NIrishGuy

I wouldn't be to sure about that if I were you as I for one, travelling from the UK am having EXACTLY that thought at this very minute re my proposed trip to Thailalnd next month and that stupidly issued and then deleted statement certainly hasn't helped matters!

Tell him you're sending him the prenup and see what his reply is, that would be a good start......and then dont rent rooms on a high floor perhaps....

What about Sansuk sauna ( not for staying of course) but they have a small pool and loungers and lots of fun too should you require it !

Plus three Hails Marys, Two Our Fathers to help you along as well as fucking at least three or four cute twinks in between each prayer session should definitely help alleviate your (DEFINITE and probably expensive) problem ( to be)....if you don't ditch him real quick ! :-)

Actually in this case I could do with THREE keys ( hence on being given two as you say I then usually resort to the piece of card trick). This being as I normally put own my key card in my wallet, then give the other card to my guest ( if they're deserving of such a thing) as that saves them bothering me and me having to get up and go to the door each and every time they nip out for a smoke or whatever - which is of course usually right in the middle of me showering or napping. This means we then can both come and go to the room as we please ( this I should say is when with with my "real" BF rather than some random boy de jour). Then once we both have our own keys we tend to leave that third card in the holder to ensure that the room power sockets remain on ( to charge his seemingly ever growing list of devices that go everywhere with us) and if we're out for just a short while it means we can keep the aircon on too if we wish so that the room is nice and chilled on our return - terribly wasteful I know (but I dont care ..... :-)

A little tip for you if you dont already know it when needing to do that - those key card holders on the wall sometimes dont actually need the actual room KEY card inserted but just any old piece of card, even roughly cut to the right size and popped in, will do just fine. Ha I dont recommend using a credit card perhaps for obvious reasons as if used it's more than when you return the boy will have woken up and both he and your card will be long gone of course lol, but I usually find there's always something in the room that does the trick, even if it's only a tourist leaflet perhaps folded over double or something and that will do the trick. Likewise I also find that when room service see you're having to do they then may well LEAVE you a spare blank card in the holder for your use thereafter ( even though technically they shouldn't) - but a small tip I find can go a very long way in that regard too sometimes :-) - but if not, usually any old piece of card will suffice and will ensure that boy wonder can dozed away there at his preferred temperature while you're out for your morning consitutional.

Gets worse by the minute.......:)

not sure if I'd describe a single aisle, narrow body plane from BKK to London as "too good to be true" mind......will be interesting if this route ACTUALLY materialises as I see from their website it's not up for sale yet for a flight that's meant to be launching in a few weeks time just ?

Apologies I believe you are correct Thaiophilus re your above (the downside of me quoting google it seems!). My office manager (who is 62) concurs with you in that they too received the "samples" card for completion when they hit 60 too, as did their twin Brother as well, so it seems that is may be only the Scottish who are ahead of the curve in this regard here in the not so United Kingdom of late.......I'm guessing that'll be down to all that itchy kilt wearing that they do there no doubt or something ! :-)

Just in case anyone around 50 years old or so who is also from the UK and wondering ( as I was) "Hmmm, I wonder why haven't been called for something like that" it seems ( from my just checking on Google there) that you dont get called for the Bowel cancer screening test until you're 55 apparently - not sure as to whether that's because based on the data they think that's time enough OR ( more likely) they're trying to save some money by increasing the screening age they're working on the assumption that some of us will croak it in the meantime perhaps ! ( What? ME, a cynic!? - never ! :-)

You'll be glad to hear that according to my ( NHS employed and based on an NHS ward daily) BF they ARE now clamping down a lot on medical tourism and people turning up trying to get treated FOC. Apparently they DO check immigration status and entitlement now as a matter of course BEFORE any treatment is carried out. I think in cases of medical emergency the treatment is still carried out no matter what the persons status etc, but for things like child birth ( where mothers were flying in before hand and then turning up heavily pregnant to get both free treatment and perhaps more importantly VISA /Passport rights for their child THAT too seems to have been tightened up - about bloody time eh !

What a very smart idea - so the authorities want to keep a check on EXACTLY where each farang in the Country is staying and come up with their super plan to make that happen - so, you go on a bit of a tour with your BF, listing a few cities as you go, staying in each for a night or two, diligently posting off your TM30 in each city as you go, you get home a week later, just as your TM30's are probably arriving at the immigration office ( if you're lucky) , probably then to be ignored by some civil servant for a few days more as then read where you've been but not of course where you ARE ( which one assumes was the whole point) - a great plan, obviously VERY well thought out - NOT. Perhaps we could ask could we do away with the TM30 end of things and just send them postcards saying how much we were enjoying our trips in each place instead perhaps ?

No harm to the Thai authorities but if I lived there I think I'd tell them to get stuffed and move and take my money with me ! Talk about how to piss off your expats ! if it wasn't for our ( usually) white skin making us so obvious to them I think they'd happily be asking you / us all to wear yellow armbands with a large F for Farang on them next ! Ridiculous law - and it's aimed at WHO exactly - criminals ? - like they will give a fuck about complying with that ! So, an expat who's lived there maybe 20 years with his partner decides to drive with his Thai wife or husband from one Thai city to another. this being maybe just an hour or two up the road to perhaps visit a sick relative and they they're required to report their every move and their latest whereabouts and where exactly they're staying to the the authorities - for WHAT!? So they know where we all are !? Are their expats really all THAT dangerous I wonder ? - And this of course in the usual fucked up Thai way that the App they suggest you use doesn't seem to work anyway, their emails are ignored ( apparently) and in the case above it incurs a 150KM round trip to go visit their offices to get the run around even more and maybe a fine if they feel like it - yeah, fuck THAT !

One thing we can all rest easy about - boys may not know their postal addresses but they sure as hell know their own bank account details and sort codes plus their nearest Western Union office to allow us to deposit money quickly should the need arise !

Thanks for that update and it reinforces what I thought i.e that when you hear "ohhh you can live "cheap/ cheaper" in thailand" that that may not actually be just so true - depending on your lifestyle of course. But our lifestyles sounds similar enough to me to tell me that I can say whilst I might blow another 4 / 6 mill a year or so that I choose to piss up against a wall just now moving to the likes of Thailand wouldn't necessarily provide me with any particularly large drop in overhead from living say here in the UK just now for example and so the reason if any for moving shouldn't be one of finance but more of just one of "preference" as to the location of my residence - and that's a good fact to know.

Just like in the movies eh.......If you build it they will Cum !

Like most things you encounter in Bangkok that are hung - just give it long enough and they usually let you down eventually - all just only a matter of timing as too when !

So sad to see :-( However another part of me that is so pissed off about the closure was that they did it just after FINALLY getting their plastic rain covering properly erected along the length of the Soi ! Myself and many another farang friend sat over a beer many a night mid perving over the cute guys whilst watching the various incarnations of the various bits of plastic they'd had draped across the Soi previously, with those usually flapping pointlessly in the wind and usually totally failing in stopping much ingress of rain. Also fun was sitting perhaps during especially heavy downpours and watching the plastic fill like small lakes along the Soi and then waiting for the boys to empty those with a brush pushed up from below and that usually over the head of some SO CALLED straight arsehole farang, who had seemingly "inadvertently" decided to walk the length of the Soi "by mistake" whilst doing their whole (fake and fooling no one as to why they were there) aggressive "DO NOT TOUCH ME" act to each and every cute bar tout who grabbed them in passing whilst just doing their job. So, after all those years and after all the (very drunken) very highly thought technical plans drawn out on the back of bar mat ( large amount of tongue in cheek there of course :-) with us advising on the perfect roof shelter, there eventually the Thai's FINALLY got around to ACTUALLY going and doing it - and THEN the closed the whole bloody Soi down ! How VERY Thai of them ! :-)

That's interesting and thanks for posting that as always good to get a REAL handle on what it ACTUALLY costs to live somewhere compared to the guys who seem to get off telling you how cheaply they can live somewhere, even though they're living BELOW the level of a local half times and have little in the way of luxuries in their life ( by their choice or maybe more necessity it seems).. Can I be a little nosey ( without intruding too much into your personal business of course) but just for clarity re your above, I'm assuming your medical is on top of that 80, 000 and there's a few other bits and pieces so I quickly rounded up your figures to around the 1.1 mill mark if that's about right ? So ( and again without being too mosey) I'm assuming that that you generally are the main bread winner in the relationship and so are budgeting / "paying for two" generally in everything you do together - again that's just to more help get a handle on that is that 1.1 mill fig "about right' for TWO people living together there or is that only to cover YOUR portion of any living expenses. As you pointed out too thankfully you've no longer any home or car payments going out of that amount either so if one was to add those back in all of a sudden that rosey picture some of us might have of us all moving and "living cheap" in Thailand isn't perhaps quite as cheap and rosy as we all might think - and again as you mentioned god forbid you get seriously sick in terms of that 25% of the bill end of things too i Thanks for posting that - an eye opener for sure - I wonder do others share the same rough monthly / yearly outgoings as there seems to be SUCH a large divergence between figures when you talk to people ......but that is just life I guess and depends how we all chose to live.

Well thank god someone else thinks that as after hearing people talking about the whole "oh they're blind so they're so much more in tune with your body etc" I tried it and couldn't walk straight for days afterwards ( and not the the usual reasons of not walking straight after a Thailand HE massage I stress :-). Whilst the guy followed all the basic patterns he was of course literally finding his way with his fingers and so had to press hard enough to feel where he was going. I do have an on going back problem and sure enough he pressed right into the couple of nerve ends that he shouldn't and by god I suffered for it later. Plus call me a cynic but I spent half the time wondering was he ACTUALLY even blind or was this just ye another of one of Thailand's many low grade low impact scams ! ( I think he was for sure, I was just sore and not feeling very charitable that day :-) So, yes I concur, blind massage for me anyway I'd definitely steer clear from - and actually same re muscle massage as those guys think they've something to prove. in my experience even the lightest massage, if carried out correctly by someone who knows what they're doing can have the very best results meaning you walk away with relieved muscles AND a relaxed back instead of wincing ( or should that be mincing !?) down the Soi every other step for the next two days.

Great read, thanks for posting CurtisD, more to come I hope !

Flying "out' is fine and I can bare that, it's the flying "in" part that I flat refuse to do now unless I have ZERO other options as if I've to stand in one more queue of rude and pushy Chinese people all fighting to get through passport control or in the taxi rank I swear I just might kill some of them next time as its been pretty damned close now a few times !

That was the carpets !? I always just assumed it was many years of cum built up within the very fabric ( and on the fabrics) of the building itself ! More seriously thought, yes, I know exactly what you mean as I too felt the same about that welcome home smell......or again perhaps that WAS just cum as both make me feel equally at home in the Tarntawan I guess :-)

Just on the point of testing and my reading recently that Thai authorities have boosted the Country’s existing STI infection / treatment surveillance system is anyone aware do the hospitals etc still ask for a copy of your ID / Passport if you present to get tested there ? I know this certainly was the case in Bkk when I presented a few times and I was able to bluff it with various excuses about passports being left in hotels etc and gave a duff name etc ( to access the tests which all came back negative thankfully) but is this still the case I wonder as it must surely be yet another reason for some farang at least there NOT to bother testing ? Although I laugh as when I ring my local UK NHS anonymous STI clinic for random regular testing the very first question they ask is "what's your name and best contact number please' - so much for anonymous ! Oh and before anyone asks why bother giving a duff name this was a few years back now and there was talk ( and I still wouldn't totally dismiss it) of authorities holding lists of farang ( and Thai) name and address details ( of people within Thai or oversees) visiting or living in the Country with HIV / Aids etc so that "someday" should they ever decide to farang at least are simply turned away at the airport to reduce risk / cost to Thailand - paranoid perhaps but back then at least that was ( I felt) a fairly reasonable possibility ( see Singapore for example where 14,200 people had their HIV status "leaked" - albeit not by the Government, but is shows the lists had already been generated for "whatever" use later on at the whim of whatever Government might or might not get into power.

To answer your above question and just for total clarity in case people reading this later might end up with a false sense of security - PrEP doesn’t prevent other STDs at ALL - it just just reduces the chances of picking up HIV - nothing more than that - hence it's a good idea to still always use condoms, unless you've decided that you're happy playing Russian roulette and risk picking up one or many of some of the other ( increasingly fairly serious) STI's that are out there now these days. https://www.onemedical.com/blog/live-well/safe-sex-prep