ChristianPFC

Even in England, there are signs of decline of the tourism in Thailand. When I walk past a travel agency, I check if there are adverts for holidays in Thailand, which was rarely the case. At least, there were quotes for cheapest flights to Bangkok (and other towns all over the world), but now Bangkok isn't in the list any more. In the entire shopwindow, Thailand isn't even mentioned.

Ramzes, I remember a guestbook where exactly this subject is discussed by various visitors (but I don't remember the name of the profile). I don't care if people write into a guestbook how hot the boy is. There are some guestbook spammer, they probably mean well by thanking everyone who visited their profile by writing into the visitor's guestbook. It soon becomes boring when I open a guestbook and read the same message I read many times before. Vanillaboyz and Ms_Dame_Edna_Glamour are the worst offenders. And there are those who reply only to people with facepic, but don't have a facepic themselves. On the other hand, there can be nice little poems and ASCII-art in guestbooks.

If your friend's travel dates are flexible, i.e. arriving some days earlier would be ok, it might get cheaper. When I first checked for cheap airfares from London Heathrow to Bangkok last autumn I was surprised about the amount of webpages, but I soon found out that there are only a handfull of air companies that go non-stop or with one stop and that some of these websites refer to another website. Basically about five suitable connections and dozens of websites that refer to them, with no or negligable difference in price. I finally settled for www.opodo.co.uk (flexible +/- 1 day, offeres connections Bkk to LA). Everything went fine for two return flights (British Airways and Thai Airway) booked with them. www.ticketstoworld.com allows search flexible +/- 3 days, but only for flights departing from European towns.

If your friend's travel dates are flexible, i.e. arriving some days earlier would be ok, it might get cheaper. When I first checked for cheap airfares from London Heathrow to Bangkok last autumn I was surprised about the amount of webpages, but I soon found out that there are only a handfull of air companies that go non-stop or with one stop and that some of these websites refer to another website. Basically about five suitable connections and dozens of websites that refer to them, with no or negligible difference in price. I finally settled for www.opodo.co.uk (flexible +/- 1 day, offeres connections Bkk to LA). Everything went fine for two return flights (British Airways and Thai Airway) booked with them. www.ticketstoworld.com allows search flexible +/- 3 days, but only for flights departing from European towns.

I read jokes like You very handsome,sexy man. = You look like you have a lot of money. on several websites, but this is new to me (found it on gayromeo): hello Thaiboy, you're sweet=let me grab your balls your English is very good=no need to waste time with conversation you're very smart=my valuables are locked in the safetybox do you live in Pattaya?=how close is your greedy family? do you have a job?=are you freelancer? you're sexy=I take you for one hour you're very sexy=I take you for one night you're hot=you just can't wait to get your pay you're very hot=your expectations in pay are exeggerated I arrived yesterday=I'll leave tomorrow here, for taxi=500 Bt to go from Soi 1 to Soi 3 my family is waiting=I'm dating another boy later on And this one is nice too: How do you know that a Thai boy is lying to you? His lips are moving! Any more jokes about Farang and Thai boys (or girls)?

Oh, I see, it's WATER, not milk. And further reading on wikipedia revealed that it's meat, not flesh. And it should be 1.5GBP (1.8EUR, 72THB) in my first post. But I never saw anyone eating the meat. Besides, you have to drink the water first before you can open the nut. The hole for drinking the water is to small to get the meat out. Citation from wikipedia: "The endosperm surrounds a hollow interior space, filled with air and often a liquid referred to as coconut water (distinct from coconut milk). Young coconuts used for coconut water are called tender coconuts: when the coconut is still green, the endosperm inside is thin and tender, and is often eaten as a snack, but the main reason to pick the fruit at this stage is to drink its water. The water of a tender coconut is liquid endosperm. It is sweet (mild) with an aerated feel when cut fresh. Depending on its size a tender contains 300 to 1,000 ml of coconut water. The meat in a young coconut is softer and more gelatinous than a mature coconut, so much so, that it is sometimes known as coconut jelly. When the coconut has ripened and the outer husk has turned brown, a few months later, it will fall from the palm of its own accord. At that time the endosperm has thickened and hardened, while the coconut water has become somewhat bitter." (many more interesting facts)

TSA = Transportation Security Administration (never been to USA and never heard of it before, had to look it up)

Pong: "And most farang then forget the ask for the spoon to scrape the meat out." I still remember the first coconut I bought for drinking the milk in Thailand, when I finished drinking I was wondering how to get the meat out (without tool, through the hole for the straw, while walking in town), I finally throw the nut away. I could see that the meat is much thinner (approx. 5mm) then in the coconuts you can buy in Europe (approx. 10mm). They look different from outside as well. So I wonder: are there types that are just used for the milk (with only little meat) and others used for milk and meat? I recently saw these milk-coconuts on a market in England, praised as one of the healthiest drinks on earth, looking the same like those in Thailand (and originating from Thailand) for 1.5GBP (1.8EUR, 48THB) each. I remember lots of empty (i.e. no milk, but all the meat left) coconuts in the garbage in Thailand, so obviously no one eats the meat.

This guy looks promising, I would like to have look at his face WITHOUT sunglasses. As far as I can judge, there is only one person in the world who looks good with sunglasses: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator!

I have to add that I find air-conditioning sometimes a bit cold, and I'm sitting there in a T-shirt, so the boys on stage must be freezing. Furthermore, I hate draughts/drafts from aircon, fan or open windows or doors (however, wind outside is ok). 1+2 Loud music and poor illumination: I sometimes think this is done with purpose. The music in discos is loud, so you have to get closer to each other for talking which opens a gate for putting hands on shoulders or around hips to improve understanding. The flashing lights don't allow you to see each other clearly, so imagination comes in. I often found people looked better inside (disco or bar) than outside (with better light). 6. Teach the guys to flirt! It's surprising that some boys don't notice if a potential customer is interested. Happende several times to me. In front of massage parlors, I get chatted up by one guy, others chime in and finally they realized that I'm trying to get a better look at someone else (from the same parlor) who is sitting or standing and daydreaming.

That sounds really good! Only four weeks and I can take a look for myself.

My pet peeve on gayromeo are facepics with sunglasses. Sunglasses can disfigure every face. I just can't decide if a face is cute or not if most of it is covered by sunglasses. Unfortunately, they seem to be quite popular. However, everyone has his preferences, are there people who find boys with sunglasses nice, sexy, attractive, cute or whatever?

What's the composition of the bars' customers regarding tourists and expats? For me as a tourist the prices are fine and having boys in under- or swimmwear on stage is enough. Ok, if they are really dancing it looks better than just standing around, but I don't like to dance, so I assume that there are others that don't either. Within the same bar it ranged from real dancing and having a good time to looking bored and I even saw one boy picking his teeth with a toothpick on the stage, at least covering his mouth with the other hand. Music is bearable in my opinion. Temperature is a problem. I felt slightly cold in some bars, for the boys it must be worse. Something else we take for granted in Germany, the United Kingdom and Thailand is the smoking ban. When I was in Malaysia I was shocked to find out that smoking is allowed in discos (it was a horrible experience) and even in a gay sauna people were smoking!

I rarely check. When I go shopping in a supermarket, they scan everything so no mistake is possible, only wrong change is possible. When on holiday in Thailand, I usually pay the exact amount. The required small change I get from 7-11 by buying a bottle of water and paying with a 1000Baht bill, the cashier counts the change twice and I count while he/she handles the money. However, when I had my clothes washed in a laundry in Pattaya, I later checked the bill and found out that the sum was wrong (to my disadvantage), I think it was 255 Baht istead of 155 baht.

(The subsject of this post is pretty much the same as "Gay Romeo, Camfrog, and the bars" from 22 March 2010.) I'm now preparing my next holiday by logging in on gayromeo daily and waiting for messages or browsing through "online-area". The 6h time shift from Europe to Thailand is very convenient. I try to find out what a boy does ("Do you work or study in Bangkok/Pattaya?") and where he works. If it's in a bar, I can go to that bar and see him in real life (if he is working when I'm there). The lack of body language makes conversation (either on gayromeo or on MSN) sometimes quite montonous and boring (yes, no, up to you), anyway I prefer to talk to people face to face, but while I'm in Europe the only thing I can do is to make contact online. For people living in Thailand it's easy to have a computer running and checking messages on gayromeo from time to time, but when I'm there for holiday I go to internet cafe once a day to check emails and log in shortly on gayromeo. In a bar, what you see is what you get and you can get it now. With meeting boys from gayromeo, there is always the problem: does he look like expected and does he show up at the agreed time? I think the boys haven't yet recognized the potential that gayromeo presents, it can't be that hard to post some decent photos (small photos are my pet peeve, I can't be bothered to look at profiles without photos and hardly look at profiles without facepic).

I booked a flight for a two-weeks holiday in June and July, unless the flight is cancelled I will go to Thailand. But I will wait with booking hotel room, if Bkk is too hot I can skip my stay there an go directly to Pattaya and maybe elesewhere (Chiang Mai or Korat).

On pictures in gayromeo, boys often wear a pice of clothing like a thick rope coming from behind their neck going to under the armpit to the back. Probably, they pulled the front of a shirt behind their neck (I just tried, it looks similar, but is a bit unconfortable). But why? Kind of taking off T-shirt without loosing it? Obviously not, as many of the photos seem to be at home. I'm not sure, but I think I saw it in gogo-bars as well. Does anyone has got an idea? See attached photo (random from gayromeo) for illustration.

He was sitting with friends in the Bamboo bar in Jomtien and I was walking towards the beach and they waved to me and as I read that Bamboo bar is one of the gay venues in Jomtien I went to have a chat. No customers in the bar, no off-fee. I was naive, why not let him come with me for free? Finally, he turned out helpfull as I didn't know how to get to the Buddha hill, so all I had to do is to tell him where I would like to go and he got two motorbike taxis to get us there. Then I asked him to take me to Sunee (as I haven't been there before and wanted to check it out at daylight before going there at night), and from there I went to my hotel in Boyztown. I made several hints that I now know the way can go alone now but he didn't leave me. Finally, the penny dropped that he was wating for a tip. To avoid discussion of what "go for free" means and disappointment I gave him 500 Baht and his reactions showed me that this was what he was waiting for. I consider the afternoon and the money well spent. During all my web-reading about gay Thailand I never came across "go for free".

Data from my holdiay in Bkk 7 days and Pattaya 3 days in January (I write down every Baht I spend and for what I spend it and with whom, so later I can read again an prepare for the next holiday) average expenses per day: Accommodation: 1300 (will be cheaper next time) Food: 700 (I eat mainly food from stree sellers, the 700Baht average includes some fine dining with a friend which costs around 300 for each of us per meal) Taxis/Tuk Tuk/Baht Bus/MRT/BTS: 400 Bar drinks (Gogo bar drinks, parties with friend in Thai4Thai gay disco): 500 Tips/ShortTime/LongTime: 600 (I went home alone more often then not, this has to change!) Drinks/Alcohol/Booze/Liters: (expenses includes above) for me only water, Coke and various fruit juices and shakes, for friends about 2L of beer and 2L of whisky for the whole 10 days Massage: 450 Miscellaneous (in my case clothes for me, cinema for us, internet-cafe negligable, mobile phone negligable, sauna, sightseeing, various other small expenses): 500 about 4500 Baht per day spending in Thailand

I had a boy from GR in Pattaya (he worked in a bar some years ago, he told me) overnight and tipped him 1500 (in addition to paying all meals, transportation, cinema of course), he seemed very happy as he wrote several SMS the next day (where I am, if I have a boy, if I go home alone). I might add the "go with you for free" fee is 500Baht. I was walking at Jomtien in the early afternoon when a boy from bamboo-bar waved me over and asked if he could go with me for free. I was puzzled about this offer, but given the choice of walking alone or with him I accepted. After some walking at the beach we went to the big Buddha-statue where he explained to me the funtions of the various buildings there. Very interesting. Then in Pattaya I walked back to my hotel and and made several hints that I don't need his company any more but he still followed me. (I just wanted company for some hours in town, obviously he wanted to go to my hotel room for more.) Finally, the penny dropped. I asked him if he needs money to get back and gave him 500 Baht, he asked for one more (100Baht bill) but I declined. Just to check if "I love you so much" was meant seriously I looked back and saw him boarding the next baht-bus, without looking back.

Yes, the gay scene is small. I prepared my last holiday on gayromeo and after one night in Silom I got two messages from members who recognized me, but I didn't see them despite the fact that I'm looking for people I know when I'm there. Another friend told me later that he saw me with someone and that he was with someone as well. When I check my Thai friends' friends on facebook, I sometimes recognise someone I saw in DJ or on gayromeo. The other way round as well: in DJ I see someone I didn't met before but I saw his profile on facebook or gayromeo.

I always carry it with me when I'm on holiday in Thailand and I have a copy in my hotel room. I experience the same problem as cdnmatt: there is some wear and tear. I only need it for hotel check-in and at the airport.

Very interesting topic! (Unfortunately, I can't make any usefull contribution, maybe after some more holidays in Thailand.)

Let's hope the situation doesn't change to the worse and everybody (Expats, Tourists, Thais) stops laughing, but for the moment, I have these two jokes: "Red Shirt? Yellow Shirt? Depends on what goes better with my pants." (Not my idea, from http://toogaybangkok.blogspot.com/) "Red Shirt? Yellow Shirt? I don't care. My hotel room is no-shirt-zone!" Does anyone have more?

My experiences were mainly positive, exept some that didn't want to use the meter, I just went on to the next (short trips in Bkk). I went from Pattaya to Bkk airport and booked two days in advance (as is suggested by the taxi-booking-stalls on the street). Later, I remembered what I read (and experienced) about Thai puncutality and thought I should have booked it earlier to leave enough time. But when I left hotel 15min before the booked leaving time he was already there. As far as I remember the whole trip was 1100Baht, 600Baht had to be paid in advance (when I made the booking). I think I will go by bus next time. Is considerably cheaper and doesn't take much longer.