Things to Do in the Nude: Bungee Jumping

Imagine the scene: a group of tourists from Hong Kong line up to try out bungee jumping. One young woman in the group shows up in a black bikini and suddenly takes it all off before she takes the leap.
Nobody complained, nobody seems to have been shocked enough to call in the police, and as the picture from Coconuts Bangkok shows, the young woman had a great time.
Yet, before last weekend, this simple event in the northern Thai town of Chiang Mai suddenly became international news, with even newspapers in Taiwan devoting ample space to it.
The reason was that somebody had posted pictures of the event online, and that somehow the police department in Chiang Mai had noticed those, and visited the premises.
The result was a fine of 1,000 baht or about 30 US dollars for the operator of the bungee jumping site. While one can understand there are laws in this respect, going to fine nude bungee jumping a week after the fact, when nobody complained about it, is totally unnecessary and a waste of resources.
The authorities in the city thought of mentioning that the event would harm its international standing as a location with a rich culture, but Chiang Mai is hardly likely to be remembered from now on as "the place where that woman jumped in the nude" rather than as a scenic must-go place in Northern Thailand.
While some reports said the Hong Kong woman was a model, named Natalie, who was out to garner fame, her actions were nothing more than an innocent fun thing to do, like skinny dipping. She showed how much more fun things can be when you do it in the nude, without the restrictions of clothing, feeling the wind and the sunshine on your bare skin.
And for those who want to try real naturism in Thailand and do things in the nude without the fear of being fined - though I think bungee jumping would not be possible - they can turn to http://thailandnaturist.com, where they can also look up naturist hotels and resorts in the Southeast Asian country.

Nude at the Museum

Spencer Tunick has staged mass events at which naked people were the piece of art. Another American artist, James Turrell, has had an opposite idea: inviting guests to walk around naked to admire his art. Either way, it is a positive move that can benefit international naturism, the movement which encourages public and social non-sexual nudity.
Visiting a museum can now be added to the more traditional #thingstodointhenude, like swimming, sunbathing, sports, sleeping. While at first sight, meeting up with a bunch of total strangers to walk around a cold building seems a strange idea, but the participants in the event at Australia's National Gallery in Canberra were mostly positive.
It was not weird, because everybody was in it together, one person said, while a woman enjoyed doing a naked cartwheel. That is precisely the point about naturism: everybody is in it together, and nobody should feel shame about his or her body, about being different. Naturism is freedom, also from distinctions created by clothes, as the tour guide pointed out.
The visitors to the James Turrell exhibition - and there were two groups of 50 per day - should learn more about naturism and be able to get naked in more places and at more times than just during a short museum tour.
An idea for other museums: just like public swimming pools or water recreation parks in some areas organize naturist days or hours, museums could come up with naked-only tours at specific times.