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This seems to be a rather antiquated and narrow view of what a "real man" is or isn't. Obviously everyone is entitled to their preferences, but attitudes like this are not helpful to our whole community IMHO. Plenty of manly men suck cock.

did it work?

I keep meaning to try Urban Male but never got around to it. Always handsome guys hanging out there. I found the guys at Banana to be a bit better when it was in the old place but did always manage to pick someone at the new location. I always found the owner to be very friendly which is why I kept going back. I saw one guy a few times - wiry young guy who was surprisingly well hung.

I would be surprised if it was gone. He really invested a lot in the new space and it always seemed very busy every time I was there. The legit massage on the lower level is quite good. On my last visit I did an upstairs massage and then a very nice foot massage. He's the king of the upsell. :-) Were you on Soi 23 or were you looking at the old location on Soi 11? I see recent posting activity on FB https://www.facebook.com/pages/Banana-Man-Club/936933033053486

My flight to PNH a couple of years ago on THAI was also a bus gate. We drove all the way to the cargo terminal. It felt like we were going to drive all the way to Cambodia. I found Phnom Penh to be a traffic-choked nightmare but was just passing through to the more remote eastern end of the country. It's nice to know there's more gay scene there now though. Thanks for the thorough report.

the hotel is still in limbo. Was going to be an Edition hotel (I think part of the Marriott umbrella) but when King Power bought the building that plan came to an end. I recently read that it will be an Orient Express hotel which is apparently a brand associated with Accor. Set to open Q4 next year http://www.ttnworldwide.com/Article/288882/Worlds-first-Orient-Express-Hotel-to-open-in-Bangkok

usually they raise the price last minute because they figure you're a businessman who has an urgent need to travel right away

And Korean also offers free stopovers so if you want to spend a few days in Seoul (or elsewhere in SK) you can do it for no added airfare. I've done it on award flights and it's worked out well. I like Seoul a lot...fantastic public transport, some really cool architecture, some interesting historic sites, etc.

what generally works for me is arriving late at night in BKK. Luckily the connections for me work out pretty well so a 1 stop in NRT or ICN gets me in to BKK around 22:00 or 23:00 after about 24 hours of travel time. Then it's right to the hotel, unpack, shower, and directly to bed. Then I wake up the next day on BKK time. For me the 12 hour difference is easier for me than going to Europe when you leave in the evening and fly a short-ish red eye arriving early in the morning. But after so many trips to Asia those 7 or 8 hour flights to Europe seem like almost nothing (it helps that I am always flying up front). For me the worst has been when I connect in the ME on the way back. I flew through Dubai on Emirates after a trip to Sri Lanka a couple of years ago and was completely exhausted for a week.

seatguru.com has a lot of that info experflyer.com is also a useful tool. I have the paid subscription so I am not sure exactly what is available on the free version.

thanks for the first hand account. I saw the news that it opened on social media. I am a total sucker for these sorts of observation decks so I am sure I will head up there on my next trip

I think Turkish gets pretty good reviews. They just opened the new airport in Istanbul which is apparently much nicer than the old one so transfers are probably easier. Seatguru.com is a good tool for seeing reviews of various airlines and their different aircraft

I always use frequent flier miles for my flights so it is one of my smaller budget items. My miles come almost totally from credit card bonuses and spending. I also will sometimes buy miles when there is a good deal. Avianca frequently will offer 140% or 150% bonus on bought miles...so you can buy 100K miles for $3300 or so and get 250K miles total. That will get you first class from the US to SE Asia roundtrip with about 50,000 miles leftover (for example). For my next trip in February I am flying Korean Airlines first class on the way there (something like 95,000 Korean miles plus $130 taxes) and ANA business class on the way back (78,000 Avianca miles plus a small amount of taxes). Google Flights is a good tool for looking for fares. And it will rank the "best" flight options based on things like flight time, "comfort" etc. And they have a fare calendar that will show you a whole month at a glance...and will also show other nearby airport options if applicable. Since I am based in the Washington, DC area I choose DCA and IAD but for me BWI is too far away so I uncheck that box. I usually book direct with the airline unless there's a special sale elsewhere. That makes it easier to get reaccommodated if something goes wrong. Otherwise they might direct you to the online travel agency who are usually not as easy to reach or as helpful. Often you get stuck in the middle between the two companies passing the buck back and forth instead of helping you.

You paid the off and tipped them too. Did you have an orgy at least? I don't understand why you would have tipped them otherwise.

Avoiding confrontation seems sensible to me, not cowardly. Walking in a part of Chiang Mai several years ago where farang don't usually go was probably the only time I ever felt a bit uneasy as far as I can recall. I walked from my hotel in the old town to a massage place (Gemini maybe?). It didn't look that far on the map but I think I got a little lost. I probably should have just taken a tuk tuk. I found it eventually though. I remember some people staring at me as I was walking along. Crossing the busy streets was probably the most dangerous part in reality. I also happened to be in Bangkok during the 2006 coup (the one that ousted Fugitive Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra). Luckily I was with a local guide at the time who managed to get me back to my hotel safely from the concert we were attending way out in Sri Nakarin. It wasn't really all that scary actually, but I'll always have a good story to tell. Being stuck in my hotel for a day or two was annoying but not scary.

No, not street food. Of course some dishes are not spicy by design. But I like some curry dishes that seem to be overly spicy. And of course various salads are spicy.

Frankly you can get food poisoning almost anywhere. One of the worst cases I ever had was in Taiwan after eating in the restaurant of a high end hotel. The worst case I had in Thailand was on my first ever trip and visit to Pattaya - big mistake eating a late lunch at a deserted restaurant. I was sick all over the beach and ended up spending a night in the hospital. For me Thai food in Thailand is generally just way too spicy. I don't know how the locals can eat it when it basically just sets your mouth on fire so you can't taste anything. But there are some dishes that I really like - massaman curry for example which is fairly mild.

this new place sounds tasty. Sathorn Soi 8 https://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/bangkok-restaurant-reviews/saucey-chicken-and-beer?fbclid=IwAR0HZ8H34FJDBQIXtUeuQEqHXDxowGzkouhyKRawfRIpPLlxvsJRyot0MS0

That's very nice. I am impressed.

so you photographed them at the gym? I am a little confused

yeah, we'll see re: Travis. The new version is supposed to have improved greatly. They say they use several different translation engines and choose the best one for the language at hand. For sure Google translate is useless for more than a couple of words. Let's just say I don't have high expectations.

My attempt to learn some Thai was limited to a couple of sessions at our local adult education department which offered Thai a decade ago or so. It was enough for me to learn some useful words and phrases, but there's no way I could carry on a real conversation. Each session met once a week for 10 weeks so certainly not ideal. She would make me repeat the word until I managed to get the tones close to correct somehow but I could never really tell what I was doing correctly or wrong. I am glad I learned as much as I did and once I get on the ground there it is interesting how much comes back to me. But since I don't use it all the time it's rusty. But knowing numbers, days, directions and some basic phrase structures does help. I recently purchased the Travis translator device. Thai is among the languages it has onboard but I'll need to test that out with some one who actually speaks Thai.

"the Chinese forum"????

I've been saving diligently and should have a very decent pension when I retire. I will be 51 soon and plan to retire at 62. I like Thailand but think I would go insane if I retired there. It's a nice place to visit though. As someone else up-thread mentioned, my ear doesn't really hear the Thai tones which made my attempts to learn the language a failure. But I suppose if you are immersed full time maybe that makes a difference. While you can get by without it, it seems like life would be better with at least a rudimentary amount of the language. Given the road to hell the US is on I've been thinking about an escape plan though.

I guess if it's always full it makes sense to raise prices