Daily massages, new acquaintances, all those casual encounters and sometimes quasi boyfriend experiences, bars filled with excitement, restaurants with good food —— all coming to an end.   

Was it all illusion?

 

18 minutes ago, 18past19 said:

Daily massages, new acquaintances, all those casual encounters and sometimes quasi boyfriend experiences, bars filled with excitement, restaurants with good food —— all coming to an end.   

Was it all illusion?

 

no, simple execution of the rule that in order to return you need to leave first. Have safe trip home !!!

1 hour ago, 18past19 said:

Daily massages, new acquaintances, all those casual encounters and sometimes quasi boyfriend experiences, bars filled with excitement, restaurants with good food —— all coming to an end.   

Was it all illusion?

 

What is an illusion and what is reality.....It's just a sliding scale so enjoy it as you perceive it in the moment, and in in hindsight!

1 hour ago, 18past19 said:

Was it all illusion?

Yes, it was but it doesn't mean that the fun you had wasn't real. Think of it as going to a magic show; you know the magician is performing tricks but you had fun watching, guessing, wondering and participating...and before you know it, abra cadabra your money is gone too. 🤣 

However, when you start to believe what the magician is doing is real, that's when the illusion becomes a delusion. 😉

24 minutes ago, mauRICE said:

 

However, when you start to believe what the magician is doing is real, that's when the illusion becomes a delusion. 😉

I'm 100% positive that is not the case here with 18past19,

If you move there you end up becoming a bitter bored expat with nuthin to look forward to ☹️

1 hour ago, Olddaddy said:

If you move there you end up becoming a bitter bored expat with nuthin to look forward to ☹️

So what's your excuse even though you live in Sydney? 😏

31 minutes ago, mauRICE said:

So what's your excuse even though you live in Sydney? 😏

I can be a bitter miserable old man in Sydney....it's normal here .😡

I walk around with a grumpy face , people avoid me

, I was even walking down a City  street yesterday to see some guy begging for money from passersby ...but when I walked past he didn't ask me !!!!

I was fucking offended !

 

2 hours ago, Olddaddy said:

but when I walked past he didn't ask me !!!!

He knew you from the bath house.

8 hours ago, 18past19 said:

Daily massages, new acquaintances, all those casual encounters and sometimes quasi boyfriend experiences, bars filled with excitement, restaurants with good food —— all coming to an end.   

Was it all illusion?

 

As long as we are not retired, we can only enjoy such pleasures for a moment.

2 hours ago, jason1975 said:

As long as we are not retired, we can only enjoy such pleasures for a moment.

But if you are retired those daily massages, bar visits and fine dining might well become a thing of the past - just an illusion in fact.

14 hours ago, Olddaddy said:

If you move there you end up becoming a bitter bored expat with nuthin to look forward to ☹️

There are several places in the world that are a lot more fun to visit than they are to live in. I think it’s really important to spend a few months somewhere before deciding on moving there long-term. 

On 7/20/2026 at 1:45 AM, Olddaddy said:

If you move there you end up becoming a bitter bored expat with nuthin to look forward to ☹️

You have written this before - and it is bascially nonsense. After 26 years I still love being based in Bangkok. It's not for everyone and if it is only the sex that motivates those who do move here then you may be right. But I know expats in Bangkok who are rarely bored and with lots to look forward to.  It's obviously up to each individual as to how he sees his life playing out and where best that might be.

1 hour ago, PeterRS2 said:

I still love being based in Bangkok.

A very different vibe/lifestyle than Pattaya.....  But I prefer big cities.

Do you go to Pattaya?

53 minutes ago, floridarob said:

Do you go to Pattaya?

My first visit was in 1983 when there were perhaps a couple of gay bars. I liked the beach, but rarely returned until Australian friends of mine would go and I would join them for a few days. We'd then stay at the Rabbit Resort by the beach. The last time was for New Year at the end of 2013. I also have Swiss friends who live in a gated community just outside the city whom I used to stay with occasionally but they are not at all gay and without transport it was difficult getting into the city and back.

On about 4 occasions I have been solo and stayed at the lovely Le Prive on Thappraya 1. It is such a nice cosy retreat I cannot understand why more do not stay there - apart from perhaps having to take a tuk tuk and it is pricier than most of the other hotels I see recommended in this Board. Once I went to see an old Hong Kong friend of almost 35 years who had not long to live. For the others I was on my own. I liked visiting a couple of bars, Happy Boys being one. But like you I really prefer big cities and have not been back to Pattaya for about 9 years. 

1 hour ago, PeterRS2 said:

have not been back to Pattaya for about 9 years. 

So this is the short answer 😝

I don't agree with @Olddaddy often, but about retiring/living in Pattaya full time, I think I'd join the PFC and jump off a balcony..... it's good for a couple of weeks, in my opinion, that's it.... Bangkok I could do, not Silom to live,  somewhere far but not too far that I could go to Silom when I wanted easliy.

I don't want to turn into a recluse like @TotallyOz 😝

On 7/20/2026 at 1:45 AM, Olddaddy said:

If you move there you end up becoming a bitter bored expat with nuthin to look forward to ☹️

What would you know about it? An infrequent visitor who seems to spend his time here on the internet looking for new titles to keep your name up there.

I moved here in 1999 and am in no way miserable bitter or bored.
Speak for yourself or even better --- don't speak.

Edited July 21Jul 21 by Patanawet
delete a comma

3 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

 But like you I really prefer big cities and have not been back to Pattaya for about 9 years. 

In that period, Pattaya has changed enormously. The north end of Beach Road which for many of us was our first view of  touristy Pattaya has changed beyond recognition. Gone is the seemingly endless array of  girlie bars and in its place are  smart hotels, high-end restaurants and huge malls. It no longer feels like a resort, let alone one which was once a magnet for single men seeking sex, and more like a city. Perhaps not Bangkok but  huge and modern. And the patrons? not  those single western  men seeking company but Asian families staying in smart hotels like Centre Point. Younger, more affluent. And they aren't buying  suggestive T-shirts but designer goods.

You may still recognise South Pattaya; it is more down-market, the lights aren't so bright and the crowds thinner. Instead of gay visitors, the visitors are Indian men, seeking I know not what. The relative shabbiness as you arrive in Second Road  is  noticeable. Even the once "number one" shopping mall, Royal Garden is quiet compared to the likes of T21 or Central.

My partner and I prefer the new Pattaya but with reservations. The truth is that there was sort of naughty glamour about the old Boyztown and  Sunee; it was "our" place. For some of us, the first environment where we could truly be ourselves. In my case, that was when I was forty-six years old. And I met others like myself. For him, when he arrived as a country-boy  from the rural north aged twenty-one, the  excitement, the money and most of all the camaraderie ensured that it was the happiest period of his life.

Today, we walk around T21 and Central, enjoy its best restaurants and, in my case, people-watching:  and does anyone care about two gay guys, arm in arm or sometimes holding hands, even though we are an unusual pairing?

No. 

 

 

On 7/20/2026 at 4:49 AM, Olddaddy said:

I can be a bitter miserable old man in Sydney....it's normal here .😡

I walk around with a grumpy face , people avoid me

, I was even walking down a City  street yesterday to see some guy begging for money from passersby ...but when I walked past he didn't ask me !!!!

I was fucking offended !

 

Well, who needs Sydneysiders when you've got an entire Irish football team waiting for you in Pattaya...

...where you don't have to be fucking offended...only fucking.

5 hours ago, floridarob said:

So this is the short answer 😝

Would you like to see the long one???

Op must be laughing at seeing how his nostalgic post about about shot trip to Bangkok turned devoted to Pattaya , city he was only once and only 3 days. Not that those were wasted days as one who had room on the same floor can attest.

8 hours ago, Patanawet said:

I moved here in 1999 and am in no way miserable bitter or bored.

So you're just old? 😅

Sorry, just mucking around. Do you speak Thai @Patanawet? 27 years is a very long time. The oldest farang I've met in Thailand was 92 years old. Gay, lived alone and very independent. He was a fountain of knowledge and very easy talk to; what I liked about him was his humility in not needing to be right all the time or show off everything he knew, unlike so many other farang one meets in Thailand. That was ten years ago and I hope he's well if he still walks this Earth.

6 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

Would you like to see the long one???

Paperback or hardcover.... 

(see, I made it so you can still make it about the 🍆 😝)

2 hours ago, mauRICE said:

So you're just old? 😅

Sorry, just mucking around. Do you speak Thai @Patanawet? 27 years is a very long time. 

Very, very old Maurice. No never mastered Thai -- only enough to direct taxi drivers and tell waiters that I'm a veggie. Had MANY one to one and group lessons.
BUT it gets worse!  On my trip  here through life I lived in a European country for ten years and never managed that language either.  In that country they just laughed when I tried to speak BUT in Thailand they just laugh with my mistakes and I don't feel embarrassed at all.
BUT I really did try languages.
Many other things I never mastered also (brevity?).

11 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

Would you like to see the long one???

Life is too short.