forrestreid

I see that Fake Club are celebrating the World Cup by putting their guys in the various country strips. Video here (you have to be logged in to FB to see it) : https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1482269022353736 I know we should a be boycotting the World Cup and all, but they look cute all the same...

Soda Massage in Jomtien has has had some very good reviews of their masseurs, particularly for the afters, but I think they are mainly on the twinky side.

Well, considering the Ecuador beat Qatar handily to come out with a 2-0 victory, I think the rumour is well and truly scotched now.

Having the highest denomination note as 100,000 is quite an improvement on when I was there (about 2010), when the exchange rate was about 11,000 kip to the dollar, but the highest value note was only 20,000 kip. So the highest denomination note was only worth about 1.80 usd, as compared to about 5.80 usd now. You might be able to hold all the notes in one hand if you went to pay for weeks hotel stay in kip notes now.

I found that in September in Athens the going rate for guys on Hunqz was €100 an hour. The guys I asked were not particularly muscular, but were good-looking native Greek guys with at least ten positive reviews.

Dunno, seems pretty clear to me..."Would appreciate someone experienced to make sure i'm not getting scammed or doing anything wrong".

I don't think you should really call it unhappy news, either. Shows there is some action around , and just because I was a bit nervous to do anything, does not mean that somebody else might not have a more adventurous experience... I would look forward to reading the experience of other guys who visit.

I spent a few days in Athens in late September. I decided to try out few of the places mentioned on this thread, to see if they were still going or had been wiped out by the Covid years. I am not an ideal candidate the task, as i am generally too nervous to actually hire bar hustlers or street rentboys, but I though of the readers of this website, and steeled myself to go out and about.. Adventures in Bars: Both the bars that have been reported here as having escorts - Sami's Bar and Bizzar - are close to Viktoria Metro stop, so I took train there on a Saturday evening. One of the bars is actually only open on Friday and Saturday, so you better be in Athens at the weekend if you want to try them out. I walked around the square above the metro stop first. There were a few guys sitting on the park benches and looking at men that passed – it was obviously what they were after. I didnt linger though, and went to Sami’s Bar first (often spelled “Sammi’s” on social media) When I arrived at around 9.00 pm it was nearly empty. The friendly staff told me it would get busier later, and by ten there was about four customers in the place. No real interaction between them, apart from chatting to the friendly staff. I was frustrated that the sexy Persian guys Xclay met on his visits hadn't turned up, although perhaps it was too early. I decided to abandon it and went to Bizzar bar. This was busier, about 12 customers. There were a few younger guys circulating but they were shy about approaching you in the bar. What I figured out was that when a guy went downstairs to the toilets, they followed you down and made their pitch there. I talked to a Romanian guy during one trip downstairs, and an Egyptian on the next. The Romanian guy was pleasant and offered some fun in the toilets for €40. I did not take him up. The Egyptian guy was more pressing, and when I rejected his suggestion of going into the cubicle for some fun (my understanding was that this would involve me sucking him off, and nothing more), his suggestion of €40 rapidly dropped to €30 and eventually ended up with just begging for some money to eat. I gave him 10 euro and went back up the stairs, just in time to see the Romanian guy leaving with a customer. I then regretted not taking my chances with him, of course. Guys on Omonia Square: The next night, Sunday, decided to walk around the northern side of Omonia Square, to see if they guys were still there. Long time readers of this site might remember that I tried this scene before Covid, but was too chickenshit to do anything in the end. Well, history repeated itself. At about 10 pm on the Sunday, I walked north from Omonia Square towards the pedestrian street the Cosmopolit hotel is on. Plenty of female hookers giving me the eye, but no guys I noticed (there was lot of Middle Eastern-looking guys hanging in groups of two or three, but I did not get the impression they were on the game). Then suddenly a young guy came up to me and started chatting. He started telling me about how you could rent a room for €10 from the Cosmopolit etc. He did not say why, and I was unsure at first if he was trying to pimp a women to me or what. However, it when he said he just wanted €40, it became clearer. He looked Syrian or Iraqi, and was a bit jumpy in manner, so I was too nervous to go anywhere with him. I asked him where he was from and he claimed to be called Alex from Thessalonica. I said thanks, but no thanks, and walked away. But as I had evinced some curiosity, he was not to be shaken off too easily, and followed me round Omonia Square for five minutes trying to get me to change my mind, and did not give up until I was nearly at the Athinaikon restaurant on Themistocles St. Not an interaction that would tempt me back to Omonia Square Guys on web After that, I decided to play it a bit safer, and looked at some guys on the web. Chatted to a few guys on various sites – the main site for Athens is Hunqz, as far as I can see. I agreed to meet two guys, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. The price for each was €100, I went to the apartment of one guy and asked another to come to my hotel – I offered him an extra €20 for this. Both the guys I chose had a number of positive reviews, which is largely why I chose them. They were very polite and pleasant.

Horrifying report - I cannot read about this story.

If you are capable of supporting yourself through online work or suchlike (easier said than done, I know) you may be able to travel to the Caucasus republic of Georgia. That’s presuming you’re going to be allowed out of Russia. I follow a Russian YouTuber called NFKRS. He is an English language YouTuber and makes money that way. His channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MultiNfz Since the war broke out he has moved to Tbilisi in Georgia. He spoke about his immigration situation in one of his videos. Seemingly, a Russian can get a Visa to travel to Georgia for 360 days in a year. Then you can go to (say) Armenia for a week or two, and come back and start another 360 day Visa in Georgia. Not sure if it’s quite as simple as that for everybody, but he is currently renting an apartment in Tbilisi, making money on YouTube and supporting himself in that way. Although he’s only 22, he doesn’t have to worry about the conscription issue, as he has a medical exemption.

If you have twitter, an guy who has a Youtube account and also tweets on travel did a series of tweets on his trip on the new railway, dated the 9th September. Giving his views on it, good and bad. The account is called @nonstopeurotrip

I rather think you are joking. Never heard of him before, but according to the first video I found on Youtube about him (seemingly by a supporter of his) he is facing a jail term for "exposing the identity of an alleged paedophile in breach of a New South Wales Court suppression order". This is presumably because the fool might wreck a forthcoming criminal trial. According to other videos he was already in trouble for harassing politicians and/or various Covid protest nut-jobbery. If DanyaHulus is genuine, your thread hi-jacking is in rather poor taste.

I concur with the assessment of PeterRS. We might not see eye to eye on international relations, but we can agree that Alex Kerr wrote a fine account of Bangkok!

A bit harsh, one mean comment in a tread does not make you a troll in my book.

I think in any democratic system winning with 57% of the vote is a pretty comprehensive win, to be fair. But my understanding is that is is not the policy of Presidents Tsai's party to go for formal (de jure) independence, it is to continue the present ambiguous system where Taiwan is de facto independent, whilst avoiding any 1776-style Declaration of Independence (without renouncing the right of Taiwan to do so in theory). Personally I don’t think any Taiwanese government will ever go for full, declared independence anyway, as it would bring an almost immediate invasion. My opinion is that, of the two government on either side of the Taiwan , it is the PRC side that has done most to escalate matters over the last decade, and therefore to propagate the PRC view of individual incidents (like the Pelosi visit) is to collude with its bullying.

You write as if the “people who actually live in Taiwan” are entirely helpless in the situation. But the fact is that Taiwan is a democratic country – and it was the democratic vote of the people in elections that has resulted the increased tensions over the status of Taiwan. As you have pointed out, the collapse in the number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan followed the PRC unhappiness with the decision of the Taiwan people in the 2015 election. Obviously that very negatively impacted on the tourist sector of Taiwan, but I think it is fair to say that the electorate knew before the election that the result that transpired would enrage Beijing. But they cast their vote for their favoured candidates anyway, as is their right. You are trying to create a divide here between the “politicians” and “the men and women who live there”, but it seems that on this issue people are leading and the politicians following - otherwise the Kuomintang would be winning elections. Now you may be of the opinion that the Taiwanese people are misjudging their own long term interests, and should “go gently into the good night” of becoming a new subjugated province of the PRC, like Hong Kong. However, I would urge you to make that argument in a straight-forward fashion, rather than insinuating (in a rather dubious proposition for a country with democratic elections) that only "the politicians” want a certain policy… and that the “ordinary people” disagree.

Enjoyed those trips down memory lane to 2009 Shamelessmack. I think that map of the Silom bars in 2022 merits its own thread, too!

To clarify the above, it was to demonstrate that the USA and its allies have generally not had any constant viewpoint on when secession from an existing state is acceptable. For instance, it is generally supportive of Kosovo and Taiwan, but in the case of Catalonia, a few years ago, it was definitely on the side of the Spanish government in opposing it, presumably mainly due to Spain being a NATO member and considered a democracy. Whether this inconstancy is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but one cannot accuse American politicians of being hypocrites for being supportive of Taiwan's continued existence as a de-facto separate state. Anyway, Pelosi's trip is underway it seems, with her in Singapore today. We will await with interest whether she does turn up in Taiwan, or follows the Biden counsel to stay away. If she was to ask my advice, I would suggest staying away at the moment, as the current international situation is so volatile, and to visit when Biden clearly wants her to keep away would make the American government look divided and therefore weak. But there are advantages and disadvantages to either option. The main thing is to demonstrate to the PRC that the US will not abandon a democratic country like Taiwan, which definitely would be getting Asian policy wrong.

I am not sure what point you are trying to make with this paragraph. The point I was making was that China was not the only country in Asia to be colonised (or partly colonised) in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it seems to have precious little empathy for others suffered a greater indignity at that time, despite feeling rather sorry for itself. To respond to your analogy I’m sure Americans would feel furious if some states of the Union were taken over by Imperialist foreign powers. But I am sure they would be even more furious if the whole country was taken over rather than in just a few states! (Which would be the analogy to what happened with Korea and Vietnam). As you seem to have discussed with many Chinese the effect that colonisation and the unequal treaties had on China, why do you think it has not made them more able to empathise with the viewpoint of a country like the Philippines or Vietnam? That is something I have wondered about as the whole saga of the disputes over Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea has played out over the last decade or so. You make reference to US citizens that are in favour of independence for Taiwan. I’m not sure what the average view of Joe Public is in the States, as I don’t live there, but my understanding of the viewpoint of officials and the State Department is that while they accept the argument that Taiwan should be considered as part of China’s national territory in the long run, that “de facto” the independence of Taiwan should be respected, pending a mutual agreement to reunite peacefully. In particular, they don’t feel that the USA is bound by anything to acquiesce to a unilateral invasion of Taiwan by the PRC. Regarding the Texas example, I willingly concede that the USA would not accept it if Texas unilaterally decided to secede. However, the analogous situation to the premise of this tread is to ponder what the the position of, say, the government of Canada or Germany would be to Texas seceding. I would like to think that if the secessionist state of Texas was a democratic state and it was leaving a USA which had become a fascist dictatorship, that the politicians in Germany and Canada would support Texas. There is a more apt example of this sort of situation. This is Kosovo leaving Serbia. Despite the fact that in general, international governments are opposed to unilateral secessionist movements, in this case once Kosovo had rebelled, most of the international community ended up supporting the secessionist rebels. This was for various reasons, mainly the fact that there was view in western countries that a genocide of the Muslims in Kosovo was beginning to take place. (Obviously the reaction of the West in general, and NATO countries in particular, to the Kosovo crisis is still very controversial, with some commentators taking the side of Serbia. But I am talking about the general response to the situation). It is a good example of how the international official opinion that secession should only occur with the peaceful agreement of both the exiting region and the overall state, can be breached in extreme circumstances.

PeterRS, your explanation of how your life has impacted your view of the PRC was interesting. You obviously have a lot of experience of living and travelling in China over many years. However, I still think the way you view the subject of this thread (how US politicians have reacted to the rise of China) is incorrect. You know more than me about the various political manoeuvrings that ended up with the ROC controlling Taiwan and the PRC controlling the mainland by 1950. However, the fact remains that, whatever the history, at the present moment there is in Taiwan a highly developed country, with a democratic government. This is versus the undemocratic PRC regime. Therefore, I think the USA is morally correct to support Taiwan. That does not mean I believe they should necessarily intervene militarily if Taiwan is attacked. As the PRC is a nuclear armed power I think that policy would be too dangerous. In that regard, I have not sure what the reasoning is behind Biden dropping the so-called “strategic ambiguity“ stance of the US recently over the question of whether America would support Taiwan militarily, if it was invaded. It is a policy that needs careful consideration. I do think the USA it should be more blunt about what it would do in such a situation. The whole reason for “strategic ambiguity“ from the 80s until recently was that the USA was hoping that the PRC, while claiming Taiwan, would never actually invade. There are many places around the world where one country claims piece of land not currently occupied by it (Spain and British-controlled Gibraltar for example) But no one really expects Spain to violently invade in the reasonably near future. That appears not to be the case any more with the PRC and Taiwan. In my own view, the USA should make clear it would not military intervene if the PRC invaded Taiwan, but state that it has the intention to help build up as much of a modern military arsenal (excluding nuclear weaponry) as possible in Taiwan to enable it to defend itself. And just make it as difficult as possible for the PRC to wipe out the democratic government of Taiwan, if the Taiwanese people are prepared to defend themselves. Regarding the more general point about the century of humiliation for China and the "unequal treaties" , that is true. However China was not the only country to undergo that. Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines are actually fully colonised during that period. However the Chinese reaction to this colonisation it’s not to show any solidarity with those Asian countries. In fact it’s rebound from its weakness of the 19th and early 20th century mainly seems to involve bullying countries like Vietnam and the Philippines for over territory that is much closer to those countries than the Middle Kingdom. For those reasons, and also the fact that the much-heralded "coming liberalisation" of the PRC that the China "doves" based their advice on seems unlikely to ever arrive before a Taiwan invasion, I think that a more hawkish policy is quite justified.

Admittedly Pelosi was more careless than she should have been regarding the possible consequences for the press team on that occasion. However, I think if I was a US citizen in 1991 and if I was looking at my Congress representatives, I would be far more embarrassed about the fact that the rest of them went to Beijing in 1991, just two years after the PRC government had massacred thousands of protesters in Tiananmen Square, and had NOT made some form of protest. And as regards the title of this thread, I think if you look at the grand arc of her career on China policy, Pelosi has been much more correct in her analysis than say, Bush or Clinton, who as you point out she so annoyed. Back in the 1990s, when China was somewhat isolated, and Clinton’s administration were in favour of allowing them to join the WTO and to bring it into international organisations, it was on the basis that it was as China got richer it would then become more democratic. Around that time there was discussion of China hosting the Olympics, and the "China Dove" side (who were dominant in both Clinton and Bush Jr's State Department) argued that it would be a good thing as China would have to open up a bit when hosting the Olympics. Tibet was the region most in the news at the time, and the argument was, "well China won’t want to be embarrassed by being oppressive to the Tibetans during the Olympics, it will surely ease up." Didn't happen. In general, Clinton and the other China doves were certain that, as China got more more integrated into the international community, it’s authoritarian nature would slowly decrease (a bit like what happened in South Korea and Taiwan between around 1970 and 1990). It was a genuine debate at the time, where Pelosi was obviously on the opposite side to Clinton and Bush. However I think history is showing that Pelosi was in the right side of the argument. If you had said to a China "dove" in 2001 that by 2022 China would have an economy as large and integrated into the international markets as it is now, and yet people are still debating not if, but when, it would invade Taiwan, they would be shocked. I think some of the criticism Peter has made of Pelosi on this thread may well have merit (if Biden is saying that the military do not want Pelosi to visit Taiwan, it is concerning). However, in general, Peter, would you not agree that Pelosi has been proved to have been LESS wrong on China than the State Department "China Dove" consensus of 1990s and early Naughties?

I don’t think that is really it. I think it is just for some reason (and I’ve noticed this with Peter’s posts over the years) he seems to have a massive fondness for the PRC regime - no idea why (shrug)

Just another hint on how to read the Very Thai book. I first saw it after I had been to Thailand two or three times, and bought it and gobbled it all up. But if you have never visited the country, some of it may seem a bit obtuse and obscure -"Is a whole section really needed on concrete bar furniture made to look like garishly coloured sliced-through tree trunks?" you may well be asking yourself . So don’t try to read it all through, flick through it and read a few chapters you’re interested in. Maybe keep at your bedside and read a few pages every night. Then leave it, and go back to read it again a week or so after you come back from Thailand. I guarantee you will find you have found a fascination with the most weird things... And no, I dont get commission on sales!

I wouldn’t worry too much about the physical look of the guys is not suiting you, Latbear4blk. Like you I wouldn’t really go too much for the “look” of Asian guys, particularly pale east Asian guys like Koreans and Japanese. However I find quite a variety of guys in Bangkok. Particularly if you meet Cambodian or Burmese guys, they often have interesting darker looks, and sometimes to my eyes have quite a South American look (imho, speaking to as somebody has admittedly never been to South America!) As the regards exploring nature and culture, you will get exotic culture coming out of your ears in Bangkok. I have a feeling from your previous posts that you might be quite interested in popular or street culture, if so I think an absolutely brilliant book to read before you come to Thailand for the first time is “Very Thai: Everyday Popular Culture”, written by Philip Cornwel-Smith. As one of the reviews on Amazon says, “it is the best honest factual book on Thai culture I have ever seen”. The many photographs in at are particularly well chosen. Is answers all those questions you are most certainly going to ask yourself after two or three days in Bangkok, like "What is the story with all those amulets on sale?" or "Why are all the paper napkins pink?", or "What is the story with all the blind people singing into portable microphones on the street?", or "Why do so many of the drag artists in the gay bars wear “ugly face drag”? ....etc. (the last two cultural artifacts seem to be in rapid decline, though). As regards nature, it will not be as easy to access stunning natural sites a short distance from your base if you stay in Bangkok as opposed to say, Phuket. However there are some interesting day trips such as Khai Yai National Park or Erawan National Park where you can see a bit of the wild Thailand.

All those posts were by the on person, who has since quit he board, it seems, so his posts now state "guest". Sad if he has left just because one poster did not apologise for saying something objectionable, you have a reasonably thick skin for posting on message boards.