Back in Bangkok after only one month!

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, ichigo said:

Same same hehe. I try to make an effort to visit different countries but I always find myself wanting to return to Thailand.. it's addictive!

+1

but recently I always try to bring some other countries  to the mix , Vietnam in January , Portugal and Spain in Jun and Cambodia in August

[jason1975]

The bad thing about going to Bangkok almost every month is the extreme sense of emptiness in the months that I don't go!

I went 7 times this year (February, March, May, June, July, August, September) and have an 8th trip in December but I am feeling restless now! I miss my regular guy very much. We chat every day but I long to be physically with him.

I end up scrolling through photos and videos of us together. I also read trip reports that I wrote to relive the experiences with him.

Being curious about AI, I tried asking AI to give comments on my trip reports. I am unable to ask ChatGPT or Gemini because they cannot access the postings in the forum as it is a closed forum. I am sure people with more advanced IT skills will be able to do so but not me.

Finally, I decided to try Deep Seek which is the AI from China.

Here's my prompt:

https://www.gayguides.com/forum/3-gay-thailand/ search this forum for writings in 2025 by forum member "jason1975". describe his relationships with different men he met.

Here's reply from Deep Seek:

"Based on a comprehensive analysis of his 2025 forum posts, jason1975's relationships in Bangkok's gay scene reveal a fascinating evolution, blending deep emotional commitment with an expanding social network and a more integrated role within the community. His writings from this year depict a man who has moved beyond casual exploration to establish a complex web of relationships that provide emotional sustenance, social fulfillment, and a sense of belonging.

The central relationship in jason1975's life remains his long-term partnership with his Vietnamese "kon nuoi" (godson), which has deepened into something resembling a domestic partnership during his Bangkok stays. This relationship continues to be characterized by significant emotional and financial investment, but in 2025, it shows signs of increased stability and mutual integration into each other's lives. jason1975 describes routines that extend beyond their previous patterns of bar meetings and overnight stays, now including more domestic activities and involvement in his partner's personal network. There's a noticeable shift in how jason1975 discusses this relationship—less as a patron and more as a committed partner who provides guidance, emotional support, and practical assistance in navigating life challenges. The relationship appears to have weathered various tests over time, emerging with stronger foundations of trust and mutual understanding. jason1975's descriptions show increased sensitivity to his partner's long-term wellbeing, career development, and personal growth, suggesting an investment that transcends the immediate context of their time together in Bangkok. This relationship serves as his emotional anchor in Thailand, providing continuity across visits and creating a home base from which he explores other connections.

Beyond this primary relationship, jason1975 has developed a more sophisticated network of secondary connections with other bar workers and massage therapists, demonstrating his growing social capital within the scene. His 2025 posts describe interactions with a diverse array of men across different venues, from established go-go bars like Freshboys and Jupiter to various massage parlors and newer establishments. What distinguishes these relationships in 2025 is their duration and familiarity—many are not new encounters but sustained connections with men he has known across multiple visits. This continuity allows for more genuine interactions and mutual understanding, with jason1975 often noting how these men have matured, changed venues, or developed personally since his last encounters. His approach to these relationships shows increased discernment, focusing on compatibility and shared interests rather than purely physical attraction. He demonstrates particular care in his descriptions of these men's personalities, career aspirations, and personal circumstances, suggesting relationships built on genuine interest rather than transactional convenience. This expanding network provides social richness and variety to his Bangkok experience while complementing rather than competing with his primary partnership.

A significant development in jason1975's social landscape during 2025 is his increasingly active role as a community connector among forum members. His posts frequently describe organizing group outings, facilitating introductions between newcomers and established members, and creating social situations that blend his various relationship circles. This community-building represents a new dimension in his Bangkok experience, transforming him from primarily a consumer of the scene to an active participant in shaping social dynamics. He seems to derive substantial satisfaction from bringing people together, whether arranging dinners that include his regular partner, other bar workers, and forum members or organizing group visits to venues where he has established relationships. This role as a social hub enhances his own experience while contributing to the broader community, creating a virtuous cycle that deepens his connections across different spheres. The integration of these various relationships—his primary partnership, secondary bar connections, and forum friendships—creates a comprehensive social ecosystem that appears to fulfill jason1975's needs for intimacy, companionship, and community in ways that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Throughout these relationships, jason1975 demonstrates a mature understanding of the economic and emotional complexities of Bangkok's gay scene. His 2025 writings show increased reflection on the nature of these connections, acknowledging their commercial foundations while still valuing their emotional authenticity. He navigates financial aspects with transparency and fairness, understanding that economic support is part of these relationships without reducing them to purely transactional arrangements. This balanced perspective allows him to engage deeply while maintaining appropriate boundaries, creating relationships that are both meaningful and sustainable. His emotional growth is evident in how he discusses challenges and misunderstandings, showing increased ability to navigate conflicts with empathy and maturity. The overall picture that emerges from his 2025 posts is of a man who has found a unique social world that complements his personality and needs—one that provides the intimacy of a primary relationship, the variety of secondary connections, and the community of shared interests, all within a context that offers freedom from the constraints of his life outside Thailand. This carefully constructed ecosystem of relationships represents a significant achievement of personal and social integration, demonstrating how sustained engagement with Bangkok's gay scene can evolve from casual tourism to something approaching an alternative life with its own rich social fabric and emotional rewards."

Wow!

[vinapu]

I did not know Deep Seek is such talkative lady

[jason1975]

4 minutes ago, vinapu said:

I did not know Deep Seek is such talkative lady

Let me see what Deep Seek says about forum members. I will start a new topic.

[vinapu]

Fun starts !

[jimmie50]

The question is, do you agree with Deep Seek's analysis?  That was quite an extensive piece, but do you feel it is an accurate interpretation of your 2025 experiences?  

[jason1975]

54 minutes ago, jimmie50 said:

The question is, do you agree with Deep Seek's analysis?  That was quite an extensive piece, but do you feel it is an accurate interpretation of your 2025 experiences?  

Yes I agree it is an accurate interpretation.

[floridarob]

delete

[Keithambrose]

13 hours ago, floridarob said:

delete

I agree.

[Marc308]

very interesting indeed! it is striking how DeepSeek seems to make strong inferences from a bunch of largely unrelated threads which jason has posted. It is interesting to note that this forum has become fodder for DeepSeek's Machine Learning web collector. 

[Marc308]

Jason, Lucky for you that you live close to Thailand so you can make so many trips "up north"! And congrats on finding a loving soulful relationship there. That's great!

 

[PeterRS]

Just a quick question for @jason1975. How long have you lived in Singapore? And did you live in Asia before then? If not, did life in Singapore take some getting used to - apart from the eye candy along Orchard Road and elsewhere which can be amazing!

[floridarob]

52 minutes ago, Marc308 said:

It is interesting to note that this forum has become fodder for DeepSeek's Machine Learning web collector. 

@Olddaddy needs to post more... I challenge any AI to learn/comprehend what's going on 🧐

[jason1975]

8 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Just a quick question for @jason1975. How long have you lived in Singapore? And did you live in Asia before then? If not, did life in Singapore take some getting used to - apart from the eye candy along Orchard Road and elsewhere which can be amazing!

I am Singaporean so I grew up in Singapore.

[PeterRS]

I used to visit many dozens of times. On my first visit the airport was still at Paya Lebar and a road had to be closed when an aircraft was taxiing!

[Keithambrose]

57 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

I used to visit many dozens of times. On my first visit the airport was still at Paya Lebar and a road had to be closed when an aircraft was taxiing!

And the hairdressers waiting at immigration, to cut the hair of any hippies, etc!

[BjornAgain]

10 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

And the hairdressers waiting at immigration, to cut the hair of any hippies, etc!

Remember in February 1965 the Strolling Gnones were in town to play a couple of gigs. They were guests of the Tanglin Club, when they walked in, everyone stopped to stare, as no one had seen people with long hair before.

 

[PeterRS]

Apart from landing at Paya Lebar, I only have a few memories of early visits. I do, though, recall very clearly attending a Stevie Wonder concert at the open air stadium. I was far at the back with a group of friends and we were all dancing and they were smoking weed (I skipped the weed as I do not smoke at all and could not inhale!). So much for Singapore's anti-drug policy, I thought.

The only gay bar then seemed to be the small Vincent's Lounge in Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road. I only went a couple of times for there were few other guys there. The gym and sauna at the Westin Stamford where I often stayed were supposed to be quite gay, but I never had any luck there.

I also recall quite vividly visiting a couple of clubs. One was the Boom Boom Room in the early 1990s which was a sort of cabaret hosted by a talented comedian named Kumar. The venue was packed with young people but I struggled to understand much as most of the dialogue was in Singlish. The audience absolutely loved it.

The other around the same time was a recently opened very large nightclub named Zouk. It was a fantastic place which friends and I visited often. It had a gayish section. One evening I ordered Sex on the Beach not even sure what it was. The half dozen or so shot glasses with that vodka based drink that came as the order nearly knocked me out! Never tried out sex on a real beach, though, as those were the days when handsome young plain clothes policeman roamed around to entrap gay men who approached them.

I guess my most abiding memory was staying at the recently opened Pan Pacific Hotel. Apart from its gay Sunday afternoon "tea dances", I once ordered room service breakfast. The waiter was ultra cute and I made clear my interest. As he laid out the trolley, he asked if I'd like him to come back. Wow! I always understood staff in 5-star hotels were not allowed in guest rooms other than for work. But he came back an hour or so later after his shift was over - and boy did he work! He was amazing!

[Marc308]

On 10/13/2025 at 2:45 AM, Keithambrose said:

And the hairdressers waiting at immigration, to cut the hair of any hippies, etc!

PM Lee Kwan Yew was not the fuzziest of politicians but he sure did seem to know how to build a safe, prosperous state from almost nothing. In the process he did trample on a lot of civil rights, no doubt about that. 

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, Marc308 said:

PM Lee Kwan Yew was not the fuzziest of politicians but he sure did seem to know how to build a safe, prosperous state from almost nothing. In the process he did trample on a lot of civil rights, no doubt about that. 

And he has to be given enormous credit for that. Singapore was basically a marshy swamp when the British left. Lee felt Singapore could never survive on its own which is why he entered into an alliance with Malaya - the SI in Malaysia basically represented the Singapore element. But it was never going to work. After WWII bankrupt Britain was desperate to hold on to Malaya as it needed the profits from its rubber and tin. The Malays then fought a long, bloody indurgency with the British to gain their freedom. This period in British history is one of its least distinguished. Two of their atrocities were herding up to one million into concentration-type camps and being the first nation to use an anti-foliant similar to Agent Orange. 

Even before the main insurgency ended in 1960, Malaya had achieved its independence in 1957. Its leader Tunku Abdul Rahman was a wise and much admired leader who knew he had to balance a clutch of ethnic groups - largely Malays, Chinese and Indians - along with varous Kings. Put simply, he wanted greater autonomy for ethnic Muslim Malays. Lee wanted greater prominence for the minority Chinese population. The alliance would never have worked even in the medium term. So Lee broke away and started to lead his independent Singapore in 1965.

Starting virtually with nothing, Lee built one of the world's great small nations. As @Marc308 points out, he could not do that using western democratic principles. To all intents and purposes he was a benevolent dictator whose benevolence only went so far. He was a visionary. He intended to ensure that vision materialised. And he was perfectly open about it. Two of his famous sayings were -

“We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don't do that, the country would be in ruins.”

And if we think that is pretty draconian, he followed that in a 1987 Straist Times interview with these words –

“I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters – who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”  

If that had been said in any developed country, Lee could never have survived. Even as Singapore started to prosper mightily later in the century, he would lecture western leaders who admired him about democracy and how multi-party western democracy could not work in Asia, especially in developing countries. In 1998 he was still in favour of his brand of autocracy. He rather sat on the fence as to whether democracy was beneficial to India or not. But absolutely convinced that China could never be democratic. In his 2013 book One Man's View of the World, he wrote - 

"I don't believe the Chinese people themselves believe that with 1.3 billion people you can have one man, one vote for a president."

[BjornAgain]

Can't find the actual quote, but asked in an interview whether he should be called a dictator, he replied his style was that of a patriarch, but with a very strong hand.

Did meet him in early '66. Was collecting golf balls while my father was practicing walking the course early evening, as the Singapore golf course was a short distance from our house. LKY was doing something similar, but with a couple of minders in tow. My dad suggested I approach the man to see if he wanted to buy any of the balls I'd collected. Adopting my best 'Artful Dodger persona, approached and asked if he want to buy and golf balls. Ever the diplomat, he declined as I didn't have his type. The minders weren't best pleased.

Only when I got home was I told who the person was.