DeepnHard

It's too bad they can't send you a ticket electronically (to your email address) though. The alternative is snail mail or "at the venue". Not sure what that means (at the bus station, at the website's service locations around town?) Well, it's a good beginning. A few glitches: I ride the Bangkok->Bang Saphan route often, but when I entered Bang Saphan as the destination all I got was "nothing found". Oh well. At least it solves the problem of having to go into the bus station the day you have to leave and hoping there's a bus seat available at the time you want to leave. ... I prefer trains over buses though, at least for long haul. Those 2nd class sleepers are a thing of beauty. Plenty of room for your gear, walk around whenever you want, food and beer delivered to your table, restaurant car you can loll around in. Sure, they're slower, but if you're sleeping all night, who cares. I can never sleep on a bus. (I'm not Thai.) ..... I traveled on a lot of buses leaving from Khao San before I got smart. They're private buses run on a shoestring and dangerous. Breakdowns, air con failure, and things like only one driver for a 12 hour night drive up to Chiang Mai (you have to keep the guy from falling asleep). One night I was on one of these buses coming back from Chiang Mai as it collided with a motorbike. The bus driver stopped the bus, opened the door and looked back in the rear view mirror at the wreckage, made sure no one was moving, put the bus back in gear and drove on. No phone call, nothing.

Thanks all! Since I more or less live in Thailand, I (think I'm) limited to what's in the 7/11. Durex seems like a good brand, and usually available in 4 or so sizes. I guess I'll just buy a box of each and let the LB choose.

I once got on a 7 hour train ride, 3rd class standing. They were the only tickets available, so we took them. The ticket was something like 28B (from Bangkok to Pratchuap). But no problem: we spent the whole time in the restaurant car--great seats, very pleasant drinking beer and watching the scenery float by.

There's apparently silicon based lube, which stays slippery and doesn't damage condoms. I'll look for it in pharmacies. What I've gathered so far (these aren't my opinions, and don't know how many of these are available in LOS): "Popular silicon-based lubes include: Wet Platinum: By the makers of Wet, naturally, this is high quality and very long-lasting. Eros Bodyglide: It's almost identical to Wet Platinum, but more expensive. ID Millennium: ID Millennium is a good lube, but not quite as smooth as Eros or Wet Platinum. It's still a good choice, however. Play Tingling silicone-based lubricant, made by Durex. It provides a tingling sensation and has a minty scent and taste." (Hmmm)

Well, I hope you're all right. (and if you are, it's a relief off my mind). I'll keep digging though, since I read this in two separate places and my doctor confirmed it. If I find anything authoritative I'll repost since it's a matter that affects all of us. Thanks for your replies. A little cartoon to lighten the mood...

I'll have to dig up the article I read this in. It was quite a while ago. If I can find it, I link it here. I don't completely understand it, but this is how I think it goes: There is a difference between the probability of a single event vs. the probability of a given series of that same event. In your example, for instance, the probability that you'd get infected the very first time is 1 in a 100. But the probability that you'd get infected after having escaped it 99 times in a row (if that happened) for example, would be much greater than 1 in 100. On the 100th time, the one-time odds may still be 100 to 1, but the series probability of infection by then is very high. Another example, the coin toss again. If you flip 10 heads in a row, and you know that over time the tosses will average out 50/50, you know that there's a better than average chance that after 10 heads, a tail becomes much more likely than a head (even though the *one time* event probability of the next toss is still 50/50). The series average has to eventually be 50/50 and the series up to this point has favored heads, making the *series probability* of a tails much more likely at this point. The one-time probability is overruled by the series probability, which strongly favors a tail. So in this way, a long string of good luck at the STD gambling tables make it increasingly more likely that one will get an STD, simply by probability: the series odds of getting an infection at this point have become much greater than the one-time odds.

"A night with Venus and a lifetime of Mercury" was what they said in Victorian England. Mercury was the treatment for syphilis.

But I think that's the way (the odds thing) works. Think of tossing a coin: When you start out, the chance of getting "tails" is 50% (or 1/2). If you got "heads" on the first toss, the chance of getting tails on the second toss isn't 50/50. It's 75/25 (3/4). If you get heads on the second toss, the odds become even more likely, 7/8 that you'll get tails on the third toss, and so on. This is how a doctor explained STD risks to me. He may be full of shit, but it makes sense. The word for this, BTW is "cumulative probability". Of course all these probabilities assume that your partner already has the STD, and give the odds that you'll catch it. In fact, the odds that your partner has, say HIV, are perhaps 10 or 15% in Thailand (given that he's a male-to-male sex worker). So say the risk of drawing such a partner is 1/10. If you do receptive anal intercourse with him(at, say, a risk of 1/100), then your real risk is 1/10 * 1/100 == 1/1000. Add the use of a condom, which has a 10% risk of malfunction, and the odds become 1/10 * 1/100 * 1/10 == 1/10000. (PS: the condom risk is for all people using all types of condoms. If you use good condoms correctly and the risk goes down accordingly)

No substitute for good information... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aids#Transmission A lot of times it's a trade off between the risk of infection and the enjoyment of the act. You can wrap yourself in latex, head to foot and be very safe, but why even bother. You won't have any fun. Some things are very dangerous to do without a rubber, like receptive anal sex, and somethings aren't, like insertive oral sex, or even receptive oral sex. So it's good to know what sex acts carry the most danger and plan accordingly. And feel more comfortable about taking a fairly insignificant risk with things that are a lot more fun to do without a rubber. The chart above breaks it down. In practice, no one is going to be completely safe all the time, so it's good to know where you're the most vulnerable. It goes without saying that you should do what you're most comfortable doing, and I'm not trying to advocate unsafe sex. But I think people feel the most comfortable when they know beforehand the risks that they'll be taking and can plan accordingly. ... One thing worth mentioning. By the laws of probability, your odds increase every time you "play the game" (do a particular sex act). So if you have a 1/100 chance the first time you try something, you'll have a 1/50 chance the second time, 1/25 the third time, etc. The odds listed in the Wikipedia article are the "starting odds". Condoms cut down the unprotected risk to about 1/10 of what it would be, because condoms aren't perfect: they break, slip off, aren't used correctly...so there's a probability for them too (and I think the Wikipedia article may mention that). This is what I've learned over the years. It may not be completely correct. If not, please correct me for the general good. --- PS: Another forum member linked to a San Francisco STD clinic, which is another great source of information, and worth comparing side-by-side to the Wikipedia table above.