Rickshaw

My point was that soi 10 from second road does not end in Soi Bukhao. It peters out in a patch of waste ground which to get to Soi Bukhoa, you have to cross diagonally. This is easy to do when you are going to Soi Bukhoa in daytime. It becomes less easy when you are going the other way at night particularly since there are no soi numbers for 10 and 9 on Soi Bukhoa to indicate that this is the correct patch of wasteland over which to trudge. I really didn't mean this to be an examination of my direction finding abilities (which I freely admit are poor - I am constantly amazed that I can find my way to the bathroom every morning). However, if two, relatively experienced, Pattaya mongers can fail to find the bar for the first time, those with less experience are likely to be even more confused. Thus my advice to locate it initially from second road, not Soi Bukhoa.

Soi 10 is very difficult to find from Soi Buckheow - we tried, but failed, a couple of nights ago. However, it is dead simple from Second Road where (amazingly and possibly uniquely in Pattaya) Soi 10 leading to Soi Bukhoew is just about directly opposite soi 10 leading to Beach road and where the Page 10 hotel is situated. The bar is on the right hand side of the soi and has a clear illuminated sign easily visible from Second Road. They are hoping to get 10 LBs working there soon - at the moment, they have 5.

I'm just winding up a three week trip to the Philippines and so I'll add my comments to Stealth's Angeles Pacific Breeze I had a normal deluxe room which was OK, but with a few drawbacks: 1. it was on the first floor (2nd if you use the US system of floor numbering), right by the stairs and lift. The hotel has, like most Asian hotels, tiling rather than carpets and so the noise from the lobby echoed around the place and was disturbing (it was the guests, not the staff who made the noise.Why some people and nationalities find it impossible to have a conversation without shouting is beyond me). This would have been a less of a problem further down the corridor or on a higher floor. 2. There were not many flat surfaces in the room and those that were there were covered with things for sale e.g crisps, combs, condoms leaving very limited space for my stuff. I don't like that. 3. They did not provide free shampoo, only stuff you could buy. It was not a problem but combined with the second point, I felt as if I was the wrong end of a sales blitz with no thought as to my psychological comfort by trying to make the room a little more friendly 4. Early check in was not a problem, but late check out costs a whopping 500 pesos per hour. Valentinos Formerly my favourite hotel in Angeles, but it has gone down hill a bit in the last couple of years. They are planning to put in a swimming pool next year. Still very friendly, but compared with the Pacific Breeze, it comes off second best except for the last day in the Philippines. I fly Cebu Pacific and the flight back to Bangkok goes at 9 at night. Late check out costs 100 pesos an hour until 6pm. Good value for those of us who like the idea of being washed and clean before flying. Cebu Harolds A new hotel which was recommended to me. I didn't like it for various reasons. 1. Despite asking for a quiet room, when I checked in late at night, they put me into a room right under the top floor night club. The music finished at 2 in the morning and then cleaning with music started again at 5.30 am. I moved floor that day. But the front desk checkin staff did not know that this was a problem which is a bit of an issue 2. The internet was very slow and unreliable 3. I could not get hot water in either of my rooms. Warm water, yes, but I like hot showers 4. The free breakfast left a lot to be desired. Quest Another new hotel which, like Harolds, is in easy distance of the Ayala Mall, a great place to meet up with previously arranged contacts or to pick up new ones. I loved it, particularly since they are running a 50% off promotion at the moment.... A few disconcerting things like it's the only hotel that I have stayed in which considers it necessary to have a 24 hour presence of a couple of bomb sniffing dogs. At the moment, it's overrun by Korean tour groups, but that may change. The breakfast at 750 pesos is a rip off. However, the continental breakfast at 300 pesos is good value; they offered me a fruit platter with mango - when it turned up, it had four large, ripe mangos on it and since mangos are one of my top favourite foods, I scoffed the lot. Later that day, I was able to confirm the efficiency of their plumbing system, but i didn't care. A price worth paying. It will be my first choice next time depending on their pricing strategy.

I got the location wrong - apologies. However, it does explain why my reliable informant from soi 10 between Beach and Second had no knowledge of a new bar opening. Looking forward to seeing the new bar on Sunday (assuming that the threatened storm does not put a kibosh on things).

I've always been told that oral sex without teeth is the height of such things.... No matter what my best intentions are, I find that my determination to stay aloof from just sex i.e. only taking those with whom I have some connection / chemistry, rather than merely satisfying my animal lusts with the nearest possessor of a nice pair of tits and a cute ass - anyway, that determination is inversely proportional to the amount of alcohol I have imbibed which in its own right is quite closely correlated to the time. But on one of my intermittant non-alcohol days, I quite often go home alone (but then I do tend to stay for months rather than weeks so odd days of sleeping alone is not a major concern to me).

I have seen glancing references to Koyo's demise, but nothing definite. If there is already a thread on this that I have missed, I am very happy for a grown-up to delete this one. Anyway, Koyo has definitely got its shutters down and the lights have been turned off; the girls have scattered to the winds with some (Mai, Natty of the big tool fame) having gone to Famous, Tong to Bangkok and the rest to places that I do not know. However, a semi-reliable source tells me that some of the girls are going to join a new bar called Number One Bar, opening in Soi 10 in October, presumably in the bar complex opposite Page 10 hotel. Unfortunately, a very reliable source who works in that self same complex tells me that there is no work going on renovating or building a new bar, so I don't know. When I get back from the Philippines in mid October, I'll trot round and report back. If it still hasn't opened by the time I go home in late October, then I will leave it to someone in the wave of Board Members who appear to be coming late October/ early November to carry on the investigations. But if it is true, it's good news although the location is about as sensible as that of Koyo which means that it might struggle financially as well.

It looks like the poster that a shop and hostel owner on Koh Tao put up to persuade gullible foreign backpackers that his place was the place where serious, deep thinkers stayed. I cannot remember his name, but I had to pass his place every day on my way to work. His shop was an paean to shallow thinking and meaningless slogans of which this is a sample. Unfortunately, many backpackers stayed there, doubtless sorting out the world's problems in a perfect way i.e. without the shards of reality puncturing their hypothetical constructs - until they realised that his prices were a good 25% higher than elsewhere on the island whereupon they all left!

That's because it is wrong. It's bad enough for Windows to make a complete horlicks of starting routinely and quickly and to have an lazy fair attitude to viruses, but it would be beyond the pale for it to tell us to drop the "u". Where would a Thomas Crapper be without a "u" (apart from smelly, obviously)?

However, be aware that if you transfer money from your home bank in baht, your home bank will use a really bad exchange rate (meaning that you will pay around 4-8% commission). If you transfer in your home currency, Kasikorn use a low rate which is about 2% worse than you will get for cash (plus the transfer fee of around $40/£25). What I do is bring cash and use TT Change (which gives a consistently higher exchange rate than anywhere else) in second road, then rush over to Kasikorn to deposit the money in my account. Henceforth, all ATM withdrawals within Pattaya are free and outside Pattaya cost a flat rate of 10 baht.

How good looking is the dog?

Quote from the article: "Police seized the evidence, a large “chopper” kitchen knife" Damn dangerous things, large choppers.

Excellent story with a happy ending! It does remind me why I have a 1000 baht phone with my contacts backed up....as Thaibound said to me (he having an even more decrepid phone than mine), if he left his phone on top of a 50 baht note in a bar, he would come back to find the money gone but the phone still there. It's not that I think people will give into temptation but I prefer not to put it in their way, just in case. Plus the only use for a flash phone that I would have in Thailand is if it were possible to have pictures in the contacts - that might stop me looking at a name and number with no recollection who the individual was.

I will - but I doubt that is any form of consolation!

TB Under a different topic, PDogg asked us to check if we were silver members by opening up this link http://www.ladyboyre...profile/Nadear/ which I did - reading her cv, it seems that she might fit your requirements.

There used to be a S & M club on third road next to the Buffalo Bar; although it probably would be mostly ggs, they may have some LBs or at least know of some who are available: you will have to be clear when asking on which end of the paddle you want to be. This could be an expensive search - I am sure that all your friends could have a whip around to help out...

I beat them to it - I removed my main account, leaving just the one under a false name that I use for mongering. Works for me.

Since I do not know either of the two gentlemen involved, please accept that this is not a personal attack, but the alternative and logical explanation of why Mr Lefty can understand Mr Anthony is that they are of the same educational and intelligence standard. Unfortunately, this need not be a particularly high one...... Why do I get the feeling that if and when I do meet these gentlemen, it is going to cost me a beer or two?

Not only those two. I couldn't use my normal forum name on this site because it wouldn't let me put an apostrophe after the "O" - so instead of Rick O'Shea, it insisted on RickOShea. Being a pedant, this was something up with which I could not put.....! Thus Rickshaw.

The whole point of my post correcting my initial statement was that I miscalculated - when she was with me, she was 18, not 17.

They are really bad, but looking on the bright side and at the risk of being seen as shallow and selfish (all true, I am sad to say), even I am welcome everywhere (with the obvious exception of Pook Swan)! As Thaibound said in another thread, being in Pattaya at this time of year is awesome.

Actually, she is now 18 (I miscalculated) but she might well not have been depending when you talked to her. Her position at the top of Soi Diana means that she sees me go past almost every day and finally, yesterday, she threw a hissy fit at me when I, once again, refused to take her back to my room. I think that times are very hard at the moment and she has not saved any money from the good times. I'll see how she is when I return later this year.

Just broke one of my rules (again) and spent another night with her. She is gorgeous. However, an odd thing happened. Pattaya has mayoral elections and all the bars are closed from Saturday 6pm to Sunday midnight. So we went to the movies, got something to eat and then walked, hand in hand (aahh) along the beach. Suddenly she stopped, pointed to a farang on a motorbike and said that he was following her. As we walked back on the beach front, he would let us get ahead and then race in front of us and wait. We crossed the road by the 711 and he was standing there, waving at her to go to him. She said that he talked to her when she worked in Pooks and that he was very tight with money and generally weird. Anyway, he followed us up soi 7 (I chose 7 rather than 8 since he would have to go against the flow of traffic - which he did). I was getting seriously freaked by now and beckoned him to come over, so he roared off, only to follow us across second road (again going the wrong way) and then into the soi going up to Soi Buckhao. We shook him at Soi Buckhao. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am not posting her number or giving it out except to people I know. Sorry, but Natcha's safety comes first. If you want to see her, go to her bar and talk to her so that way, she knows that you are not the weirdo. Anyway, with a bit of luck, here's another picture of her

And then there is Natcha as described in X-ray spec's TR. Technically, she does not belong here since she does not work in a massage parlour, but in a bar. However, she gave me the best massage (1 hour plus) I have had in Pattaya and then stayed in my room for another 3 hours for the extras. She has a killer body for those who like the tall atheletic type, but not anorexic (although ThaiBound, whose tastes verge on the girls who appear to be on the point of starvation, he liked her body), her English is better than a lot of English girls I know (for example, she understood and used the phrase "water based lubricants" in general conversation), she is bright ( I play Suddoku and at the level I am at, it takes me between 10 and 15 minutes to finish a game. She did the next unstarted game in 7 minutes and, whilst I was still in the shower, finished a game that had stumped me for 2 days. It is rare that I meet someone who makes me feel so slow and stupid!). I can highly recommend her.Her only downside is that she has a very poor self image, even for a ladyboy. She would make a great GF. A lovely lady. She can be found at her bar in Soi 10 (I think - it's the next soi to Central Festival heading towards Pattaya Tai and is the soi that runs past Page 10) in the bar complex near 2nd road. Her bar is the Lucky New Friend Bar.

Is the emphasis in that sentence on "my" or "knuckles"? A cause for concern in either case!

I will have to give that some serious thought - more expensive for sure but it would have the advantage of not having various forms of low life and knuckle draggers living in the room above me....