PeterRS

For several years the Taipei Pride Parade has been fixed as the last Saturday in October - so Saturday 28 this year. Note that in addition to the Parade there are various parties during the weekend. These get booked out quickly and there will always be queues outside the venues with guys hoping to get in. All gay venues will be packed. Even the hot spring. Some years ago when Chuan Tang was the 'in' gay hot spring (the management changed the policy soon after), I went on to the hot spring after the Parade. I had never before had to queue. This Saturday it took a good 20 minutes just to gt through the door and then another 25 minutes to get to the lockers. When I looked over to my left to see the main pool, I was surprised that i could not see any water - merely a vast array of naked bodies! The point about hotels is worth considering. Taipei's Pride weekend atrracts gay guys not only from all over Asia but also from Taiwan itself. Added to the usual tourist numbers, the cheaper and more popular hotels can get booked up fast. For those who have not read about the Parade before, here are a few photos some of which I have posted before. Many participants assemble at Peace Park to prepare. They then move to the large open space at Taipei City Hall Square. This is the assembly point and also the destination. At the end there is a concert in the Square with usually some gay Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers. Because of the nuimbers attending, the route in pre-covid years was been split into three. So you have to decide which one you will follow. All will be packed with cute guys, but only one is likely to have the Speedo/Aqux boys. Keep your eyes peeled!

The above is a reason why I refuse to use mobile phone banking.

I echo all @fedssocr comments. A few years ago I did one of the organised 5-day round-the-island coach tours staying at very good hotels. I was amazed at how beautiful the island is, having earlier only visited Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. We started at Sun Moon Lake where in addition to a large hot spring pool in the basement, each room had its own mini-hot spring pool! Sun Moon Lake We then drove down south of Kaohsiung to the far south coast with its crystal clear water and visiting the main Buddhist monastery before returning to Kahsiung for the night. From there we moved over to the East Coast and worked our way up to the stunning Taroko Gorge where our hotel was virtually at the top of the Gorge. Much of the upper part of the East coast looks rather like parts of the north coast of the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to Taipei is quick as the road goes through several long tunnels. You can do all these sights on your own and save quite a bit of cash. I just wanted to be lazy for a few days to sit back and enjoy the island in comfort.

I was there only once and was mugged in the middle of a sunny day. It was a Sunday and took place very close to a Church that was so packed there were people standing outside at the back. Thankfully three heard my cry for help and raced to do so. I was very impressed that a pollce car was on the scene in little more than a minute.

Well, what else would one expect a "Vice" minister to say? 😉

Only one I was anywhere near was the last one where I hit the bullseye!

Just for clarification unless others have not noticed it, Babylon closed about 3 years ago. The building is currently being demolished.

I have a bank in the UK which I use for UK income sources and occasional payments over to Bangkok. It is not my main bank. I have generally sent money to Thailand using online banking twice a year in May and November. To do so I have to have use a special log in number plus two passwords. I then get on my Thai phone a 6 digit PIN number which has to be added before I can access my account. For years it has worked well. Nothing since then has changed. But on November 30, for the first time, I did not receive the 6 digit PIN. There is an on-line CHAT function which I then used. Generally I find these hopeless. This one was worse than hopeless. It recommended deleting the app and startng again. Same problem. Then that I use my debit card with the card reader sent years ago by the bank. The battery is dead as I have never needed to use it. Then that I use a special international banking phone line (which I have to pay for). Having dialled and been told there were 2 customers ahead of me, I finally put the phone down after 112 minutes! Effectively I was locked out of my account. I wrote to the bank's Chairman. I know; a hopeless exercise as it would only be sent down the line, but it made me feel better. Eventually I had an admission from the bank saying they had a fault with their third party contractor which generates the 6 digit PINS. Within a week this had been reversed and I was informed the problem was with AIS which has always been my provider in Thailand. It stated the PINS had been generated but not recognised by AIS (although no reason given why this should suddenly have happened). I have had the AIS technical team check 3 times and they advise there is no problem at their end and they have not received any PINS out of the UK. In the meantime, I have no trouble with similar PINS required for online banking with a Hong Kong bank or with ordering a variety of merchandise from the internet, including from London, using Hong Kong credit cards. Then I tried to order a gift for a family member from the catalogue sent by the Mandarin Oriental hotel group for special small Christmas gifts. I have double checked that this was a genuine offer from the Group. Since all gifts were made in China, the payments were in Yuan. Using my UK debit card, the transaction did not go through. Eventually I was advised my card had been discontinued because of a "suspected" hack. The hack was the Mandarin Oriental payment! The bank's fraud office then sent me a letter - a letter that took 12 days to arrive! - to inform me about the debit card being cancelled and asking me urgently to phone them. They stated they had tried to call me three times. This was pure bullshit. During that two week period, I had no incoming phone calls from the UK on either my mobile or landline. I asked why, given the urgency, they did not use my email. No answer other than the bank does not use emails! Funny that, given that this mess has led to an exchange of at least 24 emails so far! At least the Indian gentleman who answered from the Fraud department said he would replace the debit card urgently. Although the bank has a policy of not sending new cards overseas, after a 5-minute discussion with his superiors, I was informed an exception would be made in my case. Five days later, I get a form email from the bank stating they could not send new debit cards overseas and so I should provide a UK address! The Complaints Department then apologised for my having been given wrong information but no alternative way for me to access my account! Thankfully I shall be in the UK for two weeks in early March. After almost five decades, I will close my account with this Bank, make an official complaint with the Banking Commissioner and inform the Chairman in another letter I am considering legal action. The last will be a useless exercise as I will naturally not even take that route. I will then change to a bank which has my main account in Hong Kong. I have heard of many complaints about UK banks and had felt good that my banking had aways run smoothly. Now I am totally locked out of my account. I can't even find out what the balance is! F--K the Royal Bank of Scotland!

I get the impression your heart is pretty full to overflowing 🤣 - like most of us!!!

Given that dinosaurs ruled the earth for so many years, would it not be surprising if no foorprints were found?

As far as the Yunomori Spa my friends had recommended and which I wrote about in my previous post, nothing written by @BiggusDikkus could be further from the truth! Granted he was describing the older branch of Yunomori which I have not visited. I finally made it to the new one on Sathorn Soi 10 this afternoon and found it a quite amazing place - better than many in-town spas in Japan. It is obviously very new and the owner has used only the best materials everywhere. There is locker space for around 250 in the men's section although there were only around 25 when I arrived around 3:30 pm and 40 when I left at 5:00 for a dinner appointment. I expect a Saturday evening and Sunday afternoons will be quite crowded. The Spa has lots of treatments but I expect most will prefer only to go to the onsen. The male onsen takes up the whole of the 3rd floor. It includes 5 baths (but only two different levels of heat - hot or very cold!), a largish sauna and steam room and lots of Japanese style showers. As you enter downstairs, you leave your shoes in a small locker, take the key to reception and pay the entry fee (550 baht unless you are 65 or over when it is only 300). You get an electronic wrist tag which opens your locker and with which you pay for any drinks or snacks you might want. I saw a very cute boy going upstairs and decided I'd follow him. Sadly he was one of the staff! Before entering the locker space you get a bag with a large towel for drying before you leave and a very small towel for use in the spa. Some guys used these to cover themselves (typically Thai!) and four in their mid-20s or so wore black shorts (even more typical). I think clothing of any sort should be banned in all hot spring-type spas!). I guessed the age range of the customers when I was there ranged from around 25-30 to around 50 - with me being by far the oldest (not that that seemed to worry anyone)! I would put most in the Thai middle class category although there were also about 4 farang. There was also one father there with his young son but they did not stay very long. Not one Japanese that I could make out when straining to listen to conversation! I did not notice much 'looking' and any hint of approaching another guy within the spa is a definite no-no. But as a place to relax and perhaps see some handsome eye candy, I really enjoyed it. If you see someone you like and they also have an attraction for you, it's easy to swap phone numbers or just leave together. I also seem to have benefitted from my short visit. Having strained my upper back earlier in the day, the spa waters did wonders for it. https://www.yunomorionsen.com/sathorn/onsen/

It has much of interest, but it is a site almost exclusively focussed on gay pattaya.

I have used www.shrinkpictures.com for years. As long as the original is not more than 6mb it will downsize to 150kb or less with no noticeable drop in quality.

You had asked in your OP about gay ffriendly nudism resorts. As far as I can see, those mentioned in that Bangkok Post article refer to mixed resorts. I still have found no information about a dedicated gay friendly resort.

I admit I was staggered when I learned that a computer had come out on top (as it were) in Go. But I will not live long enough for AI to do many of the things I would like. When it can replace a gorgeous Thai or Taiwanese or Japanese twink in a naked gogo bar and then join me for the best sex, then I'll take it more seriously!!

This is the first time I have heard of ChatGPT! And the description above is too long for me to bother reading it, sorry. I seem to have managed OK without it! As for the subject of the thread and the two versions of the article @TotallyOz posted, mostly they are rubbish! Neither really provides anything like a true picture of the Bangkok gay scene. There are inaccuracies (@reader has already pointed out the fact that DJ Station is in Soi 2 and not Soi 4), to suggest that the Bangkok Gay Pride Parade "attracts thousands of participants from all around the world" is utter nonsense! The only Asian Pride Parade that does actually attract thousands of active participants is in Taipei. Additionally the trendy and upscale clubs are in Thonglor, not the other way around in Silom Soi 4. What's an "inclusive hotel"? As for restaurants, I always thought Siam2nite is a website and not an eatery. Perhaps I am wrong. Also as a 20 year resident I have never heard of David's Kitchen. Isn't it in Chiang Mai? There are vastly more gay friendly eateries, at least some of which should be listed (even including @vinapu's favourite, the 7-Michelin starred Foodland 🤣). As for museums and galleries, is there in fact even one that regularly showcases LGBT exhibitions? Not that I know of! Apart from the inaccuracies, both articles are far too full of almost meaningless generalities when what is needed in such an article is detail, detail. detail! Nothing about specific bars, gogo bars, massage spas etc. I get the impression this was actually written 30 or more years ago and appeared in publications like Spartacus (although the Pride Parade did not actually start until the late 1990s)!

I would love to see that video, if only to find out what type of housing remains empty and, more particularly, where it is located. Like many countries it is a fact that younger Japanese want to move to the bigger cities. I cannot believe there is much empty housing in Tokyo or Osaka. Far more likely it will be in the countryside, I'd suggest. If that is the case, Japan will not be very different from many countries. The other point about Japan is that it has been impossible for many young people to find ways of purchasing their own apartments, no matter how tiny these may be. Owning a home is still an ambition of most Japanese but many younger ones are stuck living with their parents. Then there are the blinkered predictions by property developers. As nippon.com pointed out in an article two months ago, the new buildings that are being constructed are to a large extent way out of the price range of most Japanese. In 2021 the average cost of a new 70 sq. m. condominium near central Tokyo was ¥85.57 million - US$660,000 today but around 20% more in US$ terms when the surey was carried out in 2021. Move way out into the sprawling suburbs and the cost comes down to ¥64.75 million, but you will likely be stuck with a 90 minutes commute twice a day. The rising price of new properties inevitably results in rising prices for second hand apartments. And with more and more of these luxury-type properties being built, the average Japanese is basically shut out of the housing market. Nippon.com also points out that developers are building many large housing developments on rural land that is prone to flooding. There are few regulations about construction on formerly agricultural land. With natural disasters on the increase, flooding of 3 meters is not uncommon. A final point made in the article is the reluctance of developers to knock down older housing stock as they build newer stock. Japan is therefore the opposite of somewhere like Hong Kong which routinely demolishes older housing as new housing is developed. Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities considering the intruction of a vacant house tax but no one yet knows how successful this might be. https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00835/

Does anyone really expect anything else?

Be that as it may, the law in Thaiand is perfetly clear. Nudism is against the law.

There is a tendency frequently found among foreigners and western tourists in Thailand that this country provides spas and other facilities just for them. There is an extremely populous gay scene for Thais which foreigners know little if anything about. Many gay Thais attending up market massage spas are relatively wealthy professionals who are perfectly happy paying prices which foreigners find high.

Another useless government exercise! The fact is that it is extremely difficult for drivers to see some of those zebra crossings until they are virtually on top of them. Britain has flashing orange beacons on the roadside of zebra crossings to provide a timely warning to drivers. Thailand has nothing other than signs actually on the road. Besides, how are the police going to find the vast majority of drivers who do nto stop at such crossings? Are they suddenly going to increase pollice numbers? We can also ask what has happened about the law introduced just recently about fines for passengers who do not wear seat belts in the back of taxis. I rarely see anyone wearing belts in the back seats. Indeed in many taxis i have taken, there is still no connector into which to plug the belts.

I agree with the first part but definitely not the second. In my view it has absolutely nothing to do with being paid or not. I referenced the gogo bars 30-40 years ago when the majority of the customers were Thais. How often have you seen lots of Thais in gogo bars in the past decade or more? That has nothing to do with their not preferring to be with farang. It's a sign that as the Thailand gay scene and Thai society has developed, Thais increasingly want to be with fellow Thais rather than in bars where there are increasing number of farang. Times change. The same trend has become very obvious in other countries like Japan. As a gay bar/club/sauna culture developed in the 70s and 80s, young Japanese gays found it extremely difficult to form relationships with fellow Japanese. This reflected the long work hours of Japanese, the closeness of housing making it extremely difficult to keep any kind of MtoM sexual relationship private in a country in which the vast majority frowned on them, and overall low salaries. Gaijin generlly had large apartments in Japanese terms, far larger salaries and much more personal freedoms. Many young Japanese found it was far more convenient to live a gay lifestyle by attaching themselves to a foreigner. On my early visits to Japan, such relationships were extremely common. With Japan having become very wealthy since then, with social attitudes changing and same sex civil partnerships now legal in several parts of the country, Japanese preferring to be with fellow Japanese has rightly become much more the norm.

It's obviously changed a lot. In the earlier days of virtually all the saunas, farangs of almost any description were welcomed. Like the gogo bars where the Thais have now mostly disappeared, both on stage and in the audience, it's mostly the farangs who make up the clientele.

Certainly quite a few.

Yawn! Yawn! Every Japanese Prime Minister has been saying all this for more than the last 2 decades! Governments have tried various means to stimulate marriage and procreation, but they never work. It is not merely an issue of the cost of raising a child. It is much more a desire on behalf of the younger generation either to put off marriage until their mid-30s or just to remain single. Used until recently to working horribly long hours and having only a week of vacation each year, this generation has realised there is a lot more to llife and they want the time and cash to enjoy it before settling down. As many economists have proposed, what Japan needs desperately is to open its doors to many more skilled workers from other countries. This it consistently refuses to do. The country's insular mentality remains all pervasive in the corridors of power.