PeterRS

There are usually a few posts in Gay Guides about Thailand in years gone by with some posters (myself included) writing lovingly of the old days in the 80s and 90s when the boys in the bars were all Thais from upcountry, when nudity was de rigueur in the bars and shows were much more fun. I fully accept these must be quite boring for those whose experience of gay Thailand does not extend that far back. But as one who visited Bali 10 times in the first half of the 1980s, always staying at the same simple guest house just outside Ubud, and was totally seduced by its people, customs, their arts and wonderful friendliness, I often wonder how the mass influx of tourists has changed the island since those days. I believe it was the gay German artist Walter Spies who settled in Bali in 1927 who helped create the vision of the island being a gay paradise. Indeed, although i did not know it then, my guesthouse had been Spies' home for most of his time in Bali. He threw himself into virtually all the island's many artistic activities and helped develop the particular Balinese naif style of painting. Allegedly he and an Indonesian friend also choreographed the popular all-male Kecak Dance. Tourism at this time was almost totally new. In 1930, there were only about 100 visitors arriving each year. During his years on the island he hosted many famous artists, writers, musicians and actors, imparting to each the joys of living on the island and what it offered to Europeans like himself. Yet I wonder if it ever really was that exotic gay paradise. Was it in fact more a result of the increasing anti-homosexual propoganda coming out of Nazi dominated Europe that prompted Spies to stress Bali's freedoms for gay men? Or was it more sinister, for one writer has suggested that Spies was actually concealing the fact that he was a sexual predator seeking relationships with young Balinese boys? However true or otherwise, what is not in dispute, whatever Spies' motives, is that in 1938 he was arrested in a crackdown on homosexuals. Hauled before a judge for committing sodomy with a minor, the boy's father told the trial judge, "He is our best friend, and it was an honour for my son to be in his company. If both are in agreement, why fuss?" But Spies could not escape the law for long. Eventually convicted as a pedophile, he was being transported to Ceylon when his ship was sunk by a Japanese bomb in 1942. From what I have read, the Balinese obviously had a much more liberal outlook on things like nudity and sex, even though there were I undersand no gay bars as such when i was there. I once visited the studio of a nearby artist Antonio Blanco and all the young women assistants in his house were topless. Yet 30 years earlier the governor of Bali had banned photographs of topless women and young girls as views about western morality started to take hold. Were Balinese women finally shamed into covering up their breasts only because this was happening all over other parts of Indonesia? Even so I recall so vividly seeing men, young and old, going to a stream or water spigot around 5:00 pm after work, stripping off all their clothes and bathing themselves before returing home. One young man who was a regular at a spigot on the grounds of my guesthouse was a particularly glorious sight! I was once even on a DC10 leaving Bali for Hong Kong and seeing a young man strip off and dip into a stream near the runway! Scholars have written that homosexuality had existed as part of life in Indonesia for at least a thousand years. As in Thailand, there had been no word for homosexuality in Indonesian until the 20th century. Only around the 1970s did it become an accepted term for a certain type of sexual behaviour. There is an interesting book published in the 1970s "Jalan Sempurna" which gives graphic descriptions of the feelings between one 20-year old student for another of the same age. Even though it relates to another part of Indonesia, it is perhaps indicative of the feelings also of some men in Bali. Here is an excerpt – "I walked by the front of the Regent’s residence, intending to keep going past the railway station. But only a few steps after I passed the Regent’s residence, a young fellow suddenly stepped out of an alley. He looked to be about twenty years old, but was still in school, judging from the schoolbag that he, like me, was carrying. The second our eyes met, my heart started to pound. I felt as if the blood was hissing (berdesir-desir) through my body. 'Hey, why is your heart thudding like that?' I asked myself. Never in my life had it pounded so. And, at that moment, I lowered my head, puzzling over the beating of my heart . . . “'Why is he like this?' I thought to myself. I was sure that his desire was awakened. But why was I, too, aroused? Unmistakably, it was because his body was really amazing. Wherever I laid my hand, his skin felt so smooth and soft. Even though he was another boy, at whatever part of his body I looked, my desire and passion grew stronger. Especially, if I looked at his face. If I didn’t quickly lower my head, my desire would surely explode. I would surely lay my head by his. I longed to nibble at his lips and kiss them. His body was like silk to my touch. Even this morning when I first met him, my heart was already pounding, as if something was beating inside my chest." Bali's adherence to its own form of Hinduism is no doubt one reason why it was relatively isolated from the other islands of Indonesia and why it developed differently, including in terms of sexuality. But was it indeed a gay paradise then - or even now? I just do not know.

A short note about the apps in Taiwan. On my two recent visits (November and last week), I noticed that Grindr and Jack'd are much more active than Hornet. Blued for some reason was a disaster whereas it used to be very productive. This may be because I gave up Blued for a few years and then downloaded it again. I may have downloaded the wrong version (if there is more than one).

I note that like many hotels the floor is not carpeted. In Asia I have little problem with this as most guests take off their outdoor shoes when entering, but I have noted that hotels in other parts of the world (not merely beach hotels) have started abandoning carpets. This obviously makes cleaning simoler and cheaper, but I have learned through experience to avoid them where possible. Noise from above has a nasty habit of filtering down and noise is one issue I want to avoid when i am trying to sleep. Case 1 was a hotel in Hong Kong. The man in the room above did not take off his shoes when entering his room and i heard every clump, clump late in the evening and first thing in the morning. Case 2 was a Holiday Inn at Helsinki airport where I spent 2 nights before and after flights up beyond the Arctic Circle. Once again, whoever was in the room above wore heavy shoes as he strode around the room and every step was heard in mine. Then at 5:30ish in the morning he was clearly packing his bag when it dropped on to the floor and woke me up. I then heard him shower and a few minutes later he dropped his keys on to the floor. Carpets carry a risk of tiny bugs but I'll take them any day to noise from above.

Isn't age a factor? As I wrote some time ago, about 6 years ago on one of my regular visits to Taipei, I had an orgy of hits on a couple of the apps. One day I had arranged two hook ups - one at lunchtime and one late afternoon. Then after breakfast, another guy wrote that he'd be passing by my hotel at around 11:00 and pleaase, please could we meet! We did and he was great. By early evening I was already quite exhausted when a student from the nearby University asked if he could come round about 9:00pm. He looked ridiculously cute and I gave in. Another great encounter. Four times in one day was and remains a record for with age creeping up I certainly could not do that now. Nor indeed do I have the interest for meeting up with more than one guy each day when away from Thailand. Thankfully a heart MRI scan last year showed absolutely no abnormalities and so I am on no medication! Just a sex drive!

Much probably depends on how often one travels. A few years ago I used to travel far more regularly than now - at least 50 flights a year. After an old Samsonite hard shell case which had given me many years of service finally died, I bought a new Samsonite medium sized soft shell case. It's first outing was a long trip with stops in Hong Kong, Moscow, London, Edinburgh and than all again for a second visit on the return. Wiping the case down after my return, I noticed the shell had been punctured twice and had a longish tear. I took it to Central Chidlom where I had purchased it and asked for a new one. They refused and said i had to take it to a Samsonite repair shop. After accusing them of selling defective goods, I insisted they refund the purchase price and left the case with them. That obviously left them in a quandary. End result, though, was I got my cash back. I then went to Emporium and noticed they had a 40% off sale on certain Tumi hard shell cases. So I purchased one. It did sterling service until it got badly dented after about 4 1/2 years. Since Tumi had a 5 year warranty, I had my pick of a new case at no cost! It is this free replacement case that has the new wheels that extend out from the case shell and clearly take the brunt of any force when hitting a hard object at some speed. I'll get the broken wheel replaced after I return from the UK in late March. If thereafter another wheel breaks, I'll take @vinapu's advice and just get a cheaper one with more recessed wheels.

I arrived back yesterday afternoon around 4:30 pm. The airport was far busier than I have seen it in 3 years with long waits for luggage. Yet at Taipei, the advance baggage check in line for two flights was all but empty, even though my flight to BKK was virtually full and the security checks upstairs had very long lines. I have an expensive Tumi suitcase. On arrival back yesterday one of the wheels had broken off. This is the second consecutive flight from Taipei in 3 months when a wheel has broken. All four were perfectly fine in Taipei and so the break happened between departure from Taipei and arrival at BKK. I noticed the speed at which baggage comes off the belt onto the carousels at BKK is faster than at most other airports. Also the bags hit a sold metal surround rather than the usual rubberised surround. I can well imagine that if a bag hits wheel first, some are going to end up with those wheels broken.

As I understand it, Interpol never posted a Red Notice request. I remember reviewing around 7,500 details of those placed on a Red Notice and the Red Bull murderer was not one.

This is the Thailand forum. Most readers don't "speak English?" Funny thought! If you were posting in the Beer Bar or the South American threads, maybe. But not here! Most speak English and have understood English many years before before this Board became Gay Guides.

I've done this as well to boost mileage and status points. But it can sometimes backfire. A dozen years ago I needed more miles to get to South America biz class for a month's vacation. So on a round-the-world ticket which allows for a lot of flexibility I flew BA from London to New York using a roundabout route. London to San Francisco, overnight at the airport Hyatt using points, early morning American San Francisco to Miami, change to American to New York. But . . . all went well till the flight neared Miami. There was an electric storm near the airport and so the airport virtually closed. After a bit of circling we finally landed - and then just stayed on a taxiway. No flights were taking off and the gates were all full of planes and passengers. I thought no problem. I had allowed 2 1/2 hours for the connection. As we sat on that taxiway, I occasionally looked at my watch. After 15, 30 even 45 minutes I was not worried. But that damn storm was still around and there were no flight movements. After 75 minutes, I could see some flights taking off. I assumed all would still be fine. It wasn't. By the time we had crawled to the arrival gate, I had 15 minutes to change terminals and get to my departing flight. Still I was not overly worried as almost all flights had been subject to long delays. As luck would have it, my New York flight departed on time. After racing through the terminals, I arrived just as the aricraft was being pushed back. At the lounge, the very nice lady who was being bombarded by screaming passengers with missed flights offered me a flight the following day via Charlotte. But this got me into NYC in the afternoon and I had an important business lunch. From experience I know there is absolutely no point doing anything other than being nice. So I explained this to the lady and asked if she would "kindly" etc. do her best. She gave me a couple of drinks coupon and said she'd page me if a seat on the last flight to NYC opened up. Sure enough, it did. And sure enough, she remembered me and I got that seat. When we arrived at 10:30pm I was desperatey tired, but I had got the points and mileage. That was not the end of the troubles, though. Half the bags appeared on the LGA carousel in reasonable time. My bag and the others did not. After an hour in a nearly deserted airport, some of us found an AA rep. She explained that the aft cargo door on the 757 had stuck but engineers were working on it. I got my bag having waited 90 minutes. The taxi took no time to get in to the city and I could not wait to grab a shower and sleep. At the hotel where I had a pre-booked, pre-paid reservation, the young man looked at my booking, checked his computer and then said since I was so late they assumed I was not coming and had sold the room. The hotel was full! Just before I finally lost it, he added. "But don't worry, we'll put you in the top floor Westminster Suite for your three nights."

Looks like an interesting event worth making a trip to Pattaya to see.

Don't you realise how childish it looks? And how difficult to read? This may be how you write to friends but posters on this boards are used to a form of English they mostly comprehend. Having to try and work out what another poster is trying to say negates the point of the posts! It's merely an affectation that perhaps is supposed to look trendy. Sorry to day: it doesn't!

Corruption! Part of Thailand's culture! Yet the Yingluck government pledged to end it. It didn't. Two months ago the present Prime Minister pledged to end corruption in 20 years. “Corruption is a threat to the country,” he said. “We cannot allow the younger generation to inherit these sins.” 20 years? As proved in Hong Kong and Singapore, he could end corruption in a couple of years if his words had any meaning. They don't! https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/policies/40022926

Perhaps it's worth recalling that Interpol were useless when it came to trying to locate the Red Bull heir murderer. More than 10 years have passed since he mowed down and killed the traffic policeman - and still the Thai government is happy for this guilty man to go free despite his having been back in this country several times and spotted in other locations like London.

Chinese human trafficking extends into its own borders. Thanks to the one child policy, there is now such an imbalance between males and females. Somewhere in the region of 50 million men will not be able to marry. So for years now young girls have been trafficked, largely from the poor northern states of Vietnam. They merely vanish before ending up with older men and saddled with one or more children. The results can often be sexual violence, depression, PTSD and even attempted suicide. https://ghrp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41256-017-0049-4 The Chinese government still fails to realise that making greater efforts to reduce taboos on homosexuality and even actually encouraging it would solve their problem in a flash, at the same time preventing a great many loveless marriages.

I also find sometimes the site is slow. Yesterday morning I could not log off as there was a message about site maintenance. When I opened the site in the evening, I was still logged in and it all worked well. But the problems I have experienced are very minor.

I never once visited Aniki as I felt it was just too expensive. My two visits to Rainbow were also before 2011. I never liked it. The layout was rather industrial and the attitude of some of the guys was pretty much anti-foreigner. That's the only time I have come across that in all my many dozens of visits to Taiwan. Before Soi13 the best sauna by far was in a building to the south of the main railway station. It was on the 5th and 6th floors. Most of the guys who went there were young, fit and downright gorgeous! I suspect it was Taipei's first real sauna. Sadly the major 7.7 earthquake in 1999 damaged the building and the whole block had to be torn down. There was another pleasant but much smaller sauna to the south of Peace Park. It was smaller and for some reason the police raided it a few times. I believe that is why it closed.

I adored the first Parade I attended. It was all so new and, despite what I had read, so utterly exciting. That this could be held anywhere in Asia seemed so unlikely. Then the second proved that the first had been no mirage! I expect first time visitors now will find it similarly exciting, even though they will have been to the Sydney Parade and others in the west. Taipei's remains quite different.

My first was 2011. I had not heard about the Parade until a year earlier when I checked in to my hotel. There on the front page of the newpaper on my desk were photos of the previous day's ParadeI decided there and then I would be take part in 2011. In total I have been to 7 Parades. I had to miss 2015 for business reasons and 2019 since i had returned from a tiring European trip just the previous evening. I just checked flights and hotels for this coming October. Already prices have gone up.

I only use my Apple desktop computer for on line banking with scam apps recommended by the banks. I've recently had one problem but it is not related to a scam or phishing.

For several years the Taipei Pride Parade has been fixed as the last Saturday in October - so Saturday 28 this year. Note that in addition to the Parade there are various parties during the weekend. These get booked out quickly and there will always be queues outside the venues with guys hoping to get in. All gay venues will be packed. Even the hot spring. Some years ago when Chuan Tang was the 'in' gay hot spring (the management changed the policy soon after), I went on to the hot spring after the Parade. I had never before had to queue. This Saturday it took a good 20 minutes just to gt through the door and then another 25 minutes to get to the lockers. When I looked over to my left to see the main pool, I was surprised that i could not see any water - merely a vast array of naked bodies! The point about hotels is worth considering. Taipei's Pride weekend atrracts gay guys not only from all over Asia but also from Taiwan itself. Added to the usual tourist numbers, the cheaper and more popular hotels can get booked up fast. For those who have not read about the Parade before, here are a few photos some of which I have posted before. Many participants assemble at Peace Park to prepare. They then move to the large open space at Taipei City Hall Square. This is the assembly point and also the destination. At the end there is a concert in the Square with usually some gay Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers. Because of the nuimbers attending, the route in pre-covid years was been split into three. So you have to decide which one you will follow. All will be packed with cute guys, but only one is likely to have the Speedo/Aqux boys. Keep your eyes peeled!

The above is a reason why I refuse to use mobile phone banking.

I echo all @fedssocr comments. A few years ago I did one of the organised 5-day round-the-island coach tours staying at very good hotels. I was amazed at how beautiful the island is, having earlier only visited Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. We started at Sun Moon Lake where in addition to a large hot spring pool in the basement, each room had its own mini-hot spring pool! Sun Moon Lake We then drove down south of Kaohsiung to the far south coast with its crystal clear water and visiting the main Buddhist monastery before returning to Kahsiung for the night. From there we moved over to the East Coast and worked our way up to the stunning Taroko Gorge where our hotel was virtually at the top of the Gorge. Much of the upper part of the East coast looks rather like parts of the north coast of the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to Taipei is quick as the road goes through several long tunnels. You can do all these sights on your own and save quite a bit of cash. I just wanted to be lazy for a few days to sit back and enjoy the island in comfort.

I was there only once and was mugged in the middle of a sunny day. It was a Sunday and took place very close to a Church that was so packed there were people standing outside at the back. Thankfully three heard my cry for help and raced to do so. I was very impressed that a pollce car was on the scene in little more than a minute.

Well, what else would one expect a "Vice" minister to say? 😉

Only one I was anywhere near was the last one where I hit the bullseye!