Thailand launches naturist magazine

Asia used to be a desert for naturists.
Conservative governments and what was seen as a 'conservative' mindset among the population, and add to that a fear of fierce tropical sunlight and a beauty ideal which puts a white skin way ahead of a tan.
All those factors have conspired to make Asia a difficult continent to promote naturism to reach the level of popularity it has won in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and now recently, Latin America.
Yet, one country is steaming straight ahead, regardless of all preconceptions.
Thailand first saw the formation of a Naturist Association of Thailand (NAT) in 2007, the gradual opening of naturist hotels and resorts around the country, from Pattaya, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and this year also the island of Phuket, the staging of an international NATCON conference now in its fifth year, and now, again in a major move forward, the launch of a magazine, titled Bare@ll.
Despite what some might think, naturism in Thailand is not something for the thousands of expats calling that country home only. At least a third of NAT's 3,000 members are Thai, and the new magazine is bilingual Thai and English.
That is an excellent move, since most Thai are unlikely to find objective information and background about naturism in anything but eventual foreign publications, and that only from time to time. The new publication will bring naturism right to the doorstep of any interested Thai citizen. When a Thai questions naturism or wonders what it is all about, a naturist will have the magazine to show them and make them understand.
The annual NATCON conference is also a focus for other Asian naturists from India to China and Taiwan, allowing them to learn from the experiences of their Thai colleagues and prepare for a day when each Asian country will have at least a similar organization, and possibly also its own naturist resorts.
http://thailandnaturist.com

Naturism in Thailand and beyond

Today, June 10 marks the opening of the 5th International Naturist and Nudist Conference in Thailand, hosted by the Naturist Association of Thailand on a lake.
The choice of site is original, and in many ways the association itself is also groundbreaking. Naturism has for too long been thought of as a mainly European, overwhelmingly Caucasian affair. Virtually each European country now has free clothing-optional beaches, naturist hotels or at least resorts where one can play sports, walk, run, swim, eat or just sunbathe naked.
Naturism also exists in other continents, in Latin America, in South Africa, and of course in Australia and New Zealand, the latter playing host to the International Naturist Federation's world congress in November this year.
Yet Thailand is the spearhead of an effort to make naturism more acceptable in Asia, and it is working. Since its inception years ago, NAT has been successful in converting more resort operators in the Southeast Asian country - one of the world's top holiday destinations - to give naturism a chance.
According to the NAT website, http://thailandnaturist.com, at least two new resorts are likely to open in the near future, the first on the popular island of Phuket, the other west of Bangkok. That comes in addition to those already in existence in other tourist destinations like Pattaya, Chiang Mai and the Bangkok region.
One of the features of this weekend's three-day conference is that NAT is also looking beyond Thailand to help local naturists set up similar associations in other Asian countries, such as India.
Residing in Taiwan, I know what the problems are. Public nudity is banned in most countries in the area, and even topless bathing is unseen or frowned upon. Add to that, the fear of many Asians of the hot sun in their countries, driving them away from beaches, and the beauty ideal which says that a white skin is more beautiful than a healthy tan.
Topless bathing and naturism are also not allowed in Thailand, but because the naturist resorts are shut off from the outside world, they are legal, as the nudity is not deemed public.
The more than 50 delegates from over a dozen countries present at the Thai conference will enjoy water games and a trip on rafts, but they will also discuss the situation of naturism in India, the Southeast Asian ASEAN nations, and other countries.
Last June 5 was World Naturism Day, this weekend sees NATCON 2016 in Thailand and many World Naked Bike Rides across the globe, leading into the summer, which should see naturist activities all over the world.
Now is the best time to prepare for more naturism, and try it during your holiday, even if it's just an hour on a free beach somewhere.

June: A Month for Nude Weekends

The past weekend(s) was quite a high time for naturist and non-naturist nude activities.
As the logo above shows, the Naturist Association of Thailand held its 4th International Naturist Conference. I attended the previous conference last year, but unfortunately, due to other commitments, I could not travel to Thailand this June. NATCON is a true naturist event in one of the few Asian countries which has real naturist hotels. Even though, just like in most other Asian countries, public nudity is banned and there are no official clothesfree beaches, Thailand does allow naturist hotels with swimming pools as long as the activities are isolated from the outside world. The Bangkok area, Pattaya and Chiang Mai all have true naturist hotels.
In other news, last weekend also marked World Naked Bike Ride day in many parts of the world, including London and Manchester in Great Britain. While not real naturism, the activity does increase acceptance for non-sexual public nudity, as it allows men and women to ride bicycles naked through city centers. The original aim is to decry the lack of respect and support for environmentally friendly bicycles and to call for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels, but the event has grown into a worldwide nude festival, in the style of Spencer Tunick's photography marathons.
A third recent event related to nudity was the Free the Nipple gathering on a Los Angeles beach, calling for "topfree equality," the right of women to go without top there where men are allowed to do the same. After the movie "Free the Nipple," the movement has expanded to take root in places as different as Iceland and Taiwan, where a group of young women has been printing and distributing stickers. More about that in a later post.
While some of those events have made the media, it is also important to note that even when nothing is going on, the press can still put naturism in a positive light. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph is generally regarded as conservative, and it does support the Conservative Party, but on naturism it has been taking a mature line, often featuring positive reports. The latest was a list of seven nude beaches in the UK itself: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/11675401/Britains-best-nudist-or-naturist-beaches.html
While I still haven't made any plans for my summer holidays and I don't know whether they will include naturism, I wish my fellow naturists a glorious nude summer.

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.

I am a Thailand Naturist

Little did I know in December 2011, when I chose the Naturist Association of Thailand as my Real Naturist of the Year 2011, that the organization would take such a flight and that I would join it.
According to its website http://thailandnaturist.com, it now has more than 1,400 members, not just in Thailand, but worldwide. And from now on, that also includes me.
No, I do not live in Thailand, but only four hours flying away, and that's why I joined.
Most Asian countries ban public nudity in all its forms, including the non-sexual social nudity of naturism, which is so popular in other parts of the world, with free nude beaches, resorts, hotels and campings. None of those exist in the Asian country I live in, so my only naturist periods so far have been at home or during short visits to Europe, where I managed to fit in a day at a beach, if the weather happened to cooperate.
Thanks to the NAT, that should now change, because not only is it an organization, it also has succeeded in letting naturist resorts get off the ground in Thailand.
I haven't visited any of them yet, but I have been taking a look at their websites.
There is the Oriental Village in North Thailand's Chiang Mai (www.orientalvillage-chiangmai.com) which looks like paradise, in the middle of rice fields, with a sunny pool and beautiful villas. Speaking on a personal note, its location might be the downside for me. Being remote from the town, it would be difficult to find outside restaurants, while the fact that it also caters to non-naturists might be positive for my non-naturist wife, but not for me.
On the opposite side of the scale, there is the Chan Resort (www.chanresort.com) in busy Pattaya. No problems finding restaurants, shops and nightlife there, I'm sure. The only drawback - and it's a small one - is that it feels a bit locked in. Since there are no naturist beaches, it's not possible to walk along in the sand to the edge of the sea, there's only the swimming pool, which you can see in the picture above.
What sounds great is that the Chan Resort is also the site of an annual international naturist conference, this year on June 4-11. I have not decided yet whether to go. The only such event I attended before, was the International Naturist Federation congress in 2004 at the Croatian resort of Valalta. My biggest disappointment there was that because there was a rule that you had to wear clothes inside the buildings, the whole naturist congress was ... textile! I do hope and expect that will not be the case at the Chan Resort.
The third resort that caught my attention was the Sala Villas (www.salavillas.com), also in Pattaya close to the Chan Resort, which does not have real pictures on its site yet. It has the same advantages as the other Pattaya place, though one practical drawback is that for some reason it does not accept credit cards. In contrast to the Oriental Village, it is very strict about being nude inside the resort, which is good for me, bad for my non-naturist wife.
Having made those remarks, I must praise all of those resorts for doing a great job in launching naturism in one of Asia's most beautiful countries.
With a lessening of political tension on the horizon, I am hopeful that I might soon be able to stay at one of them. The Chan Resort might be my first choice, during the conference or not, but I want to give the others a try too.
Thailand was already a frequent destination for my travels around 2006, and the NAT is likely to put it back near the top from 2014 on.

Real Naturist of the Year 2010: Naturist Association Thailand

Naturism has long been seen as a mostly European phenomenon, with outposts in most of the "Western" world. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Croatia are the countries where naturism is the most popular among the locals and where the number of free beaches and naturist resorts are the highest. Outside of Europe, only the most Westernized countries such as the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have strong naturist movements, while the rest of the world is seen as a dark area.

Not so anymore. If you frequent naturist Internet forums, you'll soon come to the conclusion that naturism is growing into a universal value. People in countries as varied as India, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Costa Rica and Egypt want to find naturist resorts closer to home. Globalization, closer international interaction through frequent travel, foreign studies, and not to forget the power of the Internet and its social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Last year, we recognized the power of the Internet by giving our Real Naturist of the Year Award to the web-based ClothesFree International.

This year, we recognize the growing potential of naturism across the world by awarding the Naturist Association Thailand Co., Ltd. While known for its beaches and sometimes as a sex tourism destination, the prominent Southeast Asian country has been culturally closed to public nudity and its non-sexual expression in the form of naturist beaches and naturist hotels. The Naturist Association Thailand can be proud that it is working to change the country's image and make it a welcome destination for naturists from around the world while promoting the good sides of the practice with the local population.

As you can read at its web site http://www.thailandnaturist.com, the Naturist Association Thailand has more than 450 members and has awarded naturist-friendly status to four resorts in Pattaya close to Bangkok, in Cha Am and on the island of Phuket. In order to brave the ban on naturism in Thailand, the association has been set up as a private company, meaning its activities count as shareholders' meetings and can take place in the nude.

Support the expansion of naturism by getting in touch with naturist associations in overseas destinations where otherwise the practice of healthy non-sexual social nudity is not known. The next time you plan a trip to Thailand, contact the association and at least investigate the possibility of a naturist holiday in that beautiful country.

December in the Nude

Most parts of the world are covered in snow nowadays. A large part of North America, Europe, China, Japan. Even the rest doesn't look so bright. Strong winds and rain in the Middle East, usually a refuge for European holidaymakers.
So how does a naturist survive the winter? There are two answers: either by going textile and limiting his nudity to warm quarters like home and the sauna, or by moving (temporarily at least) to warmer climes.
There are numerous examples of those where naturism is still possible: Australia has naturist beaches and resorts, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and even Thailand.
Those are faraway places for most of the rest of the world, so staying at home and turning the heater up or frequent visits to saunas are more realistic alternatives.
For most of us however, waiting until the spring or summer will be the thing to do.
Naturists are above all realists. Even though we prefer to go through life in the nude, we know this is not always possible. Therefore we go textile when we have to, to protect ourselves from excess cold or heat. December is one of those times. But snow doesn't mean we have to cover up all of the time. Remember, there are people who go skiing in the nude, and they do it on the same type of snow as all other skiers, so it is possible to combine nudity and snow, and to survive. Didn't Spencer Tunick take one of his mass nude shots on a glacier?
See you later this month, so in the meantime keep warm.

The Nude Guru

Asianaturist has tried for six years to report about naturism in Asia in general and Taiwan in particular, while trying to promote the practice of healthy non-sexual social nudity in the region.

Since naturism is still banned in most countries in the area and news about naturism in the region is few and farbetween - despite recent positive developments in Thailand and Malaysia - I have decided that the blog has served its purpose and a new approach is necessary.

The Nude Guru will continue on the same lines as the Asianaturist blog but on a global scale. We already brought you reports about naturism in Italy and other places, and brought you the Real Naturist of the Year and Celebrity Naturist of the Year Awards without any obvious Asian connection.

The new line will follow all that's good and bad about the naturist world and discuss it with you here and on Twitter. Free beaches, nude yoga, World Naked Bike Ride, Spencer Tunick's mass nude art, public breastfeeding and breast cancer, everything will find its place here, as long as it is related to healthy naturism. As on other naturist sites, if you are looking for exhibitionism and pornography, this will not be the place to visit.

The Nude Guru wishes you a warm naturist winter and looks forward to sharing naturism with you here on this blog and at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru.