BiggusDikkus

Your basically getting the LAX-TYO leg for free -- and a slight discount on the final leg. I just checked the roundtrip fare between TYO and BKK -- $900

I recently used my Thai Airlines miles for a round trip to Bangkok from the end of November to the beginning of December. Before COVID, I would have to pay from $20 to $40 in fees. This time I had to pay about $300 in fees. Still, that was much less than half what I'd have to pay if I chose to use money and fly with a "budget" airline. Now I'm struggling with the decision of whether to use some of my hotel points that I bought during the early part of the pandemic when Marriott was offering deals of 40% more points. Now I see that the hotels are charging a lot more points than they were before the pandemic. So I supported Marriott when no one could stay at its hotels, and now those hotels are punishing me for doing so. Grrr.

Wow, awesome! Thanks for the advice! Pot is legal in my home state now, and my friends definitely partake. Now when I go back home to visit and they ask me to join them I'll know to ask for Indica. A side note: Even when I was in high school I tended to get terribly paranoid on pot, but there were, of course, some good times, too. The "brand names back then were stuff like Oregon Purple Hair and Maui Wowy. I remember one particularly good bong session when I couldn't stop laughing. The name of the stuff -- Thai Stick.

I remember the first time I went to Vietnam. I was sitting on the porch, facing the street, of a bar in the hip backpacker enclave writing postcards when all of a sudden there was a quiet shuffle. I looked up and saw everyone at every other table taking out their weed and rolling joints. I asked the guy at the next table what in the world was going on, and he said the police go home at midnight. I looked at my watch -- it was 1997 and we still wore timepieces around our wrists back then -- and sure enough it was 12:01. So I sat there drinking Ba Ba Ba and getting high with my new best friend. With the entire, bar, really. It turned out Saigon had a pretty tight, fun-loving expat community. I had a fantastic night! So I wouldn't mind if that kind of scene were to come to Thailand. Rewind several decades, to the late 1970s, when my friends and I were discovering that with our newly earned driver's licenses we could do stuff like drive ourselves to the major league baseball stadium, sneak bongs into the game, go sit high up in the cheap seats and get stoned while watching America's past time. Fact was the entire upper deck of the stadium was filled with young people getting stoned and passing joints to whomever was in the next seat. We were mellow and having a good time. Meanwhile, in the other cheap seats, beyond the outfield, the fans had been drinking beer all night long and by the seventh inning of every game several fights would break out. Alcohol, we decided while still in high school, is a much more harmful drug than weed. So again, I don't mind the decriminalization of pot or people who get high. But when I was in college, every time I smoked up I ended up getting terribly paranoid. Oh my god! What am I doing! Why am I smoking pot when I should be studying! I'm going to fail all my classes, get kicked out of school and end up homeless! So I never smoked again -- except for one night in Saigon when I just couldn't resist imbibing in a totally new experience. I have friends back home, though, who have never stopped. They're all successful with plenty of money and thinking about retiring. I don't think of them as the wrong type of people.

I might know how you feel. Maybe. But my similar story is about someone I had known for almost a decade. It was January 2011 when I met perhaps the cutest guy I had ever laid eyes on. I was walking through Sunee when he noticed me first and said, "Hi." I immediately shifted my gaze to see who belonged to that arrestingly cute voice and inhaled the most addicting smile you could possibly imagine. He was young, 21, slight of build and with the androgynous good looks of a Korean boy band member. Of course I sat down. He wasn't only a charmer but an intoxicating conversationalist as well. He said he learned English at the Catholic school he attended while growing up. Before we left the bar, after he agreed to come back to my hotel, he stopped me and said he had to warn me. He didn't have six-pack abs. I felt so sorry for him, imagining such a comment could only come from someone who went to a customer's hotel room and got at least halfway undressed only to be sent away for lacking a perfectly chiseled torso. How painful that must have been. So I lifted up my shirt and said, "Never mind. Neither do I." At my hotel, I asked him if he wanted to sit out on the balcony and have a beer. I figured his answer would be no, that as soon as he could he would want to take his earnings to NAB or wherever else 21-year-olds and their friends hung out to enjoy their youth. But he replied, "Why not?" So I got to enjoy his company for a good hour more before we headed inside to shower and then to bed. But we didn't stay on the bed for long. He had that slight build -- and it turned out a beautiful body that a six-pack might have actually marred. We were in the missionary position when I decided to take advantage of his 49 kilograms, maneuver him to the edge of the bed, plant my feet on the floor, and pick him up. It's easy to get some really powerful thrusts in this position, and his moans sounded like he might have been in pain. I stopped and asked if he was OK. He said, "Better than OK. I love it." When I continued, his moans started up again, his eyes rolled back into his head and I realized I wasn't the only one intoxicated with my partner that night. Eventually it was time for him to leave and as he was sliding out the door he looked back and said, "Come see me next time you're in Thailand." I was floored. I thought we had made a real connection and that he would ask me for my contact details. I can't describe to you the hurt and disappointment I felt when he essentially said, "So long." But I was in Pattaya again some 11 months later. Of course I went looking for ... let's call him Dave. I found him working at another bar. Or should I say he found me. "Hey, Biggus," I heard an arrestingly cute voice call out. I immediately knew it was him. I told him how hurt I was when he left last time not asking for my contact details and essentially saying, "Have a nice life." He said he didn't ask for fear of being rejected. We went on to have a lot of fun over the years. He called me once and insisted I come out for Songkran. I told him I had heard Songkran was miserable for foreigners, that we were always being targeted with ice water even if we were on our way to work. He said, "Don't be a baby. I'll protect you." I did go to Thailand that April, for two weeks, and to this day they remain the greatest two weeks of my life. I still use a picture from that vacation as my smartphone wallpaper to remind me that I once had a perfect day. We spent a few more Songkrans together. We'd stay up all night at the SK party -- a massive electronic dance music event that must have attracted 10,000 of the hottest young Asian men on the planet -- then spend all day water-gun fighting along Silom. After several days of full-on hedonism, we would move to Pattaya. There we would spend several days redefining hedonism. For New Year's we would go to the White Party. He met me once for a long weekend in Seoul. The last Songkran I saw him at, though, something was different. He was on edge, like he was about to lose his temper, like he was using all his energy to hold it in. He insisted we leave the SK party almost as soon as we got there and go to Silom. I had spent hundreds of dollars on tickets for Dave, his best friend and myself. Never mind. When our taxi let us out on Silom, I started heading to Soi 2, thinking we were going to DJ Station, but Dave said no, we were going to Soi 4. I didn't understand. There was nothing happening this late on Soi 4, and just sitting down drinking was never how we spent our time together, at least not after that first night. His best friend looked at me apprehensively, then looked at Dave and said, "That's bad." He left. I followed Dave into Soi 4. We sat down and ordered drinks. A few minutes after the drinks arrived someone who left as soon as he popped up handed Dave something and we left. On our way out the soi, one of the street vendors along Silom threw a bag to Dave. He caught it, and we got into a taxi. Dave told the driver to take us to my hotel. Already, I thought? Even though it was only 2am or so, I was incredibly drunk, so I went along with it. What else was I gonna do? And anyway I needed to relieve my bladder and wouldn't mind doing so in my clean hotel bathroom. But when I got out of the bathroom, Dave was smoking crystal meth. Our relationship didn't last much longer. Sure, we texted but only so Dave could ask me for money and call me vile names when I refused. In December 2020, almost a year into the pandemic and years since I had blocked Dave on Line, his best friend called me to say he was dead. At this point, I hadn't known anything but pain from Dave for years. Still, though, knowing someone I had spent so many great nights and days with was dead, well, it still hurts. So maybe I feel your pain. I keep Dave in my memory because that's all I can do.

A lot of wisdom in this reply. Thank you very much for this fantastic idea! My fights to Bangkok often arrive at 2:30 a.m. or 6 a.m., then leave around midnight.

I used to stay at the Tarntawan on every visit to Bangkok. Then one trip I met a friend from New York who was staying at Pinnacle Lumpini, which had a bit smaller rooms at about half the price. So I started staying there. I think I checked out of Tarntawan the very day I saw my friend's Pinnacle room and checked in there. The breakfasts at Pinnacle were even more interesting than at Tarntawan. I met a real cutie in DJ Station one night. He came back to the hotel with me and we stayed up till about 7 in the morning having some wild, tequila-fueled sex. We got into positions I had never even dreamed about, then he insisted that I cum on his face. After showering we decided to go downstairs for breakfast. Neung wore one of the hotel-supplied bathrobes because why not? There were a few other couples like us who had obviously been up all night long. But most of the tables were occupied by families. At one point, a blonde little boy walks up to Neung to ask him why he was wearing a bathrobe. Neung spoke good English, gave the kid a charming reply and the two kept talking, mostly about the little boy's first trip toThailand but also about why Neung spoke English and stuff like that. What I remember most was the little boy's parents watching the conversation, checking out Neung, looking at me, sizing up the mixed-race, mixed-age gay couple and letting the conversation go on. Both Neung and the little boy were so pleased with their encounter, with the chance to talk to someone from a different world, with the knowledge that that chance encounter could only have taken place at a hotel breakfast buffet in Bangkok. It was wonderful.

I think this is the first I've heard of D Varee Express. It looks to be right next to G.O.D. Are the rooms somehow insulated from the thumping bass of that place? Does anyone else have any input on D Varee Express? It looks like it has an excellent location. I'd love to stay in that neighborhood.

I like this term!

I miss pre-2008 DJ Station, when the place got packed EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. When the stage would fill up with bronze-skin Adonises flaunting their perfect bodies. When a throng of twinks, macho athlete and all other types would show up to dance and flirt. When you didn't have to "off" anyone. Just flirt back. God, I remember the surge of excitement I'd get every trip to Bangkok when, on my first night in town, I'd walk through the door at DJ Station. The music instantly pulsed through my body and then I looked up on that stage. Better than any show I've ever seen elsewhere in Bangkok. I can't wait till my trip in November. I'm really hoping the Banana room nightclub develops a similar ambience.

It's not brainwashing, it's infatuation. Love, or even a whiff of love, can be a powerful motivator. I highly recommend this documentary about a straight host bar in Osaka, where the hosts have a number of beautiful young women spending thousands of dollars a night -- even going into prostitution so they can maintain their spending. The hosts and the young women they are manipulating are brutally honest about what is really going on in these types of relationships. This documentary really opened my eyes. Please give it a watch. It's just amazing.

Does Manila have a gay nightlife scene? Are there the equivalents of go-go bars, or G.O.D. or Silom Soi 4? In short, is it fun? Actually, I just looked it up on travelgay.com, and there seems to be a few show bars, a few bar-slash-restaurants and one gay nightclub. Sounds like it could be fun.

Great insight! These guys are making a lot of economic calculations!

I think this is true for Pattaya, but not necessarily for Bangkok, where I spend the great majority of my nights when I'm in Thailand. While the twinks have disappeared from DJ Station, doing so sometime around 2008, there seemed to have been plenty to choose from in the Soi Twilight-now-Patpong go-go bars, especially Screwboys. I found this to be true on several visits in the years leading up to covid. The problem of course is how easy it is to burn a gaping hole in my pocket as soon as I walk into one of these bars. The drink prices are beyond high. Then there are tips and other fees. Plus, I'd usually take whomever I might have taken a liking to out for more drinks or to DJ Station. Whereas years ago starting out with 7,000 baht in my wallet would be more than enough to sustain me, these days 7,000 baht simply is not enough. So, despite my lack of Pattaya success over the decades I usually make my way there when I realize I have to stop spending so much. Here's another interesting phenomenon. While Pattaya is much less expensive for us tourists, the guys I've met in the bars say Bangkok is the better deal for them. They can demand higher pay and, they say, their apartment rents are cheaper. So I have to wonder, why do the bar boyz choose Pattaya over Bangkok?

What would you recommend to someone planning to spend four nights in Pattaya in November? Lodging in Jomtien or close to Boyztown? Where was there more action during your recent stay?

Gives me something to think about. ... Do you hang out in Boyztown, then, and skip the Jomtien nightlife? If it weren't for your friends' discomfort, would you recommend staying in a Jomtien hotel?

BTW, I highly recommend Cutey and Beauty for ALL your grooming needs. It's a really fun salon!

From what I remember, I went in with a lot of needs -- haircut, bleaching, facial, eyebrow sculpting, body waxing -- and all the work took us past closing time. At some point, the doors were shut, the "Sorry we're closed" sign was hung and a curtain toward the back of the shop was drawn. We were waiting for the facial mask to soak in when ... oh my god, what's happening?!

Love it! I once got a blowjob in Cutey and Beauty.

Ooh, I forgot about G.O.D.! I've had some fabulously hedonistic nights in that club. Dark. Smoky. Sleazy. So hot and steamy that a lot of guys pull off their shirts. Does anyone know what kind of crowds it's getting these days? Before COVID it was only worth going to on weekends, or during Songkran and the Western New Year's holidays.

Some really good information in all the replies here. To tell you the truth, I first started going to Pattaya for the go-go bars. I loved watching the dancers get up on stage in their swim suits and smile at me. Or not. I loved the sleaze factor. The hedonist in me loved the excitement. But over the years Boyztown and Sunee became shadows of what they were. I have no idea why as I really loved the nightlife they provided. But everyone seemed to have migrated down to Jomtien. I've tried to follow them. But I've never had a good time in Jomtien. First of all, there are no sleazy go-go bars. There are only open-air beer bars that, when I sit down at one, make me feel like I myself am on display to be gawked at by all the other tourists walking by. Secondly, despite everyone saying the place is heaven for twink lovers, I've never found that to be true. I have never met -- or even seen -- anyone I'd like to invite back to my hotel room. With all the twink heaven comments persisting, however, I'm nearly convinced that I've just visited Jomtien during slow times of the year. How could my experiences possibly be the exact opposite of everybody else's? Anyway, my thinking is that Jomtien became the hot nighttime spot because of its prices, although I would not get into a debate on the matter with Gaybutton, who made some excellent points earlier in this thread. Plus he always seems to be extremely knowledgable. So when I visit Pattaya in November, I will book a Jomtien hotel for the first time -- at least for the first couple of nights -- and, um, try to have fun.

I see you've already covered this. Your thread exploded before I even saw your first post.

First of all, please enjoy your trip by doing what you want to do. But if you are open to suggestions, I'd love to find out if Screwboys has survived and if so in what kind of condition. Also what is the Patpong vibe like? Is it coming closer to what Soi Twilight was, with all the outside bars and restaurants and people watching? Finally, other posters have mentioned a bar on Soi 4 -- is it Banana Bar? -- that turns into a nightclub at midnight and stays open till 4. Is that a fun scene? I've grown bored with what DJ Station has become. Thank you in advance, and have an awesome vacation!

My favorite times to travel to Thailand are over the New Year's holidays and during Songkran, specifically for the massive White Party and SK all-male nightclub events. To me, freedom means partying with tens of thousands of the hottest gay boyz from all over Asia. I love it! But my wallet does not. So I recommend late November through early December. If you're into the go-go and Jomtien bars, the ASEAN guys who work in them start showing up in October. So you'll have plenty of company from them. The rains almost always stop toward the end of November, so you can expect great, vacation-time sunshine. And the Christmas-New Year's travelers are still back at home dreaming about their upcoming dive into hedonism, so hotels won't be as expensive, it'll be easier snagging poolside lounge chairs and you should have no problem being seated at the restaurants of your choice.

I was reading the post, "Cialis good for heart failure," which got me thinking about the headaches I get from Viagra and whether Cialis might be a better choice for myself. Dr. Google says no, Cialis is long-lasting and therefore could give me even longer headaches. But there was also a suggestion to try a new ED medication, Stendra, which boasts that it starts working in 15 minutes and less-sever side effects. Those are two really big pluses. Here's a website I was directed to: https://www.forhims.com/erectile-dysfunction/stendra What I'm wondering is if anyone has tried to buy this from a drugstore in Bangkok or Pattaya, or if anyone knows if it is available in Thailand yet? Thank you very much for any info any of you might have.