NATCON 2016 – the International Naturist Conference held every year in Thailand – attracted this year 44 naturists from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong, New Zealand, Holland, Denmark, USA and in particular India. The format for this year’s NATCON was a lively three days – two nights rafting trip from 10 to 12 June 2016 on one of Thailand’s many large electricity generating dams.

The naturists were accommodated on three primitive house boat rafts with shared sleeping rooms on the second floor. The center raft could accommodate 20 people and the other rafts a maximum of 15 people. For practical reasons, the center raft was used as the common dining room and conference room, while the raft to the right was where the buffet was arranged and the left raft was used for morning yoga, ball room dancing and quiz.

All participants were divided into 14 teams of three naturists who each had one particular job to do like preparing the dinner on one day or clearing the tables after a meal on one day.

On Friday night, the center raft was also transformed into an impromptu disco nightclub where the members danced until late in the warm tropical night.
The conference itself started with a review of the activities of Naturist Association Thailand, where the transition in 2015 to an association with a paid annual membership fee for active members was the most prominent development. There are now 1400 registered people on the membership website www.ThailandNaturist.com and 1990 registered members on the association’s page on Meetup.com. On Facebook, the association administers two pages with 1400 likes and 2600 likes respectively.

One of the goals set for the current year is to increase the number of members participating in real world activities arranged by the association from the current 100 members to hopefully 150 members. This would also make it possible to next year present a positive net result on the profit and loss statement of the association and the balance sheet.

The situation of naturism in Thailand was followed up with a presentation of the state of naturism in Singapore, followed by an insight into the situation in Malaysia, where one of the persons victimized in a politically motivated hunt for persons participating in a naturist outing a few years ago explained about the lawsuit and how it all recently ended for her and a few others who pleaded not guilty and basically won their case.

From there, focus moved to Taiwan, where there is a very lively association. A handful of them participated in this year’s NATCON. From as far away as New Zealand, the participants learned of how an association operates in a very different environment than in most countries in Asia – and how the naturists there fundamentally still deal with the same issues as naturists in Asia.

Finally, focus moved to India, where a session was supposed to have worked on establishing an Indian naturist association, but with a key member missing, it became more of an overview of where and how naturists in India meet and practice naturism.

The afternoon was dedicated to presentations of the naturist resorts in Thailand, who had joined the NATCON. They were Chan Resort, Barfeet Naturist Resort, BR Naturist Camp and Lemontree Resort on Phuket.

On Saturday evening before the dinner, a quiz challenge was in store for the members. First a general round was held and then after dinner finals were held while simultaneously the disco party from the night before was resumed for the participants who still had some energy left after a long day of seminar sessions and water games.

On Sunday, after breakfast some of the Chinese participants surprised with a show in ball room dancing. Otherwise most of the morning was spent playing around with the water toys until the rafts were at noon towed back to the pier. Here the participants boarded three mini buses and a number of private cars for the journey back to the clothed world.

This site has a members-only area, where photos from the event are shared among the participants, and a public are, where you are reading this report. To go to the members-only area, click here..