BSR

I saw Dolly Parton 50 (50!) years ago at the American Royale Rodeo in Kansas City where she was the headliner act between barrel racing, bronco busting, etc. My parents and brother thought she was pleasant but forgettable whereas I instantly fell in love and became a life-long fan. Country music and America lost one of its greatest today. Dolly, we love you. R.I.P.

Yes, I went to X-Boyz last night. It’s basically a showcase for rentguys. At first, the boys stand on stage and don’t do anything, just stand there. Then there are a couple of risqué numbers, well, risqué by US standards, relatively tame by Bangkok standards. Then a couple of drag numbers so that the boys have time to get hard. The finale [spoiler alert!] is the boys all walk out in elephant trunk underwear, sporting hard-ons but encased in these weirdly thick supercondoms. Since the elephant trunk part of the underwear is paper thin and flaps open, you get to what each guy is offering in all its encased glory. Each guy walks around on stage until a customer requests his company, and the whole showcase process lasts until all customer demand is met. Despite low season and war in the Middle East, the “freelancers” (the Thai euphemism for female sex workers) were out in force in Soi 6. As you walk down that veeeeeeery long street, you are grabbed, handled, and propositioned by countless working girls whereas there was nothing like that in either Boyz Town or Super Town. No, the gay streets of Pattaya aren’t my scene either, but I am really looking forward to returning to Bangkok.

Thank you for all the helpful advice. We were supposed to be in Pattaya just 2 more nights before going back to Manila until fate threw us a curveball, which means we’re now tacking on another 5 nights in Bangkok. Your travel tips in hand, I’m looking forward to taking on the other Bangkok clubs. Pattaya’s Soi 6 proves that truth is stranger than fiction. I heard that in a city of 300,000 there are some 60,000 sex workers, I thought, “Impossible.” Soi 6 has bars lined all up and down a very long street, maybe a hundred bars? And each one is packed with working girls, at least 20, some maybe 40+. Soi 6 is the most famous street in Pattaya but there are plenty of others. Unfortunately, there is no gay version of Soi 6. I checked out the 2 gay alleys, Super Town and Boyz Town, and they were both pretty dead, even on weekend nights. Most shows are drag shows or male cabaret; you’ll see nothing like the Bangkok clubs in Pattaya. Pattaya is Thailand’s Sin City, but like Las Vegas, it’s very much a playground for straights.

Any other good, fun spots in Bangkok that you can suggest? I’ll for sure go back to The One Club, or Tawan, probably won’t return to Fresh Boys. Also, do you have a favorite restaurant(s)? We went to Baan Ajarn for the best pad Thai in Bangkok (according to my travel buddy, who lived here for 3 months in 2024); I’d love to try places that might beat it.

No, I didn’t pay a bar fee because it was so crazy-high. I just got the gogo’s WhatsApp and made a date for the next night after the bar closed. The bouncer quoted 5,000 probably because he thought I was some Daddy Warbucks American. 500 makes more sense because: 1) 5,000 baht is extravagant — who the hell’s going to pay that much, and 2) 500 is the standard bar fee here in Pattaya. Thanks for the correct name. I forgot what the signage said, but when we approached and asked if this was The One Club, they paused for a second then started nodding, “Yeah, yeah, The One Club.” They must have changed the name recently such that Google Maps hasn’t been updated yet. I went to Soi 6 last night. Holy sh!t, it’s hard to believe such a place exists. When the friend I’m traveling with told me it’s the world capital of prostitution, I expected a fair bit of prostitution but nothing like the massive scale I saw at Soi 6. And then I found out that Soi 6 is just one of several streets! I’m checking out the gay version of Soi 6 tomorrow. I hope I survive the experience, yikes!

When I first read this, even though I saw for myself Manila’s many shortcomings, I thought, “ouch, that’s kinda harsh.” Having been in Manila for 8 months and comparing it to a beautiful, well-functioning city (just spent 4 days in Bangkok), I say with resignation, “yup, you’re right.” First, the good … Manila has neighborhoods that are nice — Makati, Ortigas, Eastwood, and BGC — like little islands surrounded by shitscape. In BGC especially, you’ll find nice restaurants, bars, clubs (not that I go to clubs at my age). At my fave restaurant Terraza Martinez, the Valenciano chef offers cuisine that rivals the best restaurants in Madrid. I’ve been lucky enough to make a really good friends here, plus I found a terrific sugarbaby, a sweet young man who takes my breath away every time I lay eyes on him. Because my two closest friends are Spanish, my Spanish is even better now than when I lived in Madrid. Apart from my specific situation, Filipinos are some of the kindest, salt-of-the-earth good people you’ll ever meet. Now for the hell-hole side of the coin. Manila is simply not a functional city. It’s dirty as hell with trash everywhere. 90% of the buildings are puke-ugly because so much of construction is done so cheap it should be criminal. If you’re thinking of buying a condo here — eek! Even posh buildings in BGC with beautiful exteriors and amenities usually have money-pit interiors (i.e., your unit) that will suck the financial life out of you. And finding a really honest realtor here is like finding a really honest used-car salesman. Day to day, everything is constantly out of stock. I usually have to go to 2-3 pharmacies to fill my mom’s prescriptions. Everything is constantly out of order (especially elevators); and when things do get fixed, it’s usually a slapdash job which lasts just until the maintenance guy gets his fee. With no public transportation, the traffic will take years off your life. Parks? In Manila, what the hell is a park?? Kind of like how I put up with the absolute shyte weather in Boston because you can’t change it, so best to kid yourself that it’s not so bad, I had kinda deluded myself into believing that Manila’s OK. Don’t get me wrong, when I leave here in January, it will tear my heart out to leave my sugarbaby (yes, it’s a financial arrangement, but he is so damn beautiful and I am having so much fun!) and even more so my best friend (my best friend in the US died a few years ago). Plus I have an aunt, an uncle, and five cousins here who are the best extended family anyone could ask for. But as much as I will miss the people here, I will be relieved to leave behind the squalor, ugliness, and dysfunction of Manila.

I had an unexpectedly good time at The One Club last night. I thought it would be just a gogo bar, a place with dancers in underwear or at best thongs, similar to places in Manila. Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas any more! When we first walked in, all the dancers were on stage but doing nothing, just standing there. Let the games begin! Then most of the gogo’s got on stage naked, then a jackoff contest with three dancers (first to cum gets the most tips), then a blowjob, then more jacking, another blowjob. Offstage was perhaps more fun. A few dancers invited me to play with their cocks, for which I was happy to tip them 100 baht (just over $3). When the bouncer noticed this, he stood up and invited me to do the same. Word spread quickly because then most of the staff was lined up (literally, a queue of bartenders, waiters, more dancers). About 4,000 baht later, I left, happier than a kid who just bought the candy store. Tonight I went to Fresh Boys, a club in the street that’s like the gay version of Cowboy, where all the straight strip clubs are (what happened there my first night in Bangkok is a whole ‘nother story). The show was more polished, the club (more like a theater) was much nicer, and the on-stage performances were different — i.e., bizarre but entertaining. As much as I wanted to stick around for the late show, supposedly the most risqué, I had to get home to meet the gogo whose WhatsApp I got last night. He was fantastic, charged me 2,500 baht ($77), I gave him 3,000 ($93), and he left happy as a clam. One helpful hint: if you leave with a dancer that night, you have to pay a bar fee, 5,000 baht. But if you just get his WhatsApp and meet with him the next day, 0 baht bar fee. And what is this about Asian guys having small wankers? All the gogo’s, about a dozen at The One and ~20 at Fresh Boys) were anywhere from decent (maybe slightly bigger than the US average) to huuuuuuuuuge. Unfortunately this is my last night in Bangkok, off to Pattaya (Thailand’s Sin City) for 5 days.

So glad folks are obsessed with Ferrán because my X feed is chock-full of his photos …

I learned that Thailand drives on the left side in the Grab (their version of Uber) from the airport. But since I’m such a creature of habit, without thinking I opened the right front door (there were 3 of us) when getting into another Grab for dinner. The driver was a woman, and I must have scared the poor thing out of 10 years’ growth because she had that “Oh my gawd, I’m being carjacked!!” look when I yanked the door open. Lesson learned.

Can’t get enough of Ferrán …

Wow, I think you went way overboard here. First, kids don’t pick their parents, nor are they responsible for their father’s misdeeds. A debate about what exactly Brian Thompson was guilty of could run a hundred pages in the old P&R category. Even a 70yo whose 95yo father dies suffers pain, grief, and loss — all the more so for a 16yo and 19yo. I’ll give Brian Thompson the benefit of a doubt and assume he was a decent father. Even if he were a less than great father, he was the only one those two teenagers had. Dismissing the trauma they must have suffered and still suffer from their father’s murder because they’re privileged and because, suck it up, most kids outlive their father … sorry, that is just insufferably harsh.

I saw a Q&A on Walker’s channel post-debacle in which he says that he always shoots video of the car/taxi ride to and from properties but rarely includes it in the final cut because it’s usually not all that interesting. In this particular case, the footage ended up being quite relevant. Apparently, no follow-up yet from Aman, which is a huge faux pas on their part.