fedssocr

I think the recommendation is still to have a colonoscopy at 50 in the US. The gastro doctor who did mine said come back in 5 years. My primary care doctor says 10 years. So I presume the gastro has an incentive to see you more frequently. My primary care doctor teaches at one of the local medical schools and thinks our health care system is a screwed up mess. He has very strong opinions.

One of my flights for early next year was under the axe. The Tuesday flight to IAD was the one cut to here. They rebooked me on the flight the day before which kind of sucks since I will lose a day of my vacation. Since I'm originating in Colombo and they don't operate their CMB-HKG flight on Mondays it took me a bit of research to find a reasonable connection so I could just feed them the flights I want instead of accepting a connection via LAX and a redeye on an AA 737-800 which would have been no fun at all. Hopefully there aren't more cuts before then

I have plans to spend a few days in HK in the autumn after Taipei Pride. So I'm keeping a close eye on what's going on. The US State Dept just raised their warning level. I might just stay in Taiwan and fly out the morning of my flight from HKG to make the connection

exactly. and of course these rich countries that have low birthrates are also intent on blocking all migration. the entire world is an extremely fucked up place these days

did your driver enjoy the show?

The only time I spent more than a few hours in Japan was about 4 years ago when I had about 3 days there and I am pretty sure I was able to get cash with my ATM card although I believe I did use a credit card for most things.

I've never had an issue using my ATM card as long as I contact the bank in advance of my trip

I agree that these days everyone is naked on the internet so when it's time for them to take over no one will bat an eye.

it's kind of crazy how many guys those clubs advertise. I wonder if they're all really available. Most of the time your luggage will be checked through to your final destination (unless you're on separate tickets and airlines without an interline agreement). So you only have to deal with a carry on bag. When I overnight in HK though I always pick up my main bag there and recheck it the next day. But I get a hotel so it's not a problem.

I kind of refuse to go to mainland China. Hong Kong is a place where I've transited several times. I've also managed a layover of about 24 hours there which is enough time to see a couple of things and/or get a massage. The train from the airport is fast. I like Seoul, but ICN is a long way from the city. Even on the "express" train it takes at least an hour. I don't mind connecting at NRT but I've never had more than a couple of hours there. As noted it's a long way from the airport to Tokyo. Some airlines will allow you a free stopover of a more worthwhile length. I think Korean Airlines has restricted or curtailed the practice but I've used their free stopover a couple of times. First time for a week. And on my trip over this fall it will be 10 days. I'd check to see if Cathay or EVA or China Airlines (Taiwan) allows it. I think Qatar Airways allows a stopover too if you're dying to see Doha.

the only time I stayed there the bed was hard as a rock. And I agree the internet sucked. And the bathroom was a mess. I also found the breakfast time to be very sad...all of those Thai boys and their older friends dining in total silence because they couldn't communicate.

I guess nothing lasts forever. Glad I was able to spend some time there over the last decade or so. Same for Sunnee during its heyday.

yeah, I think the DIY travel market these days was probably the biggest problem for them. Paying for insurance that covers operator bankruptcy is probably a good idea too. The guides were essentially freelancers for the most part rather than employees of PD since it's not like they had enough business to keep them all busy all the time. Especially in some of the less popular locations. I would guess it's likely that the website hosting was paid up for a certain amount of time so it lives on. Douglas probably didn't have much incentive or interest in taking it all down. He's moved to Siem Reap and I think he's still running the Bhutan agency (I believe things work quite a bit differently there - when I went many years ago I was told that the government basically holds the money for your trip in escrow and then pays the tour company at the completion of your trip) and may be helping some old customers organize some trips. He's in a rather large house/compound and plans to rent out the extra bedrooms to long-term guests.

I think I need a body type system refresher course.

welcome back?

this all got a little off topic, but I've never found any gogo bar fuck show to be in any way erotic

Fair enough. I didn't really understand why they had the referendum since the court had already ordered that they had to legalize it. That seemed to be just asking for trouble.

It is great. It's unfortunate the legislature dragged it out until the end of the time limit set by the court. I'm headed over for Taipei Pride again this year. Should be quite a party

cost of everything in Thailand is going up, so why would the boy bars be any different? I know lots of people love the places you're considering going, so enjoy.

It seems the Utopia guys really got railroaded, so I'm not sure I would say that was his fault. The lack of capitalization seems to have been the biggest problem. I doubt many of us traveling with them through the years realized how close to the edge things were. The fact that some one paying for a trip in a few months was paying for the trip of some one traveling this week seems quite risky from a business standpoint and eventually it couldn't be sustained. As I said, most of my trips with them were very good. Since I was traveling solo it was always nice to have a guide and personal driver. While many of the vehicles were rather long in the tooth, on the whole the guides were good for me. As with anything in this sort of realm, personalities and chemistry are important especially on longer trips. I never minded that it was costing a bit more than I could have paid if I'd arranged it all myself. it looks like he's landed on his feet with a nice place in Siem Reap.

I was there to see the sights, not business. I had originally planned to "meet the locals" but once I arrived in SEA for some reason my sex drive went to near zero so I didn't have the interest

I was just there recently. I stayed at the Sedona Suites Grand Tower. Had a gorgeous apartment on the 40th floor with amazing views. A bit pricey but great location for various tourist spots and I found the mall and market downstairs useful. I didn't bring anyone home so I don't know if that's an issue. You do have to take 2 elevators to get to your apartment - the ground floor entrance has the concierge desk and then the main lobby you change to a different elevator. I also didn't visit any gay venues so I can't help you there. Crossing the streets takes a little courage but once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad. I also spent several days up the mountains at Dalat which I really enjoyed. Flowers everywhere. Much cooler weather. Beautiful waterfalls.

Good news. The diver has been saved. Story linked has been updated

one of the British rescue divers is missing in a Tennessee cave. They're not saying who it is at this point https://abc7news.com/diver-who-helped-free-thai-soccer-team-now-missing-in-tenn-cave/5256366/

even with a translation app it's not a totally natural conversation. In my experience Google translate is worthless beyond a couple of words. I did buy the latest version of the Travis translator on Indiegogo https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/travis-touch-i-speak-105-languages-so-can-you--2/x/7247010#/ But I didn't ever actually use it. In my brief testing at home though it was able to translate even my poor Thai into English correctly. So it might work. It claims to use several different translation engines depending on the language so that it probably why it would work better than Google alone.