ChristianPFC

That's disgusting! I'm just back from Myanmar, where I dealt with banknotes that are so dirty I would like to wash my hands after touching them. Those in Thailand look better, but still I wouldn't want to touch them with my lips.

I find online dating and social network extremely time consuming. Wake up 8 in the morning, have a quick look at hornet and blued and facebook, and suddenly it's 9! Same at night, after being out for sightseeing all day. Can easily spend an hour browsing profiles and chatting, and often without leading to meeting someone.

I almost got a boy from Senegal in Bangkok, it was just a matter of price, he wanted 1500 and I offered 1000. The boy from Madagascar in Pattaya was worth the 1000. My thought on African boys here: https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2017/09/black-boys.html

That's one of the reason why I avoid places with a minimum tip. During massage I see how it goes, and towards end I decide if I will have a happy ending or not. Which is the case in 1 out of 2 massages. At 5-10 massages per year, the sample is a bit low compared to others.

It is now run by an Irishman (?) and his Thai girlfriend (?). At least it was when I stayed there in June and August. Walk-in price 600 (low season) or 700 (high season), but online can be booked from 500.

Begin of this month I was going to stay at Happy Zone Inn (where I stayed last year on recommendation of a friend), but found it closed (out of business?). So I went to Viva Hotel where I got superior (?) room for 20 USD for first night and standard room for about 10 USD for second night. No complaints about the room, no problem with joiners. 100 m to Pub Street.

A&P is completely out of my price range; I aim for 10 to 15 USD per night when I'm in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. I went to their sauna once and found it okay. But I liked the other saunas better.

I'm very intested in African boys, but had only little chance to act on it. (If there was a gay scene somewhere in Africa, with hotels/public transport/sightseeing like in SEAsia, I would go there.) That one chance was a Madagascan in Pattaya (there were at least three I spoke with over the last years), who happily accepted 1000 for short time and was worth the money and would have gone with me again for the same tip.

For reason of their unreliability alone I would never get the idea to reserve a boy and pay a fee in advance. Going with the territory, I adapted the "here and now" mentality. Anyway, my bar hopping ends when I see a boy I want to take home. I wouldn't reserve him for later and go to other bars and come back to pick him up. Do others never have issues when reserving a boy for later? Even with promising an above average tip, I can think of all kinds of problems: communication, space-time-confusion, empty battery, family business, only one room key for all inhabitants.

I cannot leave that uncommented, lest others think 1500 is the going rate for short time in Pattaya. It is not! I'm paying 1000 for short time wherever I take boys (online, Eros, Nice Boys, Power Boys, Dream Boys Pattaya, Kawaii while it was open) and they queue/beg/implore me to go again with me. Others report the same. Only Toy Boys and Boys Boys Boys (and maybe A-Bomb?) try to push the rate to 1500, one of the reasons why I don't go to these bars.

Walking home from Silom Complex through Soi Sala Daeng, I noticed the soi blocked by police and electricity company cars and several utility poles broken, resulting in part of the soi being without electricity. The center of the accident seems to be at Senso, with structural damage to upper floors. As far as I can judge, it will take days until all damage is repaired and everywhere has electricity and data connection again.

The subject has been discussed in multiple threads, the most recent information here https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?17271-Saranrom-Park-news and on my blog. But the link by reader is new to me. As far as I can judge, those times are over.

There was a study somewhere (coconutsbangkok?) What the collected tips are used for. The low end of the scale was that all of it is used to pay part of the electricity bill, if my memory serves right. In Thailand, tipping leads to absurdities like getting shoulder massage at the urinal, or staff in toilet handing you a hot steamed towel to dry your hands after washing them, and expecting a tip for that.

Have you ever been in a taxi in Bangkok? They start at 35 THB and then go up in steps of 2 THB. To support DivineMadman's argumentation, we would need the wage of staff at 7-Eleven (or any other place that has lots of employees and where tipping is not common) with wait staff in the entertainment industry. But even if there is a discrepancy, I keep my argument that that's up to them to negotiate a wage they can live on. I have my own problems, I don't want to hear of any other person's problems (except friend's problems). I think the evil of tipping has been brought to the world by US-Americans. It's a nuisance, just like daylight saving time, that should be abolished (both, or throw in driving on the left or right side of the road, to make it three, and different power plugs, four). As for getting small change, that now goes automatically that pay with different notes/coins depending on place (1000 THB notes in 7-Eleven or in well lit, reputable places where I can see what's going on and have time to wait for change), exact amount everywhere dimly lit and where I don't want to wait for change. And always keep 3 x 10 THB coin in my room for the washing machine.

The express was more expensive and less frequent than the commuter train. I once calculated, and it was like wait 5 min for the commuter train and ride the train for 30 minutes, or wait 10 minutes for the express train and ride the train for 15 minutes. But there were time slots where the total time (wait and travel) was longer for the express than the commuter.

Tipping is like religion. Whether you believe in god or not, whether you tip or not, the outcome is the same. I can get sick and will finally die, just like someone who prays every day for health and long life. I get served in restaurants and bars just like people who tip. Coming back to my tipping of taxi drivers. For no money in the world would I want to drive a taxi in Bangkok. Whereas serving food or drinks requires no skills, even I could do it (although that would be a waste of my many talents). But while I look up to taxi drivers for their abilities to navigate Bangkok traffic and find their way, and tip them for that, I do not tip doctors. As has been said by others, tipping customs are inconsistent and illogical. (Tipping must be my favorite pet peeve, and prices in Soi Twilight a distant second, and public transport in Chiang Mai on third place.)

As far as I know, Thai embassies who issue the visa and immigration who grant entry to Thailand are different entities. Even if you have a visa, immigration officer can refuse entry.

I don't tip out of principle. I find the idea absurd. I pay the price in the menu. There is one exception: taxis. When I take a taxi in Bangkok and the last digit is 1 I round to to full ten, and from 3 to 9 I round up to full 10. Sometimes the driver gives me exact change, which I don't take. The reason? The traffic is awful and I'm so glad I'm sitting in the passenger's seat and not the driver's.

Tipping is the new religion, and I'm a non-believer. As far as I know, tipping is not customary in Thailand and was brought in by tourists and is limited to tourist areas. But staying with gogo bars, I don't tip general staff (but tip boys I touch 100 THB and boys I take home 1000 THB), and am greeted friendly by everyone every time I pass or enter. I like it simple. I want to know in advance how it will cost me. I disapprove of menus in restaurants where VAT and/or service charge will be added. I don't think about whom to tip how much, depending on where I am in the world, I don't tip.

Tipping airline crew? That idea is absurd! I used to tip inconsistently in the past (up to five years ago, sometimes 20 THB, sometimes nothing), but then stopped tipping altogether. I think it's incumbent on the business owner to pay his staff, I don't want to have anything to with it. I pay the goods I order, that's it. I usually stay in cheap hotels (300-500 THB in the provinces, in places like Chiang Mai or Phuket I would have to go up to 700, or if I want a certain location and a km further would not do or there is not much choice hotel-wise), where a tip would not be expected. And in gogo bars, well if I pay up to 200 THB for a drink, that should be enough to allow the owner/manager to pay his staff a decent wage?

No. I have limited (let's stay 3 times) and distant (let's say five years ago) experiences with songtheo as well. And as I said, it's one of my pet peeves, just make a post that has "Chiang Mai" and "songtheo" in it and I will tell for the umpteenth time what I think about the public transport system in Chiang Mai.

But Hua Hin has some songtheo lines that are clearly labelled and cost 10 (or is it 20? I don't remember clearly).

The public transport situation in Chiang Mai is one of my pet peeves, I could bitch endless about it. Only Phuket and Samui are worse. But the bus or songtheo in Bangkok or in the provinces is 7 or 9 THB, and even in Pattaya songtheo is only 10 THB. Intra-city bus lines in Chiang Mai. I have to try next time. (Inter-city would be between different cities.) I'm referring to one incident when I had to wait 10 minutes to cross from outside ringroad (around the moat) to inside ringroad, and there it appeared to me that in Bangkok we have at least pedestrian overpasses (and a few tunnels as well), whereas Chiang Mai has not! However, there are traffic lights in both, and I don't remember why I didn't cross at a traffic light. There are roads in Bangkok that are impassable unless you cross at a traffic light or pedestrian overpass. Although I once managed to cross Rama 4 road, and survived to tell the story, without using either (where the railway line crosses and there is no barrier in the middle).

Non-air-con buses are 6.5 Baht (no fan) or 9 Baht (fan). But that's all I look for in a hotel: bed, toilet and shower.

Bangkok. No aircon, but you can call it a restaurant as kitchen and furniture are fixed installation. Your questions are valid. Need more information than just price to compare.