Londoner

Not to mention your own mood.

Thanks. Very interesting and informative. However, I do take issue with one of your assertions, namely the Rastafarian influence in Thailand. I've seen photos of bands playing in various Pattaya bars in which a musician (or musicians) wore dreadlocks and sported Ethiopian- Rasta- colours. I've also seen the woollen hats , characteristic of Rastafarians, in markets. And Bob Marley was certainly well-known ,at least among young Thais, a decade back. If he retains his popularity now, I really don't know. However, my boyfriend certainly knew his songs back then. So the question remains; would the word be in general usage (it's on a billboard outside Jomtien Complex as I write) without its appearance in popular culture? Convincing as more academic analyses of the derivation are, my view is that the popular culture influence may be the more potent. However, i have to admit that there was some Asian immigration into Jamaica in the nineteenth century, specifically Chinese businessmen. They remain a small but powerful community there . Many Black Jamaicans' surnames are "Wong and "Chin", indicating mixed-Chinese ancestry.

Railay beach is accessible from Aonang by taking a narrow path across the cliff which divides to the two beaches. As long as you are able to frighten away the monkeys which guard it, demanding a toll in food! i spent a lot of time in the Caribbean prior to falling in love with Thailand (or Thais)...and always liked to compare the beaches. The Caribbean's were immeasurably superior in the main. At least, until I went to Railay. The Rasta beach in Jamaica was called Hellshire, presumably the site of some bloody battles. It was a miserable place but the Rasta community was very welcoming and served us delicious lobster.

I'm convinced that more of the guys working in JC are twinks than there were pre-Covid. I recall posting back then that I though twinks were in short supply- real twinks , that is- and this has certainly changed. The bars on the corner, before you turn into the main bar area, are full of them.

Thanks....news to me. However, the contemporary usage is undeniably Jamaican /Jamaican diaspora ......isn't it? And Is the word used in other Asian cultures? I suspect that the popularity of Bob Marley et al may have something to do with it.

I often stayed in Jamaica in the 90s and this, together with years spent in Brixton- London's Caribbean homeland- made me laugh when P told me that the Thai word for cannabis is "ganga". His explanation of the word was nonsensical and so I explained its origins among the Rasta communities of Jamaica. Surely other Thais are aware of this derivation?

I've argued ad nauseam for years that the cutest guys I see are working in 71 l and Big C. Perhaps it's the uniforms.

True enough, but I'd rather go alone.

There had indeed been a massage place on the site but it was well before Lockdown. The site was gutted in March and the builders just moving in. It has many more masseurs than the previous place. The two "teams wear different coloured shirts. This morning, the masseurs consisted of three women, but after lunchtime, the guys arrived. Yes, I've stayed loyal Tarntawan for sixteen years and see no reason to change. The prices are considerably lower now.

Not only has Surawong a new 7 11 but a new place for massage....at least , it wasn't there three months ago. It is on the corner of the Tarntawan Hotel soi, next to Green Massage. Many young men , some cute and even two or three women for the less fortunate of our brethren. But here's an odd thing. At about 2100 as I went to the hotel to sleep off my jet-lag (unsuccessfully, as usual), at least ten of them were lined-up on chairs on the pavement and each was fixated on his mobile. You'd have expected some interest in a single falang, a winsome smile, a "would you like a massage?" or indeed any acknowledgement that a fat wallet was passing-by.....but nothing. It was as though they were posing for a photograph. Come to think of it, it would have made an amusing one. Anyway, for lovers of massage, there are now perhaps twenty available guys only metres from Tarntawan. And a 7 11.

At BKK yesterday, there was an airport worker standing at the bottom of the escalator from arrivals to taxis.I wondered why....perhaps this story explains it. I was so intrigued by this that I fell over my suitcase and was only saved by her kind-proffered hand.

Yes, it was quite a scene. Sometimes it was hard to find an available deck-chair. It included some cute vendors of various commodities including sometimes themselves. I fear that their counterparts today are sitting in their rooms staring at mobile screens.

No, no Olddady. We Old Timers, veterans of many gay Thailand forums over the decades, some long-since forgotten, could name a number of posters that fitted that description. But not you.

I'm already dribbling, thanks to those photos....but no matter, only six days away from experiencing Balcony's version of the dish. Not forgetting the papaya salad, mai phaet.

PeterRS's allusion to Soi Twilight reminds me of my first visits, back in 1997. I recall Blue Star, on the Hotmale side of the soi, which was unique in that it had two troupes of guys, one of twinks and the other of more muscular guys. They would combine occasionally au naturel; some of the twinks would keep their hands strategically -placed while the more hefty guys let it all hang loose. A year or so later, Screwboys set up shop there for a short time while its Patpong premises was (I believe) being refurbished. It too was very raunchy compared to what came later. Alas, those times will never return. One question; is my memory of the soi not being completely paved true? Can it be that it was partly dirt-road? It certainly had the air of an area that was being developed piecemeal. And yes, for people- watching, Dick's was unbeatable. I can recall spending many evenings there. I liked the food too, particularly the chicken and cashew -nuts.

Interesting. Were the punters predominantly Chinese or falang? Many women? Was it well-attended? do you know what the off- fee was?

Those of us who were visiting during the early 2000s when certain activities in Sunee were being publicised in the UK press, became a little touchy over the use of the word "boy". And not just us....Boyz Boyz Boyz changed its spelling, just as Boyztown itself did. I think Michael Burchill touched on this in his history of Boyztown. I may be wrong about this but the use of the word "boyz" to describe gay young men also became widespread, at least in the gay press. It is true that Thais themselves still use the word "boy" in a commercial sex context but I wouldn't in my interactions with straight society. Not that there are many of those nowadays!

It happened to me with the very first guy I ever offed; Cockpit, August 1995....he must be a grandfather now! I was so much a newbie that I blamed myself for my inadequacies. He, however, apologised and said it was because he had had sex the previous night! That didn't wash even with someone as clueless as me. Anyway, clueless though I was, I was wise enough to say "mai pen rai" (the Thai idiom for "don't worry about it") , things will be better tomorrow and paid him the usual fee ....500bht I think. And things were better the next time. And remained so.

.....one that is attracted to "daddies"?

My view is that papaya salad and chicken with cashew nuts are aphrodisiacs. The same used to be said of oysters.

Only because you are a "daddy"!

Our recommendation for Thai food is Dick's Cafe. Its brother in Soi Twilight is much-missed. Good prices, extensive menu. A good place to sit and enjoy the passing scene , particularly now that there more venues across the soi.

I love two very different Pattayas; the one I visited from 1995 until- 2006 the one which persuaded me to take early retirement and the consequent financial "hit"- and the one I shall be returning to shortly, yet again. And they are very different. Pattaya #1 was all about go go bars, enjoying evenings with numerous guys, some of them spectacularly handsome, watching the late show at Throb (even Cockpit back in the day) and having a drink in Panorama or Corner Bar with my now sadly- deceased American expat buddy. Plenty of laughs, many of them resulting from his irrepressibly salacious anecdotes, some of which were true. And sometimes his behaviour. My day began at 10.00am and ended at 0200 as the lights in Boyztown or Sunee were being turned-off. Daytime in Pattaya #2 begins at 0800 with a leisurely breakfast, continuing with a swim in the hotel's pool and a walk along Jomtien beach. Bars have been replaced on our to-do list by restaurants. Questions about which go go bar has the cutest twinks are now replaced by discussions as to whether Central's MK is better than the one in Terminus 21, and where the best papaya salad is to be found. Evening drinks are on the room's balcony overlooking the waterfall at Agate, not in a bar. And bed is at 2200. And here's the thing. The experiences of my two Pattayas are different and yet each gives, or once gave me, exactly what is needed - socially, emotionally and, yes, sexually. There can be few resorts in the world that can offer so much to people like us and continue to do so as we age and our desires and needs change. A guy in Amsterdam's Blue Boy Bar (a place many will recall) told me about Pattaya in 1995 after an £80 encounter, when I had just come out. I shall always be grateful to him, as well as to the denizens of Pattaya and its guys (not all of them cute, but enough), my old friend , and of course my partner, whom I miss desperately when I'm not in Thailand.

Yes. My first two trips gave me only five nights in Thailand... the journey was not much short of twenty hours each way. It was tough. But that's work for you. I solved the problem by taking early retirement. The best decision I ever made.

That was charming. And a complement to you.