PeterRS

If our dear @Olddaddy is bored, I suggest he quickly gets on a flight to Moscow or wherever @Moses lives in Russia. He always has lots to say if you don't mind Putin-speak. And he also reminds us that Moscow is a great place for gay men. That will surely illustrate what boredom really is! LOL But he will need a quickie visa from the Consulate not far off Rama 4. (Just make sure it's one that lets you out as well as in). And don't be tempted to try on a flak jacket in case you find yourself on the front line in Ukraine! That would surely spice up your life and make you realise what a haven Bangkok really is.

In the US, Amazon Prime has agreed to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and provide refunds of $1.5 billion to an estimated 35 million customers who were “harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices,” according to a statement from the Federal Trade Commission. Last year Prime's subscription revenue was $44 billion! https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/25/tech/amazon-ftc-prime-settlement

Wrong analogy here, I suggest. It's perfectly easy from a multitude of videos to see how these monster ships run and what is avaiable for passengers. Just not for me, thanks.

Believe me I have not just looked at the cover. I was lucky to cruise on small vessels like those in the SIlver Wind fleet with no more than 400 passengers. I have seen videos of the monster ships. Just not for me or my partner. The gay cruises on the larger ships seem a bundle of fun and lots more, though. But age has taken its toll and I would now feel very much out of place!

I stayed once on one of the cheaper islands in the Maldives, before the mega hotel chains opened their over-the-water bungalows and private planes from the airport. All island accommodations are very small accommodating generally not more than 40 - 50 guests. First, the Maldives is not cheap. Unless you have a hotel which includes lunch and dinner, be prepared to pay a lot more than in usual tourist resort areas. As importantly for @Olddaddy, as others have pointed out the Maldives is a Muslim country. When I was there, Maldivians were not allowed to work in the hotels and most staff had been recruited from Sri Lanka. This policy has now changed and the ratio of domestic to foreign workers is roughly equal. I would not suggest considering any attempt at sex with workers as this could have serious consequences. On the other hand, it was wonderful to be on a small island where one could walk round it in less than two hours. The snorkelling is utterly amazing with such a fabulous collection of colourful fish. One evening I dined on the beach with the water lapping close to my feet. Since it was almost pitch black, when I looked up at the sky I have never in my life seen so many stars - millions and millions of them. It was magical! Since I went merely to chill for a few days, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay. But I have no particular desire to go back unless someone else picks up the tab for a very expensive over-water villa and all meals. LOL Maybe best to be aware that as of August this year, the main tourists are Chinese and Russians who year-to-date made up 28% of all visitors. For the whole of 2024, they made up 40.3%.

I have never joined any of these sites. Since I am rarely on that particular site, it was the sudden appearance of Chinese groups that took me by surprise. I find only one of the guys really attractive. On most of the half dozen or so sites the guys are too young, too skinny, play silly games and are obviously playing to some audience which may just be a sort of mamasan with canned laghter. Since the dialogue both written and spoken is virtually all Chinese, my guess is the tippers must be Chinese big spenders. And they do spend big! Where most western guys/pairs can perhaps hope to get 300-500 tokens maximum per appearance, one guy tips a couple of the Chinese groups 2888 tokens. In less than an hour one pair had gained 5000. Looking up Stripchat I see that the performers get 5 US cents per token. But for two guys in China to get US$250 for appearing semi-naked on camera for the world to see, is a huge payday for just one evening. Totally agree about the guys from Taiwan. Is there a Taiwan site?

La-la land once again!

One irony is that Russia and China came within a whisker of using nukes during a major border dispute in 1969. This had the USA and other countries more than just concerned. And it was one of the unstated reasons for Nixon and Mao (no doubt persuaded by the moderate Premier Chou En-lai) cosying up to each other resulting in the change in US policy over Taiwan and Nixon's historic visit to Beijing in 1971. Putin no doubt thinks that Xi is in his pocket for now. I reckon it's the other way around. Xi is playing Putin because it suits his long term plan. Xi is near pathological about the need for security of his borders. But any form of nuclear war would throw all his planning completely out of kilter. For all his rhetoric, he needs peace, certainly in the short-medium term when he is dealing with massive upheavals at home including a real estate market in a state of virtual collapse (and consequently government revenues very seriously affected) and youth unemployment of well over 20% to the point where the government no longer publishes figures. As @unicorn states, Putin really only has the threat of his nuclear weapons. He will know full well that use of nukes anywhere will see his allies desert him like the proverbial rats from the sinking ship and the end of Russia as a world power. Unless his objective will be to see the end of the world.

The posts at the start of the thread all deal with American brands and products available basically only in the USA. Frankly I don't know of any brands outside the US which donate to anti-gay causes. If I did, I would do my best to avoid them. I try more to avoid businesses with unethical business practices, like coffee distributors who pay the local growers a pittance even when raising consumer prices. And as others have written, any business with lousy service. But this is surely more a personal thing. With one company I worked for, we had to fly Northwest across the Pacific at a time when it was generally called Northworst. No doubt being in business class helped, but I actually liked the airline. For 2 or 3 years business class transpacific entitled passengers to free helicopter trips between JFK and Manhattan's East Side Heliport. I even took it between Hong Kong and Tokyo quite a few times. If not on business I sometimes took Pan Am between these two cities but only because it was the cheapet fare. After one transpacific business return flight, though, I vowed "never again"! Little wonder it sold off its Pacific routes to United a few years later.

I fully understand that sentiment. When I started out on my serious travelling, it was for the most part to see and experience all the places I'd be fortuate to visit. Many now remain in the memory without having to look at all the photos.

Seeing the monsters that now sail the seas with several thousand passengers, almost the last thing I ever want to do is spend time on one.

Bangkok's creaky infrastructure showed itself again yesterday when a huge sinkhole opened up near Vajira Hospital in the Dusit area. Officials blame recent heavy rain and subway construction, but Bangkok is used to both and these rarely result in large sinkholes opening up. It makes one wonder where the next one will occur! Watch the vdo to the end.

Thank you. I have been wonderfully lucky, first to move to Asia at a time when for most travellers it was just a stopover en route to Australia. Then to work for companies which required not only some travel but a lot of it! I could post another 5,000+ photos only from parts of Asia (e.g.many more in the countries covered above plus those omitted like Nepal), and these are only the ones after I got a digital camera in 2001. Sadly my photos of ten visits to Bali, the Taj Mahal and many others taken earlier have all faded. Probably a result of bad storage. I posted only to show @iendo what variety there is within the continent and most available relatively inexpensively with some advance planning. So make some plans and then go and have a blast!

My experience is limited to three and the often inclement weather had not put anyone off - even during the third one around the Caribbean, up the Amazon and then around South America. The main reason, I am certain, is that at that time there was quite a severe recession and couples, mostly elderly, were flocking to cruises because of major discounts. One New York couple told me it was actually cheaper than staying at home. For the 17 days I was on that cruise, couples were paying just £60 per day which included accommodation and all meals (4 or 5 per day). I could not have put up with more than 17 days but they were on for 3 months!

Great plan! As you say there is so much to see and experience in Asia, in terms of different cultures, natural wonders, fabulous food and, of course, nightime entertainment. As many readers know, having been based in Asia for 46 years I have travelled a great deal within the continent and have had some fantastc experiences - day and night! At the risk of boring some, here are some photos of places you might wish to put of your list of places to go, many of which are not generally discussed as major sites. Some, though, like the two Thai Festivals and the Harbin Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival are specific to a time of year and ideally need to be booked a minimum of 3 or 4 months in advance for accommodation near the attractions. And then of course there is the mega-Taipei Gay Pride Parade on the last Saturday of October each year. There are lots of photos spread around this Board. Just check the Search box. 1. Within Thailand Ubon Candle Festival Dansai Ghost Festival 2. Other Countries Vietnam Hanoi Vietnam Hue China Harbin Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival China Yunnan Province Lijiang China Yunnan Province Shangri-La (allegedly the most beautiful Tibetan monastery outside Tibet) China Suzhou China Chengdu Panda Reserve and Jiuzhaigou National Park Japan Spring Sakura Blossoms Japan Nikko (day trip north east of Tokyo - memorial to the Shogun Ieyasu, the first of the Edo period, and his grandson) Bhutan Taipei

Wasn't that what the leaders of Britain and Germany said in 1938? "Peace for Our Time" and all that? And we know one was lying big time!

Some weeks ago I moaned when I described not following Warren Buffet 17 years ago when he purchased a 10% stake in the Chinese battery and occasional car maker BYD. It cost his company $230 million. Slowly Berkshire Hathaway has been selling that stake and as of this week has zero shares. The amount of profit made is 30 times its investment - $7 billion! He walks away with a mega-profit as BYD's capitalisation hits $135 billion and its battery-driven cars outsell Teslas around the world. Another investment for those with mega-funds at their disposal, if they can be found, is a violin. This can bring you loads of profit. Not just any old violin, though. A Stradivarius crafted in the late 17th/early 18th century in workshops in Cremona is arguably the best investment as only roughly 650 remain in existence. All are 'named' instruments, mostly after musicians who have owned and played them. In 1992 the American collector David L. Fulton purchased the "Baron Knoop" Strad for US$2.75 million. In March this year he sold it for $23 million making it the most expensive violin ever sold. Caring for such expensive intruments is a round the clock job. Stradivarius also made other stringed instruments. One of his cellos is owned by the great Yo-Yo Ma. Rushing in a taxi from a rehearsal to a fund-raising lunch at The Peninsula in New York, he forgot that he had left his Strad Cello in the trunk of the taxi. WIthin minutes the hotel concierge was on to the taxi company and musician and instument were quickly united. I'll bet the tip was more than the customary handful of $$! Second on the list will be instruments made by Guarneri del Gesu whose short career coincided with the end of that of Stradivarius. Only 150-200 of his instruments remain in existence and are favoured by some violinists for their fuller, brighter tone. The Vieuxtemps Guarneri, owned by the composer of that name, was sold in 2013 for amost $18 million. Until then the average sale price of a Guarneri had been in the region of $10 million. What makes these instruments rise so dramatically in price? Increasing scarcity for one. Brilliance of their sound another. But it is the farily recent attraction of business corporations to buy one as part of its investment portfolio which it then lends out to a leading violinist of the day. After all, these instruments have to be played. If not they deteriorate, albeit slightly. One, the "Messiah Strad" is owned by by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford but sadly is rarely played. Such rare violins are clearly dependent on market conditions and so are not really liquid investments. The market is driven by desire. But as The Strad Magazine points out in a 2021 article, between 1960 and 2008 such violins had increased in value by 19,400%! Finally, and almost inevitably, another part of the reason for increasing prices lies in the Chinese market. During the Cultural Revolution, orchestras were confined to playing a handful of Chinese works favoured by Mao's wife with pigsties as rehearsal halls. Now there is a huge boom in western classical music and the very rich Chinese businessmen are getting in on the act. Not yet at the very top level but already wealthy collectors and businessmen own several top violins and are regularly seen at valuable instrument auctions. Now why didn't I save harder and now own a million dollar instrument!

In words, yes indeed. In terms of meaning, though, very different.

I just LOVE that vdo!

Unfortunately my humbe apartment is nothing like the Capella hotel. Better ask @Olddaddy as he seems to have stayed there - perhaps using the cash with which he had originally planned to buy the Pattaya bar

Hong Kong has experienced typhoons regularly since time immemorial. Fortunately it is now well prepared. In the past it occasionally suffered major damage as in the 1937 Great Typhoon which killed between 11,000 and 13,000. I was there during Typhoon Ellen in 1983 when this ship was blown off its mooring and landed on a beach. Photo AFP, HKGIS I was also in the city when that typhoon hit. Most of that damage occurred because the main winds hit first from the north. The south side, as you point out, is mostly apartments and many residents tape up their windows to ensure there is no major damage. The Revenue and Immigration Departments in North Wanchai clearly did not bother to do that! Now I wonder: was my file lost because I paid no tax that year LOL! One problem with typhoons and other monsoon-related rains is landslides, of which Hong Kong has suffered many. The worst was in 1972 when part of the hillside on the north of the island in what is termed Mid-Levels gave way and demolished first a 6-storey building and then a 12-storey building. 67 were killed. If you pass by that area from the water, you can still see the gash in the hillside.

You base your experience on three months on an island which is economically mightily superior to Myanmar? I know you were studying Mandarin and we enjoyed a couple of pizzas there together. But with respect I have been visiting since 1986 and annually since 1990 for several weeks a year. I have also noticed a distinct trend that there appears to be a preference for older westerners. Frankly comparing Taiwan with Myanmar in terms of attracting boys to your room is no comparison whatever.

Ha! Orwell died in 1950! Interestingly he had been posted to Burma following school in England. He loathed what Britain had done to Burmese society. In fact, Putin has probably picked up a few tips from "1984" which in part draws on Orwell's experience of Burma. He writes "“Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

Agreed! But I was specifically referring to gay gogo bars (with the exception I noted of the original Babylon). I have some gay Thai friends but they know of no gogo bars aimed at Thais and patronised by Thais. Mind you, we all know there is a gay world especially in Bangkok where foreigners are either not permitted or even know virtually nothing about. If they happen to exist, I expect entrance will be limited only to the very rich. On the other hand if in fact there are no exclusively Thai gogo bars, have Thais - in general - lost the desire to see boys performing in a public setting in various stages of undress? I do know of one wealthy Thai in the entertainment business who 'trains' young aspiring actors in a specially purchased house. But that is purely for his personal 'entertainment', I am told. There were always one or two bar bars where gay men congregated even in the 1950s. But from what I have learned, these attracted mostly western expats living here, like Jim Thomson. I know there is at least one book that covers the period from the 1950s but regret I cannot recall the title. Were there bars even earlier in those times when well-known gay men like Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward were visiting and praising Bangkok's delights during their stays at the Oriental Hotel, their visits now celebrated in the hotel's famous Author's Lounge. I suspect not and assume they found company in their hotel (always the Oriental) or on the streets nearby. We know that Patpong did not exist at that time. It was in fact a banana plantation purchased by the Patpongavich family in 1946 for US$300. By the mid-1960s Air America and the CIA had set up shop in Patpong. It was in 1972 when the family took over Patpong 2 that bars offering nighttime delights opened in the balcony area. So Patpong became a virtual tapestry of espionage, nightlife and colourful characters, the latter including the French-Vietnamese fraudster and serial killer Charles Sobhraj whose modus operandi was to befriend western tourists, drug them, rob them, murder them and dispose of their bodies all around Bangkok. Finally apprehended and jailed in India in 1976, he escaped. Sought worldwide he was eventually discovered in Nepal in 2003, convicted of murder and jailed for life. Even then, though, he beat the system and was released in 2022 on account of old age. He was just 78! He now lives in France. Always in the background, though, we have to remember that Thai society and Thai sexuality has emerged very differently from the western values the older generation of us were brought up with. Anna Leonowens, the 'Anna' in The King & I, told of her horror of Thai society of that time. After nearly six years at the Thai Court she wrote in the mid-1860s, "Here were women disguised as men, and men in the attire of women, hiding vice of every vileness and crime of every enormity - at once the most disgusting, the most appalling and the most unnatural that the heart of man has conceived." It had been far from uncommon for murals in temples to include scenes of intimate love making. The lack of visible differentiation continued to concern western visitors into the start of the 20th century. It was only a couple of decades later as it attempted to join the western world that Thailand decreed that men and women dress differently. At the same time, belatedly stricter Victorian-era attitudes began to affect Thai society. But it was only after WWII that western homophobic views began to have an affect in Thailand. An anti-sodomy law was introduced into parliament but never passed. We also know that very soon the Thai media, using data from physicians and psychologists mainly drawn from western sources, combined to have a large scale outing of gay men in the 1960s which pushed the gay scene more underground. By the 1970s it slowly re-emerged, but it was really in the 1980s that it started to blossom. And it was Thais to which it was initially aimed. So I am guessing but I suspect it was Bangkok's gogo bars which really started the gay travel movement to Bangkok.

Cheap at the price! Try early December when the rate becomes 46,900 per night! That's nearly double the cost of a river view room at the Mandarin Oriental! Mind you that hotel is showing its age and the rooms are only half the size of the Capella or less. But given that Bangkok has 200 5-star and deluxe hotels (making it just one hotel short of being the leader of that specialist group), where do all their patrons come from having to pay those prices, I wonder? Paris has only 116 5-star hostelries and London 162!