xpaulo

Actually, I was kind of shocked. I had never seen anything remotely like that. It was only a year earlier and a trip to Costa Rica's Caribbean coast that I learned there was such a thing as sex tourism..... why did that nice middle aged man from Montreal in the next bungalow get a young local man to stay with him? In Koh Samui there were elderly overweight European men in skimpy bathing suits on the beach with two or three Thai girls of indeterminate ages, the ramshackle bars were packed in the evenings with drunk westerners and the local sex workers trying to get their attention and I was with a straight couple from home who had no interest in that scene.

Gosh, I was there once about 30 years ago, it was like Sodom and Gomorrah. Some hot straight Thai male sex workers hitting mainly on foreign women, but gay for pay too.

Yah, it seems to be a thing in Australia. I was in a Sydney bar with a rugby game on TV which I wasn't paying attention to and it was noticed. I ordered another beer while another guy was waiting at the bar for his order and he said to me, oh you're not Aussie, we were wondering why you weren't watching the game.

I'd certainly try to have a lot more sex in my youth do-again if I could have one. I wasn't in denial about my gayness, but it was a complication in the small town where I lived.

The wife and family are probably a big part of his happiness. My sense is that many old men, gay and straight, are not close to whatever family members they have left and are alone and lonely. Maybe the solution is to marry someone younger, as long as there's genuine affection and enjoyment of each others company. One solace of modern life for old men is the amount of pornography that's available. Maybe that sounds sad, but I like it.

I don't think it's scaremongering. If you're having sex with guys who make their living having sex with European tourists among others, chances are they're going to get monkeypox. On the plus side, it's also possible they've had it and recovered and are now immune.

I recall a rugby player in Australia putting peanut butter on his balls at a house party and letting the home owner's dog lick it off, all on video. He was kicked off the team, but I think he found a team in the UK that hired him. It was probably more that it was on video that got shared that got him trouble, and not the stunt itself. Rugby players are in a class all their own.

Fair point, we can also be quite smug. I find it frustrating when people who have no idea why things are the way they are make judgements. For instance, if somebody were to say why doesn't Biden just ban handguns as if it's that simple. In Canada anything Covid is complicated because health care is a provincial responsibility, but the feds were called on to get involved.

Ha, ha It's like reading the calories in restaurant meals, I don't want to know about it and ruin the fun.

Yes, I wasn't sure what to make of the comment that the rules for entry to Canada weren't enforced. Everybody entering Canada, including Canadians, are supposed to file the ArriveCan app which has vaccination status in it. Americans often say nobody at the Canadian border asked for their vaccination document but that's because the border people already have it. I didn't realize the government leaves the cruise ship line to enforce that. I may contact the MP for our area since we have cruise ship passengers in contact with local people. And while the Canadian government's policies often make no sense or are inconsistent or are purely for appearances, Canadians are generally no more welcoming of having foreigners point that out than Americans or other nationalities are about their own countries.

I know exactly what you mean, they could have been the young mechanics, or roofers, or plumbers I'd see around town and lust after on a daily basis. Nice to know they're at Lagoa.

I chuckled when I saw Calgary. To many Canadians it would be hell on earth due to corporate culture and right wing governments, but the Economist might not see those as a negative. Vancouver is beautiful, but the city and suburbs are very expensive. People in Toronto are good people, but southern Ontario retains its deferential attitude to authority which I find frustrating sometimes. I'm a Canadian patriot and love living here, Canadians generally avoid confrontation and prefer that people's private lives remain private which is good. But in terms of the sex I much prefer western Europe, Brazil or other countries because of the more relaxed attitudes and attractiveness of the men although in bed I think Canadians are as probably as much fun as anywhere else in the world. Somebody with more experience with Canadian men can correct me on that. Certainly francophone Canadian men are among the sexiest in the world I think and Quebec would be the most liberal province re sex.

An announcer on Canadian news was saying yesterday monkey pox is now known to be most associated with a specific sexual act. But it's Canada and its anglophone media is reluctant say or show anything that might disturb somebody. The francophone media seems to be better about telling people the truth. Anyway, does anybody know which sexual act is more associated with monkey pox. I live in a semi-rural area and there will be no monkey pox vaccinations in the near future.... I don't know how many people on here remember the sitcom Soap and the visiting relative.. "we don't have queers in Texas." That's what it feels like sometimes. I want to travel this winter and advising gay guys not to have sex when they're travelling is like well, telling them not to breathe. Can't wait to hear the officials tell single straight guys not to have sex. Also frustrating because guys are crossing over to Vancouver from Seattle to get the vaccinations, but in some other parts of the country only a relative handful of people are eligible for vaccinations.... ie they have had to had close contact with a confirmed case.

I'm certainly glad I quit smoking about 30 years ago, both my parents and recently my sister suffered a lot at the end, especially my mother, my brother couldn't visit her, it was too hard on him. "That's not my mother, " he said.

"In a way I'm a bit depressing I can't do what I used to 15 years ago" I just turned 63 and noticed a big difference in myself on a trip to Europe last winter. The biggest is I can't stay up late anymore. I want to be in bed by 10 or 11. But I've reconciled to it. I mainly want to be in foreign places just for the difference from home and the men of course. But all that can be done during the day. I took some guided tours for the first time and enjoyed them. The guides are often young and a little subversive.

Things have been fine for me lately. There was one time when I asked if a bar that had rent guys also had cubicles or someplace private to go and I got an incredible over-reaction basically calling me an idiot for even thinking for such a thing. There was so much anger in the reply it startled me. I don't think accepting that kind of crap should be the price of admission to be gay and it's sad some people think it is.

I've been learning Spanish on Duolingo, it's actually much better than taking lessons in a class. Actually talking to somebody in Spanish would still be extremely difficult since I'll have trouble processing what they're saying. But it will be helpful for sure. Somebody on here will know what's best for Brazil. Knowing how to pronounce the word for bus station for instance would be a big help as I found on my visits to Brazil.

Ha, ha that sounds like the one. It was like one of those super high end stores that only have a few items out for display, but they're all exquisite. The few guys there were exquisite, but I'd much be rather be with a hairy young mechanic.

Gosh, I stayed at the Malaysia about 15 years ago. It was outdated then but I expect the rooms have been renovated. It felt pretty decadent with the escorts coming and going and sexy young fellows laying around the pool. The story then was it was built for American soldiers on R and R from the war in Vietnam. I enjoyed the thought of all those young soldiers having wild orgies there. But I saw a post, maybe on these forums, that tourist families have started staying there, that would feel odd.

No shootings thank goodness, but hate incidents directed at LBQT symbols rising in Canada.

https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2022/06/26/sundre-parade-float-racist/ This happened in Canada this weekend. A racist float in a rodeo parade in the heartland of Conservative party support. I post it here because these are the same people who tear down rainbow flags and deface rainbow street crosswalks by peeling out with their trucks. Those kinds of incidents have been on the rise and I believe are an offshoot of the anti-vaccine movement which has given these creeps a newfound boldness. The Conservative party, which says it's not racist or homophobic anymore and won't revoke a women's right to choose, is still as right wing Christian and redneck as it's even been. But the Liberals have been lurching from one political disaster to another all through their own incompetence and will probably lose the next election to the Conservatives who are about to elect a new leader who appears to be crazy and not in a good way. And so while many say the United States can't happen here, it can.

That's exactly how I felt about LA, but I didn't really try either. San Francisco for me is so much better, it's much easier to have short conversations with strangers including locals.... and the staff in stores, etc, remain cheerful and outgoing even with the onslaught of tourists.

I guess I was more pointing out that to me it seemed that Mexicans were an exception from what's more typical of people not being patient with foreigners. Even though Canadians have a reputation for politeness, where I live they can lose it when somebody can't speak English well enough to understand or be understood. And in some other Spanish speaking countries people haven't been rude to me, it was me who was being inconsiderate by trying to speak a language I couldn't speak. Also, I have never been to Colombia so I'm not sure how my comment was taken as criticism of Colombians. Colombians I have met in other parts of Latin America have helped me in situations and have always been polite.

Unlike other places, people in Mexico were unfailingly polite and patient with my excruciating attempts to speak Spanish.

My last shot was grade 8 which was 1972. Interesting. I remember it because I had a reaction and had to spend a night in quarantine in a hospital room.