Rogie

India has a similar problem to some other countries, such as China, in that many parents prefer a boy child over a girl. Unfortunately they may go so far as to practice foeticide (abortion of a foetus) or infanticide (murder of an infant). What happens further down the line when boys grow up and look for a girlfriend or wife is not hard to imagine. I expect there is a certain amount of gay sex but sooner or later any heterosexual is going to become frustrated if he cannot find a mate. In some cases he will go to extremes, which is bad enough, but - hopefully in very rare instances - he may join in what is sometimes called gang rape. Here is some of the background to the problem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20938125

Agree. Let the islanders decide.

Anyone for a GT chess tournament? I'll start: Pawn to King 4

The site is small, but it depends on more than that surely. If there really were angels dancing on the head of a pin I am sure it would be of great interest to some people. Apparently the angels expression can be used for speaking of matters of arguable interest, but that's not the case here as Preah Vihear ought to be a World Heritage site (I take a risk saying that because I admit I have no knowledge of how a place gets on the Heritage list, but I have visited the site and reckon it's worthy although of course there are many better, it just depends on the qualifying criteria). I have now checked and as far as I can see it is now on the list. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1224 I don't know why part of this site is in English and part in French. There is an option for either English or French. If you choose the French option, as you would expect it's all in French. If you choose English, parts of it are still - Mon Dieu! - in French! I don't get it.

Bydlo is a new word to me but I took your bait and looked it up - it means a redneck, amongst other terms of endearment! But as I have declared an amnesty on anti-Russian tirades, I shall say no more. As Michael says in the preceding post, you are welcome here. Why not post on a few more general topics, give us a chance to get to know you - maybe you will even garner a few 'likes' if you do that!

They can't pull the wool over your eyes FH, you're on to 'em!

That's a fair point you raise FH. It seems to me the majority of people who are in a relationship, and one of whom hires a detective, are - at least as going by the testimonials from 'satisfied' clients are concerned - living apart. Usually it is the farang who is living away, probably back in his home country, or he could be often away on business. So assuming this drama is happening in Thailand, in the case of an absent farang, I would argue this puts a higher requirement of honesty on the part of the Thai person because the farang, by definition almost, is trusting his Thai friend to a considerable degree not to betray that trust. I do agree however, that attempts to try and thrash out a satisfactory outcome can be thwarted by strange logic!

How about Sumatra Abang? That's very close, another neighbour surely.

"The truth is sometimes harder to discover than a lie is to uncover... Therefore, if the truth is really so important that it enables that person seeking it to answer nagging questions and move on with their life, then surely it is priceless". http://www.thaiprivateeye.com/ Well you might expect that kind of 'soundbite' from a Detective Agency, and I think we'd all agree truth is often elusive. I would question the ability of any detective to get to the bottom of things however. He may well be able to uncover lies and deception, but digging deeper to try to find the root cause of why a person did or said something in order to get the whole truth, and nothing but the truth - well, certainly in the area of personal relationships, I'd have to question whether that's possible for a detective to establish. It must often be a two-part process. One option, upon discovering deceit is to walk away, but if you decide to try and give it another go, once the detective agency have provided you with the 'proof' - short of an outright confession - a good heart-to-heart may do the trick.

Michael, your 'IQ' topic was hot for a while - got 13 replies - but was more or less finished by 10 Dec. Since then it has been re-activated once by Christian - fair enough as he's a genuine poster and does a lot of travelling so he can't always follow a topic that closely - but twice it had been kickstarted by khun Snapshot. This is the nature of the beast I am afraid, that he may be lurking around every corner, of course he isn't, but when he roars into life he needs taming. Reminds me of those pits hunters used to dig so as to catch wild animals who'd fall into one and be speared.

That 'crooked deputy' probably has less brains even than one of my childhood heroes Deputy 'deppity' Dawg. But, I'm not entirely stupid and can guess who that might be! Dr Mekta, now who might he be modelled on? Has anyone in Thailand's political past emerged 'untarnished'?

Mars rover finally looks set to drill Nasa's Curiosity rover is very close to drilling into its first Martian rock, with the set-up operation likely to begin next week. Lead scientist John Grotzinger has this to say: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20901931

I admit I am 100% ignorant concerning sake, so it's clearly more subtle than I imagined it to be. I suppose I imagined it like vodka (now somebody will tell me there are hundreds of different types of vodka!)- an awful drink I steer well clear of. I'm happy to think of FH enjoying his blue fin tuna and sake. As for me I'd prefer a nice juicy steak - Aberdeen Angus - well cooked, but not well done - with a glass of Chateau Mouton Rothschild (which I have never tasted but would definitely go for, to use Snapshot's term, 'prestige value'). I am a steak tartare-free zone.

Did you watch this FH, and if so do they have English sub-titles? Is it anything like Britain's much-loved "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister?" (which incidentally I believe is being resurrected with a totally new cast but presumably playing the same characters). What exactly is meant by the term 'black rites'? Is it witchcraft or devil worship, or some kind of pagan Thai ritual?

If I seem to have a bit of a downer on East Asian cuisine (China and Japan), as you can imagine I was 'disgusted' to come across yet another cringe-worthy example of overkill: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20919306

I prefer to take my own bar of soap for the shower rather than rely on the tiny portions of soap often provided. I had an unexpected 'issue' that came to light on check out from a hotel in Chanthaburi recently. The receptionist told me I owed the hotel 10 baht. I was sure I had already paid for the room in full and certainly had not raided the mini-bar. It took me a while to understand what she was on about. Apparently I owed 10 baht because the evening before, as I was taking one of the free bottles of water out of the fridge, I dropped it. The floor was hard and the bottle smashed. It was cleaned up by the hotel staff, so all in all a pretty trivial incident. Normally I am all in favour of glass bottles as they are presumably recycled. I have no idea what happens to all the millions of used plastic water bottles in Thailand . . . and I think I'd rather not know!

I'm often intrigued as to why some people flock to certain restaurants. You know the type, they are the established names, with a few up and coming or flavour of the month places jostling for a place at the top table. Is it the desire to be seen in such places by others, or to impress your friends or business colleagues? Or are they really there for the food or the well-stocked cellar, where the wine waiter really knows his stuff? Here is an amusing account of how things can go badly wrong by those desperate to rub shoulders with other equally desperate people; who outside of such narcissistic individuals or paparazzi desperate to make the pages of Hello! cares if you're A-list or Z-list or even black-listed? http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/15/how-to-get-table-restaurant

Indeed they do, FH's Liberace sneakers are quite something. I am on record as lusting after them! http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8111-gay-thailand-forum-board-updates-and-new-features/page-3?do=findComment&comment=59364

My word, enough questions to last a lifetime! I rarely visit top-end restaurants - the sort where the waiter brings your food to the table on a silverplatter with a huge dome on top, then hey presto, whips it off to expose the naked quivering wreck of a goose, or duck or souffle - enjoy! On the subject of service, more particularly pleasantness versus snarl, the cult of the 'rude waiter' is fascinating I think. Here is an interesting comment (see link below for the Guardian article): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/debunking-stereotypes-french-impossibly-rude

I'm going to propose a be nice to Russians amnesty. Anyone reading this message board is invited to post here on this thread anything or anyone that casts Russians in a good light. I shall start: Moses

I'm sorry to hear the femmy boys didn't work out. Maybe they shoulda gone to the gym more! Jolly hockey sticks anyone? I assume a femmy boy is somewhere between an ordinary boy and a ladyboy. Quite camp as many are although I suspect some just ramp it up for the punters and aren't like that when they're with their friends. Or, maybe the reverse, shy with the bar's patrons and campy elsewhere. Very difficult and probably riding to a fall to try and categorise people like that. They want to fit in somewhere, but where exactly, and how best to go about it. Although I believe most men who grow up become ladyboys are aware of their sexuality at a young age, and indeed are sometimes identified as such even when very young boys by others in their home village, others must go through a period of experimentation . . . short hair vs long hair, boy clothes vs femmy clothes, + or - jewellery, tatoos, etc. Maybe some of those boys identified as femmy boys will feel comfortable in their skin and go on to consider dressing and taking on behaviour patterns of a ladyboy; others may retrench and adopt a less camp persona. It seems to me the type of bars seen in and around Sunee are ideal for a young man exploring his sexuality. If he so chooses he can fine-tune his appearance and behaviour as well as his sexual preferences. However, in doing so he has to be careful not to give off one vibe in public that he cannot carry through in private. That underlines the importance of the customer who wishes to 'off' a boy from a bar to find out if they are going to be as compatible in the sack as they appear to be when cracking jokes or downing a few cocktails in the bar.

You mean you weren't rejected? Does the American system really allow a defendant to reject potential jurors? Is that as daft as it seems? Sorry if I've offended anyone, it just seems daft to me, but maybe there is a good reason for it. Not attacking you TW, just what seems to me to be a barmy business.

You got me there. To the best of my knowledge there are 1,2,3,4,and 5 star hotels. Now it seems maybe 5 isn't enough. How about either instituting 6 stars (or even more!), or having *****- or *****+ to cover the top and bottom if the range. As I never stay in 5* hotels I haven't the faintest idea how they acquire their 'stars'. Anyone care to acquaint me?

(not addressing Z in particular) sure, YOU can control your own decision-making most of the time, but what happens if you have a drink too many and coming out of a bar stumble and get hit by a bus or if you're running late for an important meeting and forget to look both ways and are run over by a tram. And what about the speeding madman running a red light in his Ferrari? Sorry, he didn't see you! Multiply that by thousands and thousands of pedestrians in all the cities in Asia and it stands to reason many of them will get injured crossing the road.

We'll have to get used to changing patterns in tourism. Maybe some of you can remember a time before the Japanese started visiting other countries en masse. There was a time 'preGap-Year' when relatively few adolescents and students took off RTW, now they are everywhere. Early retirement has been a godsend to many; these pensioners still have many years of active life ahead of them when they stop working, no longer clapped out at 65 after a lifetime down the pit or on the factory floor. The seas are full of giant cruise ships and the air is buzzing with ever bigger aeroplanes. On the whole things run smoothly, but 'havoc' is often just around the corner.