TotallyOz

Interesting Chart. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/30/passports-map_n_5536914.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

Fantastic. Tell us more about the gay scene there.

Welcome to the site. I hope to visit your country in 2015 and I hope we can meet up!

KT, here is another great article that a friend of mine sent to me. She lives in Colorado and knows I want to move there. http://mic.com/articles/92449/six-months-after-legalizing-marijuana-two-big-things-have-happened-in-colorado

Actually, I was looking for a Cannondale in Bangkok and they didn't have the size I wanted. They were owned by the same people as in Singapore and they said they could have it shipped over. I told them I needed to do a visa run anyway and I flew to Singapore to test the bike and bought the bike. Singapore is a very friendly bike city. Much like Los Angeles. And, on my trip to NYC this year, I noticed more bikes in NYC than I ever have seen in the past. The world is riding more and more.

Your reports are amazing and your photo has improved by leaps and bounds over the years. You have a great eye or perhaps just good models. LOL It seems you are having fun. Enjoy and keep updating us as some of us not in Thailand can live through your eyes.

Back many years ago when they allowed me to do back to back 30 day tourist visas to no end, I visited Singapore about 8 times. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would usually only stay for 3 days but I always had great food and found the city very safe and comfortable. The prices were high but it is an amazing city with so many things to see and do. At the time, I was riding my bicycle a lot and I found there were vast amounts of bike trains in and around Singapore. I felt very safe on a bicycle there. I do not feel that safe in Bangkok. I was always fascinated with the city as I had several friends in NYC from there and they sought Asylum in USA based on being gay and they received it and now are US citizens. Since then, (many many years ago) I had always wanted to visit Singapore and when I did I really enjoyed it.

Now that the World Cup is closing down, do you think the prices for hotels and apartments in Rio will be going down? Or, will they continue to go up?

I guess that just shows what a bad businessman you are. A good paying customer who has stayed a total of over 10 months in 4 years in a hotel and who who pays even more for room service, massages, personal trainers, etc (and did on this trip as well) and who until this visit only praised the hotel. So, when that customer complains (legitimately according to the hotel and staff), and he is not the only one, you would kick him out? LOL Wait, who is the real fool here? You or me? Never mind, I know you hate all my trip reports as we have seen over the years with your comments to them. Why? It does not follow you pay as little as possible and try to be a cheap charlie routine. Seems like one I did on Hua Hin a year or so ago got closed as you were so upset that someone would come to the city and stay in the Intercontinental as opposed to a cheap hotel. I think we both know who the hotels would actually kick out if it were a choice between the two of us. And, it would not be me.

10,000! That is fucking awesome! Congrats on the milestone and thank you for all 10,000 posts.

I have considered a move to Chiang Mai for a while. One of my boys has a 10 year old son. I want them to be close together so I normally stay close to the Chomburi area as much as possible but I have told both boys that eventually Chiang Mai is the place I'll be. I have spent months there in the past and loved it. Delta has been great with one way tickets for me. They have been willing to upgrade them for a while. I arrived in Thailand on the last leg of a roundtrip. I prefer to start in BKK and end USA as the cost is usually about 1/2 price of booking a round trip from USA to BKK. On this trip, I really don't know when I'll get back to Thailand so I just booked a one way as I didn't want to waste money on the round trip as they expire. When I got to airport in USA, they needed me to show them an exit ticket. I showed them one I had just an schedule for. No problems at all. But, in USA, they do expect a return. Like Firecat said, I didn't pay. But, I think Bangkok is an amazing city. I love the malls and the hotels. Pattaya is fun as well but good only in little spurts. To each his own I guess. Thanks. Yes, it sucked but there wasn't much I could do other than use my 4G (LOL). I find that when I need Internet in USA, I pair my phone with the computer and it is amazing speeds. That is not true for me in Bangkok as I think the 4G is not 4G or 3G.

Thank you! I don't really have bona fide vacations. I live in hotels 365 days a year and thus everywhere I am at I have some work to do which requires an Internet connection. I don't like long term breaks from the computer. If I took those, I would never be able to afford a hotel. Well, I didn't mean to complain. I guess that is the way it sounded but it wasn't my intent. I just don't like spending more money on a drink than I would in a New York City club. I also grew tired of the shows there years back. There was one show a few years ago that I loved but they had different dance routines, cabaret type show. I loved it but it is now closed. I always like to go for one or two visits on a trip but I hate the guys out front trying to ply you into their bar with broken promises. The king of this type is the Vegas hotels. In each one, there is virtually everything you could need. Most have movie theaters, gyms, tons of restaurants, a full mall and the list goes on. I have to be in Vegas 2 times a year for conventions and every time I go I am really amazed at how easy it is to never leave your hotel. I was reading last week an article on the World's largest hotels and a great many are on the strip in Vegas. I think over the years, I have just tried to relax a bit more and not try to cram so much into my trips to LOS.

Thanks Firecat. There are always people from a wide variety of countries there. There were some from USA, Australia, South Africa, Brazil (I assume renting out their condo in Rio for massive amounts), Malaysia and several from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Most that I talked to had been there before and were repeat. Some were new. Most were couples but some were alone or with friends. The nicest group I met was from South Africa. They were fun and had a great time.

I am not really sure if this is possible or not. I know that Satellite calls I have made in the past on Skype were very very poor quality. Plus, the airlines can choose what they wish to block. They may have Skype blocked. I don't know as I didn't try it. But, Netflix and the torrents were all blocked. I imagine the same for Skype. I'll try it next time and see.

It was a very interesting trip for me to Thailand this year. I did not go for the bars, Clubs, massage parlors or anything of the sort very many times. I made this trip to Thailand and order to get into shape and to lose some weight. All in all, I spent slightly less than two months in Thailand. I stayed in three different hotels, visited three different fitness centers, and had approximately 15 Thai massages. When I first arrived in Thailand I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bangkok. I have stated this hotel many times over the last 10 years. It is one of my favorite hotels in Thailand. I like the convenience of being close to all the malls and easy access to the sky-train. From this hotel I am able to walk to at least four or five major malls. And I also enjoyed being able to recover in this hotel after a long flight to Thailand. The majority of my time I stayed at the Ascott Hotel near Chong Nosi. The boys and I got a two bedroom two bath apartment unit. It was an executive two bedroom apartment. It was approximately 2000 ft.². The hotel includes a fitness center called the Cascade Club. The Cascade Club is one of the best fitness centers in Bangkok. The cost for month for the apartment was 90,000 Thai baht per month and that included everything but there was a limit on electricity and we ended up paying about another 5k per month for that. I have stayed at The Ascott 4 times over the years and always loved it. This time was a bit different. A hotel has to live up to certain standards to get my business. The most important thing to me is the Internet. This hotel is a bit older but having stayed here in the past, I did not have any problem and thus, all my great past reviews of The Ascott. But, on this trip, the Internet was horrendous. The Internet was so bad that I called to the front desk to complain over 47 times in 2 months. I had to go downstairs and talk to them 16 times. In other words, the Internet was so horrible that often I could not even access websites or do any work. Skype was impossible and I could not get through one call without the call being dropped or the Internet freezing up. After 6 weeks, they sent a letter to all guests that they were upgrading the system and it would be down for a few hours while they did that. I was thrilled and saw this as a way for the hotel to redeem itself. It had the opposite effect. The "new fix" made it even worse than before. If I thought it was just me, I might be a bit more positive. But, I had conversations over the 2 months with over 15 other residents who said the exact same thing. They were all shocked at the hotel having the worst Internet they had seen. I will have to say, that I have stayed here in the past with no issue. The issue must reside in their current Internet provider as they changed companies. But, they went from something that worked to something that was totally useless. After one week, I was ready to go. If I had not paid for the 2nd month in advance, I would have just left. But, after 2 months staying at the hotel that I have praised in the past, I can say that I am more disappointed in the management of this hotel for failing to come up with a solution to a crisis that existed for at least 2 months. They may respond and say it is all better now, but the truth it, they told me that repeatedly over my trip there and I was deceived. As I have traveled across Thailand and stayed in very small hotels in the middle of no where, it is sad when a huge hotel in the capital of Thailand has worst Internet service than any other hotel I have stayed at in over 10 years of visiting the country. On all my other stays at The Ascott, I was wishing I had booked longer. On this stay, I could not wait to get away. The hotel was a major disappoint and the lack of action spoke a great deal of managements lack of having ears that listen to customers. The staff was apologetic and nice but they were helpless to do anything to fix this. One-Hundred percent of this blame goes to upper management and their inability to solve a crisis situation. They should have fired the company providing the Internet or came up with another way for residents to get a decent connection. Having said that, the owners of the hotel must either pay more attention to what is going on at their properties so that the great reputation they have build up is not destroyed based on incompetent management of one property and for my stay, the management not only underachieved but turned one of my favorite properties into one I doubt I'll ever visit again! I only went to Soi Twilight on three or four occasions. I went with a friend for him to see his boyfriend. And I went a couple more times on my own. This area is not as enjoyable to me as it once was. I tend to get bored in this area very easily and to stay in the area for a long period of time is not something I have enjoyed for many years. I want to Hero Massage about five times. All but one of those times I had a good time. On one occasion I didn't find what I was looking for and my regular massage boy was not there so I took a walk down to Banana Massage. At Banana Massage I found a very handsome Vietnamese boy that I had a very good time with. He was extremely sexy and he was also new to Bangkok. I enjoyed spending time with him. The massage was not great and the sex was not great but I still had a good time as he was so adorable. There was a three-week stretch that I did not even leave my hotel. The hotel has three different restaurants inside and I enjoy each of the restaurants. But the boys and I ended up cooking the vast majority of our meals as I was trying to eat in a more nutritious way than most restaurants will cook. We did our grocery shopping once a week at Siam Paragon Mall and we would stock up on all the fresh vegetables and meats that we needed for the week. I was also able to visit Chiva Som for a five day spa vacation. Chiva Som is one of the best spas and all of the world. It is extremely beautiful, extremely serene, and unfortunately is also extremely expensive. I booked a five day program that included several massage therapies per day as well as some personal training sessions. I also upgraded to one of there larger rooms. The cost was 265,000 baht for the 5 days. That is an extremely high rate to pay but I was doing research for a company and my expenses were covered. I visited 3 different fitness centers near Chong Nosi. My hotel has the Cascade Club inside so that is where we spent a great deal of time. But, Richard Branson opened up Virgin Fitness next door to us in Empire Building. One of my former trainers works there and invited me over for a week. It is very very nice and I'd really consider joining on my next trip. They also opened up a Fitness First right near the sky train entrance. It was also a great gym and great facility. So for me, there were 3 amazing fitness centers all within about 5 minutes walk of each other. I am not sure why they did this but I am glad they did. This area of Sathorn is filled with traffic and often hard to get a taxi but they keep building more and more condos and hotels. The Ascott is right across the street from the new W Hotel in Bangkok. The area has tons of great places to visit and eat. I did not venture out to many new restaurants but did eat at several that I had eaten at before. I spent most days at the pool at in the afternoon or evening and I really enjoyed the lack of tourists. I had the pool to myself for many days and I would swim a few laps and just swim around in the water for hours. Near the end of my stay, it started to get a bit rainy and windy and that drove even more people from the hotel. I was there during the coup but that did not affect me in the least other than the lack of foreign news, etc. that others experienced. I didn't post blow by blow of my trip as I have written about most places I visited on this trip in the past. Other than the disappointment with my 2 months stay at The Ascott, I had a great time. I have 2 amazing guys that take wonderful care of me. I ended up loosing a bit over 40 pounds in 2 months. I also was able to meet up with old friends from days gone by. I still love Thailand but I think over the years I have grown to love the slow pace of life much more than the high speed of the bars and clubs. I spent less than 4 hours total in all the bars on this trip. So, more time was spent just enjoying life. The biggest treat for me was Chiva Som. I have been there 2 times in the past and I love the place. I would live there if I could afford it but the cost is just over the top. I took Delta both ways. I like their service and I sat in Business Class. I always buy a cheap ticket and upgrade with miles to business class. My return cost 1700 USD plus 30k miles. Other than one day in Pattaya, 5 days in Hua Hin at Chiva Som, I spent the rest of my time in Bangkok in the Sathorn area. It was a fun 2 months!

It was a very interesting trip for me to Thailand this year. I did not go for the bars, Clubs, massage parlors or anything of the sort very many times. I made this trip to Thailand and order to get into shape and to lose some weight. All in all, I spent slightly less than two months in Thailand. I stayed in three different hotels, visited three different fitness centers, and had approximately 15 Thai massages. When I first arrived in Thailand I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bangkok. I have stated this hotel many times over the last 10 years. It is one of my favorite hotels in Thailand. I like the convenience of being close to all the malls and easy access to the sky-train. From this hotel I am able to walk to at least four or five major malls. And I also enjoyed being able to recover in this hotel after a long flight to Thailand. The majority of my time I stayed at the Ascott Hotel near Chong Nosi. The boys and I got a two bedroom two bath apartment unit. It was an executive two bedroom apartment. It was approximately 2000 ft.². The hotel includes a fitness center called the Cascade Club. The Cascade Club is one of the best fitness centers in Bangkok. The cost for month for the apartment was 90,000 Thai baht per month and that included everything but there was a limit on electricity and we ended up paying about another 5k per month for that. I have stayed at The Ascott 4 times over the years and always loved it. This time was a bit different. A hotel has to live up to certain standards to get my business. The most important thing to me is the Internet. This hotel is a bit older but having stayed here in the past, I did not have any problem and thus, all my great past reviews of The Ascott. But, on this trip, the Internet was horrendous. The Internet was so bad that I called to the front desk to complain over 47 times in 2 months. I had to go downstairs and talk to them 16 times. In other words, the Internet was so horrible that often I could not even access websites or do any work. Skype was impossible and I could not get through one call without the call being dropped or the Internet freezing up. After 6 weeks, they sent a letter to all guests that they were upgrading the system and it would be down for a few hours while they did that. I was thrilled and saw this as a way for the hotel to redeem itself. It had the opposite effect. The "new fix" made it even worse than before. If I thought it was just me, I might be a bit more positive. But, I had conversations over the 2 months with over 15 other residents who said the exact same thing. They were all shocked at the hotel having the worst Internet they had seen. I will have to say, that I have stayed here in the past with no issue. The issue must reside in their current Internet provider as they changed companies. But, they went from something that worked to something that was totally useless. After one week, I was ready to go. If I had not paid for the 2nd month in advance, I would have just left. But, after 2 months staying at the hotel that I have praised in the past, I can say that I am more disappointed in the management of this hotel for failing to come up with a solution to a crisis that existed for at least 2 months. They may respond and say it is all better now, but the truth it, they told me that repeatedly over my trip there and I was deceived. As I have traveled across Thailand and stayed in very small hotels in the middle of no where, it is sad when a huge hotel in the capital of Thailand has worst Internet service than any other hotel I have stayed at in over 10 years of visiting the country. On all my other stays at The Ascott, I was wishing I had booked longer. On this stay, I could not wait to get away. The hotel was a major disappoint and the lack of action spoke a great deal of managements lack of having ears that listen to customers. The staff was apologetic and nice but they were helpless to do anything to fix this. One-Hundred percent of this blame goes to upper management and their inability to solve a crisis situation. They should have fired the company providing the Internet or came up with another way for residents to get a decent connection. Having said that, the owners of the hotel must either pay more attention to what is going on at their properties so that the great reputation they have build up is not destroyed based on incompetent management of one property and for my stay, the management not only underachieved but turned one of my favorite properties into one I doubt I'll ever visit again! I only went to Soi Twilight on three or four occasions. I went with a friend for him to see his boyfriend. And I went a couple more times on my own. This area is not as enjoyable to me as it once was. I tend to get bored in this area very easily and to stay in the area for a long period of time is not something I have enjoyed for many years. I want to Hero Massage about five times. All but one of those times I had a good time. On one occasion I didn't find what I was looking for and my regular massage boy was not there so I took a walk down to Banana Massage. At Banana Massage I found a very handsome Vietnamese boy that I had a very good time with. He was extremely sexy and he was also new to Bangkok. I enjoyed spending time with him. The massage was not great and the sex was not great but I still had a good time as he was so adorable. There was a three-week stretch that I did not even leave my hotel. The hotel has three different restaurants inside and I enjoy each of the restaurants. But the boys and I ended up cooking the vast majority of our meals as I was trying to eat in a more nutritious way than most restaurants will cook. We did our grocery shopping once a week at Siam Paragon Mall and we would stock up on all the fresh vegetables and meats that we needed for the week. I was also able to visit Chiva Som for a five day spa vacation. Chiva Som is one of the best spas and all of the world. It is extremely beautiful, extremely serene, and unfortunately is also extremely expensive. I booked a five day program that included several massage therapies per day as well as some personal training sessions. I also upgraded to one of there larger rooms. The cost was 265,000 baht for the 5 days. That is an extremely high rate to pay but I was doing research for a company and my expenses were covered. I visited 3 different fitness centers near Chong Nosi. My hotel has the Cascade Club inside so that is where we spent a great deal of time. But, Richard Branson opened up Virgin Fitness next door to us in Empire Building. One of my former trainers works there and invited me over for a week. It is very very nice and I'd really consider joining on my next trip. They also opened up a Fitness First right near the sky train entrance. It was also a great gym and great facility. So for me, there were 3 amazing fitness centers all within about 5 minutes walk of each other. I am not sure why they did this but I am glad they did. This area of Sathorn is filled with traffic and often hard to get a taxi but they keep building more and more condos and hotels. The Ascott is right across the street from the new W Hotel in Bangkok. The area has tons of great places to visit and eat. I did not venture out to many new restaurants but did eat at several that I had eaten at before. I spent most days at the pool at in the afternoon or evening and I really enjoyed the lack of tourists. I had the pool to myself for many days and I would swim a few laps and just swim around in the water for hours. Near the end of my stay, it started to get a bit rainy and windy and that drove even more people from the hotel. I was there during the coup but that did not affect me in the least other than the lack of foreign news, etc. that others experienced. I didn't post blow by blow of my trip as I have written about most places I visited on this trip in the past. Other than the disappointment with my 2 months stay at The Ascott, I had a great time. I have 2 amazing guys that take wonderful care of me. I ended up loosing a bit over 40 pounds in 2 months. I also was able to meet up with old friends from days gone by. I still love Thailand but I think over the years I have grown to love the slow pace of life much more than the high speed of the bars and clubs. I spent less than 4 hours total in all the bars on this trip. So, more time was spent just enjoying life. The biggest treat for me was Chiva Som. I have been there 2 times in the past and I love the place. I would live there if I could afford it but the cost is just over the top. I took Delta both ways. I like their service and I sat in Business Class. I always buy a cheap ticket and upgrade with miles to business class. My return cost 1700 USD plus 30k miles. Other than one day in Pattaya, 5 days in Hua Hin at Chiva Som, I spent the rest of my time in Bangkok in the Sathorn area. It was a fun 2 months!

I have been to PA many times and loved it. The weekends are amazing and lots of fun. I have also been there on the weekdays and had fun. But, it only takes one or two for me to have a great time. I need need 5 or 10 per day like others. LOL The apartment rental places you see listed above are good to use. Many use them and seem to prefer traveling that way. I have also been in Rio for the Xmas and New Years break. Great time and good fun. Many of the boys were not there for work but others showed up. Many go home for Xmas and have other commitments. I had a blast in Rio for New Years but I loved the beach and the fireworks, etc.

I definitely see the need for many to have a respite from the net. But, for me, I travel a lot and my trip from Thailand this time was 28 hours. I hate secluding myself for that long. Plus, I have over a million miles in the last few years and for me, I just don't need the time to rest and relax. I much prefer to keep to a work schedule.

I love being able to check email and use the Internet when I get to lounges on stop overs during international flights. I have been saying for years that I just didn't understand why the over the big ocean planes didn't have Internet. I have used the Delta Internet In Flight services when I am in the USA and love it. Now, when traveling overseas, you can also use the Internet on long distance flights. On a recent trip, I opened my laptop and saw a connection for Gogo In Flight. I was a bit surprised and asked the flight attendant if this was an option. She said, "Yes, we are moving this service to all our our long distance flights." I was impressed. The price for the service is per leg. It cost 24.95 from Bangkok to Tokyo. It cost 39.00 from Tokyo to USA. Yes, that is high. But, the speed was great. I was able to access all sites and services. It did go out a few times here and there for a few minutes but quickly returned. I always said that I would be happy to pay for this feature and when I saw it, I did pay for it and the speed was much faster than I expected and the service worked the entire time (minuses a few bumps when it went off and came back on really fast). So, for those of you that love checking email, checking on sites, or posting that trip report on your latest conquest. You can now do this on those long journeys across the Pacific, Atlantic, etc...

I was surprised that both of mine had this. I would not have known had my wifi not been on. I guess they either don't advertise it well or most just think it is only for domestic. Like you, it was well worth it for me.

If you are as good as predicting stocks are you are about this, please please, lets sit down and have coffee!

So sorry, it was 39.00 from Tokyo to USA. So, it is already cheaper by almost a buck an hour.

I love being able to check email and use the Internet when I get to lounges on stop overs during international flights. I have been saying for years that I just didn't understand why the over the big ocean planes didn't have Internet. I have used the Delta Internet In Flight services when I am in the USA and love it. Now, when traveling overseas, you can also use the Internet on long distance flights. On a recent trip, I opened my laptop and saw a connection for Gogo In Flight. I was a bit surprised and asked the flight attendant if this was an option. She said, "Yes, we are moving this service to all our our long distance flights." I was impressed. The price for the service is per leg. It cost 24.95 from Bangkok to Tokyo. It cost 49.00 from Tokyo to USA. Yes, that is high. But, the speed was great. I was able to access all sites and services. It did go out a few times here and there for a few minutes but quickly returned. I always said that I would be happy to pay for this feature and when I saw it, I did pay for it and the speed was much faster than I expected and the service worked the entire time (minuses a few bumps when it went off and came back on really fast). So, for those of you that love checking email, checking on sites, or posting that trip report on Gay Thailand. You can now do this on those long journeys across the Pacific!

The government thread is now hidden until we have time to discuss this.

Very sexy guy!