macaroni21

Agree, they will be quite happy to go with you to your hotel. Many will even have their own bikes; hope you're OK with riding pillion.

This is useful information. Thanks.

You will gladden the hearts of those members posting at the thread Did some forum members pass?, bemoaning the imminent demise of this board. 😂

Hmmm... you may have been walking Silom Road around Pulse Clinic or the stretch of Surawong opposite Raya Hotel. Maybe this blogpost (especially Map C) will help.

As others have said, non-hunks are plentiful outside the shops along Surawong Road opposite the Meridien, and along Silom Soi 6. You seem to be saying that you have walked those stretches and only saw service providers closer to your mother's age. It makes me wonder if the problem is that your understanding of the word "twink" is different from that of many others on this board. Might you be very young yourself, e.g. barely 21, in which case "twink" might mean someone your age or younger, like 18? Take a look at the three boy pics from K-man Spa on my blogpost A bit of help for newbies: tipping for massage. Do they qualify as twinks to you? Or are they closer to your mother's or uncle's age? It's a common mistake on this board to refer to Soi Thantawan as Soi 6. The map provided by @hank75 should make it clear that Silom Soi 6 is the short stretch between Silom Road and Prime Massage. Soi 6 does not touch Surawong Road, so when people say "between Patpong and Soi 6", it can confuse.

I don't often come to this forum on Colombia, and if I do, I have nothing to add. However, I feel compelled today to commend @Tantric and @macdaddi for an extraordinary example of clarity, both in phrasing the questions and in replying. You've set a very high bar for the rest of us, and demonstrated the value that the best of GayGuides can be.

I am surprised that a well-travelled person like @floridarob is asking this question. Haven't you encountered the term "mobile phone" before? "Cellphone" is used in the USA and, as I vaguely recall, Canada (perhaps a member from Canada can confirm?), but across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia, it is "mobile phone". In Spain it is "telefono movil", and I believe it is the same term used in Spanish-speaking Latin America (I may stand corrected). Google translate says it is "celular" in Brazil, but "telemovel" in Portugal. The Japanese term 携帯電話 (Geitaidenwa) also translates literally to mobile phone "Handphone" is a usage I have only ever encountered in Singapore and Malaysia, and it has struck me as a direct translation of the term I hear in China "手机" (shouji) which literally means "hand phone". However, I remember seeing on an Indonesian-language poster the term "telepon genggam", which is also a direct translation of "hand phone". But surely, in this day and age when the landline telephone is virtually obsolete, the simpler term "phone" will do when referring to the hand-held device?

I'm coming to this thread late, but what a tale! Indeed, very relieved for @spoon too that the phone came back. After a couple of near-misses regarding phones many years ago, I have determinedly made myself acquire some better habits. I choose trousers with pockets -- as many as possible -- and my habit now is that my phone is always in one particular pocket, unless I take it out to read/send messages. It goes back into the pocket immediately after. It's a front pocket, not a back pocket - which is possibly the worst place to put one's phone. Not only will the phone be easily lifted out by a thief, one needs to take it out of the back pocket each time one sits down... and leave it on a table, car seat or somewhere else. In Thailand, an additional problem is the power bank. I find that I need to have one with me when I am out and about for most of the day (and maybe into the evening). Fortunately, I tend to go about with a backpack, so there's space for that too. Another point brought up earlier in the thread is that of how others take notes for trip reports. In my case, I dictate into my voice recording app on my phone. I do this several times a day, e.g. when I am walking out of a massage shop; that way I make a record of prices, tips, names, even bits of conversation before I forget. The app generates a transcription, which I can, even days later, copy-and-paste to build a report. I realise however that dictating into a recording app is an acquired skill; many people, I notice, can't do it. The skill involves being able to dictate in complete sentences with clear diction, with content delivered in a coherent narrative order. That way, after downloading the transcript, one does not have to do much more than light editing. I credit my managerial training in my younger days for that skill, having had to dictate fairly long letters to my secretary. It may be a lost art, by now.

I think the reason is neither of the above. I think many are aware of the escort review forum, but unaware of the covenant. I think the absence of reviews with personal identifiers is simply because members simply don't want to post such reviews. They likely think it's just too crude. Sure, transactional sex is commodifying in itself, but that doesn't mean one cannot draw a line somewhere and still offer the service provider a fair degree of respect. Anatomical characteristics and in-bed services can be sensitive, and people may feel that just because we bought their services, it does not give us a right to broadcast all such details. It's quite a laudable position to take. It shows that forum members here instinctively accord the service provider basic dignity due to another human.

Was it My War bar or My Way?

BBC headline: Cambodia shuts border crossings with Thailand as fighting continues https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd0kkyx3vvxo Cambodia has shut its border crossings with Thailand, as fighting continues between the two forces on Saturday despite US President Donald Trump earlier saying they had agreed to a ceasefire. The crossings will be closed until further notice, according to Cambodia's interior ministry. Earlier, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he told Trump a ceasefire would only be possible after Cambodia had withdrawn all its forces and removed landmines. Thai officials said four soldiers were killed on Saturday, as both sides reported continued bombing and artillery exchanges. Cambodia has not been updating its military casualty figure. Cambodia's defence ministry said that Thai fighter jets bombed hotel buildings and a bridge, while Thailand reported several civilians were injured in a Cambodian rocket attack. The four deaths on Saturday bring Thailand's total military death toll since Monday to 15, with 270 others injured. It added that six civilians had also been injured. On Friday, Cambodia said at least 11 civilians had been killed and 59 others injured. At least 700,000 people have been evacuated on both sides of the border. [Story continues with mention of Trump but I don't want to give him any attention.] --- I think most Cambodians had left Thailand earlier in the year when the border dispute first surfaced, if I remember threads from earlier. So, closing the border may not make much difference anymore to the bars and massage parlours in terms of staffing.

I should add: Firuzaga Hamam takes credit cards.

Bangkok Post: "Police seized 189 pearling beads in round, cubic, bean, heart, capsule and Chinese bun shapes from his car." I didn't know these beads (mooks) came in different shapes! And from the photo in the newspaper, in different colours!

Just a quick report about Firuzaga Hamam before I forget. The visit was in the second half of November. I can't remember what time I arrived but it was after dark; could have been 6pm. The place was quite busy in that there were always customers in every part of the hammam. Whilst the majority seemed to be local, there were some English-speaking customers as well, including at least three East-Asian-looking guys during the time I was there. It's a traditional hammam with walls and floor tiles over a century old. Don't expect any luxury. It's also quite small, but enough. On entry, I was assigned a private changing room. Later, I noticed that there were lockers upstairs, so apparently one can choose whether to have a room or a locker. Not sure what the price differential is. Beyond the front room (the private changing rooms led off it) which also served as the tea room, the wet areas included one main steam room, two washing rooms, two dry saunas, and smaller side rooms for body scrub, Up one floor were the lockers and massage rooms. The attendents noticed straight away that I looked a bit too long at their menu of services, and so, of course, I must be interested! If I recall correctly, it was 400 lira for entry, 200 lira for "peeling" (body scrub) 15 minutes; 650 lira for oil massage 35 minutes; and 200 lira for soapy wash 15 minutes. One guy (Murad) latched on to me and that was a negative, because I had wanted to sit longer in the steam room to sweat it out, and observe the goings on before getting serviced. But he came to me barely 3 or 4 minutes after I had finished washing myself to say it's time for the scrub. I had barely begun to sweat; the steam wasn't that hot. The scrub was done with a rough mitten (good) and was quite thorough (in terms of area coverage), though Islamic modesty being what it is, the groin was not scrubbed at all. After being washed down, I was led upstairs to a massage room where he gave an fairly good massage with firmness and consistency. Nothing suggestive at all. In fact, he didn't close the massage room door, but only a curtain made for privacy. Then downstairs again where he performed the classic Turkish soap wash. I've had this before, the traditional way including slapping, but Murad did not slap. All done, he said I was free to use the steam room for as long as I wished, which was sequentially illogical. I should have been given time to sweat it out and open my pores first before services were provided. Anyway, I still spent another 15 minutes or so in the main steam room, observing the goings on. The bottom line: a bit of suggestiveness, but I don't know if anything can really go on because there simply is no private space. OK, maybe there is the private changing room which comes with a very narrow bunk, but if two men have entered the same changing room together, it would be terribly visible to the attendants and other customers in the front room. What was unusual was that, in the wet areas, some customers were "careless" about covering up while walking around, which was not something I'd seen in other hamams. They could have been foreigners rather than locals; I couldn't tell. Overall, it's good value for money although whether other attendants give as good a massage as Murad I do not know. The total I paid, including 20 lira more for a cold drink from the fridge was 1,470 lira which was about 30 euros. I think I spent a total of about 90 minutes inside. Getting there: I Uber'd. But when I finished, I walked downhill (not steep) to main road that parallels the coast and where the tram runs. So it should be easy enough to reach via tram.

Speaking of phoenix, I just realized that I have not been receiving Line feeds from them for months. Has there Line ID changed?