TotallyOz

I have always thought this was the best bar with the most guys and the hottest. We were there last night shortly after opening and stayed an hour. Few boys were there and none were being offed. Is this now a place only for the shows? Was I there on a bad night?

A friend took me there last night. I had been once before a long long time ago and forgotten the location and had no memory of the bar until we sat down. Being my first trip, I don't even think I knew it was a ladyboy bar and to my memory, I thought it was just some aggressive ladies. Being a newbie back then, I don't even think the thought that it was a ladyboy bar had crossed my mind as it was in the middle of all the lady bars and I do remember feeling uncomfortable with the aggressiveness of the ladyboys. My friend tried to tell me last night about it and I knew I had been to all the bars and shows on that soi but didn't remember a ladyboy bar. We did all the bars on that soi including a bar named Screwboy (I think that was the name) and I had a guy from there steal from me one night. I never have returned to that Soi often. I use to frequent that Soi with all the lady bars and they have a few gay gogos there but I thought all had gone. It is the Soi beyond Twilight with the night market. If you are walking down the night market toward Silom, it is on the left hand side. Anyway, I had the boyfriend with me which made the night a blast as he was in hog heaven. My American friend sat there and seem to enjoy the show. The show was my blushing and the boyfriends hormones raging. I don't think he particularly enjoyed the ladies on stage but my shock was pretty funny even to myself. This is the ladyboy bar of ladyboy bars. You can't tell these boys from the girls in all the other bars. Wow. What an amazing assortment of beautiful ladyboys. My friend said it was about 50/50 post op and pre-op. They are aggressive and have no issue coming to you and telling you what they think you want to hear. My favorite line of the night, "I go with you. I can do anything. You tie me up, I tie you up, You fuck me. Your friend fuck me. I can Satist. I can S and M. I can anything you want. Sure, Mister anything you want, I can do." All that blurted out in less than 5 seconds like it had been said a few hundred times. It was enough for me to give a 100 baht tip as I had not laughed so hard in ages. My boyfriend called his friends back in Pattaya who we have spent the past month with and of course they all wanted to come to Bangkok today. I told them no but I did say that I would bring them all on the next trip to go out a few nights. After an hour of him talking Thai to them and me hearing the word katoy a dozen times, I know this is not something they are going to forget. I told the boyfriend last night if he made me happy I would make him happy tonight. To my surprise, he joined me in the jacuzzi and gave me a great back rub and was so gentle and sweet. Sex was great and then afterwards he said, "so, tomorrow we go back to same same." Of course. I don't know who the professional is, my boy or the lady boy at the bar with the 5 second spill. She cost me 100 bath. He will cost me a day of shopping at Siam Paragon.

We spent a night at Manhattan's last night. It was a group of gay men and Thai boys. I made clear when I made the reservation in person that I was gay, the group would be gay and we would have gay boys with us and possibly ladyboys as well. The staff said they had no issue with gay and would love to have us join them. We had drinks before and the staff was very friendly. The waiters were nice and everything was done very professionally. At dinner, we had a great meal and not once did we feel unwelcome. I spoke to 2 of the waiters when I went to the bathroom, and they were both gay and I asked if they had any issues with the management and they both said no that they were treated very well and no problem that they were gay and no problem with gay customers came. It seemed that they had a heads up on the rumors but according to them, they do not feel this way. My dinner was excellent. The food was great and I had fun. At no point did I feel uncomfortable being at a table of gay guys. For that it is worth, I think there was much to do over nothing with the former gay manager leaving. However, when he was there, I did feel better taken care of and more comfortable. I will go wherever he ends up as he really did make me feel like I was catered to and he knew me and the boys every move. He was on top of his game. The lady last night that took care of me also did the same thing and she proved great at making sure we had a fantastic time and meal.

Having gone on a few fishing boats over the years I have learned a few things. One, the less Farangs the less drama. Two, the less whiskey, the less chance of accidents. Three, you pay for what you get when you book a boat. I have used the same boat for a few years and once again talked to the owner about renting the boat for a 24 hour period. I took 14 Thai guys. Well, actually I took 10 guys and 4 of their ladyboys for a total of 14. I was the only Farang and not sure if I fit into the guy category or the ladyboy category as I spent the majority of my time with them playing games and cards. The ladyboys on the trip I have known for a few years and all speak perfect english and we had so much fun playing UNO and cards. We met the boat at 5PM and set sail for a 24 hour adventure at sea. We brought out own drinks and they provided all the food and fishing equipment. After we were out for a bit we were able to watch the sunset over Pattaya and we were served a delicious seafood dinner with fresh seafood and vegetable they had bought that day. The food was delicious and it was great to each which watching the sun set over sin city. We took the boat out further and they put out these long poles beside the boat with spotlights and that light up the water so we could fish for squid. The boys all got into the fishing and they caught over 200 Squid over the course of the night. After several hours of fishing, the captain took the squid and placed it on a BBQ and grilled it for us to eat fresh. We also saved a lot of squid for the fishing bait the next AM. The real fishers among the boys stayed up all night long and fished and fished until the sun rose. Me, I had a nice Queen bed (not build for a Queen but an actual size Queen Bed). There were plenty of places for the entire group to sleep and relax. Some chose to sleep a bit and others choose to drink and fish all night. The next AM, we all awoke early and fished all day. In between the rounds of fishing were several rounds of swimming and snorkeling. Lunch was prepared for us which was in abundant and there was so much left that we had food until we docked again at 5PM. We caught a hundred or so fish and we took them and the boys gave them to their perspective friends. I took with us 5 bottles of whisky and only 2 were opened. We had 7 cases of beer and most of that ended up gone but I think the majority by 4 of the guys. We also took sodas and water and other drinks. The boys were happy and all seemed to have a fantastic day. We spent time playing cards Thai style and I also taught the lady boys how to play UNO. They loved it and we all laugh until we couldn't laugh any longer. It was my birthday celebration and to my surprise, many of the boys had spent their hard earned money on gifts for me. I asked them not to do that but they did anyway. I was very moved. The 24 hours was fun and enjoyable and we all had a blast. The boat rents for 1,000 an hour so we paid 24k for the boat. The food was 250 bath per meal for regular meals per person and 450 for the seafood feast. We got the drinks in bulk from the drink warehouse near soi Sunee and Day/Night. The boat crew was excellent and we had a fantastic time. If you ever want a special event or evening planned, I suggest you give these men a try. They had the best boat at the docks and for my 7 or so times using them, I have had few if any issues. http://boatrentalsthailand.com/

OK. OK. Best bottom Jonathan Lowe. I agree 100 percent. Best Escort Agency: David Forest. What am I missing?

I am wrapping up my stay in Thailand and have had a wonderful trip. I met many nice guys and had such an amazing trip. The guys I met are simply the best. I also spent time with some great Farangs. I will say that the trip did miss the laughter of LMTU/EarWig as he is always keeping those around him laughing and having a good time. On this trip, he has been back in his home country and I hope that on the next trip, he will be back in Pattaya laughing and keeping everyone on their toes. As always it was great to see the likes of GayButton who is enjoyable to talk to and full of knowledge and information. As I have said in the past, few know more about what goes on in Thailand than he does. Also, I had St Paddy's day with the best chef in ALL of Thailand at his condo. What an amazing meal. Missing from my trip was the boring gossip queens full of bullshit and bitterness. It is often hard to distance yourself from guys like this but I just decided when spoken to by them to say hi and keep moving. The hardest thing for me is to say no to the street guys who ask for money for food. It is a true weakness of mine and I find it hard if not impossible to say no. I have good intentions each night too say no to everyone who asks but then I think all they want is 30 or 40 bath to eat and it is not a big deal. I have given in on just about every occasion. Perhaps I will learn one day to just say no. My favorite bar has been a toss up of Dynamite in Pattayaland Soi 1 and Villa Rouge in Sunee. Both have been fun and enjoyable. The best view of the boys going to work has been at Duc bar in Sunee Plaza and it is fun to get there for a cup of coffee or a diet coke to watch the boys as they go to work. The best food in Sunee was Eric's new place at Sammy's. The best in Boyztown was New Orleans. If you have never had the Hamburgers at the little stand at the top of Sunee, you must try it. Great buns, good meat and very tasty burgers. My trip is not over yet but down to only a few days and I am dreading the departure and saying goodbye to the boyfriend. Each time I come here I learn a bit more about myself and about the place and how to find a bit more enjoyment in my trips. My biggest enjoyment of the entire trip was a month in Chiang Mai. It is without a doubt, the place that is less talked about but the most fun. I plan to spend many more days and nights there. I was also introduced to a very sexy guy from Come In bar which I have been able to see every afternoon for a few weeks. He has been a true delight and a joy to spend time with. Other than him, I saw very few new guys. Most of the guys I have met on previous trips and gotten to know before. This trip was more about getting to know them a bit better. All in all, the trip has been amazing and full of fun times and as I leave, my pocket book is empty but my good memories are abundant. I do need a vacation from this holiday to rest up. How those of you that live here are able to do this day in and out is beyond me. It is great fun but I find myself exhausted at the end of each night.

I have really enjoyed this bar on my trip. They did an excellent job on the place and I love the way the bar is set up and I also love the socks and the outfits. They have a nice selection of guys to boot. They are having a party on March 27th. 2 Show Times at 10 and 12. All drinks 99 baht. Happy Bar is on Soi Yensabai.

I decided to enroll in the Diamond Club at Bangkok Pattaya and that was 14k baht. That gives me many discounts on most services at the hospital. I spent a day at the hospital taking in one exam after another. The physical was included in the cost of the membership. They did a heart test, blood test, cholesterol, sugar, stress, etc. All in all, they spent about 5 hours with testing from one department to the next. I also elected to do the HIV test and Thyroid check and a 64 slice scan. The entire day went from 9am till 4PM. They were VERY thorough. I was happy with the results and the doctor at the end of the day gave me a full report that was bound with the results and also suggestions on staying healthy. The main one he was was to loose 15 kilo. I told him I had lost quite a bit over the last year and he said, "need to loose more." Well, I guess all the results can't be great. They did find a gall stone that needs to be taken care of in the next 6 months but I will also check that out with my doctor in NYC for a second opinion. If I decide to have to removed via surgery, I'll most likely do it in Thailand as well. The 64 slice scan results take a few days and I won't have them until Monday. The entire day cost 14k bath but the extra tests I wanted and the 64 slice scan and the extras was 11k bath. So, the total cost for the entire day was 25k baht. I get another physical next year that is also free and part of their package. Bangkok Pattaya is an amazing hospital. I have been there many times and love their dental center and send my boyfriend and his family there when they are sick. I have heard some negative things about the place before but IMHO, this place is simply amazing. Clean, professional, thorough. It does look more like a 5 star hotel than a hospital but that makes the day go by even faster.

To sum it up: the new Iphone is Amazing in Thailand. Honestly, if you get it at Tuk com or another good place it has even more features than the unblocked phones do. My new Unblocked IPhone is amazing and I love it. With google maps in Thailand and e-mail and Internet and Wifi. But, they installed a program that allows for other downloads that I can't get on my ATT phone. The camera zooms in and out, it takes video, plays chess, etc. Leave it to the geeks in Thailand to outdo even Apple in what the IPhone is capable of! Amazing phone. Tuk Com. 23,000 baht Unblocked. 16G. 300 bath for all the additional programs. They will update it every time a new software version comes out. Easy to use and so far, I love it!

I lost my cell phone and with it my Sim card. I had a good number that was easy to remember and was more upset for loosing that number than my phone. I went to Tut Com to see if they could change it and they could not. Why? The number was a Prime number. It was a number with easy to read digits and that the company did not want to give back if lost. I thought this was odd but they said I could go to Sirichi (spelling) to get a replacement card. I sent the boyfriend to do this with his Thai ID card. They asked many questions like: How much money did you put on it last? What was the last number called? Where did you buy it? Well, the first 2 numbers were not easy as someone who found the phone could have easily have changed both of the answers. But, we gave them sufficient information to prove that it was our phone. Still, they didn't want to give the number back as they said it was a good number. A guy in line with the boyfriend offered 40k baht to him if he could get the number and sell to him. I was stunned. The boyfriend was able to get the number but had to give it the good old tip to the employee of the month payment. After over 3 hours with them, having to get a full police report of the lost card and phone, standing and talking for 3 hours to prove it was our phone, he returned with the new Sim Card. Holy Shit. What a royal pain in the ass! Lesson learned. I won't be riding a motorbike with loose pockets and checking to see who is calling.

There was a recent article in the Thai newspaper that talked about the Sunee Plaza sex shows. It mentioned the bars that have the jack off shows at 10PM as well as the places that have the special shows. All of these bars were on the same Soi. The shows are light in comparison to the shows in Bangkok and I am not sure why they singled out these bars by name. However, all the Thai guys that were reading the paper said that they would expect a raid based on the paper article as it upset many people.

i know how much I pay for the boyfriend to take care of him year round so that he doesn't have to work. Just curious about another number. I have a guy I like but I do not want to take care of him year round and want him to work when I am not here and also to make sure that he has enough money to buy food and pay rent. What kind of a number would this be? 200 baht a day? More? Less?

There are hot guys all over Pattaya and weekends brings in those that don't live here. This weekend they had an arm wrestling contest. The guys were hot and sexy. Here are a few pics from the day. I hope you enjoy.

Not sure how big it is but one of the sweetest mamasans in Pattaya and one of the ones who really look after and care for her guys is having a Happy Birthday party.

I went into 5 bars last night and they all had customers and seemed busy. Jim Jimmy James was so packed 2 times that I didn't get a seat either time. Look bar has many customers there and we had to squeeze into the bar. Happy Boyz was full and had a great number of customer and boys. Sundance had its bar with many there and Villa Rouge had people coming and going when I was there. It seems that a Saturday night is a busy night for all. The roads were jammed yesterday with all the weekend traffic and the bars were busy. At the end of the night we wanted to play a few games of snooker and we always go to where the Thai guys I am with enjoy playing. We went to 3 different places that were all packed until we finally found a place that had 2 open tables. Heading back to the hotel at the end of the night, around 1am, we saw 3 motorcycle and car accidents. The roads were still busy. How long does high season last?

Eric who once ran Clubber restaurant is now down the same Soi and cooking and managing the Sammy's restaurant. My friends and I had a stop over last night and the food was excellent. I had the Saturday special which was meat-loaf and veggies and potatoes and one friend had a German dish and 2 had the Spaghetti. I tried a bit of all and it was all very good. The price for 4 with drinks was 975 baht with a salad bar. The food was tasty and the owner was as charming as always.

Last night, I saw a guy I have offed a few times from a bar. I enjoy his company and spoke to him. He said he had a free day that day and was not working. I took him to a few bars with me and the boyfriend. We had a good time. When I asked if he wanted to go to his bar for a few drinks or open a whiskey, he said no that he would get in trouble. I tried to find out why and he said said that the mamasan would get angry with him. I am not sure if that is because he actually just skipped work or if he was with a Farang that didn't pay an off or there was some other issue. I found the whole thing a bit odd as I would have happily paid his off if he were working but I didn't see him until after 2 hours after he was suppose to work. I also didn't mind if he had already been offed and seen another customer. I just didn't understand why he would get in trouble. Any other reasons than the ones I thought of? Am I missing something big here?

I walked into a bar last night and turned around and walked right back out. There was a guy laying on top of a boy making out with him with a few of the other boys watching and rolling their eyes back. The only seat left in the place was next to this man. I turned around and walked out. I have seen many times when customers play with the boys and jack off them. I guess that is also something I have never done. I hope that a large tip is given when such things happen. But, when is too much actually too much to take place in the middle of a bar? What is the line or is there one? BTW: We were not on a second floor or even in a dark room. This was a well-known bar and around 10PM at night and many other customers were in the place.

I have never really understood the way the dollar moves up and down. I do feel the strain. When in Thailand on this trip, I am now getting about 29-30 baht per dollar. A few years back it was over 42. When in Brazil it is now about 1.7 and use to be 3.5. I had even considered moving to Montreal at one point when they loved the dollar now it is of less value that the Canadian money. On a recent visa run to Burma, they have always given the option to pay in USD or Thai Baht. Now, the signs still say USD but they refuse to take it as they say it is no good and prefer the Baht. I tried in 2 different places to pay with the USD which the signs posted said was fine but the agents were smarter and knew the value of that was less than the required baht so they found issues with each bill I presented. What will it take for us to get out of this mess? I really don't ask this just to talk. I really don't understand and would love to know where we are headed and if we are going to recover in the near future.

For those of you wanting to open a new bar or pub or office in Pattaya, may I suggest you use Google's decorator to help you? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7290322.stm

I went by Clubber tonight and they were calling people inside. The lights outside were off but the inside was open for gogo. Are they back permanent?

Tonight's dinner was great. The food was excellent and the MC was the divine Jim. A good time was had by all but the great news is that the event raised 468,000 baht.

If you have been reading the news about the New York Governor's statement yesterday, he apologized to his family. Apparently, he was caught in a prostitution ring and he was paying between 1k-5k an hour. Just made me think, damm, with the USD as low as it is, is that about the same that is paid in the high end bars in Pattaya? http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/11/spitzer/index.html

The family's ardent love for Burma lives on Despite being born in New York in the 1960s, Thant Myint-U's memories are of a childhood steeped in Burmese culture. Life in his maternal grandfather U-Thant's house in Riverdale, just outside of Manhattan, was a stark contrast to the icy, snowy winters and bright lights surrounding him. It was a home where people wore longyis, spoke Burmese and ate tea-leaf curry. The distinct feeling of being an outsider was never far away for Thant as he grew up in the US and studied at the Riverdale Country Day School. ''I only spoke Burmese until I went to school, and didn't speak English until I was five,'' he said. ''I was very conscious of being Burmese.'' Sitting in the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, Thant spoke about his first journey from his privileged home in New York to a Burma marred by violence. He described his teenage years in Bangkok and how a fascination with history led him through the halls of Harvard and Cambridge universities, to a diplomatic career in the UN and the International Peace Academy. And how frustration with his homeland's tragic situation culminated in the writing of his book The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, which was published in paperback last month. He explained why he thinks the current view of Burma prevents real progress towards building a just and lasting peace. Controversially, he argues that sanctions only deepen Burma's isolation from the rest of the world, further entrenching and strengthening the military junta's grip on the country, while accelerating China's economic and political hold over mainland Southeast Asia's largest country. By the time of Thant's first visit to the country in 1974, at the age of eight, Burma's language, food and culture were second nature to him. However, the complex realities of everyday life under a military dictatorship were a different matter. ''My introduction to Burma as a country was Burma in crisis,'' he said, reflecting on what transpired when his family returned with U-Thant's body that December after his death from lung cancer. U-Thant was a consummate diplomat and probably the country's most respected figure in the global political arena. He gained international recognition through his service in U Nu's democratic government (which was ousted by General Ne Win's 1962 putsch), as Burmese ambassador to the UN, and with his two stints as UN secretary-general. It was this recognition that led an increasingly paranoid and jealous Ne Win to deny U-Thant the honour of a state funeral. Nevertheless, despite Rangoon airport being cleared of civilians the day the funeral party arrived, the streets into Rangoon were lined with people. Thousands more came to pay their respects at his coffin, which was on display in an unceremonious tent at the Rangoon Turf Club. It was here that a group of students took his body to the Rangoon University Students' Union building, demanding a proper state funeral. Over the following days, talks between the junta and the students broke down. When the army's patience finally ran out on December 11, troops stormed the campus, seized the body and started shooting at students. ''All I remember of that day was that we were at the Inya Lake Hotel and we were woken up very early in the morning. The government took my father and my grandfather's brothers to see the coffin they had just seized, to open the coffin to prove to them that they had the body. ''They buried it, then poured concrete over it at the site near the Shwedagon Pagoda, where he rests today, so there would be no question as to where the body was.'' Rioting broke out in response to the shootings, and the government declared martial law in Rangoon. ''Nobody knows how many people were killed,'' he added. He noted, not without irony, another contrast. That while the US continued to fund, arm and train Burma's military, communist China stood alone in its condemnation of the atrocities. It would take another 14 years for the rest of the world to sit up and take notice. ''For most people, Burma only came into view with the crackdown in 1998 and the elections in 1990. It became this contest between the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the military government,'' he says. ''From that point of view, it is very easy to take sides. But for 20 years we have been stuck in that viewpoint. The good faith initiatives haven't got very far, and one could argue that the government has got stronger and is more entrenched than it ever has been.'' The obvious fight between the country's Orwellian ruling State Peace and Development Council and the democracy movement is clear, but numerous complex ethnic tensions _ in a country with numerous ethnic groups _ are too often overlooked. ''We have to remember though that there are not just two sides _ there are over two dozen armed groups in the country, with well over 30,000 troops combined, most with ceasefire arrangements with the Burmese army, all this as well as Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and other political parties.'' Burma's history and multi-ethnicity make it exceptional. But it is exceptional too in the treatment it has received from the international community. While Thant said the UN and other NGOs engaged in humanitarian work, there are ''unsung heroes of the last 10 years'', and he is critical of the failed diplomatic efforts. ''If you look at successive UN general assembly resolutions from 1991 onwards, they are all about the democratic transition. It is the only country in the world where there is a civil war [and yet] where the UN's focus is not on the war. We would never go to Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Sierra Leone and say the only focus of the UN should be the democratic transition. ''The UN should have been more focused on the closing chapter in Burma's civil war in the early '90s. The issues of just peace, disarmament, demobilisation, ethnic grievances and also the army's own concerns of sovereignty. Not to do so was a massive failure.'' Thant looked back to the time after the 1988 crackdown, when, as a recent Harvard graduate, he spent months on the Thai-Burma border with students who had fled the violence. In Bangkok, where he lived in the 1970s, he raised funds for food and medicine for them, helping others to gain refugee status or secure safe passage to the US. Armed insurgency was never the answer for him, but he did believe that sanctions were. In the US, through his work with Human Rights Watch, he was instrumental in setting up the first ''round table'' on Burma in Washington in 1989, and lobbied for US senators to implement sanctions. ''At first, I thought a really tough position by the US would make all the difference. I started doubting that by 1992,'' he said. He joined the UN Secretariat in 1992, where he became an expert on humanitarian affairs and threat assessment, leaving in 1996 after receiving his PhD in history from Cambridge University. Most recently, he has been a visiting fellow at both Harvard University and the International Peace Academy in New York. However, he considers his best contribution to understanding Burma is his book, The River of Lost Footsteps, named after the poem by Rudyard Kipling, who visited Burma in the late 1880s while the UK was fighting a protracted anti-guerrilla campaign after its annexation of the kingdom. Kipling listened to stories of how British soldiers had gone upriver and died in the fighting. ''He described the Irrawaddy River as the river of lost footsteps because a lot of English people went up and never came down,'' said Thant. ''I thought it was a nice way to talk about Burma's lost history, in general.'' In it, he traces its history back 3,500 years, to a time preceding the kingdom of Taguan. He presents the country as a cultural melting pot, a crossroads between the East and West where Buddhist kings would wear Mughal robes and stamp Islamic inscriptions on their coins. ''Burma was once a very cosmopolitan place. Contrary to nationalist views, it was never this pure country of just Burmese Buddhist people surrounded by different minority groups.'' Historically, he puts the UK's 1885 annexation of Burma, when King Thibaw was toppled and the whole administrative apparatus dismantled, as a watershed event. He said if the country had entered the 20th century with the monarchy disempowered but intact, it may have coped better with other transitions. Independence in 1946 was the second major transition. He cites the inability of successive governments, military or otherwise, to build a multi-ethnic, multicultural concept of Burmese identity as ''the single biggest failure of successive Burmese elites since independence''. In the face of such complexity, the international community needs a complex policy to deal with Burma. Total focus on democratic transition without looking at the deeper issues is unlikely to succeed, said Thant, pointing out that last September's massive protests were triggered by monks demonstrating against severe economic conditions. ''As a military government, the junta sees itself as the protector of national security. It is not particularly concerned with the outside world and all of its systems are designed to cope with isolation. So, the international community needs to do some creative thinking on this. ''The other thing that has changed significantly is the increasing influence of China in Burma, especially economically. Even if you took away the other arguments against sanctions, you would still have the strongest argument, which is that sanctions only really means Western sanctions and for every company that withdraws or Western government that refuses to trade, China will fill the hiatus. I cannot see how that in any way supports the cause of democracy in the country.'' Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Thant Myint-U is determined that unlike its past, Burma's future will not be lost in time. http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/11Mar2008_out46.php

For years, I have taken to the sky and to the trains for adventure and enjoyment. Last year, I decided I would try to settle down in NYC. It was a lovely idea but one that was not well thought out or planned. I had forgotten how much I hated cold weather and walking outside and my eyes tearing up from the cold. I took an amazing apartment, which I loved. The place was 10 times the size of the last place I had in NYC. I had a balcony that was about 1200 square feet big on the back and another large one on the front. There were 2 huge bedrooms and 2 nice bathrooms. It was everything I wanted in a place. I set out to furnish it and I had fun with that. I picked my furniture, appliances and fabrics just the way I wanted them. I had a nice purple Nicole Miller bedspread with matching drapes, a gay welcome mat, a set of Henkle knives cook food with and more things I never dream I would be purchasing to furnish an apartment. But, just as quick as I furnished it, I knew that it would not be my home. I don’t think I’ll ever have a home. I have lived in hotels for a few years and from one place to the next like a gypsy or a nomad. I seem to enjoy the ebb and flow of not knowing what the next day will be like or where I will end up. Being bogged down by a place was just not what I thought it was be. I had dreams of settling down and finding the peace I had longed for. An apartment will never give me that harmony. I think it will only come with growing old and accepting the past as the past and looking toward the future. I will say that I have lived a very happy life although it has been filled with jumping from one country to the next and one affair to the other. At some point, one wonders what it will take for him to settle down. Most of you may know that answer but I do not. I don’t know when or where or even if. I do know that NYC was not the place for me. So, once again, I am off. Off on another adventure. I had all my paintings and antiques I had collected over the years put into storage. The rest, I gave to friends and neighbors, as I know that I’ll not need it in the USA for many years. I booked a last minute flight and rushed to the airport. I certainly want to keep playing and traveling and exploring. A great astrologer told me many years ago that I was born on a date that the stars had destined me to be a wanderer with no home and no place to put my head at night for a long period of time. I think maybe she was right. She also told me what I had a great capacity to change and adapt much like a chameleon. That, I don’t think she was right on. I am an obvious tourist and not a native of anywhere. Even in NYC, which I counted as home for many years before and after law school, it does not seem like home for me. It hasn’t since the day I took to the air and met my friend in Brazil for my first adventure. I now travel without him and without someone that can just jump on a plane and meet me at some hotel on another continent. That saddens me. But, the thought of just waking up and watching the sunrise and saying, humm, I think I need to fly away today, exhilarates me. Finally, I think my home has been given to me. It is not one place but a multitude of places and people. Adventures are to be had. Lessons to be learned. Dreams to be shared. Guys to meet. Hearts to be broken. Love to be shared. Fortunes to be wasted. Drinks that call my name. If the old adage is true, your home is where your heart is, well I am there. My heart belongs to so many places and so many people. We shall see if the next place is going to allow me to call it home or not but I guarantee you, it will be an adventure! And, for those willing to listen to my boring stories, there will be many to be shared here on the forums. I know many have complained about my boring writings and how pompous I sound. Haha You don’t really know me if you think I am pompous. I am down to earth, humble and gentle. I just come without a leash attached to me. I ate my last bagel in NYC at my favorite bagel shop. The guys there have seen me daily for months. I walk in and they know what I want. Whole Wheat bagel, toasted, low fat cream cheese and a piece of grilled chicken. I said my goodbyes to my best friends in the city. Unlike last time I left, I just jumped on a plane and called them from Sao Paulo, this time, I gave them a few hours notice. I was able to have a last meal with my best friend on earth at my favorite dive. No place anyone would have heard of or visited but it felt like the place to eat my last supper. Saying goodbye to the apartment was easier than I thought. It didn’t speak back. I thought I heard an echo from a voice of years gone by saying, “Carpe Diem.” But, that is a voice not heard in a few years. Still, I could swear it was there. For now, while I have recovered from the plane and the drama of paying for 4 extra pieces of luggage, I’m sure I’ll reporting again soon from a tropical location where cute guys are galore and life is sweet and the weather is warm. Thailand is amazing but with only 2 weeks left here, I look forward to each day and night and to my next adventure in another country. I always say that I am very envious of those that live here year round. I am. I think those of you that have retired here have really found paradise. It is simply an amazing place and the most incredible people on earth. I am lucky enough to spend some time here every year or two. I hope that those of you that live here don’t get taken away by the daily routines and get out of bed each day to find new adventures and add an amazing chapter to your life. Waking up from a great night with friends last night and going to a few bars in Boyztown and ending up talking to a few Farang friends in Sunee Plaza, I really do know that the few of you that are able to call this your home are some of the luckiest people on earth. I hope all of you know this and that there are those of us out there in other places that enjoy walking in your shoes for a month or two every year!