PeterRS

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)!

I would love to see that video, if only to find out what type of housing remains empty and, more particularly, where it is located. Like many countries it is a fact that younger Japanese want to move to the bigger cities. I cannot believe there is much empty housing in Tokyo or Osaka. Far more likely it will be in the countryside, I'd suggest. If that is the case, Japan will not be very different from many countries. The other point about Japan is that it has been impossible for many young people to find ways of purchasing their own apartments, no matter how tiny these may be. Owning a home is still an ambition of most Japanese but many younger ones are stuck living with their parents. Then there are the blinkered predictions by property developers. As nippon.com pointed out in an article two months ago, the new buildings that are being constructed are to a large extent way out of the price range of most Japanese. In 2021 the average cost of a new 70 sq. m. condominium near central Tokyo was ¥85.57 million - US$660,000 today but around 20% more in US$ terms when the surey was carried out in 2021. Move way out into the sprawling suburbs and the cost comes down to ¥64.75 million, but you will likely be stuck with a 90 minutes commute twice a day. The rising price of new properties inevitably results in rising prices for second hand apartments. And with more and more of these luxury-type properties being built, the average Japanese is basically shut out of the housing market. Nippon.com also points out that developers are building many large housing developments on rural land that is prone to flooding. There are few regulations about construction on formerly agricultural land. With natural disasters on the increase, flooding of 3 meters is not uncommon. A final point made in the article is the reluctance of developers to knock down older housing stock as they build newer stock. Japan is therefore the opposite of somewhere like Hong Kong which routinely demolishes older housing as new housing is developed. Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities considering the intruction of a vacant house tax but no one yet knows how successful this might be. https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00835/

Does anyone really expect anything else?

Be that as it may, the law in Thaiand is perfetly clear. Nudism is against the law.

There is a tendency frequently found among foreigners and western tourists in Thailand that this country provides spas and other facilities just for them. There is an extremely populous gay scene for Thais which foreigners know little if anything about. Many gay Thais attending up market massage spas are relatively wealthy professionals who are perfectly happy paying prices which foreigners find high.

Another useless government exercise! The fact is that it is extremely difficult for drivers to see some of those zebra crossings until they are virtually on top of them. Britain has flashing orange beacons on the roadside of zebra crossings to provide a timely warning to drivers. Thailand has nothing other than signs actually on the road. Besides, how are the police going to find the vast majority of drivers who do nto stop at such crossings? Are they suddenly going to increase pollice numbers? We can also ask what has happened about the law introduced just recently about fines for passengers who do not wear seat belts in the back of taxis. I rarely see anyone wearing belts in the back seats. Indeed in many taxis i have taken, there is still no connector into which to plug the belts.

I agree with the first part but definitely not the second. In my view it has absolutely nothing to do with being paid or not. I referenced the gogo bars 30-40 years ago when the majority of the customers were Thais. How often have you seen lots of Thais in gogo bars in the past decade or more? That has nothing to do with their not preferring to be with farang. It's a sign that as the Thailand gay scene and Thai society has developed, Thais increasingly want to be with fellow Thais rather than in bars where there are increasing number of farang. Times change. The same trend has become very obvious in other countries like Japan. As a gay bar/club/sauna culture developed in the 70s and 80s, young Japanese gays found it extremely difficult to form relationships with fellow Japanese. This reflected the long work hours of Japanese, the closeness of housing making it extremely difficult to keep any kind of MtoM sexual relationship private in a country in which the vast majority frowned on them, and overall low salaries. Gaijin generlly had large apartments in Japanese terms, far larger salaries and much more personal freedoms. Many young Japanese found it was far more convenient to live a gay lifestyle by attaching themselves to a foreigner. On my early visits to Japan, such relationships were extremely common. With Japan having become very wealthy since then, with social attitudes changing and same sex civil partnerships now legal in several parts of the country, Japanese preferring to be with fellow Japanese has rightly become much more the norm.

It's obviously changed a lot. In the earlier days of virtually all the saunas, farangs of almost any description were welcomed. Like the gogo bars where the Thais have now mostly disappeared, both on stage and in the audience, it's mostly the farangs who make up the clientele.

Certainly quite a few.

Yawn! Yawn! Every Japanese Prime Minister has been saying all this for more than the last 2 decades! Governments have tried various means to stimulate marriage and procreation, but they never work. It is not merely an issue of the cost of raising a child. It is much more a desire on behalf of the younger generation either to put off marriage until their mid-30s or just to remain single. Used until recently to working horribly long hours and having only a week of vacation each year, this generation has realised there is a lot more to llife and they want the time and cash to enjoy it before settling down. As many economists have proposed, what Japan needs desperately is to open its doors to many more skilled workers from other countries. This it consistently refuses to do. The country's insular mentality remains all pervasive in the corridors of power.

Unless you are Thai or Asian, forget Chakran. When it opened over 20 years ago, it was a wonderful alternative to Babylon but with more younger and in shape Thais and foreigners were made welcome. Over the last decade, though, it has become amost exclusively Thai for Thai or Thai for Asian. Even if you are young and slim your chance of success is pretty slim.

I have only recently started visiting Vietnam in the last few years. In my limited experience, the Vietnamese you meet in Vietnam can be wonderfully cute and excellent in bed. And that's non-money boys. Plus the countryside can be stunning. I'm looking forward to experiencing more about the central highlands after Songkran.

Although I lived in Hong Kong, like many expatriates I found the nine tone levels in Cantonese quite difficult to master. Invited to a rather elegant dinner soon after I first arrived, I asked my secretary what I should say to the hostess after a good meal. Driving up to The Peak I practised saying the phrase many times. But after the meal I got the tones wrong, All the guests laughed, but no one would tell me what mistake I had made. It was only in the office the next morning that i was advised to be more careful with my tone levels. What I had said was more or less "I am a sex maniac"! Well, sometimes one has to tell the truth 🤣 🤣

Perhaps they just did not understand the way you talk 🤣

Sincerely echoed, although that is the Cantonese version. Most Chinese will have been wshing their family and friends Gong Xi Fa Cai! I hope all of us older ones have prepared Lucky Red Packets with a little cash inside for our younger paramours in Thailand. So many Thais have some Chinese blood thanks to the large wave of Chinese Immigration in the 19th century.

Today is the first day of the new lunar New Year. Rather than just send everyone best wishes, i thought this pretty inapporpriate Bugs Bunny cartoon might be more fun. For those not acquainted with classical music, most of the music is from Wagner's Ring cycle and Tannhauser operas. It's very cleverly done!

Probably stuck in traffic - 🤣

As somene has said its partly a cultural thing. One of my best friends in Taipei whom I have known for 7 years since he was finishing university and see on each visit to Taiwan has called me "Papa" viritually ever since. It's a term of endearment.

Definitely not!