daydreamer

From what I have read, there have been peace talks between the Iranian Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff in the past 36 hours. The denial of any talks is coming from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and possibly other top officials loyal to the Supreme Leader. Ghalibaf is the speaker of the Iranian parliament, and a staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Ghalibaf is a mouthpiece for the IRGC. President Trump was on the US evening news just an hour ago saying they have been talking, and this agreement included in the talks would involve a change of the current Iranian government. So yes, both sides are correct. Talks are happening, just not with the Islamic regime's hardliners that remain alive. Tehran is officially denying any talks, because the few remaining top officials that are loyal to the Supreme Leader cannot perceive an Iranian government that does not include them. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/surprise-us-talks-with-irans-fractured-leadership-offer-uncertain-path-out-of-conflict https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/23/politics/trump-shift-iran-talks

Have you seen something in the news that Vietnam has found a source of jet fuel to cover the anticipated shortage for April? Just wondering, I haven't read anything yet about that.

@PeterRS is correct, a fuel shortage as a consequence of war is excluded from travel insurance coverage. I checked Google, and here is the AI response below. Since this is considered an act of war, travel insurance is useless if the Vietnam flight is cancelled. The article does say a "cancel for any reason" policy would pay, however the OP doesn't intend to cancel his trip, so this would be useless as well for the Vietnam flight. A "cancel for any reason" policy is used to cancel an entire trip, and often a trip must be cancelled at least 48 hours prior to departure for the insurance company to pay a claim.

I agree, it appears that several Asian countries are either curtailing fuel exports or banning them entirely. Thailand's jet fuel forecast doesn't look as dire as that of Vietnam, beginning next week. This article linked below says Vietnam imports more than 60% of their jet fuel from Thailand and China (until now). They also buy jet fuel from Singapore, but those shipments have been reduced. I don't see any country in that area that is willing to supply the amount of jet fuel Vietnam will be trying to purchase for Vietnam airlines to continue flights uninterrupted in April. I wish you luck If you decide to travel to Vietnam next month. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnam-braces-flight-cuts-april-after-china-thailand-ban-jet-fuel-exports-2026-03-16/

Your concern about possibly missing your connection in Incheon is certainly warranted, given the expected jet fuel shortage in Vietnam beginning next week. Some articles speak of impending jet fuel shortages, and others reference expected kerosene shortages in Vietnam, but both fuels are nearly identical. In fact, jet fuel is refined kerosene. Jet fuel A is what the commercial airlines and military aircraft use. It is ultra-clean kerosene, with an anti-freezing agent blended into it, to prevent any traces of water in the fuel from freezing at high altitude, and possibly blocking fuel lines. Water can form in fuel tanks from condensation, due to temperature variations. If your Vietnam segment can be cancelled with a refund, I would skip Saigon for this trip, and plan to stay the extra five nights in Thailand instead. Of course, that would be dependent on the availability of a flight from Bangkok to Incheon.

It may be "nothing" to you, but it's "something" to some of us who have met or known some of the people involved, and have been customers of the businesses over the years that are mentioned in the articles. This web of events involved the deaths of two investors and the imprisonment of one of the owners, so yes, it is something. The businesses are Boyz, Boyz, Boyz, the two former Splash and Throb bars, the Ambiance and Copa hotels, and Copa Massage, all in Boyztown. All of these businesses are mentioned in the articles linked above, although some of them are not mentioned by name.

After reading the articles in the links I posted, I realized that a good part of the story is missing, so it might not make sense to readers unfamiliar with the entire story line. The background of the story from the beginning is below, with the events as they played out, starting in 1987. Note that this information is available online. Remember, this article was written in 2003, so much has changed since then. The article copied below was published in the now defunct Scottish newspaper - The Sunday Herald: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday Herald - 5 October 2003 The strange tale of transvestites, crooked cops, a mutilated body and two Scots known as the Gay McMafia By Neil Mackay Investigations Editor Sunday Herald It's got it all: transvestites, Thai gay clubs, crooked cops, drug-dealing, a burned and butchered body in a hotel room, allegations of con-tricks on a massive scale, a campaigning Scots journalist hounded by the law and slap bang in the middle of the whole tawdry affair is a pair of Scots businessmen known in Thailand as the Gay McMafia. The story begins in 1987 with the misappropriation of almost a quarter of a million pounds from a property company in Edinburgh called Teague Homes Ltd. The two men now at the centre of the so-called Gay McMafia story in Thailand were then senior figures in the company. Gordon May, from Edinburgh, was a director and James Lumsden, from Falkirk, was the company secretary. Both are now big players in Thailand's gay sex tourism industry and Lumsden is often seen cutting a swathe in a stunning array of frocks and blonde wigs. After the pair left Teague Homes, the firm's annual report noted: "The directors discovered that Mr G May had misappropriated £243,438 from the company fund in collusion with one of the company's legal advisors [sic] in contraven­tion of the Companies Act 1985." May was subsequently charged with fraud but later acquitted. May and Lumsden later cropped up in a report ordered by Sir William Sutherland, a former chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, which investigated claims that senior members of the Scottish judiciary and prosecutors had been blackmailed into dropping criminal cases because of links to the gay community. May and Lumsden then moved to Thailand. A check on the records of the company they set up there, Bodishorn Ltd, shows they bought the firm for around 11 million Thai baht, around £240,000, during the same period that the funds went missing from Teague Homes. Business boomed in Thailand for the pair. They set up a gay club called "Boyz, Boyz, Boyz" in the resort of Pattaya some 100 miles from Bangkok. Pattaya is one of those resorts with an anything-goes reputation. Like Tijuana in Mexico, or Falaraki in the Med, its claim to fame is sex, drink, drugs and porn. While Pattaya is liberal and free-and-easy on the surface, it has, like Tijuana and Falaraki, a dangerous and violent flipside that tourists seldom see. In 1990, Ian MacDonald, a 28-year-old from a wealthy Inverness family and a major investor in "Boyz, Boyz, Boyz", was found burned to death in the Ambiance Hotel in Pattaya, which is co-owned by Lumsden and May. The blaze was confined to the room MacDonald died in and the fingers of both his hands had been hacked off. MacDonald's mother, Eileen has called on Thai police to re-open the inquiry into her son’s death. MacDonald paid May and Lumsden £250,000 to go into partnership with them. Before he died he wrote a will leaving all his shares to the Bodishorn company to a Thai man called Supan Kampanya. May and Lumsden witnessed the will. In an afadavit from Eileen signed on August 24, 2003 she says that Supan Kampanya was also a witness to the will. As Kampanya was the major beneficiary of MacDonald's estate, she says, his role as witness makes the will invalid. Eileen also states in her affidavit: "I am told also that Kampanya is or was the boyfriend of Gordon May ... I believe that Kampanya received no proceeds of the estate and that my son's investment of £250,000 was kept by the principal persons in a company known as Bodishorn." Eileen said: "It's about time the truth was known about how Ian died. I'm traumatised every time the case is mentioned. The Thai police have been told by my lawyers to investigate the case thoroughly because I believe Ian was the victim of foul play. I want justice for my son, then I can get on with my life once and for all." Her partner, Graeme MacBean, said: "Thai­land has a notoriously corrupt police force and there may have been a cover-up." He said that he did not believe that Ian's death was a cover-up: "Someone tortured and killed him in that fire. We want to know who." Lumsden and May were arrested and quizzed, but both were released after several days. The police later filed a report on the fatal fire stamping the case "accidental". Then in April 1996, Thaveepan Wuthisri, a 21-year-old male go-go dancer at "Boyz, Boyz, Boyz" was charged with the murder of a Swedish tourist called Erik Bohman. The Swede had arrived in Pattaya to invest in property and gay nightclubs. Police said Wuthisri was in the pay of foreign businessmen and Wuthisri claimed they were Danish and German. The biggest controversy surrounding Lumsden and May began around the same time as the death of Erik Bohman. In 1996, a successful Halifax businessman called Kevin Quill met Lumsden and May and decided to leave England, where he had three bars, two discos and a hotel, in order to shift his hospitality business to Pattaya, leaving his two teenage children behind in the UK. Quill was more than flash with his cash. He bought a house with a pool and two apartments, which he rented out, and a penthouse for himself. Quill entered into a 50-50 partnership with Lumsden and May, spending around £500,000 on premises and refurbishment. When Quill says that "I must have left my brains behind in England", he isn't far from the truth. He readily agreed when May suggested that he fork out hefty bribes to a Pattaya police sergeant "to take care of all future problems". He even went along with Lumsden and May when they said he should put his Mercedes in their names as he didn't have a work permit. Quill even gave Lumsden an interest-free loan of around £20,000 to buy a house, and paid the police sergeant he had already bribed another lump sum for the funeral of his wife, a mobile phone and a gold Rolex. Things started to go awry when Quill suggested an overhaul of the company, saying he was concerned about the number of Thai friends of Lumsden and May working for the firm. Not long after, he was beaten up in the street by market traders, and then in September 2000, his penthouse was raided by police from the Foreign Crime Reporting Co-operation Centre searching for bank books and financial documents. The police sergeant who'd already been bribed by Quill then returned saying another lump sum would smooth things over, but Quill refused. In October that year he was about to return to the UK for a brief visit, and he foolishly decided to take 170 cartons of cigarettes back to Britain with him. He ordered them from May. May arrived at the Ambiance with an immigration police officer from Bangkok and delivered the goods. Five minutes after leaving the hotel, Quill's car was stopped. In one packet officers found 100 amphetamine tablets, or "yaa baa" tablets as they are known in Thai. Quill was soon in the notorious Chon Buri Prison on remand. Drugs charges don't usually come with a slap on the wrist in Thai courts. Smugglers can find themselves facing a firing squad or, at the very least, a lengthy stretch in a jail like Bangkwang Prison - the so-called Bangkok Hilton. A number of foreign nationals have been executed in recent years in Thailand for drug offences. Documents signed by Deryck Fisher of the British Embassy in Bangkok show that the highest levels of both British and Thai officialdom believed Quill was set up. One letter from Fisher reads: "I accompanied Mr Kevin Quill ... to a meeting with Lt Gen Nopadol Somboonsub, police assistant commissioner-general ... Nopadol was in possession of the case documents and video of Kevin Quill's arrest. He said that having reviewed the evidence he believed that Kevin Quill had been framed and that there was no substance to the allegations against him. He offered an apology on behalf of the police, he further instructed the head of Chonburi Police Division to urgently investigate the matter." One of the arresting officers was even caught on tape saying: "No more. Once I have enough money I will not do this again." Nevertheless, Quill served six months on remand and was then sentenced to six years in prison on the drug charges. He is now on bail pending appeal. Quill cannot leave Thailand. While he was in prison, his computer containing all his business ownership records was wiped clean, and around £50,000 entrusted by Quill to Lumsden and May for defence costs vanished. It is now that Andrew Drummond comes on the scene. He is an ex-pat investigative reporter originally from East Craigs in Edinburgh who began looking into the Quill case. His investigations, carried in the Bangkok Post, revealed that Lumsden and May began stripping Quill's assets almost as soon as their one-time friend was swallowed up in the prison system. As Drummond wrote: "First went his luxury penthouse apartment ... then his Mercedes. Finally went his company which owned two bars and a mini-hotel. Lumsden removed him as director and appointed May." Drummond also wrote that when police stopped Quill and searched him for drugs "no other packets of cigarettes were opened, suggesting police knew immediately where to look". He discovered that the tip-off which led to Quill's arrest "came from within the Ambiance Hotel". While on bail pending appeal, Quill com­plained to the police and Lumsden and May were charged but the charges were dropped. At a meeting brokered by police Quill was told that if he dropped the charges he would get his property back. Quill said he had no alternative but to agree, even though he was at least £100,000 in cash out of pocket. Quill told the Sunday Herald: "Lumsden and May were very plausible, but I was very wrong about them. The time I served in jail was exactly like what you'd imagine it to be like in a Thai jail. It was very violent, there were gangs and the cell I was in was just 10 metres square but it held 94 men. "The violence was brutal. You'd see one guy on the floor being attacked by 30 other men. There was no fresh water and a few people died in the prison while I was there." Drummond filed a copy of his investigation into the bizarre saga, which was headlined "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Boyz", to the English language newspaper The Bangkok Post. He was then hit with a defamation writ for alleging that Quill had been set up and then asset stripped by Lumsden and May. Last week after a court battle, he was given a suspended jail sentence for libel. After the judgment, Drummond was threatened with deportation, but his lawyers managed to put in a bid for an appeal. Drummond says: "I have been here for 15 years but now I may be deported from a country which I have enjoyed, not least because of its light-hearted and gentle people. If this happens I lose my home, girlfriend and partner of 15 years and, of course, my job." The finding against Drummond has rocked Quill. "Andrew reported the facts," Quill said. "He provided evidence to back up what he was saying and I'm at a loss to understand the judge's decision. I gave evidence for him as well and produced documents to corroborate what I was saying. I'm just astonished. It beggars belief. I was sure that my appeal would be successful until I saw what happened to Andrew in court, now I'm just frightened. This just wouldn't and couldn't happen in the UK. There are rich pickings to be made in this country through exploiting gullible foreigners." Quill says his life was threatened when he left jail and a man, who was found with photos of him and a map of his house, was later given a suspended jail sentence this year. Armed police protected him for a while. Quill has also made a complaint to the police about an alleged assault on him by Lumsden two months ago. Quill spotted Lumsden and May sitting at a bar with a police officer he believes is in their pay. He took photos of the three, he says, to show that "they were one big happy family". According to Quill, Lumsden dashed over to him and assaulted him. He's been told the case is now with the prosecuting authorities. May is now in Canada. On Friday, the Sunday Herald learned that Lumsden had flown from Bangkok and made his way back to his mother's house in Falkirk. By the time the Sunday Herald arrived in Falkirk, Lumsden had gone. A relative said he'd just left on a plane ... for Canada.

I remember the Lavender Lanna tragedy in Chiang Mai, but the reference to Andrew Drummond is about a different incident, that Andrew Drummond, a British journalist, published in 2010. There was no suicide involved in this case. Due to libel laws, I will say no more. I am only providing links to articles that are found on the internet, available to anyone. https://www.andrew-drummond.news/lock-stock-and-two-smoking-boyz-judgmen/ https://www.tomminogue.com/tom/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lock-Stock-And-Two-Smoking-Boyz-The-Judgment.pdf

I think the Andrew Drummond reference that @thaiophilus mentioned suggests it was about a certain famous bar in Pattaya.

I just recently visited Mae Kampong village, in January. If you drive, go early in the day, so you can find a parking spot. Parking is very limited in the small village. It's an easy drive to Mae Kampong from Chiang Mai, and it can be combined with a stop at the San Kamphaeng hot springs, as it's in the same direction from Chiang Mai.

Here's a link to an article from May 2002. It is a page from the Bangkok Eyes website, and it has a lot of info on the history of Silom Soi 4, including the Rome Club. http://www.bangkokeyes.com/mapkato.html

There are a few clubs in Bangkok and Pattaya that currently use the word Disco or Discotheque in their name. The second photo below shows the Lucifer Disko sign on Walking Street in Pattaya. Just tell your friend that you remember the New Screw Boys A Go Go Bar & Discotheque.

JJ is also shown in the recent One Spa feed:

From my experience, the Asian airlines do a good job taking care of their passengers when there are unforeseen delays. I was on a Philippine Airlines flight once, transiting Manila, where the aircraft broke. The airline gave all the passengers overnight accommodation and meal vouchers in the historic five star Manila Hotel. Another time I was on a China Airlines (Taiwan) flight enroute to Thailand. Shortly after landing in Taipei, the airport closed due to an approaching typhoon. China Airlines put us up overnight in a very nice hotel in Taipei, and arranged a Chinese dinner at the hotel for all the inconvenienced passengers.

@jimmie50 , if your condo is close to Asoke BTS station, you might find it faster and easier to use the MRT subway from Sukhumvit station to Silom station, than traveling by BTS. The MRT would be a direct shot on one train, with no transfer required. Sukhumvit MRT and Asoke BTS stations are close together. Both stations are adjacent to Terminal 21 Asoke. That way you would avoid the masses of people transferring trains at Siam BTS station during the busy parts of the day, and avoid waiting to board a second train. Another advantage of the MRT is the stations and platforms are much cooler, being located underground, a bonus during the hot season. Silom MRT and Sala Daeng BTS stations are connected by a walkway.