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Let me point out that the posts are not gone. The utility that counts your posts and updates your post count in the member information is broken. No posts have been lost as far as I know. The post count is obviously and, apparently universally out of whack since I ran the utility. I won't lose any sleep over it (well, I did lose 3 hours trying to fix it), and will wait to see if Invision support can come up with a solution.

Actually, it could be This might be a symptom of a problem in the forum database. Invision Support has been contacted.

There is a problem with the post counts matching the actual number of messages. The utility I have been running (comes with the forum software) appears not to be getting it right. I'm looking into it.

I wish it were so, but I have been running the standard utilities and the results are not what I would expect. Perhaps it's time to start a new board, copy all the forum sections, make all the frequent posters mods, and go from there.

I'm going to run that utility again because I don't know if it finished successfully last night after I went to sleep. If your post counts change again, supposedly they are more "accurate". We'll just have to wait and see.

Good luck, SOS! Babydolls is one of the good ones...and with Ricky, it will just get nastier (though I can't imagine how).

And you're at 84 posts now.

If you add a reply where the last reply in the thread was yours (within a certain time period), it will add to the original reply. I don't know if it's a feature or a bug.

I was told that post counts were not incrementing, so I ran a utility that matches posts to user name and then sets the post count for the user to the actual number of posts found. If you had ever deleted posts or had them deleted, your post count would not have changed...unless I run this utility...which I did. Or, there could be a bug in the forum software. I don't know yet.

I always fly first class through the FF program of United. I used to book economy and about half the time I got upgraded to business. But now, I really enjoy 1st class. I get on the plane last and get off first...and the wines are excellent. Call me shallow.

Very little rain so far. Come on in, the water's fine.

Pattaya by night gogos with the agogo girls Feels Like it’s 2001 All Over Again: The new central government headed by Smackhead the Denier seems to be doing the standard ‘new broom sweeps clean’ first 100-days in office job and towards the end of the first week of March despatched a posse of Bangkok peelers to restore law and order to the recalcitrant city of Muang Farang, otherwise better known as Pattaya. Armed with the usual serious scowls, the Bangkokians made a point of telling bar owners in Fun Town the official closing time for places of entertainment is 2:00AM, this being long-enshrined in legislation written on the kind of yellowed parchment that can be viewed under glass in reputable museums. Apart from losing business due to election voting, pre-election voting and the usual religious days, the operators in Fun Town now have to deal with the bussed-in plod from the capital. On a recent Friday night the brown-shirted imports forced the closure of the Byblos (Soi Diamond), Rock Girls (Soi 15), and Top Girls (Soi 14) gogos, although in fairness this was probably on the grounds of good taste in all three cases, with the latter being one of the most revolting rip-off joints in all Fun Town. Long-termers will well remember the early days of the Fearless Leader government when Interior Minister Purely Puritanical had places of entertainment closing at 1:00AM with the result that potential new visitors to the fleshpots of Pattaya and Bangkok were wondering whether it was worth coming over. Of course, as the den owners started reducing the monthly tea money to the local plod the financial imperative kicked in and the bars started not only going back towards 2:00AM and beyond closing hours but far more flesh was on show. No Smoke, Clearer Air, Busy Bars: The official ban on the smoking of cigarettes inside air-conditioned boozers is being enforced in a fairly relaxed fashion at present, with the word on the street being that it will be more rigorously policed around about the start of May. Many bar owners worried this new measure would drive customers out of the bars, but my own empiric evidence suggests it has had little or no effect on visitor numbers. The Diamond gogo (Soi Diamond) conducted its first in-house dance contest for 2008 on the Friday night prior to the bar closures for the Senate elections and although the place was almost empty at kick-off, within half an hour the joint was packed and owner Khun Tee reported a better-than-expected turnover. Diamond is one den that has banned smoking on its premises. Heaven Above chrome pole palace (Soi Diamond) has a truly impressive line-up of dancing damsels and it too has banned smoking inside the den. it tends to attract an early and then a late crowd and on a recent mid-week visit it too was packed to the gunwales with happy imbibers revelling in a smoke-free environment. Down in Soi 16, off Walking Street, the Club Boesche den, another place that tends to get busy later rather than earlier, has had a real dancing damsel staff turnover but despite this it now boasts more than 50 of the chrome pole molesters on its books. It too is operating under a smoke-free ruling and continues to attract plenty of custom. These results are no real surprise. A smoker can puff away any old time; looking at attractive young ladies either dancing or simply shuffling around a raised stage wearing less clothes than they probably sleep in is not something a smoker can do any time he pleases. The Beginning of the Clean Out? Although starry-eyed foreigners with more cash than practical knowledge are constantly opening or purchasing bars across the length and breadth of Fun Town, thereby leading to an entire sub-economic class, the reality is that current levels of competition are such that many joints are struggling. Now, as the so-called high season comes to an end, the bar closures are beginning, especially among the lesser performers on the gogo circuit. Perhaps the most prominent closure is that of the Taboo chrome pole palace on Soi 16, a part of the Covent Garden Complex. This first started life as Babewatch, closed down, was sold, completely remodelled and came back as Taboo. Management ran a couple of good dance contests and there’s no doubt the place had potential. Unfortunately, the overall layout wasn’t as good as it might have been. The numbers of dancing damsels was never enough to make the den look busy. The overall quality was only average, although there were a few top-class chrome pole stylists operating out of the den at times. Another problem was the combination of chrome pole molesters with coyote-style dancers doesn’t really work. You can’t try and be all things to all people because you won’t attract sufficient punters. I’m sorry to see Taboo close as the people running it appeared a nice crew, although I think it may have suffered from sufficient knowledgeable hands-on expertise. No doubt someone will buy the place, as it is in a good location, and let’s hope the third reincarnation does well. Magic Palace gogo, another large room situated underneath the Polo shows-r-us palace, has also closed its doors. It opened without much fanfare just a few short months ago and never garnered any sort of following or attracted much in the way of quality chrome pole pulchritude. This appears to be one of those sites that for years has been akin to a black hole with hardly anyone making a success of a business venture. In the late 1990s it proved successful as the site of the original Tony’s late-night head bangers auditorium, but then failed when tried as a lounge-bar cum noshery called TW One, then as an gogo whose name escapes me at present, then as the Climax live-band auditorium and then Magic Palace. The location is good enough to attract custom, it just seems the right business has yet to hang out a shingle on the site. The E Goth, or whatever strange name it had, other gogo in Soi BJ closed its doors a few weeks ago after never attracting much more than a flicker of interest from the average punter and word around the traps is that there may be a few more places just about ready to pull the electrical cord on the neon lighting and watch the ice cubes melt while looking for an interested buyer. Blatant Free Plug: After what seems an eternity the fourth edition of Pattaya by Night magazine is finally available. As with the third edition, it runs to 56 pages, filled with glossy colour pictures of ladies of nocturnal habits and questionable morals who ply their trade from the very best dens in Fun Town. The layout has had a professional graphic artist do things to the pages which make this edition a real standout and the best so far. The price remains the same, at 150 baht, and it can be found at places such as DK Bookshop in Soi Post Office, DK Bookshop in Central Pattaya Road, Pattaya Beach Books on the Second Floor of Tops Supermarket, and a host of other outlets. The front cover features a dancer from the long-established Diamond gogo (Soi Diamond). Inside the magazine are photo shoots from a number of gogo dance contests, anniversaries, parties, and a few posed shoots. I have no qualms in stating the 10 dens featured on the front cover as advertisers in the publication (all by invitation only) are among the very best places in Fun Town. Nine of them are on or about the environs of Walking Street, with only the Club Oasis chrome pole palace in Soi Buakhow from outside the recognised main nightlife centre of the city. Club Oasis just goes from strength to strength with some recent additions to the wallet-emptying stable being top-shelf as far as looks and youth are concerned. Going through the advertising list alphabetically, Angelwitch (Soi 15) must rate as one of the most professional places in all of Fun Town. From 10:00pm onwards the choreographed shows are well worth a look, and most punters appreciate the fact that libations have to be expensive to cover the large salaries of the trained performers. In the same soi, but very much at the other end of the scale is Baby Dolls. Here there is a good-priced happy hour and, in general, libations are reasonable for what is on offer. There are plenty of dancing damsels dressed in a fashion popular at naturist resorts while a number of props made of latex, plastic, and rubber are used to good effect. Casino Club (Soi Diamond) held a couple of packed-out dance contests during the last year or so and these are the focus of the photo spreads in the magazine. An intimate style of coyote den it remains one of the most popular, especially after 11:00PM most nights. Club Boesche (Soi 16, Covent Garden Complex) just gets better as time goes on. I remember not thinking much of the place in the first few weeks it was open, but as time has gone on the management have tweaked at the edges and honed their skills and now the den deserves to be placed on a regular visit list. The Diamond gogo (Soi Diamond) runs a regular series of popular in-house dance contests throughout the year and these are well covered throughout Pattaya by Night. The place is usually packed out within an hour of a contest beginning and generally stays very busy until the end. Plans are under way for a Wet T-shirt contest sometime in April. Heaven Above chrome pole palace (Soi Diamond) is easily the best ‘upstairs’ joint in Pattaya. A good management, plenty of dancing damsels, and a well thought out happy hour (between 8:00 and 10:00PM) just keeps punters coming back for more. One of my older mates considers Heaven Above to rank among his favourites in Fun Town, and considering he’s a ‘hard marker’ that’s high praise. A completely different style of place is the Secrets coyote dancer boozer, noshery, and sleeping palace (Soi 14). Their website forum has a swathe of members and the joint itself is nicely-appointed, friendly, and relaxing. Finally, both Super Baby and Super Girl chrome pole palaces are run by the same management and the faces on the doors have been there for so long they must have fantastic superannuation benefits being accrued. That factor alone should tell you the ownership clearly runs an employee-friendly operation. There are always upwards of 40 damsels in each den. Since a Jacuzzi was installed in Super Girl, the place, after going through a period of downturn, is now well and truly busy most nights. What’s especially noticeable about all of the above-mentioned places is the quality of the management. Each and every place is run by a person, or persons, who know what they are doing and how it should be done. Each has its own managerial style, but all of them recognise that to stay ahead of their competition they have to constantly be thinking of ways to keep themselves in the forefront of what is becoming a tougher and more discerning marketplace. Piece of Pith: It’s always darkest before dawn, so if you’re going to steal your neighbours’ newspaper, that’s the time to do it.

A Not-So-Secret Afternoon Delight: The Secrets lounge lizard libation room (Soi 14, off Walking Street) held what must surely have been a first for Pattaya: an afternoon in-house dance contest with 17,000 baht in prize money up for grabs. Apparently, the idea was mooted by a member of the Secrets forum who stumped up the prize money. Although slated to get underway at 2:00PM the first of 29 contestants didn’t take the stage until about 4:00PM. Nonetheless, the place was probably one of the busiest in Fun Town for that time of the day and the atmosphere was enjoyable. The contest was divided into just two sections: a series of five heats and then a final. Three of the five heats were reserved for coyote dancers, one heat was for hostesses, and another heat was restricted to service girls and/or mamasans. This was probably the most fun with a couple of the four contenders clearly the types of girls who enjoy their victuals, on large plates. The winner of each heat, reached by a consensus of the judges, went through to the five-girl final. All entrants received a prize of 200 baht for entering while first prize money totalled 5,000 baht, second 3,000, third 2,500, fourth 1,500 and fifth 1,000 baht. Judging for the final round was based on two criteria. The first was the ability of the finalists to consume a B-52 shooter topped with whipped cream in as erotic a manner as possible without the use of their hands. I’m led to believe the eventual winner, a damsel all the judges picked on top, prefers to use her tongue for minge burrowing, yet her skills in extracting the cream and the contents of the shooter suggest a quite learned talent with objects tumescent. The second criteria, of course, was dancing ability, and right from the start there were really only three or four genuine contenders for the top prize. The contest was all over by 6:30PM, not too long winded and pretty good for a first effort. I would think Secrets management would be well pleased with the overall turnout and result of the afternoon’s activities. A Few Good Jockeys: The Carousel chrome pole palace (Soi Diamond) will be celebrating an amazing 17 years of operations later this year. After being at the forefront of dens in Pattaya for much of that time it lost its way through most of 2006 and especially 2007. I’m happy to say that following a bit of redecoration Carousel is now back on the worth visiting list. Draught amber fluid is 75 baht all night and there is a very good happy hour between 8:00 and 10:00PM with all house liver wasters, lolly water, amber draught, and Thai rotgut at just 75 baht. What makes it, of course, are the numbers and overall quality of the dancing damsels. Animism or Spiritualism? The Baby Dolls gogo (Soi 15, off Walking Street) is doing good business each night. Even so the damsels in most centres of the chrome pole are always keen to attract more business. I have seen the following ritual performed many times, sometimes in different forms, in dens over the years and witnessed it again just recently in Baby Dolls. A lady of easy virtue will parade in her birthday suit with a glass of alcoholic liquid or (holy?) water in her hand, circumnavigating the centre stage three or four times, sprinkling some of the liquid as she goes. While this is happening the other dancing maidens and bar staff clatter ashtrays and glasses in a rhythmical time on the tables. Eventually, the circumnavigating damsel will make her way to the front door, turn her back to the outside, bend over and, as the door is quickly opened, cast the remaining contents of the glass into the street. You don’t want to be walking into the den just as this happens. Need to go Back to School: I’ll start this by saying it was the Monday evening just after Songkran so presumably a lot of damsels had gone home and many others probably were not bothered coming to work. My young nephew was visiting from Australia and since he was staying in a sleeping palace just down the road we decided to start our night out in the Classroom 2000 gogo (Soi 2). To say it wasn’t worth a cracker is almost an understatement. First, the music was loud and distorted and the standard brain-dead DJ was playing ©rap, followed by more ©rap, followed by more ©rap. Second, they can’t seem to work out their happy hour price for draught amber fluid: a stencilled sign on the outside window claims happy hour is 8:00-10:00PM and 1:00AM until closing with the draught amber froth at 49 baht. The bored-looking outside barkers were desultorily clutching signs claiming the draught fluid was 45 baht. I don’t drink the stuff anyway, but you’d think management might at least get the prices in sync. The standard price for a libation in the den is a reasonable 95 baht. Third, there were no more than 18-20 dancing damsels in the joint (see my opening sentence to at least be fair to them), and while maybe four or five were reasonably attractive the closest my nephew came to a pussy was when a friendly four-legged feline nestled beside him on the bench seat. While attractive, if you happen to like cats, my nephew’s between-the-sheets tastes do not run to paw-licking moggies, and this specimen was not going to be much of a drawcard, except in a petting zoo. There were only eight-10 dancers on stage at any one time and one thing very noticeable was the paucity of customers and most who did come in stayed for one drink and left. As my nephew noted of the dancers after we wandered out, “they looked disinterested, doing their nails and talking among themselves”. Out of the Rumour Mill: It appears as though Rambling Ricky is well and truly living up to the nickname I’ve given him. A part-owner and the public face of the Sisterz gogo (Walking Street), he was ousted from the place on Friday 28 March. It’s my understanding that his majority shareholder partners vetoed every idea he had for putting new bums on seats in the den: ranging from a change in the music (which would have been welcomed by at least 90 percent of the current regulars I would have thought) to running dance contests to promoting the place by way of trade advertising. How correct these rumours are I can only guess. Suffice to say, Ricky has always struck me as being a very good bar manager and operator, at least on the surface. What he’s like behind-the-scenes I have no idea, and really it doesn’t matter. The end result for any establishment is whether it can build up a regular clientele, and the foreign face propping up a bar stool and meeting and greeting the punters can sometimes be a key factor in the success of a den. Ricky also appeared to have a generally good rapport with most dancing damsels. Since leaving Bangkok and making Pattaya his place of operations, Rambling Ricky has indeed been somewhat of a ‘rambler’ having parked his frame on barstools in Diamond, Babewatch (now defunct), Catz, and FLB before taking the helm in Sisterz (which used to be a long-running den called Honey). Official Start: One of the newest ‘kids’ on the block is the Rocket gogo (Soi Diamond). It had its official opening party on Saturday night 29 March even though the place has been up and running for a little while with long-time boozerophile Khun Satit at the helm. Early reports were not encouraging, especially regarding the overall poor quality of dancing damsels and the insult to intelligence they tried to pass off as lady drinks. Another Saturday Night: As a somewhat jaded veteran of the chrome pole circuit I like to get out and about with people who have fresher eyes and maybe different views to mine. This was the case on a recent Saturday night and the results were interesting. A trio of us kicked off in the X-Zone gogo (Soi 16, off Walking Street) just after 8:00PM. There’s no happy hour so I guess it was no surprise there were just three other customers in this very spacious auditorium. There were about 18 dancers, and some of these were quite attractive, but with liver wasters at 140 baht and lolly water 100 baht, I can see absolutely no value in frequenting the joint when compared with so many other places in Fun Town. There are some people I know who highly recommend the place because of the shows, but since there was nothing resembling a show in the 30-40 minutes we spent in X-Zone I would think it’s a late-night attraction. We then wandered off to the Peppermint chrome pole palace (Walking Street). This was the best den in town some years ago and it’s never dropped out of the top echelon. One of my partners in drinking, from Finland, had never been in before and it was no surprise when he said, “This is much better than the other place.” Considering it was still happy hour (which extends until 9:30PM) and almost all thirst-quenchers were a mere 50 baht, it represents one of the best value-for-money places in Pattaya. Between the colloquially-known ‘pussy corner’, the table-dancers, the ‘three birthday-suited stooges’ in the back enclosure, and the 10 stage dancers there’s enough to burn out even the strongest optic nerve. Across the road is the long-established Champion gogo with a happy hour running until 9:30PM where most libations are just 35 baht and even bottled amber fluid is just 50 baht. The place has a distinctive odour; basically, it needs a good repaint or retiling or somesuch, although I doubt the management even notice the ‘pong’. There’s no chance of the local plod catching any under-age dancers in the place, most look about ready to start applying for their pension card. That said, the music is still good and the place has a friendly atmosphere and if you like to look at exposed minge of a certain vintage then Champion is the place to go. Further down is the Sweethearts gogo (Walking Street) which celebrated their second anniversary in March. This place is more a table-dancing den rather than having a long stage. Two dancers start at the rear of the den and move down table by table towards the front. There’s no showing of any kind but there are some 20-25 ladies of easy virtue in this narrow den and most are quite easy on the eye. The music is alright and with most thirst-quenchers, including lady drinks, at 95 baht it’s well worth a visit. We ended in the New Living Dolls 1 gogo which had a great vibe and plenty of dancing damsels including some real top-notchers, especially if you like ladies with impressive balconies. Drinks prices are sensible, most at 95 baht and lolly water just 45 baht. The latter is a clear indication the management are well aware the majority of imbibers want to drink booze in preference to lolly water, as long as prices are sensible. Of the five dens we went into this was the best and it’s no surprise it does well night after night. Piece of Pith: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

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There's a restaurant whose name escapes me, in Thip Plaza, just north of Mikes Shopping mall off Second Road betweeen Second Road and Beach Road. The restaurant is open air, down past the mini-malls on both sides (DHL in the middle) on the right hand side (heading to Beach Road). It's the last restaurant or business before you go down the lane to Beach Road. Very good Thai food at a reasonable price.

Very creative promotions there. Nice looking staff! Best of luck on your enterprise. See you in a few days.

Emil - that matches my experience. United Award travel (to BKK at least) is frequently on partner airlines with some strange routing. The time I went with Singapore, we essentially flew past BKK to SIN, then came back north to return to BKK. Skylar - I was asking about Award Travel. I take the same flights as you mention, am 1K as well, and know about the double EQM for the next couple of months. Might make me travel a bit earlier than I planned to pick up those EQM.

Emil, have you ever been able to book a 60K R/T to SEA on United gear itself? I've found whenever I used miles for a ticket through United Award travel, I am routed in some strange way on Thai or Singapore...with longer layovers and more distance. Example... SFO-BKK R/T: UAL SFO-LAX, THAI LAX-HKG, THAI HKG-BKK SFO-BKK R/T SNG SFO-HKG, HGK-SIN, SIN-BKK Longer travel times and more legs and more connection delays. UAL never seems to have Saver Awards available on their gear.

How do you get 45K miles on a R/T from Sacramento to BKK? I fly SFO-BKK, and it's about 8K flight miles each way thru Narita. Or, are you saying, that after you complete the flight, you'll have accrued 45k miles total?

Good to hear. Welcome back!

I was wondering about that, since a microwave pie on the street takes a couple of minutes, but an oven-cooked pie would take much longer...at least 20 minutes as you say. As to the OP's question, unless you have found a sit down restaurant where you expect to wait a long time for your order, there might not be any places that do other than microwave. You could always buy one at Villa or Foodland and bake it yourself.

I've noticed it's a bit slow today. I restarted the web server. Let's see if that helps.

The deal is only on the LK Metropole now, but I have a new document with rates for all their other places as well. After I sign it, discounts at the other hotels will be available. I don't know about a walk-in special price.

torres09, i got your request. agudbuk...nothing from you, however.

I checked into the pricing and availability of that 500cc "scooter" and, from what I could find out, it sells for about 8000 AUD or around 250k baht...in Australia. I have no idea what it sells for here. But, there's a shop on Soi Yen Sabai that has them for rent. I don't know for how much.