PeterRS

And for someone who can afford to say at Capella by the river, he can obviously afford restaurants that are quite high class. He might think about starting with the nearby Normandie Grill in the Mandarin Oriental! You'll need a tie and maybe a jacket, though!

FInished earlier as I had a free day today! LGBTQ-History Month – (Part 2 of 2) It is hard today for us to think of Mineo as a big star because he never landed a really starring role. Yet as a teen idol he was massively popular and had a huge young fan base. By 1960 "Mineo Mania" was sweeping America. Mineo Mania In America As the young writer/director Peter Bogdanovich who first met him on a movie set mentions in an Esquire Magazine article, “I have never met anyone quite so instantly disarming as Sal could be; inhibitions and prejudices dissolved in the heady rush of his good humor and happy conspiratorial manner. No one took himself less seriously than Sal, which is not to say that he was frivolous; he’d just drop off into that funny snore of his at any hint of pomposity in himself or others . . .You never felt any awkwardness around Sal; he made sure you were at your ease.” As his boyish looks started to fade, though, so did his career, although rarely for that reason. He desperately wanted a key role in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Lean's people turned him down on the basis that it would not be appropriate to cast someone who had recently played a Zionist terrorist and killed four Arabs in Exodus. He was equally desperate to play the young lead in The Godfather. Few in Hollywood then knew of Al Pacino who was thought of more as a New York stage actor. Sal again was not considered even though he was a ‘name’ and of Sicilian descent. He also read for the part given to Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, a movie for which he had tried to buy the rights. Despite his major attraction to the relatively new teenage audience, Hollywood passed him by. Almost his only roles in major movies were The Longest Day and The Greatest Story Ever Told, in both buried among a host of other supporting actors including Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, John Wayne and Sean Connery. Sal did not like Heston saying he had “an ego the size of Texas and a talent the size of South Dakota.” With film offers tailing off, he took a beach house near Los Angeles where a frequent visitor was Jill Haworth. Apparently a warm and generous person, many came to visit when he was there. He loved giving large parties for anyone and everyone. At one, Rudolf Nureyev, the world’s most famous ballet dancer who had recently defected from the Soviet Union and was very gay, approached Sal. In those days the twist was the most popular dance. Nureyev asked him, “Teach me what they are doing.” Astonished, Sal replied, “You’re putting me on! You want me to teach you how to dance?” Sal then took a towel and pretended drying his bottom for a minute or two. Moments later Nureyev was doing the twist in the middle of the dance floor! One day he met a 19-year old singer Bobby Sherman on the beach. Learning Sherman had nowhere to stay, he quickly became a fixture in the Mineo household. In Sal Mineo: A Biography the author claims it was here that he had his first truly gay experience (it may have been the first time he had had a genuinely serious and loving gay experience, for it is claimed he had already had very brief and ultimately unhappy flings with Dean, Paul Newman and Marlon Brando). One day Haworth returned from shopping to find Sal and Bobby naked in their bed together. Appalled, she walked out. She was still only 19. Yet it was not long before the two were to continue their friendship that lasted the rest of his life. As Sal’s career was going downhill, Jill’s was on the up. She became a star in her own right when cast as the original Sally Bowles in the Broadway production of the musical Cabaret, even though she had never once sung a note professionally. Bobby Sherman - photo Everett Collection Sal’s homosexuality was publicly discovered after he and Bobby spent a night together in a hotel. A paparazzo following up a tip took a photo of the two kissing. Although the public seemed to pay little attention and still a star name, Hollywood effectively crucified Sal. Film and TV show contracts were cancelled, his career now set on a long downward spiral. Had he been under contract to a studio, like many other better-known actors it is almost certain that all would have been covered up to protect reputations. But he had never been offered such a contract. Thereafter Sal basically lived for the moment, accepting parts in trashy television dramas interspersed with some much better plays, and whatever else came his way. Almost permanently broke, much of his later work was third-rate theatrical fare, sometimes even appearing in dinner theatre or in student productions, both of which he loathed. He did have one major success both as actor and director. He took an option for a Los Angeles production of the Broadway play Fortune And Men’s Eyes. With its concentration on the hell of prison life and in particular its homosexuality, this was a gamble, the more so when two men had to appear on stage fully naked and one rapes the other. Sal now aged 30 appeared as the rapist Rocky and cast then 18-year old Don Johnson, another who had shared his bed and was to become his roommate for several years, as the younger Smitty. Whereas on Broadway the play had featured the rape offstage, Sal’s 1967 production had several changes which included performing it on stage just before the lights go out for the intermission. Perhaps to avert possible discussion about being gay, Johnson married in the same year, a marriage that lasted a mere two months. Johnson quickly gained a reputation for his hedonistic lifestyle which included six marriages. The second lasted only as long as the first; the third just 10 months! Sal behind Don Johnson Sal’s production had added some dialogue and more nudity which did not please the play’s author John Herbert. It could all have been a disaster, but the West Coast critics all but unanimously agreed Sal had created a triumph for himself as actor and director. Johnson also impressed and would eventually take one of the two leads in the popular TV series Starsky and Hutch. Although it had already played on Broadway, a producer financed Sal’s production for a transfer to Stage 73 in New York in 1969. The influential New York Times critic Clive Barnes clearly loathed it. Starting his review “How far can you go?”, he continued, “Mr. Mineo’s version of this play is pure and tawdry sensationalism. I am not sure what kind of reputation Mr. Mineo has – he is a minor Hollywood player I believe – but I am perfectly certain of what Mr. Mineo deserves!” And if that is not bad enough, it gets worse! Barnes basically trashed the production. Yet it continued to play for some time. Flyer for the New York Season Perhaps not surprisingly it was around this time that nudity on stage, the term ‘gay’ and in general sexual freedom were becoming far more openly discussed subjects before HIV and AIDS were almost to close them little more than a decade later. The tribal rock musical Hair had opened on Broadway in 1968. In London the premiere waited a little longer until the day after theatre censorship was abolished. Poster for the London production of Hair With this poster designed to illustrate the musical’s anti-establishment, psychedelic and sexual experimentation nature, it was a huge success. At the end of Act 1 the cast emerge from under a large circular cloth all totally naked (albeit with dimmed lighting), It broke new boundaries and the show ran for several years in both New York and London. As much as that brief nude scene, it was the lyrics of one of the songs that shook critics – “Sodomy”. The Boys in the Band had also opened in an off-Broadway theatre in 1968. The original production and revivals of the revue Oh! Calcutta (the title is based on a French phrase ‘Oh! Quel cul to as – Oh what a fine ass you have!’) featuring full male and female nudity in most of its sketches had opened in both cities playing for years after its New York premiere in 1969. The Stonewall Riots had taken place just four months before Sal’s production opened in New York. Unlike so many major figures in Hollywood, Mineo was later never ashamed of his sexuality. Behind the scenes everyone knew he was almost oversexed with a penchant for men in their late teens and early 20s. His deepest regret was for the times he had spent with some of those figures, famous actors whom he loved and he believed loved him, but only for fleeting moments before they so quickly, silently tossed him out of their lives. A continuing mystery about Rebel Without A Cause is how it came about that the three young stars all died violent deaths when still young: Dean crashing his Porsche Spyder aged just 24, Sal murdered in a botched robbery aged 37, and Natalie Wood mysteriously drowning after falling from a yacht aged 43. At the end of an over-active life filled with a craving for frequently unfulfilled love when he had been used by others and yet never settled down to make the hard decisions that would really develop his career, Sal remained an optimist. As he told an interviewer in Toronto prior to his death, “Now I’m a former rebel who has found his cause. I’m going to be a great movie director someday. Just you wait and see.” No matter how unlikely that might now seem, the killer’s blade ensured it would never happen. The teenage idol then in his late 30s who never had a childhood and had witnessed Hollywood turn its back on him, tragically was dead. Sal Mineo leaves a legacy as a gay icon who never shied away from acknowledging his sexuality. His part playing a key role in gay history is surely secure. Sources: There are too many reliable sources to be listed here. I urge anyone seeking to know more to read the excellent, exhaustively researched Sal Mineo: A Biography by Michael Gregg Michaud which includes extensive interviews with Jill Haworth and Courtney Burr, and the essay by his good friend Peter Bogdanovich in Esquire magazine.

If a straight boy does not deliver what has actually been greed, the appropriate course of action is to return and complain to the mamasan. Withhold a tip if warranted. But the problem in my limited experience is that hardly any customers bother returning to the bar and just chalk problems like this down to experience. In any event, there is presumably little proof re what he was asked and what he said he would do. So if the boy earns cash for the bar, there is little a mamasan is likely to do. The issue often seems to be one of communication - lack of clear communication. I know this is very difficult and perhaps feels awkward for newcomers. But two issues that could have been added to the list of what the customer wanted was no smoking and no phone until after sex. Very difficult to enforce, especially with straight boys who probably need some straight porn to get in some kind of mood to go with a gay guy. It would also be my word against his. Although I no longer attend bars in Thailand, were I to do so and in the unlikely event I wished to take out a straight guy, based on what I have read in recent years in this forum I'd have on my phone pre-prepared lists of what was expected - one in Thai, one in Vietnamese, one in Lao, one in Cambodian and maybe one in Burmese. These can be done before arrival in the country. That's a big hassle to prepare I know - but what do you want? What you ask for or what happened to the unfortunate poster above? I would have the boy agree this and show it to the mamasan. It's obviously no guarantee, but it surely avoids a good part of the issue of communication difficulties.

Why? Why is there always someone who moans about tips being too high (however good or bad the service) for the only reason that it queers the pitch for those who follow? A tip is a tip. In my many years of bar hopping and offing, I gave tips which were in line with the service I received, not what others suggested. The guys who gave great service and went beyond what I expected (most of them) would always get more. I never knew about average tips but always had in my mind what I would give for a good time. The only time I had any issue was with a boy from the old Screwboys Bar who, having been given quite a generous tip for lousy service, asked for more! He was out the door quite quickly! Would those who complain suggest to bars that there is a tip sheet with maximum tips obvious to all patrons? Impossible! (Sorry @vinapu as I am sure you are always fair. But there are equally degrees of fairness. A guy with lots of cash to spend is likely to pay considerably more in a tip whatever anyone suggests to him whereas those on far more modest incomes give less. That's the way of the world!)

If you look through the massive cataolgue of songs, old and not so old, you will find plenty with lyrics which suggest all manner of mental issues. I have no idea why @unicorn reckons this particular one so shocking. As I'm a bit older, I can remember this from Roy Orbison "It's Over". Like @unicorn I rarely paid much attention to the words and did not realise it referred to the break up of a relationship, but the title and the repetition in the second verse of "It's over, it's over. it's over" made the young me think it was about the end of life. What about Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"? Mama, put my guns in the ground, I can’t shoot them anymore. That long black cloud is comin’ down. I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door The pain of lineliness is also expressed in Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" (with the melody stolen from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto)? Most that I can recall refer to an expression of the loss of someone, not the singer. But the effect on the original listeners who rarely if ever considered context was vitually the same. Elton John/Bernie Taupin's original "Candle in the Wind" after the death of Marilyn Monroe Loneliness was tough,The toughest role you ever played, Hollywood created a superstar, And pain was the price you paid. Or Metallica's "Fade to Black"? I have lost the will to live, Simply nothing more to give, There is nothing more for me, I need the end to set me free But go back in time through the classical canon and you find composers almost preoccupied with songs about death. Bach's cantata "Ich habe genug" meaning essentially "I have had enough and wait to go to my Maker" is probably the most obvious. Just before his death in 1949 Richard Strauss wrote his hauntingly beautiful "Four Last Songs". I adore the third "Beim Schlafengehen" (While Going Too Sleep) which ends - Hands, cease your activity; Head, forget all of your thoughts; all my senses now will sink into slumber. And my soul, unobserved, will float about on untrammelled wings in the enchanted circle of the night, living a thousandfold more deeply.

LGBTQ-History Month – (Part 1 of 2) Preface: Like a small number of other posters, I sometimes write long blog-type articles. Obviously readers can choose whether or not to bother reading them. I have decided the two parts of this and one more dealing with aspects of gay history this month will be my last such long ones. I hope at least some may find these interesting. February 12 sees several anniversaries. We'll skip over the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and me, and remember only it was the day 50 years in two days time when one of the cutest and most talented screen actors was murdered. Sal Mineo had just driven home from the rehearsal for a play. Walking towards his small one-bedroom West Hollywood apartment to spend the evening unusually alone (his actor boyfriend of six years, Courtney Burr, was due back from New York the following day), he was jumped on in a totally random robbery attempt and stabbed with one fatal knife wound to the heart. He died almost instantly. He was 37. Gay actors in Hollywood history were virtually all closeted and hard to find unless you were in the movie business. Mineo, though, eventually came out as gay and I find him a hauntingly fascinating, hugely talented, mischievous, mysterious and thus frequently exasperating character. A few readers will remember him, may even have seen him in one of his films, may know that he was gay, this at a time when we are told many actors were either gay or bisexual but totally afraid for this to become known. While Mineo might initially have been bisexual he did come out as gay just at the time when sexual boundaries were being extended and just before the gay world we know today really began. In so many respects he was ahead of his time. Not well known is that Sal Mineo had an early connection to Thailand. He had been a child star on Broadway playing a pageboy in The King & I. When the boy playing Crown Prince Chulalongkorn fell ill, Sal stepped into his shoes for the rest of the run. He loved performing with Yul Brynner who was to become almost a father figure to him for the next decade of his life. Scene from the original New York production of The King & I - photo Fred Fehl His big break as an actor came in films when he played Plato alongside James Dean and Natalie Wood in the 1955 movie Rebel Without A Cause. Rebel is a movie about three very alienated teenagers, each misunderstood by their parents who simply do not even try to listen to them and each desperate for someone to care about them. As Dean says when the three are in the darkened castle near the end and they imagine how much better their lives could be, almost pretending to be a family, “Nobody talks to children.” Sal was just 16 at the time of filming. As a result of that movie he became one of the youngest actors ever nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. It is now known that Dean was bisexual. It was always assumed that Mineo and Dean had an affair during the filming of the movie. Yet Mineo later acknowledged that at that time “I had no idea or understanding of affection between men.” It was only later that he became bisexual (and even later totally gay) but the Dean rumours persist to this day. Even so, very brief flings with men were to become a part of his life, even though he initially found them unsatisfying for a number of reasons. Several sources agree Rebel’s director Nicholas Ray, himself bisexual, had sex with his young star even before the start of filming, as it is known he had with Natalie Wood. A screen actress since the age of four, Wood had by then quite a sexual upbringing, one being in an affair with Frank Sinatra when he was 38 and she only 15 after she had been pimped by her Russian mother. That near kiss at the end of the clip does not appear in the movie which was filmed in colour. For years Mineo claimed that in a way he was seen as the movie world's first gay teenager. As he said in a 1972 interview, “You watch it now, you know he has the hots for James Dean. You watch it now, and everyone knows about Jimmy, so it’s like he had the hots for Natalie and me. Ergo, I had to be bumped off, out of the way.” It now seems certain Nicholas Ray intended this, as there are many discreet gay references in the movie if you just look for them. Jim offering Plato his jacket in the police station after hearing Plato feels cold even though they do not know each other. The photo of screen idol Alan Ladd in Plato’s locker. After the “chicken” run, Plato looks on Jim as clearly more than just a crush. When he then suggests Jim go home with him to chat, that there is no one else there and they can have breakfast together, it becomes even more obvious. Yet if there had indeed been any relationship between Dean and Mineo as actors it ended suddenly when Dean was tragically killed in a car crash the month before Rebel Without A Cause was released. Masculinity in movies up to the early 1950s meant essentially John Wayne-type characters. With Marlon Brando in The Wild One in 1953, a new type of masculine youth figure evolved, one that was to develop even further with the three leads in Rebel. Roles for teen actors were no longer thereafter to be relegated to nicely-dressed adjuncts of polite middle-and upper-class families. And rebels were no longer just from poor working class homes. Of the three teenagers, I find Wood the least effective. Although she really was 16 when the movie was filmed, to me she actually looks and acts – and is dressed – more like 26. Having recently seen the movie, I do not find it quite as iconic as its reputation. Some of Dean’s scenes are definitely overdone while the drama is not always convincing. After the dreadful death of her boyfriend in the game of “chicken”, Wood shows almost no emotion, before instantly transferring her romantic feelings to Dean. That certainly does not ring true. Indeed, none of the gang show any emotion either, despite the horror they have just witnessed. Dean’s sobbing at the end “I got the bullets” from Plato’s gun after he has been killed by the police does seem somewhat idiotic! If said before the police fired, it would surely make much more sense. But then I guess it was important that Plato dies at the end. And it’s always important to remember it is a film of its time – not 71 years later in 2026. Many regard Rebel as Dean’s movie. Yet increasingly critics and audiences have come round to the view, as I do, that it is the emotionally charged Mineo as young Plato who is the real star. He is the actor who is the most believable, making his character’s loneliness, neediness and desperation so real, that face of a cherubic boy somehow infused with a knowing sensuality that exudes danger and vulnerability in equal measure. Plato seared Mineo into the minds of America’s youth. Mineo was born to a family of poor Italian immigrants in New York. Being under age at the start of his career, his domineering mother took control of his finances. With absolutely no clue of the entertainment business, she skimmed off for herself 15% as his manager and a further 10% as his agent, as well as paying for all his expenses. For much of his time in Los Angeles she provided him with only $20 per week as a living allowance. This continued even when his movie fee was later to rise from $350 per week to $3,500 per week. He loved his family who initially sacrificed a lot for his career. Eventually he bought them a large mansion by the ocean at a cost of $350,000. He thought it would be his base forever. It did not take him long to realise his mother was spending all his money faster than he could make it. At the height of his fame he discovered he was broke and still owed US$250,000 to the IRS. He cut his financial ties to his mother and moved permanently to the West Coast. With his family unable to pay for the upkeep of the mansion, it was sold. Sal never saw a cent. Photo of the late-teens Sal – photo Bettmann//Getty Images After his second movie with Dean in a lesser role Giant, Sal had become a bankable star having been in several movies in between. But big roles did not come his way until Exodus in 1960 which earned him another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Playing Dov Landau, a powerfully bitter Auschwitz survivor in the movie, its director Otto Preminger had Dov confess the Nazis had “used him like a woman.” Even so, few seemed to realise that this meant homosexuality on the part of the Nazis. Hollywood in those days had to get a Production Code Seal of Approval to keep issues like homosexuality off screens. Preminger was one of the first to prove you could get away without that Seal for commercial success. It helped end studio self-censorship. Sal’s love interest in that movie was a 15-year old English actor Jill Haworth. They got on so well that they kept seeing each other after shooting was complete. So great was Sal’s popularity by this time the two featured on the cover of LIFE magazine. Cover from LIFE Magazine - Copyright LIFE magazine Not only did their affair last several years, Mineo claimed he lost his virginity in his swimming pool when Haworth was only 16 (presumably he meant his virginity with a woman). She confirms this story, claiming she felt no shame because she really loved Sal. She was under contract to work in France and so Sal flew regularly to Paris. There she introduced him to the gay painter Harold Stevenson whose speciality was painting fully nude men. For whatever reason, Mineo agreed to model for him. This resulted in an enormous 40-foot long portrait of a fully naked Mineo titled “The New Adam”, conceived by Stevenson as a homage to his own lover, Lord Timothy Willoughby. Although his arm covers his eyes, Mineo never tried to hide his identity. It was acquired by New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2005 where it can now be viewed. The New Adam painting - copyright Harold Stevenson Part 2 with Mineo's adminssion of being gay will appear on Wednesday

The benevolent influence of Portugal in Asia is certainly often forgotten. We remember the Spanish partly for their conquest of the Philippines, the Dutch for ther conquest of Indonesia and part of the Malayan/SIngapore peninsula and also their presence, along with the Portuguese, in pre-Shogun Nagasaki; the British for their conquest of the subcontinent, the China coast and much of the Malay peninsula; and later infiltrations by German, French, American and other nations. It was all supposedly transacted in the name of trade, but we know that the conquest of territory and the conversion of heathen souls to Christianity was very much a secondary issue. But Portugal was one of the first and caused the least problems for peoples in the region. When it negotiated with the Chinese to take over the peninsula of Macao in the mid-16th century, it agreed an annual payment in gold. When Britain went to war with China in the early 19th century, it just took Hong Kong and later the Kowloon Peninsula as the spoils of unequal wars without any payments to China. Let's also not forget the influence of France in Cantonese cuisine. It's quite extensive.

It seems from the initial accounts - not aways accurate - provided by the BBC website that Thailand is falling back into the old ways. After 90% of votes had been counted, the snake Anutin's Party had a huge increase more than doubling the number of the Party's seats to 194. The People's Party, widely expected to progress from the votes for the banned Move Forward Party, actually lost quite a few seats, although it is in second place with 116 seats. If there is one blessing it is that Pheu Thai-led corrupt Shinawatra clan suffered a huge drop from the last election down to 86 seats. I have a feeling that one reason for the People's Party doing less well is its leader. Move Forward's Pita Limjaroenrat was a proven, highly educated, young international business leader with massive charisma. Following in his footsteps was always going to be highly problematic. Even the election of his successor, the equally young Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, came as a surprise when Sirkianya Tansakun, Pita's former Deputy, had been widely expected to take over. Now will come the jockeying for position with no doubt the ugly side of Thai politics coming to the fore once again.

Regarding the discussion in this thread, I don't find that even remotely amusing!

To be fair, what @Moses wrote in a post on November 17 was this - "I have about a dozen Chinese friends of various ages, from 20 to 50, and even more acquaintances. The words "cheap," "sale," and "discount" have a magical effect on each of them. Therefore, unless Xi imposes specific fees, taxes, bans, or restrictions, such as reducing the number of flights to Japan, the Chinese won't care about the government's recommendations, because they can travel to Japan cheaply now." In effect, President Xi has imposed quite a few mandatory restrictions on travel to Japan including cutting 49 air routes between the two countries for the current month. Last month that accounted for 47.2% of all flights, up 7.8% from December. In an act of reverse diplomacy. China has also recalled Tokyo's two pandas. Japan now has no pandas for the first time since 1972. These acts were imposed as a result of the Japanese Prime Minister's public comments on the Taiwan issue, something her predecessors had wisely avoided. There seems to be no such government to government problem between China and The Philippines, apart from a multi year dispute over the Spratley Islands. Reports I have read seem to indicate that Chinese outbound tourism has really picked up since covid. Fears for their safety is one reason why Thailand and The Philippines are falling down in the travel charts. Extreme poverty in The Philippines is another comment on social media. On the other hand, Vietnam is seen as very safe and is enjoying a major surge. But those in Thailand especially have to realise that outbound tourism from China is gradually changing. A recent outbound survey by the China Outbound and Inbound Travel Market (COITM) on the 2026 outlook among Chinese travel agents shows a high percentage, at 66.7 per cent, naming high-quality and niche in-depth tours as the type of products their customers are most interested in over the next three years. The cheap trips to parts of South East Asia that sustained the industry will factor less and less into the minds of Chinese travellers. According to Qing Qinghui, COITM founder and project director - A high proportion, 75.6 per cent, of Gen Z travellers seeking personalised and in-depth experiences was identified as the “main driving force for the development of the outbound market this year”, Qing commented. This was followed by “affluent and time-rich” seniors, at 67.26 per cent, and “new middle class” families emphasising quality and experience, at 48.81 per cent. Top destinations now incude parts of South East Asia, South Korea, Australlia, New Zealand and, Qing added somewhat surprisingly, South America. Europe and North America are also falling down the rankings. Naturally there will always be less affluent families desperate to find a beach or other travel experience and Thailand and the Philippines will aways gain some of that market. But it is falling. https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/news-and-opinion/chinese-airlines-cancel-flights-on-49-routes-to-japan/ https://www.ttgasia.com/2026/02/06/chinese-agents-eye-niche-and-high-quality-tours-for-2026/

I suspect - and this is merely a guess - it was one of Anutin's henchmen. His personal ambition has long been very obvious. Creating a massive fuss over that call played perfectly into his hands and handed him the premiership.

I am rather surprised there has been no thread dedicated to the General Election currently in progress - apart from bars not serving alcohol. Judging by the result of the last election three years ago won by the new Move Forward Party with massive support largely from younger generations, this one could go the same way. The trouble with Thai politics is that the elite and those in oower never want to give it up. The modernist progressive Move Forward party which won the last election was disallowed largely on the basis of trumped up charges. The elitist Consitutional Court banned the party and its populist leader Pita Limjaroenrat from politics for ten years. The reason for Khun Pita being banned would have meant nothing in most other countries. But he and his team failed to do their utmost in due diligence to ensure there was no reason for banning them. On this flimsy technicality the elite acted. Sadly this is not uncommon in Thailand and the Constitutional Court cearly is made up mostly of the elite. This year there is a subtle difference in the election. Electors have three botes to make. The first for an MP to serve their constituency. The second for a list of party's hopeful MPs nationwide. Of the 500 MPs, 400 will be elected on the basis of the winner takes all. The 100 party-ist seats are allocated proportionately around the country. The third vote this time is in effect a referendum: do electors want a new Constitution for the country? How this Constitution will be drafted and what it will include is in the lap of the Gods - presumably the elite Gods! Of the five major parties contesting the election, all but one have played a role in the last government. Following the disbandment of Move Forward, Pheu Thai gained the next most votes. This was the Shinawatra Clan party set up after its earlier party had been banned more than a decade ago. That was led by Thaksin's daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the youngest in his clan to rule the government. Her idiotic leaked phone call with former PM of Cambodia Hun Sen led to her resignation. And we thought that's it! The end of Shinawatra influence. But it seems we were too hasty. For the coming election, Pheu Thai has nominated Yodchanan Wongsawat, a nephew of Thaksin, as its leader! The minority BJP has put forward its recent Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, a highy ambitious snake-like figure who dissolved parliament presumably in an attempt to seek a majority. The big question mark around this election is how the new party, the People's Party, formed from the rump of the banned Move Forward, will fare. Factually it won the last election with 151 seats against Pheu Thai's 141. But it won a whacking majority of the votes with 14.4 million votes against Pheu Thai's 10.9 million. More to the point, Move Forward gained a much larger slice of the city and younger electors' votes. Pheu Thai may hold a majority of votes in Northeast which has 133 votes up for grabs. How many of these may go to the new party is anyone's guess. The new party's basic platform is that Thailand is trapped in outdated systems that must be changed before the country can really move forward. Anutin and other parties are gambling on national security and sovereignty. There is a far better argued article in the Bangkok Post (see below). https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/3192080/democracy-calls-so-whats-new-this-time

I visited several times in 2001 and 2002 (and before) - although if @sydneyboy1 is absoutely certain he was there in 2001, I will defer to his memory. Some of the masseurs were indeed present as we sat waiting to make a choice. But we were also presented with quite a large photo book with all the boys' photos, including those who were professional models (generally models who appeared in print advertising for products). V Club had its own entrance on the right side of Soi Ari in its own smallish building. Reception was on the left as you entered. I seem to recall it was the first massage spa of many I had visited where minimum tips were listed on a board on the desk. We then waited in a lounge-type area on the right which also served coffee and drinks (not sure if they included alcohol, though!). I recall the location well because one of my company's clients owned a large house decorated in a Chinese-style on the soi to the right immediately after V Club (she still lives there). I was always slightly concerned that she or her husband might see me in the area and wonder what I was doing! I wonder if anyone can remember when V Club closed down. I recall it was quite a few months before it relocated and became part of Chakran sauna. I believe they had the same owner.

Not for many years. At that time I was told it was cruisy and visited the spa area several times, but nothing was ever happening. There was always an attendant lurking around quite regularly. As I mentioned in my first post mid-last year, the fitness centre at the Pathumwan Princess at the end of MBK Centre has always been cruisy and I believe still is. It has a large local membership.

Prior to its merger with Chakran sauna, V Club was a popular gay massage spa on Soi Ari itself. One reason it was popular is it did often have some genuine models available. Their photos were always at the back of the photo books you were encouraged to look at before choosing your model. Naturally they were more expensive. My only reason for bringing this up here is that having patronised both V Club and Chakran in 2001 and 2002, they were then still separate entities with Chakran being about 80 meters or so along Ari Soi 4.. The merger did not happen until after then. Not that I am questioning @sydneyboy1's memory because he is no doubt referencing the present location since the old V Club no longer exists. I am wondering if the great massage he mentions was by one of the model therapists.

I am more than certain that a lot more fake or just partially factual click-bait stories are going to find their way into the mainstream media. Unsocial media!

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.