Hastings - the fishing town

It was time for a romantic break, the coast was the destination and heading in the Southerly direction was the intention. Storms had been battering Britain for weeks, we new whichever coastal town we were heading to that it would be cold, wet and potentially bleak.

We chose Hastings, I had last visited in 1993 and my only memories were the ruins of the castle and the pebble beach. We booked bed and breakfast at Alexander's Guest House with a sea view for a respectable £70 just 10 days prior - so we expected Hastimgs to be reasonably quiet.

On the drive down we stopped at Bodium Castle, we were aware it would be closed between the Christmas and New Year break and I was concerned that this detour would be a waste of time. Fortunately the parking gates were wide open and the skies cleared long enough for us to enjoy a walk around the mote marvelling this historic building, the beauty of the surrounding landscape was accentuated by the flooded plains and burst banks of the river. Families hopped across muddy pastures and dog walkers enjoyed the relative peace. The cold soon bit at our cheeks so we headed for the 30 minute remaining drive to Hastings.

Hastings old town is small but perfectly formed. Historic small buildings line the narrow street as you pass trinket stores, vintage shops, fish restaurants, quaint cafés, old pubs and antique hordes. Climb to the East Hill for the castle ruins (closed over Christmas) and enjoy the roof top views overlooking the sea and fisherman's quarter, the roofs covered in vibrant green moss. 

We spent our time dipping in and out of pubs and enjoying fish and steak, the quiet weekend between Christmas and New Year was a perfect time to visit, a romantic time - the cold, the wet, the wind all added to the magic in this historic town as dusk set in at 4pm and the town was lit by amber lighting. 

After another stroll along the promenade, a coffee stop we then headed back home, stopping at Ashford Designer Outlet along the way. We will return to Hastings in the summer to enjoy some Lobster!

Gay Guide Lisbon – discovering the gay scene

Arrive in Lisbon during daylight and the city is discrete, there’s very little to suggest it is gay welcoming, but there’s nothing to say that there will be a problem for gay travellers. In fact I felt incredibly welcome wherever I went and look closely – people watch – and you will begin to see quite a large gay population.

Lisbon actually has an incredibly vibrant gay scene and there’s plenty of places to visit, just don’t attempt – like I did – to try to do it during the day. There’s nothing to see and you will find it hard pushed to find the gay venues listed. I walked both the Rato and Bairro Alto, gay map in hand, and struggled to find the bars and nightclubs for the following nights’ escapades. Yet, by night, the shutters were flung open, the lights on full glare and the music popping onto the streets.

By night, the city comes alive. Bairro Alto is full of party atmosphere and it is now hard to distinguish revellers from the gay and straight bars. You shouldn’t think of going out before 9pm, but 10.30pm is a better start to your evening. Grab some food around 8.30pm and you can casually enter the nights’ events.

All the gay bars were recognisable in the Rato area. And simply follow the lads from joint to joint. My itinerary for the weekend nights is below. The great thing about Lisbon is the cost – it is so cheap for beer and cocktails. The atmosphere is electric, and welcoming. The people are friendly and chatty with nearly all of them speaking English. It is also an international city, so you are likely to meet Europeans from England, France, Spain, Italy, as well a Americans visiting on cruise ship.

Book flights and accommodation at least four weeks in advance and it can work out to be a cheap break:

Flights, EasyJet (my favourite airline): London – Lisbon; £110 return

AirParks car park: £26.99

Uneasy Hostel (2 nights): £60

Travelcard: €15, enough for 4 days

Meals: €12 – 20 for a good two-course dinner, 1 x beer, 2 x wine, 1 x coffee

Make the most of your time there, especially if you want to party by hiring an apartment:

www.homeaway.co.uk

www.airbnb.com

Thursday

Chapito, 30 Anos: multi-use bar, club, social meeting spot.

A circus shop will make this place stand out. Go through the shop, down the stairs to the large courtyard – if you’re not in the middle of a circus training session hang around for some beers. Otherwise, head to the loft house restaurant. Now this has to be seen. We hung here all afternoon supping on Green Wine, a Portuguese delicacy J

From the restaurant you can over look the city and watch the sun set. It’s a spectacular scene and the colours of the fading evening Lisbon sun fill the sky with purples, oranges, greens, reds, and pinks, framed by a city with 200-year architecture (following the great Earth Quake in the 18^th Century).

Friday

Bairro Alto

-       This is the place to start. It’s where the city comes together by night and especially at the weekend.

-       Wonder the streets, beer in hand and soak up the atmosphere, the music and the people watching

Les Marais

Rua de Santa Catarina 28, 1200 Lisboa

Open: M-Th 5.30pm-2am F/S 4am, Sun 1 – 11pm

We started in this sudo-French bar, the gay venue was recently purchased by new owners and had decided to maintain the name. Which with the gay market is the best idea, since we all follow maps that could be years out of date. I found this through Spartacus, after chatting to the owners who promote the bar on Scruff (great technique).

Shirtless Tuesdays – gives patrons the chance to receive free shots for taking off their shirt….not a bad deal!

The barmen were real lovely, and created a fun atmosphere. There really was no dull moment, even though when we arrived there were only about 8 people in the bar. An hour later, around 11.30pm, the bar had about 20 people. This is no bad thing, it’s well decorated, the drinks are good too. It’s brilliant if you’re in a couple and want to take it a bit easy, or in a group and all want a seat. I can imagine that on some days this places has a fantastic party.

From here we walked up to Bairro Alto past

Baliza

Rua de Bica de Duarte Belo 51-A, 1200-054 Lisboa

Open: M-F 1pm-2am, Sat 4pm-2am Sun Closed

We walked up through the streets to stop in

Portas Largas

Rua de Atalaia 105, 1200-038 Lisboa

Open S-Th 7pm-2am F/S 7pm-3am

This is a mixed crowd, I didn’t know what was straight and what was gay – the live music was infectious, the bar was packed – solid! People were all across the street at this crossroads. It was a great place to soak in Bairro Alto. Only recommendation, leave before 1am – it get a bit messy by 2am!

From here, sharp 10 – 15 minute walk to Rato. Aim was Bar 106 but by the time we got here it was closed, so I went onwards to clubbing

NOTE: Unfortunately on the night I was in Rato I was attacked by a group of lads who were trying to mug me. Fortunately, two guys who run the gay bar on the corner of the street, disturbed them and saved me from harm or loss. (I’ve been told that this activity is NOT common, but just don’t walk alone if possible) Please visit their bar:

Ursus Bar

Praça das Flores, 41-43 - Lisboa, 1200-192 Lisboa

ADD https://www.facebook.com/ursus.bar.lx

A new bar, only recently opened. It’s got a lot of style to it. While it may seem small it packs a punch in the ‘cool’ stakes. The hosts are really friendly too.

Trumps

Rua da Imprensa Nacional 104-B, 1250-127 Lisboa

Open: F/S 11.45pm – 6an

10€ including 2 drinks

The big gay club in Lisbon. One room uber-pop music, the other more Dance-Pop. The audience is young, think 20’s. The bar staff are sexy. The music in the dance-pop room was excellent, especially with a live violinist onstage adding his flavour to the tracks. The people were really friendly and welcoming too.

Saturday

I stopped by Bar Cru (Rua de Sao Marcal 170), but it didn’t appeal to me. Entry charge at 12 midnight was not what I wanted and it felt too early for any of that. So next stop further down the road

Bar 106

Rua de Sao Marcal 106, 1200-44 Lisboa

9pm – 2am

This place is pretty smart. People are smoking outside and inside. Shots are being knocked back and there’s a lot of introductions. Something tells me this is the meeting place – prior to the clubs. It’s a good starting point.

WoofLX

Rua de Palmeira 44B, 1200 Lisboa

10pm – 4am

Now this seemed more sort of thing, I had stopped by on the way to Trump the night before, but at 3am it was pretty dead. So arriving at 1pm was a good chance to check out the lads. The barman (later to be the sexy dancer in Construction) handed out free entry tickets to the club.

It’s a bear bar, and it has many bears! And cubs! And otters! And admirers! Of course!

Tr3s/ Tres/ 3

Rua Ruben Antonio Leitao 2A, 1200 Lisboa

4pm – 2am

Sports themed bar and most people were outside, but it was well themed and would make an enjoyable indoor experience too. Everyone was hanging around waiting for the clubs to get busy, this was the atmosphere, it was apprehensive, sat in expectation, impatient, yet chatty and friendly.

Construction

Rua Cecilio de Sousa 84, 1200 Lisboa

11.30pm – 6am

This is the end of the night, it’s one large two-leveled dance club with a darkroom on the third floor. The more mature crew hangout here, so generally 30yr+ and there were quite a few women. It was a fun cruisey atmosphere with excellent music!

Gay Guy Goes Gay China - discovering Gay Beijing

Gay China

Gay China is much more apparent than I expected, but with an internal population of over 1 billion people it really is obvious to understand why there is a hive of homosexual activity.

I had the chance to visit three gay venues while in Beijing, I also discovered how people keep in contact. It is worth downloading and accessing a couple of social applications for China; grindr, jack’d, and WeChat. The most popular gay chat device is definitely Jack’d. These weren’t limited to access through a VPN either.

What’s important to note, is that most of the Chinese live outside the central centre to Beijing, but there are a couple of gay venues worth visiting:

Destination

7 Gongti Xi Lu

Subway - Dong SiShiTaio

Next to walkers Stadium, past Asia Hotel

Great on Friday and Saturday. It has 1 dance floor - where everyone faces the DJ booth and Pole Dance Station, very weird, and has a further 7 bars and several chill out rooms that are well air conditioned.

Check out Bear Bar - with Teddy Bears – intended for their own Chinese variety of gay men bears.

The entry is 80 RMB entry including one drink. Drinks 30 RMB for cocktail / 35 RMB for a beer (at time of print)

There were very few westerners, about 10, when I was there but the place gets packed. Destination used to be the number one club but with the opening of Funky it's not as popular but still the best by all accounts.

Mix with the locals and dance, watch the locals drink and play dice games. It is a little hard to start conversations with them but once engaged they really are quite sociable.

Destination is an excellent mixed and diverse crowd that shows the new China and not that we see in the West in gay bars.

Open until 5am

Take a taxi back to the hotel and ensure it goes by a meter. Do not take a private taxi as it will work out more expensive.

Just two roads away from the main Bar street, next to the Workers Stadium

Kai Club

3^rd Floor,Tongli Studio, Sanlitun (on the east side of the alley connecting Sanlitun Village and Opposite House), it’s just by Mohito Man (ask a backpacker and they will know this)  Take the stairway up to the entrance on the 3^rd floor. This is really a very simple bar with dance floor and DJ every night of the week. It tends to attract a slightly younger audience.

Watch the boys order huge quantities of drinks and spend hours knocking them plus shots back.

- Popular on week nights though packed at weekends and overspills to straight bars

- Vodka red bull 10rmb though don't expect high quality drinks

- Gets reasonably busy post 11.30pm

- Good pop and dance music

- Smokey bar

- Largely a young crowd of 20 - 30 year olds

Funky

Apparently opposite Destination.  Although could not find it, above Coco

6 floor, 8 Gongti Xi Lu

This I was told is one of the best to visit on a Saturday.

Mesh

The Opposite House, 1 Sanlitun Bei Rd, Sanlitun.

This is an upmarket bar in a upmarket hotel that is popular with a gay crowd on a Thursday. It is largely middle-class and tourists/ expats. The drinks are 3 – 4 times more expensive than those on a regular street bar.

India - a world of contradictions

I'm full of contradictions - I know it! I like to travel to discover new places, but really there's no place like home. I love to wonder and enter my own world but I love to be surrounded by people and entertain. I'd like to make a simple life but I make it more complex. I like to get up early but I love my bed! 

So really India should have felt like home - instead it mirrored the realities of my own contradictions and the challenges they bring.

Poor - rich

India is one of the BRIC countries, growing faster than most with huge investment. New areas of cities are owned by the rich ad powerful building huge complexes. The middle class enjoys Shopping Malls, cinemas and international cuisine. Side by side leaving among the poor, manual laborers, homeless, people living in shantytowns; One earning a couple of dollars an hour, another struggling to earn that in a day - let alone the mega wealthy.

 

Apparent in every part of the world, but here it's even evident in the social classes and interaction between these groups. It accentuates the split, the gap and the distance that is seen at home - it makes you shudder. Not even the homeless have access to clean water or toilets. 

Trust 

Trust is misplaced here. Someone you know talks of trust, and someone you meet on the street talks of trust. The word is miss-used and potentially misunderstood – especially for a British traveler. It is thrown around like it’s a commodity, and it does soon become a monetary factor. Trust is rarely used in Britain, it’s a term that’s implied by conclusion not as a matter of fact.

Money

It makes the world go round. But in India it is a factor that’s essential but loses it’s value with every word you utter. Haggling is the norm, and frustration becomes the cause. The contradiction is – you can buy products cheaper in the UK than you can in India if your haggling skills are not up to scratch. I can assure you that many items I bought could have been purchased at the same or less than in the UK, especially small trinkets like magnets, postcards and posters.

Transport

The world is your oyster in India, you can take a train, a car, a taxi, a helicopter taxi, an auto-rickshaw or a poor man can pull you along like you are the cart and he is the horse. But you get nowhere fast. You spend more time negotiating the fare for the journey than you do actually travelling.

Food

India is renowned for its food, either you will end up with Delhi Belly/Kolkata Splutter or you will dine in the finest of restaurants (actually even then there’s no guarantee) but try actually spotting restaurants, or at least somewhere you’re will to allow your stomach to be abused by. Unfortuantely I found I was eating the same thing day in day out, and only if I had travelled with someone else could I have had diversity!

 

These are just a few areas I can refer to – but it gives you an idea of the epic differences between Europe and India.

Enjoy your trip as best as possible. But I can certainly say, India is interesting, even if it is not my cup of Green Tea!

Finding Gay Kolkata, India

I've not spent long enough in Kolkata to get to the heart of the gay life, nor touch the gay night life, but on initial inspection it looked sparse.

My usual connection grounds of Facebook were blank, Grindr delivered little except maybe 5 people within 100km, but while chatting I discovered that if you're going to GO GAY here in Kolkata you need to be switching on Planet Romeo, or Gay Romeo as it's otherwise known.

Download the application on your Smart Phone and within seconds it will start bleeping like it's never bleeped before.

There are no bars, you have to wait for an invite - and these events, event the locals state - are few and far between. There was one advertised on Planet Romeo itself while I was here, however I missed it due to pre-planned activity.

But a few words of advice
- Meet gay kolkata indians in a safe-space
- Most gay kolkata indians do not have their own place, so need to travel - and be discreet
- If going to a gay party, be aware, keep valuables safe as pick-pocketing is expected
- They all seem a little eager
- WiFi is HARD to come across, it's not freely available, and there are FEW WiFi networks here.

The best area will be the Salt Lake City, or in the Old Town - this is where they mostly reside.

You will also catch a lot of people from Bangladesh on these applications.

The more happening gay cities are Mumbai and Delhi...More updates to come!

Fort Lauderdale: Wilton Manors – the gayborhood, Florida

My first trip to the gayborhood in Fort Lauderdale really made me feel as though I was in the USA. George’s Alibi was buzzing with the sounds of country a room of cabaret, men in stetzens and huge beefy bears serving casks of beer.

There’s quite a difference to British gay villages; America seems to like to butch it up a bit. A bar in most cities I’ve been to would be amiss without a grumpy drunk propping up a bar, a camp cheerleader behind the bar, a music selection full of rock and country and some form of macho sport presentation or a pool table. Good luck finding all that in the UK.

George’s Alibi is a popular meeting haunt all week and where Wilton Manors all began when a gay resident bought the complex and began rejuvenating it – this whole area in fact was once run down. Adopted by gays and becomes a sought-after area.

It’s worth stopping by Rosie’s Bar & Grill, Gelati Martini Lounge, New Moon Bar, and the Manor Complex.

Bill’s Sport Bar is a must-stop – I was totally in awe of such a concept – a gay sports bar. It’s full of men in shorts and vests; fit guys behind the bar mixing cocktails; it’s draped in paraphernalia of American Football, Baseball, and Basketball. There was an excellent atmosphere here; very lively and a great hangout. www.billsfillingstation.com

The Manor is the after-part. Head to this multi-club post-midnight (at least) and get on the dance floor. The weekend is a Friday – Sunday affair, with the odd Thursday thrown in; several rooms to relax, get on the dance floor, play or drink to local and international DJs. It’s a rather fancy place – and worth it’s weight in Wilton Manors: www.themanorcomplex.com 2345 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors.

Berlin - a fresh new European capital

Third time in Berlin and the experience gets richer and easier, while traveling on business the leisure opportunities are immense when immersing yourself with the locals. Berliners are certainly a mixed bunch more often than not comfortable speaking English and keen to interact with visitors (or tourists)!

The city is incredibly cheap for an international and capital city; it's also incredibly simple to navigate and is still small enough not to be at the mercy of a stampede of people on every walk way like that of London or Paris.

Steeped in a rich yet morbid 20th century history this ancient yet incredibly young city is still growing up and out. Rebuilding and restoring architectural artefacts affected by the war while constructing monumental pieces in memory of the dead and classy artistic structures that make Berlin a fascinating fusion of new architectural concepts. The sheer determination and commitment of Berliners whether german or otherwise demonstrates their courage to raise from the ashes a confident and proud diverse community that the rest of the world can look towards.

Berlin proudly exploits it's diversity and individuality - committed to supporting and caring for all it's people as citizens or visitors. Unlike the impersonal touch of London and Paris germany's capital feels like a close knit community little different to a small seaside town or country village.

Perhaps the most striking aspect is the cost, Berlin is cheap. Here you can leave behind preconceptions of expensive European cities - instead here there's no overt exploitation of visitors wallets. There are a few areas - like by Check Point Charlie where you'll be minimally ripped off - but most bars and restaurants will charge you a reasonable price for it's meals making it a pleasant funding experience.

Zoologischer Garten is a fantastic and lively shopping district with simple eateries, Nollendorfplatz has a vibrant and exciting gay scene, Alexandrplatz is the perfect entrance to the sightseeing experience here in Berlin. Explore further out beyond U2 and you'll gain similar experience of inclusion.

Take time in Berlin to speak to locals; treat yourself to local cuisine and breathe the past of world wars. This city is like no other - and with so much development there is much to look forward to here!