In this 'short- story' I, the older human being, will write about the main questions and answers in live about the 'what- is- it- all- about' - that is one of my favorite topics - but also about leaders and gregarious animals and why I am no sex- tourist and I will start by quoting Horace (65 - 8 BC) who was going to say good bye to his former life because of his age but also because he was frustrated by the stubborn girl Chloe likely at that time:

"Vixi puellis nuper idoneus et militavi non sine gloria!"

The translation is something like that: "I lived for the girls, I was suitable until now and a good 'fighter' " but this is what I - the storyteller - say now and you may quote me, too:

... I am an old man. <sob>

You know it now, I personally ignore it and the Thai lady of my choice simply cannot believe it mai chai, kha not you ;-)

On the other hand due to the fact that I was traveling this planet for so many years I have seen a lot and I got many answers that raised more questions in fact.
I will give you more than one example for the topic 'more questions'.

A reader wrote unbidden and anonymously a real queer comment and the question for me is now: Why on earth could a naturally 'rationality gifted' human being write such a nonsense:

"well, you dump sex- tourists, at home you are not able to 'get' it obviously, or why do you have to travel to Thailand? To join that poverty- prostitution? They hate you all anyway. Who is surprised about that? I have seen those ugly farang wearing their silly colorful new shirts, how they linger salivating. They should 'tear you over the table' and your eggs should drop off."

(It was not an easy task to translate this from my language into English because the text shows so many orthographic and grammar mistakes.
I will call the 'writer' Anonymos from now on.)

First of all I am wearing these silly colorful shirts, too, (how can a shirt be silly, I wonder, no college or what?) for I have a real good Thai friend in Bangkok, Thailand. He is the very best guitar- player I ever have met personally (playing in Country Club II, soi 19, Sukhumvit). The shirts were a gift. What it is all about the shirts is a different story. We meet every now and then and he likes it obviously that I show appreciation wearing these colorful and expensive shirts made out of genuine Thai silk when I am Bangkok.
Here it is wrong what he has written: My shirts are not new anymore.

Well, let's talk about the poverty- prostitution now for Anonymos picked it up apparently somewhere. What is it after all what Anonymos picked up apparently somewhere?

You know what poverty is. We have to tell material poverty from mental poverty. There are good examples for mental poverty, I guess.

What is prostitution after all?
We had some Latin already therefore I will translate it literally: prostituere is something like to stand in front of or to be posted in front of.

Thai ladies are sitting in Beer Garden, soi 7, in Thermae or in soi sanoog. Thai ladies are looking for a (life- time-) partner.

Gatoey, the ladies of the 2nd category, are standing in front of the Ambassador Plaza or wheresoever.
Gatoey are prostituting to catch a customer as a rule.

Well, you follow the poverty- prostitution when you speak to a gatoey who is living in material poverty - what we would never do wouldn't we?

How come we have to discuss 'sex- tourism'?
During the sixties and the seventies and as a consequence of the war in Vietnam many Thai ladies appeared on the scene in Bangkok and in Pattaya to please frustrated guys and to get some money, of course, or even better to meet a samee husband.
At that time not only in Europe female human beings started to take over and to rule male human beings by swallowing anti- baby- pills and wearing panty- hoses (urrgh).

By the way: when the Thai lady of my choice would really dare to wear panty- hose (for me as erotic as 'long johns' in Nato- olive color I had to wear during my time in the army) naenon wa klap bin baan reo reo she will 'fly' back home for sure and very quickly. It is no Thai likely but she understood.
The result were more, at that time very expensive, air- planes (called screw- bombers or tripper- clipper (tripper is gonorrhea in German) taking off to Thailand and fewer babies were born back home - not only because of the anti- baby- pill but rather because of wearing pantyhose
:-(

More and more single persons flew to Thailand to get away from the recent women- lib- ladies and to have some sanoog fun apparently. Even more many Caucasian ladies could not resist the sanooug- offer. At that time there were bars in the hotels provided 'for women only' (like in Manhattan Hotel, Soi 15, Sukhumvit).

Now the costs for the flights are cheaper but we have to pay more for our social system but also for the politicians, physicians and pharmacists because we have fewer babies now who will refinance the retirement pension and the health insurance in the future.

Now we know what it is about the poverty- prostitution and how it came to the term sex- tourism.

Why is Anonymos writing about it?

Well, whenever there is fun there is somebody telling it was not moral. In former times he was going to kill you for that reason, too, or at least claiming that 'your eggs drop off', even though it was not ethical.
Does Anonymos know the difference between moral and ethics at all, I wonder?

Well, Anonymos told us that I belonged to the sex- tourists and I was longing to join the poverty- prostitution.
Really and for what reason?
Is my Thai lady who married me a prostitute? Is she that stricken in poverty that she has to go with an ugly farang (Caucasian) who is lingering down the Sukhumvit salivating?
Well, ko dai may be :-) or rather mai dai may be not because she is kee hueng jealous 'like sh**'. A prostitute jealous regarding her (one and only) customer? Oh, come off it!

Is everybody who is looking for some companionship obsessed by sex? Is my daughter whenever she enters a discotheque to have some fun dancing and to meet the father of my future grand- children possibly addicted to sex? Isn't Anonymos offending my daughter, the Thai lady of my choice and his own parents (how and for what reason did they meet actually?), too?

This leads to the question: What is it all about in life, after all?

Is it about to be right always (what I do not know I know better)?
If you are right always you will be a very lonesome person for nobody wants to talk to you anymore. Communication is important for leading a social life. Without communication you will be without friends without Thai friends particularly.

Is it to influence other people?
You need a strong personality for to be able to influence somebody otherwise you have to manipulate. Not only Thai people will notice that and it is uncertain whether you can stand the reaction or not.

Is it about to get as many money as one can grub?
This is an inter- cultural phenomena, I think. Some male human beings assume that money can buy everything. Well, may be but it causes greed, too. You are not important anymore your money is.

Is it to become important by writing weird letters anonymously for instance?
Not by writing weird letters but by being accepted in a social group.
My Thai lady is very important in her social environment, for me, for her family for her friends and it is her name, too, in a way.

Here is the story:
In a bus- station we bought tickets to visit her home- village. The ticket- vendor - lady requested our names. It was for the first time that I was aware somebody was asking us that.
Tammai chue jampen? why is the name important on a bus- ticket?
The ticket- vendor said nothing completed the tickets and I paid for them.
Before entering the bus I asked my Thai lady about the seat- numbers. She looked at the tickets and started to laugh. Arai na? What is it all about? Chan chue 'jampen'! My name is 'important'!
Obviously the ticket- vendor- lady did not understand pro wa khon farang pood mai chat because farang people do not speak clearly.

Nothing of all that it is about. It is about 'sex' in fact.
It is about to care for the breed and to stay alive for that reason. Shortly: to maintain our species and not to commit suicide. We are mammals after all and we - like all the creatures (but the monads) on this globe - have to care for the maintenance of the population. That's it.
Therefore 'sex' is provided.
The intelligent (!) handling of the sexuality is a very important character trait and it describes the personality. It indicates whether you are a social human being or not. Anonymos please note!

As long as we take care of the next generation we will survive as a rule and if we refuse then 'mother nature' has to do something for she does not like things or beings of no earthly use.
Women live longer than men approximately 12 more years. Women are better social human beings because they have to feed the breed: children and then grand- children but also to care for us males when we are case of nursing care.
Men are useless in case they are not able to father anymore. Read the death notices in your newspaper. Men in my age die. I call it the 'drone- phenomena':
My chance is: only the good die first! ... and I still try to father because the Thai lady of my choice is demanding constantly: ao luuk saao farang I want a daughter looking like a Caucasian baby, well, hasip- hasip, 50:50.

Or visit an old people's home. Many Tinas, Jills, Pams, Ruths, Beths, Beas and so on but only one single Max.

Now Max is in the position he was longing for his whole life through to be among so many potential partners but now he can not work it out anymore. What a pity!

Most of the mammals like the primates where we belong to are living in a herd.

Incidentally characteristic for mammals is the formation of jowls. Therefore they are able to suck that is if they belong to the primates they can drink beer with a straw (arrgh).

In a herd there is only one male leader responsible for the next generation and therefore all the females are his 'spouses'. The rest of the males are the odd ones out and have to form an own social group or they have to fight for their right to father.
This is the reason why a single male human being can never be monogamous.
By the way this is the reason, too, why other male human beings are in competition always and they like it apparently due to a certain laziness to sit on a sofa vested in a undershirt drinking beer and watching baseball or a soccer match always. Both the players and the watchers like to spit: sheer substitution for the ejaculation.
Anonymos is he a leader or a soccer- fan? Have three guesses :-)

I do not like soccer and I do not understand baseball but I am familiar with the needs and demands (material items and social security), wishes and desires (affection and caress) of my Thai lady.

We are not only mammals we are also human beings. What is the difference?
In school I learned other animals do not smile. Nonsense, my maeo tua phoo male cat is kind of smiling when it convinced me to serve it but it does not believe.
We men believe in all sorts of things. Anonymos is believing that he is more intelligent than the rest of us and may be he is right. I said: may be!

Farang Western people believe in heaven and hell. Thai people believe in a future life and in reincarnation. We believe that serious things are kind of fun and Thai people believe that sanoog fun is a serious matter. I believe that the Thai lady of my choice loves me eternally and she believes that I have to care for her here and now.

Now we know why the 'leaders' have to go to Thailand while the rest of the male human beings have to stay back home to watch people playing golf or tennis.

Thai people also know the difference between 'leaders' and gregarious animals, of course. Sometimes it happens that gregarious animals lose their way and they appear in Bangkok, Thailand. Therefore Thai have installed huge TV- screens for them in the beer garden soi 7/ Sukhumvit for instance to provide all kind of sportive competition games. Since this is the favorite place of my leader- collegues out of other beats, me and our mia spouses the TV- screens are turned on rarely.

What I still do not know - written in the weird comment - is: why on earth "should they (who?) 'tear me over the table' and the eggs (whose?) should drop off"? Really, why should somebody do this?

Well, in Bavaria strong guys put the middle fingers together and then they try to tear each other over the table. But a 'leader' has no time for such sort of thing. He has to take care about mia luang and mia noi spouses.

... and why "should the eggs drop off". Frankly I do not get the picture: a salivating farang wearing a silly colorful shirt lingering down the Sukhumvit should be torn over a table in order that the eggs drop off!?
Is there sometihng like that after all? Does it make sense?

Apparently 'Anonymos knows little about Thailand and about the Sukhumvit area particularly: if there is a table, there is a vendor and there is merchandise put on the table immedaitely, too. On it there is no place to play a game like that even though Thai people try to 'tear  farang like Anonymos over the table' (in the German language 'to tear somebody over the table' means to 'fleece someone') if he is not street- smart that is for sure.
I have my Thai lady with me almost always. No Thai person would dare to 'tear' me then! And if the Thai lady of my choice is not around I speak Thai and I am living in Bavaria. I will be 're- tearing', too.

Well, and what about the 'eggs', the testes? Why should they drop off? Perhaps he envies us 'leaders still capable of fathering' and perhaps he has to wear a t-shirt with the inscription: learn from the mistakes of your father, practice birth- control!' Or he cannot stand any sanoog fun, lust. Isn't it kind of a self- castration?

The last question is so far: Do they (who?) hate me? Really?
I think Anonymos is talking about Thai people. Again it is evident that he knows little about Thai people. We farang do not fit in their social system. We are not classified so to speak. Why should a Thai person hate a farang a barbarian? They would rather ignore us.
More likely they would ignore me as long as I am not farang kee nok out of pocket.
Literally it means a bird that sh**s guava (Farang) or the other way around - it is a indecent word- play you should not use in public.

The very last question to be asked: Is there sex- tourism in the form in which Anonymos is writing about after all?

In my opinion there is not. I think that I discussed the reasons sufficiently. Anonymos knows too little about Thailand. He is offending Thai people and us farang, too, with his 'flat- prejudice.

May be there are sporadic people looking for 'adventure' but it is not necessary anymore to travel Thailand for that reason.

My conclusion is: foolishness is acceptable because foolish people are contend and I am very contend.
Ignorance hurts.

On the other hand I do not really care what Anonymos has written as long as there is the Thai Lady of my choice waiting for me the 'old' guy who likes to wear colorful Thai shirts made out of genuine silk in Thailand but is not salivating.

Now that I am in my declining years <sob again> I do not believe that often now I know more often. Now I know that everything is unlasting. Now I know I have to quit 'chercher les femmes' to chase the ladies and like Horace I will say 'I lived for the girls ...' and I know that I have to watch in TV fast red cars driving in circles always in the near future instead of.

But then I remember what Horace said in the last verses:

"regina, sublimi flagello tange Chloen semel arrogantem"

"Queen, touch the proud Chloe once more with your levied (little love-)whip."

... in other words: Here we go again! In a few weeks I will return to the Thai lady of my choice

- 'leader' - like!