On the day hundreds, or even thousands, of people are preparing to cycle through the streets of major cities, including London, naked for the World Naked Bike Ride, we also want to throw a light on a development in the world of naturism.
Our Real Naturists of the Year 2017, Belgian couple Nick and Lins, are already famous for their blog Naked Wanderings, relating their naturist trips around the world, which recently also hit Thailand.
While moving around California and Mexico, they still found time to launch a new initiative: NUDE, or the Nudist's Ultimate Destination Explorer.
Both owners of naturist 'areas' - could be hotels, B&Bs, campgrounds, anything that once used to be known by the oddly historical term of 'colonies' - and their visitors can register and offer suggestions, descriptions, comments on one website - https://nudexplorer.com.
The aim looks like being a kind of online version of world naturism guides - a list of naturist accomodations and areas around the world including relevant details, about location and transportation, whether "clothing optional" is allowed, and other useful information for a potential visitor.
In my personal experience, there are always surprises: at some naturist resorts, the restaurant is textile - which means you have to go back to your room and dress or undress before and after each meal - in my humble opinion, an annoying waste of time. Some naturist hotels also allow visitors from outside to live as a naturist during the day for a fee, which is useful if say, you already have your own place in the neighborhood but no official naturist beaches, which can happen in places like Thailand.
All in all, any initiative like NUDE deserves our encouragement.
If you are cycling today in one of the many World Naked Bike Rides, good luck to you, but you can also think one step further - and plan a total nakation, a weekend, or a week, or two, when you don't have to be concerned about wearing clothes at all.

Naked Wheels and the Return of Lady God1va

June hails  the advent of summer, of the summer holidays,  at least in the northern  half of our Earth. That's why it  is also a popular time to start taking  those clothes off and launch naturist and half-naked events. One of those is the 6th edition of Natcon, starting today, as the most popular naturist event in Asia, based in Thailand.

Not purely naturist, but gaining popularity worldwide, is the World Naked Bike Ride, with several locations around the world this Saturday, including London.

The event is not just nudity for its own sake, it’s a protest against energy overconsumption and against ‘car culture.’

As to myself, I am a naturist and I love cars, visiting the Taipei Motor Show every year. I have nothing against cars, but I am of course against people who think they don’t have to respect other road users just because they drive a car, a certain type or brand of car. All road users, including cyclists, should respect the rules and the rights of other road users, especially the weakest among us, the pedestrians.

In the margin of the World Naked Bike Ride, it is nice to hear again from a naturist activist, the British woman who used to be known as @ladygod1va and whom I chose as my Real Naturist of the Year 2016. She was banned for life from Twitter, even though there was no reason to do so. She has always been a true naturist, even though on Twitter you find many fake naturists who post pictures that have nothing to do with naturism, yet they never get banned.

You can find Lady God1va’s latest message at https://ladygod1va.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/london-wnbr-10-june-2017/ and the World Naked Bike Ride at http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/

Each location seems to have its own separate page with routes and times, so browse around online and get naked on wheels.

(Photo by Paul-in-London from Wikimedia Commons)

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.

The Summer That Wasn't

The summer of 2011.
The summer vacation is officially over, and what an awful summer it was, for naturists like me and for everyone who likes normal old-fashioned summers, with lots of sunshine and bearable temperatures.
Of course I'm talking about the most naturist continent in the world, Europe. If you spent most of the past few months in Spain, Hungary, Greece or even Russia, you probably don't understand what I'm moaning about.
But if you live in countries like the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Great Britain, yes, you do know the summer of 2011 was one of the worst you ever lived through.
Right now, it's also official. Meteorologists - who are supposed to predict the weather but are often better at analyzing what's past - say the summer was the worst in 34 years. That means since 1977, a summer I don't particularly remember, though it followed the summer of 1976, which was one of the best summers ever, except in Cornwall, where I happened to spend my annual holiday.
This summer was also awful because it rained a lot: a total of 61 days during June, July and August, that's two months out of three. I know there are naturists who enjoy a couple of raindrops on their bare skin, but for two full months? No, thanks.
Despite all the misery for people having to stay in the aforementioned Western European countries, there were still nude events around the world that lightened up one's naturist heart.
Spencer Tunick was at it again, photographing hundreds of completely nude women and men in a garden outside a Belgian castle. The semi-nude to fully nude cyclists were out on the streets of several world cities again to protest against the waste of energy and fuel, and members of a cult advocated the legalization of just being topless for women. The magazines obsessed by stars from the entertainment world came up with their annual topic of semi-nude celebrities - not in sex scenes from movies or TV, but from public beaches where they enjoyed the sea, the sand and the sun as everyone would. Too bad they were not naturists, just topless.
And at the end of it all? Ironically, right now, I'm looking outside a window and what do I see? It's September 1, the summer holidays are officially over, but the weather is trying to give us one of the most summery periods for a while.
We lost the summer of 2011, but we can still win the early autumn. Naturists can still have an Indian summer.

A Summer in the Nude?

Summer is almost here, at least for us people in the northern half of the world. North America, Europe and Asia are still up to a point suffering from the leftovers of winter, but the most popular season for naturist activities is almost here.
It is ironic that I will be traveling from naturist-unfriendly Asia to the home of free beaches and naturist resorts, Europe, but that all summer I might not have the opportunity of practicing naturism at all, for family reasons.
Apart from the classic weekend treks to the nearest free beach or the two-week stays at full-blown resorts on or close to the Mediterranean, there are also other occasions to get naked.
In late May, a theater in Utrecht is staging a special performance of its naturist play Viva la Naturisteracion - the actors are always naked in that one, but on May 29, the audience can also go nude.
June will mark the next World Naked Bike Rides, in world towns that missed the earlier round predominant in the Southern Hemisphere, including countries like Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.
Spencer Tunick will also resume his activities, with one of his typical mass nude photo shoots at the castle of Gaasbeek in Belgium in early July.
While I will be unable to attend any of these events, I will be looking out for them in the media and reporting on them, maybe here, but at least on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru.
Enjoy your naked summer!

On Your Bikes, Downunder!

The coming March 5-6 weekend marks the opening of this year's round of World Naked Bike Rides. Since a measure of warmth is needed to appear on the streets without clothes, the Southern Hemisphere will be the first to start off the activities.
The major Australian city of Melbourne will host a ride this Sunday, March 6, but both this and the weekend after, several locations in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil are expected to form the stage for naked cyclists.
The movement is not just about cycling in the nude, and not all participants have to be completely naked.
The first World Naked Bike Ride started in the Spanish city of Zaragoza in 2001, and then as now, the main aim is to defend the weaker road users against irresponsible car drivers, the waste of energy, pollution, and related 'green' or environmentalist topics.
You know my stance on using naked bodies to protest - I think nobody should feel offended, so that might take away the purpose and effectiveness of a protest. While I do think speed limits should be respected and energy should not be wasted, I also believe that cars can be beautiful design items that should not be demonized, while under public pressure, carmakers are already looking for alternatives to oil.
Having said that, the World Naked Bike Rides could be one of the most effective ways to have
the naked human body be accepted by the public at large. The participants are not all completely naked, and many of them are covered in bright paint, making the rides a carnival-like event full of smiles and beauty.
Some countries are still touchy about allowing naked or semi-naked men and women ride bicycles in city centers in broad daylight, but on the whole, the World Naked Bike Rides have been well received and have been spreading around the world.
Once the cold of winter and spring subsides, early June will see the World Naked Bike Rides fan over across the Northern Hemisphere, with major events taking place in some of the world's most famous locations in North America and Europe.
For the time being, if you are a naturist in the southern half of the world, it's time for you to get nude and get on your bikes!

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.