Gaybutton

I'm glad to know that. Out of curiosity, which bank did he get the account with?

I don't recommend that. If the authorities catch up to it - and sooner or later they will - if you are accepting payment, but don't have a work permit, the penalties are the same. From among all the things you want to see and do in Thailand, you definitely don't want spending time in a Thai jail to be one of your experiences. You also are going to need a Thai bank account. I recommend Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank, or Siam Commercial Bank. Until you have a work permit, you are probably going to need an agent to help you open the account. These days it is very difficult to open a Thai bank account without the help of an agent. See: https://www.mots-services.com/ Mots is an honest, reliable, competent service. You can see what they offer and the prices for the service. Meanwhile, based on what you're writing, I would recommend spending at least 6 months in Thailand before committing to anything at all. Seems to me you have an awful lot to learn.

You're in your 20s? You forgot to mention that part too. My friend, if you're still in your 20s the last thing you're going to have a problem with is finding Thais who will want sex with you, no matter what you look like. And unless you want to pay for it, you 'll find plenty of guys who will want sex with you for free. As for teaching English, that may be more difficult than you think. Teachers in Thailand are not paid very much. You're going to need the right kind of visa if you want to stay long term in Thailand. You're going to need a college degree and proper credentials. You're going to need to take Thailand's TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, and you're going to need a work permit. If you lack any of those, especially the work permit, the only place you'll end up being able to teach English is in a Thai prison after you get arrested and before you're deported. I would also learn to speak and read Thai if I were you, and that isn't something you'll accomplish overnight. Be very careful and make sure you know that you're doing before attempting to work in Thailand.

I'm going to suggest trying the apps before going to strictly commercial venues. Try Grindr, but also try Hornet, Planet Romeo, Jackd, and Blued. Many boys on the apps are non commercial and also speak English fairly well. I would register on all the apps before your trip and upload a few decent photos of yourself. If you get responses - and believe me, you will - you can then explain what you are looking for, along with what you don't want. Use simple language and no slang. That way, the boy will know what to expect when he meets you and you won't have to feel awkward or embarrassed because you will already have communicated with the boy. In my opinion, if the first thing the boy seems interested in is "How much you pay me?", that's a wrong boy and move on. Also, this cultural norm stuff is a lot of garbage. Over the years I've seen all kinds of dos and don'ts information. Nearly all of it is nonsense and you'll find the boys pay attention to hardly any of it. It's the last thing you need to worry about. Just be yourself and you'll be fine. If it's all new to you, you might be a little apprehensive at first. That will pass quickly - very quickly.

Many of you know my board, https://www.gaybuttonthai.com was down for a couple days. The problem has now been fixed and we are up and running again. Thank you very much Moses, owner of the Sawatdee board, for fixing the problem.

I think my first video game was the first video game - Pong. I can clearly remember, before there were home versions, long lines of people waiting their turn to play it. We thought it was the most phenomenal thing ever. At the time, I suppose it was. My first computer was the Atari. When games first started coming out, they had to be loaded with a tape recorder. It could take as much as an hour waiting for the game to load. Then, of course, when you turned off the computer, now the game was gone. I also remember a friend who was really into computer technology. In those days he was among the first to use a floppy disk. I remember he was on top of the world when he had his first 20 meg machine. Today your smartphone has far more computer power than they had when Neil Armstrong went to the moon. Now I am hoping the next innovation in computer technology won't be smaller, more powerful chips or greater speed. I'm hoping for computers that simply work - all the time.

One of the things still not clear to me: You go to a designated quarantine hotel with the expectation of having to stay there a few days and then you're released. What if it doesn't work out quite that way. What if other people in the hotel teat positive for Covid? What happens to your own quarantine? Will you still be released when you expected to be released? Will you be held for further quarantine and testing? If you have already left the hotel, will you be tracked down and re-quarantined? What if you've been released, but Covid is found somewhere you recently were? Will you be tracked down and re-quarantined? What happens if you find yourself under quarantine the day you're supposed to be on a plane returning home? I really don't know how any of that works.

Yes, that must be a problem for many - use them by a certain date or lose them. Of course no law says Thailand has to be the holiday destination. If it were me, I would have a Plan B in case things look really bad for going to Thailand or if Thailand closes the borders even before the vacation days. Also, if it were me, especially since the current situation in Thailand continues to deteriorate rather than improve, I would avoid as much as possible having to pay anything in advance - just in case. "If one plan fails, it's good to have another" - Sam Jaffe (Simonides), 'Ben Hur'

That's the problem. When planning a trip to Thailand I suggest taking very seriously the possibility that they could close the borders, both coming and going, without warning. They've done it before and a lot of travelers found themselves stuck in Thailand, some for weeks, some for months, unexpectedly - with no way to return home. I definitely would plan for that possibility. I would not suggest brushing it off with an "it won't happen to me". When people say it won't happen to me, that's when it happens - to them. Speaking only for myself, considering past history and precedent, the way things are right now, and where things seem to be headed, the last thing I would be doing would be planning international travel without a damned good reason. I would wait until things stabilize and stay that way and I would wait until the places I want to go, including the bars, are actually open. I would not rely on when the powers-that-be say they can open. And the next consideration - I will repeat what I've said before. There is a big difference between the bars can open and the bars will open. I have no idea how many bars, especially go-go bars, plan to open as quickly as possible, assuming they survived to be able to open at all. Even when they do open or reopen, how many boys will there be working in the bars? If you are planning a trip to Thailand, make sure you're not wearing rose colored glasses while doing your planning. Remember - think with your brain, not your crotch.

Not a disaster - at least not yet. But the powers-that-be seem, for whatever their reasons, to be turning it into an artificial disaster.

For me it depends on the mood, whether I get to choose the boys, and their "pre-massage" behavior, meaning whether it looks to me like I will have two boys who are not shy with me or each other, doing what I want, and whether they will have fun doing it

You might be right. Maybe I'm naive, but to me doing it that way seems awfully farfetched. Then again I look at what is going on in American politics. That alone is enough to convince me that your take on it perhaps makes sense after all.

That did not work. They have plenty of ways to exercise their power without destroying an entire industry their country's economy depends on. Of course the way things work around here, it would come as no great surprise to me if it turns out you are exactly right. As far as the length of my "I Don't Get It" list and how many items are on it - after all these years living in Thailand, think of the number of stars in our galaxy . . .

The part on my "I Don't Get It" list is why. Why would the Thai powers-that-be want to use the Omicron variant to shoot its own tourism industry in the foot and put thousands of people out of work yet again? What's in it for them? I have not been able to come up with a logical answer, even by Thai logic standards, for that one.

Who's talking about whether life is fair? I'm talking about whether prices are fair. Don't you think that's just a little bit different? Like I said, I don't mind paying a fair, reasonable price beyond what Thais pay. But I mind very much when somebody is trying to rip me off. The venue owners of some of those places that try to rip-off people don't mind at all having their hands out, but if the situation was reversed and they find themselves having to pay an unreasonable price somewhere, they would be the first ones to start screaming. To me it's very simple - if you don't mind paying the price, have a good time. If you do mind, then don't go.

I agree about 90%. Dual pricing is not a "one size fits all." There some things where I would agree dual pricing is fair. Others where I think it is unfair and unacceptable. Also, I know of no standard amount or percentage more that foreigners should pay as opposed to Thais. Some of the actual amounts are fair enough. Others are my idea of price gouging and sheer greed. And sometimes I wonder just who it was who decided that dual pricing at this venue or that venue should even exist, along with how much more foreigners should be charged. Sometimes it is reasonable and sometimes it is outrageous. In short, when it is truly fair I have no problem with it. But sometimes I see it as nothing more than a scam and rip-off. When that happens I usually won't go to that venue. I'll just have to try to survive somehow without going wherever that was.

The good news is, according to a report in today's - January 4 - Pattaya Mail, restaurants outside the city part of Pattaya at least so far are ignoring the edict. The last paragraph of the article says: Full article: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/pattaya-opens-4-free-screening-points-to-meet-covid-19-test-mandate-385101

Yes, the masks come off in restaurants. Meanwhile, up to now, how many people contracted Covid eating in restaurants? To the best of my knowledge, there have been no incidents of large or small numbers of people getting sick after eating in a restaurant. I don't recall even one person getting sick that was traced back to a restaurant. Are they basing this edict on fact and data or is the idea that eating in restaurants is dangerous something they simply made up? If it's really so risky to eat in restaurants, then why is Chonburi the only province out of all of Thailand's 77 provinces and Pattaya the only major city in all of Thailand to impose this rule? Have I missed something? Is it really more likely to get Covid in Pattaya restaurants than restaurants anywhere else in Thailand? Should we now expect other provincial governors to start saying, "What a great idea! Let's do the same here."? I have not been afraid to eat in restaurants and I see no reason to become afraid. The way some of these people drive, I'm much more afraid trying to go to and from a restaurant than I am once I get there . . . The good news is the information I'm getting is so far Pattaya restaurants have not been complying. I am hearing that people going to restaurants not only have not been asked to do the Covid test, but have not been asked to produce any kind of proof or documentation at all.

Maybe, but when I go to a restaurant the only people I might be sitting next to are the same people I went with to the restaurant. Other tables are far enough away that it shouldn't be a problem, even with masks off. Another way of looking at it - in a restaurant you might be sitting close enough to strangers, but it's the same strangers throughout most of your meal. The odds are they're not carrying Covid whereas in a grocery store you come in close contact with dozens of people. Even though it might only be a second or two, that's enough to spread Covid. When the local news publishes places where people did pick up Covid, it is always places such as grocery stores, department stores, and the like, along with labor camps. I don't recall even one that was traced back to a restaurant. Why is the face mask, hand disinfectant, and temperature check enough to enter any other venue, but not enough to eat in a restaurant? That's the part that makes no sense to me. In my opinion, going to this extreme in restaurants is both absurd and unjustified. Oh well, the powers-that-be forgot to ask my opinion . . .

If that actually happens, will you be surprised? They won't have to evacuate the city. People will leave by their own choice. I hope this won't result in massive free food lines and lost jobs yet again. This bizarre edict is on my "I Don't Get It" list. It makes no sense. Why would anyone be more likely to get Covid in a restaurant than in any other venue? I'm closer to many more people in a grocery store than I am in a restaurant. Pattaya is a tourist dependent city. What kinds of tourists will go to Pattaya and have to deal with this when they can go anywhere else - and I mean anywhere else - in Thailand and walk right into a restaurant perfectly normally? And as a local living in Pattaya, I'm not going to deal with this. I'll either do my own cooking at home or order from one of the food delivery services. This rule is going to help what? They talk about learning to live with Covid - so let us live . . .

My guess is something went wrong with the WiFi, not the board. It works perfectly for me and I have experienced no such problem.

I think most of us already know the real reason - and you got it right . . . In case nobody noticed, as far as I know not a single case of Covid, including the Omicron variant, has occurred due to any of the restaurants, bars, or even bars pretending to be restaurants being open. So, if the current governmental policies remain in place and the police are busy closing down venues, what exactly are they protecting us from?

You are not mistaken. Charlie was a nice guy, but unfortunately a very heavy drinker, which eventually had the unsurprising effect. Most nights he could be found at the Yaya bar after the Kaos bar went out of business. Charlie did have a Thai boyfriend, I believe a Chiang Mai native if I remember correctly. I have no idea what became of him after Charlie's death. He disappeared from Pattaya. He most likely ended up back on the rice farm.

I am surprised by the behavior of the boys. With so few farang currently present I would have thought they would be trying their best to entice an off or at least a drink and a tip. Apparently not. Here we are, concerned about the bars reopening. It never would have occurred to me that the boys would show such little interest. If the bars reopen and customers find that kind of attitude from the boys, then why bother to reopen at all? If I had gone to a bar and was treated like that, it would be a hell of a long time before I'd be a customer there again. If I were the owner of a bar with boys behaving like that, I would be furious. Entertaining and attracting customers - that's their job. They're not supposed to be there to goof around by themselves and virtually ignore customers. The bar owners better wake up and figure out that it is going to take much more than simply reopening to attract a profitable customer base. They better have a little chat with the boys and make sure of an attitude change - like right now.

In Thailand? Please give me about 15 minutes to finish having my little laugh. And if you really want to start laughing, that controversial health minister - the one who called us "dirty farang" announced today that he is "ready to be Thailand's next Prime Minister".