Vessey

Sex workers in places like Pattaya have a shelf-life, and 33 is on the older side anyway. Past 30 and it becomes harder to compete with the pretty 18 and 19 year olds arriving in Pattaya 'off the bus'. It becomes harder to get the same flow of customers; instead they have to rely more on their 'regulars' and hopes of, at least a level of, sponsorship. Some will find other work in Pattaya, others will return home. The sensible ones will have built up savings; and/or maybe already invested in land or a house back in the village while others, living more hand to mouth, go back home with very little. The other observation that I would make is that many of the boys already had other part-time day jobs. For example, one lad from Cupidol I know, worked daytime shifts as a (junior) chef in a local hotel kitchen, but would be at his bar by 8pm, scrubbed-up and down to his tighty-whiteys. Others at Sunnee had regular daytime jobs in factories and construction, and their bar work had always been essentially freelance, but potentially offering welcome supplements to their income. Low season, also saw many others getting part-time jobs, etc etc. Only the most successful were ever only full time stage performers and/or sex workers. Many boys have also always regularly returned home for protracted periods during low season. So I think the 'case-study' presented above risks painting a very simplistic picture of the complexity of a sex-workers life in Pattaya for example. They are already pretty resilient to the vagaries of their 'working lives', although the pandemic closures and restrictions will have hit them far harder than they had perhaps hitherto experienced. The question for me is how many will eventually decide to return to the bright lights of their bars and partying, and how many see the pandemic as the catalyst to move on with their lives.

I can see them all now in their little 'pinnys' standing outside Pook Bar on Soi 6 trying to sell cookies to passing punters ....... 🤣

Mask porn? haha

Now, I have not read this book, so my few observations are only based on what I have read on this thread. In Pattaya I think the bars can 'de facto' create loose 'family groups' around the bar, where boys talk and support one another (aside from any physical liaisons that take place). Similarly groups of bars, JC, Sunee, Boyztown etc, can extend those groups. The boys all seem to know each other and talk to each other and often support and help each other in straightened times. Secondly I think social media, FB groups, Line groups etc. can also provide some discrete sense of gay community. The number of Thai orientated gay FB groups are increasing, with boys posting to get the validation or encouragement from other boys for their looks, sexuality, etc. There are often many thousands in each group; some boys members of several groups. As a farang joining such groups I am a mere observer, just vicariously enjoying the provocative pictures (well as provocative as FB allows that is) the boys put up. They create the same sense of 'community' as we do ourselves as members of this (and other) gay Thailand forums; perhaps more so.

Lets hope their filming gives appropriate recognition to the various contributions by the International Communities in the rescue efforts this time.

So presumably this now means the end of those sleazy non-uniformed guys with their satchels going from bar to bar collecting tea monies ? 😂 And of course it will also mean the end of traffic police just picking on farang violators and ignoring adjacent Thai violators, etc etc. 😆 But it all sounds so good as you read it 🤣

So lots of horny guys now corralled together with nothing to do all day .....humm?, I wonder?

Be interesting to see if they follow through with this, rather than it being merely a 'face-saving' action as their officers had been caught 'red-handed' in trying to extort large sums of money from the suspect and killing him in the process.

If I like the lad, their smile, overall appearance, fun personality, etc.; I will happily work with whatever they have been blessed with,

Fundamentally, all the boys we meet in the bars and have fun with, also consider that they are 'working'. Keeping us happy in the bar and back in our rooms is all work to them, whatever 'connections' we think we make with them as individuals. Even the boys I have been seeing for years still regard me as a 'customer', albeit now a 'good customer'. Things can become quite friendly, but take away the money and that friendship rapidly fades. Can it ever grow into more than work?, well yes it obviously can, but that's far from inevitable.

This is one of those feel-good posts - well it is for me. I guess we all have moments of self-doubt, when we question our abilities, judgement, even our sanity, And then we read of people like the man reported here and realise that the the world is filled with people even more stupid and less sane than ourselves, It's kinda reassuring in an odd way!

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