carbonara69

boomboom bastic
 
Your first time eh? Welcome!
You have a number of options and all have pros and cons.
So, let's assume you've picked up your preferred LB in one of the Nana Plaza bars or CiB.
Besides the agreed sum for short of long time (anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 baht) you will need to pay a bar fine (600 - 700 baht) and that will be on top of one or two drinks you will have purchased, say from 320 baht upward).
As this is your first time, it may be more expedient to take the option of renting one of the rooms upstairs for as little as 350 thb.
This will eliminate any awkwardness should anything go wrong in "your room".
Total approximate cost 3,500 to 4,000 baht not factoring in your time to reach the venue.
Pros: you see the LB you like in real life
Cons: If you do not find what you like at the start, it may turn out to be time consuming and moving from bar to bar will require new drinks.
 
A second option is "room service".
You can order your favourite "take away" from a website like www.ladyboy-for-you.com
and have it delivered to your room.
Pros: very easy and time efficient, not having to walk next to her if that embarrassing for you
Cons: more expensive and the LB may not turn out to look/be what you expected.
 
Third option "street food"
walk down Sukhumvit road any time after 7 pm on the odd side of the road past the BTS at Asok and all the way down to Soi 3 and you will go past countless options many of which are LBs.
Most will know of a short time hotel nearby for 350 - 400 baht and their short time rate may be as low as 1,000 baht.
 
Fourth option
Try a dating site such as Thai friendly and be amazed as to how reasonably easy it is to hook up with a LBs.
Some LBs will be professional freelancers and some will be delightful LBs genuinely looking for a relationship.
If the latter, meeting them for a drink or dinner may be a pleasant option.
pros: lots of choice and you can filter by age, weight etc.
Cons: There is a risk your date may be older or bigger than the photo on the website.
Under this option, you may have to take them back to your hotel.
 
In terms of cheap 2 star plus hotels which are LBs friendly, an acquaintance of mine is quite pleased with the Orchid group.
There are three of those in Soi 4 including the White Orchid Inn.
Good luck.

Been meaning to try this place for a few years and never managed to get there until this last Sunday. Pretty sure it used to be on the other side of Sukhumvit directly under the BTS but never mind.
 
Located about 150m into the soi and on same side as the Westin & Robinson department store. It is very narrow and very easy to miss especially like us you're coming by taxi.
 
The pub is nicely kitted out in traditional British style and has full range of local beer but did not spot any imported beers like Killkenny/Guinness.
 
'er indoors and myself were joined by Youngone and as it was Sunday I was keen to try the roast. I ordered roast beef and was very satisfied with it. Youngone has chicken Kiev which was swimming in garlic butter but looked appetizing and the missus had Tom Yum Goong. The total biill came to 1500b for the 3 of us including a drink each.
 
I'd certainly return.
 
Pic is of my roast beef and a few others taken from their website which is here:- http://www.blackswanbangkok.com/
 
 

Hilbert Space was here

Last year I stayed 1 month at My View Apartment, at the end of Soi 4. It's exactly 1 km from Sukhumvit. If you mind walking there is a motorbyke station 100 meters from the condo. The condo is small, only 6 apartments for renting, well mantained, with a small garden and a pool, very quiet and clean. Guest friendly of course. The owners are Thais, the whole family speaks good english, they live there themselves and they do all they can to help. Wi fi is free and at good speed. There is a cleaning service twice a week and you can ask for more towels or everything you should need. There is a living room with kitchen, 1 bedroom, a bathroom with shower and a balcony. 2 air cons, safe, fridge and microwave. With rent, electricity and several laundry services, I paid around 30.000 Bath.
 






 

Last year I stayed 1 month at My View Apartment, at the end of Soi 4. It's exactly 1 km from Sukhumvit. If you mind walking there is a motorbyke station 100 meters from the condo. The condo is small, only 6 apartments for renting, well mantained, with a small garden and a pool, very quiet and clean. Guest friendly of course. The owners are Thais, the whole family speaks good english, they live there themselves and they do all they can to help. Wi fi is free and at good speed. There is a cleaning service twice a week and you can ask for more towels or everything you should need. There is a living room with kitchen, 1 bedroom, a bathroom with shower and a balcony. 2 air cons, safe, fridge and microwave. With rent, electricity and several laundry services, I paid around 30.000 Bath.
 






 

Recently I received an email from Hyatt offering Hyatt Gold Passport members 30% off room rates at their higher-end Asian properties. The dates of the offering
coincided with my Dec 2015 - Jan 2016 BKK ladyboy jaunt, so I jumped at it and spent a few days at the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. The normal rates
at the Grand Hyatt range from 6000 baht up to 10000 baht per night, with Club rooms at 8000 baht. If you are so inclined, you can also take one of their cottages
starting at 22K baht per night. I selected a standard room at the discounted rate of 4K baht ($110 US). I then traded in some of my Gold Passport points
and upgraded into a Club level room. It costs 3K points per night to upgrade. It really was a deal too good to pass up. A similar room in New York or
Tokyo would cost around $450-$500 per night, so this was a steal in my opinion.
 
Hyatt also has a Park Hyatt under construction in Bangkok. It is set to open "mid-2016". Park Hyatts and Grand Hyatts offer similar amenities at roughly
the same level of luxury, so you can't go wrong either way.
 

 
The spacious lobby features soaring ceilings and plenty of seating. Also plentiful were smiling security guys dressed in dark suits everywhere you turned.
 

 
My room was number 1008, a corner room located at the end of the hall...
 

 

 

 

 
 
The minibar. Inside was the usual soft drinks, liquor and candy, nothing extraordinary.
 

 
 
The well appointed bathroom.
 

 

 

 
Bathroom personal items included everything you need in this cabinet.
 

 
 
The Grand Hyatt has 8 different restaurants and bars by my count. A big favorite with every ladyboy I took here was the
Bar@494, actually a wine bar that also had ace bartenders who knew how to mix some truly bodacious cocktails. This bar
had just the right vibe for a drink or two prior to going upstairs for boom-boom. (this pic is courtesy of Hyatt website).
 

 
 
The Grand Hyatt has a BTS station close by (Chit Lom). A taxi ride to Nana Plaza takes about 10 minutes more or less determined by
traffic on Sukhumvit.
 
Even at regular rates, the Grand Hyatt offers a real bargain. I certainly would not hesitate to stay there again.

Up to about 18 months ago I used to buy 6 First class LHR-BKK round tickets in one go from Thai's BKK HQ at a special discounted rate, i.e. I paid for them straight away in January and used them up through the year. A bean counter, in all his/her wisdom, decided at some point that secured upfront cash was less important than a potential higher margin and cancelled the advance purchase option for me. As a result of this decision I started looking around at various booking portals and have flown with EVA instead of Thai 3 times in 2015. I find that travelsupermarket.com gives a pretty good overview of the available options in all booking classes for direct flights ( only EVA, Thai and BA fly direct)and indirect flights between LHR and BKK. From a pricing perspective EVA and BA seems to offer equal and sometimes better fares than the various 3d party sellers, whilst Thai consistently offers prices in C/F class that are £100-£150 more expensive.
 
I tend to purchase direct from the airline, even if the price is slightly higher, because it's easier to make changes to the booking that way. A call to the airline is much quicker and more efficient in my experience than calling a 3d party seller's call centre where there are often long queues to get through and more often than not they need to call me back as they're not able to confirm the changes on the spot. As for the bean counters commercially insane decision: I used to spend in the region of £20K/year with Thai, which in 2015 dropped to around £9K for 3 flights. The other 3 flights were booked with EVA for around £2K per ticket, so as a result Thai was £11K worse off, EVA was £6K better off and most importantly I saved £5K.
 
I must admit that service and comfort in Thai's First class is far better than EVA's or BA's Business class though and my next 3 flights will be with them, but only because I've got 2 free upgrades from C to F and a 50% promo offer on miles to use ( 90K miles instead of 180K).
 
Some pics from Thai's First class on their A380 on the LHR-BKK route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glad for the good news you received that eventually led to this decision

Well, I've just gone through the process with Thailand Elite for a 5 year Privilege Entry Visa (PE Visa) and have this morning received confirmation of my Membership nr. I had been considering moving back to Thailand for about 2 years when I received some good news 2 weeks ago which accelerated my decision. Once I had made up my mind that starting a new chapter in my life, thus moving back to Thailand, was the right decision, I re-acquainted myself with all the Thai visa options available. I'm 46, so not eligible for a retirement visa, which means it would have to be a Student Visa, the new 6 months visa, various multiple-entry options, the PE Visa or just go in and out via the 30 days visa exempt system. After weighing up the various pro's and con's of each Visa, I decided the PE Visa was the easiest option around. Sure, it costs 500K Baht, but over a 5 year period that's not so much more all the other options would cost either when taking visa runs into consideration.
 
This is the timeline it took for the membership to get sorted:
Sunday, 22nd of November I asked for info via the Thai Elite website ( http://www.thailandelite.com/index.php). Monday, 23d of November I received a reply with explanation, requirements and application form (6 pages). Monday, 23d of November I emailed them a scan of my passport, scan of a picture and the application form in pdf format. Tuesday, 24th November Thai Elite emailed me acknowledging receipt of my application and explaining the procedure. Main point was that they were waiting for Immigration clearance which could take 5 working days. Wednesday, 25th November I received confirmation that my application had been approved by Immigration and was given bank details for remittance of funds. Monday, 30th November I transferred the funds from a UK based HSBC Premier Account and emailed them the remittance details. Wednesday, 2nd December they emailed me acknowledging receipt of funds and informed they were in the process of setting me up on their system. Membership ID nr. would follow in a couple of days. Wednesday, 2nd December, a few hours after their previous email, I received my membership nr, together with some practical information I have opted to receive the actual visa upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport. In order for everything to run smoothly Thai Elite has asked me to communicate my arrival details 5 days in advance by either phone or email so that they can arrange for a pick up at the gate and an escort to immigration. All in all I must say that I'm extremely impressed with their service, it was fast & efficient + every time I rang their office the girl(s) I was speaking to spoke excellent English. If budget is an issue than this Visa might not be for you, if however, you're willing to pay for comfort and ease of mind this is the way to go in my opinion. Let's be honest, if you're looking to emigrate to Thailand without intending to work or start a business and don't have enough funds to afford a 500K expense, your best option in most cases would be to stay at home. 
Below the last email from Thai Elite confirming my membership...
 
Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXX:
 
 
 
Greetings from Thailand Elite .
 
 
 
Welcome to Thailand Elite Member Club, the worlds first membership club, backed by the government. We already registered your name into the system and your ID number is XX XXXX XXXX
 
We hope you would find our privileges and benefits useful during your stay in Thailand. Please be noted, members are required to make advance reservations for all privileges and benefits.
 
 
 
Also, please kindly find the welcome letter and fact sheet showing privileges and benefits you are entitled to .
 
 
 
Please be gently reminded, Thailand Elite Members are require to do 90-day report at the Immigration Office as well. Furthermore, members who have permanent residence in Bangkok, we have a staff do on behalf of you. Please kindly drop the passport before 90-day report due at our office on Tuesday and come pick it up on Thursday.
 
 
 
Regarding to the request for Elite Visa, kindly inform Member Contact Center (MCC) for 5 working days in advance.
 
 
 
For more information or reservation on service(s), please contact 24/7 MCC at +66 2 352 3000 or memberservice@thailandelite.com and identify yourself with the aforementioned ID number.
 
 
 
Moreover, the list of vendors, Please find them in the privilege book. kindly go to download at http://www.thailandelite.com/downloadable_form_file/downloadable_form_file30.pdf
 
 
 
Should you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us anytime. We are looking forward to welcoming you as a guest of the country soon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Best Regards,
 
 
 
Ms. Sucheera Noisumran
 
Sales Support
 
Thailand Privilege Card Co.,Ltd.