macaroni21

But there are some members of this forum here (wink wink) who'd chastise us for discriminatory ideas each time we wish for gogo bars to be exclusively gay male. We should flagellate ourselves for even entertaining the idea that women shouldn't be allowed in.

Agree 100%

I don't know why I keep giving Scandic a try every few years or so, but perhaps it's because they're bigger guys. However I always end up feeling it was a waste of money. Their massage skills are nil and the Afters always seem mechanical and rushed.

I don't know what class of room you booked, but I found it somewhat small and cramped. Moreover, the window was minimal and the room never seemed bright enough. The bathroom, particularly the shower stall, was nice though.

@PeterRS Thanks. Maybe I think too much, but even the Danshi Gakuen symbols leave room for mislunderstanding. Take the example of Harusuke above. He has a black disc that shows two persons in doggie-style. One person is white (the bottom) and the other person is only outlined (the top). Does the white refer to the sex-worker, or the client? I have a vague feeling that the order by which the discs are presented is always top and bottom, not bottom and top, and so Harusuke's first disc (which is faded out) indicates a topping position, while the second disc indicates a bottoming position. But I'm still scratching my head which one is white and which one is outlined? As an aside, this reminds of something an acquaintance (who is some sort of linguist) told me. He said East Asian languages tend to be contextual whereas European languages tend to be mechanistic. By that he meant - I hope I got his meaning right - that one needs to understand context before deriving meaning from what is being communicated, whereas in European languages, one is trained to be very precise and draw meanng from the words and their inflections alone. I may be using an overly-Europeanistic approach to these symbols??? But I can't help it.....

One hour is their service target? That's a very low bar.

My understanding is that "high season" came out of the larger number of visitors from Europe and North America escaping their winters. Many were retired even then, and were able to spend three months, mostly in Pattaya. It's similar to how flights from Russia are resuming for the next 3 - 4 months. It really has nothing to do with choosing to go during the busier or costlier period. The arrow of causation is the other way around. Winter in Europe >> more visitors to Thailand >> higher prices and busier places. Living in Australia, you may be able to count yourself lucky in that you do not have a long, damp or cold winter to escape from. Those of us like me who still have to work cannot afford to spend three whole months on vacation. We pop into Thailand for relatively short visits of perhaps 2 weeks at various times of the year. I have never really "participated" in High Season - at least not in the sense of being part of a migratory community.

@Keithambrose if you can, could you fill us in on what these terms and symbols mean on the King of College website? - What's the difference between "top" and "top (anal sex)"? - What's the difference between "bottom" and "bottom (anal sex)"? - What is "3 thumbs"? - What do the symbols circle, triangle and X mean?

And then there are sois numbered Soi 3/2 or 3/4. A friend once asked me why an address could be on *either* Soi 3 or Soi 4. He interpreted the slash as an option.

Do you ever have a bad day?

I will leave it to those who can read and write Thai to comment about transcription, but I think we need to accept some variation in the English transcription. This happens not just with Thai, but any language. As for Google maps, I often find that it has outright errors. I have seen errors in road names, tram stop locations, tram line numbers... Even whole churches are marked in the wrong spot, more than 300m from where they should be. I read somewhere that Google deliberately introduces errors so that they can spot when someone has copied from them and violated their copyright.

I find this quite hilarious, really. Why did we all jump to the conclusion that he's the mirror image is us, keen on the paid fuck? Maybe his interests are cultural, historical and scientific. Perhaps he might find it absorbing to do a study of climate change and the sinking terrain of Bangkok while here. Haha.

My thoughts too though 50% is too high a figure. The genuine tourists probably came in only through the international airports. These would number 3.89 million Swampy, 0.96 Phuket and 0.56 Don muang. Total 5.41 million. But the more important thing is the upward trend. Now we just need many more of the gay ones, which the Patpong bars and their prices are probably doing everything they can to deter.

I think this news report underestimates how big China is - it is as big as the US. Most Chinese don't live anywhere near the Lao border. They'd still need to fly to Boten, near the Lao or at least to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to join the train. If so, they might as well fly to Thailand. Once again, I see Thai news as more wishful thinking than cold analysis.

I wonder what happened to the customers who were within the premises at 16:00 and halfway through a massage.... Was the "treatment" suspended and resumed 3 hours later 😛?

Not only Adonis. I vaguely recall at least one other place that did that too, but the name of the place escapes me now. As for bar patrons wanting to bring their own beer into the premises, the bars can implement a cover charge, redeemable for the first drink. And each time a second drink is ordered, payment should be asked for immediately. Personally, I'd long wished for the bars to do away with the checkbin system and adopt a pay-as-you-go system. But given the ridiculous inefficiency of their cash handling and change-giving (deliberately, I know) they must also migrate to card payments at the same time. Or are they trying to hide revenue from the tax man?

I had the same issue some years ago when I tried to count too, and finally gave up and decided not to count anymore.

I have noticed similar behaviour. I think they are on very very cheap package tours. They are probably shocked at how expensive Thailand is compared to India.

Grab works like Uber. Unless you need condoms of king Kong size, 7-11s will be the easiest places to get condoms and lube. What you may wonder is where to find 7-11s. In Thailand, they are so numerous, you can hardly walk 300 metres anywhere without seeing one.

Whichever you choose, it won't make that much of a difference because transport between Jomtien and Boyztown is quite easy. If you like being on the beach during the day, then Jomtien may be a bit more convenient. If you prefer to be conservative, then stay in Boyztown but just hop over to Jomtien every other night or so. Then in your next trip, you can be better placed to know which you really prefer. Personally, I prefer staying in Jomtien (to be near the beach) but have no problem getting to Boyztown nearly every night because I too generally prefer the boys from there. Taking each evening's chosen boy back to my room in Jomtien is, in my experience, no bother at all.

The Silom half of that lane, from Silom Road to the Prime Massage dogleg is called Silom Soi 6, whereas the Surawong half of the lane, from Surawong Road to the dogleg has a different name and is called Soi Tarntawan. So when @reader in his original mention said "Soi 6", he would have meant Silom Soi 6.

I was not doubting that the US law that you cited has extra-territorial reach. What I was responding to was your statement that US citizens and permanent residents "are obligated to observe the age of consent in the USA, not that of the country we are traveling to / visiting." Suggesting that American visitors do not need to observe the laws of the destination country - just because your home country already has a law on the matter with extra-territorial reach - is not the best advice.

I find this hard to believe, though I am no expert on such legal matters. Almost all countries have laws against sexual contact with underaged persons. I don't know of any country that wouldn't apply those laws to any foreigner commiting such transgressions within its boundaries. That means visitors are obliged to observe the host country's laws. What you may be confusing it with is extra-territorial reach of US laws. Yes, some countries have given their anti pedophilia laws extra-territorial reach, which means your home country laws still apply to you even if you are abroad. Travellers from such countries are therefore subject to both countries' laws. Why then have some countries chosen to give extra-territorial reach? One value of doing so is to be able to apprehend pedophiles after they have returned home, especially after short trips abroad. Its easier to prosecute in the home country after receiving evidence from the destination country rather than go through the hoary process of extraditing the accused to the destination country. So, if the two countries have different ages of consent, the wise thing to do is to observe the higher of the two. If the destination country uses 21 as age of consent, no amount of citing US age of consent will help you when arrested in the destination country. Bear in mind too that some countries have one age of consent for non commercial sex and a higher age for commercial sex.

I agree, there is a religious element to this, but casting the issue as one of masculinity, in my view, does not lead to a helpful explanation. I'm sure many of us have noticed that Asian societies can be as patriarchal and male-centric as any, and there are huge sections of the male population who can be boorish and aggressive and boastful of sexual conquests. Where the religious element comes in is from the fact that Christianity is the cultural foundation for European societies. One distinguishing feature about Christianity (and Islam, as you have alluded to) is its great discomfort with sex. In addition, Islam has a great discomfort with display of skin - but that's a separate conversation. Although during the last 100 years or so, European societies have become sexually liberated, it's a recent phenomenon when considered in relation to the centuries of history that has formed attitudes that remain under the surface (among certain sections of society today) despite any new liberalism. The fundamental tenet in Christianity is that sex and the erotic are plain bad. Sex is seen as addictive and distractive and lead the mind astray from worshipping God. Unfortunately, sex is needed for procreation so, for a long time the Church's teaching has been that procreation was the only acceptable justification for engaging in it. For a long time too, the teaching was that even as husband and wife had sex, they were not supposed to take their clothes off and they were not supposed to enjoy it. Any other kind of sex was/is equated with sin, even masturbation. This is the root of that long history of sodomy laws, and wave after wave of moral panic over prostitution and pornography (and miscegenation - but that too is another matter). In Asian societies, their religious underpinning may be Hindu, Buddhist or Confucian (which are vastly different from each other in their teachings), but the interesting thing is that none of them have strong words about sex. This doesn't mean they are necessarily tolerant. But it does mean that if there is disapproval of, say, extra-marital (heterosexual) relations, homosexuality, or prostitution, it tends to spring from anxieties over family security (including inheritance rights) or social order, and therefore the disapproval tends to be (sometimes, depending on the era) "softer", and more situational. The disapproval does not take the fire-and-brimstone variety that so characterised Western precepts for centuries. One example of what I mean by "situational" would be an Asian community appearing semi-tolerant of foreigners engaging in homosexuality, but take a firmer line should one of their own sons do likewise. Foreigners can be labelled "they don't know any better", whilst the scion of the family has a duty to uphold the respectability of the family name, get married properly and bear heirs. A simple way to put it is this: Western history saw the issue as sex and unChristian enjoyment, and disapproved of it in a blanket way for that non-negotiable reason. Asian history was not so much concerned about sex, but about the consequential effects of sex. Since consequential effects were greater or lesser depending on the situation, so disapproval could be calibrated or negotiated.

Interesting how PBS World says this 4.1 was " the strongest quake in the province in recorded history" but our very own PeterRS can quickly find records of 6.1 and above. And PeterRs is credible. Am I missing something here? I wonder if the key operative phrase is "in the province"....