I am Thompson Boy

+ Myanmar.

Done, + Egypt = 45 countries. What's next in the horizon: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Iran, Oman, Sudan, Afghanistan. Trans-Siberian? China and Russia Northern Lights/Iceland?

2016, was bad but could have been better. 2017 promises not as much but just slightly better.

I have been going around, talking about this and that about blogs with my son of late and it seems quite funny that one of the things that connected us together at the beginning were our blogs. We have spent years of our lives in the same circle but never actually having met each another. Till now that is. But the question remains, why do we like to write? Why is it as gay men, we have this desire in all of us to express ourselves be it love, hate, happiness, sadness, hopes and fears, ambitions and heart-ache? Do we secretly hope that somewhere out there, someone will read it and connect to us? Is it because it helps and make the hard times better once expressed out in words and paragraphs? Or is it because that's the only we know how? Whatever it is, writing certainly makes good reading materials esp when you look back and cringe at the stuff expressed and go - ugh!

One day as I glanced around the room where I have my weekly German language class, I couldn’t help but wondered why this group of people is learning arguably one of the hardest languages on earth. I don’t think it’s that difficult anymore but people make jokes about how life is too short to learn German. Today is week 10 and by now I already know most of my classmates and either they are married to Germans or Austrians or currently dating one or the other. This brings me back to when first I registered for the class, one of the question asked was ‘Warum lernen Sie Deutsch?’ I joked – ‘Für Spaß!’ and the teacher laughed.  What’s not to believe? After all I can’t be one of the many people here learning out of love now, can I? But I did and not too long ago. This goes back to one and half years ago when I decided to take one year off traveling the world. Like many Asians before me, I was scheduled to visit München and skip on Berlin when fate decides to mess around with me a li...

My goal for this year 1. Do well in my job, seize the day 2. Continue to learn and promote my content 3. Go back to class 4. Join the gym 5. Come out to my parents - the final frontier 6. Continue to learn about everything and be patient, be kind and be understanding

It's not conventional. Then again everything about you is anything but conventional. There is something deeper and darker behind the veneer of a beautiful smile that I first saw so many moons ago in Berlin. I’ve asked myself then who is that beautiful person? But like many guys before you, I just walked away feeling undeserving of anything seemingly better than I am. And I like it that you are deeper than what you appeared to be. You are too beautiful for words, not perfect but beautiful to me. But who would have thought? Here we are many months later, talking, gotten to know each another better and then what? What do I want from you? Maybe a lot more than what you can offer. I tried for months to understand this arrangement. We are not dating and don’t get me wrong, I am not even rushing for a boyfriend or a relationship nor am I so worried about putting a status or label to something but this is new territory for me. We are friends but then again being this far apart...

The break that I took from writing and also from just being with anyone other than my friends and sexual encounters have served me well. It gave me time to think and also see how other's are doing and sometimes I wish I could bitch slap the hell out of some people. Esp gay people and their indulgence in the ugly art of self pity. And all because of one or two episodes of heartbreak and they so called lost the love of their life. Or will never find love again. This coupled with carefully selected soundtrack and song. Anyone who uses that term to begin with will spell trouble. Need to get those silly romantic storybook notion slapped out of their head. Relationships can be fun but it's not an easy thing. Sometimes it work, sometimes it doesn't. I have yet to encounter any that is working for myself but I don't go around feeling sorry for myself that I lost my one great love thinking that it would never happen again. What I do want to never happen again is probably some ...

I didn't know I was skinny-fat until my Russian boyfriend told me so. Actually, I didn't even know that was a thing until he told me so. I did, however, suspect something was wrong with my body the first night I stayed over his house. I went to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and ran into his roommate, Julio. I don't remember what he said, but I remember where he looked. He seemed to direct his entire conversation--and disgust--at my exposed midsection. Also known as my love handles. Julio (gay) and my boyfriend both possess the envious V-shape: broad shoulders narrowing down to a waist that hasn't smelled a carb in years. Their arms are huge, their chests are cut, their abs are visibly defined. I went into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror. Sure, I was a professional dancer, and I did yoga, and went running, and watched what I ate. And yes, I was probably in pretty good shape. But I didn't look good enough. http://www.theatlant...

I started out thinking that the year would be long but like everything else that I have learnt in life - time passes really fast and before you knew it, it would be over. And now it's more than over. Like Carrie said once in SATC, it's so over that we need a new word for over. Who knew that I would be forever changed by the experience that I had? Well...everyone knew it except for me. I wasn't hoping for much other than seeing some of the places that I only dreamed about in the past and of course there's always the fear of disappointment when things don't happen - so no expectations, no disappointment. Well, besides seeing and experiencing alot, I believe now my outlook, objectives and views in life is completely changed. There were a series of changes before and upon my return home - I've found love, lost it, since then I have left home again and now working in Singapore. It's not exactly the most exotic place on earth but it's a really big step for...

Note: This was written more than a year ago - how time flies! Current Location: on the train heading towards Zagreb, Croatia Yes, you would be surprised that I am not talking about Paris or London or anything like that. In any case, I have yet to get myself there to Paris so I wouldn't know but I have a feeling while I might enjoy these great cities in the western part of Europe, one city will remain enchanting to me and that is Budapest. Learning to pronounce the name itself is already beautiful - 'pest' is not actually pest but pesh. I also learnt that it is basically two city called Buda and Pest coming together but divided by a beautiful river called Danube - pronounced as 'danoob' and not 'danubeh'. I arrived in Pest late in the evening after a long drive from Cluj due to failing to secure any earlier tickets at all thanks to a rather famous music festival called Sziget - not that I know anything about it but that hiked up the prices of the dorm b...

Current Location: on the train heading towards Zagreb, Croatia When I started planning for my trip to Romania, I was very clear about not missing out on a vampire hunt - mainly to look out for places that were associated with Bram Stoker's Dracula because it was one of my favourite when I was a kid. There was a couple of castles that were either inspired the classic or was directly associated with the real person behind the story but frankly speaking it was all a little disappointing because of the circus surrounding it. Nevertheless I wasn't going to be persuaded to leave Transylvania without experiencing any form of the legend. So from Sofia I made my way to the capital city of Romania in Bucharest and without prior knowledge of the city, I was happy to learn about it's turbulent past, how the kingdoms/districts come together and of course you cannot escape the communist past. Though it was short, the city left some impressions on me and the men, I have to say are ra...

Current Location: Cluj Napaco, Romania So it was my last day in Sofia, never in my life I'd imagine that I will be there, I don't even know anything about this country. From 4 days, it's been extended to more than a week. I was sad and almost teary eyed to leave all the nice people and this beautiful country behind. And to think that I could have missed all this if I stay put where I was. I could have easily be spending my life inside four walls, typing away on my computer, online shopping and then beer o'clock and planning yet another short trip to compensate for long term employment suffering and boredom. Is that really life? Anyway, I digress - the city was ok though most people don't think too much about it - I like it because it's small and has tons of parks. I also managed to go up to the mountains and visited the Stara Planina which was nice and very secluded. Hiked for two hours with my 10kg backpack alone with virtually no one around will definitely...

Current Location: Village of Valenii, Mures County, Romania Oh my God, time flies and the last entry on my blog was on Santorini and that's like a few weeks ago. Since then I have travelled to Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and now currently in Romania. A lot of 'nia's yes. What have I been doing and up to? When I started this trip I thought that I will be having the luxury of time and of course plenty of boredom as demonstrated on my 8 hours ferry ride but after that it was just one bus to another van to another border crossing to I don't know what else. Many adventures I can assure you but to go into the details, I will probably need forever and yet I feel really bad if I have forgotten any details which I am sure I will after time. There were days at night that I think to myself and imagined how will life be on the road, what kind of adventures will I encounter and things that are happening is beyond my imagination. Partly sometimes when you are on the road, you e...

Current Location: Middle of Aegen Sea heading to Pireas Port, Greece So Santorini came and gone with just a blink of an eye. I don't really don't know what to say about the whole experience, there are plenty of highs and then some lows and I am still deciding if that place is worth the hype at all. Everyone I knew seemed to have something to say about that place - go this place, eat that, take this tour, don't forget to go to another island etc etc and not being cocky and all, I took none of it because most of it just cost me more money and more importantly time that I don't have in the Schengen area. I am trying to get out of Greece as soon as possible and even that I ended up wasting one day in traveling time. My next stop will be Albania and I can't wait to get back to normal prices even though I am still trying to figure out how I will be doing this since I don't have any Leks (Alabanian currency). Anyway enough about Albania already, going back to Thira...

Current Location: Middle of Aegen Sea heading to Santorini, Greece What can I say, it's amazing feeling to be on my way to visit one of the world's most popular island, Santorini that appeared in virtually almost every damn bucket and top 10/20/50 must see/visit/romantic/expensive list ever out there. The truth of the matter is that while you only see the sea-scapes and the blue top white street postcard perfect pictures, someone in the process somehow forgotten to mention that getting there is less than romantic. First thing first, you need to figure out your options between taking a ferry (cheaper) or flying over there. The former takes up to 8 hours depending on the speed and price. I went for the cheaper (€38 one way) but less rocky ferry even though the faster and faster here being just relative is still 5 hours. Won't even talk about flights because of the price during summer but that saves you tons of time, a mere hour. Being on budget and traveling long term...

Current Location: Athens, Greece My God, I am so behind updates that it is no longer funny. I took a really nice overnight bus from Istanbul to Goreme and you might not think much of Turkey's transportation but damn it's good - free tea/coffee with water and cake. There's entertainment, every seat fitted with a small monitor and free WiFi! The reason why I am so behind is that I had too much to do and met so many people and it was so much fun. I thought I could catch up with blogging in the sleepy town of Selcuk but boy was I wrong. Out again with people and I was so sorry to leave. Right now I am writing this on a top bunk bed in the centre of Athens and pretty worn out to be honest. Took a morning flight out from Selcuk and arrived here by late afternoon. I am a little sad to keep on parting ways with really nice people but that's just the way it is. It's my journey and no one else can really come with me. Ok, no more sad stories, back to Goreme - basically a to...