PeterRS

@floridarob you are entitled to your opinion which I know you frequently express. You can also call me an ass or whatever you like. But when someone calls one of my posts "deranged", that poster clearly has a reason for it. In which case he has a duty to explain that reasoning both to me and other members to whom it has been expressed publicly. If he does not, @khaolakguy is merely showing his very distinct cavalier attitude to posting by other members without taking the issues expressed in them anything like seriously. He has covered up his obvious concern at his statement because all he has done is suggest others read the posts. That's just a cop out! Other posters have never used the word "deranged". He just makes himself appear foolish! This may be a "dead horse" to you. It is not to me!

The Olympic Fitness Club at the Pathumwan Princess Hotel at the end of MBK is one of the largest in the city and has a membership consisting of many younger Thais. I have stayed at the hotel but did not visit the Club. I am told it is more than usually cruisy.

Statistics for the period May 1 - 14 show that rainfall was 95% greater this year compared to the 30-year average. In a Bangkok Post article much of the rain during the month fell in what it calls "rain bombs". These were caused by a stronger southwest monsoon in the Gulf of Thailand coupled with a stronger monsoon covering the north of the country and part of the south. Then between May 25 and 27 the deluge of rain was reminiscent of the severe flooding of 2011. All this is odd because May is not generally a month for heavy rain. Associate Professor Seree Supratid, director of the Center for Climate Change and Disasters at Rangsit University, has said that the weather phenomenon La Nina has altered its usual pattern this year with climate instability and unpredictable seasonal shifts. However, he suggests that rainfall will ease this month and next, with August and September seeing drier weather. The rains will then return in October as usual. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3041376/rain-bombs-revive-fears-of-2011-floods

Condom use - or the inceasing lack of it over the last dozen and more years - has become a topic occasionally covered by this Board. If I read posts correctly, the general view seems to be that all sex has risks, but with relatively more recent medications like PrEP and treatments for early detection of some other STIs like syphillis, the need for condom protection is now far less. But there are other STIs out there and, as discussed in this thread, gonorrhoea is one which now has to be taken much more seriously. I remember the pre-HIV days when we all took risks and maybe some of us caught the occasional STI which was relatively easily treated. Then came HIV-AIDS which quite literally put the fear of death into us. I may have reduced my sexual activity but certainly did not stop it. I just made sure that I had a constant supply of condoms and lube both at home and on my frequent travels. I knew there were some countries I visited where gay sex was pretty much a taboo subject. I would have felt more than awful had I knowingly or otherwise infected a young guy realising he would die as a result. Even when AZT and the anti-retrovirals became more common, I was never without a condom and that has remained pretty much the case even today. With a young partner in Thailand and, with his knowledge not being sexually inactive when travelling, his health and the simple desire not to pass on any STI I might otherwise have picked up I believe this is being sensible. I know others do not agree. I know too that the lack of condom use, especially among Thailand's younger generations, is especially worrying. I hear of saunas outside the centre of Bangkok where condoms are rarely if ever used. To those of us who lived in the later 20th century, this always seems odd, given that it is the popularity of condom use that has brought the birth rate down from nearly 6 per family in the late 1960s to under two today. (One reason why we now see so few Thais in the gogo bars when you never saw non-Thais on their stages even 30 years ago). Condoms are in common use in Thailand. Yet the government seems to do nothing to get this mesage across to the nation's youngsters. It is desperately sad.

Further to my earlier post, the Denver Bid Committee website has announced there are now only two finalists on the short list for the 2030 Games - Denver and Perth, Australia. Third on that list would have been Auckland, New Zealand. Officials from the Federation of Gay Games will make final visits to the sites next month and it is expected that the announcement of the 2030 winning city will now be made at the end of the next Games being held in Valencia, Spain next month. https://www.denver.org/gay-games-2030/press-releases/denver-moves-closer-to-hosting-2030-gay-games-as-bid-field-reduces-to-two/

I envy your trip. I am not sure when you will be travelling but please remember that last year Greece suffered from dreadful fires. https://www.timeout.com/news/where-are-the-fires-in-greece-what-wildfires-in-kos-mean-for-your-trip-070224 Also the gorgeous island of Santorini has been subject to many small earthquakes this year. https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/05/30/planning-a-trip-to-santorini-heres-what-the-earthquakes-mean/

What a shame that no one seems to have attended the Pride March on Sunday! I was in Taipei that day but my partner went with some friends and they loved it, but it was the first one he has attended and so I don't think he had any expectations. Anyone know how many participated - i.e. marched? Khaosodenglish has a brief description along with a few photos. Other sites have some basic information. But I can find absolutely nothing about the numbers marching. And on google I find nothing from the Bangkok Post! https://www.khaosodenglish.com/life/2025/06/01/thailand-kicks-off-pride-month-with-a-parade-in-bangkok/#google_vignette The reason I think this is relatively important is that Bangkok has anounced it will be in the running to become the first Asian nation to host the 2030 Gay Games event. Actually it would not be the first. Hong Kong (yes, Hong Kong!) was co-host of the 2023 Games (postponed by a year due to covid). Denver has already announced it will bid for 2030. But of the previous 10 Games four have been held in US cities and I think Denver, despite a lot of backing, may miss out for that one reason. As I wrote a few days ago, there has been no news about Taipei perhaps applying to host the Games. With 200,000 marching in their annual Gay Pride Parades and with its having almost totally changed the island's approach to the LGBTQ community very significantly over the last 20 years, my gut feel is it would have a better chance of hosting than Bangkok. The host city will be announced some time next year.

Bravissmo! I think that is one of the funniest and most apt ways of handling such a question.

Fair point. I did send @bkkmfj2648 a PM response the same day that I first read his post which outlined my views in detail. Naturally PMs are private affairs and I asked that the matter not be dragged into the main forum. Please note I have had absolutely no response from @bkkmfj2648 to that PM which was sent more than five days ago.

You have had a day and an evening to respond to my question - - and no response from you who usually are pretty quick off the mark. But you may well have been busy. Still, I will appreciate knowing why you consider one post vindictive and the original post made by the other party is not? Or perhaps you did you not read the original post?

The comments I quoted are not cut and paste! And you have failed to answer my simple questions: how is my post above "deranged"? And how was my post in the Dangers thread "condescending"? Seriously, I am interested to know. As I have said, I accept all criticism for anything I write. But criticism has to have a reason - and you have made quite aggresssive comments but provided no reasoning.

The comment I made above from my friend presently in Tokyo coes from a German site Der Farang dated 24 May. I'm sorry i do not have it to hand.

Oh really? And did you read the original - the full original posts? You mean one was not vindictive or any such similar word against me and my posts? I really do wish to know the difference.

And that I submit is absolute nonsense! Since you refer to the original posts, it is only right that they be repeated here to avoid posters checking back several pages. The subject of the OP was, let's recall, the dangers of sex when travelling in South America, (in my view a perfectly legitimate concern and one which has been echoed in many, many posts in various threads). In response to a point made by @vinapu, @bkkmfj2648 wrote - . . . this is also my exact philosophy, and is the primary reason as to why I have not yet ventured to some of these South American countries. I truly do not enjoy any experience where the hairs on my neck or arms feel the need to stand up - it is just not worth it, if I cannot relax and enjoy the environment that I am in, - especially as an elderly retiree, with who knows how many years are remaining in my life - why accelerate the eventual end by venturing into a perhaps dangerous situation?? Life is already too short. And that as far as possible dangers of sex was in my view an entirely reasonable response to which I replied with a simple question - @PeterRS - Merely out of curiosity, is sex an essential part of your travelling? I spent a fabulous month travelling around four South American countries and sex was rarely on my mind. It was a fabulous trip and I saw so many natural wonders. Let's also recall that I then added a second post when @floridarob asked how old I was when I went to South America. I replied - @PeterRS -60. I do go on other trips where sexual adventures are part of the agenda. For South America, the only reason was sightseeing [in ther words i was basically agreeing with @bkkmfj2648]. I had never been before, knew no-one and spoke hardly any Portuguese or Spanish. 9 cities/locations and 16 flights over a month (including 4 getting there and back) and each day was packed with activity. No time for anything else @bkkmfj2648 then responded with the contentious post which referred back to my original question and started - Dear @PeterRS, Your condescending question, framed as a mere curiosity, carries an unmistakable whiff of superiority, as if the pursuit of physical intimacy while traveling is somehow beneath the refined appreciation of culture you so clearly pride yourself on. It’s a tired trope, implying that those who acknowledge sex as part of their human experience are somehow less enlightened or incapable of savoring the world’s deeper offerings. This condescension, cloaked in intellectualism, betrays a rather narrow view—one that dismisses the complexity of human connection in favor of a self-congratulatory asceticism . . . As I said, @khaolakguy, you consider the above exchange was "condescending" on my part. Oh really? Please explain why. What in my question to @bkkmfj2648 - bearing in mind the discussion which had gone on between us beforehand - was anything other than perfectly simple? And what was "deranged" about my response above? I really wish to know.

The strange thing I found was when I came to the Citizenship country, it was all over the place. No alphabetical order and, as far as i was concerned, impossible to find GBR (or Hong Kong where I am a permanent resident). I tried several times. That's why I clicked on Scotland! when it suddenly appeared! The lady at the Immigration counter seemed to accept that there are still a few bugs in the system that need to be ironed out!

Not at all. I understood you perfectly and had I come from the same background, I would probably have dealt with the issue exactly as you would have done. But then while I know a bit about Japan and had the joy of working there for some years, I come from a country where we are proud of our heritage and, to a certain extent, of our own accomplishments. That's not to say we deliberately go out and brag. But we do not put up with intensely personal insults, the more so when they are virtually the opposite of what one person has already said/written quite recently about us. Indeed, when they are to all intents and purposes outright lies! I will say till the cows come home, I can take criticism as much as anyone else. I may not like it, but if I could not take it I would not be a member of this or any other Board. There is a line which I draw - and I believe that line is actually covered in the board's Code of Conduct. When someone has expressed almost profuse gratitude for my postings, lauded my style of writing and even compared it rather fancifully (but delightfully) to "great music", and when that poster then turns turtle and trashes me personally (not, please note, my writing style) by stating I personally showed "condescension”, “superiority”, “pride”, "self-congratulatory asceticism” and other negative qualities, for me that line is well and truly drawn. Hence my post.

Thanks

Apologies! I missed the deadline for adding this to the earlier post. I take it from your comment that you are perfectly happy for another poster to attack your character. Not what you have written but your person. Posts i have made have been criticised on this board many times which I take as part and parcel of contributing to a Board which permits a good deal of free speech. But the post I responded to was a direct attack on my character as I made perfectly clear when choosing the descriptions used and the specific words and phrases used. And it you fail to see that, then that is your judgement which I would respect, although definitely not agree with. I forgot to thank you for your earlier kind comments on my past postings which I happily do now.

I have heard this morning from a long-time friend presently staying in Tokyo but who has been spending 2/3rds of his years recently at his condo in Thailand that the government has done a U-turn on taxing funds remitted in to Thailand. According to his source, the government will not now consider taxing foreign income in 2005 and 2026. Apparently a decision was made a couple of weeks ago. I am reluctant to post on the basis of one source, but if true it will clearly be of benefit to many. Has any other member heard this news?

I completeled the form on my phone. May I ask if you used your phone or a computer? My confusion basically stemmed from the fact that the country listing was not in alphabetical order. It was in no logical order whatever! Perhaps I should just have typed in GBR rather than wade through and try and find it. But then not being able to type anything in the Thailand address lines seemed weird. Yet even without that, I still got the emailed QR code!

As I wrote earlier, I accept all criticism in this regard. I did think long and hard both about writing that post and then uploading it. I had a reason for writing and I certainly did not consider it would be popular with many. But I certainly did not write it lightly. And I think some have, or perhaps might, understand why I was simply not prepared to let the utterly incorrect personal criticisms posted in the earlier thread stand unanswered, the more so when they were 180 degrees opposite earlier written statements. If you are, then I would perfectly understand your reasons. Unfortunately that does not change my view. I'm sorry you are upset by it.

Adding to the recent thread on gonorrhoea inoculations soon to be available in the UK, in Thailand we have also to be aware that the rate of STIs is rising alarmingly. According to date from the HealthDeliver Clinic website, three key take-aways from their research - - Thailand experiences a rise in STI rates, particularly syphillis and gonorrhoea, with alarming inplications for youth health. - Drug use and casual sex culture contribute significantly to risky behaviors and decreased condom use among young individuals. - Gonorrhoea is increasingly antibiotic-resistant, posing a serious public health threat that could lead to untreatable infections. More significantly, under the heading Alarming Statistics on STI Rates in Bangkok, the Report writes - "In recent years, Thailand has witnessed a shocking spike in the rise in STDs, with syphilis cases jumping from 11 to 18.6 per 100,000 people between 2018 and 2022. These alarming statistics reveal a troubling rise in sexually transmitted infections, particularly among youth . . . As syphilis rates soar, gonorrhoea emerges as a growing concern that can no longer be overlooked. This STI, particularly affecting our youth, is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, raising alarms among health professionals. With rising STI rates in Thailand, gonorrhoea’s potential to develop into an untreatable health crisis looms large. It's vital for you to understand the risks of transmission from one sexual partner to another." The Report is particularly concerned with Thailand's youth - "The rise in sexually transmitted infections among youth can be traced back to multiple factors. Casual sex and dating app culture often lead to risky behaviors [aligned with] the decrease in condom use which has contributed to the rising HIV prevalence in Thailand." This forum has frequently expressed concern at the apparent lack of condom use in most of the saunas outside the centre of the city, but till now that has been focussed more on the spread of HIV. With other STIs rising in importance, the government's seemingly increasing lack of urgency in introducing more detailed sex education in schools and colleges is especially worrying. https://www.healthdeliver.asia/blog/thailand-and-bangkok-rise-in-sexually-transmitted-infections-crisis-among-young

I had brunch with a young Taiwanese friend whom I have known for about ten years on Sunday. He had just returned from a week's holiday with a friend in Sicily (good timing because there was a massive eruption of Mt. Etna yesterday). He is 29, has a job with an Italian company and goes to Milan twice a year economy class for business. He also likes to take in trips to Tokyo where he has a love interest. I was slightly surprised that the two longest of his three flights to Sicily were in business class using mileage. His trips to Tokyo are also in business class. I asked which Alliance he is in and how he is able to accrue mileage so quickly. He's in One World using the Alaska Air programme. He's never actually flown Alaska Air but said they are by far the best when it comes to free miles. All he did was sign up for their programme. I had no idea Alaska Air was so generous. These days that of course may not last. But I'm certainly going to check it out.

I know there is a thread somewhere on this and apologies I cannot find it! I arrived yesterday and remembered to complete the new electronic arrival info the day before. But the site seems still something of a mess. When it comes to your country of residence, you are provided with a list of countries. The list I received was a total mess, it was not in alphabetical order and I could not find Thailand which I had been informed is now included. Nor could I find Great Britain but I did find Scotland! Then when it came to inserting my address in Thailand it would not accept any typing at all. At Immigration, the officer was understanding and took my address verbally. When I suggested the site still needed some work, she looked at me, smiled and nodded her head! I wonder if any member has been able to complete that form in full.

All negative and other comments received in the spirit in which they were made. I take full responsibility for what I post.