Gaybutton

That's when you should have left. For GT to have written a negative review, then I have a feeling the service he received was much worse than the post suggests. If I was subjected to bad service or poor treatment merely because my group consisted of Thais, I'd be damned if I would have eaten there. An expensive restaurant treating its customers like shit? That's not for me. Where do they get off giving "second class" treatment to their customers for any reason? Let them watch over 8000 baht worth of business walk right out the door . . . and let them know why. Since you stayed, I wish you refused to pay the service charge and tipped a total of 1 baht instead . . . and let them know why about that too. After all, if they are charging for service, then they at least ought to provide it.

Even if Pattayamale's suggestions about pressure, petitions and letters-to-the-editor would actually work, how long do you think it will be before enforcement goes by the wayside again? Jaded as this may seem, I believe there is only one way you'll ever see these regulations seriously enforced: Pay the powers-that-be more than the bars do.

How terrible! To think I might have to go through life without ever having visited Senegal is almost more than I can bear . . .

If you folks want to go into a pissing contest about this, fine with me. However, none of the arguments alter the fact that the bars are not supposed to allow smoking inside, period. When this law went into effect all the non-smokers were delighted. At that time I predicted this regulation would last about as long as most of the others. Actually, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Here we are, a few months later, and apparently the regulation is not going to be enforced. I doubt that phone calls, petitions, or anything else will change a thing if the bars won't voluntarily comply. Unfortunately, the only thing I believe you can really do about it is to patronize the bars that comply with the regulations to the exclusion of the ones that don't.

The fact that two of us posted different threads about the same subject reminds me of a line I liked in an old John Wayne-Kirk Douglas movie, "The War Wagon." As the two are exiting a saloon and are walking toward the livery stable, two bad guys try to ambush them. Of course, they both draw and "drop" the two bad guys at the same instant. Kirk Douglas looks at John Wayne and says, "Mine hit the ground first." John Wayne replies, "Mine was taller."

Just for the record, this morning a friend and I were going to meet at Continental Bakery, Jomtien, at 10:00am. It was so packed we literally couldn't get in. Every table was full. We went to Linda's instead. Linda's also serves a fine breakfast.

"In New York it's a $2000 fine for spitting in the subway. Vomiting is free." - George Carlin

All right, so I missed a post . . .

I'll give you a piece of advice regarding laundry. Yes, it certainly is much less expensive to have your laundry done via a local service rather than from your hotel. But make damned sure the laundry will be open when you need to pick up your clothes. A friend of mine was going to have his laundry done the day before he was due to leave Thailand. He thought this would be a great way to have everything done and folded. All he would need to do would be to pack it up and have clean, fresh laundry upon arrival back in his home country. Next day he went to pick up his laundry only to find the place was closed. Nobody had told him the place would be closed. He had no choice. He had to leave Thailand and ended up leaving nearly all of his clothing behind. Needless to say, he was furious. Make sure you check little things like that if you're going to need your belongings back the next day. I don't know if he ever got his clothing back, but if he did at least it was clean . . .

What you have is a debit card. They call it the Visa Electron card. It can be used as a Visa card for purchases, but it is actually only a debit card, not the same as a credit card.

The following is from CBS News: ____ Man Dies After Having Penis Set On Fire ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan. 6, 2009(CBS/ AP) An Australian woman accused of setting her husband's genitals on fire because she thought he was having an affair has been charged with murder. Prosecutors said 44-year-old Rajini Narayan confessed to neighbors that she set her husband on fire on Dec. 8, 2008, after she saw him hug another woman. She was initially charged with endangering life and arson but the charges were upgraded to murder after her 47-year-old husband, Satish Narayan, died from his injuries last week. Prosecutor Lucy Boord said Narayan told neighbors she was a "jealous wife" but she hadn't meant to kill him when she doused the sleeping man's genitals with an alcohol-based solvent and then set him on fire. Boord quoted Narayan allegedly saying: "I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else. ... I didn't mean this to happen." The husband jumped out of bed and knocked over the bottle of alcohol, causing the fire to spread and resulting in 1 million Australian dollars ($711,000) of damage to their town house and an adjacent property, the Adelaide Advertiser reported. "She poses a substantial risk to others given her flagrant offending," Boord told the newspaper. "Witnesses also heard the accused make references to using a police officer's gun on herself, and references to whether she should be alive at all," she added. Narayan was remanded in custody for psychological assessment and will reappear in court Friday. She has been charged with murder, arson and three counts of endangering life, as the couple's three children were at home during the incident.

Thank you for this post. I've never heard of this restaurant. Based on your review and their web site I'll definitely be giving it a try very soon. It looks like a real "find."

Ok, have it your way. Violate the laws to your heart's content. I think I'll stick with obeying the laws, whether I'm in the USA, Thailand, or the moon.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible for a running clock that was incorrectly set in the first place never to be right at all.

I hijacked the thread? I'm the one who started this thread in the first place. The thread evolved into what it is now long before my post. In any case, while it's true that the USA can't touch you as far as physically arresting you on foreign soil, there's still plenty they can do. Revocation of your passport, for starters. The last time I was in the US embassy I personally witnessed a man having a big argument with the US Citizens Services people. He had gone to the embassy merely to have pages added to his passport. When they inspected his passport they discovered he was on a list of "deadbeat dads" who had not been paying child support. They refused to return his passport to him. He was told he would not get his passport back until he settles the debt and can prove it to the satisfaction of the embassy. I was right there and overheard the whole thing. The USA can't enforce its laws on a citizen living outside the country? Tell that to the man whose passport was withheld. He's going to have a very interesting time when he needs to do his 90 day address report, renew his visa, or do anything that requires showing a passport, including bank transactions or even checking in to a hotel. The point is, if you truly believe that as a USA citizen you can live in a foreign country, disregard USA laws, and do so with impunity, then the best I can tell you is go ahead and try. I hope you won't have to find out the hard way just how big a mistake you're making.

My friend, where I come from that's called rationalizing. You say it doesn't mean you're a "slave" to laws of a country you're not living in. No? If you are a USA citizen, that's exactly what it means. You can come up with whatever argument you want, with whatever logic you want, but that won't alter the fact that as a US citizen, you are subject to US law, even when in foreign countries. When you're in a foreign country, now you're subject to both sets of laws. It doesn't matter whether you like it or not, or whether that's acceptable to you or not. That's simply the way it is. When you violate the laws, now you're at risk of arrest and prosecution. So, you have a choice. You can obey the laws or you can violate the laws and guess for yourself the degree of risk you're taking and whether whatever it is you want to do is worth the risk. If it makes you feel any better, I also don't think the USA is right to impose its own laws about age of consent if you are living in a country in which the age of consent is less than 18 years old. However, until the USA decides to change that law, you are subject to it whether you like it or not and I'd obey that law if I were you.

Regarding the USA, I tend to look more at what does happen, rather than what could happen. As far as I know, what does happen is that the USA goes after people who travel to foreign countries and engage in sex with children, kiddie porn, and that sort of thing. I know of no cases, not one, in which the USA prosecuted anyone for having sex with people age 18 and over when visiting a foreign country. Certainly there are countries where the age of consent is age 16. According to my understanding of USA law, a person can be prosecuted for sex with someone of that age. The obvious question is do they prosecute for that? If the USA has been prosecuting people for sex with those who have reached age of consent within their own country, I am not familiar with any such cases. That doesn't mean there aren't any. It simply means I don't personally know of any.

I know you said you didn't take any boys off, but did you happen to check what the current off fees are in these bars? Also, I've heard that the Phuket boys expect a "tip" of at least 1500 baht, even for short time. Is that true?

"Researchers announced today that saliva causes stomach cancer. But only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time." - George Carlin

I volunteered, but I couldn't get a work permit.

Thank you, but Confucius say "He who come up with idea, get to start new thread himself."

From what I understand, there already are plans for several people to gather at the Corner Bar in Sunee Plaza to watch.

If there will be a lot of new faces, I haven't seen very many yet. Several of the boys who went home told me they'll be back around the 10th of the month. I'm going to guess that there will be a good number of "new boys" coming to town to seek their fortune. Even with the tourist numbers down, the number of gay farang seems to be rapidly increasing. The gay beach area today was quite crowded with farang, although there were very few boys other than the regulars. Others may come and go, but the gays keep the faith! I think the boys will too. Coming to the bar scene, getting away from the watchful eyes of parents, a chance to experience the big city life, the prospect of finding a sugar-daddy are all temptations that are hard to resist when the alternative is a dead end job that pays practically nothing, if they can even find such a job, or working like a dog on the rice farm. I think there will be plenty who decide to give it a try. We'll see.

That's pretty much the way it works in Thailand now, isn't it? Virtually all of the prostitution arrests are arrests of farang who were accused of engaging in sex with someone under-age. Nothing ever happens to the prostitute, only the customer. I don't have an opinion (that's a first!) as to whether that's right or wrong, good or bad. That's simply the way it is.

Why would you not want to wear a helmet? From the way I read your post, you were more concerned about the police than you were about your own personal safety. I'm sorry you had troubles, but I'm also glad. Maybe next time you'll know better.