LOS Trip Report

[jimmie50]

Day 0 (lol) Travel Day.

Flight leaving Denver was 30 minutes late.  Not totally unexpected, as most things landing and taking off at Denver are always delayed.  Same for San Francisco.  Total of 20 hours confined on a flying tin can, plus an additional six hours in layovers.  Draining experience to say the least.  I moved to Denver from the SF Bay Area a few years ago and at that time the SF airport had completed their new international terminal and the older terminal buildings were undergoing renovation.  Was somewhat of a surprise to find the airport once again undergoing some reno projects.  Made for a very long walk from arrival gate to international departure gate.  At least it did not require leaving a secure area so no need to pass through security checkpoint again.  Next stop Taipei.  It has been many years since I have flown through Taipei for anything…probably 20 or more.  Back then it was still called Chiang Kai-Shek International and consisted of two main terminal buildings.  Now we are Taiwan Taoyuan International with terminals A, B, C, and D.  Naturally, our arrival was in Terminal D and the new departure gate was in A…thus another very long walk.  Certainly got my steps in on this trip.  Change in carrier from United to EVA.  Was reminded once on board EVA how much better the Asian carriers do at customer service and the food was pretty amazing.  US carriers in general are just bad all around…in my humble opinion…by comparison.  Somewhere between Denver and Bangkok I completely lost one day.  Wednesday just ceased to exist.  Arrival was 10:30am Thursday morning.  In my previous trips to visit with my Thai friends, they always had me arrive late in the evening between 11pm and midnight.  Not sure why they always preferred that…possibly work and family schedules…but the late arrival always messed up my internal body clock and I had a terrible time adjusting for a few days.  Since I was not planning to depend on them for this trip, I scheduled my arrival for mid-morning and I have learned that is much better.  Will definitely do that again.  Arrival was on time, immigration/customs was a breeze, and I didn’t need to wait on my checked bag.  I had completed the new online entry form prior to departure in Denver and printed it out.  Went through the priority line for seniors with no wait whatsoever.  My luggage was on the carousel before I got there, probably because of the distance I had to walk from the arrival gate to baggage claim.  These airports are so huge nowadays.  Thanks to recommendations from forum members, I had pre-booked with SP Limousine Service.  They provided very detailed info via email about where to meet their contact person, and it was seamless.  I think the entire process from deplaning to getting in the reserved car and on the freeway heading to my hotel was only 45 minutes!  I was amazed…and grateful.  Other than the travel duration, in general the trip was long and tiring but uneventful.

Day 1 Bangkok

Thanks to the many posts and recommendations from forum members, I decided to step outside of my normal comfort zone.  After all, this trip was all about me and having some fun…not spending time with my friends and their families.  Naturally, traffic from Suvarnabhumi to Silom was horrendous, so even though my entry to Thailand was smooth sailing, it was probably 1pm before arriving at Ibis Styles Silom.  Overall first impression was it was new, modern, and staff was all very friendly and helpful.  Check-in was easy and I was given a room on the 5th floor.  As per previous comments on the forum, rooms are definitely on the small side.  Since I have never stayed in a hotel here before, I really have nothing to compare it to.  For me, it’s fine, but with two persons for a week I imagine it would be very cramped.  View out the window was a bit unusual.  My room overlooked the back which was mostly low income family residences.  Lots of small, pieced together buildings mostly of steel siding and roofs or fiberglass.  Just not something I expected to see in the middle of Bangkok.  I would have thought some developer would have bought up all of that property and built another shopping mall or high rise.  However, it did make for some interesting people watching.  To be honest, I wasn’t really planning on much excitement the first day in BKK assuming I would be exhausted.  Those plans quickly changed.  Based upon several recent posts on the forum about using apps and how successful some members were, I decided to add Grinder to my phone.  While I did not post a photo, I was pretty honest about age and appearance.  It was like my phone was blowing up!  From the time I checked in to my hotel until my first ‘date’ was about 4.5 hours.  27 year old, originally from Surin, twink, very dark complexion and a real cutie.  Just getting off work at 5pm…where was I staying…could be here by 5:30pm via BTS…could we please meet.  I simply couldn’t refuse.  Met in the lobby then went up to my room.  No issues with front desk at all.  Nobody said anything.  Took a shower together and then had some playtime or as I like to say…did the wild thing.  Decided to go upstairs to the rooftop and checkout the pool, bar, and fitness areas.  Enjoyed some liquid refreshment and ordered some dinner at the bar.  Nice evening enjoying the Bangkok skyline from the outdoor seating area, food was good, although a little on the spicy side for me, and pleasant company.  Nice conversation over dinner, and then back to the room for round 2.  He headed home around 10pm.  I didn’t invite as I really was completely wore out by then and ready to just crash.  Oh, and not a MB.  All in all, a great first day and I surprised myself at being so adventurous.  Certainly helped with the jet lag to stay up and active until 10pm.  Had to turn my phone to silent.  Went right to sleep and other than a couple of trips to the bathroom during the night (normal routine) slept soundly until morning.  Woke up refreshed, hungry, and ready for more experiences.

[vinapu]

Glad to hear you did not waste precious vacation time

[fcmatt]

good luck with the trip and i'm looking forward for the other day if you update it here

[kram987]

10 hours ago, vinapu said:

Glad to hear you did not waste precious vacation time

+1

[jimmie50]

Day 2 Bangkok - Part 1

Breakfast buffet at Ibis is ok.  Not bad, but not great, either.  Mixture of western and Asian cuisines.  Western doesn’t seem to have much variation from day to day…cold cut ham slices, potatoes, chicken sausage, toast or pastry and eggs cooked to order.  Asian has more variety, as I would expect.  199 Baht…don’t know how that compares to other places but convenient.  My original plan was to check out one or two massage shops I had on my list, but those plans quickly went south when I received a message from a really handsome guy originally from Phuket.  He has lived in Bangkok for approximately 13 years and is a supervisor with one of the bigger banks.  Anyway, he had the day off and wanted to know if I would be interested in ‘hanging out’, as he put it.  He is in his mid-30’s, very much a clean cut business type.  Not exactly what I could call a twink type, but certainly not muscular, either.  Plays badminton weekly with a group of friends.  Again, not a MB.  Anyway, we agreed to meet around 12 noon and literally hang out together for awhile.  Lobby at Ibis seems to be a good meeting place for me.  We walked down the street to Silom Complex and had lunch on one of the upper floors at a place called Banana Leaf.  It was actually quite good.  Enjoyed the company and conversation.  After that we decided to take BTS over to Terminal 21 just to browse.  I ended up buying a hat as I forgot to pack one and the top of my head will turn beet red if I spend any time in the sun at all.  After walking around the mall, went out in the neighborhood to look for a place to get foot massage.  Not something I have ever done, and would certainly never go to a shop that was 100% female!  LOL.  At least not on my own.  But it was really quite relaxing, professional and very legitimate.  I remember reading a recent post on here where someone had been to a salon for manicure and pedicure.  After the foot massage I suggested we try that and he was in agreement.  Both the foot massage and nail salon were between Asok and Nana BTS, but I would probably never be able to find them again on my own.  By now it is close to 6pm and we have spent the entire afternoon together.  We decided to return to the hotel to ‘take a rest’.  We first took a shower, but not sure how much resting we actually did.  Both guys from Grinder identify as gay and versatile.  After some play time and cuddling, we were both hungry and decided to get some dinner.  Walked through Patpong Night Market over to the next major street…possibly Surawong?  Not sure.  While looking for a restaurant we walked past Urban Thai, 2 Avarin, and Green massage.  Urban Thai appeared to be all female, but the other three shops had many…possibly as many as 30 guys between them hanging outside encouraging people to come in.  Decided to eat at Siam Cuisine near these shops.  Do not recommend this place.  Service was ok, but my companion said the food was not very good.  We had ordered two different shrimp dishes and an appetizer platter.  For me it was just ok, but he was disappointed in the quality and taste.  During dinner, we had some discussion about possibly going to one of the shows.  Not something I would normally do, but we finally decided to check out Moonlight.  We had some time before the show so did a little browsing through the night market, then had an iced coffee at Starbucks.