PeterRS

There was a discussion on the type of circumcision practised in the Philippines in February. It starts about half way down the page. Personally the result of the way most boys are circumcised in that country - and that's over 90% of them - puts me right off sex. I have nothing against a nicely circumcised organ although I far prefer the natural uncut version. In porn movies, many Japanese boys have shorter foreskins and will sometimes pull them back which makes them look as though they have been circumcised. But it still looks aesthetically pleasing - at least to me. Not so Filipinos. But to each his own. I see that part of this discussion has centred on Columbia. Although I have been twice to South America, I missed Columbia. Occasionally looking at the chaturbate site, I note that many Columbians have extremely smooth near hairless skin and impressive uncut dicks. Most also seem to be bottoms. I obviously should have included Columbia on one of my trips!

Agree wholseheartedly that Taiwan guys are great and the number of money boys on the apps is perhaps at most 1 per visit. I attended 7 Pride Parades until 2018. Fabulous days. Couldn't go in 2019 as I only returned from Europe the night before. Thereafter the border was closed due to covid. But I'll definitely be back again this year.

Why am I not surprised? The photos in the OP are horrendous. They make the hotel look as though it was made of wood! Soon we will find out which fire protection corners were cut and how fire escapes were blocked, no doubt.

Deputy Prime Minister Anutin is a snake whose sole aim is to become Prime Minister. He is clearly playing to the base in the country understandably desperate for the cash the Chinese will bring in. Italy discovered yesterday that more than 50% of Chinese arriving on two flights to Milan tested positive for covid. I realise the new rules apply only from January 8 when Chinese boarding fights for foreign parts require 3 vaccinations and undergo testing ptrior to boarding. But who in Chinese airports, especially the secondary ones, is actually going to police that. I have no faith in the Chinese authorities who are not making public the extent of the present number of cases and any variants they may have discovered. As for Anutin suggesting there is nothing to worry about because 60% have already had covid, that means 40% haven't and we know presently Chinese hospitals are completely overwhelmed with what we are told are many millions of new cases. And in the midst of all this, Thailand is prepared to accept tourists? I have four overseas trips to four different countries in the first four months of the year. Has anyone thought what the arrival of Chinese infected with the virus might do in terms of spreading covid here? If it results in a new wave in Thailand, will those living here and those planning to visit here find ourselves facing new testing and quarantine regulations? Why Thaiand does not wait until there is an end to the present disastrous covid crisis in China beats me.

My apologies to all.

I used to chat with quite a number of visitors from Singapore and Taiwan - and occasionally Japan. They came to Bangkok primarily for sex, but not for gogo bars. Before Babylon finally closed its doors, they would usually go either to a sauna or for a massage first. Many would satisfy their needs there. They'd then go out for dinner before some would hit the bars primarily to see the shows. Few were interested in watching gogo boys strut their stuff. Then some would hit DJ Station and another disco or two to dance until closing time. In other words, the impression i received - one that is reinforced by comments on sites like the Blowing Wind Travel section and from friends in both Singapore and Taipei - was that for the relatively new and younger Asian tourist, gogo bars are not of major interest. Massage with HE was much more so. As for the many mainland Chinese, has anyone actually seen a lot in the gogo bars? If you have, how do you know that they are from the mainland rather than from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong or elsewhere from the Chinese diaspora? That said, several years ago I did see a few handsome, tall, slim mainland guys in a Hong Kong sauna. One told me they had come on a week-end trip to Hong Kong mainly for luxury good shopping and going to a gay disco. They'd only hit the sauna because it was close to their hotel. They reminded me of some of the gorgeous guys I used to see in Beijing's Destination Club. So when the mainlanders do finally arrive - and I don't believe they will come in any number until 2024 - I just do not see them being a major boost to the gogo bars.

Firstly, I do not mean for this post to start a discussion of organised religion per se. Inevitably perhaps some will regard it as so and I can do nothing about that. Secondly I am basically not a religious person. I became very anti-organised religion when as a child I was sometimes dragged to church and for years had to play the hymns at a weekly meeting for young people called Bible Service. I do know quite a number who do believe in religion and I fully respect their views, as I trust they respect mine. It appears from the news media that the previous Pope, the former Cardinal Ratzinger, is on the point of death. His successor, Pope Benedict has asked for prayers. I happen to like Pope Benedict. As a world leader he has my respect for his humility, his dignity and his constant callng out world leaders for some of their failings. On the other hand, I never liked Ratzinger. He was a fundamentalist conservative who, in my view, only became Pope because of his influence over many years of the other cardinals. As a child he had been a member of the Hitler Youth, later in the German army and then interned in a Prisoner of War Camp. Having entered the Catholic Church, he was eventually made Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he constantly reaffirmed the Church's negative views on birth control, use of condoms, homosexuality, gay marriage and dialogues with other religions. As sexual abuse of young children by priests was beginning to become known, he declared in a 2001 letter titled De delictis glavioribus that internal church investigations must remain confidential, including sexual abuse. For 20 years he had strictly enforced another Church document penned in 1962 which effectively banned discussion of sexual crimes by priests. He was the man in charge. He knew about the many tens of thousands of cases of sexual abuse that were being revealed around the world and did nothing. He even declared that as Archbishop of Munich, he knew nothing regarding abuses allegedly brought to his attention between 1977 and 1982. He later admitted his memory had been wrong but blamed the original accusation as an "editorial error". He asked for forgiveness and expressed nis "great pain." As Pope he was named in a lawsuit regarding the abuse of four boys in Texas but given diplomatic immunity. He was instrumental in not permitting senior clerics to resign. When he himself asked to leave his post aged 70, that other ultra conservative Pope John Paul II refused. On becoming Pope Ratzinger could have made substantial changes to get rid of at least some of the major corruption in the Curia. He failed to do so. A couple of years after he became Pope, Ratzinger became much more acquainted with what he called the "filth" in the Church. But he did little about it. He still refused to accept that secular law had presedence over Church law. I always thought that the Catholic Church hierarchy rather liked to have a conservative pope followed by a much more liberal one. I never knew the severe Pius XII (sometimes still called "Hitler's Pope" and the subject of an excellent book of the same name - although some of the allegations in that book are now the subject of debate) but really liked his successor, Cardinal Roncali the Archbishop of Venice, who became John XXIII. He called the Second Vatican Council with tha aim of making major changes in the Catholic Church. Almost as soon as the Council started its deliberations, John XXIII died of cancer and was succeeded by the much more strict Paul VI who is perhaps best known for his encyclical Humanae Vitae which confirmed the ban on contraception, a position exactly opposite that passed by the Seond Vatican Council. Paul VI went into a serious mental decline after his very good friend, Aldo Moro the Mayor of Rome, was capured by the Red Brigades Terrorist Group in March 1978. It so happened I was in Rome on May 9th that year and recall police sirens everywhere as Moro's body had been discovered in the trunk of a car close to the Vatican. After Paul's death later that year, the feeling of joy and light at the pastoral, beaming face of Pope John Paul I was palpable. The severity of the Church seemed to be consigned to the background for many years. It had at last a warm, gentle human face. Everyone, including the Cardinals seemed eleated. He reigned for just 33 days before being found dead in his bed. Conspiracy theorists had a field day, largely a result of discrepancies in the Vatican's various pronouncements about how he died and who found him. At least six major figures in the Church hierarchy were known to have had very good reason to fear if John Paul I remained as Pope. Another book was eventually written after the Vatican threw open its archives. "A Thief in the Night" by David Cornwell in 1989 goes into detail about the very different personalities around the Pope, the disasters and massive corruption in the Vatican Bank and the possibiilty that the Pope had been murdered. Another book written in 2017 revealed that John Paul ! had suffered from chest pains in the day prior to his death and died from a heart attack. At first John Paul II seemed almost in the mould of his predecessor. He quickly revealed he was not. The Catholic Church was back to the more severe interpretation of Catholic doctrine. Ratzinger was his ally. With Pope Benedict now also in less than the best of health, will the Cardinals revert to precedence and again return the Church away from its more pastoral ways and back to the severity of dogma? I hope not. And I will also not pray - although to whom or what I would pray is uncertain - for Ratzinger.

Why do I think it is this post that is rubbish? Throughout my career I have come across quite a few guys and gals who work in HR. The very nature of that type of job means they have to put up with considerable flak from other employees, often on minor issues. Any person allegedly "traumatised" and requiring "counselling" when reading a communication simply because it was headed "Dear Sir or Madam" would be nowhere near any HR department in any company, large or small.

You will certainly have a gourmet meal at the time you wish to eat with excellent wines compared to most other carriers. But your QSuite may not happen. I booked a return from Bangkok to the UK for March. Between the time of booking and a couple of weeks ago, the BKK/Doha sectors were in QSuites. Both have now been changed as the aircraft has been upgraded to an Airbus A380. This does not have the Q suites and, frankly, much as I like the A380, l do prefer the QSuites on the B777s and A350s. But a very minor point.

Welcome to what has been going on in many countries for some years. British Airways stopped meal service in Europe years ago. Instead they introduced a sandwich service at a fee. Problem always seemed to be that they ran out of sandwiches before even half the passengers had been approached. That and payment problems with cards which were not accepted. In Europe I just take a gourmet sandwich on board.

I suppose you realise that the taxes are for very specific listed items. They are not for general government revenue. Unless, of course, you prefer airports and runways not to be maintained and security services to be reduced.

It's well known that many of the gogo bar boys are married with kids. We might call them bisexual. The Thais generally condor themselves 'men'. I also believe it's much more difficult to get a truly straight guy to be a bottom.

I believe the mass damper system is in use in Taipei 101, the world's tallest building until not many years ago. But as with my apartments in Hong Kong, that has a large plot area and does not taper off towards the top. Mind you, it must work as Taipei is on an active earthquake zone and the city experiences several earthquakes, some major.

You are living a strange world of fantasy. A Con? How utterly ridiculous! I suppose cancer is a con, heart disease is a con, brain tumours are a con, HIV a con. How many people have died as a result of covid19? 6,687, 859 worldwide so far! That is as in DEAD - not infected. And you call this a CON? It has nothing to do with a CON. It has nothing to do with an opinion. It's a FACT! As for your comments about the CDC, I suggest you read up the facts about the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Had it not been for the CDC and its constant battles against the ultra conservative Reagan administration absolutely determined it was merely a gay plague and therefore not worth spending money on research, it is likely that the number of AIDS deaths to date worldwide would be considerably more than 40 million. And that is no CON!

That to me is a rather silly remark. Although I have had 4 vaccinations, I still use them if I am to be around young children or old people. Those sticks have not been and are also not "stupid" for many tens of millions around the world, if not hundreds of millions. You may think you are immune because you had the vaccination/s. But they are far from foolproof. As the US CDC points out on its website, no vaccine is 100% effective.

If ever there was a case for Xi Jin-ping to reverse his massively misguided covid prevention measures it is surely now. After suddenly withdrawing the lockdown restrictions without any advance warning, many news outlets are reporting Chinese officials as saying that covid cases in the country will mushroom to as many as 250 million by the end of this month. Zhejiang Province around Shanghai reported one million new cases since the new policy was adopted and expects this to double quickly. Now the government has significantly loosened restrictions for in bound tourism and is considering permitting Chinese citizens to travel out of the country again. With these levels of covid infection, would anyone really want any Chinese near Thailand in the next few months, the more so given that the Chinese vaccines are considerably less effective that those from the west?

As Steinway Tower is mentioned, I assume this is on the site of the old Steinway building just across from NY's main concert venue, Carnegie Hall. It does have a very small plot area. I wonder what effect high winds will have on those living near the top. When I lived in Hong Kong, two of my flats were on the 25th and 34th stories on far from slender towers. In fact they look far more sold. Yet during a typhoon each would sway, sometimes dramatically. It reminds me of another iconic NY building known originally as the Citicrop Center with 59 floors and its 45-degree sloping roof. Opened in 1977 it seemed a marvel of design. Then an engineering student who had studied the detailed plans for the building asked the architect at an open forum about the building's structural integrity. He suggested there were design flaws that could lead the building to collapse with wind speeds of 70 mph or greater. The structural engineer realised he had made a major error and initially considering comitting suicide. But a series of structural additions were quietly made starting in 1978. These took place overnight so that they remained confidential. It was only in 1995 that the public was made aware of the building's original structural faults. But given the fact that the original structural problem and subsequent repairs were concealed from the public, there was much criticism that other buildings made during those 20 or so years were unable to benefit from knowledge of them.

The telescope, that is. I am rarely surprised but I am staggered at seeing the images from the James Webb telescope launched a year and a day ago. It's not merely the images themselves, but the fact that they capture events taken so many light years back in time and my mind finds that almost impossible to comprehend. Images: Nasa/Esa/CSA/STScI via the BBC website

It has been said quite a few times before on this forum, if you ae chatting on an app, before you even consider meeting the guy check that the photos are real. Ask him to go on a live video feed for at least a few seconds. It's not foolproof, but it weeds out a lot of poseurs.

So to take my example, you are at Sydney airport checking in on a first class ticket approx. 90 minutes prior to departure. You are denied a boarding pass without proof of a ticket out of Thailand. Never having encountered this ruling before and having entered Thailand more than 50 times without an outward ticket, given that time frame before that flight closes, where can you obtain a ticket out of Thailand with sufficient time to do so and still return to the check-in desk and still make the flight? As you will be well aware, check-in desks are often quite far from ticket sales counters. And these may well have queues. You'd find it very difficult if not near impossible in that time frame. Fair point! BA's 747s then had only 12 or 14 first class seats. I meant merely that check-in procedures for long international fights are usually far simpler and if there is a queue it will usually be just one or two people in front of you. So you check in later and if there is a problem you have very litle time to sort it out.

Not necessary? You cannot seriously mean that you are against compulsory medical insurance simply because it's a government mandate! How crazy is that! What about those whose days will come and they are not insured? I assume you expect Thailand taxpayers just to pay their bills, whether it's for a motorbike accident or a serious brain aneurism. I have to say again that is plain crazy! Thailand has a perfect right to expect tourists and visitors to be covered by sufficient medical and Personal Accident insurance. If not, then those tourists/visitors deserve what might be coming to them. What about government mandates about taking drugs into a country? You are against these? If so, you'd better not fly at all. What about no nudity on beaches? Is that not a government mandate affecting populations? Governments mandate all sorts of things regarding tourism. Tourists have to have a valid visa or a return ticket out of Thailand. In case you did not know, that's the law. It may be rarely enforced when you arrive in Thailand but I have twice almost been denied boarding at my departure airport because I had neither a visa nor a flight out of the country - once at Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific and once 18 years ago at Sydney on British Airways. My problem was that I lived here but for several years was travelling constantly, always purchased tickets here and never needed more than the 30-day visa waiver. The denial at Sydney was even though I was on a first class mileage ticket. The only way I was allowed on the flight was to sign a guarantee that if Thailand denied entry, I would have to pay the airline's airport fine and the cost of returning me to Sydney. I also had to give and sign a blank American Express chit. On that occasion I actually did have a flight out of Thailand 3 weeks later, but did not have the ticket with me and it was not accessible on BA's computer system. What would you have done had that government mandate affected you? No other mileage tickets in any class were available for more than a month.

Sorry @vinapu but you cannot seriously consider that currency exchange is anything compared to a requirement for travel insurance? Having insurance to cover your own health is vital if you don't want to end up dying on someone's couch (as happened to one poster on this Board) or on a park bench.

With covid now rampant and totally out of control in China, Chinese tourists will not be returning in force until late 2024 at the very earliest - maybe even 2025. Still, I'm sure numbers of gay tourists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia will soon be back to previous levels, and probably higher.

I spoke to my Taiwan friends last night. The went to the new Yunimori Spa near the W hotel, not the much okder one on Sukhumvit. They reckoned the age range of the patrons was 20 - 50. So I'll go to that one over the holidays and report back.

But having touted the efficacy of their own vaccines for years, will the Chinese now permit a flood of foreign-made vaccines for their own citizens? They will need hundreds of millions of doses.