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The Pattaya Gay Festival is over for another year, Christmas has come and gone and New Year's is looming large on the celebration horizon. Meanwhile it is two steps forward and one step back in the new social order campaign - just another typical month in paradise!

In the last few days of its activities for 2003, including the World AIDS Day parade and final parties, the Pattaya Gay Festival managed to raise more than Baht 1.1 million, bringing the total raised for the year to almost 3 million - slightly down on last year but an excellent effort to support Heartt 2000 and its other local charities. Final details of the fundraising effort will be on the Pattaya Gay Festival website soon, and some pictures from the parade are in the gallery here, and some great pictures from the parade and parties are on the boxertravels website.

If you are not already all pride'ed out, Phuket will be holding its pride celebrations at the end of January - again see the calendar here and on the Phuket Gay Pride Festival website. And if you are in Bangkok and interested in participating more in Bangkok Pride Coalition's activities next year, don't forget the annual general meeting, where the new committee for 2004 will be elected, is to be held 13 January, see the website for details.

Christmas is getting to be a more serious issue in Thailand each year with the department store determined to never miss an opportunity to promote rampant commercialism and everyone else always in the lookout for another excuse to party despite the governments determination to take all the fun out of life - though they did relent enough to allow bars to open till dawn on Christmas eve! There were turkey dinners all round and Boyztown in Pattaya experienced a white Christmas once again, with the snowfalls extending inside Throb/Splash this year. And in Bangkok Santa caused a stir as he arrived in Silom Soi 4 by tuk tuk then danced the Hokey Cokey with the Balcony waiters! Certainly a change from the traditional Christmas I am used to - throwing another shrimp on the barbie at the beach!

For New Year's Eve, while the boring people in Bangkok will be watching the fireworks over the Rama 9 bridge, the party people will be packing Silom Soi 4 and 2 as usual or sinking into the foam at Babylon. Most of the Ramkhamhaeng bars also have special parties planned if Thai style parting is more your style!

New Year's Eve should see most venues open till dawn though the government is trying to restrict alcohol sales at convenience stores and gas stations to try and reduce the usually horrific road toll on such holiday weekends - it is a 4 day break in Thailand this year as the government has moved the usual New Year's Eve public holiday to January 2.

While many other things seem to be loosening up around town - t-shirts and other top coverings do not seem to be as prevalent at the go-go bars for example - there are many rumours around of even more restricted opening hours for bars starting at the end of January, supposedly to stop Thai youths drinking the night away and then losing their virginity in the resulting drunken haze, but a final decision is still to be made. Similarly, condoms are once again to be found in most sauna lockers, a step forward for safe sex campaigns - but public outcry, mostly from student bodies, has seen the Health Ministry back down from installing condom vending machines on university campuses - there is no understanding Thai logic!

Meanwhile a whole new year of activities is just around the corner - see the calendar for details of what else is coming up over the next few months and the directory listings for the latest venue changes!