oliver17

https://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-A247-mercure-bangkok-sukhumvit-11/index.shtml
 
Stayed her recently for 3 nights, first time sating soi 11 and thought the location was great easy access to everywhere, 15/20 minute walk to soi 4 and easy access to soi 10 and CIB over the foot bridge, a lot going on with building works on the soi but not an issue certainly no noise could be heard from the Hotel rooms and even lying by the pool  was peaceful. 
Rooms are big an well appointed nice sofa by the window , great big beds comfortable and good mattress, in room safe, white robe and asylum slippers, mini bar was disappointing, in fact non existent only complimentary bottles of water  replaced daily otherwise empty. Big walk in shower plenty of room for sharing, bathroom on a whole is big, good bum gun, only thing i didn't like was the toilet flusher was on the left hand side low down on the toilet which means bending over the used toilet to flush which is a bad design.
Good Gym with plenty equipment for a short stay but would not be much good if you were into heavy lifting dumbells only go up to 20KG, Pool/bar area is a good size and although a few people using it could always get a bed/chair to sit back and be amused by the Chinese trying to swim, presume they don't have a kids swim programme back home never seen anything like it.
Access to floors is card only via the lift, no issues with guests and ID never taken although i did meet all my guests in the lobby if i wasn't arriving back with them, very busy Hotel with plenty of people coming and going so if you want privacy when bring back your guests you wont get it here.
Enjoyed my time here and would definitely stay again, i didn't get the chance to go to the Bars or Nightclubs so couldn't comment on them but defiantly a lot going on in this area and a Hilary 3 straight across from the hotel.  

My last laptop purchase I flew to HK and ferry to shenzhen and had a dodgy weekend there, then purchased my laptop in HK and flew home to bkk, and broke even on the cheapest of that laptop I could find in Bangkok. Thailand certainly isn't even good value for higher spec electronics. 

It's also a myth that electronics are cheaper in Asia. They aren't and they are frequently quite a bit more expensive than in the west. 
For US residents, duty free is hardly ever a bargain. It's only good for items that are sometimes hard to find in the states, such as certain Japanese whiskeys. 

I've always liked the advice "the best camera is the one you have with you" as it applies on many levels.
Smartphone camera quality (and specifically computational photography) has improved dramatically over the past half decade, enough that I would say a top-tier smartphone (Google Pixel, iPhone, Samsung S10, etc.) would suffice for most. Works out well because most people already have phones on them.
It sounds like you're keen on shooting videos too however, with video recording capabilities of phones still leaving a lot to be desired. Should you want to upgrade to a dedicated camera option this leads to the second interpretation: getting something portable and easy to use.
I've known too many non-technical people pick up bulky and relatively cheap DSLRs expecting them to dramatically improve their photos, only to not be bothered enough to learn to use the camera properly as well as rarely even taking them out because they are too big and heavy to carry everywhere. If you are really keen on photography/videography and willing to lug around 1-2kg worth of gear sure, but I'd say most average people are not.
Back to recommendations, I like 'advanced' point-and-shoots like the Canon G7X/G9X and Sony RX100 series but they can be quite costly- ranging from A$700 all the way up to $1500++ They are pretty simple to use with reasonable auto-modes, fairly compact (not pants-pocketable but fits into coats/bags) and the image/video quality is perfectly fine for most I would say. There's a ton of reviews out there, at the time the Canon G7X mark II was lauded as a good vlogging camera. Not sure where in WA you are but JB HiFi has them and maybe you can check some out there.
Going down budget I'm not sure I can recommend the cheaper (<A$300) point-and-shoot cameras. Picking up second-hand or waiting for sales of the aforementioned cameras is a better bet in my opinion. Otherwise, I'd say you're better off just upgrading your phone and maybe getting a tripod with phone mount for any videos. Make sure there is adequate lighting, turn on extra lights if you have to. Work with what you have.

Duty free is a rip for electronics, the only real savings you make will be on items where extra duty is applied such as booze, tobacco and perfume. 
Check out http://www.staticice.com.au/
Plenty of options for the Canon you want http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=Canon+sx430&amp;spos=3

Walk of shame? Shame for who? Think about it: You're already staying at a hotel in a notorious red light district. It's a bit ridiculous to suddenly be concerned about appearances, don't you think? 
As for Phachara, because it is located on mongering ground zero and a lot of their business is directly related to the local p4p scene, there is nothing you can do that the staff hasn't seen one zillion times before. They don't care. Most other guests don't care because they are engaged in same shenanigans you are. As for the minority of guests who are offended by what consenting adults are doing, that's their problem not yours. 

I stayed at this one early in 2018. An LB girlfriend lives in Phrae, and the alternative was staying with her at her family's house in the country where eleventy billion stray dogs roam the roads and there is nothing to do but drink all day. Been there and done that, so I stayed in town on my last visit to her parents. Rooms here run for about 800 - 1000 baht /night. There are cheaper places in town, but this hotel has a good pool and there are a few restaurants in the vicinity.  Unless you trust your Thai language skills, you probably want to carry somebody along as an interpreter when you check in, because the staff's English is pretty shaky but that is to be expected in a place like this. 
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g982710-d633838-Reviews-Maeyom_Palace_Hotel-Phrae_Phrae_Province.html#photos;aggregationId=101&amp;albumid=101&amp;filter=2&amp;ff=17423862

For me, the other stuff is the regular stuff. 

Walk of shame? Shame for who? Think about it: You're already staying at a hotel in a notorious red light district. It's a bit ridiculous to suddenly be concerned about appearances, don't you think? 
As for Phachara, because it is located on mongering ground zero and a lot of their business is directly related to the local p4p scene, there is nothing you can do that the staff hasn't seen one zillion times before. They don't care. Most other guests don't care because they are engaged in same shenanigans you are. As for the minority of guests who are offended by what consenting adults are doing, that's their problem not yours. 

For me, the other stuff is the regular stuff. 

Can somebody please advise if (and how) it's possible to see the Line ID of an existing Line contact (and therefore already know the contact's Line display name - which can be different from the Line ID) without asking the person in question directly? 
Has anyone tried Line Pay to pay a girl for her services already? 
Apologies if this is a stupid question or if it has been already asked and answered somewhere else before...
Thanks :-)
--- and a happy world tequila day!

I’ve looked through every setting their is and can’t find it in my friends list. If they are in your friends list I don’t think you can.

I don't think you can view someones ID once you've added them. At least I've never been able to figure it out
 

Walk of shame? Shame for who? Think about it: You're already staying at a hotel in a notorious red light district. It's a bit ridiculous to suddenly be concerned about appearances, don't you think? 
As for Phachara, because it is located on mongering ground zero and a lot of their business is directly related to the local p4p scene, there is nothing you can do that the staff hasn't seen one zillion times before. They don't care. Most other guests don't care because they are engaged in same shenanigans you are. As for the minority of guests who are offended by what consenting adults are doing, that's their problem not yours. 

Walk of shame? Shame for who? Think about it: You're already staying at a hotel in a notorious red light district. It's a bit ridiculous to suddenly be concerned about appearances, don't you think? 
As for Phachara, because it is located on mongering ground zero and a lot of their business is directly related to the local p4p scene, there is nothing you can do that the staff hasn't seen one zillion times before. They don't care. Most other guests don't care because they are engaged in same shenanigans you are. As for the minority of guests who are offended by what consenting adults are doing, that's their problem not yours. 

The problem is, for the average Chinese tourist, a line is an alien concept...
SAG

Here's a solution: Anyone (read: Chinese tourists) who hasn't bothered to fill out their arrival cards and / or doesn't have their passport in hand prior to seeing the immigration officer must go to the back of the line immediately.  Problem solved. 
 

I have stayed at Citrus 11 a few times and can recommend that one along with OneTrueSaxon. If you can, you should spring for one of their suite rooms. It's not much more than a regular room and the suites have 2 full bathrooms, which comes in very handy when you bring guests into your room. 
Last December, I stayed at Solitaire which is on Soi 11 where it veers off to Soi 13. This place is not bad and the rooms have gigantic beds - larger than king size and I had never come across them before. You can easily sleep with 3 ladyboys in one bed if you need. The restaurant is pretty lame, but that's no big deal because Soi 11 has many places to eat. Below is a thread on Solitaire - despite qualms, I would stay there again because of its location and value.
 
Last but not least is Grand Swiss Hotel, which I really like. It's a Compass property like the various Citrus hotels and every one of their places offer a lot of bang for the buck. Below is a review I wrote a few years ago. If you read it all the way through you will come across a little treat at the end, 555. Hope this helps and good luck. 
 

I have stayed at Citrus 11 a few times and can recommend that one along with OneTrueSaxon. If you can, you should spring for one of their suite rooms. It's not much more than a regular room and the suites have 2 full bathrooms, which comes in very handy when you bring guests into your room. 
Last December, I stayed at Solitaire which is on Soi 11 where it veers off to Soi 13. This place is not bad and the rooms have gigantic beds - larger than king size and I had never come across them before. You can easily sleep with 3 ladyboys in one bed if you need. The restaurant is pretty lame, but that's no big deal because Soi 11 has many places to eat. Below is a thread on Solitaire - despite qualms, I would stay there again because of its location and value.
 
Last but not least is Grand Swiss Hotel, which I really like. It's a Compass property like the various Citrus hotels and every one of their places offer a lot of bang for the buck. Below is a review I wrote a few years ago. If you read it all the way through you will come across a little treat at the end, 555. Hope this helps and good luck. 
 

No updates to this thread for a while so high time for some new pics  
 
For the Ramen lovers amongst you I can wholeheartedly recommend Mensho Tokyo, located on the corner of Sukhumvit road and soi 31. I had the Tori Taipan: a very rich chicken broth, pork chashu, duck chashu, green onion, marinated egg and lemon grass. Outstanding and at 320b not bad value either!
 

 

 

Considering 6 months had passed since our last culinary excursion to Le Normandie, Shyguyuk and I decided last week that it was high time to once again make our way to the Oriental Hotel and indulge in Le Normandie's 8 course Menu Gastronomique accompanied by a Wine Arrangement. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, save to say I needed a nap after this lunch!  
 

I wouldn't lose any sleep over that. I have stayed there 6 or 7 times over the years. That has been their "official" policy all along, but they don't really enforce it. I too like to take more than one guest per day into my room, and did it all the time when I stayed there. Only once did they try to tack on joiner fee at checkout. I politely asked them to remove it and pointed out that I was a repeat customer. They removed the charges quickly with no questions asked. 
During the daytime,  just march with your guest to the elevators like you own the place and nobody will say will a word about IDs or signing in guests. At night time they usually have a guard at a table in the lobby collecting IDs of guests and there won't be any getting around him, but that doesn't matter because as said above their guest policy fee BS isn't really enforced. 
Interesting that you mentioned Landmark as an alternative, because they also have an official 1K baht guest fee policy that they don't bother to collect. This is from my email to them a few years ago in the hotel guest policy thread. Scroll down to post #25 in thread link below to see what they said when asked.....
 
 

Maybe you mean Amari? If so, they also have (or had) a guest fee. See post #1 in same guest policy thread. Unlike Landmark and Phachara I have never stayed at Amari, so I have no idea if they actually collect the fee or not. The point is, many hotels in lower Sukhumvit have these fees on the books but they aren't serious about them. 
 

You can read a little about it below...
 
There are other good hotels on Soi 10 - some guys like Paradiso which is in very close proximity to CIB, and down the street is Galleria 10. I have stayed at G10 a few times in the past.  It's just a 2 or 3 minute walk from CIB, nice pool and bar scene on the roof and CIB LBs all love going there. 

I've been to Talad Rod Fai a few times, it's a good night out if you like memorabilia and antique sort of things. It's a mix of locals and tourists, the ladyboys I've seen have been with bfs walking around or working in the stalls. The bars are tiny and not really a place to go for. 
I've been to rock bar a few times in coco walk, I've not seen any ladyboys in the area. The problem you'll have here and many Thai orientated places is that they go out in big groups and don't really mingle with others outside their groups. Western style bars are popular for P4P and singles looking for farang because they allow random people to meet, Thai bars are more for groups of friends to drink/sing together, there is very little interaction outside their immediate group. 
I haven't been to Udom Suk nightclubs but there's plenty of these sorts of locations dotted around Bangkok, for some reason they tend to have the best food too. They're all girls as far as I'm aware, you'd need to go to a gay area to find ladyboys for local guys. 
Places imo you would be more successful :
 
RCA - loads of ladyboys go here for fun but it's hard to break them away from their groups they go in. Bring a card with your line ID on it to slip to them. 
Ratchada Rot Fai Market - just up Rama IX is the newer version of the old Rot Fai market, bigger bars and apparently there are ladyboys there according to another BM in a thread from a year or more ago. 
Thonglor - there are plenty of Thai nightclubs here, I've seen ladyboys in groups when I've been out and about too. But again, breaking them from the group will be challenging. 
Saphan Kwai - near saphan Kwai bts is a straight and gay gogo bar area aimed at Thais. Bound to be ladyboys there, but not sure where exactly. The straight area is on Suttisan Winitchai Rd around soi Inthamara 2. The gay gogos are opposite side of Phahonayothin Rd down Soi Pradiphat 20 - near Embassy Hotel. 
As a tourist, you will have limited success with any non P4P ladyboys, as they generally are more interested in building a relationship (whatever that relationship may be) than a one night stand with a tourist who may never be back. So I agree with Flip-flops comment above, if you're going to go to the effort to meet them in these places make sure you let them know you're not just a 'one hit wonder'.