anddy

Well in my opinion there is no "Christmas spirit" in Bangkok or any other country or city in the region. As a westerner you may perceive such spirit because of the xmas decorations and the xmas carols being played everywhere, but if you're Thai (SE-Asian) I don't think you'll feel any sort of xmas spirit that my this year be squashed by the mourning. Christmas is a purely commercial affair here IMO. As for big NYE events, yes that remains to be seen. Given that WP is behind closed doors I'd think that it can go on with no or at most very limited scaling down. That kind of thing is happening even now while we are still in the 30 mourning period.

I don't think anyone said it does not exist, but only that it's difficult to find. A gogo boy only needs to meet two of your criteria, one of which you can already gauge right in the bar, so only the other remains to be seen in the room. With massage, you can't really gauge any of the criteria, as one doesn't spend time with the guy over a drink first. So that and the added skill required make it logically more difficult to hit the jackpot. But not impossible, which where DM's frequent sampling advice comes in At Prime seriously do not expect a HE. Yes it does happen, maybe even often, but I've had guys there stubbornly ignoring a raging hard-on during the massage there. I'm not the guy asking for it, I just go with the flow, i.e. if he starts doing it (or asks) I go for it, of not, then not. Having said that, my good-massage guy there is Rut, been 7+ years with Prime. However, what's a good massage is also a matter of taste, you may like a different style than I do. I go for his oil massage (tried him on Thai massage once just to see, but wasn't so impressed), which is very strong and deep, with lots of elbow use on the back which I sometimes need. He is no stranger to HE, in fact I got it once or twice from him, on another occasion he offered it but I declined, but generally I don't really want it from him, it's his massage I want. Need to book in advance. Banana does have a line up, the one time I went maybe 6 months ago it was maybe 20-30 guys. Given the single visit, I'm not in a position to make a recommendation. Prince and Arena have been mentioned yes, but don't make any decisions before yo heard from vinapu haha. In fact I know he also likes Senso, which is small and on the expensive side, but from his reviews and comments I remember he has always had a good time. I can confirm that somewhat in that I took a US friend there who wanted what you want and he was very happy. He followed my advice (i.e. vinapu's) to pick the most smiling guy. That carries little weight, though, as it is only a single sample and only indirect, you may call it hearsay. But again, wait for vinapu... With BurBoy that would be expected to be passionate, being (temporary) bf's already. Jasper was presumably talking about a massage shop situation of course And now to vinapu..... when he resurfaces lol

if anyone is in Bangkok and wants to get the book at a bargain price, the Nelson Hayes Library on Surawong is (unfortunately) selling their copy (copies?): https://www.facebook.com/events/762339550536045/permalink/804396276330372/

where exactly is that? A quick google search returned nothing at all.... You say you wouldn't have picked that guy, but how would you have known in advance that it would turn out that way that you didn't like? As for selecting at Prime in general, it seems to me the default there is NOT to select but to be assigned the next in line. Only upon request will they give an ipad to select from pictures. That policy makes sense in that if it's about legit, non-hanky-panky massage the looks of the masseur don't matter. I have two regulars there, and if I want one of them I call ahead and make a reservation.

clearly a question for the supreme massage expert vinapu The only thing I think I can safely say is that there is not THE one massage place where you are virtually guaranteed to get your three menu items. The guys are human after all, so it all depends on the individual you choose. In that regard, your experience with selecting bar boys for offs will surely help. Though that skill, paired with vinapu's timeless advice of picking the guy who smiles the most at you will do nothing to get you item number 1, i.e. a great massage. For that you may have to rely on mamasan's advice. As with regular massage shops (such as The Prime in Silom soi 6), there are some full-service gay shops who seem to place more importance on the massage skills and training of their staff than others, so going to one of those should be the first criterion to select the shop. Which one that may be I leave to others to elaborate on.

haha no I didn't type it up, that would be too much! I scanned the pages and then copied the text from the resulting pdf. Could have taken pictures of the pages, too, but this seemed kinda easier.

further to my post about Patpong being private property, here is the history of it, taken from the highly recommended book 22 WALKS IN BANGKOK by Kenneth Barrett available at Asia Books in Bangkok or Amazon

you're not white, and by the same token you are not farang, even though you're born and raised in farang-land. What they'd call you I actually don't know, but will try to find out I haven't made any plans at all yet for NYE, so I may or may not go to the white party. I might actually let myself be "dragged" there by you lol. Will also have to see who else might be going with me... I don't think it will be scaled down, if it's on, it's on. Even now the vibe in bars and presumably (I haven't been to DJ myself since the King passed away) DJ is normal, as Alexx already pointed out. A friend told me it was very busy at DJ last week, and that was not even the weekend. So another month and a half down the road I expect nightlife to be fully back to normal Life does goes on, and everyone, including people in the night entertainment business, need to make a living. The government has made clear that things may and should continue even during the 30 day mourning period, just with some adjustments where appropriate.

might as well disclose it as it was publicly available on booking.com. The rate was US$ 260 per night for the villa, which may sound expensive, BUT: - the regular rate was I think about $100 higher - the villa has 2 bedrooms, so it is only $130 per room, and if you's stay with 2 people per room it works out to only $75 per person per night - breakfast, cooked to order daily inside the villa by the maid, is included, too That I think is cheap for what you get, a very large comfortable villa with a nice garden and pool, where you can actually spend an entire day (you wouldn't spend a day in a hotel room) and where you have complete privacy, i.e. can sunbathe and swim nude if you are so inclined

just back from a really nice trip to Bali. It was nice because I was with friends and we just had a good time. As my friends had never been to Bali, one day we did a tour to the monkey forest in Ubud and from there to two interesting temples. The tour was booked with and arranged by Dani, the new Bali addition to siamroads.com. Recommended, very responsive guy, answering all queries (through whatsapp) right away. Other days were mostly spent on the beach or just by the private pool of our villa, allowing naked sunbathing and swimming. Also, we could hang out with an old (old as in long time, not an old guy lol) friend of mine there, who also took us to a somewhat remote beach in Nusa Dua, much nicer than Kuta/Seminyak beach and almost only locals there. The gay bars are a 3 minute walk from the villa, which was very convenient. Like Ryan said they are a bit heavy on lip-synching drag acts, but fun can be had and we did. Didn't make it to any of the dance clubs. No gay dance club exists, and unfortunately the days of the amazing club 66 (pronounced double-six) are long gone now. Anyway, I had promised to report on the villa here. In short: it was superb, we totally loved it. Yes, it is a bit old, but not really tired. Has nice wood furnishings which lend it character, is SUPER spacious and has a decent size pool which allowed for actual swimming, not just a plunge pool. We had a 2-bedroom villa, each bedroom having its own HUGE semi-outdoor bathroom. The common areas (living "room", dining area, kitchen) as well as the bathrooms are open, only the bedrooms are closed rooms with aircon That's typical Balinese open concept design, which i personally love. It is great to be inside the large living area but outside at the same time. As my Bali friend told me new villas are usually much smaller than old ones simply because land prices have gone up so much, so that's clearly an advantage of old villas. Ryan had commented on kitchens in one of the posts above, I can't really say much other than it seemed to have everything necessary (including a large fridge, doubling as a minibar) to cook breakfast every morning, which was done by our personal maid at a time we could determine at our will. Great not to be bound by hotel breakfast times, which almost always end too early, especially if you go out late at night. Booking was made through booking.com at a very cheap pre-paid non-refundable rate. Their own website is www.balidyanavillas.com/

fair enough@!

I live there and I'm in the camp liking it MUCH better with the market. I don't want to live in a dead including the city (or area) the land of the entire street including the land/buildings along it are indeed private property (of a Thai-Chinese family business if I remember correctly) and therefore not subject to any city regulations regarding markets in public areas. I forgot the details of the history of this, but can look it up once back in BKK next week (travelling at the moment)

well yes Green massage is there, too, just adjacent to Art, i.e. a little bit more to the left of Tarntawan driveway. that's the thing, you don't spend any money in a normal massage shop (other than for the massage itself). I.e. if nothing happens, no extra spending aka tip. If things (aka extras) happen, you will tip accordingly. So no risk of wasted money

I'm like Nasherich, I like the suspense And I like a good massage, for that matter, so I always leave "happy" one way or another For everyone's info: Art massage apparently has 2 branches, as I drove by I saw one right next to Soi Twilight, in addition to the one in front of Tarntawan. @Nasherich: who did the massage at Dr. Bear Sukhumvit? I understand that there it's Stephane the (French I believe) owner. True or is there other staff as well?

I'll go to Bali next week with friends and we stay at Dyana Villas which is right behind gay street (Jl Dhyana Pura), only 200m to the gay bars. 600m or so to the beach. They are older villas, according to some tripadvisor reports a bit dated and slightly worn, but my local Bali friend told me they are still very good. We chose mainly for the location. I don't care if a little bit of paint comes off some walls if the overall ambiance and service are nice. Bookable via booking.com, by the way, so no risk of scam. Also, they were very responsive, texting me right away after the reservation through the booking.com app, inquiring about flight details and offering airport transfer, which at only 200k rupiah I gladly accepted, coz if I remember correctly a regular taxi from the airport was not much heaper at 150k last time I went 2 years ago. Can report back when I'm back.

while the "official" mourning period may be 1 year, that just means that (a) they will wait that long until the royal cremation at Sanam Luang will take place and (b) that government employees are requested or required to wear only black/white for that period. As for the general public, people are asked to, and presumably will, wear black/white for 30 days. The national flag at government buildings will be half-mast for (only) 30 days as well. Entertainment is asked to be "toned down" for 30 days as well, whatever that means, but it obviously does not imply a ban entailing closure of bars etc., as evidenced by bars and even some night clubs (such as G.O.D.) being open last night. Silom Soi 4 looked open tonight, too, but only saw it from the opposite side tonight.

Silom Soi 4 is/was open as usual tonight, just back from there. Maybe quieter than normal Fridays (some patron made a comment to that effect), and it seemed to me there were hardly any Thais but the vast majority was foreigners (both tourists and expats) Was told DJ Station was closed (unsurprisingly to me), but G.O.D. is open (surprisingly to me) Also, a bar boy form Soi twilight told me the bars there were open yesterday and would be open tonight (he did go to work) That's tonight though, and of course doesn't necessarily mean it will be the same tomorrow or in the next 4 weeks....

interesting, thanks for the correction. I just concluded from their complete absence from any public streets that they don't exist and didn't bother googling diesel bikes coz it doesn't make much sense as the article confirms. Nevertheless I have to correct myself and say they surely don't exist on the streets of Siem Reap or Bangkok or any other place in the region I agree on "wouldn't manage" 3 boys haha

there is no such thing as "diesel fumes" from motorbikes, motorbikes with diesel engines do not exist. They either run on regular petrol (4-stroke engine) or a mix of petrol and oil (2-stroke engine). The latter are much louder than the 4-strokes, and emit smelly fumes. Luckily, they are few and far between these days, as most motorbikes in the region are modern japanese 4 stroke models. SR closer to SR - I would think so LOL! ok enough, smart-ass mode OFF! ambitious goal, yet again! Gotta admire your drive! Feeling sad about the departure from Cambodia as well, but looking forward to new stories with DTG

that sounds very expensive, or rather sounds like buying a brand new one. Why not buy a decent 2nd hand one? I bought mine for only 24k Baht or roughly $700, 3 years old with 15k km (about 10k miles) on it. Been driving it for a year with no problems whatsoever. That way he could get started much sooner. Buying brand new is a waste of money IMO. Hmmm, off someone in SR... it seemed it would be a romantic last night with CB.... but we shall see in the (as always) highly anticipated next instalment :-)

Ta Phrom is not the only one to have been consumed by the jungle, in fact ALL of the ancient temples there have (maybe except Angkor Wat itself due to the moat), but on all others they have removed the trees in the restoration process. Only on Ta Phrom they intentionally left (some) of the trees to give visitors the impression of what things looked like when the whole thing was rediscovered. So that implies you didn't make it to the Bayon? That's a pity as it is as fascinating as Ta Phrom is mesmerizing. With the faces looking at you from all angles at all times it is a unique experience, plus intricate bas reliefs which are stunning in their level of detail and sheer size (like the ones on Angkor Wat). But gives you reason to come back hehe ;-) Thanks for the enthralling report!

hadn't heard that phrase before, and even less did I know it was so old - but there is another maybe just modernized version of this piece of wisdom which I've been familiar with for a very long time: "no risk, no fun"

As always, great and enthralling report, even with less sex and even some very serious topic. I have to admit when I was in PP many years ago I couldn't muster the courage to visit the Killing Fields - but that was only after visiting the possibly even more gruesome Toul Sleng Prison in PP itself. It is where many (most?) people where first held and tortured before eventually being sent off to the killings fields (if they hadn't died in the prison itself. The prison had pictures of victims as well as, well perpetrators, and some of the instruments used for torture, showed the ways people were held in the cells. etc etc. It didn't have an audio guide then (maybe it does now), but it made for an extremely chilling experience, and the imagination of the unspeakable agony suffered by the victims there for no reason whatsoever left me so emotionally drained that I was unable to take the next step to visit the Killing Fields. Though not having visited the latter, based on numazu's report and the admittedly few pictures I have a feeling that the Toul Sleng Prison is actually a more intense and depressing experience than the more famous Killing Fields. I would recommend that to anyone interested in this important part of Cambodian history. As for the villains, as numazu puts it, they too, may have gone through their own agonies. The whole Khmer Rouge era has not been discussed in Cambodia for a very long time, and to the outsider it may seem odd that they don't want to come to grips with their ugly past. But after seeing an excellent Cambodian film dealing with the subject I can understand why. The story, or rather peoples' roles in it, are way more complex than just putting people in the two convenient boxes of the "good guys (the victims) and the "bad guys" (those who did the torturing and killing). The film I saw was named "The Last Reel" and screened at the Luang Prabang international film festival in December 2015. Unfortunately, I have no idea where one could get a chance to see that film now. A quick youtube search didn't turn anything up other than the trailer, but maybe it is hidden somewhere.... For anyone interested, I can highly recommend that annual film festival for SE-Asian films in Luang Prabang. For info see www.lpfilmfest.org.Of course, not only such serious stuff there at the festival, much fun can be had as well! Apologies for the lengthy off-topic but the intense memories were brought back by numazu's story and I felt compelled to add to it. Now back to the fun, and big thanks to numazu to again taking the time to write another outstanding report. P.S. Space Hair calendar and boys are outstanding, too!

Welcome and be assured once again that you are almost guaranteed to have a great time. If you want to meet up, hit me up by PM (I live in BKK) As for classical music, although I do like it too, I haven't done any research on that. The only thing I do know and have been to is the FREE classical concerts in Lumphini park that are held every year from December to February. Not useful for your upcoming trip, but maybe still a good tip for a future trip (or for anyone else here so inclined, for that matter) Apart from the massages, go-go bars etc, don't forget you can go to saunas as well as online in the usual apps to, uhm, foster intercultural relations ;-) As for the timing of the trip, let me answer for OP, as he already said it in his OP:

that's interesting.... used to stay there all the time in all those years before moving here. I heard once that Lukas is actually the owner of the hotel, but no idea if that's true or not.