macaroni21

@aaroninatl wishing you the best in your apartment hunting, but I would advise against making any longterm rent agreement until you have experienced Chiang Mai in its many seasons. Take it from me, and others like me, who have visited Chiang Mai over the years at various points in the year: there are distinct seasons, some not all that pleasant. Personally, I have found the mid-year period scorchingly hot. I think it gets to 40 degrees (if you're American, you're have to learn -- fast -- to think in terms of degrees Celsius if you want to live outside the US). It's almost impossible to go out during daylight. There was one time when I was in the city when the haze season began. Luckily it was a short visit and only the beginning of the haze season, but it was obvious enough that I wouldn't want to be around during the peak of the season. Others here have mentioned this problem in another thread. I just read that Malaysia is currently experiencing a bad haze problem from forest burning in Indonesia. Here's my tongue-in-cheek idea: 🤪make a quick visit to Kuala Lumpur to see what it's like and whether you will be able to live in such conditions for 2 - 3 months.

That's the problem visitors will face in the Chiang Mai gay scene. Unlike the Silom ghetto and Pattaya, the Chiang Mai scene is really for locals; thus the most active places (so I have heard) are the host and/or karaoke bars. But, at these places, hardly anyone can speak English, so unless one goes to a bar with friends, it's always going to be awkward as a solo customer to be inviting a host for a drink and then have no real way to talk to each other. I have also been told that most of the boys in Adams Apple, Circle Pub and the night bazaar bars are Thai Yai or Shan from across the border; they may not even speak Thai fluently. However, this is secondhand information. I doubt if I can hear the difference between the 2 languages.

So did I and I have strong memories of it even though I probably didn't stay more then 2 or 3 times. It had spacious rooms which in the evening turned out to be poorly lit. The sparse lighting was rendered even more ineffectual by the darkly varnished and very traditional heavy furniture. The first time I was shown to a room I remember saying to myself: Gosh, this room is meant for a dour dowager. The last time I stayed there was not a happy one. The place was infested with mosquitoes. I complained to management, they lit some mosquito coils but nothing worked. Even though the rooms were airconditioned and one could close the windows, the shutters were old and apparently did not seal well enough to prevent insects coming in. I resolved to stay somewhere else after that. In any case, Lotus went out of business soon after.

Sounds like a busy weekend, but yes, many here would appreciate reviews of all these places.

Agreed. But if I just want one or two items quickly, I wouldn't make a long trip to just one location when a 7-11 or Tops express is just around the corner.

Thanks for keeping me up to date. Now I recall I read something about that, but have not really noticed on the ground. I kinda know where the convenience stores are in our usual playground, and just go to the nearest without even noticing what name is on the signboard. If they changed the sign above but kept the store environment more or less the same, I might not have noticed.

Hold your hopes in check: This is Thailand. Just because a beach needs repair does not mean repair there will be. Much depends on things like how much of the allocated budget is left after someone somewhere has skimmed off his share. Of course I too wish you're right.... but one nevers knows in this country.

I'm with @mauRICE here: the best feature of the 7-Elevens in Thailand, Japan, and across much of East Asia, is their selection of fresher foods. They have chilled salads, yogurts, fresh fruit, sushi, ready-to-eat sandwiches for a light meal -- albeit in addition to lots of processed foods nonetheless and instant noodles. Go to those with bigger floor area, you get a better selectiion. Family Marts are just as good. The Lawson's on Silom opposite Soi 6 is one of my favourites. The 7-Elevens in the US are possibly the worst I have ever seen, stocked 80% ultra-processed foods, 20% alcohol. No wonder @aaroninatl only goes there twice a year. He may be the exception because 7-Eleven USA must be stocking what its target market wants. I'm just a little bit surprised that @aaroninatl has not commented on this difference between the 7-Elevens of the US and those in Thailand, but instead is still highlighting super-processed snacks. I get it though that the main point of the opening post was about what his top picks were, so it's a personal statement. Not long ago, a couple from the US I bumped into during airport transit at Narita was commenting on this (to them) very noticeable difference in a highly positive way. They were like "wow, I didn't know convenience stores could be like this." So, here's the question for @aaroninatl: did you notice the difference? What other observations have you made about Family Mart, etc? Re cash payments, it's a good thing! 7-Elevens are a wonderful way to break 1,000-baht bills into smaller bills, especially red 100s for tips.

These are steep prices. I wished the reporter enquired who the patrons of Tool Box are, specifically the patrons who choose to sit in the men's poledance area or who book the men out.

That this is the law has been mentioned in this forum in the past, but I have never felt a need to carry a copy of my passport (and my passport would be in the hotel room safe). Has anyone been caught up in a police raid on a bar or massage parlour?

While I have encountered crowding, I have not experienced an instance of having to stand back and wait for the next train. However, passengers trying to board at the midway stations can be seen being very frustrated with that. But overall, while the ARL might get us to the terminal station Phaya Thai in one piece, the whole experience compares poorly with other cities' systems. Even Kuala Lumpur has a far superior express train with greater comfort running out of the airport, let alone the Narita Express and the Keisei from Tokyo's Narita Airport. Like you, @vinapu I too travel on the cheaper end of things -- in my view, the better to see what real life feels like in the places I visit-- and put up with more basic amenities quite happily, but this shouldn't blind us to the fact that, yeah, they are basic, and secondly, even other third world countries manage to do better than Thailand re the basics. I have long since learned not to see Thailand through rose-tinted lenses.

The deterioration of the airport rail link over the years has been plain to see. It mirrors all the other problems they have with the BTS and MRT systems. Basically the Thai authorities like new flashy projects but won't give a sh*t about maintenance and service quality (no media headlines glorifying a minister), and this attitude probably comes from the very top: no budget allocation for boring things... so all the downstream technical and operational issues are pre-ordained. All this just in time for high season.

The second part of my post above about the teenaged brothers sounded more sexual than I intended. It may be hard to recall from so long ago, but when I was a teenager, my anatomy was often out of control too. I should also mention that a thought briefly occurred to me, and it was that the 2 boys knew the 3 guys and it may be why they seemed comfortable even in some proximity to each other. Perhaps one of the guys was a young uncle who brought the 2 boys to the sento.

In all my years visiting onsens and sentos in Japan, last week was the first time I noticed cruising. It was exactly at the Chichibu place mentioned above. I was not the object of anyone's attention - all the better for me to observe the goings-on unobtrusively. The "incident" involved two pairs of 20-somethings, all four of whom were very easy on the eyes. One pair was Chinese, judging from the language they spoke between them. Alas, onsens aren't set up for side activities so, for all the knowing glances, I don't think they led anywhere, at least not in the onsen itself. Maybe they finally got together and had a blowout of a foursome in a hotel room. Then 2 evenings later, back in Tokyo, I was in Akebono-yu, apparently one of the oldest sentos in the city. But it's been so modernised over the years, you wouldn't be able to tell. This case was not about cruising, though. There were 2 brothers, one about 12 or 13 the other maybe 15 or 16. There were also a group of 3 friends in their late twenties, two of whom were quite well built. The teenagers had hard ons sitting in the hot tub watching them. When the trio got out of the pool, the teenagers soon followed, stiffies and all. The trio turned around and said something to the boys jokingly, but they must have been very kind, for the boys didn't seem embarrassed at all. None of the other guests, many elderly, batted an eyelid. The trio and the 2 brothers then went into a separate part of the sento (an outdoor courtyard) and I lost sight of them. I didn't want to follow lest I appeared like a creep even though I was curious what was going to happen next. The trio looked pretty straight to me, so I couldn't imagine what could possibly happen, and in such a public place too, but of course, I could be wrong. It's not unusual to see fathers bring their sons (occasionally their young daughters, under five) to onsens and sentos. To see boys, preteens and teens, in these places is nothing remarkable. However, on this occasion I couldn't figure out which adult it was who brought the 2 brothers here. Did they come on their own? With what primary intention?

It's fascinating to see how first-time visitors react to Thailand (or Asia), and the above observation is a gem. What you have stumbled upon is the huge cultural difference between White societies and their cultural values and Southeast Asian (or East Asian more generally). Westerners see a tan as beautiful and desirable, but darker skin tone has the opposite value in many Asian societies. Westerners flock to tropical beaches to get that tan; Asians mostly avoid the sun like the plague, As a result, tropical beach islands are playgrounds for Western tourists, while Asians see no value going there. Of course there are exceptions (the younger Japanese do like a tan too, I've noticed) and I risk over-generalising. It's been explained to me by my Chinese friends that traditionally, tanned skin was associated with manual, agricultural labour, whereas the upper class had little need to be exposed to the elements. Consequently, fairer complexion was associated with elite status. Tanned leathery skin = low class. Whether this was the same rationalisation in Thai society, I don't know. I wouldn't assume so; there may be quite different aetiology. In Indian society, skin tone is strongly associated with caste. I think it was @bkkmfj2648 who mentioned several times a group of Thai lads playing beach volleyball at night. I've seen the same in Bali, whereas in the West, choosing to play beach volleyball at night would be seen as weird. In Bali, the beaches are populated by white bodies roasting away in the daytime. Around 5 or 6pm, they pack up and leave. Then the Asians and Indonesians (domestic tourists, and Indonesia has a huge domestic tourism industry) arrive. Their idea of beach fun is sunset and the hours after. In Australia, skin cancer is a common topic of conversation. It doesn't seem to be a topic in East Asia, and that's probably because they have spent a lifetime avoiding the sun.