thaibound

This online/smartphone no-bar-necessary 'dating' formula you describe as the next wave in thailand already works beautifully in the philippines (with big help from sites like DIA and PinaLove, etc). I agree it's growing in LOS as well but i believe there are two main barriers to its universality there-- the limited english of the girls/lbs in thailand make it difficult/impossible to get to know the girls through conversation prior to meeting and thus often requires a face-to-face rendezvous prior to "room service" -- and where better to overcome the language barrier than in a bar? and historically, the whole social milieu of mongering in LOS seems to center around the bars/beer gardens/pool tables where mates can ogle in packs before choosing (or being chosen), whereas in the Philippines, while these bars exist, i'd wager there are more of them in pattaya alone than in all 7000+ islands of the philippines. maybe some clever entrepreneur will create a hybrid internet shop/go-go bar/speed-dating cafe where this transition can be captured for profit in the fast-approaching post-barfine age. it would, of course, be an integral part of any members-only gentlemans club/pizzeria/gym/microbrewery/sportsbar in which anyone i happened to know might wish to become a charter member....

that is, of course, assuming you manage not to be so distracted along the way you never make it to walking street.

if you want to have horny ladyboys (and the occasional lady) come to your hotel for limitless sex and reasonable english conversation and never ever have to leave your room for anything--the philippines. if you want to tour a wide variety of bars and meet a wide variety of humanity and be utterly confused as to the gender-at-birth of the beauty before you and the only english you need to hear is "yes i fuck you good"--thailand. if you want both -- you're young. do both.

some real hotties there, especially the cutie in the fishnet top. yum. thanks for the tale, Ernesto. and thanks more for the pix of the tail.

a few of us just toured the town. action street and blue ratthip *completely* shut down. first time i've walked soi bukoaw after dark with no fear of mad motorcyclists -- or over-eager bar girls. what a lovely quiet little town pattaya is when the bars are shut. anyone who believes pattaya is anything *but* a big open-air beer bar needed to walk bukoaw and pattaya thai tonight.

you don't suppose it's anything more than coincidence that it was a brit an an aussie that got dissed by the american academy do you? hmmmmm....maybe back in the day of the raging bull they still thought of scorcese as italian.... at least reading about their dislike for affleck you can take comfort their prejudices have expanded beyond the purely jingoistic.

after an enjoyable farewell to BB gathering at PBG last night (feb 24), a fellow forum member and i went by anaconda about 10pm, only to find the bar draped in black plastic and a security type sitting at the pool table eating some pad thai and telling me the bar was closed. i asked if it would be open again tomorrow and was told "okay". i translated that to mean "i said the bar is closed". maybe two minutes later, as we were strolling toward soi 8, i got a text from my favorite anaconda girl, asking me to meet her at her bar. i said i was just at her bar and it was closed. she said 'yes. closed. wait me.' whether it was coincidence or someone saw me at the bar and called her, i may never know, but ten minutes later she arrived on motor taxi , i met her outside UK bar, and we left together, never re-entering her 'closed' bar. to be continued?

i guess if casanova had any temptation to cascade his obsession with the darkside before the king's....ah fuck it. as i've said before, great bar.

for those who have not met the infamous Snick -- yes, that is his photo attached. (albeit greatly airbrushed). for those who attended last year's 'what happened on this day in history, february 29' party and were wondering -- no, i will not be making blue kamikazes. for those who know any ladyboys who have a good backhand -- snick's buying.

off the top of my head i can recall only one exception-- michael apted wasn't nominated for directing 'coal miner's daughter', which won the best picture oscar. and, btw, the last time i recall the DGA award for best director not predicting the oscar for the same was the year the Academy failed to recognize scorsese for 'raging bull', giving it instead to redford for 'ordinary people'. it was many more years before scorsese got his overdue oscar--and unfortunately for a film i found considerably less deserving. i'm sure there are other exceptions but i'd have to google them and that seems unfair on a thread about obscurity. but for affleck to win the DGA and not even get nominated by the academy...that's nuts...i would have bet that was a sure indicator the Academy wouldn't honor his film either, so now it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me. unless of course they gave it to 'argo' just to piss off paccie. stranger things have happened. just look at any of tarantino's last decade of "work" if you don't believe me.

i love this thread. and i love the movies. although in truth i really dislike most movies. but that's like disliking most people. there are so fucking many of them out there the idea of liking all of them, or even most of them, or even one particular subset of them, is, to me, ludicrous. simply not feasible. so get over it. but don't stop looking for --and appreciating -- the exceptions... and i very much agree with this quoted post by Kahuna. but that is not to say i agree with him elsewhere. fact is, i have met no one with whom i have found consistent consensus with regard to determining whether a movie is "good" or "bad" -- not even myself. which is why i go see so many of them. i don't need the excuse of an lb on my arm to go see some giant adventure film. truth is, i could unabashedly include several so-called 'action-adventure' films in my personal "top twenty". which would also include comedies and westerns and sci-fi fantasies and biographies and documentaries and melodramas and "tweeners" of every sort. the only difficulty i'd have would be giving any order to the 40 films i'd have tied in 10th place. although i confess my personal top twenty pieces of music would be blatantly --and forever -- devoid of opera, country-western disco, issan rock, and rap, i can not so easily exclude any genre from a list of my favorite movies. because the movies are magic. and while i understand that many people choose to pre-select their viewing options based upon the cast or the director or the subject matter or the damned starting time for that matter, in the end those factors will never determine a film's 'goodness/badness'. imagine if you will a film directed by the great arthur penn, screenplay by the great lillian hellman based upon a play by the great horton foote, and starring a cast of greats including robert redford, marlon brando, jane fonda, e.g. marshall, and robert duvall. is there any movie-lover out there who doesn't know those names and wouldn't jump at the chance to see that movie? well, don't. it's called 'the chase'. it was made in 1966. and it *sucked*. instead, see some of the movies recommended here, be they obscure or hollywood mega-hits. and please don't fall into the easy trap of trashing all hollywood films as though they were all one and the same simply because they cost a lot of money and were made by people who spend their entire lives making movies. now and then hollywood makes a movie as great as any obscure little art film you're likely to find anywhere. now and then. and 'now and then' is about all i ask out of anything these days. i was going to name a few comedies to "prove" that some are truly funny. and name a few sci fi films to "prove" some are truly moving, but....i'm not proselytizing for anyone or anything here. i have the feeling that if you didn't already love the movies -- maybe even as much as i do -- you wouldn't be spending your time reading this thread in the first place. so don't allow your preconceptions to limit your horizons. as i have learned over the years with regard to another interest we all have in common -- 'now and then' they can be just as beautiful even if they don't have tits.

so THAT must be what the girls at cascades were "dancing" to last time i popped in there. trancelike on the verge of vegetative. unfortunately it must have been playing on their little earphones because my own body was shuddering to some bass cacaphony that disallowed my finishing a single drink.

thanks to all for the suggestions. i have managed to extend my stay from within the confines of pattaya and although i wouldn't recommend the visa centre that helped me out--they promised my passport back in two days then took four, leaving me sweating as i dreamed of where in the world my passport might be...it's all done now. next time i'll get the tourist visa *before* coming over here--just in case.

many thanks for the intel. patty never caught my eye at labamba, but having since learned that she's a favorite of dave duke, and since i've learned by comparing top 20's w/mr. duke (and matching about 15 of them) that we share a common aesthetic with regard to the fairest sex, i think it incumbent upon me to move that number up to 16--before he returns and we have to write new lists.

All are welcome and it's also Deepthroat's 21st birthday, has anyone noticed a bell in the PBG?? he's finally legal? Big Tel, did you hear that? Come on down!!!

'photographic proof'? how do i know it was even you behind the lens? or maybe you did pay her that 20 baht --not for a photo, but for a smile--or maybe it wasn't just 20baht? maybe it was 20,000baht? competitive young buck that we all know you to be?? but be that as it may, in honor of your name day, i hereby grant you sole possession of 'favorite' status in the eyes of the heartbreakingly beautiful Wil, aka View (yes, she dissed me under both names as well). of course you might have to run that by those 18-year-old russians who continue to queu up for her favors--not to mention the dozens of GOTC attendees who will want nothing more than to knock you from said lofty perch. so enjoy it while you can my friend. i will be content to leave behind my quest for Wil and drown my sorrows in the arms of the hundred demi-goddesses who readily smile at a sweet old man, even as they profess their spontaneous/instantaneous/undying love -- with no need even for such preliminaries as an exchange of names. ah.....pattaya....

as clever and entertaining as the teaming of Fox and Waltz was -- and it was, i agree -- i must confess i can only shake my head when you suggest they are a "more likable" teaming than Butch and Sundance. this only reinforces my long-held belief that the predisposition we bring as a viewer is at least as relevant to our opinion of a film as what the film brings to the screen. for example -- return to a film you'd seen a week earlier, but without a half-deaf date who speaks little english or having not had too big a dinner -- and it can seem the whole film had been re-edited to be tighter and funnier. but, it's when you see it the third time -- and it's better than ever before -- that's when you have a great movie. i will never see django a third time. or even a second. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a game-changing reinvention of the Western which is as lyrical and charming today, even without its great historical significance, as it ever was (okay, i grant you, the world's first-ever music video could do with an edit--a little BJ Thomas goes a long way). "you keep on thinking, Butch, it's what you're good at" -- now *that* was classic.... on the other hand....Django's spurting blood seemed to me to be an uneven cartoon parody of peckinpah's real (and ground-breaking) violence, and i still am uncertain as to whether tarantino was meaning to shock us with his gorey --albeit historically accurate -- portrayal of a violent and terrible time in American history? or just get the kids to hoot and holler at all the blood? i.e., was he remaking Pulp Fiction or Grindhouse? and when you say the KKK scene was something 'straight out of Blazing Saddles' you are correct -- something Brooks would have cut straight out of his classic comedy for being too long and insufficiently funny. i don't want to 'give anything away' either, but seriously, was there anything surprising about the path or conclusion of that scene? i think not. i'm guessing paccers was in a damned good mood the night he saw Django. i didn't care for it, but i would certainly never claim that if pacman choose to vote it best picture it would be condemning his validity as a viewer and a critic. it would be a mere difference of opinion. so for him to say another film-lover's vote for Argo (imperfect as it was) condemns them (me?) --well, i find that a bit beyond the pale. though i will put it down to his boyish exuberance as he rushed home all flush from excitement at having seen so much blood spurting and hot black chicks getting whipped and jamie fox dressed up as little lord fauntleroy. because, oh yeah, that's what django was all about. and that's *all* it was about. of course, i should've seen it coming when i read his opening line: "I saw Django Unchained. An absolute classic! I enjoyed it more than Inglourious Basterds, actually a lot more" fact is, i enjoyed django more than i did inglorious bastards as well. but then, i thought inglorious bastards to be a meandering, incoherent pile of crap, only marginally saved by the apparently always-brilliant Chrisoph Waltz -- and i do owe quentin credit for helping me 'discover' him. beyond that? i'd just as soon leave the second half of tarantino's portfolio in the can and request we might bandy about the term 'absolute classic' with at least as much restraint as we do the term 'the best top in pattaya'.

but pd, then i'd miss watching the soupbowl with my dearest friends here in pattaya... can't be doing that now can i?

oh shit. i didn't bother to mention the other half of my plan. i need a total of 67 days, so i was going to get a 7-day extension and *then* a 30-day re-entry stamp--but this is the first i've heard that there's *any* hassle at all on the simple 7-day extension for 1900thb at jomtien... i guess i better get down there asap and secure it or get denied while i still have time to book a flight out of dodge b4 my 1st 30 days are up. it's starting to sound like a few days twiddling my thumbs in vientianne waiting for a real tourist visa (to cover my then-remaining 34 days) might be in my stars now... not that i'd really mind a few days there. pleasant enough little burg... thanks to all for the info. much appreciated.

an excellent and quite sizeable gathering this evening at Sensations for Ms Tata, et al. one of my personal highlights was watching Oh shoot some pool.... i hope that doesn't sound like i'm rubbing it in...mr. duke...

i second bumblebee's appreciate 360--but are you telling me that was Patty-ex-labamba in the yellow saran wrap? wow. i did not recognize her. so... that was a short blonde wig over her usual-long-black-hair? interesting change. eye-catching from afar for sure. if i might add my own 2¢... also up soi 7 toward 2nd road and also on the left, is a truly tiny hottie lb name of Bin you might see on or about the one pole at her bar...who i would highly recommend if you enjoy petite beauty. share the wealth.

thanks Wangsuda, just to be clear, if i can't get a new tourist visa while inside LOS and therefore must leave LOS anyway, there's no point in my bothering with a tourist visa as i will at that point only need another 30-day stay (i'm already booked out to PH at that point), so, if i have to leave the country no matter what...i'll just get another 30-day stamp for free upon my immediate return. i was really trying to avoid the "visa run" (technically a "new entry stamp run" to be precise) altogether. so...unless someone has a secret method for obtaining a new tourist visa while in-country, i guess i'll just keep searching for the cheapest flight out and back....maybe it will be to vientianne...i just won't bother with a trip to the embassy while there...

i'm sure many board members were pleased (albeit silently apparently) to see that lb cum didn't make the list. then again the study didn't really focus so much on the addictive powers of repeated ingestion did it...

i'll add my cheers to the always-welcoming Sensations Bar but some nights Karn looks so outrageously beautiful i have trouble just catching my breath...

wandering with the yensabai yobs past the never-b4-noticed Poker bar (thanks for the tip, 360) last evening b4 the monsoon hit, we spotted an amazing body in a tight yellow dress, with short blonde hair, bending over the pool table in a most provocative manner. not knowing Annie or Ta -- might that have been either of them? if so...quite fetching, at least from afar... if not....name please? must return soon.... before the mobs inevitably descend.