PeterRS

I assume you mean when is it held. The Thai name for the Fesival is Phi Ta Khon and this year the Festival is unusually from July 25 to 27 which mens unuaully it is not over a weekend. The dates change a bit every year as they are related to the Buddhist calendar. Expect to get at least 6 months' notice of the 2026 Festival, If you plan to attend, immediately book your hotel. The only hotel very close to the town is the Phunacome Hotel on a hillside above the town which runs a regular shuttle up the hill. As a result it gets booked up very quickly for the Festival dates. A key element of the Festival is fertility rites and the importance of the phallus. You see them everywhere! Not the real life variety, unfortunately!!!

A belief in ghosts is a key part of Thai cuture. Ghost Festivals therefore take place in many cities around the country. The most impressive I believe is the one in Dansai, a small town of around 10,000 in Loei Province close to the Mekong. You can get there by flyig to Loei and then taking a minimbus to Dansai. The one problem is that there is only really one decent hotel in the town, up on a nearby hotel. But participants come from near and far and Loei itself has quite a number of hotels. Fertility rites play a big part in the Festival. It is the amazing variety of costumes worn by the guys that make it all very special. Other aspects of the parade include young men carrying a variety of offerings, a skeleton orchestra, a dance for the older generation and lots of phalic symbols. The Festival lasts three days but the Parade is always only on the Saturday. Lots of very handsome young men but no gay bar or facility in Dansai, For these you probably have to go to Loei.

A number of posters soetimes ask what else is there to see in Thailand part from the sex scene in Bangkok and Pattaya and the other cities/islands like Chiang Mai, Phuket and Koh Samui. I have posted quite some years ago about two particular events that are stunning and very unique to Thailand. The first I attended was the Ubon Ratchanthani Candle Festival. This is not as it may first sound, a Parade with townspeople milling around with candles in their hands. It is a far more grandiose affair. Each of the city's temples spend the better part of a month decorating large lorries with wax scenes from Buddhist history. These really are huge. On the day of the Parade (the end of Buddist lent), the lorries and virtually all the towns people take part in a long Parade that takes up several hours. I had tried to book a hotel some weeks in advance but all were sold out. Thankfully one room became vacant. I arrived the day before and saw ast minute preparations being made. The day itself was just magnificent. The day after the Festival all the wax is melted down and used iin the following year. I had checked and discovered tehre was a sauna close by the river. It took some finding but there were several cute guys inside when I entered. A pleasant ending to a lovely day.

There you go again Who has been driven off?

You would not be derailing the hread. You would be answering a pertinent question.

I cannot comment on the article posted by @Tomtravel but this site indicates that Sweden’s capital is one of the most open and LGBTQ+ friendly cities in the world. https://viewstockholm.com/gay-places-stockholm/

At the moment everything is speculation and all we can do is grieve for the dead. The Professional Pilots website pprune.org has a number of thoughts. One is that a full 787 with nearly 100 tons of fuel on board (the figure from Indian sources) took off without using the full length of the runway. The website Flight Radar shows it started its take off roll half way down the runway - far too short for such a heavy aircraft. Apparently this is qute comon at this airport, but only for quite lightly loaded aircraft. Normally heavy aircraft would back track to the end of the runway to give it sufficient time to gain the speed essential for take off. Another pilot suggests that the landing gear should not have been in the down position by that time since take off. He goes on to suggest that someone in the cockpit may have tretracted the flaps rather than the landing gear. But all we know is that the aircraft was not sufficiently high to continue flying. We therefore must await the outcome of the black box analysis.

In short, no! That is not why I was there. Besides there was really no time with all the flying betwen cities and in any case I am only into Asians. But I am sure you will find many guys in Stockholm's gay bars and on the apps.

Deleted

I should have added that the Lodge at Ivalo did provide three meals daily and organised a number of activities like sled riding with huskies. There were almost no other guests there during my saty - just two on the first night and the two more on the last two nights

You already admitted in a separate thread that you made decisions about writing posts without checking back at what had actually been written. Enjoy it!

Read my posts. NO!

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The ferry accommodation depends on price. I paid for the smallest cabin and that's what i got - The bathroom was at the left. For one person it was perfectly fine for 4 nights. Some might find it too cramped. As for food, the ferry fare offered breakfast plus one meal. I don't know why I chose dinner. Were I to do the trip again, I'd choose lunch and then have dinner in the rather nice coffee shop. Reindeer meat was popular which was not really to my taste. But there were options. I should add that there was a great deal of public space and louges on the ferry. If you are not a good sleeper, be prepared for the ferry to dock sometimes in the middle of the night. It does after all service the entire Norwegian coast. I don't sleep well and used ear plugs to ensure I was not wakened. Rooms in the cheaper hotels I stayed in, while perfectly good, were also on the small side. One nice thing about the Viking Hotel in Tromso was it served free pancakes mix with various jams in the late afternoon. Free tea and coffee service all day. I was rather stupid in making my flight arrangements. I had a mileage ticket from BKK to Bergen but could only get one back from Stockholm. I also assumed that I'd have to fly from Helsini to Ivalo since it's an internal destination. I therefore took flights Tromso to Oslo, changed to Stockholm, overnighted at a lovely hotel by the station (walking distance to the Arlanda Express to the airport) and then on to Helsinki where again I overnighted as i wanted the first of the two daily flights to Ivalo. Had I just been a bit more diligent, I would have found there was a daily flight from Tromso to Ivalo!! On my return I stayed for two more nights at the Stockholm hotel. The Noregian hotels had small but comfortable and well furnished rooms. The Lodge near Ivalo had very large rooms with lovely log fires and large bathrooms. It's important before you start working on dates that you check for the most ikely time the Aurora Borealis will be seen. The darkest months from September to April seem the most ideal. To be safe, I'd shorten this to October to February. Lastly, remember that you are unlikely to get good photos from the ferry. It is in constant motion and you will need some short time exposure on your camera.

No! But tell me of any other poster who has started in just one forum in less than 6 months 15 threads with 48 posts exclusively about one subject? No poster has. If that is what the moderator wishes, that's perfetly fine by me. But contravening Board rules as you seem perfectly happy for him to do regarding nude photos is another matter entirely! Or do you believe rules are threre to be broken?

And since you @Moses seem happy to make up your own guidelines, these are the Gay Guides Guidelines as very clearly spelled out at the top of this Board. Gay Guides Message Center Mission and Code of Conduct v1.2 If you have not read and understood them, then by all means post as you wish and wait to be banned! LOL This has absolutely NOTHING to do with ChatGPT! Or do you still disagree?