Marc308

Oh gosh while there are many problems/risks with using the apps (as there are with other venues) but getting NO responses is definitely not one of them. More likely you are going to get more messages than you can easy track. ("Was it Yod or Noom who has the sick grandmother in Ubon?")

"A little? on the mature side?" Side of what? The pyramids of Giza? 😂

Is this the place on the corner of Silom and Thaniya Road? If so, that place is famous for $1,000+ suits.

How about to the El Salvador hell-hole where he sent so many would-be-asylum-seekers?

Moscow is far more cosmopolitan than most Westerners might imagine, that is so true. Russia is not a hell-hole, neither is it a paradise. (I suppose the same could be said about most any country on this globe?) I can say, from personal experience, that is difficult however to find many other countries who are more gay-phobic, antisemitic or corrupt than she is. Moses, I do appreciate your sharing your perspective with us.

The Queen Mother was a person of incredible beauty, dignity and kindness. In our haste for merriment, let's pause for a moment to savor this amazing piece of Thai culture which we are privileged to witness and participate in.

Interesting trivia, "Donki" stores were original Don Quixote, but way too long, so it became "Donki" I kind of like the overstuffed, disheveled look of Donki. Yes here in Hawaii everything is stacked to the rafters too with hugely narrow aisle which makes meeting "interesting" people a possibility ;) As for sushi who has good recommendations for finding good sushi in Thailand. You are right, Hank, its hard to find (reasonably priced) high-quality sashimi outside Japan. Has anybody found some in Bangkok or Pattaya?? My go-to is Sushiro which is a chain around Thailand. It is okay but the Japanese standards are hard to beat!

INDEED. The egg-salad sandwiches are terrific! Japanese 7-11's are an institution. Along with the Donki stories, you can live happily in Japan with products only from those two stores. Luckily some of the Japanese goodies seem to be spreading outside Japan. Here in Hawaii I am noticing more and more. I assume they will continue to grow in Thailand stores as well. <fingers-crossed>

Hey Peter, For sure we will miss you and your erudite and interesting posts. Like you I am also tiring of the "and tonight we visited Bar X and Bar Y and offed Boy A and Boy B". Seriously, isn't there more to life? For me the great fascination I have with Thailand (after visits spanning 30 years) is trying to understand its amazing "scene" (in the largest sense of that word) and how it differs from my home culture. For some years I posted quite regularly but my posts generated little interest, so I soon recognized I was out of step with the majority of people on the board -- who seem to be in their 20's and 30's (or so their posts would indicate <wink>). I abandoned the bars years ago, as I could not countenance supporting the Thai Mafia with my funds. I don't smoke, I drink very moderately. And I detest the "sit down and drink!" attitude at most bars (which bkkm.. often rails about.) Like OldDaddy I much prefer the serendipity and unexpected delights of using "gaydar" and intuition to land the perfect tryst. When enjoying the amazing pleasures of a kind "service provider" (as latin likes to call them), I much prefer to spend my funds supporting his needs, and hopefully his dreams, not those of a corrupt underground.

Bravo, ichigo! Language imbeds so much culture, attitude, nuance. Translating this is difficult. Let me give one example: In Hawaiian we have the word "Imua!" which translates to English as "go forward". Alas it means so much more -- it was used by ancient canoe paddlers transiting between Honolulu and Tahiti (4000 kms!) as a word of encouragement: "keep on paddling!" "let's get there!" "come on we only have 3 days more!" ... well all of this is a far cry from "go forward". Bottom line, please learn the language of your host country if you want to participate in its cultural life. Or, the easiest way to destroy a culture is to destroy its language.

Learning to speak paasaa Thai is a real privilege. It means that Thailand is willing to share a bit of its culture with us. Of course, it is not absolutely necessary you learn to speak Thai. One could theoretically live in the UK or Canada without speaking English, but you would be strongly disadvantaged. You'd necessarily be ghettoized to live in a community which speaks your language instead of being able to roam freely. I suppose, thanks to AI, in the not too distant future we will have devices which go far beyond what Google Translate can do. I would find that eventuality somewhat sad, because so much of culture is wrapped up into language. I hope Thailand doesn't become Anglicized one day after all the centuries which Thailand has mostly successfully resisted colonization.

Interesting. I happen to like "shorter" men, more compact and "manageable".

high heels for men?

Hi Rob, The Allianz annual "Premier" plan (the intermediate-level plan) has a maximum trip length of 90 days. Not sure if that means one must return to one's home country every 90 days or whether one could go on to start a new "trip" to a third country for another 90 days and then (presumably) be able to return to Thailand for another 90 days. Not sure how it works, but you are right it definitely does not cover you if you plan to spend "a year" in Thailand. Aloha, Marc

I couldn't agree more. In all my visits to Cambodia (including cities in the north, PP, Sihanoukville and other towns in the south, everywhere but the east region bordering Vietnam) I never once had an unpleasant encounter with a Cambodian. Anybody who has visited the Killing Fields gets an idea about what the senior population has been through: Pol Pot and his "reformers" and murders, the American bombardments, the Vietnamese invasion, and Chinese meddling over the past few centuries! Somehow through this all the Cambodia spirit has pushed through. It is truly remarkable how resilient the human spirit can be and how adaptive it can remain under even the most strident forms of corruption.