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Over the last four years I’ve settled on staying in the Complex. I’ve used the Agate, Poseidon and Zing and have been happy with all three, although for the last three trips I’ve stayed at Zing choosing one of their larger upper floor rooms. I like the pool which is large enough for swimming although I’ve spent more time laying by it with boyfriends. It’s gay friendly rather than being a gay hotel as is the case with the Poseidon where I never saw a female guest. it’s now more than a year since I was there which is the longest period without visiting Pattaya and I miss it a lot - particularly for Asian boys and having sex with them. Maybe later this year ? Hope so !

Congratulations on the birthday! It's always a good achievement to notch another one! How will you celebrate?

One of the worst sights one could see on vacation is walking in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice and seeing an almighty monster sail slowly past on your right. They skirted around the Grand Canal to the cruise ship dock nearer the train station. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images Now these ghastly ships will be banned from entering the city at the sea end of the Grand Canal. They will be made to dock at the nearby industrial port instead. Most of the passengers on those mega ships only spent a day in the city buying cheap souvenirs causing people jams all over the place whilst dining on board the vessels rater than the city's eateries. Their value to the city was always questionable. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/cruise-ships-kept-away-st-marks-square-venice

39 Minions, one for each year. Joyeux anniversaire!

Yes, the port is known as Marghera, and many of us have been fighting this fight for a very long time. The political corruption in Italy is mind boggling. When looking for property in Italy, I very much wanted to settle in Venice. I have a very long history with this precious city. It's where an escort and I fell in love long ago, and we have remained dear friends to this very day. I'm thrilled with this official news. The day-tripper cruise issue was actually destroying Venice. Many Venetians believe the cruise ships are property of America, and they think the cruise ship passengers are the cheapest of the cheap. They believe these tourists come to their city by the thousands, don't respect it, leave trash everywhere, don't spend any money, and then leave. The cons of this type of tourist activity far outweigh the pros. Day-tripping into Venice is not going to end with this news. I am very much a part of the campaign that wishes to charge a substantial fee for tourists who wish to enter the city center for less than twenty-four hours. But it's very challenging to find agreement on ways to keep that money out of the hands of politicians. The fight lives on.

This is spot on!

Wow thanks for letting me know about the videos. Rare for jupiter guys to be on underwears lol. And eventhough the amount of boys are less, the amount of shirtless boys are higher than usual!

I think you underestimate the Japanese porn industry. It is huge and represents a reasonable proportion of GDP. Visitors to Japan rarely see it, though, apart from the huge number of love hotels dotted around the country with the oddest themes both architecturally and in the rooms. You can tell that all the boys work at the site I posted if only because in another part of the site it states precisely when they are available. Some of the guys are students and so naturally are not available during the day. Other may have part-time jobs and also have limited availability. Some others may only be available at the week-end. Others will be taking part in porn movies and so might be off for a week or two. This screen shot lists some of the many dozens available today. But the example I cited is from one of two Tokyo host bars under the same management. There are quite several more which is perhaps not surprising given that greater Tokyo is the largest city in the world with 37 million inhabitants!

Nowadays, nice for men in business has upgraded all the way to "doesn't regularly rape his interns". Nice for women still involves them erasing themselves to please others. Look how hard the British Media tried to erase Meghan Markle for actually existing as a person rather than some cardboard cut-out white person attached to a prince's arm. It happens all the time in media. Women are torn down because they aren't 'nice' enough. Men get a free pass unless they do something really, really heinous.

Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was a prodigious litigator. Criticise him and he would almost always fight you in the courts, whether you were an individual or a major corporation. Almost always he won substantial damages. At least two news media were banned from sale in the island state when they lost their cases. Now his son and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has again followed the example of his father. In November 2018 a Singapore blogger shared an online Facebook article crucial of Lee. The accused claimed he had merely shared the article from a Malaysian site which was replied to by 45 other Facebook members. The judge did not accept his claim of innocence. He agreed with Lee's lawyer that the article was defamatory. The blogger has been fined a whopping US$100,000. If you are planning a trip to SIngapore, don't express criticism in print or the internet of the Prime Minister or the government beforehand. You could find yourself a lot poorer or even in jail! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/singapore-blogger-ordered-to-pay-nearly-us100000-damages-to-pm-for-facebook-post

because i know many of the guys it just means more at the apartment and less at the sauna with the restricted hours of operation!

Purachai was a deeply religious family man and a pal of Prime Minister Thaksin. He loved joining the major raids and having his photo in the papers. There was one of him holding a used condom outside Babylon. He was quoted as saying this proved that there were illegal sexual activities going on inside. If only the idiot had thought about it, his colleagues in the health ministry should have been delighted that people attending saunas actually wore condoms. I take exception to your comment that there was open exploitation of kids in the main bars in Bangkok, certainly those frequented by westerners. There was no exploitation by 2001. That may not have been the case in Pattaya and almost certainly not the case upcountry in the bars frequented only by Thais. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was upcountry where his nightlife reforms were especially popular. The number of bars in Twilight may have increased but other bars closed and the offerings in the bars from 2001 onwards were nowhere near like those before Purachai appeared. There was an interesting article in the New York Times in 2006 about the effect of the Social Order campaigns. This talks about the effect on the late night dance clubs, most of which quite quickly died soon thereafter. It adds "one night at the 15-year-old Zouk bar in Singapore provides more real action and excitement than you'd find in an entire week on R.C.A." (Royal City Avenue, one of the three permitted entertainment zones, this one catering more for Thais). Having been at SIngapore's Zouk Bar several times in the mid-1990s, it was a fabulous place for spending a long evening and seeing a lot of great eye candy. Zouk rarely closed before 4:00 am. Even Kurt Wachtveitl, the revered long term GM of the Oriental Hotel, wrote of his objection to the early closing mandated by Purachai and its effect on tourism. It is also interesting, I believe, to realise that what the Thai elite objected to was far less what was going on in the bars and saunas - they actively disliked the dance clubs and especially their effect on their high-born daughters. As the award-winning author Alex Kerr points out in his very perceptive book Bangkok Found - "Politicians and bureaucrats see dance as dangerous and have done their best to restrict it, by granting few dance licences and tightening the zoning for entertainment districts, and requiring clubs to close earlier and earlier. Bangkok is already far more restrictive than Singapore or Tokyo when it comes to officially mandated times for closing and permitted age limits for entry." https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/travel/social-order-takes-the-life-out-of-night-life-letter-from-bangkok.html

I would qualify that statement pretty heavily. I vacation each year in Cape Town in their Summer and have done so for many years. As an openly gay man, I’ve visited with my partner, and previously with boyfriends and before that as a single man. Being openly gay is certainly accepted in smart hotels, restaurants etc because of the economic importance of tourism. Also there is constitutional protection. Social acceptance is another matter, and you almost never see PDA. There has been a marked decline in venues or public spaces for gay sex over the last 15-18 years (no male brothels, no rentboys on the Sea Point promenade at night, fewer nudist beaches and cruising, only 1 gay bar surviving) and the rate of violent crime has increased steadily. As an older white man, my experience is that 2 gay white men may be viewed well for their spending power but locals have told me of the great difficulties 2 gay men or lesbians of colour will face and sometimes the violence that threatens their relationships. Of course, as a visitor on vacation, you will have a great time. It is a wonderful country with resilient people and magnificent landscape.