PeterRS

Narita has been a hub for American, Japanese and some other airlines for many decades. I can remember when it was quite usual to see around 16 Northwest 747-400s at the airport. 8 would have flown in from US gateways and 8 from Asian destinations. Lots of passengers connected from one route to another. Last time I connected from the US was on JAL, but it was at Haneda.

A good friend has just returned from three months in Tokyo. He confirms that the nunbers of Chinese tourists has mushroomed recently, partly a result of the cheaper ¥ and partly because it is perceived as more safe than Thailand!

Not yet, but it's on my list. I actually preferred Hoi An. Just fell in love with the place.

Minimum connecting times are surely dependent on the airline, the airport and whether you are on the same or different carriers. Having been based in Hong Kong for decades, I was used to CX having short interline connections of around 40 minutes. In all my years of flying, I don't ever recall one missed connection. But . . . this year having failed to use miles to get me to Europe on my favoured Qatar, I had to get a ticket on CX via HKG. Not really a problem as it allows me a free stopover in HKG on my return. The issue which arose is that for my flight on Saturday, even 5 months ago the only seats available were on the last flight out of BKK at 19:15 connecting to the last flight from HKG to London at 00:15. In theory that alllows for 65 minutes connecting time, although at this time of year with the winter monsoon arrivals into HKG should be straight in towards the north thereby allowing an extra 5-10 minutes or so. But . . . then I heard that on January 17, the last flight ex-BKK departed 4 hours late! Had that been my flight, I would have missed my connetion, had to spend at least 5 hours at the airport and be connected on to the first London flight in the morning. That in turn would have cancelled my cheap onward flight from London as I would have been a no show. A new ticket would cost around £300. So using FlightRadar I checked that last flight ex-BKK and its departure times. I was shocked to discover that throughout January it was on average 1 hr and 8 mins late in departing. How many had missed their connections during that month I have zero idea. So . . . I phoned CX to get me on an earlier departure ex BKK. Sorry, sir, the only mileage ticket available is on a flight departing at 06:30 am!! And that would have meant around 14 hours stuck at HKG. Finally I got on to a manager, a pleasant young man who understood my situation, but told me that there were no mileage tickets on earlier flights. I then played what I hoped would be my ace card. What airline, I asked, schedules a flight that over a 31 day month has departed on average 68 minutes late? Every single day! By this time it was perfectly clear to me that the 777 operating that flight must always have arrived late into HKG prior to being prepared for departure for BKK. And it had probably come in from somewhere in Europe where flight times are longer due to being unable to use Russian air space. Since I rarely accept 'no' for an answer, I eventually beat this poor guy down. He finally agreed to put me on a flight departing BKK two hours earlier at no extra cost and I had the new ticket within minutes. Now of course my concern is the connection in London for which I have allowed almost 3 hours. But worrying about that will achieve nothing, so I will just wait and see what happens. In general, though, I totally agree with @unicorn. It's far better to plan for 3 or so hours between flights than accept a tight connection.

Another moved post from another forum. You will love Danang and the area. I started a 10 day trip 5 years ago just as the airlines were stopping flights due to covid. Hoi An just 30 minutes away is a glorious little town, with lanterns lit up everywhere in the evenings. Hoi An There is also at the west end a 15th century Japanese bridge In the centre of this area is the large city of Danang with its fabulously long beaches A little further north there is the old Imperial capital of Hue. The French destroyed much of it, espeically the imperial palace, but it is slowly being restored. This was the scene of a lot of fighting during the Vietnam War.

This refers to a post in another forum referencing Phu Quoc in whicih a member suggested the post could be moved to the Vietnam forum. TO save @TotallyOz time, I was there just before covid and used my last Marriott points to spend 5 nights at that beautiful hotel. Loved the trip.

I never - ever - use google for hotel rates. @reader is 100% correct. The rate for 2 nights on agoda is vastly cheaper. Checking 2 nights from March 5 on the agoda site (almost always the cheapest site for Thailand hotels and less than half the rate you quoted), you get a deluxe room for 2 with breakfast at Bt 3,798.92. Surely anyone looking for rooms in Thailand already knows about agoda! The only thing you have to be careful about with agoda - and some other sites - is that their initially quoted prices usually do not include tax and service charge. The charge above is the price you are quoted just before you make the booking and so tax and service charges are included. But I have noted that you want 2 rooms, so basically double the price. On the Trip.com site, they quoted you for 2 rooms. The rate for one room for 2 people with breakfast for 2 nights starting March 5 is - Bt. 4,155. So your google search actually was pretty close if you really want 2 rooms rather than 1.

Just an extra quickie. When I complained to CX about getting nothing for all the money i had spent on the carrier to try to reach 2 million miles, I got the usual guff about no guarantees etc. But then someone told me it was all to do with joining One World. With CX having only one hub, all its 2 million milers would be entitled to reciprocal benefits on the 6 other original carriers - and most of them had objected. WIll your 2 million Platinum miles benefits entitle you to benefits across all One World carriers?

In my long very personal essay, I added that I would resurrect one other series of posts, this time of Gay Icons. As I leave for Europe on Saturday and will not post during the nearly 3 weeks I will be away. I shall merely post this first one and one other before I depart. Today the gay community in much of the world has gained a freedom and acceptance unthought of little more than half a century ago. Along with this liberation has come an understanding that gay icons are important, especially for younger gay boys and girls. Chatting with friends over dinner some years ago, the conversation drifted into two rather interesting directions. Who were the first gay icons, and why are there none in Asia? For obvious reasons many of those we consider gay icons today are dead, although new more liberated generations are discovering their own. As for the first gay icon, was it perhaps Alexander the Great? Deeply in love with his childhood friend Hephaestion, the Greek philosopher Aristotle described them as “one soul abiding in two bodies.” But the best known of the ancient figures to attract iconic status is surely St. Sebastian, the young, beautiful, naked youth, his body tied to a tree and pierced by arrows. Throughout history, hosts of artists have painted their ideals of his martyrdom. Gay film-maker Derek Jarman’s 1976 “Sebastiene” used him to examine the overlap between sexual and spiritual ecstasy. In “Confessions of a Mark” by the gay right-wing Japanese Yukio Mishima who committed ritual seppuku in 1970, one character has his first ejaculation over a reproduction of St. Sebastian. Screenshot from Derek Jarman's movie Sebastiane As far as Asia is concerned, those in the west tend to forget there was a near thriving gay culture in many Asia countries before the advent of Arab traders and the missionaries which followed in the wake of western colonists desperate to convert souls for Christ. Going back in time, Chinese emperors not infrequently had concubines of both sexes. In the fourth century BC a courtier named Long Yang-jun was offering such special services that Long Yang became a literary term for homosexuality. Even today, he is commemorated in international Long Yang Clubs. A tale often told concerns the tenth Han Dynasty Emperor Ai Ti (6 – 1 BC) who had numerous male lovers. Sharing his couch with his favourite Dong Xian, the young man fell asleep across the Emperor’s sleeve. Rather than wake him, the Emperor took his sword and simply cut off the royal sleeve. From then on, “cut sleeve” (断袖) became just one of many terms that appear throughout China’s literary history as a euphemism for homosexual love and devotion. Ai Ti's Lover Dong Xian Close by, homosexual activity was far from uncommon at court during the three main Korean Dynasties. During the first Silla Dynasty, King Hyegong was known for his adventures with other men. He was even described as “a man by appearance but a woman by nature.” One group of his elite warriors were the Hwarang or ‘Flower Boys’, so called because of their homoeroticism and femininity. During the later Koryŏ Dynasty, King Mokjong and King Gongmin are both on record as having several male lovers. When his wife died, Gongmin even went so far as to create a Ministry whose sole purpose was to seek out and recruit young men from all over the country to serve at his Court. His sexual partners were called “little brother attendants”! But as Asian countries developed their own independent identities in the 20th century, a new more public gay culture slowly emerged. As mentioned earlier, the novelist, playwright, essayist, actor and model Mishima became a Japanese gay icon, albeit a controversial one due to his extreme right-wing views. Although married, he frequented gay bars and had several affairs with men. Mishima giving the speech outside parliament before he died by committing retual seppuku Another more recent is the adored Hong Kong singer and actor, Leslie Cheung. Handsome in the extreme (as I can attest!) – even aged 44 he was described by TIME magazine as “so damned gorgeous” , he was discovered in a singing competition. Thereafter he became hugely successful as a silky-voiced singer, actor and songwriter. Unlike other movie stars, Leslie played several gay characters in Hong Kong movies, mirroring his secret life as a closet homosexual. He came to world attention in Chen Kaige’s 1993 movie Farewell My Concubine with a superb portrayal of a gay Chinese opera singer involved in a love triangle set against the violent political turmoils in 20th century China who ends up committing suicide. This gorgeous film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. By this time, Leslie was known as one of the Canto-pop “kings”, four Hong Kong singers who dominated record sales around Asia for over a decade. In 1997 he starred in another major movie, Happy Together. This is a dark tale of two 30ish gay Hong Kong lovers who decide to travel to Argentina’s Iguazu Falls on a tiny budget in an attempt to reignite their relationship. It does not work. Both end up seeking other sexual encounters. Throughout, the entire movie themes of loneliness and emotional pain are intertwined in a recurring cycle of mutual abuse and dependence. Happy Together gained worldwide acclaim, including another Palme d’Or for its director and a third Best Actor nomination for Leslie. Trailer for Wong Kar Wai's tense drama Happy Together. Two young Hong Kong lovers travel to see the Iguazu Falls in Argentina hoping this will rekindle their faiiing relationship but with disastrous results As a singer, in 1989 Leslie filled 10,000 seats in the Hong Kong Coliseum for an astonishing 33 consecutive nights. Eight years later at another series of concerts for which Jean-Paul Gaultier designed some of his costumes, he announced that he was gay and had had a lover for many years. It did nothing to upset his adoring female fans, although some of the guys were disappointed! What was not known then was that despite his legendary fame in Asia and his growing fame around the world, Leslie suffered from depression. By the turn of the century this had developed into severe clinical depression. On April 1st 2003 his manager was waiting for a meeting in the mezzanine lounge in Hong Kong’s Mandarin-Oriental Hotel. Unknown to her, Leslie was already in the hotel having a coffee on the 24th floor. Phoning to check why he was so late, she later claimed his last words were “I’ll be down in a moment!” He then jumped to his death. He was just 46 years old. Screen shot from one of Leslie Cheung's early movies showing Danny Chan, Leslie Cheung and Paul Chung Can you imagine three cuter young Hong Kong guys than those in the photo above? Actors Danny Chan, Leslie Cheung and Paul Chung in the 1981 Hong Kong movie On Trial. Danny and Leslie were closet gays at the time. All died tragically young. Danny, who always had a coterie of cute young western guys around him, was into drugs and died of a drug overdose aged 35. Paul like Leslie committed suicide aged just 30. Leslie had left a short note thanking his family, his lover and his psychiatrist. He added, “I can’t stand it anymore . . . In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?” His funeral was the largest Hong Kong had seen since the death of another movie icon, Bruce Lee, with many thousands flying in from all over Asia as well as North America. In a 2010 CNN poll Leslie was voted the Third Most Iconic Musician of all Time after Michael Jackson and The Beatles. Had he lived, he would be 69 on September 12.

Yes the officer did.

Since posts tend not to get noticed after page 1, permit me to report one from 2021 about my favourite Phuket restaurant. The text says it all. Medium priced, it is a great place to take friends and even boy special, as I did not several occasions. They loved it. The photos are from the restaurant's own site.

One additional point that I just realised. Looking at a short term insurance policy I had taken out for one trip, it specified in the proposal the countries I would visit. I assume if the couple had visited India without stating it in their proposal, that could be grounds for denying cover. This problem seems not to arise with annual policies, which I would certainly recommend for regular travellers.

No need to wait. I returned from Taipei 7 days ago. Fingerprints and photo still required.

Isn't the problem with hotel points that, like airline miles, they just keep going up? I recently posted esewhere about a 5 day stay at the Marriott on Phu Quoc back in 2019. Using points for 4 days a that time gave you a 5th day free. Now that fifth day has disappeared. Were I to try and book that exact same hotel, it would cost me in excess of 100^% more in terms of hotel points. I tried that on Cathay Pacific in the 1990s. They started a scheme with lifetime Marco Polo Club membership with access to first class lounges etc. for 2 million lifetime miles flown. By 1999 I was up to around 1.7 million. Then CX joined One World and cancelled the 2 million miles plan!

They were the three cities I mentioned - the subject of the post. Re Phu Cuoc I was not there to hook up. I had been in Ho Chi Minh City just beforehand and did meet a couple of guys there. Both were from the apps. Sadly neither were more than average. But I do read that there is quite a lot of sex going on in HCMC. Years earlier i had visited Hanoi and had a great time.

As mentioned, in order Hoi An, Danang and Hue. They are all easily accessible on one shortish trip.

Although I now get through the Fast Track Lane, I am certain it will be the same with all entering passsengers getting a chop in the passport.

You will love Danang and the area. I started a 10 day trip 5 years ago just as the airlines were stopping flights due to covid. Hoi An just 30 minutes away is a glorious little town, with lanterns lit up everywhere in the evenings. There is also at the west end a 15th century Japanese bridge In the centre of this area is the large city of Danang with its fabulously long beaches A little further north there is the old Imperial capital of Hue. The French destroyed much of it, espeically the imperial palace, but it is slowly being restored. This was the scene of a lot of fighting during the Vietnam War. Sorry we have moved somewhat away from Patpong! Not much gay life in the cities but my app started buzzing even before I was out of arrival at Danang airport.

How many times have we hear this tale? Travelling wihthout appropriate medical insurance is madness considering how relatively cheap it is. Reading the small print on policies is also vital. I have never heard of an exclusion due to first travelling to India but, assuming the insurance company does not want a law suit on its hands, I assume this has to be stated somewhere in the policy. The Thai Bt. 300 travel tax is also typical Thai madness if its intention is primarily to "repair and renovate public monuments"! How much will be left to cover genuine accidents from people who failed to take out insurance? Not much, I expect. So what? A new 300 baht tax is not going to put off 99.999% of potential Russian or Chinese tourists IMHO. But it should exclusively be for medical and repatriation costs.

Ah! When you call yourself a King in a republic, some of even your most faithful supporters will surely start having second thoughts! I'm sure it's been said before, but I totally fail to understand how Americans have fallen - twice - for the lies of a trumped (sic) up almost failed businessman whose mentoring was all at the hands of the vile and digusting Roy Cohn, that scourge of gay men who turned out to be a closet gay and died of AIDS. Interesting that in a 2008 edition of the New Yorker magazine, Cohn's assciate and Trump's buddy Roger Stone whom he pardoned, claimed, "Roy was not gay. He was a man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around . . . He was interested in power and poitics." Now there you have a Trumpism or two!

The only advice I'd offer is get rid of them fast! Although it's not quite the same situation, I had a Sydney-based friend who had to fly virtually weekly between Sydney and Melbourne. He preferred Ansett and had accumulated around 330,000 miles. Then in 2002 the airline went bust and with it the frequent flyer programme. He lost all his miles.

I hope you enjoyed it. I was there just before covid and used my last Marriott points to spend 5 nights at that beautiful hotel. Loved the trip. .

Anyone who has lived in Japan knows what earthquakes feel like as you experience them virtually every six weeks. All but a few are mild and only involve a gentle swaying. I was in a bad one in Kobe, though, which did a lot of destruction. Thankfully I was in a relatively new hotel which was structurally very sound. I have also felt several in Taipei, one resulting in a major jolt but litttle damage. The worst I experienced was in in 1989 in the little California town of Pacific Grove not too far from San Jose. I had arrived from Hong Kong that morning for an urgent meeting, hired a car and drove to Pacific Grove. Just as we completed our business around 5:00 pm, the whole wooden building shook, pictures fell off the walls - and instead of diving under desks the four of us just stood there, as if wondering 'what is happening'? By the time we realised it was an earthquake 30 seconds later, the shaking was over. But all the power in the town was out and the roads cracked. It was the worst earthquake in that area since the San Franisco quake in 1906. Part of the Bay bridge collapsed and fires broke out in one part of the city. I finally made it back to my hotel in Pacific Grove which was all in candlellight. Despite aftershocks, I was by then so tired I fell fast asleep. But getting back to SFO the following day for the midnight flight back to Hong Kong was a real problem.

Unlike @macaroni21 I have accumulated frequent flier miles ever since registering first with United in the late 1980s, and later due to company regulations on Northwest for trans Pacific. In Asia I joined Cathay Pacific's first programme named Passages introduced around 1990 which was a joint venture with Singapore Airlines and Malaysian. Then later its Asia Miles programme when it became one of the original seven One World carriers in 1999. Since then I have used miles for dozens of long haul freebie biz class trips from Asia to Europe, Australia and South America. Naturally it helped greatly when like me you have to fly regularly on company business in biz class as most of my several million miles resulting from business travel. As for the CNN report in the OP, British Airways has already changed its loyalty programme to howls of protests from existing top tier members in the media - and as evidenced by the number of websites on the subject. The number of points/miles/spending for free redemption miles and access to perks like lounges has been increased massively - and that is Massively with a capital M. Cathay Pacific is also in One World and I expect it will soon make yet another change to its loyalty programme. Some years ago pre-covid it changed its scheme. Before then I had flown BKK/Tokyo/Taipei/Bangkok for the same number of miles as BKK/Tokyo return. After the change, each sector is priced separately. When I checked the mileage required after the change, for the same route the required mileage was double. Unlike previous years, this year for the very first time I have finally found obtaining mileage tickets difficult. Some months ago I tried to book on Qatar for a long haul trip involving one change in Doha. I have used this carrier regularly for the same route, sometimes with cash on their regular special offers and several times using Asa Miles. When I gave the operator the entire month of March for a two week absence, no biz seats were available. He suggested calling a week later. I did, and this time extended the period to four months - any two week period between March 1 and June 30. All he could get me was one outward ticket. No return was available. I told him this is nonsense! Qatar have 5 daily flights out of BKK, one of which is an A380. They also have 2 daily flights to my onward destination. That all the mileage seats had already been 'sold' made no sense . . . . . . unless Qatar has started to do what Qantas did in the 2000s - open your mileage tickets a year in advance only to existing loyalty card members and wait till 5 or 6 months before the flights to make any remaining seats available to other One World carriers. But that's just a guess. Thankfully my long distance travel is now limited to one flight a year. Looking at a variety of videos on youtube, it seems the best way to obtain free miles in future will be (1) become an American citizen; (2) sign up for a credit card that immediately gives you 50,000+ miles on a certain carrier; (3) do all your spending on that card. But with the credit card and currency conversion charges if used abroad, I wonder: will that amount be worth the free ticket you get? I feel so incredibly lucky that I was able to maximise the benefits from initial mileage programmes whilst they lasted.

Not so welcome were the hoards of Chinese tourists. Ten years or so ago, one of the year's most popular movies in China was mostly filmed in Chiang Mai. In terms of box office, it came second only to Avatar in Chinese cinemas. Before then, the number of Chinese tourists in Chiang Mai was numbered in their thousands. Thereafter it was one milion+. Following that success, the popularity of Thai TV soap operas in China continued the trend. Just before covid, Chiang Mai airport recorded 1.79 million Chinese visitors. Although killed by covid and Chinese travel retrictions, the numbers are slowly on the way up, now joined by almost similar numbers of South Koreans. Not sure which I'd prefer - the small number of sexpats who used to make the city home or the huge regular influx of new tourists, some of whose numbers are reported to have sparked resentment among the local population.