Gay Life in Bhutan

A story about gay Bhutan is a modest one. There is no visible gay presence, no venues and one organization called Rainbow Bhutan that gently offers education and compassion to inquiring minds in this mountainous society. It is a story of slow determination and courageous commitment that has arisen from the personal lives of a few local Bhutanese gay people.

Bagan Photo Gallery 2016-1

Bagan is an ancient city located in central Burma/Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 4,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries

Gay Life in East Timor 2016

With only half an island that’s shared with homophobic Indonesia to the west, tiny Timor Leste has a giant statue of Christ at the east end of the island on a sacred hill. (98% are Roman Catholic) What chances are there of finding a lively LGBT community in this remote mostly ignored nation of just

Inside Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar

By Lila Seidman June 3, 2016   At the only gay bar in the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, Zorig Alima tells me he’s a “penis shaman.” The proprietor of d.d/h.z says he can confidently predict men’s penis sizes and sexual predilections. He gives my companion a disputable “reading,” and dashes away

Burma, Rangoon 2 Random Images

More images of Rangoon/Yangon, the country’s former capital and largest city. The new capital is called Naypyidaw, 250 mles north of Rangoon, built in 2006. General elections in Myanmar in November 2015 were won by the National League for Democracy, the first free election in fifty years. The leader is Aung San Suu Kyi.  

Burma, Mandalay: Inwa, Bagaya Kyaung Monastery

The monastery is about eleven miles south of Mandalay city. The religious lecture hall in the eastern side of the monastery has a seven-tiered roof. The monastery was built on 267 teak posts. The monastery is (118) feet long and (103) feet wide. The entire monastery is decorated with carvings. floral arabesques, ornamentation of curved

Burma, Bagan Temples, Shrines and Stupas 1

Bagan, one of  the world’s wonder places with it enormous 26-square mile plain where more than 2000 temples, shrines and stupas still stand, many from the tenth century. It is 120 miles south of Mandalay and is accessed by boat, roadway and air. The variety of structures, the designs and the craftsmanship are hard take

Burma, Bagan Temples, Shrines and Stupas 2

More images from Bagan, one of  the world’s wonder places with it enormous 26-square mile plain where more than 2000 temples, shrines and stupas still stand, many from the tenth century. It is 120 miles south of Mandalay and is accessed by boat, roadway and air. The variety of structures, the designs and the craftsmanship

Road Trip from Bagan to Inle Lake

The drive from Bagan to Inle Lake is an 8-hour adventure in rural Burma, full of roadside attractions including a tacky lunch stop, road repairs, overloaded cargo trucks, wandering animals, dense forests, winding mountain roads, death-defying truck drivers, a broken van spring (ours), police checkpoints…and finally into Inle Lake and the town of Naungshwe on

Burma, Inle Lake Views 1

Inle Lake is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide. It is the largest fresh water lake in the country, serves as home to thousands of fisher-folks and farmers, monks, artisans and crafts people, families with children/students as well as one of Burma’s main tourist destinations. The diversity of sights more than satisfies any visitor

Burma, Inle Lake Views 2

More views of Inle Lake, the largest fresh water lake in the country. It serves as home to thousands of fisher-folks and farmers, monks, artisans and crafts people, families with children/students as well as one of Burma’s main tourist destinations. The diversity of sights more than satisfies any visitor from huge sprawling merchandise markets, silversmith

Gay Hong Kong Update 2015

LGBT Hong Kong today is alive and well with new faces, venues and activities as it adapts to Chinese rule since 1997. The Pink Dot gay festival and the LGBT film festival were undisturbed during the week of my visit.   By Richard Ammon GlobalGayz.com October 2015   Despite the tension with Beijing, Hong Kong

Gay Life in East Timor 2015

 Introduction East Timor (Timor L’este) is unique in southeast Asia–it is Roman Catholic, standing nearly alone among thousands of Islamic Indonesian islands. But such a distinction does not make it any easier for LGBT citizens to live their personal lives. Male and female homosexuality in East Timor is legal. There was a clause against discrimination

Gay Life in North Korea

There is such fear and secrecy and propaganda about many aspects of North Korea that it’s difficult to find anything reliable about everyday life there–and doubly so about homosexuality. The concept of same-sex attraction or ‘Gay Life in North Korea’ hardly exists in the minds of people. Even with people who feel this attraction, there is ignorance about what it means or how it can be expressed in behavior.