos at least is American holidayers straight hell ( which is how I'm seeing it just now) will be gratefully received.

Why you'd almost thinking he was (still) trolling about Cancer -and on a post where another board member seems to have a genuine case going on - tasteless to say the least.

I dont think anyone has made any personal attacks, merely an observation that trolling about cancer (IMHO at least) as seems to the general thread of most of olddaddys posts of late is just a bit off considering a lot of us may have had or are dealing with that, but hey if that's how he gets his jollies no ones stopping him I guess. PS Floridarob - I got that 🙂

I cant believe people still bite. But only me who thinks trolling about cancer is a tad to much......

I tried those once, absolutely useless, for all the good they were I may as well of stuck them up my ass !

Well it's good to finally read a GOOD news story I guess in these depression times of world cost of living crises ! lol

Thanks guys, Im actually quite relieved to hear the above as the guy I'll be working with is 62 and a drama queen and if he picked up Covid while working with/ for me I'm guessing I'd never have heard the last of it from him !

Like yourselves I too seem to have succumb to it for a second time now just last week too. Im guessing the onset of winter here in the UK will be pushing the numbers up again quite rapidly as people having cases here is all I've heard this last three weeks now. Myself and nine other family members were away for a trip last weekend. We were all staying in three separate log cabins and only meeting up for breakfast and drinks later in the evening ( but all sitting quite separate even then). From our original group of ten five members came home with Covid on the Monday and 3 others picked it up later during the week, so with eight people from the original group of ten picking it up would certainly suggest that it's strength or transmission rates certainly aren't on the wane anyway thats for sure. Thankfully as I'm double jabbed the symptoms were less that the first time I'd picked it up, but I certainly was still aware of it for it, with the whole headache, sore throat and shortness of breath thing stil being there. I've actually just tested 10 minutes ago there and there's a test a full 6 days after returning home from my trip and the test is still showing up an almost as strong reading as it did last week with no visual sign of any weakening, so it certainly doesn't seem to have lost any of it's potency anyway And now the next dilemma as I'm due to travel by boat tomorrow and fly on a short haul flight on Monday for "must do" work stuff and after my already haven taken this week off and worked remotely another week just isn't practical so the decision comes up to mask up and travel anyway or not now ! 😞

Ahh my beloved Tarnatwan - many a multiple happy morning, afternoon and evening spent there :-), brings back some wonderful memories just looking at those pics. Room 510 or there about's per chance ? While you're there would you check under the bed as I'm sure I dropped 1000 baht on my last trip, any chance you could mail it back to me perhaps ?! 🙂

One of my Bf de jour once joked to me that I wasn't so much a butterfly but a helicopter ! I was almost offended until I realised he was totally correct ! lol

GAY DEAR !!!??? - WHO ME DEAR - how VERY DARE you ! 🙂

My Flipino BF tells me that the reason a lot of Malls are so packed is that as it's so overpoweringly hot there people go to Malls for the (free) aircon ! This based on the fact that it's much more pleasant to spend the afternoon sitting there or walking around a Mall than it is to sit at home either sweating it out or having to spend money running an expensive home Ac machine. Likewise re the fancy cars I know even from watching his family and friends that Flipinos ( or actually most Asians it seems!?) having fancy cars definitely does NOT mean they are rich or have a lot of money. In my experience they buy the biggest car they (cant) afford just to be "seen" in it and so that they can LOOK like they have money and a great lifestyle to show off to their friends - whereas in reality they maybe hardly having enough money to put petrol in the bloody thing !! Shallow ( as I've pointed out to him, but he and they see nothing wrong with showing off ( what you dont have !)

Or alternatively - life's short, you're a long time dead, ask him would he like to go back to your room, offer him a nice tip or not as required and fuck the shit out of him and move on.....there's always that 🙂

Actually much to my surprise Thai Lion Air DID send me a refund during Covid when asked. I called at the start and they said "yes it's being processed", needless to say no refund arrived. I called again a few times more over the next few weeks and was told the same and "yes it's being processed". So, needless to say I soon mentally wrote off any chance of it ever arriving and and moved on, quietly cursing them at the same time. BUT sure enough about 6 months later without any further chasing from me it arrived into my bank, totally unannounced and without as much as an accompanying email to say it had been sent ! So it seems that sometimes, if you believe hard enough, that even in Thailand, just sometimes, miracles CAN happen ! As an aside to that though as my flight was only an internal one, costing only about £150 or so, , me in my bloody stupidity rang them while making a round of other calls, from MY MOBILE as I already had it in my hand !! Thus meaning that £150 refund ( which was reduced to about £110 from memory for "admin processing" reasons) actually ended up being less than the cost of the cost of the calls on next mobile phone bill as each call involved in for several long, putting me on hold sessions - direct to Thailand from the UK ! So my success in getting my refund was somewhat bitter sweet in the end it seems ! 🙂

"Bangkok—a portmanteau of ban or bang (village) and makok (plum), the settlement’s former name" Well you learn something new every day ( or at least I did) - I don't know how after all these years I DIDN"T know that Bangkok actually meant Plum Village ( or some variation of that). Interesting post, thanks for posting Reader.

For anyone who might know about such things ( I don't) are the Govt Bonds mentioned above any good in terms of safety and rate of return ( versus other standard methods of low risk investment) and are they worth the paper they're printed on in terms of long term safety ( knowing that the Thai Govt can and do move the goalposts regularly in many areas just as and when it suits then and to hell with the consequences ( to investors in this case perhaps ?) * Ps I'm not actually running out to buy $250k's worth of bonds tomorrow or anything, just wondering what a sensible / crazy thing that might be for those who might ??

I visited Cebu a few years back now (2017) and had a blast. Back then Mango Square was the place to go with lots of str8 and ladyboy bars - and so where the ladyboys went the gays followed both in the bars and hanging around on the streets outside the bars. BUT I believe a lot of the Mango Square area has since been gentrified and they're trying to clean up it's image a bit, a quick google shows me that some bars are still there but I'm guessing it's not the bustling night life place it once was - but I'm also guessing there's fun to be had in Cebu in general, if not there then in other areas. I know my grindr just never stopped the entire time I was there and if I'd wanted I wouldn't have needed to go to ANY bars for the duration of the trip thats for sure ! Should it help you I stayed at the St Mark hotel https://www.stmarkhotel.ph which a quick goggle shows me is still there. It was spot on hotel wise and just around the corner from the bars. One thing back just to give a word of caution, when there I was warned by several people ( not all guys and it wasn't chat up lines) not to walk home alone 'in general" at night and certainly not to and from the bars, as being the white guy I stood out like a sore thumb of course as a robbery target ( which seemed quite prevalent there at the time I heard. I did follow that advice the first few nights ( ro got someone to walk home with me "for safety" lol, but after a while I relaxed and did walk about quite freely - as to whether or not that was actually wise idea late at night or not I'm not so sure. But do check the PH's message boards etc as it seems info is always quite hard to pin down there ( and in the PH's in general) as everyone likes to put up that "holier than thou" front - and yet the bars once you get into them are busy - funny that eh ! Oh and I would concur with what a few others said, I went to a few so called go go bars in Manila ( the old location, not where the new O bar is at now - link here - https://www.travelgay.com/venue/o-bar-manila/#comment-13023 and the guys ( in the old gay bar area area of Malate - where they may actually still be a few gays bars I believe?) but they were nothing to write home about in the slightest, and I'm guessing mainly straight. There were however plently of friendly guys OUTSIDE the bars, who I'm guessing weren't allowed in as they were freelancing - they I found were VERY friendly and in fact I spent a few days with one of the guys I met there and we had a great time seeing the sights "and stuff" 🙂 The Ph's can feel like hard work sometimes when trying to plan a trip online as nothing is easy or laid out on a plate for you and the info online can tend to be years out of date sometimes ( although bars facebook pages seem a better option sometimes), BUT the guys there I found always to be plentiful on arrival the minute you walked out the door and ( and also many of them were hot) and a lot of them always very keen to be "friendly" either for money or not actually half times and many were just keen for a good night out ( and in) with you - the only downside of course being that every Flipino seems to think they're you're bf after 10 minutes, but I'm sure you're well experienced in correcting that misapprehension FAST ! Hope that helped in some way.

And dont be fooled by the overtly religious (crap) some of the guys come out with re "blessings from God" and "praying for this or that" - all for show to suit their surroundings as just like in Thailand once you get behind closed doors that can change PRETTY fast - in a good way !

🙂 My suggestion was fairly tongue in cheek, I realise it wouldn't be the best option for several reasons - just doesn't mean the buggers still dont deserve it though eh 🙂

Just on the the whole door code thing......so do the flight attendants even KNOW the code ( is there even a code pad ?) as I thought the whole idea was that once the door was locked that it could ONLY be opened by the pilots from the INSIDE of the cockpit after looking through the spy hole ( and CCTV camera) to unlock the electronic lock ?? No ?? If so that always left the conundrum about what if a hijacker was standing outside the door holding a crew member ( or member of the public for that matter) hostage and threatening to kill them if the door wasn't opened, to which it's been made fair clear knowledge now I thought that pilots had now said and been trained that "the door doesn't get opened under ANY circumstances" and should they need to land the plane with all crew and passengers killed in the meantime then so be it as "that" was better than the alternative of another 9/11 type attack etc. That was my understanding of things anyway? *Edit - a quick google re the above states that there is a code, but the cockpit setting for the door lock has three settings, one being "open" i.e not locked at all, the other being "locked by code, meaning the code the crew may have works, but only opens the door after a 30 second delay ( giving the pilots time to check the screen and see who's there and override the open command if necessary) and finally LOCKED - where no code works and the door remains locked no matter what. Curiously that lock only activates for intervals of five minutes and then has to be reset to locked again it seems which seems strange as you'd of thought if they HAD to press LOCK they'd of wanted to keep that way until they changed their minds again perhaps ! Oh and just to stay on topic re air rage etc - TASERS !!! the second one of the buggers started up with how they were refusing to do "whatever" crew should just be allowed to taser them either until they leave the flight, comply or die ! ( ok so the last one is perhaps a LITTLE harsh, but when you listen to some of those Karens ( usually from the US it has to be said) sometimes it feels like a fitting way to deal with them !! 🙂