PeterRS

I arrived in Hong Kong just as the boat people were fleeing in large numbers from Vietnam and a few from Cambodia. From my apartment window I could see one of the first Vietnamese boats grounded off Lamma island to the west of Hong Kong. No one wanted to go near it until some aid agencies took relief supplies to these poor people who had suffered so much. From then on the Hong Kong government opened its doors to those fleeing these countries, initially in pretty awful refugee camps but later allowing the inhabitants out to work in the Hong Kong community. 1979 was also the first year that the world became aware of the horrors that Pol Pot's government of now renamed Kampuchea had inflicted on its own people. A book I bought that year remains on my shelves and I still refer to it - William Shawcross' shocking and horrific "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia." For to the power brokers in Washington, Camdodia had been just that - a sideshow to the main war in Vietnam. Just as in Laos, authority from Congress had never been sought or approved, and so it was an illegal series of masive bombings in that blighted country. These so destablised the country and left a power vacuum that Pol Pot's small group and his growing numbers of executioners were quick to fill. Not that Cambodia had been a haven of peace before the American bombers destroyed a good part of it. It was a faction riven country with Prince Norodom Sihanouk as its titular head. What went on prior to the Pol Pot years (my guide always referred to them as such, never to the "war") is of less consquence in this thread; more, as @vinapu writes, it should be about what happened thereafter. Under Sihanouk, Cambodia had been a member of the United Nations since 1955, two years after gaining independence from France. To become a member, a vote of two thirds of the General Assenbly is needed. As its legal government during the Pol Pot years, it retained membership. But being kicked out of a UN seat is no easy matter. It requires a vote of at least 9 out of the 15 members of the Security Council. Perhaps (and this is my guess) because its government following Pol Pot's regime was technically one obtained by an illegal incursion by the Vietnamese, Security Council voting never reached 9 against. In 1979 India did table a proposal that Cambodia's seat should remain vacant. This was voted down.Thus the stain on the United Nations that it retained the Khmer Rouge as the UN representative until 1989. No doubt Mao and China played a role in the machinations of the Security Council as it had backed the Khmer Rouge. But we must remember the United Nations role in stabilising the country. On March 15 1992 it became the first body ever to become the ruler of a UN sovereign territory. From that date, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) became the sovereign government of Cambodia. Its achievements during that time were more than significant. 46 UN countries contributed 22,000 personnel incuding 16,000 soldiers to demilitarise the various factions and set in motion the apparatus to enable the country to operate as a nation state. One group that refused to disarm was the Khmer Rouge. The UN also put constraints on the Vietnamese. Strangely perhaps, the ruler of the country during these next 18 months was a Japanese diplomat! Cambodians as a whole were traditionally monarchists and nothing that had happened in their recent history changed that. So in the general election in 1993 with a 90% turnout a new government involving Hun Sen's party and the royalists formed a coalition. The Khmer Rouge had refusd to take part. It was the last free election the country experienced. in 1998 the royalists mounted a coup. They were defeated. Thereafter nothing was left to hinder power-grabbing Hun Sen from taking over 100%. The UN had vertainly failed to tackle corruption with the result that it has become rampant. In 2010 Hun Sen's government passed a law making whistleblowers illegal. He calls a free press "anarchy" and civil society "an agent iof US-backed change".

Currently TG has no less than 3 different business class layouts in its A350 fleet. I suppose chances are that if you book one type, you'll find at the airport that it hs been changed to an older model! With all airlines seething at Boeing's continuing inability to get its new 777X aircraft into production - it still has not been certified and it was supposed to be handed over to Luftahnsa, the launch customer in 2020 - most of those who ordered the aircraft are having to remodel the interior of their older 777s just to keep ahead of the game. The lack of the 777X for fleet upgrades means not only are airlines spending more on fuel and maintenance of older aircraft, the remodelling of the interiors is costing a small fortune. That's why I was able to get a 777 with Cathay Pacific's excellent new Aria Suite from LHR to HKG in mid-March. Who is ultimately going to pay for all these extra costs is one big question? With Emirates and Qatar having placed more than 65% of all orders for the new 777X aircraft, they are paricularly furious. Boeing says it will have one in the air by next year. Emirates Chairman has said he does not expect it to fly commercialy until 2028.

I reckon I was fortunate - to a certain extent. Next door to us was a boy of my age. I am probably around the same vintage as @Londoner and although no-one ever spoke of sex in those days other than in hushed tones and gay men were known as queers and poofs, somehow the two of us discovered sexual pleasures in our mid-teens. It was only the usual schoolboy stuff, but enough for me to realise that my interest was in guys not girls. My neighbour went on to marry and have kids. I spent ten years pretending to have girlfriends when all the time I was lusting after other guys. Eventually I gave up the pretence. Moving to Asia in my late 20s certainly opened up my world to one of beautiful young men and much easier and often amazing sex even though one still had to be somewhat discreet in ome parts of the region. Not in Thailand, though! Thankfully I never had to regret not being able to come out until much later.

Loved "Gosford Park" which was the forerunner for "Downton Abbey" both written by Julian Fellowes. "Happy Together" is another superb movie for which Leslie Cheung was nominated for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. It's tough, gritty gay movie-making but nonetheless a great movie. So dreadfully sad that Leslie suffered from clinical depression and committed suicide at the age of only 46.

I count myself extremely fortunate to have seen him on stage. It was in the early years of the British National Theatre. Its director Sir Laurence Olivier had invited Franco Zeffirelli to direct Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing". Leading the cast were Maggie Smith and her then husband, the magnificent actor Robert Stevens, along with Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Hopkins, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Joan Plowright and Frank Finlay. Truly a pantheon of British acting talent. (I have left out all the Sirs and Dames which titles had not arrived by then! I think only two did not reach those heights: Albert Finney who in 2000 declined the offered knighthood, and Frank Finlay).

Let's also not forget that Hun Sen, the long time Prime Minister of Cambodia following the Vietnam invasion of 1979 had been a member of the Khmer Rouge fighting under its banner for 7 years. It was only in 1977 during internal purges in the Khmer Rouge leadership and long after the atrocites had resulted in the murder of well over a million of its own citizens that Hun Sen defected to the Vietnamese. After the success of the invasion 2 years later, he was appointed Foreign Minister, later becoming Prime Minister in 1985. Refusing to accept the result of the UN backed elections in 1993 in which the opposition party won the majorty of seats, the coalition he out together finally broke down after he orchestrated a coup in 1997. After rigged election followed rigged election he only resigned in 2023 - putting his son in his place. Through violence and corruption he gained considerable wealth and retained power. I suppose that at least he brought the country a degree of stability after the ghastly Pol Pot years. In the year 2000, Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew described him as "utterly merciless and ruthless, and without humane feelings."

I agree. Looking at Emirates 777s it seems to have replaced about 3 1/2 rows of economy seating at 10 abreast with 3 rows of Premium Economy at 8 abreast. 24 seats in place of around 35, yet the price differential is well over double. Still with Emirates, in some of its A380s it has replaced the entire front cabin downstairs with 56 Premium Economy seats. Before the change, that cabin seated 76-88 economy passengers. Even allowing for a bit of nip and tuck, that offers Emirates a great deal more revenue.

That much! Every single one of my gay friends who has got married did so either in registry offices or in another inexpensive location. After all they had known their partners for years and their families and friends all knew each other. There was no need for a special gathering other than a wedding breakfast or dinner for a select few. No doubt you will consider them all cheapskates. To each his own.

With its wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the United States murdered amost 5 million Asians and left generations and countries scarred for life. And all one Secretary of Defense can say is, "We were wrong, terribly wrong." Is that an apology? If so, it is a disgrace! What has the USA done to clear up the unexploded bombs it rained down over officially neutra Laos every 8 minutes of every single day for 9 whole years? The cost to the US Treasury? Around US$44 billion. Let's never forget: this was an illegal war, one kept secret from Congress and never approved by Congress. That war is still not taught in American schools! Is that because the war was against the law in the United States? Were any US officials held to account, court martialed, jailed? Not that I know of. And Laos still suffers today from the estimated 80 million unexploded US ordinance which stil today kills mostly children. A bomb that cost $3 to manufacture now costs $1,000 to locate and destroy. The view in Washington is eerily similar to some other of its other secret wars (i.e. Cambodia): Sorry guys, we bombed the hell out of you with cluster-fuck bombs for 9 years and now you can clear up all the mess we left behind. From 1993 the US has contributed a paltry $200 million towards that clearance in Laos (set against the $44 billion that secret war cost, this is more than a disgrace - it is evil). Now Trump and his acolyte Musk have even halted this aid. As of today, only 1 percent of the uneploded bombs have been cleared. And McNamara has the gall to write, "we acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation." War should never be undertaken on the basis of "thought". Had the USA power brokers had any real clue about South East Asia, had they any experts with real knowledge of the desires of nations to run their own affairs, the wars in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia would probably never have happened - certainly to the extent they did. As Washington continues to shirk from its responsibility for the weapons it rained over Laos, the USA has never been called to account for these disasters. Yet quite a few US Lao vets are doing their thing in helping make amends. When one named Super realised the enormity of what the US had done, he claimed, "I am appalled. I was ashamed." At least that was more than McNamara had admitted. https://whyy.org/segments/vietnam-veteran-reflects-on-cia-bombing-campaign-in-laos/

Now I understand. But an airline like Cathay Pacific's mileage scheme which plugs into the One World scheme keeps mileage points alive as long as you contribute or purchase miles once every 18 months. With 3 or 4 trips a year to Thailand, I'd assume the mileage would accumulate in order to get at least a free economy ticket. To me, mileage points used for hotel nights are just a waste. If your mileage scheme automatically deletes unused point after a certain period, change the scheme!

Why? I have roughly 60 boarding passes on my phone. The phone automatically stores them and I can not be bothered deleting them! @Olddaddy I'm still waiting to hear why you spend 20,000 points for one night in a hotel that costs less than around Bt. 2,000? That seems a complete waste of points when less than 10 nights @ 20,000 miles ought to get you something like a free business class ticket from Sydney at least as far as Asia - if not Europe.

The full horror started the same day. On 17 April, the day the Khmer forces entered Phnom Penh, all givernment soldiers were rounded up, taken to the Olympic Stadium and immediately executed. I cannot find any evidence that the Khmer Rouge fighters were welcomed with flowers. Indeed, at 7:45 am on the same day the soldiers arrived, loudspeakers ordered everyone in the city to evacuate. The announcement made clear that "anyone who refused to move would be shot dead." The welcoming with flowers seems to have been a piece of propaganda.

Totally agree that Hopkins is one of the great actors. Of all his movies, I would pick one of the Merchant-Ivory classics "Remains of the Day" where he plays an emotionally and sexually repressed bulter opposite Emma Thomson' housekeeper. He plays the role to perfection. We should all be grateful that he moved to the USA. Before then he performed mostly on the British stage with such eminent companies as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Sadly, at that time, he was known to be a drunk and made life difficult for everyone. SInce 1975 he has been sober.

What to make a msall bet? That area will be being redeveloped by then!!!

I was and remain a member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong. Hugh was a regular around the bar there and always maintained that the location of his photo of evacuees was not the American Embassy. He had been walking around Saigon taking photos of the chaos when he popped into the UPI office to develop some film. During the process a colleague shouted at him to come out with a telphoto lens on his camera. He managed to take 12 photos of the evacuation from that building. It was in fact the Pittman Apartment Building where many CIA and USAID families were housed. Also the date of the photo was April 29. It could not have been April 30 because President Ford had ordered a stop to all helicopter flights from around 4:00 am on the 30th when there would not have been enough light for photos. Someone at UPI then submitted the photo and incorrectly stated it was the Embassy building. Hugh's passion was photography. His only disappontment was that he received no royalties from that iconic photo. These went to UPI!

I believe the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh on April 17 almost a couple of weeks before Vietnam celebrated its total independence on April 30.

Funny that the headline mentions overseas tourists but the study describes nothing about them. Only the sub-heading mentions a total estimated tourist spend. Before we get carried away, let's realise that that article is almost all specifically related to Thais. For example - 1. How many overseas couples would plan to have a wedding with between 50 and 100 guests in Thailand? A handful perhaps? 2. Annual travel budgets of Bt. 20,000 - 30,000? That wouldn't even get more than a tiny fraction of couples into the country let alone spending anything here. 3. Roughly 45% plan to buy houses. Foreigners cannot! 4. 86% will seek mortgages. Foreigners cannot! 5. Half plan to spend Bt. 20,000 - 30,000 on annual health insurance. Good luck on foreigners finding rates that low! 5. 77% of lesbians spend between Bt. 2,000 and 5,000 per month on dates. How many gay foreigners get away with anything like as low as that in a month? A couple of nights maybe!

US$50,000 for a wedding! Gulp!

That's a huge number of points for a hotel room that probably costs - what - less than Bt. 2,000 per night! I do not know what the conversion rates are on your particular mileage plan, but 10 nights at the Tarntawan at 200,000 points would get me a business class long haul flight from BKK to the USA on Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles. Looking briefly at the LH flight awards chart mentioned by @vinapu, just 7 nights at the Tarntawan would get you a business class return ticket between Bangkok and Europe!

Most of us grew up with it. For some it had been a long drawn out ghastly struggle. For many it would result in even longer bitter memories of the death of colleagues and loved ones. For others it was a mere tangent to history in a part of the world we knew precious little about. For 3 million Vietnamese, they had died where they fought or lived, victims of an illegal war waged as we now know on the mere pretence of enemy action against a US warship. Although the Vietnam War officially ended with a Peace Deal between Vietnam and the USA in January 1973, one party broke the deal. North Vietnam kept up its activities in the South until it fully united the country. Liberation Day was April 30 1975. For Americans it had all started in 1954 with the humiliating defeat of the France colonial army at Điện Biên Phủ. The French general in charge committed suicide and France finally pulled out of its Indo-Chinese colonies quickly thereafter. President Truman had tried to stop the French from returning after WWII only to be met with a firm "Non!" by French leader General De Gaulle. De Gaulle then tried to persuade America to enter the war on its side. This time it was President Eisenhower who said "No". On April 27 he wrote to his good friend Edward ‘Swede’ Hazlett, “Any nation that intervenes in a civil war can scarcely expect to win unless the side in whose favor it intervenes possesses a high morale based upon a war purpose or cause in which it believes. The French have used weasel words in promising independence and through this one reason, as much as anything else, have suffered reverses that have been really inexcusable.” Yet despite Eisenhower's reluctance, with the French finally out of South East Asia the spectre of the "domino theory" had started to raise its ugly head in the corridors of Washington. At the end of his administration in January 1961, Eisenhower’s thoughts about Vietnam being a "civil war" had evaporated and the "domino theory" had gained the upper hand. By this time the United States was providing unwavering support and power to the unstable, utterly corrupt and unpredictable anti-communist government of South Vietnam led by the President Ngô Đình Diệm. Virtually no-one in the USA voiced any criticism of the incompetence of the cigar-chomping Diệm. A staunch Catholic, he promoted Catholic values and permitted that Church exemptions in property acquisition. When in protest Buddhist monks started self-immolating the the streets, Diệm's wife virtually encouraged this by saying, "If Budhists want to have another barbecue, I will be gad to supply the gasoline!" By this time, though, he United States had begun its long effort to prop up the south by financing an increase in the South Vietnam army by over 150,000 troops. Following a coup on November 1 that year, Diệm was deposed. On the following day he was assassinated. The coup had been backed by America’s CIA, the first of the CIA’s many actions during the ensuing Vietnam War, although far from the first of such operations in the region - as the peoples of Laos were well aware. What happened thereafter is less important for we now know so many of the facts. None have been more revealing than those written by Robert McNamara, the former US Secretary of Defense and one of the primary architects of the Vietnam War. In 1995 he wrote an astonishing mea culpa in his book "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." He writes, " We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated on the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation We made our decisions in the light of those values. Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why."

As I have got older, that's another issue that bugs me about paid sex - getting your money's worth. Yes, I know it's a transaction and there should be rules. But now I find when it comes to sex, I hate being limited by "rules of engagement" which I guess they might be termed. I no longer like it being a one-sided arrangement - although, once again, I accept that the boy gets his cash. I also like to take time both before and after. I'd hate it if I had to say to someone, "I paid for an hour and there are 30 minutes left!" Worse would be the boy saying "You've had your hour and I have another customer waiting." But these are merely my views.

That certainly was Lee's view, Additonally he wanted to ensure the very best talent entered government service rather than being wooed away by business corporations. And to a very large extent I believe in Singapore's circumstances he was correct. But there are virtually no other democracies in the world prepared to accept such a very high level of salaries paid to members of parliament, government ministers and top civil servants. The electorates just would not stand for it. As Lee was to all intents and purposes a dictator - a benevolent one in the view of many - he did what he wanted. He brooked no opposition in parliament and routinely jailed the one or two elected opposition members, often on trumped up charges. Besides, paying such high salaries did not root out corruption. It still exsts in Singapore - as witness the mega 1MDB Malaysian financial scandal. Massive amounts of cash were laundered through banks in various countries, including SIngapore. The Monetary Authority of Singapore even went to the extent of withdrawing BSI's status as a merchant bank. Other SIngapore banks involved were the mighty DBS, UBS of Switzerland, Standard Chartered and Falcon PBS. A total of eight other banks were penaised for involvement in the fraudulent 1MDB scheme. More than a dozen individuals were also charged and penalised. In 2024 a former Minister of Transport, S. Iswaran, was sentenced to a year in jail for obtaining gifts of around US$310,000. As Minister, he had been receiving a salary and official benefits of US$50,000. Yet he was not charged with corruption. To be corrupt in Singapore the prosecution has to prove that the accused not only accepted gratification, but also that these bribes affected their judgment. Many minor officials have been convicted of what to all intents and purposes is corruption.

That's precisely what the funds for the Trust set up by his siser is set up to do. The money is all to be given away. I have absoutely no idea! But we should not forget that he is essentially the Chief Executive of one of the world's largest wealthy organsations and has to work really hard virtually every day. He basically rules over 1.4 billion people. Should he be paid so much less than Mark Zukerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or other top businessmen all of whom also have a host of additiona perks? After his retirement when all his Board and lodgings were covered by the Vatican, Benedict XVI was on a pension of US$2,500 per month. He was something of a bon viveur and was frequently seen dining at a nice restaurant close to the Vatican walls. How do you compare? The Prime Minster of Singapore who rules over less than 7 million has a salary of US$2.2 million. The Prime Minister of Thailand earns about US$27,000 in a country more than ten times the size - both presumably also have perks. Who is worth what amount?

The extraordinary journey of Pope Francis continues as his final will has become public. This man who gave up his US$32,000 per month salary and all other manner of perks made arrangements for the funds to go into a Trust. That trust was given to his younger sister after his death. This equally modest woman had never once played up her connection to the Pope. Equally neither brother nor sister had forgotten the other as they corresponded weekly. He asked her not to attend his coronation so as not to draw the media sttention away from his Church. She never flew to be with him in Rome and he never visited her in Argentina. Yet their bond was unbreakable. When she saw how much he had left her to head up a Trust made up of other good men and women she cried. This was not money for a statue, a church or some other tangible symbol of his position as Pope. It asked her to continue his mission by spending the money on the poor, the homeless, education and other issues close to his heart. Money from many other sources is now flowing into that Trust. I beieve this has made Pope Francis unique. His life was one of simplicity, generosity of spirit, kindness, love. Now in death his legacy will ensure that his life's work continues.

For a dozen years I would blow miles on a biz class round trip to spend Christmas or New Year with friends in Sydney. Every year I tried Qantas months in an advance and could never once get a seat. Thankfully BA then had a flight to BKK that went on to Sydney and I was always able to get a seat on that carrier.