TMax

I know I lead a boring life (well some may think so) but I am happy with that, before the pandemic I travelled once a year mostly to Thailand but have been many times to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. Unless something else untoward occurs I shall restart my travelling next year, starting with my Thailand lost time catch up trip but I have plans to return to the other above mentioned countries at some stage. In the mean time I shall plod along with my boring but happy life😁

With so much choice it's such a pity I wasn't into cock back then, Bangkok must have been a blast then.

I totally forgot about Porridge and yes Richard was a wonderful actor, a brilliant tv series, also to add to my list Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

That would be Are you being served. I can't stand reality tv shows and truly hate the way the networks here in Australia are flooding the airwaves with so much of it, the worst by far are those pathetic looking for love shows (Farmer wants a wife, The Real Love boat, The Bachelor etc etc... more like pathetic losers). As for my favourites, wow so many to choose from, MASH, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, the earlier series of The Bill were good but I went off it towards the end when they started replacing the old characters and numerous cops turned crooks. Adding to the list, New Tricks, Wire in the blood, Blackadder, Mr Bean, I could name a lot more but too many to pick just a single favourite. Going for the oldest on my favourites list I would say Steptoe and son, followed by Dads army and On the Buses.

Will be interesting as I have this one on my must visit list

And I wonder if there was any "friendly" coercion put on Thailand by those other 2 to abstain?

I never had the pleasure or displeasure of visiting Super A but talking of sleaze, I am hoping that since Golden Cock has moved to Nature Boy that the sleaze element is still there? I would love to pay them a visit on my next trip for a bit of harmless fun in the bar.

That's why I always refer to Arena as my rough and ready massage and shag😂

Yes it is, currently operating on Patpong 1, Kings Castle and Kings Castle 1. Rumor has it that the Kings group has also bought the old Superstar gogo bar, that is just a rumor though and I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere

Kings Castle is part of the Kings group, they own and run the Girl gogo bars and also had a ladyboy bar, the actual Kings Castle is a girl gogo bar on Patpong 1. My memory has Kings Castle 1 and 2 and they used to have Kings corner. I think at one stage there was also a Kings massage with both girls and ladyboys

Would this be any help?

Oh well, I shall scratch that one off my must visit list for next year then.

Vietnam: "Can same-sex couples get married? No. Up until now, the law in Vietnam does not recognize same-sex marriages." It's a funny one (not haha funny), they lifted the ban on gay marriage but at the same time they don't recognize gay marriage.

I still get some hardcovers and books I buy here in Australia I get through Dymocks, most of my reading now is history books as I like to read about the past, I have read a lot on WW1 and find some of the books that cover certain units and the people quite interesting. I used to read a lot of novels and Tom Clancy was a favourite with Red Storm Rising still being one of my all time favourite books. Apart from Dasa books in Bangkok I also like to visit Kinokuniya book store in Siam Paragon for new books, that's a big store with a good range of books. For me I just can't read those ebooks, I much prefer to have a proper book in my hands, must be too old for ebooks.

Yes I still read a lot and will continue to do so, when in Bangkok I always pay a visit to Dasa bookshop on Sukhumvit rd which is a very short walk from Phrom Pong BTS. It's a second hand bookshop with a lot of and a big range of books at good prices.

I gave religion the slip when I was a kid and realized it wasn't for me, the only time I go anywhere near a church or chapel is for a family or very close friends funeral service. In the military if you didn't go to sunday religious service you ended up doing work detail, I did a lot of work details.

Porn and an overworked hand😂

You are so right there, I had been reading about the problems for quite a while and had always wondered if the problems were so obvious to everyone why weren't they shut down earlier? Then of course I think of the old saying "follow the money trail" and started to wonder just how high up the trail went and suspect it went very high.

I find myself in a similar situation as you do (small city), my tatses are very simple, my #1 preference is for Asian guys and where I live there are very few gay or bi Asians here and those that are prefer guys closer to their age. Looking at the apps there really isn't much at all in my area that takes my interest and not a lot on offer anyway, maybe I'm just too picky. Maybe if there was a good Asian masseur in Perth that offered full service I would visit there more often. It all makes my trips to Thailand more enjoyable and I am very much looking forward to my 2023 trip.

Not just Thailand, bar owners in the Philippines (Angeles city) have been doing that for many years now (at least since the early 1990's). The moment business drops off up go the prices, funny enough it's the bars that are owned by foreigners that started the trend over there.

I stiil wear a mask here in Western Australia when on public transport or if going into crowded places like shopping centres and I will no doubt wear a mask in Thailand when I go if mandated or not, the risk for me will be restaurants, bars and massage places. My reasoning is simple, underlying health conditions, even a common cold can be bad news for me. If others choose to wear one or not is up to them.

Qantas at #5 is being very generous, I would place them well outside the top 10 now. Of late their maintenance, cleaning and on time departures has deteriorated greatly and their lost luggage percentage has skyrocketed. Domestically their meals are about 1% above garbage, it never was the best but now even worse. What can be the cause of such a deterioration? To put it simply, senior management is the cause, they are driven by cost cutting to the extreme and yet they give themselves (top executives and the board) ridiculous pay rises and bonuses whilst sacking their workers and outsourcing to the cheapest possible alternatives. With so many airlines above them and those improving their services I see a rather bleak future for Qantas. I really feel for their employees as they have to put up with all the cost cutting and rubbish handed down (more like thrown at them) by management. Sorry, rant over.

That answered a question I had in my mind, good to see and slowly getting there.

@emiel1981 nice report on the hotel and thanks for sharing it, that is the hotel I would be looking at for my next trip.

I like Baguio and I used to like Tagaytay for the cooler climate (in both places) however due to the Taal volcano Tagaytay is out of the question which is a pity as it was nice and close to Manila, Palawan is the other option I like but for the opposite reasons (nice and quiet and the people there are the friendliest I had met in the Philippines). Bonifacio Global City would be my choice if I was to choose to live in Manila, more up market and a much nicer part of the city.