PeterRS

Surely it is actually quite obvious. Individuals can equally have their own specific choices even though when as part of a group, it is group thinking that takes over. If in a group X wants to visit a gogo bar and Y and Z prefer to go to a disco, in a western mindset one would go his way and two to theirs. We sometimes seem to forget that for many Asians, especially younger Asians, travelling in a group, a group consensus is usually more important. In another sense, thank goodness for individualism even in a "collectivist" society. Without it, in a spa we'd all want the same masseur and in a gogo bar to off the same guy!

If his memory is that bad, why is he flying a passenger aircraft?

I know little about American history, but I expect not in individual institutions. I'm not sure if native indian tribes were forced to assimilate their children. I always assumed that the white settlers preferred to fence off native Americans in reservations where they did their own thing, as it were. Yet the treament of such peoples was certainlly appalling in so many ways. It strikes me that taken as a whole this is similar in many respects to what was done in Ireland, Australia and surely some other countries. A paper by Dr. Michael Kryzanek issued by Bridgewater State University 2 years ago summed up the history ot American treatment of native Americans thus - "The history of the United States government’s treatment of Native Americans (also called Indigenous People) is a sad and cruel one filled with broken promises, forced removal from tribal lands, murderous conflict bordering on genocide and an adamant refusal to respect basic human rights. Presidents from Andrew Jackson to Ulysses Grant to Rutherford Hayes, to modern day presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon all supported legislation and rulemaking that diminished if not eliminated tribal control over land and denied them adequate health care, educational and housing support. The goal of presidential administrations and the Congress was to provide economic and financial opportunities to the “white man,” while driving the Native Americans into extreme poverty . . . "It is important to remember that the Native Americans were not granted citizenship until 1924, even though these Indigenous People were the first settlers in the New World. Yet, greed, racism, cruelty and neglect on the part of the United States government and indeed the American people led to second class status for these first Americans." It strikes me that taken as a whole this is similar in many respects to what was done in Ireland, Australia and surely some other countries. As you may know, I am British and I am equally appalled by what the British did in many of their overseas colonial possessions. As I have stated earlier, I am writing a book about Myanmar. Britain basically destroyed that country and is mostly responsible for the horrors of the near eight-decades of civil war in that country.

I sometimes ask friends around Asia why it is that they have little interest in gogo bars, preferring instead saunas, massage spas and discos. I can't say I have any definite conclusion that has not already been discussed. @spoon makes the good point that many Asian visitors come in groups and so they get involved in their evening entertainment as a group. A couple have said they just do not like the concept of a gogo bar which, for them, can be hit or miss enjoyment-wise and as much on the wallet, especially if they are in the bar with their group. Others find them boring, having little interest in ladyboy lip-syncing and cocks on display. They can see the latter in the saunas more easily and cheaply. Trying to distill their various answers, I'd suggest that to a certain extent of the three mentioned in my first sentence, each individual patron can relatively easily make his own choice, whereas in a gogo bar the choice is dependent on the type of bar they enter and often types of guys in whom they are less interested. So bars can mean an expensive waste. Just impressions.

"Good authors too who once knew better words Now only use four-letter words Writing prose. Anything goes." These lyrics from the opening of Cole Porter's gorgeous 1934 musical "Anything Goes" could well have been written with the writer and novelist Christopher Isherwood in mind. Although Porter and Isherwood may never have met, both were gay. While Porter married in part to mask his sexuality (the fact that his wife was rich no doubt also helped!) the English-born Isherwood was one of the 20th century's most openly gay men. 1950s photo of Christopher by William Caskey with whom he had a tempestuous 5-year affair Deprived of his father killed during the First World War and thereafter of life with the remainder of his family when, as was customary for those of the upper middle class, the young Christopher was packed off to boarding school, he quickly made friends. Equally quickly he discovered his homosexuality. Boys' boarding schools in those days were notorious havens of homosexuality, an activity that was often more innocent than romantically serious and usually discarded when young men advanced to university. One school friend who followed him to University was the young poet W. H. Auden. The two became best friends and frequently shared a bed, even though Christoppher was at Cambridge and Auden not far away at Oxford. Unlike Auden, though, university for Christopher was not to be taken seriously. At the end of his second year in 1925, he was sent down, the polite phrase for being expelled, after he wrote joke answers on his end-of-year exam papers. This caused great annoyance to his mother who had expected her son to become a Cambridge don. Christopher did not care. He took a variety of part-time jobs – as a private tutor, as secretary to a music group, as an attempted writer of novels and attended medical school. Like many Cambridge students of the day, he had dabbled in Communism, believing like so many others in the Russian propaganda which painted a picture of a superior egalitarian society than the very unequal society then in Britain. Perhaps fortunately he was some years older than all but one of the infamous Cambridge ‘five’, the British spies Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross, all recruited from university who went on to betray many of their country’s secrets to the Russians, the first three defecting to the post-war Soviet Union after their discovery in the 1950s and 60s. The austere face of Sir Anthony Blunt, exposed as a dangerous spy for the Soviet Union in 1964 as “the fourth man”, but permitted to retain his position as Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures provided he confessed what he knew. He was finally unmasked and disgraced in parliament in 1979. Christopher was far more interested in what was happening in poverty-stricken Germany. When Auden moved to Berlin for a few months in 1928, he wrote to his friend extolling the availability of gay men in the Weimar Republic. Isherwood followed a few months later. Berlin had earned a thoroughly deserved reputation for sexual freedom and debauchery. The words of Cole Porter were never more true: sexually, in Berlin “anything goes”! As his lover of many decades, Don Bachardy, later made clear, "To Christopher, Berlin was boys!" (Isherwood did not meet Bachardy until 1953 on a beach in California when he was 49 and Bachardy 18 - they remained together until his death in 1986). Whereas Auden had left to teach in England, Christopher stayed on and positively revelled in Berlin's thriving gay scene. He was later to say he had had sex with at least 400 boys. In staid old England and indeed the United States to which he would emigrate in 1939, 400 must have seemed an outrageous number. The compendium of the three novels based on Christopher's Berlin days Then in 1932 he met his first real love, a handsome 17-year old German named Heinz Neddermayer. But storm clouds in the form of the Nazi Party were on the horizon. In 1933 the pair escaped to England, but Neddermeyer could not obtain a long-term visa. After a second short visit in 1934, they gave up trying and started four-years of wandering around Europe. The relationship had to end when the Gestapo finally caught up with Heinz in 1937 and enrolled him in the German Army. Neddermeyer survived a short period of forced labour and military service. In 1938 he married and had a son named Christian in 1940. Heinz met Christopher only one more time, in 1952 when Christopher was researching what was to become one of his most famous books of his time in Berlin. In 1938 while getting over the split with Heinz, ever the wanderer Christopher had joined his old pal Auden on a trip to the Paris of the Orient, the very permissive Shanghai. They had a commission to write a book on the Sino-Japanese war, but it was Shanghai that fascinated Christopher far more. He wrote – “The tired or lustful businessman will find here everything to gratify his desires . . . if you want girls, or boys, you can have them, at all prices, in the bath houses and the brothels. If you want opium you can smoke it in the best company, served on a tray like afternoon tea.” Just before war broke out in Europe, Auden and Christopher moved to the United States, the former to New York and Christopher to California. In addition to writing and working on various movie scripts, he became a disciple of the Ramakrishna monk, Swami Prabhavananda and remained a Hindu for the rest of his life. Soon after arriving in California he became one of the celebrated European émigré set, mixing regularly with the likes of Thomas Mann, Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Chaplin, Bertolt Brecht and Greta Garbo. As he left for the USA he had written a novel based partly on his experiences, "Goodbye to Berlin". In 1951 one of his friends persuaded the playwright John Van Druten to adapt the novel into a Broadway play, "I am a Camera". Eventually it was fashioned into a movie of the same name, Later this was refashioned to become the Broadway musical "Cabaret". With its haunting music, provocative story and lyrics, all set against the backdrop of emerging Nazi Germany, "Cabaret" became a huge Broadway hit. Soon the new movie version was to make it into an even bigger worldwide sensation. Liza Minnelli instantly became one of the world's top stars (and a gay icon in her own right) and the first person ever to appear on the cover of TIME and Newsweek magazines in the same week. Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles - YouTube Allied Artists In one scene, Sally Bowles is confronted by her erstwhile English lover about another man she has been seeing - Brian: "Oh! Fuck Maximilian!" Sally: "I already did!" Brian (sheepishly): "So did I!" Even for 1972 that was close to pushing the limits of public acceptability! Isherwood continued to write and Bachardy became a noted painter. Their partnership had its ups and downs, especially when Bachardy started a series of affairs. Yet the relationship survived. Indeed, it became a model for many gay men of the time undertaking long-term relationships in the new openness of the gay liberation movement. The cover of a DVD about Christopher and Don’s relationship A frequent visitor to their home was the gay artist David Hockney and the couple feature in several of Hockney’s paintings. Christopher and Don at home painted by their good friend David Hockney Christopher died in 1986 aged 81. In recent years 90-year old Bachardy has overseen the publication of Christopher's voluminous diaries and the republication of his novels. Even if only his Berlin stories and "Cabaret" are to survive into the future, they must surely be a fitting tribute to Christopher Isherwood, one of the celebrated gay icons of the last century.

As others have written, this is not surprising. The problems seem to occur when arranging meet ups when you are free, as many of those happy to get together for free sex are students or those with a job who are generally only free in the evenings.

This surely helps to confirm the general preference of most gay Asian tourists for massage rather than attending gogo bars.

Buffet invests for the long term. With the ¥ now so relatively low, any major investment in Japan, however enticing the companies' future growth, would seem to be a good long term bet.

On my very first visit to New York I was advised that if I had time for just one Gallery/Museum it had to be the intimate Frick Collection on East 70th Street at 5th Avenue. I went, and was enchanted. On many subsequent New York trips I have frequently revisted the Frick. It may be small but it has a stunning collection of paintings by Fragonard, Holbein, Vermeer, Turner, Rembrandt, Goya, Rubens, Monet, van Dyck and others. All beautifully displayed in what had been Henry Clay Frick's lovely home and continued after his death by his daughter Helen. The renovated home for the Collection will be open from Wednesdays till Sundays and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Entrance for adults is $30 with a reduction to $22 for those 65 and over. Youngsters between 10 and 18 get in free. Details of the collection can be found here - https://www.frick.org/visit

You might wish to start here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_laundries_in_Ireland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations

In all my years of flying, I have encountered a number of emergencies. But never have I been on an aircraft that has had to turn back. The 270 souls on board Flight UA198 had to endure that last Saturday afternoon. Flying from Los Angeles to Shanghai on a 787, the flight surprisingly turned around after 90 minutes and landed at San Francisco. Engine trouble? No! Air conditioning problem? No! Other mechanical problem? No! The pilot had forgotten to take his passport! Gulp! A new crew flew the aircraft to Shanghai.

I have made so many in my life I am sometimes surprised i am able to finance my retirement. Back in the late 1990s, I invested a little here and there. One stock that interested me was Starbucks Asia, then far less visible in Asia than now. I resisted. Then 10 years later another stock caught my eye. I noticed that Warren Buffet had invested in the Chinese battery maker BYD taking a 10% stake in the company and a seat on the Board. I had thought about putting $1,000 into the company. Again I resisted. BYD has since become one of the fastest selling battery powered vehicles, now outselling Tesla due to Chinese government investment and lower prices. In fact it is the world's third most valuable car maker after Toyota and Tesla, and China is the world's largest EV market. Warren Buffet started selling half of his shareholding starting in 2022. In doing so a $230 million investment turned into an $8 billion profit. And he still retains roughly half of his shareholding. I could be in a penthouse now!

The OP stated his desire for "younger twink type" guys. I have no experience of either country but on occasional visits to sites like chaturbate and stripchat, I seem to find the young twink type more attractive than the younger Brazil guys. Merely an observation.

Painting any event in history with a broad brush inevitably leaves out part of the story. The Chinese - both its conservative leadership and vast numbers of ordinary citizens - frequently talk about the "century of humiliation" from the Opium Wars through the Japanese war. Much of that is true. The opium trade which condemned millions to death, the takeover of Chinese coastal cities by western powers which imposed their own national laws and not Chinese law, the Taiping Rebellion, the dreadful and utterly inexcusable destruction of one of the world's great treasures in Beijing's Summer Palace, and so on. What the Chinese frequently fail to talk about is how the Qing Dynasty, once one of the world's richest and most powerful, relatively quickly collapsed from within such that by the start of the 19th century it simply could not defend its own territory.

It aways staggers me that 73.2% of payments made in China are by mobile phones. It goes even further. More mobile phone transacations are made in Vietnam, South Korea and india than in any European nation or the USA. I must be of the old school as I do not like to pay by phone. I have phone apps but these are to do things like check balances and get credit card notifications. Here in Bangkok I always thought mobile phones were to speed up transactions. Well, I have lost count of the number of times I have been in a supermarket check out when it has taken almost a minute and sometimes more for a customer to find the relevant pay page on her app (yes, it's usually a woman!). Cash, debit or credit card seems far faster.

This is a particularly important subject that has been mirrored sadly in quite a few countries. In Ireland, babies were often forcibly taken from unmarried mothers, many innocent and unaware of how women became pregnant, and placed in religious homes run by nuns. These were I believe officially sanctioned both by the church and the state with often brutal conditions for the children who would eventually be placed with proper 'couples'. The 2013 movie about one mother who tried to find her son "Philomena" is hugely moving. For 100 years, the Australian government forcibly removed aboriginal children from their mothers to be placed with white parents, in forster care or in institutions, many managed by religious organisations. The facilities were basic and often brutal in the extreme as children were forced to think and become 'white'. This policy was rooted in the relatively common and deeply held colonial racist view that non-white people were inferior and thus incapable of leading their own lives. They were later given the term "The Stolen Generation". In 2008 the country's Prime Minister issued a formal apology in parliament to all those in The Stolen Generations. Kipling's view of colonialism that it was "the white man's burden" to improve - and thus westernise - native populations is now too frequently regarded as true. Even though he wrote this at the end of the 19th century when America was colonising The Philippines, it had been common throughout almost all colonial history. Sadly, after colonial traders seeking loot for their nation's treasuries had arrived, flocks of missionaries would follow: Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals in all what they believed as their God-given right. Their mission was simple: convert souls for "their" God and to hell with local religious beliefs which had been practiced often for millennia. The rape of so many countries is one of the huge stains on so-called western civiisations. Seldom, alas, do we think of the consequent ravaging of local religions, customs and beliefs. In mid-19th century China alone, the Taiping Rebellion was a direct result of Christian missionaries spreading their doctrine. As a result between 20 and 30 million Chinese were killed. It is desperately sad that, in my view, around the world these priests and their hierarchy actually believed they were doing good. Even worse, in their efforts to win souls, some not infrequently resorted to ghastly forms of sadism and torture. I can't wait to see "Bones of Crows".

London also has - or used to have - a similar half price booth in, I believe, Leicester Square. On business trips to the USA, I occasionally managed side trips to Las Vegas. One year she was performing her one-woman show, "The Showgirl Must Go On", at Caesar's Palace and I purchasd a ticket well in advance. What a woman! What a performer! When she wasn't singing, she was cracking rapid fire joke after joke after joke - many of them pretty risqué, but the audience loved it all. I have forgotten most of these jokes, but one has aways stuck in my mind. Slightly adapted it went like this - She is walking along the beach in Atlantic City, admiring all the young men sunning themselves, when she suddenly notices one young man totally naked and jerking off! Curious, she goes up to him and asks quite innocently, "Young man. You have a beautiful body but may I ask what you are doing?" "Isn't it obvious?" the young man replies. "I'm telling the time." "And what time is it?" He looks down at his erection and tells her it is a couple of minutes to midday. Thank you, she replies. Checking her watch, she sees that it is indeed two minutes to twelve. Interesting! So she proceeds on her way along the beach. Within minutes she sees another handsome Adonis, also totally naked and also enjoying a wank. She decides to ask him the same question. "Can't you see I'm telling the time?" To her next question he tells her it is exactly midday. How strange, she thinks, he is exactly right. She thanks the young man and continues walking. Then, before her she sees a third equally handsome young man enjoying a wank. She goes up to him. "Young man. You have a beautiful body and I can see that you are telling the time. Can you tell me what time it is?" "Telling the time? Of course I'm not telling the time! Can't you see? I'm winding the clock!" I wanted to include Ms. Midler in my Gay Icons series as most will know she more or less started her career in 1970 singing at the large gay Continental Baths sauna in New York when her pianist was Barry Manilow. Not surprisingly she built up a huge gay following. Her 1998 album is titled "Bathhouse Betty". As she said at the time, "I kind of wear the label 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride." Unfortunately I can not find enough material to include her in the Icons series. But I'll end this with her Song of the Year Grammy in 1990 which she perfumed at the Awards ceremony.

As @macaroni21 mentions, Singapore traffic is far, far lighter than Bangkok's. That's partly because the tax on cars is vastly higher and partly because of the congestion charge motorists must pay to enter the central area. A new Toyoya Corolla Altis today costs S$173,888 (US$130,000). Of this S$103,799 represents tax. Total cost of owning, running and maintaining the Toyota over 10 years is estimated at S$253,326! https://dollarsandsense.sg/cost-owning-car-singapore/ The other issues in his post are all extremely important to F1 organisers. I am not sure if Bangkok has environmental protection laws, but as also pointed out, the noise of even just one F1 car racing around a city can be heard virtually all over it. Make that 22 or 24 and the noise is ear-splittingly deafening. I happened to be involved as a consultant (! pace @Keithambrose) with the Hong Kong Tourist Association when it was considering an F1 race in the late 1990s. As with Singapore, the television shots with cars racing around Hong Kong's harbour district would be worth vast sums in free worldwide advertising. The conclusion we all came to was that with all the efforts required to close roads. resurface roads, build the extensive necessary infrastructure, the noise which would greatly exceed environmental protection limits and most all the relatively small financial return, it was not worth proceeding. We had been given a copy of a study prepared by the former driver Gerhard Berger as a result of which the F1 Austrian Grand Prix had been reinstated. That made clear that the bulk of revenues to the government came as much from the VAT returns from hotel and other items as from the sale of expensive tickets. Hong Kong had no VAT on most items and only a minuscule hotel tax. It was an easy decision to take.

I'm curious. How much would you pay to see a Broadway show? A show you really wanted to see? Back in the 1980s and 1990s I took in a Broadway show almost every time I was in New York. I can't recall ever paying more than about $75 for a seat. Then came the Mel Brooks musical "The Producers". It took Broadway by storm and demand far exceeded supply. In true free market economics, the producers of the show hiked top price tickets to a whopping all time high of $500. And that was in 2001! Thankfully I saw it later in London for not much more than £60. The highest I have paid on Broadway was $150. The last time was for "Wicked", a show lots of people love but for whatever reason I loathed! I walked out at the interval. I was thinking about pricing when I read the article below in today's Guardian newspaper. A 15-week run of Shakesepeare's "Othello" with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhall in the cast could set you back a whopping $921 for a top price centre stalls seat. Want to see George Clooney in "Good Night and Good Luck" opening on April 3? That will set you back $799! I am old enough to recall when famous artists toured theatres in the UK relatively regularly for a tiny fraction of these prices. One I vividly remember is Franco Zeffirelli's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" with a cast including Maggie Smith and her then husband, the wonderful actor Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Hopkins, Frank Finlay and other wonderful British actors. Changed days for poor theatre lovers! https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/mar/24/othello-broadway-ticket-prices

Many will recall the devastating floods of 2011. These not only swamped parts of the city, Don Mueang airport was flooded and closed for some weeks. Ayutthaya was also under water for weeks. Particularly heavy rains in the north that year had caused an increase in the level of the Chao Phraya river. This coincided with extra high tides during the high water period in October. Both surges met in and near Bangkok. The ground floor of the house of one of my work colleagues was under water for nearly 3 months. Endless ideas were 'floated' by the government to reduce the impact of the flooding. One government idiot even suggested placing a line of long tail boats across the river with their propellers at full blast so as to push the surging Chao Phraya waters back up stream! Only in Thailand! Since then, there have been warnings of flooding at this time of year in at least four or five years, the last two being 2022 and 2024 when there were alerts in Bangkok. Years earlier I can remember going down to the river during the flood season. Even then much of the river bank on both sides was packed with sandbags. At the Shangri La hotel they were not only at the river bank, they were also piled up around the swimming pool! Moving the capital would not be a unique event. Myanmar did it a few years ago replacing Rangoon with a totally new city in Naypyidaw. 40% of Jakarta now lies below sea level and is subject to horrific annual flooding. Six years ago the Indonesian government announced a move to another completely new city 1,200 kms from Jakarta. Nusantara located on the island of Borneo will become the new capital. Were the Thai government to announce a new capital, no doubt those who have invested in all the huge modern structure in the city will be screaming with anger. But it would be their own faults. As I understand it, one reason for Bangkok sinking is the result of government decisions in the 1950s. Bangkok then was the Venice of the East, a city of klongs and not very many roads. A decision was made to modernise the city. Consultants were brought in who clearly knew little about water management. They advised filling in the klongs and making them roads. And to me that is one problem with hiring outside individual consultants. Neither they nor those doing the hiring are really aware of the long term effects. The must be a wide range of consutants with different specialities to span the wide range of probable results.

Did you enjoy the movie? It has had dire reviews!

This time an icon who fortunately remains with us even though now well into his 80s. On a visit to Scotland during my student years, I was exceedingly fortunate to catch a couple of plays being performed at the celebrated Edinburgh International Festival, Shakespeare's “Richard II” and Marlowe's “Edward II”. Playing the title role of each king was a young English actor about whom there was a considerable buzz in theatrical circles. The friend who accompanied me was then at drama school and madly in love with him. Unfortunately, he told me, the actor already had a steady boyfriend. That was the first time I knew Ian McKellen was gay. The young McKellen as Shakespeare's "Richard II": Photo Prospect Theatre Company Outside the theatre ‘business’ the public had little idea that this young man emerging as one of Britain's finest stage actors was anything other than a hot-blooded young alpha-male. Actors were never identified with their roles, which was just as well for one very much in the closet. The character of Edward II is not only bisexual – or possibly even gay, he comes to an especially nasty end when his enemies at court thrust a red-hot poker up his anus. The very conservative Edinburgh audience was shocked with elderly matrons walking out and many indignant letters sent to the press. A love scene between King Edward II and his favourite, Piers Gaveston, played by actor James Laurenson: Photo Central Press Having been at Oxford University with several friends who were to become theatrical luminaries in their own right (the director of “CATS” and “Les Misérables” as well as future head of the National Theatre, Trevor Nunn, and fellow actor Derek Jacobi), Ian McKellen was already known in the business and marked for success. He joined both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre where his roles included Macbeth and Iago in “Othello”. In tandem he worked on a host of contemporary commercial plays in London's West End and occasionally on Broadway. In New York he had a huge success as Salieri in the Peter Schaffer play “Amadeus” when he won every possible award. Back in England, he even took on a role in the very British Christmas pantomime entertainment, playing Widow Twanky in “Aladdin”. As a gloriously camp Widow Twanky: Photo Manuel Harlan Like many of his generation of British actors, he was late making the move to Hollywood. After a few smaller roles, he played the aging lead of a famously gay Broadway producer in "Gods and Monsters", a role for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Soon after, his movie career shot him to worldwide stardom through his roles in the “X-Men” series and Peter Jackson's “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. Before then, though, he had finally decided at age 49 to come out publicly. Violently opposed to a proposed policy of Margaret Thatcher’s government to prohibit city councils from promoting homosexuality, he made his own sexuality unexpectedly known in a radio programme. Around this time he claims he was visited by Britain’s Environment Secretary, Michael Howard. Howard refused to lobby against the new policy. He then had the cheek to ask McKellen if he would sign autographs for his children. McKellan agreed to do so, but added the words “Fuck off, I’m gay!” Such an admission could have had a negative effect on his career. Not so for McKellen. Only three years later Queen Elizabeth conferred on him a knighthood for services to the Performing Arts. Since then, being an openly gay public figure Sir Ian has helped by lending his support to a host of gay causes and organizations, not limited to his native country. Invited to perform "King Lear" in Singapore in 2007, the city state which still had anti-gay laws on its statute books, he took part in a 'live' morning radio show. When asked what he would like to see in Singapore, he quipped, "Can you recommend a nice gay bar?" Allegedly the programme controller had a fit and pulled the plug on the rest of interview. Some years later, Sir Ian recorded a video message to be played prior to the Shanghai Gay Pride Parade. At home he is a co-founder of Stonewall UK. An atheist, for a time he was especially concerned that copies of the Old Testament were placed in every hotel room in the USA. He particularly disliked the passages in Leviticus which warn men about “lying” with other men. Whether this is true or not, it was openly discussed that he would always rip out those pages before replacing the book back in its drawer! Sir Ian has always had a wide variety of very close friends, far from all being gay. Perhaps the most famous is the actor he met in the 1970s when both were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. McKellen was playing major roles. His friend describes himself at that time as “little more than a jobbing actor with a wife and two young children, always a little intimidated by Ian.” That friend was Patrick Stewart. In 2013 the two played on consecutive nights in Samuel Becket’s “Waiting for Godot” and Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” on both Broadway and then on tour in the United Kingdom. Stewart and McKellen in "Waiting for Godot": Photo Joan Marcus When Hollywood beckoned, it was first for Stewart when cast in the hugely successful “Star Trek: The Next Generation” television series in 1987. It was another 11 years before McKellen landed his starring role as the ageing real-life gay movie director James Whale in “Gods and Monsters”. The friendship with Stewart was renewed a year later when both were selected to star in the first of the “X-Men” movies. So close have the two friends become that the tabloids call it “the most famous bromance in Hollywood”. For Stewart’s third marriage in 2013, McKellen flew from London to New York to officiate at the ceremony. McKellen went on to even greater international success in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. At the same time he has actively encouraged young gay men, especially well-known personalities, to sweep away the closet. In Gayety magazine earlier this year he was quoted as saying, “I have never met anybody who came out who regretted it. Being in the closet is silly. Don’t listen to your advisers, listen to your heart. Listen to your gay friends who know better. Come out. Get into the sunshine.” At the venerable age of 85, there seems no stopping this modest knight, a gentle man for whom gay activism is as much part of his DNA as is the stage and screen.

A few years ago o one of the forums there was mention of at east one care home near Jomtien. I am sorry I just cannot recall any detail. I did see on Facebook the following from Jomtien Hospital โรงพยาบาลจอมเทียน - Jomtien Hospital 1 July 2020 · Elderly Care @ Jomtien Hospital Take care of your loved ones … for their quality of life. A. Independent elders who can carry out daily living B. Post-operation patients C. Chronic patients who need special care D. Dementia/ paralysis patients E. Patients with intense needs or who cannot carry out daily living Provided services Weekly health assessment by physician 24 Hours support by special nurse Nutrition supervised by dietitian Body exercise supervised by physical therapist Daily 3 meals served Dedicated single room Recreation activities ----------------------------------------------------------------- For more information; call in-patient department at 0 3312 5951 or emergency department at 0 3312 5912 I realise this is not quite what you mean, but it's a start. I also found this. It's all in Thai but using google translate it suggests the price is from Bt. 20,000 per month. https://baanlalisa.com/baan-lalisa-nursing-home-in-pattaya/

We live and learn LOL. Seriously, great reports, thanks.

I read that Thailand is once again preparing a feasibillity study on hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix street race. As one who enjoys F1, I realise it could do wonders for the image of the city worldwide. This from Newsweek of March 19 - "Although Thailand has an FIA-approved Grand Prix circuit in Buriram, the country is gearing up to host a Formula One street race in Bangkok. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra recently met with F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali to discuss the ambitious plan. As a first step toward bringing F1 to the capital by 2028, Thailand will now move forward with a feasibility study." But it will never happen! It's madness! Back in 2012 one entrepreneur claimed he would bring an F1 race to Bangkok's streets. This drew quite an extensive correspondence in this forum - So many factors rule Bangkok out. First, roads and traffic. Hosting an F1 race means deciding on a route of around 5 - 8 kms with roads which will not pose any hazard to cars, drivers and spectators. Remember the first Las Vegas race last year? A manhole cover broke loose during practice and it was a miracle that it caused no damage. Then an F1 race requires roads to be closed to all traffic for several hours on the two practice days and the qualification day in addition to virtually the whole day of the race itself, a day which will also include Formula 2 races. With Bangkok's roads already vastly overcrowded, can you imagine the mayhem such closures will cause? Second, infrastructure. Grandstands for 100,000 plus spectators have to be erected and sturdy fencing around the track to ensure no spectators are involved if there is a crash (and crashes do happen with some regularity on street circuits). A very long area needs to be set aside for the construction of the team pits and garages and the Paddock Club for the high-rollers who pay fortunes to be close to the action. Third, time of day. Apart from existing tracks where racing is held in the afternoons local time, increasingly F1 wants races that can be televised at reasonable times in Europe and the USA. Hence most new tracks in the Middle East and Asia in the last 18 years have involved some form of night racing. No doubt the views of temples and the Grand Palace at night will be spectacular, but the installation of tens of thousands of specially designed light fixtures can easily cost US$30 million or a lot more. Total Cost. SIngapore was the first night race on the F1 calendar in 2008. For 2024, it is estimated that the total cost for 100 minutes or so of televised racing along with all the pre- and post-activities in SIngapore was US$150 million. Of this the government chipped in $90 million with the private sector paying the rest. Hoteliers and airlines hiked prices considerably to recoup some of their costs, and a private entertainment entrepreneur organised a major week-end of massive parties with top of the line pop stars. SIngapore's F1 street circuit race track. Can Bangkok meet all these specifications? In my view, definitely not unless a group of zillionaires comes together. Even so, the need to get so many government departments to sign off on it will be an insurmountable headache, even with many brown envelopes flying around. In my view a feasibility study is virtually a waste of time and money. https://dollarsandsense.sg/cost-singapore-host-f1/