Maple

Went to Boyztown on May 12 -- Vesak, or Buddha Day -- when all bars were supposed to be closed and no booze served. However, several go-go bars on Pattayaland Soi 1 adjacent to Boyztown were open with their stages full of dancers: Gacuya, Sawatdee, Handy Boys, Dream Boys, Dynamite, and across 2nd road, Star Boys. Both of my visiting friends found company -- mission accomplished!

PATTAYA CITY NEWS Tuesday 9th May 2006 New Zealand man assaulted as gang of youths attempt to steal his motorbike. Mr. Goran Jurec aged 40 from New Zealand made his way to Pattaya Police Station on Monday Night and informed officers that he had just been assaulted by a gang of young Thai men on the Pratamnak Mountain. They attempted to steal his motorbike without success. Mr. Jurec wearing a blood stained Polo-shirt, made a report to officers who immediately began a search for a gang of four young men who were known to be armed with small pieces of wood. After a search, the gang were located and arrested under the overpass leading to the Bali Hai Port at the south end of Pattaya Third Road. Three men were arrested, one man who is thought to be the main instigator managed to escape. The men aged between 14 and 18 were taken back to Pattaya Police Station where they confessed to the assault but denied prior knowledge of the attack on the foreigner. Despite these claims, Police believe they are part of a gang who target foreigners who drive rented motorbikes. The bikes are stolen by force and resold in Pattaya and surrounding districts. The gang members are now behind bars on charges of assault and theft and will now face a judge who will decide their fate.

The new issue of Thai Puan Magazine (Vol. 2, Issue 8, May 2006) has an article written by an American named "Don" about his kidnapping and extortion earlier this year in Pattaya. It includes two headshots of the culprit who is half Thai, half Indian. (This same information was published first in the April 9 issue of PattayaGay.com's Weekly Report.) Here is an update by "Donshows" posted on May 7 on Thaivisa.com. at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...pic=65225&st=15 ------------------------------------------------- "I want to follow up on this. Last week I had a call from the Thai Police and was asked to come to the police station to ID the men who kidnapped me. I was able to ID them and as of a few days ago..they are still in jail. It is believed that they kidnapped about 50 men over the last few years and their apartment was searched and many passports of other vicitims were found there. They have robbed most of us for about 300,000 bht each and one man has paid them over 4 million bht. If you also see the current issue of Thai Puan, there is an article about my kidnapping and a photo of one of the men who kidnapped me. I hope that we can keep these terrible men in jail along time and they will suffer like they made me and so many others."

As posted by Catawampuscat on another forum, www.GayThailand.com has now been blocked inside Thailand by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT). http://ict.cyberclean.org/ Although I am in Pattaya, I was able to access this site by using one of the site circumventor proxies provided by Elephantspike. Once I got to Sawatdee-Gay-Thailand, I typed "www.gaythailand.com" in the "Location via proxy:" box -- and it worked! Hence this post.

The following information was provided to me by a Farang friend in Pattaya: "This describes an attempted pickpocketing on a Baht bus recently. At 9 p.m., under the overpass while headed toward Jomtien Beach, five Thai people got on the baht bus I was on: a "working-class" woman with 2 children, and two "middle-class" women. The 8-year-old girl sat on my left. She wore a full skirt and spread her legs as far apart as possible, touching my left leg. The 10-year-old boy sat on my right, touching my right side with his right hand via his left arm pit. I gave stern looks to the mother at the girl's left, but she didn't put a stop to it. I kept my left hand pressed on my wallet through my pants, left front. Seeing that, one "middle-class" woman, sitting across from me, asked me in English for the time, hoping that I would raise my left hand from the wallet bulge to look at my watch. With the three simultaneous distractions, I had had enough. I stood up, said "No" loudly, and buzzed the bus to stop. All five, who had gotten on only 30 seconds earlier, left the Baht bus while I stayed on to my destination."

In another thread, JoeM posted: "Gaybutton's site listed Rhonda at Norcross Travel. US Toll free number 1-888-888-7157 or the toll number 1-770-934-2777. I have used her many times to book to Thailand. She consistently has the cheapest fair." I have also purchased many R/T tickets from Rhonda. However, last year I found a ticket that was $250 USD cheaper than Ronda's price! So I bought my ticket (coach) from ThaiFly. Their website is at: http://www.thaifly.com/Home/index.php They have offices in Chicago, IL USA and Bangkok; their contact info is found at: http://www.thaifly.com/TH/contact_us.php

Pattaya Today: 2 April 2006 http://www.pattayatoday.net/index.php?acti...pe=news&id=1609 Farang kidnapped in weird gay scam An odd tale of blackmail Cop Bunyung and his friend Polasan demanded 700,000 baht Recent rumours that gay men have been targeted in the resort for extortion have surfaced again with one of the oddest corruption tales in Pattaya