Gaybutton

Thank God for that! I can't think of anything on earth more revolting than the idea of you putting anything in my mouth. "What a nauseating prospect!" - Charles Laughton (Sir Wilfrid), 'Witness for the Prosecution'

Well said. Very well said.

Are you actually serious? HeyGay, under his various guises, has been trying to tell people what they're supposed to like for years with his "stunner," "man boy" and "high pitched voice fem boys" posts and has been trying to claim that Sunee Plaza is virtually all fem boys, which is absolutely not true. If anybody is going to tell me about standards, what boys to like, or what constitutes a "quality boy," a handsome boy, or anything else about boys, I guarantee it isn't going to be HeyGay.

I prefer to set my own standards. I see no need for someone else to tell me what my standards ought to be or what kinds of boys I'm supposed to like. I don't agree with your interpretation of a quality farang. The boys are going to flock around the farang who gives them the most money or the farang who buys a whole bottle of whiskey and invites all of them to partake. To me, a quality farang is someone who treats the boys like people, with kindness, understanding, and takes an interest in making sure the boy has an enjoyable time too. No matter how much money some may give the boys and no matter how much whiskey they buy for the boys, if they're treating the boys as nothing more than sex objects and don't really give a damn whether the boy is having a good time or not, that's not my idea of a quality farang. As we all well know and far too many of us have seen, some farang treat these boys like shit. I wish those types would stay out of Thailand entirely.

Not really. I just get a little bit annoyed when someone appoints himself as the decision maker as to what constitutes a "quality boy." Maybe it would be better to talk about what constitutes a "quality farang" when it comes to how some people treat these boys as nothing more than sex objects for their own personal pleasure.

If I don't know what I'm missing by foregoing cottaging, I fully intend to keep it that way. Odd as it may seem, if I want to "hunt" for boys, I won't be doing that hunting in a toilet. However, when I do hunt in the places I prefer, if I find what I'm looking for, may I bring him for a grand tour of the salubrious estate?

Be careful about lighting that candle. If anyone happens to be emitting a certain amount of methane, you might blow up the whole restroom. "Why do we say, "take a shit"? You don't take a shit. You leave a shit. I don't know anybody who takes a shit unless he's adding to a really unique collection." - George Carlin

True, true. I can't disagree with that. I forgot to consider just how romantic a public toilet can be. I'm going to bring some candles and a bottle of wine next time I go to take a shit . . .

How can you be such a HeyGay fan and not know what cottaging is? That's the term he uses when he tells us all about his wonderful successes picking up "stunners" in toilets. After all, there's nothing like a nice, charming, romantic atmosphere to become sexually aroused. I'll bet it makes a big hit when the cleaning lady walks in with her mop . . .

What, may I ask, is your idea of a "quality" boy? You didn't mention cottaging. What's the matter, can't you find "quality" boys while cottaging anymore?

Bloody Saturday is the name of a black-and-white photograph that was published widely in September–October 1937 and in less than a month had been seen by more than 136 million viewers.Depicting a Chinese baby crying within the bombed-out ruins of Shanghai South Railway Station, the photograph became known as a cultural icon demonstrating Japanese wartime atrocities in China. Much more to the story can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Saturday_%28photograph%29

I like their list and I agree with it, but theirs is not the only list. I have a few of my own. I don't know how iconic they are, but I'll bet most people will instantly recognize them:

Regarding The Ambiance or Le Café Royale, I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending one over the other. In my opinion you won't go wrong with either of them. They're both about the same and they're directly across from each other. If you go out the door of one, walk about ten steps and you're entering the other. I understand, however, that The Ambiance has been trying to attract a more heterosexual crowd lately. Just why they would want to do that in the middle of one of the world's most gay areas goes beyond me. Nevertheless that's what I was told. I have not heard anything similar about Le Café Royale, but both are still equally good choices. As far as I know, The Ambiance is still as gay as ever. If it's true they're trying to attract the heterosexual crowd, that doesn't mean they're getting the heterosexual crowd.

Yes, I see it. I wonder why they're not charging me, not that I'm going to argue with them about it. Maybe it's because I've had my account with them since the days when they were still Thai Farmers Bank. That's exactly what people need to understand. Don't give up if at one branch you don't get you want. Just go to another branch and bingo! Totally different answer.

Aren't you going to say which branch it is?

I'm not surprised about Bangkok Bank, but I am about Kasikorn. My friend had no problem at all. If it helps anything, he opened the account at their branch in Central Festival in Pattaya. Even if they do send you right back to the branch where you opened your account, it wouldn't surprise me at all if you talk to someone other than whoever you talked to before, and end up walking out the door with online banking all set up for you. I've seen times when you get totally different answers right in the very same branch. I'll be interested to know how it plays out for you. If you can't get anywhere with Kasikorn, try Siam Commercial. The part that's on my "I Don't Get It" list is why they even care what kind of visa you have in order to get online banking. If they're willing to let foreigners open an account, what difference would it make to them as to what kind of visa you have if you want online banking? I don't understand why that's a problem.

I keep precise records of exactly how much I have in my accounts at all times. I keep track of what I have and what's happening with my accounts more closely than Scrooge ever would even have considered. If there was such a debit, believe me, I would have spotted it, but there never has been such a debit. In what city did you open your account? Did you open your account somewhere other than Pattaya? If so, then the only explanations I can come up with are they either do things differently where you are or I opened my account before they started making such debits and they're not doing that with older accounts. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank. Whatever, I don't think I'd lose a whole lot of sleep over an annual debit of two or three hundred baht, but I agree - if that's what they're doing, yes it sure is sneaky if they're not up front about it.

I don't agree. First, whether you can get online banking without a retirement visa depends on the bank. That's why I mentioned K-Bank. I was with a friend who was in Thailand on the 30-day privilege when he opened his account at K-Bank. By the time he left the bank and went to an internet shop, his online banking was already there and functional. And don't forget, if one bank branch tells you they won't permit online banking, try going to another branch of the same bank. Chances are you'll get a different answer. As for the $50 wire fee, do the math. If you use a foreign debit card, that's going to cost you 150 baht per transaction - about US $5. I don't know how many times you pull money out of an ATM when you're on a holiday in Thailand, but I'll bet a lot of people pull money at least 10 times, probably more. And that's before factoring in the home country's foreign transaction fees. In other words, even with that $50 wire transfer fee, you'll probably still come out ahead, along with not having to deal with the other worries.

In my list of 10 reasons to open a Thai bank account, I think I need to explain a little more detail about: 4. If you are providing support to a Thai boyfriend, having a Thai bank account and online banking makes it simple to transfer money from your account into his account from anywhere in the world. If you're going to do that, I suggest trying to open your account with either Bangkok Bank or Siam Commercial Bank. Several banks require you to submit an OTP (one-time password) before they'll let the transaction go through. The problem is, they send that password to your mobile phone number. That's going to be a little tricky if you don't happen to be in Thailand. Neither Bangkok Bank nor Siam Commercial Bank require the OTP in order to transfer money, even if it's to an account at a different bank. However, with both, you'll have to set up the accounts to which you'll be transferring money while you're still in Thailand. They do require the OTP when setting up accounts you intend to transfer money to, but once you've done that they don't require an OTP for the actual transfer transactions. I don't know of any other banks that will allow online transfers to other accounts without the OTP. There's another way around it. When you open your bank account, instead of your own mobile phone number, use your boyfriend's number. That way, when the bank sends out the OTP it will go to his number. However, back in your home country you'll probably need to be on the telephone with him when you're ready to do the transaction. If the OTP isn't submitted within 12 to 15 minutes of the bank sending it out, it expires. That would also give your boyfriend a good incentive to be very careful not to lose his phone or let it get stolen. If he loses the phone, he also loses his phone number, so goodbye being able to receive the OTP. Of course, he can get another phone and another number, but if the number changes, guess what - you can't change the number online without an OTP. Good luck receiving the OTP if he no longer has his phone . . .

If you don't object to revealing it, it might be helpful if you tell us which bank that was. Not all banks do things the same way and some require much more complicated procedures. Also, while some banks will permit a foreigner to open an account with them, they won't let a foreigner have online banking unless he has a long-term visa. I'm guessing it's Kasikorn Bank (K-Bank). They still make things easy for foreigners and I believe they do permit a foreigner to have online banking without any problems about it even if you opened the account with only the 30-day privilege. What banks are you referring to? I've never been charged anything at all other than the initial fee for the "VISA Electron" card. None that I know of. The only thing I've ever seen occurred when View Talay 5 was under construction. A friend from the USA was in the process of purchasing a condo there. He opened a Thai bank account, put in enough money to cover the payments until his return trip to Thailand, which would have been about six months later, and made an arrangement with the bank to take care of making the payments for him each month. The bank was willing to do that for him with no fees. However, my friend wanted hard-copy bank statements each month rather than online banking. The bank said that's fine, but the statements need to be mailed to a Thai address. That's where I came in. He asked me to let the bank send the statements to my address and wanted me to hold the statements for him until he returned. Then came a slight complication. Back in the USA, in early 2008, my friend passed away. His sister was left with settling his affairs. She managed to sell the condo, but the bank would not close out the account unless she came to Thailand herself, with a death certificate, and went to the bank personally. Even if she mailed a death certificate to me, the bank still would not release the funds to anyone other than an immediate family member. There was no other way they would release the money that was still in the account. She found his debit card, but nobody had any idea what his PIN was, so that rendered the card unusable. There was only about 5000 baht left in the account when he passed away, so it wasn't worth it to her to make a trip to Thailand. Meanwhile, since there was no way to get the money released, there was also no way to close the account. So, to this day I still receive the statements at my address. Obviously, the account was not closed out, but after a full year of no transactions the bank considered it a dormant account. The bank started assessing a fee of about 50 baht or so per month for "service." I suppose they'll just keep on doing that until the account is eventually cleaned out completely. Those are the only fees I can remember ever seeing, other than online banking bill payment fees, which are 10 baht each transaction, transfer fees to an account at another bank - 25 baht, and a 25 baht fee if you use the debit card at a different bank's ATM or use the card in another province.

While it is still relatively easy for a foreigner to open a Thai bank account, if you are a frequent traveler to Thailand it might behoove you to open such an account for a variety of reasons including: 1. It saves you that 150 baht fee for foreign debit card transactions, along with any fees the foreign bank assesses for transactions in Thailand. If you are withdrawing money from any ATM in Thailand with use of a Thai debit card, the most you'll pay for the transaction is 25 baht. 2. If you make sure you can get online banking (not all Thai banks permit online banking without a long-term visa), you can monitor your account from wherever you are in the world. If you have a Thai mobile phone number, you can even keep it topped up with your online banking. 3. When you are planning your next trip to Thailand, you can transfer in however much money you'll need in Thailand without having to bother with travel checks or worry about loss or theft of your foreign debit card. No more having to seek out a place to exchange travel checks and sit there for who-knows-how-long waiting your turn. You also won't have to carry your passport around with you every time you need to exchange money. 4. If you are providing support to a Thai boyfriend, having a Thai bank account and online banking makes it simple to transfer money from your account into his account from anywhere in the world. 5. While in Thailand, if your Thai debit card is lost or stolen, you can have a new one issued within minutes of walking into a branch office instead of going through having to contact your home bank and having to wait for a new debit card to be sent to you. 6. No way you're going to return home only to find that somehow there was fraudulent use of your home debit or credit card, and now your account has been cleaned out of thousands of dollars. 7. No worries about suddenly finding your home account's debit card has been locked because of "unusual" transactions in a foreign country. 8. If you are purchasing something quite expensive, you can probably pay with your Thai debit card rather than having to carry large amounts of cash. 9. If retirement to Thailand is among your plans, you'll already have a Thai bank account. 10. You never know when rules will change. It's still relatively easy to get a Thai bank account. Depending on your circumstances, it might be better for you to get the account while you still can rather than later wishing you had done so when you had the chance. There are probably several more reasons that aren't occurring to me as I write this that might make it advantageous for you to open a Thai bank account. If nothing else, it certainly can't hurt anything for you to open a Thai bank account. You can always close it later. Most Thai banks will allow you to open an account with an initial minimum deposit of 500 baht.

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. It seems to depend on what you're buying and where you're buying it. For example, I had the opposite happen with my beloved bread machine. I bought it at the top floor of Paragon. At the time, Paragon was the only place in Thailand I could find that sold them. Then, when Central Festival in Pattaya first opened, I saw exactly the same bread machine, same make and model, for sale at nearly 4000 baht less. Maybe it was some sort of promotion, although there was nothing to indicate a promotion that I saw, but now I think Central Festival stopped carrying bread machines at all. In any case, that's quite a price difference. For people like me who live in Pattaya, if something is more expensive here than it is in Bangkok, unless you're going to be in Bangkok anyway, you're still stuck. You might pay a higher price in Pattaya, but when factoring in the cost and inconvenience of making a special trip to Bangkok to buy the same thing, unless there is a major price difference it's hardly worth doing. For me, the "Murphy's Law of Shopping" usually applies - No matter how many places I check, when I make the purchase, a few days later I'll find the same thing elsewhere at a substantially lower price.

I've seen it too. You can also watch it on BSkyB's web site and I've also seen it available for downloading on the torrents sites, although I don't know whether it's a legal download or not.

I'm almost afraid to ask - in US dollars, how much is the room?

Fascinating photos. I'm sorry you ended up spending so much money on an inadequate hotel, but that will probably be quickly forgotten. The photos and your experiences won't. A lot of what I'm seeing in those photos reminds me of things I see in Thailand.