Gaybutton

I got the others easily, but I have to admit the 1000 plus 40 question took awhile. I kept getting 5000 too, but I finally figured it out. Luckily, I'm a little beyond the age at which I would give a damn what my SAT score would be . . .

Don't worry about that. No matter how long it takes for you to get a new passport, Thailand and the boys will all still be here.

I would think twice about trying to get an education visa unless you intend to attend classes and really get that education. To do otherwise would be attempting to circumvent the system. If you were to get caught doing that, it would not only be the end of being able to stay in Thailand, but could easily affect your ability to obtain visas in the future. If you believe Immigration officials were born yesterday and don't realize that some people make that sort of attempt and/or they wouldn't check, you might be making a serious mistake. I would not recommend following advice from people who are trying to tell you to attempt to circumvent the system. If you are going to obtain a visa, obtain it legitimately. I said from the outset not to try to come up with bizarre ideas for trying to stay in Thailand for a year. I hope, for your sake, you adhere to that advice. I don't think playing games with Immigration is a good idea. You can bet if you were ever to be caught, Immigration wouldn't play any games. It's too great a risk unless you intend to use an education visa legitimately. Using a visa under false pretenses can easily lead to serious consequences. It would be a felonious criminal act and Immigration would take it very seriously. So would the Thai courts. My advice: Use only a visa you obtain legitimately. If you can't get the visa you want legitimately, then change your plans, but don't try to use a visa under false pretenses.

I think several of you missed Steve1903's last post in which he said he is still under 50 years old. That means he is not eligible for the retirement visa. I really don't know how you can manage to legally stay in Thailand beyond 180 days without a one-year visa. Steve1903, I recall that you live in the UK. I think the best thing for you to do, since you won't be able to get the retirement visa, is to consult the Thai embassy, and better still with a personal visit if you can, explain what you want to do, and see what they recommend. If you can prove you will have enough money to live in Thailand for that length of time, they might be able to do something for you. You may have to face the idea of altering your plans. You might have to opt for 180 days instead of a full year. That's a good long time anyway and you would either have more money available to spend or you could return the following year for another stay. But as far as being able to stay for a full year without the retirement visa, if that can be done I really don't know how. One thing I would not do is to even consider trying any bizarre schemes to stay a full year. Keep everything on the up-and-up. I remember when you were here the first time, when it was getting close to the time for you to have to return home, you sadly said you doubt you will ever be able to return to Thailand, at least not for the foreseeable future. Now you are going to be able to return after all. If a full year cannot be managed, considering there was a time you thought you could never return, be happy with six months if that's the max that can be granted.

I agree with the above. If you are going to stay for a year you definitely should try for the retirement visa. If you do not already have a Thai bank account, I suggest obtaining the visa in your home country. One of the requirements for obtaining the retirement visa within Thailand is a Thai bank account. Those are hard to get now without a non-immigrant visa. However, there is no requirement to hold a Thai bank account if you're obtaining the retirement visa outside of Thailand. Once you have a retirement visa, in order to open a Thai bank account, all you have to do is simply walk into a bank and easily open an account. I recommend doing that and putting as much money as you can into the account. If you use an ATM card from your home country, you're going to pay a 150 baht fee every time you withdraw money plus whatever fees your home country bank charges. With a Thai bank account, if you withdraw money from one of their ATMs there is no fee. If you withdraw money from an ATM from a different Thai bank, the fee is only 20 baht. Also, if your debit card is lost or stolen, it's simple to replace it. If the card from your home country is lost or stolen, you're in for a real hassle trying to get a new one, not to mention the length of time you will have to wait for a new card to arrive before being able to withdraw money again. I also recommend renting a condo. You'll pay about half of what you would pay in a hotel. Even in Pattaya there are condos to be found at prices of 15,000 baht per month and even less. If you want to live even less expensively, you can rent an inexpensive furnished apartment at prices as low as 3000 to 5000 baht per month. If you're not expecting luxury living, some of those apartments are not bad at all. In recent years many new apartment buildings have been built, but they're having trouble getting tenants. You might be able to find a very good bargain. If you have not made accommodation arrangements before you come, I would suggest staying at a hotel for your first week or two and spend time looking around for bargain accommodations. Also, many farang are living here on a tight budget. You might get accommodation suggestions from some of them if they're reading this thread. You'll also meet people once you're here who can help you. The two main things for you are a one-year visa and inexpensive accommodations. To stay for a year, you're going to need a one-year visa. Rules have changed around here and Thailand has made it very difficult to stay longer than 180 days per year without a one-year visa. The days of simply being able to do visa runs as many times as you want are now history. And don't forget - if you're staying long-term you are required to file an address report with Immigration every 90 days. That's free and simple to do.

Thank you very much Steve1903 and xiandarkthorne. It's very nice to see posts like yours for a change instead of the usual "I hate GB" posts. xiandarkthorne, what makes you believe I would think a photo of you would be a gag gift? I already have plans to have it framed and placed with my beloved nude photos of Ernest Borgnine and Doodles Weaver. I've been trying to get Michael (formerly GT) to pose for one, but so far he insists I don't deserve to be so intensely aroused . . .

"A teen comedy about a group of high-school students who form a band even though they

"You know what I do when somebody offers to buy me a drink? I say, 'No thanks, but can I have the money instead?'" - George Carlin

Excellent! 1/5 of a pitcher of Corner Bar's apple martinis would suit me just fine . . .

Goody, goody, goody! And my prize is . . . ?

2. Of which movie did its director say?

I didn't include those because most people consider Jomtien to begin once you get past the Thepprasit Road intersection. Of course, those are very good restaurants. In that area there is also Indian by Nature and the News Cafe, also popular and good. Also, despite the fact there is no ambiance at all, if you like fish & chips, in the Jomtien area Simon's is hard to beat. If you like Thai food, right next door to the Ritz there is a Thai restaurant called Orange. More and more people are discovering it and many are giving it very high marks. Another one, on Soi 4, Jomtien Beach Road, there is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Canary Bay. It's French-Alsace. The food is very good there and incredibly inexpensive.

A similar question came up on my board. My response included the following: __________ If you are looking for top quality, high end restaurants along Jomtien Beach Road, I don't know of any. The closest you'll find in that area are in Jomtien Complex. I don't know if any there would meet your requirements and I don't think many people would call them top quality high end, but the most popular ones are the Caf

Wouldn't I be better off learning logic from Mr. Spock . . . ?

Don't make assumptions. You may assume this but you don't know.

Well, how about that? Now I'm the subject of further controversy on this board too. Name calling and personal attacks. I'm delighted to see that is what you are defending and that you convinced your roommate to join this board so he could start launching unprovoked personal attacks. You say your roommate was treated shabbily. Now let me see if I have this correct: He came to this board, someone with whom I have never communicated in any way, someone who has never attempted to communicate with me in any way, posted name calling and attacks, but he's being treated shabbily for having done that. Care to comment about how shabbily he treated me? There's a very simple way to end the "issue," if it is actually an issue at all, and for your roommate who suddenly appeared out of the blue to name call and attack - with what provocation I don't know - to satisfy himself about what I am really like. All he has to do is meet me personally and judge for himself. I'll probably turn out to be far worse than he ever thought. That ought to make his day . . . As for that list of do(s) and don't(s) you can't seem to find, click here: http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

And that's a tendency that also seems to be universally applied. Some people are oral only. Some are into masturbation only. If the gay vernacular includes words for those preferences, I'm not aware of it. All I ever see is "top" or "bottom." Other preferences appear to be disregarded. Even when creating a profile on Gay Romeo, the only choices they provide for listing your personal preferences are "Top," "Bottom," or "Versatile." And "Versatile" is taken to mean those who are both "Top" and "Bottom," but doesn't seem to have much to do with anything else.

What made you think I'm in Phuket? I live in Pattaya.

I share Patexpat's opinion. I too think it's overpriced and poor quality. Unlike Painai, I'm not watching television to practice Thai. I'm watching for the programming. Obviously, since this is Thailand, the majority of the channels are for Thai programming. I have no objection to that, but the English language channels simply are not worth the price to me. The news channels are one thing, but as for the rest of them, the movie channels rarely show much of anything that interests me and most of the time they just run crappy movies over and over again - movies they obviously got at bargain basement prices. Sorry, but I can't see paying the equivalent of US$ 50 per month to watch re-runs of Shrek. And how many times do you need to watch programs about animals or World War II history? I'm going to start looking around for other companies. And if anyone has any recommendations, I'd appreciate it.

I think that is one of the most important points of all. We've all seen the posts from people who call these boys prostitutes, and say it in a demeaning manner, just as if they are somehow better than the boys and are perfectly justified in looking down their noses at them. How many times have we seen those kinds of posts? I've lost count. And don't forget all the posts about how the boys were so good looking ten years ago, but now they're ugly. I've lost count of those posts too. If they think that kind of attitude isn't picked up by the boys, they need to think again. Then they complain and can't figure out why the boys they were with turned out to be duds. Some of these people are very good at putting down the boys. Meanwhile, the boys are the primary reason these same people come to Thailand in the first place. That kind of attitude definitely makes it to my "I Don't Get It" list.

I don't see how you can choose between "I have a car and drive it myself" and "I drive but have to be more careful than in my country of origin." Either way, you drive. I chose "I have a car and drive it myself," but I certainly have to be much more careful about it too. In my home country, the USA, I've never driven anywhere where there are hordes of people driving motorbikes. As a matter of fact, where I've driven it was always unusual to see people driving motorbikes at all. Thailand is a whole different ballgame when it comes to driving. The actual driving isn't difficult. It didn't take me long to get used to right-hand drive. The problem is the insane way people drive in Thailand. I've gotten used to that too, but I can honestly say it is rare for me to drive anywhere in Thailand without having at least one close call. If these people want to drive as if they're suicidal, fine with me, but I wish they would do their insane driving around somebody else's car. When I took the driver's education course in high school, I still remember something my instructor constantly said: "Always expect the unexpected." Keeping that in mind is a very valuable thing to do when driving in Thailand.

They're old, dumpy, and definitely could do with renovation, but everything works. The rooms have all the standards - mini bar, refrigerator, air conditioning, TV, bath tub, etc, but no room safe. They have safes in the lobby, behind the front desk. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are on different floors. Behind the restaurant there is a swimming pool. Good maid service every day and room service available. Very gay friendly and if a boy is "visiting" you, they hold his ID card until you give them the all clear. I've seen complaints posted about the older man who has worked behind the front desk, seemingly since the hotel first opened, saying he can be unfriendly and uncooperative. I can only say I've never had any kind of problem with him at all and he has always been very friendly and helpful with me. If you're looking for luxury, the Malaysia isn't for you. Personally, I couldn't care less about luxurious accommodations as long as a hotel room has the basic amenities. I really don't foresee Gay Romeo replacing the bar scene. I doubt that Gay Romeo even puts much of a dent in it. There are always plenty of boys willing to work in the bars. Many do both - working the bars and also Gay Romeo. I suppose Gay Romeo has the potential of eventually hurting the bar scene and some believe that's exactly what's going to happen. I don't think so myself, but even if it does happen, there are still always plenty of boys on Gay Romeo looking for hookups. As long as Gay Romeo continues to exist, there always will be. If Gay Romeo has actually hurt anything, maybe it has hurt the beach scene. For years, the beach was fabulous for finding willing boys. But over the past year, whenever I go to the beach there are hardly any boys at all anymore, with the exception of the regulars. And even their numbers seem to have diminished. I have no idea whether Gay Romeo has anything to do with it, but I'll bet most people who have spent time at the beach lately, and have been coming to Pattaya for a number of years, have also noticed the decline in numbers of "farang hunter" boys at the beach.

Everyone's experiences are different. My own is different from yours. I prefer Gay Romeo to the bars for a variety of reasons, although that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with finding boys in the bars too. Both work just fine for me. First, not all the boys on Gay Romeo work in the bars. Many do and many don't. One reason I would rather find a boy via Gay Romeo is because when I take a boy off from a bar, then the boy usually assumes I'm there for him if I return to the bar. As soon as he spots me, he comes right over. That can be very awkward sometimes if I've returned to the bar to look for a different boy, especially if the first boy is someone who I've had over for a little visit several times. Another reason I prefer Gay Romeo is the availability of willing young gents at any time, day or night. I'm writing this message at 5:55am, Thailand time (I woke up early). I just looked at Gay Romeo. At this moment there are 5 pages of boys currently online in Pattaya and 15 pages of boys online in Bangkok. Even at this hour. No complaints from me . . . As far as I'm concerned, between the bars and Gay Romeo, I'm pleased to have both. And Gay Romeo isn't the only hook-up site. There are so many ways and places to meet boys in Thailand. Bars. Gay Romeo. The beach. Shopping. Restaurant waiters. Hotel staff. Saunas. You name it. Nothing like that ever happened to me back in the good ol' USA, and that was when I was a hell of a lot younger and somewhat better looking than I look now. In Bangkok, one of the reasons I like the Malaysia Hotel is because even there, just about any time of day or night, all I have to do is simply walk outside the door. The restaurant, the gazebo in their parking lot, the walkway to the street, and usually just outside their parking lot there are always boys. And if none of them appeal to me I'm within easy walking distance of the Babylon Sauna. I'm very happy having all these choices and possibilities available. I think I'll just stay right here in Thailand.

I always loved Danny Kaye. Another great comedian, my personal favorite, was Jack Benny, especially when he would get together with Mel Blanc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ6-y_aMLhw

On a practical basis it's interchangeable. Even the Thais pronounce it with an 'R' or 'L' and sometimes it's somewhere between the two, depending on their accent. I prefer the 'R' because that's how I hear it from most Thais with whom I speak or overhear, and that's how I see it written most of the time.