Is the gay scene dying off ?

[bkkmfj2648]

2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Let me hazard a guess: the Pattaya city council or whatever they call themselves is obsessed with making their city a family friendly destination, and they are ultra sensitive to any marketing effort that still makes it look like sin city. Bangkok is more relaxed because the majority of tourists it gets are 'morally upright' visitors anyway, whose primary interests are temples, malls, food, chatuchak, malls, food....

Thanks for your reply regarding this need to maintain this  'artificial' image of Pattaya/Jomtien.

But this does not explain why Chiang Mai, Phuket, and small Hat Yai are all allowed to have similar marketing strategies and methodologies for massage services as found in Bangkok.

[Olddaddy]

On 12/21/2023 at 7:54 PM, Department_Of_Agriculture said:

Sunee Plaza began to die when the police finally began to get serious about cracking down on underaged boys in the bars and those who used to hang around that area, generally. No, not all the bars in Sunee offered underaged boys and not everyone who went there was into that sort of thing but Sunee was a hotbed of that kind of thing. Once the police started cracking down in earnest, the gaps started showing very quickly. As the lights went out for good in some bars and as many "Sunee fans" stopped coming, the place lost momentum. Good riddance. Sunee was a shit hole and far cry from what Boyztown or Soi Twilight were.

It is sad that on another forum, which now largely consists of the owner speaking to himself, that period is still described as the good old days, with a little nudge and wink.

Lol... great post, I agree 

A bit disturbing to see you have 6 down arrows though .

a lot of those (sick) "old" men back then that used to frequent that Sunee  area wernt what I would classify as "gay" 

they just pretended to be part of the gay community, of course nowadays most wouldn't accept them as such 

I was a little shocked to see your last paragraph mentioning another forum owner and his alleged comments,I always thought he ( if it's the one you allege) came across  to me as a man with integrity certainly not a person I liked but I always thought of him a person with high morals , I'm disappointed I was wrong , very sad to think ,just proves they hide their true nature , but yes that shocked me ,but it is what it is 

Also if I recall one former bar owner in that Sunee area f Liverpool UK , is still serving his 15 year jail sentence back  in the UK , probably would be in protection if he is still in there ,but I'm going back around 10 years so he may be out .

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kokopelli3]

8 hours ago, Olddaddy said:

 

I was a little shocked to see your last paragraph mentioning another forum owner and his alleged comments,I always thought he ( if it's the one you allege) came across  to me as a man with integrity certainly not a person I liked but I always thought of him a person with high morals , I'm disappointed I was wrong , very sad to think ,just proves they hide their true nature , but yes that shocked me ,but it is what it is 

More bullshit!  Do you believe everything you read, especially from an unreliable source?

[Shonen]

16 hours ago, Olddaddy said:

Lol... great post, I agree 

A bit disturbing to see you have 6 down arrows though .

a lot of those (sick) "old" men back then that used to frequent that Sunee  area wernt what I would classify as "gay" 

they just pretended to be part of the gay community, of course nowadays most wouldn't accept them as such 

I was a little shocked to see your last paragraph mentioning another forum owner and his alleged comments,I always thought he ( if it's the one you allege) came across  to me as a man with integrity certainly not a person I liked but I always thought of him a person with high morals , I'm disappointed I was wrong , very sad to think ,just proves they hide their true nature , but yes that shocked me ,but it is what it is 

Also if I recall one former bar owner in that Sunee area f Liverpool UK , is still serving his 15 year jail sentence back  in the UK , probably would be in protection if he is still in there ,but I'm going back around 10 years so he may be out .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, a lot of those sick old men probably weren’t gay. They just were straight men who enjoyed bottoming and giving blow jobs.

[Olddaddy]

3 hours ago, Shonen said:

Yeah, a lot of those sick old men probably weren’t gay. They just were straight men who enjoyed bottoming and giving blow jobs.

Are you referring to the post I'm replying to ?

I referring to the pedophiles the post was mentioning ,I doubt they are accepted by the gay community anywhere in the world 🌎

 

 

[vinapu]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:29 PM, reader said:

Granted many of those came that far down the soi were looking for Dream Boy ...The offs were legendary in numbers and you rarely heard a complaint about service.

Unfortunately I need very strongly to disagree with the last line even if I agree with your post .  My worst ever off in 30 odd trips was from Dreamboys ( in short he refused to undress and get if the phone for good 1/2 hr in the room before I kicked him out) and he still demanded full tip even calling mamasan to intervene.

Ever since ( Nov 2013 I think) when comes to offing guys I,m biggest homphobe of them all - he was fem gay

[vinapu]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:22 PM, macaroni21 said:

 Bangkok is more relaxed because the majority of tourists it gets are 'morally upright' visitors anyway, whose primary interests are temples, malls, food, chatuchak, malls, food....

And girls

[BangkokDreamer]

On 1/27/2024 at 3:43 AM, bkkmfj2648 said:

I comment about the massage scene in Pattaya (Jomtien).

As per the below Supertown Jomtien Complex webpage there are 10 massage shops noted by said web site administrator.  Of which 9 are gay - where the Thai Blind Massage I do not know if they are gay even though they reside within the walls of the complex.

 

I lament about the Jomtien massage scene because it is so disorganized when compared to the super sophisticated way that the Bangkok massage places market their masseurs.  There is practically ZERO marketing for the Jomtien masseurs and near ZERO use of marketing technologies (i.e., Line, Twitter, webpages, etc.)  In Bangkok, there are Line sites for most of the massage shops with pictures of the masseurs with information about their preferences.  Then there is sometimes a booking system via Line or Twitter to obtain time with your favorite masseur.

Bangkok has a couple of EXCELLENT chat and review systems that are enabled in Line.  I joined 3 of them via Twitter, at:

• B_u_X: Massage Addicted - Twitter ID = @Massageaddictt1 - if you agree with his terms of engagement you can become a member for a small fee of 300 baht per year.  Once you pay to his PromptPay, he will allow you to enter into his private Line Group where you will have access to the Chat, monthly .pdf masseur reviews, OpenChat, and promotional discounts and coupons.  Note that everything is in Thai - but I just use Google Translate and I do quite well communicating.  I find the monthly .pdf reviews VERY interesting (to translate these .pdf documents you need to use the Google Translate image translate function for each single page - cumbersome but FULL of very useful information - like how did the sex and/or happy ending go and the related rating of the masseur given by the designated rater).  His Line group (B_u_X Massage Addicted By Bung) has 2,459 members and the chat is VERY active and busy.  see sample screen shot below.

• Massage Insider - Twitter ID = @massageinside3 -  if you agree with his terms of engagement you can become a member for a small fee of 300 baht per year.  Once you pay to his Thai bank account, he will allow you to enter into his private Line Group where you will have access to the Chat, monthly (and sometimes weekly) masseur reviews (note that the reviews are written in Line in the Notes section in Thai - but you just click on the translate button in Line and you instantly see everything in English), OpenChat, and promotional discounts and coupons.  Note that everything is in Thai - but I just use Google Translate and I do quite well communicating. His Line group (M Community) has 2,690 members and the chat is VERY active and busy.  see sample screen shot below.

• Planet Worldz Massage - Twitter ID = @PlanetWorldX - his group is more expensive @500 baht for 1 year.  I have not yet joined - but I am very tempted as I like what his offering is:

1.   Massage reviews in Line with the possibility of xxx photos from the actual massage that was reviewed,
2.   Weekly updates in Line and also on Twitter,
3.   Twitter access to thrilling clips with an emphasis on the xxx parts,
4.    Line group chat access.

I note that the emphasis on the above 3 groups are primarily focused on Bangkok, but with some emphasis on Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai, and even Japan (occasionally).  There was ZERO focus on Pattaya.

So, my question to all of you is - why is Pattaya SO difficult and disorganized for massages ?

I asked some of my Thai Jomtien based massage friends and they say that the local police in Jomtien/Pattaya have a FIRM control over them and that is why you don't see any of them having personal line profiles, booking systems, massage shop web pages, etc.

Is this true?

If so, why would the local police want to stranglehold the local massage industry in Pattaya/Jomtien when it has the potential to be vibrant like in Chiang Mai, Phuket, or even small Hat Yai - which has 3 massage shops down in the conservative southern part of Thailand??

Perplexed in Jomtien......

 

Besides these groups, are there any others?

[bkkmfj2648]

46 minutes ago, BangkokDreamer said:

Besides these groups, are there any others?

As I wrote that more than 1 year ago - additional LINE groups have come to the fore.

Massage Insider+ was invented as a NEW additional value added group to give more content with more juicy content.  You can ask permission to join - for a small fee by contacting Keisha - who is the administrator listed in my January 2024 post.

 

MIMA PARTY   This is a new LINE group that was recently born as a way to organize the soon to occur MIMA Party - which is scheduled for 15 March 2025.  MIMA PARTY was created as a joint collaboration by the already existing LINE groups = Massage Addicted + Massage Insider.  This 15 March 2025 event will be their FIRST attempt at this type of party and is limited to the first 120 people who sign up to join.

The MIMA PARTY could be seen as an alternative to the Crete the Party events that are organized in Bangkok  --> as the MIMA PARTY's focus is to give exposure to the top massage shops and their staff that are located in Bangkok.  Whereas, the Crete the Party is to give exposure to Bangkok male models - who may not have anything to do with the Bangkok massage business.

 

Here is the link to the MIMA PARTY thread in this forum = gayguides.com

 

PlanetWorld Official  - This is a private LINE group created by this masseur who gives massages out of his condo in Bangkok.  In addition, he also visits other massage shops all over Thailand and also in Japan and then he reports to his LINE subscribers how those experiences were.  His group does require a small fee to join.

 

For the below LINE group - I do not have a name for it as it is all in Thai - it is for a freelance masseur who visits Bangkok for 1 or 2 weeks every 6 to 8 weeks.  He was being promoted by KEISHA within the existing Massage_Insider LINE groups for a long time, and then he created his own LINE as shown below.  He is a HOT muscle guy and I have not yet tried his services.

 

This all I am aware of - but remember that I live in Jomtien and not in Bangkok.  Perhaps our forum members who actually live in Bangkok can share with us any additional LINE groups ??

enjoy

 

[PeterRS]

On 12/21/2023 at 3:54 PM, Department_Of_Agriculture said:

Sunee Plaza began to die when the police finally began to get serious about cracking down on underaged boys in the bars and those who used to hang around that area, generally. No, not all the bars in Sunee offered underaged boys and not everyone who went there was into that sort of thing but Sunee was a hotbed of that kind of thing. Once the police started cracking down in earnest, the gaps started showing very quickly.

As one who rarely visited Pattaya, I recall just one when inadvertently my friends and I found ourselves in a bar with underaged boys. Frankly we found it sickening and quickly exited. Although that memory is hazy, I think it was around 2000. At that time, assuming my year is approximately correct, having looked into quite a few other bars before settling in one, we noticed no other catering to that diseased market. By our next visit perhaps 2, 3 or even 4 years later, that bar had gone and others like Krazy Dragon opened (that's all I remember of that second trip)! But the point of my post is that the rest of Sunee still seemed quite busy despite the crackdown. In fact, was it not still busy around 2010? I'm merely curious to find out if indeed most consider it was the police crackdown which was the spark which led to the start of Sunee's demise?

On 1/26/2024 at 11:13 PM, macaroni21 said:

The Bangkok gogo business: A part of me thinks their days are numbered. I would say that they are being killed by two things: the tea money and the horrible strategic mistake the market leaders made to expose themselves to the general public through relying on the non-sex-buying customer.

I recall a number of threads in which the death knell for Bangkok's gogo bars has been sounded. I know more recent members are sick and tired of those who talk of how different the bars are from the "good old" days and I will not go down that path. Besides, apart from having to find the toilet in Banana Bar when having drinks outside with another member quite recently, I have not been inside a bar for years. I merely want to make a point about tea money.

Years ago I was a regular with a good friend on Sundays at Solid Bar which some will recall was just down from Mango Tree restaurant. It was a simple bar compared to those on Twilight. When it closed after a few years, one of the mamasans opened a tiny beer bar on Twilight slightly further into the soi from Dick's and on the same side. We'd sometimes chat to him over a drink and he'd give us the latest updates on some of the soi's goings on. At one point he brought up the issue of tea money. In that year, he told us that gogo bars paid Bt. 160,000 per month; beer bars Bt. 40,000. My guess is that this was about 8 years ago. Whether the rate varied according to high/lpw seasons we did not ask. But we were surprised how high the amounts were.

On 1/26/2024 at 11:13 PM, macaroni21 said:

Exposure: When the gogo bars began to welcome hordes of straight tourists, they basically put a jinx on their staff recruitment. It gets harder to recruit when the gogo boy is expected to put himself on stage for people to gawk at them, even worse then he is expected to be part of an explicit show. The calculus is like this: The boy will do it if there is a high chance of an off. But if the great majority of the audience are only there to gawk, the boy earns little for "shaming" himself. So recruitment falls off a cliff.

Here again I believe @macaroni21 hits the proverbial nail on the head. When the younger Asian gay tourists started to come to Bangkok in quite large numbers, the majority came primarily for massages after which they and their friends (many came in small groups) would head off either to a gogo bar but only to watch the show before ending up in DJ Station or another club to dance the rest of their night away. Offing a gogo boy was not on the agenda for most. I had also noticed on a couple of websites located in other Asian countries, when considering Thailand a large majority of the posters wanted information of the best massage places and the best masseurs. Information about gogo bars was far from a priority. Maybe things have changed, but if you do combine a large percentage of Asian tourists together with straight tourists and neither group is particularly interested in offing boys, surely the bar owners have a problem that has no immediate resolution.

I'm curious to know if those patronising the bars agree or not.

[bkkmfj2648]

6 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

I'm merely curious to find out if indeed most consider it was the police crackdown which was the spark which led to the start of Sunee's demise?

I was not around in those peak Sunee Plaza years so what I can offer are the words that I heard directly from the owner of the M Bar - Madam M, which is in the Jomtien Complex.  

She told me that back in the day she had GREAT success with a popular bar (I do not remember its name) in Sunee Plaza.  She told me that she moved for a while to Boyztown - after the demise of Sunee Plaza due to the frequent police raids due to the problem of underage workers employed by some of the Sunee bars (never in her bar).  The police were aggressively targeting said bars as this issue had been exposed in the international press and was harming Thailand's reputation.

She told me that she eventually left Boyztown and moved to the Jomtien Complex (Supertown) in July 2022 - as she told me that the Jomtien Complex is "protected" by the Thai Army / or Airforce (I do not remember exactly which branch of the Military she stated) - if I understood correctly - as the property of the complex is under their jurisdiction.  She said that this helps to survive from the frequent incursions that were occurring by the local Pattaya police - as there is a fiefdom turf war within the greater Pattaya area - in that the Thai Army / Airforce may be the "administrator" of the Jomtien Complex and NOT the local Pattaya police. 

However, she told me that the Thai immigration still perform their occasional checks for illegal aliens and workers in the Jomtien Complex - as they have a higher mandate over all of the above mentioned entities.

Can anyone here substantiate and/or correct what I wrote ?

I find all of this fascinating - because these prior turf wars allow us to understand how things work or don't work now in 2025.

 

[PeterRS]

25 minutes ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

Can anyone here substantiate and/or correct what I wrote ?

I find all of this fascinating - because these prior turf wars allow us to understand how things work or don't work now in 2025.

I'm sorry I cannot substantiate anything re Pattaya. But the demarcation lines between the army and the police have been around for many decades. When Thaksin became Prime Minister in 2001, he had at one time been a senior police officer. He was therefore heavily guarded by the police.

Years earlier I had hoped to do some business dealings with a well-known businessman named Sondhi Limthongkul. He was a Thai media mogul whose empire included The Manager monthly magazine in Thailand and the Asia-wide Manager Magazine run out of Hong Kong. At the time he propogated anti-army views in his publications. As a result he had a police bodyguard all the time. He told me about the distinct division between the two forces and neither liked the other. It appears that after bankruptcy during the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, he eventually switched allegiances. Neither helped him when he was then jailed for fraud and insulting the monarchy!

[macaroni21]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

At one point he brought up the issue of tea money. In that year, he told us that gogo bars paid Bt. 160,000 per month;

I don't know when Solid Bar closed. Was it around 2015? If it was, and tea money was then 160,000 baht per month, then my (*educated?) guess would be that it is now around 240,000 a month.

*Educated because my main area of expertise is business economics.

How do I arrive at that? 

Drinks prices would be a good indicator. Drinks prices and under-the-table money are connected in ways like a snake swallowing its own tail, as in most protection-money rackets.

When the takers demand higher amounts, the bars would likely raise drinks prices by a similar percentage to compensate. But the takers also monitor the bars' prices, so when they see the bars raising prices, they up their demands.

This dynamic is true the world over where there is corruption and/or protection-money practices.

I reckon drinks prices have increased about 50% since around 2015, thus I reckon the brown envelope would need to be fatter by the same degree.

However, because drinks price increases turn off customers, the 50% increase in prices do not translate to 50% more overall revenue. Quite possibly overall revenue may be flat because of falling attendance.

This long term trend explains the sickly state of the industry. The number of gogo bars are fewer now compared to, say, 2010, and the average crowd size per bar also smaller.

Just compare recent reports of customer numbers in Atlas with the numbers we used to see in Tawan pre-Covid.

[PeterRS]

57 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

I don't know when Solid Bar closed. Was it around 2015?

Looking back via the Search Engine, I see a post made on December 29 2013 by @firecat69 referring to the recent closure of two bars - Solid and Heartbeat. So Solid probably must have closed its doors that summer and your estimates of the content of present day brown envelopes might be a little higher. 

Heartbeat was an unusual twink/femboy bar on the opposite side of Suriwong from Twilight and on the right side at the end of a one-way soi down Suriwong but before you got to Patpong 2. In the centre was a large dancing space. On the right side it had 4 or 5 semi-closed plush banquettes where the boys were always happy for a bit of gentle hanky panky. It was a lousy location unless you needed a place to park a car. I think it lasted little more than 18 months.

[macaroni21]

2 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

She told me that she eventually left Boyztown and moved to the Jomtien Complex (Supertown) in July 2022 - as she told me that the Jomtien Complex is "protected" by the Thai Army / or Airforce (I do not remember exactly which branch of the Military she stated) - if I understood correctly - as the property of the complex is under their jurisdiction. 

Indeed, the way the Thai military is set up, it is almost feudal. Centuries ago in Europe, kings never maintained large standing armies. As and when fighting forces were needed, kings would call upon their fiefs (barons, manorial lords, counts, dukes) to supply soldiers to whatever defence or offensive campaign the king wanted to launch.

These feudal lords often had to finance their regiments themselves. “Private” soldiers were basically their serfs who were obliged to perform military service whenever called upon or mercenaries who had to be paid (thus the rank “private”)

To enable the feudal lords to have the wherewithal to provide soldiers, the king would grant these lords longstanding rights to their assigned lands (fiefs). The lords essentially have the taxation rights and share of farm produce that those lands could yield.

The Thai military operates in ways strikingly similar to this. The king (a century or more ago) carved out huge economic areas (including land rights) that the military could exploit to raise money for itself. The income earned is off the national budget.

However, in the decades since, the idea that revenue accrued from economic uses of fief lands would help pay for army personnel and equipment has since been corrupted. Now the revenue is also used to pay for generals’ (and their wives’) lavish lifestyles.

It is hardly surprising that the military would brook no interference from other baronial lords (be they the modern police, city mayors, party leaders, even sitting cabinet ministers) with their fiefdom. Such interference is seen as an existential threat.

Read this article: https://fulcrum.sg/thailands-new-defence-minister-keeping-the-armed-forces-sweet/  It points out that until 2023, 58 previous defence ministers were serving military officers. Only 5 were civilian, but they were concurrently prime ministers. No government apparently dared to appoint a civilian as defence minister to oversee that fief, unless the PM himself took the job (and probably wouldn’t have much time to interfere in military affairs).

The aborted expansion of U-Tapao airport is case in point. It sits on military land, with huge tracts of surrounding areas also military. It was all every well for the civilian government to announce an expansion of the airport to boost tourism to the Pattaya and Ranong region, but as far as the military was concerned, this would only eat into their land holdings, with new revenue perhaps flowing out to the Airports Authority, non-military agencies, airlines and private businesses (King Power group, anyone?).

Hardly a surprise to hear that airport expansion is now on hold. Perhaps furious negotiations are underway as to what percentage share of revenues from the expanded airport should flow back to the barons-with-many-medals-on-their chests?

[macaroni21]

Oh, I just remembered. Among other fiefs given to the military was the right to operate a civilian airline. This was given to the Baron of the Royal Thai Air Force. Thai Airways was theirs until they ran it to the ground... I think the air force still has a stake in it, thus accounting for its continuing inefficiency as a business operation.

Then there was the question of the civilian radio and tv airwaves spectrum. I don't know about the current situation, but not too long ago, the military controlled the rights to the spectrum. All radio and tv broadcasters had to pay the military for use of their radio bands. Until Thaksin came along, I think.

 

[PeterRS]

5 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Oh, I just remembered. Among other fiefs given to the military was the right to operate a civilian airline. This was given to the Baron of the Royal Thai Air Force. Thai Airways was theirs until they ran it to the ground... I think the air force still has a stake in it, thus accounting for its continuing inefficiency as a business operation.

I can remember walking through London in the 1970s seeing gorgeous posters in travel agent windows with lots of purple advertising THAI. They looked so enticing! But The THAI we know today started as a joint venture with SAS. I know there was a domestic carrier which was eventually merged with THAI in the late 1980s. I expect this must have been the one run by the Air Force. 

I wonder if there is any less efficient airline in Asia? Having purchased its ten A340s primarily for the New York, LAX and some European routes, it could only make money with huge business class cabins. And they did not sell. So use of the aircraft ceased ten years after the first one was received and most of the aircraft basically left to rot. I understand 3 are at Don Mueang and 6 at U-Tapao. The 4-engine A340 died as an attractive plane ages ago.

Similarly with its fleet of six A380s. Instead fo flying them off to dry desert locations in Australia or the USA when covid hit, THAI's management left them at BKK - slowly rotting. There was a post here a few months back that while many other airlines have reactivied their A380s, the cost of total maintenance and refurbishment of the THAI fleet is vastly too high. I believe they are on the market for just US$30 million each. After endless management changes and debt restructuring, THAI just cannot get it right!

[Department_Of_Agriculture]

11 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

She told me that back in the day she had GREAT success with a popular bar (I do not remember its name) in Sunee Plaza.  She told me that she moved for a while to Boyztown - after the demise of Sunee Plaza due to the frequent police raids due to the problem of underage workers employed by some of the Sunee bars (never in her bar).  The police were aggressively targeting said bars as this issue had been exposed in the international press and was harming Thailand's reputation.

Well, this is an amusing post. Here we have a former Sunee bar owner saying exactly what I said in my 2023 post and yet for actually daring to say it out loud, I was rewarded with 6 red arrows from the Sunee fans. Hilarious.

As I said:

Sunee Plaza began to die when the police finally began to get serious about cracking down on underaged boys in the bars and those who used to hang around that area, generally. No, not all the bars in Sunee offered underaged boys and not everyone who went there was into that sort of thing but Sunee was a hotbed of that kind of thing. Once the police started cracking down in earnest, the gaps started showing very quickly.

[macaroni21]

Yes, in those days, there were two airlines. Thai International was the joint venture with SAS and only flew international routes. Thai Airways was the domestic carrier. I reckon SAS wouldn't have wanted to get involved in domestic routes within Thailand.

In those days, virtually all airlines outside of the USA were State-owned and operated. So Thailand's 50% stake in Thai International (or was it 51%?) and 100% stake in Thai Airways would be held by the government of Thailand. The government then passed it on to the Air Force as part of the Air Force's fief. I obviously don't have proof, but I heard from several sources that only ex-Air Force pilots would be considered for Thai International's cockpit positions (not so sure about Thai Airways).

I recently had the misfortune of flying Thai (economy) on an intra-SE Asia route. Just 2 - 3 hours. The seats were almost falling apart, with one of my armrests somewhat shaky at the hinge. Across the aisle, the seat wouldn't fully go back to the upright position to the annoyance of the passenger in the seat behind it. The movie options were hopelessly limited with mostly B-grade movies from 10 years ago. The music options even more pathetic, unless I am mistaken, there wasn't a classical music channel. The flight route app was not the kind where one could magnify, rotate the map etc through touching the screen. What you see was what you got. Period.

Don't even get me started on the meal options; mostly carbo (noodles or steamed rice) with a tiny portion of meat. If I remember correctly, the main course was in cardboard boxes.

[macaroni21]

Oh yes, one of the toilets was out of order throughout the entire flight. And the flight was late by 90 minutes.

[macaroni21]

I was confused. It felt like a typical flight within the U S of A.

[khaolakguy]

Thai friends whose airline of choice to Europe used to be Thai(perhaps out of national pride or convenience) choose other airlines nowadays. 

[vinapu]

in last 2 years ( 23-24 ) I flew Thai on 4 occasions  between BKK and Zurich , Frankfurt or Tokyo and was happy each time. I'd fly them more often as I like to enter country on it's national airline  but unfortunately their prices are not that competitive and my love of 200$ is bigger that of my love of Thai

[reader]

On 1/28/2024 at 2:33 AM, Olddaddy said:

I was a little shocked to see your last paragraph mentioning another forum owner and his alleged comments,I always thought he ( if it's the one you allege) came across  to me as a man with integrity certainly not a person I liked but I always thought of him a person with high morals , I'm disappointed I was wrong , very sad to think ,just proves they hide their true nature , but yes that shocked me ,but it is what it is 

You can find scores of members who look back with fondness on the old days in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Pattaya. That does not constitute an endorsement of illicit or illegal activities. We should exercise great caution before we assassinate another member’s character based on alleged innuendo. 

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, reader said:

You can find scores of members who look back with fondness on the old days in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Pattaya. 

and there are those who fondly dream about their next trip knowing that what is gone is gone. World is changing and so do we