Press release & Program Phuket Pride 2011 ... with some comments ;-)!

Finally we have the program available in a convenient, accesible way... better late then never ;-)

First, below, you find the pressrelease of this years pride, in which is a summary of some of the stereotyping about the GLBT community by the general Thai public... it also explains why, also in general, Thai gays etc tend to behave the way we generally see them behave!
There's a lot to fight for here in Thailand, even though most farang, visitors/tourist who come to Thailand might think their GLBT counterparts here have a relative better acceptance here then in most of our home countries.
Though on the surface it may look that way, below that surface Thai society is not much different from most societies in the world.

There's much more to say about this, and maybe we will re-post the weblog-entry we made early December .... But first this years statement!;-)


The program of the Phuket Pride is relative quite one-sided... most find it difficult to speak out about GLBT rights, etc. ... its not the most Thai thing to do... but when aroused, Thai can be very strong-headed.
The only thing we farang can do, is observe and watch how the general GLBT situation and the Pride develops....
We may be able to support BUT its the Thai GLBT community which has to do it, in the way they think best.

To give them more power to dtake these steps, we can only support them, make them feel not alone. Show them how in all our respective countries our GLBT community has developed, for better or for worse, so they can learn from us ... and as such, who knows, in the end Thai society as a whole might benefit from the lessons we all learned elsewhere and by doing so same time finding a Thai solution to a lot of the GLBT issues.
A very interesting progress to witness... and as such our presence and support will be needed, how much comments we might have about how they go about things.

As a consequence we at Backstage have the intention to facilitate some discussions and lectures during the next Gay Pride, if the community appreciates and desires it.... this 2011 Pride was somewhat too early for us in that respect so we did the next best thing by sponsoring this years Pride.

The few activities we organize, do this year, are shown on the left hand of the program as shown below.

One thing is for sure though THAI KNOW HOW TO PARTY!! So enjoy this years Pride to the fullest,
but when here, take time to talk to fellow GLBT Thai... might be quite enlightning ;-)



The Pride Parade 2011

Ofcourse what's a Pride without a Parade in which the GLBT community shows the outside world that they are proud to be who they are, when they can dress up, party and make fun and show in their respective ways that they are proud to be gay!

For the first time we as Backstage will do our utmost best to show a somewhat decent presence in this Parade ... and am very curious how it will look like, lol, because 'we' farang will only be present as 'decoration', as attributions to what our Thai friends feel they can and want to express!


Let us know, farang or Thai, about your experiences of this years pride, we will happily share them ;-)

Orange Gay Cruise, with a fun but windy, somewhat stormy end, part 4 !

Above: Sun is setting over Chalong Harbour, which due to a very unusual strong, stormy wind, was unusually restless. But the sunset looked wonderfull ;-)

Below: Due to this stormy weather the Captain decided that it was not safe for our boat Sai Mai to land in dock and instead he decided to let the Sai Mai stay ofshore and bring us all to shore in the dingy of the boat in which we allso landed on Nui Beach earlier that day .... wwhen all together on land again we heard that the benjamin of our group, Rin, got seasick while ferrying back to land... though we al felt sorry for his plight we also had to smile because of it


Below: As it should be, the organiser(s) responsible for this succesfull cruise, though with a somewhat stormy but fun carnaval like ending, left the ship last .... here we arrive, al feeling pretty dandy and excited near the spot were we all went on steady land again ;-)


Above: The complete Orange Gay Cruise group together for the closing group picture:
from left to right: Egbert (known to our Thai friends as Peter, Alberto, Teacher (nickname), Tu, Somchai, Neet, also known as Oei, sandy, Andreas, Kik, Rin, yours truly Rob, ... and Zhou!

After the cruise we were all brought back to the Backstage were we arrived safe and sound around 7 pm, 11 hours after we left The Backstage..... were we closed of with The Orange Party and, ofcourse a very good meal with, ofocurse some big friend fish ;-)
But well, thats the next report!

When you like to see more or al the pictures made during this cruise, visit our facebook-page!

Orange Gay Cruis, fashionable & jummy, part 3 !

Left: Kik, as a true Orange Queen, with yours truly, in indeed in orange speedo ;-) posing in the pleasant sun making fun while waiting for lunch to be served.


Below: The cook, who prepared all the food on board fresh from her kitchen, or "kombuis" as we say in Dutch, is also busy laying the table so we can finally sit down to enjoy her more then excellent cooking.



Left: Egbert looks very pleased at the food layed out for him...but then we have to say, it also smelled wonderfull, so we were more then happy that once started we all had to agree that the food tasted at least as good as it smelled and tasted. Our lunch exsisted of fried shrimp and chicken, seafood-vegetable soup, stirfried vegetables with pineapple and shrimp, friend rice with seafood, fruits, cucumber and steamed white rice plus ofcourse whatever we wanted to drink with it.


Left (again): If not enough, after lunch, and some more sailing the waters on the west coast of Phuket but same time also slowly on the way back to Chalong Harbour, snacks were served to go with, again all the drinks we liked...by the way, once we were on board all those drinks were at available to us, like beer, gin, vodka, red & white wine, whiskey..whatever we liked but also coffee & tea ofcourse as well as plain water ;-) All in all we could not complain about anything, and to know that complaining is a favorite hobby of the Dutch .... joking ;-)

Orange Gay Cruis, a jummy affair part 2 !

Right: While leaving the harboour of Chalong in the moring, we were, as told in "part 1" served an elaborate breakfast. Here Kik (on the right) and me ready for enjoying this first meal of the day.



Below: But ofcourse we all did and so here a picture of our cruise-group, while a picture is being taken, with the coastline of Phuket gliding by ;-)




Left: Ofocurse a boat continues while one eats..but afterwards some of us wanted to stand in the wind, here you see Somchai, Rin and yours truly.








Below: After we rounded the corner of the outcrop of the iland as seen in the pic above, we bumped into a very nice spot, which we managed to identify as Nui Beach...and as you can see, we were the only ones, at least approaching from the sea. When we landen we discovered a couple of people, but not more then that, which gave Nui Beach a very attractive and nostalgic atmosphere we all enjoyed , maybe too much ;-)

Orange Gay Cruise a wonderfull succes! Part 1 !

The Sai Mai, our ship for this little private and exclusive Orange Gay Cruise we organised on the 31st as part of celebrating the birthday of Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.... as is the custom of yours truly due to the allways excellent weather here on Phuket ;-)

Same time we used it also to say thanks to people who helped us with moving and with a serious emergency to help a dear friend of ours, Zhou.
The whole combination turned this day in a wonderfull experience which energized all who took part!

Though we say it ourselfs, it was truly an exclusive experience, a real private cruise with all the fascilities and relaxation one could wish for!

We started the cruise around 9 am in the morning when the Sai Mai left the port of Chalong.... while doing so all of us were served a fresh made American Breakfast with all the trimmings .. and O, I enjoyed the crispy warm bacon. All prepared by the cook which was available to us the whole day :-)

After breakfast ofocurse followed lunch, which was above expectations, so specially our Thai friends were very happy with that!
(Thai are very critical about their food)

By the Way, from departure to debarking around 6.30 pm (!) we could use all fascilities on board, including the 3 cabins with private showers/bathrooms/toilets. But also the very well equiped bar which served all the drinks we liked, alcoholic as well as non alcoholic, including nice South African wines ;-)

Left:: Here we bring a toast on HM the Queen on her good health and a happy birthday!






Ofcourse we did much more then just cruise and drink and eat!



Right: Kik and me, on Nui Beach!

This beach is very difficult to get to and is very privatly located on main iland Phuket.. we were one of the very few people there and the only ship in the bay.. it gave us a feeling not only of exclusivity but also how the beached of the iland must have looked like between 20 and 40 years ago ;-)


Soon we publish more about the cruise and the Orange party following it BUT if you can not wait, then we recoomend to surve to
www.facebook.com/BackstageVIP were you can find all the pics of the cruise as well as the party ;-)