PeterRS

Don't you realise how childish it looks? And how difficult to read? This may be how you write to friends but posters on this boards are used to a form of English they mostly comprehend. Having to try and work out what another poster is trying to say negates the point of the posts! It's merely an affectation that perhaps is supposed to look trendy. Sorry to day: it doesn't!

Corruption! Part of Thailand's culture! Yet the Yingluck government pledged to end it. It didn't. Two months ago the present Prime Minister pledged to end corruption in 20 years. “Corruption is a threat to the country,” he said. “We cannot allow the younger generation to inherit these sins.” 20 years? As proved in Hong Kong and Singapore, he could end corruption in a couple of years if his words had any meaning. They don't! https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/policies/40022926

Perhaps it's worth recalling that Interpol were useless when it came to trying to locate the Red Bull heir murderer. More than 10 years have passed since he mowed down and killed the traffic policeman - and still the Thai government is happy for this guilty man to go free despite his having been back in this country several times and spotted in other locations like London.

Chinese human trafficking extends into its own borders. Thanks to the one child policy, there is now such an imbalance between males and females. Somewhere in the region of 50 million men will not be able to marry. So for years now young girls have been trafficked, largely from the poor northern states of Vietnam. They merely vanish before ending up with older men and saddled with one or more children. The results can often be sexual violence, depression, PTSD and even attempted suicide. https://ghrp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41256-017-0049-4 The Chinese government still fails to realise that making greater efforts to reduce taboos on homosexuality and even actually encouraging it would solve their problem in a flash, at the same time preventing a great many loveless marriages.

I also find sometimes the site is slow. Yesterday morning I could not log off as there was a message about site maintenance. When I opened the site in the evening, I was still logged in and it all worked well. But the problems I have experienced are very minor.

I never once visited Aniki as I felt it was just too expensive. My two visits to Rainbow were also before 2011. I never liked it. The layout was rather industrial and the attitude of some of the guys was pretty much anti-foreigner. That's the only time I have come across that in all my many dozens of visits to Taiwan. Before Soi13 the best sauna by far was in a building to the south of the main railway station. It was on the 5th and 6th floors. Most of the guys who went there were young, fit and downright gorgeous! I suspect it was Taipei's first real sauna. Sadly the major 7.7 earthquake in 1999 damaged the building and the whole block had to be torn down. There was another pleasant but much smaller sauna to the south of Peace Park. It was smaller and for some reason the police raided it a few times. I believe that is why it closed.

I adored the first Parade I attended. It was all so new and, despite what I had read, so utterly exciting. That this could be held anywhere in Asia seemed so unlikely. Then the second proved that the first had been no mirage! I expect first time visitors now will find it similarly exciting, even though they will have been to the Sydney Parade and others in the west. Taipei's remains quite different.

My first was 2011. I had not heard about the Parade until a year earlier when I checked in to my hotel. There on the front page of the newpaper on my desk were photos of the previous day's ParadeI decided there and then I would be take part in 2011. In total I have been to 7 Parades. I had to miss 2015 for business reasons and 2019 since i had returned from a tiring European trip just the previous evening. I just checked flights and hotels for this coming October. Already prices have gone up.

I only use my Apple desktop computer for on line banking with scam apps recommended by the banks. I've recently had one problem but it is not related to a scam or phishing.

For several years the Taipei Pride Parade has been fixed as the last Saturday in October - so Saturday 28 this year. Note that in addition to the Parade there are various parties during the weekend. These get booked out quickly and there will always be queues outside the venues with guys hoping to get in. All gay venues will be packed. Even the hot spring. Some years ago when Chuan Tang was the 'in' gay hot spring (the management changed the policy soon after), I went on to the hot spring after the Parade. I had never before had to queue. This Saturday it took a good 20 minutes just to gt through the door and then another 25 minutes to get to the lockers. When I looked over to my left to see the main pool, I was surprised that i could not see any water - merely a vast array of naked bodies! The point about hotels is worth considering. Taipei's Pride weekend atrracts gay guys not only from all over Asia but also from Taiwan itself. Added to the usual tourist numbers, the cheaper and more popular hotels can get booked up fast. For those who have not read about the Parade before, here are a few photos some of which I have posted before. Many participants assemble at Peace Park to prepare. They then move to the large open space at Taipei City Hall Square. This is the assembly point and also the destination. At the end there is a concert in the Square with usually some gay Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers. Because of the nuimbers attending, the route in pre-covid years was been split into three. So you have to decide which one you will follow. All will be packed with cute guys, but only one is likely to have the Speedo/Aqux boys. Keep your eyes peeled!

The above is a reason why I refuse to use mobile phone banking.

I echo all @fedssocr comments. A few years ago I did one of the organised 5-day round-the-island coach tours staying at very good hotels. I was amazed at how beautiful the island is, having earlier only visited Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. We started at Sun Moon Lake where in addition to a large hot spring pool in the basement, each room had its own mini-hot spring pool! Sun Moon Lake We then drove down south of Kaohsiung to the far south coast with its crystal clear water and visiting the main Buddhist monastery before returning to Kahsiung for the night. From there we moved over to the East Coast and worked our way up to the stunning Taroko Gorge where our hotel was virtually at the top of the Gorge. Much of the upper part of the East coast looks rather like parts of the north coast of the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to Taipei is quick as the road goes through several long tunnels. You can do all these sights on your own and save quite a bit of cash. I just wanted to be lazy for a few days to sit back and enjoy the island in comfort.

I was there only once and was mugged in the middle of a sunny day. It was a Sunday and took place very close to a Church that was so packed there were people standing outside at the back. Thankfully three heard my cry for help and raced to do so. I was very impressed that a pollce car was on the scene in little more than a minute.

Well, what else would one expect a "Vice" minister to say? 😉

Only one I was anywhere near was the last one where I hit the bullseye!

Just for clarification unless others have not noticed it, Babylon closed about 3 years ago. The building is currently being demolished.

I have a bank in the UK which I use for UK income sources and occasional payments over to Bangkok. It is not my main bank. I have generally sent money to Thailand using online banking twice a year in May and November. To do so I have to have use a special log in number plus two passwords. I then get on my Thai phone a 6 digit PIN number which has to be added before I can access my account. For years it has worked well. Nothing since then has changed. But on November 30, for the first time, I did not receive the 6 digit PIN. There is an on-line CHAT function which I then used. Generally I find these hopeless. This one was worse than hopeless. It recommended deleting the app and startng again. Same problem. Then that I use my debit card with the card reader sent years ago by the bank. The battery is dead as I have never needed to use it. Then that I use a special international banking phone line (which I have to pay for). Having dialled and been told there were 2 customers ahead of me, I finally put the phone down after 112 minutes! Effectively I was locked out of my account. I wrote to the bank's Chairman. I know; a hopeless exercise as it would only be sent down the line, but it made me feel better. Eventually I had an admission from the bank saying they had a fault with their third party contractor which generates the 6 digit PINS. Within a week this had been reversed and I was informed the problem was with AIS which has always been my provider in Thailand. It stated the PINS had been generated but not recognised by AIS (although no reason given why this should suddenly have happened). I have had the AIS technical team check 3 times and they advise there is no problem at their end and they have not received any PINS out of the UK. In the meantime, I have no trouble with similar PINS required for online banking with a Hong Kong bank or with ordering a variety of merchandise from the internet, including from London, using Hong Kong credit cards. Then I tried to order a gift for a family member from the catalogue sent by the Mandarin Oriental hotel group for special small Christmas gifts. I have double checked that this was a genuine offer from the Group. Since all gifts were made in China, the payments were in Yuan. Using my UK debit card, the transaction did not go through. Eventually I was advised my card had been discontinued because of a "suspected" hack. The hack was the Mandarin Oriental payment! The bank's fraud office then sent me a letter - a letter that took 12 days to arrive! - to inform me about the debit card being cancelled and asking me urgently to phone them. They stated they had tried to call me three times. This was pure bullshit. During that two week period, I had no incoming phone calls from the UK on either my mobile or landline. I asked why, given the urgency, they did not use my email. No answer other than the bank does not use emails! Funny that, given that this mess has led to an exchange of at least 24 emails so far! At least the Indian gentleman who answered from the Fraud department said he would replace the debit card urgently. Although the bank has a policy of not sending new cards overseas, after a 5-minute discussion with his superiors, I was informed an exception would be made in my case. Five days later, I get a form email from the bank stating they could not send new debit cards overseas and so I should provide a UK address! The Complaints Department then apologised for my having been given wrong information but no alternative way for me to access my account! Thankfully I shall be in the UK for two weeks in early March. After almost five decades, I will close my account with this Bank, make an official complaint with the Banking Commissioner and inform the Chairman in another letter I am considering legal action. The last will be a useless exercise as I will naturally not even take that route. I will then change to a bank which has my main account in Hong Kong. I have heard of many complaints about UK banks and had felt good that my banking had aways run smoothly. Now I am totally locked out of my account. I can't even find out what the balance is! F--K the Royal Bank of Scotland!

I get the impression your heart is pretty full to overflowing 🤣 - like most of us!!!

Given that dinosaurs ruled the earth for so many years, would it not be surprising if no foorprints were found?

As far as the Yunomori Spa my friends had recommended and which I wrote about in my previous post, nothing written by @BiggusDikkus could be further from the truth! Granted he was describing the older branch of Yunomori which I have not visited. I finally made it to the new one on Sathorn Soi 10 this afternoon and found it a quite amazing place - better than many in-town spas in Japan. It is obviously very new and the owner has used only the best materials everywhere. There is locker space for around 250 in the men's section although there were only around 25 when I arrived around 3:30 pm and 40 when I left at 5:00 for a dinner appointment. I expect a Saturday evening and Sunday afternoons will be quite crowded. The Spa has lots of treatments but I expect most will prefer only to go to the onsen. The male onsen takes up the whole of the 3rd floor. It includes 5 baths (but only two different levels of heat - hot or very cold!), a largish sauna and steam room and lots of Japanese style showers. As you enter downstairs, you leave your shoes in a small locker, take the key to reception and pay the entry fee (550 baht unless you are 65 or over when it is only 300). You get an electronic wrist tag which opens your locker and with which you pay for any drinks or snacks you might want. I saw a very cute boy going upstairs and decided I'd follow him. Sadly he was one of the staff! Before entering the locker space you get a bag with a large towel for drying before you leave and a very small towel for use in the spa. Some guys used these to cover themselves (typically Thai!) and four in their mid-20s or so wore black shorts (even more typical). I think clothing of any sort should be banned in all hot spring-type spas!). I guessed the age range of the customers when I was there ranged from around 25-30 to around 50 - with me being by far the oldest (not that that seemed to worry anyone)! I would put most in the Thai middle class category although there were also about 4 farang. There was also one father there with his young son but they did not stay very long. Not one Japanese that I could make out when straining to listen to conversation! I did not notice much 'looking' and any hint of approaching another guy within the spa is a definite no-no. But as a place to relax and perhaps see some handsome eye candy, I really enjoyed it. If you see someone you like and they also have an attraction for you, it's easy to swap phone numbers or just leave together. I also seem to have benefitted from my short visit. Having strained my upper back earlier in the day, the spa waters did wonders for it. https://www.yunomorionsen.com/sathorn/onsen/

It has much of interest, but it is a site almost exclusively focussed on gay pattaya.

I have used www.shrinkpictures.com for years. As long as the original is not more than 6mb it will downsize to 150kb or less with no noticeable drop in quality.

You had asked in your OP about gay ffriendly nudism resorts. As far as I can see, those mentioned in that Bangkok Post article refer to mixed resorts. I still have found no information about a dedicated gay friendly resort.

I admit I was staggered when I learned that a computer had come out on top (as it were) in Go. But I will not live long enough for AI to do many of the things I would like. When it can replace a gorgeous Thai or Taiwanese or Japanese twink in a naked gogo bar and then join me for the best sex, then I'll take it more seriously!!

This is the first time I have heard of ChatGPT! And the description above is too long for me to bother reading it, sorry. I seem to have managed OK without it! As for the subject of the thread and the two versions of the article @TotallyOz posted, mostly they are rubbish! Neither really provides anything like a true picture of the Bangkok gay scene. There are inaccuracies (@reader has already pointed out the fact that DJ Station is in Soi 2 and not Soi 4), to suggest that the Bangkok Gay Pride Parade "attracts thousands of participants from all around the world" is utter nonsense! The only Asian Pride Parade that does actually attract thousands of active participants is in Taipei. Additionally the trendy and upscale clubs are in Thonglor, not the other way around in Silom Soi 4. What's an "inclusive hotel"? As for restaurants, I always thought Siam2nite is a website and not an eatery. Perhaps I am wrong. Also as a 20 year resident I have never heard of David's Kitchen. Isn't it in Chiang Mai? There are vastly more gay friendly eateries, at least some of which should be listed (even including @vinapu's favourite, the 7-Michelin starred Foodland 🤣). As for museums and galleries, is there in fact even one that regularly showcases LGBT exhibitions? Not that I know of! Apart from the inaccuracies, both articles are far too full of almost meaningless generalities when what is needed in such an article is detail, detail. detail! Nothing about specific bars, gogo bars, massage spas etc. I get the impression this was actually written 30 or more years ago and appeared in publications like Spartacus (although the Pride Parade did not actually start until the late 1990s)!