fedssocr

Information on how to watch the funeral if you are outside of Thailand http://www.thaitravelblogs.com/2017/10/how-to-watch-the-royal-cremation-ceremony-on-television/?utm_content=buffer079c1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer The broadcast authorities just ordered all of the TV channels to restore themselves to full color.

the apps are pretty popular there. I would guess you'd have no problem meeting guys that way I went to one of the gay massage places there on my last visit. No choice of masseur and not really the greatest experience. I just changed $100 bills at the hotel I was staying at. They were much more indulgent about it than they probably should have been, but it was the hotel with the best service I have ever experienced (Shinta Mani Club). I'd say just take smaller notes with you. It is a great place. Check out the Phare circus while you are there. It's a fun show.

I installed blued since seeing it mentioned here. Seems to be a ton of Thai guys. And lots of Pinoys. And Indonesians. And pretty much everyone local to me seems to be Asian...including one guy who I think must be my neighbor based on the distance info (he's also on jack'd). I find grindr's ads more annoying than hornet's. Grindr plays a lot of video ads which can be very loud if you're not expecting them

I thought Uber was still illegal in Thailand. :-)

if you use the mobile apps you're likely to get a lot of daytime messages I will be in town from the 4th to the 8th. Hoping to see the royal crematorium but expect it will be mobbed. Looks like lots of rain and floods this month. Hopefully things will be dried out by then.

for me the difference is also 12 hours (east coast USA). On the way over I always prefer to go TPAC and arrive late night so I can pretty much just get to the hotel and go straight to bed. That seems to help me get right onto local time. I find I usually have the toughest time on the second day. On the way back home I also find that going TPAC is better for me than going TATL. I came home via Dubai last year and was completely messed up for a week. Most flights arrive back here in the early afternoon. It's a long trip but I try to go to bed when I usually would to again try to get my body clock set back to local time. I've never tried any particular drugs or other substances. I'm headed to Australia next year for the first time in a while. That will be a very long trip with the routing I am taking so we'll see how my body reacts to that. Flying up front helps some but trying to sleep on a plane is always hard for me no matter which class I am in.

I am not sure how much difference it really makes that it's a different sort of system. the "spider card" integrated payment system has been in development for quite a while now. I think it was originally supposed to be in operation a year ago. The biggest problem is that there are separate entities running all of the systems. They need to get everything under one roof. This thread over at FlyerTalk is very comprehensive with respect to what's being planned. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thailand/1549502-bangkoks-metro-network-expansion-plans-updates-5.html

USD seems to be on the decline for some reason this year. Maybe it's because the world hates Trump?

but "Communist Vietnam" also requires actual visas for a lot more places too

I thought maybe that was the view when you passed out

The boxers over briefs thing baffled me as well. I guess the explanation makes some sense. But in such a hot climate why would anyone want another layer there? The glasses frames without lenses I can't explain. Maybe they think glasses make them look smart? It's an Asia-wide thing, not just Thailand. Same same the jeans with torn knees. Lots of Korean stars wear those too. I don't get it.

I think Paragon is hilarious. All of those high end stores with no shoppers in them. I don't know how they stay in business. I like the floor with all of the car dealers though. Want a Rolls Royce or Aston Martin? Go to the mall and buy one! But I love Central World. I don't think many places in BKK have any issues with hotel visitors. However when I stayed at Siam Heritage Hotel many years ago they didn't allow anyone not a registered guest to go upstairs. I stayed at Tarntawan once and didn't enjoy it (hard as concrete bed and the bathroom wasn't great either). But I suppose maybe they've renovated since then. You didn't mention a budget. The Le Meridien on Surawong is nice but a little expensive. Great breakfast buffet. The Crowne Plaza Lumpini is also pretty nice and in a decent location. Airbnb is also an option.

or HiSo matrons

thanks for the replies

Planning my next (brief) visit for November. I had good luck in Seoul with AriBnB and will be using them again for an upcoming Europe trip. So, anyone have a favorite AirBnB or MisterB&B (like Airbnb for gays) in Bangkok? I see several places listed at this building called Klass on Soi Phiphat in the US$50-60 per night range. But I don't mind not staying in Silom. There are also some nice condos on Sukhumvit that are out a ways but offer nice views and are quite new.

I sent them a note and they responded that the new site will eventually have all of the same functionality as the old one. So I take that to mean the escort section will still be around. It's only really all that useful in Europe in my experience, but that's still worthwhile.

Not a fan. Seems like change for the sake of change with no clearly articulated reason why. It's too much like a mobile app. What's the point of putting a mobile app on a desktop website? They have their own mobile app already - although you have to jump through some hoops to download because it's not on the official Google Play store Are they eliminating the escort listings and trying to reposition purely as a "dating" site?

yeah, that certainly sounds like cart before horse alright!

false advertising

I used to use TheLimoPattaya. But I think I paid something like 2400 baht return. So 1000 baht noted above sounds like a very good deal. Looks like a similar sort of set up.

Your narrative about what happened and the timeline is completely different to everything I have read, including UA's own timeline as Munoz set out in his letter to UA employees.

There were several issues. Mainly I think the problem is one of corporate culture. Front line employees are not given any leeway to handle a situation like this with some common sense. And since this was United Express it means that these are the least experienced, most poorly paid employees. According to UA's own telling it wasn't until after the flight was fully boarded that the deadheading employees showed up at the gate saying they needed to be on the flight. Certainly it's much easier to deny boarding before people have boarded. They should have kept offering more compensation until they had takers. But since the rules only require them to pay 4x the one-way fare paid, it was cheaper for the airline to just kick people off the plane and pay them a couple hundred bucks. And since all the airlines really care about is their shareholders and not their customers they do whatever is cheapest for the airline. Offering a voucher and a flight 24 hours later isn't especially enticing to most people. Especially once they're already on board and ready to go. Most people don't have the flexibility to agree to a 24 hour delay. Perhaps if they had offered a flight on American an hour or two later it would have not caused so much trouble. But again it was cheaper to only offer their own flight the next day. I swore to never fly on UA again after they screwed me over on the way home from Asia a couple of years ago. Again it was a United Express issue. Since UA decides to contract out these smaller routes to regional carriers in order to save themselves money they don't have as much control. But their livery (or a version of it) is on the side of the plane so they get the (deserved) blame. UA really is a horrible company with terrible customer service. Maybe this will be the wakeup call they need. But I somehow doubt it when the bottom line is all they really care about. But ultimately I agree that UA won't suffer too much. There's not much competition left in US aviation. So when people don't have a choice other than drive or fly they're stuck. When it comes to no-shows I'd guess that a large part of the time it is due to missing a connection rather than people buying a ticket and just not showing up.

depending on when you plan to be there in April it could be Songkran time...so be prepared for that. as for how much to tip, I think your numbers sound very generous. But those who spend more time in BKK will be able to better answer that perennial question

I've done the Pattaya - Bangkok transfer on Sundays a few times and never noticed it taking any longer or being any more traffic than other days. I usually check out of the hotel around 11 and get to BKK by 1. But it's been 18 months or so since my last trip so maybe this is a new issue? I stayed at the Crowne Plaza on my last visit. It's quite nice. As an IHG platinum (just for having the IHG MasterCard) I was upgraded to the club level automatically. The best thing about it is that it's just around the corner from Sala Daeng BTS (and Lumpini MRT) for getting around town. I suppose if all you're interested in is seeing the boy bars that might not be so enticing, but if you plan to see the city a little it's helpful since it's a shorter walk in the hotter parts of the day. It's not a long walk from Soi Twilight though either. The only thing I didn't like about the hotel was that you have to take 2 elevators every time you leave or arrive since the main lobby is on the 23rd floor or so. Given how expensive the gogo bars/drinks have become I don't spend much time there any more. If you plan to use the hook up apps it doesn't matter too much where you stay. But for a first timer for sure you should check out the gogos while they still exist. On subsequent visits it's worth branching out a bit.

they've been cracking down on Uber and Grab. Most likely it's just low season