PeterRS

I know of only two types of dinner cruise. One is on the monster boats for 100 or so people with dining on one deck and a booming disco on another. Personally I think they are ghastly! But yout bf might enjoy it. The other is on a much smaller teak barge with more elegant dining. Neither is cheap!

Prototypes of semi-standing seats are already being considered! These are said to be rather like sitting on a bicycle. Photo: CNN

I agree entirely with @fedssocr's comments. Bhutan was not the idyllic paradise that GNH indicated and portrayed to the world. I do think we have to bear in mind, though, that it must have been a hugely difficult country to administer - if only because of its massively hilly terrain. To get from Punakha to Bumthang, the furthest east on my visit, was a journey of nearly 14 hours over 2 mountain passes. Yet the actual distance is only 217 kms! I understand there is now a direct road taking well under 4 hours. I also think the previous King has to be given credit for all but forcing democracy on the people, hardly any of whom wanted it! As he had told my friend, he felt democracy was the only way forward for his country, citing the example of neighbouring Sikkim which was gobbled up by India after rioting in the 1970s. One thing disappointed me on that long trip. Due to the length pf that very long journey, I stupidly avoided a quick side trip to the Phobjhika Valley. This is where the rare black-necked cranes come to winter. I know from others they are a splendid and awe-inspiring sight. My guide (I was on a solo trip) and his colleague leading another tour group Poverty is what it is, no matter you may be happy with your lot An amusing sign on the door of a small Bumthang shop

That shows how I have avoided Heathrow for well over a decade until my most recent trip. It's an airport I loathe having to navigate 😂

As those reading the news during the day will have noticed, fire at an electricity sub-station which serves one of the world's busiest airports at London Heathrow cut all power to the airport this morning forcing it to shut down all its operations until midnight tonight UK time at the very earliest. The blaze also caused damage to the backup transformer and put it out of action as well. Houses around the airport have also been without power. I see from the latest BBC bulletin that power has been restored to three of the terminals, but not yet to Terminals 2 and 4. Yet the airport remains totally closed. Incoming flights have been diverted to airport around around the UK and northern Europe. But many have also been advised not to leave their departure airports. The UK's counter terrorism unit has been brought in to investigate the damage, even though the initial view is that this was an accident and not sabotage. If it was an accident, the airlines will be up in arms for passengers travelling on European airlines are entitled to considerable compensation for delayed flights. With overnight cancellations, affected passengers should be provided with hotel accommodation, meals and local transport. But understandably all Heathrow hotels are now full to overflowing. The question everyone is asking is: how can such a vital piece of the UK's transport infrastructure be dependent on just one source of power? Even when power resumes and the aorport operations are back up and running, expect days of chaos for airlines and passengers. If you are due to travel out of Heathrow in the next few days, find alternative flights from other airports - if you can! Good luck!

I should have added a gay element to the above post. Through a friend I got to know an Englishman on my visit who had lived in Bhutan for around 30 years. He had come to Bhutan to teach the King English, loved the country and stayed on. A single man it was widely rumoured both by my friend and others that he was gay. in addition to his teaching, he would take the very occasional tour groups around the country, allegedly having a young man in each town whom he visited regularly. I had the pleasure of meetring him when he came to my Thimphu hotel for drinks. He then invited me to join a short trek he was leading the following day. Hearing from him so much about the country, its history and the King's plans to introduce democracy was utterly fascinating. Sadly, no information was given to me about any gay life. Lastly, if anyone is thinking of visiting specifically to see the Himalayas, you'd be much better going to Nepal. The mountains in Bhutan are basically the lesser Himalayas. The most majestic 6,000, 7,000 and 8,000 meters high peaks are best viewed from places like the Pokhara Valley in Nepal.

Bhutan is perhaps best known for a comment made by its former King suggesting "gross national happiness" was a better guide for a nation than "Gross National Product." When I visited in 2007, the country had its fair share of poor people, but then it had only recently opened up to the rest of the world. Television had only been introduced in 2000 and the number of tourists that year was only around 7,000. By 2019 the number had increased to 316,000 and hotels had mushroomed. Whereas I stayed in a mix of simple hotels and guest houses, soon after you could spend five nights in different 5-star hotels. That said, I loved my two weeks in the country, the more so as every Bhutanese was friendly to what must to many have seemed like exotic foreign visitors. One problem for Bhutan was its only international airport was at Paro and the arrival through the hills and mountains so tricky that few pilots were certified to land there. Now Bhutan is catching on to the wellness travel concept and is constructing an entirely new wellness town with a much larger airport at Gelephu close to the indian border. Its new airport will have a capacity of 123 flighs a day, compared to Paro's five - all from short haul destinations. Artist's rendition of new Bhitan airport: Photo BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group Hopefully the new mass influx of tourism will not spoil the country as they have parts of Bali. As I discovered Bhutan is one of the gems of Asia and deserves to be seen and enjoyed. Hopefully once the new airport opens, the wealth of incoming visitors will trickle down to the poorer parts of the country. Paro Airport The Tiger's Nest Monastery percehd on a rockface 3,120 meters above ground level, the symbol of Bhutan A monk outside paro monastery Morning view Phallic Images are common in the countryside, often painted on the outside of houses The majestic Phunaka Dzong at the confluence of two rivers Monk descending monastery stais Wonderful artistic images adorn all monasteries https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/travel/bhutan-gelephu-international-airport-intl-hnk/index.html

Understood. I'd only suggest that when a comment is made in jest, in case members like me misinterpret it, it is normal for some amusing emoji or LOL to accompany it - as in your post most recently made. Mind you, I do accept that the emojis are so small it is very difficult to find an appropriate one. Try as I have, I can't find a winking one on the list - only one that also has a stuck out tongue which rather negates the meaning of the wink! LOL

I doubt if there is a manual anywhere that provides guidance. Surely you have told us about your Filipino boyfriend in Oz? Not sure how you met - nor even wish to know - but getting to know people is not an art form. What it does require is an ablity to mix and get on with others, and when you see someone you like, you start exuding your charm! I cannot speak for Pattaya, but I encountered a reasonable number of guys on the apps in Bangkok who were non-scene and looking for a longer-term companion.

I agree. But as a response to the OP I believe my reply was perfectly legitimate. In no way did it viollate what you term the reason why members continue to read the site. It merely offered an alternative possibility. Surely many of the news articles you post, often very interesting, are in many cases not related to that specific reason, woudn't you agree?

Thailand may be looking at The Philppiines. It is estimated that 11% of Filipinos are working abroad. In 2019 these workers remitted back home a staggering US32.2 billion (source wikipedia). Virtually all are legally overseas, though.

On the 14-hour flight to London I was on the CX A350 with the 'old' biz class cabin. Like @Lucky I found the seating remarkably comfortable. I also had the cutest flight attendant looking after me. I wished more than once there was a door!! 🙄 On my recent trip I took 4 CX flights and 2 BA flights. Every single one was totally full. No doubt one reason for the usual Qatar special offers which usually start in October for the following Spring not happening last year. I have usually got a 20% or 25% discount through these offers.

Duplicate - sorry!

To be openly gay in the latter days of the Russian Empire could be extremely risky. The celebrated composer Tchaikovsky, most famous for his music to the ballets “Swan Lake”, “The Nutcracker” and “Sleeping Beauty”, was very actively gay but had agonized while keeping his homosexuality private. Surprisingly, perhaps, his younger brother Modest was also gay. Unlike Pyotr, he had no qualms about it being known that he was gay. Even so, for more than a century his native country denied what was the obvious: Tchaikovsky was not gay, all claimed. Yet in 2013 as his own purges against gay men and women were breeding in his mind, Putin declared on Russian State Channel 1, “Tchaikovsky was gay – although it’s true that we do not love him because of that – but he was a great musician and we all love his music. So what?” Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893 was officially due to cholera. For a while some researchers believed he was forced to commit suicide after a threat of being ‘outed’ by a group of princeling students. That theory has now been well and truly debunked. Whatever the true reason for his death, Tchaikovsky was just 53. It is known that Tsar Alexander III revered the composer’s works, and members of the Imperial family frequently attended his operas and ballets. According to a diary entry by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Tchaikovsky’s death “grieved the Emperor and Empress greatly.” One Russian had few concerns about keeping his gay life private. An avowed homosexual, he was destined to change forever the way the world looked at art and the performing arts. Born in 1872 and so almost 21 when Tchaikovsky died, Serge Diaghilev, son of a bankrupt vodka distiller, spent his early years near the Russian city of Perm. At the age of 18 he moved to the capital, St. Petersburg, where he soon managed to find himself part of an artistically-inclined gay clique. With these new friends, he would socialize, swap boyfriends and occasionally cruise for trade in the city’s parks. According to the composer Nicolas Nabokov, “he was perhaps the first grand homosexual who asserted himself and was accepted as such by society.” Serge Diaghilev painted by Leon Bakst In the first decade of the 20th century, St. Petersburg was the place to be if you wanted to work in the classical arts. By 1906 Diaghilev was making a name for himself. He was asked to mount an exhibition of Russian art in Paris. Two years later he again visited Paris with a production of Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” featuring the most famous bass voice of the age, Fyodor Chaliapin. Chaliapin’s overly grand grave at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery But it was ballet the French really wanted to see, for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg was famed as the finest in the world. So in 1909 Diaghilev persuaded its best dancers to spend their summer holidays in Paris where he would mount a season performed under the title Les Ballets Russes. The season was a massive success. The exciting new choreography and bold new designs had a far more general appeal than to just the usual aristocratic ballet audience. As important was the astounding virtuosity of the lead dancers. Anna Pavlova (the Pavlova dessert of meringue, fruit and lashings of cream is named after her) was one of the prima ballerinas, but it was the astonishing lead male dancer who utterly electrified Paris. Everyone wanted to see the young, withdrawn and innocent star, Vaslav Nijinsky. Other than showing Paris his extraordinary leaps when he seemed suspended in the air and his supreme emotional involvement on stage, Diaghilev had another reason for wanting Nijinsky on this tour. The two had become lovers with Diaghilev having an almost Svengali-like hold over his 20-year-old protégé. Becoming a full member of the Imperial Ballet at the tender age of 17, Nijinsky quickly became a star. He also attracted the attention of the very rich playboy Prince Pavel Lvov. Lvov took the shy dancer under his wing – and into his bed – showering him and his family with gifts. Perhaps surprisingly today, given the times, Nijinsky’s mother was quite relieved about his homosexuality. She believed that marriage would only impede his career and had been proud to see her son with such a fine member of the establishment as Prince Lvov – and certainly grateful for his financial help. Yet Nijinsky was probably not at this time homosexual. “I loved him because I knew he wished me well,” he is quoted as saying about Prince Lvov. Well? Perhaps, but Lvov was also a good friend of Diaghilev and had no hesitation in lending him Nijinsky for a night or two. Innocent though he might have been, the young dancer knew well that Diaghilev could further his career. So he left Lvov to live with Diaghilev. Diaghilev with the composer Igor stravinsky So successful was that season of Les Ballet Russes that the ensemble was to continue to appear in Paris before and after World War 1, soon becoming a full-time company. The scope of Diaghilev’s achievement was enormous. Composers like Stravinsky, artists like Picasso and Matisse, and fashion designer Coco Chanel were engaged for works that were becoming increasingly more avant-garde. And then there were the scandals! Nijinsky wanted more artistic freedom. Diaghilev let him choreograph a work to the music of Claude Debussy. In “L’après-midi d’un faune”, Nijinsky caused a sensation when he appeared to be slowly masturbating with a scarf prior to a brief orgasmic shudder. But the outcry that followed was nothing compared to the riot which took place during the first night of Nijinsky’s choreography for Stravinsky’s brutal, pagan-like “Rite of Spring” which ends with a human sacrifice. Paris was in uproar. No one was more pleased than Diaghilev. “Exactly what I wanted,” he exclaimed! A painting of Nijinsky in “L’après-midi d’un faune” Diaghilev had a premonition he would die at sea. So when the company travelled to South America in 1913, he did not go. Unknown to him, one of what we would call today the company’s groupies, a Hungarian Romola de Pulszky, had her eye on Nijinsky and also arranged to be on board the vessel. Despite the fact that neither knew the language the other spoke, she made sure they became close on the long sea voyage. She informed him she was a Hungarian prima ballerina. When he discovered this was a lie, he ignored her. Yet she persisted and over time they became friends. Even after she was informed he was homosexual, she arranged their marriage in Buenos Aires. In fact it was within just a few days of the marriage that Nijinsky found out he had been duped. “I realised I had made a mistake, but the mistake was irreparable. I had put myself in the hands of someone who did not love me.” Worse, Romola did not even like ballet. Ballet was what Nijinsky lived for. On learning the news Diaghilev was incensed! He immediately fired his lover. What did he care? There were plenty more young men in the company and he was to be involved in affairs with several of them. For Nijinsky it was a total disaster. It’s hard to imagine the stress such a sensitive individual must have felt at being dismissed from the Ballet Russes, his sham marriage and the death around that time of several of his relatives. At his wife’s urging, he attempted to run his own company – without success. Soon he started suffering from schizophrenia. Over the years the most famous male dancer of all time was examined by many psychiatrists including Sigmund Freud. To no avail. After his last public performance aged just 27 he spent the rest of his life in an out of asylums. A typical impresario whose love of his work often exceeded his ability to finance it, Diaghilev continued to invite an ever-expanding group of young artists and composers to work with his company. By far his greatest legacy is that from the Ballet Russes came the founders of London’s Royal Ballet and New York’s City Ballet. A third completely resurrected the Paris Opera Ballet. All three companies are now amongst the world’s finest. Introduction to Diaghilev from a London Exhibition Diaghilev himself died penniless in Venice aged 57. Although his career with the Ballet Russes had spanned less than 25 years, in that time he had transformed the worlds of music, dance, theatre and the visual arts as no one else in history.

First, I would not go to Bumrungrad. It is the most expensive hospital in Bangkok. I suspect - hope - you may be over-reacting. I have had eye issues for decades. Now occasionally I see what seems lile a small checker board in front of my eyes. particularly when I have been working on the comuiter for a few hours. This generally lasts up to ten minutes. My retina specialist has told me there is nothing to be concerned about. Since you have an eye problem, I would first suggest you see an eye specialist. The Rutnin Eye hospital in Bangkok's Asoke has a variety of specialists and you can make appointments quickly. That would be my first stop. If they rule out specific eye problems, I would then head for a hospital emergency room. Not being a registered patient, you can not go to the Chulalongkorn public hospital. Personally, I would go to Bangkok Nursing Home (BNH) on Soi Convent where the emergency room is on the left on the ground floor as you enter. Excellent facilities and doctors at around half the price of Bumrungrad.

For some I know this to be true. Certainly not for me - and neither for two of my good friends who have Thai partners, both married. All three of our partners have their own jobs and none comes from the sex trade. Not one wishes to be a 'kept' boy!

Similarly I have always appreciated the facilities and service at BNH. I was particularly impressed when 3 or 4 years ago they offered 60%+ reductions for joint procedures (i.e. two rather than one). I took advantage of the heart MRI scan/carotid artery ultrasound and endoscopy/colonoscopy packages. Great value and I thought excellent doctors. That said, I have also enrolled in the King Chulalongkorn Public Hospital across from Lunphini Park. Although the public areas can sometimes seem like Grand Central Station, I have found the doctors excellent. Perhaps that is because most work there only 2 or 3 days a week. The cost for one visit is usually around 200 Bt. plus 50 Bt. hospital fee. The remainder of their weeks, the doctors spend in private hospitals, even Bumrungrad. Since I have had a retina problem in one eye for many years, they refer me to a Professor of Retinology at a fraction of the cost of facilities like the Rutnin Eye Hospital on Asoke.

Two suggestions, assuming you really plan to retire in Pattaya or elsewhere in Thailand. Buy a small apartment rather than rent. I know, this assumes you have the capital to purchase. If so, once the initial cost is out of the way, you will mostly only have management fees and maintenance to pay. Generally these will be a good deal less expensive annually than rent. I know some suggest, with good reason, that renting is preferable to buying. To each his own. Secondly, do what some retirees have done: find a regular boyfriend - and not necessarily from one of the bars. There are members who contribute to this and other forums who have regular non-scene boys. That then saves another load of cash. I have no idea how easy or otherwise this is in Pattaya. In Bangkok, as I have discovered after many years as a butterly, it is not especially difficult. On the other hand, if you are a butterfly who wants to flit around, you definitely need to factor into your budget quite a few thousand baht each week - an amount which, given the trend in recent years. is almost certain to go up over time.

Aside from Taylor Swift's concerts, it's been the hottest ticket in town. I'll say it straight out: "ABBA The Venture" is an incredible multi-million $$ spectacle as you've never seen one before. It has been running sold out in London for almost two years and could continue on - and on and on. Only the show's producers are considering taking it to other cities, principally in the USA, and there is talk that the London run will end later this year. Yes, they can transport it because the huge arena is actually purpose buit and can be dismantled and re-erected elsewhere with relative ease. After all, unlke a stage musical, it's only the 20-piece band and an army of technicians that also have to be transported. Thanks to George Lucas' company, Industrial Light and Magic, the megastars are not there. The Abba we see are state-of-the-art avatars of the Abba we knew and loved in their heyday of the 1970s. These digital versions sometimes look scaringly real. Lucas' company used no less than 160 motion picture cameras to capture the images. Before the show, endless emails will advise you to arrive early - as much as two hours early - to take in the atmosphere. Well, that was the one bit of oversell. I got to the east London arena an hour beforehand in time for a large vodka tonic, just one of the large variety of food and drink for sale. What is fun is to see lots of 40s, 50s, 60s and older dressed in sparkling ABBA gear all come to have a ball. And that food and beverage income along with ticket sales from the 2000 seated and 1,000 standing/dancing area tickets results in a reported bonanza of US$2 million per week. And what of the show itself? As you enter the arena, it all seems a bit boring. A semi circular wooden structure with a huge image of a Scandinavian forest projected across a huge area (yes, everything really is "huge"!) There is a buzz of excitement as the houselights dim, then a short pause before one of the loudest low notes you have ever heard. It makes the seats tremble and your gut flutter. Then begins the most extensive light show I have ever seen. It is all around and above you. In my time I have gawped at some amazing stage lighting, especially in Cirque di Soleil's "KA" in Las Vegas, But never before have I experienced anything like this. On stage - but upstage - are the four ABBA singers. I cannot tell you they were real people or not, but I am 99% certain they were real - only young doubles. They were just too far away. Soon we are regaled with a series of ABBA's greatest hits with the huge (that adjective again!) avatars on screens, looking and performing exactly as they did 50 years ago, their movements echoed precisely by the four upstage. "Waterloo", "Money, Money, Money", "Mamma Mia", "Take a Chance on Me", "The WInner Takes it All" and of course "Dancing Queen" are just some of the 22 songs in the playlist. Dancing was not confined to those in the three dancing areas. Many were out of their seats, arms aloft, their bodies swaying to the music. Everyone absolutely loved it! I have just one criticism. The four ABBA members came together in 2020 to re-record all the songs. The voices are still amazing, but the orchestral backing does sound too much like a 'mush' without the clarity you'd expect from state-of-the-art digital sound. But did anyone else find this a distraction? Not on your life! This was one show everyone came to enjoy and left feeling on top of the world. Amazing!

Like Emirates and Qatar whose joint orders for the now massively delayed Boeing 777X aircraft amount to over 50% of total orders, Cathay Pacific and others have been forced into an expensive retrofit of older 777 models with their planned new 777X cabins. Returning from London to Hong Kong at the week-end I was pleasantly surprised to find the 777 had Cathay's new Aria suites in biz class. These have a few modifications from the carrier's earlier long haul biz seats even after including the door. Frankly, I found the seat the most comfortable of any I have sat and reclined in. Even in Qatar's Q Suite I find when the seat is in the bed position with a thin matress over it I can still feel the metal join between upper and lower half of the seat. I then have to incline the seat slightly. A minor issue but one I hope QR addresses. With the new CX seat, the recline is seamless and very comfortable. And the linen-covered duvet is wonderfully large. The TV moniter is also larger, in a fixed position with a sharper picture and a large selection of movies and TV programmes. CX is still economising in small ways, though. Meals come without salt and pepper. Whereas the poached eggs for breakfast were superbly cooked, having to ask for condiments seems an unnecessary saving the more so when cabin staff are busy and these can take a minute or two to arrive. There were also no hot towels prior to landing. Still, that's basically nitpicking. In terms of the overall flight, I'd definitely take CX if given a choice. Re the 777X, the criticism of the huge delay in getting this aricraft into service is mounting almost daily. Due to enter service in 2020, Boeing is now saying this will happen next year. Sir Tim Clark, the Chairman of Emirates with the largest order, doubts even this is possible. Sources within Emirates suggest 2028.

I wonder why this is a "sad story". Making movies, unless with some form of government or an official TV station input (e.g. BBC, Canal+, National Film Board of Canada etc.), is a highly risky business. The number of successes a company may have had in the past is also no guarantee that the next one will not be a bomb. Just ask Disney whose recent remake of "Snow White" has had dire reviews. The Guardian's review headline today states "Exhaustingly Awful". Those of us of a certain age will recall "Heaven's Gate" whose loss adjusted for inflation is US$155 million. More recently the ghastly movie version of Lloyd Webber's hugely suggessful stage musical "Cats" and Spielberg's far better version of "West Side Story" have each so far lost well over $100 million. As that Nation article suggests, Thai fIlm makers and their investors seem to have been paying insufficient attention to the market. Unless you do your research and give the audience either what they want or you have the budget to persuade them that your movie is what they want to see, a movie is far more likely to bomb at the box office. Naturally there have been exceptions. Think of 1999 the indie movie "The Blair Witch Project" whose initial cost of around $60,000 saw a return of $248 million.The most recent "Call Me By Your Nam" was financially successful principally because of its appeal to a particular market and a tight budget of £3.4 million. Against that cinema revenues to date are $41 million with more expected to come from licensing and TV sales. Exceptions, though, are the rule! 😮‍💨

Sadly I cannot see either the Philippines or Vietnam being a position where they either stand up to China - or want to, if push really comes to shove. The Spratly Islands dispute has several countries up in arms, including Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei in addition to the Philippines and Vietnam. No doubt the claimants are far from happy about it, but China has already taken many measures to ensure that the others are going to have problems if they really do want to take them. Alongside China's military might and air power, the other nations are mere minnows. In 2016 a dispute between China and the Philippines brought up at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines. Yet China has since then constructed ports, airstrips and military installations on the Islands. All the Philippines and other Asian nations have been able to do is talk - and strengthen alliances with the USA. The US wants to maintain several principles, including Nonuse of Force in Settling Disputes and Freedom of the Seas. So far it has done little to stop China's expansion on the Islands. With increasing US sanctions against Chinese manufacturers resulting in China moving many production facilities into Vietnam, I simply cannot see Vietnam upsetting that economic applecart by taking an even greater position against China re the Spratlys.

I wonder if any of us would have made that comment, say, 20 years ago? And I expect probably not. Then we regarded China as the next big hope for the world's economy, the more so as Japan was only finally coming out of a decade of deep economic recession. China was expanding at such a fast rate and everyone seemed to want to be associated with it. We knew about the one-child policy and the deaths of so many girl children. We didn't like it but we probably accepted the policy was essential to get the population growth rate of an underdeveloped country down. Just as Thailand had in the years after 1960 when the fertility rate was almost 6 children per family. It is now just under 2, but draconian measures were not needed. Khun Meechai and his popularisation of condoms helped achieve that. What is so different now is that whereas China's leaders were then regarded as relatively benign and were following Deng Xiao-ping's policies of openess and economic development, Xi Jin-ping comes along and the ghosts of Mao, the dreadful Premier Li Peng and the old guard come back to haunt the country and the world. The extraordinary thing about Xi is that he comes from quite a liberal family. His father was a pal of Mao on the Great March and was made a Vice Premier in the new government. He advocated tolerance towards Tibet and even hosted the Dalai Lama in his home. His son's hard line probably developed after his father was denounced when the younger Xi was 9. Yet his father was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution and became the top Party official in the soon to be economic powerhouse of Guangdong Province. China's top leadership was for decades after Mao a major struggle between the old guard and the reformers. I have no doubt that Xi, like others, lobbied hard for the top job. His campaign against corruption at high levels of the party was popular with the public, but that can not have been the only reason he got it. Did the reformer Presidents and Premiers who preceded him think he would continue their policies? Who was promoting him? We'll probably never know. But in the world at large, I think few expected he would become such a hard-line President much more in line with Mao than Deng?. As the country's military has expanded under Xi, I do not know which Asian country could stand up to him. Perhaps Japan, but only because it is inextricably linked to the power of the USA. The other Asian countries are either too small or too weak. What will be interesting in the future will be Xi's position if anything happens to Putin. And when, as inevitably he will either through death or assassination, he passes from the scene, who will take over and will the reformers once again find a way to the top job? But all that is going to come too late for many consideing where they might retire. South America and even Portugal sudddenly seem a lot more attractive!

I agree with much of @macaroni21's reasoning. I agree too with @reader's comment about location. And I suggest they are related, at least a litle. Westerners and expats knew about Sunee from a variety of sources. Asian tourists, for the most part, had no clue about it. I don't read Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other Asian gay blogsites but in one English one based in Singapore I rarely ever read about Sunee. This was long after the under-age issue when it was effectively dead to all but those who had experienced it or heard about it. Sunee's location was definitely not somewhere a newbie gay tourist would accidentally stumble upon. Did any of the gay venues in Sunee ever attempt to market their service - even to the usual western expats? They just assumed since customers had been coming, they would continue to come. Word of mouth! For example, some will remember that there used to be various free gay publications available in many of the gay bars in Bangkok - and probably Pattaya and Chiang Mai. I cannot recall when the last one disappeared, but most were in English or Thai - with one or two being in both languages. Was there ever even one article in Chinese about Sunee Plaza and/or one ad from one of the Sunee venues? If so, i do not recall any. If people do not know you exist, you have to be mighty clever to keep going on any kind of commercial basis.

I guess you do not read. I have NEVER written "the farmer's stubbornness was due to traditional Japanese values". I have NEVER written "the whole country was behind him". As for your comparison with Luigi Mangioni, there is absolutley zero comparison. He is not Japanese and he does not live in Japan! What I have written is "Japan is Japan and trying to divine Japanese logic is all but impossible! I have always said that of Thai logic which in many senses is different from western logic, but I think Japan is even more difficult for westerners to comprehend." Yet you continue to reject this and confuse your own western values with those of people in Japan. No doubt you will continue posting silly childish cartooons which have nothing to do with the subject of one Japanese farmer in Japan. End of discussion on my part.