59 days and counting

Booking is the second step after planning ... and here I am surfing the net for my next trip to Thailand. The flight ticket had been booked about two months ago, and this is fine : the rates seem to be higher as the departure date is coming closer.

It's now time to book the domestic flights : Nok Air has currently a promotion for flights before October 27th and booked 21 days in advance (990 THB anywhere in Thailand) : so well for the journey to Chiang Mai. Moreover Nok has just opened the booking for the winter period : the same price will apply for the Chiang Mai / Udon flight (October 31st). Another great news is that you can again pay with an international credit card ... and it works !

Four nights in Novotel Chiang Mai are also in the bag at a very affordable (but non refundable) rate from their own website (novotel.com). And yes I will stay in Khorat especially after having read some promising information on the TMM website (that I forwarded to some boards).

When you are waiting for 330 days before going back to Thailand, booking makes you touch the reality of your next trip : it is no more only a dream, it becomes a schedule with dates, prices and places. All this stuff looks probably childish for all of you who live in paradise or go there very often - but I am sure you still remember how time was slow when you had still two months in Boring Land before landing in Bangkok.

Tam phoned me two weeks ago but we had no time to chat very long ; he is still home with his mother who had undergone a hospital surgery, and then he should go working as a waiter in a Pattaya restaurant. I think he now understands that this time, I will spend most of my time on my own, but I cannot bring myself to break with him. Lack of courage ? Or something which cannot disappear and is called "love" ?

Euro 2008

The final tournament of the Soccer Euro 2008 Championship will take place in Switzerland and Austria in June 2008 ; the exact dates being from June 7 th (opening matches in Basle and Geneva) to June 29 th (grand final in Vienna).

My country (France) is now leading its qualifying group ahead of Scotland and Italy but of course nothing is decided yet and we will have to wait for the decisive matches especially Italy v. France on September 8th. If France qualifies, it will be very easy for me to go and see them, as I live very close to the Swiss border.

Shall I go ? Well I think that during this period, I'd rather go to ... Thailand. Why ? Of course, if my country does well, it's always nice to gain face from the boys, the taxi drivers or the hotel attendants who always regard you as a demigod if you happen to come from the same country as the World Cup or the Euro winners ...

But the main reason for scheduling to be in Thailand at this time is that thai boys are inveterate gamblers especially when it comes to football ... They gamble with borrowed money, they loose it and how can they repay their debts ? Stealing is one way, and selling themselves is another one. So I guess that the amount of freelancers should reach summits next June in the vicinity of Saranrom, Rama IV or Beach Road ...

Will you call me a vulture waiting for fresh meat ? I would rather think being a benefactor anxious to act for the common good of the boys ...

Saranrom update

Sure I am not in Thailand now (70 days and counting ...) and who I am to write about a place where I have not set a foot since so long .... Nevertheless there has been recently a lot of chatting on the boards about the Saranrom area in Bangkok, and I thought it could be of interest to some, at least for bringing a former entry on this blog up to date.

It seems this area has been for a while the place of choice for gay thais who look after some young male company. The Thai Rat daily published a long report in his July 26th edition ; the title was : "the yellow signboard boy" and it was the story of a 27 y/o rent-boy named Yao who provides services for gay people. So you can say that everyone in Thailand knows what is going on in the area - with all the overstatements that you may expect from a Thai Rat newshound ...

So the article was strongly questioned on many points by some regulars of the place. For example the journalist wrote that the going rate of the boy was 1500 THB, and he would not cut his price ... One poster assured that not a lot of rent-boys ask for more than 500 THB, but some customers use to give more. Especially as some customers are policemen or politicians who prefer to meet boys here than in the gay places : they feel that their privacy is more guaranteed with the street boys than in a gay bar.

Is the Saranrom area as interesting as before ? It seems that since the political demonstrations in Sanam Luang, there are less boys than before because police and army have set many barriers all over the area for checking motocycles and taxis. In fact these control posts are not a problem for the boys, who only fear the patrols who have been arresting them since a long time. But the new police checks are an ennoyance for the customers, who as a result (and also because of the bad economic situation) come in smaller numbers. Less customers, less boys ...

Nothing is lost ... another poster went in the area last Sunday, and he found less boys than before but there are still enough to please anyone. The problem is that he did not dare to chat with some boys because the police presence was a little bit intimidating ; now some boys are waiting in other places in the neighbourhood such as around the Wat Pho compound or south of the park.

Everyone strongly advises againts walking alone and wearing anything that could make the boy think you are a rich person. Chartering a taxi and visiting the whole area seems to be the best and safest way to find new friends ...

Gayboysiam ... I like !

The gayboysiam website had gone for a while and we could fear that it would be somewhat "sanitized" ... it has come back like before, except that all the former pictures have been deleted.

There is perhaps now slightly less porn than before, but the boys are as cute as ever ... I love these pictures which are not professionnal at all, but featuring boys who are so nicer that in the magazines...

 Another new thing is that almost every picture is now labelled as "userpost at Gboysiam.com" and the note obviously damages the picture - especially when it hides a strategic point, like for this delightful guy (and it is a real shame, isn't it ?).