My Trip Across Asia

A Clean Sweep Across Asia
I left quietly for an 18-day tour of Asia's major cities on an early Friday morning. I had packed all my stuff into one haversack and that was the way I intended - travel light, real light.

Who Do I Have For Company On Board The Flights
My first stop was to HongKong. As it was with most of the window seats I have had on almost all the flights I took, I was always sitting next to some old blimp or bimb. Didn't strike up anything much and there were a couple of business-suit, snooty types. Wasn't the least bit interested.

Hongkong saw me holing up in the right location - Kowloon's shopping belt - Nathan Road but the wrong place - Chung King Mansion - home to Little India, Little Arab and Little Africa.

Worst, the last two nights I was itching so bad and I spotted this real humongous bed bug! Didn't help the counter was manned by an old China woman, the water heater didn't work half the time and I was actually running into the same foreigners I am trying to run away from back home.

BRRRRRR - It Is Cold AlRight
When I landed at the airport, it was between 10 to 15 degree Celsius. It was really cold and because it was nearing the end of winter, the people of HongKong were fashionably togged out in their winter wear. Just like in Taipei and Seoul.

I had a runny nose and my eyes smart and tear and redden most of the time.

California Fitness Saved Me From Most Third World-Like Unsanitary Conditions
If not for the presence of California Fitness in those cities I visited, I would not have visited the different parts of the countries I went or had refuge from the cold in their saunas and steam baths or their huge hotspring jaccuzis in Taipei and Seoul.

If not for California Fitness, I would not have had the benefit of a hot shower, clean toilet and other bathing facilities especially in those stinkholes in Hongkong and Bangkok.

Thank god for California Fitness!

HongKong
I did window-shopping, of course, along Nathan Road. Most swimming pools were closed because of the winter season but I had great fun just checking out their shopping malls and their eateries.

Food was expensive and disappointing - nothing to crow about. But they have very plush seats on some of their bus services. The public bathhouse was disappointing save for one which was so elegantly decked out, 10 times better than its Singapore counterpart. And a really swell-looking crowd. I found a HongKong dude at the gym and had fun with him!

Taipei
When I flew in from around the airport, I couldn't help noticing how countryside and villagy Taipei was. That was only because I havent got down to their city area. The area where I was residing was part of old Taipei. The streets are dirty and many stray dogs run around, shitting and peeing all over the shop.

But they have spruced up the area especially one particular street where it has become a mecca for the fashionable young. My hostel was made over and it is clean, modern and neat, looking and smelling almost like a motel.

And Taipei is open, modern and loud when it comes to communicating gay life on the streets. They have their parades and huge events are held almost every month. The Eslite bookstore openly displays gay nude magazines and in these magazines, you can order porno by the phone (though they failed to deliver to me on the two occasions I did).

Like Hongkong, Taipei is one huge winter fashion street. They have more products, more designs and more brands. You will be surprised their public toilets can sense you inside the cubicle and automatically opens up its bidet cover for you. You can also open and close the bidet covers by pressing on some panel control inside the cubicle. Seriously modern!

Back at the gym, there is open cavorting around the shower areas and it is really hot. I found myself fucking up a hot gorgeous Taiwanese hunk here. Like I was seized by the moment by this cute, small Hongkong dude with tight buns at the steam bath back in HongKong.

There is this ONE public bathhouse which is new and had such great facilities and fantastic patrons that I stayed over throughout the night. Hot fun!

I bought up magazines and their popular "Crystal Boys" home video series. Something Singapore will never allow and never have, despite all our claims of being First World, modern and being the heart of Asia - seriously erroneous claims if you ask me.

Food is fantastic here only because many of their snacks are hand-made and the chilli sauce or paste make all the difference in the food you eat. I did hair rebonding here for only S$32 (which could easily cost me $150-$200 back home in Singapore) under the mastership of an old Taiwanese lady.

You can find many of their old buildings here intact like the CKS Memorial Hall (impressive with three big halls standing on huge sprawling parade grounds and CKS's statue sitting amidst one of them) which has been renamed the Freedom Square and their National Library.

Seoul
Very very very cold. Clean and modern though they have conserved most of their traditional character. Just too many Western-style cafes like Starbucks, Tom & Toms and a host of others. Sometimes at the expense of their own traditional eating houses I thought. Visitors would like to sample Korean cuisines I thought, more than they would Western food.

I got to eat their noodles and gruel though. And the Korean guys at the gym are all hunks with fantastic physiques. You should see the ritual they go through in taking a shower, like the Japanese. Scrubbing, soaping, towelling, squatting and so on.

On the day I visited Rodeo Street on Apujeong, it snowed. At first, I thought it was dust falling from the sky but then I realised it was snow. Soon it morphed into a huge snowfall and it was just as well that I spent the night at a public bathhouse.

The Korean dudes are hot and they cavort openly. I couldn't really get to sleep as the moment I do, someone would sleep right next to me and want something - like sex, a blow-job, a whatever!

Really hot!

Beijing
By the time I arrived, I was almost numb from cold and because of the many cold drinks I have had, I was nursing a sore throat and cough. I visited Tian An Men and yes it is huge and impressive but I didn't get to see Mao's body at the masoleum. Wrong day and wrong time!

The Forbidden City was ok and there is this Hall of Mental Cultivation where the Emperor kept his wardrobe, ornaments and jewelleries. And these were for his "mental cultivation". But at the end of the signpost, he says that the secret is actually to desire less. Now he tells us after he has everything!

Like I remarked to Chet, an India-born Londoner/New Yorker, the palace looks like one huge social and recreational playground for the emperor minus the golf!

The second day I climbed the Great Wall and this isn't the touristy place that most visitors go. This is the 4-hour hike up and down the wall starting from Jin Shan (in Hebei province) all the way to Sima Tai (in Beijing). A climb that requires some endurance, some physical fitness and some getting used to the cold.

My legs went all hobbly and weak during and after the climb and today, I am still resting to recuperate.

Did some shopping at the Wangfujing and of course visited the only Calif gym here. But nights are too cold and all I could do was stay home and sleep between warm sheets.

BangKok
Visited old haunts for food and drinks and yes the gyms. Especially the one that wasn't open yet when I last visited. Some have been revamped and food prices seem to have gone up.

They have closed down the Best massage parlor they have and now there doesn't exactly seem to have one that matches the kinda service and massage the closed-down one offers.

But at least I still get to drink authentic lemongrass! And the massage is still way better than Singapore's.

I got to buy gay porno off the streets of Bangkok. All I need do was ask and I was led to the backshop where the pornos were DVD quality and crystal clear that come complete with movie picture cover jacket. Nothing surreptitious like here in Singapore. I also bought a few Asian gay movie titles. None which will ever be available here in Singapore!

Immigration Smart Alecky Hubris
Most departing airports would have screened and X-rayed our hand luggages thoroughly so that the arriving ones are spared the hassle. But it seems that the immigration here wanna waste their precious time and resources by making moi go for one more round here at our airport!

To top it all, they have this 6-page fold over travellers' note, demanding declaration of hard physical currency and bearer negotiable instruments that exceed SGD30 000. It was totally ridiculous as I think most travellers would have brought along their cheque books and write out the values then, rather than before the event. And it is totally stupid to ask from whom and to whom the CBNI are intended and to even ask for the addresses.

All this in the name of combating terrorism financing and money laundering!

No wonder most travllers were stumped!

Come April there will be a budget announcement and from what I understand, a major cabinet reshufflle. I can only wish that the portfolios of finance, education, home affairs, information and the arts and national development will see stiff-necks and bozos being booted out from office!

AMEN!