PeterRS

Hong Kong has experienced typhoons regularly since time immemorial. Fortunately it is now well prepared. In the past it occasionally suffered major damage as in the 1937 Great Typhoon which killed between 11,000 and 13,000. I was there during Typhoon Ellen in 1983 when this ship was blown off its mooring and landed on a beach. Photo AFP, HKGIS I was also in the city when that typhoon hit. Most of that damage occurred because the main winds hit first from the north. The south side, as you point out, is mostly apartments and many residents tape up their windows to ensure there is no major damage. The Revenue and Immigration Departments in North Wanchai clearly did not bother to do that! Now I wonder: was my file lost because I paid no tax that year LOL! One problem with typhoons and other monsoon-related rains is landslides, of which Hong Kong has suffered many. The worst was in 1972 when part of the hillside on the north of the island in what is termed Mid-Levels gave way and demolished first a 6-storey building and then a 12-storey building. 67 were killed. If you pass by that area from the water, you can still see the gash in the hillside.

You base your experience on three months on an island which is economically mightily superior to Myanmar? I know you were studying Mandarin and we enjoyed a couple of pizzas there together. But with respect I have been visiting since 1986 and annually since 1990 for several weeks a year. I have also noticed a distinct trend that there appears to be a preference for older westerners. Frankly comparing Taiwan with Myanmar in terms of attracting boys to your room is no comparison whatever.

Ha! Orwell died in 1950! Interestingly he had been posted to Burma following school in England. He loathed what Britain had done to Burmese society. In fact, Putin has probably picked up a few tips from "1984" which in part draws on Orwell's experience of Burma. He writes "“Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

Agreed! But I was specifically referring to gay gogo bars (with the exception I noted of the original Babylon). I have some gay Thai friends but they know of no gogo bars aimed at Thais and patronised by Thais. Mind you, we all know there is a gay world especially in Bangkok where foreigners are either not permitted or even know virtually nothing about. If they happen to exist, I expect entrance will be limited only to the very rich. On the other hand if in fact there are no exclusively Thai gogo bars, have Thais - in general - lost the desire to see boys performing in a public setting in various stages of undress? I do know of one wealthy Thai in the entertainment business who 'trains' young aspiring actors in a specially purchased house. But that is purely for his personal 'entertainment', I am told. There were always one or two bar bars where gay men congregated even in the 1950s. But from what I have learned, these attracted mostly western expats living here, like Jim Thomson. I know there is at least one book that covers the period from the 1950s but regret I cannot recall the title. Were there bars even earlier in those times when well-known gay men like Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward were visiting and praising Bangkok's delights during their stays at the Oriental Hotel, their visits now celebrated in the hotel's famous Author's Lounge. I suspect not and assume they found company in their hotel (always the Oriental) or on the streets nearby. We know that Patpong did not exist at that time. It was in fact a banana plantation purchased by the Patpongavich family in 1946 for US$300. By the mid-1960s Air America and the CIA had set up shop in Patpong. It was in 1972 when the family took over Patpong 2 that bars offering nighttime delights opened in the balcony area. So Patpong became a virtual tapestry of espionage, nightlife and colourful characters, the latter including the French-Vietnamese fraudster and serial killer Charles Sobhraj whose modus operandi was to befriend western tourists, drug them, rob them, murder them and dispose of their bodies all around Bangkok. Finally apprehended and jailed in India in 1976, he escaped. Sought worldwide he was eventually discovered in Nepal in 2003, convicted of murder and jailed for life. Even then, though, he beat the system and was released in 2022 on account of old age. He was just 78! He now lives in France. Always in the background, though, we have to remember that Thai society and Thai sexuality has emerged very differently from the western values the older generation of us were brought up with. Anna Leonowens, the 'Anna' in The King & I, told of her horror of Thai society of that time. After nearly six years at the Thai Court she wrote in the mid-1860s, "Here were women disguised as men, and men in the attire of women, hiding vice of every vileness and crime of every enormity - at once the most disgusting, the most appalling and the most unnatural that the heart of man has conceived." It had been far from uncommon for murals in temples to include scenes of intimate love making. The lack of visible differentiation continued to concern western visitors into the start of the 20th century. It was only a couple of decades later as it attempted to join the western world that Thailand decreed that men and women dress differently. At the same time, belatedly stricter Victorian-era attitudes began to affect Thai society. But it was only after WWII that western homophobic views began to have an affect in Thailand. An anti-sodomy law was introduced into parliament but never passed. We also know that very soon the Thai media, using data from physicians and psychologists mainly drawn from western sources, combined to have a large scale outing of gay men in the 1960s which pushed the gay scene more underground. By the 1970s it slowly re-emerged, but it was really in the 1980s that it started to blossom. And it was Thais to which it was initially aimed. So I am guessing but I suspect it was Bangkok's gogo bars which really started the gay travel movement to Bangkok.

Cheap at the price! Try early December when the rate becomes 46,900 per night! That's nearly double the cost of a river view room at the Mandarin Oriental! Mind you that hotel is showing its age and the rooms are only half the size of the Capella or less. But given that Bangkok has 200 5-star and deluxe hotels (making it just one hotel short of being the leader of that specialist group), where do all their patrons come from having to pay those prices, I wonder? Paris has only 116 5-star hostelries and London 162!

Tyranny! Just like under the Tsars.

The typhoon seems to be worse than expected and is now the most powerful storm anywhere this year with sustained winds of over 267 kph gusting to 315 kph (165 - 195 mph). Tens of milions are likely to be affected by the typhoon. Officials in the mega-city of Shenzen just across the border in China from Hong Kong are preparing to evacuate 400,000 people. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/22/asia/super-typhoon-ragasa-philippines-hong-kong-intl-hnk

He would have been far, far better doing so given all the hatred and legal shenaningans that he will have to face up to in the next few years. Plus being held for many additional years on death row. In reference to which, Kirk's widow told the huge crowd at his funeral that she "forgave him"! She then added - "I forgive him because it is what Christ did. The answer to hate is not hate." Well, isn't that interesting? Not once did she bother to explain why her husband and his mentor Trump have spent much of the last few years doing precisely that - spreading hate!

Super Typhoon Ragasa is getting ever closer to The Philippines. Classified the same as a Category 5 hurricane in North America, much of the northern parts of South East Asia are taking major precautions. In The Philippines, the typhoon is expected to hit near the northern tip but schools and administrative offices have aso been closed today in Manila. Hundreds of families have been evacuated from the expected path of the storm, both in The Philippines and southern Taiwan. In Taiwan, damage is expected to be less unless the typhoon moves on to a more northerly track. Landfall there is presently expected near Pingtung to the south and east of the main southern city of Kaohsiung. Hong Kong is also speeding up preparations. The weather is expected to deteriorate badly tomorrow with hurricane force winds on Wednesday. Reuters reports that Qantas Airways has announced Hong Kong airport is suspending all flights for 36 hours from 08:00 am on Tuesday 23 September until 08:00 pm on Wednesday 24. Stand by as that closure may be longer if Ragasa is slow moving. Hong Kong is very used to typhoons and experiences up to ten each year, including super typhoons once every five or so years. Ragasa is expected to be the worst super typhoon in several years. Having lived in high rise apartments for almost 20 years in the city, super typhoons inevitably result in considerable swaying. The worst I remember was in the 1980s when a super typhoon sucked out the windows of a high rise apartment. All the furniture followed. Damage generally, though, is normally slight and massive drainage holding tanks under the northern part of Hong Kong island channel most of the flood water flowing down the hillside to the sea to the south. Again assuming it remains on track, instead of dissipating onshore as it hits Guangdong Province, it may avoid most of Guangdong and head towards Vietnam.

It's been said before, and not just by me, that in the 1980s (my first glorious decade visiting Bangkok) and 1990s, many bars had as many Thais as farang as customers. Some had more. Twilight on Soi Twilight and Barbiery actually had a significant majority of Thais at the weekends. The original Babylon was opened particularly to cater initially for Thais, not foreigners. Where are the Thais now? From what I read and hear, few are in the bars which now cater almost exclusively for westerners.

In my view that is 100% correct. Although not American, I have American friends of both political persuasions. The Republlicans in central America believe Trump is doing an amazing job and are totally behind him. The Democrats are like rats escaping from the sinking ship. They are intent on blame and revenge. They have no candidate who could possibly come anywhere near beating Trump if only because he will lie, slander and libel them to extinction. They have no identifiable policies which might attract voters away from Trump. They desperately need a leader who will stand up to Trump and all his political gamesmanship. The Party apparatus is like a puppet trying to escape from a quicksand. Another 100% correct post. Americans have to face up to the fact that they voted for him. They did so because Joe Biden was a lousy President who hijacked the Party, in large measure due to his narcissistic view that he'd beat Trump if he ran a second time despite his obviously deteriorating mental state. But before then Biden had also made it clear he would do nothing to push his chosen Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop dragging his feet and get on with the business of taking Trump to court for the various crimes of which he was definitely guilty. Then there would have been no Trump to run against! Democrats are running around like a bunch of scared hens in a coop which someone allowed the fox to enter. If they cannot identify a leader fast and then as quickly rally behind him (I do not think Americans are yet ready for a woman President), they will ensure the dreadful J. D. Vance becomes the next President.

I know I am regarded by some as a glass half empty guy when others talk of their times in Pattaya and Thailand as glass half full. But at least i have been consistent I too fear for the future once the present elderly generation (of which I am one) shakes off this mortal coil. I do not have many young gay friends in my home country. When I ask where they plan to spend gay holidays, they mostly mention parts of Europe and South America. They seem to feel that Asia has gone out of fashion for gays, unless it is primarily for sightseeing. When I ask why, they usually mention the increasingly high cost of airfares, even though I tell them accommodation prices are mostly much cheaper. One friend did mention he had been saving up for several years to visit Sydney. His reason? The annual Gay Pride Parade! When I mentioned that Taipei and Bangkok have the largest in Asia and show photographs, he has little interest. Sydney has been lodged in his mind for years and he will go. A prime example of the power of advertising and reputation! It has been mentioned before but I have long considered the lack of advertising outside the country by Thai gay venue entrepreneurs as well as the (let's face it) pathetic efforts of the Thai Tourism Authority is now actually deterring visitors. Add to that inaccurate and often flat out lies in an increasing volume of youtube videos. The more negative PR that individuals overseas see, the less chance they will actually spend hard earned cash to visit the country. I accept that external advertising has to be sensitive while at the same time informing readers of what is actually on offer. And the problem basically lies, in my view, with the entrepreneurs themselves. For decades they have merely had to open a bar, sit back and wait for the money to roll in. Now they should be working flat out to fill their bars and generate those profits again. But getting any group of bar owners together - and to invest in some sort of campaign - seems to be anathema to them. If they don't help themselves, who will?

Although partnered in Bangkok, on my now infrequent trips overseas I am let off the leash, as it were. In Taipei there are very few money boys on the apps and so all my encounters there tend to be with randy Taiwanese just looking for a westerner - age virtually irrelevant. I have been told several times that there is a shortage of westerners in Taipei which is great for visiting western guys. When we first meet, generally it will be in a coffee shop or hotel bar. I still believe chemistry is important when it comes to sex and sizing someone up - in addition to letting them feel comfortable with me - is important. The only country I will happily give out my hotel and room number is in Japan where I have never once had any problem whatever over many decades.

I have a certain sympathy for the view expressed in @Olddaddy's post. In my younger years when i was visiting Bangkok at least six times a year, I was like the lad who had discovered the cookie jar. Extending the metaphors I was in seventh heaven. So many bars! So many boys! So inexpensive! Even when I moved here nearly quarter of a century ago, although still working for many more years I loved what Bangkok had to offer - even though the gay nightlife scene was starting to change, a result of Thaksin Senior elevating his ultra-religious pal as Minister for the Interior tinkering with laws and making life more difficult for venue owners. I still loved my nights out, many with friends, usually visiting bars after dinner and many times resulting for me in an off. But then it all changed. Yes, I know the improvement in the Thai economy resulted in boys from many neighbouring countries replacing Thais in the bars. But age changed me. That and eventually finding a long-term partner, one who had nothing to do with the sex business. Indeed he had never even ventured as far as Soi 4 when we first met! When you have a loving partner, offing boys from bars drops virtually to the bottom of one's list of priorities. While many who live there love Pattaya - and I have visited a few times, I have never really liked the place and could never consider retirement there. But horses for courses. It has its charms. It has some excellent restaurants and lots of boys. But despite the attractions, if I always had to resort to paying for money boys for my sexual pleasure, like @Olddaddy's expat friend, I am sure I would end up pretty bored.

And as I pointed out that surely is the problem. Sure she can say what she likes, but as a politician you have to choose your enemies as well as your friends and ensure the latter do not become the former. Although I have not read the book - and have no intention of doing so as she was never going to win against Trump - by settling old scores you inevitably identify many as critics. If she really does plan to run for re-election next time around, she's going to need all the friends she can get. Settling old scores in a tell-all book is not a good idea. It has nothing to do with free speech.

A little amazon anecdote and perhaps why I still use them. Years ago I met online a dear friend in Taipei when he was a room service waiter at the Okura Hotel. I often took him for dinner at one of my favourite little restaurants, Whinos Bar & Kitchen. He told me his ambition was to become a pastry chef. One year just before he left to spend a year studying at the most prestigious pastry establishment in France, I bought him a book from amazon illustrating pastry creations from various parts of the world. It was large and expensive at around £55, but I wanted him to have it. He was thrilled. Four years later I ordered a simple paperback on amazon which was sent by one of their third party suppliers and cost around £6.50. It came in the flimsiest of plastic packing and I was pissed off that the corners were a bit dented. So I complained. I was told my purchase price would be refunded. Blow me when an amount of £55 was refunded to my credit card account! Someone at amazon had got their knickers in a twist!

If people don't like being watched while they are swimming or just cooling off, then pity the poor guests at the luxury Anantara Hotel on Rajadamri (built as The Peninsula in the late 1970s - the lobby is almost identical to that in the flagship Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong - who sold it to the Regent Group which was taken over by the Four Seasons and then sold again to the Ananatara Group!) Even by the early 1990s you could swim there with no buildings overlooking you. Now there are multi-storey apartment blocks on two of those sides, the hotel on the third and a soi on the fourth with tall buildings on its opposite side. I suspect most in-town hotel pools have buildings overlooking them unless they are riverside hotels or on roofs. (Oops, forgot! The Rose Hotel Residence pool is on the roof!!)

No longer confused, this was the post I had earlier written and withdrawn. These were my comments on Mister International which I now realise is going on in Bangkok No intention of going whatever. Besides, all contestants are I believe straight. And earlier in the month Mr. Singapore announced his withdrawal from the pageant. He announced on his Instagram account that he was withdrawing because he was not being given financial support. Besides there is still a legal battle going on as to whether the title Mr. International belongs to Thailand or The Philippines. The founder, Alan Sim, was Singaporean, and the pageant was legally based in Singapore when it first started in 2006. Sim died in 2022 without making any provision for successsion. Accordingly two countries now claim they have the right to the title Mr. International - the Philippines and Thailand - and both run their own similarly titled pageants! The Philippines are now the rightful legal owners and use the original logos, trademarks and copyrights. Its current and previous First Prize Winners were both Spanish. The First Runner Up last year was from Peru, Estefano Balarin. On Instagram he subsequently posted a scathing two page letter denouncing the organisation! I think you can hear the audio of a lady summarising his complaints in the link below. https://www.instagram.com/reels/audio/1332823098481822/ Thailand then created a new company with completely new logos, trademarks and copyrights. It then changed the rules and allowed married men and fathers to join its pageant. Last year it crowned a Nigerian as First Prize Winner. So the Winner this year is only entitled to call himself First Prize Winner Mister International Thailand.

Trump held a long phone conversation with China's Xi last Friday. According to the Washington Post there has been agreement on several issues incuding trade, fentanyl and TikTok. Analysts have noted there was no mention of Taiwan, and fears have been expressed that Trump has deliberately held up a previously agreed weapons package including drones and lethal munitions to Taiwan. Some time ago Congress approved up to US$1 billion in military aid annually for Taiwan. Trump though has several times questioned Taiwan's dependence on the USA, this despite the fact that during his first term weapons sales soared beyond US$10 billion for the first time. If the shipment of weapons is delayed for much longer, surely the American right wing will close ranks with most of the Democrats and call "foul". After all, denying aid to Taiwan is effectively providing support for Beijing and the possiblity, however implausible, of an invasion. Trump is playing politics yet again by attempting to push China on trade. This time I think he will be in for a shock.

If you think that was old, my first stay there was in 1980! This is the pool in the old hotel with the excellent restauant Ruen Urai at the end. Now there is also The Rose Residence. Its entrance is on the left as you approach Ruen Urai. I believe The Residence also has its own roof top pool. Rates presently seem to be around US$100 - $110.

Apologies. I had written a post about the controversy surrounding Mister International. Wrong pageant!

It is starting to look as though an all-out war may be on the horizon - but between which parties? We know about Russia and its continuing invasion of Ukraine - an incursion which Putin said would take days and that was all of three-and-a-half years ago. It is also 20 years ago that Putin offered this advice - if Ukraine wanted to join NATO, "we will respect their choice, because it is their sovereign right to decide their own defence policy, and this will not worsen relations between our countries" But of course that was at a time when the President and parliament of Ukraine were in Putin's pocket. The election of Zelensky and the reality of the possibility of Ukraine actually joining NATO completely changed all that! Putin has turned turtle! But he is still left with a problem entirely of his own making. The British Ministry of Defence recently stated that Russia has lost one million men killed or injured since the Ukraine war started. Even allowing for over-inflating figures for propaganda purposes, the independent Russian outlet Mediazona has identied the names of more than 110,000 killed. But it believes actual figures are much higher. The problem for NATO countries is that if it were to come to war with Russia, Putin could play the nuke card. He has thousands, many presumably already aimed at European capitals. Against that only Britain and France have a total of around 500 warheads. If tactical nukes were used, would an ultra-right wing Trump administration fulfil its duties under the NATO Alliance by standing by all other NATO countries, knowing that Russia also has the capability of bombing many major American cities? Personally I would doubt it. On the other hand, to resort to nukes would certainly anger some of Russia's allies, especially China. Even a limited nuclear war close to its territory would be anathema to the geriatrics in Beijing. So Putin definitely has a problem as his aircraft without any warnings fly over NATO airspace. One or more will surely soon be shot down. https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/jun/22/one-million-and-counting-russian-casualties-hit-milestone-in-ukraine-war

How true! Allegedly the advance she received from the publisher was US$20 million - double Joe Biden's advance for his book! 8-figure sums for two losers!

Wall of rain reminds me too much of "wall of sound", the term given to the backing on albums produced by the late and creepy Phil Spector. He created this by adding many orchestral instruments to the usual guitar combos. He even characterised his method as "a Wagnerian approach to rock and roll," a description which will probably horrify Wagner fans. Mind you, that approach was a huge success in the 1960s and 70s. as other producers jumped on the bandwagon along with artists like The Righteous Brothers, The Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny Bono, Dionne Warwick and some of the most famous ABBA numbers including "Dancing Queen". Spector even produced the last LP the Beatles ever recorded "Let It Be", the only one not produced by George Martin. But he seems to have become quite a loathsome person who died in 2021 while serving a 19-year jail sentence for the murder of young actress.

I'd go a lot further. "Trump truly fucked this country but others know how to do it in accordance with the Constitution and good, honest common sense."