PeterRS

One of the UK newspapers informs readers he was riding a moped in the early hours of the morning to get some food and had just arrived after 16 hours of travel on a bus to get to the island where it seems the accident happened. There are implications he was tired. There is an allegation that perhaps his helmet was stolen. No other details/suggestions are provided. Other questions that hopefully will eventually be provided. Might he have had a helmet but not fastened the strap? What was the nature of the accident? Did it involve another vehicle? How long did it take for him to receive medical treatment after the accident? We'll probably never find out. Like others, I wish him the best. Also like others have stated, read the small print in your travel policy and make sure you know the local laws regarding your activities whilst abroad. Thai law is very clear: drivers on motorcycles AND their passengers must wear helmets. As we all know, this is usually not observed by passengers (mea culpa!) But presumably if as a passenger the motorcycle I was riding was in an accident and I required medical treatment, the medical costs would not be covered by insurance.

It's the most sought-after ticket for years. The largest Exhibition of works by the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer ever assembled are on display at Amterdam's Rijksmuseum. It opened in early February and runs until June 4th. But forget about trying to get tickets. They all sold out in just three days. After his relatively short life of 43 years, only 34 works by Vermeer have survived, of which 28 form the Exhibition. These include arguably his most famous The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Vermeer worked slowly, hence his small output, but this meant he left his wife and child in poverty and in debt. For 200 years he was all but forgotten. Then in the 19th century he was rediscovered and deemed to be one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age of Painting. For those who would like to know more about all the works on display, this audio/video guide with Stephen Fry introducing each of the paintings is a splendid introduction. Just copy the link and click on the box "With Stephen Fry" https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/johannes-vermeer?utm_source=nieuwsbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=online_vermeer_experience&utm_content=algemeen_en

I have to put myself in the idiot category, I never used to take mortorcy taxis but the traffic around my area in Bangkok is back to as bad as pre-covid levels and a motorcy can take me to the neartest MRT station in less about 4 minutes when a metered taxi can easily take 20. Like many motorcy passengers, I don't have a helmet. Perhaps with their drivers having to be registered, accidents are less likely. But the article above makes me re-think the need to get a helmet.

The interesting point raised in the article from The Nation is not only re the difficulties faced by transgender people in obtaining employment, but the fact that lesbians, gays and bisexuals experience only slightly less difficulty. It just proves yet again how difficult it is in general for LGBT Thais, especially those who work in professions, to "come out" to their colleagues and employers.

The name Ryuichi Sakamoto is not so well known outside Asia even though he is both an Oscar and a Golden Globe winner. One of Japan's finest musicians and actors, he first made his name with the ground-breaking avant garde rock group The Yellow Magic Orchestra, even though at University he had studied 20th century's classical composers like Stockhausen, Ligeti and Boulez. Michael Jackson covered their song "Behind The Mask" and intended to incclude it in his album, Thriller, but a royalty disagreement prevented that. Deciding he wanted to be more than a pop star, Sakamoto ventured into acting and writing music for films, both of which he did with great success. He won particular praise when he worked alongside David Bowie portraying the sadistic guard in the 1983 movie Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. But it was the hauting theme music that brought him as much fame. It was his music for Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Last Emperor that earned him his Oscar, music penned on cooperation with Chinese composer Su Cong. He also worked again with Bertolucci on The Last Buddha and with such directors as Brian de Palma, Oliver Stone and Pedro Almodovar. Sakamoto died aged 71 following two bouts with cancer.

Pity it is not avaiable for viewing in Thailand!

With so many Chinese having been laid off work or having to work shortened hours during covid, I wonder how many of the less well off that usually made up these cheap tours can actually now afford them, the more so with air fares so much more expensive. I know one guy in his 30s, married with 2 children, whose new restaurant business was closed down soon after covid arrived. He is now around US$2,500 in debt and has no idea when he will be able to pay this off. Until then, he told me any form of travel outsde his town is out of the question.

Next time you are a participant, please give us advance warning - so we can keep away!! LOL 🤣 🤣

That is the sort of simple solution that exists only in cloud cuckoo land! As I said, you cannot reverse history after 70, 100, 500 or however many years. Our world exists as it is, however many mistakes were made in the past. Paying reparations for events which took place a century or many centuries ago and which seemed right at the time will never happen other than in exceptional and very minor cases. We cannot transport ourthinking back generations. I recommend you read Professor Peter Frankopan's masterly book "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" published in 2017. Your view of history will never be the same again.

As one who has frequently criticised the British colonial era, especially in its actions as China disintegrated in the 19th century and the Middle East when it connived with the USA to keep oil out of the hands of the countries where it had been found, I have to agree. The British 'encouraged' the Muslim Rohingya to move to Rakhine when they 'ruled' India. But those who criticise what happened in the distant past have to bear in mind that it is impossible to reverse history. Our world exists today. We cannot undo the past. We cannot give life back to the 5 million plus Indians who were massacred during the idiotic, almost pathetic, way the partition of India was done by having a civil servant from London who had never been near india only 6 weeks to carve up a massive country. We cannot give life back to those millions of Chinese who were killed by opium at the start of the 19th century. The French and the British cannot undo the destruction they wrought at one of the great architectural monuments - Beijing's Summer Palace. The USA cannot undo its illegal war in Cambodia which directly created the power vacuum which led to the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge and the consequent genocide in Cambodia. And so on . . . and so on. As King Charles did yesterday in Hamburg, we can - and should - acknowledge the wrongs of history. Equally we must acknowledge that righting those wrongs in our present world is all but impossible.

With the military 'occupation' of Myanmar now making up most comments in the new media, the desperate problems of the Rohingya seem to have been forgotten. Let's not forget that the military expelled in a disgraceful manner with so many human rights violations they bordered on genocide up to 1 million Rohingya. One of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh, took most of them in while others like Thailand and Malaysia turned boat people back.

I undersand your view and am as pissed off as others. But I think the comment is hardly accurate given the massive losses airlines have suffered over the last three covid years. Somehow they have got to try and recover these and have little option but put fares up. We just have to find the best deals we can.

If Van Goch Alive is as good as the two Exhibitions I have previously visited - the Caravaggio Exhibition at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre and the Da Vinci Exhibition at River City - it will be excellent.

Fares from the LOS have also risen dramatically. Economy fares from Bangkok to Hong Kong have risen more than 50% in three months despite many more flights now. Biz fares on Emirates from BKK to HKG which used to be 14,000 baht for at least 3 years pre covid are now 26,000.

Another perceptive and enlightening post. Thank you. And I do not think you have hijacked the thread. it is after all about banning something. A Supreme Court that approves extending gun rights is just nuts in my view. Everyone can see that the US Supreme Court is totally fucked up. A Supreme Court that is appointed by politicians and is essentially a political instrument - and increasingly political from what I see at a distance - ignores what the founding fathers intended, again in my view.

Like TMax I always keep some cash for the next visit. I used to travel to so many places I keep the left over cash in an old free standing Korean medicine chest with 30+ drawers. Some of course I will never use but in general it is a great way to keep lots of currencies separate in deally sized drawers. I hate to arrive in a country and then the first thing I have to do is change cash.

Firstly thank you for your excellent, thought-provoking post. I think all sane people surely agree with you - "Wish I did have an answer." Never having been married I do not have grandchildren but my brother and sister each have two children and four grandkids between them. My sister now lives in Scotland not far from where the massacre of school kids took place in Dunblane in 1996. That shooter killed 16 young children, a teacher and injured 15 others. As so often in these ghastly events, he ended up by taking his own life. That massacre of young lives led directly to a tightening of gun legislation and a banning of the private ownership of most guns in the UK. With more guns in the USA than people, that is never going to happen there. But what I find most strange is the fascination many Americans have with guns in this day and age. @KYTOP refers to it in his post. Why is it necessary for an individual to own several guns - and take pride in them? They are instruments of death in the wrong hands. Yes, I know knives, cars and blunt instruments can and do also cause death. But it seems to me that 99.9% of guns require the deliberate action of an individual. Whenever kids and others are murdered, the right led by the NRA - and I guess some on the left as well - keep harping on about mental health being one of the main causes rather than the ownership of or access to a gun. From what we learn, I suspect this is partly true - but how you describe someone who shoots his former work colleagues only because he got in his view unfairly fired as being mentally unsound to me stretches the limit of what is "mental health". And as I have written on a simiar subject before, how on God's good earth do you run checks on the mental health of all citizens? They may be perfectly sane prior to the purchase of a gun, and then go to pieces afterwards. There is absolutely no way you can keep tabs on the mental health of the vast majority of gun owners. Then there is the issue of weapons designed for use on the battlefield being all but freely available for purchase in the USA. For what reason are these frightful instruments of death permitted on American streets? Those who shout Second Amendment will no doubt be aware that there is considerable and continuing controversy about the precise meaning of the wording of that Clause. Those that framed it had never heard of high capacity automatic and semi-automatic guns designed specifically to kill large numbers of people. The Constitution of a country cannot be set in stone. As a huge array of technological and other advances occur over time, so a Constitution needs to be sufficiently flexible to take them into account. But I am not an American citizen and that is an issue for them.

I think we should recall - unfortunately - that it was the not Repulicans who insisted on covering up the male penis. As Michelangelo, Donatello and CellinI were creating their magnificent nudes, if I recall correctly it was the rigidly austere Pope Paul IV in the mid-1550s who decided that such statues in Catholic Churches might corrupt those who happened to see them. This decrepit, rigidly austere Pope elected when he was 79 decided that anything imoral had to go. Called by all who encountered him as "God's wrath incarnate," Paul was universally loathed. In his book "Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy", Peter de Rosa, an alumnus of the Gregorian University in Rome, says of Paul IV - "His massive head was shaped like Vesuvius in whose shaodow he was born. He, too, erupted without warning, spewing out destruction and death. His shaggy beard and craggy brow gave him a savage look; his cratered eyes, red and blotchy, shone like burning lava. His cracked voice, seldom free from catarrh, rolled and thundered, demanding instant, blind obedience." (Shades of Trump perhaps?) Paul in his dotage decided that dicks on male nudes in the Vatican were out and concrete fig leaves were in. Not to be too hard (oops) on the male figures, his decision quickly spread to all genitalia, buttocks and womens' breatsts - all the fun bits as one wag remarked. Paul's edict was eventually formalised at the Council of Trent's 1563 decree banning all "lasciviousness" in religious imagery, although I'm not sure how women's breasts evaded the ban. Popes who followed him were equally anti-dick. Fortunately Michelangelo's nudes in the Sistine Chapel's magnificent frescoes were not regarded as statues.

The OP also tried his luck on the sawatdee forum - and failed to find a hotel. Apart from my personal utter dislike of what he hoped to achieve, what hotel would permit doors to remain open for anyone to enter to participate in this kind of activity - even if they got past reception? Having endless young men register for the same room would surely alert security to something idiotic going on.

Perhaps this is because the phallus plays such a prominent part in most Asian cultures and has done so throughout millennia. In Japan one of the most famous matsuri (local festivals) is that at Kawasaki and its Kanamara Phallus Festival. It draws massive crowds each year. In India and Nepal sexual couplings are far from unusual decoration at temples. These were among 100 or more I saw in the town of Patan in the Katmandu Valley. In India there are erotic carvings in many cities, notably in Khajuraho. The erotic wood print and other carvings and paintings from Japan, Korea and China had better not be shown to religious Americans who clearly might end up with serious mental issues!! 🤣

As a bit of fun in what is clearly a serious subject, I visited the Meissen Factory and Museum near Dresden a few years back. In addition to examples of great Meissen porcelain throughout history, on the top floor there is a special gallery for porcelain crafted by young people relatively new to the art. In the centre there is a quite lovely gazebo with 17th century ladies and gentlemen clearly enjoying some form of afternoon refreshment. Take a closer look, though. I'll let the photos do the talking. All the visitors in my group, young and older, found it immensely amusing. Pornographic? Just fun!

You will no doubt have noted that the source I quoted was from the BBC website. Never infalllible, it is in most cases usually pretty accurate. As it stated - "A principal of a Florida school has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to pornography." And if you check the internet, this is the reason given on most sites. I did indeed look before I took the leap! Further, the "other side of the indcident" that you suggest, is for exactly the same "faults". It remains a ridiculous and pathetic joke. If serious art is to be considered pornography, then much of our history can only be regarded as truly decadent. WHat's next? Block out the tits of women in art because they should not be shown to children? Odd that since most kids spent much of their first year or so sucking from them! This from The Insider – "Bishop told the paper that the school had "several issues" with Carrasquilla in the past, including that she did not notify parents that their children would be shown Michelangelo's famous sculpture. "Carrasquilla's husband, Victor Carrasquilla, told the paper that his wife is a "strong evangelical Christian" and said the board should not have forced her to resign." Bishop is the Chair of the School Board and Carrasquilla is the teacher. https://www.insider.com/florida-principal-forced-resign-parents-simpsons-michelangelo-david-statue-2023-3 The Lord help those teachers if they also start examining the art of the Romans. There they might be exposed (horror of horrors) to dozens of other examples of the male nude - on frescos in Pompeii and dozens of depictions of the God Pan. Better still, a good idea if students and their ridiculous parents are banned from travel to Italy and all art galleries and museums! The purity of their simple minds might thus be preserved. LOL

As widely reported, the head teacher of a Florida School has resigned after sixth-grade students were shown images of arguably one of the greatest statues ever created - that of Michelangelo's David in the Accademia in Florence.The students were being given a lesson on Renaissance art. A copy of the statue stands proudly for all to see, adults and children alike, in Florence's main square. All because one parent deemed the statue pornographic and two others felt they should have been told about the 'reveal' beforehand. All this for a figure who features prominently in the Bible which presumably all these holier-than-thou people worship weekly if not daily! What is this ridiculous world coming to - or more specifically all these utterly bigoted, stupid idiots? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65071989

I watched this on tv last night. I have never bungee jumped in my life and, despite the obvious thrill participants get, I will not do so in future. Imagine if that cord had snapped higher in the jump, or if the terra firma below had been other than water. I guess the park would also have paid to scrape the poor man's remains off the ground! 🤔

Great when awake but I find even the ear buds inconvenient when sleeping on my side. On the other hand, I do find the orange waxy earplugs the airlines give out very good at blocking most sounds. I do not insert them as they come from the packet. Rather I fold them in two, squash them into a smallish ball and then virtually screw them into the ear. Sounds odd but for me it works well. I've known about the prevalence of an aircraft to pitch up slightly during flight for a long time. But surely that should aid the lie flat position. It it were pitch down. my inch up would be more understandable. For me i think it is the fact that whereas a normal mattress will give a little for pelvic bones at the centre of the body, on a lie flat seat there is no such 'give'. It is all dead 'flat'.