Rogie

Thanks Christian - a really intriguing quiz with excellent photos. I certainly hadn't realised the significance of the 'architectural element' before, although I have seen it but the once, and took some photos as it struck me as very unusual at the time. So, can I answer your quiz? I failed all of them, no idea at all, except D. I knew that one straightaway as I took the klong taxi one day and alighted at the stop where I took photos of the 'element' on the bridge over the canal. I don't have my Bangkok map to hand and can't remember the name of that bridge. It's within walking distance of the Golden Mount as I recall. Merry Christmas! Rog

True The signature is that of Christopher Grayling, the Justice Secretary. As to what it means I guess it means what it says! One or two things strike me as a bit odd, firstly the distinctly old-fashioned phraseology, and second the rather off-putting, browny, colour of the letter. In addition the whole thing looks, in this day and age where more or less anyone with decent software can come up with a fresh imaginative letter or document, very amateurish, and, once again, gives a distinctly old-fashioned appearance. I suspect the 'style' of this letter has been cobbled together by some junior clerk in the Justice Secretary's Department so as to try and resemble the sort of document that might have been issued following either of the World Wars. Witness this comment: So I can't see how they can have simply dug out a pre-existing template from a dusty drawer. Hence my cobbling together comment. I hope I am wrong though! Ultimately does it really matter whose signature is on the bottom of the letter, or whether it looks old-fashioned or up-to-date? Even so, whoever came up with the form of words and general appearance of that letter might have tried a bit harder!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10536246/Alan-Turing-granted-Royal-pardon-by-the-Queen.html http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/24/enigma-codebreaker-alan-turing-royal-pardon http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25495315

Cape versus toga Maybe we should ask Khortose, are you more the caped crusader type or more prone to casting off your toga on the first date? . . . all 6 yards of it !! (about 6 metres for you metricians). Cape Toga

Thanks Trailrider. How long were you in Hanoi? I agree it's a nice city, but in many places felt more like a town to me, but I've only been there once - would love to return one day. I always thought to myself it must've been better in the days before the 'onrush' of motorcys, they were everywhere, but I'm just nitpicking! For anyone thinking of a visit, there is also an excellent thread on this forum. If you read it you'll get various experiences, for example there were mixed opinions among our members as to whether the Vietnamese are welcoming to foreigners. http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8857-what-to-see-in-vietnam/?do=findComment&comment=67881

Public apology time! I inadvertently referred to Scooby as . . . well it's there for all to see. Obviously, even though I'm not American, Charles M. Schulz has a lot to answer for . . .

Ok, some of you are getting off by claiming to've spotted the latest troll. As for all of us being dunces until up popped some bright spark on TBB, I cannot've been the only one whose first reaction to reading the OP was to hit the report button (so recently advocated by the appropriately-named Snoopy, although to be fair reporting a possible troll post is hardly the most pressing thing a moderator might encounter) - but just like in the Cuban missile crisis I took my finger off the button. I'm with those who've taken the OP at face value and contributed as best they could. No egg on our faces if the doom-mongers are proved right, so what if he's getting off on all this - boy! that'd be some irony in view of his bf's not at all typical difficulties . . .

Clearly you're the appol(o) of his eye

If is is the opposite of isn't, then what's the opposite of ain't? 'cos it's working fine for me!

So if he doesn't seem typical during sex, how about other shared intimacies? Is he a generally affectionate guy, for example does he enjoy kissing, holding hands, having a cuddle, and generally enjoying sharing his times with you. How do you get on in other ways, for example do you argue or bicker, or is he always sweet-natured and loving? I could go on and on in an effort to get a feel for how your relationship is going, but maybe you don't want that, fair enough, you simply asked if your bf was typical, and you've got your answer. But if you want us to comment further, at least as far as I am concerned, I need to know more. Up to you if you want to tell us.

Yesterday I tried to upload a pic into one of my posts (see comment in the Off to Thailand thread). Just tried again and still cannot upload. I tried a few times, in all cases far less than 12MB.

Interesting observation. The Russians were unsmilingly sober and by implication the (non-Russian) falungs were a little under-the-influence and despite that giving off a more pervading feeling of unhappiness. Maybe that's a foretaste of Pattaya life in the not-too-distant future when Russians, instead of flocking to Pattaya en famille, 'spirit' themselves off on their tod to avail themselves of formerly forbidden fruit only to fall into the well-trodden trap sprung by many a falung before them, to which one may add to the "libido, funds and friends gone", stores selling bottles of cheap vodka with 'authentic' Cyrillic script sufficiently tempting to anaesthetise them back into the comfort zone of Mother Russia. Sorry, I went on a bit there, now back to your far more interesting experiences . . . Vinapu, Keep going full steam ahead with your excellent reports. As already acknowledged, your fondness for massages is most impressive! (Mods: I tried to upload a pic to accompany this post but wasn't able to. Anyone else?)

Mystery of rotating Egyptian statue solved I'd love to be able to report I'd solved the mystery, perhaps the biggest on-going mystery since the failure to crack Beachlover's real identity: Rather more mundane it turns out. . . http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10461987/Mystery-of-rotating-Egyptian-statue-solved.html

Now, where's Jomtien when you need him?

Is this what you mean Koko? So, what was that all about? Was he really so busy he couldn't attend, or is did he just decide to skip it. I read that Kennedy was invited to attend the centenary in 1963 but went to Dallas instead. Wow, it's tempting to wonder in what ways America would've been different now had JFK opted for Gettysburg. . . By the way, good thread on GBT Where were you? Plus a poll on the assassination. http://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6191#p59032 http://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6188&start=0 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/19/obama-addresses-gettysburg-ceremony-on-tape/

I had a problem logging in earlier today, morning UK time, so late afternoon in Thailand. Browser was Chrome; I didn't panic or bother to try any others as I wasn't particularly intending to post anything. All fine now (obviously, or I wouldn't've been able to post).

Good question Koko which I'm obliged to leave to others to answer. Probably somebody will nip in soon after this with the correct answer and make a monkey out of me, but in the meantime a couple of questions: Is it GT-related or something that happened in a wider context? Is it perhaps something personal?

The Land of Nod ... refers to the mythical land of sleep, a pun on Land of Nod (Gen. 4:16). To “go off to the land of Nod” plays with the phrase to “nod off”, meaning to go to sleep. The first recorded use of the phrase to mean "sleep" comes from Jonathan Swift in his Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation (1737) and Gulliver's Travels. A later instance of this usage appears in the poem The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson from the A Child's Garden of Verses and Underwoods (1885) collection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Nod

Sexuality is a precious thing! Even straights don't always have an easy ride. Even a moderately thick-skinned person's emotions can be shredded in an instant by cruel and insensitive behaviour or comment - (multiply that by a significant factor if you are gay or bisexual) - or in your case Jimen by comments made behind your back - in some ways the worst of all, as those making them reveal their true nature but are scared shit-less to tell you to your face! And yes you are right to remind us the problem hasn't gone away - in America, Europe, Australasia etc. although on the surface it's certainly improved by leaps and bounds, underneath how can we tell what anyone's really thinking? The answer is we can't. Maybe we are right most of the time when we're with family and close friends, but with something as personal as sexuality preconceptions are rife, so you may never get to know what's going through other people's minds. And indeed in Thailand the situation is treading water. I think because public attitudes in Thailand have always seemed much more liberal in comparison to those in the west, we make the mistake that all Thais are equally liberal in private. That is often not the case and indeed Thailand may be in danger of falling behind when compared with many western country's attitudes; so I would like to think that the average person in the west has taken on board all or most of the changes in society since WW2, and let's face it in the area of sexual equality those changes are enormous. Thailand hasn't had to do that to anything like the same extent. Thailand doesn't seem to me to be very good at debating things, and it seems to me to be very bad at debating anything contentious, and in a democratic society, without debate you can't change things. Am I right Jimen that Singapore doesn't have a good track record either? Are such things debated in your country?

Never heard of 'im! Was he in a book, comic, film, TV series or what? What is the relevance of the forest fire?

Thanks for contributing constructively to the discussion Buckbee. I think you are being too restrictive Buckbee. According to you anything not gay is 'off topic'. The Gay Thailand forum sounds good in principal, but in practice it is anything at all related to Thailand - hence pizzas, ATM's etc. That's the way it's evolved and the main reason for that I think is there aren't sufficient solely gay topics within Thailand itself (that never veer off course to become 'off topic') so that forum is padded out with other stuff. The Beer Bar is for anything at all, so that's the place to go for Off Topic threads, by which is meant Off Gay Thailand, Gay Asia, etc Topics. I rather like the term Beer Bar so would not like to see that changed. One idea would be to post everything (other than Gay Asia or Gay Resources) that is Off Gay Thailand Topic into the Beer Bar. That would include non-gay topics anywhere in the world including Thailand, gay-related topics outside SE Asia, such as developments in gay marriage in other parts of the world and anything else. The Beer Bar is going through a dry patch at the moment so maybe it's time to revitalise it. Mods! How do you delete a superfluous quote?!

Thanks, I wasn't sure about that. If a customer can see there is a camera there for his benefit (i.e. to deter a fraudster) might he not seek out such ATM's in future rather than use 'any old one'. Just as Big Pharma needs to keep the pipeline for new antibiotics pumping full steam ahead, so the banks need to spend more of their $$ ££ millions of profits on protecting the customer . . . us!

Hole in the wall's are here to stay and are very convenient, especially in Thailand where they adorn the outside of even the most humble convenience store (at least the air-conditioned ones). Unfortunately ATM's and their users are victims of their (the ATM's) success. If they had been restricted to the inside of banks' premises with decent security measures in place ATM fraud wouldn't be the problem it's become. Now it's a trade-off between convenience (ATM's ubiquitous) versus the chance of becoming a victim. The thieves are very sophisticated, it's a bit like bacteria that mutate very quickly to evade an antibiotic, the thieves learn how to stay one step ahead. So anything any of us propose will be useless in next to no time. However, that won't stop me asking why the banks don't install cameras of their own? eg. CCTV cameras to watch for anyone tampering with the ATM in any of the ways shown in Anonone's post, although that won't be feasible outside the convenience stores. Anyone trying to disable a CCTV camera will set off an alarm that will shutdown the ATM machine.

As GT is a commercial site with an associated message board, rather than a standalone, (non-commercial) forum then redesigning it from time to time warrants consideration. I'm reasonably happy with its current design which as far as I am aware hasn't altered much over the years, by which I mean the appearance; behind the scenes I am sure there have been many improvements. As for being boring, the forums' content has already been commented on, so I will mention presentation and layout. It's difficult to change either of these components more than every so often, so anyone bored with the present set-up is likely to have a short attention span, and more than likely quickly bored with whatever change(s) is made. So, with regard to redesigning the site, maybe Zombie has a few suggestions to make. Let's get a discussion going and see what he and others think. . .

I feel sometimes artists and 'The Arts' community take themselves a bit too seriously . . . http://www.fineart-magazine.com/fine-art-magazine/ Unfortunately the site's in Thai, but all good stuff no doubt! During a quick online search I came across this guy, Chris Coles, and while IMO he's not really that great an artist, in his distinctive expressionist style he depicts the nightlife of Bangkok quite well I think. The first link is for a few paintings featuring aspects of gay life in Bangkok. http://www.chriscolesgallery.com/bangkok_boys_town.htm The second link is better IMO to his art book Navigating the Bangkok Noir. It's almost entirely focussed on the girly bar and club scene but each painting comes with an explanation, some quite funny such as the Reincarnated German sex tourist soi dog. Also look out for 'Ken'. http://navigating-the-bangkok-noir.blogspot.co.uk/