spoon

Yup, that is what i think too, and i was a bit mad, not at the driver, but rather at myself because i didnt decide to go to the sai tai gao minivan station (that is what people in other we sites called them lol, and also in google map but you are right, the van isnt mini at all lol) so yeah it is a detour. It wouldve been much quicker and cheaper to go there directly from silom. I am glad that i didnt act rashly and go with the flow, since at that point, even if i got played, i already decided that itll be part of the adventure lol. And i am alone so no pressure of letting other people down or blaming others. And this little things that happens is the thing that you'll remember and will be telling others too when you share your experience with you friends and family.

yeah, why not add another train trip to my travels! As i really enjoy train travelling, that would be a great option and definitely bypass that traffic issues. I just checked schedule and there is a 1.45pm that would be perfect if they depart on time for my 5pm departure, as i am usually at the airport 2 hour before my departure. The train before that is 10.50 am and train after would be at 3.20pm, which is too early or too late for me.

Ive been travelling a lot as well, and the only time i actually lost items were due to my own mistakes, the worse was when i lost my passport, which i put in a plastic bag that contains food only and i left it either in the taxi i took from the airport, or in the piazza where i waited for the owner of the airbnb i rented to fetch us. And this happened in barcelona. I lost some times trying to find the passport to no avail. Then went to police station to report and a trip to my country embassy in madrid, which thankfully already in my travel plan. I didnt lose much money though, just the money to roam-calling the taxi center, the lost and found, but for about 3 days before my trip to madrid, i can hardly fully enjoy the trip. The good thing was, i am not alone at that time. Ive seen other scams in italy, one even got my friends, the infamous bracelet scam. But in thailand, so far my experience has been great.

You are right vinapu, natural resources and even money is worthless if you dont knw how to manage them, however without them, you will need to harness other resources such as brain and workforces. The best ones are those who have both and even better are thos who have both and also stealing them from other countries.

mae klong train market visit 25th july While waiting for the nightly visit to the gogobars today, might as well get the second day trip report done. I slept very soundly after my ST left at about 2am. Woke up at about 7 or so and got up and shower, and ready to head out for maeklong visit. Ive been reading several ways to go there, easiest would be a taxi or tour, or by minivan, and also by train. My initial plan was to take the train, which would be departing from wongwian yai railway station, which is about 20min walk from the bts of the same name. But first, i need to buy a sim card so i wont get totally lost or bored to death in mae klong. Train left at 8.35 and at 8am, i am still in silom, so i thought i can take the taxi, and then the taxi hit the traffic lol, asked the driver to drop me at the nearest bts station, and change my plan to take the minivan instead. Another quick search and it seems that i can take the van from either mochit or the southern station sai tai gao/sai tai mai. So i head to mochit bts and take a taxi from there to go to the mochit bus station. After abit of chat with the taxi driver, he said i need to take the van only at sai tai gao, which is quite far from mochit. I tried to insist but he was already halfway there. Thinking i was taken for a ride by the taxi driver, i surrender my fate and decided to trust the driver, nothing else i can do now, even if i asked him to drop me and change driver, who to say ill meet a good driver. So about 20 mins or so, i arrived at the southern minivan station and head to the counter, bought a ticket and go inside the minivan. Owh btw, i paid 120 baht for the taxi ride, so its not that bad, and he did bring me to the correct station. Minivan costed me 60thb, and inside the van there are only one other local guy inside. Waited only about 20mins or so and the van depart with only one extra passenger. Arrived at maeklong at noonish, and walked to the market. Its really easy to find, and i do have the local sim with data in case i needed to use google map. I enter the wet market first, a lot of seafood items,fresh and pickled, being sold here, as this city is a port city. After a bit of exploring, u foubd myself outside the road and in front of the station. Took some pictures and then walk a bit more around the station to get lunch. After lunch, it was close to 1pm, went to the station to check the time for the train to arrive and see that i needed to wait for 90mins before the train arrive from ban laem station. So i walked through the market along the track, and back, twice, and it only took 10-15 mins. Lol, no idea what else i can do around here, so i walked towards the other end of the station and saw the mae klong river, and as i turned right, saw a pier with ferry services to cross to the other side. I dont have much time though to explore the other side, so i just went to the pier, sit there, enjoying the view of people going in and out pf the boat, with a very windy breeze blowing to cool my head ad body down. Owh, did i forget to mention it was scorching hot here? I thought people say its raining season but i rarely experience them. Only very light drizzle from time to time. So as i wait very comfortably under the shade and wind, one particularly friendly guy, carrying some trashes and a bit loopy i think, approached me and start talking in thai to me. I smile politely and try to ignore him, and he keep staring at me. I finally say i dont speak thai with a smile and he laugh so hard and now trying to say 'i want to say' few times and laugh again. Now that i feel very uncomfortable, i walk out of my comfortable shades and went back to the oven hot maeklong station. Thankfully it is almost 2pm, and i am planning to go and find a good "seat" to view the incoming train and witness the seller setting up their shop to allow for the train to go through. I did get a great seat at one of the cute shop selling drinks and wait for the train. It is definitely a worthwhile experience to say the least, the train does goes super close to the market, i have videos and pictures of them, which ill share when im back home. Definitely one of a kind, and a perfect day trip destination, especially if u like train and markets. After the train reached the station, all the shops started to put down their goods and shades again, as if its there's no train track below them. The train departed for ban laem station at 3.30pm, so another hour of waiting if u want to take the train back (which i did) or you can just go back to the minivan station and went back to bangkok early. Since i did t get to ride the train going to mae klong, i decided to wait inside the train. Its super hot, i was sweating left and right, but i really want the window seat upfront lol. After a few mins of hell, they started to open the train fan and finally i can breath again. The train ticket is only 10 baht, yes super cheap, and i did take few more trains this trip, and love it. Only third class is available, which means opened window with fan, with hard plastic seats. I learned later on that some car in different routes have better cushioned seats for the same price. The train ride was equally exciting as the train goes through the market again and now i can view them from inside the train! The ride that follows are also quite eye opening, especially when you see those very small houses right next to the train track. It makes you appreciate all the little thing you have and how better off we are. By this time, my phone battery is completely drained, and i am now on the mercy of my brain and gut. Arriving at ban laem, another port city, i now need to find the ferry to cross the river to go to the next railway station, maha chai. It wasnt hard to find, just need to walk straight ahead and after about 20 min walking, passing some school, the ferry pier is on the left. Went in and take the 3 baht ferry to cross the river. On the other side, now need to walk across another markets selling a lot of things ive never seen, mostly a variety of aged seafood and fresh ones too. The train station is again of the left, not a big one, but quite hard to miss. The next train to bangkok arriving in less than an hour so i have time to browse the market and get a drink or two. At 5.35pm, the train to wongwian yai station depart and i arrived in bangkok close to 7pm. Another eye opening and a bit more rough train rides than the previous route. And as the train gets close to bangkok, a lot of locals were going in at out the train, as they use it to commute as well. I almost missed my station as i thought i havent reached the station yet, and only realize when the train started to move a bit in opposite direction lol. I asked the guy next to me is it wongwian yai station abd they guy nod, so i quickly get up and jump out of the slowly moving train. Phew. If only i still have my phone running so i can know exactly where i am all the time. Another task ahead was to find the bts station, which is another 20min walk. Good thing i still recall seeing the map in the morning, so using that i decided i needed to take a right turn from the station. After walking about 5min, i saw the bts train elevated train track, and walked towards the station. Arrived at my hotel at about 8pm, washed up and went to silom complex for dinner, and head to soi twilight.

Great info. From what i read, 3 days closure starting today until Wednesday for trial run? My flight is on thursday at 5, wonder if i should head out earlier as well. Might have to just to be on the safe side

A lot of south east asia countries are moving in the right directions. Singapore and brunei is leading the way but they are small countries, and enforcement is easier. Indonesia, malaysia, thailand are improving a lot more than whst people gave them credit for, though admittedly poverty is still the on going issues and the gap between poor and the rich is growing bigger and bigger. Next we have vietnam and Philippines, while they are improving a lot in their big cities, circumstances are holding the rurals area to improve. Id group cambodia, laos, and myanmar at the bottom of the pack, cambodai and laos, for lack of natural resources as income, on top of their gov problem, and myanmar, which until very recently, have adopted very close communist country, even with natural resources like oil, didnt manage to improve their country as fast as the others.

Thanks for the info! Will be useful if i go there tonight. Want to actually go to another bar for taste of a different show, but also dont want to miss the good ones in jupiter or tawan lol decision time!

Lol i dont remember his number, cant be bothered with that as there are no other customer there except me and i just wave and point and the guy come to me, but he is one of the bulkier, a bit short, and older guy and he was there when i went to tawan last trip too. He says he is about 34 and from issan. He kisses ( a big plus for me). I actually asked this in the bar, and he said he kiss a bit. If i went earlier, he might not be my first choice though, but late at 12, with most boys are already off, i guess he'll do. He doesnt want to shower together though, so i respect that. On that note, i dont see mehkin when i arrived at jupiter, my guess is he is already being offed that day or simply didnt come. It is monday night anyway, and the bar is a bit more than half filled Also, i dont recall making any promises on trip report lol but like many who write here, i believe that this is a good way to give something back to the forum.

After booking my impromptu flight ticket early july, im set to fly end of july and spend about 10 days exploring LoS. The initial plan were way different though. It went from going to luang prabang only, then some days before and after luang prabang spent in bangkok, then swapping luang prabang with Siem Reap, and lastly decided to just stay in Bangkok as a base and do a few quick trips around bangkok, and that is hua hin and kanchanaburi. 24th-26th in bangkok alone, and my straight friend arrived in bangkok on the 26th, 27th-28th in hua hin, 29th shopping day as my friend will go back on 30th, while i go on a day trip to kanchanaburi. The second part of the trip is still wide open (i am open to any suggestions), and ill be going back home on 3rd august. Anyone in bangkok and want to hang out one of these days are welcomed to pm me. Day of departure - 24th July Finally the day has come, not that i have to wait that long since i booked the flight ticket only two weeks before today lol. My flight are at night around 8pm and estimated to arrive in bkk around 9.30pm. My very cheap ticket doesn't include checked in luggage so i have to pack a bit light, not so light though, as i have enough clothes to last me at least 5 days, so maybe just 1 trip of laundry will do. My flight turned out to be on time, quite rare for airasia night flight, and i arrived in LoS at 9.30pm. I purchased my seat during checked in since the allocated seat were at the back, cost me usd 2.5 and it was the best decision ive made. I get a seat at row 6, window seat with no one in the middle seat. Having seatwd up front, i also get to get off board early and planted myselft near the shuttle bus door that take you from the plane to the immigration building. With just a slightly fast pace walking, i managed to arrive at DMK immigration counter with only 2 person in front of me. Right after that, went straight to get a taxi to my hotel, dusit thani in silom. Arrived in hotel @ 10pm, got to be some sort of record as my friend took nearly 2 hour to get to dusit on Wednesday, 2 days later. So after a quick freshen up at the hotel room, i headed out of hotel to the gay area of silom. My first visit of the night was jupiter 2018. As the bar is fairly new, and the drink charges are quite reasonable for a gogobar in bkk, thought ill give it a go. I can reconfirmed that the drink there is still 250thb. I believed we have a thread talking about the bar, their shows, and the stages. My impression was there were definitely some boys that i really like, and most of them are fit, to ripped muscular guy, but not bulky like the one in tawan. Since i arrived there slightly before 11pm, i get to see some of their shows. Pretty tame compared to tawan and maybe most of the other bars, and some boys are in their shorts/jeans and some even with shirt on. Cant recall their numbers but 44 is definitely a real looker with really well defined muscles, but sadly he was grabbed by another customer, though i do t really see him downstairs, so maybe he was grabbed upstairs. As the shows goes on more and more boys were offed/called to sit with customers. Their last shows were the shower show, 4 boys in the shower glass cubicles with lasers light flashing. Funny thing is, only one guy, the average body one that actually enjoys the shower like normal people do, while the other 3 were just too busy to perform properly because they are trying very hard to avoid the water from wetting their precious hair lol. Oh thai boys and their hair. 2 of them did exposed their dick with condom on. There is another guy that catches my eyes, due to his body, muscles in the right place but a bit older as u can see some cute sagging near the stomach. Face wise, not the best look out there but certainly offable in my book, but i took too long to decide and he was off right in front of me. Since none of the guys left on stage are my type, i quitely finished my drink and leave the place. Its already close to midnight, but im not done yet. Still horny for boys, i went to the familar tawan club. The shows has already finished, only 3 boys on stage and the rest were loitering around the back sofa like seals sunbathing on the rock lol. One guy on the stage i was recognized from my previous visit, very ripped body still, though a bit older but most tawan guy are older in general. I pay for my drink and after maybe 1 minutes or so, some guys are showing some interest to ask me to let them sit near me, and i politely refuse, and some of the other guy just jokingly laugh at tge guy's failed attempt lol. Like vinapu mentioned before, tawan guy are quite good at taking rejection lol. Anyway, i called the guy that i like on the stage to sit next to me, some conversation were exchanged and i quickly agree with his plea to take him for st. Off fee paid and off he goes to change to his street shirt. I asked him to wait until the bar closes at 12.30 so i can still chat with him while finishing my 400bath drink. As we go back to the hotel, i stopped at 7e to buy some necessities and off to the room. Dont want to spend too much details but the session was definitely great and last close to 2 hours.

Not really, my hotel in hua hin is a bit cheaper than raya, so is the hotel in asoke. Last time, i stayed at dusit for 4 night, and went to tokyo to stay at the sauna which is hostel like lol.

I just booked nantra silom for last part of my trip here. First part of 3 nights, i stayed in dusit thani. Then hua hin 1 night, 2 night near asoke bts.

Great thread! Have benefited greatly by some of these advise read before in other threads. One thing to add, there is another great thread on how to treat/ignore mamasan. Maybe Vinapu can put the link up in the first post if it is still possible. Also, when you enter a bar, especially gogo bar, mamasan will escort you and show you a seat, but you can always insist to find the seat yourself, and have a bit of a tour of the place and pick seats where you are comfortable with. Unless its a full and packed bar, i always do this myself, and i like to seat a bit further from door and near the area where the boys goes in and out lol. Sometimes u can see them changing, always sexy. Also try to seat where u can have some space for the boy (boys) to seat next to you. My general advise is to go and try different bars if u can, i usually go one bar a night, or 2 if i dont find anyone on the first bar. Most bar closes around 12.30 with some exception that closes around 2am, so if u want to bar hop, best do it a bit earlier. And last thing, few normal beer bar/restaurant along the street provide seats facing the streets, perfect if u arrived there early and want to see boys coming in for work, or just see the massage boys outside. I find maxis is great for that, where u can sit and have good view of xboys, fresh boys where u can get a glimpse of boys on stage there, and massage boys sitting outside of bony and bangkok massage. U can also see boys from dreamboys, classic boys walking to go to their bars, also ladyboys and touter in actions. U can do this at hotmale bars too. One thing i observed that the touter wont even bother with indians tourist. Even if they walk alone. I am writting this from hua hin, great relaxing city and i like it, but a bit expensive to get around and some of the attractions like santorini park are abit far from hua hin city, so need more time and money to go there. The markets/night markets are great too.

Cambodia is homogeneous partly due to the genocide of khmer rouge period. Before that, there are about 15% of minorities living there.

Thanks again. Yeah, i might go one way by bus and another by train. Read online that taking train will have me changing train with a boat ride in between albeit short distance. Sound interesting but taking 2 different mode of transportation means i get to see more. Just 3 more days and ill be in bangkok lol.

Ill be in bangkok next monday, of course with 20k bath in hand and ill update if i were asked by them or not.

Its jusy some statistic gathered by their gov. God knows what the real spending really is. And its really hard to trace spending of cash, so my take is most of the recorded spending has to be where it was done by card, or at places where it is required to show ID, like duty free shoppings only.

Shop/attendance is listed there, hmmm. But no specific definition of the kind of shop, thus leaving it expose for extortion from the police.

I see a lot of grabbing in vietnam too, especially in ben thanh market. However they dobt bother grabbing me since i look like local lol My limited experience in Bangkok also have not experience any grabbing by tout.

Does it have to be in thai baht or any equivalent amount in other currencies is fine?

This has been highlighted before and seems to only enforced at land borders checkpoints

We can get off on masturbation with our own right hand, sex toys. No man or woman involve. Some real straight ones do use porn to help them perform as well.

Lol not just chatuchak, hua hin as well. Given that we will be doing food hunting, something i would rather have similar minded friend to do it with. Siem reap and luang prabang will have to wait lol. Kanchanaburi is definitely on the top of my list, just pondering whether a day trip is enough or not. A night spend there would mean a night loss of bangkok night though haha. But if i were going to be too tired night gymnastics, id probably be better off spending a night there.

Thanks for the advice christian and z909 and all. My straight friend decided to follow me after all so bit changed of plan lol. No trip to siem reap nor luang prabang. But instead we will go to hua hin and stay a night there. And spend another day in bangkok for catuchak market. However, i'll have the first 2 night and 1 day free for me before my friend comes, and 4 days 4 night after to do my solo exploration. Like i mentioned before, 1 day will be visiting maeklong train market. I am also trying to find any day trip worth doing from bangkok, so i dont have to switch hotel. A wuick search seems to point to kanchanaburi, ayutthaya, and khao yai. Already done ayutthaya before though. Otherwise ill keep exploring bangkok area instead, maybe do a massage rounds lol.

Jack definitely have good business sense to keep his regular happy. Its always better to have repeat custormer vs new customers. Which sucks for newbie like me lol