PeterRS

This partcular story may have escaped virtually every poster's notice. Although only partly related to MBK, previous incidents of extreme violence between two particular Bangkok educational institutions and the reasons they continue to keep hjappening have certainly been reported in these columns. This is a long post from 2021 outlining in detail the death of one student killed while helping his mother only because he was from a different college. There is no need to read the article because the attached video titled "Dying to Gradiuate" in it basically explains it all in detail - https://www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/dying-graduate-1511241?cid=fbins What is horrific is that some students are encouraged to engage in violence against students from the other college by graduates from decades ago (see video starting at 20:06).

Isn't Colombia preferable to Brazil for the younger twinkier guys the OP prefers?

One day perhaps he will learn that the life we have is for living - not spending a great deal of time trying to extend it. Or he may end up like that guy who promoted jogging as a way of living fitter. He collapsed and died in his 50s if I remember correctly.

I have only once taken viagra. It left me with a form of pounding in the head which I did not like and which stayed with me for a few hours. On advice of friends, I switched to Tadalafil, better known as Cialis. I have no identifiable side effects and the great thing is it keeps one 'active' for a good 30 or more hours. The problem is that, i believe, it is still under a manufacturer's copyright and so hugely more expensive than generic viagra. There is a Thai generic named Talafil which is not much cheaper but seems to work as well. Does anyone know of a cheap version?

Brilliant! You have done a great service by bringing up the possibility of negotiating for procedures at at least one good private hospital. I guess like an aircraft, MRI and CAT scanners only make money when they are in use. So if they are lying idle, some revenue is better than none. I'll certainly try this next time.

I can do you an excellent line of thermal mountaineering underwear! LOL

Thanks. I should have pointed out that they are usually there from late October to early-February.

Interesting! I had absolutely no idea he was more than remotely connected to Broadway, particularly his contributions to "Anything Goes" and "Showboat". Yet it is frankly not accurate to say he was involved in "Showboat", for example. His only contribtion was to one song "Bill" which was originally written by Jerome Kern and Wodehouse in 1917. It then had nothing to do with "Showboat". It was only added quite a few years after being reworked by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was one of four new songs added to the hugely expensive Hal Prince production I saw in New York in 1994. After its premiere, "Showboat" had been reworked many, many times with contributions by quite a few people. Wodehouse certainly contributed to the history of Broadway, though, especially in his collaboration with Jerome Kern illustrating his brilliance at writing lyrics. Many of those shows were written for the tiny 299-seat Princess Theatre in the second decade of the century when the team was joined by another superb British lyricist, Guy Bolton.

In a 1999 article marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Noël Coward, TIME magazine noted that “no other 20th century figure approached Coward’s creative breadth: playwright, actor, composer, lyricist, novelist, stage director, film producer, Vegas ‘entertainer’”. Audiences adored Coward’s plays, his stage musicals, his wit and his often-cutting repartee. Between the two World Wars, Coward dominated the theatrical profession on both sides of the Atlantic as no one else has done before or since. As TIME added, he did so with “a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” Some of his plays have stood the test of time, but few are programmed today. Perhaps he is now best known for just one song: “Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun.” First performed in New York in 1931, according to his biographer Sheridan Morley he wrote it whilst driving from Hanoi to Saigon “without pen, paper or piano!” Yet behind his assured, high society mask, for much of his life Coward was a deeply unhappy man. It is now well-known that Coward was gay although he never admitted this during his life. It might upset the county set of middle aged, dyed-in-the-wool ladies who came in bus-droves to attend the mid-week matinees of his plays, was his regular excuse. Hailing from a very middle-class background, he was born in the suburbs of London.Aged 14 he became the protégé and almost certainly the lover of a society painter, Philip Streatfield. Although Streatfield was to die a year later, Coward had by then been introduced widely into the high society of the times and quickly adopted its accent and its manners. Entering his teens, Coward had started work as a child actor. He had always been interested in the theatre and by age 20 he was writing his own plays. Soon he was to be a huge success in virtually all areas of society entertainment. It was at a performance of his musical revue “London Calling” that he met one of his early lovers. Prince George, Duke of Kent, was the fourth son of Britain’s King George V (and thus to become brother to two Kings). They began a clandestine affair. During the Roaring Twenties, the scandals surrounding the very bisexual, drug-taking Prince George were legendary. Even after his marriage, one commentator at the time noted, “He is not safe in a taxi with either sex.” The British Security Service once reported that George and Coward had been seen cavorting through the streets of London “dressed and made up as women!” Their on-going relationship was to last for two decades. Only death parted George from “dearest, darling Noël”. In 1942 George was killed in an air crash in Scotland. Coward wrote in his diary, “The thought that I shall never see him again is terribly painful.” Prince George, The Duke of Kent In public Coward was a master of the one-line quip, often cutting and always trotted out spontaneously. One evening walking across London’s Leicester Square, a friend drew his attention to the huge advertising hoarding above the Odeon Cinema – Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in The Sea Shall Not Have Them Bemused, Coward turned to his friend and exclaimed, “I can’t think why ever not, dear boy. Everyone else has!” In the movie business, Redgrave was known to be bisexual and Bogarde homosexual, although neither came out during their lives. In another famous Coward quip. he was standing on a balcony overlooking the procession of carriages passing en route to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Beside him was his young nephew. In one carriage was a monstrously overweight woman. Noël’s nephew was curious. “Uncle Noël! Who is in that carriage?” “That, dear boy, is Queen Sālote of Tonga.” Pointing to her tiny slim Prime Minster sitting opposite, the nephew was equally curious. “And who is the little man with her?” “That, dear boy, is her lunch!” Given his enormous success in the years between the World Wars and the patriotic film he wrote as part of the national war effort “In Which We Serve”, it was assumed that Coward would be awarded a knighthood. He was not. Prime Minister Churchill and other top members of the government were aware of the relationship with Prince George and were anxious that it be totally covered up, to the extent that George’s letters to Coward were stolen from his London home – with Churchill’s approval. Apart from the scandal if the public were to hear of the affair, homosexual relations between two men were still strictly illegal, and would remain so in England until 1967. Coward would finally be given a knighthood in 1970. Perhaps somewhat extraordinarily, George’s sister-in-law, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, remained a lifelong friend. After the war, Coward started a relationship with a young actor, Graham Payne, who was to remain with him for the rest of his life. Soon Coward and Payne took a long lease on a house in Jamaica named Goldeneye, owned by Ian Fleming the creator of the James Bond novels. Later they built their own house on the island and it was here that Coward died in 1973. Thereafter Payne was frequently questioned about the relationship with Prince George. He refused to confirm any had taken place. Indeed Coward had never openly revealed his sexuality. Ian Fleming's Goldeneye in Jamaica rented by Coward Coward’s contribution to his country is marked by a memorial stone in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey and the re-naming in 2006 of one of London’s theatres as the Noël Coward Theatre.

The seats illustrated in my post above are not the only ones being "considered". Someone has come up with a new double decker economy seat with flat bed available as part of it - Another has a real double decker ordinary seat -

The seats seemed to be reasonably spaced as they would be in a regular theatre. I had two gals either side of me but still had plenty of space.Yes. they were cushioned. Like Cirque di Soleil shows, the ABBA Venture is 90 minutes without a break. So it's not a long sit. Anyway, you can always get up and dance to relieve any seating discomfort!

I know of only two types of dinner cruise. One is on the monster boats for 100 or so people with dining on one deck and a booming disco on another. Personally I think they are ghastly! But yout bf might enjoy it. The other is on a much smaller teak barge with more elegant dining. Neither is cheap!

Prototypes of semi-standing seats are already being considered! These are said to be rather like sitting on a bicycle. Photo: CNN

I agree entirely with @fedssocr's comments. Bhutan was not the idyllic paradise that GNH indicated and portrayed to the world. I do think we have to bear in mind, though, that it must have been a hugely difficult country to administer - if only because of its massively hilly terrain. To get from Punakha to Bumthang, the furthest east on my visit, was a journey of nearly 14 hours over 2 mountain passes. Yet the actual distance is only 217 kms! I understand there is now a direct road taking well under 4 hours. I also think the previous King has to be given credit for all but forcing democracy on the people, hardly any of whom wanted it! As he had told my friend, he felt democracy was the only way forward for his country, citing the example of neighbouring Sikkim which was gobbled up by India after rioting in the 1970s. One thing disappointed me on that long trip. Due to the length pf that very long journey, I stupidly avoided a quick side trip to the Phobjhika Valley. This is where the rare black-necked cranes come to winter. I know from others they are a splendid and awe-inspiring sight. My guide (I was on a solo trip) and his colleague leading another tour group Poverty is what it is, no matter you may be happy with your lot An amusing sign on the door of a small Bumthang shop

That shows how I have avoided Heathrow for well over a decade until my most recent trip. It's an airport I loathe having to navigate 😂

As those reading the news during the day will have noticed, fire at an electricity sub-station which serves one of the world's busiest airports at London Heathrow cut all power to the airport this morning forcing it to shut down all its operations until midnight tonight UK time at the very earliest. The blaze also caused damage to the backup transformer and put it out of action as well. Houses around the airport have also been without power. I see from the latest BBC bulletin that power has been restored to three of the terminals, but not yet to Terminals 2 and 4. Yet the airport remains totally closed. Incoming flights have been diverted to airport around around the UK and northern Europe. But many have also been advised not to leave their departure airports. The UK's counter terrorism unit has been brought in to investigate the damage, even though the initial view is that this was an accident and not sabotage. If it was an accident, the airlines will be up in arms for passengers travelling on European airlines are entitled to considerable compensation for delayed flights. With overnight cancellations, affected passengers should be provided with hotel accommodation, meals and local transport. But understandably all Heathrow hotels are now full to overflowing. The question everyone is asking is: how can such a vital piece of the UK's transport infrastructure be dependent on just one source of power? Even when power resumes and the aorport operations are back up and running, expect days of chaos for airlines and passengers. If you are due to travel out of Heathrow in the next few days, find alternative flights from other airports - if you can! Good luck!

I should have added a gay element to the above post. Through a friend I got to know an Englishman on my visit who had lived in Bhutan for around 30 years. He had come to Bhutan to teach the King English, loved the country and stayed on. A single man it was widely rumoured both by my friend and others that he was gay. in addition to his teaching, he would take the very occasional tour groups around the country, allegedly having a young man in each town whom he visited regularly. I had the pleasure of meetring him when he came to my Thimphu hotel for drinks. He then invited me to join a short trek he was leading the following day. Hearing from him so much about the country, its history and the King's plans to introduce democracy was utterly fascinating. Sadly, no information was given to me about any gay life. Lastly, if anyone is thinking of visiting specifically to see the Himalayas, you'd be much better going to Nepal. The mountains in Bhutan are basically the lesser Himalayas. The most majestic 6,000, 7,000 and 8,000 meters high peaks are best viewed from places like the Pokhara Valley in Nepal.

Bhutan is perhaps best known for a comment made by its former King suggesting "gross national happiness" was a better guide for a nation than "Gross National Product." When I visited in 2007, the country had its fair share of poor people, but then it had only recently opened up to the rest of the world. Television had only been introduced in 2000 and the number of tourists that year was only around 7,000. By 2019 the number had increased to 316,000 and hotels had mushroomed. Whereas I stayed in a mix of simple hotels and guest houses, soon after you could spend five nights in different 5-star hotels. That said, I loved my two weeks in the country, the more so as every Bhutanese was friendly to what must to many have seemed like exotic foreign visitors. One problem for Bhutan was its only international airport was at Paro and the arrival through the hills and mountains so tricky that few pilots were certified to land there. Now Bhutan is catching on to the wellness travel concept and is constructing an entirely new wellness town with a much larger airport at Gelephu close to the indian border. Its new airport will have a capacity of 123 flighs a day, compared to Paro's five - all from short haul destinations. Artist's rendition of new Bhitan airport: Photo BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group Hopefully the new mass influx of tourism will not spoil the country as they have parts of Bali. As I discovered Bhutan is one of the gems of Asia and deserves to be seen and enjoyed. Hopefully once the new airport opens, the wealth of incoming visitors will trickle down to the poorer parts of the country. Paro Airport The Tiger's Nest Monastery percehd on a rockface 3,120 meters above ground level, the symbol of Bhutan A monk outside paro monastery Morning view Phallic Images are common in the countryside, often painted on the outside of houses The majestic Phunaka Dzong at the confluence of two rivers Monk descending monastery stais Wonderful artistic images adorn all monasteries https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/travel/bhutan-gelephu-international-airport-intl-hnk/index.html

Understood. I'd only suggest that when a comment is made in jest, in case members like me misinterpret it, it is normal for some amusing emoji or LOL to accompany it - as in your post most recently made. Mind you, I do accept that the emojis are so small it is very difficult to find an appropriate one. Try as I have, I can't find a winking one on the list - only one that also has a stuck out tongue which rather negates the meaning of the wink! LOL

I doubt if there is a manual anywhere that provides guidance. Surely you have told us about your Filipino boyfriend in Oz? Not sure how you met - nor even wish to know - but getting to know people is not an art form. What it does require is an ablity to mix and get on with others, and when you see someone you like, you start exuding your charm! I cannot speak for Pattaya, but I encountered a reasonable number of guys on the apps in Bangkok who were non-scene and looking for a longer-term companion.

I agree. But as a response to the OP I believe my reply was perfectly legitimate. In no way did it viollate what you term the reason why members continue to read the site. It merely offered an alternative possibility. Surely many of the news articles you post, often very interesting, are in many cases not related to that specific reason, woudn't you agree?

Thailand may be looking at The Philppiines. It is estimated that 11% of Filipinos are working abroad. In 2019 these workers remitted back home a staggering US32.2 billion (source wikipedia). Virtually all are legally overseas, though.

On the 14-hour flight to London I was on the CX A350 with the 'old' biz class cabin. Like @Lucky I found the seating remarkably comfortable. I also had the cutest flight attendant looking after me. I wished more than once there was a door!! 🙄 On my recent trip I took 4 CX flights and 2 BA flights. Every single one was totally full. No doubt one reason for the usual Qatar special offers which usually start in October for the following Spring not happening last year. I have usually got a 20% or 25% discount through these offers.

Duplicate - sorry!

To be openly gay in the latter days of the Russian Empire could be extremely risky. The celebrated composer Tchaikovsky, most famous for his music to the ballets “Swan Lake”, “The Nutcracker” and “Sleeping Beauty”, was very actively gay but had agonized while keeping his homosexuality private. Surprisingly, perhaps, his younger brother Modest was also gay. Unlike Pyotr, he had no qualms about it being known that he was gay. Even so, for more than a century his native country denied what was the obvious: Tchaikovsky was not gay, all claimed. Yet in 2013 as his own purges against gay men and women were breeding in his mind, Putin declared on Russian State Channel 1, “Tchaikovsky was gay – although it’s true that we do not love him because of that – but he was a great musician and we all love his music. So what?” Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893 was officially due to cholera. For a while some researchers believed he was forced to commit suicide after a threat of being ‘outed’ by a group of princeling students. That theory has now been well and truly debunked. Whatever the true reason for his death, Tchaikovsky was just 53. It is known that Tsar Alexander III revered the composer’s works, and members of the Imperial family frequently attended his operas and ballets. According to a diary entry by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Tchaikovsky’s death “grieved the Emperor and Empress greatly.” One Russian had few concerns about keeping his gay life private. An avowed homosexual, he was destined to change forever the way the world looked at art and the performing arts. Born in 1872 and so almost 21 when Tchaikovsky died, Serge Diaghilev, son of a bankrupt vodka distiller, spent his early years near the Russian city of Perm. At the age of 18 he moved to the capital, St. Petersburg, where he soon managed to find himself part of an artistically-inclined gay clique. With these new friends, he would socialize, swap boyfriends and occasionally cruise for trade in the city’s parks. According to the composer Nicolas Nabokov, “he was perhaps the first grand homosexual who asserted himself and was accepted as such by society.” Serge Diaghilev painted by Leon Bakst In the first decade of the 20th century, St. Petersburg was the place to be if you wanted to work in the classical arts. By 1906 Diaghilev was making a name for himself. He was asked to mount an exhibition of Russian art in Paris. Two years later he again visited Paris with a production of Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” featuring the most famous bass voice of the age, Fyodor Chaliapin. Chaliapin’s overly grand grave at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery But it was ballet the French really wanted to see, for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg was famed as the finest in the world. So in 1909 Diaghilev persuaded its best dancers to spend their summer holidays in Paris where he would mount a season performed under the title Les Ballets Russes. The season was a massive success. The exciting new choreography and bold new designs had a far more general appeal than to just the usual aristocratic ballet audience. As important was the astounding virtuosity of the lead dancers. Anna Pavlova (the Pavlova dessert of meringue, fruit and lashings of cream is named after her) was one of the prima ballerinas, but it was the astonishing lead male dancer who utterly electrified Paris. Everyone wanted to see the young, withdrawn and innocent star, Vaslav Nijinsky. Other than showing Paris his extraordinary leaps when he seemed suspended in the air and his supreme emotional involvement on stage, Diaghilev had another reason for wanting Nijinsky on this tour. The two had become lovers with Diaghilev having an almost Svengali-like hold over his 20-year-old protégé. Becoming a full member of the Imperial Ballet at the tender age of 17, Nijinsky quickly became a star. He also attracted the attention of the very rich playboy Prince Pavel Lvov. Lvov took the shy dancer under his wing – and into his bed – showering him and his family with gifts. Perhaps surprisingly today, given the times, Nijinsky’s mother was quite relieved about his homosexuality. She believed that marriage would only impede his career and had been proud to see her son with such a fine member of the establishment as Prince Lvov – and certainly grateful for his financial help. Yet Nijinsky was probably not at this time homosexual. “I loved him because I knew he wished me well,” he is quoted as saying about Prince Lvov. Well? Perhaps, but Lvov was also a good friend of Diaghilev and had no hesitation in lending him Nijinsky for a night or two. Innocent though he might have been, the young dancer knew well that Diaghilev could further his career. So he left Lvov to live with Diaghilev. Diaghilev with the composer Igor stravinsky So successful was that season of Les Ballet Russes that the ensemble was to continue to appear in Paris before and after World War 1, soon becoming a full-time company. The scope of Diaghilev’s achievement was enormous. Composers like Stravinsky, artists like Picasso and Matisse, and fashion designer Coco Chanel were engaged for works that were becoming increasingly more avant-garde. And then there were the scandals! Nijinsky wanted more artistic freedom. Diaghilev let him choreograph a work to the music of Claude Debussy. In “L’après-midi d’un faune”, Nijinsky caused a sensation when he appeared to be slowly masturbating with a scarf prior to a brief orgasmic shudder. But the outcry that followed was nothing compared to the riot which took place during the first night of Nijinsky’s choreography for Stravinsky’s brutal, pagan-like “Rite of Spring” which ends with a human sacrifice. Paris was in uproar. No one was more pleased than Diaghilev. “Exactly what I wanted,” he exclaimed! A painting of Nijinsky in “L’après-midi d’un faune” Diaghilev had a premonition he would die at sea. So when the company travelled to South America in 1913, he did not go. Unknown to him, one of what we would call today the company’s groupies, a Hungarian Romola de Pulszky, had her eye on Nijinsky and also arranged to be on board the vessel. Despite the fact that neither knew the language the other spoke, she made sure they became close on the long sea voyage. She informed him she was a Hungarian prima ballerina. When he discovered this was a lie, he ignored her. Yet she persisted and over time they became friends. Even after she was informed he was homosexual, she arranged their marriage in Buenos Aires. In fact it was within just a few days of the marriage that Nijinsky found out he had been duped. “I realised I had made a mistake, but the mistake was irreparable. I had put myself in the hands of someone who did not love me.” Worse, Romola did not even like ballet. Ballet was what Nijinsky lived for. On learning the news Diaghilev was incensed! He immediately fired his lover. What did he care? There were plenty more young men in the company and he was to be involved in affairs with several of them. For Nijinsky it was a total disaster. It’s hard to imagine the stress such a sensitive individual must have felt at being dismissed from the Ballet Russes, his sham marriage and the death around that time of several of his relatives. At his wife’s urging, he attempted to run his own company – without success. Soon he started suffering from schizophrenia. Over the years the most famous male dancer of all time was examined by many psychiatrists including Sigmund Freud. To no avail. After his last public performance aged just 27 he spent the rest of his life in an out of asylums. A typical impresario whose love of his work often exceeded his ability to finance it, Diaghilev continued to invite an ever-expanding group of young artists and composers to work with his company. By far his greatest legacy is that from the Ballet Russes came the founders of London’s Royal Ballet and New York’s City Ballet. A third completely resurrected the Paris Opera Ballet. All three companies are now amongst the world’s finest. Introduction to Diaghilev from a London Exhibition Diaghilev himself died penniless in Venice aged 57. Although his career with the Ballet Russes had spanned less than 25 years, in that time he had transformed the worlds of music, dance, theatre and the visual arts as no one else in history.