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You know, when I was growing up, and if you went camping or hiking way out in the boonies, on state forest land or a state/national park, it was pot growers you had to watch out for. Back in college, I remember me and some friends were on a three-day backpacking trip, and we came across a trip wire across a trail, two days out from the nearest trailhead. We were like wtf? ... Then we discovered the pot field smack in the middle of federal land. Wouldn't you know it, our three-day trip turned into a week long hike ... Unfortunately we only had about four-days worth of food between us and no Doritos or chips (crisps to my UK brethren). I remember being high as a fucking kite, in the middle of nowhere, when it dawned on me that 1) I was stoned as fuck and 2) the nearest pizza place, Mexican restaurant or burger joint was at least two-days' hike away. On a clear, quiet autumn evening, they say you can still here my screaming lamentation echoing among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains: "NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo ... FUUUUUUUuuuuuuuk!" Ah, youth. Now, in this day and age, it's always some rural meth lab that's blowing up or otherwise getting busted by the local cops ... or some unsuspecting person stumbling across the operation. In the small town where my parents retired to, on a lake, one day not long after they moved in, a real estate agent was showing a house down at the other end of their rural lane to a prospective buyer. The house had been on the market for six months and uninhabited; when they got to the kitchen, they discovered the meth works. Needless to say, the agent didn't get the sale. I never tried meth -- same same yabba, for those that don't know -- but used to dabble with speed, usually during final exams, I confess. That was more than enough for me. Buy you're right. Meth labs go hand in hand with mullets and Scorpions t-shirts. Speaking of which, I remember driving around in my big-ass Ford after school (outside of football and wrestling seasons), age 17, rocking out to the Love at First Sting album.

.•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•."Famous Bar".•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•. ... "Pinky & May" ... ... "Num & Mai" ... ... "Sammy" ... *** Famous *** Famous Bar *** "Famous" *** Famous Bar *** Famous *** ... "Famous Open from 3pm (15:00) Until Late Daily" ... “Cock n’ Roll ®” Karl.

.•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•."Famous Bar".•:*¨¨*:•..•:*¨¨*:•. ... "Mai Sindy Nonny & Pinky" ... ... "May" ... ... "Nonny" ... *** Famous *** Famous Bar *** "Famous" *** Famous Bar *** Famous *** ... "Famous Open from 3pm (15:00) Until Late Daily" ... “Cock n’ Roll ®” Karl.

DT- Good posts and yes it can happen. I am well past 50 and fairly cynical about love and particular about Thai love. However I do have a non P4P GG Thai girlfriend now for over 2 years. It's an amazing experience and I would not want to miss it. Yes, I give her money, an amount about equal to what I would spend mongering, she does not ask for it. I do have to remind myself constantly that she may have an ulterior motive but sofar this has not surfaced. No, I will not be her source of income nor am I husband material and I made that clear to her, but like I said above I do value and enjoy this relationship with both eyes open.

Yep, That be Nam

Full Moon party on Ko Phangan is on Sept 1st even though the moon was full on Aug 31st. Moon is only full on September 1st in New Zealand and points east to the international date line, not to be confused with match dot com. Now even though the moon was officially full on Aug 31st in the States that happened in the daytime and the moon was fuller for more of the evening of Aug 30th than of August 31, which is what should really matter. Should I wake up and enjoy the espresso? Last night I did admire the full moon in the jungle while the DJ pumped techno to backpackers and flashpackers fueled with buckets that hopefully were DEET free. A beautiful site to behold! And I notice that warm full moon nights do seem to energize people. Mother Nature has power.

Two words, three letters, and he effectively communicated his point. But with all that effort he expelled in pushing those five buttons (including the space bar and the period key), he could have simply clicked: (and that emoticon would even have said nine hundred and ninety-eight more words!). He is clearly more industrious than the communicators of tomorrow that I see before me each working day, who spend more time trying to copy others' work and pass it off as their own than actually trying to say something. A cherished talisman of a bygone era is our Ken, to be enshrined right alongside other endangered species like Poetry in the Museum of History, Language wing...

Fantastic fucking thread, Gentlemen. Great points all around. And once again, our man Ken steals the show. I had wanted to address some of the grammatical points that Ken and 4:17 so eloquently laid out, and I really gotta agree. I spend a lot of time thinking about this subject. It's my education, my craft, and, well, a hobby. And as some have said, it really comes down to picking your spots, and what's best for each situation. What's the end goal of that situation? Is it to better educate that person? Then great, go for it. Or is it to effectively get your message across? If it's the latter, then you should rely on any and all things at your disposal to do that. Fuck fluency, rules, grammar, English. I'm sometimes left to wonder how much language we really need. 90+ percent of all conversations are less than two minutes. And the majority of those conversations express base need, desire, possession. How difficult is it to accomplish that? You can get pretty fucking far with non-verbal communication. You could pretty much drop me anywhere in the world right now and I could get by just fine. On the other hand, English is a virus that is consuming other languages, right now, as I type this. English is, as Sarah Palin likes to point out when she takes her foot out of her mouth long enough to try to cover her mistakes, a living language. It's the only language built to keep up with the propulsive trajectory that life is on right now. It's the only one that can truly keep up by saying, "If we don't have a word for it, we'll just make one. Or, we'll take yours." English is of Germanic descent. Know what they officially speak in the German scientific community? That's right. They gave up on their own language cuz it couldn't keep up. Thai? The government has actual laws preventing you from changing the language. Keeps it traditional. But it's also gonna get it left behind. It's predicted that fifty to ninety percent of all existing languages twenty years ago will be gone in their entirety (from being spoken, that is), in the coming years. So, if your goal is to help someone speak better English for their work and lives, great. But on the other hand (I think that's about three hands now, innit?), what gets me even more than the phone calls that irk Brother Slim, are the text messages I'm seeing more and more. The other day on the train, I saw the girl next to me rifle through what had to be ten messages on something that looked like facebook. At near lightspeed, she fired off individual replies to all of them consisting of no more than a single symbol, an emoticon, if you will. More and more this is where communication is going. And I joked about it and alluded to it when we revamped the emoticons on this site. SamplerDoc was a prophet of doom, Gentlemen. Everybody's gonna eventually have their own customized palette of symbols, pointing and clicking them to speak for us (and, of course, those symbols will eventually have logos on them). Who needs translator sunglasses when you can just take out your iPad in the bar and click on: . Who needs language...

You're not alone BB...But just why it happens I have no clue...Lefty and I have had this conversation several times in recent months...The "when" word is increasingly replaced by the "if" word... Sometimes the call is so great to return that I jump to Kayak to search for airline tickets...And sometimes I think my time has passed and that I will never return to Thailand... For now I am just treading water...Staying afloat...I am sure that when the Docs have me all fixed up again that I will return...So for now the "when" word is winning the race...However, the weather is serving as an anchor of sorts...The fall, winter and spring are truly amazing seasons here is the desert...They make it well worth surviving the summer for... I have a strong feeling that when I do return Thailand will only be one of many stops...I wanta see a bit more of SE Asia and maybe a bit more of Latin America before my feet are planted permanently here in the desert...

You sound like just the right drinking partner for an afternoon, we could solve many problems of the universe in one sitting, plus i can chew your ears off about the LB scene, how long u in town, i got first shout :) @pdogg.. that does sound complicated mate, but shit it made me laugh ! :) @duke007 & b/bee....Cheers and plan to get some great pics and vids to share with you fine folk ! Ok boarding call, wheels up...In my best austin powers voice "Yeah Baby Yeah" !!

Welcome aboard Pattaya Punter! I'm away from Pattaya the whole month of September........my life is upside down as my girlfriend has a cock and my holiday is when I leave Pattaya. Have fun in Sin City mate!

I wholeheartedly agree with the russians being the worst dressed, and the rudest. And im surprised us Americans were 6th, thought we were a little ruder than that, lol. I figure not having much in the way of warm weather clothing contributes to the Russian lack of style, have u ever tried to buy clothing here in Thailand? Seems to be 2 sizes smaller than what im used to, and u know the Ruski's like their tight short shorts n shirts

A few pics of the girls.

This may sound strange to all the mongers here, but in a way I feel fortunate that my libido has kind of gone south in the past few years and these days I don't even bother anymore, and certainly not with relationships. I was just in Pattaya for about 10 weeks and didn't have sex with even one person, female or male or in-between and didn't give a toss either way. And, ummmmm, they certainly were available, it was low season! But even when I was much more active, say between 2000 and 2005, I only ever had ONE 'girlfriend', for about a year, and we both cheated on each other constantly so in reality how real was that? Every Thai has an angle, every single one, with us westerners. Sorry but I don't believe some of the stories I see about how "she really did/does love me and after a year or 2 still doesn't want anything from me" .....give it some more time and eventually the bomb will get dropped on you, if for no other reason due to pressure from her family. Keep in mind everyone is different, but I don't want to be part of any 'game'; I like my bed to myself, and sex is no big deal to me. I keep my phone off most of the time and don't want to be bombarded with messages and calls from people in "the game" when it is on, and the accent also drives me nuts after a while; I hear men my age explaining things to their girlfriends like a 5-year old and I don't want to be that guy. I like Thailand for the good weather and the cheapness factor and the fact they have so many nice beaches. The food is decent also. Relationships? Ehhh.

Interesting topic, BB, and interesting, thoughtful responses so far. I can certainly understand why the girls get jaded. To a lesser extent, I even understand the guys that get jaded and make (to my mind) often ridiculous and somewhat narrow-minded generalizations about Thai girls, working girls, culture, etc. (before anyone flames me, I'm not directing that at anyone in particular; in fact this board seems to get a minimum of that sort of thing, unlike, say LBP). For my part, I suppose I'm a true butterfly man. I don't understand these guys that come here looking for love and a long-term relationship, but then I don't really understand the folks back home pining away for that sort of thing. Not knocking it, it's just not for me (and no, I didn't come from a broken home; my parents were very loving towards each other, and us kids, and they were together for more than 50 years). So I'm always very honest with the girls, both in P4P and outside that scene. It's hard for people from Southeast Asian cultures to understand someone who doesn't want to ever get married, doesn't want to be in a LTR, etc., as it is so ingrained in their own culture -- it's a very alien way of thinking -- even in Western cultures. But I'm just much more happy and content living the simple life on my own (guess that's why I love working girls). Were I ever to get involved with someone seriously again (I tried to conform to the norm, once upon a time), she would have to be just as bad a butterfly as I am (and of course I would let her butterfly, because I'd be doing the same -- if you love something set it free. ). Needless to say I'm not a jealous person. ... But my (rather sanctimonious) point is, I rarely have any problems with women or LBs, be they P4P or not. Frankly I'm sometimes mystified when I see or hear about some drama that some board member experienced. I think as long as you are honest about what you are up to/what you want, whether you are talking to a prostitute, the cashier at 7-11 or the business woman you met across the conference table, there's not going to be any problems on either side. At least that's been my experience. On the other hand, guys stringing along girls on some dating site just to get some and then walk away -- being the playa -- that's a bit despicable, at best. That's my long-winded 0.63 baht.

Well BB, I think I'm somewhat sympathetic to the girls. I have four very sweet and sincere ladyboy friends in the Philippines now who are just amazing people. College educated, working in fortune 500 companies as managers, and absolutely beautiful. They have all related that foreign men who just wanted to get laid have consistently lied to them about their intentions. One told me of a guy she had been chatting with for 3 months, but would only chat with her from his office computer, and could never video. I told her..."wake up, that guy is married, and is just wasting your time playing around at his desk at work. If he can't video chat from home, he must be married". She was hurt, but realized it was true. I have told each of these four that I'm not ready for a serious relationship, and therefore probably not for them, and they all continue to chat with me, although it is clear they are hoping at some point I will "settle down" and stop butterflying around at some point. These girls are not looking for any financial support, but are looking for a guy who will be honest and sincere with them. I also have a different group of LB friends who are not educated and are trying to either get a foreign bf to take care of them, or get a little financial benefit from the relationship. These are disappointed if you say you aren't serious, but are always ready willing and able to meet in a hotel, and are grateful for 1000 pesos at the end of the night. With one of these I maintained a "relationship" for over six months, and I know in her mind I was just an ATM with a penis...she was willing to say anything to meet me, and get a few pesos, and say anything to have me send a few pesos periodically for support. Unfortunately, it was a game, but for her it is a game for survival. Having seen where she lived, and the circumstances in which her family lived, I realized that what I spent on cigars and drinks in a month would make a material difference in her life. So I didn't mind helping, even though I know it was just a game. I had a unique experience with her. She let me read all her chats on yahoo messenger with all the guys she had chatted with for over a six months period. It was really eye opening for me. This kid is only 18, but admitted she had been seeing foreign men since she was 15. In these chats there were so many graphic and lewd comments initiated by the guys, that after a while I became sick, and really felt bad for her. However, the worst were the guys that said they were about to get on a plane, and then never showed up, and the guys who did show up, fucked her and then never returned one of her YM's after that. Whether she was just looking for a payday, or for true romance, either way the number of guys that just disappeared without showing up, and/or after fucking her was something to see. I realized that this 18 years old kid, had to have the hardest heart imaginable to be able to keep searching for foreigners, and was clearly a very damaged person. So, game or no game...I think if you want to play around just say so, and give a fair price for P4P, and don't mislead the girls for free ass if you know you are never going back to S.E. Asia after your vacation. My two cents... Cheers, Randi .