macaroni21

@xpaulo we shouldn't take such surveys too seriously. I wondered about how Turkey made the list while Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries did not. Actually, we don't even know which countries were in the survey in the first place. At best it is some poll that measures how many people will say "yes" to a question from a less-than-representative sample, so, if it measures anything, it is no more than the degree by which people feel free to say they are LGBT. I treat it as little more than a fun thing, even if it has a grain of truth. @PeterRS I think we need to be careful not to make too much of laws. Social attitudes can be vastly different from what the law says. From my observations of Singapore - and from your comments too about straight behaviour and how, when the law was finally repealed, there was no more than a whimper - social attitudes are a lot more liberal on LGBT issues than what we read from the law books. Gee, if we relied on laws to assess social attitudes, then places such as Korea and the Philippines which have not had anti-gay laws for decades, if ever, (as far as I know, if I'm mistaken, please point out) should also demonstrate accepting social attitudes. From what I have read and from several visits to these two countries, that's clearly not the case.

Koh Samui's chronic water shortage Text story includes a video. Doesn't sound like a seasonal problem, but something that will get worse as El Nino bites next year. 5-star hotels may be able to buy groundwater from private extraction companies (for now), but prices go up and that leaves smaller businesses short of water. Imagine getting a massage and being told there is no shower! Direct link to video

Badly written last paragraph. So, did they apprehend the suspects? All it said was that the police "diligently" examined CCTV in order to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.... and then it leaves the reader hanging as to the outcome. And was the word "diligently" really necessary? Or was it to flatter some important people? (just to be clear, I am referring to the reporter; not to forum member @reader, whom I thank for sharing this news tidbit)

I've witnessed something very similar before - not at Toy Boys, but in a Bangkok gogo bar. Also a South Asian dude. And I was seated quite close to the action, so I caught a bit of the conversation. In my incident, the mamasan was explaining that the off fee was for the bar and the boy still expected a tip of [whatever amount - I can't recall]. The customer objected and claimed he had been misled, and said - this I remember - something along the lines of "In my country, 500 would be for everything." Of course, I don't know what country he was referring to, or even whether it had gogo bars of similar variety.

I too have had a case where I mistakenly assumed that the guy who welcomed me into the shop would be the masseur, only to be assigned another. Fortunately the other one wasn't a woman. The story is in my blog: "This boy cannot," she said

@PeterRS wrote: Most majority Chinese communities Technically, you're correct that Singapore is a majority-Chinese city, and I often hear this kind or argument that lumps Singapore with Hong Kong and Taiwan because of this statistic, but my own observations about Singapore and Hong Kong are that they are very different. I've had work projects with several companies based in Singapore and in Hong Kong, but none based in Taiwan so I will leave Taiwan out of these comments. When one works with a company for a period of time, interacting with various levels of staff, one gets to see a different side of a society than if one were only a tourist. In Singapore, the staff in all the companies I have been engaged wth were multi-ethnic. The language they use among themselves was English; I have a feeling that the media they consume is likewise skewed to English language (i.e. more westernised) media. In Hong Kong, other than senior management, the middle and junior levels of staff I dealt with were all local Chinese and if I were not in the conversation, they would be speaking Cantonese among themselves. In fact, even when I was in the conversation, many of the middle and junior staff would stumble when trying to speak in English and would need someone else to translate for them. I am pretty sure they consume primarily Chinese or Cantonese media. In Hong Kong, each time I was invited out for a meal by the middle managers, it would be for Chinese food, such that the one exception was memorable: Lo, they chose a Vietnamese restaurant - which they considered exotic enough. In Singapore, when I hung out with the middle and even junior staff, there would be all kinds of food from Indian paratha to pizza, from shawarma to sushi. In short, a multi-ethnic group of employees consuming multi-origin food. I don't claim that my experiences are representative, on the other hand, they are more in-depth than merely tourist experiences, involving ordinary people far from the tourist industry, and usually sustained over a longish period for each project. I had the privilege of observing them as they interacted with each other in their workplaces and with each other. What I have taken away is a sense that culture-wise, Singapore is rather different from Hong Kong. I mentioned media, because media influences attitudes and culture. Singapore is multi-ethnic, multi-cuisine, multi-language at many levels, whereas Hong Kong is a very Chinese city with a cosmopolitan veneer (e.g. in the same way that Shanghai and Beijing are). That still doesn't tell me very much about societal attitudes towards LGBT - not a subject I enquired much about anyway - but here's another interesting thing: In the Singapore companies, I have seen openly gay managers. (At least two if my memory over the years serves me well). In both those companies, the staff all knew that so-and-so was gay. I have not seen a similar situation in the Hong Kong companies I worked with. But then, mine is a tiny sample. Basically my point is this: While it may be true that Chinese families have great difficulty accepting that their sons are gay, Singapore families, regardless of genes, are less Chinese than Hong Kong families, culturally. This then poses this question: does that mean it is easier for Singapore LGBT to be out, and to answer Yes to a survey question?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM3Uh5m3WoM Top ten, and one of them is from Southeast Asia - but it isn't Thailand.

I have such a card too but different bank from yours. Works great for the major currencies but Thai baht is not a option on my card. So, pointless for Thai trips.

Yes that sounds like a plan. Go there to unwind. You may still strike lucky and find an Adonis. At the very least you will form your own opinion whether Pattaya is to your taste or not.

And that's the problem. Pattaya is holding less and less interest for me. My usual favourites, relatively speaking, are Abomb and Toyboys. BoyzBoyzBoyz used to be on the list but since it has gone hetero, it's been scratched. The other thing about Pattaya is that massage skills tend to be poor. One may be able to get a bigger boy for massage out of the (exaggeration) hundreds sitting outside their shops, but nothing that comes close to Prime in Bangkok (if I want a real massage) or Arena (if my interest is more carnal). The only thing Pattaya has over Bangkok is the beach... But now that the gay area is also disappearing... sigh.

Oh dear, not to me. But as I've said, tastes differ.

Tastes differ. There are several posters here who enjoy Jomtien Complex and the type of boys it offers. I have walked that stretch many times over 20 years and have not found it of any interest. Like @moistmango I much prefer the sight of skin in gogo bars (even better if on a beefy lad) - not something on offer in Jomtien. I am also no fan of fem twinks which are disproportionately represented in Jomtien Complex. The key thing about host bars is that the hosts are supposed to engage clients in pleasant, maybe a bit naughty, conversation. This alas is mostly beyond the language skills of these farm boys. So what does one do sitting there, nothing to watch, nothing to converse about? If it floats your boat, good for you, but l would say Jomtien Complex serves a narrow type of client interest. Yet I mostly choose to stay in the Jomtien area. I like the proximity to the beach. Boyztown is just a short songtaew ride away.

How many people went on that flight? Was the plane mostly empty? Could he not have chartered a much smaller business jet?

I wonder what "exempted from stamping" means. Even if a traveller does not need a visa, the passport is normally stamped. Or is this another example of poor reporting/writing skills?

Because his legs are wide open?

A good proportion of Thais, especially in urban areas, have some mix of Chinese ancestry. There's been steady immigration for centuries. I think this genetic factor is at least as important than "working in the fields" in accounting for differences in complexion among various provinces. Certainly the Lanna Thais in the Chiang Mai area are nearly as light coloured as the Chinese.

Line is primarily a messaging app. You need the other party to give you his contact ID. Line is not a dating app where you can trawl through listings.

Go to Turkey, sign up for an oiled wrestling contest, though even with Turkish competitors you may still need 2:1. Seriously, despite the active discussions in this forum, Thailand's offerings are quite limited in scope. We shouldn't expect Thailand to meet every type of desire. No country will.

Does @vinapu not have a wallet to lock away?

Is there any point in drawing up overall rankings like this? We all have different tastes in men. We weigh factors like cost, language, personal security, differently. Our starting locations vary by thousands of miles ( surprise, some even live in Asia or Australia). Each of us will no doubt have some kind of personal ranking based on our criteria, but trying to develop a master ranking often comes with privileging certain tastes/criteria over others.

Welcome to the forum. Just so we're clear: you're visiting Phuket soon and you hope to organize a double-twink orgy, right? Although you didn't explicitly say so, are you asking how to go about organizing one? Or have you already figured it out from previous threads? Your more explicitly stated concern is about safety. Much depends on whether you have a safety box in your apartment or room and whether you have a bed big enough for 3 people. If you don't, you may wish to consider a using cheap room in a separate hotel with multiple beds, and not using your regular room. You need only pay for one night for your party.

For those 2 days on the boat, meals took the form of instant noodles and whatever the itinerant vendors sell. In short: it was fun. Hard seats on long boat. But those who swear by Business Class may curse every moment of the trip.

I did that trip more recently, just before COVID, so it still runs, but I went in the reverse direction. I took a long boat from Luang Prabang upriver to Huay Xai/Chiang Khong, the nearest river landing to Chiang Rai. More accurately, the long boat docked at Huay Xai, which is the town on the Lao side of the Mekong, directly opposite Chiang Khong. From Huay Xai I had to bus over a bridge to Chiang Khong complete with border formalities. The long boat trip took 2 days and 1 night with a sleepover in a village called Pak Beng halfway up the river. From Chiang Khong, I took a bus to Chiang Rai. About 3hours, mountain roads. I'm talking local busses, not tour coaches. You sit tightly with a vegetable seller and a hairdresser on their way to the big city (Chiang Rai). this is not a trip you do with luggage. A backpack is all you can have with you. The river banks can be muddy and steep. Don't imagine pulling a roller suitcase behind you.

Just a word of thanks to @reader for these news updates that are posted from time to time. They keep those of us outside Thailand updated on changes so we're not surprised when we do arrive in Thailand. One small thing about the above news story though: it says "providing a solution to reduce congestion at the main terminal"... But the worst congestion, when it happens, tends to happen at immigration. I don't suppose a satellite terminal does anything for that.

Story doesn't say if they adjusted for the increase in average height of adult males over the last 30 years. Nor which countries.