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It was a long time ago. But I recall the bed being hard as a rock and the bathroom being very badly in need of updating. And there was no view of anything out the window. I also found breakfast to be kind of depressing...not very good food and lots of old guys and their boy from last night sitting in awkward silence.

The city has such a glut of nice hotels. I stayed at Tarntawan only one time 10 years ago and felt it was not very comfortable. This Courtyard looks pretty nice though.

I made the mistake of visiting Classic on my trip last December. They have really jacked the drink prices up through the roof. I should have asked in advance but I was shocked when I looked at the check. All I could do was shake my head, pay the price and vow to never return. Between the high prices and the cigarette smoke I will find my fun elsewhere in future visits.

Not wanting to be "in the middle of everything" is interesting. It's Bangkok, isn't everywhere in the middle of everything? :-) I stayed at the Hansar on my last visit which is near the St. Regis and Ratchadamri noted above and the street was surprisingly quiet. The walk to Central World is even not so bad from there if the weather isn't oppressive. I did ride the BTS from way out near the end at Udom Suk back into the city when I went to visit Rama IX park. Still some expats living way out there of course. But the ride back to the center takes a while. And it's quite a different sort of feel.

IMHO Singapore has the hottest guys of anywhere I've ever visited. And tumblr is full of sites devoted to them. :-) It's a real melting pot of cultures which makes for some really beautiful people. And the young guys are very fit, partly due to national service and also due to the popularity of swimming. When I was last there Grindr seemed fairly popular. So I would probably use that plus hornet and jack'd. I don't recall how active Planetromeo was. I spent a good bit of time on Grindr trying to reel in this gorgeous Indian guy, but to no avail sadly. It was fun to chat with him though. I visited the Sands Spa massage place a couple of times, partly because it was right around the corner from my hotel. http://thesandsspa.com/ The second guy was very interactive but was mainly interested in blowing me. I think many of the guys there are Malay. I know a lot of people claim Singapore is boring but I really like it. I want to go back but haven't fit it into my travel schedule. The humidity is unbelievable though. I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life. One evening I was at the Esplanade theater photographing the Marina Bay laser show. On the way back I took this underground passage way that was full of HOT young guys practicing their b-boy dancing...shirtless and dripping with sweat of course. (They do the same sort of thing in public places in Taipei which I found fascinating there as well) Have fun!

Me too. I was there in December and they gave everyone a cloth bag to put your shoes in and carry them with you. My nice hiking shoes were stolen in Bagan when I visited Myanmar a few years ago. My guide was horrified and took me to a shoe store in town where he bought me a pair of sandals. If you can stand to walk around in cheap sandals that is probably the safest route to go.

All seats seem to be getting more narrow these days, even up front. EVA is supposed to have a very nice premium economy. I've only ever flown them in business class. Same with Cathay Pacific and ANA. They all offer decent connections, but Cathay and ANA probably do not offer premium economy on the regional configured aircraft for the BKK leg. If you have 70K miles at each of AA and UA, you could book business class awards (if you can find availability). You could fly Cathay Pacific or JAL business class (which is very nice) with your AA miles for 70K one way, and use UA miles in the other direction for business class on ANA or EVA. But it looks like UA requires 80K miles for partner business class so you'd need to collect some more miles.

exactly. There is such a huge glut of nice hotels in Bangkok. Shop around.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much. I had a couple of massages at one of the gay massage places. The guys working there didn't have any issues with providing a happy ending to me. There are a handful of saunas. Lots of guys on the social apps. I think Singapore's reputation is much more conservative than reality on the ground. And so many smokin' hot guys.

where do you find the hot drivers? Most of the ones I see on the corner are not very attractive (to me anyway)

I've had a couple of massages there in the past. Hit or miss like most of the others. One boy was a very sloppy kisser which was a turn off. The other guy was a very sweet little guy with a huge cock. The showers were fairly dank and the massage was just on a mattress on the floor. I've often wondered a bit about the whole pool playing thing and whether it's just the guys sitting at the front who are masseurs or if all of the boys in the place are.

I spent a week in Laos back in December. Hornet, etc have some guys but not a huge amount. the Nomadicboys blog has some LP info http://nomadicboys.com/discover-gay-laos-luang-prabang/ It's a very interesting country. I was only in LP for a few days and then spent the rest of my time in the south which is beautiful.

Depending where you're from though, how easy is it to retire in Spain? visa requirements and so forth... Malaysia has been trying hard to attract more Western retirees for quite some time. I believe it's quite easy to retire there. http://www.mm2h.com/why-retire-in-malaysia.php Panama had a lot of buzz for a while as a good place to retire along with much of the rest of Central America.

Apparently the real tongue lashing was from a very high ranking Thai lady who is president of the Asian bridge association. First hand account http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/confessions-of-a-bridge-criminal/

just look both ways or find a little old lady to shadow...that's what I did in Vietnam and it worked like a charm.

yes, I think it's in the $300-350 range now. It's very safe. The captain of my balloon was a British guy who split his time between Bagan and Cappadoccia. And they adhere to international regulations. There's a safety briefing before you launch and they're very strict about the position you need to be in on landing. The views and photos were stupendous.

Very nice. I think it's somewhat difficult to compare Angkor Wat and Bagan. Certainly both are amazing places. I did the balloon flight in Bagan and thought it worthwhile, but it is very expensive. I see there are now several ballooning outfits there rather than just one when I visited. But rather than pushing prices down they all seem to be charging the same high price.

I would never even consider taking the train. It doesn't sound fun or interesting to me. As noted there are lots of airlines flying between BKK and CNX including THAI Airways. I've never flown AirAsia, but I have read you need to be aware of the various fees they charge. According to Google flights there are 51 flights per day between the two cities (both BKK and DMK).

I think Cathay's problem is that there's so much traffic in and out of HKG that air traffic delays are common. By the end of the day everything is delayed "due to late arrival of the aircraft".

wow. that second one is really gorgeous

thanks

I just spent a few nights at the Crowne Plaza Lumpini. The location is quite good for both the gay areas and public transport with the BTS and MRT just a couple of minutes' walk away so getting around town is easy. But it will cost you more than $65/night. I enjoyed it very much though.

Actually I recently read a trip report on FlyerTalk that says SL is like a much calmer, more organized version of India. Looks like lots of beautiful sights. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1725857-six-days-sri-lanka.html

Assume you'll be transiting in China. Just make sure there is plenty of time between flights as transfers in China can be a pain. Read a real horror story the other day of some one who missed their connection in PEK due to late arrival and a short connect time that led to thousands of dollars in added costs and aggravation. My own experience at PEK has been much less than ideal. Presumably China Eastern routes via their Shanghai hub.

I don't imagine this forum gets much traffic...but, here goes. I am in the very beginning stages of planning a trip to Sri Lanka. Anyone been? recommendations for guides or travel companies. Utopia has a few listed that look like they might be worth contacting.