FFbtm1974

500 baht may be a pittance in your world, but I understand that in Bangkok it amounts to a full day’s wages, just one hour of work, for a full month. I also wrote that I am sincerely glad the Burmese gentleman was doing well enough to decline the offer. n any event, this exchange has left me much happier than I was a few hours ago. As an old cynic planning an early retirement in Thailand, I want to be convinced that Thais are immune to such base sentiments as envy and that Thai society is immune to social unrest. Thank you.

I suspect the topic has been exhausted, but I am glad to learn that there is no social envy in Thailand, be it toward middle-class farangs like me, or the billionaire 1% in one of the world’s most unequal societies (we in the US are moving in the same direction). I had a sense that the unprivileged (refugees and migrant workers) are fatalistically resigned to their poverty - until they rebel, and are suppressed - but I was apparently wrong in my reading of the educated urban middle class. Your reassurance certainly makes the prospect of my early retirement in Thailand more appealing. Thank you.

Not superiority, just the fact that a middle-class professional in the United States earns more than a middle-class professional in Thailand. And I am glad to hear that social envy does not exist in the Land of Smiles.

I hope you are right. In KL, Westerners seem to be blamed for increasing prices, and before long, you will have mob riots. But you obviously know better, since you live there.

Sex has a way of breaking through social barriers in class-stratified societies, and this is particularly true among us gay men. In Thailand, those barriers remain impenetrable. We foreign tourists, and some of you residents, may encounter privileged Thais in a cigar lounge and exchange pleasantries with them, but I suspect we mostly meet refugees and migrant workers from rural areas. In my experience, both are proud and honorable, if somewhat fatalistic. On a couple of occasions, I had encounters with the educated urban middle class (not MBs). I usually invite them all (refugees, migrant workers, and middle class) to dinner, choosing a restaurant according to what I believe they would enjoy and where they would feel at ease. The first two groups genuinely appreciate both a decent meal and being treated respectfully by a farang. The middle class, on the other hand, resented me, or at least this is my sense. They never say it, but I imagine them thinking: “How is it that a middle-class farang from America can afford to visit Thailand, while I cannot afford to visit his country? Why is he treating me to dinner at a nice restaurant in my own country, rather than the other way around?” I'm considering to relocate to Bangkok, but I can't simply dismiss what I sensed during my visit: the Thai middle class resents us foreigners because our presence reminds them of their relative economic disadvantage. Are they likely to act upon such sentiments? I hope I'm totally wrong and overthinking!

I am sincerely glad that Burmese workers in Bangkok are doing well enough to turn down a full day’s wages for just one hour of work.

Brief, clear, and factual, without any reference to money, but with information about nationality (using a flag emoji) and the hotel name.

I have visited Bangkok annually for the past ten years or so. Here are my observations from my July–August trip: Because it was the low season, negotiations with MBs were more realistic. I found them on Grindr and never paid more than 1,000 baht for a short-time. On a couple of occasions, they stayed overnight at my hotel rather than leaving late at night, without charging extra. Hiring the same MB for a second encounter later that day cost me 500 baht. The same seasonal pricing applied to hotels. Easy Planet Hotel on Surawong—formerly Red Planet—and Trinity Silom Hotel both charged less than $30 per night. One experience surprised me. I met a Burmese who was not MB. After learning that he had walked out of a job earlier that day, I offered him 500 baht. I then proposed hiring him for an entire month, paying him 500 baht for one hour of his time each day. As I understand it, 500 baht is roughly the minimum daily wage in Bangkok. He declined. A few days later, he texted me and conditionally agreed to occasional meetings, but that arrangement did not work for me. In a way, I am pleased that Burmese migrants are apparently doing well enough in Bangkok to turn down 500 baht for an hour’s work!

Strategically-minded MBs use this method. Real chess players!

A real miser would have stayed home, ejaculating to the thought of having spent neither money on boys nor time haggling!

BKK, but I'm visiting Pattaya for the first time this trip. I'll see if I can negotiate the rate down to 500 Baht!

I’m not a particularly skilled negotiator, but I still find it difficult to reconcile the prices mentioned here with what I usually pay. To be fair, I’m not especially interested in muscular guys; I hire through Grindr & Hornet, which means I avoid bar fees, and I reach out to them at odd hours. I usually negotiate the price down to 700–1000 baht for an hour, though I usually pay 1000. This is considerably lower than the inflated rates I see mentioned here!

I consistently triple check the hotel rate at hotels.com, Agoda and Google Maps.

Hotels.com, with which I have never had similar problems.

I just received a WhatsApp message from a company calling itself “The Plough-Harborne Limited” stating that my reservation at Zing Resort & Spa in Pattaya had been placed on hold because “guest identity validation has not yet been successfully completed,” and it included a link requesting that I re-enter my credit card information. After contacting the hotel, I confirmed that the message was fraudulent. But the accuracy of the personal details included (my name, phone number, arrival and departure dates, and booking code) suggests that there has been a data breach involving my reservation at this particular hotel.