PeterRS

Very well. Part of the original post was wrong, especially the heading,. I apologise unreservedly for those comments. With this I agree. As regular readers will be aware, I virtually always cite sources especially in my posts. And I am equally aware that sources may themselves not be correct. I have written several posts about the various scam centres in Myanmar, even posting a map of their location. A variety of references in several reliable websites claim that the number of people trafficked to man these centres varies from "more than 100,000" (BBC and The Guardian) to "up to 300,000" (AP and PBS). That's a huge difference but barring official figures, the use of "more than" and "up to" gives each source a reasonable 'out'. But that is really beside the point. My headline was wrong and allegation regarding theft of the Diana sappire wrong. Part of the post was certainly accurate, though. As @khaolakguy has stated - and I also stated - the drip, drip of scandal surrounding Prince Andrew, his ex-wife nd Epstein is not new. The issue regarding his being possibly evicted from his home is very recent, as both of us have stated. Seeing who has criticised the posting of 'fake' news has been interesting as three have critcised me in the past, in two cases with wrong statements which were not corrected and one for breaking Board rules. None apologised. But that was then and this is now. Chat rooms remain alive largely because of their diversity which I embrace. I apologise again.

Whilst I totally agree the amount is basically peanuts, do remember, though, that in the 'saying' this is for just 5 minutes! A one hour session in ¥ would therefore be 12,000 baht. I think even those girls in Soi Thaniya would be very happy with that!

Not quite in the same league and on a bit of a tangent, for years it was claimed that the day after the sinking of the Titanic the headline in the Aberdeen Press & Journal was "North East Man Lost At Sea." This was later easily disproved as a fabrication. The city does have one link with that disasterm however. The helmsman at the time the iceberg was hit was a man named Robert Hichins. Although neither Aberdonian nor Scottish, Hichins is buried in a graveyard in Aberdeen's Trinity Cemetery.

I have tried to make a long distance relationship work more than once, and both broke down. No matter how sincere the young man is in what he said, I suggest you have to know him over a much longer period before going into a boyfriend relationship (i.e. several visits in a couple of which you spend virtually all your time with him). Good luck.

As one who has stayed at the Capella on the river in Bangkok, I doubt if price matters much to you LOL

My one problem with a deaf driver would be their inability to hear traffic noises around them. A crazy driver heading at speed towards your taxi from the left or right might escape his peripheral vision.

I basically agree with your reasoning. David Hockney was a simple lad from the north of England. He dabbled in painting as a child and wanted to become an artist. Like the young Picasso and so many other artists, he never expected to become famous. That one of his paintings (see the Art forum) might be about to go under the hammer at auction for an expected US$45 million would no doubt have staggered him when he started his career. As with some of the paintings of other artists, their value is partly in the enjoyment of the buyer and partly in the investment possibility. What I often wonder is how anyone knows how the art market will develop. As far as I know, the great masters of the past like Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Donatello, Durer & co made just an average living. They surely could not have known that future generations would place enormous cash value on their paintings and sculptures. Did even artists of later centuries like Constable, Goya and Delacroix consider increasing values? Canaletto was surely just a scenic artist rather like those who one sees today outside major buildings and palaces in Europe and elsewhere whose quickly worked paintings sell for peanuts. Canaletto's were basically sold to tourists as a memento of their visit to Venice on the Grand Tour. Yet Joseph Smith, the British Consul in the city, liked them, bought 50 and became the artist's agent. Smith later sold many to the King of England. One recently sold for a whopping $43.9 million at Christie's in July this year. What I wonder makes this any different from most of his other Venice paintings? The most expensive Canaletto ever sold "Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day" I am all for reproductions. I have a smaller-sized reproduction of my favourite painting by Manet. I even have it as a fridge magnet! But most of the paintings in my flat were purchased for peanuts and are no doubt still worth only peanuts. But I enjoy them - and that is surely the main issue.

Is your living room that big?

I suggest we should also consider some of the good the late Queen did for Thailand. The annual tours around the country by the late King and Queen were greatly anticipated by most in the towns and villages. Queen Sirikit also did something to lessen the effect of the lese majeste law. When it was first produced, reference to and music from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical The King & I was banned in Thailand. Even so, encouraged by the young Queen the Jim Thomson Silk Company had provided the costume designer with silk for all the costumes used in the production. Her Majesty even went further by herself attending a performance and then posing for photographs with Yul Brynner backstage. The Queen standing next to Yul Brynner and his wife after watching The King & I on Broadway This alone did a great deal to encourage a worldwide interest in silk made in Thailand. When the Abba musical Chess opened in the 1980s it was assumed that its controversial disco number about nightlife in Thailand "One Night in Bangkok" would be banned. It wasn't, although when the movie Anna and the King was being filmed a decade later, the ultra-conservative Thai government would not permit its being filmed in Thailand. The producers had quickly to move filming to Malaysia.

I stated at the outset that my sources might not all be accurate. There is one definite error - that the home of Prince Andrew has 70 rooms. The number should have been 30. That was definitely my mistake. 10 hours ago, khaolakguy said: What drivel! To post such nonsense without a single credible source is just silly. Just tittle tat That statement assumes that all that the post included is drivel and that is rubbish. Much of what was written is true, especially the the long detail on Prince Andrew and his wife with their multiple Epstein connections which has also been written elsewhere on this Board. Much of this has appeared in the daily media. https://people.com/epstein-claimed-emails-sarah-ferguson-celebrated-prison-release-daughters-report-11833147 I accept that the action against Queen Camilla is certainly more doubtful despite its appearing in a mass of videos (not merely the usual few click-bait versions) and repeated in at least one print media. If that is discovered to be untrue, naturally I apologise, especially for the heading. That major changes are afoot in the Royal Family is certain, although the secrecy surrounding all Palace intrigue inevitably leads to speculation. The increasing influence of Prince William even on his sick father is also fact.

There is an old proverb that starts "For the want of a nail the shoe was lost . . ." It is basically a reminder that seemingly unimportant acts can end up having grave consequences. If any family has learned a series of such lessons it is the British Royal Family. Virtually unreported internationally and but the stuff of gossip in Britain and through a series of youtube videos, in the last few weeks the royals have undergone an upheaval of seismic proportions. It is a highly complicated story and my sources may not have it all accurate. But enough seems to form the basic truth. The most amazing decision by King Charles is his announcement that Queen Camilla has from henceforth given up her title and all her royal duties. Members of her family are no longer permitted to enter royal residences. Camilla of course is the "other woman", the woman who King Charles loved before he even met and married Diana and with whom he carried on an affair right through that marriage. After Diana's death, over many stage-managed years, the couple remained in love until even Diana's sons approved of their father's remarriage. And it is surely a supreme irony that the late and adored Princess has played a key role in Camilla's downfall. Before looking further at this event that has shocked Britain, King Charles has had to deal with the fallout of the Epstein affair and the certainty that both his brother Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Andrew's wife, the former Sarah Ferguson, were heavily involved with Epstein. In what has been a very long drip, drip of excesively negative PR, both have been found guilty in the eyes of the public and officials of lying about their association with the pedophile. It seems certain that Andrew did have sex several times with the late Virginia Giuffre and the Duchess, who continuously overspent and was always in need of cash, continued to be in touch seeking yet more "loans" from Epstein, even after stating in public that she had severed all connection with him. Although divorced decades ago, for whatever reason they still live together in a 70-room home called The Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. The lease was negotiated many years ago but results in the Duke paying no annual rent. The British public is now doing its best to get them out which would take an Act of Parliament. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to counter the massively increasing public disdain, the Duke announced he was giving up his title and all his royal duties. His wife would do the same. But the furore has only increased. This week the King finally acted regarding his younger son, the Duke of Sussex married to the actress Megan Markle who live in California. They have been a thorn in the side of the royal family for some years. From now on, they will not be entitled to use the titles Duke and Duchess and their children will not be permitted to use the title of Royal Highnesses. But back to Princess Diana and how her influence resulted in the forced abdication of Britain's Queen. When Diana married the present King Charles, Queen Elizabeth gave her a very large oval sapphire. In due course, Diana had this fashioned into a choker surrounded by diamonds and with seven strands of pearls. It became one of her most recognised pieces of jewellery and she wore it when she danced with John Travolta. Photograph: Getty Images The sapphire matched the wedding ring given her by Charles. Catherine, the wife of Charles' heir Prince William, was given the ring and wears it I believe every day. The sapphire and diamonds in the choker were later made into a brooch which Diana also wore quite regularly. It belongs to the royal collection held in a special vault in Buckingham Palace. On Diana's death, the Queen had agreed that the brooch be given to Catherine, to the annoyance of Camilla who wanted it. But recently this brooch had mysteriously appeared at an auction house in Geneva. Was it real? Or was it just a copy? (The vdo states the brooch haad been missng for years. This is not true). But there was fortunately a considerable amount of paperwork associated with the brooch and royal investigators got to work. Camilla used her influence to gently and subtly place the blame on Catherine. Catherine even dicovered she was being followed. They soon discovered a secret go-between who identified the seller. This had been a resident of Ray Mill House in the English countryside. This happens to be Camilla's private residence where she often meets up with her former family. The King and his advisors were initially skeptical but it was Prince Wiliam, fiercely protective of his mother's memory, who told his father that action had to be taken. This could not be hushed up behind closed doors. As William's wife said to King Charles, "The 'crown' must always be protected, no matter what it costs personally." The King's sister, Princess Anne, was also very firm with her brother that action had to be taken quickly. It seems likely that Charles initially just did not believe what he was being told - or did not want to believe. When the theft was discovered, a double entry was also discovered in the logs for entry to the Royal Vault some weeks before the sapphire appeared in Switzerland. It seemed clearly to be an inside job. And one who has now been blamed in some of the media is a thief in the employ of one of Camilla's sons by her previous marriage. When photgraphs appeared of his young daughter wearing a brooch suspicioually like that of Diana, suspicion fell on Camilla. Back in July as all this was becoming known privately within the royal family, William called a family meeting when his father was on holiday. He said the jewel had to be returned. Camilla went on the attack and said she was entitled to borrow temporarily jewellry for her family. Allegedly she stormed out of the meeting with her granddaughter. Unknown to the thief, the piece of jewellry discovered in Switzerland had a clue - a short inscription on the back ending with the letter 'D'. Although there will likely be more changes in Britain's Royal Family, one who has been unscathed is the King's youngest brother, Priince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh. His wife, Sophie, was a greeat friend of the late Queen and it seems this couple will now be much more in the royal spotlight. Their (very handsome) 17 year-old son has been elevated to a Prince and he, too, will likely be part of the the new royal line up. With Charles still being treated for prostate cancer, these changes may all have come at a very appropriate time. The new Prince James walking with his father Prince Edward.

Apologies to @mauRICE who actually posted this news under the Thailand forum a couple of hours or so before I posted the above. I had not thought about checking with the Thailand forum as I just assumed this would be international news.

Agreed, but you are talking about the jewels which beonged to the Bourbon Dynasty whose King and Queen were executed during the Revolution. The jewels which were stolen essentially belonged to women directly related to the later rulers of France who had been crowned Emperors. To all intents and purposes they were French royalty in the 19th century and their extant jewels can be called as most commentators have done crown jewels. Athough there are subtle differences between the two titles, in this case there was little difference, I believe, between the nomenclature of King and Emperor.

Or even if you're lucky @Olddaddy!!!! Seriously, grab Bangkok by the scruff of the neck and take advantage of everything it offers. 200 lbs is around 90 kg and there are a lot of chubb chasers around. At 6' tall, though, you are unikely to be considered even chubby! If you have some free time, cruise around a shopping mall or two and keep your gaydar active. Places like Paragon and Icon Siam always seem to have so many cute guys, at least a few are likely to be gay and horny!

I often use ears when trying to identify if one person is actually another. The earlier profile pic has very rounded, flat and relatively boring ears. Your lecturer's ears, on the other hand, look totally different and much more characterful(!) I would say they are definitely not the same man.

Oh dear, shame on you @vinapu! I detect your love of irony! But must respond! Yes, the Faberge Eggs are useless in that you can do nothing with them other than constantly admire them. But I suggest you forget that each held some meaning for some people. They were gifts expressing, I assume, love and commitment. There is much beauty in the world that is literally priceless - but only in the sense that it costs nothing. I see orchids, bougainvilla and other flowers almost every day. Perhaps the original bulbs had cost a few baht but seeing them brings me a feeling of happiness. From my flat I have witnessed some quite gorgeous sunsets. Beautiful, useless and priceless! In the same way I have some inexpensive artefacts that I have picked up on many of my various travels. Seeing them reminds me of those travels and their joys (mostly). I for one would love to see a Faberge Egg or any artefact by Faberge on a table in my flat every day (although i dread to think what the increase in the household insurance premium would be!) People spend their cash in a variety of ways. We may scoff at the wealth of the Tsars and other rulers of Empires and what that wealth enabled them to buy. But at least we now have the joy of actually seeing them if that is what we like.

Totally agree with all of @unicorn's last post.

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the mother of Thailand's King and widow of the much loved monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away last night after a long illness. May her soul rest in peace.

If the boy has come from an agency, the chance of his stealng from you is zero. If through the apps, perhaps 1% at most. Like most cities, you have to beware of pickpockets but theft generally is very uncommon in Japan. I read somewhere that the most likely items to be stolen are umbrellas left at the entrance to restaurants - and that is mostly because someone picks up the wrong umbrella!

Assuming that perhaps the customer had purchased a bottle of whisky and was sharing that with the boys, that scenario happened back in the days of Solid Bar, a small unassuming bar down from the Mango Tree Restaurant with no shows but very willing mostly twink-type guys. It never had many customers but I used to go occasionally with a friend on a Sunday after a nice dinner somewhere close by. One evening we entered to find the five cutest boys sitting sharing a bottle of Scotch with a farang. All were smoking, despite the fact there were three large "no smoking" signs on the walls. My friend and I were pissed off that he had the cutest boys at his table, but more that all were smoking. As @vinapu has pointed out elsewhere, audacity is my middle name. So I went over to ask very politely if those at that table refrain from smoking. Without any seeming bad feeling, they all stubbed out their cigarettes. A few minutes later the farang came over to our table. I was slightly apprehensive that we were about to enter a verbal sparring match, but no. He merely politely pointed out that he was the co-owner of the bar. If, he said, he enforced the law about no smoking in bars, he would be out of business. Fair point, and I did not bother to ask why he had the five best-looking guys at his table. Solid was never a popular bar which was a shame as some of the boys were fun to spend time with. Even allowing for smoking, it closed after about three years or so.

True, but the problem with mushrooms is they usually have quite a strong flavour. So putting them aside only gets rid of part of the problem. How did you know my second name?

It very definitely does. If you happen to be an art lover with just a few millions in your bank accounts, paying professional art thieves to steal a certain work of art or series of such works is peanuts. A few people enjoy having a masterpiece somewhere in their homes just to enjoy looking at it. It is not necessarily just paintings. Among the most valuable objects d'art ever made were the 57 now near priceless Easter Eggs by the jeweller Faberge for the Tsars of Russia. One was given each Easter by the Tsar to his wife until the last Tsar who had two made each year, one of which was for his mother. After the Russian Revolution, many art treasures were sold off by the new communist government at near knock-down prices. The Eggs ended up in various hands, including the British Royal family, but most by entrepreneurs like Malcolm Forbes and oil gazillionaire Armand Hammer, the latter owning 14. I recall on my first visit to New York in 1978 I went to the headquarters of the Forbes businesses where the nine Eggs he had purchased were displayed in individual niches in the lobby which anyone could visit. These were purchased by a Russian squilionaire and returned to Russia in 2004. 15 can now be viewed in a relatively new Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, and others in the Kremlin Museum. But 6 remain unaccounted for including the 1886 Egg. Someone no doubt has them! The Eggs were not just beutifully fashioned oval eggs bedecked by jewellery. Each had something even more exquisit inside. Below are two of the Eggs. This is a photo of five of the missing Eggs.

It can also happen when the young man is not an escort. I wrote some years ago about getting to know a handsome waiter in one of the city's best Italian restaurants not far from my apartment. I was a guest of a client, I hasten to add. The waiter was 24, spoke good English and I chatted with him on several visits. Eventually I summoned up the courage to ask if he would like to see a popular entertainment event which was visiting Bangkok a couple of months later. He surprised me by agreeing. In the meantime, since that restaurant also had a very reasonably priced set-lunch menu, I had gone two or three times with gay friends. So I was certain the waiter was aware I am gay. Anyway, we went to see the show which he loved and then to a nice hotel bar for drinks and snacks during which I invited him to come and stay if he ever had a late function at the restaurant. Not sure if he himself might be gay since he always acted more like a straight guy, I stressed I had a large sofa which turns into a bed. He began to come round several times and each time stayed the night. One was on his birthday in December 2007. When I learned he would not be having a party, I bought a nice cake and candles. He was so happy and happily I still have these photos. A couple of times, he knocked on my bedroom door and asked if he could sleep with me. Silly question!! But it was all very vanilla and I still had the impression he was more straight than gay. Our evenings together were mostly spent on the sofa chatting and joking. Over many months he became a very good friend and I just loved being in his company. After about six months, he said he wanted to work overseas. The popular Bangkok Mango Tree restaurant was opening a branch in Dubai and offered him a job. I checked the contract for him and made some suggestions. For the first few months, he loved it. We were exchanging messages virtually every two days and he described his excitement at being outside Thailand. After four months, though, it was obvious the attraction of Dubai had worn off and he wanted to come home. So even though he'd be breaking the contract, I happily purchased an air ticket for him. After another three months, he decided he wanted to see more of the world and had been offered a job with a major cruise company sailing the Baltic. I tried to dissuade him, reminding him that housekeeping on cruise lines is a 7-day a week job. He would have to wait months before he got a few weeks off. But he insisted and so off he went. With emails expensive on these ships, he would write to me when he had a few hours off at the ports he was visiting. A few days before his month off, he contacted me, told me when he'd be returning and hoped he could stay with me. When he arrived at BKK, he called to say he'd first go to his home town in Issarn to see his family. He gave me the date he'd be arriving in Bangkok. And that was the last I ever heard from him! I wrote him several emails. I was concerned that maybe he'd been in an accident. I even told him that if he had perhaps got married, I'd still love to hear from him. Or even if he now had a gay lover. My mind went through all possible reasons. My emails all went through, but I never received a reply. I knew a couple of his friends in Bangkok. They told me they did not know where he was - but I had long since realised not to trust what a Thai tells me, the more so when it concerns a fellow Thai. And so there the story ends. I'd known him for almost two years and we had become extremely friendly for about 18 months. I have a horrible feeling that he might have somehow died on that trip home. But who knows? I will never find out. As @durian points out in his earlier post, it is the not knowing that is the "monster".

From what I understand, the people that steal rare paintings have no desire to profit from them. They may be middle-men for the mega-rich art lovers who hang them in concealed galleries in their mansions and then sit and view them from time to time. Perhaps in the fullness of time, one of their accomplices may claim to have found it and reutrn it for a big reward. But that is generally rare. You are probably too young to remember the first James Bond movie, Dr No. The year before the film came out, a famous portrait by Goya of The Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Gallery in London. It was eventually returned four yers later - but as you can see in the clip below, it featured in the movie as James Bond does a double-take on seeing it.

We clearly share the same dislike of mushrooms. Many years ago I was bumped up to first class on a fight from Vancouver to Hong Kong. All four main dishes had mushrooms! And then back in business class for the Hong Kong/Bangkok sector, once again all three main courses had mushrooms. I wrote to CX but cannot recall their reply. Seems that vegetables are frequently added to chicken and cashew nut dishes, something to do with bringing out flavour. I can recall occasionally having some onion and very few red or green peppers. But I do not recall mushrooms and would ask the waiter that they not be added.