Vessey

Many of the bar boys seem almost nocturnal - so 4am is nothing for them - just time to move onto the Karaoke bars which can stay open until 7am or later before spilling out onto the streets. Console yourself with the probability that your boy gained considerable face (at your expense it is true) with the whisky and the general boy tips you disbursed. Sounds to me like a grand night out with a basically good boy. Stuck here in the UK I envy you.

Cupidol posts regularly on Facebook, and always happy to 'like' their posts, however they do keep continually recycling old pictures, many several years old. Were we, by some miracle, able to return to visit the bar tonight I doubt we would recognise any of the boys shown on their 'recent' publicity pictures. That said, it seems a failing of so many of Pattaya's boy bars - just keep churning out the same old photographs year after year - Eros was terrible for that. Only X-Boys seems to occasionally update its pictures and clips. Contrast that with the girl bars of Soi 6 where, for example, the ferocious publicity machine of the NightWish group keeps a constant stream of pictures posted of new arrivals, return of old favourites, etc., a consequence being that they are still attracting a steady stream of (admittedly mostly exPat) customers during these dark months.

I didn't need to scroll down any further than the first pic (although I obviously did haha). Wow, now he would do for me - if only I could get there that is!

Do we have anyone here who has direct experience of taking up such a post and could advise on the benefits/pitfalls of such a job? Qualifications needed, experience needed etc etc.

Not quite comparable you might argue, but I had a Pattaya agogo lad stay with me for two weeks last trip as my long-time and paid him 2k baht a day plus his off-fee of 600 baht a night. We went out, partied, shopped occasionally, various trips and went out bar-hopping each night together, and he was content, indeed happy, with his remuneration. In fairness, although he works bar, he is heavily sponsored and was not short of cash. But with you providing quality resort hotel, well fed and entertained for 10 days in the current financial/tourist climate, he might well have snatched your hand off for 1k baht day.

As far as I know one of the guys that was involved with G-Star is now involved in this venture and it appears to be following a very similar model. There is probably a whole story behind that which I am unaware of. One or two of my Thai/Cambodian friends have been visiting and like it - the bottles of whisky they share probably help with that haha.

As far as I know it records the number of 'likes' your posts have attracted. As to the topic, I have a number of boys that I keep in touch with through Facebook and Messenger. Many left Pattaya during the first phase of the virus and went back home, although a few hung-on. Of those that left all tried to return from home when it became possible for the bars to re-open, but they found few if any customers. Some of the bars in BoyzTown for example soon closed again, or only re-opened at weekends etc. Those on the ground will know far better than me, but the impression I have from my boys is that Jomtien Complex has fared best, one or two bars in Sunee, such as Nice Boys or Winner Boys, are just about doing ok, but those of Boyztown have fared worst. Consequently a number of my friends having tried to return to work in Pattaya have given up again and either gone back home again or decided to try their luck in Bangkok instead. I am using Western Union to help three, or occasionally four, but cannot afford to do more than that despite their pleas.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-countries-and-territories-exempt-from-advice-against-all-but-essential-international-travel And yet Thailand appears to make this list? I am confused

Michael, you can happily send me 10 to England LOL, my house is big enough. LOL Seriously though, of my regulars, of which there are about 10, all have either asked me directly for money, or implied that they need money over the last few months. Now nothing really new in that, it was always a common plea in Low Season pre-Covid. And I do occasionally weaken and reach for the Western Union App on my phone. The tricky bit is sorting out the deserving poor, from the undeserving 'poor'. By that I mean those who really are desitute from those who would like you believe that they are destitute; and that isn't always easy. For example, one of my main squeezes was asking for money for 'beer' the other day. Now I know for a fact that he has two active sponsors that bring him in 30k + a month, and his FB is peppered with pictures of drinking with his friends (Red Label of course as befits any self-respecting money boy haha) while he dangles his gold jewelry to the camera. Others are probably more in need, but there again they were to be found posting on FB about their dire impovrishment months before Covid. I do send modest sums every now and then, but the trick, like I said, is trying to decide where it is actually most needed.

I have never had all that much success with the 'Apps' in terms of successful meet-ups, although I accept that right this moment it is probably the only way to go. Give me the bar-room interview over a drink any day of the week before deciding whether to pay bar for the lad or not. Only that way can I gauge whether boy is sufficiently 'in to me' or not to give a good time. We can talk expectations - on both sides, and a mamasan is usually around to translate if required (they have heard it all before haha).

I think bar owners will have to make a choice between when they are allowed to open and when it is financially viable for them to open. Some can perhaps survive just with the ex-Pat custom, but others will need the influx of foreign customers to make it viable for them to do so, and that, sadly still seems a long way off.

Almost all sexual activity requires intimacy of sorts and lays every one involved open to a level of risk. That has always been the case; from the risk of transmitting the common cold, to any number of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. Now we have to add Corvid19 to that list. We were all prepared to face those risks before Corvid19; showers, mouth-wash and condoms notwithstanding. Once this initial surge of the virus subsides, even though the virus will remain potentially active within populations, will those risks be sunstantially greater? Boys in need of money will absorb those risks I am sure; at least most probably will, so it seems to me more of a question of will we absorb those same risks? Of far greater concern, for me at least, will be the risk of the flights and their re-circulated air, and prolonged close proximity to hundreds of other passengers - I think that will determine when I next try and visit Pattaya, rather than what happens when I get there.

A Pattaya bar owner that I know (ST girlie bars), says that for him there is a big distinction between when he could legally open his bars again, and when it would be financially prudent to do so. He says he will make a judgement as to when sufficient tourists are arriving to make it financially viable to open again, but admits that could still be many months away. I am guessing boys bars will all be making similar calculations.

If so that is a step in the right direction of 'opeing up' again, But who will they sell the alcohol to? I doubt many bars in the main tourist areas will think it viable to open up their premises just for takeaway sales. Until tourists return in viable numbers I am guessing that most bars will stay closed.

This is good in several respects, people would have been grateful for the food and it was important that the District Boss saw for himself the problems that his people are currently under. But next week, and the week after, and the week after that, how will these people cope? Closing the bars of Pattaya will now be having more profound impacts up country as the girls and boys who worked in those bars are no longer sending money back to the villages.

Now is not the time to part company with friends, times are tougher for them than they are for us. None of us from overseas really know at the moment when we will next be able to get back over there to see them, but in the meantime social media is proving a boon for us all.

And the longer that the lockdown continues in various countries the greater the chance that we will see similar mass 'rebellions' Trouble is the lockdowns are demonstratably making awful situations far less awful than they might otherwise have been - but it will be an increasingly hard message to sell to bored and frustrated families as the weeks continue.

If that proves an accurate reflection of the situation, then Thailand will have 'escaped' remarkably lightly given the level of flow of foriegn visitors until comparatively recently. No one that I know over there has yet been tested, and many of them are now back in their villages. The actions of government suggest that are perhaps still far more concerned about the situation than they are admitting.

Presumably some dodgy American bat exporter? LOL

Boss Det at @Home Bar has just posted that they distributed over 200 meals in about 30 minutes! I understand that along the JC ex-Pats have been donating generously to allow other bars to participate on allocated days.

@Home Bar, Jomtien Complex today (Pictures from their FaceBook)

Several Bars in the Jomtien Complex are taking it in turn to offer free food to the boys from there who are left in Pattaya and have no money. G-Star was or is doing the same.

My regular long-time works at Toys Boys and he often sits outside when he video calls me on Messenger, usually any time between 10pm and midnight and is always showing me pics of the soi down to BBB being almost entirely devoid of customers (as indeed is TB itself inside to judge by the flashes inside he shows me). Mamasan at TBs will often come over and say hello and confirms the dramatic lack of tourists in BT. Some of these bars will be really hurting now.

I love falling in love long distance, or, more accurately, falling in lust; I do it all the time. I while away the lonely months at home in between holidays, trawling Facebook, Twitter, etc., discovering new boys that I fancy the look of. Most are just passing fantasies, but one or two are just (in my mind) so impossibly sexy or cute that I follow everything they post with my fantasies regularly going in to meltdown. Nothing comes of it all, except from the occasional necessity to buy a new box of Kleenex tissues LOL Now falling in love with the boys that I actually meet on holiday - much more likely, and much more dangerous (to both my heart strings and my wallet), and the subject of a whole new thread perhaps haha.

The gay nightclub G-Star put on its Facebook today that it wasn't admitting Chinese customers for now.