macaroni21

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.

In all my visits to Japan and China - sexual and non-sexual places - I have never tipped, and loved the clarity and transparency of their pricing. That's an important point for others to remember. Why risk causing offence just because it's one's own culture to tip? Might that reveal a sense of superiority regarding one's own culture to try to apply it to others? Is it so difficult to adjust to practices and customs of the country one is visiting, as a sign of consideration and respect? Possibly, a subconscious detection of a sense of superiority was part of the reason for offence. This reminds me of an incident when a tourist would not take his shoes off before entering a Thai temple. When reminded, he said something like 'in my country, we don't take off our shoes to enter places of worship.' His group-tour guide had to intervene. I have never seen a Thai person flip from being sweet and smiling to angry quite as fast.

And what English word is this? 😂

Welcome to the forum. It does sound like you had an eye opening trip to Bangkok even if there were a few surprises - but these things happen to all of us. Please avoid shortcuts. You're writing to an international readership, many of which use English as a second language. Straightforward, plain writing is best. To see what I mean, try reading some posts by @Riobard 😆

Now you know how non-Americans feel when they have to function in the US. 😜 Why do people speak in riddles? What are these crazy things called fahrenheit, ounces, gallons, miles, yards, feet and inches? Why do people think that "zebra crossing" is an animal traversing a patch of savanna? And why do people think that the zebra is somewhere in Savannah, Georgia? Why can't people refer sensibly to money? Why speak of quarters, dimes and nickels? Why refer to currency notes by somebody's name; how is any non-American to know what "six Benjamin Franklins" mean? Why are Americans shocked to learn that when an Australian says $243, he is referring to a different currency? And that same $ symbol in Mexico means pesos. And why is the entrée the main course? 🤣😂🤣😂

That was the strap-on dildo my dear. The real thing, smaller, was tucked inside.

@vinapu @hank75 @a-447 my reading is different. I don't think that's what @12is12 meant. The fact is that boys in most bars still wear numbers. My sense is that that's not the "numerology" that he laments has disappeared. What he is saying is that on the Thailand board we do not discuss the attributes and service quality of specific boys (based on their bar name and tag numbers), but that we are too coy (some would say polite/ considerate/ respectful) to do so. I think @12is12 would much prefer we discussed the boys like cheap non-human merchandise: #115 will fuck like an energiser bunny, #193 will rim, #86 has a cock curved upwards and to the left, but the head is much bigger than the shaft, #109 has a short, but thickish one, but his best attribute are his low hanging balls that slap you joyfully as he bangs you, while #60 has what look like anal warts. Or: #72 asked for $4,000 baht, but can be negotiated down to 2,500, which is a bargain for one who will bottom for bareback. On the other hand, #132 who looks like a meth head asks only for 1,700, but he rushes things. There's a guy on the Africa forum who does that, cock pics, sometimes face-pics, prices and all. He's breaking the board rules, obviously.

That pic - is that what Thai male prostitutes look like? 🤪

Correct.

Can't be. The boss I was referring to was a he, not a she. Nor did he have any legal qualification, but a PhD in... something (I've forgtotten what). Ah, but here's a chance to tell a story: There was one time when we were both on a business trip to Thailand. Unusually, he brought his 18- or 19-year old son with him because there was a free weekend following our business meetings and he thought he and his son could do some bonding before the boy went off to university. I too extended my stay over the weekend, but naturally I had plans totally separate from his, and anyway, I was moving to a hotel in the Silom area. But then on either Thursday or Friday some crisis blew up back at HQ and my boss felt he needed to fly back immediately. What to do with the boy? Dragging him home and cancelling the weekend would be a huge disappointment. So the father asked me: "Can I entrust my son into your good hands? Take care of him and show him around Bangkok over the weekend." Oh bugger! All my plans, my plans! But how could I say no? So I didn't say no. The boy moved over to the same hotel as I was -- different rooms, ye with dirty minds! -- and almost the first thing the boy asked me as soon as daddy went off to the airport was, "Can we go to Patpong? I've read so much about it."

I think you're alluding to something which I have long noticed, but rarely say out loud because it comes with a high risk of causing offence. But let me voice my observation now, with an IMPORTANT CAVEAT: PRESENT COMPANY EXCEPTED. I am not referring to either Olddaddy or Pong. My observation is this: the worst examples of English writing is often seen from native English speakers, not from those who speak it as a second language. Partly, it's a self-sorting result. Non-native English speakers are conscious that they are using a foreign language and think they will not be able to write as well as native speakers, so they take extra trouble to check and proof-read what they write; or if they have no confidence, they don't write in English at all. Native English speakers tend to "let loose". If their English is good, all well and fine. But if their English is bad, they may not even realise it, and they write as they speak (slang, highly localised usage, confusing syntax, etc) largely unaware how they come across to others. They are used to people in their own circles understanding them, and since those in the same circles also supposedly speak "English" (note the quotation marks), they all think that the language they use (and write) must be, well, English. It may also have to do with the fact that those who have to learn English as a second language are taught the language in a structured way -- the nuts and bolts of grammar and so on -- and I have often been shocked how schools in Australia and the US (places I am familiar with) do not teach English that way. They assume the language need only be learned though use. The trouble with such an attitude is that students imbibe the language from their family's social circles and their own peers. If those circles don't speak or know how to write properly, then one cannot, logically speaking, imbibe proper English. And yet they hold the belief that what they are speaking is English. An old friend of mine, now a retired schoolteacher, once explained to me that something happened in the 1970s and 1980s to pedgagogy. There was a change to valorising self-expression rather than teaching rules of grammar. Coupled with something to do with multiculturalism -- one is not supposed to criticise accent or idiosyncratic usage, instead, we must "celebrate difference" -- much language quality has gone down the chutey. OK, I've said it. Let the arrows fly!

That was different. @rd2077's "style" is a " breathless no punctuation" style. Might have been transcribed from a voice-based, stream-of-consciousness dictation. Or it might have been machine translated from another language. Sometimes we forget that many members here don't use English as their first language. That said, most machine translation I have come across do put punctuation in, although often at the wrong places. I'm old-fashioned. I've been taught to ensure clarity in what I write. A former boss once told me: if you want to communicate, make sure the other party understands you correctly. It's not the responsibility of the other party to guess what you may intend to mean. Since then, a whole new generation has come and flooded our media with their styles and I feel so out of date. Sigh!

I have relatively recent reviews of a few places at https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/ Just filter for category Phnom Penh. Hope this helps.

As @vinapu has pointed out, this is a very likely reason. Cambodia is not the only country that accepts USD and/or other major foreign courrency for visa-on-arrival etc. I know that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia do too (and I've heard Ethiopia), though increasingly visitors use credit cards which can be charged in local currency. But websites also warn visitors against assuming that card terminals will always work (in my experience they often do not!!!) I'm sure there are many more countries with a similar policy.

And that's the problem! When the company running the airport makes money on the side by offering special lanes for paying passengers, it makes congestion among the 99.9% of passengers at the normal gates a positive for its bottom line, reducing the incentive to improve the situation.