According to "Druridge Bay Skinny Dippers Miss Out on World Record", a very chilly length of beach on England's coast was the venue for hundreds of people to strip naked and plunge into the cold sea (2012). Although they failed to set a new world record in their effort "to held to raise money for mental health charity Mind," it was "a lot of fun," said one participant.
It was also a fun report to read, and a cheerful change from the often depressing news that makes the headlines. It's also something I might have done in my younger, much younger, days, but with age, I guess I've become a bit more conservative in outlook, or perhaps just a bit less fond of the cold. Actually, my dislike of cold weather was an important consideration in my moving to live in Thailand. I hate cold weather, and although it might get cool in Bangkok around Christmas and New Year, it's never cold. I love Australia, too, and visit every year, but always at the end of the Australian summer, when the weather is similar to Bangkok in December - pleasantly cool, not much rain, and generally a wonderful time to be in Australia. That time in April also corresponds with Songkran and the hottest time of the year in Thailand, and I don't mind missing those for a week or so either.
Now that I think of it, there are a few beaches in Australia, a couple in Sydney and others near my family home on the north coast of NSW, about 700 km north of Sydney, where nude swimming and sun bathing is allowed. One of my brothers likes to visit and I think a couple of my young nieces and nephews pop by, but my beach days are pretty much behind me now. I don't like the sand. I don't like lying around on the beach, and there really isn't anything that really attracts me to beaches. The views are nice, I guess, but mountains, lakes and rivers appeal to me more. And I'm very sure that I don't want to see a lot of ageing bodies that might look much better covered up a bit, or a lot.
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Reference
Fortunately, in Thailand it’s not very cool like in England but Thai people are still never naked in public. It’s about our culture and Thai people are too shy to be naked, it’s also pretty hard to find Thai girls in bikini at the beach. I used to wear bikini when I was living in France, I was very shy at the first time, I tried to tell to myself that everyone there (French people) can wear it and nobody care each other, so I can do it as well.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I went to Germany with my friends, there is a big and beautiful sauna, it calls Caracalla Spa. (http://www.carasana.de/en/caracalla-spa/home/) everybody needs to be naked. I really didn’t know about that but I couldn’t come back home by do nothing and we already paid. Therefore I was naked with many people who were using sauna there. I could not look at people in front of me. I was too shy. I would like to disappear in that time if I could.
I like saunas. When I lived in Sydney, I would often go on chilly winter days for a thorough warming up. In Bangkok, I enjoy a sauna after working out. I used to work out at the small gym in the Tawana Hotel, which is very near my home, and they had a nice sauna: it was very hot, and great for getting the skin well sweated before cooling down in a cold shower. Then I joined Clarke Hatch in Thaniya for a year or so, but they only have a steam sauna, not the traditional dry sauna which I prefer. One advantage to Clarke Hatch is that because the sauna are separate for men and women, it was OK to be naked. If there were women sharing with me at the Tawana, I thought it was appropriate to leave my towel on.
DeleteUnfortunately, I haven't worked out for a while, so I've also been missing my regular saunas. Maybe it's time to join a gym again.
I heard that some Chinese elderly believe that dipping in a cold water make them become healthy. If this was true, it would be a good idea to organize such a charity. This is because it is good for your physically health and other people's minds.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with Jan that there is no cold sea in Thailand but I still can see many naked foreigners lying along the beach. However, I think that being naked on the beach for a long time, you may get sun burn rather sun tan in such a hot whether here.
It's an interesting idea, but is there any evidence that dipping in cold water is good for health? Do people who make a habit of that actually live longer and better than those who don't? Do older Chinese people who do that live longer than those who do not?
DeleteI like a cold shower, or a cool one, after my sauna, but even in Australia in summer, I was a bit disinclined to jump into the chilly sea, although it was OK once I'd made the plunge, and I was very glad we had a pool at home for the summer months.
This also reminds me of my grandfather, who was fond of cigars and whisky. He lived in very good health until he was in his eighties, when he died of appendicitis because he didn't complain about the pain and get to a doctor quickly enough, but I'm not sure that smoking and drinking are really good for health. He might have lived even longer had he not drunk quite so much whisky or smoked so many cigars.
DeleteBut then had he not been enjoying his preferred drugs of addiction for many decades, he might not have enjoyed his long life so much, so perhaps the drugs really did help after all. Luckily, his chosen recreational drugs were legal, so there were no unjust legal problems.
Peter, sorry but I really don't know if drugs, even legal drugs, could help someone to enjoy his life. I think if someone needs cigars or any alcohol to be happy is because these drugs are addictions for this person. And I believe that addiction isn't a good thing. We can to be happy without need addiction, and this is the real happiness. About your grandfather, I think that, like you said, he might have lived even longer had he not drunk quite so much whisky or smoked so many cigars.
DeleteI like Grace's comment. It gave me something to think about on an important issue for society and individuals.
DeleteHow about a group of friends sharing a bottle of red wine with a nice dinner? Or a group of uni. students smoking marijuana (ganja)?
These things, both using addictive drugs, seem enjoyable to me, and I think that most adults probably do use drugs to help them have more fun in these sorts of ways. I'm not sure that using a drug, any drug, this way is the same as an addiction. Do most people who use drugs actually become addicts?
I do think that drugs are often a bad idea, especially alcohol, which kills and injures a lot of people in accidents and acts of violence, but I can't think of any good reason why some drugs should be legal and others illegal. That seems irrational and unjust to me.
cannot understand why cigarettes and alcohol are legal things. People who drink alcohol make trouble a lot, such as car accidents, fighting or break something. And cigarettes make us health problem. It is not only smoking person but also people who are near the person. And here in Bangkok, I frequently see that many people throw away them on the street. I hope to become a little strict rule for cigarettes and illegal for alcohol.
DeleteHow should we decide whether something, some substance or some behaviour, should be legal or illegal?
DeleteIce-cream harms people and the resulting obesity causes expensive social costs. Must ice-cream be made illegal?
Cars kill people, just like alcohol. Must cars therefore be made illegal?
To decide whether something be legal or illegal should decide by effect of population as a whole. I agree with Mori that cigarattes and alcohol should be legal because these's disadvantages seems more than advantages. A cigaratte is not only harm for smoker, it also affect health of people around him such as people in family, colleague and unknow people. I have never heard about pros of them except that government gets lot of tax from them.
DeleteThe effect of ice-cream on the population as a whole is terrible: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, early death, reduced productivity, high medical costs, and so on.
DeleteIs it time to throw ice-cream makers into prison along with heroin dealers? And make eating ice-cream a serious crime?
I think we used the cause and result of using these things to divide something should be illegal or legal. The majority of illegal things are drugs. I noticed that illegal drugs usually have the same characteristics after using it, whereas alcohol and cigarettes have a bit difference.
DeleteFirstly, it can cause your body rapidly getting unconsciousness, hallucination and hardly controlled yourself that it leads you to harm other people or do something badly. For example smoking marijuana (ganja) can make some illustration in your mind.
Secondly, the importance characteristic is rapid addiction when someone uses it for one time or two times, then they addict on it. Although, they feel like they can control it, but in fact, they cannot live without it so they totally addict on it. Especially, Heroin and Amphetamine .
Furthermore, drug addiction has side effect on your health because it harms your health and destroys your nerve system. In long term, side effect of drug addiction can destroy your brain cells then you will completely lose your memory in the part and have a problem on your sense. You will lose your sense and feel non-existing something or somebody trying to kill you.
In case of alcohol and cigarettes, it’s quite different in its side effect although it still has long term problem on your health. Especially rapid addiction because cigarettes and alcohol cannot lead someone addicts them within a couple times using them as illegal drugs do. In addition, the government gets huge money from its taxation.
In my recent comments suggested that although it sounded likely, I would like some actual evidence, cited from a reliable source, before believing that Bangkok really is the largest market for dog meat in Thailand.
DeleteSimilarly, I would not believe in anything like Feng Shui as a means of reducing corruption unless there was some solid statistical or other evidence to support it.
In this case, I think some of Bas's beliefs about drugs are wrong. For example, according to reports from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, research on the effects on teh brain and other evidence shows that the substances in tobacco in cigarettes "compares with heroin and cocaine in its hold on users and its effects on the brain"(2010). It is as addictive as heroin and other illegal drugs. Alcohol is also highly addictive. However, I don't think that anyone ever gets addicts to anything after using it only once or twice - this just sounds wrong. But if some reliable evidence is presented, I will definitely change my mind.
I do not think that marijuana (ganja), causes hallucinations in the mind any more than does, for example, alcohol. And as we all know from regular reports, alcohol rapidly affects the brain and body, causing loss of control, resulting in car accidents that kill innocent by standers. This very dangerous drug is also commonly a cause of violence, especially domestic violence when drunken fathers beat up their wives and children. The brief introduction on Wikipedia lists the main effects of this drug.
I think that any way we decided to sort out drugs must result in alcohol being treated the same way as heroin, cocaine and yaa baa. If heroin and yaa baa are to be illegal for some reason, then that same reason will make red wine, Singha beer and champagne illegal. When it comes to brain cells, alcohol is actually much worse than heroin.
And if legal, the government would also get huge tax income from all the drugs now illegal to benefit corrupt police and officials, and to enrich mafia gangs.
References
Ethanol. (2012, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:40, September 26, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethanol&oldid=514484640
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/tobaccosmoke/executivesummary.pdf
In Japan, there are festivals or events in which people dip or swim in cold water. Surprisingly, these events are in the coldest season. People sometimes stand under a waterfall as religious training. They wear only underwear or traditional clothes (kimono). It is said that such kind of activities can make people’s mind stronger and cleaner and maybe it is also good for health as Peace mentioned. Of course, I’ve never done it and definitely don’t want to do it. It is very cold just listening.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think it is better to take a hot spring bath. There are many hot springs in Japan and it is wonderful to relax there especially in cold season. It is always warm or hot in Thailand but taking a bath while watching snow is splendid. So everyone, please visit to my hometown (north of Japan. It is very cold and it snows in winter.) and take a Japanese hot spring called ”Onsen”!
As you and Mori mentioned, onsen-hot spring- is also a special place for me. I never miss the chance to go there during my temporary stay in Japan, almost all of my Japanese friends living here in Bangkok as well.
DeleteGood company must respond people's demand promptly. An Austrarian company opened a Japanese style hot spring facility at Sukhumvit soi 26. So, anyone who is interested in onsen can experience it there.
Although it's Japanese way to wear nothing in the public bathes, I've heard that there are swimsuites for the people, who find it a little embarassing.
I'd like to go there with my Thai friends, but still can't decide, whether I should wear swimsuites there or not.
That sounds interesting. It might make a change from a western style sauna. Do men and women share the same hot spring?
DeleteI'm perfectly happy to be naked in a sauna that is all male, but I'm not sure how I would feel about doing that in a mixed sex setting, although it didn't worry me at nude beaches in Australia.
Don't worry, Peter. Nowadays most Japanese style hot spring falicities are separated for men and for women, and so is the hot spring at Sukhumvit soi 26. In countryside in Japan, there are still some ryokan(Japanese style hotel)which have outdoor bath for men and women together. I usually take such kind of bath only in night time. Because of dim light and steam from hot water, I don't need to care much about being naked.
DeleteI agree with peace idea about a cold water can make you become healthy but it is not dip, you have to take a baht. A cold water can stimulate your muscle and strengthen your skin that why most of skin doctor suggest you wash your face by cold water. However, there are some of european doctors found the better way to take a baht with cold and worm water. If you can take a baht with worm water in a minute and swith to cold water in a minute and keep going on, a worm water make your blood vessel will be enlarge. It will be good for inside body and a cold water will be good for you muscle too.
ReplyDeleteAll of these infomation, i knew from thai magazine, be healthy.
I’m a little nervous to write comment here because I don’t have any confidence in my English, but I will try it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, when I read this, I was surprised that most of your opinion was same as me. I hate cold weather, so I chose to stay in Thailand. And I prefer mountains to beaches, too. I hate the sand which put on my body because it’s very uncomfortable and annoying. However, I don’t mind seeing a lot of ageing bodies on beaches. Maybe, it’s common on beaches. I usually go to open-air hot spring when I go back to Japan, and I see other people's bodies there. If I see someone wearing a swimsuit in hot spring, it’s very strange for me. I think it’s important that suitable figure fits with proper situation, so when I go to beaches in Thailand, I wear a T-shirt as soon as possible.
Mori's comments comparing wearing a swimsuit in a hot spring in Japan with expected beach behaviour in Thailand are a well timed example of the sort of thing we have started to read about in "International Culture" (Hartmann, 2007, p. 11 - 12) and about which we will be reading some more tomorrow in the next reading in Quest.
DeleteThank you Mori for that useful comparison.
Reference
Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing, (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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ReplyDeleteAnd as Mori has discovered, once you publish your comment, you cannot edit it. You can, however, delete the entire comment.
DeleteI try to avoid deleting my comments - there are often typing errors in mine, and I don't worry about them. For example, my fingers often type "teh" instead of "the". It's not a problem here.
I never delete a comment if someone else has already responded to it.
Sometimes when I read a comment I've already posted, I realise I've written something seriously wrong, such as forgetting to add the word not, which seriously changes the meaning. In these cases, I usually add another comment to correct my mistake.
In your blog posts, which we will write today, you can go back and edit after you publish, but again, I try to keep that to a minimum.
I have not been nervous to write on this blog since I read this comment. Thank you very much & I'll try to write here as soon as possible.
DeleteHi everyone
ReplyDeleteI saw the news in french television, they were talking about French people who like to dipping in a cold water(also with some glasses)They believe it can help them to become healthy as Peace said.
and I also read Japanese cartoon, it's about Japanese people takes a shower together in same room or be naked together in sauna. For some of you might think it's normal but for me it's very different. I think you know what I mean. yeah, we have very different cultures.
Anyway it's not a problem, because we don't harm anyone, so let's do it if you enjoy.