Prubangboy

Check out Fah Lanna Spa. They have a brutal massage with a thick piece of bamboo that's well within the Rolfing zone. Did it; fairly painful (but effective) -not running back. It's only available at the Old City branch and requires booking ahead (1,600 baht per hour). https://fahlanna.com/spa-menu/massage-10/

We did a thread here this year on the classic book: Hello My Big Honey -Love Letters to Bargirls. Published in '93. It's recently been reprinted by White Lotus Press, which means it has academic library value. The legend is that the hottie on the cover used to pose in front of Nana holding the book for dates -and that she died of AIDS (unverified).

No diss, but when did you last set foot in Thailand? A woman I know clears a grand a day working at a pot store (goodlooking, western-friendly etc). That guy I love here on the 10K a month plan is an anomaly -and in a long-term marriage. Can JoeBlow still hop off the plane and enjoy sex on tap for $10 a day? Maybe in Laos. I got several proposals there in June. But those women would be straighter in bed than Mormons. I'd want change back from the tenner.

TBL is still partying (in his long ago memories) like it's:

When they're openly displaying spliffs and mushrooms at Tapie Gate, that ship may have sailed. I went to The FMP this last Feb. MDMA etc. was being sold from kiosks on the two main drags of Had Run. About 3K people. Very well-behaved. So a bit of a letdown. The hotel wanted a deposit lest I leave fluorescent body paint on their sheets and towels.

Alice Coltrane https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/arts/music/alice-coltrane-jazz-music.html

According to an esteemed contributor here, he's still on the 10K baht plan. Maybe he was uh, grandfathered in? Last go-round on this tho, 30K seemed to the post-Covid #. Always an evergreen topic to kick around.

Agreed. If you are having sex with very poor people -who have all the usual problems of very poor people- it's unrealistic to expect them not to want/hope for a little of the cash that literally just falls out of your pockets. $10 a day (old rate?) for a girlfriend? I could prob find that in my sofa cushions. Is it for Mama, lotto tickets, or a new, enticing tube top? Who knows? Give or don't; but skip the moralizing.

This borders on clinical paranoia. You need to lead a 100% risk-free life. You shouldn't ever buy a toaster, lest the guarantee that comes with it doesn't pan out if it breaks. How indeed, does anyone know for absolute sure that any donation is going anywhere? What's to stop these evil miscreants from re-selling the rice? What are the odds that this micro-charity is a bunch of thieves and that just goes on and on for years? The odds are tiny. Get a grip. Again, OP, you're a lovely person.

It's not available too many places. Got mine at The Fa Lanna Spa in Chiang Mai. My wife reads a lot of spa menu's and can't recall seeing it elsewhere in Thailand. I might do it again out of further curiosity, if I was staying next to the spa again. Fa Lanna Spa had other stuff like being kneaded with a bamboo stick or having little widgets hammered in between your shoulder blades. There's a 5-hour program where you study trad dance in between various rubs and ancient treatments. More cultural than physical in benefit. https://fahlanna.com/spa-menu/ Whether these things are hype or not, the people who study them are very serious and dedicated. My Reiki person lives in a Reiki commune. I wish I could find proper shiatsu here. Someone mentioned such a person at The Meridian Hotel, but they didn't know them at the spa. It cost me 2,000 baht for the full Reiki hour. Make fun of me.

You are fronting your pub bore bitterness as savvy wisdom when you are in fact 100% content-free. Do you have any anecdotes to share of tiny charities skimming cash? I'm going to go with: Duh. No.

I don't have your gift of all-knowing, cynical clairvoyance. Everyone else in the universe but you thinks that giving money to charity is a good idea.

Def agree. It's a lovely thing to do. To answer your question, I'd buy the nicer rice, BUT: I always give money. It's the universal gift certificate, good in any store. A charity is always short of cash. It may be less satisfying to give cash to their general fund instead of imagining those winsome urchins enjoying your gift -but it will be much more appreciated than any specific thing you might give them.

Menopause: they put on weight, they have hot flashes, they go a little mad. I can def see trading down age-wise, but after 60, you're going to start running out of pre-meno bed-candidates. I noticed today at the buffet that all the female hugs I got were def of the side-hug variety. The ship has sailed.

Maybe look into live on a cruise ship options. It can go as low as $70 a day. No soi dogs.

Love your deep dives into forgotten writers. Thomas Wolfe (I prefer Tom Wolfe as a writer) had that dense, overwritten style that today's readers cannot bear. As he said to Hemingway, "You're a taker outer, I'm a putter in-er." Like fellow genius's Faulkner and Steinbeck, his is a world where the various American regions were starkly different from each other. If bad luck ever brings you to Asheville, NC, his home is as crammed as his books. https://wolfememorial.com

It's a wonderful life -genius, but about a half an hour too long (and it's only 131 minutes). The first half really, really drags.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2023/12/22/die-hard-christmas-movie-lead-vpx.cnn

Since you like oldies, I go with the ancient brit version of Christmas Carol. Alistair Simms -never bettered in the Scrooge role. In the black and white era, the set lighting of scenes was a great art. As this trailer shows, this is one of the best lit film in film-dom.

Men are more likely than women to be truly egregious snorers.

I think of it more as an intimacy mismatch. But time is the enemy of the would-be cuddlers. As women get older, a lot of them are on the change of life and being held by you feels like being chained to a furnace. If you gotta cuddle, I can see getting one on the side who's still young enough to bear it. Male cuddlers outnumber women cuddlers by about 73 to 1.

I agree with your agreement. I don't like to gamble, but I def enjoyed the Neon sizzle of downtown Vegas. I'm not much of a boozer, but feel free to turn me loose in the New Orleans French Quarter any time. I'm not a monger, but to hang out in a bar on the back road with old perverts enjoying what may be the best days of their lives -is up there with the best of it. Whether you partake or not, Pattaya offers old-style sin in a uniquely safe setting. Long may it run. Golf courses and The Temple of Awareness are great things too. My personal Pattaya love story is about when I got dysentary in Myanmar and went there to convalesce. Some nowhere motel behind Diana Inn. I found community and support. There's a famous chicken and rice place nearby that kept me alive. I'll bet it's still there. That big shopping center across the road had a guy selling old Buddha's and amulets on the top floor (this is an old story). From talking and buying from him, I developed a 25+ year interest in Thai art and antiques. Women in bars would tell me about their their bar front shrines. Devout Thai people with good English and a willingness to talk about their stuff is rare, but not in Pattaya. Tourist police: "What are you doing with that girl?". Me: "Uh, Anthropology?".

For me, Pattaya is low rent Miami with hookers. Now that I write that down, it sounds pretty great. If it were in the states, it would be a top 5 tourist attraction.

Hang Dong Chiang Mai. Many gated communities. It has a mall with Farang in the name. Caveat: I've never been.

Indefensible, but Pringles. Partic flavored ones. Flavorwise, very inferior to chips. Crunch/texture-wise, unbeatable. Killed a small tube in a minibar the other day. Would never knowingly buy them.