PeterRS

I think I am right in saying the Muslim religion believes a lot of what is written in the Old Testament. That no doubt includes the verses in Leviticus which call for death between men who lie with other men. I am sure there are other references but I do not know where. Strangely, as far as I know, nowhere in the Quran is homosexuality referred to as a similar sin. This was an added extra in the hadith, the alleged sayings of the Prophet Mohammed and forming part of Islamic tradition some time after his death. The point being that, as spoon points out, progress in LGBT rights is unlikely to occur in countries with a large Islamic population and a bunch of evangelical Christians believing the same thing. But it strikes me that it is not only religion. The British are also very much to blame. When England passed its anti-sodomy law in the 1860s, all its colonial possessions incorporated the same law. And then the British departed leaving the law on all those statue books when England itself would change the law in the 1960s. Section 377A remains law in Singapore and Malaysia.and the reason usually trotted out is, as spoon says, those in power state the public would not accept a change. Strangely the same seemed to be true in Hong Kong where successive governments claimed the 95% Chinese community would not accept a change in the law. Ironically it was Hong Kongs return to China that necessitated a sort of Bill of Rights for the city acceptable to the international community. So the law was changed almost 30 years ago. Did the Chinese population rise up? Were there demonstrations and calls for resignations? Apparently not a cheep! So much for that little political ploy.

What I find so strange is that LGBT acceptance in Taiwan has happened so quickly. After all it was under decades of martial law until only 32 years ago. During martial law there were no human rights, no right to free speech, no freedom of expression and courts were military courts. Since then it has developed strong political parties, an independent and vociferous media and an independent judiciary. (And the boys are amongst the most beautiful in Asia!) How did it get it right when so many other Asan countries have not?

If you plan to do more than sightseeing, Tokyo has at least 200 gay bars in the Shinjuku ni-chome district. But only a few of these will welcome foreigners. So do research beforehand. Check sites like https://www.travelgayasia.com/tokyo-gay-bars/ If you are into saunas, there is an excellent 24 Kaikan Sauna in the ni-chome district. There is an etiquette to sauna going in Japan. Let us know if this is where you choose and I can amplify. Shinjuku station is one of the busiest in the world and has seeming miles of underground shopping. Great for getting to ni-chome if its raining. Walk to Exit C8 a the BYGS Building. The bars are just around the corner, as are at least two of the escort host bars. Just dont expect much English to be spoken at the latter. There are also escort host bars where you can book the boy of your dreams online to come to your hotel. This can save a lot of time and trouble. This is Japan and so expect them to turn up on the dot. But one hour of fun will mean precisely that. Not a minute more. The great thing is that the websites give precise detail of every guy on their books, their age and stats and icons showing what they will or will not do when they are in your room. A page of one site is illustrated below. Last recommendation is get a good bilingual map. English is commonly used on signs but it is not universally spoken.

Hour of need? Surely that's a bit much! If I read the chart correctly, the numbers may be down on estimates for this year but they are still expecting the same number as last year. The trade war initiated by Trump has been responsible for much of the downturn in the currencies of those countries recently contributing the most visitors especially Asian visitors. The Chinese RMB is way down, the Malaysian Ringgit is way down, the € is down, the £ is way down and falling (Brexit fears). I doubt if a few percent depreciation of the baht will make much difference.

I cannot believe this! There is some sort of practice that members of the public should not be in positions physically above that of a member of the Royal Family. I was once having coffee in Au Bon Pain at the top of Silom when I noticed that a small crowd was forming. A waitress came over and asked us to move away from the window. When I asked why, she hummed and hawed for a few seconds before telling us that a Princess was to be in a passing car after a few minutes and members of the public could not sit in a higher position! But in an open air Royal Barge procession on the river with people watching from the higher river banks, I fail to understand how that practice can be strictly observed. Also at concerts there are always members of the audience sitting above a Royal guest.

Do you have the link please spoon? I think it must be a different documentary. The Netflix deal for a series in several episodes was only announced at the end of April. By then the production team had not even been put together. It is impossible that their series will be ready for viewing until the end of the year at the earliest. But several other hour-long TV documentaries about the rescue are up on You Tube.

Tokyo is not necessarily an expensive city. Your biggest problem is time. From Narita airport you have to allow 30 minutes for Immigration (the queues can be very long). Then go to the basement and get a ticket for the Narita Express train to Tokyo Station or Shinjuku station. This take roughly 55 minutes to the main station and 20 minutes more to Shinjuku. So you have already lost between 2 and 2.5 hours minimum and then the same on the return to the airport. Make sure you buy a return ticket before leaving the airport as your choice of train may be full. Forget the regular limousine buses. They will take up way too much of your time. Its a lot faster and cheaper from Haneda airport if you take the monorail and link to either the Japan Railways overground system or the subway system. ut that depends on your airline and which airport it uses. Note: separate tickets required for the different types of transport. You can avoid this by buying a stored value Suica ticket, but for a ten hours or so that may not be of much use. Ticket machines give change. Once in the city public transport is the best of almost any city anywhere and very cheap. Only problem is that it all shuts down around midnight. On the other hand, avoid taxis as far as possible. Tokyos crawling traffic means the meter clicks over at an alarming rate. Eating is not expensive if you go to one of the vast number of cheap Japanese restaurants. All will have photos or plastic models of the dishes in the window and you can eat well for less than $9. Many unique sights to see in the city. The Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa is a must. Easy to get there on the Ginza subway line. If you are there at a weekend, the quirky shopping area of Harajuku with young people in all sorts of weird garb is interesting. If it is a clear day go to the skyscraper area in Shinjuku. There is a viewing platform at the top of the Tokyo Government building where you might just get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. You must keep your eye on your watch and leave enough time to get back to the airport and get back through Immigration. Dont know much about Shanghai except it has the world's first commercial magnetic levitation train - the Maglev - between Pudong airport and the Pudong district. This takes little more than 9 minutes and travels at 420 km per hour for much of the trip. From there there are subway connections over to the main city. Taipei airport is linked to the citys main station by a new subway system. Not sure of the sights to see except the wonderful Taipei National Museum which has the treasures stolen from China by Chiang Kai Shek. Or you can go up to the viewing gallery in Taipei 101, once the worlds tallest building. Or just make your way to Ximen subway station. Here The Red House is packed with lots of small gay bars and restaurants. Great to sit with a beer and people watch. But much busier at week ends than on weekdays. Im told the sauna named Soi13 is one of the most active with lots of young, fit Taiwan guys - https://www.travelgayasia.com/venue/soi-13-in-sauna/ If you seriously consider a stopover anywhere, I really suggest you try to spend at least one night so you are not always checking your watch. Tokyo and Taipei have lots of decent hotels between $70 and $100 although the Tokyo rooms will be very small.

It is easy to forget that censorship of movies is alive and well in the UK where the regulations are some of the most tightly controlled n the western world! Every film comes under The Obscene Publications Act which prohibits material that tends to deprave or corrupt persons who are likely to read, see or hear it. Every commercially released movie for theatre showing or on video must be granted a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. This probably seems odd even to the Brits given that theatre and book censorship was abolished about half a century ago. The film Visions of Ecstasy was banned for 23 years because it broke blasphemy laws. But it was then granted a certificate in 2008 enabling it to be shown to those 18 years and older. Even America has a form of censorship. Classic movies like Kubricks A Clockwork Orange and Sam Peckinpahs Straw Dogs appeared first in the UK in longer versions that when shown in the USA.

Great post and great photos of a much more fun time at the beach. Many thanks for posting.

Blued and Jack'd work well on my wireless iPad in Asia but Blued is marginally better on my phone.

I guess I must be completely naive! I have owned my own condo in Bangkok since before I first got the annual retirement visa a dozen or so years ago. Like anddy, I fly out of Thailand at least once every two months. Accordingly in all the years I have lived in Thailand I have never once had to do a 90 day report. Now this TM 30 nonsense. When I arrive back in Thailand, I fill out an Immigration form. This gives Immigration my full condo address, my email and my phone number. This quickly gets inserted into Immigration computers. On arrival, I immediately go to my home. The only reason I would leave home when in Thailand is go to another part of the country. I always stay in hotels which will then report my dates to Immigration and that information will go into my file. (The only exception is every second year when I stay with friends in their home for 3 or 4 days. In that case it is their obligation to make a report.) Immigration already has all my condo details from the annual visa extension exercise. So Immigration has on its computer system precise details of everywhere I stay in Thailand. Yet now I am supposed to add to the bureaucracy and fill in a ridiculous TM 30 form every time I get back home from BKK over a dozen times a year - even though Immigration has all that detail. This whole nonsense is just part of the policy initiated last year to weed out those who cheat the system, the foreigners who live on less than 65K baht monthly, the crook agents and especially the crook immigration officers who hand out visas in return for dollops of bribes. Now it is seemingly to weed out those who rent properties. As a guest in this country, I understand completely the desire of the authorities to get rid of those who break the rules. What really pisses me off no end is that instead of developing a way to focus on the root cause of their problems - those crook Immigration officers - the new regulations are specifically designed to hit absolutely every non-Thai. The tens of thousands who have always played by the rules are all caught up in a new or tightened up bureaucratic net.

Thank you reader - and more thanks for posting the asiancorrespondent book review. I had not realised that Thomson had clearly become a somewhat reserved man in his later years and despondent at the westernisation of Thailand. If I remember correctly one puzzle the 2017 documentary does not solve relates to the bloodhounds and the sudden loss of a trail on the road. It is known that Thomson had walked for two miles along the same road in the morning. He was then met by his friends also staying at Moonlight Cottage and they all drove on to Church. This is the road on which the bloodhounds allegedly later lost the trail. I do not know how long a scent can last but I have always assumed it is a relatively long period of at least half a day. The morning walk started at roughly around 9.00 am. During the afternoon walk he was last sighted at about 4:00 pm. By 6.00 pm he had failed to return to the Cottage. So there was a gap of about 6 or 7 hours between the two walks. If the bloodhounds picked up on the fact that the afternoon trail had suddenly stopped, surely a bit of sniffing around would have enabled them to pick up the scent from the morning walk. Another concerns the man the documentary alleges he was going to meet in Phnom Penh. But this almost certainly involves a subject which cannot be mentioned in Thailand. So it is best left as a mystery.

I am not sure if there are any recent books on his life with new information on what might have happened to him. Two years ago there was a showing in Bangkok of a new documentary "Who Killed Jim Thomson The Thai Silk King" with new details supplied in interviews with relatives of several men who were involved with both Thomson and his disappearance. The director and relatives were in attendance for a Q&A session after the showing of the film. Unfortunately I cannot locate it on the internet. But the long Q&A is interesting - Basically the documentary suggests that Thomson went reluctantly on his trip to Malaysia. The purpose was to meet the leader of the Malaysian communist insurgency, Chin Peng, who was going to arrange for him to be flown secretly to Phnom Penh. There he was to meet a former Prime Minister of Thailand who had fled to Beijing in the early 1950s and could not return. At the time of Thomson's disappearance, China and Cambodia had diplomatic relations and so travel between the two capitals was easy. The ex-Prime Minster had wanted to meet a member of the Thai government, but this person was reluctant to do so in case word of the meeting got out. So at the last minute he asked his good friend Jim Thomson to go in his place. With his spy background Thomson knew about the Malaysian communists. He knew he had to be careful. He also knew that Moonlight Cottage where he stayed on his trip had at one time been the centre of the Malaysian communists. Thomson had to wait for several days at the Cottage before contact could be made. On a Sunday morning he had walked down the road from the Cottage to attend a Church further down the hill. That afternoon it is assumed he received word that the communists were ready to meet him. He quickly left the Cottage to walk down the hill where transport would be waiting for him. His departure was obviously hasty as he left behind several personal items. He then vanished. The documentary claims that Chin Peng and his associates did not know Thomson before being advised he would be the intermediary. In doing their research, they discovered he had been a senior US intelligence agent. They became alarmed. The last thing they wanted was a spy providing information about their exact whereabouts and capabilities. The film decries previous theories that Thomson could have mistakenly walked into the forest, got lost and was killed by animals. Thomson knew the area well. It claims that Chin Peng had in fact laid a trap. When Thomson found the transport due to take him to the plane for Phnom Penh, he climbed in and the vehicle drove off. It is known that tracker dogs discovered that his trail on the road suddenly ended, suggesting that he entered a vehicle. It is then assumed that Chin Peng had him murdered and his body buried far from Moonlight Cottage. Hence the search which was limited to the environs of the Cottage could find no evidence of a body or his clothing. It is of course merely a theory, one of many. for example it was also well known that not everyone in Thailand liked Thomson. In particular some of the other silk manufacturers were very angry that a farang had come and had much greater success than they had achieved. He was also taking market share away from them. One or more of these businessmen would have had a good reason for wishing to get rid of him. So this is just the latest theory. After watching the documentary it seemed to me to have more than a degree of authenticity. But it will likely always remain one of lifes great mysteries.

I agree its a shame the restaurant has closed. Before Suriwong it was located for several years on Saladaeng Soi 1 just down from the HSBC headquarters. Whenever I went with friends it always seemed to be busy with quite a number of tourists. Not sure why it moved. Maybe rent increases. In that location now there is a restaurant called Bitterman. Some months ago we tried it. We had a bad meal with really bad service. Although we got there at 7:50pm, we were presented with the menu and the drinks list. Having ordered my gin and tonic, I heard the waiter at another table tell the group that drinks were two for the price of one until Happy Hour ended at 8:00pm. So when mine arrived I told the waiter that Id like him to wait 15 minutes before bringing my second gin. Oh, gin and tonic is not on the Happy Hour list we were told. He then brought the Happy Hour drinks menu which we had never seen before. It did include mojito which I would have been perfectly happy to order. But by then it was just after 8:00pm. I called the manager, a middle-aged Thai lady. After recounting my story, she placed the blame on me! So I told her she was wrong and eventually the waiter agreed. With a sour face she then agreed on this occasion she would provide a second G&T. That never arrived. Will never return.

Hainan is a great airline. It is 7th in the Skytrax World's Best Airlines 2019 list and gets mostly excellent reviews on the Skytrax comments site. 8 out of 10 is even better than Singapore Airlines 7 out of 10. Round trip biz class to Chicago is presently 84,500 baht ex BKK. That involves just one stop in Beijing but a very long stopover on the outward sector. My one small problem would be that the outward 5 hour sector is a short night flight on a 737 with recliner seats in biz class rather than flat beds.

It definitely will be spectacular! It is an event like no other and not to be missed. I saw a full procession with the former King. The full processions are rare events and make for an amazing afternoon. The problem is finding a spot to see it without having to get there hours beforehand. Many hundreds of thousands will be competing for limited viewing spots. By far the best way to view it is on one of the official seating areas. A friend and I purchased seats on one site at the Admiralty not far from Wat Arun. This gave us a great view not only of the procession itself but of the Grand palace and the temple complex across the river. Not yet sure when these seats go on sale nor how much will now be charged for them. I guess somewhere around 2,000 baht. There will also be tickets on sale for the rehearsals of which there should be at least two. These consist of all the barges but without the Royal Family present.

This is far from a unique story and it happens all the time with guys as well as women, although the older man/younger Thai woman is much more common. I suspect he has more problems about to knock on his temple door. Apart from having no work permit and making money by working, he will almost certainly be running afoul of the Immigration laws as regards personal finances. If/when discovered, he can be turfed out of the country as quickly as he entered.

Done!

I am not sure if porn links can be posted here, so I have sent you a pm

I heard it is a law about pubic hair not being permitted on screen. If that happens to be true, Im surprised they just dont all shave themselves. Then no need for those damn pixels! But it does seem producers of those vdos are pushing the envelope pretty far. In the vdos of 10 years ago, you could make out very little. Now it feels you are looking through slightly out of focus spectacles. There is also quite a lot of unpixilated Japanese nudity on some porn sites - both gay and straight.

Did you miss this earlier referring to British Airways? BA is as bad as any any airline I have flown. Twice lost my luggage. Each time left my contact numbers. Accessing its helpline is impossible because it is rarely answered. When it is, they are clueless. Once at Lyon airport having been in that part of the world for three days, I called more than a dozen times, got zero notification and was certain I would end up crossing the Atlantic without my case, Back at Lyon airport I decided just to look at the lost luggage area. There it was. I dont take many European airlines. I like Easyjet and have had only good experience on it. Never tried Ryanair. Have not had a problem with Air France, KLM, Lufthansa or Finnair. Nothing as bad as American from Miami to La Guardia when half the passengers were stuck at LGA for an hour and 45 minutes because they could not open the rear cargo door of the 757. It was after midnight before someone found the right spanner or whatever they needed. Everyones experience is different. Checking the Skytrax reviews gives a pretty good ides of what an airline will be like if you chuck out the best and worst reviews and then take an average.

.... or travel on an Asian airline LOL

I am delighted there is at least one carrier which is better than the biggies like United, Delta and American. They may be profitable, bur for the passenger experience they mostly scrape the barrel compared to a huge proportion of other airlines. In case you misunderstood I was referring in particular to the soft product. I have flown all three I mentioned. I get quoted a basic fare and then have to pay for all sorts of extras for my hold baggage, a pilllow or blanket, for a tiny bag of peanuts, a coke and so on. When I travel in Asia, all that is free unless I take a real budget carrier. Plus on the US carriers the service on board and frequently on the ground is like you are doing them a service instead of the other way around. On most other carriers I usually get at least a smile or two! Incidentally you say on Jet Blue you can carry two bags for free. Bags in the hold? I dont think so. Im certain that is only a wheelie bag and a computer or handbag on board. In coach on most carriers I fly outside the US I get one free bag in the hold, a free meal or even two, free drinks, free blanket and pillow etc. And in many cases I get a 32 inch seat pitch (although I admit not all).

I have a problem with total free competition. When it comes to airlines it appears to end up as a race to the bottom. I didn't experience BA when it was a state owned carrier. When it was first privatised it was extremely good. Now it is a near disaster - and a costly one at that. Economy class is close to a joke and business class is definitely a joke. What other airline has 8 across seating in business class and forces its business class customers to pay a huge amount to select their seats advance? Want a seat on the upper deck of an A380? Fine. Be prepared to add £105 per sector on to the cost of your ticket. And beware! That extra charge is going up soon. Cathay Pacific used to have an enviable reputation. it is still a fine airline but its standards have dropped considerably especially in F&B. Putting 10 across economy seating on long haul 777s is sardine time. Try that on a 17 hour flight from New York to Hong Kong! Another area is seat pitch. On long haul economy 747 flights sitting at a window seat I can recall when it was relatively easy to pass the other two passengers without disturbing them. Now that is absolutely impossible even if you are a small child. As for airlines in the USA, well most scrape the bottom of the barrel in almost every respects. Thats what happens with outright competition. I realise the Gulf carriers are subsidised and certainly Emirates and Qatar (havent tried Etihad yet) have a business class that is almost unbeatable. If those subsidies were taken away, i have no doubt that all that the hard and soft products on all three airlines would plummet. The fact is there can never be real competition. Vietnam Airlines has a good reputation for its business class. But its costs for pilots, cabin and maintenance crew will be very substantially lower than SQ and CX. So what can those airlines in much higher wage countries do?