PeterRS

So one liar, cheat, narcissist and betrayer of friends pardons another. Why are we not surprised?

An issue made in the OP is one everyone should consider. If an appointment is made to suit an individual client, it is as much the responsibility of that client to be on time as it is the service provider. Regular messaging updates about bad traffic is hardly an excuse, the more so when the appointment time is at rush hour. And this is as true in Seoul where the traffic is horrendous, as it is in many other major Asian cities. Surely the OP could have got himself to a coffee shop, hotel or at least somewhere hear the massage spa in advance so as to be on time for the appointment he himself had made? Trusting what is assumed to be an agreement by a phone operator in Seoul about bad traffic is, as the client discovered, of little use.
To offer to pay only two thirds when it was the client who was late was demeaning, especially in a very Confucian society. And then just to walk out even more so. 

An issue made in the OP is one everyone should consider. If an appointment is made to suit an individual client, it is as much the responsibility of that client to be on time as it is the service provider. Regular messaging updates about bad traffic is hardly an excuse, the more so when the appointment time is at rush hour. And this is as true in Seoul where the traffic is horrendous, as it is in many other major Asian cities. Surely the OP could have got himself to a coffee shop, hotel or at least somewhere hear the massage spa in advance so as to be on time for the appointment he himself had made? Trusting what is assumed to be an agreement by a phone operator in Seoul about bad traffic is, as the client discovered, of little use.
To offer to pay only two thirds when it was the client who was late was demeaning, especially in a very Confucian society. And then just to walk out even more so. 

Once again you pettily write in French on an English-writen site! Some people never seem to learn!

An issue made in the OP is one everyone should consider. If an appointment is made to suit an individual client, it is as much the responsibility of that client to be on time as it is the service provider. Regular messaging updates about bad traffic is hardly an excuse, the more so when the appointment time is at rush hour. And this is as true in Seoul where the traffic is horrendous, as it is in many other major Asian cities. Surely the OP could have got himself to a coffee shop, hotel or at least somewhere hear the massage spa in advance so as to be on time for the appointment he himself had made? Trusting what is assumed to be an agreement by a phone operator in Seoul about bad traffic is, as the client discovered, of little use.
To offer to pay only two thirds when it was the client who was late was demeaning, especially in a very Confucian society. And then just to walk out even more so. 

Multi-national talks with Iran had been going on for years until Trump killed them in his first term. Now he reckoned a deal could be done with a country which loathes him in just 24 hours. What planet does he think he now commands?
With J D Vance having failed miserably in both the objectives set for his recent trip - the reelection of the vile Orban in Hungary and getting a deal with Iran - I hope he realises that he is unikely to last long in Trump's orbit.

One of the most inconic artists of the 20th century has passed away at the age of 88. 
Brought up in the grime of northern England still recovering from the deprivations of the Second World War, in 1961 aged 24 he discovered California, the year after he realised he himself was gay. He was entranced and mystified, amazed that there was a gay scene and a freedom he could never find in England of that time. He enjoyed everything, even just looking around at the houses and the swimming pools, especially the pools. Arguably his most famous painting is a A Bigger Splash, a very 'sparse' painting with as its subject the eruption of water made by someone who has just dived into one of these pools. Much of that painting was inspired by two photographs he had seen in books.
Another 'pool' painting from 1972 Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is his most expensive work to date having sold for US$90.3 million in 2018.
In a BBC website commentary today Dominic James Bilton, the co-leader of the Queer British Art Network, said -
Of his early works,  "Those works are so queer, so sensual and sexy and playful and joyous," adding they also show the "domesticity" and "dull aspects of gay relationships". Hockney was "normalising same-sex relationships... that we take for granted", Bilton suggests, adding the artist showed that gay people "are just normal people... doing normal stuff, looking at our partners and thinking: 'oh, you're beautiful'".
And as an article in today's Guardian points out - 
Being gay was just part of the truth he lived and painted. It wasn’t a big deal and he’d be upset if we remembered him as “Britain’s first openly gay artist”. It’s exactly his relaxed and untroubled depiction of a sexuality that was illegal in early 1960s Britain that makes his art so insouciantly subversive. From his splashy 1960-1 painting Doll Boy that confesses to his passion for Cliff Richard (“very attractive, very sexy”) to a composed 1968 portrait of a mature and confident couple, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, the development of Hockney’s art in that decade of revolution is very much about finding the right style to show gay life as it is.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpq393dz535o
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jun/12/david-hockney-death-tribute-feast-visual-pleasure

The air quality in Chiang Mai has always suffered in the run up to Songkran due to farmers setting fire to the stubble left by their crops to clear the land. It's nothing new and it has always had some affect on the tourism business. Now it seems to be getting worse. When tourists look at the countryside from Doi Suthep, in most parts of the year they have a glorious view of the surrounding countryside. Recently all they have seen is haze and tourist numbers are falling.

Photo: Rebecca Ratcliffe/The Guardian
The business of burning fields has been illegal for quite a number of years, but no-one does anything to stop it. It is, say experts, an issue of funding - or the lack of it. Lighting a match is quick and easy and does the job fast. It would need expensive equipment to achieve the same result without causing haze. The situation has got worse with high temperatures also leading to the outbreak of wildfires like this recent one.

Photo: The Guardian
The dust created by the haze affects everyone. An article in today's Guardian also points out that the popssibility of cancer from the haze has recently shaken the Province. Krittai Tanasombatkul, a 29-year-old doctor and clean-air campaigner, died in 2023. He had never smoked and lived a healthy lifestyle, exercising, sleeping and eating well, media reported at the time. His death was attributed to the particles in the haze. Young children have been suffering from frequent nose bleeds, a common symptom for those living with air pollution. Some families send their children away to avoid the haze.
Atikun Limsukon, a doctor specialising in chest and lung care, who runs a private clinic, says his patient caseload has more than doubled over recent weeks . . . Limsukon says there is more and more evidence linking pollution not only to cancer, but also strokes, metabolic problems like diabetes and even neurocognitive problems and dementia.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/15/thailand-chiang-mai-tourism-air-pollution-war-price-spikes

With Trump pulling out of talks on reopening the Straits of Hormuz, the jet fuel situation can only get worse. Some airlines have already increased fuel surchares. Cathay Pacific started this last month. Since April 1 there has been a second round of increases. All tickets irrespective of class now attract an additional 34% surcharge. Round trip flights to Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa now have a US$500 surcharge. Inter-Asian tickets now add US$100. On long haul flights this represents a 174% increase in little less than one month. The carrier has also stated it will review fuel surcharge amounts every two weeks.
Singapore Airlines has already raised fares but I can not find out by how much because the airline merges fuel costs into the basic ticket price. THAI has said it plans to increase by 10%-15% which seems pretty low compared to the hikes by CX. 
As I wrote yesterday, there are still some deals to be had with Qatar now offering limited business class seats from Bangkok to London at Bt. 99,000 for the next few weeks. But with Doha having the USA's largest air base in the Middle East and already targetted by Iranian drones, the chances of last minute cancellations must surely be quite high.  
19 of 20 major airlines have already cut capacity. Lufthansa is cutting 20,000 flights over the next 6 months. United plans to cut 5% of capacity and the airline's CEO has stated that fares may have to go up by 15%-20%. Air New Zealand has slashed flights for May and June.
https://milelion.com/2026/03/27/cathay-pacific-hikes-fuel-surcharges-for-the-second-time-in-two-weeks/
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flight-cancellations-airlines-lufthansa-united-easyjet-jet-fuel-shortage-b2964033.html

It's not the first and it won't be the last, but a new statue has appeared on the Mall in Washington showing Trump embracing Epstein in a pose similar to that between the two lovers at the front of the movie Titanic. I am sure Trump is delighted that his war in Iran has just temporarily made American citizens forget that his name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files and still no-one American citizen has been charged with Epstein's crimes.

Photo: Mehmet Esser/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/11/titanic-statue-trump-epstein-national-mall

Seville is fantastic. Please don't forget Cordoba. No idea of the sex scene there as i was only there for 1 day, but the absolutely unique Mezquita and other sites should not be missed.

Ha! Sadly I am not a pilot and would not have a clue how to fly any aircraft. I assume you refer to the one time I was upgraded from a business class ticket. I managed to get seat 3A as I did not want to be close to the engines and assumed that the back would be a lot noisier. The service on board was excellent but business class nowadays in some airlines is way better, certainly in terms of having tons more room and flat bed seats - Concorde was cramped and the seats would not even be as good as premium economy nowadays - and often also in terms of the food. Being able to board direct fron the Concorde lounge was certainly a major benefit, as was the guarantee that bags would be on the carousel at JFK not later than 15 minutes after reaching the gate. I could not complain about the free limo into Manhattan either!
I suppose my only gripe was that try as I did I could not see the curvature of the earth! I can only assume that I probably over-imbibed in the Concorde Lounge and on board that my eyes played tricks on me! But that thrust on take-off was amazing as was the steeper angle of ascent.

Schatzi's is now open in the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590577088216
Web page is still being worked on:  https://schatzis-eatsipstay.com/
First review has been posted:

I will try to go there and check it out within the next week.
 
 

@daydreamer may recall that there was a thread back at the end of 2018 started by @abidismaili titled The Men of Thailand magazine.
This posts a considerable number of photos from various publications, including TMOT and Spartacus. And for me it perhaps illustrates the point made above by @bkkmfj2648. For example, in the 1991 Spartacus Guide much more information is given about Silom Sois 2 and 4 than to Soi Twlight on Suriwong. I am reasonably certain there was more than one go-go bar on Twilight in that year. But I was much more into visiting Barbiery bar and Babylon in those days. Does anyone recall: was Twilight the only go-go bar in that soi in 1991 and did the others all just begin to appear after that?
 

You might take your own suggestion seriously and be a happier person!

If I were a Thai guy with a big cock, and I knew how much these guys were earning for a 5 second feel, I'd be out the door of the convenience store and soon be waving it in the face of eager farang.
Many of these guys can pick up a quick 1000 baht in a few minutes! That's the equivalent of somebody working for 30 hours in 7/11. WTF?? The guys in the fuck show probably earn even more.
I came to the realisation of how ridiculous this earning capacity was when I was sitting in Boyz Boyz Boyz in Pattaya. Within less than a minute I'd handed over 800 baht for less than 1 minute of touching.
I don't begrudge these guys earning such easy money. Good on them for taking full advantage of what nature gave them, and of horny farang like me.

Just a tidbit info about flu shots. There are two different flu shots to cater to the different strains depending on northern and southern hemisphere. Apparently it depends on when is the flu season (usually winter). When i asked google ai the better option for Malaysia and Thailand, it says southern hemisphere is the better option as it aligns with the rainy season.

Yes.  I have gotten one every year ever since they have been available.  Working with moderate to severe special education students in a school setting put staff at high risk for all sorts of germs.  I have had every kind of vaccine and shot available, and those that are annual are always on my to do list, like the flu shot.  Even though I am now retired, I make it a point to keep up with all of that.  I imagine the flu shot I received last fall has waned in potency, but probably helped this not become a severe case.  

Quick question. Do you get an annual 'flu shot? I had this recommended years ago and take a few minutes each year to have it done. Never had 'flu since.

@daydreamer may recall that there was a thread back at the end of 2018 started by @abidismaili titled The Men of Thailand magazine.
This posts a considerable number of photos from various publications, including TMOT and Spartacus. And for me it perhaps illustrates the point made above by @bkkmfj2648. For example, in the 1991 Spartacus Guide much more information is given about Silom Sois 2 and 4 than to Soi Twlight on Suriwong. I am reasonably certain there was more than one go-go bar on Twilight in that year. But I was much more into visiting Barbiery bar and Babylon in those days. Does anyone recall: was Twilight the only go-go bar in that soi in 1991 and did the others all just begin to appear after that?
 

I agree I may have come down too hard on TMOT. 7 editions is no mean feat, that's for sure. Clearly some gay visitors did indeed benefit from it. But I really do wonder how many actually used it to go outside the Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket areas. I suspect that taking away these four, as @daydreamer suggested above the number who travelled beyond was extremely limited. Just my view.
I can only go by what I have seen on my own travels within the country, although the two I will mention came after TMOT's demise. Yet both events are widely publicised as two of the major events to see in the country. Earlier I mentioned the Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival. This is one of Thailand's major attractions, a simply stunning day or two that you cannot see on that scale anywhere else virtually in the world. When I was there in 2007, during the whole of the main day - the Saturday - in all the crowds of Thais I saw just two other westerners - and they were ladies! I also wonder: have any of our existing readers actually been to that Festival given that there used to be a gay sauna in the city (I have no idea if it is still there now)?
I can ask the same of the amazing Dansai Ghost Festival. I know many cities have their own ghost festivals but Dansai is the biggest and the most impressive. When I was there for three nights in 2014, I saw not one other westerner - true! I do accept that Dansai is just a small countryside town and there is really only one decent hotel on the hillside above. But most visitors fly into nearby Loei and get a hotel there where there certainly used to be more than one gay-friendly bar. Buses ferry viitors to the Festival. Bordered on the Mekhong, being hilly and with a major vineyard, Loei Province itself is well worth visiting. But as with Ubon, I wonder how many existing readers of this Board have ever been to the Dansai Festival?
I have posted before photos of both events. As there is one member who seems to resent photos being posted even after a dozen or so years, I will refrain from reposting.
I agree Utopia can be a useful resource. But it is not just the readers who contribute. The owner also does and he has his own whims as to whether or not venues are included. As a regular visitor to Taipei, I once wrote to him a few years ago asking why he had not included two Taipei saunas. He wrote back basically stating that he objected to the pricing policy of one and alleged racism in the other. Well, my view is that he was perfectly entitled to include these as his opinions in the descriptions, but deliberately to omit two popular saunas in an alleged gay guide was unfair. I do not recall any reply.
As @bkkmfj2648 has rightly pointed out, keeping information on a very large number of gay venues up to date is a near impossibility. On Utopia-Asia, there is a very long entry on the Huang Tzu Hot Spring (Emperor). This was great because it was the most popular such facility for gay guys since the really raunchy one further up the hill Huang Ding was closed about 5 years ago. But the site still states it has a "steam room (some discreet action)" and that there have been "reports of activity after midnight until dawn." Yet the steam room was pulled down more than a year ago and the owners do not tolerate any action whatever! I hate to complain too much about this site, but it also states in the section under the sauna most popular with twinks and younger guys Soi13in "busiest between 6:30 and 9:00 with happy hour prices." Yet westerners have all but given up on this sauna as there is a dual entry price with foreigners paying four times the price of Taiwanese all day (that's NT$1,000 - US$32) and there is no happy hour for foreigners!
Under Hong Kong's Kowloon District it lists just one sauna named Star. Yet other sites name five or six including one that used to be compared  favourably with Babylon in Bangkok - Hutong. Utopia does not even mention it!
So in my view Utopia is good but like all such guides it has to be taken with a decent sized pinch of salt. At the same time I have no idea how anyone can obtain so much information about so many countries and keep it anywhere up to date! 👍

I think most gay guides can be useful - indeed are useful. But most are incomplete, no doubt because of the enormous difficulty in updating. So I think it is best to check 3 or 4 sites. The one I have never liked is thegaypassport.com as way too much of its material is out of date. For example, Hans Mens Sauna in Taipei is still listed as being a small 1st floor sauna.  But as I posted here on May 30 2023, Hans moved to a much bigger location on the 8th floor of a shopping mall more than three years ago! In the hot springs section, it does indeed mention the gay friendly Huang Tzu, but also lists the very gay unfriendly Kawayu Hot Spring virtually next door.
Under Hong Kong, it lists just two of the several gay saunas, and the popular Hutong is not one of those two!

@daydreamer may recall that there was a thread back at the end of 2018 started by @abidismaili titled The Men of Thailand magazine.
This posts a considerable number of photos from various publications, including TMOT and Spartacus. And for me it perhaps illustrates the point made above by @bkkmfj2648. For example, in the 1991 Spartacus Guide much more information is given about Silom Sois 2 and 4 than to Soi Twlight on Suriwong. I am reasonably certain there was more than one go-go bar on Twilight in that year. But I was much more into visiting Barbiery bar and Babylon in those days. Does anyone recall: was Twilight the only go-go bar in that soi in 1991 and did the others all just begin to appear after that?
 

Quick question. Do you get an annual 'flu shot? I had this recommended years ago and take a few minutes each year to have it done. Never had 'flu since.

In principle I agree with the sentiment. But I think it is important to remind ourselves that businesses like this are in fact a business - and as such part of that business is to attract customers. If supporting a charity or a cause helps and the charity/cause also benefits, then some will say that is close to a win-win. Obviously some will disagree but I imagine quite a number of charities are perfectly happy with the extra cash.
I do think there is a major difference. I would hate it if any cashier asked me for a donation at the desk when paying for a product I wanted to buy. The point about @khaolakguy's post is that the addition of the donation is advertised well in advance before purchase. In my view that is hardly the same.