PeterRS

With Bangkok reporting its highest ever daily number of covid19 cases at 1,335 yesterday, the government will consider tomorrow partial lockdowns in parts of Bangkok, in Chiang Mai, Chonburi and Prachuap Kiri Khan. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2099787/partial-lockdown-on-the-table

Have we not reached a time when labels don't mean so much any more? Around 40 years ago I remember being rather shocked that my boss was bisexual. He was married with five children but paid an escort for a session once a week. When he travelled overseas, he would return with some gay magazines. I found out when he once left one on his desk by mistake. Decades later I was equally surprised to learn from his widow, a nurse before they married, that she knew he was bisexual before they tied the knot! Then one of my very good friends revealed that he attended gay saunas regularly and purchased gay DVDs. He had been married to his childhood sweetheart since he was around 23 and had four children. He doted on them all. When his wife suddenly died, I thought he might come out. But no, he remarried very happily. Then there are several men I have known quite well who divorced their wives and left their children to spend their lives with another man. One was so full of guilt that he almost killed himself. Thankfully he chose instead to sit down with his wife and tell her. Immediately it was his turn to be surprised when she told him she knew. So amicably he left his wife and two young daughters to move to Thailand. I recall one dinner we enjoyed with his boyfriend and his two university age daughters. It was all very natural with much love around that table.

Naturally other countries have similar research facilities to the US CDC. I mentioned the USA only because HIV first appeared in clusters of men in the New York and the Southern California areas. As numbers increased, it was inevitable that the CDC should have become heavily involved. Even so, it was the Pasteur Institute in Paris that first isolated the virus. Another difference between HIV and covid19 is that HIV has - or certainly had at that time - a very long incubation period that could be up to well over two years before symptoms of AIDS became apparent. It therefore took around 2 years before the first cases started appearing in other western countries. Although the first cases had appeared in 1981, by the end of 1984 there were ten times more cases diagnosed in the USA than in Europe. It was the denial of the Reagan Administration to persistent appeals from the CDC and many dedicated members of the medical profession in general for urgent funding to determine the cause of HIV and then to analyse the make up of the virus. Had funding been thrown at research in those first two years, it is hard to find experts today who do not agree that the anti-viral medications would have been discovered much earlier. Perhaps there would also be a vaccine now, although that is much more debatable. Another crucial difference between HIV and covid19 is that after HIV had been discovered it was soon known to be a death sentence. There was therefore a massive amount of fear within first the gay community and soon thereafter the population at large. Tracking and tracing became hugely difficult as many who might have caught it were terrified about knowing their HIV status and would not be tested. I remember. I lived through those years. The doctors and researchers who worked on the early HIV cases and their desperate race to find Patient Zero are magnificently chronicled in Randy Shilts' book "And The Band Played On." Although Patient Zero was first thought to be a Canadian airline steward, this was subsequently disproved. Even for those who have seen the much less effective TV programme based on the book, I think everyone - and especially every gay man - should read it. It is available in a kindle edition. "The most thorough, comprehensive exploration of the AIDS epidemic to date . . . It is fascinating, frightening, and essential reading." -San Francisco Sentinel https://www.amazon.com/Band-Played-Politics-Epidemic-20th-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B000V761ZA

Sorry - I have reposted it in the correct thread.

Although I have not been to Phuket for some years, I used to go to the island almost annually. By far my favourite restaurant is Baan Rim Pa. It is nestled on top of a small cliff close to the north end of Patong. The setting is exceptional with great views over the sea to the sunsets. There are no windows as such and so it is open to the evening breeze. In at least a dozen visits I have never once had any dish I did not love. Baan Rim Pa should have been wiped out by the tsunami because the waves crashed over the waterfront road just 30 meters away and into the apartments across the road. But it was just high enough off to escape any damage. Getting there is easy. Just take the coast road north at Patong Beach. Turn left at the end as if going towards Kamala Beach. Immediately there is a small incline. The restaurant is on the left at the top. Across the road is the original Novotel on Phuket. https://www.baanrimpa.com/thai-restaurant-kalim/

Perspective? There is no perspective when much of the world has had to shut down not once, but twice and more. It is merely a comparison - a comparison of two different types of dying and countries which do something or little about it. That's all. Show me any country which has had to shut down virtually its entire tourism industry because thousands of people happen to die in traffic accidents, many a result of the folly of the deceased themselves? There are none!

You have consistently made this point - and you are correct. But neither do they shut down airports and almost an entire tourism industry just because of road deaths. Honestly, I cannot see how there can be any comparison.

Given the recent surge in cases now found in Thailand, I suggest those considering a return before the end of the year should just pause and review developments over the next few weeks. This country had an excellent record in controlling the spread of the virus until it really took the eye off the ball by not even considering the possibility of an outbreak at the Samut Sakhon fish market in December. Successive governments have known about the 2,000 or more illegal Burmese workers at that market and who often flit back and fore over the porous border between the countries. These same governments have claimed they would finally crack down. None did. Money still rules in Thailand. Burmese labour is much cheaper than Thai labour. Even so, being aware of all these illegal workers the present government completely failed to institute a testing programme at the market. That at least would have shown up the problem of an outbreak there perhaps before it had started to spread to the rest of the country. Now it seems to be at nightclubs and entertainment venues where most new cases are being discovered. Yesterday there was a new daily record of 985 new cases. Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Chonburi and Hua Hin are some of the areas showing increases. The chances that the peak has been reached must be zero given the large number of people now travelling for Songkran holidays. Some hospitals are now refusing to give out testing kits and others are being prepared for more serious cases. Given all this, I cannot believe any further opening up of the country will happen any time soon. And still no news of when those in the higher risk groups can be vaccinated. Seems like Thailand has reverted to its usual mai pen rai attitude.

If the Reagan Administration had paid attention to the appeals of doctors and scientists at the CDC when HIV first appeared on the East and West coasts, and if it had put in the resources and funding that have been thrown at covid19, perhaps an HIV vaccine would have been discovered many years earlier. But the ultra conservatives around Reagan were resolutely against putting funds into what they regarded as an exclusively gay illness. Even when it became clear that HIV paid no attention to the sex of those it infected, ithe administration still dragged its feet thereby allowing the virus to spread exponentially around the world. Despite Trump's disastrous inaction, we have learned that viruses can be controlled if they are identified early and enough money is allocated to researchers.

Although I have not been to Phuket for some years, I used to go to the island almost annually. By far my favourite restaurant is Baan Rim Pa. It is nestled on top of a small cliff close to the north end of Patong. The setting is exceptional with great views over the sea to the sunsets. There are no windows as such and so it is open to the evening breeze. In at least a dozen visits I have never once had any dish I did not love. Baan Rim Pa should have been wiped out by the tsunami because the waves crashed over the waterfront road just 30 meters away and into the apartments across the road. But it was just high enough off to escape any damage. Getting there is easy. Just take the coast road north at Patong Beach. Turn left at the end as if going towards Kamala Beach. Immediately there is a small incline. The restaurant is on the left at the top. Across the road is the original Novotel on Phuket. Photos from Baan Rim Pa website https://www.baanrimpa.com/thai-restaurant-kalim/

Another fan of Nespresso. Over the years I have experimented with various ways of making coffee in the morning. I now find Nespresso just so easy and the variety of flavours is growing all the time. I had never heard of it until I used a ton of Marriott points to stay in their wonderful Bill Bensley designed hotel on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc two years ago. This lovely island is actually tucked under Cambodia with Sihanoukville as the nearest town. But from Vietnam it's best to get there by plane or ferry from Ho Chi Minh City. Pre-pandemic there was also a Bangkok Airways daily flight from Bangkok. The hotel is set on its own glorious private beach! My favourites are the Fortissio Lungo and one from their more recent Italian range, Inspirazione Venezia.

Ha! Put it down to my English. I meant "now" in the sense at that point in the narrative when it was into the 1980s!

I come from a part of the United Kingdom where the 1967 law decriminalising homosexuality in England did not apply. So that law continued in force. Partly as a result, very few people were prepared to be known as gay. I remember my parents talking in hushed disapproving tones about a middle-aged man who worked in the local pharmacy. "He attends THAT club", I recall them saying, only realising some years later that it was the one place where gays could meet. Membership only! There was also only one shop down a back street that sold 'risky' photo books (only of women) and where guys would surreptitiously try not to be noticed when they came in for a box of condoms. Even at University there was virtually no gay culture. My first crush was with a late teen who stayed in one of the Halls of Residence. We got to know each other, started doing lots of activities together, even hiking at week-ends. But I was too scared of two things - rejection and being known as gay by someone who might not be gay. The gaydar signals that people threw off then were much less obvious. Eventually after many months, we realised our mutual attraction and started a short affair. It was wonderful! I knew nothing about STDs in those days. We just did not talk about them. Having taken a holiday in New York in 1978, I thought I was in heaven. On the day I arrived, a friend took me to the Gaiety Burlesque off Times Square. I was gob-smacked. Absolutely loved it and returned a few times. On my next trip a couple of years later, I discovered one of the large bathhouses (the Everard perhaps?). By this time I had had a trip to Amsterdam and became fixated on the sauna scene. All I now remember were the Day and Night saunas. It was at the Night sauna that I met my first Asian, a young guy from Indonesia. And wow, could he perform! I virtually became hooked on Asians ever since. In Paris I discovered a huge sauna near the old opera house at the Palais Garnier. I think it was called Le Continental. Almost a third of the many customers seemed to be Vietnamese. As in Amsterdam I fell for one and we had an amazing two nights together in my hotel. Working in London, I preferred the El Sombrero club on Kensington High Street in favour of bar hopping. Sombrero for a time was the place to be. I loved it because many of the clientele were Asian. As another poster has pointed out, condoms were rarely in evidence then. Soon I was to move to Hong Kong, little realising that it, too, had anti-gay laws on the statute books (they were only eliminated in 1990). My job meant annual visits to Head Office in New York. Since it was now the early 1980s, it was on one that I became aware of the new disease known initially as GRID. Soon this changed to AiDS with a death sentence attached. My European/American sauna going immediately ceased. Like many at that time, I was petrified that I might have become infected. For months I became monk-like, afraid both for myself and any partner I might unknowingly pass it on to. But I suppose the temptations of Asia were too great and I eventually came out of my shell of fear. The gogo-bars in Bangkok where the boys were often nude, the huge 690 Retiro Strip in Manila where the boys on the zig-zag catwalk were equally nude, two nights spent with one fantastic Chinese I met at Blue Boy Bar in Kuala Lumpur, the ease of picking up gorgeous guys on the street or in the malls of Singapore - I felt I was in seventh heaven. Then by the mid-80s, AIDS was becoming a much more serious threat to Asia. There was even talk that the bar owners in Thailand would ban customers from Hong Kong. But it never was put into effect. Not long after, Bangkok started what was to become a thriving sauna and massage scene. Given the law in Hong Kong, I was bit more cautious. Since at least the '70s there had been two gay bars - Dateline on the Island and Waltzing Mathilda on Kowloon. But it was known the cops kept a close eye on them. One of the barmen in Wally Matt was even a police informant. So I stayed away. Cruising, though, was not that difficult. I met my first Chinese boy when leaning on a railing looking at Hong Kong's fantastic harbour. He was about 30 meters away. Soon he was inching closer to me and I to him. We started chatting and our mutual interest was obvious. But not knowing him at all, I decided first to invite him to dinner a few days later. Believing I then knew him much better, he came home. My first conquest! It was to be the first of many. But we are now well out of the 1970s and so I will end there.

I have an opposite view from @KeepItReal. I loved the UK Series and the first episodes of the US Series. But I found the US storyline just got stretched too much. QAF was for a time and of its time. With public acceptance of homosexuality now so much more advanced in parts for the world, the "shock" value of the new series will have vanished. Plus the number of gay-themed movies has mushroomed in the last 21 years

And most undergo some form of plastic surgery to give a band a uniform K Pop look, as with ASTRO's Cha Eunwoo. Photo: Fantagio Entertainment

It is said that when the young teenage Princess Elizabeth first saw him, she decided Philip was the man she wanted to marry. Some ten years later they walked down the aisle. Neither can have had any inkling that in little more than 4 years she would become Queen. They must have assumed they could have several relatively carefree decades in front of them. But no one then knew that her father would soon become very seriously ill. The couple's life changed so quickly. How extraordinary that their love for each other should have remained constant for an astonishing 73 years. As Consort, he always had to remain behind the Queen, always playing second fiddle as it were. That he should have set aside his own ambitions for a career in the Royal Navy to remain the Queen's rock throughout her extraordinary reign is a mark of the man's service and duty. I would like to recall the Queen's words about her husband when she addressed members of parliament on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1997 "He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know." May he rest in peace and may the Queen find solace in her family and friends in this time of sadness.

As if the poorly designed 737-Max had not had enough problems, now another one has cropped up. 16 airlines have been told that they need to address an electrical issue before the a specific group of the planes fly again. It the light of this development, I have to ask how on earth the aircraft was passed for flight again by both Boeing and the FAA. It has still not been approved by some of the world's airline regulatory authorities. Boeing will not say which airlines are affected by the electrical problem, but Southwest in the USA has already announced that it is grounding 30 of its 58 737-Max jets. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/09/business/boeing-737-max-electrical-problem/index.html

Sorry - the tag line for the Rain commercial should have read "Korea, Sparkling? Like me!"

I find it fascinating how the K-Pop phenomenon has virtually taken over the world! It seems Asian pop has come almost full circle. First it was J-Pop from Japan in the 1970s and 1980s. By the early 1980s it was Canto-Pop which was the rage around the region with singing actors like the late, great Leslie Cheung and the late Anita Mui who was Hong Kong's early incarnation of Lady Gaga. Sadly both died far too young. Leslie, openly gay and with a long time Chinese banker lover, committed suicde by jumping 25 floors from the rooftop bar of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He had been suffered from clinical depression for some years. He was 47. Anita Mui was only 40 when she succumbed to cervical cancer. Even as Canto-Pop was ruling the air waves, Mando-Pop from Taiwan was starting to compete. Many Hong Kong singers switched to Mandarin songs. When that began to fade by the mid 2000s, K-Pop was very much in the ascendency. Originally it was not always groups. One of the early superstars was a cute singer/actor named Rain. I remember he was featured in a TV commercial to promote South Korea. It was filmed in a very trendy way with lots of fireworks. The tag line at the end from Rain was "Korea, Sparling! Like me! Soon it was the boy bands who flooded the market. That a band like BTS could become aa world supergroup is extraordinary. I can recall visiting Seoul in the 1980s and early 1990s. Armed with my Spartacus Guide (near useless) I eventually found a couple of gay bars and one sort-of sauna. Almost all Koreans i saw were dull and boringly predictable in terms of dress and outlook. Only in the Itaewon District would you occasionally see some hip young guys. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I would see - from afar - so many guys in the entire Korean entertainment industry who look so amazingly fabulous!

I only asked him to fix my zipper!

Next time you are in Japan, don't shy away. In Tokyo there are bars like the basement GB which can accommodate around 40 and where gaijin (Japanese looking for western guys) will often congregate. The oddly named Arty Farty is another, although it is up a flight of stairs, Dragon Men and Aiiro Cafe amongst others. Kinsmen on the first floor of a building is a lovely bar usually with a lerge floral decoration and a mix of customers. An older small disco and bar, New Sazae, is on the first floor in the building next to Kinsmen has been a focus of the gay scene for decades! Forget about suits. All the above and most others are totally casual.

The younger guy/older samurai was certainly a large part of Japanese culture for centuries. It was actually introduced to Japan by a bonze from China around 800 years ago. It was rarely a long term relationship. Once the youth had passed into adulthood, he would be expected to marry and start a family. Eventually the practice came to be frowned upon by the later shogun rulers. Gay boys then tended to become prostitutes and actors but continued in great demand. If there was a golden age for homosexuality in Japan it was between 1650 and 1750. Everything changed during the Meiji Restoration. The Americans were largely responsible. The mass of Christian missionaries that followed in the wake of the warships were one reason. But equally the rulers of the country had come to believe that male/male relationships were 'unnatural'. The collapse of the country's feudal structure no doubt also played a part. You have to remember that much of Japan was destroyed during World War 2. The country was also flooded with vast numbers of GIs, both then and again during the Korean War. Not a few of these were either gay or happy to spend time with a smooth young gay Japanese for a few dollars. Most Japanese, though, had to work extremely hard to drag the country back on to its feet. By the early 1970s this was becoming much more successful than most had hoped. Foreigners started working in Japan as overseas companies moved in. Some certainly were gay, as were some younger Japanese. Whereas the word gay took decades to enter the lingua franca of most countries, the Japanese word 'gei' found almost immediate acceptance. Soon gay bars were to spring up. By the late 1950s, there were more than 20 gay bars in Tokyo - more than in most western cities at the time. Soon the Japanese media were writing about a boom in gay establishments. The real gay boom started in the 1980s and early 1990s. If you were a gay young Japanese, you finally had a chance of exploring your sexuality. Most Japanese lived in what we would term tiny homes, many without bathing facilities. So there were community bathing centres. If you lived in one district, the chances were you or your family were known to most in that district. Being openly gay was still frowned upon. On the other hand, if you spent an evening a week in a gay bar quite far removed from your home, you would have the chance of meeting up with a foreigner. With luck, you might develop a relationship with him. With even greater luck you would move in with him. By Japanese standards, foreigners had vastly bigger apartments and had perks like entertaining and travel allowances. Many younger Japanese learned about the world as a result. Some relationships lasted. I know one American/Japanese gay couple who met in a bar in 1985 and have been together ever since. Others faded. The tradition of older/younger still continued, however. Even in the 1980s, there was an unwritten understanding that if a young Japanese had a relationship with an oder foreigner, not only would he enjoy a much better quality of life, before the relationship soured, the foreigner would have enabled the Japanese to start a small business. So foreign boyfriends were greatly sought after. Everything began to change again towards the end of the century. Many Japanese had become a great deal richer. This was in part a result of the Reagan administration forcing up the value of the Yen - in 1980, US$1 bought ¥260; by 1999, it was a little over Y100 - finding a foreigner was no longer essential. Japanese had begun to find their fellow Japanese just as attractive, physically as well as financially. That's not to say cross cultural relationships do not continue. They do. But if you do not live in Japan, it has become much more difficult.

Does anyone still use gaydar.com? 15 years ago it was great for hooking up with guys in Asia.

Sorry this one does not have music, but it made me smile. It was shot in Bangkok at the gym Sukhothai Residences/

I'm a bit surprised this one has not yet appeared.