Gaybutton

I agree. When I check into a hotel, I'm not there to be forced to pay for a dinner or anything else I don't want. I can't imagine that the hotels doing this don't get a lot of complaints, especially if they are deceptive about it or don't tell their 'guests' until they're checking in. In my opinion, that is sheer fraud. And they're doing it during the season when their room prices are inflated to start with. I think one of the worst jobs at these hotels must be the desk clerks. They're the ones stuck with dealing with the complaints and telling the 'guest' you're going to pay for the dinner whether you eat it or not and whether you like it or not. Do these hotels think this practice pleases their 'guests'? Does it please anyone reading this topic? My message to these hotels: Don't do me any favors. I repeat my rhetorical question: Who asked them to put on these mandatory dinners in the first place? There are some aspects of the holiday season where I think Scrooge had a good point. Many hotels do things for the 'convenience' of their guests, most of which to me is nothing more than a disguised rip-off. Room refrigerators come to mind. Many hotels stock the refrigerator with snack items, and if you take any of them you'll pay around ten times the price you would pay if you walk across the street and buy the same thing at a 7-Eleven. Tiz the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la - especially if you're a hotel owner raking in the seasonal price profits and most likely pocketing all of it without giving the staff a single extra baht.

I don't know whether there is a downside, but I took a look. You have to download and install their own movie player. I don't trust that. If your friend did install it, maybe you can check for viruses or trojans and let us know. I also noticed that many of what appear to be movies are not quite what they seem at first glance. If you take a close look you'll see that a lot of them are only trailers, not the full movie. You are able to view some of the trailers without downloading their player. They are voice-dubbed over in Thai. That, of course, would work well for Thais, but probably not so well if you want to view the movie yourself.

"I don't believe Courtyard by Marriott has a compulsory dinner nor charges for anything similar." In that post Michael didn't say anything about it being optional. He said it is required. That comes across as compulsory to me. If it isn't, that line still generates and justifies discussion of hotels forcing dinners on people, doesn't it? I'd say we're right on topic. I also see no point in a discussion as to whether we're on topic or not. As I said, if the moderators say we're not on topic, then we're not on topic. I think it's ridiculous for us to be arguing about it. That, for sure, is not on topic.

Seems to me we're precisely on topic. Whether we're on or off topic, isn't that for the moderators to decide?

I agree about booking somewhere else, but it may not be easy to avoid. All too often people don't know about these dinners until they arrive at the hotel. Not everyone knows to ask and often the hotel doesn't volunteer the information. I wonder how many people reading this topic didn't know about the existence of these dinners until we started posting about it. Until I started coming to Thailand, I had never heard of this sort of thing. These dinners are usually "offered" for Christmas and New Year's Eve. I've never seen them at any other time of year. Meanwhile, that's right in the middle of the highest part of high season. Finding a room elsewhere may not be so easy. And if you used a credit card to make a deposit for the room, if you go elsewhere you can kiss your deposit goodbye.

The larger issue is the fact that many resort hotels in Thailand do force a holiday dinner on their 'guests.' Many of these hotels charge their guests for it whether they want to go or not. You can eat somewhere else if you wish, but you'll still be charged for the mandatory dinner. That's not necessarily all bad. I stayed at such a hotel one time. The dinner was mandatory, but it was also excellent and the price was very reasonable. But since I was not aware of the dinner until after I had checked in, because of it that was the last time I ever stayed in that hotel. The problem is when you find yourself staying at such a hotel, but you were not informed in advance about the dinner. Not many people appreciate that little surprise and knowing nothing about it until after they've checked in. How would you like to be someone who has friends in Thailand, had planned in advance to have your holiday dinner with them, and then discover you're in a forced dinner hotel? What if it's a dinner you can't even eat? Maybe you become ill and can't eat at all. Maybe for religious reasons you can eat only kosher or halal food. Maybe you're on a diet. Maybe you simply don't want a big dinner. If the hotel informs you before you commit to a booking or offers a holiday dinner, but it isn't mandatory, then no problem. But when a hotel fails to inform its guests in advance, only one word comes to my mind: SCAM. After all, who asked these hotels to put on such a dinner in the first place?

For me, I don't care what they're serving. There is no way I would stay at any hotel that intends to force a dinner, or anything else for that matter, on me. While I understand that hotels doing this spend a lot of money putting these dinners together and they need to make sure it isn't a financial disaster for them, that's not my problem. And if they are going to force a dinner on their customers, why does it have to be so expensive? Include me out. However, for those of you who intend to be here for Christmas and/or New Year, unless you want to stay at a forced dinner hotel, if you haven't made your hotel booking yet, you better do it right now if you're going to have a prayer of staying where you want or even anywhere near where you want. In Pattaya, hotels are almost always full during the Christmas season. Flights to and from Thailand too. I hope those of you who plan to be here took care of hotel and flight bookings weeks or even months ago. If you haven't, don't wait. It may already be too late.

9000 baht for a dinner? That's nearly US $300 per person. What in the world are they serving? How would you like to pay that price and then it turns out you don't like the food?

Is that so? When did you ever ask to see my extension? I don't remember that. You say you're perfectly willing to show your extension. Ok, show it now. Even if you did ask to see mine, I posted photos of exactly the same extensions that I've received - the ones that say "Retirement" right on the extension. That has nothing to do with all of your troll posts. That's the only kind of posting you've ever done and are still doing. Maybe you have been to Thailand after all. Bravo! Now the boards are blessed with a troll who has been to Thailand and consistently submits totally useless posts - including the ones you posted on this topic. Now I've said my piece and am done with it. The last word is all yours.

You are absolutely right. I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is the only kind of posting this person ever submits. Still nothing whatsoever within any of his posts, past or present, to indicate he has ever even been to Thailand at all, much less living here. I admit it took me a very long time to see it, but what I do see, and all I've ever seen from this man, are troll posts.

Another alternative is to simply ask the boys. If they've got a customer who wants a nearby short time room, chances are very good they know just where to go.

Here's another helping of troll food for you: I would have said "Nice try" if it even was a nice try. It's just another lame, predictable, typical cop out response from you. Still nothing you've posted indicates you've ever so much as set foot in Thailand. You get the last word if you want it. I'm done with this topic. We're not even on topic anymore.

Really? Why, I had no idea. I'll pay much more attention to you once you figure out how to use MultiQuote.

Post one and find out. I'm beginning to wonder if you've ever even been to Thailand. All you ever do is nitpick and try to ferret out "gotchas." I have yet to ever see a single post from you about anything you've ever done in Thailand, anyplace you've ever been in Thailand, a single restaurant review or recommendation, a bar you've ever been to, an answer to anybody's questions about anything at all in Thailand, a single experience you've ever had in Thailand, a single post that shows you have ever so much as set foot in Thailand, or anything other than these typical posts you come up with. That describes every post I've ever seen you submit on any board and the full extent of your "contributions" to the boards - and why every last one of them are meaningless.

I think I'll do the same. I don't see much point in posting more variations on what I've already been saying throughout this topic.

Did you think through that statement? A boy who has very little money is going to hire a lawyer to try to sue a farang, whose name and whereabouts he probably doesn't even know, for defamation when that same farang could just as easily counter charge him with extortion? Right. I've already mentioned Gay Romeo guestbooks in which farang who think they've been cheated, stolen from, etc. posted their negative comments right in the boy's guestbook. These posts come from people who the boy has met and knows who they are. Have you heard of any resulting lawsuits? Ever? As I've already said, for the boy to even know who to sue, then the farang would have to be the only one the boy ever tried to extort. Otherwise, how could he possibly know who to sue? Did you consider the idea that if the boy really planted a ya ba pill in the OP's room and actually would be dumb enough to call the police, when the police find the ya ba, guess whose fingerprints would be on the packet or on the pill itself. Nobody asked for anything more than the boy's Gay Romeo profile name. Even if you actually believe the OP's post, my position is if someone is going to accuse a boy of trying to pull a stunt like that, then if he's not going to tell us who he's accusing he shouldn't post in the first place. If the board owner was worried about a lawsuit if the boy was identified, very simple - he could edit out the name and/or delete the post. Why on earth some of you would take the OP's story at face value without having any idea what the boy's side of the story might be goes beyond me - unless, of course, you operate under the assumption the farang must be telling the truth and telling the whole story and the boy would only lie.

I'm surprised. With me, they couldn't possibly have been more helpful and attentive. I dealt with their office in Scotland. I do know that, just like Thai banks, different offices give different answers. The best suggestion I can give is to directly contact the agent I dealt with at: Khalid.Sharif@cigna.com Request a call back. He will call, and quickly. Be prepared for a thick Scottish accent, despite his name. Let us know what happens.

Since this topic is titled "Injuries in Thailand," if you are looking for injury-only insurance and don't already have coverage, both Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank sell accident insurance. I'm sure there are also several other companies that will sell accident insurance. Travelerjim might be able to help with that too.

I don't know about him, but there actually is one part I believe: "Posted 17 October 2014 - 11:23 AM" Other than that, I don't believe any of it.

I agree with firecat69 in that you're still missing the point. I'm not saying things like this never happen in Thailand. That would be absurd. What I'm saying is if it really did happen and you want to post the story, then post the whole story, which would include the Gay Romeo profile name. If you're not going to provide that information, then don't post it in the first place. What's the point, unless the poster is under the impression that we are all naive morons and are in need of a warning? Without telling us the profile name, it could be any boy on Gay Romeo. I think a one-sided post, without any means whatsoever to get the boy's side of the story and intended to frighten people about meeting boys through Gay Romeo absolutely stinks. In the Gay Romeo forums on both this board and Sawatdee, the worst I've seen about any boy has been no-shows, the boy that did show wasn't the same boy in the photos or was much older than his photos, or was a dud. I have yet to see any in which someone claimed a boy tried to shake him down for more money. To me, that says this farang is the only one on any of the boards who ever met this boy or he's the only one the boy ever tried to shake down. I don't believe that. Then there is the OP's excuse for withholding the profile name - that he's afraid the boy will find out about the post, will know who posted it, and then will try to physically harm him. For that to be the case, then this farang would have to be the only one the boy ever tried to shake down. Otherwise, how could he know who posted it? To me, that goes beyond lame and ridiculous. I believe only reason to refuse to tell us the profile name is because there is no profile name to tell about - because it didn't happen. Even on Gay Romeo itself, when I look at the guestbooks there are often people who post right in those guestbooks that the boy is "no good," he's a thief, don't meet him, etc. They don't seem to be afraid of physical retaliation and the boy would certainly know with certainty who posted those accusations. Firecat69 is right about the holes in the story he's already pointed out. I don't always agree with firecat69 and he doesn't always agree with me, but in this case I agree with every word he has written. The story has no credibility. Maybe some buy the story. I do not. If nothing else, I hope this topic accomplishes one thing - that from now on if someone wants to post about a "bad boy," then if he doesn't want these kinds of responses, either back up the story or keep it to yourself.

Whether it is true or not, that's not the point. Whether things like that happen frequently in New York is irrelevant to what frequently happens in Thailand. My major issue is stories such as the OP's are extremely rare in Pattaya, which made it far less believable to me in the first place. The clincher, and the point, is his refusal to identify the boy by giving us his Gay Romeo profile name along with coming up with such a lame excuse for the refusal. That was so predictable. For me, that's when any semblance of credibility flew right out the window. Certainly there's a chance he was being truthful. There's also a chance that you'll be the winner of the next Powerball. I think the chances are about equal. Even if his story is true, that does not excuse someone "doing us a favor by warning us" registering on a board, making such an accusation, and then refusing to give even a hint about "whodunit." Without being forthcoming, he shouldn't have posted at all. You think he had no agenda? I think that's exactly what he had. What are we, all naive idiots who need someone to come out of the woodwork to warn us that we ought to be careful about boys we meet on Gay Romeo? Thanks very much.

Yes, damn it - I'm over 60. Oh well, I'm an official old man. I guess I've been an old man for quite some time. When I was still living in the USA, a friend and I went to a Chinese restaurant. We each had the same thing. When the bills came, my friend's bill was $3 higher than mine. He called the waitress over to ask why. Her answer - she pointed at me and said, "I give him senior citizen discount." I nearly fell off my chair. One thing to check when buying expat insurance - some insurance companies won't cover you at all if you are past a certain age - usually 70. Even if you've had a policy with them for years, when you reach their age limit, goodbye insurance. In other words, make sure your policy continues coverage as long as you keep paying your premiums, no matter how old you are. Aunt Esther: "You heathen! You're a dirty old man!" Fred Sanford: "Right! And I'm gonna be a dirty old man 'til I'm a dead old man." - 'Sanford and Son'

If I had that kind of money, I wouldn't need insurance. I'll give serious thought to what you are saying about prescription coverage.

If they're registering on the gay Thailand boards to post some sort of personal agenda and just making things up to try to back up their point, then that's a valid fear. People with enough experience usually catch them at their game almost instantly. Those registering on the boards and intend to post honestly and appropriately have nothing to fear.

No. I was too old to fight in that one . . .