Gaybutton

Please continue to do so. The thought of eating in any restaurant at which you might be present makes me nauseous.

That's good. At the end of that article it also says, "On Tuesday, Florida-based Spirit Airlines announced that it will charge its customers $20 to $45 for items they place in the overhead bins." I don't know if Spirit went ahead with that, but that also seems like a true rip-off to me.

I see a tremendous difference. I just had a look at GT's rating of Duc's Bar. "The boys there are great." What does that mean? "Duc is entertaining . ." What does that mean? "IMHO some of the hottest guys around - all my type . ." What does that mean? I have to guess what his type is and I also have to guess whether his type is also my type and whether what he considers hot is also what I consider hot. Whatever those mean, it's not going to convince me to go there or to avoid there. To me, it's non-information information. If you see restaurant reviews as the same thing, I can only say that I don't agree with you. You said I try restaurants based on other people's reviews and other people try restaurants based on mine. I don't have a problem with that. I also don't have a problem if people really want to try to rate bars. I've already stated what my priorities would be based on bar ratings, and GT's rating of Duc's bar contains neither of them. So, his rating is of no interest to me. If it is to you, I have no objection.

That would be something new - certain bars concerning themselves with what is and what is not legal . . .

Soooooo, spying again! Yep, that's where I was. Did you happen to notice what I ate too? Yes, it was a downpour last night. I was lucky. I left just as it started to drizzle. By the time I went up Pattaya Tai to Sukhumvit, less than ten minutes later, Sukhumvit was flooded to the point that the water was up to the door level on cars. Within ten minutes! I'm glad to see that Pattaya has brought the drainage problems under control . . .

It wouldn't help me any. I prefer deciding those kinds of things for myself. I'm not going to go to a bar or avoid going to a bar based on how others might rate it. There are also too many people, and we've seen these kinds of posts before, who have something against certain bars and are not above telling others how terrible it is even if it isn't. The only thing others have to say about different bars that interests me are reports about drink prices, off fees, and features such as the Happy Bar upstairs feature. Other than that, I'm not interested. Of course, that's just me. If a lot of people would want such a rating system, I certainly have no objection. I simply would pay no attention to it.

There are those who think so. Who says the only place to have booze is at a bar? Besides, if people think I'm going to show up, probably nobody will come. My own mother once threw a birthday party for me. She wanted everyone to have a good time. For that reason I wasn't invited . . .

Nothing is wrong with it if you are planning something more formal such as GT suggests in his post above and you're willing to do the legwork. What I've been talking about was for something entirely informal. What I've been talking about is something like, "I'm going to be at Ganymede Saturday at 10:00pm. All board members are welcome to come for a pay-for-your-own meet-and-greet." By the way, to avoid confusion, That's just an example. Saturday I doubt I'll even be in town. What GT has in mind is something at which he intends to foot the bill for drinks and have food served. Yes, obviously something like that requires advance planning. Invitation-only is the only way I know of to avoid freeloaders crashing the party. That means doing it somewhere other than at a bar, such as someone's home, apartment, a meeting room, or restaurant unless he wishes to rent out an entire bar for the evening. Quite frankly, I don't know why everyone seems to think a meet-and-greet has to be at a bar at all.

On the face of it, I don't think it's such a good idea. There are too many problems with it. What some people would prioritize, others would not. And how would you rate the boys? A lot of people love the well defined muscular types. For others, that's just what they dislike. It's too subjective. Not only that, but a lot of these boys change bars quite often. How would you rate a bar that would get high marks for nearly everything on your list, but here comes the pushy mama-san to spoil it all. In my opinion there is only one way to rate a bar. You either like it or you don't.

Very good idea. You get to supply the name tags . . .

I'm not putting down anybody. How hard is it to say "Hello, I'm here for the meet-and-greet."? If somebody is too shy to do that, then he'll either have to get over it or miss the meet-and-greet. What takes planning? If I were to say I'd like to have a meet-and-greet Thursday at Two Guys at 3:00pm, you either come or you don't. What beyond that needs planning? What do you need, balloons, engraved invitations, and a caterer? Like I said, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any problem about someone who wants a meet-and-greet to just go ahead and do it. People will either show up or they won't. What's the hard part?

Can you tell us a little more about it? I, for one, am not familiar with it. Where is it?

That's very simple. That's why I used to do these things on the terrace of The Ambiance. We would all sit round-table style, which gave everyone the same status and there was never any problems for people who others did not know. If a meet-and-greet takes place at a bar, if "newbies" are too shy or socially inept to be able to introduce themselves, that's their problem. I don't see it as breaking into a closed group. The whole point of a meet-and-greet is for openness. I don't understand what you mean by having some sort of container in which to put in a few baht to buy refreshments. Like what? Who decides what refreshments to buy? You better not make it me because if I'm sent out to bring back refreshments, then everyone is going to be chowing down on a few bags of fried grasshoppers and moth larvae. I don't understand why people keep wanting to make this complicated. If someone is interested in doing a meet-and greet, all anyone needs to do is write a post saying let's have a meet-and-greet and say where to meet, what day, and what time. If people want to come, they come. If they don't or can't, then they don't. There's always the next one. Everybody pays his own bill. No donation boxes that make people feel obligated to contribute. If you want to drink, you pay your own bill. If you want to eat, order your own food and pay for it yourself. It seems so simple to me. Am I missing something?

I think everyone is well aware of the concern we have expressed for years about the bars that employ under-age boys. I don't see anything wrong with also discussing other aspects of the goings-on. Now, as for a "bar-quality-system," I don't recall any discussions about that and I don't even know what you mean by it. If you explain it, we can discuss it.

I'm going to give it a try soon. I haven't yet. But I must say that to date the best hamburgers I've ever had in Thailand were cooked on a grill at a very nice party, poolside, at beautiful home just behind Cherry's. I think you may have met the homeowner. I believe if you ask him very nicely he just might give you an opportunity to try them some time . . .

I'll give you three guesses.

I'm starting to wonder just what that 1300 baht fee was supposed to cover or even if that was the actual fee the 'agent' was charged. The Pattaya Daily News article mentions the 1300 baht. The Pattaya One article does not. Maybe the reporter didn't get it right. But assuming it is accurate, the way the article is worded it could be that 1300 baht was charged because apparently the agent specifically asked for an under-age boy. Maybe the younger they are, the more they charge. I hope there will be follow up articles for a change. I'm curious about whether the 1300 baht fee was supposed to cover renting the room and a tip for the boy, whether asking specifically for an under-age boy meant the bar charged more, or whether the mama-san lined his own pocket with it, or what. I'm also curious about just how old the under-age boy actually was.

I view that criticism with great contumely . . .

I'm glad we're going to keep this simple instead of making it complicated.

You must be very slow on the uptake.

Actually she was quite familiar with it. She greatly approved of my methods, especially the part about how I quickly get rid of the idiots.

Several years ago a boy took me to see a Mae Chee. These are the Buddhist equivalents of nuns. The Mae Chee was a fortune teller and spoke excellent English. She wanted to know my birthday, the day of the week I was born, my age, and all kinds of other things. Then she took out a book of what appeared to me to be some form of hieroglyphics and started doing calculations based on what was in the book and the information I gave. After that she wanted to read my palm. Then, when she was through with all that she looked at me and said, sharply, "You no good!" I asked why she said that. "You drink too much. You no good!" Anyone who knows me also knows that among my litany of faults, drinking is not one of them. "Mae Chee," I said. "I hardly ever drink and I never get drunk." Her response was, "Well, you do something no good and you have to stop!"

You mean the gossip queen rumor mill is in full force? My goodness, what a surprise! As a matter of fact, I believe it is so rare that it is non-existent. I think any foreigner, no matter how long he has lived in Thailand, even if he was born and raised here, who claims to really fully understand the goings on is either a liar or a fool.

There are various ways of spelling it in English, of course, but it's squid. For the record, I didn't state that. I guessed that. What I said was, "If that 1300 baht figure is correct, my guess is that was what was asked for both the room rental and the 'tip' for the boy." I have very rarely gone to Nice Boys at all. I think I've been in there a grand total of twice. I never offed a boy from Nice Boys. Until this incident came about I didn't even know they had short-time rooms, let alone how much they charged to take a boy to the short-time room. In other words, I have no way of knowing what the 1300 baht fee was all about. All I can do is guess. As for the rest of your post, I sympathize with your concerns. The problem is until certain bars clean up their act and stop hiring under-age boys, then yes, there is an element of risk that you could be caught up in a raid. The risk is minor, but it's there. I doubt we'll ever see much of a change unless something drastic happens. What it boils down to is you either take the risk or you don't go to the bars. If you are convinced that every bar hires under-age boys, and by the way that's not true, then if you want to be certain to avoid the possibility of being caught up in a raid, then you can't go to the bars at all. I don't know what other alternative you have. You won't get into legal trouble by simply being present in a go-go bar that employs under-age boys. It's the bar's problem, not yours. No one, even the police, expects you to check the IDs for all the boys working in a bar before setting foot in a bar. However, in Thailand the police do have the authority to raid bars, check farang for valid passports and visas, force farang to either submit to a urine test or face arrest, and permit the press to take photos and publish them. Since this incident is the first time I'm aware of the police forcing farang customers to submit to a urine test in the Pattaya gay bars, we won't know if this is a new trend until there have been more raids in which the same thing happens. Of course, even then we may not know for some time. Even if the police start raiding bars regularly again, considering the number of bars that are empty lately, the police will be lucky to find any farang customers inside at all . . .

As long as there are already two number 3s, here's another one. 3. Piercings. I can do without the boys who have piercings all over the place. I agree with lvdkeyes that many guys like tattoos. Many like the piercings. Many like mustaches, beards, hairy bodies, and whatnot. I think no matter what it is, somebody likes it. Certainly the boy himself likes it. I've gotten to the point that I can handle a few piercings and tattoos, but I really don't like them. But I consider the idea that if these boys can handle being with someone who looks like me, then the least I can do is make a few concessions too, even though I'm the one footing the bill.