PeterRS

I have not been to a sauna in many years but have heard about the pricing policy from a couple of older guys. I have also read about the higher prices on various sites. 4 comments from travelgayasia.com from 2020 and 2019. 28 Feb: “Pure discrimination, under 50: 280B, 50 y/o & over 1500B 28 Nov: “People over 50 yo are unwanted, almost banned. 1500 baht for them instead of 280 baht!“ 2 Jun: “Foreigners entrance fee has shot up double since my last visit 2 years ago, now it is 4 times the local Thai (what an extortion - weekend is even higher)" 15Jan: “If you're over 50 or look over 50 years old, then you will be charged 800 baht for the pleasure of going into this place." Even Utopia-Asia (granted, not always the most up to date site) states this: "Men over 50yo must pay a higher entry fee." I understand Sauna Mania has the same ownership as R3 sauna near Fortune Tower. A similar pricing discrimination operates there. Maybe the pricing policy changed in 2018 or 2019.

An Appendix to Dedicated Followers of Fashion The Long and the Short With the European Football Championship and the South American Copa America Championship now down to their semi-final stages, I willingly admit that in my youth I was a dedicated follower of football. ‘Real’ football, that is. Not the American corruption which to this uninitiated observer always seems much more a mixture of a dash of rugby in an outright war – with each stop/start play gaining one side merely a few yards before the head-butting and shoulder-charging relentlessly resume. It all does seem a bit like trench warfare in World War 1, one step forward – two steps back. Only the battle-dress is less depressing! Mind you, I don’t like rugby either! Most of the players are built too much like refugees from Bangkok’s Tawan bar for my liking. Now the beautiful game has conquered the world. Not even the USA is immune to soccer’s charms. I remember in my youth watching my local team in the UK. It was often frustrating, if only because they lost far more often then they won. But sometimes it was utterly magical. I particularly recall when a Hungarian was purchased by my team, the only foreigner in a team of Brits. He played at Inside Right. This was long before the days of football managers adopting various pitch formations with their 10 outfield players more like mathematical formulae: 4-2-4; 4-3-3; 1-4-2-3 and other such seeming nonsense. This player moved around the pitch like a gazelle. His deft swift passing threaded the ball past several defenders of the opposing team as though through a needle, and his goals frequently wondrous. Of course it could not last. He was just too good. Soon he was sold to another continental team. What a sad day! There was, though, another reason for my interest in these supremely fit and talented players. Their shorts were more like mini-skirts for men! They might not have been skin-tight, but you could see all the detail of the players’ thigh muscles below. Even better, when those wearing white shorts were running, the muscles in their bum were deliciously clear. And just occasionally a player would tug at his opponent’s shorts pulling them ever so tightly so that the outline of dick and balls were equally clear. Two English soccer players 38 years ago: Photo Getty Images Although as remarked earlier I was no fan of rugby, when living in Japan I would often be transfixed watching the game on television on a Saturday afternoon. There should have been another word for the shorts these guys wore. Short they were not. Ultra-shorts? These Japanese teams wore mere slips of cloth. Best of all was watching the scrums, those parts of the game where the eight forwards in each team grab hold of each other, face the other team and then bend down low to try and push the incoming ball to their back line. Imagine! To stick together, you need to grab hold of something down there, and most hands latched on to those slips. Inevitably with all the pushing and shoving, the shorts frequently rose up to expose an alabaster coloured butt. Not once! Not twice! Throughout the whole 80 minutes! So why did all this change? Somehow, somewhere, the football authorities – in fact many sports authorities – decided that shorts had to fall. Not off, alas. Just down. And so over a period of years their length at least doubled. Then they got even longer. By the turn of the century, describing a basketball players’ shorts was a complete misnomer. ‘Longs’ are now hardly appropriate. A glimpse of a thigh these days is often like trying to spot a tiny slice of chipolata in large loaf of bread. And don’t get me off on swimming shorts when all decent young slim Asian guys should only consider the skimpiest Speedos. Jeremy Lin the Taiwanese-American who inspired 'Linsanity' was a basketball sensation who fell from hero to zero. With those white 'longs' looking hideous over longer black leggings (true, I don't like them!), perhaps not surprising. Photo: Getty Images Ah well! Progress cannot satisfy everyone. I ‘long’ for the old days when soccer players’ shorts were akin to those worn today by the many cute Asian gymnasts today when doing their floor exercises. Will they ever return? I still watch soccer occasionally. But the beautiful game has lost a little of its temptation for me. Photo: Tiebreaker Times

I definitely agree Lawrence of Arabia should be in a 10 best movies list, although I have not seen it 10 times. Arguably the greatest epic ever made - cast, director, writing, music and especially its cinematography and stunning desert scenery. Loved Noel Coward's quip to Peter O'Toole after seeing the premiere, "If you'd been any prettier, the film would have been called "Florence of Arabia"! David Lean was a wonderful director. Some might argue that Dr. Zhivago is at least as good, although I think not. Bridge on the River Kwai was surely one of the great non-epic movies. His one semi-failure was his last in my view - A Passage to India. Another superb cast led by Dame Peggy Ashcroft who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But casting Alec Guinness as the Indian Professor was a major mistake. No matter how hard he tried, he could never portray an indian successfully. I also felt Lean's keen eye sometimes deserted him. When there is a close up of the train arriving (to take the party to the caves?) it is spotlessly clean, not a speck of dust anywhere. Yet it had just steamed through the Indian countryside and surely should have been caked in dirt!

I thought I had never seen any movie ten times - then realised there is one I love which I have shown to many friends and boyfriends, Everyone loved it Victor Victoria with the quite wonderful Robert Preston as a gay nightclub singer, Julie Andrews, James Garner and Leslie Anne Warren Coming close would be Woody Allen's Manhattan with George Gershwin's great music.

Sauna Mania remains off Soi Convent. But I read it is almost exclusively Thai for Thai/Asian. Besides, over 50s are charged something like 1,200 baht entrance. They only want younger guys there.

I walked past it quite a few times but never went in. I'm not into that particular scene. But I loved the saunas. Oban was a revelation when I first visited around 1982 several years before its closure to combat HIV - well after the cat was out of the bag. Once saw a handsome tall porn star there. My favourite sauna experience, though, was in one in Shibuya probably around 1984. I now have no idea of its name or exactly where it was located, but I met a guy there who was just amazing. Three hours of heaven including a session on the roof. It seemed to me that there were some blocks where people could see what was going on on the roof. but i was far more concerned with the guy on my lap than any voyeurs

It's clear we all have stories to tell about our times in Asia. Not necessarily with the boys of our dreams or the times of our lives. Often just general observations that strike us for one reason or another. Since few of us can travel and our time at home has not only already extended for the better part of 15 months but there is no end in sight, this little series (hopefully more will contribute) may help to while away the time - as well as raise a smile or two. As mentioned in another thread about Gay Icons, about 5 years ago I used to write for a blog run by an Ozzie guy. I kept much of the material and it's easy to bring it more up to date. So I'll start the ball rolling with an experience centred on two cute late teens Japanese guys. Dedicated Followers of Fashion I guess it must have been about 20 years or so ago. I had just spent a fun evening at the Ueno branch of Tokyo's 24 Sauna (the more popular branch in Shinjuku ni-chome had not yet opened) and was close to Ueno station for the train back to my hotel. It was then that I saw them. Two youngish Japanese guys chatting and laughing and turning right to the stairs taking them up towards the platforms. They looked cute - as most Japanese in their late teens do. Not unnaturally I followed, staying three or four steps behind so that my eyes would be in line with what I assumed had to a pair of lovely, lightly muscled Japanese derrières! Not that I had failed to see any in the sauna a little earlier. Far from it! Being a Saturday evening, 24 had been busy. The communal bathing area, the more personal showers and the rain shower room had all been full of a variety of tempting naked bodies. Even the darker communal rooms upstairs where coupling took place either on large mattresses on the floor or bunk beds with bodies only occasionally covered by duvets, had been witness to some lovely pounding flesh. But as I climbed those steps, assumption was as far as I would get that evening. Japanese youngsters are mostly slaves to the latest fashion craze. In my enthusiasm I had totally forgotten that the fashion of the day was a sort of grunge, loose-fitting look - in the case of my two boys, so loose that the crotch of their pants was as low as their knees. What a terrible shame, I thought! And then I remembered those days when skin-tight jeans had been all the rage. A bit before my time, but I had heard tales and seen photos of the mods and rockers and the skinhead motorcycle gangs. Drainpipe jeans, as they were called, had been all the rage then. Yet somehow for a growing boy who had never seen an Asian in his life, they held absolutely no appeal for me My youth coincided with the most inappropriately named bell-bottoms, for they had absolutely nothing to do with "bottoms" as I then associated the word. Cut rather tightly over the hips and thighs, these then flared out from the knee so that the bottom of the pants would be almost as wide as the length of the boots most commonly worn with them. Why on earth anyone thought these were fashionable beats me. But for a while they were immensely popular. The 1980s and 1990s seemed to flash by as I paid little attention to fashion trends. My work demanded suits or at least jacket and slacks, with jeans rarely figuring in my day-to-day existence. In those days before the Internet when hook ups took place mostly in bars and clubs, at first glance faces were more interesting than the lower part of guys' anatomies. By around the mid-2000s quite suddenly, or so it seemed to me, a merciful revolution took place. Around the world, designers decided that slim and skin-tight would return as the new 'look'. Young guys in Tokyo and all around Asia got rid of those low crotch garments in favour of increasingly hip-hugging, crotch-hugging, thigh-hugging, lower leg-hugging pants. Fashion now dictated that the precise contours of the lower body, every shape and every muscle, henceforth be visible in all their glory! All? Well, not quite all! Whilst derrières may now be proudly displayed leaving precious little to a fertile imagination, a certain degree of modesty extends to the slightly more loose-fitting front. No doubt some will suggest that in their quiescent state, few Asians have much to boast about in that department. And as a habitue of saunas and hot springs around parts of Asia in those days, I agree that is not entirely untrue. But then, who walks around with a permanent erection? And I can guarantee that once standing tall I have seen many young Asians with equipment that is more than merely satisfactory - in a few cases even humungous! But then, that's another story. In the meantime, I am just thrilled that every day I am able to see dozens of perfectly lovely slim young Asian guys showing me how they will look once those pants have been pulled off. Now if only someone would come up with a way of getting them off in a flash rather than the inelegant and constant tugging now required, many of us would be in seventh heaven.

Surely Grand Master sounds a bit too much like chess? Maybe others could come up with more appropriate suggestions for some of the categories. Like Desirable Dick Wondrous Wanker Slurpy Sucker Prolific Poofter Fabulous Fucker

Eisenhower was correct. "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction... "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."

Even if it does, Thailand has not enacted a Civil Partnership Bill. If I am wrong I am sure someone will correct me.

It is free for Thais. It's even free for farang who live here if you register for it. According to a message put out by a major Bangkok hospital, those under 60 will get Sinovac or AstraZenica at present, with over 60s only getting AstraZeneca (presumably the locally made version).

That is surely not true. There is a Bill being discussed in parliament but it has not been passed and there is doubt if it will in fact be passed. As written recently somewhere on the Forum, Taiwan now has gay marriage on the statue books, and Japan has roughly similar types of civil partnership in three prefectures and many municipalities. These countries are way ahead of Thailand.

My ranking has increased a notch every single day this week! I have no idea how points are allocated, but surely no one can move so quickly up the various rankings? I'll soon be vaulteing through the glass ceiling or be spattered on a lead roof!

As a perceptive article in yesterday's Guardian points out, it is customary to look at the good that men do when they pass from this earth. Talking of the death of Rumsfeld, President Bush praised his "steady service as a wartime Secretary of Defence - a duty he carried out with strength, skill and honour." Even the USA's main serious newspapers had reasonably decent comments on his life. In the case of Rumsfled, though, surely Mark Anthony's words in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar are far more likely to be accurate: "the evil that men do lives after them." As the Guardian article points out: "He destroyed the public trust, the integrity of the presidency, and left America’s reputation far weaker than when he came. "How did he do all that in the fevered five years between the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and his resignation in 2006? "We could start with his disastrous decision to turn away from the hunt from Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to pursue Saddam Hussein in Iraq: one of the most baffling, harebrained and ultimately bloody choices in the history of American national security. "We now know that Rumsfeld was contemplating this bizarre plan within days, if not hours, of the attacks. He pursued an illegal aggressive war with no link to al-Qaida but with all the dogged skills he had learned from a career inside Washington, concocting a case for war that destroyed international trust and the integrity of anyone who touched it . . . "We are still living with the catastrophic consequences of Rumsfeld and his gang [Cheney etc.]. There’s a direct line from the Iraq invasion to Syria’s civil war, along with the immense suffering of millions of civilians, and the political strain and instability caused by so many refugees to this day. "It’s not as if this chain of events was unimaginable at the time. "Rumsfeld himself was just about smart enough to flick at the lid of the Pandora’s box he was about to detonate. In one of his classically cryptic memos to his inner circle of warmongers in late 2001, Rumsfeld casually raised an eyebrow over the chaos he was unleashing on the world. “'We ought to think through what are the bad things that could happen, and what are the good things that can happen that we need to be ready for in both respects. Please give me a list of each,' he wrote. 'Thanks.' "Rumsfeld might have been talking about Afghanistan, where Kabul was about to fall and Bin Laden was ready to run for the mountains at Tora Bora. Or he might have been talking about Iraq, where Rumsfeld was already planning his war. Either way, he botched them both by failing to give a damn about the messy business of rebuilding nations after war . . . "It was this mixture of extreme arrogance and incompetence, along with a cavalier disregard for human suffering and integrity, that was the hallmark of Rumsfeld’s short and bloody reign. His policy chief, Doug Feith, bragged about how going to Baghdad was just a milestone on the road to Tehran. "But when Iraq fell apart, their hawkish allies in the White House turned on Rumsfeld’s team for failing to have any kind of credible plan to run a country ravaged by decades of sanctions, airstrikes and corrupt government . . . "Rumsfeld’s victories were illusions. His defeats will outlive him. And his much-vaunted courage was a smokescreen for lies, crimes and deaths. If he was an exemplary public servant, we need to reimagine what public service actually means." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/01/donald-rumsfeld-defense-secretary-lies-crime-death

With a larger population than Thailand, Vietnam is still doing much better with a 7 day average of 438 cases. It has still recorded just 17,052 cases in total but the spike is slightly upwards. Last month the government announced plans to test everyone in Ho Chi Minh where most of the recent cases seem to have been located. The country remains closed and quarantine is required for arrivals. Vietnam Airlines has opened up a few international routes for certain groups of travellers. I agree with TMax that there is a better chance of the country opening up sooner than most others. Taiwan's daily number peaked at around 550 on May 19 and has quickly dropped to around 50. If only the island can get access to more vaccine it could open up before the end of the year. But obtaining enough vaccines seems its largest problem.

That's simple. They want to have a family. I know two gay couples with surrogate children. In both cases, their children have been wonderfully brought up with obviously a great deal of love.

Is this one of the reasons many Japanese salarymen gravitate to pubs and clubs after work? After a couple of drinks everyone is more or less equal.

If the number of cases continues to rise and more vaccine is not purchased by the government, I am seriously thinking of returning to the UK to get vaccinated there. Air fares are pretty cheap and I can do the initial quarantine with at my brother's home.

Public bathing was essential in Japan throughout its history because homes were small and did not have bathing areas. The culture of public nudity is therefore deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. This continues today with the popularity of hot springs around much of the country, a result of the extent of its geothermal activity. All this started to change, very slowly at first following Commander Perry's battleship diplomacy which initiated Japan's desire to be taken seriously as a developed western nation. The near total rebuilding of its cities following the destruction of so many of their largely wooden houses during World War 2 resulted in eventual replacement with concrete and brick apartment buildings, many with individual private bathrooms. Not everyone could be accommodated in new buildings and so public bathhouses remained, as some do today especially in older less war-damaged parts of cities. Sex is not involved in public bathing where there are strict rules of etiquette. My own view is that none of this had anything to do with the rise of gay saunas. It merely resulted in a complete acceptance of being nude in front of others. I do know that the first gay bar appeared in Tokyo in the 1960s. By the early 1980s I recall attending three gay saunas including then probably the most popular, Oban, close to the adult entertainment district of Kabuki-cho. The others were in the Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts. I think the oldest in the city is the original 24 located in an old building in the Asakusa district near the famous Senso-ji Temple. I say that because it seemed the most run down whereas the others were much more modern. When it was opened, though, I have no idea. So, I see the opening of gay saunas merely as part of the growth of a young gay liberation.

I wonder what happens when an Australian politician murders someone. Impossible to bring him/her back to life and be forgiven!

Everyone tells me it has permanently closed. Seems the owner plans to move to Chiang Mai. He certainly doesn't need the money as he is from a very rich family. But if he does depart, I cannot see anyone else taking over and making a go of a new sauna there. As @Londoner points out, the land value so close to the business district must be humungus, the more so when Babylon only represents part of that parcel. Much more likely I'd reckon will be a developer snapping it up to erect a 40 storey apartment complex like the Sukhothai Residences across the road - provided, that is, it can get round the city's legislation about the size of that soi, because it is too small for anything other than an 8 storey building unless there is another access. I totally agree about the first Babylon at the top of the soi. Much more compact, often packed and as far as I recall many more younger and professional Thais. So popular that there were queues to get in at the weekends. 1) Although the buildings in the gay area are on the small side for Shinjuku, some pack 5 or 6 bars on to one level. But then most are tiny with seating for not much more than a dozen. Very few have much standing area except those at sweet level or in a basement like the popular GB. But like Bangkok, the number of bars is decreasing. Even in Shinjuku's main avenues, shops, cafes and restaurants are packed often with up to 6 on each floor. 2) Difficult to know if Tokyo can grow much larger. Even with a declining population nationwide, though, I expect there will still be many wanting to move to the city or its multitude of suburbs.

Well, that at least is the heading of an article in the Pattaya Mail about a month ago which seems not to have been picked up here. I am about the last to trust anything in that rag but no doubt some of its articles have more than a degree of truth. This one focuses on the police raid on the Faros sauna in Bangkok and the arrest of 60 men, seemingly all Thais. (The Bangkok Post claims the number was 62 and the establishment is Faros 2). The concern of the police allegedly was less the sex angle but the use of chemsex and drug trafficking during the covid restrictions. Allegedly 37 of the group tested positive for drug use. "Good samaritans" had tipped off the police. On the other hand, the President of the Bangkok Rainbow Association said he was "concerned that people may now believe all gays are promiscuous and disease spreaders," a rather fatuous remark in my view given that there have been gay saunas in Bangkok for at least 35 years and quite a few very public raids on several during that time. He also claimed that "saunas were not just about sexual activity but also the human need for social interaction and mingling." Really? Aren't there bars for that? One issue that has been aired before about city centre locations becoming too expensive is also addressed. "Some say that an under-exposed reason for the closure of many gay meeting places, including saunas, is the process of gentrification. This means that, as property rents and purchase prices rise steeply in urban centers, traditional users are forced to leave to make way for expensive tower blocks, malls and top-tier residence developments. It is certainly true that much of Bangkok’s traditional night life, straight and gay, has already been scattered geographically by the huge demolition or redevelopment projects in downtown districts. "Khun Prasert of the Rainbow Sky Alliance said, 'Queer spaces like saunas will survive because people want to mix with like-minded groups, but there will be a lot fewer choices post-Covid. That’s for sure.'” https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/future-of-gay-saunas-in-thailand-now-under-the-microscope-357600

Hong Kong is to ban all flights from the UK to curb the spread of the Delta variant of Covid. The UK is to be classified as an "extremely high-risk" country, the highest rating Hong Kong has for pandemic travel. The ban will come into effect on 1 July and affect all incoming passenger flights from Britain. It also comes amid political tensions between China and the west over a crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong. The ban means people who'd recently spent more than two hours in Britain wouldn't be allowed to board flights to Hong Kong from any airport. The city's authorities said the decision was based on the "recent rebound" of the pandemic in the UK and the "widespread Delta variant virus strain" in the country. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57647613

The Yoovidhya family is one of Thailand's wealthiest. Last year Forbes estimated their wealth at US$20 billion. Like the mega-rich in many countries, much of this is hidden in tax havens in the Caribbean. Not surprisingly the family's network of companies appeared in the infamous Panama Papers but some of the paperwork was found to be missing. Mind you, the family was far from the only Thais to appear on the list. 1,400 other Thai names were thrown up. Other countries were relatively quick to investigate the Panama Papers revelations. Thailand, on the other hand, called the information merely "rumours". Thailand's Money Laundering Office became involved but after years that toothless tiger has done nothing. An article two years ago in The Walrus with contributions from Associated Press reported, "Law professor Viraphong Boonyobhas, director of Chulalongkorn University’s business-crime and money-laundering data bank in Bangkok, would not speak directly about the Yoovidhyas or any other Thai person or company, saying he feared for his legal and physical safety. But he noted that, usually, when it comes to stashing money in offshore accounts, 'people do this to hide corrupt money.'" Somewhat ironically it was the murderer himself (whose nickname is Boss) who set reporters on the trail of the company's tax schemes. "The Yoovidhya family’s efforts to hide assets show how billions in private wealth can be moved around the world with minimal regulation to avoid tax and other legal constraints. The extent of the family’s confidential deals was inadvertently exposed by Boss and his social-media-loving cousins during his time on the run: they had posted photos of Boss walking into a London townhouse, and they even included the address. In April 2017, days after Boss’s attorney told a Bangkok court that his client couldn’t show up because he was on a mission in the United Kingdom, a reporter called out questions to the Red Bull heir on his London doorstep: 'What is your mission in the UK, Boss? What are you doing here? Are you going to Thailand to meet with prosecutors?' Smiling slightly, eyes averted, Boss gave no answer. Hours later, he and his parents hurried out of the home with suitcases. That was the last time Boss was seen in public." Since then "An investigation into the five-storey brick home showed that it is the address Boss’s father, Chalerm Yoovidhya, gave when incorporating Siam Winery Trading Plus in the UK in 2002, and that his mother, Daranee Yoovidhya, used when opening a food-related business there in 2006. But, according to AP, the listed owner of the home, and at least four other multimillion-dollar properties in London, isn’t the Yoovidhyas—it’s Karnforth Investments, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, according to the Panama Papers. After more digging into the Yoovidhyas, it became clear that there were more shell games being played." These games involve several more offshore Caribbean based companies which channel cash back and forth between each. And of the killer himself? Well, despite being on the run and allegedly unable to be located, social media has shown photos of him in at least nine countries since a first Interpol alert was supposed to have been issued. "Stops include the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Osaka, Japan, where he posed, grinning and wearing robes from Hogwarts’s darkest dorm, Slytherin house. He’s cruised Monaco’s harbour, snowboarded Japan’s fresh powder, and celebrated his birthday at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. This means that, while authorities say they’ve had no idea where Boss was, his friends, family, and all of their followers seem to have had no doubt about his whereabouts and the good times he’s been having. One summer, in Japan, he posted a ten-second video of sausage and eggs decorated with seaweed eyes, tagging a young relative. His parents responded with a thumbs up." Meanwhile the widow of the murdered traffic policeman was provided with compensation of just 3 million baht for the death of the 47 year old victim. https://thewalrus.ca/corruption-did-the-heir-to-the-red-bull-empire-get-away-with-murder/

I certainly do not wish to see it as just an academic debate. This country needs change. Over decades I have made Thai friends from a variety of social backgrounds, including a couple who have been business colleagues and who I'd put on the border of being hi-so. All of them want to see changes. All of them vote. But not one has the remotest clue how it can be achieved. Perhaps it's partly the general Thai main pen rai attitude. But we can definitely agree about the education system. It needs a complete revamp. On a lighter note, I recall a meeting I had a few years ago at Siam BTS station. By one of the lines I saw a stout African American lady looking very lost. I asked if I could help. In a strong southern American accent she said she'd been trying to find Paragon but none of the station staff could tell her. Is it near here? I asked her to turn around 180 degrees. There in large letters was Paragon! She laughed. I asked if she was a tourist. No, she said," I'm here from Louisiana in the USA." So you're working? "Yes". I myself was having a little difficulty understanding her. It turned out she was a teacher. The Education people in Washington had asked for volunteers to teach English in Bangkok for 3 months. She thought it would be a good chance to see Thailand. "But the students are dreadful," she added. "They never do anything I ask them." I felt like suggesting this was almost certainly because none of them would have a clue what she was saying. But I just saw her to her exit. Why the US authorities would believe that anyone with any major accent would be right to teach English to kids in Thailand totally beats me! As for citizens demanding changes, again I agree. But like my Thai friends, I see no way of this happening even if every man and woman were given a vote and a political Party standing for election with a platform that included such changes. So we agree to differ. And I suggest that @z909's comments below are apt. I for one will cease this discussion. I will leave the last word to you should you so wish. I agree totally about the superb job done by Lee and his cohorts. But I totally disagree about the PAP having done such a good job that no-one wants an alternative. From dozens of visits to Singapore, I have seen how the PAP was never prepared to brook any form of opposition. It took many measures to cut opposition off long before more than a handful of candidates ever reached parliament which has a total of 89 directly elected seats. The Constitution allows also for up to 18 non-elected seats. Just take the case of the very first opposition party member to be elected, J. B. Jeyaretnam a Crown Council lawyer who had been Registrar at the Supreme Court. He won a by election in 1981 and was re-elected in 1984. But in 1986 he was expelled for a conviction allegedly for falsifying his Party's accounts. That was all a lie. The conviction was subsequently overturned by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which called the conviction a "grievous injustice". He returned to parliament in 1997 but was again expelled in 2001 for failing to keep up payments for a libel action he had taken out against the PAP and lost. These were among the tactics of Lee Kwan Yew to maintain control.