PeterRS

Darn it! Obviously must have confused it with my first ever flight - in a DC3 across the Wellington Strait in New Zealand.

Sorry, I had not realised that when I should have. I wonder if Mac had first registered as required in his own home locality. Apparently that is nesessary for the free healthcare scheme. If his home is/was in Bangkok, then it would have been easy to register in the city. But if he was born much further away, perhaps he had not registered. Just a guess.

It may be that their rescheduling methods changed partly as a result of my Hanoi disaster! It was some years ago. But Air Asia had both my phone and email. They told me they had phoned when the schdule changed about two months before the flights bur they could never get an answer. They then sent me their so-called proof of phoning, but they had stupidly got one digit wrong! So I asked why, since i had paid for my tickets, they had not simply emailed me. No answer other than "we always tell customers by phone"! In complaining i had also sent by courier three letters to Tony Fernandez in KL, the CEO. Not one was acknowledged let alone answered.

The free healthcare is for Thais as they are the ones that pay taxes. We know that many non-Thais are denied treatment if they cannot afford the fees. And that is far from unique to Thailand. One point, though, is that the government seems to have followed up on a decision made a couple of years or so ago - to increase the fees at public hospitals for foreigners. For example, I have had annual MRI scans at King Chulalongkorn public hospital since 2001. These have always been a fraction of the price I would have to pay at a private hospital. The MRI fee has remained constant throughout this time. On the other hand, the fee to the doctor who analyses the result has gone up from 250 baht to 850 baht. This is true of another doctor I have seen there. This compares with 1,000 baht (plus a 350 hospital fee for taking your blood presure, temperature and checking your height and weight) for a doctor I saw in May at BNH. Although treatment at a public hospital means lots of waiting around, the doctors are excellent. Many spend just 2 or 3 days at the hospital and are specialsts at private hospitals for the rest of the week. The only problem is that, apart from real emergencies, obtaining appointments for a relatively routine illness is extremely difficult at short notice. Plus the phone operators speak very little English. For these, attending a private hospital is almost essential. Lastly, medicines prescribed by public hospitals and obtained from the hospital's own pharmacy seem a great deal less expensive than those from private hospital pharmacies.

Have you had any problems with airbnb in Italy so far? I had a strange one in Bologna a few years ago. I liked its location near the station and had no problem walking there. As requested I had called for instructions about the code to open the main building door and then a second code to get into the accommodation which had four bedrooms. Having gone across the road for a quick dinner, everyting worked when i returned. The following morning, though, it all went berserk. I could not get out! There was just a simple button to press to open the apartment door. It did not work. I tried calling the owner but it took 25 wasted minutes of no answer until the maid arrived. Turned out there were actually two buttons and the one labelled "Press to exit" was the wrong one! Yet it had worked the previous evening! When I got back that evening, this time I could not get into the building. They changed the exterior door codes weekly and had not sent the new one to my phone! This was infuriating, even though the room was large and pleasant. Thankfully I was only there for 2 nights.

Re @iendo's earlier post, with those cheap special offers, as he states be prepared to pay a good deal more because chances are things will go wrong. I realise that millions fly Air Asia and are happy with the airline. I ended up having so many cancellations and lengthy delays that now I just refuse to fly them. And judging from Skytrax comments, many thousands are furious with them. Once my bf and I had flown to Penang for a long week-end. As the airport is about an hour away from our hotel near Batu Ferringhi and there was only a morning or late evening flight back to Bangkok, we were up around 5:00am to get there on time. A long queue had formed but no staff. Eventually another passenger directed my attention to a sign. Flight cancelled! Everyone rebooked on 9:00pm flight! In KL for a fun few days, I had a 1:00pm flight back to BKK where I had an important business dinner over a contract. In the queue for the flight, I happened to be looking at the departure board above the check-in desk. Suddenly that 1:00pm departure flipped over to 4:30 pm departure. No announcement. No nothing! Since my dinner was vital, I had no alternative but to race over to the main terminal and purchase a very expensive ticket on TG. The worst, though, were flights to and from Hanoi. Months earlier I had purchased one of these crazy ultra-cheap returns departing on the evening flight on a Wednesday with the return flight later on the Saturday evening. That gave me almost three full days in Hanoi and I booked a non-refundable 2-night stay deal at a good hotel and one night in Halong Bay. Some weeks later later I was invited to speak at a Conference in Singapore on the Monday and Tuesday. So I booked Cathay Pacific's cheap once daily flight which would be returning to BKK around 2:45 pm leaving me about 3 1/2 hours before the Air Asia flight. Two weeks before the Hanoi flight, I decided to check Air Asia's site in case there had been any change in the departure time. It was only then I discovered the evening flights had been cancelled. Without ever informing me, they had booked me on to morning flights. But that Wednesday I'd still be in Singapore when the flight departed. I was livid. But of course with low cost airiines there is nothing you can do. Just check the conditions of carriage! I ended up having to cancel the Air Asia flights without getting a refund, take Tiger Air from Singapore to Hanoi and then an expensive Air France return on the Saturday evening after returning from Halong Bay. I complained several times to Air Asia's head office in KL. The first was by phone. After holding for about 35 minutes, someone answered and said she'd put me through to the relevant department. The lady whom I then spoke to said she had no idea why I had been put shrough to her. She was a gate agent. "They aways do this", she explained. After several letters, I just gave up. Some weeks later Thai Air Asia called to offer me compensation of a one way ticket to Chiang Mai which I'd have to use within 3 months. I was very far from polite in my answer!

Apart from landing at Paya Lebar, I only have a few memories of early visits. I do, though, recall very clearly attending a Stevie Wonder concert at the open air stadium. I was far at the back with a group of friends and we were all dancing and they were smoking weed (I skipped the weed as I do not smoke at all and could not inhale!). So much for Singapore's anti-drug policy, I thought. The only gay bar then seemed to be the small Vincent's Lounge in Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road. I only went a couple of times for there were few other guys there. The gym and sauna at the Westin Stamford where I often stayed were supposed to be quite gay, but I never had any luck there. I also recall quite vividly visiting a couple of clubs. One was the Boom Boom Room in the early 1990s which was a sort of cabaret hosted by a talented comedian named Kumar. The venue was packed with young people but I struggled to understand much as most of the dialogue was in Singlish. The audience absolutely loved it. The other around the same time was a recently opened very large nightclub named Zouk. It was a fantastic place which friends and I visited often. It had a gayish section. One evening I ordered Sex on the Beach not even sure what it was. The half dozen or so shot glasses with that vodka based drink that came as the order nearly knocked me out! Never tried out sex on a real beach, though, as those were the days when handsome young plain clothes policeman roamed around to entrap gay men who approached them. I guess my most abiding memory was staying at the recently opened Pan Pacific Hotel. Apart from its gay Sunday afternoon "tea dances", I once ordered room service breakfast. The waiter was ultra cute and I made clear my interest. As he laid out the trolley, he asked if I'd like him to come back. Wow! I always understood staff in 5-star hotels were not allowed in guest rooms other than for work. But he came back an hour or so later after his shift was over - and boy did he work! He was amazing!

While not disagreeing in general with your observation, I think this answer would be more accurate to say that "respectable society" made sure it became impossible. The "social order" campaigns of the first Thaksin government and his religious homophobic minister of the interior were intent on getting rid of at least some of the gay nightlife. So virtually at a stroke, the government changed what owners could offer to the public and where what remained could be offered. That inevitably is a bit of a generalisation and I believe it affected Bangkok (where several bars had to close for quite a few weeks) more than Pattaya. But the offerings in Bangkok's gogo bars certainly were affected. On the other hand, had those changes not taken place in the early 2000s, you are no doubt correct that over the longer term the tolerance of Thai society as a whole (especially the elites) was in the process of changing. The quite rapid growth of the economy and the similarly rapid reduction in child bearing since the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997 helped play their parts. Yet the sleaze bars continued in Pattaya until much later. Only in bars like Nature Boys and Golden Cock did it survive in Bangkok.

I used to visit many dozens of times. On my first visit the airport was still at Paya Lebar and a road had to be closed when an aircraft was taxiing!

Just a quick question for @jason1975. How long have you lived in Singapore? And did you live in Asia before then? If not, did life in Singapore take some getting used to - apart from the eye candy along Orchard Road and elsewhere which can be amazing!

This adds to a thread about Time Out's Coolest Places in Latin America. And they will probably surprise many as most will know nothing about most - including me!. Jimbōchō, Tokyo Mullae-dong, Seoul Nakatsu, Osaka Nguyen Thai Binh, Ho Chi Minh Former French Concession, Shanghai Bencoolen, Singapore Kemang, Jakarta Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur Mehrauli, Delhi Poblacion, Metro Manila The "Coolest Lists" seem aimed primarily at residents and concentrate on quality of life, including bars and restaurants, book stores, trendy art galleries etc. How they are selected beats me. The only one I know well is the older area of Sheung Wan in Hong Kong. Click on that location and almost all you get is a list of trendy restaurants and a few bars. Sheung Wan also has several gay bars, but not one is mentioned. And it strays off the Sheung Wan beaten path by listing several places further up the hill in Hollywood Road which is categorised as being in Mid-Levels, not Sheung Wan. Nothing here for gay visitors unless you are a foodie, sadly. Similarly, the French Concession in Shanghai is an extremely pleasant place to visit, and no doubt to live if you can afford it, but there really is not much here for the tourist apart from visiting Sun Yat Sen's house which is located here. https://www.timeout.com/asia/news/these-are-the-11-coolest-neighbourhoods-in-asia-in-2025-100325

Is there now any bar that can compete with the raunchiness of Eros and Happy Boys?

I have written several times before that there have always been plenty of guys in Bangkok happy to meet up with westerners on a no MB basis. The problem with some is that they are students or work and so hook-ups might have to wait til the evenings or days off. in my wandering days pre-covid, I only ever met one who was considerably older than his photo and I did not particularly enjoy the coffee with him - best always to meet first outside hotel or apartment. That particular assignation ended there with my giving him his transport money. On the other hand, I fully accept that some visitors believe an MB experience gives greater satisfaction and at a time suitable to them. One does not rule out the other.

With respect to @khaolakguy, I first read this - and its succeeding sentence "a compensation for not being able to walk the streets of Silom himself"- not about me as a tourist but about me as one who in fact does live here but has chosen after decades of visiting most bars, saunas and spas not to do so after entering a long-term relationship. Now I am not so sure. I can walk down Silom any day of the week! I think some version with a little less filtering might be more pertinent.

First, let me congratulate @jason1975 on this deeply considered analyses of various members of this Board. Although I think my post itself is a little over the top, I feel honoured to be part of this select group. As for @jimmie50's request, my input can only be extremely limited as I believe @jason1975 has captured much of the essence of both my posting style and my personality. Yes, I do love history and in particular the history of gay Thailand, especially of the 46 years in which I have had the pleasure and the joy of experiencing it. The only slight correction I would suggest is that this part in paragraph 5 "a world he clearly loves but may not be able to visit as frequently as he would like" is only partially accurate. It is certainly true that over the past few years I do not visit the gay scene. I certainly regret the passing of the 'days of old', but having lived in Bangkok for 24 years my recent absence from the gay scene is a conscious decision based largely on account of my being in a long-term relationship. On the other hand, as I have stated elsewhere, I am let off the hook, as it were, when I travel and I have written quite a lot about my sexual escapades, especially in my many visits to Taipei and Tokyo. But then I believe the above analysis was based on Thailand posts and so that comment is probably irrelevant!

I've never linked golf with contact sports. After all, the only contact should be with that little white ball. But one non-contact sport athlete seems to have had more sports-related injuries than most. Now recovering from a disc replacement in his back, golfer Tiger Woods is again hoping to recover and play serious golf again. Yet how many injuries has this man had? Sure, he crashed his vehicle when driving well over the limit in February 2021 and he blames his latest surgery on that accident. Hmmm! But that does not entirely explain why this is his 7th back medical procedure in the last 10 years. Nor why he needed more surgery earlier this year in March when he ruptured an Achilles tendon when training at his home. He has been suffering health problems ever since his multitude of steamy sexual meanderings were made public and he crashed his car into a fire hydrant leaving his home in some hurry around 2:30 am in 2009. Injuries to his knees, neck, ankles and back have plagued him for the last 18 years. He was an amazing golfer, no question. He was in line to become the greatest of all time. But did he try too hard? Did he believe he could keep secret his powerful sex drive? What was his manager doing all this time to explain how precarious his life as a world public figure had become? Who knows other than Woods himself? Watching him play 20 years ago, he was almost a miracle on a golf course. Now after 15 majors wins and a huge fortune in the bank, his body has clearly given out. I do not think we will ever see him again driving those drives and sinking those putts.

It's only my personal view, but i do not think this vdo should appear on this Board.

Faint hope - alas!

Tomorrow the great Luciano Pavarotti would have been 90 years old, had pancreatic cancer not ended his life in 2017. As one major conductor claimed, Pavarotti's was a voice you might chance to come along once in a century. At the start of his career he was hailed as a new superstar of the opera world. Every opera house wanted him. But two men changed all that. As a new book points out Backstage With Pavarotti And Other Egos: Disasters On The High Cs, his manager, a New York agent named Herbert Breslin, was one of the most loathed men in the music business. One conductor called him "the biggest barracuda in the fish tank." But he was street smart and knew how to make stars. He knew he had to get Pavarotti out of the opera houses where seating capacities were limited to 2,000 - 3,000 and consequently singers' and agents' fees were low. Besides, an opera required about 3 weeks rehearsal. On the other hand, a recital often paid the same but required only two days work. But Pavarotti's huge income came largely from another man, a Hungarian who had been a survivor of the Nazi's Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. Tibor Rudas loved opera. He had been a member of the boys chorus at the Hungarian State Opera before the war. By the early 1980s he was entertainment director for a number of US casinos, working regularly with artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Dolly Parton. But he wanted an involvement in opera and he wanted only the best. Over three years he tried to get Breslin to agree to his putting Pavarotti into his Atlantic City casino theatre. The answer was always no. But Rudas never gave up. When the fee he offered reached a staggerfing US$100,000 for one night's work, Breslin caved in. Instead of the theatre, an 8,000 seat marquee was erected in the grounds. And in April 1983 Luciano Pavarotti began his journey to being the wealthiest mega-world opera star the world had ever seen. While the cognoscenti of the opera word scoffed, Pavarotti, Rudas and Breslin laughed al the way to the bank. With an annual income now in the many millions, Pavarotti sang less opera, appeared more on TV and concentrated on his arena concerts seating from 10,000 to 20,000. The audiences adored him. Then at the World Cup in Rome in 1990, the other two great tenors Domingo and Carreras joined him for a concert that changed all their lives. The Three Tenors became an entertainment sensation of the 1990s. For the 1998 concert at the Paris World Cup, their fees started at US$5 million - each. They even appeared in Beijing's Forbidden City at the start of the century as part of Beijing's bid to host the summer Olympics in 2008. But by then, the always overweight Pavarotti had started to have big health problems. Even after operations, his hips and knees were giving out. In 2005 he started a worldwide Farewell Tour. But he only made it as far as Asia. The final three concerts he ever sang before a paying public were in Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. That Taiwan concert before a crowd of 20,000 on 14 December 2005 was his last. None of us will ever again hear the likes of the amazingly bright and radiant Italianate quality of that voice, coupled with his extraordinary clear high notes and his massive on-stage charisma. I feel we are all so lucky to have heard him in our lifetimes. I don't know where his soul rests, but I wish it a very Happy Birthday on Sunday. Pavarotti was known as the King of the High Cs, a result of his performance of this Donizetti opera at the Metropolitan Opera in 1973. This short pirate video made backstage captures the moment when he earned this nickname (visual quality is poor). And below is the poster for his last ever performance (No, he did not thereafter sing at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Turin 6 weeks later - both sound and vision of that "performance" were precorded more than a week in advance since he was ill. At the event, he mimed).

I have seen a rash of negative youtube headlines along the lines of "What Happened to Dimash Qudaibergen?" These all appear to me ridiculous considering he is arguably the best singer on the planet just now. And then if you actually watch the vdos, the headlines are merely clickbait. Most have nothing negative to say at all, other than why isn't he better known in the USA? Well, my response to that is simple. Why would he want to be better-known in the USA? For a start his English is still poor so hauling himself onto inane US chat shows and endless PR events would be a waste. Besides, he is so huge in so many countries, why bother with the USA? Some complain that he should sing more. Perhaps understandable, but that is also nonsense. Every major voice - like a Pavarotti or Domingo - requires rest between performances. Our vocal chords are a major part of vocal production but they do suffer from wear and tear like other parts of the body. That's why opera singers need 2 or 3 days break between performances. Dimash's voice is a truly extraordinary instrument. He doesn't dance and prance around on stage like Michael Jackson. He gives everything through the voice and his emotions. If he does not take care of that voice, he will lose it. Plain and simple. He has recently been in the company of opera 'royalty'. He has appeared with Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli and Jose Carreras. This famous duet from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers was recorded with Domingo in Budapest 2 years ago. Domingo had only heard him a few months earlier and insisted they sing together. Extraordinary to think that in this vdo Domingo was 82 years old and Dimash was just 29. He was given just one day and one rehearsal to learn the duet! Some youtube vdos have professional voice teachers give their opinions. All are amazed at how good he and his amazing voice are.

Magnitude 7.4 is a huge earthquake and, as worse, it triggered a second 6.9 quake later that day. I wonder if double quakes might be a thing of the future? I recall when Nepal was devastated by its late April 7.8-7.9 quake ten years ago destroying much of the historic centre of the cities in the Kathmandhu valley and so many villages in the hills. Just as the aftershocks were subsiding, a second quake magnitude 7.3 hit in mid-May. The total effect on such a poor country was disastrous. Sichuan Province in China also had two quakes in 2002 - 5.9 in June and 6.6 in September. Earlier Sichuan had also experienced the country's largest quake - 7.9 in May 2008. Hopefully the Philippines might have been better prepared, as much as anyone can for an earthquake.

I agree that all firework displays are fun, but is the one in Pattaya really a major fireworks event? Every year Hong Kong has 20 minutes of the most amazing - and no doubt the most expensive costing an average of US$2.67 million - firework displays you have ever seen at the lunar New Year. I think I am right in saying Pattaya's budget is about one tenth of that. Macao also has some fantastic displays at its annual Fireworks Festival spread over various weekends around the mid-Autumn Festival. Mind you, I'd love to be in Sydney to see their annual New Year's Day pyrotechnics. They may not be the most expensive in the world, but they are certainly amongst the most spectacular.

We're all now on tenterhooks! At what level will Trump pitch his sanctions on Norway? He's just upped China sanctions again by an additional 100% because they will not sell him more rare earth. 250% for Norway do you reckon?

Ichiro Suzuki was the same, even after an even longer period in the US.

I can still climb stairs. The electricity was being maintained in my condo last Sunday and I climbed up 8 floors - although whether I would have had the energy for some heady sexual activity after that is perhaps questionable.