PeterRS

Taiwan has lots of beaches. I guess those of us who visit regularly have less interest in them. I can say that the water off the south coast is crystal clear - far more so than almost anywhere I have visited off Thailand. For those interested there is a gay beach not far from Tamshui station, the west end of the red subway line in Taipei. It's not so easy to find, but I am told there is sometimes activity in the bushes behind the beach. I have also read that there is a nude section but know no-one who has been there.

Both spectators and marchers! But let's be clear that there is no full nudity in the Taipei Pride Parade - at least not that I have ever seen in the many Parades in which I have taken part. A small number of young and fit guys wearing their latest skimpy swimwear are often to be seen. But then the weather at the end of October will almost aways be very warm so that marching in briefs must be very pleasant.

Apologies! Yes, I took one quote and responded to it. I then thought it useful (to some, perhaps) to edit and add part of your second quote. Unfortunately, it is less easy to add in a second original quote, so I merely added the extra sentence. I did not mean to upset you or imply something you did not say. I acknowledge you made two separate statements.

Totally agree. I would never be seen wearing one! As an anecdote, my brother decided that he would like a couple of fake ones for himself and his wife. So I got them on Silom and took them on my next trip to the UK. One afternoon when my brother was working and his wife was supposed to be at work, she had to rush home to get something she had left behind. Entering their house, she thought she heard noises upstairs. She is pretty fearless and immediately shouted something. When she got upstairs the window was open and some drawers had been opened. The only things missing were the two Rolexes! I wonder what the thief thought when he tried to sell them! If Rolex takes your fancy, one good place to buy second hand originals is Macao. So many gamblers, it seems, sell theirs for just another evening at the tables and then cannot buy them back. There are stores galore with nothing but Rolexes!

So I wonder why you think London's Pride Parade is worthy of mention in any South East Asian newspaper? I may have missed it but I don't recall Sydney's Pride Parade being mentioned in the Bangkok Post this year.

I know. Hardly a subject for a gay forum. But I am nearly at my wits end. I have had one of the older original Nespresso machines for 4 years and love it. The only problem is that the capsules are now quite expensive if you want more than one small cup. So when I saw the new machines with the larger capsules, I did the math and realised that even with the greater cost of the larger capsules, the machine would pay for itself in about 10 weeks. So I bought one along with several boxes of a coffee variety I like. Along with the machine, you get a free box of 12 different capsules. Since I got it home, it has driven me virtually up the wall! I don't want a mug of coffee - just 2 or three much smaller cups. Whenever I tried this, the cup always overflowed. So I went back to Nespresso in Paragon and had a demonstration. The problem, though, is that the three different types of capsule have computer codes underneath and the cup size has to be programmed. You can programme one type to dispese only small cups until the capsule is 'dead'. But if you insert a different type of capsule, you are going to have a cup that massively overflows as happened to me this morning. I just wonder if anyone else has had this sort of problem - and how I solve it? Please don't direct me to the instruction book as the tyypeface is almost illegible and the illustrations so feint you can hardly make them out!

I have never even heard of pimping for gay young men in Taiwan. Perhaps it happens for young ladies. But even my Taiwan gay friends have never once heard of it.

If you are a connoisseur, there really is no way to test a fake - unless there is something fractionally wrong with the label - than to open the bottle and try it. But if you happened to own one of the three extant bottles of 1762 Gautier Cognac, the chances of your opening it are slim. It's a collector's item (hopefully!) and it will have a very detailed provenance. The bottle was sold by Sotheby's about 3 years ago for US$118,580. Cheap at the price for a Hong Kong squillinaire!

Thanks for making that point. Whenever I mention that there are young guys I meet on my many regular trips to Taipei who only want to meet foreigners (mostly older foreigners) and that money plays no part in the transaction - apart perhaps from paying for a meal - I seem to get several posters questioning this. I'll just repeat what i wrote in a post about my last trip at the end of May. Visiting the 'new' location of Hans Mens Sauna, a young guy came up to me and said "You don't remember me!" He told me we had met 4 years earlier at the gayish hot spring when he was with his then boyfriend. He'd then been 18. Now at 22 and single again, we ended up in one of the rooms for great sex. Like @TotallyOz's new friend, we have kept in touch and will meet again quite soon.

I love Valetta and cannot imagine so many cruise passengers destroying its atmosphere. Same with Venice, although I believe the daily number is slightly less. It's one reason Venice is moving cruise liners out of the lagoon in the hope this may reduce the overall number of ships. It's also true of Barcelona where in 2019 6,566 daily visitors were from cruise ships. Cruise ships bring chaos as well as cash.

You can also ask: why would London's Pride Parade be mentioned in Thai newspapers? Agree. On the other hand, Taipei's Parade number reflects only the marchers and does not mention the hundreds of thousands watching along the Parade route, many visitors. I do think the Parade itself is the most important element. If there were no Parade participants, there would be no watchers!

As is mine, although perhaps less so. I do have an expensive suitcase which I purchased only because I was taking so many long distance flights each year. It also had a 5-year warranty. Lo and behold, after 4 years and 8 months and an 8 flight trip it got damaged. The maker tried to repair it, but I was not satisfied with it. Without batting the proverbial eyelid, since this was within the warranty period, I was offered the choice of one of three brand new cases at no cost. I still have that second case after 8 years. Three of the wheels have recently had to be replaced but otherwise the money I paid for these two cases that have seen probably 100 flights or more has been excellent value for 13 years of pretty heavy use. Also, while I have never had the enjoyment of a bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, thanks to clients I have enjoyed Chateau Margaux 1961 (one of the great years for red Bordeaux), Chateau Haut Brion 1985 and Chateau Latour 1987. SInce these were in fine restaurants I have no doubt they were originals - and I thought they were fabulous! But these wines deserve excellent cusine. I am perfectly happy with a glass of reasonable Chateau plonk - or Australian, New Zealand, South African, Italian, Chilean etc. wine - in a cheap restaurant. As for most other brand name products, though, I pass.

Another popular habit when China was developng its private sector in the 1990s and 2000s was to show off to friends how you had an unparalleled knowledge of wine. It was not uncommon to see groups of businessmen at dinner with a bottle or two of Chauteau Mouton Rothschild. Whether it was the hugely expensive real thing or rebottled and replaced with cheap plonk, I doubt if any of them knew. For it was a common habit to dilute the wine with coca cola!

The UK newspapers are full of photos and comments on yesterday's Pride Parade. It certainly seems to have been a fun event. Many comment that as many as 30,000 took part. 30,000? How is it that London has such a small number when Taipei has around 200,000 and gets little mention in the UK newspapers? Photo: Reuters Photo: AFP via Getty Images Photo: Press Association

I think you may find that most cruise ships will spend at least one night moored by Pattaya. Friends of mine from the USA docked here about 10 years ago. Their cruise ship spent a night in port so that passengers could have two days in order to see the sights of Bangkok. With Bangkok's traffic, the usual port call from 08:00 to 18:00 will be much too short. For gay cruises, I think at least one night in port will be essential and a vital key selling point.

Initially I was confused. Mr. Wannachai first states, "The new port in Pattaya will be located approximately 1 kilometer away from the coastline and will have the capacity to accommodate two luxury cruise ships simultaneously." That inevitably means pasengers will have to be ferried in to the pier on shore in tenders. Cruise ships mostly have several thousand passengers. The tender process is therefore going to take a very considerable time in both directions. But he then states, "“As for large luxury cruise ships, they require temporary anchoring methods and smaller boats to transport passengers to the shore, which is not convenient for travel.” That being the case, what is the point of building docking facilities 1 kilometer from shore? Did I miss something? It seems iI did for the Bangkok Post has a slightly different and perhaps more logical report. It states the shore facilities will indeed accommodate two cruise liners. But the 1 km refers to a jetty extending 90 degrees from the shore which will enable another two ships to berth alongside each other with easy coach access to the passengers. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2602183/b7-4-billion-pattaya-cruise-port-promoted With luck, perhaps a cruise or two might be the gay cruises which you can persently obtain in the Mediterranean and out of Fort Lauderdale. These might regenerate interest in the gay bar scene.

In my slightly younger days, I found this was a wonderful way of breaking the ice, as it were, and being joined by a group of handsome dancers. @Olddaddy should try it. Great way to become a people person with cute guys.

Unfortunately, like several youtube videos, this is not avaiable in Thailand.

Fascinating. I also purchased a Buddhist tanka from Nepal on my first visit but I cannot remember from which shop. The painting is very detailed. About 15 years ago the cloth covering was getting rather moth-eaten and I found a Nepalese shop selling the tankas in Silom Complex. The owner said he thought mine might be an antique (but purchased for almost nothing!). His brother was returning to Nepal on a shopping trip the following week and he took my tanka to be recovered. I love the new colours. Sadly that shop disappeared from Silom Complex and I do not know where it is now located. A google search might find it, though.

Reading other accounts, it seems this poor lady tripped over her own case resulting in the fall. But how, I wonder, is it possible for two wheels of her case to break off and find their way into the void at the end of the belt before her shoe and then her leg became trapped. Although quite old, these walkways are inspected daily. As those of us who have used walkways in many airports are aware, the gaps at the ends seem way too small even for a suitcase wheel to get stuck. According to The Nation, after she fell her leg got trapped "on the edge of the conveyor belt." The New York Post has photographs which I shall not post here which the paper says is of the lady with her amputated leg covered by her jeans. Oddly she seems quite calm but that may well have been a result of the effects of the anaesthetic. There is also a photo showing the broken case. There is certainly a series of yellow flap-type parts as you reach the end of a walkway and one photo shows two parts had definitely become displaced. Even so, I am surprised there is no automatic stop mechanism should any accident occur. I believe there may be a stop button similar to those on escalators. If so, one would expect another passenger to press it when screams were heard. No doubt we will learn more in due course.

Nepal is a fantastic country. It's not only the ancient temples and buildings in Kathmandu and in the towns in the Kathmandhu valley, there are several temples with erotic carvings, including this one in Patan's central square. I visited two times for a week each in 1980 and 2008. Each time I found so much of interest and fascination. My only hope is that all the ancient buildings that were destroyed in the double earthquakes in 2015 have been restored by now. If you decide to go, you MUST visit Pokhara, now a city literally at the foot of the Annapurna range. Go to a lookout vantage point outside the town while it is still dark and then watch and be amazed as dawn breaks over the mighty Annapurna mountains. These are relatively close being just across a small valley. One peak is over 8,000 meters, another 13 over 7,000 meters and 16 over 6,000 meters. It is a totally awe-inspiring sight even if you hit a morning which is not crystal clear. I did not check out sex in Nepal but I am sure there is plenty. These boys with their tricycles seemed interesting but I did not approach.

Now why I wonder do I smell the stink of corruption here? Insufficient brown envelopes - the fat, bulging ones - have no doubt not been handed around to the right people. That's the reason we have so many concessionaires on the Bnagkok tollways. Every top politician wanted a large piece of the profits - er, the pie!

A continuation of my little Japanese story. The two nights I spent with the young Japanese I met on my first-ever visit were eye-opening. Japanese can seem so reserved and polite in general conversation. Get a young guy into bed and he can become a tiger. I was sorry my new friend had left Tokyo by the time I returned but just by visiting the bars I was able to meet several more, although none was as athletic in bed as my first. A year later I was again in Tokyo after a trip to the US arriving on a Saturday afternoon. After dinner, this time I went straight to the Regent Bar which was packed with a nice mix of young Japanese and foreigners of various ages. I was with a young guy I had met on a previous trip and had arranged to spend the night in his small room. Masayuki was a lovely guy and I really enjoyed his company. But there was another young guy amongst the crowd who clearly spoke good English and seemed to be the life and soul of the party. He soon came up to me and said be had not seen me before. What was my name and was I new to Tokyo? He then asked what we'd like to drink and it became clear he was one of the bar tenders. Over the course of the evening, I found myself drawn to him. He was not the most beautiful guy in the bar - Masayuki was definitely the better looker - but there was something about him. This bartender exuded massive charisma to the point where you almost had to look at him. Still, I had made arrangements for the night and turned my attention to my lovely date. Masa was much more gentle in bed, but still clearly eager and quite delighful. We had a lot of fun. As he had to spend Sunday with his parents outside of the city, I decided to return to the Regent in the eveing to see if i could have a longer chat with that bartender. It so happened it started to rain quite heavily and I was nearly soaked by the time I reached the Regent. Getting there about 8:30pm, there was only one other punter sitting at the bar. So I sat down, ordered a drink and was delighted that Yuji was on duty. Over the next nearly three hours, we drank and chatted together - me on a stool and he behind the bar. That charisma, his sense of fun and the ease with which we chatted completely enveloped me. I really wanted to ask him back to the hotel but something held me back. I found myself totally backward in coming forward. Having been relatively free and easy during my previous visits to Japan, here I felt like a young teenager almost afraid I'd be rejected. Finally around 11:20 it was time for him to leave to catch his train home. Having put on his rain jacket, he came around the front of the bar, said he'd really enjoyed meeting me and trailed his hand ever so lightly over my ass. Still I did not move. I should have recognised all the signals but it was like this was all way too good to be true and he'd just say 'no'. And so he left the bar and I was left with a host of memories and a feeling of utter stupidity. Since it was still raining and taxis were always expensive, I decided to stay in the area. Next door to the Regent up on the first floor was a small disco named New Sazae. I had never been inside. But I thought I needed another large drink to drown my sorrows. I hesitated at the door before opening it and looking inside. You walked in by a small dance floor. The bar was at the other end on the left. Whisky in hand, I looked around the dance floor, wondering if anyone could possibly be a companion for the night, even though I doubted he would match what could have taken place with Yuji. And then I saw him. He had not gone home. He'd come to the disco and was dancing on the floor on his own. I was amazed - and then he saw me. With a smile on his face he stretched out a hand and beckoned me to join him. Thus we danced bodies pressed to bodies for some time, initially both reallising we were rock hard! I think I need say no more than we ended up in bed in my hotel where neither of us slept a wink. In the morning we had to part as we both had work. But this time we did promise to meet again - and we did. The following month I spent a week's vacation with him in Tokyo. I then visited for long week-ends once a month thanks in large part to very cheap air fares on Pan Am which was then still flying in the Pacific. Yuji even came to spend 3 weeks with me in Hong Kong. I knew I was in love, but I knew too that it was doomed never to last. Young Japanese needed sex much more regularly than once a month, as truth be told did I. Sure enough. By the time of my last visit when i stayed with him in his little room, he told me he had met a much older westerner who lived in Tokyo and was able to offer him a nice apartment and all the perks of expatriates then based in Japan. I will never forget that last night with him in his single bed as we hugged and cried as the hours slipped away. One of the benefits of knowing Yuji was been being introduced to several of his Japanese friends. Later I was to have a smaller affair with one of those cute friends. But he made it clear soon after meeting that he was not looking for any form of longer term relationship. As @A-447A pointed out above, sex was much more on his mind, not that was any disincentive whatever. Although my Japan adventures have continued ever since, there was one episode that I can never forget. Three of Yuji's friends happened to have birthdays over four days in October. A few years later, they decided to have a joint birthday party and very kindly invited me. I really wanted to join them, but another trip to Tokyo was going to stretch my finances, so I declined. As the date neared, I thought this is silly. They are dear friends and have been extremely kind to me. So I purchased a Pan Am ticket and decided to turn up unannounced. When the door to the apartment opened, there were wonderful smiles all round. I handed out small gifts and was introduced to many guys I did not know. As the evening came to an end, I paired off with one of the guests for another tigerish evening. What makes that evening such a special one is that within 5 years all three birthday boys were dead. AIDS! Like so many all over the world, I cried buckets when I learned.

How many times does the will of the people have to be ignored? The 2019 election is now widely regarded as unfree and unfair. Human Rights Watch cited political repression, media censorship, unequal media access, the role of a military-appointed Senate in appointing an unelected prime minister (the junta leader), and lack of independence and impartiality of the Election Commission as factors preventing a free and fair election. Having been permitted to stand as an official political party by the Election Commission, Future Forward gained 81 seats in the new parliament. That same Constitutional Court, a branch of the elite, ruled in February 2020 that it was after all unconstitutional and was ordered dissolved. Move Forward is essentially the new Future Forward. Although it gained the largest number of votes, the fact that a record 75.22% of eligible voters took part in the election illustrates how fed up the country is with the stalemate of the last few years. In how many countries do so many electors turn out to vote unless voting is mandatory? That's more than in the USA and the UK. If the army and the elite succeed as Andrew MacGregor Marshall suggests and MF allows itself to be suqeezed out this time, the Army will find ways of again redrawing constituency boundaries and perhaps even altering the constitution to ensure MF is squeezed out of existence to ensure it will win both the most recent and the next election. At some point the people have to take a stand.

I agree that I find too much oil in several basically Chinese dishes offered in Thailand. But then I am used to the superb Chinese cuisine in Hong Kong where it does not get any better. I certainly would not expect Thai chefs to follow Hong Kong recipes to a T and I assume Thais prefer more oil. I recall an excellent italian restaurant opening in a major city in England. Friends and I thought the cuisine quite wonderful. One guest who travelled extensively in Italy dismissed it as Italian food as the English like it!