Rickshaw

Many thanks to both of you for hosting the party.

Getting to Hua Hin I am sure that there are threads about HH, but the search function returns nothing. If the moderators want to put this under another thread, I have no problem with that. After coming here many times over the past few years, I finally decided to go to Hua Hin, about which I had heard many things. The options for getting to and from HH appear to be roughly as follows: 1. private taxi - I found a couple of companies costing around 2700 baht each way 2. Minibus to Bangkok, drop off and find new bus at Victory Monument. Cheap, slow and the idea of being crammed in a bus with various nationalities for a prolonged period did not appeal. 3. The Yellow Bus (www.iloveyellowbus.com) runs a route from Rayong to Koh Samui including the Pattaya to HH segment. It runs three times a day in each direction, leaving Pattaya at 15.45,17.45 and 19.45, taking about 5 hours to get to HH (meaning that you arrive in the dark). Unfortunately, the return is not so convenient with buses departing at 23.30,00.30 and 02.30 arriving in Pattaya at highly inconvenient times. The cost of a normal ticket each way is 277 baht or 971 if you go VIP. And you have to get to the bus station. But people say that it is a very good service. 4. For a bit extra - actually, almost twice as much - you can go Bell Bus to the airport and another from the airport to HH. It has the advantage of pick up at your hotel in Pattaya and an hour or more break at the airport at lunch time so you can get lunch, relieve yourself and walk about a bit. Bell have changed their booking system to one where you pay on-line with a credit card and pick the seat that you want which is better than the old system of scrambling for a seat on the shady side of the bus. I took this option and the bus from the airport to HH was very good with a 2 1 configuration so I was able to be comfortable without a neighbour spilling over into my seat. Even the Pattaya - airport bus has been replaced with a newer bus. The timings are longer than the yellow bus with door to HH bus station (they drop you at the bus station or at a junction some 20 kms out of town) took about 7 hours including the time at the airport. HH is a typical Thai linear town i.e. it consists of a block or two either side of the main highway, but stretches about 6 or 7 kilometres in length. The bus station is around 3 kms away from the town centre and a taxi costs 150 baht to go there (it appears to be a standard fixed price, but there may be room for negotiation or just walking up the road until a taxi stops for you). The nightlife This is just two blocks in size (you can literally walk around it in 5 minutes) between the Hilton Hotel and the main road in the city centre.If your hotel is some distance away, you will end up paying for a taxi each way and I suspect that the taxi drivers will take advantage of the time, distance, your companion and your state of sobriety to drive a hard bargain when it is time to go back. It seems to be the place where bar girls go just before they retire. A few, very few, acceptable ones, but regretfully (for I am not in the first flush of youth myself), they looked, and were, old. Having said that, their clientele was also old so maybe the differential between girl and customer was the same as in Pattaya / Phuket / Bangkok. There are a few bars with LBs and I found one young lady who was an absolute cracker and with whom I spent my three nights there, but I don't think that HH is a place that you go for mongering, more of a place where you would take your own for a bit of a respite from Pattaya. Do I regret going? No, but being that I am not a beach person, had I not found my little friend, I would have considered it a bit of a wasted trip. Would I go again? Probably not, unless it was to one of the high end resorts out of town where I would bring my own high end girl for some low end fun.

According to the study most men, 68%, had a penis size between 4.5 and 6 inches erect. 16% were greater than 6 inches and only 2.5% were larger than 7 inches. On the stubby side, 16% were LESS than 4.5 inches when erect of course and 2.5% were SMALLER than 3.5 inches!!!! Measured from tip 'till where the penis finishes at the top or to where the balls join it? That makes a huge difference - with a slip of the ruler and some bad eyesight, up to 2 inches longer! Not that it makes much difference; you've got what you've got and to be honest, I have heard enough complaints from both ggs and lbs about big members (discomfort through to pain and cystitis) to be glad that I am how I am. One girl I know admitted that her previous boyfriend was very well built and as a result, she had not enjoyed sex for the entire 3 years that the relationship lasted. Call me a helpless romantic if you must, but if my partner of the moment does not enjoy sex with me, I cannot enjoy sex with them.

A timely thread I have been using Pattaya limos for a couple of years now - 1200 and good cars, very reliable. This time, I had to ring them from the UK since they didn't reply to either my request through their website or to my subsequent e-mail. I was assured everything was OK and I would be met at the airport on Sunday. Arrived at Swampy, through immigration and customs in 25 minutes and then had to wait for an hour for my car. No explanation, no consideration that I was a repeat customer, nothing. So regretfully, I cannot recommend them. Bye the bye, before I used Pattaya Limos, I used Apple but as Ciobha said, the service deteriorated badly and I lost patience with them after the price, agreed beforehand in writing to be 1200 suddenly rose to 1400 when it was time to pay. When I contacted her by phone, she sounded so resigned that I didn't have the heart to object and just paid. But never again will I use them.

I was wondering what a respectable married man like Bumblebee was doing in a bar like this. Taking photos! Obvious, innit.

Is this our equivalent to the question that plagued medieval clergy "Just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin"? And with the same result - a lot of opinion, few facts and even if we could get a clear cut picture, to what end? There are lots, in both countries. I did a simple search in Ladyboy kisses for lbs in Cebu and got 1394 hits. Since I am there for 5 days only, anything above 100 (assuming my personal filters only accept 10%) is frankly irrelevant. There are more than enough in either country to satisfy anyone during a normal lifetime and leave lots over for other people. For me, a more interesting question would be "what are the differences between the two lb populations and how do those differences match my predelictions"? This brings into play things like language, outlook, accessibility and such like. Just my two pence worth.

I have always said that I prefer (as a generalisation) Philippinos because you can converse with them in English, the downside is, unlike most Thais, you can understand them when they are talking bollocks....

Somehow, I have never associated Thai culture with customer service.To me, great customer service cuts in when something goes wrong. My experience on Thailand when this happens is: nobody but the boss is empowered to make a decision and in order to make a decision, the boss have to admit something has gone wrong; at this point, face can be lost and so it is far easier to pretend that nothing is wrong in the first place or, if it is, it's your fault. I know that this is a massive generalisation, but overall, it has been my experience. As a result, unless it is a major catastrophe, I try to smile and move on rather than to get them sort the problem out. Which is not great customer service to my mind.

Veet! I use the aerosol since I find it easier to use than the cream. I see that they now have Veet for men, but being a delicate little flower, particularly around my nether regions, I stick with Veet Gentle.

I have been told that if there is no activity on your account for 6 months, Kasikorn will freeze it and you will have to present yourself at a branch (possibly your "home" branch i.e. where you opened up the account- my informant was unclear on this) to unfreeze it. After a year, they remove the money from your account and you have to go through some form of legal process to get it back. Things I am unsure about: is this true? does transferring money into the account from overseas count as activity? One would think so, but this is Thailand... Since I tend to go back regularly, it hasn't been as issue for me, but others who are on annual visits could get caught out if the timings of their visits are slightly longer than one year. Of course, if transferring money counts as activity, then problem solved, particularly since you can send money when your home currency is strong (or in the case of the pound, less weak). I have also found that whilst the exchange rates are the interbank ones, I do get a better exchange rate if I change cash at TT Change in either Second Road or Soi Bukhaow (which I then can put into my Thai bank account for withdrawal as and when required). It's your choice whether the risk of carrying cash is outweighed by an extra half a baht per pound changed. Personally, for my pattern of visits, I think so but then I tend to be in the country for six to ten weeks at a time and so the difference mounts up considerably (and I don't have to pay £25 for the transfer!).

I think that route 67 is quoting Stephen Hawking when he says "Turtles all the way down". And let's face it, what does Stephen Hawking know about the cosmos? Exactly. I rest my case about that particular quote. Now onto real life (well, more real to me than understanding quantum physics and how the four forces involved can be extrapolated from being between fundamental particles holding an atom together into holding the universe together. That gives me a headache just thinking about it, mainly because the only way I can even begin to understand it it is to have several large drinks in quick succession. Followed by several more at which point enlightenment occurs. Unfortunately, this enlightenment has a half life similiar to the Higgs Bosun and so I have to start again). Anyway, back to real life. According to the Colour of Magic, the world is a flat disc, supported by four elephants whose names are Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen. These four stand upon the Great A'Tuin, a gigantic turtle of unknown, albeit hotly debated, sex. There are various hypotheses about the origin and ending of the universe but the hot favourite theory has it that the Great A'Tuin is swimming through space from where it was hatched to where it will mate with another great turtle; at this point, it is postulated that either the world will simply fall off the elephants or the world together with the elephants will be crushed and destroyed. This is known as the Big Bang Theory. There is a lot more where this came from, but I will spare you all the rest! Suffice it to say that if you like your literature to be wry, funny and to bend modern life into shapes that it was never meant to be, then Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are for you!

Anybody with any pretensions to being a cultured intellectual knows that it is in fact a flat disc, balanced on the back of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a turtle which is slowly swimming its way through space. If that is not the case, then the whole of the Discworld books are fiction, not fact which, given they make far more sense to me than the stuff I read about in the newspapers, is frankly a ridiculous notion.

I don't suppose that there is any chance of subtitles so that those of us from the Home Counties can understand what these chaps are saying. I think that they are indicating which polo team they follow although I don't think much of their chances in a good chukka given their head protection.

I suppose that their political system and national religion don't really fit under the heading "Natural Disasters". But, given those two plus being on the Pacific rim of Fire plus being slap bang in the path of typhoons every year, it is amazing just how happy Philippinos tend to be. It does help to put our own problems into perspective.

is there any update on the proposed resumption of the ferry from Pattaya to Hua Hin?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9703166/Belgian-discovers-his-wife-used-to-be-a-man-after-19-years.html Possibly not the most observant husband in the world...

Sorry - i really can't help since I don't take my high value kit to bars. Combine high value with natural and age related forgetfullness, alcohol and other "distractions" and I suspect that I would end up losing most of my portable kit! However, I do take my stuff to coffee shops. Benjamin's (between the patch of land where they hold the Tuesday and Friday Soi Buckhao market and Pattaya Tai) has free wifi and excellent coffee, Au bon pain at the Avenue has (or certainly had) free wifi - Starbucks at the Avenue tried to charge me for wifi, but since I dislike starbuck's coffee, it was no problem to put them on my mental blacklist. Hope that this helps.

There's a new hotel in soi 10 just down from Page 10 that has a policy, explicitly stated, of not employing ladyboys. That's another one off the list.

By all means (since it is not mine) but be aware that whereas this uses "faggot", the original that I know was "moron" which is probably less acceptable and someone might quote it back to you (thus proving the point perhaps).

She is now working at the Bamboo massage on soi 13/3. The other update is Natcha has gone freelance and part-time as she attempts to move away from the bar scene. Her phone number is 0837 462 693. She has posted a profile on LBR which is a little misleading (she doesn't know what half the activities that apparently she does, actually are) and misses out the minor fact that she is a really nice person, great fun to hang out with and not bad at pool. She also combines the ability to be great with newbies whilst still tempting the more jaded monger (aka me). Definitely worth a punt.

She is still around but her hours are quite erratic. Sometimes she is there at 11 in the morning, other times I don't see her for days. The bar next door (I think it is called the standby bar and massage shop) has 5 LBs, a couple of whom are quite fit so if she isn't there, you can always have a drink whilst waiting....

It brings to mind the childhood rhyme (ok, so it's ever so slightly adapted from the original) - and I should state that this is not meant to be offensive! See the happy faggot He doesn't give a damn I wish I were a faggot My God - p'haps I am

Given that this is at least the third thread on this subject that I know of, perhaps massage shops could be in a separate catagory so that they are all together ....

And I discovered last night that they have a pool table in the adjacent bar which the girls and customers of #1 can use.

My last words on the subject - promise! It ain't complicated. Just approach it from second road. You can't go wrong. Easy Peasy. Simples (as a meerkat would say).