vinapu

this can be said about a lot of things we eat unfortunately

Plenty of things in our developed countries doesn't work as well / remember 'chads' in Florida's election machines / so it must be something in Thailand which makes you suffering all those long 10 years.

.... otherwise you will do it , right?

Few years ago I visited Ukrainian city of Lviv and I was shown passing tramway / streetcar for North Americans/ number if I recall 2. I was told that this line started at end of XIX century when city belonged to Austria. Then it become part of Poland, was occupied by Soviets and Germans in II WW, then it become part of USSR and subsequently of Ukraine and throughout all that route and number is unchanged. Speaking about stability of city transit

to keep you busy during long flight I guess

card is non issue for me , after all while Europe does not use it, both US and Canada do although for arrivals only. Place this in your passport and guard with it but pay attention every time you pull your passport - to register in the hotel or exchanging money as those are moments when one may lose departure card.

bordering on insanity, and this is supposed to be low season ?

Reading about your adventures I guess lots of us are getting jealous, LOL

bottom line of all that is that charges imposed by both our domestic banks and Thai ones are greatly distorting effective exchange rate so depending on financial ,institution one may be OK with using ATM and another one is better served by bringing warm / from money belt being close to your body / cash. I for one monitor those thing close just for fun of it and in 15 trips spanning 16 years pattern of best rates is the same in descending order 1. US cash bought with my domestic currency 2. domestic currency 3. purchases by credit card being charged in THAI BAHT 4. Cash withdrawal from ATM 5. Baht purchased at home Bangkok airport rates are somewhere between 2-5. Good news is that for amount average tourist is spending differences while visible do not amount to anything close to ruin so do not spoil your vacation time chasing the best rate all over but when about the city just check rates here and there as short 50 m walk may save you enough to buy a beer and ice cream at 7/11 on exchange of say, 100 $ note

Drinks may be cheaper but what about tip boys expect ?More in line with old Jupiter or rather soi 6 bars?

I got an impression you are cutting us short sglad. LOL

I like first one on the left, this knowing all smile !

When exchanging cash keep in mind that jewelry stores often offer better rates than banks. Natty Gems beside soi Twilight and one in soi Thaniya are ones I'm using. Try to exchange money during week or on Saturday as I have an impression that due to lack of competition / banks closed / counters along Silom and Sukhumvit offer poorer rates on Sundays.

don't forget about Super A and Golden Cock, both also budget friendly options

I also use cash almost exclusively leaving cards to be used only for rare purchases at department stores. I'd not use any cards in bars and small stores. If you are planning on extensive use of ATM , make sure you have more then one card as sometimes bank machine may not accept one but will another one. Make sure you have enough small notes when bar hopping and count your change. No need to be paranoid but from time to time you may be shortchanged in bar or your change may be arriving late. No such problems anywhere else, just in bars. Small notes are handy for tips as well. If I need to break notes I use change counters at BTS of buy something at 7/11 and pay with big note. I agree with ggobkk , don't buy Thai baht at home , BKK airport rates while lower than in the city are still better than in our countries. All airport counters are offering the same rate but if you arrive during daytime and will be taking train, counters at airport train station are offering city rates, not airport ones so keep walking until you at train station (lower level, well posted).

actually one of Tawan boys I offed previously once approached me with straightforward " I want sleep with you tonight, I need to pay for my room tomorrow" and it needs to be said made sure next morning I asked him to come following night as well

I'm using buses in BKK aided by excellent Bangkok Bus Guide Map and one of my favorite pastimes when travelling everywhere is to actually board random bus and just go wherever bus is going. For average 2-3 weeks tourist Bangkok buses are of limited use due to traffic and abundance of cheap taxis with A/C so problem above is rather concern for local population to solve and very little nuisance for most of us other than need to buy new improved formula map

if he was wearing short sleeves and shorts I'd not complain. Actually I'm not big fan of guys being half dressed in public - too distractive, LOL This is what we have bars and massages for . But one of my life little pleasures while in BKK is to watch bare chested men working on assebling Patpong market stands in the afternoon and putting them down in the depth of night very few of those were actually travelling to Thailand for 2 weeks of fun with her entertainers.

You are bringing very valid point. Encounters are usually great because there's chemistry or boy is professional or his client is so horny that doesn't pay any attention to possible shortcomings. This not necessarily means that others will have as great or as bad experience as we had with the same boy or place. Probably most of us run through all 4 cases, recommended boy turned out to be great or turned out not to be as fantastic as other guy enthused but also despite warnings we may take a chance and off the boy who will turn as bad as warned or quite opposite , we are happy with him and wonder what the problem possibly was. The same goes with bars , massages , shows , food , hotels , 3rd class trains etc. So lesson to all is to follow recommendations but use our own gut when actually engaging boy or services. If one is not happy, shouldn't blame person on whose recommendation he acted as our tastes and experiences vary but I personally actually like if somebody reports back either in the thread or by PM that he tried this or that based on my report and feels disappointed or other way around. At times even we may wonder what happened as repeat performance is not either close to original one both ways. I had cases when I took massage boy for his looks and session was nothing memorable but because of his looks I took him again and it turned out to be great. So it seems we need to carry grain of salt with us at all times.

from the offices, I wouldn't be surprised if more then half of those officers are actually paper shufflers somewhere

what needs to be said loudly is that boy in lower left corner is very cute and standing next to him would ease my burden of waiting for sure.

because this is how corporations are communicating with their cliens those days, they don't rise prices because higher costs or whatever , they do it ' to serve you better' etc

great report from Nathan and warning to all who will think that if somebody is masseur and a hunk at the some time he is immediately available for fun. once I offed guy from Arena, no problem with performance in the room and in the Arena previously but I noticed some apprehension initially -it turned out that it was his first time he went out with client and only fact that he was encouraged by other guys from there who knew me made him actually accepting my offer to be taken out.

another great report with a lot of practical information weaved in

long lines and crowded immigration area are not mere inconvenience , it's outright potentially dangerous situation as is any crowd. Imagine need to medical emergency or some panic. After scenes of mayhem would be splashed across the media remedy will materialize very fast .