Wednesday, Dec. 19th, 2007: Krabi, Thailand

Here I am in Krabi, Thailand which has a fairly similar culture to that of Malaysia. I only experienced the "tourist" facilities in Sabah, but not in Sarawak and Malaya. The "tourist" facilities here in Krabi are pretty good both for where to stay and touring around the area. Yesterday, I went on a 4 Island Tour and got a good look at some of the rock formations that are so famous. Took some pictures too. Actually, Krabi has both a Muslim and Buddhist culture that live peacefully together, or so it would seem. So, I say it is fairly similar to my experience in Sarawak because of the friendliness of the people. Thailand is supposed to be the land of smiles; you got me on this one, I thought it was India.

Also today, I read back through all of my previous blogs and will stick with the surmisings, speculations and opinions. I have made a number of observations re global warming, which I will now change to Climate Change. Got to finish this later.

Sunday, Dec. 8, 2007: Bangkok

Well, I arrived here and walked right into an extension of the crisis I thought I had left in Kathmandu re money. First, the Bank in Kathmandu would not accept my overseas draft deposit for a new account and kept sending it back to the bank in FL. Not so nice; and costly. I told the bank I would be in when I get back to talk to the Manager about what happened. Well, here in Bangkok, I discovered that you cannot have your Bank transfer any kind of funds unless you have an account and you cannot get an account unless you have a work permit. The only way to transfer funds was and is via Western Union, which required alot of work to get with D., who was great and got the money just as soon as it was in her account. For love of money, I do not know why NOBODY told me about this situation because I probably would not have come to Bangkok. I am not using ATM's anymore; now I use currency while traveling and ATM's when living in Kathmandu. I experienced this as a real put-off - I am just a harmless senior who wanted to visit a little of Thailand before going to Cambodia but was thrown into crisis mode until the money situation resolved itself. I, personally, am not too keen on a politics of Tourist Countries where there is, actually, some "discrimination" against the tourist who was not correctly informed.

I do not know why I am living in a world of half truths and the half of the truth that is left out is the most important part.

Anyway, tomorrow, I am off to do a little visiting down South before I go to Cambodia for Christmas and New Year's.

I am so thankful to Buddha that I am out of the cold in Kathmandu.

These are my thought for today.