Vessey

There were some disturbing video clips circulating showing this last police action and the extreme violence they met out to any hapless 'protestor' they encountered. Dark days for Thailand I fear.

Yes, as others are commenting, as you get older, life, or at least healthy life, becomes far less certain than it used to be in our youth, and similarly life's opportunities recede with each passing year. So just go-for-it and enjoy the moment, whether that moment is destined to last a week, a month, a year, or maybe many years?

Doesn't inspire much confidence does it ...............

Oh Lord but I feel the same frustration, although, in comparison to some of you, I was lucky in that I was there for New Year 2019/20, so its only been an 18 month gap for me, but I had become so accustomed to being able to visit once or, more usually, twice a year at times convenient to me, that the uncertainty over my next trip gnaws at me day by day, week by week, and month by month as this pandemic rumbles on and Thailand's vaccination programe still looks woefully inadequate. In theory, now I am both retired and double vaccinated, I could go back tomorrow and face the 14 day quarantine/sandbox, so what is holding me back? The answer is my concern as to what I would find if I did go back now, with the mass restrictions, bar closures and so many boys gone back home. In truth I am perhaps still rather naively hoping that there will be a time when everything will just go back to normal, and the Pattaya I arrive back at will look and feel the same as the Pattaya I left in January 2020. However, in all probability that will never be, not quite the same anyway, and I just have to come to accept that, and be prepared to 'take it as I find it' as I did on my very first visit back in 2009.

Might some of this pressure on AZ be because they have lost confidence in the Chinese Sinovac vaccine that they had been relying so heavily on?

Or just get in a decorative Christmas elf for the festive season (in this case the beautiful Guitar),(hope the picture is ok here?)

Haha so true, my favourite 'husband' of many years, Vit from Scandic Massage, is a bit of a fashion victim and loves his skin-tight jeans over his skinny legs. But frankly I could go and make a cup of hot tea and drink it, the time it takes for him to remove them. But usually I just stand and watch and tease him, especially (for a supposedly straight boy) when his cock is already hard and visibly clamouring for release from his undies as he battles with his jeans. But it is always worth the wait of course; god how I miss that boy!

Haha so many to choose from. I can stare at my various shelves of DVDs for ages looking for a 'different' one to watch; usually fail miserably, and then resort to one of my shelf-full of favourites. I am going to cheat and list three series/groups: Lord of the Rings/Hobbit Harry Potter Thor Undemanding fantasy, just what I need when I want to be able to relax over my dinner. And if I should fall asleep for a while during the film - doesn't matter, I know them all by heart

More news! I have just been awarded my 'Very Popular' badge! I just want to say how humbled I am by this award, and I want to start by thanking my ......... (etc. etc. ad nauseam ...)

Wow, you are right, on Thursday I was a mere novice, now three days later I am 'experienced'! - who would have thought? I can walk with a bit more of a swagger now

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, But my 'status' stuff appears to have completely changed, I am apparently a mere 'Newbie' (joined 2015!) And now have had a notification today that I have been awarded a 'Badge' - a 'Dedication' badge (apparently I have been spending far too long on-line on this site each day haha). More surprising is that I have apparently already been awarded all sorts of other badges. Its a bit like being back in the Boy Scouts again and collecting proficiency badges on your sleeve. But still ranked a Newbie?? haha. Makes up for our 'rep points' having apparently disappeared I suppose. Can someone explain all this to me please (nice simple language - I am getting old!), or at least point me in the direction of where it has already been explained. Many thanks, Postscript: starting this thread has apparently just earned me a 'Conversation Starter' badge! The excitement mounts!

Thanks for the interesting topic PeterRS, and for attempting to translate the labyrinthine language of the Jackson articles into meaningful English haha. (The mantra that I always held in my head when writing academic articles, was that if your ideas are sound, you should be capable of communicating them in a way that the average person can understand. All too often some academics seemingly write in highly complex language to impress and 'black cat' their fellow academics haha.) If I have understood correctly, he is observing on sexual relationships within Thai communities and changing (or not) attitudes towards them across different levels of Thai society? So a few observations if I may: - As Westerners visiting Thailand our natural instinct is to view things through the eyes of our own cultural values, often without sufficient understanding or appreciation of the differing cultural values of the Thai people. - As I understand it, Thai prostitution with farang is dwarfed by the levels of Thai on Thai prostitution. Many boys on Facebook and Twitter, for example, write in THai with pictures and rates to attract fellow Thai rather than farang. - Indeed Thai may hold a different perspective on prostitution with farang? Parents man not be enthralled by the prospect of their sons and daughters selling themselves to farang, but the rewards are often high and money flows back to the family. I have heard it excused as a lucrative form of employment, selling themselves to farang customers. Not only am I only gay, or at least bisexual, in Thailand, but not at my very conventional home village, my long, long time is from Laos and he also feels the need to appear 'straight' back in his home and confine his (voraciously) gay appetite to Pattaya. Funny old world! haha.

Wow, that's a big banana! I love eating-out!, Don't put too much in your mouth at once Darling or you will gag! Come-on, swallow properly, its rude to dribble! Do you want to 'toss the salad' today Dear? Etc etc.

Frankly, right now, given the daily 'traffic' on this forum (indeed on any of them) I would have thought any posts would be appreciated from anyone on anything

I am really keen to get back, but everything still looking too fluid and unpredictable to give me the confidence to try and book anything. That said I am obviously interested in how this Phuket 'sandbox' works as there is talk (?) of then extending it into other areas including Pattaya by September, One might even hope that at least some of the entry requirements might be eased by then as well. So it looks possible that an October visit is possible; possibly!

It seems a step in the right direction, although as we know in England, timetables have to be flexible to the moment. I find it encouraging that he is now accepting that Thailand (as elsewhere) will have to learn to live with the virus. My passport sits ready ...........................

I love the Twitter pages for the various spas. Kob Spa in particular offers graphic detail as to what each of their boys has on 'offer' so to speak. But for most of these places the bulk of the publicity is in Thai. So I am guessing that farang customers are the minority?, and similarly guessing, that they are set up as Thai on Thai service? Or have I got that completely wrong?

I have found that it helps to get to London Heathrow in good time so that I can have a decent meal before I board the aircraft. Almost all airline meals disappoint me, some disgust me. But there again I travel cattle-class so my expectations are never very high in the first place haha. British Airways breakfast sausages are the worst, small, greyish-white and tasteless. If I met a Thai boy with a 'sausage' like that I would send him home!

Day-wear I love baggy linen shirts, nice and cool and the local laundries usually do a good job with them. Evening-wear I prefer a fairly heavy, freshly ironed, cotton shirt; just looks that little bit smarter. I have noticed that most of my Thai friends will also put on a posher shirt if they are being taken out for the evening. Usually long trousers; even I find it hard to take myself seriously in shorts - its not my best look haha. On the beach maybe shorts but ......

Haha, well that is true of course, but some people, with or without phones in hand, are naturally more sociable and clubbable than others. People can be just as anti-social with a newspaper or with a book! Mobile phones have transformed our lives in the last couple of decades, mostly for good I think, it is just that some of us older ones still find some of the technology/apps a bit of a mystery haha.

They are clearly a sensitive lot across the pond, You should have been rude about us Brits as we don't care

Encouraging I guess, but without Cabinet/PM's approval it wont happen.

I would love to visit and see these (pictures from Google), I hadn't realised just how big these stone jars were and the huge tasks there must have been in hewing the blocks of stone, shaping them with primitive tools, and then transporting them to where they are now, and therefore the Civilisation that generated them? My long, long time lad of many years standing is from Laos and knows Phonsovan and these jars well - I feel a field-trip coming up next holiday

Most days I chat to a couple of other BMs here (and some of the boys as well) and invariably we sooner or later return to the topic of when we are likely to be able to return to Pattaya, some days we feel more optimistic, other days more pessimistic about our chances, depending on both our moods and latest revelations on infection numbers. Its all pretty futile at the moment as there are so many different things in play both at home and abroad that affect our chances. All have to fall into place to enable us to travel. The first major consideration for my Irish friend and I are vaccines. I am lucky in that I have now had both my shots (AZ), but he is still waiting for his first. Second our UK government currently forbids foreign holiday travel, but if our 'road map' is not blown off course, that particular restriction is due to be relaxed in a few weeks time, but there will probably still be a traffic light system of those countries considered safe to travel to - green being ok, but red for those countries where quarantine measures would be applied on our return home (bit more complex than that). Third our chosen country has to be prepared to let us in, all be it with their own quarantine regulations and other requirements. Currently Thailand is not doing well with either Covid numbers or vaccine roll-out. Fourth, there have to be flights available to us. And so we slowly build our own little road-maps back into Thailand as options become available to consider, but obviously all too aware that resurgences at home or abroad could set all that back months. So personally I still hope for October, but ............. ?

In the end its all going to be about risk, because, to obviously varying degrees, we manage risk every day in almost everything we do, every time we get in a car, or on a plane, etc. Covid is with us now and will probably always pose some level of risk in the future, We manage risk of STD's in all our sexual interactions with the boys; some of us might take more precautions than others, but we still do it, and it doesn't prevent our holiday fun. We manage risk every time we try and walk across Second Road in Pattaya, for example. We accept a level of risk every time we take a taxi-bike whose driver wends his way at speed through the daily traffic jams along Beach Road. We are in a situation now with Covid where governments are, understandably, managing risks for us, but those restrictions will eventually ease, and then it will be up to us?