Rogie

Did you notice the Q added as a suffix to LGBT?

Good stuff, very entertaining. A brilliant 4 3/4 minutes of sheer joy.

Yet another dinosaur stalks the earth, me; I can envision myself as a stegasauras, thick-skinned and spiky, quite a mini fortress and blissfully unaware of what's happening in the wide blue yonder beyond the confines of my cosy little existence.

A good outcome. I'm sure I have asked this question before somewhere and it concerns where various fruits are grown. For example in Britain as far as I know we don't grow blueberries so they are quite expensive whereas when strawberries are in season they are cheap. I wonder if the opposite is the case in Thailand, it might seem so at least on the basis of the strawberry:blueberry ratio of roughly 5:1. The blueberries are still woppingly expensive by Thai standards being about US$ 4.60 a punnet, but of course we know supermarkets charge more in Thailand, unlike western countries where they have to be competitive such is the fierce competition. Maybe somebody can tell me what a small punnet of blueberries would cost in the US? They're about UKP 2 here in England so about 90 baht for a punnet.

RE: FH's current mask avatar Who doesn't love a good mask. Masks (and related coverings) are so mysterious. . . the masked ball, Zorro, the hangman's mask, a whole pantheon of cartoon heroes, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, the bank-robbers balaclava or stocking, the Ku Klux Clan, the pirates' eye patch etc etc The one in the avatar looks oriental, the yin and yang symbol quite prominent. Is it a real person or is it a puppet?

It's a fair guess not many where English is not their first language would be aware of its other meaning, but my trusty Thorndike Barnhart dictionary (published in America) lists row third out of 3 definitions, thus 'a noisy quarrel'. And there is also rowdy of course.

Talk about chalk and cheese

Thanks for the trivia Bob, and whilst it may seem pretty trivial to name a place after a local landmark, that has a nice simplicity to it, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a bit of a contrast to Bangkok, whose full name in Thai starts with Krungthep . . . and goes on and on. We have a place in north Wales which has the longest place name in Britain and is abbreviated to Llanfair P G . . . , by all except a few folk adept at tonguetwisters! I asked about the Central Hua Hin Hotel which another poster told us has ditched 'Sofitel' in favour of a new name, but I forget what that is, and to be quite honest I don't really care who owns it, it's the history that appeals to me. The long-serving Lonely Planet author Joe Cummings wrote about it at length in the LP Thailand 5th Edition (1995) where he recalled he'd first stayed there in 1977. Up until some time in the 80's before it was bought and refurbished by a chain it still had a lingering oldie-worldie ambience, probably what we'd call 'colonial' if it'd been Hong Kong or Singapore, but of course Thailand wasn't a colony so we can't use that well worn cliche.

Re: post #2 with an avatar-less FH: don't keep us in suspense, what's happening? Does pumpkin have an alibi?

In 2000 it got its own name: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18282277

Travellers to Hua Hin are lucky, there is a diverse range of places to stay, owing to it lying on the coast. It was supposedly one of those 'sleepy fishing villages' long long ago so its transformation is entirely due to an influx of outsiders. Many Thai towns and I am thinking of in the Isarn in the main, have a few decent hotels but nothing approaching the style and appeal of the Intercontinental. I wonder if anybody has stayed at the Sofitel Central Hua Hin Hotel, formerly known as the Hua Hin Railway Hotel? This place has an interesting history and must have been built some time after 1922 when the railway reached Hua Hin.

I can see the point in castration with the intention of creating a eunuch or a castrati singer. Not sure about its applicability to pre-pubescent Thai males, even supposing it's ever been done and I hope it hasn't. If a young ladybody was castrated chances are he'd be fated to lead a miserable life unless he could somehow save enough money to afford a full sex-change op, i.e. creation of a realistic vagina (although I believe a good surgeon will use the skin from the penis and scrotum in creating his vagina). Removal of a ladyboy's genitalia should only be done: 1) with their full consent after professional counselling, and 2) when it is intended to proceed to immediate surgery to create a functional vagina. The hijras in India may be of some interest to this discussion: http://en.wikipedia....ra_(South_Asia)

I haven't watched the video (sorry, I have bad hearing and can't follow the dialogue) so I am unclear what the sex changes referred to are. Would that simply be female hormones, or some way of preventing male hormones 'taking off' at puberty. As for the boy knowing he wants to become a woman, I can quite believe that. But it's one thing to want something before you've had a chance to consider consequences which can be life changing, and actually doing it. On one occasion in his home village my Thai friend, pointing casually to a young male child maybe 5 years old or so referred to him a a "young lady boy", and indeed looking more closely I could see he was almost certainly right. Many, although not all, ladyboys are apparent from a young age and I doubt many would grow up to be any different, even supposing they wanted to be, although they do face an uphill struggle, especially those from the villages. I don't know if some parents ever try and influence their boy's emerging sexuality, but I doubt that'd work beyond a superficial level.

Call me a prude or pro-censorship or whatever, but roll on the day when 'inappropriate' video content can be automatically detected and rejected by some kind of sophisticated technology. Better still if the person trying to upload it can be traced and hunted down!

The folding stuff ain't what it used to be

I've changed back to Chrome which is what I had been using until recently and all back to normal. Sorry for the false alarm, unless somebody else can corroborate my IE problem.

In post #51 I mentioned the drop down menu which disappeared following the makeover - it still hasn't made a reappearance. As far as I am aware it is a simple piece of software - other less sophisticated Message Boards / Forums have it. Now on to some new problems. I will have to double check this on other browsers, but using IE for a few days now I cannot use the quote function. If I go back in and edit it yes, I can use the quote. As of a day or so ago things have got worse, none of the 'rich text' functions are available to use, even when I try and use the 'full editor' option. So basically I am restricted to 'plain text'. Not a problem, just a suggestion. The Recent Topics list on the right hand side of the main forum screen is very useful and better with more topics showing, like it is at the moment. That was changed a few days ago. However it leaves a yawning gap immediately on the left under the forum index. One suggestion would ne to increase the size of the forum index text; it is quite small and not that easy to read, for example the Gay Asia section where a lot of text is crammed into a small space.

That six-day wait for them to process a visa in Bangkok is most inconvenient to everybody unless you actually live there. Knowing the system at the Myanmar Embassy in Bkk I was happy to pay 2,500 baht to a travel agent and leave it all up to him. I went away to Hua Hin for a few days and picked it up on my return. I would do something similar if I was intending to visit India, or any other country requiring a visa in my passport before arrival in the country. When I am in the UK, as I do not live in London and that's where most consulates and embassies are located, I always use a visa service. Two I have used are Travcour and Trailfinders. Both are based in London so all I have to do is post my passport and the relevant document and fee and it's returned asap. On more than one occasion I have been intending to visit two or even three countries on one trip, so provided you start the ball rolling in plenty of time, it doesn't matter if the whole process takes 2 or 3 weeks, just sit back and let them do all the hard work. I always use the most secure way of posting my passport, but even so I acknowledge it could go missing, but so far despite doing it many times it never has.

An interesting list, thanks for that link. I see the Naked Civil Servant was voted in at #4. What an excellent 'play' I was going to call it, but it's official designation is TV film apparently. THis was based on the life of Quentin Crisp, something of a 'gay icon'. Talk about a queer fish, he really was, as portrayed by the actor John Hurt, quite a remarkable man. Just as an aside, I take objection to this comment, taken from the link FH supplied. "Sport was excluded for similar reasons, and also because many events such as the 1966 World Cup, while important to those in England, would not matter to those in other areas of the United Kingdom." That's a pathetic load of PC rubbish. Yes, there is a section of the Scottish, Welsh and Ulster Irish population who would love to see an England team lose but my betting would be on almost everybody in the UK cheering England on in 1966. I think I am right in thinking there have been (soccer) World Cups when England failed to qualify but Scotland did. I would have supported Scotland as our UK representives so to turn that assertion quoted above on its head, the idea it 'wouldn't matter' to me is rubbish.

Assuming the person has healthy teeth and gums the mouth is a wonderful organ. When you consider all that gets thrown into it, it comes out smiling Taking a walk yesterday I suddenly sniffed the unmistakeable odour of stale alcohol, then I saw its source - a local off-licence (place that sells liquor) was taking a delivery and a long trail of liquid on the street told me some careless person had dropped a few bottles. Luckily that stale smell doesn't permeate people's mouths after a few alcoholic drinks, so FH is on to something there. Even the smell of cigarettes on a smoker's breath doesn't last too long. Other fairly trivial things that give a person a temporary case of bad breath are chocolate and peanuts. So when you consider what the mouth has to contend with, cases of genuine halitosis are rare and usually have an underlying cause.

That's my preference too, if I decided to stay in a hotel. The photos are really good, and the pool looks a winner. As I mentioned in another thread, next time I visit Hua Hin I will book a holiday rental. They are good value, all the decent ones have their own pool, and you'd get more privacy.

I can understand the reasoning, and those confident of their homosexuality may decide to use it as a strategy if he often has dealings with other people who may possibly become belligerent once they know his sexuality. I could be wrong but I do not think many reading this will have many dealings with people likely to start hurling derogatory insults at them. Rather than use the Q-word 'just in case' I would never want to have any dealings with such people in the first place. The producers of this programme were lucky. As FH desribes they latched on to an old familiar British expression and coupled it to a ground-breaking format, clearly meant to shock, and the catchy title just landed in their lap, so to speak. To my mind Queer as Folk is heir to the British tradition of Kitchen Sink Realism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_sink_realism

Not aware of that. Was it drinkable I wonder? Is that why the martini became popular? I've no idea as I seldom drink cocktails. Maybe because I'm a cheap Charlie and cocktails are pricey in bars and clubs, and I'm too lazy to make my own at home.

I agree. I thought it was very brave of them to tell their story.

Interesting times we live in. Britain's Sunday Telegraph's front page today told us all about 'The UKP 25,000 (US$ 40,000) baby trade'. An investigation by reporter Shekhar Bhatia revealed how more and more Britons are paying Indians to become surrogate mothers. What elevated this over and above what we might have expected to read was how some gay couples in Britain and other countries have used this route to achieve fatherhood. The first link at the bottom is the overall article from which I have made selective quotes. The second link deals solely with the case of the two British gay men mentioned in the quote, Stephen Hill and Johnathon Busher. I haven't quoted form the second one as it really needs to be read in its entirety to get a flavour of the ups and downs these guys have experienced. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9292343/Revealed-how-more-and-more-Britons-are-paying-Indian-women-to-become-surrogate-mothers.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9292553/Indian-surrogacy-industry-we-could-never-have-imagined-wed-be-parents.html