ggobkk

Two brothers massage is still open. The authorities "stopped by" recently and the boy's disappeared which closed the massage. I learned about this as I was being "aftered" upstairs and once we finished came downstairs to find an empty bar. Operation up and running two days later when I went back.

I left Bangkok the day before the King's passing was announced. I'm in Laos and the Thai television channels have been wall to wall mourning. Numazu the mourning period is 30 days for things in general. The government wears back for a year. Then grand funeral. Suggest if you pause posting only for 30 day period. That will bring some relief post US election. Thanks for the mention of our meet up in your report. I go back to Bangkok for two nights as of Tuesday...then home. I will also follow your lead and refrain for a month from posting a trip report guaranteed to be less interesting than yours.

The NY Times articles and obituary on the King have been positive and generous. The one on the Crown Prince is for reading and not posting if one wishes to avoid breaking the law.

Jupiter short time last week was 2000. Long time was negotiable I don't ask to take selfies but find I'm included in the boy's selfie which he/they send to me. Enjoy your experience

Arrived early evening at Tarntawan. One night stay. Came downstairs at 8am. All tables in dining area occupied. Was told it was a tour group (all couples m/f) from Malaysia. Buffet was fried rice with something. Menu available.

Same policy regarding guests. Food and beverage 6am to 10pm. Only. So, at least at the moment 24/7 breakfast a thing of the past.

Hot Male bar on street level is Forum Sacred territory as it is the base for PaulSF when he is in Bangkok. I've joked with him that the bar should name a drink for him.

Big news item in middle of this post. OK....I arrived around midnight last night (October 5). As has been reported here the old website is out of service aka "dead". I book via Agoda and requested a car at airport as I knew I had 30 hours of airports and planes to survive before BKK. Couldn't get a confirmation about the car. I IM'd YA of siamroads who called the hotel to get the car confirmed. He was gracious enough not to mention he could have arranged a pick up for me. Car was not the usual minivan, driver used lots of side roads to avoid the tolls but drove skillfully. And made it a quick trip. At hotel, evening bellman gone. Two security staff. One familiar from previous trips. Late night desk staff of two both seen on previous visits. Seems that the customer data base disappeared with the changeover. The staff recognized me but there was no history file. Once in room, noticed it looked the same. Realized there was no welcoming drink. Read posting in elevator that food and beverage service stopped at 10pm. This morning went down for breakfast. Morning security guard remains the same as for past couple of years. 3 customers Having breakfast. Two new faces at desk. Discuss my next week one night stay. Told Agoda hadn't sent it to them yet. I showed a copy and they noted the room I preferred and offered to move me to it today. I agreed as it has the best internet being next to the router. I asked after Lukas and was told he is no longer associated with the hotel. REPEAT. Lukas no longer part of Tarntawan. No Manager's cocktail party anymore. Apparently, with no website bookings are way down. Some staff gone but not sure if it's related to the occupancy rate. One or two guests per floor means fewer housekeeps. Security guards double as bellmen. If I notice anything else I'll post again. I will note that everyone is trying very hard to be helpful. Vinapu - I think your night desk clerk is one of the surviving staff.

It's the end of the Chinese Martyr's/National Day festival and (though I don't think it has much to do with the Dream Boys capacity control - it's the start of the Jewish New Year.

You are not alone....

I have a booking for this coming Wednesday and Thursday. In the past on Thursday there has been a manager's drinks party for guests. If that is still in place and Lukas is there I'll ask about the changes and report back.

Golden Cock would love to entertain the afternoon visitor...

I once posted that you were pacing your stories to enhance the suspense. Now that I just finished crafting postings about my recent visit to Bangkok I have an increased appreciation for the time and skillful effort you put into your descriptions; setting both a tone and a mood that puts the reader into your shoes, bars, tuk tuks, and voyeuristically your beds. The quality of your writing is both smile inducing and compelling. Take your time in bringing the story along its path.

Welcome to the Board and good wishes for your trip. On my last visit, for the first time I met up with other members of the board and really enjoyed the stories and insights. Don't know when you are planning on your visit but Enjoy!

Space Hair boys amazing and as Vinapu often reminds us, some may prefer the white shorts, some (me) may prefer the red shorts. For the record (mine) red and white have the best smiles.

Friday! Last day in Bangkok! I’m returning to Beijing tomorrow, meet up with friends there, and back to the US Monday morning. Waking up sometime after 8am, which is late for me but way too early for T, I adjourn to the other room to read the iPad newspapers, make some tea, chill out with the air conditioning, clean myself up and shave, go out and hit the ATM. Back, T emerges naked looking tousled and rubbing his eyes. Hot. We talk and Google translate back and forth. Go down to the lobby dining area and have a breakfast, he has the cook put something together that has extra shrimp and rice. Me…and omelet…boring. I remind T that I’ll be gone this time tomorrow. He says he know that…this leads to a lot of conversation between us. We’ve known each other for a bit more than a year and a half. As one might read in the subtext to these reports, the initial excitement of our first time together is no longer there. Clearly we care about one another and there is some trust between us. Numazu mentions in his reports that he doesn’t worry about his valuables with companions he knows. This is the case here. T can access my iPad and phone without my help, I leave my wallet out. Etc. So we talk, it’s mostly about the choices he has to make. He’d prefer not to / doesn’t want to go back to being a go-go boy. Even if that was the only choice, where he worked, Hot Male, has a ban on non-Thai’s. He can go back to Vietnam as his former co-worker J will be doing tomorrow. But work there is seasonal and physical (my brain goes to: “being a go-go boy is physical”), and work at home is constricted to the village and the fields. We talk a bit about his only having finished 2nd year of what would be high school in the US. He tells me that he doesn’t know how to use a computer so doesn’t know how to use email. This sidetracks us as I talk about his phone is a computer and he knows how to use his phone (and mine). I learn about his parents and brother. T’s father is almost 40 years older than T and he has the Asian sensibility about family. I tell him I understand, that I was working and enjoying my work on the east coast of the US, when my parents had strokes within a few months of one another, and I picked-up and moved west. I note that it turned out ok for me and would for him (perpetual optimist that I am). The conversation winds down, with no specific decisions made. Other than I committed to paying for his travel from Vietnam to Bangkok and to give him enough to go back if that’s what he decided. He said he didn’t know but would stay in Bangkok until at least Monday to see if he could find work. Looking at the clock, I saw that my thought of yesterday to go to Prince for a massage was looking to be a non-starter. I asked T what he wanted to do and instead of getting the usual Up To You, he said he wanted to give me a bath, shave my hairy back (he’s never cared for that), and then give me a massage and take me to bed. This was way more direct that he has ever been and I let him take over. I wrote the summary in the paragraph above. No condensed version here and no expanded version here. Suffice it to say, two hours later I was in a good space. We both slept a bit before taking a shower to clean up. It was now early evening and we’d agreed to meet up with S at the Hot Male bar to wish J well and give him a top notch sendoff. I asked T to Line P and let him know that I’d off him to he could join the sendoff. We went out looking for a place to have a good/great meal before meeting up at Hot Male bar. We headed out without a dining destination in mind, went toward Mango Tree and saw Cola which is on the corner across from Mango Tree. It’s Chinese and elaborately designed and decorated with a general dining room on the ground floor and private party rooms on the 2nd. We looked at the picture menu and decided to give it a try. What wasn’t clear from the picture menu is that Cola is a hot pot restaurant where guests mainly cook the food at the tables. The center of the table has a heating element that warms the broth. We each ordered what appealed to use and heaping mounds of food kept appearing needing to be warmed and semi-boiled. We got carry out for about 60%of what we ordered, which T later told me got him through the weekend after I left. After dropping the carry out off in the room, we walked around, checked out the nigh market, and got to Hot Male bar just before 9. I gave T baht to go and off P from Fresh Boys. I had discussed this earlier and said, it would be less expensive if he did the ”offing” than if I went in to the club and bought a mamasan drink. He thought this new experience of being the “off-er” would be a charge. As he left to do his duty, S arrived and he and I talked about departures. He being the king of the hill in HM bar, our conversation was interrupted multiple times by his fan club. One can easily comprehend his popularity as his personality is warm and he is gregarious. T rejoined with P and another friend from Vietnam known to P and T. I bought drinks for them, P thanked me for the off, J arrived and conversation, laughter, and lots of toasts to departures took place. S had been kind enough to introduce me to other forum members who stopped by. He told me that after T and I left for Jupiter last night, that N had come by with a beautiful boy in tow and might be back tonight. Sure enough he was, N (and I promise this is the last letter of the alphabet that I will use this trip report) is a Hemingway-esque figure to me. His reports have helped my travel better and intrigue me and help me expand my horizons. His boy was/is gorgeous and very comfortable with introducing himself and being publicly affectionate with N. So much going on, a gaggle of Vietnam guys sharing go-go way stories and memories with J, S being the pater familias, N asking how I liked Jupiter’s show, true guys’ night out. Then N and friend left for show time, P gave me a big hug and kiss and said he had to go back to Fresh Boys for his show (S told me P gets paid more when he dances and appears in the show), I give P 1,000 baht as a going away thanks (sort of an “off without benefits” tip). T and I had discussed earlier before we got to HM bar that we wanted to make sure J and S had time together. So around 11 we headed out to the hotel. I had to be up by 4am to catch my plane so I packed, T made sure I was showered (I have never had so many showers in a 4-day span as I did this week). He cleaned up in the bathroom and “re-joined” me in bed. And, other than the per-dawn getting to the airport rushing around, and the good-byes, which I’m leaving out of the narrative, that was my 5 days in Bangkok. My next trip will be to Laos in early October. If anything there in interesting, I’ll report (maybe).

Certainly hope so...experience can be an advantage...

Still have "N" about ready to appear in the report....

I registered guest is one who has filled out a registrations card and been given his own key. Usually, at the Tarntawan, a boy who might accompany a guest hands over his passport to the security guard who maintains it until the boy departs and the guest has confirmed that everything is in order. In the case of my report, I set it up for T to register when we checked in, so he never had to surrender his passport when in the hotel and had a key so he could come and go without my having to be there.

Lukas sent me a similar response when I asked about booking for next month. He didn't indicate he was going and said he see me next month.

I do believe that your descriptive style of conveying in words what happened in the moment is very special. The photos enhance the telling. I have one more day from my trip to post - hopefully tomorrow. Really glad to know that you have several more days to describe. Thanks

Correction: It's Art Massage, not "Artistic". I wrote late last night and neglected careful copy editing...

Yes...I seem to have a serious block when it comes to remembering the "B", don't know where the "H" that I interject comes from.

Work up this around 7 this morning with moderate achievement checked off before my feet hit the ground. I’d managed to keep control of at least 30% of the bed! I moved into the other room and turned on the news. One thing I’ve noticed is that CNN International is so much better than CNN in the USA. International doesn’t seem to feature opinionated / biased political know-it-alls shouting talking points at one another. Flipped between CNN, BBC, and Bloomberg and decided I just read the papers on my iPad as it wasn’t needed as T’s Korean Action Cinema was closed until he woke. I also skimmed the web and looked at jack’d, Romeo, etc. I noticed that two of the guys I’d admired at the new branch of Artistic were prominently featured. 363 feet from my room. At some point, T woke up and decided to make us some tea. Nice. We talked about what to do – we knew the afternoon and evening were booked. P was cooking and bringing us dinner around 4 or 5, we were invited to Tarntawan’s cocktail party at 6:30, and then going to meet another Forum member or two sometime after 8:30. T mentioned that he was having trouble playing music from his portable speaker which I’d brought him in May. I looked at it and showed him there was one extra step to connect to Bluetooth. But the power cable was tweaked and not keeping a steady power supply. I travel with a cable for my portable power supply and we tried that and it worked. So after breakfast a trip to MHK? Agreed. Breakfast…then shower together…I’ve stopped counting on how many showers I take every day. Taxi to MHK…take a variety of escalators up to the audio electronics section. T is a VERY particular shopper. We stopped at several booths to buy the cable he wanted. No success…each one looked at failed his eyeball test of connectors. He had brought mine (the one that had worked in the room) and none made the cut. Remember, we’re talking about a 50 baht item here. Compromise – I’ll buy a cable that I can use for my power adapter and T can have mine. Decided that worst case, I use the cable to charge my power supply, and get a new one at home if the one I was buying failed. (It didn’t). I’d noticed that T’s phone had a cracked screen, so we tracked town a vendor that repaired screens, 100 baht and 10 minutes later, cracked screen replaced. What now…why not wander around MHK…I told T to get something he’d like. A belt became the object of his picky shopping style. I learned that level 6 of MHK had 8 belt shops. Then after THE belt is located, the bargaining begins. I stay far away at these times. I like to bargain, but knew better than to be part of T’s negotiations. He got his belt and the vendor made the alterations to fit his slim waist. From there…why not go bowling? Up to the top of MHK, rented some shoes, and laughed at one’s another’s laughable bowling skills. Played three games. Paid up the went to the 5th floors world of dining, with the international kiosks. T went for Cambodian with shrimp, I tried some Mexican. Passable…no stars. As we were leaving MHK, T asked me about “smelling” and the rice harvest season in Vietnam. Bafflement was my reaction. With lots of help from Google translate and some intuitive guessing, there was an “ A Ha” moment. T was asking about men’s cologne. Where, What? Following my noise, we went to the Toyu department store which had a fairly large selection of stations for perfumes, toilet waters, and in a corner men’s cologne. I then whiled away about an hour while T was led through the various smell options. To describe this process would demand a level of detail that is not within my ability to compose. In between smell samplings, T told me that he worked so hard during harvest time and always felt that he couldn’t get the smell of the rice off of him. Eventually, very eventually, one was selected, Tom Ford. Mr. Ford was beautifully packaged and went to the taxi with us back to Tarntawan. In the room, I mentioned that I’d go out for a massage asked T if he wanted one. He declined, turning on the iPad Korean Action Cinema and told me he woud wait for P who was coming with dinner. I thought of going to Prince, but having seen the two guys from Artistic on Planet Romeo, I decided to put Prince off until tomorrow, my last full day in Bangkok. Both of the guys were available, but one was on duty as the afternoon manager, so Ton was it. Boyish twink, killer smile. I asked for a two-hour scrub and oil massage combo. 800 Baht. Now it got interesting…the last time I was in the space, I had ice cream on the ground level. Ton led me up two flights of stairs, on the upper floor, there were partitioned rooms, with no ceiling, mattresses on the floor in each room. Smell of very fresh paint. Ton undressed me and took me to the shower down the hall, no place in the room to secure valuables. Shower area floor was slippery – no mat. Back in the room, decent scrub, lots of grip, some semi-intimate touching. Lots of irritating construction noise. Finish the scrub, back to the shower, Ton, now in his briefs without a shirt, get the grit off of me. Back to the room, Ton tells me his briefs are wet is it ok to take them off? I leave my answer to your imagination, but he was from Issan and reality matched the reputation. About thirty minutes into what was a decently done oil massage (and when the construction workers had moved to another floor), Ton whispers to me wondering if I’d like some extras. We agree on 600 baht. The temp picked up and covered a range of options, ending with my coming, followed by an explosion from Ton that reached my chest and face. He came a second time in my mouth which, while appreciated, was spat out. Another shower, dress, and depart. The one on one was good, the set up with the rooms left much to be desired. I suspect I’d have skipped the extras if other rooms on the floor had been occupied. Back to the Korean Action Cinema where T asked if the massage was good. I said yes and left it at that. He promised a better one tomorrow. He told me P was on his way with dinner and now that I was back he was going to get some beer from the market. He left and came back, with some beers and some Johnny Walker Red – the small bottle. P came with beef, pork, rice, utensils, and laid out his spread. He and T divided the Johnny into two tea cups. And we dug into the food (I was being an American with a Coca Cola). Food was good but so spicy I The beers disappeared and T asked if he could have some baht to buy more Johnny W. I gave him what he needed, he went out, and was back very quickly and gave me the change. The bottle was then again divided into two teacups and drunk to toasts to Vietnam, old times, and good friends (me). After a while, the food was gone, the packaging put in the trash, and P feel asleep on the sofa. I mentioned to T that it was time for the cocktail party downstairs, wise man that he is, he suggested he might give it a pass but to make sure I came back to say goodbye to P who had to work at Fresh Boys. I suspect it was to make sure they were awake… Off I went to the manager’s cocktail party where the initial standoffishness disappears as each glass of wine or whiskey is consumed. Met a couple (male/female) from the US who hadn’t been back to the US since Clinton (Bill) was president. A fellow from the UK and I talked a lot about politics after Brexit and in the US. He’s been coming for many years, said he remembered Lukas with hair. Around 7:30 I went back up the Happy Room (555) where P was still asleep on the sofa and T was back with his film. Together, we got P up and sent him off to work. He wouldn’t take any money for the dinner. The next day, I learned that he had assumed I’d off him from work that night which didn’t happen. T and I walked through Patpong Market and went to Jupiter to see what time the show would be…then back to Twilight. We took seats at the Hot Male bar and a few minutes later, Forum member S arrived. He and I, and another member, had corresponded about meeting about as we’d all be in Bangkok at the same time. S is like a conquering hero at the HM bar. Workers, friends, go go boys, wave, hug, and go out of their way to say hello. T, it turns out, is an old friend. S had a special friend J who joined us after he finished his work at a restaurant (I think that’s what he told me). J, who I offed earlier this year, is seductively charming and clearly devoted to S. J and T are also friends. S and I start to catch up on his travel adventures getting to Bangkok and my few days in Thailand. T says he is going up to Hot Male upstairs to see if the ban on Vietnamese was still on. When he came back, he said the ban was still on, S heard the conversation and told us that the owner had decided to stay with Thai boys only. T told me that the HM mamasan would like me to go up and say hello. Which I did and was greeted in a condensed version of how S had been greeted downstairs. He also affirmed that it was Thais go go boys now. The ones I observed were thin and each seem to be heavily tattooed. Not really my taste, but I promised to be back on my next visit. Back downstairs, I was introduced to some more friends of S, T and J were talking away and catching up on what had happened in the past three months. The other forum member hadn’t arrived by 10:30 when T and I left for Jupiter. The Jupiter show is always mentioned as having lots of good looking boys and is more entertaining than Dreamboys. We were seated on stools in the center in the elevated row that gave us a clear view of the stage. We ordered drinks (400 baht each) and watched the last minutes of the pre-show rotation. T knew one of the dancers who spotted him and come over. They had worked together at Hot Male and caught up with each other’s lives. I took to #26 just as the show started. He saw that I was interested, but by now customers were packed in all around me. The show was just ok. The music between acts seemed to grow longer between each set. The singers were impressive but the staging very static. Might be due to the size of the stage, but the boys seemed to be counting out loud as to where they should put their feet and arms. As the show ended, I thought I might have a chance to talk up #26 but he wasn’t there for the bows and was probably offed. Poor me…there is always next time. The customers seemed to be 50% female. It was now after midnight, we departed, walked around Silom and Surawong, back to the hotel. I passed on a shower and went to bed, where T joined me after his shower.

One learns from you, Master, on how to organize one's time...when time is limited.