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Old 04-29-2011, 09:57 PM
 
Location: University City, Philadelphia
22,634 posts, read 14,886,015 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VolunteerTN View Post
Although Asia isn't exciting as other continents, I only listed modern Asian cities I visited that could be exciting.

I've never been to Tel Aviv or Bangkok so I can't comment. I think of Thai prostitutes and little girls used for sex tourism when I hear Bangkok based on stories I heard from my colleagues. I guess it's exciting if it's your thing. LOL!
The tired old stereotype of Bangkok being a world center of underaged prostitutes is no longer true and hasn't been true for years and years. For those kind of tawdry activities I would suggest you pay a visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, or the Philippines instead.

Even the once naughty "red light district" of Pat Pong is more of a family oriented Night Market and restaurant district; although a couple of blocks are exclusively gay/lesbian bars and nightclubs.

What makes Bangkok different from the skyscaper filled cities of say Singapore and Tokyo is that fact that Bangkok is a royal city, filled with temples and palaces, a place where there is pageantry and a certain kind of majesty you can't find in most modern cities.

To me "exciting" means more than just nightlife such as restaurant, night clubs, bars, pubs, and parties. Really interesting cities have a varied and rich historical and cultural component ... museums, monuments, grand public spaces, sporting activities, musical and theatrical venues, world class shopping, interesting architecture, beautiful plazas and squares and parks, a lot of street life, an arts community, a attitude of tolerance and openness, ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves, diverse cultures and religious communities, an open gay/lesbian/transgender community, a place where people from around the world flock, and not the least, a good tourist infrastructure such as distinctive hotels, airports, trainstations and port facilities.
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Old 04-29-2011, 10:21 PM
 
Location: Jackson, TN
48 posts, read 131,085 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clark Park View Post
The tired old stereotype of Bangkok being a world center of underaged prostitutes is no longer true and hasn't been true for years and years. For those kind of tawdry activities I would suggest you pay a visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, or the Philippines instead.

Even the once naughty "red light district" of Pat Pong is more of a family oriented Night Market and restaurant district; although a couple of blocks are exclusively gay/lesbian bars and nightclubs.

What makes Bangkok different from the skyscaper filled cities of say Singapore and Tokyo is that fact that Bangkok is a royal city, filled with temples and palaces, a place where there is pageantry and a certain kind of majesty you can't find in most modern cities.

To me "exciting" means more than just nightlife such as restaurant, night clubs, bars, pubs, and parties. Really interesting cities have a varied and rich historical and cultural component ... museums, monuments, grand public spaces, sporting activities, musical and theatrical venues, world class shopping, interesting architecture, beautiful plazas and squares and parks, a lot of street life, an arts community, a attitude of tolerance and openness, ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves, diverse cultures and religious communities, an open gay/lesbian/transgender community, a place where people from around the world flock, and not the least, a good tourist infrastructure such as distinctive hotels, airports, trainstations and port facilities.
Thanks for sharing information about Bangkok and pointing out that the city progressed from its old stereotypes! No offense, I've never been there before but from your statements, Bangkok sounds like a great place to visit.

We might have different versions of exciting cities in the world. Which cities on my list do not match your ideal exciting city? What about Dublin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm?

I've always been fascinated by Nordic countries and Dublin, Ireland. In fact, I almost moved to Stockholm, Sweden.

A colleague of mine moved to Vienna and he loved it. Vienna might be a historical city but it doesn't seem an exciting city to me.
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Old 04-30-2011, 01:48 AM
 
Location: 30-40°N 90-100°W
13,809 posts, read 26,484,614 times
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I guess Mumbai/Bombay was my only choice on this thread. Some other possibilities coming to mind.

Sydney - The largest city in the modern nation with the highest amount of Amphetamine use according to the OECD. Meth addicts are quite agitated and excitable.

Paris - Large dense city in a country known for protests and riots.

Phnom Penh - If I'm reading it right a large percent of Cambodia's population is 15-25. That's an "exciting" age for many people.

Hong Kong - High number of skyscrapers and "films produced" per-capita.

(The above is going by Nationmaster which is not to be linked to)

Madrid - Spain has one of the highest robbery rates in the world. Getting robbed can be exciting.

International Human Development Indicators - UNDP

Patna, India - An ancient city in Bihar, an Indian state where the majority of people are below 25. Bihar is also a state that occasionally sees Naxalite/Anti-Naxalite violence.

Kampala - Largest city in a fairly youthful nation, Uganda, that has high rates of homicide and natural disasters.

International Human Development Indicators - UNDP
International Human Development Indicators - UNDP

Mogadishu - A city in a nation high in man-made and natural disasters.

International Human Development Indicators - UNDP

Mexico City - Largest city in a "high murder rate" nation that "Free Existence" places highest in combined "drug and gun" freedom.

Freedom Index : Find Freedom!

Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo is high in teen mothers, and a history of violence, but low in TV owning households. So rather than staying home watching TV young people are out doing "exciting" things if you want to put it less sadly.

International Human Development Indicators - UNDP

I've never actually been to many cities and none outside the US. I'm just going by stats.
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Old 04-30-2011, 09:01 PM
 
Location: University City, Philadelphia
22,634 posts, read 14,886,015 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VolunteerTN View Post

We might have different versions of exciting cities in the world. Which cities on my list do not match your ideal exciting city? What about Dublin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm?

I've always been fascinated by Nordic countries and Dublin, Ireland. In fact, I almost moved to Stockholm, Sweden.

A colleague of mine moved to Vienna and he loved it. Vienna might be a historical city but it doesn't seem an exciting city to me.
Of the ones you mentioned, Amsterdam is the most exciting in my view.

The Scandinavian capitals of Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki are historic and stately cities, but not that "exciting" ... Copenhagen is more exciting. This does not mean to say they are not interesting or architecturally beautiful, but Norwegians, Swedes and Finns tend to be more reserved and low key; what I'm trying to say Amsterdam and Copenhagen are a bit livelier and a little more "wild" than the others. I've only been to Dublin once, but I found it to be rather lively ... it has great nightlife ... not one of the most 'exciting' in the world, mind you; but some cities such as Dublin, Edinburgh, Prague, and Athens are great and fascinating cities.
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Old 04-30-2011, 10:06 PM
 
Location: Macao
16,265 posts, read 43,035,426 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clark Park View Post
The tired old stereotype of Bangkok being a world center of underaged prostitutes is no longer true and hasn't been true for years and years. For those kind of tawdry activities I would suggest you pay a visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, or the Philippines instead.
now, now.

Underage prostitutes aren't acceptable anywhere. DOn't be ruining the image/reputation of Philippines in particular. I've also heard that Cambodia has NGOs all over the place, fighting this as well.

I don't mind that your defending the statement that Thailand is tired of that stereotype. But, the Philippines is as well. I think they are about equal in that regard, both certainly have prostitutes running amok, but both have serious, serious, serious consequences for anyone trying to find underage ones. (Well, at least they do in the Phils, I can't really say for Thailand 100%, as I'm not really paying attention to that thing with all the world's countries).

I'm just posting in objection of the implication that the Philippines is the place to go for that, when it certainly is not.
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Old 04-30-2011, 10:10 PM
 
Location: Macao
16,265 posts, read 43,035,426 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R. View Post
Sydney - The largest city in the modern nation with the highest amount of Amphetamine use according to the OECD. Meth addicts are quite agitated and excitable.
Sydney is into meth now?

Meth is incredibly widespread throughout the U.S., but American cities are inundated with crack, heroin, etc., and meth isn't as rampant among urban dwellers in the U.S., as it is with rural folks.

It makes sense that Australia would go the way of 'meth', as I'd imagine smuggling harder core drugs all the way to Australia would be seriously problematic.

Just first time I've heard of a large urban city that has been into meth.
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Old 04-30-2011, 10:38 PM
 
5,052 posts, read 13,881,164 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer View Post
I've been to 19 of those you listed.

There are few I'd take off, especially near the end.

There are a few others I'd add like Sao Paulo, Manila, Jakarta, Lima, etc. of places that I've been. As well as many others I haven't been but heard about - Moscow, Kiev, etc.

The only fallacy I see from the list is that they are all big modern expensive cities in predominately expensive countries.

In my experience, third world countries are dirt cheap and the funnest places on the planet. Having lived in places like New York City, as good as it is, I'd still rather 'go out at night' in any third world country. The fun is just so much more, anything goes, etc.
Which mot exciting cities of mine did you agree with and which did you not agree with?


These cities are not in any order:

London
Paris
New York
Hong Kong
Shanghai
Tokyo
Chicago
San Francisco
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Toronto
Montreal
Vancouver
Seoul
Seattle
Washington DC
Boston
Zurich
Bangkok
Taipei
Shenzhen
Oslo
Reykjavik

The most exciting cities in the World seem to be in the USA, areas of Europe, areas of Asia, and Canada.

However, excitement can be subjective most of the time since someone can find excitement or boredom wherever they live in the world! Despite that, there are certain places where it is easier to find excitement/fun or boredom more than other places.
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Old 04-30-2011, 10:55 PM
 
Location: City of Angels
2,923 posts, read 5,592,987 times
Reputation: 2267
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer View Post
now, now.

Underage prostitutes aren't acceptable anywhere. DOn't be ruining the image/reputation of Philippines in particular. I've also heard that Cambodia has NGOs all over the place, fighting this as well.

I don't mind that your defending the statement that Thailand is tired of that stereotype. But, the Philippines is as well. I think they are about equal in that regard, both certainly have prostitutes running amok, but both have serious, serious, serious consequences for anyone trying to find underage ones. (Well, at least they do in the Phils, I can't really say for Thailand 100%, as I'm not really paying attention to that thing with all the world's countries).

I'm just posting in objection of the implication that the Philippines is the place to go for that, when it certainly is not.
theres been a number of raids in AC lately, and LA cafe was closed down for a while in manila, but this was mainly to appease the US state dept. the foreigner oriented bars in both LOS and the PI have never had a major underage problem, this has always been complete nonsense spread by evil NGO's who are trying to increase donations.

cambodia had some major crackdowns last year. theres still brothels spread around, but not like it used to be. phnom penh itself seems to have gotten rid of most of its brothels. a lot of hostess bars and beer bars have popped up in the last few years but being barang-oriented they obviously dont have underage girls, that was only ever a problem at the brothels/chicken farms.

not saying it doesn't exist, you always have to check ID's in whichever country you're in (which is obviously a problem in places like cambo) but this isn't specific to the region, this is a problem all over the world including rich western countries, in fact LOS and the PI do a better job at combating this sort of thing than many western countries.

the biggest problem countries in my experience are places you don't think about, like mainland china, vietnam, etc. maybe because it's more underground, i'm not sure. but it's much much more prevelant on those places.
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Old 04-30-2011, 11:00 PM
 
5,052 posts, read 13,881,164 times
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Ok, unfortunately prostitution happens in many different countries including the USA, European countries such as Netherlands and Italy, Mexico, African countries, South American countries. Why are some people making it sound like it only happens in Thailand?

I bet an equal amount of this happens in many other countries.
And for probably all of these countries the vast majority of people condemn prostitution but it takes only 1% of a country's population for it to happen.

So this is pissing me off some people trying to to ruin the reputation of some countries.

Anyways, why did this topic even begin when this is not the subject of this thread?

Quote:
Originally Posted by foadi View Post
theres been a number of raids in AC lately, and LA cafe was closed down for a while in manila, but this was mainly to appease the US state dept. the foreigner oriented bars in both LOS and the PI have never had a major underage problem, this has always been complete nonsense spread by evil NGO's who are trying to increase donations.

cambodia had some major crackdowns last year. theres still brothels spread around, but not like it used to be. phnom penh itself seems to have gotten rid of most of its brothels. a lot of hostess bars and beer bars have popped up in the last few years but being barang-oriented they obviously dont have underage girls, that was only ever a problem at the brothels/chicken farms.

not saying it doesn't exist, you always have to check ID's in whichever country you're in (which is obviously a problem in places like cambo) but this isn't specific to the region, this is a problem all over the world including rich western countries, in fact LOS and the PI do a better job at combating this sort of thing than many western countries.

the biggest problem countries in my experience are places you don't think about, like mainland china, vietnam, etc. maybe because it's more underground, i'm not sure. but it's much much more prevelant on those places.
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Old 04-30-2011, 11:10 PM
 
Location: City of Angels
2,923 posts, read 5,592,987 times
Reputation: 2267
Quote:
Originally Posted by ******* View Post
Ok, unfortunately prostitution happens in many different countries including the USA, European countries such as Netherlands and Italy, Mexico, African countries, South American countries.

Why are some people making it sound like it only happens in Thailand? I bet an equal amount of this happens in many other countries. So this is pissing me off some people trying to to ruin the reputation of some countries.

Anyways, why did this topic even begin when this is not the subject of this thread?
the topic came up because the NGO media campaign to defame thailand has been effective. the reason the NGO's target thailand is because thailand has, in recent decades, become wealthy enough to kick them out/ignore them. the NGO's therefore have very little influence over public policy and they don't like that one bit. obviously very little of what the NGO's say is true, but some people believe whatever they're told - like that volunteer guy. and yes, you're right, it exists everywhere and it is no worse in thailand than it is in the places you mentioned, in fact it's probably a bigger problem in some of those countries. mexico i know for sure, my country of birth, it's much much more widespread ... and all of latin america for that matter - much worse than in thailand
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