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With new threads about boys and sex a bit thin on the ground, perhaps one focusing on at least one of these topics might be of interest. Less about sex, though. From the time I was at school, I have been sort of obsessed with the male body. At first it was faces and I had my first 'crush' at the age of 12. Naturally nothing came of it as I was too backward in coming forward and the object of my desire seemed to have no interest. I was even seated next to him at the end of term Prize-giving. Oh, what might have been! It was not long before my eyes were gazing downwards, particularly on the sports fields - well, in the changing rooms - and at the school's pool. The length of some of those cocks was a constant joy, the more so when quite a few of the guys seemed to enjoy being gazed at while they played with them. Having made my first tentative rather furtive steps in gay sex, my twenties were hardly a riot as I was still in the closet. Then the riot started in my early 30s. I could not get enough of it and there were always plenty of young men around who felt the same way. My first ventures into a gay sauna were a revelation for all the sex that was available. I have written somewhere about visiting Night Thermos (correct name?) in Amsterdam, a very large one in New York and, best of all, the equally large Le Continental in Paris. I suppose it was really in Le Continental that my desire for Asian boys was sparked for there were many Vietnamese living in Paris, quite a number of whom were at the sauna. I think it was less the sex and more the sight of such beautifully smooth-skinned young Asian boys who were perfectly happy to walk around almost totally naked. That Paris experience came home to me when I visited central Vietnam early last year before borders were closed. With my partner unable to get time off, I was on my own. Almost as soon as I had reached Hoi An, a quite lovely mid 20s guy clicked me on one of the apps. He was in Danang, about 30 minutes away, but I had not intended sex to be any part of that trip. After Hoi An I was going up to the old Imperial capital of Hue or a few days before spending my last three days in Danang. So we arranged to meet up for a dinner when I got there. He was perfectly delightful. He became a sort of tour guide. On my last night I invited him to the hotel for a drink. Cocktails in the rooftop bar then morphed into a shower in my room. The ensuing 40 minutes or so all in the shower were amazing! Belatedly I have realised there is something about Vietnamese boys which is very special. But it was my first experience of an Asian sauna that really opened my eyes. On a business trip to Tokyo, a Japanese friend took me to Oban sauna in the Kabuki-cho district in Shinjuku. This still is a rather sleazy nightlife area, not gay, but right there was Oban, which I think was one of Tokyo's first gay saunas. It was relatively small inside but spotlessly clean. Walking up one floor after disrobing, I was amazed to find that most of the boys were walking around totally naked. A few had small towels that they held in front but they were in a small minority. It felt like I had arrived in heaven! After the ritual washing and a spell in a hot pool, I wandered around. Coming out of the steam room I bumped into a very handsome boy who featured in several gay magazines. I was even surprised that sex took place not in private cabins but in quite large open rooms with long mattresses on two sides. These were understandably dark but still light enough to see what was going on and who was doing what to whom! Sitting and just watching some action seemed to be very popular! Those entwined in sex had no problem with that. Over several decades I have attended other Japanese saunas, apart from the years when foreigners were forbidden, a belated attempt by the owners to keep HIV from spreading. My memory tells me that the sex was rarely great, with just two instantly stunning exceptions. It was the sight of so many absolutely wondrous beautiful bodies in glorious nudity that has stayed with me. There is always something more fascinating about a cute glistening slim body that has just emerged from a hot pool or from the steam room than the boys I used to see naked all those years ago in Bangkok's go-go bars. Stripping away the sex, it was always possible to see naked boys in the onsen dotted all around Japan. But you could rarely be sure they would only be young guys for attending an onsen is a Japanese ritual and all ages attend. I was not interested in looking at a bunch of older men! If there were onsen exclusively for young people, I never found them. In Taipei, on the other hand, there is at least one hot spring on the outskirts of the city which attracts mostly young guys, most of them gay. Here again sex is not part of the experience, although there may be a little hanky panky in the steam room despite the notice outside saying no playing around. Even though I am now in that much older group which I disliked in Japanese onsen, in Taipei there seems no discrimination about age. Indeed, the one I always attend is rather like a social club. Everyone is there for an enjoyable time drifting between the five pools of differing temperatures. There are parts of each where it is easy to see who has just entered and goes to the shower area. It's also easy to see which pool they enter. More than once I have zeroed in on a young guy I have found particularly attractive and gone to sit next to him. After a reasonable pause, I will even start to chat. Most Taiwanese can speak at least a little English and I have rarely found any not prepared to chat if only for a little while. One guy I met and the partner he was later to find have become very good friends. If particularly attracted to a guy and that attraction is mutual, it is easy to swap phone numbers to arrange to return to your hotel or hook up on another day. Or even just to discover a new restaurant and enjoy a meal sitting next to the nearest thing to a demi-god! Not that sex is always out of my mind nowadays. Far from it. t's just that there is no need to go to a hot spring for sex because there is so much available elsewhere. As in every city, you only have to know where to look! Now if only borders would open again soon, I will very quickly be on a plane first to Taipei and then to Vietnam. No need to guess why!

Is there anyone in the Puket Sandbox you don't know?

Once cute young Japanese guide is all it will take. I remember my first ever visit. I had arrived on a Friday afternoon, jet-lagged after a few days in New York and then two in Los Angeles, knew no-one, spoke only a few words of the language and had a week-end to kill before meetings the following Monday. On Saturday morning, after doing a little sightseeing, I got off the subway to look at another area. As I was walking up the long steps into the summer sunlight along with seemingly half of the city, I noticed a tall guy in a bright white shirt going down along with the other half of the city. For a second our eyes locked. A couple of seconds later I turned to look down. He was doing the same looking at me. The crowds were such that we could not change direction. Once at the top I assumed he would have disappeared into the station. But from the top I could just make out that white shirt in the darkness. He was looking up. So what was I to do? I went down again. We chatted even though his English was not very good. We then met a few hours later, had dinner, he showed me where the ni-chome bars were, came back to my hotel and then spent the rest of the week end with me. Thereafter I loved the city, even though I never saw my first guide again. Simple!

As of August 1, people doing the Phuket Sandbox will be allowed to travel to Koh Samui, Koh Pha Ngan & Koh Tao after 7 days on Phuket. For everywhere else in Thailand, the 14 day Phuket quarantine is still in effect. https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/sandboxers-can-travel-to-specified-islands-and-beaches-after-7-days-in-phuket

7 days quarantine in Pattaya would be acceptable to me.

7 days is more bearable option indeed. Make it 7 days in pattaya and i might be tempted to make effort to go, provided my own country allowed us to travel and returned without mandatory hotel quarantine.

From Japan Herald 22-year-old Japanese Yuto Horigome has become the first-ever Olympic skateboarding champion

Let's see if I've go this right. A huge virus, buried in the seabed at a depth of 36,000 feet, is brought to a laboratory in Shanghai for sequencing. What could possibly go wrong? From South China Morning Post / BP The first known batch of viruses retrieved from the deepest point in the Mariana Trench includes giant species bigger than some bacterium, according to a research team in Shanghai. The many legends of giant sea creatures have been largely debunked because of the challenges to large, complex life forms at the greatest ocean depths. But the researchers discovered several giant viral species, including mimiviruses - which typically use amoeba as their hosts - in sediments taken from a seabed nearly 11,000 metres (36,000 feet) below sea level at Challenger Deep. And, while giant viruses have been found elsewhere, they appeared to be more abundant at the extreme depth, where pressure is 1,100 times that of the atmosphere, than in other conditions, where they are usually rare. Previous attempts to obtain viral samples from Challenger Deep failed because of the extreme technical challenges but samples collected five years ago by the advanced research ship Zhang Jian yielded enough material for the team to obtain genome sequences of 15 different types of viruses and more than 100 kinds of other microorganisms. The researchers also raised more than 2,000 strains of microorganisms in a high pressure laboratory environment, although they were unable to revive any of the viruses, according to a paper published this month in the journal Genome Biology. Mimiviruses -- which made up more than 4% of the total viral population in the sampled seabed -- were initially mistaken for bacteria when scientists first saw them during a pneumonia outbreak in 1992. With their hairy fibres and bodies which can be up to 700 nanometres wide, they can sometimes be visible to the naked eye. In some experiments, these giant viruses were able to cause tissue damage in mammals, but so far there is no evidence they can directly harm human beings. Continues at https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2154471/china-scientists-discover-giant-viruses-in-the-deepest-place-on-earth

Almost no-one, @TotallyOz Though I wonder what the true viewing figures will be, I imagine all TV coverage will be very costly and unprofitable. My sympathies are with the athletes having to perform in Japan at the height of Summer.

Don’t worry @NIrishGuy: statistically the most dangerous part of your journey is driving to the airport

Well, sure there has been a compromise. If you google the initial controversies when Season 1 came up, Meghan was not the most questioned incorporation but Jameela Jamil. You will find D Wesley and L Maldonado passionately defending those incorporations because of the very reason you so easily discard: reaching out to new audiences. Without the demographics that Meghan and Jamila bring, HBO would have never close the deal. I agree with you, there is a loss, there is an evident compromise. I also think you do not see the gains. My knowledge of ballroom culture is very superficial, but I understand that Leiomy and Dashaun are unquestionable icons of the subculture. They have celebrated the joining of those ciswomen you exclude as a great accomplishment and another demonstration of the inclusive spirit of ballroom. Additionally, the show gives opportunity to broadcast to millions beauty, talent, and a mindset that otherwise would remain unknown. And provides the opportunity to these amazing artists to make a difference in their lives and get a lift out of poverty and marginality. I am sure that when you say that "Ballroom was created by/for LGBTQ youth of color as a place for freedom,belonging & expression", you did not mean belonging for ever to marginalized and excluded groups. I think that when you and I feel nostalgia at the losses, we do it from our place of privilege (I apologize if I am misrepresenting you). I bet you that Ballroom artists see this as a cultural triumph, as a dream made reality, as a huge opportunity to reach out with their talent to more people, and as a unique opportunity to make a decent living from what they love and enjoy doing.

Just to clarify my post was a joke based on that "why are non gay things posted on this board" post by someone else in another thread. I enjoyed reading your post and found it interesting - imagine that, a "gay" being able to find something interesting that didn't mean Asian cocks, who'd of believed it eh ! :-)

Ahh but was the beautiful Asian cock connected to a GAY man or a straight man !?? If not gay well "obviously" it's of no interest to any of us and probably shouldn't even be posted on a "gay" board anyway ! lol Personally I'm just jealous and hope you get indigestion from all your greedy overeating !! :-)

@NIrishGuy I agree. But, I did have a beautiful Asian cock last night. YUMMY! I think that was both dinner and breakfast this AM and I am completely famished.

Its complacency. Thailand has been lucky to enjoy low infection rate for the most part of 2020, and able to bring down second waves pretty efficiently. I think we observe similar trend with taiwan and australia as well, where the goverment are able to contain the spread but fail to order their vaccine supplies. Now that delta variant wrecking havoc, turns out that their strategy or lack of strategy backfire. Ive said this before, that some countries will be ill-equiped to fight the spread simply because they have chosen to ward it off out of the countries from the get go, so their whole system to combat the virus have not been tested. Add incompetant and corrupt gov in that mix, you get what u see now in thailand.h Though my guess was a bit off since i thought that phuket sandbox might be the reason. Instead, its their lack of border control or possible some high so refusing to quarantine is the reason. Of course, any competant gov would see this mistake and start to impose strict lockdown, but instead, we saw songkran holiday was allowed. Its not the first we heard this though, it has been repeated over and over in many countries prior to this, when everyone is scrambling to learn about the virus and how to control it. It just that thai couldve learned from other countries mistake and avoid the current disaster. My country malaysia isnt doing any better in containing the virus though. And i dare to say due to similar reasons. We were doing well early on, get complacent, and thought we could control it even if we see some increases in the daily cases. Politicians kept saying they cant impose strict lockdown to save economy (mainly factories and construction) until its too late and our hospitals are hammered. The only thing that we did ok is vaccine acquisition. We are not the best and ordered enough supply early on, but we picked up early and start negotiating contracts and even join covax albeit a bit late. And it is due to our second waves, that started in october due to a state election resulted from power grabbing move by politicians there. And the current third wave right now, our minister managed to expedite some vaccines orders through further negotiation and of course some donations as well. Another move recently is to expedite vaccination in the two states that see high daily cases, (KL and Selangor). By August 1st, all adult is these two states will at least get their first dose, and any resident who have not receive their appointment yet or those without identification (illegal) can simply walk-in to get their vaccine. Hopefully cases will go down soon, as today daily cases are 12.9k with 6-7k are in these 2 states alone. We are vaccinating around 400k+ doses daily now, for a 32mil population country. Back to the topic, Malaysia is one of the country that is waiting for astrazeneca deliveries from thai factory. However, the delay will not affect us much for now as we have ordered i believe 30% more doses than required to vaccinate the whole population.

I haven't been to any of the Bangkok go-go bars in years, but my understanding, based on what friends tell me, as long as they don't expect a police raid (they often get tipped off) and don't suspect any plain clothes police are in the audience, pretty much anything goes. It would be great if things eventually return to the way they were many years ago. Some of you who have been around long enough may remember the Utopia Guest House in Bangkok and the owner, John Goss. During my very first trip to Thailand I stayed at the Utopia and John personally took me around to show me the ropes and took me to a couple of the go-go bars. There is nothing like the first time. I can't remember the name of the bar, but I will never forget my first experience. There were at least 30 go-go boys and both on and off stage they were completely naked. And I mean completely. I was absolutely overwhelmed. I did not expect anything like that and had never seen anything like that. And in those days, the go-go bars had short time rooms. Do I need to tell you where I was every night while I was in Bangkok? Bring back the way it was in those days! Please!

From Channel News Asia HANOI: Vietnam announced a 15-day lockdown in the capital Hanoi starting Saturday (Jul 24) as a coronavirus surge spread from the southern Mekong Delta region. The lockdown order, issued late Friday night, bans the gathering of more than two people in public. Only government offices, hospitals and essential businesses are allowed to stay open. Earlier in the week, the city had suspended all outdoor activities and ordered non-essential businesses to close following an increase in cases. On Friday, Hanoi reported 70 confirmed infections, the city's highest, part of a record 7,295 cases in the country in the last 24 hours. Nearly 5,000 of them are from Vietnam’s largest metropolis, southern Ho Chi Minh City, which has also extended its lockdown until Aug 1. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/vietnam-locks-down-capital-hanoi-for-15-days-as-cases-rise-15283902