How To Read A Book…And A Computer
Then. How to read a book:
Now. How to read a computer:
Internet
Koh Samui
I arrived on Samui, an island in the south of Thailand, from Bangkok on tuesday. Doug, my son and his Thai wife Luk found me a lovely quiet hotel with a pool right in the middle of Lamai but back off the street. Of course there was a method to their madness…Luk loves the pool but last night, she hit the bottom and chipped a tooth. She’ll have it fixed in Trang, where she is from, when we take Ting Tong (their Shamitzu) to stay with her mother while we all go to Kuala Lumpur next month. Prices much lower in Trang.
Bought an internet card at the IT Internet Complex up on the ring road so now if I walk up to the 2nd floor veranda of the hotel I can get WiFi reception on my computer. There is WiFi access over much of the island now.
Hard to believe how much Samui has developed since I was here two years ago. And the government has recently eased up on foreign investment after having previously clamped down. But a welcome change from noisy smoggy Bangkok. Blue sky…blue water…eye candy.
High Tech In China
I have not been able to access Wikipedia or the external links to Blogspot and Bootsnall blogs since I have been in China. My daughter-in-law who lives in Beijing says that she often can access Wikipedia by going to Answers.com first.
Interesting.
As small as Jinghong is there are internet cafes every few yards on the street where I am staying…each filled with 50 to a 100 spikey-haired bed-head boys all playing video games. Internet usage is very inexpensive and China is very concerned about young people becoming addicted to computer games. I use the internet and they are there. I walk by hours later and the same ones are there! The internet places sell instant noodles and drinks so they don’t even have to leave to eat! At the request of parents China has even introduced “recovery” programs.
Related: The beginning of March, China is cutting the cost of mobile phone usage by 50%. Every other person already has phones almost permanently attached to their ears!
Yangshau & Shanghai
To Bob
When I sent e-mail had not seen your messages. Your place sounds great–will spend a couple more days here before moving on–would like to access your place. gonna run back to hotel to see more of election results.
B
Well, last night I went to Hilton to find CNN..no luck so I circled back to Huaihai via Huanshan. By the time I had turned a few corners I got turned around and then turned the wrong way on Huaihai. Turns out that the hotel is off a section of Huaihai called Central Huaihai…further west it becomes West Huaihai…I walked until I got to the very end of Huaihai…but at least the street was varied and interesting. Walking any of these streets is fun unlike around the other hotel. The Brasil Steak House serving meat like the restaurant in Nairobi is recommended by Lonely Planet is right across the street from the Library…
E
hi again–
Am still in Yangshau and am enjoying it–many canals, shady streets, and less hussle/bussle. Will stay another couple of days then will probably make a short hop to Nanjing for a couple of days–anticipate Shanghai probably Monday–depends on train schedule but suspect there are many–or may take a bus.
We can look into flying to your next stop–do not think we will miss too much unless there is some stop you have in mind en route. I would like to do +/- 5 days in Shanghai if you are up to that much more. Gonna mail another package tomorrow–not much accumulated but I am near a post office and have no room to spare–all this luggage is getting tiring–in BKK I will store much of it. My camcorder screen is almost a total goner- -difficult to take shots–and I cannot review to edit –so less pics– hope you have many. Will check in again manana.
b
B
I don’t have any pics…just enjoyed my stay in Quindao without being Ms. tourist. And second day here my little camera got picked out of my jacket pocket…I know because my pen and reading glasses were in same pocket and they all came up missing later…it happened late at night…was walking all around the area of the Hilton Hotel looking for that little country inn I saw advertised in the China newspaper…never did find it. Guess I better get out the video camera…
Have you heard from Josh…I have emailed him but haven’t heard from him for weeks…
I now have hi speed internet in my room…was worthwhile asking…4 yuan an hour.
E
E
Sat Nov 6
good morning
Last night while doing my email chores was hit with an overwhelming feeling of fatigue–then chills and sweats thru the night–had diarrhea much of yesterday so suspect GI is the focus–not doing too well–diarrhea about every third day with cramps–had a couple of close calls while on buses–such are the battles!!! At any rate had planned on leaving here (yangshou) today but have apprehension about getting on a bus for 3-4 hrs–so will hang out here today and see how things are tomorrow–always feel there is some sort of a deadline but that is due to years of conditioning–have to stop and readjust to fact that there is no hurry getting anywhere. Better to smell the roses…
Sorry about your camera–it also was insured but may not be worth hassle of police reports etc–you decide. Room rate at Admiral in BKK must be for one of the more upscale rooms– cheaper not available? Also at this time of year rates go up in Thailand. At http://www.asiatravel.com there are many serviced apartments but I never know re location–but take a look. I will be knocking on your door sometime Mon. afternoon unless catastrophe strikes–may not have email access between now and then…
see ya soon
B
Free-Wheeling Moscow
2004-09
Like in the big Central European cities we visited, there are cranes everywhere… old soviet buildings built during the Stalin era are scheduled to be razed and new one modern ones put up. Foundations for Stalin’s “Seven Sisters, called “Wedding Cakes” by foreigners, were laid in 1947 to mark Moscow’s 800th anniversay when Stalin decided that Moscow suffered from a ‘skyscraper gap’ compared to the USA.
Inextricably linked to all the most important historical and political events in Russia since the 13th century, the Kremlin (built between the 14th and 17th centuries by outstanding Russian and foreign architects) was the residence of the Great Prince and also a religious centre. At the foot of its ramparts, on Red Square, St Basil’s Basilica is one of the most beautiful Russian Orthodox monuments. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Moscow is a free-wheeling city. To the ambitious there are no limits…the streets around the hotels outside Red Square are lined with black Mercedes and BMW’s with black glass windows guarded by black leather clad “goon” drivers…looking like the mafia. I find a fancy hotel where there is free WIFI in the lobby while participants in a European Union meeting saunter back and forth and high-heeled jeans-wearing translators wait around having lively conversation with pipe-smoking goons.
While I sit here uploading text on our blog, Bob wheels off to find the American Medical Clinic where he has a smoldering tooth extracted by a Russian-speaking dentist before we get on the trans-siberian train for Yekaterinburg (birthplace of Yeltsin) Lake Baikal and Mongolia beyond. We miss each other at the end of the day and it costs me 600 roubles to get back to the flat in a taxi because I’m too chicken to hazard the buses and metros.
The night we saw “Spartacus” at the Bolshoi Theater, our bags were searched by monstrously big “security,” one at least seven feet tall. Tanya says, “I never see them there before…” I ask if it is because of terrorism and she says yes, terrorism. By the way, the suicide bomber that killed several of the people in front of the metro entrance was only about 5 minutes from her flat…she says she was at that metro only a few minutes before the bomb went off. People in Moscow worry she says, but what can you do? Yes, I said, I know, thinking of our Josh who works at a restaurant in lower Manhattan.
We are in the ozone at the Bolshoi, the first ballet for Bob who now says he is ready to take ballet lessons if you can picture that and we enjoy conversations with people around us during the intermissions…one older woman from Berkely and a young woman who is here for a few months to volunteer with an AIDS education Non Profit Organization. Come to find out, over a glass of champaign and caviar-filled pastry, her boyfriend, having graduated from Harvard, is working in Chicago as a chef and they are moving to Manhattan…so of course I take her email address to give to Josh.
We leave on a midnight train for Yekaterinburg.
Christmas At Re Hai Hot Springs 2002
We went to Re Hai Hot Springs..a short half-hour bus ride from Tengchong.
The Asian and European continental shift also resulted in over 80 crystalline hot springs…grand Boiling Hot Cauldron…age-old Toad-Mout Hot Spring…Drunk Bird Hot Spring…Pregnant Well…Fairy Pool…Majic Pool…others…jade colored water bubbles and cloudy vapor…Beauty’s Bath…Pearl Bath…boiling hot.
At the bottom of the hill just outside the main entrance was the Jiaotong Binguan for 60 yuan a night for a double…only problem was that the WC was down the stairs and 50 meters away from our room…they had no rooms with bathroom. Showers were in a little room down the stairs and up some other stairs to the back of the main unit with a hot water pool about two feet deep and about 12×12 feet square…one each for men and women. The dreaded evil karaoke downstairs could be heard through the thin walls until late. Restaurant behind a row of triple rooms with no bathroom across the parking lot from the main building was great…they let us in the kitchen to choose ingredients….seeing what we get is part of the adventure!
Monday December 23
However, since it was nearly Christmas we decided to treat ourselves so we walked up the mountain through the park to the Bright Pearl Hotel…finding five giggling girls at the reception desk with no word of English. After a fashion we were able to secure a double room for ourselves…with all the amenities…WC (even if you did have to flush it by lifting the tank lid sideways), hot shower…and can you believe it…my laptop hooked up to the internet!
Tuesday December 24 Christmas Eve (for us on this side of the world)
We spent this day walking through the park in the sun…Jana took a dip in one of the pools…meeting five Burmese on her way back to the hotel. Where was she from and was she traveling alone…they wanted to know. Yes, she said, she was traveling with a friend…she was sorry that her friend (me) wasn’t there because she (me) and her (my) husband had just been in Burma for the month of August which they found very interesting…are you Catholic they wanted to know…surprised by the question she said, well, yes she was. I am a Catholic priest said one…the two women were nuns…and one of the two Chinese was a Deacon. They exchanged Christmas wishes and then the priest blessed Jana with safe travel.
Maun & Sitatunga Camp
Tues May 28,2002 To Sitatunga Camp near Maun Botswana
Up at 5:30 again. Had wieners, eggy bread (French Bread) with honey and canned spaghetti for breakfast. James is doing his usual antic-body stuff while eating his eggy bread-“fucking sweet honey!” he says out of the blue and everybody laughs-suddenly awake. James is usually very animated and pretty funny.
It’s 200 km to Maun (rhymes with down) where we will wonder around the town for a couple hours before we continue on to our camp for the night. On the way we see two Oryx and Rod explains how their unique breathing aparatus works although I can’t remember any of it. Later we saw Ostriches again. Rod says they are the largest birds in the world and they can kill a human by stamping them with their feet. When they run it looks as if they are running on a water bed.
We stop for toilet and suddenly a big army truck filled with army guys pulls in after us….oh, no we all yell…but they were just checking to see if we were alright and pulled back out on the road again. George hides the meat from the veterinary road checks that are looking for meat with lung disease before we take off again.
The truck slows down again and we look to see a dead cow by the side of the road with about a dozen or so vultures hovering around it. The truck stops so we view the whole grizzly process: One vulture gets on top of the cow and punctures a hole near the rear of the stomach. The entire head of the vulture disappears into the hole and then others take their turn. As the truck starts to pull out again everyone lets out a YUKKK…as one of the birds sticks his head up the bum! Rod says we should be grateful to the vulture and the hyena…keeps disease from spreading…The birds are even built for good hygiene, he says, hardly any feathers on the head and neck for smooth entering of the hole…so what’s so sick we remind ourselves…we eat dead meat too!
Many of the younger women walking along side the road are wearing their hair in plaits and the young guys have those tiny dreads with heads shaved around the sides. I was told later in Swakopmund Namibia by a young guy with the same hairstyle that they got it (hair shaved nearly to the top of the head) from an early American black rap star! When I teased him about naughty rap lyrics he just laughed but a couple older black Africans who overheard me nodded their heads up and down in assent-all the while making faces. Don’t think the older ones approve of the young black male African penchant for black American rap!
Some of the older women from the Herero tribe are wearing long Victorian-style dresses that flare way out at the bottom. The unusual dress, which is now a tribal trademark, was forced upon them by prudish German missionaries in the late 19th century. On their heads the women wear a huge “hat” that looks much like a very wide bow. What is very distinctive about these women, however, is the regal and proud way they carry themselves when dressed this way.
We will see some of these women later in Namibia. Actually, the whole outfit reminded me of the red and white dress and headbow that the stereotypical “mammy” wore in early American movies. Apparently when in traditional dress the men wore a variation of the Scottish tartan kilt but we don’t see any of those.
We stop for internet but the computers are down.
May 28 Sitatunga Camp
The WildLife Adventure.com truck is at the camp…Kumuka truck comes in and we look for Damian and Melissa who transfered to the Kumuka in Vic Falls so they could get down to Johannesberg…you’d think we were all long lost friends as our riders let out a squeal and run to hug them.
Rod has contracted with a Safari Tour company to take us into the Delta on Mekoros so Gary from the company stops by to give us details. Gary, originally from New Zealand, lives in Maun and the locals call him: “Geeza.” Mekoros are an ancient way of plying the delta; canoes carved out of tree trunks with a poler that stands in back pulling the canoe forward.
The other riders party in the bar which didn’t close until 2am and the music was so loud you couldn’t sleep…even with ear plugs…I stayed surly for two days. The Delta will offer respite…
Laughingnomad 
