PeterRS

I have never counted the steps up from the street (if that is to what you were referring!!) but doubt there are more than 10-12 of them. Assuming you do not want a private room, all you need do after depositing your shoes, putting in your 10¥ coin, closing the door and taking the key is go to the machine literally across from the recepetion desk. It has a series of press buttoms with a list of prices which covers the cost of the various facilities - from a basic entrance to the washing area, hot/cold tubs, steam room, saunas, rainshower room and other bathing facilities on floor 3 as well as the cruising areas on floors 4 and 5 (all I have ever needed there), to the largest and most expensive private room. I just press the cheapest (provided it is not to suggest I am a student!), pay using ¥, pick up any change and then take the ticket to the reception guys. They take my ticket and shoe locker key in return for which I get the full changing room locker key and a bag with towels. These used also to have bath robes, but seems robes will now cost extra. I always gave them my real name but I expect any name works. After you have bathed from head to toe Japanese stye, the whole of the shower area after you come through the curtain from the bathing area can often be cruisy. I once even had a guy say my name! Turned out he'd been a boyfriend for a couple of years! Try just to get rid of any inhibitions you may have and join the fun. I agree with @joizy that the back section of the steam room furthest from the curtain (it's next to the rainshower room) is where there can often be action between two or more guys. Just be a little careful. It has some dim light and you should note that there is a small step between the front and back sections. On my last visit, the fourth and fifth floors had large open cruising areas, each with some two-tier bunk beds from which you are likely to hear quite a bit of moaning! There are also large mattresses spread on much of the rest of the floor area. These are not separated and so there is often some action going on. As it is pretty dark it is quite difficult to see what action (!) but you are likely to notice that other customers are kneeling around the two guys and just watching. This is perfectly common. Lastly I would say some Japanese are reluctant to go up to a foreigner. If you see someone you like, just move towards him and perhaps gently touch his arm or his thigh. If he backs away, you know for sure he is not interested. On the other hand, if all you want is to relieve yourself of sexual stress, lie down on one of the mattresses and see what happens. Just note that condoms are not all that common.

Roomy sofa seating or banquettes used to be quite common back in olden days. These still enabled lots of chairs to be added for the larger week-end trade. Although not a regular visiting Pattaya, didn't Nice Boys have that sort of seating around the wall areas?

Back in the day, I also hired a Purple Dragon guy for a night tour. Before he came to my very nice guest house on the banks of the Mekong, I had gone around the corner for dinner where the two waiters were quite stunning and i suspected both gay. When my evening guide arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that it was one of the waiters! He took me to the night market (which I had already visited) and then to what he said were a gay bar and a gay disco. Both were virtually empty. I had hoped he might join me in the guest house but for whatever reason he could not. But on my last afternoon as I was sitting having a coffee looking over the river and killing time before going to the airport, a group of senior schoolboys came and sat at an adjoining table. All were cute and we exchanged smiles. After about 5 minutes one came over and asked if I liked the friend he sat next to. He said he liked me! But I had checked out of my room and in any case had no time. But it indicated that there was then certainly some gay activity in LP. I loved my four days in the small city. I wonder how @AndyUK found it.

Purely judging from that video, it seems a little more like a Japanese sauna where the dark areas for action are quite large and open so that other patrons can get up close to inspect if that turns them on! Very few private rooms, it would seem.

As a non-technical guy and just out of curiosity, for what reason did QR codes succeed bar codes?

In an earlier post i suggested the comment by @Keithambrose was probably the longest he had ever contributed. This beats it by a mile.

Ha! That's almost certainly the longest sentence @Keithambrose has ever written on this Gay Guides Board. Usually about 5 or 6 words are his maximum. Funny he talks about PMs. It was one! Lawyer speak!

I was never a fan of Chicago, the movie or the Broadway show, but loved Cabaret. It was nearly in my top five. Liza Minelli and Joel Gray were both amazing. The film encouraged me to learn more about Christopher Isherwood and (1) his stories about gay life in the Weimar Republic, and then (2) the freedom and openness of gay life in California. For one still hovering in and out of the closet, Isherwood made it easier to open the door. Sunday Bloody Sunday Talking of the gay influence of movies, I have written before about this John Schlesinger movie filmed in 1970 London. It features the intertwining lives of an openly gay doctor (played by the very heterosexual Peter Finch), his occasional bisexual lover (played by Murray Head) who also has flings with a rather wacky character played superbly by Glenda Jackson. The gay elements in the film meant it died in the USA but was widely praised elsewhere. When Shlesinger showed it to a bunch of executives from United Artists in New York, they are allegedly appalled! A number of actors including Dame Edith Evans turned down the role of Finch's mother as she thought the subject matter too risque. But gay men loved the movie, and not only because it features cinema's first full-on male to make kiss. The soundtrack also features the glorious trio "Soave il vento" from Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte. And on a side note, I think it's interesting that another excellent movie The Shawshank Redemption mentioned by @unixmad gives major prominence to another excerpt from a Mozart opera - the letter duet from "The Marriage of Figaro". And then there is the composer's Clarinet Concerto featured in The King's Speech starring Colin Firth.

It is nearing its end.

Thanks for those excellent points. Did you really feel that Chalamet was too old? He was 20 when the movie was filmed and is supposed to be 17. I thought his part worked, although Hammer at 31 was clearly older and more sophisticated than the 24 year old he was portraying.

First I asked for those making negative coments about the first post in this thread, and you have done so. I thank you for that. I do take what you write on board. And I think you make a very valid point when you write - "it's not a competition, it's a conversation." You may find this difficult to accept, but I agree. That said, If I might ask you to put aside these comments about the first post above and my posting in general for a moment, and then ask you to look back at the three posts made in the Dangers of Colombia thread. You clearly consider it is acceptable for @bkkmfj2648 to attack me when all I asked in the first post was a very simple question re the actual dangers which the OP had discussed at length. @bkkmfj2648 responded that this was why he avoided countries in South America. To my simple question asking if sex is an essential part of his travel experiences - which I followed up writing about my month in South America with only travel to see the natural wonders of the continent being my intention and then amplified that with the comment, as regular readers of this forum know very well, that sex is usually part of my regular overseas travelling - you clearly, and for a reason unknown to me, accept that the attack made on me in the 10th post on the second page of the thread as merely part of a conversation. It was not and it is not! As for my posts, you have clearly read many of mine over a period of at least several years. You know their content, their number and my writing style. You also are perfectly well aware that you and others have absolutely no obligation to read them. You always have the option to put me on your ignore list. Equally you have the option to register a formal complaint to the Moderator. Now, I wonder why over the long period you refer to you have done neither? Does your cynicism extend to actually liking some of my previous posting? That's what this implies. 1. What comments about other active posters have been "snide and vindictive? How have they dimished the forum? Which interesting participants have been discouraged from contributing? 2. As a considerable number of others have written precisely the opposite in quite a number of posts, that is just patent nonsense! And I suspect the comment itself is against the Board rules in terms of the Code of Conduct. And perhaps we should recall that you yourself are not immune to making comments which others might consider snide despite the caveat at the start. In other words, you accept a caveat in your thread but not a simple question in mine! After all, you wrote of @bkkmfj2648's Vietnam trip on 18 May - "Forgive the cynic in me, and it is nothing personal, however reduced to it’s bare bones and in abstract……. A Farang newly retired to Pattaya meets a Rent Boy, who becomes his Fuck Buddy, who becomes his Pimp, who becomes his Boy Friend. Sounds like Boy Friend, not in the first bloom of youth, starts to become financially dependent on his Farang. Farang decides to break up with Boyfriend but as a breakup gift provides Boyfriend with wherewithal to set up his own business. The business is selling fruit salad which requires the boyfriend, who likes to party until dawn on Jomtien beach, to get up early to purchase fruit in the market and then be in attendance to run the business. After a few weeks of the business(which is not going well) being set up Boyfriend persuades Farang that perhaps their relationship may still have a future after all so is ready to walk away from the business for a few weeks to be with Farang. Farang meanwhile is putting time, and probably more money sooner or later, into correcting the Boyfriends mismanagement of the business."

I read my kindle copy and was surprised that there are parts and key elements which are quite different from the movie. Naturally any screenwriter, especially one as talented as James Ivory, has to take quite a number of liberties in adapting a novel for the sreen. Shortening a long story to make it fit a 2 hour time slot being just the least, I expect. But what surprised me is that in the book, it is Elio who is lusting after Oliver, whereas in the movie it seemed to me to be almost the other way around. The book also gives a tantalising suggestion that this may not have been Elio's first such longing, as there is a passing reference to another visiting scholar two years earlier. The book also has a much longer ending when it takes us on Elio's journey over several decades. While I found that interesting, I thought the very, very long shot of the young Elio gently weeping while looking into the fire in the movie was perfect ending.

Apologies. I had only just realised the lack of media excerpts which always seemed to be quite regular. I hope all is well with him.

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.