[The end of Jomtien Complex?]

It has been reported on another board that the previous owners of JQK Bar are renovating and re-opening Cupidol Bar in Boyztown. 

[Lagoa Id check]

3 hours ago, jonesghd said:

Sounds like you had quite the adventure in Lagoa! It's always interesting to experience different places and their varying policies. As for ID and Covid certs, it can differ from venue to venue.
 

Note that the issues with the Covid cert were all more than a year ago...

[Where Spain's gay rights movement began]

Glad to read that the history of that time is being kept alive

[Spain: Barcelona, Andalucia, and Madrid January 2023]

On 5/28/2023 at 2:25 PM, Riobard said:

The proposed commercial sex work abolitionist legislation has been in limbo for months, with many other unrelated laws requiring attention ahead in the queue. Local elections are underway. The next general election is no more than 6 months off and I think thenue, not exclusively a baths/brothel.

Now the general election has been set for the 23rd July, so it looks like bringing this legislation through will fall to the next administration.

At the moment it seems that a PP and Vox coalition is most likely next  government. How would they feel about the legislation, does anyone know?

[Barcelona (Thermas) 2019 latest recommendations]

I visited the original Thermas - in Barcelona - over two successive nights at the end of April.

 

First Night - Wednesday

 

On the first night, I got there about 6 pm.  I don’t see that many guys about  - I would say there was about seven guys for hire, and maybe same amount of clients. 

 

In particular I noticed three rather feminine young men, who I first though were rentboys, but then realised that they were clients. They tended to stay in their own group and made no attempt to hire that I saw. I am not sure if they went into the wrong sauna, or just wanted to have a look around at the scene (of course, for all I really know, they may have been sated from a big orgy with a dozen rentboys just before i arrived).

 

Some of the escort guys were eating and seemed to have retired from the hunt, for the time being at least. I was only approached by a Nigerian guy and a South American guy (cannot remember exactly which country he said) named Juan.

 

I was not hugely taken with either guy. I agreed to go into a room with Juan for massage, which ended in mutual masturbation and he gave me a BJ. We agreed on €50 and I gave him €60  - we are in the room from maybe 40 minutes altogether.

 

The sauna was a bit quieter than I anticipated, so I asked Juan if it had been busier earlier in the day, and he said it was. So the next day Thursday I made an effort to be there by 4 pm.

 

Second Night - Thursday

 

There was a bigger crowd of guys this time. Maybe 15 escorts and slightly more customers. Several escorts approached me, but none very aggressively. I had a chat with Juan, who was there again, and seemed anxious for repeat business. In general the feeling I got was that they rentboys were nearly all South American guys. However, I did not like to question too much if I wasn’t interested in them, as I didn’t want to be seen to be "leading them on", so to speak.

 

I went for a dip in the little pool there ( a very pleasant feature which few mention in reviews) and saw a rather moody looking guy sitting in the seats in the corner at that level. He was a rather handsome, masculine, Eastern European looking kind of guy, so I went over and said hello. He was the only guy I took the initiative to approach in the Sauna.

 

He turned out to be a Russian guy called Ivan. We we had a chat and we agreed to go to a room. The only free rooms were both very dark and small, so I decided to splash out €10.50 for a private room The main advantage this was that it had sheets on the bed, and you could turn the lights up a lot, all the better for appreciating Ivan's fine physique!

 

Ivan told me he was straight, and top only. He had previously been a professional footballer. But now he was unemployed, and needed money.

 

We agreed to €60 for him to give me a massage and mutual masturbation.

The massage was a bit hard for me - he told me he had been trained in proper sports massage, but I am more used to the light rubbing you get in Thai sexy massage place as a prelude to the "afters".

 

He then offered to fuck me. However, I was not in the mood for that, so I just told him I wanted him to cum. He said that he wanted another €30 or €40 for that, so I decided not to bother (there is nothing as desire-killing, as a guy who starts to negotiate in the middle of a session). In fairness to him, however, we had not discussed it before we entered the room, and I know it would probably hinder his ability to do so with a later client. So I didn’t hold that against him

 

Instead I just got him to  wank me until I came.

 

In the room, he seemed a little morose. I asked him if he was thinking of going back to Russia, and he said he was afraid to at the moment, with the possibility of conscription into Putin's war machine.

 

When we ended our session though, he accepted his €60 with a big smile, and volunteered to give me his phone number so we could arrange a session outside Thermas. So I think he was happy with his 40 minutes work and remuneration overall.

However, as I was flying out the next day, I couldn’t take him up on the offer.

 

All in all, although it was not the most exciting sex experiences I have had, it was very pleasant and relaxing The rentboys all stayed out of the clients locker area, and it felt a very safe environment for both the rentboys and clients.

[Pita ‘ready to be Thailand’s 30th prime minister’]

Depends on how he does things. He may be willing to come to an implicit agreement with the military that he will be allowed to take office as long as he does not interfere with the things the Generals hold dear, from the Army budget on down.

It could be, from their point of view,  that he would be seen as more palatable than a member of the Shinawatra clan, who one would have expected to end up as the leader of the  largest party, and perhaps prime minister, until the results came in.
 

[Return to Thailand]

6 hours ago, Riobard said:

 

What you are suggesting seems impossible. I get on at one BTS by scanning my Mastercard. I get off at a distance that is mapped to a variable charge according to the number of stations travelled. I scan my Mastercard in the train so the door opens to allow me out. My credit card’s brain calculates and pays the charge? How does my credit card’s internal coding do that?! I would think that only a transit fare card can do that math. A credit card only functions by paying for a commodity whose value is established at checkout. 

The internal computer system of the BTS can work out how much the fare is, and (because it recognises that the same Mastercard was scanned twice, and what stations they were scanned at) it then charges your card the correct amount.

I THINK the way it works in London is that when you scan on at say, Holborn, it puts a "hold" on your credit card for the maximum daily amount on the underground system (say, £20) and then if you get off at a station where the due fare is only, say, £4.50, it then releases the hold and charges you the correct fare. So if you forget to swipe out on leaving the train station,you might get charged the maximum fare. 

I would guess there is a similar system in BKK, 

[Bangkok Pat's Foreigners election guide]

Interesting to see what the parties are offering. It would have been helpful if he had indicated also the expected percentage vote range for the parties - some of them are polling in the low single digits, while Pheu Thai are polling the best by far.

Perhaps that is why they tended to shy away from specifics in their promises. I must admit I had wry smile when Pat said that they are promising to make coups harder in the future. I am sure they would love to implement that one!

As an aside, the rest of Pats channel is very interesting for people with an interest places to see in Bangkok.

 

 

 

 

[RIP, David Miranda, former GP turned Brazilian politician and social activist.]

On 5/12/2023 at 5:48 PM, Riobard said:

Any otherwise healthy gay male with sudden onset acute illness admitted to a Brazil hospital last August should have been properly assessed and given the antiviral Tecovirimat for the Orthopox infection widely circulating among thousands of urban MSM there at the time.

 

 

Sorry, could you clarify if the above mentioned orthopox outbreak is the same as the mpox (aka monkeypox) outbreak from last year, or some other strain?

[Best show in Silom]

Some really informative replies on this thread for guys who are planning what bars to favour on their trip to Bangkok.

[Another unlucky Brit denied insurance claim in Thailand]

I remember about 20 years ago, when I first started thinking about going to Thailand, and I started reading the weekly column on the Stickman Thai travel advice website

 

In his news roundup section, he frequently had a story from a western newspaper about a tourist (usually a young British male) who was stuck in a Thai hospital after being in a motorbike crash, or a water-sports accident.  At that time, the typical situation seemed to be that they had no travel insurance.

 

Stickman often used to tut-tut over this and bemoan the fact that so many tourists came to Thailand without travel insurance.

 

Flash forward twenty years and there are still links in the Stickman column to news stories about people stuck in Thailand after having catastrophic  accidents, and relatives starting GoFundMe pages, etc.

 

But now you find that the typical tourist profiled on such stories did indeed have travel insurance, except the insurance companies have refused to pay out, for the reasons outlined in the posts above.

 

In many cases, the guys affected are hardly out of their teens. Perhaps not having the life experiences of some of the posters above about how you can get into sticky situations very quickly in a foreign country.

 

I think travel and insurance companies should be forced to emphasize these issues to people buying travel insurance for the first time. 

I remember on one occasion when I booked a flight to Thailand with a travel agency. I was asked if I wanted to book travel insurance with them also, and I said I did. As I’d heard the stories, I asked about being insured to travel on a motorcycle. The young woman working at the travel agency told me I would be covered, presuming I had the requisite driving license (no mention was made that I would need an international one).

When I asked about if I was a passenger on a motorbike taxi, she became a bit perplexed and after a bit of humming and hawing suggested that this would be covered by the motorbike taxi drivers public liability insurance!

Perhaps she wasn’t that well informed about the likelihood of getting money from your motorbike taxi drivers insurance in Thailand.

I’ve now got multi-trip travel insurance. I just looked at the terms and conditions, and I can’t find any mention of a motorbike, although I did find a general provision saying that the policy will be invalidated if I carry out any “reckless” action

I imagine the likelihood more than 1% of 18 to 30 year-olds knowing what their coverage really is, even if you have insurance, when arriving in Thailand is probably zero.

However, I am sure the insurance companies have a little appetite to clarify these things, quick and all as they are to take the young peoples money.

[Agadir visit]

Thanks for that, Gaz69

[Tour of Bangkok spas March 2023]

I note an interesting mix of descriptors and minimum prices on the twitter page of 15M massage.

Most of the guys are described as "straight". The minimum tip for an hour for them seems to be usually 800 baht.

One guys is described as "gay" - his minimum is 800 also.

Another guy is described as "top" - his minimum is 1000.

Yet another is described as "man" (a gay top perhaps - then why not just top?) - his minimum is 1000

Seems being more than just str8 or gay earns you more money....

[Pattaya Massage shops review 2023]

On 3/18/2023 at 1:07 PM, forky123 said:

Foam massage visit to Helios.

Helios Massage - Tukcom - Coming from beach, take road along Tukcom. Helios is about 200m on the left. 

Cost -  1 hour Foam Massage - 600. 1000 minimum for boy

Boys quality: 5 or 6 boys. Low 20's to low 30's 

Ambience: The foam massage room is on the first floor so not so many stairs. It's basically a massage room sized shower cubicle with a couple of fans and not much lighting. It was cleaner than I remember and a comfortable temperature. My previous experience a few years ago was that I was continually cold. Not so this time. 

Massage Quality: Foam massages involve mainly body to body contact and not much pressure as the slipperyness of the foam makes pressure difficult. Overall the body to body style was enjoyable with much mutual touching. It was nice as a change but I definitely prefer an oil massage. Afters were basically throughout the massage. Mutul BJ & HJ.

Duration (I've been asked to include this) - The full hour.

Overall - Always going to be a favorite for me but there are no Lek's working there now.

Glad to see a review of a Foam Massage.

In the straight Thai scene, they are called "Soapies" and are very common. That is not the situation for gay massages, not sure why.

Helios seems to occupy the same premises as the old Blue Massage, which also used to specialise in them.

[You know you lost the war when they laugh in your face]

3 hours ago, tassojunior said:

The separation of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic from Russia has zero to do with  any of this except the borders were never historic Ukraine. Crimea, Yalta, Odessa have been Russian for hundreds of years. Catherine the Great built Odessa. The Russian nationality began in Kiev.

This is very much the Russian imperialistic view of Ukraine history.

I am not really read up enough on it to argue against it, but I must say it is rather strange that somebody claiming to be opposed to the war from what one might call a US leftist-pacifist point of view should trot out these arguments.

[You know you lost the war when they laugh in your face]

3 hours ago, tassojunior said:

  Angela Merkel recently said the treaty was a farce to give Zelensky time to get US weapons to invade Donbas. He did get the weapons and he did invade Donbas and 14,000 human beings were killed by his revoking the peace treaty.

 

When did this invasion happen?

Zelensky did not regain an inch of the Donbas for Ukraine prior to February 2022, although there was occasional flare-ups of fighting and shelling at the front line during his Presidency, as there had been several times since 2014.

The deaths caused by these flare-ups were much lower that the average casualties at the front between 2014 and when Zelensky was inaugurated.

If you mean after February 2022, what you are talking about is Zelensky leading the fightback against the Russian invasion of that month, to call THAT an "invasion of Donbas" is self-evidently ludicrous.

[Spain: Barcelona, Andalucia, and Madrid January 2023]

5 hours ago, Alex_Berl said:

what do you mean with "local sites" ?

 

I presume he means Telechapereo and Morbototal and the like

 

By the way, is this new law in operation yet?

 

I dont recall reading that it had passed all stages in the parliament.

[Chang sha host club]

4 hours ago, vinapu said:

I  have the same doubts but I guess until we go and check for ourselves we don't really know.

One thing  is certain, Bangkok has plenty of offerings outside of Silom ghetto  so adventurous among us may have their time filled in, 

Well, the bleublackbar is only 7 minutes walk from Sutthisan MRT station (according to Google maps)  so one would not have to be THAT adventurous to hit up that one.

Personally would love to hear an account from somebody who ventured outside the Silom ghetto

[Is China for peace, or Putin, or both?]

Ever since the demise of the Politics section on the "Company of Men" board, there seems to have been a big uptick in politics discussion on this board...

 

I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I nevertheless couldn't resist adding my tuppence to this topic.

 

Just in regard to the amount of people in India who identify Russia as an ally, this is probably best understood in historical terms.

 

Traditionally, India had two big enemies, China and Pakistan. In the late 1980's, America was closely allied to Pakistan, with both supporting the mujaheddin in Afghanistan, and at that time also, America infuriated India by refusing to definitively take the Indian side in the border dispute between India and China.

 

India moved closer to Russia partly in response. Traditionally, the Indian army purchased a lot of weaponry from the Soviet Union,  and later Russia. Since that time I think many of the more politically engaged Indians saw Russia was a traditional "ally" of India, in a purely hard-headed geopolitical sense.

 

In the last 20 years as Pakistan and America became more estranged, and particularly since about 2010 as America and China became major rivals, America is a lot more supportive of the India side.

 

However, I think the inclination of many in India to regard Russia as an "ally" remains. It is in the same way that many Americans would say that Saudi Arabia is an "ally" if I asked about it, if they are aware of the decades-long "marriage of convenience" alliance between the US and Saudi. However, I doubt that too many of those people would feel much genuine warmth for Saudi Arabia. 

I think for many in India, the way they view Russia is similar. 

 

Therefore asking a question about being an "ally" is a bit loaded. I would be more interested to hear a question about, say, which side the interviewees had more sympathy for in the dispute in question.  

 

[Agadir Vacation]

Hopefully, we will get a bit of a report from Gaz69.

 

It seems to be an area where there is not a lot of information on gay "pay for play" activities.

 

This, despite the fact that the current "Moon Guide" to Morocco sees fit to warn its readers that "singles should be wary, as the club scene in Agadir is fertile ground for prostitutes, both female and male" 

 

It seems that the guy who writes the Moon guide knows all about it…. but nobody who posts on the various gay sex tourist boards does.

 

I suppose that it’s not unusual for a mass-market guidebook to post a warning about prostitutes in nightclubs in various cities, but I was taken with the fact  that the guidebook writer took the trouble to specify male prostitutes - makes it sound like Agadir might be quite the place to visit!

[Tonight in Bangkok]

I find it still works - you are often suddenly shifted back to your home country after ten minutes or so, but you have time to leave a few taps.

[Bali - map of gay places]

The poster who goes by the name of Macaroni21 on this board has just put up a very handy map of gay places in Seminyak on his blog page:

Map of Seminyak, Bali, January 2023 – ShamelessMack2 (travel.blog)

Thought I would add it here as I know he would be too modest to publicise it himself!

[Chang sha host club]

I would go for Boss or Scott

I see that their blurb states that they welcome "customers of all genders" (as per Google translate)

However, that might be managements line, what sort of reception you would get from all shirtless dudes on stage is another matter...

[Chang sha host club]

Looks interesting. 

 

From the postings on the TikTok account, it seems to be mainly straight guys on staff.

 

Going by where is located, out in the far north-western suburbs, I presume it is mainly a Thai for Thai place. However, with a name like "Changsha" maybe it is going for the Chinese market?

 

Although I wouldn't imagine that many Chinese tourists would find their way out there, either.

 

Glad to hear you can take guys off from it. Perhaps the fact that it describes a self as a "host bar" rather than a karaoke place, means it is more focused on that portion of the market? I dunno...

 

Regarding off fees though, there is a possibility that there might be different prices for taking staff off at different times of the night. I believe that’s quite common in  straight establishments, where you might have to pay an off fee (they would call it a bar fine) of 2000 baht before midnight, say, but by 2 am the price would have come down to 500.

 

If they quote you a high off fee, you could ask is that all night, or does it come down later?

 

Doesn’t suit if you want to turn up at 11 and quickly take a guy off, of course...

[Can you guess the year of the photo (non-porn)]

Ok, in fairness some of the later games I played had a more international spread of photos