vinapu

very , very wise advice

From touristy stuff I recommend Muang Boran (Old City ) in the outskirts of Bangkok with miniatures of most famous buildings of Thailand, Snake farm just across the road fro BBB Inn and Wat Hualampong not far from there , with live cows. Hindu temple on Silom is quite interesting.

alone? first night in Pattaya ? Just tell us I'm wrong

welcome to the forum and keep in mind there are people with good memory here. You will have double fun because there's no time like first time. Because your trip is long make sure you do a lot of regular touristy stuff, even without boys and bars Thailand is very fascinating country

at least we know now there's no problem with visitors there

that is the reason I pay very little attention to all those anonymous / for me / reviews on the internet. Sometimes for fun I read reviews of places I know quite well and what I read is not what I recall. But I consider trustworthy of what our contributors are saying here

make sure you don't pay more than 1200 for the privilege although I have no personal experience with taxi to Pattaya, I prefer bus from Ekkamai or Swampy. I rather spend money on boys than taxis as stated before

Great review. I agree that being in the thick of action / Glitz / is more important that distant luxuries but it's me, others may have different priorities. Based on your review I made firm resolve to finally utilize Glitz , Prime and Magic Touch and return to VCK / Chakran massage / whenever I'm in BKK next time , thank you. That 'probably hottest guys I've seen in the city ' statement says it all.

one more point to head to the bars with lots of change. in case like yours I'd give them benefit of doubt ( small chance they really did not have a change although even I don't believe in what I'm saying ), tip them my regular drink tip of 20 baht with note IO always have handy and like you , pocket all change counting it carefully.

that's rude, I'm not saying undeserved but still rude. BKK taxi drivers are definitely not worse that everywhere else and yes , sometimes they try to skin clients alive but they still are very good value considering rest of the world and size of city they are serving

that 100 at closing time from Patpong to Malaysia is my experience also , few times even driver refused to go for that much / and I refused to pay more, plenty moving taxis in BKK at any time/ Otherwise you seem very frivolous with money, nothing wrong in being in spending mode on vacations but your money should go to the boys , not waiters , mamasans or tuktuk/ taxi drivers unless you have some designs on those.

years ago the same thing happened to me at old Jupiter, ever since when I go to the bars I make sure I have enough small notes on me so I don't need to wait for a change

not only me but also ChristianPFC as well OMG, you still remember that story, almost 2 years ago I guess, yes it was quite a deluge with all sois under water but what was more impressive it was how fast after rain stopped market along Suriwong came back to life , say 5 minutes do they still have massage boys at BBB Inn ? If Tao is still there I can recommend him, Wat Po trained and it showed. not exactly surgical room in hospital but I stay there many times and it was not that bad , windows draperies could use some washing though. Certainly fun to stay at and NO PROBLEM WITH VISITORS WHATSOEVER

don't count on it in Thailand. I never had problems with Kasikorn (spelling ?) green colored bank machines but the same card and the same amount were rejected by say Bangkok Bank 's ones . No idea why but nowadays I don't even try other banks and go straight to green ones, one freestanding on Silom past soi 6 in front of building where Starbucks is, never failed me

but who wants to visits place where hiring moneyboy or lady of the night is a criminal offence. Readers are warned on both accounts, cash and fun

you know, we all are familiar with types who after the fact will tell you ' I said it long time ago' and fact that nobody recalls their ''predictions'' does not bother them

thank you thank you for the warning and hope others will learn from your misfortune. Lesson coming from that is don't relay on plastic money only and have stash of cash on you wherever you travel. Cars are getting rejected by machines and terminals but people always accept cash. Reminds me my trip last year where I left my cards at home by neglect. Fortunately I followed my own advice above so fun was not undiminished and it turned out I had friend in BKK at the same time who was able to help me without asking any questions.

predicting is very hard , specially predicting the future

unless some kind of moral campaign will prevail worldwide

I always say and will repeat here again : internet forgets nothing. Those problems may surface not only when somebody will be running for the office or will be person in position in business , academia, arts etc, it carries also potential of ruining of person's family life - imagine discovering what beloved father did when he was in university. On another hand we may discover in future That society will move on and things carrying certain stigma now may be irrelevant in not so even distant future, many not so long ago closeted gays are now proudly announcing ' this is my husband". The same may happen to people who are prostituting themselves to go through university. Quite possible that my father who always said ' prostitution is job like any other and at least job is not dusty ' may turn out to be visionary.

certainly a lot of people have more money than brainpower

don't underestimate Thais. Few years ago I reported here in the forum visiting future site of My Hero at old Hero place two days before advertising re-opening. It looked like construction site , not almost finished venue and yet 2 days later as scheduled place was opened and staffed, only thing I recall missing were no hooks to hang my clothes and towel in a massage room but floor was clean and door knob handy

1. if there's luggage storage facility in the airport / big if ? / I'd leave luggage there. Otherwise at railway / bus station it may be one. Third option is to look for some big shopping mall as they often have luggage storage facilities. Option # 4 is to rent room in cheap hotel close to the departing point and keep your luggage there , that is option I used few times when stopover was quite long like 6-10 hours. Option 5 is to arrange with airline that your luggage will be tagged through to destination. Option 6 is just to suffer in silence and carry luggage with you - lesser problem for those who, like me , are travelling light. Option 7 which I used quite a few times in my younger travelling years was just to leave luggage in the airport or railway station somewhere and hope for the best - it always worked for me. Unfortunately not because of terror scares that option is not valid anymore and unattended luggage may lead not only thief into temptation but us to bigger trouble. 2. do whatever we do when we go downtown in our own cities - shopping malls , restaurants, churches, metro stations , railway and bus stations, public parks , bigger stores, museums usually have something. Look for construction sites - portables may be open and accessible Otherwise look for bushes, not suitable in winter where's no foliage .And look at option 4 in point 1 above. Be prepared by not eating and drinking too much before you set for your sightseeing

If places like Agoda or Expedia are taking bookings I'd not be reluctant to book but if you still are perhaps you can fire an e-mail to the hotel just to make sure

this was a case I had in mind, I got second hand information about whole incident so was not sure