Londoner

I'm a Londoner; the cultural, political and sporting life of the city is part of the very fabric of my body....but heaven knows how I'd cope without my regular trips to Thailand to be with P. And to enjoy chicken and cashew nuts, naturally.

Trying to understand now why I decided against relocation in 2004, despite the financial, sexual and romantic advantages, I come down to this one decisive issue; I knew Pattaya only as a holiday destination, three or four times a year. What was so attractive to me, apart from the obvious, was the fact that it was different, very different, to my life in London. I decided that, were I an expat there, the changes in scenery, routine and sources of enjoyment, would no longer be as attractive as they were, and indeed remain for me as a tourist. There are, of course, some disadvantages for someone enjoying his one and only gay LTR....but that's another story. As long as I am fit enough to travel comfortably, I remain confident I have made the right choice.

It will be fun to see it navigate a gale. Or not.

Not a BBB Guy! mine is the Oldest Twink in Thailand!

I wish that d**n moustache would! Don't misunderstand me, I Iove Thai guys but moustaches on twinks just don't "work" on them!

I've known a Pattaya mb for nearly twenty years....I met him just before I met P. He's thirty-nine now and still looks twenty-five. He has kept his body in immaculate shape and when I see him now, I realise that he is as attractive now as he was then. And probably with better skills in the bed! And he still works in a host bar. I remember that after craving the attentions of the young, by the time was I was into my fifth or sixth trip to Thailand I'd discovered that older guys were just better technically. They'd learnt more.... and invariably spoke better English, something that was important to me.

Twenty years or so ago, I was investigating the possibility of relocation to Thailand, having just met the love of my life. The UK pound was exchanging at around 73 bht; now it's close to 40 and dropped even lower recently. There's your answer, Scott......who could have foreseen such a rapid and (for some) devastating drop in the value of pensions and assets?

I think we know that there are some Thais and other Asians who do prefer older men. A small minority certainly, but they do exist as I discovered to my utter astonishment in Babylon circa 1996. And if we move beyond the issue of sex, there are some who appreciate what a LTR can do for them for them and their families. In other words, they have exactly the same motivation as women had in Europe for centuries. They called it marriage.

Caveat emptor. I have the same problem with ebay. It's part of the game; occasionally we are going to be tricked. However, the risks that we take are very slight compared to those taken by the mb, who arrives at a room or apartment not knowing who will be opening the door; a violent customer perhaps, or one who has his fun and refuses to pay the agreed cost. Or someone who isn't even clean. I remember my fingers being burnt on occasion. It was annoying but I always cheered myself up by saying that the next one would be better. And he invariably was.

So sad. He looks such a charming young man. And some think that the hiv+ risk is over.

See Kokopelli's post

I saw it too. Yes, the language is vile. English obviously isn't his first language so maybe he is completely unaware of the implications of what he's saying. Possibly. He needs correction; has anyone tried adding a comment to the video?

I recall my only visit to Obelisks....it must have been more than two decades ago. it was the most luxurious sauna I've ever visited. However, as patron of Babylon where I could hardly get undressed before being molested (very welcome it was, too), Obelisks seemed to me to be decidedly "sticky rice". As a relative newcomer in the city, I was surprised. But it taught me that Babylon was sui generis when it come to falangs in BKK saunas, at least for us older guys.

I've known more than a few mbs and ex-mbs over the years and they were supportive of the Red Shirts. Many, of course, were from Isaan, the heartlands of the movement. And economically and socially they were from working-class backgrounds.

An old topic, I know, but some up-to-date information would be appreciated regarding my partner's visa to the UK. I have not found the Pattaya agencies I've dealt with satisfactory for different reasons. Has anyone recent experience of using a particular one? I'm not requesting a discussion on whether or not I should be using an agent; that decision has already been made. Just a simple recommendation. My experiences so far have been- bluntly- dire.

I have to add to the above that it is many years since I've been in a gay Thai bar, even though bars were the reason I started going to Pattaya in prehistoric days. Nevertheless, I still enjoy reading about them- even the muscle bars which would never have been my cup of tea- and the guys that work in them, or used to. Such posts encourage discussions about the things I really care about now; gay life in Thailand, Thai society and politics, travel and my interesting decades with an ex-bar boy. And I nearly forgot.; Thai food.

Too many bars offering much the same was one of the contributory factors to Sunee's demise. I am sorry to see it being replicated in the JC but even more sorry for the guys who are struggling to make ends meet as they sit in their almost deserted bars. On my last evening in Thailand, I had my nightly wander up and down the soi; there was the cutest guy I'd seen in weeks sitting alone in one of the bars. He gave me a winsome smile. He deserved a tip just for that smile....and I went back to my hotel. But I must end on a more positive note. The new establishments around Dick's and Soda are still attracting decent numbers of punters and my impression was that they were overwhelmingly male. It suggests that the JC still has life in it.

In this respect they are exactly the same as employees, managers and even billionaires across the world, who are always totally satisfied with what they have and would never, for example, pay a tax lawyer to avoid paying their dues.

For me, it's satisfying my boyfriend's insatiable desire for eating in Terminus 21. Not to mention the taxis back to JC because he's too sated to use the two buses that would get us there for 80bht.

Gerefan is right. I left ten days ago and can't wait to return. We don't visit bars but most evenings I'd take a stroll through the Complex. The guys outnumbered the punters by a ratio of two to one. At least. I reflected that , were I still in the market, I'd have a great time there, with plenty of attractive guys approaching me. A buyers' market. My impression was that there are more twinks now than a year ago. Plenty of masseurs available in the afternoon, too. There's a new (I think it's new) gay bar which also offered massages in that small soi that leads to the beach, behind Bamboo and the money exchanges.

When I was spending some time at the University in Kingston Jamaica in 1970 I recall throwing away the remnants of a Kentucky-type Chicken take away. The bin was surrounded by a group of children and the detritus removed and eaten. Anyone recall the fate of Sebastian, the gay sex-tourist, in Tennessee Williams's "Suddenly Last Summer"?

True....the guys who used to cruise us on Dongtan are now sitting at home playing with their phones rather than with us. As someone says In Shakespeare's Henry 4 (don't ask which part)...."The times that we have seen. Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?" A moment of melancholy for me. Apologies.

The first thing I notice when I go into a Thailand Boots or Watsons is the prevalence of skin-whitening creams on the Mens' Toiletries shelf. It used to be a bone of contention between my beautiful and dark-skinned P and myself....no longer, I 'm pleased to say. It is a political and social issue I first encountered as a young man staying in Jamaica. Unbelievably to me, an island obsessed with Bob Marley, the birthplace of Rastafarianism and of Marcus Garvey, was riddled with social and economic distinctions based on skin colour. Almost white was at the top of the league. And so Thailand didn't surprise me. Just look at the Generals, the tycoons and even the entertainers.

I like the sense of movement, of people travelling for wildly-different reasons and sometimes even for a slight edginess.....there are police road blocks not far away. The political repression in Burma makes it even more interesting. And I mean "interesting", not pleasant. I suppose this may reflect childhood experiences when my parents used to take on me on railway journeys through Europe and the changes I witnessed as we passed from one country to another fascinated me, even as a youngster.

Hotels? gay friendly? How do prices compare with Thailand's?