TotallyOz

Absolutely amazing reports. Thank you for sharing. Da Nang is one of my favorite places to visit and I was able to spend a week there recently. My favorite pizza place is 4P's. Their Par Ham is awesome with homemade cheese on top that melts over the pizza. I normally get a half/half with 5 cheese the other half.

By the time I was 22, I’d already read most of the books that would stay with me for life. I didn’t read for escape. I read to make sense of things, to find beauty, structure, complexity. The stories that stuck weren’t simple, and they didn’t offer easy answers. They asked the right questions, and they never talked down to me. Ulysses, by James Joyce, hit me like no other. It was strange, dense, full of detours but also funny, earthy, and oddly intimate. Joyce turned a single day into something vast. I didn’t understand everything, and I wasn’t supposed to. That was part of the point. Life isn’t meant to be neatly packaged, and this book made peace with that. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, I read late at night in bed (on a waterbed if you remember those). It was a quieter kind of adventure; one that didn’t shout. Bilbo wasn’t brave or strong, just curious and quietly stubborn. He was the reluctant traveler and I was the excited traveler and through him, I yearned for adventure. There’s a quiet comfort in that kind of hero — someone who doesn’t look for adventure but rises to it when called. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, was extra credit. I read it and wrote a report. But it didn’t feel like schoolwork; it felt like discovery. Hamlet’s voice was unlike anything I’d read. He thinks too much, speaks in riddles, wrestles with grief, with guilt, with meaning. I didn’t have his burdens, but I knew the feeling of turning things over in your mind until they burned. I wrestled with the guilt of being gay and this story helped. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, was required reading in Grade 11. I expected melodrama. What I got was something raw and absorbing. Scarlett O’Hara is willful, maddening, unforgettable. The book showed how survival can be its own kind of courage, even when it’s messy. She was the ultimate drama queen and having watched the movie 20 times, reading it was truly wonderful, and I understood why my mom loved the movie so much. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, pulled me in with elegance. Wilde’s writing is so smooth. The story stayed with me because of what it didn’t say out loud; the rot beneath the surface, the cost of charm, the masks people wear. It was a short book, but it left a long impact. Much later, I read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernières. I was older. It was a gift from my best friend. What struck me most was its tenderness. It sees people clearly, flaws and all, and forgives them anyway. I needed that forgiveness myself as my religious guilt created issues for me for 20 years. These books helped shape how I see things, how I think, how I listen, how I notice what matters. They stayed with me because they respected the reader. Even the version of me that was still figuring things out. And, 40 years after reading most, I know I have not figured things out completely but the journey has been an adventure. Like Bilbo, I was a reluctant traveler, not in real travels but in reading. Tolkien removed that reluctance from me and Wilde swung the doors wide open for me to see the possibilities.

So sad! He was excellent!

I prefer Rio! @gd85

You have some sexy guys!

Was in Vietnam last year and had a blast. Amazing country and beautiful beaches.

PeterRS you are really talented and we are all thrilled you are posting again. Your posts are always informative and insightful!

Members who are disrespectful are banned from posting on the site. Happened twice today. More to come. This is a gentleman's forum.

Fabulous information! Thanks all!

Be very careful of Zoo. If this is the one that was at Punawitti BTS last year, it is a rip off. I think they have opened 6 or more shops with same boys listed and do nothing.

It was all removed as most was outdated. Most of them were taken from inside the forums anway.

@Latbear4blk sure. Great post. Thanks for the great detail.

The new URL for the forums is simply gayguides.com not gayguides.com/forums You may get issues if you go to this. My apologies in advance if any issues or the downtime.

I have seen them in Bangkok but the best was walking street in Pattaya. She was a true expert.

Admittedly, I first read this post and thought, "oh my, has reader gone back to see one of the ping pong pussy shows and the lady got a hole in one." I know you think I jest. But, I have seen it. I've seen even more bizarre in Crazy Dragon years back when a guy pulled 100 razor blades out of his ass. Oh, well, to each his own. I'm happy that so many are crazy about Tiger. I've always enjoyed watching him play and as an expert golfer myself, I still yearn for that hole in one. (although I did have a hole that was filled with one last night but I don't think that is the same thing)