London Lowf

Good to read a more positive post from you and it's good to hear that Blue Beach Bar seems to be a success - I must admit that, after my visit shortly after it opened, i thought that its hidden-away location would scupper it. I look forward to trying it again when I return later this year.

Your friend needs to search online - scouting for girls (????) on Bangla is history!

Like this?

If you are anywhere near Cherngtalay then Sweep Music on the main Cherngtalay-Bandon road #4030 may be worth a look. No website but plenty of photos on Google Maps (coordinates 8°00'34.9"N 98°18'55.3"E) and looks well-stocked with guitars. I can't recommend except to say that I rode past it every day on holiday and it has survived Covid.

Address is C74, 50, Choeng Thale, Thalang District, Phuket 83110,

6 hours ago, owl sees all said:

I find the biggest problem is getting them without a heavy print. Be that 'Kitty' or 'Porn Hub'.

I thought I was the only person above teenage years who wore those! I have one that has both Pornhub and Durex ????

I only bought it because it matches my flip-flops ????

7 hours ago, nchuckle said:

I have found that Chromecast won’t work when needing to use a VPN on the device you are casting from. This applies to ALL subscription providers as well as bbc iPlayer etc. You get an error message (sometimes notifying you not available in your location). This is because chromecast connects to your WiFi router directly and thus isn’t under the vpn. The only potential solution is quite involved and requires your router menu to be able to be programmed with the IP address the vpn is using. My recent 3BB router doesn’t have that,not I suspect most others. Screen mirroring from my iPad however does work !  ???? 

Well, all I can say is that I Chromecasted from my laptop to a dumb TV (but with the necessary HDMI and USB slots) and watched World Superbikes with my Eurosport Player subscription and Formula 1 with my All 4 account (both geographically limited to the UK) at the end of last year in Kamala, Phuket and they were perfect. I used NordVPN.

However, rather mysteriously, since I've been home they no longer work ????

In a way it's a shame that Bangla has lost its sparkle for you - it's probably only a matter of time before the same happens to me and I go off and marry an Esan girl and become a gentleman farmer!

But there are plenty of alternatives - you seem to enjoy the new place on the beach, and there are plenty of other bars and restaurants all over Patong, as you are well aware.

10 hours ago, xylophone said:

And lastly your comment regarding lady drinks was also spot on, and paying around 200 plus baht for a lady drink is ridiculous these days

Yes, but Xylo, you have always been very kind-hearted and generous to the girls - you only have yourself to blame if they see you coming ????

Surely you know as well as I do that once you buy them one drink then you risk opening the floodgates and they keep an eye out for you from then on - some months ago I told the story of why I stopped going to Blue Lotus after a girl there got nasty when I refused to buy her further drinks.

14 hours ago, xylophone said:

The other side of the coin is that to relative "newcomers" to Patong, the bar and go-go scene is new and exciting and is probably something they haven't been used to in the past

Well, I am a relative newcomer to Phuket but it wasn't that long ago when there were two Tigers full of young attractive girls and a few very talented pole/hoop dancers - I wonder what they're doing these days? Virtually every bar on Bangla had girls dancing (well, nearly!) on top of the bars - has that actually been banned by the authorities?

I enjoyed Bangla on my last visit as it still has some life to it, albeit a pale shadow of pre-Covid times, and it's still a good place to watch the world go by. Phuket is still (mostly) beautiful and Patong, compared to my home town in the UK, is paradise - and I live on what is jokingly referred to as "The English Riviera" - it's a s**t-hole!

11 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Oh the keyboard warriors in this forum.

Well, just the ones who have laptops ????

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Employers usually aren't charitable, so effectively that payment comes out of the employees 'potential' wage.

True up to a point - and the employer's NI continues after the State Pension Age whereas the employees contributions stop, which seems a bit unfair. I was in that situation as I worked for an "extra" six months and it was fantastic - no NI and my mortgage was finished. It was tempting to do "just one more year" and then "just one more year" as so many people do, but the clock was winding down and so I quit while I could still enjoy it.

However, maybe you would argue that the office space rental, furniture, computer, etc. also "comes out of the employees 'potential' wage"?

Rhetorical question, just food for thought.

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

State pension is purchased with 20% of your wages, if you paid you're entitled

The State Pension is funded by National Insurance, not Income Tax.

The basic rate is 12%, but if you earn more than +/-£1,000 a week then the rate is only 2% on the excess.

11 hours ago, mikebell said:

When you move to Thailand, your pension is frozen at that sum.  I have lived here 15 years after my 65th birthday so I receive the weekly rate current in that year (- 2007?)

Okay - so that is the reason that you are receiving so little!

You had me (and others) confused for a while.

I needed to change my ticket when I was in Thailand - I knew it would be a waste of time trying to do it online/by phone/by email and so I drove an hour to Phuket airport and went to their little office there and spoke face to face. No joy as it was a cattle-class ticket, but at least I got a quick answer.

Are you nowhere near a Thai Airways office?

You seem to have a smart TV!

When I was in Thailand I watched Eurosport on my laptop and Chromecast it to the cheap 32" dumb TV in my rented apartment - I had to go through a UK VPN as my Eurosport subscription is geographically restricted but apart from that, no problems.

Sorry, not much help, but I think you have some fundamental problem if you can not even get a decent link up with an HDMI cable - have you tried linking the PC with the TV rather than the modem?

1 minute ago, kickstart said:

I have just had 3 insurance policies maturer,two  I started saving when I was about 18-20 ,the money is sat in a bank earning 0.5-0.75% interest with inflation now almost 7 % how are you to build for a great stability.

I have a private pension that I have not yet needed to touch - in the year to 18th September last year it grew by 9.81%!

I also own my property outright and since I bought it in October 2019 it has increased in value by over 40%.

I am not wealthy - I had always earned just slightly over the average wage, but I listened when it was drummed into me to buy a property and a private pension. I appreciate that many could not afford to do this, but many simply did not plan for retirement.

3 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I paid NI contributions for 44 years and my state pension is £399 every 4 weeks.

The full new State Pension is £179.60 per week i.e. £718.40 every 4 weeks, and you have paid for more than the qualifying number of years - there is a reason that you are not getting the full amount, and I'm sure that you know what it is!

But at least you seem to realise that the state pension is entirely funded by NI contributions and nothing to do with income tax - and that is why you no longer pay NI once you reach state pension age.

20 hours ago, Hans Johnson said:

When I first landed in the land of smiles over 25 years ago you never saw over weight women. I was always impressed by how much vegetables and fruit they consumed never over eating and their cleanliness compared to western women. 

Western junk food is now readily available in Thailand and, unlike Westerners who sit down and eat three meals a day at set times, from my observations many Thai girls seem to eat almost constantly throughout their waking hours. And also, rather than throw what they don't eat into the bin, they put it on their make-up table and then microwave it later.

Cleanliness? The bum-gun! The way we clean up in the west is positively barbaric - but then again, the mains water where I live is damn cold!

...and even if they could, why on earth (or why off earth ????) would they want to? No PH up there?

4 hours ago, petermik said:

A hansum chap pays less....

I always offer B2,000 and occasionally top it up with gifts - so you can imagine what I look like ????

(Actually, pretty good for my age, but that's the going rate down in Patong, I believe.)

PS: And I no longer use BGs - 100% TF these days.

22 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Try asking her what she needs. Some guys think they know how a female works but they don't. Men have no idea.

If she won't tell, then she deserves a sex life of boredom.

In my opinion.......

I do not want to risk having my post deleted and so I will not name it, but there is one practice that is universally enjoyed by all men but a lot of Thai girls will not accept a return of the favour. And yes, I do know why.

Also, a lot of (mainly younger) women don't even know what they want (or need) - or are saving their secrets for "the one". They particularly do not want to open up during casual encounters, which is fair enough I guess. For example, how many times have you been told "kissing only for boyfriend".

Despite being relatively accessible, I find that many Thai girls are nonetheless surprisingly unadventurous and conservative - they are generally submissive, non-judgemental and servile starfish, which I believe is what makes them so attractive to the average Western man who simply wants to get his rocks off with the minimum of hassle or effort  .

Luckily, on my trips to Thailand, I usually/eventually find a girl that I click with and then stick with her - interestingly, they are always over thirty ????

On 3/17/2022 at 7:25 AM, Somtamnication said:

Long story, but I can use the help......

We're all ears - fire away!

13 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I once had a discussion with some 40+ year old pals back in the UK ....... "do you still want sex as much?" The general consensus was most of the guys wanted more sex when over 40, but just had no options to get any. Their wive's refused, and pressing the issue or looking elsewhere would cost them their house, savings and pensions.

I would hate to be married while still having a strong libido - I'm now in my late sixties and think that maybe I could be happy with one partner, but in my earlier life? No way!

15 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Widely accepted by whom? IMO that's BS. If a guy does it right ( and that does not necessarily involve intercourse ) he should be able to make her happy, unless she has a physical impairment.

Woody Allen had some amusing tales to tell about it.

"If a guy does it right" - unfortunately, there is no universal method to help a woman to orgasm - they are far more complex than men!

Or maybe I'm totally inept and lacking in carnal knowledge and skills - oh well!