PeterRS

And who started this thread?????

They were basically German from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha because that was the title of Queen Victoria's German husband. Yet Queen Victoria herself was half German through her mother and spoke with a German accent all her life. It was George V who decided during World War 1 that a German name was hardly appropriate. He changed the name to Windsor, the castle outside London where the family spent much of its time. Even so, he had married Mary of Teck whose father was German. She cruise liner Queen Mary was named after her. It still remains at Long Beach California where for years it was a tourist attraction. Not to be forgotten is that one of Victoria's grandchildren became the Kaiser of Germany which was an enemy of the British during World War 1.

Yet again you leave out those in a committed partnership. The only major difference was getting to enjoy sex at different times of the day.

Another thread in this forum has become more one based on history. One poster likes to cherry-pick and discuss only what he considers historical facts that make his country look good. Yet virtually all countries carry frightful historical legacies. The massacre of entire civilisations in Central and South America by Spain and Portugal, for example, cannot merely be brushed aside. The treatment of indigenous peoples by Britain, Canada, Australia, the USA and others must not be forgotten. Slavery and colonisation resulted in the degrading of humanity on a humungous scale, and it was all to increase the profits of slave owners and colonial masters. Another issue that deserves discussion is raised in a perceptive article in today's The Guardian. This is based on extremely valid comments made by John Oliver in Last Week's Tonight Show. In it, Oliver tore into the theft of national artefacts from many colonised countries - and others just too weak to fend off the thieves. He cites a 2018 Report commissioned by the President of France which illustrates that over 90% of Africa's cultural heritage now resides in major museums' "sprawling collections of essentially 'stolen goods'". Add in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia and you have looting an unbelievable scale. Rightly he focussed on the British Museum. In expanding its colonial Empire, Britain stole vast quantities of treasure. One of the world's largest diamonds, the Koh-i-Noor, was stolen from the Prince of the Punjabi throne when the British illegally jailed his mother and forced him to sign the diamond away in return for her release. The Prince was just 10 years old. That diamond eventually found its way into the crown of the late Queen's mother. British history tells that it was a gift to Queen Victoria. It was stolen! More important to the people of Greece are the Elgin Marbles. Carved 2,500 years ago and placed atop the Parthenon in Athens, the British stole them in the early 1800s. One of the more recent arguments for their remaining in the UK is that the UK is better able to look after them properly for the benefit of future generations. They presently reside in the British Museum in London. That's a load of rubbish! It has been proved that the Museum curators damaged the stone when cleaning it with wire brushes in the 1930s. But as Oliver pointed out, "if you're ever looking for a missing artefact, nine times out of 10 it's in the British Museum." That Museum has 8 million artefacts, most from other parts of the world. Only 80,000 can be displayed at any one time. Why gives Britain the right to retain stolen goods when it cannot have them exhibited for all to see? "It can be pretty galling for people to find that their heritage, which is often part of a vibrant present-day culture, is sitting in storage in the British Museum's underground loot prison." More recently we know how difficult it has been to trace back ownership of the art looted by the Nazis. Obviously returning artefacts stolen centuries ago is also a complex matter. As an article in The Smithsonian Magazine makes clear, when unravelling colonial history - "you're dealing with countries that existed when the object was acquired but they may not exist now . . . Provinence is very complex and people aren't used to processing a chain of ownership." Yet it's hard not to agree with Oliver when he talks about the plunder of nations' greatest treasures throughout history by colonial dickheads. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/03/john-oliver-stolen-antiquities-western-museums https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-koh-i-noor-diamondand-why-british-wont-give-it-back-180964660/

Typical troll-like post. @reader makes several unsubstantiated allegations on posts based totally on facts. After several requests, he then fails to respond to any questions raised by his responses. Then he goes further to attack the original poster. Was Beachlover his teacher? So now you spend most of an entire post going back over history after calling history "histrionic babble" - that is, history that you just don't like to recall. I agree. The valour of that one individual helicopter pilot was a superb example of the heroism that can happen sometimes during horrific wartime actions. But it can not and does not take anything away from the slaughter of more than 500 innocent civilians at My Lai with young girls first being raped before being put to death. Does one hero make up for the massacre of more than 500 souls? @reader only wants to remember historical facts that glorify the USA. Where were those heroes when the US and its CIA slaughtered many million more in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - two of these wars being totally illegal as they were not authorised by Congress. Indeed, information was deliberately withheld from Congress. But then @reader does not want these discussed because they put the USA in a bad light. And he still will not justify the crippling US sanctions on Cuba apart from referring to the Soviet Union positioning nuclear weapons there 60 years ago. No one can cherry-pick history. Facts are facts - the good and the bad. Acknowledgement of both is vital if countries are to move forward.

Lke rimming with a tongue going right up your arse???? 🤣🤣🤣 Yuk!

You still do not read - or you read and pretend you have not! I have certainly bashed American policy and the American system of government which I consier outdated and in need of reform. Equally, though, I have bashed precisely the same issues in the governmemt of the UK. But you decide to ignore that and have decided that I am anti-American and not anti-British! What nonsense! As for bashing America in general, again you fail to read - or pretend not to have read - previous posts of mine. Over a period of 37 years I have visited the USA 34 or 35 times. Many were a result of business but more than a dozen were exclusively for vacations. Indeed, more were also for vacation if you consider that I added vacations to business trips. Once en route to meetings in New York, I stopped in Seattle and spent a quite lovely week sailing on a small boat from Ketchikan through the Inside Passage to Juneau and from there for 24 amazing hours in Glacier Bay. Other vacations have taken in New York (several times), Boston, Chicago, Louisville (more than a dozen times to see dear friends), Kittyhawk, Fort Myers (with friends whose condo sadly has been all but destroyed by last week's hurricane), Nashville, a week with a Taiwanese bf in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Jackson Hole and the stunning Grand Tetons, Denver, Los Angeles (several times again staying with friends), Honolulu and a fortnight's beach holiday in Kauai. I guess I may have seen more of the USA than you have! Are these the actions of someone who bashes America? Of course they are not! So quit your lies! And whilst you are at it, perhaps you will finally respond to the questions I have now asked several times about Cuba and Indo China. But then of course, you won't for the simple reason you have no answers apart from writing its being government policy. Ha! That's called chickening out.

Still you refuse to answer my questions. And that is clearly because you have absolutely no answer! Your posts are meaningless. Stick to your hobby of copying Richard Barrow by reading and reposting here. That takes a lot less energy than making meaningful posts. Criticise all you llike. Construcctive criticism is always useful. Destructive criticism as you post (because you simpy fail to read my posts and conveniently forget my posting history - oh, i forgot - you regard anything that happened in the past as "histrionic babble amounting to shit") is seen as such by most of the posters here.

Given that some of the boys will not kiss, I think it is entirely reasonable that some/many will not rim. As @Slvkguy rightly points out, there can be serious, nasty and expensive health risks involved. Flagyl is a not uncommon antibiotic for serious gastric disorders (like diverticulitis) but the need for 3 pills a day for up to 2 weeks results in feeling nauseous and pretty awful during that time and alcohol is an absolute no-no. Effectively that puts them out of any possibility of further offs during that entire time. If someone wants a boy to rim them, it is only fair to the boy to state in advance that rimming is part of the deal. I suspect most will decline. Bringing the issue up only after you off them is totally unreasonable IMHO.

Oh, for goodness sake! What an insipid and basically irresponsible response! You still have not answered a very logical question - which other posters have agreed was perfectly logical - about why the USA continued to impose major sanctions on Cuba. You which merely brush this off as something that happened 60 years ago. Yet you have clearly stated that history is bunk! And now you even talk about the Normandy landings about 70 years ago! So much for "histrionic babble amounting to shit!" (Your words) You also seem not to want to acknowledge that pre-Castro Cuba was massively corrupt, a haven for organised crime, illegal casinos, with press censorhipand with virtually all senior government and military officials heavily invoved in gambling and the drug trade. Yet the USA supported President Bautista and supplied his foul regime with planes, ships, tanks and even napalm to use against the Castro rebels. And you still fail to state why there are no sanctions on America's enemies in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? Was it because the USA tried to invade Cuba and failed? Yet they invaded all three Indo-Chinese nations with many millions slaughtered, lost the wars - yet no sanctions whatever? You are very good at accusing others and never backing up your own often outlandish claims. Give it up, for you only make yourself seem foolish! Still you accuse me of being anti-American when I have written time after time after time after time that I am not. Can you not read? More than that, I have given specific examples of where America has done exceptional acts. Yet you have this bee in your bonnet and you will not let it go. But then neither will I let go of criticisms of any country, the more so when you never back up your absurd claims.

And still you do not reply to my comment and question - I look forward to your answer, the more so as you stated my earlier comments were "histrionic babble" They were not!

Exactly - CUBA! Haven't you noticed that many threads in this forum contain posts that concern part of a thread title but not all? And veering slightly off topic is very far from unusual? Didn't I mention my veering slightly off topic in my first post in this thread? Clearly you did not bother to read it. Or were you so busy reading many other sites in order to post endless verbatim quotes without any input from yourself? Not that these are irrelevant. But they clearly must take up a grest deal of your time. Typically this is not the first time you have made allegations and totally failed to make any response to follow-up questions i have thereafter posed. Where is your response to my comments about Cuba and Indo-China? You have in the past accused me of not posting about nightlife activities in Bangkok. As i stated in response, I clearly informed you that I am in a long term relationship and so I have no desire to visit nightlife establishments here, and neither does my partner. What therefore should I post other than previous experiences, which I have done several times? You made no reply. If you are going to make such comments about an individual poster and replies in his posting, at least have the decency to respond as in any reasonable discussion!

I totally agree. But lest you have forgotten that was 60 years ago!! Thanks to Kennedy and his brother, the solution to that problem was solved once Kruschev accepted it. The Soviet Union has been dead for more than 30 years. Why therefore have the sanctions continued for no explicable reason? Other members have given some answers to that question. You give the impression there is an explicable reason but all you do is look back into history! Yet you have excoriated me for suggesting that history is "histrionic babble amounting to shit"! If Cuba was a problem for the USA 60 years ago and remains so now, the USA's double standard is illustrated by the present state of its relations following its long and horrific war in Indo China. This ended a decade after the Cuban crisis - almost 50 years ago. Now the USA is happy to be friends with all three Indo-Chinese countries. Why not Cuba?

Fascinating article. I had absolutely no idea that Asians were preferred clients. Interesting that having similar cultures (wonder exactly what that means?) is an important issue, that they are kinder to the boys and that they are better tippers. I also had no idea that farang were the "least desirable" type of customer, partly because most are, in the words of one of the boys, lousy tippers and look down on the boys. How true that is, I just do not know. I really wonder what is the proportion of Asian to western customers. It certainly seems from the limited responses in the article that the average Asian customer is generally a lot younger than the average farang.

Any member can call me out for anything. That is the nature of a chat room when there are members with very differing views. You @reader are a valued contributor, yet you fail to accept that anything is or might be or might ever have been wrong with your country. I am far from obsessed about America. I have been equally critical about my country the UK, about the present state of its political system and its often despicable colonial past. But the UK, to my understanding, has precious little in its history that relates to Cuba. I did not derail the discussion! I raised an issue about Cuba - the country stated in the thread. Let me remind you the OP started his post with the following - "I don't know a great deal about Cuba except from some Gay Cuban friends of mine." I also knew little but I am aware that the US Congress seems to hate the island. I questioned why in recent history the US has imposed often crippling sanctions against the island. For what reason? Some members provided useful answers of which I, for one, was not aware. You, on the other hand, take this question to be another in what you seem to think is "America bashing". Please read my posts carefully before you comment on them There was zero "deliberate attempt" to derail the discussion! In case you had not realised it, several members more or less agreed with what I wrote! Lastly, I am far from your "dear" ot your "poor fellow". Please do not demean other posters.

I suspect @Fred Joos is the owner or in some way connected with Adam's Apple. If that is the case, thank you for updating the information. Adam's Apple was always a great bar, although there was a time when it dipped a little at the same time as it and the downstairs lounge bar were taken over by a new owner probably a dozen or so years ago. It was the variety of dancers and the helpful staff that made it the best of the few Chiang Mai gogo venues. The nude parade along the catwalk was always popular and the shows were fun, even though the boys were amateurs as performers. Drinks also were very reasonably priced. Hopefully little has changed.

What I meant was a long-term committed partnership in one's home city. From what I read, I believe your Filipino boy is probably in a different country. If that's correct "getting it" must be pretty intermittent throughout the year.

FIrst, my comments are not histrionic. They are fact! And anyone who fails to place the present in its historical context simply cannot understand the present.

Ha! Well I guess it takes all sorts 🤣🤣

I should have added that i was referring to the period between the two World Wars when the USA adopted an isolationist policy. Certainly a lot of shit has been stirred since the end of WWII. I always wonder how George Bush Jnr has not been strangled in the media for his comment about his meeting with Putin. "I looked the man in his eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. . . I was able to get a sense of the soul of the man." That from the so-called leader of the free world!! God didn't help the world, unfortunately, as Iraq and the Middle East was to discover! And do we yet know what Trump agreed with Putin during their unique one-on-one meeting in Helsinki with no others present apart from translators? Did he agree to Putin annexing more of Ukraine, I wonder? Another leader of the free world this time proved to be a liar, arrongant cheat, narcissistic, fraudster, racist - virtually a mafia boss. So much for the system of allegedly free elections!

You didn't offer a committed partnership as an option!!

It's understandabe that those living in America or who sympathise with America's actions throughout the world will jump to its defence in the face of both allegations and the truth of its history. Let's not forget that Americans wanted nothing to do with the world outside its borders until it was attacked by Japan in December 1941. The strategy of its war and the supreme heroism of Americans in fighting that war should never be forgotten. The same way Britons should remain forever proud of the way they fought the early part of the war in Europe all but on their own. Once peace arrived, both America and Britain changed. Britain was bankrupt. Anti-colonial America pushed it and other countries to give up their colonies - with the exception of France whose murderous reign in Indo-China was allowed to continue. America was suddenly thrust into the role of leadership of the free world. Instead of acknowledging that the Soviet Union had lost almost 27 million in fighting the Nazis whereas the USA had lost around 300,000 fighting the Japanese, communism became the evil enemy. With the Soviets getting their own atomic bomb and a China, exhausted by more than a century of war and humiliation largely at the hands of colonial powers, taken by Mao from America's "friend" Chiang Kai-shek, the spectre of world communism formed America's view of the outside world. No one can or should call what America then did over the next few decades "stupid choices." If that is the case, then the present crisis with Iran is a result of the "stupid choice" America and its British ally made in forcibly removing the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in the early 1950s in favour of propping up the corrupt, undemocratic Shah. The reason? They wanted the flow of cheap oil to continue. Everything now happening in Iran results from that one action. The Korean War was largely a result of a "stupid choice" - or perhaps a "stupid error" is more exact - made by the US Secretary of State Acheson. Was the murder of 3 million Vietnamese a "stupid choice"? Were the affects of American action and the rise of the murdering ISIS in Iraq a "stupid choice"? Is Biden's announced policy of unilaterally abandoning a legally binding Treaty to respect a one-China policy a "stupid choice" that could thrust this region into a war that could all but anihilate Taiwan as we know it? Blustering into a situation that it helped to create by reneging on the agreements in the Cairo Declaration and ratified in the Potsdam Conference whereby post-war China would be returned to China could result in horrific consequences. Does Biden seriously believe that his countrymen will enter into a war with China almost as far away as Vietnam was? How can the USA counter China's massive forces that are vastly more prepared and lethal than Putin's in Ukraine? We must all accept and take responsibility for the "stupid choices" of our own nations throughout history. Britain must face up to the consequences of its annexing so many nations during its age of empire. What is happening today in Myanmar is a direct result of Britain's "stupid choices". Britain's partition of India was not merely a "stupid choice", the way it was put into effect was a criminal act that resulted in the deaths of millions. Belgium, Portugal, France, Holland and Japan must do likewise, given that their overseas colonisation was arguably much worse for the peoples colonised. In this respect Germany has given us all an example in the concrete actions it has taken after its "stupid choices" in the Nazi era. Nor can many countries today dismiss the horrific actions and results over centuries of the slave trade, no more than we can the effect of tearing children from their birth parents in Canada, Australia and perhaps elsewhere to place them with unknown parents assumed to be far better able to bring them up and make them decent citizens. Just as we as individuals have to own up to the mistakes and "stupid choices" we have made in our own pasts, so must nations.

Since the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong's main English Language newspaper) has a paywall, I am printing below an article from September 26. What tourists need to know about Covid restrictions in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan Fully vaccinated travellers can enter Singapore without a Covid test and no quarantine. Malaysia allows all tourists to enter regardless of vaccination Removal of hotel quarantine measures for ‘zero-Covid’ holdouts Taiwan and Hong Kong means outbound travel will be easier during the holiday season Travellers from Singapore to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia can finally start putting together travel plans, as a number of destinations from across Asia look to welcome tourists after a lengthy period of border restrictions. For “zero-Covid” holdouts Taiwan and Hong Kong, the latest removal of tough hotel quarantine measures has meant that outbound travel will be much easier during the holiday season. After Hong Kong’s long-awaited announcement that overseas travellers will no longer need to be confined to hotel rooms for quarantine starting on September 26, flight orders out of the city surged, according to Trip.com. In fact, bookings for trips to Japan’s Osaka by Hong Kong travellers soared 7,300 per cent from the previous weekend, according to the travel website. Nonetheless, some Covid 19 restrictions still remain in place in key asian tourist destinations,. here are some things you need to know if you are planning to visit Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong or Taiwan in the coming month. Singapore Now a year into its ‘living with Covid’ strategy, Singapore allows fully vaccinated travellers and children under 12 to enter the country with no pre- or post-arrival testing and no quarantine requirements. Face masks are not required in indoor settings, except in healthcare facilities, public transport and on board some flights and ferries. Unvaccinated short-term visitors aged 13 or older will also be able to enter the country with no need to apply for approval. However, they will be required to provide a negative test 48 hours before arrival in Singapore and must buy travel insurance to cover the duration of their stay. There are stipulations to not being fully-vaccinated, as you will not be allowed to enter events with more than 500 attendees. All visitors will also need to download the TraceTogether app to verify their vaccination status and submit their electronic health declaration form at least three days before arrival. Malaysia Malaysia has kept things simple – all travellers are allowed to enter the country regardless of their vaccination status. Also, no pre-departure or post-arrival Covid-19 tests are required. Malaysia also does not require tourists to use the country’s contact tracing app, MySejahtera. How is Malaysia doing this? The Health Ministry said they will increase the monitoring of traveller’s health symptoms at all international points of entry. The government is also trusting travellers to self-monitor their health and go to a medical facility if they are unwell. Malaysia has also scrapped its rule requiring masks indoors, but they remain mandatory on public transport and in healthcare facilities. Thailand Travellers to Thailand can show their proof of vaccination on entry, or for those who aren’t fully vaccinated, a negative Covid-19 test issued within 72 hours of departing for the country. Visitors no longer need to apply for the Thailand Pass – an online platform to submit documents – before entry into the country. Masks are now voluntary in the popular tourist destination, and nightlife venues have begun operating at pre-pandemic levels, remaining open for longer hours. Japan Since June, Japan has allowed some tourists to visit on package tours organised by travel agencies. However, the country is set to abolish a slew of border controls starting on October 11 to revive its tourism industry. Japan will allow individuals to enter and reinstate visa waivers for travellers from some countries. It will also scrap its cap on daily arrivals, currently set at 50,000. Travelling to the island country might still be a bit of a doozy for the uninitiated. Only those who have received their third vaccine shot are exempt from providing proof of a negative Covid test on entry. For all other travellers, a Covid test conducted within 72 hours before departure is required. There is no law in Japan requiring people to wear masks, but they are still near-ubiquitous in public places like trains and shops. Hong Kong Hong Kong has lifted one of the world's toughest pandemic control regimes by ending mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals on September 26. Incoming travellers will still be required to go through three days of home medical surveillance, and tourists can stay in a hotel for this period. During the monitoring period, visitors will be able to go outside but will be restricted from entering places such as bars or restaurants. Incoming travellers also need to take a PCR test on days 2, 4 and 6 after arrival, and a rapid test every day for seven days. Overseas entry into Hong Kong also requires that tourists be fully vaccinated, and a pre-departure test will still be required. However, a self-administered rapid antigen test (RAT) taken within 24 hours before boarding the flight will suffice, replacing the existing PCR screening requirement. At the airport, tourists can expect to get tested for Covid-19, but no longer have to wait for their results there. Face masks continue to be mandatory both indoors and outdoors in Hong Kong, and a vaccine pass will still be required to visit most premises and to dine out in the city. Taiwan Starting on September 29, Taiwan is set to resume visa-free entry for citizens of countries that previously held that status. It will also increase its weekly arrival limits for international travellers to 60,000, with no more PCR tests required upon entry. Travellers must undergo a three-day quarantine followed by four days of self-monitoring. However, things might be looking up for keen visitors. Taiwan is aiming to end mandatory quarantine for all arrivals from around October 13. It is also set to raise its weekly limit on international visitors to 150,000 people and lift its ban on tour groups. Like Hong Kong, the mask mandate remains in place in Taiwan, but contact tracing and vaccinations checks are no longer required.

I find it more than staggering that one group of businessmen whose businesses in pre-Castro Cuba seemed mostly be be slightly shady at best (or who took advantage of and did little for Cuban labour) and another group of individual exiles who number a mere fraction of those living in America are able to exert such influence on the politics of both parties. It's another example of US politics being massively out of date and requiring a complete overhaul as I have suggested in previous posts. Lest I am accused again of USA bashing, what has been happening re the politics in my country - the UK - is another total shambles. That a party leader can be elected by a tiny fraction of an ageing die-hard electorate is nonsense. Sterling crashing through the floor in her first actual work week is an example of the type of idiot this procedure can elect to high office.

Slightly off topic, I have never understood why the USA has imposed such strict sanctions against Cuba for so many decades. Wasn't Cuba a den of vice for the mafia prior to the Revolution? Did the USA tolerate all that? I can understand the action against the island following the nuclear weapons discovery but that matter was resolved through back channel diplomacy between Kennedy and Kruschev. 6 decades have now passed. The Soviet Union ended 3 decades ago. The USA fought a long war against Vietnam which ended almost 5 decades ago. The countries are now friends with almost $100 billion of trade between them even though Vietnam is run by a one-party communist government. Cuba offers many of its people two items which cost a fortune for many citizens on the USA - free education and free healthcare. It also has a higher literacy rate than that in the USA. Why is the country crippled by continuing US sanctions? Why does Washington regard it in the same light as Iran?