Alexx

And I would add, if you cannot handle irrational, you'll be in for quite a ride with a Thai boyfriend.

It's a common question, and my answer usually is, "All of my boyfriends are Thai".

Just a few years ago I'd have agreed regarding WiFi. Nowadays, I don't really bother anymore, I just get a SIM card with data package wherever I go. In many cases, it's not only faster but also more reliable than free WiFi offered at hotels.

Sounds like a border pass that is only good for the border areas.

Well, it's considered more "hi so" by some, since you get to enjoy A/C while sitting in stinky steam. That it's more expensive also helps. In Bangkok, MK doesn't seem nearly as popular anymore as it was about a decade ago, when I was often subjected to their food and had about the same feelings about it as you have. Or maybe the people I dine out with nowadays have a better taste than those back then, I don't know. Nice reports, by the way, keep them coming!

It depends on what type you're after, I think it's fair to say that the type I'm after is more likely to be found in malls than in outdoor markets. The same might not be true for your type. I'm also admittedly a mall person. I spend a lot of my free time in malls.

My vote goes to Bangkok, too. In my opinion, it's great fun year after year, but after three days you've really had enough of it for a year... Sure, many disagree, as with all things party... This one comes with bucket loads of (often ice cold) water and spreads over several days, so it's no surprise that both the lovers and the loathers are very outspoken. A newbie who wants to experience it and has some balls could do Silom on one day and Khaosan Road on another day. That's the two most popular Songkran venues in Bangkok, so if crowded places aren't for you or even scare you, better don't go there. It's seriously crowded, the pic posted by Moses gives a good impression. That said, it's quite possible to stay in these areas and avoid the busiest spots at the busiest times. The reward, obviously, is plenty of eye candy in wet shirts. As for warnings, it's wet and crowded, so protecting your stuff against getting wet and getting lifted from your pockets is important. Preferably by leaving it at the hotel unless it's really necessary. Don't drink more booze than you can handle while it's still hot in the daytime, passing out in a crowded street isn't fun. Buy stored value cards before if you plan to use the BTS or MRT in Silom, otherwise you might have to spend a lot of extra time queuing to get your ticket or token.

Great reports, vinapu, I've enjoyed reading them! Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to you, too.

Flagship stores are often subsidized by the brand owners anyway, because it's an effective form of marketing. It probably doesn't even matter how many cars the outlets at Paragon can sell directly. Countless people walk past, take selfies and post them. The stores appear on Thai TV all the time, often with local celebrities posing in front of the cars. That all adds to the visibility of the brand. What ultimately counts is that Thailand is an attractive market for luxury car makers, so having these stores doesn't look like an outrageous marketing expense to me. It's also right on target at Paragon, looking at the cars you see in their parking garage - all owned by Paragon customers.

Not at all. You plucked a single sentence from my post, took it out of context and said it's ridiculous. That neither makes much sense nor is it good form. Many of your posts wouldn't pass muster applying the same standard either, one recent example being your suggestion that murder rates in Arab countries are high. I didn't make any comparison to other countries initially; in fact I contrasted Thailand's real world problems (one of which is violent crime) with the fairy tale depiction of a Buddhist utopia, the latter being "what makes me cringe" whenever I encounter it. Thailand doesn't stand out as particularly non-violent; it's the cultural norm of conflict avoidance that often gets confused with an absence of violence. What triggered having a jab at the "Buddhist country" slogan is that I had talked to a female Swiss tourist a few weeks ago. She was impressed by how peaceful, enduring and smiling the people here are thanks to adhering to their Buddhist teachings, while according to her, now that Switzerland has admitted "way too many foreigners" since many years, murder is on the front pages every single day. She was profoundly puzzled when I told her that Thailand's murder rate is more than three times that of Switzerland. Looking at your chart, I actually should have said, more than eight times that of Switzerland. That's the fairy tale impression quite some people have that I had in mind. I never said that Thailand is a dangerous place for people to visit due to violent crime, I'd be more concerned about the sky-high traffic-related death rate (if anything).

For me, the ratio up to today is something like, Bangkok 2,700 nights vs. Pattaya 10 nights... My Pattaya attendance could use some work... Luckily, Bruce_NYC will come to my rescue, as I cannot make his upcoming Bangkok meetup, but can make his Pattaya meetup two weeks later.

Not at all, there are record numbers of Chinese tourists in Bangkok right now, and I'd have to say they are all over town. I always tend to run into a bunch of them at my local 7/11, last time a Thai friend went there he was offered a yuan exchange deal he couldn't resist. Keep your eyes open, sooner or later you're bound to see some.

In Bangkok specifically, I'd say Hornet is currently the best app for finding local Thais while Scruff is mostly useful for finding other expats or tourists and Grindr has a decent mix of both. Activity-wise, Hornet seems to be the busiest one at the moment, less so in Central Bangkok but it's more pronounced in the outskirts. As a generalization that obviously isn't true for everyone, the Thais on Grindr seem more focused on meeting foreigners, while those on Hornet are more often looking for fellow Thais in the first place. Regarding their respective features, I like Hornet best because of the way they do photos. Also, now you can use it on your PC as well, a big plus in my opinion. Grindr looks too basic nowadays in comparison, Scruff has that silly "woof" feature that allows guys to contact others without actually writing anything, and Jack'd seemed more popular before Hornet started to gain real traction, so I don't bother anymore. I haven't included GayRomeo, because I'm still using it the "traditional" way, not their app. Still works well in Bangkok, too.

Not quite. "We won't even talk about Arab countries" - believe it or not, their murder rates are typically very low. Thailand's is more than 60% higher than the average for Asia, so I'd say for a "Buddhist country" that IS very high. The predominantly Muslim South-East Asian countries Indonesia and Malaysia both have murder rates that are far below Thailand's. As for "gun happy USA", and how Thailand compares (not all this is murder, obviously): NPR ran the data from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation after the recent mass shootings in California, and found Thailand had 7.48 violent gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2013. That’s over twice the gun death rate in the US, which had 3.55 deaths per 100,000 people in the same year. Thailand also has the highest gun death rate in Asia, the data shows. It had 50% more deaths than the Philippines, which also beat the US gun death rate with 4.64 deaths per 100,000 people. (from http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/12/11/thailand-gun-death-rate-twice-high-us)

Okay, if THAT is your yardstick... But that alone says a lot, considering that a decade ago there was serious talk about Thailand catching up with the likes of Malaysia, Singapore and (beyond ASEAN) South Korea... Now most ASEAN countries outpace Thailand, so relatively speaking, Thailand is falling back among her neighbors, although most of them are still poorer as of now. Also, when someone points out that Thailand is a Buddhist country, that really makes me cringe nowadays. It's a catchy mantra, but it's at odds with real world problems such as a sky-high murder rate. Sure, a Buddhist background in culture and social norms is still very visible, but looking at the state of Buddhism as practiced in contemporary Thailand, just how much of the spirit is really left? On par with real Taliban, a Thai Buddhist monk recently suggested to burn down one mosque for each Buddhist killed by Muslim insurgents.

That has been my impression recently, too. Their app used to be really crappy despite having some promising features; I actually uninstalled it after a while because it just kept crashing. When I installed it again later, WOW! So many guys I had never seen on Grindr or any of the other apps... it's really busy now and the app is working extremely well (no crashes anymore).

In my humble and personal opinion, such a device makes more sense in a country where the wage you have to pay a maid is higher than here in Thailand. Since a maid can do many things that such a robot cannot do (as of now, that is), give me the maid for the time being.

I wish Thailand well, but I'm not too hopeful for the years ahead, neither the big picture nor what I get to see personally looks very promising at this point. Other countries have been catching up quickly, while Thailand has seen it fit to waste insane amounts of energy on infighting and trivialities. Without even commenting on things like politics and corruption, the education system alone - which is a complete and utter mess from primary school all the way up to the country's top universities - will ensure that Thailand won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

I can only agree. I love Siam Paragon, always lots of eye candy and great to "go fishing" on Grindr or Hornet.

I'm somewhat undecided. While I watched the movie, I loved watching it, it's superbly made and thrilling all the way through. When thinking about it afterwards, however, I guess what I'm missing is something really new. While it's endearing to see aged versions of Han Solo and Princess Leia return and to be reminded of their adventures a generation ago, at the same time the new movie feels a bit too much like a remake of the original, with a heavy dose of 2015 PC thrown in (a real heroine instead of the original Princess Leia who was rather a doll in comparison, plus a black male hero who is not quite as heroic as his female sidekick, to please the feminazis who have taken over the real world in the meantime). Taking the prequels into account, the whole franchise seems increasingly repetitive, the two opposing factions just change their names occasionally while protagonists are being killed and therefor replaced by others who share many of the same traits. Ah, the Disney factor, I guess that's what I hate about Star Wars these days, but only if/when I'm overthinking it. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck has always been the same old stuff repackaged since 60 years as well, so yes, they will be able to do the same to Star Wars with quite some success.

Assuming that you are retired and that that's the reason why you can split your time between your home country and Thailand as described by you, keep in mind that someone aged between 18 and 36 years usually doesn't have that option, which leaves you with a limited choice of candidates from the start. While you're looking for love, realistically only a "kept boy" can embark on that journey with you, because any other Thai in that age bracket who has a drive of his own and is interested in relocating to a Western country would want to work there, to benefit from the higher salary that can be expected working in a Western country. Which means that they would typically need to stay in one place and couldn't move back and forth every six months, as that wouldn't really work with most better jobs. Most boys of the "kept boy" variety, on the other hand, seem to be happiest in Thailand. Not impossible to find, but I think that model is a hard sell.

Why did you even resurrect this thread, and that other one? Sometimes it's best to let things go after discussions have run their course, especially in the case of heated debates or controversies. You weren't even a member back then, maybe focus on recent and future posts that rub you in the wrong way? Just saying.

The only problem I have with that explanation is what Thais say to each other - in Thai. It often goes in the same direction, as I've mentioned in an example above, and would be considered tactless by Western standards while it's quite okay in Thailand.

But there's a catch, the rates differ between their "convenient" kiosks (Airport, BTS, etc.) and their head offices (Ratchadamri and Silom). At the airport and at BTS stations, you don't really get their best rates (today's example for USD100BUY: 35.60 vs. 35.70). For those who bring along a lot of cash, it therefor still makes sense to change only little at the airport and more in town later. Still, fluctuations within the course of a day often have a bigger effect than rate differences between exchange operators. I, too, wouldn't criss-cross the city in hunt for the best rate.

It shouldn't be necessary to buy tickets that far in advance, and usually that's not even possible. Using their app, Major Cineplex currently allow to buy Star Wars tickets for Dec 16 (evening only, sneak preview), Dec 17 and Dec 18. If you need tickets for any later day, you probably cannot buy them yet, but chances are it won't be a problem to buy them say one day in advance.