Logging on here used to be a stimulating experience.
Not now.
We're surviving on crumbs; topics flogged to death with a rare respite as in Latinpox at the Malaysia or the occasional sardonic post from MFAS and a few offerings from other notables.
Is it that we (gay farang thailophiles) are the last of a breed?
Low season. Possibly/arguably the lowest season on record.
Now Hua Hin could not by any stretch of the imagination be called a gay Mecca so it's probably not the best petrie dish, but Thai restaurateurs that am acquainted with have said to me this is the worst season in their memories. " ... Farang? No have ... "
A farang friend of mine and his partner visited HH a couple of days ago and both nights (Thurs and Friday) we ended up visiting the two gay bars in town: Red Indian (a hopeless case no matter what the strength of the season) had 'just us'. Guy Bar almost the same, though it at least had host boys hanging around intently pounding away on their smart phones (AKA: The Bane of Human Existence). My friends were leaving the next morning so declined a last visit to Gay Bar. But we were there anyway so I watched them walk away and then decided to hop into Guy Bar for a quiet beer: good luck!! Here it was 10:30pm on a Friday night and the boys were stacking up the patio chairs and locking the place up. What?: " ... no cuthtomer ... " they told me.
Perhaps this tourist lethargy can be carried over onto this board's perceived malaise? Perhaps folks who have given up on Thailand (perhaps temporarily) don't feel the need to post or read on gay Thailand message boards. Perhaps many are sick and tired of constantly reading posts centered on Pattaya/Sunnee/Twilight/Boyztown/Jomtien/chuk wowing /fuck shows etc etc.
There is a noticeable dearth of topics about The Rest of Thailand on Sawatdee these days. There is an equally noticeable loss of Posters From The Past who have just let their memberships lapse and walked away: certainly Sawatdee's breadth of individual posters has become a shallower pool than it did some years ago. There is little humour on the board any more, and almost no edge: when the odd troll is the the funniest nut bar in the jar (hello Marti) we're in trouble.
Demographics play a big role as well. I was about 50 when I first started posting on gay Thailand message boards. Now I'm 68 and post much less than I did years ago (some would say that's a blessing), and I would bet the same is true for many. The Social Media mafia has taken up the slack, filled in the vacuum of Members-Leaving. Facebook, Twitter, Grindr, Line, and many more I know nothing of eat away at the growth dynamic on one type of media (in this case the internet message board) and replace it with another, totally different kind of experience. (What does Twitter allow? 50 words? 30? Talk about yer exhilarating 'Experience'. The daughter of a friend of mine once wrote on her Facebook account that " ... this morning I got up ... ". That's when I deleted my foolish Facebook life.)
Gaybutton and Gay Thailand boards are hardly more vibrant: Gaybutton (Himself!) still manages to insert Himself! into just about every post (as he has forever) ... the death of any post purporting to be 'humorous'. Nothing will change there, but hey, that board also seems to have the self same lethargy as this one. GayThailand same same: a small cadre of members post every topic and reply ... the 'Likes' button at the bottom of each post always filling up with the same Likers. Everybody likes everybody on that board ... but never ending group hugs (and circle jerks) are hardly a recipe for growth.
Just another reason why I love living in Thailand
There are now many alternatives for those who wish to travel to other countries to exploit the poverty of the locals for their own sexual gratification
Buck up Smiles, Kjun is back and will enliven your dull existence and get your juices flowing.
After reading your post I became even more depressed but I did have to laugh about the other forums. But I like circle jerks, chuk-wowing , samoking, and groping.
As for the Posters From the Past, they are probably all dead and gone. :x
If there was a contest for boring topics this post on that other board would win.
"No plastic shopping bags on the Ides of every month".
So as bad as it seems just imagine yourself reading that post!
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Don't get me wrong Francois, this whole dynamic ~ i.e. of gay Thailand message boards losing their way ~ doesn't affect me personally at all. No "bucking up" needed and certainly no depression.Originally Posted by francois
You're probably at least half correct regarding the mortality rate of long term members . . . many of them undoubtedly succumbed to some of the more outrageous posts seen on this board over the years. Take Neal for instance ...
Yes, Marti (AKA 'Kjun) is still here and does make me laugh ~ in the same way that a Boa Constrictor smothering a horse and then eating it as shown on Animal Planet does ~ but he's as dumb as a 12-pack of dildos, and thus incapable of enlivety. (Christian's brain will explode when he reads that word).
And yes ... samoking, chuk wowing, and circle jerks are quite acceptable. Groping (in public) though, grosses me out.
Just another reason why I love living in Thailand
Smiles in his post has said this is the lowest of the low , one reason , I can think of , is the age of farang who used to travel a lot to LOS, is getting older, and that long distance travel is getting a bore , prices in general seem to be getting higher and guys do not think its value for money any more . ( its the thai habit of increasing prices when the number of punters falls , instead of what westerns would do ie lower prices. ) Drinks in the caf├й royale , and bbb now costing 180 and 250 bht , I know bbb has a show but most people I have seen watch the first show , have one drink and then leave , 250 bht is becoming to much to pay ., Getting back to numbers in thai , as I said , the older guys are stopping coming , and of course the younger age group, don't need to pay for sex, so why come to pattaya anyway.
;
Your absolutely correct, I live here, came when I was 52 now I am 64 and the age group living here and still coming are guys somewhere between 65 and 75, sex is easy to come by online and for others a large percent no longer care about sex just look who's is sitting in the beer bars and the few still walking down the street.
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
I think it is pretty much normal. When I was banned , I was still reading this Board and found it quite interesting until a few weeks ago. Then it ground to a halt but then so did GayThailand, It does just appear to be the Low Season of Low Seasons.
Certainly members on all Boards are getting older but of course so are Gay Men all over the world and there has always been a new crop of those looking for younger men to have Sex with even if they have to pay.
Complaints about prices happen everywhere in the world. Just the way it is . Certainly anyone who thinks prices in Beer Bars at Sunee or Jomtien or even BT are outrageous , don't go out in the Western World. You could never find drinks so cheap in most of Europe, NZ, Australia etc even Brazil and definitely no chance of finding willing young men for ridiculously low amounts of money.
Hotels etc continue to be a bargain compared to almost any tourist destination . If you plan carefully airfares have at most held steady and in many cases are available for less then 5-10 years ago.
The thing that has changed is the need to go to Bars to find companions. There are so many apps on your phone or computer that willing partners can be found in minutes 24 hours a day. That leads people to believe there are less Gay Tourists but in reality they just spend much less time in Bars and on sites like this looking for information.
But I still would be willing to bet when October comes around the Boards will again get more interesting.
I'm not sure if that's right .
You specifically mentioned drinks prices in beer bars rather than any other "extras" which may be available - such as the eye-candy, so i feel justified in pointing out that in the Spanish resorts you can easily get a bottled beer for 1 Euro (35B), in Czech Republic even less than that (say 30B) if you get outside the immediate City Centre, in Berlin 1.5-2 Euro (50-70B) and in the UK you can get a pint of beer for ┬г1.59 (80B) in any non airport/London Wetherspoon's pub (over 900 of them).
So there's 4 European countries right off the top of my head which are either cheaper or roughly on a level with Sunee/Jomtien/BT.
Would I rather sit in the beer bars you mention though - YES - but thats another matter
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