Who Are You?

[bwayne33]

I am a retired American who keeps an apartment in Pattaya year round and I stay there 7 months every year. I classify myself as a lurker and rarely contribute to the boards, but I enjoy reading them when I am home because it helps me feel connected. I always seem to miss the "meet and greet" gatherings and therefore I only personally know a few of the members. I have traveled throughout Thailand from Nong Khai to Ubon Ratchathani and Chiang Mai to Trang. I really like Thai people and have always enjoyed the time I spend in Thailand. I first came to Thailand in 1996 and have returned every year since then although the frequency of my visits has increased in the past 5-6 years.

[gertrude]

GayButton,I am hoping you could post more info about yourself.

Your past career,how long you lived in Thailand,where you came from in the U.S,where was your first visit to Thailand etc.

It would be good for us posters to read more about the moderators.

Thanks GB

[Gaybutton]

GayButton,I am hoping you could post more info about yourself.

I was born in a little log message board . . .

Very sorry, but I do not care to discuss my personal life. However, if this satisfies your curiosity, the following is a copy of a post I made on the Gay Thailand board in June. That will have to suffice:
____________________

Nearly all of us use screen names rather than our real names. Often the reasons for the names are obvious and just as often not so obvious. Sometimes they can appear to be obvious, but in reality are not at all what we thought.

I'm curious about everyone's screen names and maybe some of you are willing to share with us how and why your screen name came to be.

I'll start:

When I lived in the USA my life was essentially in the closet. Only once did I ever attend a gay parade. That was in New Orleans. As the parade passed by, there were guys pinning badges, stickies, and all kinds of tags on people's shirts. One of them placed a badge on my shirt, about six inches diameter, and in big bold letters simply said the word "Gay."

I took it home with me and placed it on a shelf just above my computer.

I never even needed a screen name until after my first trip to Thailand. Just to show how 'green' I was, even after my first trip, I had never even heard of Pattaya. Back then, newsgroups were quite popular. On one gay newsgroup I posted a grand total of two paragraphs about my experience in the gay bars of Bangkok. I made the mistake of giving out my Email address with a note saying to feel free to contact me with any questions. To my amazement, within a few hours there were literally dozens of messages pouring in asking for more details.

I tried answering as many as I could, but the sheer number of Emails quickly became so overwhelming that it was just impossible. I realized there was no way to handle this. What had I gotten myself into? The only thing I could think of to do was to try my hand at creating a small web site that would contain answers to the most common questions I was receiving. I had never tried making a web site before, but I managed to come up with a small prototype of what eventually became my Gaybutton web site and message board. At first I didn't even have a message board. That came later.

It was then that I first needed a screen name. I was sitting there in front of my computer, racking my brains for an appropriate screen name when I realized it already was right there, staring me in the face. That badge that said "Gay."

I was going to call myself "Gaybadge," but that just didn't sound right. It didn't take long to realize that "button" is a synonym of "badge, and that's how my "Gaybutton" name was born. The Gaybutton name sounded right to me, so that's what I used and that's the screen name I've kept to this very day.

That's my story. What's yours?

[lexusgs]

Gertrude.

What about you?....any background?

[gertrude]

I love going to....thailand and .can be anyone I want.

I was surprised..at Xiandarks profile however,I LOVE his blog.

Also a LOT OF cOLLEGE professors on here it seems from California.

Im from Hobart,Tasmania

[allieb]

I'm from London I live in Saudi Arabia. I have been here for 20+ years. In 2002 an Irish friend friend of mine who also lives here, talked me into a trip to Thailand. I had refused several times as I wasn't into Asians at all. The trip was very nice and I had my first Thai boy. The flood gates opened and I have been back about a dozen times since.

I Had one long term Boy special between 2003 and 2006. I have come to the conclusion that Long distance BF's don't work unless you just like to like to chuck your money away. Others will dissagree but I believe it's only money that keeps Farang Thai relationships going. My trips to Thailand now are about food drink and the ocasional boy. Perhaps 4 or 5 during a 2 week stay I'm not starved for sex in Saudi its on tap and free . We sometimes come in a group of 8 or 10 expats from Saudi and once took a whole floor of the Chin House in Bangkok and partied.

[Jason1988]

I live in the USA and spend 4-6 months a year in Thailand.
Hopefully, I'll retire there full time to Pattaya in the not too distant future.

[Rainwalker]

I'm a retired business executive and company director; an upper-middle-aged, upper middle-class, urban, childless, gay adventurer who hews to all of the liberal gold standards.

There is no doubt that I'm in an eternal state of glee for the big things, like decent-ish health, a battalion of blessedly odd friends, and the undeserved love of a good man (not Thai and living in New York) who has shared almost a quarter century of joy with me.

I've been coming to Thailand since 1982, mostly to Pattaya, though over the years, I've lived in Bangkok and Phuket for months at a time. Recently, I've headquartered in Chiang Mai with monthly sojourns down south to visit long-time farang friends and to make new short-time friends in the entertainment industry. (Ahem...)

Thailand has changed me, or perhaps I've started to change in the Land of Smiles; there is more clarity and a greater need for calm, positivity, and ease in my life. (Hence Chiang Mai and a new found reluctance to kill.) Strangely for a 'red diaper' baby who grew up to become a left-leaning capitalist, I have become progressively more Buddhist in my outlook - seeking the Middle Way more often and in more things.

The journey continues...

[jaafar]

I'm an American living in Chiang Mai. My past life could be described as (a) globetrotter or (b) lifelong personal research project into gay life and homophobia around the world. I've lived in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Iran. (One result of this is that I speak -- or SPOKE -- English, French, Arabic, Farsi, and Thai.)

In the US, I worked as a software developer, and outside the US, I worked as an English teacher.

I first came to Thailand in 1988 and had a strong sensation that I had found my home. I had to leave early because of an emergency, but came right back in 1989 and met a wonderful guy named Suthat.

I got three months in Bangkok in 1991, and then TWO YEARS in Chiang Mai in 1992-1993 --- a "trial retirement." I went back to the USA because I needed $$ and also needed to put a Thai guy through SF State...worked at a series of startups (one successful) and also as an independent consultant paying a fortune in taxes, until the Internet bubble collapsed in 2001. Suddenly unemployed, I figured I could sit out the recession a lot more cheaply in Chiang Mai than in the Silicon Valley. I was back by early 2002 and "simply haven't left."

I find life in Chiang Mai to be very, very good. I have a wonderful boyfriend who is now a university sophomore, and a circle of close friends who are also my English students. I have been interested in language all my life, as well as literature, history, and philosophy --- which shades into religion at some points. I'm a happy agnostic, perfectly willing to allow for the existence of some God as long as he's not a Sadist. (It would be very unfortunate to live in a Cosmos ruled by a Sadist, wouldn't it?) Politically, I'm a low-tax, small-government, stand-back-and-let-er-rip kind of guy, which makes me very unpopular in some quarters.

Well, you can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself!

[Rogie]

I'm baaaaack !

Really?

Never heard of you.

ok, I'll bite - where've you been?