where are all the young motor bike taxi drivers gone?

[arsenal]

Hi NIrish. Big sloppy hugs and kisses.

[Jellybean]

Having carefully gone through your signs and symptoms, Jellybean, we are of the opinion that you're having a condition commonly ascribed to pathological shyness.
Nothing to worry about really . . .

Your diagnosis of ‘pathological shyness’, dinagam, seems spot on and yet again I commend you for your intuitive powers. Damn it! I’ll have to add it to my growing list of ailments and health problems.

Goodness. If I was a horse, I do believe the vet would have despatched me to the knackers’ yard years ago!

Jellybean, you could hold onto the "grab handles" on the seat? No need to invade the driver's privacy by wrapping your arms around him and groping him, surreptitiously.

Blimey françois! I think lonelywombat may have had a point at his post #22. Perhaps you are in need of some cor-rec-tion, so in a spirit of brotherly love, I might grip hold of your grab handles the next time I see you . . . you . . . you . . . acidic old frog you! 555!

Seriously though, I meant it when I said above that I was "lily-livered" when on the back of a motorcycle taxi and therefore hold on to the driver for dear life (see comment below to a447). I simply would not trust the grab handles.

And had you been reading carefully, you would have noted that I said I am too shy to hold the driver’s waist, never mind groping him, surreptitiously or otherwise. I wish however I was bold enough to follow through the advice given by Blacktouch, a447 and dinagam and invite a handsome young driver out for a drink or to come up and see my etchings.

JB, I would never catch a motorbike taxi, but here's what I would do:

First, put your hand on his shoulders and say: "Here ok?"

Then put your hands around his waist and ask the same question.

That way, he gets to decide where your hands go and nobody loses face or feels awkward.

Yes, well I am of a similar mind a447, and rarely use a motorcycle taxi in Bangkok. But when I was in Pattaya during my two recent visits, I was using them four times a day to get from my hotel to various destinations including dtuk-com, Sunee Plaza, Boyz Town or to designated meeting places.

And believe me when I say, nearly all of my drivers were enormous, great puddings and that I doubt I would have managed to get my hands around their waists! If you ask me, they were all regular pie eaters at Tinnies and are no doubt personally known to snotface! Lol!

But rest assured, I never saw a handsome driver while I was in Pattaya. In fact, one night when I had arranged to meet françois, the driver I engaged was, I guess, at least 20 years past retirement age! The old bugger kept braking suddenly, causing me to shift on the seat and bang my chin against his crash helmet. And when I readjusted my position on the bike, he lost control and zigged-zagged about in a most dangerous fashion!

Twice I thought we were going to crash! And he had the cheek to complain it was my fault and not his excessive and sudden use of the brakes. Believe me, I was a bag of nerves when I met françois and a member of the Gaybutton Thai forum. I was so shaken up, I was in desperate need of a stiff drink to steady my nerves!

So a447, I can well understand your reluctance to catch a motorcycle taxi. Do so at your peril, is my considered advice - so there!

[Blacktouch]

How many of you are not shy, and bold enough to chat up a MTB?

If I see a gorgeous guy on his motorcycle taxi, on the bus, on the street or on the beach, I have no problem chatting him up. I start by a nice smile, then a wink, then followed by saying "sawadee krap" (hello), then a "how are you?", then depending on his reply and look on his face, I will take it a notch higher!

If I think he is up for fun, I will ask him if he would like to meet later for drinks, or a bite to eat?

And if I have had a few drinks beforehand, I will chat him up some more and tell him I think he is sexy and would you like to meet?

However, I will never do this back home in the UK. Lol although I have picked up guys on the street before in London.

But this is no good if you are shy.

It would be interesting to hear how many of our fellow dear members have ever pulled/picked up a guy/boy on the street they fancied, and managed to have fun with him?

[bobsaigon2]

When Robinson's was at the corner of Silom, I went there to buy something for my partner in Vietnam. The sales boy looked "possible" so I told him the item was for my boyfriend. Big smile, so I continued to chat him up and we arranged to meet just before closing at which time I would buy him a tee shirt costing about 1,000 Baht. Having only hired go-go boys prior to this, I assumed the tee shirt was just a down payment, but when I reflected long after the fact, that was probably all he expected in exchange for spending time with me. Tee shirt purchased, we went to McDonald's where, two tables away, was one of his co-workers, also with an older gentleman acquaintance. A pleasant evening and a pleasant early morning play time with my Tee shirt boy. And I tipped him the current bar boy rate, so he was quite satisfied.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Jellybean, you could hold onto the "grab handles" on the seat? No need to invade the driver's privacy by wrapping your arms around him and groping him, surreptitiously.

I have to say Francois, I would never use the grab handles at the back. When you do that you are leaning back when the driver is leaning forward or to the side, and if he jerks the wheel suddenly you could be knocked off, with very little chance to hold on due to the fact that (because of the laws of physics) the further you are away from the drivers core, the easier it is to be flung off.

Those back grab handles always strikes me as deathly dangerous (especially if you are heavier than the driver, as i most certainly am).

I always grip the driver tightly around the waist when I get on a motorbike taxi.

Sometimes I have said "Is this ok" when I circle it, and I have never had any of them indicate any dissatisfaction with it, in fact one actually nodded and and said "Yes, good, safe", when I did it."

I never made any sort of motion to "drop the hand when I was at it though, always too afraid I would startle him and cause him to crash the bike!

[RonanTheBarbarian]

The closest i got was in Cambodia, where once, after hiring a motorcycle driver, he promptly offered me girls and drugs.

He was really pushing for me to agree to a diversion to a place he knew where there was "sexy girls".

To shut him up about the girls (and to encourage him to bring me directly back to my hotel) I said "No like girls, I like boys".

It didnt knock a feather off him, he just said "I go with you so, I fuck you" and spent the rest of the journey shoving my hand down on his crotch.

Unfortunately for this budding romance story, he wasnt my type...

[colmx]

Those back grab handles always strikes me as deathly dangerous (especially if you are heavier than the driver, as i most certainly am).

Agreed, totally against the laws of physics and completely unbalances the bike
The "grab handles" on the back of the bike are for manoeuvring a bike into and out of a parking position and are absolutely not meant for use in transit.... Its certainly something you will never see a Thai doing.

From what I have observed (I have spent a lot of time in Pattaya's ERs!!) Most of the farang that you see with their an arm in a sling managed to break their collarbone or dislocate their shoulders by using said handles

[Blacktouch]

The closest i got was in Cambodia, where once, after hiring a motorcycle driver, he promptly offered me girls and drugs.

He was really pushing for me to agree to a diversion to a place he knew where there was "sexy girls".

To shut him up about the girls (and to encourage him to bring me directly back to my hotel) I said "No like girls, I like boys".

It didnt knock a feather off him, he just said "I go with you so, I fuck you" and spent the rest of the journey shoving my hand down on his crotch.

Unfortunately for this budding romance story, he wasnt my type...

When I was in Cambodia with a friend, we both got on a motorcycle taxi and the driver was offering us girls and drugs too. I said we was not interested and he went on and on, trying to get us to allow him to drive us there. In the end I just said "we don't like girls, we like/want boys", then all of a sudden he offered to take us to a gay sauna, and we did take him up on his offer. He dropped us outside and on his way he went.

We did popped in the sauna and had a look and arranged to go back the following day. Wink wink!

That sauna was called "Galaxy Khmer", not far from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Still have the business card.

Not sure if this place is still open or not?

[poshglasgow]

I was mid fifties then and the thrill of a boy taking my hand and placing it on his cock exciting.
Alternatively moving my hand around his waist to see how far I could go, was also a challenge.
My boy allowed me to remove his cock under his shirt and I played with it all round Pattaya. Memories!!!!
I seem to remember the police used to charge 3000 bpm as a licence fee.
THAT WAS 100 TRIPS PER MONTH TO PAY RENT BEFORE MAKING MONEY.

You must have felt like a spitfire instructor with his hand on the joystick, guiding his student!
"Left a little, right a little, okay, line up with the horizon; up a little, down a little, up a lot, down a lot, up a lot, down a lot, up a lot........."

[lonelywombat]

The 3000bpm of 29 years ago if still the same fee but indexed, would be around 80,000pa.
So the payment is quoted as annual, but in 1989/90 it was monthly.Maybe it was financed?
Seems right to me.

God knows what poshglasgow has been drinking, but he rarely seems to be discussing Pattaya.

Too many questions, wombat! All the answers have been given. You can believe or not.

I don't believe it.