traveller123

Yes I live 9 km from Surin Town. No I am not implying there are any gay bars in Surin. There was some talk on Surinfarang which is a forum for expats (straight and myself and one other gay guy) about a gay bar opening on the entertainment street called "Mens Bar", we have driven past it a few times and seen one guy sat outside with approx 6 girls. If there is an out and out gay bar I am unaware of it. Incidentally although my partner is straight looking but open about being gay, I am pretty sure that he wouldn't visit a gay bar in Surin if one existed although he enjoys visiting the bars in Pattaya and Bangkok. When you visit Surin if you fancy meeting up for dinner let me know

I live in a village near to Surin and I think it has been 40 degrees + for going on 6 weeks. It is not my favourite time of the year and this year the heat has been exceptional. My partner and I had a 6 day trip to Koh Chang at the end of April and it was wonderful about 8 degrees cooler than Surin, but unfortunately I don't think there were any gay bars.

I agree it is a crazy and annoying price structure. I don't know what would happen if you take the outward flight and then don't show for the return, but be aware airlines cancel all remaining flights on the booking after a no show so never be tempted to miss the outward flight expecting to be able to take the return

It is also worth checking on an airlines own site. I notice Cathay Pacific in particular often have cheaper flights booking direct with them.

Yes it was very noticeable when my partner lived with me in England and we came back for holidays that he never greeted his sister who he is very close to with a hug or kiss. He is not shy, as I said, he always greeted me at the airport with a big hug, guess at home he was just following Thai ways.

Nice to hear someone having quality time and enjoying that time with their 'man" Great to read the reports from members enjoying their holidays with a series of guys but I also enjoy reading about people happy to chill out with one guy. Before I retired and moved permanently to Thailand it used to give me a real emotional high when I flew into BKK and my bf was there waiting for me. A couple of times I had been chatting to people on the plane without the fact that I am gay arising and it was quite amusing to see the look on their faces when my partner charged over to me in arrivals and gave me a big hug.

I don't know if I am in a minority of one but I like neither of the above two guys. Take the average of the two guys and you have my perfect man. (Posted before Alizizou's post and edited)

Smiles, thanks for providing the link to your report. I found it very interesting and perhaps it will help me when my 32 year old partner tells me he would like to go and become a monk for a month or so.

Looking forward to some great photos from your safari

Anonone, I was so sorry to read your report. I have been with my Thai partner for 7 years and I know how devastated I would be if we split. I suspect you have enough experience in these matters to know that when you return to Thailand take it slowly very slowly in looking for a relationship. I firmly believe there are a fair number of good gay Thai guys out there looking for a loving relationship along with the professionals looking for a good living (nothing wrong in that as long as we are aware of it)

Getting back to the original question. I live with my Thai partner of seven years in an Isaan village and I have just asked my partner "in a rural village how much should it cost to be a monk". His reply was about 50,000 baht in a normal village situation where you invite family, friends and near neighbours to the party. He said in a village people would help to cook the food, perhaps there would be a DJ type person for music and for each table of eight people you would provide a bottle of thai whisky, soda, 2 big bottles of beer and a bottle of coke or fanta. The attendees would give an envelope containing cash to offset the cost. He was open mouthed when I said -not 300,000. If the boyfriend comes from a wealthy Bangkok family I guess you can understand 300,000 but in that situation his family would be paying. As a comparison three years ago we had a party for our new house. My partner asked me if he could make it a special party because we could not marry. It was a spectacular day and evening with a stage with entertainers, outside caterers with good food, flowers, ribbon decorations and over 300 people attended. My partner excelled himself in arranging it all it was really the works. The net cost after the envelopes was 100,000 baht but it was (in my opinion) a top notch affair

I understand that Thais do not need a visa to visit South Africa. Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

Remember Chatuchak is only open at the weekend. Abang's comments on Chatuchak are "spot on", it is amazing but stay hydrated with plenty of drinks.

One more piece of advice. I went to Bali in June for 8 days, overnight in August my Thai bank account was emptied of approx 70,000 baht in multi cash withdrawals of approx 5,300 Thai baht. I always thought I was prudent using my bank cards and followed advice about shielding your card, looking if the ATM looks dodgy etc. My Thai bank wouldn't confirm for sure my card had been cloned in Bali but did say it was a very common problem on Bali. Fortunately my bank eventually refunded me but take great care with your cards.

Should you want a tour guide in Bali, I can recommend a a great guy. He is gay but straight looking/acting, French but speaks perfect English and a really nice guy. I went with my Thai partner last June and wanted a guide for 4 days. Before arriving in Bali he had asked us what we wanted to do and see and he then suggested some itineraries. He really made our holiday and he is young enough to organise hikes up mountains etc or more leisurely days out.

Happy birthday, you are still a young man

Sometimes you see bitching etc on this site by some individuals and then you see a thread like this where members take the time to post detailed and helpful advice to fellow members. It makes you appreciate there are a lot of good guys on this forum. Happy Songkran everybody.

The Royal Palace and Temples will insist you wear long pants but they will loan you something to wear over your shorts to conform. In the locations of the gay bars it is not unusual to see guys holding hands but you don't see it away from those areas. My own opinion is that Thais are quite conservative in public displays of affection.

It is difficult to remember it is purely a commercial transaction, most guys seem able to make you feel special even when you are an old farang like myself. Guess that's what makes it all so amazing, it must be a Thai thing as my partner of over 7 years still makes me feel special.

April is a very hot month in Thailand. Here in rural Isaan it is currently 40+. I don't need hot water for bathing the cold water is running warm.

Copa may have closed but nobody can take away your memories. Incidentally my partner and I had a weeks holiday in Pattaya over Christmas and had a drink in Copa. It was dead, about 4 or 5 other customers, no water show, it seemed so run down in contrast to previous visits there.

I certainly didn't write it and I hope the last two lines make that clear (I copied and pasted the article in it's entirety). I am always aware that my language skills are zilch so I just enjoyed the read and didn't worry about the English grammar or spelling. I thought it might sound familiar and bring back memories to those of us who have made a similar trip to boyfriend's village.

I have been caught out by UK companies applying the 90 day rule to Pay As You Go. Landed at Manchester airport switched on my mobile to call the car hire company and it didn't work, as I found out later because I hadn't used it for 3 months and my number had been terminated

It’s inevitable. At some stage you will be summonsed. Your presence will be requested. You shall be subpoenaed, called for, ordered to make an appearance. Indeed, the time has come to advance into the breach and visit the in-laws. In-laws. Who knew a mere compound noun would be potent enough to strip paint? Make flowers wilt. Turn sunshine into rain and extract all the happy from your heart. But, boarding the 06.40 bound for Bumfuck Nowhere – population 16 (five of whom are chickens) – it’s easy to get excited about the journey. Although at the other end of the line waits a collection of relatives masticating on betelnut parcels and jungle rat jerky, the actual event of getting there on the train offers a unique snapshot into Southeast Asian life. Trundling out of the city now, leaving behind Hualamphong station and Bangkok’s bricks and mortar, the landscape begins to open up and a carpet of hi-viz greens – tinged with flecks of yellow from the morning’s rising sun – stretches out to the horizon. Beautiful would be the wrong word. The scene out of the window is utterly bewitching. And finally, as an Asian openbill swoops down and with one deft snap of the beak plucks his breakfast from the paddy, you come to from your trance and start thinking about your own stomach. A somtam pedaller who walks up and down the train with her wares has piqued the interest of your better half, and into the mortar goes a liberal fist of fresh chillis. Somtam for breakfast? You’d be sectioned for that type of behaviour in Stevenage. Plumping for a plate of khao pad gai, you add the accompanying sachet of chilli-infused fish sauce and gorge while the train continues to plough a slender furrow through rural Thailand. After having complemented the final hour or so of the journey with a six-pack of regional lager, you alight from the locomotive well equipped for the onslaught of in-laws. They greet you at the station in a pick-up truck into which both yourself and your luggage are unceremoniously deposited. In the rear you sit with Por – your father in-law. He smokes a hand-rolled cigarette fashioned together out of thick paper and coarse, stringy tobacco, and swigs intermittently from a M150 bottle whose contents smell akin to turpentine. He offers you a sip. It’s, as expected, vile, but rapidly elicits a warm and fuzzy feeling and you decide that you rather like Por. Along paths and tracks, skirting fields and paddies in varying stages of cultivation, the pick-up eventually comes to a stop next to a dwelling of decidedly rustic proportions and, stepping from the back of the truck with the beginnings of a stagger, your wife/girlfriend takes a hold of your arm and gives you the guided tour of her parents’ house. One large room makes up the lion’s share of the property, on the floor of which are half a dozen makeshift mattresses shod in old sheets. The television, a large antiquated affair, battles with a statue of Buddha for the centrepiece accolade, and a faded selection of printed pictures, sans frames, hang askew on the walls. Atop a bookshelf which currently boasts nary a novel or even a magazine, stands a portrait of a wizened old lady whose age you’d put somewhere in her mid-120s. This, you’d hazard, is granny – or Yai. And on cue she sidles up behind you, tripod-esque with a walking stick to assist her tired gait, and through a maw dyed with decades of betel nut abuse offers up a weak but meaningful Wadee ja. With Por’s turpentine having eroded your inhibitions, you are keen to converse with Yai and introduce yourself in her native tongue. Nobody can understand what the fuck you are saying. Your girlfriend is quick to remind you that in this part of Thailand they converse in a different dialect, but she also assures you that they still wouldn’t understand what the fuck you were saying if they didn’t. With a rapidity exclusive to the tropics, the sun has now set and an inky black night, resplendent with a liberal smattering of stars, sets in. Por and Loong (Uncle) fetch a selection of heavy duty farming implements from a storage area beneath the house and walk with exacting strides – although Por admittedly falls over – to where you sit on the balcony sipping on a glass of Leo beer. Loong holds up a machete with a blunt 18-inch blade and makes slashing and stabbing motions before rubbing his tummy. By all accounts Loong wants to eat you. He wants to bludgeon you to death and feast on your remains. However, he happily turns about face, switches on a head torch and marches forthwith into the neighbouring jungle. He emerges 20 minutes later with three jungle rats, a pair of eels, and some choice vegetation crammed into a plastic bag. Loong’s unquestionable hunter-gatherer prowess has paved the way for Mair (Mum) to demonstrate her ingenuity in the kitchen. And 30 minutes of chopping and gutting and butchering later she has prepared three dishes: Pad pet pla lai (eel curry); Nu yang (roasted rat); and Pad pak (fried vegetables). You eat and drink into the early hours, the internationally recognised language of complete and utter drunken bollocks maintaining the conversational flow throughout the evening. The following morning, with a headache the size of Sakhon Nakhon, you awake early to a whole cacophony of farmyard furor. The putt-putt-putt of a tractor bores deep into your cranium, a pair of roosters scream at each other from opposite ends of the village, a dog barks while Por unleashes a tirade of gibberish aimed at the television, which isn’t even switched on. Village life certainly has its quirks, and maybe one day, who knows? A wooden house on stilts overlooking hectares of lush vegetation; your own small slice of rural Siam on which to grow crops, raise animals, maybe volunteer part time in a temple school; live a life of simplicity away from the marauding masses of the big city. In the meantime it’s back to Bangkok – where the first port of call shall and must be Burger King. This appeared in Whats on Sukhumvit http://whatsonsukhumvit.com/into-is...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

NIrishGuy, your posting made me chuckle. I could visualise you laughing at Dad's Army and your poor bf wondering what the hell was funny about that. You could always try Fawlty Towers