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I thought I’d put this placeholder thread for now until my current trip is finished, which is going to be soon. The good news: after a rough few months after Brazil opened up to the world last July, where the Rio saunas were ghost towns with few boys, and even fewer clients, I’d like to report that Rio is back. Probably not as “back” as it was pre-pandemic, with the wall-to-wall muscle in 117, and crazy parties in 202, but “good enough” to spend time in. As it is, the picking are slim in the pandemic, and I am thankful that there are options in Rio at all. This is because as Brazil opened up to foreign visitors at the end of July 2020, I found that Sao Paulo was the place to be, with even boys from Rio flocking to Lagoa because the tourists numbers was still low in Rio. As 2020 drew a close however, Rio gathered strength, and now, with the city of Sao Paulo’s numerous openings and closings and Fragata, the once-promising alternative to Lagoa opening to some fan-fare, and then slowly slid into a whimper to its (temporary?) closure in December, I was also able to visit other Brazilian cities with the new boyfriend, as chronicled in the previous thread I started last year, and still need to complete. In this thread, I’ll report about my experiences in Rio over the holidays, and in the 3 months after. And since I spent the New Year in Fortaleza, I’ll report about that too. Putting aside the obvious horrible stuff that has happened during the pandemic (so far), I’d say that I was able to take advantage of the low tourist numbers, discounted hotel and AirBNB prices, and the bargain basement airfare to Sao Paulo and Rio from the USA. This is a unique point of our history, and oddly enough due to the “work from home” mode that the majority of us have adopted to mitigate the spread of the COVID, I was able to spend the majority of my (post-July 2020) time, in Brazil. And I won’t expand on the mountain of risks I have been taking (and continue to take) with venturing out to this country, I have been lucky enough to have kept my health, and my sanity, in check. I hope it keeps up that way. So here I am, in the last leg of the trips I’ve taken that will be chronicled in this trip report. This trip was made possible because last Janaury, I was able to book three speculative flights into the future, all at $1200 business roundtrip, not knowing if I can make all the flights in the dates I’ve booked them at, but since the prices are so low, and with the elimination of change fees at least this year, I’d say the risk of losing my money from these bookings are low. But it now March 2021, and the second wave (third? fourth?) is upon Brazil, which is extra concerning because even with all the lessons and trials we all have learned and endured in this pandemic, Brazil meanwhile, seems to have regressed somewhat, back to a scary time in the pandemic. Regardless, I am still soldiering on and flying into to the belly of the beast, so the question was just what Brazilian city will I go to next. I see city after city announce their lockdown plans, and mine and BF’s plans to spend a week in Sao Paulo, has been wrecked by Sao Paulo’s super duper serious pandemic phase: And Lagoa of course has to comply, and is closed at least to the 30th of March: But Rio de Janeiro, being Rio de Janeiro, even with some sort of lockdown, is still semi-open. There is just something about Rio that really can’t get shut down. With notices from Lion’s and 202 on their Instagram, and the notice at the door at 117: Which means diverting my flight, and AirBNB rentals, to a stay in Rio. Armed with my RT-PCR test, I took the United Sao Paulo flight from Houston, which was half-empty, and then the flight from Sao Paulo to Santos Dumont in Rio was filled to the gills. And the ultimate sign of the times was a dedicated COVID testing area at the mezannine floor at International terminal at Terminal 3 in Guarulhos. And the place looked busy: Another sign of the times: greeting me in Rio was a cute masked Azul mascot: though the mask does look ill-fitting. Speaking of masks, everyone in the airport was wearing masks, and the Uber ride had me and the driver wear masks the whole ride, but there was a lot of mask-less people milling around the streets of Copacabana where my AIrBNB was. So please be patient, I will continue this thread when this current trip is over (and it’ll be soon). Next, a December to remember.

A word of warning for those who have been transferred from the US site. For around a decade one of the best on line apps for meeting up with young gay Asians both around the continent and sometimes in other countries was fridae. Founded by a Singaporean, it used to be a paid site with an annual subscription of around $45 giving you access to what was claimed as 500,000 members. I joined around 2005 and found it a great site, well worth the subscription. Not sure when it happened but perhaps around 8 years ago it was sold to a business concern. Quickly it went downhill and I left the site. Now it is all but dead and subscription is free but a waste of time. Examples. 1. Check on who is online from various countries ar any one time. This will always show between 1,600 and 1,800 - always. It recently included 59 members allegedly in Afghanistan and 60 in Antarctica! Click on the country and you discover that there was in fact just one member in each country! 2. Go into advanced search (for those who paid their subscription) and insert something like Thailand guys under 35. It will provide a list but the average age of those on the list will in almost every case be well over 35! Of 45 presently listed in Singapore, only one is under 35! Most are in their 40s, 50s and 60s. 3. The list of saunas, massage places and coffee shops includes some which closed as long ago as 2015. 4. The news items of gay interest used to have a couple of posts each week. It has had nothing for the last 4 months.

Please,please,please,please and please!

I live in Mexico, another place that is bad off because of an unprepared "Populist" president that still refuses to wear a mask (he recently had Covid) and blames his lack of planning on the USA hogging the vaccines. He basically has no plan....every state for themselves , Sound familiar? But sex is never a problem when Latinos are involved, there have been curfews and restrictions but life and sex continue....for most.

Does anyone know of this place? I just found them today and I like a lot of their guys. Any experiences? https://www.facebook.com/Big-Hands-Massage-107619074405402

It happened less than youd think. And mostly when it does, based on reports of those who were there, its mostly to arrest illegal immigrants or those who abuse their social pass to work. And this raids happened in both gay and straight places. The customers rarely gets charged. Now there are also raids with religious officers, but they can only charge muslims, and the sharia law here are only regarding those not covered by the civil law, and punishment were limited too. Yes it happens but not a hindrance for most of us here and its no where near brutal. The reality here, eventhough the soceity and gov dont want to face reality, if u go to any shopping malls, u can clearly see gays, trans, working in the many shops selling cosmetics and womens shoes/handbag. Go to the gym in the city, u can see gays working out, go to certain toilets in bus station or malls, u can see gays cruising. Ive been lucky enough to never face any raids myself, even though i used to regularly goes to the massage centers. But gay sauna and massage centers here are not so easy to find. It is often in shoplots upper stairs and no signs outside, locked door with cctv to see if u are customer or not. Lol

Gay life in malaysia goes on as usual. Since they are illegal anyway, u can still get massage, go to sauna, and covid restriction only happens outside the premises. So if i cant cross district previously, only those within the district can go to those places. Now, it has relaxed a bit. Almost all businesses can open including cinema, massage, gym etc. except night club and bars, which is only allowed to operate as restaurant. Legal Massage sop is strict, masseur will wear face shield, mask, and gloves and temperature check with apps check in made compulsory. The gay massage being illegal doesnt really follow any of this, but now only accept appointment, with no walk in. Some gay sauna limit the amount of people at a time with people wearing masks except when having fun. We cant travel freely yet, no interstate crossing allowed, but tour group tourism allowed on low risk states. One of my regular masseur did stop working due to covid. As far as i can tell, he hasnt working since december last year. He can afford to do this though, as i believe he has a local BF/daddy supporting him.

... But city hall just wrote me back after I inquired. Nice of them: The curfew was lifted indefinitely. Just observe the basic mitigation protocols.

Very little commercial sex. Only a few on the apps. Peace Park a few blocks behind the Caesar Palace Hotel used to be very cruisy with a lot of rent. May still be. Not sure what you mean by old. I and my friend are in our mid 50s - late 60s and never had problems finding sex on the apps or in the saunas. There are not many westerners living in Taipei and a considerable number of young Chinese guys looking for them.

Good luck on the job hunt!

make it 50

Life in Asutralia is mostly back to normal, with the exception of no intl' travel. Bars are open, and large gatherings and events are starting again. Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend went ahead, but in a more limited format and a little less of a party vibe. We had a few outbreaks in 2020 where we went into lockdown with travel restricted between states/regions, people mostly followed the rules, and with quarantine for inbound travelers we managed to avoid widespread issues that a lot of other countries had. Our issue is now that countries supplying the vaccine are withholding our supply because we are not in as dire a need, kind of understandable but still a bit frustrating to be penalized for doing things right.

Whoops, I guess I am now one of the guilty as charged ...

Go to the site and you can see reviews or go to Booking.com There is nothing wrong with doing a little of your own research...

Although having no personal experience to offer (now stuck in Farangland), I thought it could interest some to know more about this place. This is information I gathered from some webboard and twitter reviews (though you never know whether these reviews are genuine or "suggested" by the shop owner !) Name : Big Hands Massage Location : 1390 soi Chan Muang 10 - Din Daeng District - Bangkok (behind Train Night Market Ratchada) How to get there : MRT subway to Thailand Cultural Center - exit 4 - walk along RS Tower, cross the canal and then go northward through the market ; soi Chan Muang 10 is the first soi you will cross after going out of the market (no sign, better to have a look at Google Maps before as finding one's bearings could be challenging especially at night when the market is in full swing) Opening hours : 11.00 > 24.00 Updates and information : they have Facebook, Twitter and Line accounts (search "Big Hands Massage") - twitter and line accounts updated almost daily ; many pictures but thai language only Prices : oil 1,5 hours 550 THB (september 2020) - minimum tip 500 for soft and 800 for hard which is rather low Reviews summary : the shop opened in September 2020 and is kept very tidy - most rooms don't have in-room shower - 12/15 quite good-looking boys on duty - some boys in the buff from the beginning - most put emphasis on post-massage activities ("soft" or "hard", depending on boy) All in all seems to be an interesting place worth the trouble finding one's way to check it out.