PeterRS

Thanks for posting the photos. It is beautiful and obviously informative.

I cannot understand why people who have taken bribes for whatever reason then decide to keep large quantities of the cash in theiir homes. It reminds me of the Thai senior civil servant in the Transport Ministry who some years ago summoned the police because there had been a burglary in his house and 18 million baht stolen. Once inside, the police were alleged to have discovered roughly 1 billion baht in cash in the basement. The civil servant was transferred to an inactive post in the Prime Minister's office! Last I heard the case was being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission which had demanded that the Attorney General confiscate 65 million baht of the civil servant's stash.

Better hope that Bali's Governor does not change to a more strict individual.

As one who loves attending hot springs in Japan and Taiwan, I have always meant to try the Yunomori Spa on Suk Soi 26. So far I have never done so but hope to change that very soon. The baths area is segregated and entrance is 550 baht. Not cheap for those used to gay sauanas and looking for sex. But Taiwanese friends of mine went there at the end of last month and very much enjoyed the facilities. On a week-end afternoon they told me there were probably around 80 guys there, most young and virtually all seemingly gay. Better still all were naked!! As with all such spas, absolutely no hanky panky is permitted. But rules can't dictate what eyes are seeing or contacts made! I see that a second Yunomori has opened on Sathorn Soi 10 just round from the W Hotel. https://www.yunomorionsen.com/sathorn/gallery/ https://www.yunomorionsen.com/sathorn/contact/

There have been quite a number of posts in the last couple of years or more about boys from the apps not looking like their photos. Suggestions have been made that a 'live' chat should be requested, even if it is only for a few seconds when the guy speaks little English. Apart from one occasion, I always asked to meet first outside my apartment, usually in a coffee shop close by. That worked well apart from one time when we met at Coffee Society (near the top of Silom - but it died some years ago) and it was obvious the guy was a good dozen years older than he claimed. I paid for his coffee, we had a small chat and I left alone. It was less the fact that he was much older than he stated and much more than he did not look remotely cute!! 👎

I think this is a geat idea - in principle. My concern is that the entrance in the photo has no cover. To incorporate one would require the sides to be more than a little higher. During heavy monsoon rains, a considerable amount of water is going to pour down directly on to those escalators. I have no idea where it will drain to, but I hope there is no chance some will find its way to the wiring or power sources. Or could it lead to a build-up of water on the walkways? Hopefully someone has considered that and incoorpated solutions. It reminds me of the time when the first lines of Taipei's then relatively new subway system had recently opened. Its entrances were not high enough to stop flooding from very severe typhoons and the system had to be closed down for some time. Entrances were then all elevated allowing for several steps up from sidewalks.

I fully realise that coffee has its fans of which I am one. But I cannot imagine trying out different coffees or providers of coffee on a beach! As we constantly see in these forums, it takes all sorts . . .

I have tried to work out the attraction for locals and visitors of having 60 coffee bars on one patch of beach. I can't!

I am sure we all have many memories of that marvellous aircraft. My first 747 flight was on an Air France 747 from Paris to Kong Kong in March 1979. As the -100 and -200 series could not make the flights from Europe to Asia in one go, refuelling stops were necessary. British Airways had exclusive rights for London/Hong Kong with a daily flight that had one refuelling stop in Bahrain and then went on to Sydney after Hong Kong. My Air France flight stopped in Dubai, Bombay and Bangkok before an extra long final sector to Hong Kong. This was a result of Vietnam's airspace being closed as it had only weeks earlier fought a border war with China. That meant an extra hour to detour around the foot of Vietnam. But I loved every minute of that flight. Like @vinapu I was twice on 747s with virtually no passengers. Just before a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne, I slipped a lower disc in my back. As I knew the secretary to the company chairman, I cheekily asked her if there might be any chance of an upgrade to first (business class had only recently been introduced and was not much better than economy seating on Cathay Pacific in those days). It so happened I was upgraded and it was the eve of Chinese New Year. No one was flying! There were 23 passengers in total! The other occasion was during the first Gulf War on a Northwest flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Once again there were few people travelling. As you left Immigration at Narita you could see into an Immigration office which had a large chalk board on the opposite wall with all the departing flights and the estimated passenger loads. i could not believe it when I saw that my NW flight had around 30 passengers. The worst flight was on Air China between Beijing and Hong Kong in 1985. There was only one flight between the cities in those days and it left at 7:30 am. So my colleague and I had to be up early to check in by 6:00. Reaching the departure island we saw our flight was a 747. But it had a problem as a two-hour delay was announced! This became 4 hours as we noticed men in overalls using a rickety set of stairs and rather large hammers and spanners to work on an engine. I soon decided I'd prefer not to take that plane, but there ws no choice. By 10:30 we were allowed to board. 30 minutes later we had to disembark again. Over the tanoy we learned that the flight had been cancelled. We were informed we would eventually be informed how we were going to get back to Hong Kong. As lunch time came and went, the small cafeteria was very quickly out of small eats. Around 2:00 pm ladies came round distributing small boxes of rice and chicken. Still no news of how we'd get to Hong Kong. I would have loved to go back into the city to relax in a hotel, but our visas had been cancelled on check in. At around 5:00 pm another Air China 747 arrived and disgorged its pasengers. We soon discovered this had come in from San Francisco with an intermediate stop in Shanghai. By 6:30 we were finally allowed to board that plane, taking off around 45 minutes later. Our relief soon turned to concern when chatting to one of the flight attendants. She told us the entire crew, including the pilots, were those who had arrived from San Francisco! By this time they must have been on duty for at least 20 hours. Ahead of them would be another 6 hours before the plane had returned to Beijing. We were delighted when that plane landed safely! Many passengers seemed to dislike Northwest for their Pacific flights. I was the opposite but then I was lucky to be in business class for my several dozen flights. I always loved their small 16-seat business class on the 747's upper deck. After dinner, the flight attendant would leave the drinks trolley parked at the front of the cabin. I always unashamedly would go up to it and tke a few small bottles to refresh me at my destination!

Thanks @vinapu for your report and photos. It reminds me of my trip to Angkor 18 years ago, especially those stone steps with no guardrail as you climb up to the top of the main temple at Angkor Wat. Those steps are incredibly steep with big distances beween the steps. I thought i was in pretty good physical condition and had happily spent the previous three days climbing over many other ruined temples. The main temple was to be the highlight of our visit. But on the last set of steps my thighs just gave up! Half way up I found I just could not move even using arms and legs. I decided I'd have to go down, but when I turned around and looked down, I knew my legs would never make it and I'd fall. After pause of a minute or two, I summoned up the courage to clamber up to the top as best I could, all the while fearing I might not make it. I was then delighted to realise that for the way down there were the other wooden steps in @vinapu's photo with the bannister that makes getting down much easier. Later in the evening climbing up the small steps on to the Bangkok Airways plane, my thighs had still not recovered! I must have seemed 30 years older than my age!

About time, too! The disparity between those at the top of the earning ladder and those at the bottom just gets wider and wider. It's time those who earn massive profits in Thailand finally begin to accept that a tiny portion of those obscene profits should be shared with those who help generate them. The elite need to learn that Thailand exists not just for them.

John Thomson's collection of more than 650 negatives were purchased by the American Henry Solomon Wellcome shortly after Thomson's death in 1921. Wellcome had made his fortune in the pharmaceutical business. He had earlier moved to the UK and became a British citizen. Having sold Wellcome to the company now known as GlaxoSmithKline, on his death he left all his wealth to the Wellcome Trust, a charity which he had established. It seems there is no permanent Exhibition of Thomson's work at the Wellcome Trust's headquarters. What better than to make digital reproductions of his work for permanent exhibition in the countries he visited?

Mid-afternoon certainly used to be a ghastly time to arrive. I was once in the west Immigration area when the crowds spilled back as far as the small Duty Free area. It got so bad some a couple of drunk passengers got into a fist fight over queue jumping. But any indication of good and bad times can only be just that - and indication. It just needs an A380 and a 777 to be late arriving at the same time for that indication of a good time to be very wrong. For years I was able to travel on many flights in business class and thereafter had an APEC Business Travel Card. Both give access to the Fast Track lanes. Now if I'm travelling economy I'll just pay for fast track.

I beieve this was the title for an Exhibition of some of Thomson's mid-1800s photos exhibited at the National Gallery in Bangkok for several months a few years ago. Thomson's photos are a true treasure. An adventurous photographer, he left Scotland to visit Singapore. Over something like a decade, his travels took him from India through much of South East Asia and an extensive trip around late Q'ing Dynasty China. It's a pity there cannot be a permanent exhibition in Bnagkok of some of his many Thailand photos.

Look what happened in Indonesia yesterday. It is now illegal to have sex with any one other than your legal wife (which, being a Muslim country, means sex between legally married a man and a woman). The law applies not only to all Indonesians, all non-Indonesians not living in the country but also to all tourists! Even though the religion practised in Bali is based on Hinduism, the law applies there as well. So if any gay couples or pairs have plans to visit Indonesia, stay platonic because these crazies will certainly have their own version of Iran's morality police. Penalties can be up to one year in prison.

Just look what happened in Indonesia yesterday. It is now illegal to have sex with any one other than your legal wife (which, being a Muslim country, means sex between legally married a man and a woman). The law applies not only to all Indonesians, all non-Indonesians not living in the country but also to all tourists! Even though the religion practised in Bali is based on Hinduism, the law applies there as well. So if any gay couples or pairs have plans to visit Indonesia, stay platonic because these crazies will certainly have their own version of Iran's morality police. Penalties can include up to one year in prison. Ironically Idonesia is not a dictatorship and its leadership seems not to be failing. It is, however, onbiously unable to fend of those determined to introduce more forms of sharia law similar to Aceh Province where it is the norm. Since this is of interest to tourists, I am also posting part of this in the Gay Asia forum.

Although I have not used the rent boy services in Japan, I have friends living there and others who visit quite regularly. They give very good reports of this site which i have mentioned before - http://lang.dgdgdg.com/index.php#

As @macaroni21's earier post indicates, we should remember that the Chiang Mai gay scene was dying long before covid delivered a near coup de grace. Well over 50 venues, some very popular, had closed in the years leading up to the advent of covid. With the exception of Adam's Apple and a few others, Chiang Mai's gay venues are primarily for the local population.

I'll also believe it when the present demonstrations have subsided. Let's remember the Revolutionary Guard still exists. They are equally hated and basically do as they wish. My heart goes out to most Iranians who for the most part are a lovely, kind, cultured people with an extraordinary history. I can understand why they loathed the corrupt Shah and his murderous Savak Secret Police killing machine and thus welcomed Khomeini with open arms. But like all dictators, as my Iranian guides told me four years ago the present leader and his cronies pocket vast sums of money and have every incentive to do everything possible to stay in power.

Sorry I cannot help. I don't use the apps in most other countries. I have occasionally used them in Japan but it is 4 years since I was last there. All I can recall is that they were not very active.

So many Thais helped out in so any ways. I always think of the owners of the rice fields close to the cave as they had to be flooded as the cave was drained. They were offered compensation. None accepted it. It was their duty to help, they stated.

Love to be in the middle of that group of Korean guys in their underpants! Hopefully they would be off very quickly - the pants, that is! Photo: BBC Online When I was visiting South Korea regularly in the 1980s and early 1990s, Korean guys were mostly dull and unattractive. The macho look was virtually everywhere. Only in an occasional disco would you find a good looking guy. What a change since then! Walk through Seoul now and it seems to have almost as much gorgeous eye candy as Singapore. For well over a decade, South Korean young guys have spent more on cosmetics and grooming than their counterparts in any other country. One cosmetics retailer states its sales of mens grooming products in May and June 2022 increased 24% compared to the same period last year. Basic skin care products increased by 130%. Total countrywide sales are estimated to be worth close to US$1 billion. According to a 2020 CNN Report, around three quarters of Korean men undertake beauty or grooming treatment at least once a week. "This figure was even higher for Generation Z respondents, with 58% of those born after 2000 saying they pamper themselves with 'lengthy' beauty or grooming treatments at least once per week, compared to 34% of South Korean men overall. " https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220630000659 https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/south-korea-male-beauty-market-chanel/index.html

Thanks for that report. You are quite right to point out that any form of sexual activity or even trying to touch another guy's dick or ass are definite 'no-nos' in virtually all hot springs. This goes for South Korea and Taiwan as well as Japan. In Taiwan there are also notices (but only in Chinese) about no hanky panky in the steam room (although late at night there may be occasional touching in the steam room - if you can stand the heat of the steam!)

Not sure about Only Fans videos, but the bottoms in so many porn videos are very clearly 'acting' a part. All the facial and verbal expressions are there just to keep us interested. In some you can even hear the sound being dubbed over the visuals. It all reminds me of a scene from the early and excellent Jane Fonda movie 'Klute'. She plays a hooker. While in the act with a customer, the camera is on the guy's back. We see her bored face as she raises her arm to check the time on her watch as if to say, "How much longer?"

I don't pay for any subscription on any site which is no doubt why I get so many ads now. I actually found Jack'd as popular as Grindr, Hornet and Blued. I got rather pissed off that quite a few more guys than on previous visits were older than my preferred age. I'll have to get a Chinese profile, although I suspect many guys in Taiwan go only by the photos and don't bother to check much of a profile.