PeterRS

Hence the advisability of proof reading your own document - for errors and mistakes - before it goes to a professional who presumably was there primarily to make sure of the sense and appropriateness of the document in terms of the business I still find it hard to believe that any company of any size in any business would expect that proof reader to correct simple errors of spelling and grammar.

The poster for the movie makes clear the role of the ship. Apparently the wreck of the ship still exists!

Just over 20 years ago I was on a cruise with a colleague who was one of the lecturers. It was long - 17 days from Barbados around the Caribbean, into the Panama Canal, back dowm the south east coast of South America and then 1,000 miles up the Amazon to Manaus. Too long for me, but I was thrilled that whereas this particular cruise line used to give its guest lecturers cabins near the water line, my colleague happened to know the purser from a couple of previous cruises and this nice man upgraded us seven decks to a cabin with an outside balcony. Not luxury like the one @unicorn mentions, but I think I would have gone crazy had I not been able to pop onto the balcony regularly with some nice complimentary champagne that they kindly put in the fridge every day. The fact that my colleague was TT meant the whole bottle was for me! My liver took some days to recover I seem to recall! Manaus was fascinating, partly a result of its Opera House. At the end of the 19th century, when European opera companies regularly sailed for seasons at the Colon Opera House in Buenos Aires, the rubber barons decided they wanted one in the middle of the jungle at Manaus in the hope that the companies could then travel up to their city. Some may have seen the Werner Herzog movie Fitzcarraldo. Loosely based on an actual opera-mad character, Fitzcarraldo's ambition was to have the great tenor Enrico Caruso sing in Manaus. So he needed an Opera House. He had vast tons of wood hacked out of the jungle and sent to Lisbon for carving and decoration. The end result is an extraordinary and beautiful theatre. That Caruso sang at the theatre's opening in 1897 is apocryphal but the citizens like to think he did. A century later the great tenor Pavarotti sang on stage during a private visit and an opera Festival takes place each year. The Teatro Amazonas today

All the more reason for threads to have a limited shelf life before being trashed. This is especially true in the present case when talking about a hotel that has clearly transformed itself since the OP was written all those years ago. A number of posters do make decisions based on other members' recommendations. Recommending a hotel after nearly 13 years is a disservice to others, especially those who have joined more recently.

I did not say Taiwanese are not interested in gay bars and clubs in Taiwan. Far from it! They go to many bars and clubs in Taipei - even one I have been to that is considerably more raunchy than those in Bangkok - although there are not as many of them. What I wrote was when they visit Thailand they prefer massage spas and some saunas to going to bars. That is where they prefer to have a sexual experience. They are in general - and obviously there are exceptions - much less interested in offing guys from the bars. As far as bars in Jomtien are concerned, many Taiwanese have only a basic comprehension of English - as I can attest from the conversations I have had in hot springs and saunas there. A solo Taiwanese sitting with a boy in a host bar whose English is also poor would not be of much interest to the clear majority. But I stand to be corrected on this as I have not been in Jomtien for at least 8 years. I had failed to notice your point about traditional Chinese. That was my error. I just assumed the vdo had perhaps been made in Singapore due more to its production values. Frankly, though, I still do not believe it is a vdo made in Taiwan for a Taiwan audience. If so, there would be no need for English! As it is uploaded to youtube, the blogger would surely have assumed it would therefore be of interest to gay guys around the region and not specifically to one country. Since it would be banned in China, traditional Chinese is more common in S.E. Asia than simplified Chinese. Having visited Singapore more than 35 times, however, and with Singapore friends, English is technically the first language. It is certainly the language used in most business and political affairs, taught in schools to a high level even though it is sometimes corrupted by many into Singlish. But a large percentage of younger Singaporeans who are now of travel age seek similar Chinese-speaking travel companions for trips to Thailand since for nearly 30% of SIngaporeans, Chinese is still their first language. That is obvious from reading Singapore websites. And like Taiwanese, they find sex less complicated to find in massage spas and saunas and on some apps. I have also not visited a gay bar in Bangkok in years, but there is another reason I doubt many South East Asians take boys from bars. Unlike quite a number of Japanese visiting Thailand who are happy enough to travel solo, Singaporeans and Taiwanese tend to travel and go to places in groups of two or more. They might still visit a bar, but rarely for the purpose of offing a boy. And with prices for drinks continuing to rise, merely seeing guys prancing in jeans or shorts and sometimes lady boy acts is hardly an attraction. They generally prefer clubbing and discos. As for the vdo, i have done some research. We really should realise that this is not a one off vdo. It is a typical video blog site which requires a membership fee. It contains no less than 250 individual videos which include ones on Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Busan, Taipei, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and non-gay-related individuals and events like Chinese divers, Singapore musclemen, the Chinese swimming team and the amazing Taipei Lantern Festival two years ago.

Don't self-proof it before it goes to an official proof reader? That seems nuts to me. It basically means you take no responsibility for what you have written. It's the proof reader who gets the blame. No company I have worked for - and I am not a lawyer - would expect an individual NOT to proof his own work before it was fed on to someone else.

I use predictive text when i write word documents. Frequently I find that words have not come out the way I typed them. But I find that out by checking and then I can make the relevant corrections. Typing, especially on a phone, will always have some mistakes but I still think even a quick check on what appears on the screen can correct almost all of them.

I suspect that video is more for a Singaporean audience given that the subtitles are in both English and traditional Chinese. Few Taiwan videos include English. Also Taiwanese tend to be very massage spa oriented and there is no mention of any spa, although the video specifically refers only to bars and clubs. As for a wrap up of various places to go, it is very good. My idea is that one bar owner should take it on himself to market his own bar more or less as I suggested. If it can get on to youtube, all the better. But even if it is just for one particular gay app, it would be considerably better than the nothing they do at present.

No they shouldn't. Smoking is legally not permitted in bars.

And I often wonder why those who decide to post do not bother checking before clicking "Post". When someone's posts are usually just a few words - no names - checking just takes seconds.

I hope i did not mislead you. Almost all my friends have been to Thailand several times. They normally head to the usual gay haunts in Silom/Suriwong. As @10tazione has rightly pointed out, most Chinese in most countries with a large Chinese speaking community have their own apps in Chinese that we would have great difficulty navigating. Singapore has the Blowing Wind forum which caters to a much younger crowd than Gay Guides. It has a very extensive Travel section in English where mostly Chinese guys share their gay experiences and recommendations for the whole of Asia and some other countries as well. Some posters use it to seek travel companions. One of my Singapore friends whom i had not seen for almost seven years got in touch before he visited Bangkok a few weeks ago. He wanted to go to one of the Japanese-style hot springs. I recommended the newer of the two Yunimori onsen off Sathorn which i really enjoy. He said he'd prefer the older one off Sukhumvit (although it's actually much nearer Rama 4). I told him I had read some bad remarks about that particular onsen written by a member of this Board. But he claimed his advice was the opposite. So as he was the visitor, I agreed. And I was very surprised. I enjoyed the "old" Yunimori much more than I expected. I was also surprised that there were quite a few young guys whom I guessed were in their 20s/early 30s. I will certainly go again soon. If i was a bar owner and noticed Chinese and other non-western customers, I'd aproach them and offer them a number of free entries and free drinks - perhaps even offs - to promote my bar on the apps they read. I'd even pay a Chinese here in Thailand to write from my dictation a short blurb in Chinese along with some nice enticing photos of my bar. I'd make sure the photos were good as, as we all know, photos are generally worth hundreds of words. But that requires initiative, and as has been discussed so many times on this Board, that is a quaity sadly lacking from owners of gay businesses.

I had heard about Royal Spa but never went. I do believe it was exceptional in the services the masseurs offered. No doubt there are one or two more nowadays but judging from what I have heard they are difficult to find. I suggest it is best to assume the extras are HJs only and then be pleasantlly surprised if other services are offered/agreed to. The other problem that others have mentioned to me is that few registered masseurs will speak any English. That always struck me as odd since most Taiwanese I have met in the hot springs and the apps do have at least basic English.

The reason the Kennedy Center is failing is because Trump unilaterally decided it was giving too much prominence to a democrat. So he renamed it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The problem is that a galaxy of artists have now refused to perform there. More problematic for the arts is that the Washington National Symphony Orchesta, one of the nation's finest, has nowhere else to perform in the city durig the two year closure. The Washington Opera had already stated it would abandon the Center and find other venues. Additionally, Trump will have to find a way of overcoming the deed which set up the Center as a memorial to Kennedy and paid for partly by public funds. Congress decided the Center's name and Congress will have to pass a reolution to change it.

Reading another site based in Singapore with a major travel section, there is mention of a hot spring named Wulai66. Difficult to find descriptions but there is a sudden burst of posts about it. You access it via Xindian MRT station from which there is a shuttle bus to the Volando Urai Spa and Resort. A couple of the posts suggest this is the new hot spring most popular now with gay guys, even more than Huang Tzu. Judging by the comments on the website, I am not sure how accurate this is, but it certainlly seems a great place. It is much more in the country closer to New Taipei City and has great views plus the usual hot spring facilities. Tik Tok claims it is the "best gay hot spring in Taipei City". The hot spring is nearly one hour on the minibus and the shuttle should be pre-booked. The last one back to town is around 7:30 pm. So a taxi or public bus to the MTR station is necessary. It seems to be in an ultra-scenic location with lots of pathways and little old towns nearby. Not sure when i can get to it but I will write a report later in the year.

Sorry I have never taken a professional massage in Taiwan. From what I read in another forum where Asians love to go to Taipei for massages, they are not full-service, merely HEs. And although it is often remarked that there are too many Taiwanese bottoms on the island, I hear that this is very unusual for masseurs to top or bottom in professional spas. Sometimes extras can be negotiated, but I would not go to a professional masseur without checking what you are looking for first.