dennis123

Move to East Pattaya, zero mosquitos here, can't even remember when I was bitten by one, and I don't use any repellent or whatever to stop them. Just have those gazed doors that I close at night.

Drove on beach road the 23rd in the backseat of a police truck and all bars were definitely packed, got released the 24th and it was awful busy at the road all the way to East Pattaya.

However, I was in Sunee Plaza on the 22nd evening, and 24th evening again and it was only a tiny bit busier than usual, plenty of nice looking boys available, and that's very different to previous years when only the ugly ones were left to choose from ????

Maybe most of my fellow gays go to Jomtien Complex or Boys Town which are a bit more popular than Sunee where half of the bars are closed. Anyway, usually, I try to avoid the bars in peak season as much as possible but this year there's no reason to.

2 hours ago, Youlike said:

We do the same and also let them bring cigalettes

After 6 years in Thailand I only discovered last week that they sell Camel at 60 baht/pack (maybe it just arrived who knows) switched instantly from Marlboro which costs 145 baht. Took a little to get used to it but definitely not as bad as the Thai or whatever brands they are that are almost priced the same.

When your friend got denied, who exactly denied it, because you said she was forced to leave the country so it can't be immigration in another country that denied it right?

Just got back, didn't bother going to the embassy despite these new proposed rules, was surprised to get a 30-day visa on arrival for FREE indeed. If it's per calendar year I might wait with my ED visa as I actually like to travel to Laos and stay there for a month.

Calendar year runs from Jan-Dec I assume? Not some odd Songkran calendar year?

43 minutes ago, rak sa_ngop said:

The staff probably cannot run the purchase through the till outside the permitted hours, so will either wait until alcohol purchase is allowed and the till accepts the purchase......or maybe just pocket the money?

Okay got to hide it better next time when I walk outside, don't want that to happen, as the next day I still use the same 7/11 for daily stuff.

39 minutes ago, rak sa_ngop said:

The staff probably cannot run the purchase through the till outside the permitted hours, so will either wait until alcohol purchase is allowed and the till accepts the purchase......or maybe just pocket the money?

I thought about that, them not being able to bill as they always make quite an issue out of it, one almost wanted to chase me lol so i learned to walk away quickly and not look back ????

So yeah, a decent tip for the effort to bill it later, not that I would have it in exact change anyway.

Had that twice now in the 7/11, and twice I put enough money on the counter with a nice tip included and just walked away with the alcohol.

I mean, what's the worst that can happen, TiT ????

I don't like tattoos so good for him.

The face of fear for overstayers, think I'm gonna challenge him by overstaying for the next 10 years.

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

Further to other replies; As soon as I renew my retirement extn each year I make 3x A4 copies of Bio page, Extn page and Thai DL which stay above my sun shield until the following year. I also photograph and hold copies in my phone.

The only time I needed one was to enter central car park when I couldn't be bothered to get my wallet out cos I was sitting on it! ????

Oh yeah after the bombing I was also asked to identify myself when parking there.

1 hour ago, phuketrichard said:

laos will extend the 2 weeks ,adding on 2 weeks more, did it in Luang Prabang

 

I ONLY enter at kk when i am ONLY traveling to kep and returning to Kk border

if i am planing on exiting elsewhere, will enter at Osmach

 

I exited in August at KK and as i didn't enter there but at osmach and if u enter there they charge you 100 baht/day i had to pay 2,000 baht to be allowed to exit,

otherwise he told me to leave from another border.

What ya going to do>>>>

Isn't the 2 week stamp printed on the customs document that the Thais provide? So if you extend it in Luang Prabang they don't touch that document and then the Thais can still fine me 1000 baht/day (max 10k) for overstay car right?

Also in Laos the car is only allowed for 14 days right, isn't it possible to get an extension for that? I want to spend a month in Vang Vieng because I have friends coming end Jan / start Feb, so with my 60 day exempt I might just make it if I stay a little longer in Laos.

We always love to drink a lot and can't imagine I have to do a visa trip then ????

2 hours ago, phuketrichard said:

last year drove into Cambodia via Osmach,  no problem as always

went to Palin to exit and customs ( Camboida) asked for the permission letter for my car to be in Camboida,  told him i had no letter.

He than told me i couldn't leave as Thailand would NOT allow my thai car back into Thailand ( yea ,right)
after 20 minutes he said i could go for $20,I gave him $5 and left, 

Of course no problem entering thailand,other than having to drive around for 20 minutes looking for the Thai customs as they had moved to turn my temp export doc in.

13

For me it's been 1.5 years ago that I went to Cambodia by car but at Had Lek / Koh Kong they want to keep my blue car book so that would make it impossible to go out at any other border, they also say you can't leave Koh Kong province, lmao, I always drive to PP or where ever I want.

No asking for the blue registration book or did you refuse to give it?

8 hours ago, Time Traveller said:

Are you saying you can register a thai car and obtain the car passport on just a tourist visa? 

If you are on an extension of stay it's never a problem getting back into the country if you have a re entry permit.

I had an ED visa when we transferred the car to my name.

I think it's not even possible to sell the car on a tourist visa.

48 minutes ago, ikbenhet said:

The last few times I took my car on the ferry I had to show my passport, as the driver, but none of the other people in my car had to show theirs.

Which is actually quite strange. Why only the drivers and not the passengers? 

I've tried to think of scenarios where that could be useful for the authorities but I cannot come up with anything that makes sense.

Probably just tiT

Yeah you'd think the blue car book would suffice, but even that is odd, especially on the boat to, now if it's the boat from Samui to shore it would be different in case it's a rental, eg to prevent theft.

11 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

Foreigners will often be asked for their passports under various circumstances in Thailand when what is meant is, please may I see some ID - as said earlier a Thai drivers license satisfies this need 99.99% of the time.

Authorities have never asked me for my passport in the 6 or so years I've been here, except for this one time at the boat to Samui with car. When applying for a new internet connection they might've asked for it, same when booking a hotel or signing a rental contract.

But government/police, literally never, while I've been arrested twice, and fined dozens of times paying at the police station, and even in those cases they didn't ask me for my passport.

3 minutes ago, Dexlowe said:

What a cruel and uncharitable world you gay guys inhabit. ???? Saggy bottom fatigue -- oh my! Seriously, though, where do all those ageing male gigolos go when they start to get a little stout around the paunch?

I'm not so sure in Thailand, I know that one of the founders of Boys Town started this about 20-25 years ago so I guess there aren't that many over-aged gigolos (yet). I do know that some people died of HIV, some people committed suicide,???? and I suppose most just go back to where they came from.

Going 10 years forward, I'm not sure what to think, I don't see a lot of young Thai folks enter the scene, but there has been an influx from Cambodia, so much that Jomtien Complex has many dozens of them.  Some bars have gone under due to that as the police came knocking on the door, illegal workers, fines that ran into the hundreds of thousands of bahts that they couldn't afford, sometimes even making arrangements with the local police to pay it in terms.

The real cuties always manage to find someone but according to a Thai mamasan friend of mine most start to look unhappier by the day, which I can imagine if you have to live with a boring 55+-year-old expat. Fun life's over but a fat check for mom & dad.

And some get lucky, do manage to find a farang that isn't 20-30 years older but more like 5-10 years that invite them to their country. I was surprised to hear that someone I knew from the bar scene, that I always considered a little crazy was on a flight to France.

Anyhow cruel or not, if I have to pay I can choose, so why would I pay for a 40-year-old when I can have a 20-year-old for the same price ???? Those sweet little bottoms, can't get enough of them lol.

Now, this might sound like a strange question to many as you're not leaving Thailand, but when I took my car on the boat to Samui they did ask for my passport, not on the way back though.

So if you travel by foot, did they ask you to show your passport?

18 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

The same bargirls working the same shops but 10 yrs older....

Sad but true in many cases.

I'm not into ladies but as there are no bars for me here on the darkside I decided to go to a lady bar for a drink.

Young and handsome as I am I immediately attract an almost equally young pretty lady of only 45 years old ????

No offense but the oldest gay guy I ever spotted working in a bar was 41 I think and even that's rather desperate as we're not interested in those oldies, we want < 30 at least.

10 hours ago, micmichd said:

Here in East Pattaya lots of condos are owned by natives and rented as "serviced appartments" 

So, you don't buy a condo, you rent an appartment. And these appartments are cheap.

Where's the problem?

Does East Pattaya have condos, where are they? Or are it like 3-storey buildings reorganized into mini-condos? ????????

Unless you mean that little cluster of 3-4-5 buildings.

Perhaps I would have more luck at Surin, hadn't thought about that before.

When I take my car with me I can take a lot of my stuff with me, all my clothes, laptops, xbox TV, tools, you name it, so in case they don't let me in I still have all my stuff with me, hence the so specific question if I can just turn around with car included.

I never do border runs, only tourist visa runs so that forces me to stay a day or two, or sometimes I stay a week or two, for an exempt there would not even be a need to go to Vientiane right? Cross the border and walk straight back or is it recommended to spend at least a day or two to make it not too obvious?

I was also considering to drive to Vang Vieng, find a quiet resort, work a bit, smoke a bit of weed, just very layback, just to get an idea if I could keep up with that for several months. Most affordable resorts don't come with an office chair and desk as I work a lot online, and to sit there all day in the resorts' restaurant during high season is also not really my choice, as I prefer some privacy.

Thing with Laos is that I'd be doing immigration runs every month, and border runs to Cambodia mostly I suppose every three months so I kind of weighing my options and I want my car with me, as it's just convenient but it looks ugly as hell so almost impossible to sell, but still a good mileage to go. It's a strange story about my car, a paintjob won't cut it, as a matter of fact two doors would need to be replaced first as the scratches run so deep, plus unexplainable noises near the wheels that no garage was able to identify or fix but loud enough to notice during a test drive, but the engine is still in great shape, and so is the rest so I don't want to dump it just yet.

Sihanoukville is somewhat okay but the crime rate puts me off, each time I've been there I got robbed or drugged at some point. Never happened in Pattaya. Guess I have a big target on my back there, plus the abundance of casinos, ain't gonna end well, and in terms of gay life very limited, they have one bar that's empty most of the times, everyone either moves to Phnom Penh or Thailand.

If I move further away I have to dump all my stuff, like Vietnam or the Phillippines, Hanoi or Cebu doesn't sound too bad though I've never been there.

Everyone says avoid Poipet, next week they might say avoid Vientiane or Savannakhet border, or Had Lek (Cambodia).

That was my initial plan, go to Koh Kong for a few days but I don't think they are that easy with visa exempts there, they warned me years ago about that at the border itself (immigration), that I couldn't just return but had to go to PP for a tourist visa and that was at a time when I had zero exempts in my passport (talking about 3 years ago or so). 

Let's say I drive by car to Laos or Cambodia, and apply for a tourist visa that gets most likely rejected.

I return with my car, departure from Cambodia or Laos and am stuck in between the two borders kind of.

Now let's say the immigration officer refuses me a 30 day exempt (despite having only 1 in my passport from almost two months ago so I imagine he looks at me like a border runner that ran out of tourist visas so it wouldn't surprise me that much if they refuse me.

Would my temporarily export document from customs (for the car) still be valid to get my car back into Laos or Cambodia, or would I risk losing my car somehow as Thailand doesn't allow me to get back, and Laos or Cambodia only allows me back, but not my car due to this paper issue?

Feel free to speculate, and let's assume the document (valid for 30 days in Cambodia, 14 days in Laos is not expired).