PeterRS2

Why double down on such a ridiculous event and one that hardly anyone outside the married couple's own fans cared about - unlike the Bezos wedding in Venice which had half of Italy in uproar?

With respect, what has the border situation between Mexico and the USA to do with the border between Thailand and Cambodia, the more so given the massive amount of political time and even more cash spent in the USA in recent years to keep illegal immigrants out? You seem to have forgotten that Cam is Cambodian and was entering his home country. His situation is totally unlike that of an illegal immigrant from Mexico, just as the Thailand/Cambodian border situation bears zero comparison to that on the US/Mexico border.

I hardly think blocking off a small part of some streets in Manhattan for a day equates to anything like the damage to tourism in Venice for three entire days. It reminds me that in 2015 I flew into Newark and took the train to the city. My taxi crawled for almost 40 minutes getting from the station to the nearby Warwick Hotel close to Carnegie Hall ! Why? Road closures due to a Gay Pride Parade!

A bit like most of your posts -

I understand it has nothing to do with Asian airports and totally to do with the American Immigration rules. If you change planes anywhere en route to the USA you have to go through a second security check before the flight into the USA.

So you expect guides who have never met @Olddaddy and his partner to give them some sort of test before they even arrive?

No doubt true - but what was the point?

From the second report posted by @bkkmfj2648, it appears - and this is merely supposition - that drugs were somehow involved. But for a fitness guru to go nuts and somehow not to be able to swim seems very odd. Equally very sad.

Frankly I do not see that the wedding has anything to do with us. This couple is spending their own money. The fact that they are worth over $1 billion is neither here nor there. They are not responsible for what happens anywhere else unless they voted for the awful Trump - and the $25 million donation must count for something. I may consider such a wedding gross and more than somewhat ridiculous. But it is not my wedding! At least they did not close off a chunk of a major tourist city for 3 days like Jeff Bezos in Venice. All he donated was €2 million to the city. Much more worthy of discussion are all Trump's lies about the Iran War, the new White House ballroom, the abysmal State Fair, his making a billion or so on crypto dealings, and so on.

Why do you say that? Siam Roads alone has four guides who can give visitors excellent tours including the gay bars, but they are not for sex.

I got my visa on line with no problems. As I had an APEC business travel card, I got through FastTrack in a couple of minutes. I had a guide who was gay and great fun to see the city with. He was the friend of friends of mine. Although he had a hotel job, he was able to get time off for my three days. I loved the city - motorbikes apart! As so often in Vietnam it is the mixture of local and French colonial customs that make it interesting. Since I was accompanied, I can't advise on MBs but there must be quite a lot in a city of nearly 10 million people. Easy to get around The French-built Opera House and a typical French bakery/restaurant The famous Vietnamese water puppets

Belated Happy Birthday! Apologies for missing the day but I found myself rather unexpectedly locked out of the forum (my fault) and had difficulty getting back in as I explain under the Comments & Suggestions forum. Absolutely delighted your relationship is progressing so well.

Sadly the delay in announcing almost any change and its finding its way into the Gazette is not at all unusual.

Many thanks. All good apart from a difficulty getting locked out of the forum (partly my fault) and then getting back in. Please have a quick look at my post under Comments and Suggestions

This is so true, and it also covers news media outside Pattaya. The Bangkok Post sometimes follows up on 'protecting our image' stories - but rarely. I can recall when the Pattaya Daily News covered what at the time was regarded as a sensational story involving an underage youth that made it outside Thailand. While the PDN rather quickly dropped following the story, the Bangkok Post and certain high placed officials had a field day about how this individual had brought Thailand's name into disrepute. Somehow the farang involved did what many others would never dream of doing and claimed to trust the Thai justice system. He fought the case - and after more than half a dozen court hearings over several months, the case was dropped. Did any Thai newspaper even give this one column inch? Not one. Because to have done so would have brought ridicule on too many important people. Too many alleged facts had been totally made up to give credence to their lies! Far too much loss of face! Another case that the news media was relucant to follow up after a few days was the 2012 murder of the traffic cop by the heir to the Red bull fortune (that fortune is the second largest in the country). The government has made up so many false stories to enable this killer to remain free to travel the world - and even to be seen in Thailand on several occasions. It even alleged that it had arranged for Interpol to put the man's name on its Red List, meaning if any country finds him he is to be arrested and repatriated. Yet after learning this I carefully went through the many thousands of names on that list. Surprise! Surprise! His name was not on it. And he had been living in a house in London. In 2020 a Panel set up by the Prime Minister confirmed there had been a conspiracy to shield this man from prosection. Yet he remained and continues to remain a free man. It was ordinary Thais who took to social media in their droves to get something done. Sadly that was merely to have a few officers and others transferred to other posts! Yet with the on-line fury not dying down, a national police chief was indicted in 2024 - 12 years after the event. What happened to him? No one seems to know! For anyone wishing to know more about the justice system, the infamous gay Utopia Tours/Spice Trade case in 2004 gives many disgraceful facts - https://web.archive.org/web/20050606015724/http:/www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-435.htm

I trust this was a typing slip and @Olddaddy meant Tawan. In dozens of visits to Taiwan I have never come across "very pushy guys" and there are so many guys around looking for westerners there is no need to pay for sex.

While I agree that Trump and Musk (who was merely following orders and therefore not quite so guilty) are essentially murderers, when you are a country the size of the USA with an elected leader, the electorate surely have to accept some of the blame? Under your hypothesis, Nixon and Kissinger should have been before the World Court and then executed (even though the maximum penalty the Court can hand down is life imprisonment). But it is only leaders of quite small countries like Milosovic and Duterte who end up in that Court. Chiang Kai Shek, Mao, Stalin, Yahya Khan, Pol Pot, Netanyahu and a host of others are as guilty as Trump but their coterie of willing participants and in many cases death has ensured none were called to account.

I'm reasonably sure the photo and video rights will have been sold. That seems pretty common nowadays for celebrity weddings.

I have spent more than a week trying to open my old account without success. This started when I had tried to change my password to bring it into line with some others. Having done that, I discovered that you need to provide your original email address. And it was then the problems started. Under PeterRS I joined the old gay thailand site about 15 years ago using a hotmail email account. But Outlook made my hotmail accounts inactive and all their contents disappeared about three years ago - at least in Thailand (I work on Macs). So no email could be sent. And then I could not access my account here because I had already changed the password but there was no workable email for confirmation! I realise I should have had the details transferred to my phone but I always use my desktop for posts on this site. Limbo-land! A couple of years ago when I was in Europe and could not gain access to my account since I could not remember that damn password from so long ago, for some reason which I have now forgotten I was able to contact the administrator who opened a new account - this one. On this occasion even though I still preferred to use the old sign in name, I entered that new one along with my email - to be told that the email was used by another member. At the end of a frustrating time attempting to get hold of the administrator (unless you can first sign in it appears there is no way to contact him - even under CONTACT US), I decided on a completely new sign in name, went through the hoops and this time entered a gmail address. I was informed I would receive a confirmation email which I'd have to return in order to open the account. After trying several times that gmail account has never received any emails from gayguides or any remotely similar email address. Is gmail not recognised? Trial and error has finally enabled me to use the new sign in name allocated me two years ago. It seems to work and I have a new password. But I would suggest to long time members - especially those in Thailand - who are not computer savvy they check they have a workable email address for this site.

Totally agree. Over a good many years I have stayed there 5 times. It feels much more like being in a small country haven than in a city resort. Personally I prefer the upper rooms to those at ground level. The restaurant is also very good. Mrs. Rabbit is very gay friendly and goes out of her way to assist guests.

Hahaha! Utterly stupid and ludicrous response - hahahaha!

A shout out for the excellent tv series of Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of The Jackal. I had loved the book and the much earlier movie version but I thought this tv series was superb - a very different updated remake, beautifully acted and directed, with loads of suspense and thrills. And of course it has The Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) not only plonking several mouth on mouth kisses but spending a gay night with a young guy whose help he needs in one of his assassination attempts. photo: Carnaval Films Not having much success sleeping, I watched all 10 episodes on the 14 hour-long Hong Kong/London flight last weekend and was engrossed throughout.

Apologies for I think I posted this elsewhere. This nonsense literally makes no sense for those who actually live in Thailand. One other law stipulates that we must submit yet another online form no later than around 36 hours after every arrival with exactly the same details Immigration has had in some cases for well over a decade - exact address, date of arrival, full name, citizenship, date of birth and I can’t recall what else. At the same time we have to advise our departure day! It’s typical Thai bureaucracy gone mad!

Wat Hua Lamphong is a delightful temple and one of the easiest to reach from the Silom/Suriwong area. Round the corner there are still coffin making shops!

May I get back a little more on topic as I’d really appreciate some advice. Whenever the iPhone first appeared there was also an iPod Touch with all the features of the Phone but without the Phone. I got one, primarily for downloading a ton of music which somehow was easy then. Listening on my Shure in-ear speakers was excellent. First Apple changed the connectors - no problem as mine is in great condition. Then, admittedly some years later, I tried to purchase a new battery. Not possible as they are no longer made, I was informed. Although there is some battery power left - just! - I know I should be able to make it work using a power bank (even if no longer possible on flights). Does any member happen to know - 1. Of any way of transferring my music on to my iPad (I have been told it’s not possible for some copyright reasons); or 2. of any source where a battery for the original model of the iPad Touch can be located and how it can be installed? 3. Failing that, since I know nothing about power banks, any recommendation for a small sized power bank that would enable a minimum of 6-8 hours of listening. Many thanks in advance.