PeterRS

Perhaps you can explain of what you suggest @reader might be bored given that he has not posted for months and his basic love, as he has himself explained, was posting cuttings from various media outlets? There has been a lot in the media worth posting here. Hopefully he is in good health.

Excellent. I hope you are well up on the Quickstep, Foxtrot and Tango, and no doubt you have your own fascinating version of the Carolina Shag!! Do you need an agent?

@tm_nyc already has this on his list - "The Departed", Martin Scorsese's version of an earlier Hong Kong movie, "Infernal Affairs". Both great movies and the Scorsese version was particuarly well cast. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen in addition to Matt Damon were outstanding.

@reader has been almost absent for several months with no apparent reason. One reason @bkkmfj2648 has not posted may be that his bf arrived near the end of last week after many weeks before then when I believe he was on his own and, I believe from his posts, had a lot of spare time. So maybe as jason1975 already pointed out in the Vietnam forum, the lack of posting "maybe because 🥰🥰🥰 with boyfriend? 🤣🤣🤣" If he has actually been reading the forum and is annoyed with this thread, a response to my PM of 28 May might help clear muddied waters. And is glass-half-full @vinapu in the best of health? We need his chatty postings!

When I lived in Tokyo, I had been used to Hong Kong's summer heat and humidity for more than a decade. So the heat did not concern me. But I found the summer humidity in Tokyo in even worse than Hong Kong and Bangkok. If out and about you can always cool down a bit by popping into a cafe or shopping mall. But you can do little about the outside humidity. And it's not the actual degree of humidity that is the problem - it is the relative humidity. Dehumidifiers were vital in apartments. In my view any major outdoor event in Tokyo would have to be end July at the earliest - like the 2001 Olympics.

The Sukhothai used to be so gay friendly it was called "Gay Central"! Around the pool there were often far more gay guys than other guests! But that is going back around 20 years ago. Then there was not only a change of manager who was more homophobic. I believe the hotel itself has changed owners and is developing its own brand. For a while it was all but inundated with Chinese tourists who gave it a special award in 2015. Although I stayed several times, it was too long ago and would not choose it now. It's primarily a top end business hotel.

Another poster who clearly has not read the detailed - and long - history behind my OP. This started, as he no doubt does not recall, with mutually very complimentary posts by myself and @bkkmfj2648 on 18 February, long before the disputed posts in the Dangers of Colombia thread. But then having to go back and read a series of more than ten posts made over more than two months is something clearly most posters contributing above cannot be bothered doing. And it was for that reason that I spelled out the detail in my OP above. Now adding to "deranged" and "vindictive", we have a poster describing my factual series of events as "psychotic". I think it's time that @ToTheCore got himself to some expert to find out what the word psychotic actually means. I would also remind @ToTheCore of the Board Conditions of Conduct which point out that comments should refer specifically to posts and not to actual posters. And who informed @ToTheCore that another poster has simply stopped posting as a result of this thread? After all, as @jason1975 already pointed out in that particular thread "maybe because 🥰🥰🥰 with boyfriend? 🤣🤣🤣" Until then he was on his own with not a great deal to do each day. I gave many of his posts 'likes' on that thread and I certainly hope he continues. @vinapu has rightlly said that matters referred to above should be dealt with by PMs. I agree. So what would @ToTheCore do when a long PM has been sent to the other party on May 28 and that party fails to respond - even by June 2 - indeed even by today? How can an agreement or even just an understanding thereby be reached?

I might just have a job for @Olddaddy. In the early 2000s, thanks to a very good friend who spent his summers lecturing on the smaller cruise ships like those from Seabourn or Silver Sea, I joined him on three cruises. On each there were something like six gentlemen, all seemingly in their 50s or 60s, whose only job was to dance. Not as in Broadway-style dancing. Merely to ensure that the eldery ladies who always seemed to outnumber men had partners when it came to ballroom dance-type evenings. As long as he does not have two left feet, I see @Olddaddy as a gentleman dancer in the evenings who could exercise his charms to meet up for sex with some of the many young Filipino staff on board. That would be against a ship's policy, but I am sure @Olddaddy could find a way around it! 🤣

I thank you for letting us know more of the detail of World Pride events. I, for one, had no idea they lasted for two weeks. So I agree with you. Bangkok could gain a bonanza of visitors if it applied to host World Pride in 2030. From the little research I have done, it seems it need not necessarily be held in June since the Sydney event in 2023 was held in February (was that due in any way to covid, I wonder?) If the World Pride organisers could agree to Bangkok being held in mid-November I can imagine a massive tourism influx.

My apologies for stupidly not noticing the date on that video. It came from a website posted 3 days ago and I failed to check. I suppose my gaze was concentrated on those handsome guys rather than the text at the top! Not having been at the Parade last Sunday, I cannot dispute their figures. But I find them difficult to believe. I know how complex the Taipei Parades are in terms of organisation and sheer numbers. But I am delighted the Parade here has certainly become hugely more popular.

You would not have enjoyed the Marina Bay Sands, I am sure. Plenty of other very fine hotels in Singapore. I think you are right in that i also do not recall CX asking for flight reviews before (and I had several flights with them last year). As a member of the Marco Polo Club since the early 1980s, I have a feeling I have received a few questionnaires, but I am reasonably certain these referred to the Club and its benefits and definitely not about service on CX flights. Even the BA flight questionnaires surprised me as again I do not recall receiving them in the past.

Now I wonder if even you have read the entire posting history! Somehow I doubt it. After all it is no doubt unfortunate that, as I have made perfectly clear, my post above does not refer back to one particular post. It refers to posts in three separate threads. I would have posted all three prior to my latest but that would have taken up almost an entire page. Quoting verbatim made and still makes sense. As for the content of my posts, you have every right to put me on ignore and/or submit a complaint to the Moderator. Either or both are fine with me.

I think when any hotel listed on a site like Tripadvisor gets 1,495 5-star reviews from those who allegedly stayed there and 1,371 of these are in that 5-star category, there has to be, as some would say, something fishy about the figures! When I was working for one company and they put executives up in 4- or 5-star hotels in Singapore, I can definitely state that no hotel I ever stayed in was as bad as the Marina Bay Sands. I forgot to mention that in my large non-smoking room, there were six cigarette burns on parts of the furniture. No doubt this was partly a result of the hotel appealing to so many Chinese tourists whose sole reason for staying was the casino in the basement. But my stays were quite some years ago and perhaps things have improved.

Finally a video has been posted on the web which shows what a really fun day Sunday was. And some photos also from the web Photo: Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images Photo: The Nation Photo: Dodge Photography Photo: Dodge Photography

Apologies again. The date I wrote is the one given on the official FGG site. But surprisingly it lists no year. In fact, the ten original finalists were decided in May LAST year. Hence Denver and Perth only just now being announced as the two finalists for 2030.

A fair point. I do not understand the various internal rules within One World carriers. Although Cathay Pacific was my home carrier for decades, once One World started I switched to British Airways. Although the miles were the same whichever one I flew, with BA's loyalty programme based on a points system rather than actual miles, I found that with one round-the-world trip I could gain almost enough points to reach Gold status and therefore Emerald on One World. On CX I would need to fly twice as many miles to reach that status. To the fury of BA Executive Club members, BA massively reduced its perks over Christmas last year. Now miles and tier benefits are based on how much you actually pay - and you must pay a great deal more than before. I wonder how long the million mile programmes can last. Back in the 1990s before One World, CX had a programme that if you flew 2 million kms you qualified for lifetime membership of their Marco Polo Club with access to first class lounges and other perks even when flying economy. As that was a decade when I was flying virtually every fortnight, I quickly built up those kms. Having reached 1.7 million, CX joined One World and immediately cancelled the 2 million km deal! As @unicorn suggests, what mght happen if - or more likely when - Alaska changes its rules. I have a friend in Sydney who for many years vritually commuted to Melbourne. He preferred Ansett to Qantas and had built up a mileage bank of around 330,000 miles. Then Ansett went bust and all those miles went down the drain!

A sad day. He achieved so much for the gay community. I love his quote mentioned in The Guardian obituary that @tm_nyc posted - Having come up in the late 1970s, he once said of his generation: "Gay fiction before that, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote, was written for straight readers. We had a gay readership in mind, and that made all the difference. We didn’t have to spell out what Fire Island was.”

So true. In the example I quoted, the huge Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, it is a fabulous looking building. The problem is that it was a vanity project of the SIngapore government, often referred to as Singapore Inc., and so could not be seen to be anything other than excellent. When the Convention organisers accommodated me there it was one of the three highest ranked Singapore 5-star hotels in the Tripadvisor ratings. Yet with 1,850 rooms, the queuing was horrendous - 20 minutes for checkin, 5 minutes every time you wanted a lift, nearly 20 minutes before a table for breakfast (and no other eateries close by), trying to swim in the rooftop infinity pool with 80 or more tourists who had merely paid to get up there to gawk at the pool looking directly at you, 20 minutes to get a drink, and then another 20 minutes for checkout - no automatic checkout, the whole experience was near ghastly! I was quite pleased that after my correspondence with Tripadvisor, the hotel gradually moved down the 5-star rankings and within about a year was virtually the lowest!

And @Keithambrose is another who has not provided any explanation. Taking all the accurate quotes in my post into account from various posts in various threads, his comment does not stand up. Without an explanation he merely jumps on the bandwagon of criticism. His post then becomes all but worthless.

I note that @khaolakguy still backs off providing any explanation for his use of the word "deranged". His post was also a pitiful attempt to persuade others to read just one thread when my post had specifically - and very importantly - referred to and quoted from two threads, one written in February. His comments were selective and inaccurate, and he chickens out of backing them up.

As one who still travels quite a lot (although not on cruises), I am frankly sick and tired of all the requests I receive to complete satisfaction (or otherwise) questionnaires. On my March trip to the UK, I stayed with a familly member most of the time. But I also had one night in London. With six flights, I had two questionnaires from British Airways, four from Cathay Pacific and one from the hotel. For last week-end's trip to Taipei, I have had two from China Airlines and two from the hotel agent - one for experience on arrival and one on overall experience at departure. I do accept that the opinion of other travellers can be useful. The problem I find is that so many different travellers have so many different expectations. So how do you assess the accuracy of questionnaire results? I trash some but in others will highlight any bad service or areas which could be improved. On the other hand, if I have had particularly good service I will always include that in my comments along with staff names. However, I also know that some travel sites deliberately manipulate their supposed travellers' comments. Years ago i used to value Tripadvisor's comments. Until i had the unfortunate experience of staying at the flagship Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore when attending a Conference. I disliked the experience from arrival to departure, but found that Tripadvisor had many one-line comments basically stating how wonderful the hotel is. I dd some research. I discovered that of something like 20 such comments, 16 were fake in that they had been inserted by staff at affiliate companies of the hotel. Getting in touch with Tripadvisor is not easy, but I wrote to their head office. Then, surprise, surprise, virtually all of those comments disappeared! Only after that did I read a Business Traveller magazine comment about how Tripadvisor manipulates its comments section.

300,000 marchers would be absolutely amazing. Somehow I find that number hard to believe - but then I was not there. Only a couple of years ago the numbers were barely in the thousands. PS: There is a vdo on an Indian website which clearly shows there were lots of marchers and lots of spectators. It merely states that thousands marched, but from the video it looks quite a bit more. Excellent news. As for the number 300,000, this is not a fact. It was merely a guesstimate given of the number of likely participants on another website thaipr.net and provided in advance by Waaddao Ann Chumaporn, Chair and Founder of Naruemit Pride and organizer of Bangkok Pride Festival 2025. He said, "We expect more than 300,000 Thai and international participants to join the parade." It took Taipei about a dozen years to build up to the 100,000 marchers mark. I guess that Bangkok probably had somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000. Even so, that in itself would be a huge advance on previous years. https://www.wionews.com/videos/thousands-march-in-bangkok-s-annual-pride-parade-1748781327294 https://www.thaipr.net/en/life_en/3605358

Participants is one thing - and a good one at that. But I wonder how many took part in the Pride March. That's also a key issue.

On May 2, the FGG announced ten finalilsts in the bidding for the 2030 Games. This is what is called "The Long List" and it is eventually narrowed down to about 3, I believe. The Denver site claims that the list has been narrowed to 2 - Denver and Perth after Auckland bowed out. How the bid process narrowed so quickly I have no idea! And since Vancouver already hosted the 1990 Games, I cannot understand why it is back on the list! https://www.denver.org/gay-games-2030/press-releases/denver-moves-closer-to-hosting-2030-gay-games-as-bid-field-reduces-to-two/ Adelaide, Australia Auckland, New Zealand CapeTown, South Africa Denver, Colorado, USA Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Frankfurt, Germany Melbourne, Australia Perth, Australia Taipei, Taiwan Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

You may well be right in your comments re Taipei. But I cannot agree with you about Tokyo. I hope I am wrong, but from my experience it just is not going to happen any time soon. There certainly have been quite major developments with more attention being given by various of the 23 wards in the city to their LGBTQ communities. Shibuya was the first iin 2017 and it has been followed by 12 others. The mayor of Suginami ward, Sakoto Nishimoto, told the Japan Times last December that it is "essential to enshrine same-sex marriage in law." The mayors of nine other city wards have called on the government to review the rights of same sex partners. This follows the ruling in the Tokyo High Court last October where the presiding judge stated that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is unconstitutional. He added that the ban is "a groundless legal discrimination based on sexual orientation" which violates two articles of the Japanese Constitution. In Japan, judges have no rights to overturn laws. Only the national Diet (parliament) can do that. And this is the crux of the problem because the Prime Minister and a considerable number of politicians are against giving same-sex couples the right to marry. Japan has basically had just one party in power for most of the period since the 1950s and that party has a considerable number of ultra-conservative right wing members. https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/12/29/tokyo-ward-mayors-call-for-more-rights-for-same-sex-couples/ I just believe that the developments in LGBTQ rights have been too slow to host World Pride. Besides, although the Tokyo Gay Pride Marches started way back in 1994 (almost ten years before Taipei started its Pride March), the official Japan Gay guide website estimates that this year there will only be 1,100 marchers! That no doubt disguises the fact that Pride events around this huge city, which include a large number of entertainment and other spectacles, attract even more than Taipei's 200,000. That perhaps gives greater importance to the 47.2% of the population discovered to be in favour of same-sex marriage by a 2023 Stanford University Study. As with many research studies, how many really hold this view as opposed to those who only feel they should hold the view is unknown.