What I think of politics and what I think about myself

2011-06-25T18:52:00.000+02:00

Swedish falukorv on our 4^th Wedding day.

Yui discovered a small restaurant just beyond the noodle kitchen where we had been once, that advertised in broken Swedish about Swedish food. Not that I was missing it after two weeks here in Thailand, but just as an experiment..... Down in Lamai on Samui they have one or two acceptable Swedish restaurants with Swedish-tasting food. Not that I went there more than once or twice, once to show a Thai girl what it tasted like.

She tasted, then she ran away to eat papaya salad instead, full of chili, and I had to eat her food too, Admittedly it tasted pretty bland compared to Thai food.

Waiting for my falukorv

Here, well, did not see a single Swede or farang at all in the restaurant, neither eating nor making food, we ordered this ”falukorv” to me, while Yui took some Thai food – so we could share. The falukorv, Falu sausage, very Swedish speciality, remember she had brought that to her home village and hardly anyone could eat it, so I had to – not that I minded. Here I got lots of stewed macaroni and three thin slices of some sausage – at least the color was almost right, but hardly the taste. Ah well, it was ok, but I won't have any reason to go back there.

Yui plans to take the bus up to Bangkok and her village for a few days. She has to fix new glasses – much cheaper than in Sweden – renew passport and some shopping and meeting BKK friends, then up to her village to meet her family again and then after some days return with the rest of my medicine that we forgot. Also her ma still seems to have preserved a water cooker we bought for our use 5 years ago and left there, that I sorely need here now. A mess to have to go out in the foyer to get some hot water for coffee or noodles.

So I have to manage myself – have been spoilt obviously! And even if I take a walk every day here I still feel quite wobbly on my weak legs after during a year I have hardly gone out in Sweden except to the hospital. I must have strengthened them a little since I came but also tired them, so no obvious improvement. At least after a month more I do hope I might sense some improvement I hope. I have had many speculations about the practicality of staying longtime in Thailand, spending more and more time here, but one obvious thing I need is – better internet. I do not know how good one can get here, no broadband, Now I have two choices here, one paid and one free, sometimes the free one does not work, sometimes it is faster, some rumor that it might disappear next month with a new owner of the hotel. Staying longtime in Thailand I suppose one gets a regular phone and ADSL for that, better. And then comes transport if I am alone for a while here – I saw one ad about three-wheel motorcycles that probably should work for me, thou I have not seen any in reality. But we have to see how it continues with Yui's studies. She has one year left to a degree, is it worthwhile to take a Master on that?

Friday morning, early, soon sleeping time.

Out for some seafood but we did our best to restrict the cost, like I enjoy a green salad insted of rice, but that cost the same as a big plate of seafood so, not today.

Today we met another old man like me, on our little hotel side street, Yui had before heard him talk Swedish so I said ”Hej, do you talk a real languate?”, in Swedish. And sure he answered, a guy from the Swedish city of Gävle, rather far north compared to me living just in the south. He had been sitting on his chair here for 4 years. Got sciatica, pretty painful sickness in the nerves, that I do not know much about, he said he had it when he came, but now after many long walks in the warm weather it was all gone. I have met a load of old sick Swedish people here who feel so much better here in the warm air with good food and easy life.

16:48

I have started ”making war” on my usual blog http://israelisverige.info about the Middle East, and immediately bumped into the well known phenomena of censure of opinion in Swedish media. When people write totally false things about the Middle East and Israel it itches in the fingers to write and tell them facts, but often they couldn't bother, they know they have all the odds on their side. It is a very frustrating business, but before blogging it was the only thing available, letters to the editors of the papers.

From Ban Mo to Cha-Am via Khaowang

2011-06-21T18:28:00.001+02:00

I DON'T like when the alarm is set on 4AM, Saturday morning, but if I have gone to bed in time it is not impossible. The minibus should come and pick us up outside the house of Yui's brother at 6AM - after all it is something like 5 hours' drive and they are going back tomorrow the same way.

Everything went fine, maybe ten other persons from the village coming, on my account but I do everything to make good impression :) And the villagers have never holidays otherwise, beyond visiting a relative in the neighbor village or so, so over one night at the sea is a revolution. Yui's parents came, in my age, most of the others younger or kids. Close to this hotel there is a house for visiting Thai families, so they got a whole house for themselves, I was there once yesterday sharing some food they had brought along. Looked quite ok, for 2000 Baht for a night. Here I pay 12000B for a month, which is 400B a night I think.

The minibus 4000 Baht plus petrol. So a good deed, and easier for me than if we had to go via buses and Bangkok, as we have to do when we return. Or possibly, when we return a bus to BKK, taxi to where Yui's brother knows to pick us up.

The only disaster was - that Yui did all the packing and I forgot to take the insulin in her brother's refrigerator, sigh. I only have a small amount in the toilet bag with me, but tomorrow they can send some vials down here express so with luck it is here Tuesday.

I have not calculated the price of the whole trip for us two. The tickets were appr. 12000 SKR together, I roughly calculate 5 Bath on a Swedish Crown. We have limited funds, after all living two on one pension until in a year when Yui finishes her studies and gets a VERY well-paid computer job, sigh, but we have to live cheaply from now on once the hotel is paid - Yui had some saved money of her own, especially for gifts to family and friends. And food is supposed to be cheap here in Cha-Am, yesterday evening I sat outdoors at a restaurant and had my favourite deep-fried squid and a Chang beer.

I thought of the price when I saw a Swedish tourist agency selling ordinary 2-3 week trips to some luxury hotel in Cha-Am, a single trip costing maybe twice as all money we are using for 2 months. And those hotels are mostly far from the beach and the little village, we are half a block away.

The others sat at the beach in front of me on such low chairs that I cannot get up from.
You know how a Thai beach looks like, right. Lots of places to sit and eat, a roof over to avoid the hot sun, and sellers wandering around selling food and drink and whatever.

They apparently expect lots of tourists, but where are they?

I think no rain since we came here, some rain on the way, but not too heavy so you have to stop driving. It freshens up. After all, it is summer, the warmest in the village was 42° according to my thermometer.

In the middle we stopped at a place called Khao wang. It is a holy mountain with a castle on top and a cable car up, where the others went up while I had an ice coffee at the foot. Hardly saw the castle in the jungle from where I looked but the coffee was ok. AND as soon as we came into the little town it was full of MONKEYS (Google for Khaowang monkey)! They should be better than dogs avoiding the traffic but everywhere along the sides you saw these monkeys. When I sat down for the coffee I was told better to have a hand over my snacks, otherwise a monkey would soon come and stare me into the eyes. Old people around the temples.

The guards had slingshots in the pocket, probably to irritate the monkeys if they came too close to others.

An hour there or so, then on the road again, do not know if I slept but suddenly we were in Cha-Am, driving along the small streets, as always full of souvenirs and - tandem bicycles for hire! 2-3-4-5-seaters, and sometimes a kid at the end. All in clear colors, yellow, pink, violet........

We drove straight down to the beach road and to the left, then started to count. Often a rather homogeneous system of small streets crossing, Soi 1, Soi 2, Soi 3..... Our hotels were at Soi 7 and not too hard to find. Then our skilled driver took the minibus there - the soi approximately 5 millimeters wider than the bus. Limits the speed huh. Drove in, passed our hotel, talked to the hotel lady standing outside, who showed us the Thai guesthouse two houses up, where also a parking place was enough for the bus, to temporarily unload kids, full rice cooker and the other paraphernalia a Thai family always comes with.

Yui said they were very satisfied after having investigated the place, they had three floors for themselves, not very wide house but......

We went to our room, not very fully booked hotel, not in season now, have not seen a single other guest, they had one room at the first floor with small balcony, but - really too small to sit on, and there had been a view of the sea, as I had hoped, without all trees and signs. And also they were building another hotel opposite where all the guys were looking in, so we checked the handicap room at the bottom floor, and stay there. A tiny bit darker, but ok, I am anyway supposed to go out to see the sea, and the window is in the other direction, so noone looking in.

Suddenly Tuesday.

Calm days, only disaster was that we suddenly discovered we had forgotten most of my insulin in the refrigerator of Yui's brother. Ah well, had som in the toilet bag, thou they do not stand a lot of heat. And the family sent some from there yesterday and I got it today, might survive.

Then in a week or so - when I am settled here Yui will take the bus to Bangkok to fix things, some shopping, fix new passport, then up to her village for some more days, and then bring the rest of the insulin here in its thermos bottle.

Not many tourists here, and it is a place also for Thai tourists, guess they come over the weekends, then go back home, so very calm. But many enough small restaurants open, even thou life pretty much ends at 22 or so. First evening Yui went to the beach with the family, for some food they had brought along, maybe they bought some from all the sellers walking the beach. I cannot get up from those low beach chairs, so I sat in a cheap restaurant at the corner of my little soi and the beach road, with nice view of the sea. Got a deep-fried squid, one of my favourites, with a beer for 175B.

Next evening we went to the left along the beach road, to a restaurant half a floor up, with nice view out over the sea and down at the limited street life. I got another deep-fried squid, tasted better, one beer and for us it was something like 750B. Cannot do that every day, so the following day to the other direction and a cheap noodle kitchen, one big noodle soup each for 30B. Tasty! The trouble for me is to get up from the little plastic chair afterwards, but Yui had put three on top of each other so I managed. Next trouble to get down from the pavement...... Very high edges, good when flooding, but hard otherwise, so I have to be very careful, prefer to see if I can find some place where it is easier to get up or down, or something to hold in during my effort. Life is sort of complicated without any balance, but I have to try at least.

Yui is getting friendly with the hotel girl out in the foyer - so that girl wondered if I was easy to manage.... Not as spoilt as many other farangs, Westerners..... I eat normal Thai food as long as it is not too spicy, and I let Yui run as she wants, unusual apparently.... But that is why it took so many visits here to meet the right one, most Thai guys would not let her run wild. After all she worked as journalist and photographer when we met, a pretty free life. So she looked for something unusual too. Ah well, has worked for 5 years now.

Yui looking out over the sea.

So days go and I do not expect any big surprises the next few weeks, so probably not so much written here.

Temple Day, and more

2011-06-19T07:28:00.001+02:00

Saturday, June 18, Saturday.

I'm out of date. It is sort of more fun to write about events to individuals than to the blog, but should compromise and sometimes I first write something to someone, then get the idea that it might be of general interest. One can compromise and cheat.

This is "genuine" thou :)

One works differently on a slow internet, I cannot check back what I have written as quickly, so I just have the feeling I repeat myself at times. Tell me if so, I do not really care thou.

Nowadays I hardly talk about "my religion" thou I grew up pretty standard in the Pentecostal Church in Sweden. Maybe not too devoted, more following my parents, honestly I hardly had any friends there but on the other hand I have had few very close friends in my life, always been a loner. That way I cannot be accused of misleading anyone.......

After that, in the seventies and eighties I was a lot down in Israel, got more friends there than anywhere else and felt pretty normal there. Many enough who did not ask, thought I was a Jew. At the same time people start to forget Hitler, and the traditional antisemitism sneaked into church and Western media as during the 2000 years before Hitler..

I forgot how many girlfriends I had there, I recall I had one wife for 4 years end of the seventies, but I prefer to forget THAT mistake - thou funnily enough I nowadays now and then mail with her latest husband, an American Jewish millionaire, they livv in Israel, who says she has grown into being the real superbitch, thou still sexy for her age, and he is rather old, so apparently kinda satisfied.

In 1990 I was told there that "you are too old" and I spent more and more time in South East Asia since then, where the gals I meet do not say so. I do not meet the others.

Back to the Temple, sorry. I remember how it was to go to the Pentecostal Church, I went but did not find it too exciting. I was rather obedient but not dogmatic enough for some of the older men there who were very suspicious of me. When I started university 100 kms off they "suggested" I look up that congregation in the university city, and my parents had put me in their student rooms but - I participated in some student activities but never felt for going to that church. Then I had an argument via letters with the pastor in the village congregation, he was interested in science, that I studied, and had questions. But then we came into religious questions, I had started to be interested i Israel and Hebrew and so he tried to explain to me what "belief" was. He mentioned some verse in the Bible, which apparently traditionally tries to "prove" something about "belief". Ah well, I analyzed every word in that verse, told him the basic meaning in Hebrew and all the different ways it could be interpreted and suddenly the meaning was not at all as crystal clear - he never answered that.

And soon I started to go to Israel on holidays, learned more and more about culture and religion there. Christians often say about the word of God in the Bible, that it is from God and humans cannot really understand it, while Jews TRY to understand all their lives - a definite intellectual difference.

And Buddhism? My first trip to Thailand was back in 1975, and the last decade I have been there many winters, much for health reasons - ny balance has gone worse after some infarcts in the balance center in the brain stem, soon ten years ago, so It is definitely dangerous for me to try to walk in slippery weather in Sweden, and also a Charcot foot, a sort of inflammation in the bone, that has left some bones just half the thickness, and if one of those break, only wheel chair left for me.
It is comfortable sometimes with wheel hair, like when traveling and I have to be transported long corridors in big airports. But that is a far step from not being able to walk at all. At thfe Temple I saw one with the Thai kind of handicap transport:

Deviating from the subject, Buddhism - after 5 years now with a Buddhist wife I have got some insight in the practicalities of three big religions. What do they DO when they go to the Temple??? I have for sure no complete idea, what I have seen - like this Thursday, is that they sit on the floor, sometimes on mats, in front of the central Buddha statue where it might be or not, an important monk. People pray alone or with monks, "make merit", giving food to monks, gifts to the Temple, pray for their own well being and of relatives and friends, living and dead. Sometimes it i looks like a preaching of philosophy, and stories about Buddha. Meditation - I have not participated but my wife talks much about it. And glimpses I have seen and heard, my wife is sometimes a nun over a weekend or so, where she has to follow certain religious rules.

The attitude - I do see many similarities even thou it is called differently, Jews pray to G_d, Buddhists pray to Buddha the same way for an observer, thou they are careful mentioning that Buddha is no God, and Christians have some hybrid between God and human being, and devoted Christians always get irritated when I say it gives exactly the same feeling as white magic - that I read a bit about when I was half my age. "Believe and you will be saved" is plain white magic, like "belief can move mountains".

I have asked: is this "making merit" the same as "making good deeds"? I am not sure, it feels much of the same, but not quite. Someone knows?

And I see no point in visiting every temple around, as the others here. What does that give?

The temple we visited last Thursday was far from every village or city as I saw, a rather big area, not just the building. And lots of people, who unlike the Swedes - have something to look up to, they have Buddha and the King, and everywhere in Thailand you see the the Thai flag and an orange one symbolizing Buddhism, beside each other. It apparently fulfills a need, that the Swedes think they do not have anymore. They look up to the Temple of Science instead, not that they understand it any better than other Temples.

I and the parents mostly sat on a bench just outside the Temple and looked into the wide opening.

We looked into the Temple:

Monks living there. Yui talking to one who looked important there also.

Discussing life with Nun just outside.

Continuing jungle life.

2011-06-15T17:49:00.000+02:00

14:30 in the jungle,

No aircon, no fan, 32° in, 41° out - no, went down to 38° suddenly. The electrical system overloaded so Nom, Yui's brother, is trying to fix it now. Still 3½ hours left of power in the laptop battery.

Contemplating about traveling - have you ever really TRAVELLED??? Just taking a drive from a city to another or plane from a country to another it no travelling, that is just moving your ass a bit. My father loved driving during our holidays when I was a kid so we came as far as Rome in 1955, thou my memories of that are extremely vague, a glimpse here and there tat I have repeated in my memory. Then he bought a caravan and the latest years with the whole family and that one was 1966-67-68. Many memories. It usually went to southern Switzerland, Ticino, and a trip or two down to Italy. After retirement my father drove a few times alone or with my mother all the way to Sicily, actually I and my first wife came along down there end of the seventies, (I think, trying to forget that wife.....), and we returned ourselves with trains.

First time I travelled FAR was in 1975, when I left a student party at midnight, said "bye, going to India" and then I did that. 2 hours later I was on the ferry over to East Germany, very communist and icky at the time, you know the world the leftists of today in Sweden and the world love. Have you ever met a lady East German customs officer, and seen her shiny eyes when she found an address book in your luggage? Bonus! OK, I probably did not have much of East European addresses there.

Train during 3½ days, ending in the huge railway station of Istanbul, the only time I have been there, thou I have been in the airport a number of times, latest this Friday. Then to a backpack hotel I knew of, some kind of node for people travelling to and from the East, I have a vague memory of that, sleeping many in each room, a big noteboard where people going East or West put up messages for friends - no e-mail, no mobiles in those days remember. Can you imagine that primitive life?

We roamed around, a few guys whom I had met there, to find the bus to Tehran. Found, a modern tourist bus, and off we went to the real adventure. Train to Istanbul from Lund had taken 3½ days and bus from Istanbul to Tehran took as long, one driver driving 18 hours a day.

Remember the impression when we circled around the mountain Ararat, a very prominent top on a high plateau, the road went in a half circle around the mountain and it was visible for hours.

(Next evening)

Continuing the long trip another time, remind me I stopped at Arafat.

We have already used far too much money, already on minus, so nothing extra from now on, I get my pension in a few days and from Saturday we are in Cha-Am, we promised to pay for a dozen people to come along and stay overnight which got more and more expensive...., but have promised to pay it. Minibus + driver, 4200B, petrol to that, then 2000B for a bungalow for the crowd over a night. Hope it will be a memory for them for a long time. Yui has some money of her own but not any great amounts. When I am myself I always live on a budget and never go on minus, I just eat less........ Then in Cha-Am until maybe the last of July, before going back to the village for the last few days, then her brother takes us back to BKK same place, taxi to the airport to take us to the airport early on Aug. 7. Plane goes 10:50 I think so another early morning.
Before I paid 15000B for the aircon that Yui's mother had paid, and 5000B to her brother for fixing everything else, incl. electricity so we could stay here, he building the room whatever..... Thou all of that he will have use for later.

2 days ago we were off to a supermarket in Lopburi, a bit north. I needed a bag of salted peanuts, lack of salt, so why not bring half a dozen people along, some in the car and some at the back - pickup trucks can take lots of people here! We also shopped for a Thai girl ;)

[Actually the daughter of Yui's brother who hitched a free ride for a while.] Then we drove back in the dark. Halfway we stopped at a noddle eatery, for some reason the noodle soup they make is VERY tasty! And it does not cost many bath, guess we have to live on that down in Cha-Am.

I have already had much more exercise than I have had since last time in Thailand, 1½ years ago, and I have not exercised at all in Sweden during that time - having two diabetes ulcers on the feet, still not perfect but I felt I had to go here now to get some exercise, too boring to go out in Sweden. And during the long winter I am unable to walk, a slip and fall could be fatal for my Charcot foot, and without much of a balance I cannot walk on slippery roads.

When we come down to hotel California in Cha-Am - an American guy has it with his Thai wife - one thing impressing me was that he promptly has answered e-mails, which feels good. Most hotels here are absolutely lousy on that point and sometimes big hotels do not answer at all. Then once we are there I can move around as I want, not a big family around, and not Yui spending most of the time with them of course so I never know where she is.

Now two days, then we will start at 6AM - Yui can drag me out and I go on sleeping.

Then we will pass some famous temple mountain so a deviation. Ah well, no climbing for me but there are always places in the shade.

Ban Mo, Saraburi Province

2011-06-14T07:17:00.001+02:00

Jungle Monday, 11:50

Apparently I got all the medicines along, have just filled the medicin box for the week from the cartons in the plastic bag. First I thought I had forgotten one but then found that box down in the corner.

Just now 28°/32° - light air conditioning, I usually put it at 29°. Yesterday evening the brother of Yui drove us slowly around the village - I saw the school of Yui and a playground. And then we bought ice cream.

Playground, and in through the elegant portal is a temple and Yui's school - they are often together. Nobody screams, as in Sweden, that religion and school is associated with each other, and not a muslim or mosque in the vicinity. After all it is not Eskilstuna.... The future here is safer than in Eskilstuna, this very average town of Sweden, Eskilstuna. Here they just continue to live like they have done the last 1000 years.

Just before we bought ice cream, where they also fix motor bikes.

Then we took the road back to the houses:

Passing the house where the brother and we live:

to where the parents live, where Yui grew up:

There is lots of fresh air where people usually spend their time, in between the legs. Some of the floor cement, some earth, some old sacks. Practical - these houses are situated a bit higher than where they cultivate rice, so they avoid the yearly flooding.

Sweden and its local problems definitely feel far away!

Now fried fish and bamboo shoots for breakfast. Yui is sour, her mother does everything for me, she has to do everything herself......

We are nice and pay most of the stuff we use, after all we got more money above absolute necessities, thou they are far from poor and own lots of land where they pick much of what they eat. We gave her ma 15000B for the aircon she bought, and I think Yui will give her bro 5000B for all extras. After all they built this little room to be ready for us. But then we have to save.

Have finished the coffee with a cap of the rhum I bought in Copenhagen for 98DKR for a liter.Good to have some in the coffee. Also got a big mug of homemade soy milk.

The nearest town is Saraburi, many of the kids here have barely seen the sea, maybe 150 kms away.

Istanbul - Bangkok - BanMo

2011-06-11T09:40:00.003+02:00

2011.06.11

It is tough life, to travel, and one is always happy, at my age, when it is over and one can sit down and relax for a while. I could not imagine taking 1-2 week holidays and run around like a rat all the time. Also the time from 1999 onwards when I spent just about all holidays on a long winter holiday in Thailand, so I could stay for a while - over a certain age, was it 45? - I had 7 weeks of holidays a year.

Last story ended at a table in the big eating place of Istanbul Airport, the usual, chairs and tables in the middle and then small restaurants along the walls where you pick up your food.

We had 6-7 hours of waiting, so first there for a while, where I wrote the last entry, then we walked a bit - they had something called Free Public Internet but it did not work so I only wrote that offline, still no gate number coming up so we walked back as Yui was hungry again - after all she is a Thai girl. They eat five times a day and very rarely get fat. I had already walked more than any day for years, once the gate number was shown we started to walk in that directory, but after a while I had cold sweat all over and Yui said I looked pretty gray, so sat down and she used her best Turkish to run around looking for a guy with a wheel chair. And then good service - which I even got in Pakistan once, as soon as I came to the waiting room tvo guys with one wheel chair came running seeing me walking with my crutch, and then they were around for hours until time for my plane to go, and then me and chair was driven down to the gate, was met by the food elevator delivering food to the planes, and they put me on that one, and delivered me to the food door of the plane..... Perfect service!

Here in Istanbul it was something similar, they transported me with the "ambulance" where they drove on the wheel chair, also kind of an experience to Yui, hope she got some nice photos....... And then that machine drove to the plane and also lifted me up to the door of the plane. Elegant.

We travelled Turkish all the way and it is OK. Food ok, only problem that the beer was warm, but I had experienced that on the trip from CPH to IST so to BKK I was satisfied with Turkish muslim red wine. Was OK. Food OK, thou if I survive this trip, next time I should try Qatar. Turkish is of course better classed than dirty old SAS but Qatar is pretty close to top mark where they compare air companies while SAS and Turkish are somewhere in the middle. I would not try the bottom ones like Sudan Airways - also called "in shallah airways", "god willing airways"!.Or Bangladesh Biman. You can do it and then blog about it.

We came to civilised hot Bangkok, a wheel chair was already waiting, and then I sat in that from the plane to the luggage line to the toilet to the exchange office to the taxi line outside. Convenient, try it one day!

Somehow I do feel quite at home in BKK, even thou my body is dying around me. It is not ME, after all. It is a convenient enclosure of ME.

So taxi for half an hour in a half circle around BKK, mostly via paid toll roads circulating town, to a supermarket complex in the northern end, where Yui's brother waited with his pickup truck and his son and their mother. Hugs and then to a supermarket near Saraburi, where we stopped for - eating of course. We are in Thailand after all, thou this was a Chinese restaurant where you prepare your own food you are set around a table with a boiling pot with soup, and in it you put lots of things yourself, vegetables, finely sliced meat, tofu, whatever, and ice tea to drink. No beer before 17:00. So 900B all in all for 5 people.

Then bought Aircard, for internet, looked like an over-sized USB memory stick, works allright, 7Mbits or so. So I use that now here in the village, some 150 kms north of Bangkok. We also bought SIM cards for our Thai mobile phones, and some phones - I had two along, one for the Swedish and one for the Thai SIM card, but Yui needed a second one, and she also bought one for her brother who had a VERY old one.

Then we stopped at a small place along the highway selling furniture and Yui bought a sturdy working table for this room, 1200B.

Now 3 gals, all Thai, are in this little room, and the son of Yui's brother. Aircon only here which lowered the temperature from 33° to 29°. I do not want it colder. I am impolite enough to type, not listen to inkomprehensible Thai and smile like a buddha. But at my age..... The other gals, friends of Yui, were young and pretty when I was here 5 years, still pretty and with one kid each - same system as in Sweden 100 years ago when the gals enjoyed both making and having kids, and both mothers and kids look very happy here in the jungle, like old Sweden I guess. One wonders what will be in 100 years when the average age in Europe is 60, and the kids have got tired of using all the money feeding the oldies, so they have moved to more civilized places. No such problems here! Here they still enjoy it, after all the girls are prettier.

Yui's mother, in a way she looks more fresh than 5 years ago. Then she walked with a stick now not, she has had a hip operation in a cheap hospital in Bangkok and now she is without stick and for sure walks better than I do - she is a year or so younger than me.

I am fed all the time, good food but too much! They know I love Chang beer so when I arrived here I got one, and a big plate of Yui's mother's pig feet soup, delicious, but after all I had just eaten at that Chinese restaurant and was already quite filled up. They had probably intended to eat more later, but I was tired enough to land on my air-conditioned bed and stay until morning. Except up peeing a few times - in Sweden I might go up once or twice a night when I have a mug or two of my homemade red wine before, but here no wine and only one beer so had to run, and find the slippery way out to the toilet behind the kitchen, Yui's mother is doing what she can to make us stay more than a week, and has filled the fridge with Chang :) It means Elephant, so Thai Elephant beer - you can buy it in Systemet in Sweden but not at all the same taste, slightly weaker and no heavy metals.

I stopped being polite at 50, had not earned any points on it before.

So we are gonna be here for a week, then either to BKK for a week or straight to Cha-Am, they better decide soon so I can book hotel in Cha-Am. I am here as at home, eat slowly with food beside the computer, only that the plates pile up - Yui's mother is a very good cook but I can not eat faster for that, then it gets stuck half way. I always had that problem, but it is healthy to eat slowly yah.

Istanbul

2011-06-11T05:51:00.000+02:00

When I took up the laptop here in Istanbul Airport it promised Free Public Internet, but we never got any useful signal. A well, can write off line.

So we came after 3 hours flight from Copenhagen, the plane should have left CPH 12:10, was maybe 20 minutes late for departure, then 3 hours to Istanbul, grey in CPH, warm and sunny here, had to take off the jeans shirt. Istanbul has Israel time, should tell the muslims that hehehe. So we leave here at 23:45 Israel time. Then we fly for 9½ hours and land in BKK in the morning.

Did I tell I am tired, but what the heck, my body is not for walking. Not anymore, sigh. It sure needs lots of gentle exercise in Thailand, that is a reason I go. I just find it hard to force myself to go out in Sweden, not worth the trouble. But in Thailand it is usually much more to see. And there I can AFFORD to sink down in a small restaurant with a cold Chang and look att the bypassers. And write something stupid about my speculations about the most strange ones. And Thailand is full of them, probably compared to most countries - an exception might be Cambodia thou I am not a specialist after only one one-month visit there. I sure met some strange ones, life there is more primitive, less polished than in Thailand, only the more daring tourists go there. Or groups come well guarded and surrounded with all kinds of protection and guards so they do not stray off but only see the standard tourist sites and not the poorest and most handicapped beggars.

My hands are too hairy or something - when I type it touches the press pad without my feeling it so the mouse jumps around without me telling it, sigh. When I am reasonably stationary I connect the trackball and tape something over the press pad, then it is easier. I do not have to hunt the mouse all the time and correct the mistakes it makes because of the mouse+fingers not the brain.

Istanbul Airport is as expensive as all airports, but the sellers here know people who pass, normally still feel the price of whatever that they purchase is sucha tiny part of the ticket pricer, so...... Yui just picked up a big 0.7liter mug of cool beer for me - tasted just perfect when I was hot (while taking off the jeans shirt) and tired and we found a table to settle for some hours at. She picked up an expensive Sushi, so it is mutual distrust of the taste of each other. Sushi for me is mainly cold expensive rice - thou it had been fun to one day taste what it really is, in Japan, where I have never been.

So the day started when it usually ends, around 04:30AM. I was good enough to get in bed at 9PM the evening before, ha. So it worked, I got up when the strange phone uttered some strange sounds, rather - I took out a little phone I bought on Samui 3½ years ago, and put the Swedish SIM card there, for use when I need that, then I will get a new Thai SIM card to the other, the old one has expired. The kind I also kan use for internet, a vable between the lap top and phone, as an alternative when there is no WiFi is arround, I did like that rather much when I was in Thailand last time, look a bit down in the blog. Anyway, succeeded in making it beep in time, thou the sound surprised me.

I had planned to use Yui's backpack as mine was broken, but - I do not know why it was much heavier than mine last time, how much was because my condition is so much worse after not walking much for a year or the bag being heavier - in principle it was the same content, laptop and medicines. A mystery. Anyway, it has small wheels so we got one more bag to drag and thanx God I have a young and strong wife. I take one and she take two bags to drag. I do not try hers as she has filled it with Swedish food to have a Swedish party in her village of the remains after half has melted or rotten away.

Won't be so much more dragging, once in Thailand we mostly can rely on others, Yui only has to do what she did now with no problem, up and down buses and trains. There an occasional taxi driver, Yui's brother a few times - he picks us up in Bkk after a taxi guy has taken us from the airport. At least that is the plan.

Waiting, but I do not suffer, 17:55 Swedish time meaning 18:55 local, and 22:30 we should be at the next gate. 3½ hrs more.

Comfortable temperature here, I just could not guess how much, good we have the termometer with us. It felt very warm outdoors when we came, and took the low bus from the plane to the waiting hall. Here some aircon, was hot in the beginning because I had walked long - for me - and the temperature, but now just comfortable, not too cold as in some airports who think the more power they feed the aircons the better.

Wonder what people sit here - reasonably people in transit. Istanbul has become a hub as they have expanded their international air fleet. We had Qatar as alternative when we looked at the cheapest .flights to Bangkok from Copenhagen. Strange that those two have become the cheapest lately, while air companies like SAS and other European ones only lose money. People with more money go Thai Airwats of course as they fly directly from Scandinavia to Bangkok, for a price. Except that they have budget trips in summer but only short ones, not 2-3-4 months. A pity.

Packing?

2011-06-08T18:28:00.000+02:00

Or whatever, I mostly sit at the computer. I have packed the backpack, for medicines and laptop, not even looked in the big black one, Yui has handled that. I only have to remember to take the insulin from the fridge tomorrow morning - have to get up at 4:30, go down to the bus outside here around 7AM, train here in Lund at 08:30 to be in the airport at 09:02, they say 3 hours before departure at 12:10.

Then we have to wait for 6-7 hours in Istanbul, better too long than too short with my limited walking abilities. Leaving somewhat before midnight, and then 9½ hours to Bangkok.

Then we land in Bangkok or Krung Thep as all Thais say. Those who want to be really brilliant say Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit of course.

Last time in BKK airport they immediately came with a wheel chair and nowadays I accept that gratefully, Suvarnabhumi is pretty big. I can manage in Copenhagen but if they come with one...., I think they did the last time in CPH, an electrical vagon to pick up us old and tired.

Ariving in Krung Thep you walk a bit to the passport check, then down to pick up the luggage, nowadays with my lack of balance I have always had to ask someone to take it from the delivery band, have not been out flying with Yui since we met for more than 5 years ago, so of course it is easier.

With or without wheel chair we go out in the hall, and fix Thai SIM cards for our phones, Yui got one when she was there 2 years ago, also usable for Internet via mobile, so I used the same when I was there alone half a year later. But by now I am pretty sure it has expired, ah well, we ask and then Yui buys one for us each, we have one laptop each and need internet.

[Klick the map.] Then walking out to the taxis avoiding all guys who want to offer us "professional drivers" for twice the price, there is an official line with registered drivers - where you can be cheated too, but be very quick to ask "taxi meter?!?" - probably noone tries tricks when I come with a Thai girl.

Then that guy takes us to the bus station in the northof BKK , where Yui's brother will wait to take us to the village Ban Mo. Marked in red at the map.

A week there, we will see how troublesome it will be for me, but I have not been there for 5 years, since I met Yui, and they want to see me again, for some reason. Yui has some pics from her trip 2009 at link.

Yui says her mother has planned this and that to look around the village with us, I have been as lazy as always with my book First Course in Thai, and I know it is very bad, but the book starts to look pretty worn by now. I still bring it along on every trip.... The people in the village barely know English, some kids in the internet age hangs on Facebook by now, but mostly in Thai. I get an occasional "Hello Santa"......

Village adventure over we will come back to Krung Thep one way or another, can take the bus too. And Yui wants to be there for a week of shopping and meeting friends, think she also talked about getting new glasses. So I suppose we go to my usual hotel. "5 day promotion" I see. If I am smart we could also look for a better one, it is on a byway to Khao San Road, not so noisy, with many guesthouses and small restaurants but of course we should look around somewhat to see if there is others we could enjoy for another time. But it is fun to hear people say "long time no see" from here and there along the little walking street. Away from the elegant quarters, backpackers and seasoned travellers are often there so I have met many enough interesting people.

Actually I prefer to go directly to Cha-Am and stay there, then Yui can take the bus those 2 hours up to BKK for her stuff, and probably stay over night with some friend. Let's see. One advantage with that is that Yui's parents had loved to come along over a night, they never had holidays really. But then I had to pay..... I do not know, have to talk about it. After all we travel on a budget. Most of the travel money went to the air tickets, then we have to live on my usual pension. Yui has saved a bit for things she plans to buy to her parents.

The only problem with that hotel in BKK is that the entry is slightly tricky for me, nothing to hold in so I always have to find a chair inside to hold in to get up.

Further plans. Ah well, nothing elaborate, only when Yui has shopped enough and got a new Thai passport we have to find transport to Cha-Am, can probably ask the girl in the travel agency in the hotel, hope it is the usual one as she is always very friendly and helpful, known her a number of years. Cost a little bit more than taking taxi to the right bus station but ah well, we will ask.

My usual kind of travelling is not as smooth as a standard charter trip from door to door but ah well - this time I am a bit more handicapped because of my diabetes ulcers in both feet - thou one is minimal by now. Because of those I have hardly been out walking for a year, and my condition is absolutely lousy but I see no way to get inspiration to go out here in Sweden and look at the same rental houses here around that I have been looking at since I moved into this apartment in 1982. So - I have to take a chance that I will manage. I felt similar when I went in 1999 after not being in Asia for 12 years - my body had deteriorated, I knew it but I went to Indionesia anyway. And had fun,.

So simply Google for pictures of Cha-Am and agree it looks pleasant and restful. No wild night life, no shopping paradise, I can sit with the laptop where I feel comfortable and get inspiration from the view. On the balcony with a view over the sea, or go to some small restaurant or whatever.

I guess I will survive.

Brain running hot again

2011-05-02T04:48:00.002+02:00

Not that I look out often from my writing office into the Swedish chilly mist, but someone told that the snow is gone, and soon it is time to travel.

I and Yui, my Thai wife, have decided to spend most of the summer in Thailand - 2 months from June 10 - in Cha-Am, with a week or so in the beginning in her home village and a couple of days in the end. OK, it is fascinating there in a way, still - it IS more or less in the middle of the jungle and Yui is the only one speaking decent English. And my Thai is - something I have felt ashamed for a few decades. I got the first text book from a penpal there in the seventies.

OK, did you talk to Mr Google about Cha-Am. Have a look, a small place at the sea, not yet full of tourists and a certain part of the visitors are Thai, so a little bit cheaper than the usual tourist holes. I do not need no night clubs, there are anyway pretty girls everywhere to look at in Thailand, I need no shopping, but small cheap restaurants with seafood and Chang beer (Chang as in Elephant) whatevermore.
Do you find Cha-Am on the map? From the center go down a little left along the coast and after 2 hours in the bus you find it. If you now go from Cha-Am to central Bangkok and continue the same line the same distance, you end up more or less at Yui's village. [The map from this link. If you click on it, it might become larger, depending on your web browser.] When you find Saraburi go a little bit up left, and you find her village, Ban Mo.

Yui's brother is no city driver but when we come we take taxi from the Suvarnabhumi airport to the big bus station at the end of Bangkok in the direction of Yui's village, that is north. The village is not far from Saraburi., so he drives and picks us up tin that bus station - worked when Yui was there alone 2 summers ago.

I still do not know what or where the village is :) last time I was there was when I learned to know Yui, 5 years ago, and then I just saw three houses at a small country road. With my bad walking - ah well I have to manage, right. Yui says they even made a new room for me in her brother's house with aircon, which is sort of good when it goes over 40°, I am not sure how hot it will be in summer as it is also rainy, which cools it down a degree or two. Suppose they are happy for that room, suppose Yui will sneak in some little money for that to get aircon there, she knows exactly how much we have, cannot really compare to a family in the country side of Thailand where everything grows and where it seems you can eat everything that grows. She has helped a bit since she came here to Sweden soon 5 years ago, but as we live two on my pension..... Once she is ready with her studies in a year, and gets a well paid job it will be different. Last visit she gave her mother a washing machine and a refrigerator - her first in her life, good to have in that heat..... Once I am gone the room will be used for sure, for the kids to sleep in, the father to work in maybe, I do not know. Before the brother has installed aircon in their bedroom, nothing like that in Yui's parents wooden house on stilts a short walk away.

And of course a problem is internet...... Some of the half-grown kids there use internet, one or two is on Facebook and sometimes say Hi to "Santa" - 1½ year ago when I was on Samui I had to choose among a WiFi in the air, but my oid laptop could seldom pick it up properly - got a better now bought recently especially for travelling, and I use it just now, 13", 2 kilos, then I also used my Nokia phone for Internet, safer but slower. It seems they use another system those playing the village but I let Yui fix that.

As I said, there I have the country road and jungle paths to walk on, neither is very good for my rotten legs, so I do not want to be in the village for more than a week or so. Then to Cha-Am.

I have never been there, just heard about it, and a friend spent a week there - of course in one of the touristy luxury hotels far from the beach that Swedish tourist agencies deliver. I want to be close to the beach - a block or so away is ok. So I have decided to pick Hotel California - book three days there or so, once I know a date, and if we like it we stay for something like 1½ month. Price is - well, high for what I am used to in Thailand but of course cheap for Sweden, 12000B for a month for a big room with balcony where you can see the sea if you look to the left, what is it in Swedish, just now around 2500 kronor. My rent here in Sweden for half a month.

I mailed them and they seemed very friendly, quick response, which gave me a good impression. American guy with Thai wife.

I try to identify why I feel so good down there. It is hard for me to travel with my walking disabilities. Still not wheel chair, only a crutch but I guess it comes. Cha-Am might be good for me, the usual place down at Samui - it is actually a bit hilly unless you stay in the center of the village at the beach, the pavements in my usual village, Lamai, is lousy for walking, so I have to walk in the village roads shared with lorries and elephants and - at night - drunk Westerners, farangs. Just when I was at the guest house last time one of the guests had driven his motor bike and killed himself and his Thai girlfriend, so monks came to collect money for the funeral. I do not know who it was so gave no money.

Nah, 5AM and a few mugs of wine, bedtime.

The latest sick journey - to the Abyss.

2011-03-11T22:23:00.019+01:00

I came back home an hour ago, rather exhausted. the Edge World is tiring.

Almost two weeks in Hospital, starting with vomiting myself empty for 4 days here at home.

No known reason the docs could discover, no infection, no strange food, not too much wine which anyway just makes me sleep an extra hour or two. I seem to remember I have tried.

I remember the last time it happened. I was three. I do remember how my papa drove me full speed to the nearest hospital and my ma sitting at the sick bed, tea spoon feeding me water, one every 15 minute or so. It stuck in my memory.

This time it was my wife, Yui, feeding me spoons of nourishing liquid, for vomiting patients and sports people running like idiots too long.

Ambulance, immediately intravenous drip irrigation going in. And one tube going out, I first landed in a bed in an emergency ward, or half-emergency. Maybe not for those who came in a full-speed ambulance with a broken heart or broken blood vessels in the brains, but sharing room with a guy all the night who sounded like a walrus with an attitude problem. If he slept any we at least did not share that state of mind.

So they put in an outlet into me for no discernible reason except to avoid having me running around in between the heart and breathing monitors. The cables once fell out of me, and they found the result hard to interpret, guess they did not want that to happen to others, those whose only sign of life was that wiggling line on the TV monitor.

After that a guy came with an empty wheel chair and packed me in, me overloaded with my stuff, to another dept. passing the freeze rooms in the culvert down under, with those rats. The rats were alive.

Such a wonder - I got a double room all for myself, like heaven after all that wheezing and coughing!

My hallucinations indicated that my brains needed to be spoon-fed somewhat more. I remember I typed down some interesting articles, a bit later I discovered I had no laptop under the bed cover, so I did hope the wireless worked and my writing was recorded somehow - but afterwards I did not find it in Google, so presumably the signal had been below the neural quantum noise.

I also remembered that as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw a computer screen with lots of parts of video films ready for editing.

It took a few days, then I decided to try my luck walking to the feeding room, using - not my usual crutch but some table with 4 wheels, to lean on and slowly walk with. Complete success! A few days with soups of different kinds, then I decided to try some solid food. Two crispy bread, one slice of normal bread, yoghurt, coffee. Wow, after that breakfast I suddenly remembered to be hungry again, and my belly sounded like a thunderstorm, echo and all.

I never tested this kind of walking table.

I started to react on the surrounding, the people. And as always in the hospital I started to get the feeling about myself that "it sure could be much worse". They had found me a bed in the ward for rheumatics and skin transplantations. Lunch had that special taste it gets when the table guests discuss how many skin patches had actually stuck in their latest transplantations and how many square decimeters of raw meat there still was to cover. The hands of some rheumatics looking like a gnarled pine close to an icy windy sea. If such a tree had looked like one of their hands, I had got scared if it grabbed after me.

The first days I was alone in the 2-bed room, soo peaceful compared to before, then an old man with an undefined illness came, he had lost a lot of his tissues, very slim, looked healthy enough compared to me - but a body normally needs more than skin and bones, so he was in for all kinds of check-ups.

The not too old lady (a bit older than me perhaps) in next room, sigh........ She did not look very sick, but more suitable in a mental ward, walking around with empty eyes, sometimes walking into my room, just looking around. She all the time wanted to borrow my phone to call her relatives - because it was a whole hour since they visited and she had forgotten. When I did not lend her the phone - nor even once - she once or twice asked my visiting wife....... Then tried to find a nurse - I tried to teach her to push the red alarm button instead of waddling around, but it took time.

I could not avoid listening when her son or husband visited, she all the time shouted and complained at them, wanted home TODAY so she could pester them nonstop, she wanted her husband to sleep there..... poor guy having the first peace for 17 years. That is not the way of a Swedish hospital, there is a very expensive hotel in the area for such events. She did not want to eat - one of her problems, she could not eat. Did not even try, preferred to lie out in the dining room: "I have just eaten", after not touching the food for 3 minutes instead of sitting there for a few hours in peace, as I do, thou there is nothing else to eat. If I had bveen the doc I had at least said "please, sit now here for as long as the other people, talking to them - after all they might have interesting sickness to tell you about!" And medicines "can I take them home???"...... Including the medicine that stopped her from shitting all over the floor of the toilet we shared. I had a certain personal interest in her taking that.

I browsed thru the little library in the dining room, picked one or two.

One interesting little book I found that I did not know before, I read it thru during the last breakfast there. "Address Unknown", from 1932-34. In essence, two friends in USA, a Jew and a German who had business together. The German travelled back home to Germany, around the time when Hitler rose to power. At first it was a friendly correspondence, but the German became more and more Nazified, telling the glory of the awakening German people, after the defeat of the first World War and his increasing hatred of Jews. He absorbed all the thoughts, that had been totally foreign to him before leaving USA. The book apparently has become a film now, Google on the title. Known enough to have been translated into Swedish.

In between I had a look in a Guillou book, it started allright but then it was soon into Swedish politics of his more absurd model. Before I have only read his Arndt books, which I once found secondhand in Bangkok, I liked them. I do not like him.

I also scanned some in a little totally lousy book there - about Landskrona. I could have enjoyed a little bit of history and cultural history. Started neatly with the authors reminding about the peaceful life a couple of decades back, cycling along the beach, all the almost free-of-charge big boats over to Denmark.

But then it came in on glorifying "multiculture" in a very absurd way. Everything about it was perfect, thou his logic was not that impeccable. I got a very absurd feeling that the authors wanted 100 million muslims to come to Sweden, wondered if he ever had the thought or knowledge that most of the half million who have come, do it because their families paid big sums to human smugglers to bring them to our border, teaching the poor immigrants the right way of holding a cap but no passport in their hand when they entered the passport control.

Everything perfect, the writers breathed the sensational fact that if the muslims came here and under the influence of the Swedish Master Race they would become almost as good as the Swedes. I can not see any other alternative to that thinking from his scribbling - why they glorified that a tiny percentage succeeded in coming here, and not giving a damn about all the hundred millions left back in the world they themselves had created.

Then came the meeting with the Master Race and someone described as a "beautiful veil" - no mentioning if there was an interesting intelligent women inside - meeting representatives of the Master Race - in the form of two Swedish alcoholics. We were carefully told who was the best - sounded almost like Reinfeldt. What the writer thought these Swedes would teach a lady in veil, was not specified. It seemed he had missed a bit of the logic.

I let my mind wander a bit, until the lady got a daughter, who grew up - and the probability quite a bit more than zero of that girl getting a Swedish boyfriend and her mother murdering her for that. It is after all Culture from her homeland and we Swedes adore multiculture - a month or two ago there has been articles about all the suspected cases in Sweden for honor murder (a few articles in Swedish, see link1 link2 link3 link4), the police refused to investigate.

Strange how the mind can wander when you are posititioned among a dozen people with a mixed assortment of illnesses. Sometimes one wonders who is the most sick in this world. Maybe not those in hospitals.

Most of the days I saw the blue sky outside the hospital, but when it came storm and rain, I realized it was time to take a taxi home. My legs feel rather weakened by the whole, so now I better start exercising a bit, 3 months until we plan to go to Thailand to continue the exercise.

Home, trying to be a good boy walking forth and back in the room and counting the steps, to get up my mobility again, before we go to Thailand in 3 months. Would not mind some spring sun outside.

The travel urge starts to grow.

2011-01-13T03:29:00.001+01:00

I hate it.

The windows here look like winter postcards, some strange beauty possibly, but I just cannot go out. I would fall and break everything and never get up. I have very limited balance, and a foot that has had an inflammation so bones have sunk together and some lost half of their thickness, should not slip and fall huh.
And since coming from Thailand in March 2010 I have had diabetes ulcers on both my feet, on the outside where I do not see them myself. My wife discovered one when coming from Thailand, then another popped up. The first one is ok now, just a month ago she stopped putting some protection over it, and the other one is rather small, so we hope to be able to go together for 2 months coming summer.

Her big problem is where to dump that damn cat that she treats like a kid, sigh.

I have not visited Yui's village since we met 5 years ago, then they obviously were kind of suspicious of this Farang, nobody there speaks usable English except Yui, but now they would love to receive me, as far as I can judge. Not that I would like to stay there for long, nothing to to, nobody to talk to, it is some houses in the jungle, see this link

Plans are - well - I always like to land in BKK for a few days in the beginning and the end, to waddle around my usual little street behind Khao San Road and the temple near, say hello again and get the same back. After that I suppose we would go to the village for as long as I can stand it, not too long, a few days,and then down to Lamai on Samui as usual. The place I was in last summer, fine in many ways and I heard they now got internet via cable, but too far to walk to the center for me, so I am looking for a new place down in the middle, have got info about this place, which seems at the right place in the center of the village, just over the tiny little street of a friend who has a small Swedish restaurant there, Soppköket, just got mail from him about it. One step more expensive maybe than I had 3 years ago but it seems much better in many ways. I then had room at the other side of his block, but when I passed last winter it looked dark and empty and it is a bit difficult to access with my lousy legs. 3 winters ago they had put up discos just outside and you can guess how enjoyable that was, even thou I stayed there for 2½ months anyway. I first heard about this guesthouse from another friend who has just stayed for a month or two at Kulatida where I was last winter, but left now. Going up north somewhere in the forest. He is also retired because of bad health but spends the winter half year down there and feels much healthier than in Sweden.

I also speculate about buying a new laptop even if I have no money, but the old one I bought one day before I met Yui while I still thought I had money, is 5 years old, and that is pretty old for a laptop. It has travelled between Sweden and Thailand more often than I have. Still running but sort of hesitating before doing something serious.

I go there to work with the computer, with all the positive side effects of being in a civilized country, not up here in Arctis. That new guesthouse, is near to Soppköket and Mats there is broadcasting WiFi - should be enough over the block to that place. But that is also a reason to get a new laptop with better WiFi.

I do wonder how the brains work in many people. Nowadays many enough can sit in such a paradise and work over internet, yet I heard from several colleagues that conceptually - for them "holiday" is running away for 2 weeks somewhere and not do a thing but being lazy, instead of bringing the job with them and stay for 2 months. More and more people with intellectual jobs and a good internet line can do it! It is just an extra step to take. Last winter, well, took a week or two to really get in form again to do the usual online stuff, then it was as usual. I had bad WiFi for free and could run a slow but safer line via the mobile phone and a rather cheap Thai SIM card..

Traveling - sometimes in Thailand, sometimes in a wheel chair

2010-07-04T15:53:00.003+02:00

I wrote a long article here, but lost it. Could not find it, remember I wrote it - and then I realized I wrote while dreaming, and it sort of did not stick in the computer. Bad cabling.
It is always an experience to spend a few days in the hospital. I never feel as healthy in spite of my diabetes, as when I see all these half corpses trying to walk around without succeeding much. It happens to be one too common result of diabetes, there is definitely less feet on the patients of this department than twice the number of patients. Still, most do not seem too devastated, they talk like normal people, not like mental wrecks. Human beings can accept and stand an awful lot, that many young strong 'uns do not understand.
I have a vague memory that in an investigation of at what age people are most happy, the happiest was a normal 70 years old with family and not too many problems. I feel like a kid here, I am only 61 and many are as close to 90 as to 80, with horrible sicknesses but what the heck......
A thing I do not understand though is . that they do not DO anything. The greatest thing they know is to hang in front of a football match on TV, even when they got only a few hours of life left. They can still think, most of them, but seem to have disconnected those cells.
There seems to be an ongoing game between the old men and the young nurses - taking lots of humor from the gals, and not too much sensitivity for stupidities, they seem to love their job, being the princesses of the oldies.
The guy at my feet, no feet, think he said the first one was cut 8 years ago, so experienced with the troubles from all kinds of social help one gets - and he was satisfied with the available help. Meanwhile in the paper today I read abouit another case with no arms and no legs - with problems to get help........
Guy beside me, the one I have talked most to, 20 years my senior, one black toe I think and rather much pain there, was a bit noisy and demanding from the nurses in the night. And all night some real strange stink from him, not human, not corpse, like some chemical, never smelled that before but definitely not pleasant. He came from Austria to Sweden in 1950 and got stuck with a girl.
The guy in the corner sleeps most of the time, apparently very bad general condition, was down X-raying the lungs today, relatives around, no problems with his foot odor.
And me, feeling better. My wife was here yesterday and today, her visitors now, from Thailand, she showed them around in Lund yesterday (I was part of the show), today it will be Malmö.
Tomorrow Monday, so docs around, will be interesting to see what they say about me. I suppose they cannot say much if they have not got the result of the bacteria culture from the ulcers and no guess how long I have to stay here.

Suddenly in a wheel chair

2010-07-03T23:32:00.001+02:00

In the hospital in Lund. In a wheel chair. Not allowed to walk.
No real fun, I have all spring in Sweden had problems with ulcers on first the left little toe, that must have started in Thailand, thou I never saw it, my wife saw it when I came from the first shower. And a month later, a cracked place at the side of the left foot also opened up, sigh. So she has worked with cleaning up them until a few days ago, when we saw that the left foot got more red and all the foot hurt when I walked on it, so I got an appointment with the diabetes foot girls yesterday, took taxi up, they looked, said "SHIT", put me in a wheel chair and Yui drove me up to the central hospital block and to clinic #5, to present my humble self two hours later. So - some inflammation in the foot, and I am barely allowed to stand on it when I pee. Ah well, sooner or later I have to buy a wheel chair, but I have been in no hurry.
Anyway, as usual when I have to stay in the hospital, I feel healthy suddenly, seeing the guys and birds around, with an assortment of number of feet available for walking. One almost ok and one not ok at all, is a common combination.
They have taken samples of the bacteria in the wounds, sent for cultivation so they know exactly what antibiotics to put in, and meanwhile they have given me two broad spectrum kinds, supposed to kill rather much. Saturday today so on Monday the docs are back, I do not know how many days it takes to get response on the culture, so they can find some more specific antibiotic.
In the beginning I got one kind, in March, Heracillin, a rather general kind of penicillin I have had before, after a month I got some allergic chock, red itchy spots all over, fever, so stopped and back to the clinic a few days later, got a new kind of antibiotics for ten days. Then nothing for a week waiting to go to the doc and not only the nurses. So a new antibiotic, but apparently tht was not murderous enough. So let us see how many feet I have when I leave this place, and when - have no idea.

I did come home :)

2010-05-16T19:58:00.002+02:00

even if I have been busy the last month here in Sweden, and not thought too much of my pleasant winter in the jungle. Unfortunately part of my troubles have been ulcers on my diabetes feet, one had started already in Thailand but on a place where I did not see it - so my wife discovered it once in Sweden.

I left my room at 4PM on March 4 - my tourist visa was valid for maximum 90 days so I had booked the air ticket for 89 days and had some margin. Taxi for 500B to the little airport

My worktable with a typical Thai dinner delivered from the small restaurant by Pui.

Then to the Airport

Finally on my back street in Bangkok. - easy to find. Go Khao San Road to the Temple, then right, then left.
Lots of cheap hotels and restaurants. You can get a room for 200 Baht (no private toilet, only fan) and up.

You can see my favourite place at the tiny restaurant Popiang, "Just Enough", where I hve visited for at least half a dozen winters. An unending stream of more or less strange people are passing by, many of the exotic longtime traveling kind, who have spent years traveling around Asia with a story to tell.

This winter there seems to have been a truce between the restaurant owner and the police. It is a marked walking street, still the police has been harassing the restaurant owners who place tables on it - as the tourists want. The pies of course know well in advance, so suddenly everyone sitting outside must move inside......

Another phenomenon is, that sometimes a dry day is declared, whatever it might be, the birthday of the King or election day, and no alcohol can be served. Visible. Meaning no beer bottles visible, and you get your beer in paper mugs. Impossible for the police to see!

Blind ((?) singer (?) begging for money.

I stayed at this hotel (also when I came to Bangkok 3 months earlier) as I have done a number of times the last few years. It is ok, hardly perfect, not the cheapest at 500B, but not so far to walk for me to the restaurants, 7/11 etc. I know a number of the people there, do not know how many years I have been fairly regular there.

Now back in Sweden since 2½ months I am thinking back. I sure hope to go again, minimizing the problems caused by age and general rottenness. It is of course much of an economical problem. I doubt I go again without out my Thai wife, Yui. Her intense studies now and 2½ years more is of course what we have go to after - and the hope she gets a well-paid job after that :) Not impossible.
The last evening my friend Amp and her German bf came and we sat at the restaurant outside my place. Did I mention her in the beginning? I met those two also one of the first evenings in Bangkok. We have been friends for - maybe a decade, she married a German guy, regretted the marriage after a day but well - she was in Germany on a student visa and Germany is much more troublesome on that point that Sweden. She has separated long time ago - I met him a few times and I understand why - he looks as the gals want, he has money, he has one big interest in life when one discusses things - himself. So then Amp studied to be a nurse in Germany, found her new bf there, a German guy somewhat younger than she is - gave a very positive impression. They had planned to try life in Thailand working as nurses but found it impossible to find a decent position. Nurses there is a very low-income job, and their knowledge from the West, language etc., did not make them find anything good. So they will go back to Germany to find jobs - unfortunately now she STILL has problem with visa as she left that guy before..... So these two married in Thailand, and now she still waits for papers to come to Germany.....

While sitting at the restaurant my best Akha friend found me there..... She knows I usually sit at that other restaurant, Popiang. The Akha girls up in northern Thailand have lived there for hundreds of years, but still seldom have any citizen rights, hardly even governmental schools. So a number of them work as street sellers of handicraft in Bangkok and other places. This girl, Suan, I have known since a number of years, she sold me a handmade "hat" long time ago,

Man Hunter.

2010-03-06T11:04:00.009+01:00

February 21, 2010

Sunday evening, and on Friday afternoon I fly to Bangkok.

The other day I relaxed in a street corner down in the center:

It is a funny feeling, both going and - going. Going here and going back. The weeks before leaving Sweden were sort of - made myself tense as I am after all older and a bit more handicapped and stiff for every trip, but thinking back how stiff I was after the previous winter in Sweden, when I had to sit on my work chair for a few months, not going out, this is better. And once the trip starts, it has always just worked, made me tired but ah well, given me memories.

She seemed friendly enough when popping into the room in the evening, and only wanted to use the toilet. No problem, nothing to steal there.

There are all kinds of people so one can be friendly and careful at the same time. She was pretty and nice enough, for her age, a bit over 40, sat down a little on the bed beside my work desk, good English, told she had been living in Europe with a German old man until he died 3 years ago, now back home in Thailand with her teenage son and - uh - judged me, asked my age - and her eyes ere somewhat shining until I told I had a Thai wife in Sweden and would return in a week.

So - after a few minutes I told I had to go on working on the laptop, and knowing well that I had everything of value on the table here in front of me, she said bye.

Then.... The little "blonde" - kinda cute with slanted eyes - caretaker, Pai, had seen that gal going into my room, and called Pui, the other caretaker, sort of big and strong and with better English.... who soon came on her motorbike to see everything was ok. So I am well taken care of!

And I had a quick thought of a Swedish friend here, just now up in northern Thailand, who is with his kinda girlfriend there, same age I guess, and incredibly dull, he said he would not dream of bringing her to Sweden, "then she would just sit and stare into the wall"..... I met her once with him, and cannot imagine how he can find any interest in her. After 4 years of schooling, and no interests of anything......

Ah well, just some nightly thoughts about life here. A girl in that age - well, they got no social welfare here, and for a Thai guy who is reasonably ok, he could easily find a much younger girl so the hunt must go on for the girls.

And this laptop also wants to go home, slower and slower, I barely dare to close it at night.

And in Sweden there is still snow, and I cannot walk in snow. Ah well, Yui comes to the airport in Copenhagen to pick me up, train directly to Lund, then we can take a taxi so I should survive home to my home computer with BROADBAND yippeeeee!

Schhhhh, dont't disturb - working!

2010-01-31T11:51:00.002+01:00

Still in Lamai on Koh Samui

[My hotel corner, the road I walk down to the center.]

No, I am here to survive winter, not to discover a new world - I did that when I came the first time, in 1975.

In the good old days it happened that writers and artists travelled for weeks and months to find their "paradise" to create, to think, in the right environment. And then travel all the way back to sell it.

Nowadays lots of people are also relocating to anywhere you find the end of an internet cable, to handle the information, to write about it, and enjoy the environment, nice weather, nice food, cheap living. I do not remember the first time I read about a guy who sat here on Koh Samui writing computer programs, and then sending the results via the first telephone cables to his customers in USA - some decades ago. The place was a coconut island with some fishing villages back in 1975.

And when one starts to get old and hates the Swedish winter weather? I cannot go out if there is any tiny risk of slippery roads - I have minimal balance, and some bones in the right foot have only half the thickness left, if I break it I get a wheel chair for free for the rest of my life, instead of only a crutch. If I can pay I can get a real fancy one.

I am not at Swedish långvård, "longtime care" yet - if I had not started to travel here regularly ten winters ago I had probably been close. First trip back in 1975 as a young student, when I took the slow road - left my university town, Lund, from a student party at midnight: "bye - going to India" then I did that. A few hours later I stood on the ferry over to East Germany, train south, to Istanbul, a guest house for travellers, a whole wall was a noteboard with info from and to traveling people. Then I found a bus to Tehran.

Many adventures later, buses and trains, I came to Calcutta, where I got an air ticket to Bangkok. I had penfriends between Bangkok and Singapore so I took train after some time in Bangkok with a LOT of walking and sight seeing!

I had an air ticket Bangkok-Copenhagen in my pocket when I left Sweden.

After that I was in SEAsia 1987, 1999 and almost all winters after that. A pity I did not make any permanent writing but I was a master in filling post cards with characters you almost needed a microscope to read - and my ma demanded a card a day during the first trip. Strange - she was the typical hen mother thanks to my diabetes but never ever said anything against my travelling. You can see a scattered lot of travel photos on my old personal web site at http://ralphtheogre.dyndns.info up in the menu under Asia trips or someting. Hm, an almost microscopic ant walking over my text, what to do?

It is incredibly much better here than Swedish "långvård".... Do you know what that is? It is what the Swedish government has invented to bore old people to death in Sweden.

It means to keep old people alive as long as possible. They get medicines - free - to think as little as possible. Sweden is so modern that families have neither time nor place nor money to take care of their oldies.

Remember my ma, she grew up in a little house in the forest a bit outside Ulricehamn, that her father had built there, his ma lived in a room on the second floor and when she wanted something she banged her wooden leg in the floor - very practical!

All those old people who spent their old age teaching the kids around them a lot of useful things in the good old days. They felt useful, they WERE useful.

I have described the phenomenon to a few friends here in SEAsia. Most explicity to a few in Laos, the poor Thai neighborhood in the north with almost the same language. One girl described how well the whole family took care of old cancer-sick grandfather until he died.

They have been related for an eternity, Lao and Thai, many less educated people in Northeastern Thailand mainly speak Lao. They learn Thai when they enter the village school.

The Thai girls there, Isaan, have become very exposed because the beauty ideal for falangs/farangs (choose your favourite dialect of ThaiEnglish) are those small brown cute but poor girls. They make up a big share of all bargirls in Thailand. And a big share of all Thai girls in the West. The Bangkok guys want them tall and white.

Anyway, in Laos it is still mostly the kind of old family structure, they take very well care of the old ones until they die. Remember when I was in Vientiane, the capital city, which sometimes is called the biggest village in the world. I got that feeling. You can read about that trip in my "book" on the same web site as I mentioned above. It is like that also here in Thailand out in the villages, thou it is changing to the worse in the big cities - becoming more like the West. But more crowded, Bangkok has more inhabitants than all of Sweden.

I feel it all the time now when I am a bit older than the first trip, got my beard, and everyone helps me, I am generally called "papa" and I see the care I get in this guest house!

If retired people in Sweden had been an important voting group they had been treated completely different - now they are often not at all handled like human beings but something to store as cheaply as possible. A place like Thailand can still offer a lot to old people of different categories, which is so much better for THEM, thou the Swedish Försäkringskassan hates that some people sneak away from their claws and enjoy their life here. More and more - especially people who have been here a few times before retirement, sell their villa in Sweden and put up something here. Imagine the four Swedish winter months that are dangerous for anyone who has stopped playing in the snow.

A friend of mine, Thai girl I have known for ages, recently finished her nursing studies in Germany, and her new boyfriend also taking the same course, German, came here some months ago to look for jobs. I met them one evening in Bangkok in December. After many disappointments they got in touch with an organisation in Germany that is planning sick homes here in Thailand, so now they will soon go back to Germany for two years of training for that.

It is also a fact, that here are lots of ladies, say she is uneducated, has a kid or two and above 35 - she has no chance in the world to get a good Thai husband but has the Asian positive attitude to older people, while many of the older Western guys here still can have a long life left and enjoy it with such a company. And young Western journalists can make money by writing horror stories about it.

Back to my work - reading a lot and writing a political blog about what I find - see http://israelisverige.info

A less-than-5-star balcony

2010-01-07T12:46:00.009+01:00

It took weeks before Pui showed me that the ornamented net-provided door at the backside of my room actually could be opened. At the inside the metal door, then outside it is a normal door.

As you see, even a chair is provided if you want to sit on your three square meters towards that direction! Should be some sun in the evening.

The view is somewhat debatable though, the backside of something else

- unless you are fascinated by the laundry of other people. OK, maybe the room to the right is populated by some gals mostly working in the night by being pretty and other stuff, so they do the laundry themselves. The fee and frequency of such services is probably not even taxable here in Thailand.

More tubes to the left. Ah well, if this place was 5-star they had probably hidden all the tubes but now - no reason really. Everyone knows there are tubes.

And the service here is really excellent! Pui, one of the gals working here and taking care of most stuff including troublesome farangs, seems to like old men, always three minutes to sit and talk and her English is understandable. After some practice. Today I put out my beardy head thru the door, saw an old lady picking dry pieces of all the flowers, said "Pui water", she did not understand "water" but Pui - I got good Thai intonation there. So Pui came, first with 12 liters of water for 45 bath, then she sat talking a little for the latest gossip like she had worked with cleaning at home until 02:30 last night, and overslept. Then she walked over the street to the wine shop, and got me one box, 12 bottles, of Chang beer, my favorite, and one 2-liter wine bottle, French Merlot wine, for 500B. And then she wondered what food I wanted from the little restaurant. "Nah, that is boring, you always take that!" and she recommended spicy Thai salad with seafood and glass noddles. Moderately spicy, I said - and it tastes fine and is not fattening! Excellent balance to the beer that just might contain a few calories,

Night between decades

2010-01-04T16:26:00.015+01:00

If you are lucky and have the right kind of browser, you can click on the pics and get them full size.

I went to Mr. Phu the day before New Year Eve so I would not feel any urge to go out for the decade shift. I just looked at the sky.

Fireworks have been popular and impressive for ages. Still - even if it was invented by the Ancient Chinese - hot-air-balloons have a more subdued way to impress. Look carefully at the pics, you see the fires in the sky, I have no idea if they are bought or home-made paper bags of different sizes with a fire under, so they fly. Maybe a mix.

I also lowered the camera a bit and took a pic straight out on the night garden here. And then a bit up, to the hotel belonging to the same guesthouse, with a bit of sky.

At Mr. Phu's

2010-01-01T06:54:00.014+01:00

The day before New Year Eve I walked downtown to my favourite restaurant 2 years ago, to try their food again. I did not want to walk that road down at New Year Eve as it was more crowded by unsteady drivers.

I walked down just before 6, during the short evening, the full moon was shining:

I ordered my favourite - as they always prepared it well - deep-fried squid with a big plate of green salad - and a cold Chang to wash it down with.

Hm, the squid was a bit too big for me, had to squeeze down the last pieces, but very tasty indeed - and I enjoyed all 3 hours of the meal!

Well, while waiting for the squid to sizzle in the open kitchen behind me, I took some pictures of the market stands that are set up every evening in the middle of the walking street in front of me - where I lived 2 years ago, down at the other end.

The camera goes from left to right: to the left you see the display of seafood. You see it clear on pics from 2 years back, a bit down on the blog.

A few days earlier I only came as far as to Soppköket, the opposite side of this block, with a view while sitting there looking against the still empty small German restaurants - they get more noisy later on.

And now back in my room, looking at the ants on the wall.....

Christmas Eve in Lamai, Samui

2009-12-24T13:55:00.010+01:00

19:30

"Melly Klistmas Dahling!" the pretty gals with Santa Claus caps on their heads, said. I just took a walk downtown. Walked home after dark, but it did not feel that dangerous. Not yet at least, maybe some hours later.

I had checked weather predictions the other day and just for Christmas Eve it showed clear sun, not half clear skies or overcast and risk for thunderstorm, as it has been for several days.

I had no particular plans. Walk down to Soppköket, to see if they had Christmas table or closed for the holiday - neither. A normal day, they have open from morning to 6PM normally, a small place, but he has lived on it for 7 years now. We talked a bit about practical details about living here. From job conditions to Swedish totally idiotic authorities, whose rulings are basically trying to make all people have it equally bad. One hears that some countries have somewhat more civilized rules about sick leave to Thailand, like Norway and Belgium.

Ah well, sat for a while talking to Mats, the owner, and the steady if small flow of Swedish guys and occassional couple passing by. When I came two guys sat just finishing up a full bottle of vodka, and I hope they had a built-in gyroscope for their evening of further adventures thou it did not look so - at least they did not immediately walk to any motorcycles. Later a middle-aged Swedish couple, an assortment of Swedes, one guy with his teenage sun it seemed. Then one young guy, 25-30, who would try to get a teaching job in English, planned to stay for a year. He admired all the pretty girls here, and I gave him the advice to go for one who ALSO was very smart.......

Down to 31.3°C, from 33.2°C when I went downtown.

Well, had some seafood in green curry, at Soppköket, and a Chang of course, then it started to get somewhat darker, almost 6, so I took the round by my old place, and the restaurant there, and heard "oh you are back, welcome!" from Mimi and the Muslim owner! Seems I am unusual enough so some people remember me after two years. So I talked some, and promised to be soon back. Went a small round, kept the eyes open for an umbrella, none. Also for a cap - sun is hot but the one I have is a bit small, feels like it is flying off all the time, but found none marked "Samui". So some food shopping in my usual Supermart, the owner smiled and said "you came back today?".....

I guess I am easy to recognize with my stick, and also I am never making myself an idiot like getting visibly drunk or screaming at people.

As I cannot use any of the small motorcycles here without balance, my sis has bugged me about checking for a small 3-4-wheelers. Mats talked about two guys iin the village, like a guy from Switzerland, who had lived here for maybe 20 years, handicapped, he had let a guy mount two extra wheels to his motorcycle. Another had fixed some four-wheelers - he came with one leg and now the second started to rot. He also knew some bungalows - from Soppköket not further away than where I stay - he guessed they did not cost more than 8-10000B/m so one of these days I will walk where he said. From my place there is one road to the center, a bit before the center crossing I walk left, and then right to Soppköket. If I instead at the main road walk right on a gravel road - which I have never tried - then 100 m in that direction I would see those bungalows on the right side. I should definitely keep that in mind for another year!

I have never visited Mats on his shrimp party - for 200b you can eat as much as you want. He said he has it every Tuesday evening at 7PM so I should ty if weather is allright. It is NOT small North Sea shrimps.......

Beside Soppköket are several small German restaurants with the same kind of Thai-native food and offerings. Two couples came while I was there so we said Guten Abend and exchenged some politenesses in German. The couple, well, the gals 35-40 the guys 75-85 looking more healthy than I do. Their respective races you can guess.

Ah - I also asked Mats how he lives during his yearly summer visits in Sweden - 1-2 months. It is a Swedish phenomenon it is virtually illegal to live cheap.

There is a special thing in Sweden called "colonies". It started long time ago, when more and more people moved in from the countryside to squeeze into a small smelly dirty apartment with no fresh air and no way to plant your potatoes. So they started to arrange areas near the cities, where they divided the areas in lots of tiny gardens with an even tinier house to get some protection from the rain and have a cup of coffee after working in your "garden". These tiny huts grew more sturdy, and some put in insulation so you could actually get your coffee also in winter. And with prices of normal apartment nowadays taking 25-30% of a normal salary of a full-time worker paying 75% of it in tax, it was only a matter of time when the first person started to live in his colony hut.

I have no idea of details of this phenomenon, more than I know it exists, I do not think more areas are prepared or planned for these "colonies", because it is outside the strictly regulated system of Sweden. I know they have discussed cheap apartments for students who do not ask for all this luxury but - maybe not illegal to think so but strictly frowned upon in Sweden! So it was stopped. They know exactly how to say no even when they have not a clue how to solve the problem.

Thailand is full of Swedes with health problems, who live on he margin of what they are are allowed to according to the Swedish authorities. They want to control and supervise worse than they did in "1984".

Anyway - Mats has such a colony hut.....

Next day in the jungle

2009-12-20T15:54:00.002+01:00

19:30, 30.6°C in the jungle

I was not sure if it was too late for my dinner, when I woke up from my nap not long ago, I just put the door open out to the "garden", lots of flowers outside the two low houses, with a mud road in the middle mostly for the motor bikes of the guests, but sure - the little cute "blonde" with the slanted eyes, came and wondered if I wanted dinner from the restaurant around the corner. Meanwhile she took the chance to put two liter bottles of water here - they apparently feel a little bit guilty that they have not found a working pump for the 20-liter water bottle yet. And she picked up the empty beer bottles. Got another box of 12 yesterday. 12 beer in a week, hm, not too much. Her mother (I think) said she'd take the motorbike to the big supermarket tomorrow to find a working water pump for me. So I am rather sure I will get one the coming week.

Ah, another restaurant girl came with the food and got the tip. Crispy fried pork with vegetables and rice, extra pork, 50B. 10 extra as tip.

Yesterday raining and I did not even go out. Weather changes very quickly here, so there was also sun a few times. Today I walked up to 7/11 for some necessities as toilet paper and sweetener for the coffee. Like two years ago I decided it was more healthy to take brown sugar, than artificial sweetener of unknown quality - not very much used outside the tourist holes.

Hm, slightly more than medium spicy....... Fine! Cough cough.

Maybe you forgot why I go to Thailand in winter as much as I can. Well - I cannot go out in Sweden if there are risk for slippery roads or stormy!

Like many diabetics my balance deteriorated because the nerves in my feet did not give the brain much information. Less and less. Then one evening I got very sick, could barely get out of my bed for several days, the doctors had no idea what it was. When I started to be able to stand up, by balance was real real bad. My diabetes doc was not available, do not remember why, so to Emergency, but they had not a clue. Still I had the idea I had eaten something strange and got food poisoning, and they also wondered if it was something else with my diabetes. It took my next visit to my diabetes doc weeks later, then he said it was to 95% an infarct in the balance center, so he sent me to the magnetic camera to verify that.

He said that it was quite enough to get a disability pension for me, so it was up to me when I was too tired to work. I still wanted to work...., halftime at least.

Then all hell broke lose. He gave me sick leave for winter to be in a warm climate with no risk to slip and fall, and he had also seen that my health improved after a winter holiday in Thailand. Försäkringskassan, the Governmental Insurance Bureau, laughed like hyenas - they use their own doctors who are not at all specialists utan those who have not succeeded in anything else than harassing ill people.

In the middle of that, my doc could not remain my doc - in the big hospital where he was chef of the diabetes clinic, but not a top chef - well, he is a bit like me, he says what he thinks instead of using the full game of diplomacy, and well - I had to use a real lousy doc for two years. During the time I forced a 100% sick leave from that doc, as it was a necessary way to get a disability pension from the Försäkringskassan. I had to fight for a whole year and at time had no money to live on, lost lots of money on that too. But I found of course it was absolutely impossible for an intelligent reasoning with the insurance people, and it was absolutely impossible to convince the high-ups at my job that much of what I was doing, I could perfectly well do with a laptop sitting in Thailand over winter.

Maybe I had to a certain degree believed in Swedish authorities until that happened, but seeing the total incompetence - the insurance doc refused to talk to my doc - made me stop believing in the competency of most other authorities.

Uh, a sidetrack.... Actually I am not retired, they are supposed to reevaluate me after 3 years - and then starting to clean the streets? After 50 years of diabetes and 25 with steadily deteriorating kidneys and they think I will become healthier....... They probably believe in Santa Claus too.

In the middle of the mess I found my wife in Bangkok......

Walk to town. Cold.

2009-12-18T03:25:00.028+01:00

Ah well, the pics come in reverse order, I am too lazy to move them one by one.... I just started to move the two first to put at then end. So they start down at the beach and end just outside my guesthouse, Kulatida House. And then two more from the beach, when they cover the view....

Actually my jungle luck.

I decided to walk downtown yesterday.

No formidable act of life-to-death-decision. Not too far after all, now once I have found out I can do it in one go without sitting and resting.

I had decided to walk a bit further, all the way down to the beach, I bought a Chang beer when I approached the town, in one of the usual SuperMarts where it had cost 38 last year, now the regular price of 40, inflation. Continued walking. Hoped to find a bench for my beer but none except where they also wanted to sell me a beer.

I had heard about a new restaurant/bar at the seaside, with view of the sea so I looked for that, found it. Not exactly handicap friendly but I got in the usual way - they had things standing around the entrance where i could hold when negotiating the big step. Wholly unplanned, why not a normal handlebar?

A bit later an ancient guy came, ya know, shaking all his arms and legs uncontrolled, but refusing to give up, so his wife and wheel chair helped him there and - if one is stubborn, one can keep on for rather much longer than expected. He wasn't smiling though - there are limits.

So finally I got my deep-fried plaa muuk (squid)! And wondered why suddenly they started to cover the view out over the sea with heavy "draperies" - some kind of plastic sheet. "Rain" the guy said - I had not experienced any rain since coming to Thailand but of course I have been here before - warm rain is not at all unusual on Samui also this season thou it is not flooding like during the monsoon rains during autumn. And not lasting too long.

Soon the sky opened, you know this noise so you barely hear your own thoughts. I still had a meter between two of the sheet to look down over the black sea, with some people walking along the beach enjoying the heavy rain. Swimming or walking in the rain, wet as wet......

The portion of plaa muuk was not as big as at my usual restaurant 2 years back (there I showed which plaa muuk I wanted and then they murdered it and fried it) - I passed it a few days ago and it looked rebuilt and new name, but now - when it was not pouring anymore, just normal rain, I left and walked towards home. Still a bit raining so I settled for a moment in a bar, where two other bearded guys like me sat - someone commented on three Santas in one bar..... They were Americans, one of them owned half the bar. So - talked a little and I went off - wanted to come home before total dark, and the rain had stopped.

Survived, came home and then it started to pour again. Most of the night. Besides I had got a backache again from the walk. Did not sleep too well, up at 7.

Shit, kicked down the open suitcase to the floor AGAIN - did it also once n Bangkok but there I had reason - here I have a double bed.

Opened the door out, some sun, but cold, just 28,9°C so I stopped the fan, was freezing when sitting here in my shorts.

I had a mug of pig broth when waking up, but now I need my morning coffee!

And now two ladies, one big and one small, tell me I have been here almost one week, time for cleaning. I didn't konw.

Another holidayday.

2009-12-15T08:55:00.012+01:00

Dec. 15,

just home from the exercise of today, up the 100 m or whatever, to the crossing and 7/11. Planned on filling another 300B on the phone as with the new 50 ISMS it was almost empty, and also getting something to have on the German bread - it is a nice change to noodles sometimes, and is getting a bit dry without anything, I found out. Especially after being out of the packet for an hour in this weather.

I had also planned to try to find the alcohol shop I heard about - should be around the Finn apartments and they were supposed to be cheap and transport it home for you - the nice fat lady here of course knew, she was anyway passing on her way to her 7th job, so I gave her 1000B - a bottle of my favourite Chang beer in the shop is 40B, and a box of 12 should be around 500B, 100:- Swedish. Sure, 5 minutes later a guy with motorbike came with the box and the rest of the money, had cost 460B, So - very satisfying! Even if I do not have water I have beer yippeeee! If you are thirsty..... The guy even refused a tip.

I took a few quick photos here, first a few from the inside, first my storage incl. water and beer.

Then a few pics out from my entrance. Towards the entry of the garden and to the air-con rooms on the other side, outside very similar to mine.

I walked up to 7/11 as I had planned and well - the three cute massage girls sat at the usual place, so I said a friendly hello again. Talked a little and - well, I had my short-sleeve t-shirt and she laughed, pointed and said something like "maw!" - and showed very explicitly that one of my too big breasts were looking out the edge! Easy to fix.

December 14, 2009

2009-12-14T18:32:00.001+01:00

Dec. 14 2009, 17:15

The first walk to town and back, sigh. I was not sure how far it was but not too far I thought, within Pig Walking Distance. It had seemed short when I arrived in the minibus from the airport. The main problem being that the pavements are un-walkable. Well, some meters are, most are not, and often the edges are too high for me to climb, so one has to walk in the street, where you got more cars/motorbikes than space. Never mind, nothing to do about it. Should not do it regularly when it is dark and the farang drivers less sober thou.

Passed a small Swedish restaurant, offering something very Swedish today, forgot what, something new every day. Some fat Swedish guys there, we said hello. Next shop a mobile phone shop, where they could sell me time for the mobile, they had not a clue about international SMS or internet that I want to know more of, sigh. On that Thai phone card I have, I can buy international SMS cheaper and also use for internet, but how the heck do I put money THERE after I have charged the phone with ordinary phone card money for talking??? When I arrived in Thailand they got a phone service center in the airport, så they fixed it there, but now? Must be possible to call some service to get it done, but honestly I hate calling strange people talking strange languages and dialects or broken Thai-English......

I slept VERY well for almost 4 hours after writing above, wakin up now with a bit of a headache after my long walk in 33°C. As always nowadays, it takes an hour for my eyes to properly wake up and see clearly. Putting up the size on the screen, the small SMS almost hopeless.....

Hm, stomach itchy. Or rather - where I had my hernia operation at the navel a month ago, on Nov. 12, suppose it is a good sign it is mending.

Yui had called her best friend in Bangkok, Pui, a tall Chinese gal, and she fixed 50 international SMS for me, per month, someone said it was half the price compared to if I just do it on the normal phone account. Internet - who the heck knows? Then I remembered another girl..... (strange - only girls here?) So after some food, cold Chang, talk, at Soppköket, another little Swedish restaurant in the same block where I lived before, I walked around the block to see my old place, passed the girl in the associated hotel, that I talked to many times 2 years ago, and SHE was doing internet via her mobile the same way and phone company that nobody knows how.... I remembered she mentioned it at that that time, so the next time I need a refill of that, I go to her, So that fixed too, Thai style.

Midnight, the temperature is down to 29.8°C.

Sort of hungry. Water and bread! Bought a pack of freshly baked German farmer bread down in the shop, remembered it was ok, have nothing to put on but - ah well... And put half a cube of pig broth in the hot water. Survivable. After all I filled the belly with food at Soppköket and I seldom have both lunch and dinner.

So, life on a Paradise Island is not too bad, and it challenges me to exercise more, for sure! I "could" walk to town with no greater problem, the main problem is the dangerous road down there, but I doubt there is any back street one could walk. Should next time extend the trip down to the beach - they have apparently opened a new restaurant/bar with view over the sea, that I should try. Such places are most active after dark though - shit that I have no balance for a little motorbike, otherwise that is the usual way to go here and rather cheap to rent. I might even afford to have a jeep here, but there is not quite any place on the roads for that.....

Going to Thailand again!

2009-12-13T08:06:00.004+01:00

Dec. 13

Should add the latest, then send it to the blog. Written offline so far.

First pic is where you come in to this area of low houses. Second pic is the entries to the rooms, mine is O4 if you wonder....

Small things good and bad all the time. I got the internet working with the Nokia phone, 460kbps, which is soso, rather cheap. Bought 3000 minutes when I came, more than 2000 left, to be used within a month. Also bought 50 international SMS, gone long time ago of course. So the question is: how to refill??? After some research I THINK I can call a service number to AIS and do it that way - was messy, first Thai, then I heard something about pressing 2 then 1 and it seems I was on English and not Japanese. I have the feeling that they said I should put in my phone number and they would call back. Ah well, think they can transfer money there from the general phone pot that you buy in 7/11 but only 100B there now, have to fill in a few more before I try to call again.

The fat lady carried in a 20-liter - I think - plastic bottle of drinking water, much cheaper than buying it liter by liter in the shop, but how to get the water up??? Well, the little blonded slant-eyed cute helper - her daughter? - thou minimal English - came with a pump, she succeeded in getting up some water, I did not, so today she came, tested and said she would fix a better pump. I CAN pour up water sort of, but not the elegant way and just in a big cup, not the bottles suitable for the fridge.......

Slept appr 5 hours, up already at 9AM, maybe too hot - the fan was standing in a static position not directed at me, maybe I put it wrong when going to bed. So soon naptime, will try to go downwards at 5 or so to see how far it is.

Dec 11

Agree, nothing written here, it has been a mess, sort of expected mess but now finally I have found peace.

I just sent off answers of assorted mails, ought to make a summary here.

Anyway, for a change and as my friend Micke has talked about all year, he has planned to spend more time in Pattaya, also I feel he got more Swedish friends there, also a reason, maybe also a greater chance to get a job. He is like me, disability pensioner, very different, in a way better in a way worse. Externally rather big and strong and knows things of use here, like different kinds of industrial installations - so he tries to find something there with sensible pay. He fixed a one-year visa, no idea how long he is gonna stay. He has to go home in the middle to visit his doctor, then back again probably.

A few days ago I met him in Bangkok where he went to say welcome to me - and I also got a chance to meet his new gf, they like each other so who knows.

But he found no good place there for me, and I started to think of Samui again, he knew a good place there that I never saw, Yui called down there and they had a room free on the ground floor so - well, I came there tonight! It feels very good, like the old place a few blocks away, actually did a few years ago. Before they built noisy bars/discos outside and a stone wall against the flooding but troublesome for me to get over. Just a big stone to step on, nothing to hold in. There they also seemed to lose interest for those rooms as they built a hotel nearby with much more expensive rooms, sigh. 2 years ago still some people living there but not like before, with people sitting at the tables outside in the evening, talking, drinking.

The minibus from the airport, I was the last passenger the driver had problems to get rid of me, he called this place three times on my phone before finding it. He almost passed my old one, looked rather different. Should take a walk down there one day. The fat friendly lady caretaker waited of us at the main road (hot very "main" admittedly) and then she took my backpack on her back and dragged my black suitcase in on a little gravel road and to the place, Kulatida House, and the door to my room was open and waiting among the flowers..... She was a bit worried about my not very stable walking but what the heck, I came here to stabilize it somewhat! She asked if I needed anything, so she took the motorcycle and went to the farmacy to get a little bottle of "blue alcohol" and cotton as my big toe was bleeding a little - must have kicked someone but as I do not feel anything anymore with my feet - like any guy with lepra, losing pieces of himself because he does not feel damage anymore.

Yui called here yesterday and they sort of expected her to come later to keep order of me, so I had to make them disappointed.

Different parta of Thailand are so very different. Bangkkok big big city - even though I seldom go to the center, keep to my tiny corner where anyway most stuff is to be found. Samui is to a high degree a Wild East, everything a mix, the road from the airport - ha, remember when I went to Penang 2 years ago to renew the visa, also that a tropical island,I don't know exactly the relation of sizes, but there it was a highway of 5-6 lanes at the airport, at Samui, a small jungle path where it is hard to pass motorcyklists..... Especially when people try to do it from both directions at the same time. Ah well, it mostly works.

Along the little road you find everything, small shops, hospitals for humans and animals, a catholic church, restaurants, cheap and expensive hotels. Somewhere midway on the way to Lamai the road goes up a little and you got a nice view over the sea - and they were actually improving the road there, with asphalt machines taking up almost all the road huh.

Mo Dec 7

Next morning. Tried a little bit more to connect, seems I got the Bluetooth pairing ok by putting in the same PIN code in both laptop and phone, still no connect internet. Very irritating, paid 600B in the airport for one month.......

Amp & bf have had no success in getting jobs as nurses here, even German-speaking ones, very low status job here and low pay. So they go back to Germany soon.

Sun. Dec. 6

Going out in a few minutes, down to Popiang as always...... Will meet Amp and her new German boyfriend - both newly examined nurses in Germany, now looking for jobs here in Bangkok. I have known Amp for many years, a Thai girl of course.

No success in getting the Mobile phone to work as internet server, sigh. Yui got it working last summer with this laptop but her Nokia phone, should have brought her but......

Wandering on with my stick

2009-11-18T05:38:00.011+01:00

Like most people I get older.

Am I "old" ? Who decides? Me or others?

I am recently retired after 50 years of diabetes, but do not feel senile just yet - only somewhat slower. Brains still running and I am not supposed to be worse than normal in the cognitive, thinking, brain.

Should not complain - one of my standing "wise words" is that "hey you - who do you want to exchange your life with?" And honestly, that turns me cool. I want to be just myself!

I am basically a scientist, not a politician. I mainly blog about politics, Middle East Politics. Why? Because too many lies, especially in the Swedish media, irritate my scientific mind.

Some of my colleagues are now pretty rich and retired - with real good pensions because they had not taken any time for experiencing reality.Now they seem to be too old to dare to travel the more adventurous way that I have done for a couple of decades.

Last winter I sat thru the horror of Swedish winter weather, my body hates it. I love to walk out when it is nice and warm and something to experience - which the last decade has mainly meant Thailand, as far as I could in the winters, took out just about every holiday day then.

Actually I was in a lousy state when I, back in 1999, after not having been in SEAsia for 12 years, told myself: "either I go now or I do not go" - after having had a depression for 3 years including some medicine for that. So I went. Remember - at the time I had most of my penfriends in Indonesia for some reason, so I went there for a month in summer. Result, see the link. In short: I managed, well enough and besides, during autumn I was teaching a course that gave some extra money, enabling me to be back in Thailand already that winter. Link. Got the first serious - and not too good - experience of Thai girls...... And learned from my mistakes.

And then it continued. Go to the web site, http://ralphtheogre.dyndns.info/ and up in the menu you can find more pics from my winters in Thailand, without too much of an intellectual strain.

I got my Pig Pest vaccination two weeks ago, I got my hernia operation a week ago, on Monday I will go check ordinary vaccinations, should have at least hepatitis I think. Then on the 4th of Dec. Yui will help me down with the travel bag the three floors, to the bus, to the railway station, to the train, and then I am on my own. Unless she wants to accompany me to the airport - one hour on the train, let's see. Depends on her.

I have booked my usual hotel in Bangkok, for 5 nights. Feel safe - not so mobile nowadays to run around to places. I actually mailed two guesthouses in the area, one did not answer, the other answered something like "just a moment, we will answer"......

Depends how I feel, I have too often had a heavy cold at just that moment, like 2 years ago, when I even had to go to the hospital in BKK for two nights with a bronchitis, and sort of felt tired for a long time - in some way I feel a little bit stronger now - but when I feel for it, after those 5 nights, I book a minibus from the hotel to Pattaya and then it depends on Michael, hopefully he has found me a nice cheap room or apartment for 2½ months there, with Wi-Fi, and nice view over the South Chinese Sea and nice micro-environment, supermarkets, nice cheap Thai restaurants with good view, to sit and gaze and eat slowly in the warm night with a cold beer! A pleasure.

Coming to visit me?

Going on dreaming

2009-09-25T04:06:00.004+02:00

It has been windy for a week, so not out since I was downtown with the passport to send to the Thai embassy to get a tourist visa.

Got mail from my doc yesterday, lab values as usual, so it is just to go. Of course it is a certain resistance to all the travel troubles I know I will get, but so far I manage, lately I do look rotten enough so I usually get help without asking, in airports etc, so I do not really worry.

I wrote a "book" http://ralphtheogre.dyndns.info/Bok/ about 4 years of my life, intended to edit it enough to send to some book companies to see, but I have never got ready for that. Still, interesting to read there - during 9-10 months in Sweden hardly anything interesting happens, all of it has been during the winters in Thailand! Meeting interesting people, experiencing many things.

I have of course decided to take long walks outdoors all this summer but - never found any reason, to go out to see the same boring houses every day. Maybe I have gone out a little twice a week, which of course is not enough to keep muscles in order but - time is full in front of the computer, reading and writing, until I am tired and then I sleep! 2-3 hours in afternoon, then the rest during night, however long it is. Rather much pain in the legs, so I have no idea how long my effective sleep is. OK, now I regularly take 2 Paracetamol before going to bed which helps a bit.

Hm, 4AM, bedtime and too much homemade white wine!

Less than 3 months left yippeeeee!

2009-09-11T01:45:00.003+02:00

I hope.

Yesterday I was to the hospital for the usual diabetes lab tests, sent to my doc, so I oughta wait for them but....... I often feel like shit before going thou it has usually been because of autumn cold, flu, sinusitis whatever. Now as retired since 2-3 years I do not meet many pipul so i do not get infected, only old.

I saw a cheap ticket so I bought it quick-like, 6500 Sw. Crs, so I go on Dec 4 for 90 days.

If the lab tests say my kidneys are gone, ah well - but they have been fairly stable the last decade, and the rest too. What I need now is 3 months of hot air, good food, hopefully my friend Micke will find me a suitable little room/apartment in Pattaya for most of the time. He was up here today for a chat, he goes down on Nov. 15 so 3 weeks before me - I stay in my usual quarters in BKK for a week, then a minibus down to Pattaya.

Yesterday I walked home from the hospital, a distance for me, not walked that far for some months, so still some little ache in the legs - which probably is healthy. If I feel for it, I go out tomorrow to mail the passport to the consulate, after fixing two ugly photos, so that thing is done. Then the question is about vaccinations...... I haven't checked the yellow booklet, last time I did not need a refill, now? And pig flu?

I spent today reading around the Thailand forums, to see what the guys do down there - it's the usual, but some are rather good writers and sort of fun to read :)

Anyway, a trip will be really useful for me, I feel - already from my walk from the hospital, I do WANT to go out there all the time, and I also need to if I want food. Hee - what's the point, you is doing the food shopping........

Sort of bedtime.

Warm day

2009-08-07T02:24:00.006+02:00

I took my outdoor walk today without pain in the left hip, good. I could even buy fresh milk for the coffee!

Once in a while I sit outdoors where I can listen to all people - and it scares me. I do not have my nose in the air but - do they have no interests at all except what's been on TV? They seemed to have the coming TV program memorized and the daily routine according to that. For the rest, some know about sports sigh..... Probably healthy to participate, but to look at sweaty guys with empty eyes???

I remember when I was in a cheap ($5/night) hotel in Phnom Penh, the only good thing with it was the good pirate decoder to the TV (but the cabling was scary....) - they seemed to have the cable TV broadcasts from most Asian countries around, plus the main Western ones. Sometimes I even looked at sports - like a Japanese channel that regularly sent progs from female mud wrestling, kinda cute.

A friend of mine goes down to Pattaya in mid-November, a month before me, so he will check for suitable apartments. He just called another Swedish guy there, who talked about furnished apartments 5500-15000 Baht/month. I am comparing with those 8000B I paid on Koh Samui, the general prices are lower in Pattaya. I do not need any luxury, no TV, stereo, swimming pool.... I just need accessibility for me, not lots of stairs and high jumps to make, one of the problems with my last place on Samui. I would appreciate a WiFi in the room of course, to get cheaper internet.I asked my friend, so he will investigate. Otherwise I use the mobile phone - Yui did like that in her home village, rather cheap and reasonably fast, 0.5 Mbits/sec or so.

I definitely enjoy the thought of being able to sit and read/write on the laptop with a view out over the Chinese Sea!

Heard again from my friend - he meant that according to his experience lots of places where he has stayed has WiFi.

Sneaking around, I came in on some Swedish tourist sites about Pattaya, talking so much about everything you can do, that you can do as well at home, about all the Western restaurants???? Heck, I try to avoid them! I remember last time in Pattaya I walked around a number of blocks searching for a genuine cheapie Thai restaurant before I found one!

OK, at those places the food and a big Chang is the same price, but so what.

I also came in on some sites about retiring in Pattaya - telling the obvious things like you had to look at a dozen places or two before deciding where to stay, but especially the fact that it is so horribly boring to be a pensioner with nothing to do and nothing to think about until you die....... I am happy I will never have THAT problem, until the first stroke. Always interesting stuff to read and write and contemplate.

Dreaming on

2009-08-06T02:23:00.003+02:00

Days go and I sit in my pig sty. I had lots of pain in my left hip joint for a few days so I could not go out, tomorrow I really should as it feels almost ok.

If you look at where I have written about my last four winters in Thailand - well, I also wrote about Sweden as an interlude between my Thailand trips, virtually nothing happened here. It was like a yearly 9-month wait for some action! Thailand might possibly be somewhat passivating mentally - thou it is better since I started to bring a laptop along - while here I am more mentally active but physically - NOT. I know I have to move much more, but - forcing myself to go out only to move around a bit, is plain boring.

Birds still singing outside

2009-08-02T15:47:00.006+02:00

The balcony door is wide open, half sun outdoors, I should really take a walk.

Yui came home after her month at home. After 2½ years in Sweden, she saw how poor her village is, she wanted to put more money on some improvements than only a new fridge - the first for her mother - but as long as we live on my disability pension (diabetes)....... She will start with Informatics at the uni in a month, The coming 3 years will be full for her, then hopefully she is a top student, her Swedish has matured and the economy has improved and she will get horribly rich.

As far as I have heard it is not too hard to be a top student on that course..... It is "systems sciences" and not computer science. She is pretty good with many aspects of computer handling, so she will have that for free, many are beginners. I was teaching programming there last century and well......

A good point is that she will miss me less when I go for 3 months to Thailand - which I need very much if I do not want to browse around on internet for a second-hand wheel chair very soon. Besides she plans to get a kitten, so then she will probably not miss her Pig at all.¨

Summer in Sweden!

2009-06-23T03:07:00.003+02:00

So - sent my wife off home today. No, already yesterday, today is the longest day of the year, from now on it will become darker and darker and darker.

Obviously only temporary - she has not been home with her family for 2½ years, we have no money to go more than once each this year, I need to go in winter because of my rotten body, see last post, and then she got no time. Yui has not got "accepted" yet to the university course, too early, but she has many more points for it than needed, and all the necessary prerequisites so no risk she will not get it. And then she will be busy from September 1st and the coming 3 years, will hardly see when I pop off in the most rotten weather, probably around mid-December, for 3 months.

Yui took Austrian, so I got a quick call from Vienna, before she jumped on the big plane, taking her to Bangkok in 10 hours, so she is on the plane now. Once in BKK she will take taxi to some node point at the outskirts of BKK, where her brother will drive from the home village and pick her up with his pickup truck. He is not experienced in driving in BKK or to the airport, so that is easier. Taxis are still cheap in most places of Thailand (except out of my jungle island, Samui.....) so in BKK one can go for an hour for 100B or so. From the new airport, ah well, 3-400 Baht if one forces the guy to switch on the taxi meter, a must.

She has speculated forth and back, she wants to spend half the month in her home village with family, and half in BKK with friends and with shopping. but as we all know, things change from day to day, probably also it will end with a full minibus of villagers going to the airport with her in the end with her (i.e. me) paying a few thousand bath for the trip, as it is a sensation for all of them to see this new big place. It IS a big jump from village to Suvarnabhumi airport!

Being retired, feeling the wet nose of death on my neck, obviously creates all kinds of feelings. I got my particular brand of religion - you know, these etheral thoughts in all human beings including those who consider it a weakness to hope there is something stronger and smarter than themselves. I often wonder if I have created something good with my life - I can only hope so. I think I am considered a positive person, with my kind of sharp logic. I have not been able to do my biological duty of creating 2.1 babies, so I have to do things some other way. There are a million religious and philosophical sayings and I hope that some suit me. Did I spread some wisdom? Did I acquire enough to spread? I am not to say.

I grew up in the Pentecostal Church, with its advantages and limitations, I went to Israel the first time in 1971 and started to acquire another kind of understandings among intelligent and beautiful people there. I learned a lot during more than a dozen trips there, up to 5 months each, in the seventies-eighties, just a few occasional visits after that.

My first trip to Southeast Asia back in 1975, as a young student - sigh..... A real pity I did not start writing a proper diary then! I wrote tons of post cards to friends and family with the smallest possible handwriting, not preserved. In spite of having diabetes since 9, my mother, the typical hen mother, was never worried about my travels, more like she expected it. OK, I was well grounded , my father loved italy and loved to drive there with the family during the summer holidays. 1955, 1958, 1962, 1965, 1966-68 with an old caravan. if I remember right. We lived in Osby during those years when I grew up. I just now have such a clear memory when we tanked the car, with the caravan behind, at one of the petrol stations there, before driving south, before everyone had been south on the charter trips. Before Spies filled old propeller planes with people down to Mallorca end of the sixties....... Remember in 1970 or so, as a new university student I popped off with one of those planes to Mallorca, 4 hours sounding like an old bus, think it was 1972, after a successful exam.

A lot in a human life after all! In some aspects people have compared me with my grandpa on my mother's side - he loved books even thou he had no formal education. Farmer, son of farmers, up in central Sweden in the forest. He had never travelled, once or twice he came down to us in southern Sweden, what I remember from that is that he loved eating pig feet! I have acquired that taste, scaring off the crowd here :) If I remember right one had to put the feet first in very salty water for 3 days, then boil.

I actually have a plate here beside me......

Bedtime.

One year later . . .

2009-04-26T19:02:00.004+02:00

Everything pains in my body.

I have spent all winter in Sweden! Certainly, southern Sweden, but bad enough - I have extremely bad balance so I cannot go out when there is risk for slippery roads or it is windy - and anyway southern Sweden looks horribly boring in that weather. We do not even have much snow like up north, sort of more beautiful. If you look from the indoors out.

Back pains, legs pain, we just came home from a walk in the sun, the first one this year when I only needed a jeans jacket over the sweater and t-shirt

Me and my Thai wife are happy enough here, but we live on my pension, and even if it is somewhat better now (as it is because of bad health, not age) than it will be when I turn 65, so we can afford food and rent, there are no money to go out to eat or fancy stuff like that - if we do so, we have to save for a month!

The expensive but necessary thing is to go to Thailand.

It is too expensive "just to go". I have a lousy economy but no time constraints, Yui has no money and time constraints. She has not met her family for 2½ years, home in the village, see pictures on her website, she has studied Swedish since she came to Sweden and also boosted up her English to the level people learn here in high school. Around September she will start computer studies here at the university - very hard to get a qualified computer job in Sweden without - and then hopefully the trend and economy will be ideal for her. And for me......

Obviously our dream is to have a small house in Thailand somewhere. Her dream and the dream of her family is to have a small house in her village, my dream is - not. I know my limitations. I still have my driving licence, I COULD drive - but have not done it for ten years. My health is - well, the lab told the doc that it was slightly better a month ago than last summer, still - I get tired very fast, my eyes are - still ok, but also getting tired fast.

I dream of life in Thailand really! Have a small bungalow or similar - a fridge and aircon and hot water, well...... is that too much? I had it for 8000 Bath last time I wrote here, and they have problems getting tourists now, for political reasons (that you do not feel anything of except in some parts of Bangkok) so mostly it is the same price or lower - I hope at least to be able to go to the same place next winter for a while. find a better room - better in the sense of more accessible for me. The room I have had for 3 winters there - the room itself is ok, but there is a high stone edge in front, that is a big risk with my bad balance, every time, nothing to hold in when getting up and down. Ah well, should not be hard to find another room or bungalow.

A colleague is in Thailand now, have not heard from him for a month or so but he might still be alive. I asked him last time for the e-mail address of a mutual friend in that village on Samui, Lamai, let's see if I get it. That guy has had a small restaurant there for 5 years called Soppköket, and should know most things.

Going home

2008-03-19T12:01:00.001+01:00

March 19, Lund

2 days ago I landed in Copenhagen in a SNOW STORM!!!! The thing I had gone to Thailand to avoid. And there has been hardly any snow all winter. Now it came.

The trip home was tiresome but uneventful. I hate to be in a hurry when I travel, going to the airport hours before I have to and so on. So - I took minibus from my BKK hotel at 6PM already, although the plane did not leave until after midnight. But I was also lazy - said yes every time I was offered wheel chair transport in the airports, so most of the time I sat idle instead of slowly walking long corridors. I was at the BKK airport Suvarnabhumi before 7, at the checkup counter when it opened at 9 something, handed in the luggage, and - was offered a wheel chair, so why not.

Once in a wheel chair the rest of the crowd think I am worse off than I am, a little bit more lenient at the security checks and so on - I was driven to the shortest queue all the time, when leaving Thailand it was via the diplomat passport check....., then the guy pushing the wheel chair knew every emergency bypass there was, unfortunately it also meant that he took me immediately as far away as I could get, and no time to have a last beer or coffee.....

On to the plane, and then waiting there for more than an hour until it finally lifted off, he waited for some air transport I think, and then entered the queue - 20 planes or so, always such a queue for departure, the pilot told to explain the delay.

Boring flight - I sat at the front, and was too sleepy to find out how to get up the small tv monitor, so at least I could see where we were. And then the tail bone started to hurt........ as it does when I sit too long in most chairs. I had to twist and twiggle for hours, and never slept really well. And it is a long flight - forgot how long but - left 01:30 BKK time and arrived in London around 6 London time.

In London I was of course met by a wheel chair....., 3 wheel chairs met us oldies, I think; when I came in the other direction I walked for kilometers in those corridors and did not want that at all again, as I was rather tired. And sure, that lady knew every single emergency passage, so soon I sat in a VIP lounge with other half-dead people, waiting for the last short transport, and I guaranteed that I actually could walk down the stairs at the end, and down a slope out to the waiting bus - that had civilized height over the ground, not half a meter like the airport buses in Asia, so I always needed extra special transport there. Do they expect half a meter of rain or what? I would not expect a plane to take off then.

Out to the final little plane, and 1.5 hours to Copenhagen - when I heard the pilot saying there was snow storm I started to miss Thailand.......

Things worked to the end, handicap car a bit on Kastrup, but the difficult part - to get the big luggage off the belt, for that the guy did not come along, anyway asked another guy there, so no problem, same on and off the train to Lund. And a mix of snowstorm and rain in Lund, I had sent SMS to Yui from Kastrup when the train left, so she found me in the station. Wet and tired, still I got a lot of kisses that I returned, then she dragged the big bag to the bus outside and up the stairs and home!!!!!

March 14, Bangkok, evening.

I know I know, you have desperately waited for more info of my adventures. But...., getting old and tired I have concentrated on surviving until coming home.

I came to BKK as planned, evening March 11, and everything worked according to plans, Thai style. There are ALWAYS trouble lurking around the corner so only knowing that, it is fine. And there are often good surprises too.

Looking old and decrepit helps a lot in the Orient - both in Samui airport and BKK airport, both newly built and renovated, so nobody finds their way, young guys quickly picked me up and put me in a wheel chair, and -ah well, sometimes I protest but had decided not to do it now, as it is working fine....... They find the way, they pass all checks with minimum trouble, they pick up the luggage for me, put it in the right place, and - in the end, drove me in that wheel chair passing a long long queue to the taxi stand...., just stopping in the front... Neat!

And the friendly taxi guy here in BKK even asked if he should switch on the taxameter huh! Normally they get irritated when I demand it :) After all that is the idea of the official taxi queue, to follow the rules. Remember when I came to BKK a few months back, a bunch of idiots stood outside offering "official taxi trips" costing 2-3 times the normal......

The last days on Samui were as they had been. I said byebye to my eating places - I have sort of alternated between the restaurant - a real one costing tourist prices so I could not afford to go there more than every 2-3 evening, for the rest I usually went to the grill lady at the corner, picking up 3-4 sticks of grilled meat, chicken asses, chicken wings, pork, fish balls..... I took some bad photos in the restaurant and hoped to return in a year with my wife.

Starting to pack

2008-02-19T06:29:00.007+01:00

... in 3 weeks.... No, packing will not take many minutes, but I land in Copenhagen in 26 days so I fly to BKK in 3 weeks. Being handicapped means it is always a trouble to move, but once I do it, it is never that bad, especially in this part of the world, as I always get pretty good help from people.

Now I think more and more of what I miss here that I have at home. My wife of course......, and also many small details. Like a good work chair, have not eaten pig feet since Sweden!!!!! Broadband and not this slow jungle telegraph, where I have to pay every minute. Not a lot but...... 15 Baht an hour, but when surfing to find info about something, and every page can take minutes to get up, well.....

And once home I will start to miss things here....., lots of people who have seen me around for 3 months, say hello and smile when I slowly pass by! Like my favourite restaurant, mainly for seafood, but of course they had everything else. The seafood was on display outside,
but - ah well - some people have got "habits"..... Once a Swedish family from Blekinge settled at the next table, he VERY fat, she VERY fat, the son of maybe 5 VERY fat, the youngest daughter - ah well, not yet....

All ordered CHICKEN, in this seafood restaurant, except the young boy, who ate some fat sausage. All had fat pommes frites to that.......

The restaurant kitchen all open along one wall.

I am happy as long as I am happy both coming and going, but I am pretty sure this is my last jungle adventure alone.

The experiment - well - succeeded

2008-02-08T06:29:00.000+01:00

My trip this winter was in a way to compensate for a year of completely insane and meaningless harassment from the Swedish governmental sick insurance office, last winter they stopped me from going on my usual winter leave in spite of piles of sick leaves and health declarations from my doctors that it was necessary for me to spend the worst part of the winter in a warm country. They just laughed.

So - what is new?... Penang

2008-01-31T02:47:00.003+01:00

It is January 23 and I have been working, no time for adventures. And possibly I have passed the time I do every winter lately - from when it is great fun here and to when it is hibernation and a wait for weather in Sweden to become bearable. Got unusually many medical problems too - should have stayed at home, but then I had been in a grumpy mood......

That means the irritation of primitive life grows, from bad chair to - ah well, an absence of interesting people to talk to here in Lamai. Only an occassional visitor like this one:

Or this one just crawling out of the hole:

And it is RUNNING, not jumping....

It IS more common by far to meet more interesting people in Bangkok and sit and talk in the evening! If I had not already paid the return ticket to BKK for March 11, I might have returned a month earlier. To blow that would cost 4000B, hmmm... On the other hand the rooms I know about there are rather much worse than this one to sit and work in, so I guess I will sit it out here as planned.

Penang Jan. 26, 3PM

Moved my ass for 5 days. I had to get out yesterday, the first half of my double tourist visa expired that day, and instead of doing as many in that situation - they leave at 6AM squeezed into a minibus, the driver drives like a maniac, the ferry at 7, then on to the Malaysian border, which is quite a distance, the people walk over the border and get stamped out, then go back in again and get stamped in, then full speed back home, ending up there late in the evening, sigh. Dangerous? Of course. I decided to do it the safest way when I heard that there was a new "cheap" plane between Samui and Penang certain days - so I paid 8500 Baht for that and came here yesterday evening. The small propeller plane, a Fokker 50, sounded like an old bus, especially at start - can not have been more than 20 passengers or so. These visa runs are incredibly stupid - there are immigration offices here and there, also one on Samui, and it should be enough to go there! They had also got rid of some dangerous traffic on the roads.

When I got a car to take me to the airport on Samui, the guy said hi! - it was the same one who had taken me and Yui to the airport 2 years ago..... I guess I am easy to recognize with my crutch. I had got the tickets in the same little travel agensy in Lamai and asked for a car to the airport so maybe they do not have so great variety, and the ordinary yellow taxis there seem to be mafioso all of them - refusing to put on taximeter. I talked to the guy about it - he said that occasionally people come from the mainland but everyone knows, and THEN they switch on the meter..... His wife and kid was also along, they would drive to Bangkok for a week of holidays.

At the airport, they were photographing a supermodel - far too tall and slim so I told a guy there that she looks like a ladyboy, katoey.... They have a special small car for us handicapped, to take us from the gate to the plane (instead of making the other open buses lower so anybody can enter instead of jumpint up), the model was sitting pretending to drive one of them, we took another - and when passing I ended up on the same film, so now I am famous in Thailand..... Sure I waved to the camera as all celebrities do!

I got up the steps to the airplane, I had seen how small it is when it landed earlier on the airstrip just outside the windows of the gate. MUCH smaller than Air Force One that Bush uses!

To the airport in Penang, the flight took 80 minutes, and that airport was bigger than I thought. I wonder how many people really live on Pulau Pinang, on the island. The building - lots to walk so a fun, rather fat Muslim gal of 23 with headcover, very talkative, enjoyed driving me around in a wheel chair - faster than having me walk - so we got into the Muslim country of Malaysia, then she continued to drive me, full speed, to a money changer where I changed Baht to 500 Ringgit, 10 Baht on a Ringgit so easy to count. Then to the taxi stand, they have fixed prices to a couple of different zones so one pays it there, I paid 36 Ringgit I think.

The taxi guy was friendly and drove me around - did not find any hotel on Love Lane with free rooms but then we ended up at Cathay Hotel,

must be more than a century old, from the old British times and they keep the style in many ways. The bathtub and thermos look 75 years old... Unfortunately only aircon rooms on the ground floor, so I have to pay double what I had expected, 69 Ringgit per night, but ok, for five nights, 4 to go.....

Yesterday, the Friday evening I came, I took a careful walk outside, hungry and tired, did not find anything that looked interesting - it is not a tourist area after all, walked back towards the hotel. The hotel guy had said one could eat opposite the hotel, thou it looked more like an entertainment place, full live Chinese music - but I looked and even if there was a small stage, there were a lot of small restaurants so I sat there for an hour or two with 4 chicken wings and a few beer. First I sat at a table near the grilledchickenwinggirl, a waitor came up and asked what to drink. We talked some later, he came here a year ago from Bangladesh to make big money and found it ok. I tried to chat with an old Chinese hag at the next desk, she asked a few things and then turned her back. Chinese seem to come in big groups or families most often, but she apparently only liked her own company.

And then I started to get wet. And then I started looking at the metal roof - tropical rain on such one is VERY noisy. Where I sat one piece was missing, and also at another place when I looked, and my umbrella that normally is in my red cloth bag I had put in the hotel room.... Ah well, only one thing to do, drink beer until it stopped. Carlsberg Special Brew, like Danish Elephant Beer. One could not guess it is a Muslim country. I had had beer in Egypt and Iran, but definitiely not of Carlsberg quality. I think Carlsberg was involved with Chang beer too, my favourite, but then some business problems.

I slept badly as the aircon was fixed and put on far too cold - in the morning I asked them to shut it off. One hour later I started to be sweaty of course but time to go out for brunch - two corners away, a typically cheap open restaurant, Halal, so Muslim food but all kinds of people eating there, the table in front of me full of old noisy Indians, some Chinese - I ordered a coffee and bowl of noodle soup. The coffee the usual one one gets here, a big mug of quite black coffee of lower than Nescafe-quality, probably boilt but it is ok. The noodle soup was quite tasty, NOT like instant noodles..... Paid 4 Ringgit for it all. Wonder if I will stay within budget - that is, the cash I got in the airport. I remember room prices of 35 Ringgit, now I pay 69, taxi back to the airport on Tuesday - suppose it will be the same. I got 550 Ringgit or so, room + taxis 6 times 70, hmmm. If I do not waste any other money but I better get some more, hate to have empty pockets.

My old friend here, Poh Joo, that I met here in 1975 after starting to write in 1970, will come tomorrow and pick me up for lunch. Forgot when we met last, a couple of years ago, I remember that on one of my latest visits here we did not, otherwise we use to. Getting old both - you could try to find us on my old travel pictures from 1975, just to search and look for Penang.... What was she then? Now she has passed 50, time definitely goes...... So tomorrow morning I should try to use the ancient shower, only cold water, hmmmm. 12:30, meaning 11:30, my watch and computer still on Thai time.

Jan 27, 14:15

Home from the luxury lunch, Poh Joo had her brother along, was nice and quick..., also passed a bank so I picked up 300 Ringgit more, now I feel safe enough. Got some fish, stingray she said? Complicated to eat without instruction..... but tasty. Now naptime!

21:35

I was out at the Chinese eating hall opposite for 2 hours, had a chicken meal with bean sprout salad, soup, 2 beer. As 2 evenings ago suddenly the rain started to pour down, also some thunderstorm, but I have learned now where not to sit. Walked around but saw no pig feet as I remember I could get in Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur in a similar eating hall. Several stands with Thai food but I jumped over them thou they looked tasty.....

One old Chinese waitor served me the beer, he had sort of wise eyes. He saw the Buddhist sign I have around my neck, looked very carefully and said it was a very good one, it almost radiated.... I told him I had got it in Thailand 5 years ago from a friend. Then I told him I married a very special Thai girl recently, now in Sweden studying and then he said I got her because I had had that sign around my neck for 5 years! Hm, who can say no......

Jan 28, 18 BKK time,

Up from my nap. I had a long walk today, after the Muslim noodle soup I walked towards my old hangout at Love Lane, saw several hostels of that price class I remember, half my present price, but of course always difficult to know which one would be the most accessible for me and my bad balance. I also passed a farmacy and got some sterile compresses for my bad little toe and some antibiotics salve, should be enough until I am back on Samui in 2 days, where I have to go to a nurse/doctor for a checkup and a good dosis of antibiotics - when I had it a few years ago in Sweden, I got heracillin for several weeks. Then I do not think there was some external hole - now I suddenly saw a drop of blood on the stone floor in my room a few weeks ago but have no small mirror with me - should invest in one - that I used to have along, to see such damages. a week ago I saw some blood but sill not a red toe, started to use the sandal also in the room. ah well, did not look infected, but now just when I should fly here to Malaysia I saw it was a bit red, and there also came some blood. Which means the salve should do some good too - on the box of the tube they showed horrible foot sores and they said it is the salve many diabetics used.

I pay day by day in the hotel - today the bill was higher but I paid less than normal so I did not complain... I got a damaged 5-Ringgit bill, so they did not take it in the Muslim eatery, but they did in the farmacy, ha. Down at the end of Love Lane I sat to have a coffee in a dirty Chinese eating hole, where I have been several times, so I will go there for noodle soup tomorrow. Not much further off than the other place walking the back street that I found.
.
But first out to eat now soon, opposite the street again. NOT under a hole - last night there it came thunderstorm with the pouring rain too.

I just washed up a t-shirt and underwear - not that I have any detergent with me, but just a precaution so they do not run away - so they can hang and dry for a day before I put them in a plastic bag before going back "home", a t-shirt is WET after a walk. But NOW out to eat!

11PM, back. Had fried oyster omelet, never tried before but quite tasty so I will try it tomorrow again, now I ordered the medium size for 10 Ringgit, but tomorrow I think I take the biggest - now I had to take some side dishes of fish crackers and a few chicken wings afterwards to feel filled-up.

It is a very simple eating place, not at all for tourists so price is accordingly. Live music, tonight also some dancing. Chinese music on all the time, rather loud. The old waitor waited for me all the time after discovering me while a young pretty Chinese gal also poured up beer as soon as my glass started to be drained. Neat......

Coming home to the hotel one of the old Chinese guys gave me a hand to get in up the three rather steep steps, so I am well taken care of. Tomorrow too then off I fly. Have got some new experiences. That day the plane goes around 4PM I think, but I take an early taxi from the hotel, checkout at 12.

Jan 29, 13:20

Just home from noodle soup and coffee in a nearby Chinese place I simply had not seen before though I had passed several times - some old motor bikes almost blocked the entrance so I had thought it was a motor workshop or something......

The computer suddenly stopped working in the morning, just died! I tried to restart a number of times but nothing helped, so I spent 15 minutes realizing that now I had to go straight back to Bangkok to repair it. Then I looked up, remember I only have one plug here and the phone was charging...... So I switched and the computer started to run again......

When I went out to find brunch two Chinese guys sat outside talking, one very friendly the other severely handicapped with two crutches. So the healthy guy said hello and started to talk, told me to sit down, he spoke good English, a retired teacher of English, told he liked to help tourists and had many Swedish friends - at least he mentioned one. He could fix everything...., Thai visas as some need, whatever - so I told I returned the following day, and he would fix a guy to take me to the airport. So we walked to the coffee shop that he showed , we exchanged cards and he said I could just call next time I came to Penang, and there he also met the guy who would drive me tomorrow, and he also seemed reliable enough, promising to come and pick me up at 12, for 30 Ringgit which was slightly cheaper than when I came. Coffee and shrimp noodles were fine. So then I walked around this block - rather big. And it is a hot day! I walked and just waited for the last corner to turn left, when I suddenly saw my hotel. I still do not know what happened to that corner! Must have been a very big bend there or something mysterious.

But now time to put up my swollen foot and rest for a while - thou I have the feeling the foot is less swollen and the toe less red today than yesterday. I walk more here than lately on Samui, guess I should walk more there.

Jan30, 09:51AM,

That is almost 11 Malaysian time and one more hour then I am leaving. Hope the guy comes.... Ah well - otherwise I just ask the hotel to call for a taxi to the airport. I have gathered the stuff, so just to put down the whole in the backpack and go.

Still plenty of time, the plane goes at 4, so I will sit for 3 hours or so in the airport but it is ok, hate to rush. Foot and toe looks fairly ok. I took a quick-shower, had planned to take a real one but when putting one foot in the ancient bathtub it slipped, so I said "nah, too risky today"..... Just poured some scoops of water over me. I have never found out if the shower is hot or cold - well, just when putting it on it is VERY hot, then it becomes cold, or almost so.... Now in the scoop I mixed from the hot and cold tap so it was about right.

2008-01-12T08:26:00.000+01:00

Jan. 11, 16:30

Went out in the heat, remembered I had put a cap in the big bag so I put it on. Down to take out another 20000 Baht as I have paid the room another month, 8000B, and then I went to buy a return ticket to Penang, where I have to go as my visa expires on Jan 25, the easiest is to go there for a few days, and I am in no hurry, cost somewhat over 8000B - prices on a low-cost air company so the price changes from hour to hour....... The are other more fancy visa tours to the border, both Malaysia and Burma, for people in a hurry and often minibuses driving like maniacs so they start in the morning and back late in the evening, but why stress when I can combine it with seeing a bit of other things. Hopefully things have not changed there so there is still a line of cheap hotels in center of town - old Chinese guest houses that look like they have not changed the last 50 years. Prices are pretty much the same as in Thailand, 30-40 Ringgit a night, 1 Ringgit is more or less 10 Baht.

The last banana from the fridge - half the size of the more civilized ones in Sweden and a little bit more fibers in them, but at - did not pay much more than one Bath for it so......

Next day

Sunshine, wanna know something more?.....

No news is good news, as they say. The days go, sometimes 32° and nice warm sun, some days rain, some nights pouring rain that pushes the temperature down to 27-28° forcing me to put the blanket over me.

Yesterday I bought a return ticket to Penang, as my visa expires on Jan. 25, so I will fly there for 5 days - those planes go once a day some days. Coming back I will start on the second half of my tourist visa, another 60 days, and when those days are over I have already been back in Sweden for a week. Time really goes very fast!

I cut off most of my hairy top, so now it is not Santa but Daddy everywhere.....

Most things are good here. As always, the bad ones are what sits on my mind. My right foot is somewhat swollen in morning, rather much more in the evening. I have somewhat increased the medicin, Impugan, that drives liquid out of my body, so have to run to the toilet more often, risking the life every time I jump up and down to the toilet - slipped once..... Still a tiny bit of ear problems from the flu.

Michael has found some guesthouse he thinks would be better for me, and also cheaper, 5 instead of 8000 Baht/month, and less noisy. A bit further off from the beach, thou I am not going there often - but he meant that he thought it was not out of reach of my walking. He would move in there on Monday I think, tell what he thinks and then I should walk there and have a look. It might be one I have heard about years ago. There are shops etc. so I have no reason to walk down towards this area for that.

Happy New Wet 2008!

2008-01-07T06:12:00.000+01:00

The rain water is 28°, I know. I just went out to buy a sixpack water, it looked sort of gray skies. Then I walked home with my load in the small backpack a few miutes later. Good - two showers in one morning, and also the t-shirt can stand another day of non-washing.

The Finnish neighbour said hello again - told that in Finland he administered a student computer network.

The second, evening

Jag var nere på restaurangen i kväll igen, kyligt, vilket betyder 27 lite blåsigt, så jag fick ta på tjockaste t-shirten och handlade en stor skål med stark tom-yamsoppa med bläckfisk. Det var rätt fullt på restaurangen, en tysk dam i min ålder fick sätta sej vid mitt bord så vi utbytte en del artigheter. Upptäckte sen att jag hade glömt att ta pengar, nåt man knappast ska lämna på rummet ens av misstag, så även om de känner mej alltför väl på restaurangen och sa att jag kunde betala i morgon sa jag att jag kommer tillbaka från rummet om 3 minuter, vilket jag gjorde. Ungefär. Passade på att också köpa en klase bananer - en full plastpåse för 20 Baht.

Oops, writing jn Swedish, if somebody has a complaint, complain.

Now 11PM, should work another hour or so, right. I am here to work, not do other things.

Jan 4, early, bedtime

The days go without any revolutions, has been rather rainy - I just took a quick walk today to get some more money from the nearest ATM, not used any unreasonable amount I had 20000B in the pocket when coming from Sweden, took out 20000B in Bangkok and now 20000B again, it has gone to living, one return ticket BKK-Samui-BKK, room here for one month. Some raindrops when I was out, but not too bad. I was to a travel agency to ask for a flight to Penang from Koh Samui, around 7500B return, should be ok, it is a similar distance as to Bangkok but the other direction. I think it is on Jan 25 I have to go, the last day of the visa, so then there for 3 nighs or so, and back to use the second 60 days of my tourist visa. But it will be somewhat less - going on March 17 it means 3 + 28 + 17 is less than 50 days.

Jan 4, 19:45

Warmer today, 29 or so, good. When the cleaning gals came in the middle of the day, it was colder, just 28, they kicked me out as usual to sit at the stone table there, when I came back in the fan was ON!!! It is such a typical Thai habit - even if it is no reason, the fan is just supposed to be on!!! And it was not on the lowest and they were not working themselves sweaty.

Today I have been in Ystad with Linné, putting clickable links on the picture of where he travelled. I have done maybe half now, from where he started at home up in Uppsala, down to Skåne passing the place in Småland of his birth, then down towards Kristianstad. Today he passed Rydsgård, where the man lived that has made all the handwritten notes of the book of Linné, that I have made available online. I do hope they will continue with that kind of work offer to me - after all I do it well huh.... Of course I wished I could get some sort of feedback from users. The impression the display on internet is rather dependent on things like - it demands a rather big screen on the computer, but it is as the boss wanted so. Just they have that, it is fine, and it goes in that direction. On the laptop I work with now when I travel, it is a bit too small to enjoy - you cannot get up the whole page without scrolling a bit.

2007-12-30T06:57:00.000+01:00

Dec. 30

I had a bad night. I went to bed a bit after sound-shutup-time, 2AM, took an extra pill for pushing the excess liquid from feet to that other thing ya know, which might have helped somewhat to make me run up to pee a number of times. Once I even shit...., thou normal consistency - food is pretty clean here and I have not had diarrhoeae since coming a month ago.

Then the bad hand started to pain. It did lots during summer before those three fingers became more or less numb choked by the Carpal Tunnel, at the wrist where they pass through a too small hole when those nerves swell up a little. The wrist will be cut up once I am back in Sweden, which they oughta have done before leaving - but Swedish hospital care might be mostly free but then it takes so much longer time to get access, sigh.....

Some leg pain is almost routine. I guess I am getting old.

I washed the noodle bowl and fork and threw them on the bed before jumping down from the toilet. Sat on the bed to put on my tight stockings to limit the swelling of the feet - and you can guess exactly what I sat on.........

So now up for coffee and noodles, Michael put in the head, then I got a call on my new Thai phone.....

From a friend, a funny girl I met a few times 3 winters ago. Always on the move, restless, she has a sister in Italy, and spent half a year there but did not enjoy it - and apparently no romance popping up, thou she does feel lonely and in need of somebody sensible. You might see her on my travel pictures from that winter if you know where to find them..... She is not really looking for a Farang, because she thinks they look down at Thai girl, but well...., she has not found any Thai guy she ever has mentioned either. Asia is crowded with nice girls who have not found a partner - especially among those who have had a closer view of the West, and seen the general philosophy here. That Western guys have the general idea of taking care of their girls while the Thai girls have the general idea of taking care of their guys. With all the variations obviously.

It can only expand the gene pool for the general benefit of humanity huh.

Now the young Thai girls have to learn that a majority of Farang guys only want to play until 40 while the girls look for something serious. While waiting for the Falang guys to grow up and mature, the gals should learn better English. Expressing feelings inter-culturally is a linguistically demanding feat!

2007-12-29T08:10:00.000+01:00

28 December, 13:45

I sit here, read, write, think. A rather sensible combination. 33°C, so I put on the fan, but moved it so it does not blow too strongly on me - from under the fan a 3 cm black baby lizard decided to relocate to some other more favoured position.

I am somewhat worried that my feet are a bit swollen - it can have several reasons. They are always somewhat swollen because of my bad kidneys only running at half speed, so I take medicine for that together with all blood pressure pills - the problem is of course why it has been swelling up more the last few days. But as long as there is no pain and double-sided, it is not a recurrency of the Charcot foot that troubled me 3-4 years ago and made me first walk with the foot in a cast for 3 months or so, like it was broken, to stabilize the situation. After that I walked for - was it one or two years - with a "simulated cast", a hard booth (leather orthosis) that worked like the plaster thing but was removable at night. And then when in Thailand I started to use my special sandals more and more - also the sandals made by orthopedist from an imprint of my feet so they should support the foot properly. Now I only use those sandals. If one foot starts to pain me, THEN it might have come back, and it might be either foot. Remember that when I had walked with the sandal until summer, then that foot started to swell a bit - still no pain - and I put on that orthosis for a while until that was down - the doc said it had been the right thing to do. Last winter when I packed the big travel bag, before the insane Insurance Office stopped me from going on my health trip, I had packed that orthosis in the bag, but not this winter.

Hm, just looked into my camera, horrible..... Wonder why the other Swedish guys have started to call me "the professor" ???

I simultaneously make another trip - putting clickable links on the Skåne map going with my work to put Linné's "Travel in Skåne [southern Sweden]" in 1749, this special copy where a guy in Skåne has made a lot of marginal notes a few years after the first version of that book was published - it is still reprinted. A reasonably unique project. It can continue to be developed, as there is more material, letters etc. written about that trip that was never included in the book. Hopefully the web design company of my wife Yui, http://mmwebdesign.no-ip.info, will get that job from the Archive too.

I was surprised when going out yesterday evening [this is the first thing I see when I come out from my room: down right is then the main village road, over that and via a small road towards the sea.] - no special day yet the restaurant was suddenly all full! I go there every 2-3 evenings as it is the best here around, my second favorite from 2 winters back is not there anymore. Anyway, jumped over yesterday and only picked up some grilled stuff from the lady a few corners away, and had in the room.

The sea looks as usual, only even harder for me to come real close, damn.

The other direction towards the mountainous middle of the island looks sort of different.

2007-12-26T05:07:00.000+01:00

Dec 23

I had a strange dream. After coming back to Sweden I will have a minor hand operation but in the dream it was a very large operation and I had been flying with a big group of people to do it, and there was also a professor who said he knew exactly where it was. Ha, we walked and walked, he knew the university but not its hospital in that faraway country, I got lost there, and ...... woke up in mess and confusion! Had to jump up to pee.

I wonder what people DO here? The obvious thing is to enjoy sun and bath - for people who can enjoy that. I like to be close to the sea for some reason, it also often means more interesting people to look at, but I am no swimmer, and my suntan I get by walking around.

Other people only SIT. Maybe with a whisky or beer bottle close at hand. Sometimes, occasionally, it can be fun to have a beer and gossip with a stranger, even if it usually is not that long-lasting. In those cases I normally only have a small beer bottle/can - for buying a big one I need book or laptop nearby. It is obviously much nicer anyway to SIT here, than to sit on a park bench with snow falling on the shoulders.

But the environment is fine for working! Disadvantage is the chair, clearly, but the environment is nice, food nice, weather nice, sitting with the door out open, with or without fan depending on temperature and mood. I will easily sit my time out here, another 2½ months, and get some stuff done. And then hope Sweden has started thinking of spring.

Hm I saw in the mirror a pretty girl looking in.....

Night session, almost 5AM,

I have it often back in Sweden, a long evening nap and then up at the computer for a number of hours. Here, I can actually hear a cock or two starting, have not heard them before, and it is down at 24°, brrrrr. Had to put on a t-shirt. Reading, writing. I answered a mail from my old Thai girlfriend 5-6 years ago. She has a tendency always ending up in trouble, trusting people too much. After our "affair", whatever, we remained good friends, then she rather soon married a Chinese guy from China, quickly made a baby, then he dumped her in China...... So I and a Dutch mailfriend of hers had to help her out and back to Thailand. The last 3 years she has been a few times in Holland, never said she loved that guy who is even older and fatter than me!!! - thou apparently he loved her, the jealous way. Now he is demanding a lot of money back from her - apparently he has made her sign a loan paper, apparently money that she then loaned to that same Chinese former husband - but without signed papers - and you can guess the result. Now she has to sell her house in Bangkok, give the idiot in Holland half the money, and herself move back to her home village, to start some little business with her brother there........ I hope she has at least learned not to trust foreign men.

Christmas Eve,
the important Christmas Day in Sweden - sunset now, and I better go to the restaurant in time, maybe many people this day?

It was rather normal one wonders where all the tourists are, there is space for many more. I had a fat slice of Tuna at the restaurant - no similaity to the Tuna one gets in Sweden, tasted more soft and fat.
The first time or two here in Lamai, it was more crowded and definitely no empty bars for sale, as now, but still there is building going on everywhere. Unfortunately - it is rather horrible how they have built up down at the beach, so one can hardly see the sea when walking the beach lane. I have remained in the center, I hear there are lots of newly built small houses further away that one can have for 10-12000 Baht/month, less if one rents one permanently. Then someone talked about down to 5000 B/month. The thought is nice - if one has the time and money to come several times a year.

It is Dec. 26 and I woke up by the constant sound of pouring rain, pushing down the temperature to 28, now at 11 it is rather sunny again. I have checked mail, read a while in a Fantasy book in the laptop, now time to work a bit on the old Skåne map I have in the computer, putting labels on places Linné visited during his trip there, some 250 years ago. The map is rather high-quality, scanned in high resolution, and compressed with DjVu, as the other 500 scanned pages, and one can put clickable labels there - so keeping the mousepointer over a label tells when he was there, and clicking will send you to that page in his book about the trip.

Christmas approaching

2007-12-23T05:37:00.000+01:00

Another nice coconut-day, afternoon. I was in MiniMarkt to do my water shopping, passed the hotel girl that is always nice to exchange some words with. The hotel bit is new since last time, but she said it was almost full and will for sure be for the holidays. The guesthouse bit where I am, 2 empty rooms of - maybe 18 or so.

After my nap I passed again - I had found the web site of the Malaysian air company that has flights between Koh Samui and Penang, that surprisingly is not so well known. http://www.fireflyz.com.my - and gave it to her (hm, I DID ask for her name in my best Thai, but what was it, Pook?... something like that) so - they look for agents and she can always get some extra commission on being the intermediate on that. My 60-day visa expires on Jan 25 so still lots of time. Going there for 3 nights would be fine, then back here.

I have written some thoughtful mails to discussion groups I am in, that really are not about coconuts, but sometimes also specialized groups need something totally different to think of - and I got some positive responses. They know my obscure brain windings, so I am sure that a portion of them simply automatically jump over what I write, and it is fine. I only appeal to those with an ability still to think along new paths.

Have you ever read the book Lortsverige, Dirt Sweden? I did not know about it until maybe a year ago, when I found it online on Projekt Runeberg, http://runeberg.org/lortsvrg/forord.html - similar to the very well known USA Project Gutenberg - that for decades have collected non-copyrighted literature, scanned, usually done OCR to make it into text, edited it, and put online. Runeberg was a famous Swedish writer 150 years ago or so, so they have for - more than a decade I think, in a similar way put non-copyrighted Scandinavian literature online, sometimes also literature with sort of copyright still there, the author has not been dead for 70 years quite yet, but possibly they check up so there are no plans to reprint it before that crucial date.

Nah, it is evening, still I can make an hour of historical documentation...., did not take time for it today. I am editing material in a historical magazine from my town,that started to be published 140 years ago, just now I edit an article about the age 200 years earlier, when southern Sweden tried to become Swedish and not Danish after the big war, much about making the Danish Church Swedish. It is a slow job as OCR on the rough paper and old print creates many more errors than OCR of a modern printed text, which usually works without any fault.

Dec. 22, 11:11, the day is supposed to be slightly longer from today, but I have not seen any, the sun still goes up at 06:00 and down at 18:00 ??? One of my nicknames is Santa but I have decided to take holidays this year ha! Look in the major newspapers of the world!

Jumping Pigggg

Soon after meeting me, my wife started to call me Pig, Moo in Thai, for no particular reason at all. Maybe it sounds cute?... I know also pretty girls here can have it as nickname. Anyway, my room here has a peculiarity: the toilet is 2 dms higher than the room! I have not jumped that high for decades! Ah well - here sooner or later I actually found serious reasons to do it.... So I take it as sort of an exercise, I hear it in the knee every time I do it, but has not hurt so far. To jump down - I have started to overcome the fear of falling now, in the middle of the free fall.

My other regular nickname here in Thailand is of course Santa - even in the middle of the street people say "hello Santa - got a gift for me?" when my beardy head passes.....

Finally Internet to my room!

2007-12-20T04:54:00.000+01:00

Monday, 08:30AM

Noodles with soap taste?????? Either that or I had not properly cleaned the plastic bowl, but I threw it, cleaned properly and now I have another pack. But that one with dark red cover, better avoid. The yellow ones are ok. Tasty but not too spicy - wonder what is written on them? It HAD been practical to learn to read Thai......

[Pic from a block away from my hotel in Bangkok - but easier to put here...]
Things are sort of stabilizing. Up rather early - 6 today, I had the fan on at its weakest over night, but do not really like the wind. So up, closed fan, opened door to get the fresh morning air and some bird song. I tried to sneak again in on the 10-minute net, got some mails down but could not send. The hotel girl I have talked to, will check about getting internet to the room and maybe come and tell me in the afternoon what will be. I got mail from them with what I expected - that they have bridges/amplifiers for 3500B they can put up to get better signal, and then pay per hour.

There is a Swedish restaurant the other side of this block I am told, Soppköket "The Soup Kitchen", where they also have free wireless internet, but I feel no desire at all for Swedish food so..... Maybe it is stupid not to check, maybe there I could get some variety of my usual morning of coffee and a pack of instant noodles - like some real noodle soup......[From the famous Popiang, my usual hangout in Bangkok.]

Health? Slowly improving I guess, still some lid over the ears, but maybe a tiny bit better in one of them?

My routine - well, had a beach walk yesterday at 5PM, better than in the morning when it is totally empty, but still too early to pick up some spits of food along the pavement in some food stall, so today I will take my walk a bit later. Should go to internet - Soppköket??? For a coffee or something at lunchtime??? Michael, the Swedish guy, said it is open from early morning until 6PM.

Michael passed and ah well - sat talking in Soppköket for a few hours to a bunch of Swedish guys. Was ok enough for a change..... ฺ3 young guys passing quickly by, the owner, a Swedish guy who has lived here for 5 years, former high school teacher, got trouble with a new boss and moved here. A number of retired people, some because of age [too much], some because of health [too little], also one guy around 50, who worked here in the housing business, housing for Swedes who want to buy a bungalow or small house here. He is making something like 30000 kronor a month on that - told about his boss here, who - ah well - just had written 400.000 kronor of "expenses" on the company, so they were now keeping a close watch on him, on the other hand he was the one with all the contacts with the right persons that is absolutely necessary here in the Wild East.......

Back to the room, nap, out for a walk then dinner of prawn and mushroom salad - imm laew - full now! Hm, bar life outside, but I do not really register it.Still not lots of tourists, wonder how many there will be for Christmas.

I also passed the hotel, talked to the girl, she had called about internet for me, they should call back but still had not. Let's see tomorrow. That gal is nice, good English, the same age as my wife, got an English bf. I wonder what is wrong with the Thai guys - all Thai girls one meets, almost, prefers Western guys???

Rather tired but that is reasonable - at least I am at the best place to recover.

Dec 19, 10:30

Breakfast executed, coffee and noodles, surprise, surprise. Soon I will go out in the sun, down to 7/11 for a change, I remember they have a bit of different things compared to the MiniMart here.

Feel reasonable today, slept fairly well, back in Sweden I almost never sleep the night through but first a nap of 2-3 hours, then up doing things for a few hours. Here it has been very mixed, better with a siesta when it is hottest.

I paid for 60 hours of internet but still no amplifyer - maybe I will get it today, someone wanted to sell his for 500B, new, otherwise it costs 3500B.

14:00

I walked my round, found nowhere to sit and rest - the restaurant at the sea has invented high steps impossible for me to use. Back to 7/11, Yui called meanwhile. Early in Lund, but she felt lonely. Also got a can of Heineken so rested on the bench outside the shop with that, looking at pretty girls. I wonder - the authorities here must get a LOT of tourist money, not that one sees what they are used for. Put up a school for all the girls here with maximum 6 years of schooling, so they must go there 2 hours a day........

In front of me some small round bars, at the pavement a small temple to pray at, The biggest and highest of the bars - hm - in the top sits a normal Christian cross! Makes the tourists feel at home I guess.

During my beach walk a kid smiled up at me, and his mama said "hi Santa, got a gift for me?" I suppose my hairy face has a neutral position looking friendly.

Yui called shortly while I took my walk, hm, worried at 5AM? Yes, had been much better if she had been along. Working on our laptops. Having a bungalow - they are not expensive, one can have a decent one permanently for 5000B/month, the only trouble being that I cannot go there without motorbike. I wonder what it would cost to rent one of those jeeps? Probably more than the 4000B for a motorbike for a month.

I do not have to remind that there are 5B for a Swedish Krona, huh.

Hm, one of the pretty cleaning gals waved and smiled, but no comment about Santa..... I had some plans to go for shopping before my nap, then somebody opened the tap. Some calm, but then when I was almost on its way it poured down again, noisily, now it is sunshine.

Dec. 20, 10:45

Finally! Half an hour go two friendly guys came banging on my door, and now it seems the Internet is up at full speed! 1500B for the bridge, I had to configure and guess a bit, but now it seems fine! No, it did not work out of the box as suggested but - well - with intuition based on 25 years of computer experiences, no deal. Now I just have to learn to disconnect, as I pay for every minute..... Sending this, then disconnect!

Dec.9

2007-12-10T12:24:00.001+01:00

05:30AM on the ninth of December

Bedtime, just went up a little as it was too stuffy in here, put on the aircon that makes it too cold. Just now 24.5º, maybe I keep it on and put on the jeans shirt to sleep in.

A rather normal day, downloaded 150-200 mails of all kinds, then food at Popiang. Today 5 giant shrimps, drank lemon juice, rather good with my sore throat.

Sitting hanging there one can see rather strange figures. Tonight an old guy, less skin than many good old skeletons, contemplating ordering food. He ordered ONE shrimp, but then just walked away. Apparently the thought overwhelmed him. I saw him a bit later returning with a small bag from 7/11. Maybe he hd been off buying one tooth pick.

So - 2 days, then I am on Samui, nice.... I surely hope I will get a nice room there, and then stay for 3 months to relax and work. I have 10 CD:s of old documents, that I have made an OCR run on, so I have them in the computer as text, not as pictures, but it is from 100 years old paper, and rather rough, so lots of editing is needed. I did this Linné project the last few months, but now I will go back to that kind of projects - saving the history for the future is not too bad! Those pages on bad paper, are falling apart, so either they are saved soon or they are lost for good. Doing things like that, something that hopefully will last for a long time, feels more satisfying than just getting money for it.

Dec. 9, breakfast

Damn! This morning I woke up with pain in my side! Is there no end of my trouble? I am just letting the breakfast sink in, then I have to decide if I should find my way to a hospital. So damn tired of the whole shit! Wonder how much trouble it is to get fastest ticket home. That is what I want just now. Too many decisions: I should have done this and tnat: I should never have gone with heavy flu, I had insurance so I could have canceled the ticket. I should not have bought ticket to Samui 2 days ago..... and waited here for a few more days to see. Ah well, if the pain does not abate, I have to go to hospital today for a checkup, guess any taxi driver can take me to a hospital. I do not know my anatomy, maybe the pain is reaction on my medicines, whatever. Do I not have a kidney r appendix there somewhere?

Dec 10, same meal

Ah well - the cute doc did not find anything significantly wrong with me yesterday, above general senility and crappiness, thou I had 38.5º of fever, nothing that a few well placed Paracetamol cannot fix. She could not identify any deadly internal damages that should make pain, and gave some anti-inflammatory concoction, some general do-all.

I woke up with my sick three fingers all numb, like useless sausages, so made 100 of the proscribed movements with the arm to try to increase the life in them. Been too lazy with that - now they are back to their normal semi-comatose existence, so at least I feel they are there when I say Good Morning to them. I got them remitted to the hand surgery one month before leaving but the atrocious state of health care in Sweden, you can guess that they only had time half a year later even if my fingers are strangled to death! Carpal Tunnel Syndrome they call it - the channel at the wrist is too small for its swollen nerves etc., and should be dug up.

Now, hm, a little of the noodle soup on the floor, better clean it up. Sat at the bed - hm, still some soup there, RED soup??? Who has red soup here around? ME! Crime suspected!!!

Hm, second smallest toe, not so important- I must have kicked into something as it is on the top side. But sort of strange. Meteorite???

With my unending line of near-disasters on this trip - watch out for the 3PM plane tomorrow Bangkok-Samui. If it has been digested by the sharks you know the reason. I must have been a real PIGGG in my last life huh?!?!

Next . . .

2007-12-08T15:30:00.000+01:00

Bad Bad

I just came back from 2 days in the hospital - the flu just made me more and more tired, so Yui sent a friend to pick me up and take me there. And yes, acute bronchitis. So intravenous antibiotics etc., and now I definitely feel better - but still getting rather serious cough attacks. I got antibiotics pills for a week, and also some for the cough.

As soon as I started to eat fairly normally I felt the crisis was over - even though I do not eat big amounts, but that is also partially because I am used to sit at home at the computer with the food - a definite reason why I have to change keyboards rather often. That is ok but not good for the laptop.

No fun - not cheap at 18000 Baht, but an experience! Next experience will be to get most of the money back on the travel insurance in Sweden - my experiences are not too excellent. My Thai wife got a chock over the price level, but then she is used to the cheap hospitals here for average countryside people, which ARE rather crowded. She once had an appendicitis that had to be cut out and well - not too esthetic but she cannot be perfect everywhere.

I just looked over the specified bill, and am thinking of the costs that one never sees in Sweden, for hospital care. I mean - this is the real cost, not one with subventions on top of subventions to the bitter end! Wonder how much I will be refunded from the travel insurance and the stingy company - until a few years ago I paid extra for the time beyond those usual 45 days included in the home insurance, and one winter it was almost as much as the air ticket! Then I heard about an Australian internet insurance company for reasonably-prized travel insurances - think it is appr. 100 euros for 2 months, so I have had that ever since.

The King's birthday today, which tells you if the traffic jam got more or less intense..... still it worked, the hospital had ordered the taxi, so I did not have to fight with one, and he found a reasonably sneaky way on smaller streets, that were not packed.

Dec. 6

I should feel tomorrow if it is time to go - I do feel better, definitively, and I have booked a room on Koh Samui from the 11th, so I guess that tomorrow it is time to book a flight there - I do not get better here, the air there is definitely better for my lungs than the city air of Bangkok, and then I can start to find time to work on my laptop. This is supposed to be a work winter, not a holiday - holiday from - what? Being a sick pensioner?...... As long as my brains work, then I have to accept that the body gets tired easier. Ge ting a sick pension ought to be when your body is worse off than the average 65 years old, no?

The difference in level between people here is probably like in Sweden 75 years ago? Before social security came into the lives of people and they stopped relying on themselves only. Before rich were rich and poor were poor, with a business and a rich farmer class in between. Everyone survived, sort of. Did you read the Swedish book Lortsverige? I even think it was published in English, as "Dirt Sweden", not sure. A famous Swedish journalist travelled all over Sweden in 1938 to document the life of poor people, and the development that changed a lot in those days. He was also a radio journalist, I think the whole trip was also in parts, in radio. He had got a long list of official people who would show him how people lived, the development, how the real poor were helped. Among his sources, the best ones were the countryside doctors, the worst the priests..... Most of the priests knew very little about the very poor, with only a few exceptions.

Here in Thailand it is also easy to see that the class differences are large. One obvious thing is, that most people are a bit darker in the poorer north-eastern Isaan region, like in old Sweden - white skin was beautiful...... A normal Bangkok guy does not want to be seen with such a girl unless it is obvious she is from one of the rich well-educated families - and thus over-spoiled and looking even more down at brown poor people. Nowadays it causes some confusion because most Western guys, Falangs, think the Isaan girls are much prettier :) One can wonder what their potential Thai husbands think of the march of their girls to the West - already to Sweden something like 1000 Thai girls a year! But costs being what they are - a restaurant girl here who serves food 10-12 hours a day might get 5-7000 Baht/month plus tips - so I am usually generous with that, it is still small money for me. Nurses still often get less than 10000B, a top office girl - wonder if they can pass 30.000B (and then she still often spends 10 hours a day at the job - officiallly 8 but...}, so it is rather difficult for them to save up for a return ticket, that might cost 45000B or so.

The other way is also possible - many Falangs with Thai wives, often but not always rather much younger - retire early to Thailand and enjoy a life without cold and with friendly people everywhere! The latest I heard was that with a marriage visa, you had to show a monthly income together of above 40.000B, and many pensions are quite a bit above the sum. The retiree visa, that you can get if you are over 55 (or is it 50?) requires 60000B/month or deposit in a Thai bank of 400.000B (or was it 800.000? )

Time to finish noodles and coffee and go out in the sun!

Dec. 7

Have the usual coffee and noodles in the morning. Yesterday routine starts to go back to normal, homemade coffee/noodles as breakfast then out for fruit sallad in the sun, then rest, then to Popiang. I could not eat more than half the mackerel but good so.

The next problem: no pleasant rest in the hong naam ("water room") for a week! I got some herbal pills yesterday that would guarantee some activities in the morning but - nope, so down to the main farmacy at Khao San when I go out now soon. I start to be convinced that is some kind of "FörsäkringsKassan's Revenge" still going on from last year, when they harassed me no end. Having experienced the East German STASI in those days, their customs ladies on the trains with eyes with fire and beaming pure evil, most of the employers at FK give me the feeling that the same personalities could have taken any of these two jobs. I guess I mentioned that they stopped me from going here last winter as a pure harassment - I was on sick leave with many papers saying that I must go here in winter as I do not manage the Swedish winter anymore - but their imagination at finding reasons to stop me.... They also "tested" me several times, to see if I had "escaped" their claws and thus given them the pleasure of stopping my sick money and killing me while abroad.

Yahoo

If you use that, get an alternative immediately! Hotmail, Gmail, whatever, and tell all your friends! They seem to have lots of problems, lately. Most if not all mails I have sent to Yahoo addresses, have returned a "not processed, a temporary problem" - so if you are one of my friends and have expected mail, that is the reason! Do something quickly! Yahoo must lose millions on it, especially as it has last for weeks.

Will get a ticket to Samui from the travel agency gal out here now when I go out. I think there is no basic problem left in me, except that I am very tired and need to recover in peace and sunshine. I think it is 3500B for that ticket, 700 kronor, and I could not get a bus trip of that distance, some 800 kms, for the same price in Sweden. In general prices in Sweden are ludicrous because of all tax on tax on tax. The new government has given very little of what had been hoped. A complete overhaul of the system by someone who has lived in this region for years, had helped. Here one CAN live very cheaply, and some have not had a chance to take one step up - on the other hand, they have the challenge knowing that it will really be a step up, and not eaten by taxes!

Many seem to accept it, see the water sellers along the street - probably more pleasant thou less money than the street sweeper. At the same time they do not spit on everyone richer - and especially not their beloved King who has governed them for 60 years by now. I remember vaguely once in the fifties, when our family was visited by American relatives. when everyone was oooh and aaah over their luxury, still very friendly, and trying to remember some of the old Swedish - few here spoke a useable English then. After all, German had been the second language until ten years earlier.

Exactly what the Thais think of us Farangs one can wonder - of course depending on their level of education. Many here only have their 6 years in elementary school - if that - (remember my mother had had 5 years of schooling, sometimes every second day) while most of the friends of my wife here, are advanced students, like the friend who took me to the hospital , working on her PhD in biochemistry. She and her friend took me to the hospital, while discussing cultivation of virus shells and DNA.... I am fascinated by intelligent girls - I mean, many girls are nice to talk to, many smart men can be so too - but to have both properties in one package, like my wife, is something :)

OK, it takes a bit more - my Thai gf 5-6 years ago, has both, we are still good friends (and will meet tomorrow) but - she had stopped her development, what broke our relation was rather much that she did not want to put an effort in improving her English to make a more sophisticated exchange of thoughts possible. Am I demanding huh? My wife had a better level of English to start with, and she is studying Swedish now, and soon improving her English too. It is sort of amusing - got a very intellectual friend in Sweden, and while he never found it very interesting to communicate with the first girl, he finds Yui much more interesting, took us all out for a ride in the Swedish summer nature rather often during Yui's first half year there, and he has never done that with ME so.......

I write this on the laptop in my room, never transferred it to the web yesterday, had enough trouble getting down the e-mail, but have to remember to start with that tonight.

Out in the sun!

27 Nov. 2007, midnight

2007-12-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

Practical that I put the laptop on Bangkok time weeks ago.... anyway, I arrived as scheduled from Copenhagen - London in the middle of the afternoon, no problems thru passport and customs but A LOT to walk in the new airport! Ah well, no hurry,

I had heard about the taxi mess outside, warnings about all the taxi louts trying to cheat up unwary and tired travellers, "only 1000 Baht, yes we are official"..... I found the taxi stand - the "official one" where people are obliged to put on the taxameter - thou I had to tell the guy three times "taxameter!" Then he obeyed and then we were friends and I showed him how to find the hotel. Nah, I do not know the Bangkok streets, but the quarters around Khao San.

Coming in here big smile from the travel agency gal, the usual one! Installed myself,

-- have to remind myself of some small things, like the Thai way of locking doors and their way here to put on light - a small box to put your keyholder in, so people do not waste and forget to switch off the power when going.

Yui back home has now got my cold, felt quite bad this morning in a SMS but would anyway take bus to school. Then I was ordered to find an internet cafe and connect the laptop when she came from school which should be - ah - 11 something. I tested but found no wireless internet here to sneak into.

This place only have old aircons still, always too cold, and no fan, talked to the gal outside, I paid my 3 nights here, but then I move to Welcome Sawasdee Inn, the same chain but cheaper, around the corner. They have changed the entry here so it is harder for me to use it - unless there is a chair in the vicinity for me to hold a little in, when stepping and out.

It is early morning now the second day here, did not sleep too well, still cold in the head and jet lag. Have a coffee and a packet of instant noodles - my new water heater works perfectly - then maybe try a nap. Last evening I took a walk down to my usual hangout, Popiang, think 7 people there looked very happy to see me again! The owner couple of course, thou they still know very little. Then some who works there since before, like - hm, Chiang or so, she looked very happy to see me, so we talk some. Wonder where a friend of ours, a crazy llttle gal, who called me Uncle, is gone - she had not seen her for a year or so. That gal, hm, I have her mail address, can always send away a mail. She is of the low-edcated kind, restaurang girl, but I had the feeling she was quite smart, good English - and could even write some, and use email! 3 years ago she seemed to want to improve herself, ran around with a thick textbook in English, she had just married an American the year before, planned to go there - but then he had disappeared, she thought she had joked a bit too hard on him, and well...... 2 years ago she did not seem so serious, mostly wanted to run around and have fun. Now, no idea.

I had a fat mackerel, fresh from the sea and not the freezer as in "civilized" countries, and 2 bottles of Chang - finally..... Then Ouan passed with a smile and talked a while - one of the Akka tribe girls, a bunch is always selling handicraft, her English improved but still no reading or writing. So the guy next table, some Latin-American but still not - he said he had recently travelled there so I guess not.... He wondered if I knew everyone :)

So home in decent time, talked some to the girl in the reception here, told I planned to move to the cheaper Sawasdee Hotel after 3 nights here, and she smiled and said she would help me book there. And tell I am a VIP...

Nov. 28, 17:10

It seemed my cold took a little pause when travelling, now I am coughing from the deep lungs, have slept most of the day, the best cure. Had a warm shower for me and my noodle bowl, I see it is 27 degrees in the room - cold! Almost freezing now when drying, then I have to go out and find an internet cafe to connect this machine for a while to up- and download mail. hm, where are the terminal glasses, these reading glasses are not so good for this distance, hm, make the characters a bit bigger so I see.

A bit of a backpain, making unfamiliar movements. But still I am happy I am here, and I have often had an autumn cold in the head, throat and lungs when travelling here, just in time to escape the real bad weather.

Dec. 1,

At an internet cafe again, I think the flu starts to disappear, thou I am still very tired and it takes energy to get out. I have been at home the last two evenings but now - 15:00, if I go home soon to rest a bit I might go out in the evening - I am sure they miss me at Popiang :)

One sees many strange people here, of all kinds, and all kinds of couples. Like I just saw two very ugly girls, with tatooes everywhere, apparently lovers. Behind me sat an old Aussie who apparently had lived a mile from nearest neighbor all his life, he tried to chat up an old lady the other end of the restaurant and everybody heard every single breath......

Nah, time to go for a rest. Then I might have power to go out to Popiang tonight.

2007.11.26, 14:00

2007-11-28T12:30:00.000+01:00

Kastrup, Santa sits (Thais cannot pronounce my real name...) in a corner with a cold beer can, don't need no glass for double the price.

Yui said I should not cut hear and beard, at least not until after Christmas, so let it sit, let me be "Daddy" for every cab driver passing; want a ride for 5 meters Daddy?"

I sent SMS to Mam and saw that she had the same mobile # as 2 years ago, let's see if we can meet some day - her days are busy with her kid, but an old friend should get a minute or two. I wonder if the kid will recognize me after 2 years.

On the opposite bench sits a hard-working girl, laptop in lap. The only non-Muslim there.

If someone asked me "how do you feel now?" I would say "Huh?" It feels rather normal. Leaving Yui this way might be a first but we know exactly when it will end, she's very busy and likely I will feel much better once I got some warmth back in my body! It was much worse last winter. She went back to Thailand to apply for permanent residence permit, normally taking approximately 5 months, I planned to go down after 2 months, then the damn Insurance Office popped up their ugly head! Stopped me from going! For no reason whatsoever excipt being devils, only to harass a sick person WITH papers and health declarations telling I need it! I sent several mails to them wondering why that idiot did not take any consideration whatsoever about those papers, he refused to answer.... In MAY finally they gave up and put me on permanent sick leave - retroactively for 9 months to steal those extra money too. The sum is lower when it s permanent. Heck.

Slight headache from the cold, otherwise ok. 14:49 now, plane goes at 17:45, 3 hours, wonder when one can check in.

I had planned to switch the coat/jacket, but maybe I keep it, cold in the long-distance planes. So I can look up the big bag. 100 kronor in the pocket, hm, down with it in the moneybag. Yui took all the coins.....

Checked in, less than 2 hours to departure. A Christmas Beer in the Sports Bar. I found a crispy bread with cheese and sausage in the pack, from my dear wife.

We already exchanged some half-naughty SMS. In a way we have a strange relation thinking that a majority of Thai-Farang relations have sex as a strong component. We have expanded on all the other components, partially because of my relative ill-health and I think it can only grow stronger to the bitter end.

And then? Well, she is a Buddhist of course, as many Asians - what the heck, safer with many gods, then one might be the strongest..... The Thai Buddhst monks in Southern Sweden have a Temple outside Eslöv, originating as a farm house. She is there now and then, has donated time to improve and att do their website - a LOT - also filming, taking pictures. See http://watsanghabaramee.se/t/ Just before leaving now the residing monk (others visit temporarily, from e.g. Copenhagen) had written a meditation, for the Website. So Yui translated to English, I translated to Swedish, improved the English somewhat and after a few iterations she published it on the site. Anybody can complain, we did what we could.... There are rather many visitors.

2 years since I was flying so I was not quite sure how strict it would be but not too horrible. I have the feeling that when I come with a crutch and gray beard then I am not considered an obvious security hazard....

I took 2 photos out of the window, over the darkening sky of Copenhagen. With the little table tripod one can take different kinds of photos than without.

People flying look rather ordinary... I guess rich and poor looked more different in the good old days. But well, it is different doing long-distance trains and stopping in seedy railway beer holes at night, or Spanish countryside places, where I have stopped overnight. Remember once in old communist Beograd... An old witch picking up people in the railway station and offering them rooms overnight in her rather primitive dwelling. I remember I forgot a jeans jacket there - was I on my way to Israel or back or something???

Ouch, lost a corner of a tooth, heck. I felt a hard cubic millimeter when chewing the crispy bread, now I discovered where it had jumped off.

16.57, 3 cms of beer left then time to find the gate - it might be kilometers off, even thou this is no major airport. When I checked in a Japanese gal speaking Danish told me I was lucky, not too far to go in Heathrow, London, tje same building as where I would arrive.

Caught a Cold, damn.....

2007-11-25T14:15:00.001+01:00

I have hardly had a cold this year, have not met a lot of people after all, but NOW... I was out shopping Friday, after my evening nap I started to feel a sore throat! Now Sunday, tomorrow I go - good that Yui packed most of the stuff yesterday, so just making a check today so I have not taken anything I do not need - but the real necessary stuff like the medicines in the little backpack. That, the laptop and some junk food for the waiting in the airports.

I have some shrimp cakes for breakfast, not tried that before. She found a packet in the Asian food shop in Malmö, so I got it now with a sauce of fish sauce, chili and garlic, very tasty! The shrimps smaller than the usual one gets here in Sweden but not quite as small as the jumping shrimps one eats in Thailand, where you have to hunt them with the chopsticks.

Evening, the progress of this cold, ah well, woke up from my nap coughing, immediately Yui wanted help to translate a bit of Buddhism to English and Swedish and I got headache again. Well, she had made a translation to English, her English is ok but up to writing reliigious texts, while I tried to avoid making it sound too Christian. She sent one version to the monk residing in the temple here out in the countryside, and got some suggestions back - he knows English well enough and has been here - 2 years or so.

Going in two days

2007-11-24T12:55:00.000+01:00

Saturday morning, we slept late. Then we took a few pictures - I was off shopping yesterday, earphone with mic to bring along, a half-liter water boiler for coffee and noodle water, and a small table tripod for the camera. Always thought I should get one, so we just tested it - works!

I am the one with the spots in the face... When I was to the skin doc, for a yearly checkup after the malign melanom I cut away 2-3 years ago, he checked all spots in the face, nothing threatening, but as I was anyway there, he used the freeze spray to kill them with frost - so once it has healed and fallen off I will look as well as new! Wished I could do the same with the stomach.

So - when we were at the archive Wednesday we were nicely celebrated, the web design company of the family Haglund... The Landsarkivarie talked about this new project - the boss of my old work place that takes care of all old documents from southern Sweden, has the duty to preserve them the next thousand years, and also make them accessible for people who want to study them. And to save on the wear and tear of the original documents - this way to do research and have all of the material online and not only registers of them, as is usual, was considered a bit of a first. Culture personalities, historical researchers, especially those doing research about Linné, and also the present-day representative of the family of the man who had written lots of corrections and additions to the Linné Travel in Southern Sweden, both the book and the notes 250 years old, was there. He had lent the book to the archive for scanning. The following day they wrote about the event in SDS, the biggest daily paper in southern Sweden. http://sydsvenskan.se/skane/article281512.ece

You can find it also in my server http://arqivariet.no-ip.info where lots of other historical documents reside.

The consequences are of course that we will hopefully get more similar jobs in the future - it is Yui's company and I am inofficial consultant, as I am retired because of my bad health. 50 years of diabetes and kidneys on the way to dialysis DOES make my body tired, but as long as the brain has not collapsed, I am allowed to use it, no?

Later in the day - we have packed and double-checked the medicine I have to bring along, More than half the little back-pack only for that - it starts to be worn so should buy a new one, a step bigger, in Bangkok. I am ot gonna put the medicines in the big travel bag - things there I CAN lose, but the other one I want to watch all the time.

Approaching . . .

2007-11-06T21:13:00.000+01:00

The sombreness and darkness of All Saint's Day and this season is like a dead carpet all over. Less than three weeks until I go. Just now I have switched computer - I have taken care of the laptop Yui has used the last year, and she has taken the new Windows machine. I just cleared out the laptop, reformatted the disc, put in everything new, and the programs I will need.

I bought it in Bangkok a day before meeting Yui, when I still thought I could afford it... almost two years ago. But it has worked well. She too . . . . Even if she is sort of stressed now, in the top class for Swedish at Komvux, and now they will start to read two courses in parallel, also one in Swedish as a preparation for studies at the Swedish university.

Everything is just about ready now, tickets, visa, will order a travel insurance in Australia for when the insurance belonging to my home insurance, ends after 45 days. On the 20th the last visit to a doc, checkup of my old malign melanome. The following day to my old workplace and THEN it will be super to sit in the plane, first to London and then to Bangkok! A long nice sleep on an Australian plane, landing on the new already infamous Suvarnabhumi airport outside BKK.

My health is hardly perfect, but when was it . . . . First trip to SEAsia in 1975 maybe..., apart from the diabetes. The next time, in 1987, it felt a bit risky as an assortment of problems had started to pop up, but I felt I really HAD to go! It was during my 3 years in Genève. Next time with hesitation, after another 12 years, I realized that either I go or - I never go. My body had stiffened up, joints stiffer, anhyway I went to Indonesia as I had a group of penfriends there. It was fun..... I was doing a bit of web design teaching during that autumn and went to Thailand again that winter. And so it has continued every winter, except when FK, the Governmental Insurance Bureau, stopped me last winter - pure harassment, and I have reported it to the highest Ombudsman - and some weeks ago I finally got a letter that they will investigate.

Ut och resa!

2007-10-02T14:03:00.000+02:00

Denna blogg har legat och vilat ett tag, som man ska göra med vilken åker som helst. Nu borde det gro bra här!

Innan skrev jag huvudsakligen om Mellanöstern men det får andra bloggar göra nu. Omväxling förnöjer.

Min nästa resa går till Thailand, där jag har varit sju vintrar det senaste decenniet. Det blir den första resan som sjukpensionär - ända sedan jag fick den första infarkten i balanscentrum i hjärnstammen har mina läkare fajtats med Förkränkningskassan (vars blogg verkar vara nere) och talat om för dom att det enda sättet jag kan fortsätta att arbeta i långsam fart, ett par år till, är om jag är sjukskriven under vintern, under den tiden jag riskerar halt väglag och därmed nästan ofelbart obotliga skador om jag försöker gå ut och handla mat. FK har enbart hånflabbat. Färdtjänst hårdflabbar verkligen hårt, trots 4-5 läkarintyg som i korthet säger att färdtjänst under vintern är en del av behandlingen. Att njurarna är på väg till dialys fick dem att flabba än mer. Nu, efter ett års totala trakasserier har det äntligen lyckats mig och läkarna att övertyga dem om att jag måste bli sjukpensionär. Underförstått av alla utom FK, för att jag och mina läkare ska få chans att sköta om mina återstående år, månader, veckor - på ett sätt som är lämpligt för mig.

I will just go out in a few moments, after finishing the breakfast beside the computer, that my lovely Thai wife has prepared for me before she ran to her Swedish course, to send my passport to the Thai embassy in Stockholm, to get a double tourist visa. We Swedes get an automatic 30-day visa at arrival in Thailand, which is sufficient for shorter visits. There has also been the "visa runs", where you go to one border in the vicinity, over and back again, and get another 30 days. I have done it often enough, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos.... Never tried Burma but I will wait a bit for that. Last year they changed the system so you could do that maximum 90 days, then you were not allowed into Thailand for 90 days. Why? Well - if you more or less live there or have some black job there or whatever, you are supposed to have the proper visa for that! The proper way for a longtime tourist is of course a tourist visa. 60 days, you can prolong it for 30 days within Thailand for 1900 Baht, then you must out and in. So I get a double one like that, I plan to stay somewhat less than 120 days, so I go out in the middle, probably to Malaysia as I plan to be down on Koh Samui.

How to go to Malaysia, Penang, from Koh Samui? Ah well.... There is water in between. The boats take 1-3 hours, except the night boat that takes as long as it takes, but people are supposed to sleep on the floor covered with dirty mattresses. I used that boat once when I came from Penang, and while the boat was ok, when I had to board it, they only had a narrow plank without anything to hold in, and with my lack of balance....... Almost as bad as a few winters later, when I took the 6-hour speedboat over Tonle Sap, half through Cambodia, from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The had a LONG narrow plank up - a little money, or lookalike, walked backwads up the plank, holding both my hands to lead me up....... At least once in PP it was decent way to get off board, but I was obviously nervous all the way, sitting on my seat made for Khmers, who have half the size of ass as a Westerner. You can squeeze in twice as many people and it makes larger headlines when it sinks.

A test of including a link to youtube - I searched for films there about Samui, and found this from Lamai, where I usually stay. You can see pics from my latest stay at this link, and if you are smart enough you might find a lot more pictures around that link.

More links to youtube:

Hm, seems to work.

7 weeks left. What to finish? Ah well, should get vaccinations, have sick insurance for the first 45 days, from the home insurance, should fix travel insurance from this Australian insurance place for the rest. Also just booked a room for when I arrive in Bangkok, always nice to have it fixed, at this place.

* * *

Extremely strange. This was published, I have not been here for a week and now suddenly it was only in draft and not published???

Insändare. Abbas & Olmert ska samarbeta.

2006-09-10T19:01:00.000+02:00

Jag reagerade på en av TT:s massprodukter i går. Jag brukar söka på Eniro för att se vad den svenska pressen säger om Israel. Ett utskick från TT ger dussintal hits där, och det föranledde denna insändare till tidningar:

TT:s nyhetsval angående Israel är alltid intressant. I svensk press syntes på lördagen: ”Rysslands utrikesminister Sergej Lavrov kräver en undersökning av Israels bruk av klusterbomber” i ett flertal tidningar.

Samtidigt säger den ryska nyhetsbyrån Interfax http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11583811 att Peres just i Echo Moskvy radio meddelat att de hittade många av Hezbollahs vapen i Libanon med ryska markeringar. Inget hos TT.

Hezbollahs raketer som gick till Israel med mängder av kullagerkulor och annat metallskrot enbart avsett att såra, skada och döda människor – vem kräver undersökning av det? TT berättar ej.

Och de facto – vem ser till att Hezbollah avväpnas enligt Resolution 1701? http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8808.doc.htm Iran har redan börjat flyga vapen till Hezbollah via Beirut utan protester från Persson eller FN http://www.debka.org/headline.php?hid=3238 och båtarna som seglar i solgasset i havet utanför Libanon stoppar inte masstrafiken över landgränsen Syrien-Libanon, ej heller motsvarande uppladdning av Gaza, vars terrorister under veckan via den EU-kontrollerade gränsen till Egypten bl.a. tagit emot 400 anti-tankvapen och 15 Grad-missiler http://www.debka.org/headline.php?hid=3232 Israels försvarsmakt har definitiv information om minst ett dussin vapenleveranser till Hezbollah de senaste tre veckorna http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51877 . TT har missat informationen och Persson har inte lagt pannan i några djupa veck. Anledning?

* * *

Områdena som hade kunnat vara ett Palestina de senaste 50 åren men som konstant har sagt nej, senast år 2000 i försök till fredsförhandlingar för att avsluta den legala ockupationen, förlorar alltfler utbildade människor och affärsmän tack vare Hamas:

Brain Drain in Palestinian Authority
11:13 Sep 10, '06 / 17 Elul 5766
by Hillel Fendel
http://israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=111701

The spokesman for Fatah in the PA-controlled city of Tul Karem says that the difficult economic situation in the Hamas-led PA has led to the emigration of many academics to the Persian Gulf.

The spokesman, Samir Naifa, indirectly blamed Hamas for the situation.

He said the information he has indicates that some 20 engineers from the Tul Karem region alone (east of Netanya) have left recently for the Persian Gulf states. In addition, he said, many doctors have left Judea and Samaria, seeking work elsewhere, as have many Palestinian Authority employees. The latter have not been paid for several months.

Naifa, whose Fatah party was ousted from power by the Hamas in the PA elections eight months ago, said that many businessmen have stopped their projects. The reason, Naifa says, is because of the many obstacles placed in their way by the Hamas government, and the general lack of confidence in the economy.

An Israeli defense source confirmed the above. He told Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman, "Whoever can leave, runs away. Many factories have closed and money is not coming. Businessmen who came to Judea and Samaria are leaving."

Huberman recently reported on similar criticism coming from within Hamas itself. Hamas spokesman Razi Hamed wrote in a daily PA newspaper two weeks ago that the Palestinian Authority leadership and populace has failed to turn Gaza into a functioning society.

"Walking the streets of Gaza," Hamed wrote, "you get the feeling that you have to close your eyes: anarchy everywhere, policemen who don't care about public order, boys carrying guns, people setting up condolence tents in the middle of the street, and murders between rival families. Gaza has become a garbage dump, with a stink everywhere and sewage everywhere. The government can't do a thing, the opposition watches, the two sides fight between them, the Presidency is helpless; we have caught the bug of apathy..."

Vilka som finns kvar? Dessa:

Så vad göra för att klara det? WOW – Olmert och Abbas ska samarbeta för att med gemensamma ansträngningar stödja sina sammanfallande riken! Trots

Tens of Thousands Protest Olmert Government
16:09 Sep 10, '06 / 17 Elul 5766
by Ezra HaLevi

Tens of thousands of Israelis joined a protest against the Olmert government in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Saturday night. The protest was under the banner of “State Commission of Inquiry Now!”

The protest was organized by IDF reservists as well as the Movement for Quality Government (MQG), a private group that has been running a separate protest alongside the reservists in Jerusalem’s Rose Garden. The reservists have been calling for the resignation of the top government officials for their management of the recent war in Lebanon, while the MQG is calling for a state commission to examine the government’s actions.

“The Prime Minister must open his eyes and realize that a state commission of inquiry is needed,” the group’s chairman, Eliad Shraga, said.

Also speaking at the protest were former Defense Minister Moshe Arens of the Likud, retired Meretz Party chairman Yossi Sarid, senior reserves officers and relatives of soldiers who fell during the war.

“It is unacceptable that those under investigation appoint the investigators,” Arens told the crowd. “Only a state commission of inquiry will examine in a thorough manner the decision of the government in the last war in Lebanon. Never have there been such confusing and contradictory orders issued in the handling of a war.”

“If we continue to remain silent, we will be hit with another bomb,” Movement For Quality Government spokesman Shuki Levanon said. He added that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had been invited to the protest, “to declare from this podium that he has heard the will of the people and will establish a state commission – but the chicken didn’t even answer.”

Though most protestors held signs accusing the government of not allowing the IDF to act strongly enough, some Meretz members joined as well – protesting the decision to go to war in the first place.

Though the rally’s organizers number the participants at 40,000, police said 25,000 attended.

Musicians and composers took part in the demonstration as well. Nimrod Lev, Danny Linti, Miki Gavrielov, Pablo Rosenberg, Etti Ankari and Yankele Rotblitt, the composer of Shir HaShalom, the Song of Peace embraced by Israel’s left-wing and sung publicly by Yitzchak Rabin just prior to his murder.

Shraga closed the rally by calling on those present to join the struggle more actively. “The struggle is not over. Don’t go home and think you have done enough – speak out and join us at our protest vigil in Jerusalem,” he said.

Ska Olmert fortsätta att beväpna Abbas, och tala vänligt till honom som han gör till sina andra gubbar bakom buskarna – det kan ju ge lite goodwill hos Blair, som också ser sin tron falla sönder:

Olmert Pushing Road Map Plan

By Hillel Fendel

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday night, announced he plans to meet - unconditionally - with Abu Mazen in the near future.

Blair arrived in Jerusalem late Sabbath afternoon, meeting with Mr. Olmert on what many feel is his farewell tour of the region before his expected resignation next year.

Olmert told reporters that he plans to meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in the near future. Though just last week he said he would not meet with Abbas before captive soldier Gilad Shalit is released, he no longer has set any preconditions for such a meeting.

Olmert expressed his willingness and intention to advance the Quartet's Road Map Plan between Israel and the PA. He announced that the Realignment Plan, his main election campaign platform, was no longer relevant.

The Road Map plan, initiated in 2002, calls for an end to terrorism, an end to Israel's settlement activity, and the formation of a Palestinian state. Ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the U.S. guaranteed that Israel could retain major settlement blocs in the Shomron, but this has not been borne out by the relevant documents. The plan has not yet made it to its first step.

The British leader told reporters that events taking place in the Mideast directly impact his country, as well as the entire world community. Blair expressed his willingness to do whatever possible to advance negotiating efforts between Israel and the PA (Palestinian Authority).

Prime Minister Olmert has said that he now realizes that his Realignment Plan, calling for the dismantling of most of the communities in Judea and Samaria and the handing over of most of the territory to Hamas, is no longer realistic. The Road Map Plan is all Olmert has left on the political horizon, analysts say.

Olmert placing the focus of his Saturday night remarks not on Lebanon or Iran, but on the PA. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who still retains his position despite the fact that Hamas controls the Parliament, is also willing to talk unconditionally with Olmert. Both leaders apparently feel they need each other in order to stay in power. [häromdan sa Nasrallah att HAN ville att Olmert skulle kvarstå….]

The Deputy Director of the GSS (Israel's domestic security service), whose name is not known to the public, says that Abbas also needs Hamas cooperation in order to survive. The official told the Cabinet today that Fatah is continuing to crumble in the face of increasing Hamas strength and influence within the internal PA security agencies. Efforts continue to create a unity government of both Hamas and Fatah. ,[och Kadima]

* * *

Folkrätt

2006-09-08T16:41:00.000+02:00

The Fantasy World of International Law
The criticism of Israel has been "disproportionate."
by Jeremy Rabkin
08/21/2006, Volume 011, Issue 46

Då det senaste kriget i Libanon startade, protesterade de europeiska regeringarna att Israels svar var "oproportionerligt". FN:s commissioner för mänskliga rättigheter, Louise Arbour, höll med och talade dystert om israeliska "krigsbrott". Jag råkade vara på en konferens mitt i juli som vesöktes av ett antal militära advokater. Jag frågade en, som undeervisar i militäårlag vad allt detta tal om "proportionalitet" egentligen betyder. Svaret var kort och bestämt: "Det betyder att de inte tycker om Israel."Läs vidare på länken ovan!

* * *

Nyheter

2006-09-06T20:53:00.000+02:00

Nasrallah har rekommenderat Olmert att stanna kvar som israels ledare. Önskvärd reklam eller klarsynthet?

* * *

England, Italien, Spanien, Portugal och Tyskland har förenat sina ansträngningar att begränsa Israels möjlighet att försvara sig.

* * *

FN glänser i klarsynthet. KoffikAnnan har utropat att Israel måste sluta stoppa Hizbollah från att skaffa sig vapen. Att Säkerhetsrådets Resolution 1706 hela tiden talar om att denna tillförsel måste stoppas, men att ingen annan gör det, räknas inte. 1706 säger också att de kidnappade israeliska soldaterna ovillkorligen ska lämnas tillbaka, men KoffikAnnan anser sig behöva medla i fallet trots allt??? Han, med alla foton i pressen om hur han skakar tass med Nasrallah, är inte den lämpliga. Israel har dessutom knappt motsvarande fångar, däremot en libanes som illegalt tog sej in i Israel, krossade skallen på en liten flicka och avlivade hennes far - är det jämförbart? Men det är klart - Olmert har på sistone deklarerat att en israel är ungefär lika mycket värt som 800 araber, så . . . . .

UNIFIL, som inte har upptäckt och rapporterat en enda av de bortåt 15.000 raketer och missiler som Hizbollah har införskaffat, är tyvärr som en stor fet padda som kan göra exakt vad de vill - när de hjälpte Hizbollah år 2000 att tillfångata och döda israeler, inte har det någonsin ordentligt utretts.

* * *

Spengler

2006-09-02T01:12:00.000+02:00

Jag har upptäckt en fascinerande skribent, som jag för övrigt inte vet något om, Spengler. Han skriver artiklar i Asia Times och har alltså distans till vårt närområde - Eurabien och USA. Här en av hans fascinerande artiklar som berättar om Irans framtid, och som kanske kan förklara en del. Jag har försökt kopiera två artiklar hit, med rätt misslyckat resultat, och du kan hitta hans artiklar om du går till http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/spengler.html

Den första behandlar Iran om 50 år, den andra behandlar Europa nu och framåt.

Middle East

Sep 13, 2005

Demographics and Iran's imperial design
By Spengler

Aging populations will cause severe discomfort in the United States and extreme
pain in Japan and Europe by mid-century. But the same trends will devastate the frail economies of the Islamic world, and likely plunge many countries into social chaos.

By 2050, elderly dependents will comprise nearly a third of the population of some Muslim nations, notably Iran - converging on America's dependency ratio at mid-century. But it is one thing to face such a problem with America's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $40,000, and quite another to face it with Iran's per capita GDP of $7,000 - especially given that Iran will stop exporting oil before the population crisis hits.

The industrial nations face the prospective failure of their pension systems. But what will happen to countries that have no pension system, where traditional society assumes the care of the aged and infirm? In these cases it is traditional society that will break

down, horribly and irretrievably so. Below, I will review the relevant numbers.

In a recent essay, I argued that declining Muslim population growth rates give the Islamists just one generation in which to strike out for their goal of global theocracy (The demographics of radical Islam, August 23). Muslim birth rates are collapsing as literacy rises, that is, as the modern world intrudes upon traditional society. Islamic traditional society is so fragile that it crumbles as soon as women learn to read.

But the Islamists will not wait for traditional society to unravel. I grossly underestimated Iran's new president Mahmud Ahmadinejad in a report on the Iranian elections (Iran: The living fossils' vengeance, June 28).

In programs made public on August 15, Ahmadinejad revealed a response worthy of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin to the inevitable unraveling of Iran's traditional society. He proposes to reduce the number of villages from 66,000 to only 10,000, relocating 30 million Iranians. That is a preemptive response to the inevitable depopulation of rural Iran, in keeping with a totalitarian program for all aspects of Iranian society.

As Amir Taheri wrote in Arab News on August 20, "He [Ahmadinejad] wants the state to play a central role in all aspects of people's lives and emphasizes the importance of central planning. The state would follow the citizens from birth to death, ensuring their health, education, well-being and leisure. It will guide them as to what to read and write and what 'cultural products' to consume so as not to be contaminated by Western ideas."

Reengineering the shape of Iran's population, the central plank of the new government's domestic program, should be understood as the flip side of Iran's nuclear coin. Aggressive relocation of Iranians and an aggressive foreign policy both constitute a response to the coming crisis.

Iran claims that it must develop nuclear power to replace diminishing oil exports. It seems clear that Iranian exports will fall sharply, perhaps to zero by 2020, according to Iranian estimates. But Iran's motives for acquiring nuclear power are not only economic but strategic. Like Hitler and Stalin, Ahmadinejad looks to imperial expansion as a solution for economic crisis at home.

Iran wants effective control of Iraq through its ascendant Shi'ite majority, and ultimately control of the oil-rich regions of western Saudi Arabia, where Shi'ites form a majority. As Pepe Escobar reported from Tehran (Iran takes over Pipelineistan , Sep 10), Ahmadinejad wants to make Iran a regional power not only in production but in transmission, through a proposed oil pipeline through Iraq and Syria.

This may appear to be a desperate gamble, but conditions call for desperate gambles. Ahmadinejad is not a throwback, as I wrote with a dismissiveness that seems painful in hindsight. He has taken the measure of his country's crisis, and determined to meet it head-on. Washington, from what I can tell, has no idea what sort of opponent it confronts. Iranian dissidents were supposed to push their country toward democratization, following the glasnost model of Soviet deterioration, and contagion from the new democracy in Iraq was supposed to hasten the process. Ahmadinejad's ascendancy took Washington by complete surprise. Now there is nothing obvious the US can do to reduce Iran's influence among Iraqi Shi'ites, or to prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions.

The rising elderly dependent ratio, that is, the proportion of pensioners in the general population, has given rise to a genre of apocalyptic literature in the West: governments will raise taxes, debase the currency, cut pensions and flail about hopelessly as the cost rises of supporting the rising number of aged. In the US, pensioners now are 18% of the population, but will become 33% by 2050, according to the United Nations' medium forecast. In other words, a full additional 15% of the population will require support from the remaining population.

Shifting a full 15% of the population from the ranks of the working to the ranks of the retired will place an uncomfortable burden on American taxpayers, to be sure. But the shift in the case of Muslim countries is much worse. Between 2005 and 2050, the shift from workers to pensioners will comprise 21% of Iranians, 19% of Turks and Indonesians, and 20% of Algerians. That is almost as bad as the German predicament, where the proportion of dependent elderly will rise from 28% in 2005 to 50% in 2050.

Each employed German worker will have to support a pensioner in 2050. A simple way to express the problem is that German productivity must rise by 0.8% per year between now and 2050 simply to maintain the same standard of living, for that is the rate of productivity growth that would allow a smaller number of German workers to produce the same amount of goods and services. That is not inconceivable; during the 1990s, German productivity grew at such levels. Productivity growth in the Arab world and Iran has been low or negative, and is not likely to improve.

As I observed in my June analysis of Iran's presidential election, "From an economic standpoint, Iran is a changeling monster, an oil well attached to an iron lung, as it were, maintaining with subsidies a rural population that is no longer viable. Oil and natural gas earn $1,300 a year for each Iranian, roughly a fifth of per-capita GDP. The Islamic republic dispenses this wealth to keep alive a moribund economy. Government spending has risen by four-and-a-half times during the past four years, financed via the central bank's printing press, pushing inflation up to 15% pa [per annum], while unemployment remains at 11%."

Iran's ultra-Islamist government has no hope of ameliorating the crisis through productivity growth. Instead it proposes totalitarian methods that will not reduce the pain, but only squelch the screams. Iran envisages a regional Shi'ite empire backed by nuclear weaponry. And Washington, from what I can tell, has not a clue as to what is happening.

Apart from Iran, the population dynamics described above will lead to more rather than fewer terrorist demonstrations. A school of thought represented by Daniel Pipes, for example, holds that "terrorism obstructs the quiet work of political Islamism", as Pipes wrote on August 3 in the New York Sun. "In tranquil times, organizations like the Muslim Council of Britain and the Council on American-Islamic Relations effectively go about their business, promoting their agenda to make Islam dominant and imposing dhimmitude (whereby non-Muslims accept Islamic superiority and Muslim privilege). Westerners generally respond like slowly boiled frogs are supposed to, not noticing a thing."

Here I think Pipes is wrong; the Islamists have to strike quickly and decisively, not only to advance their cause in the West but also to consolidate their power in home countries where conditions will become unstable before long.

* * *

En annan skrämmande artikel av honom beskriver Europa på det sätt ingen europeisk politiker skulle våga presentera det:

Middle East

Aug 22, 2006

The peacekeepers of Penzance
By Spengler

Like W S Gilbert's cowardly policemen in The Pirates of Penzance, Europe's prospective peacekeepers have decided that "a policeman's lot is not a happy one". Europe's serious exercise in peacekeeping led to the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, when Dutch soldiers turned over Muslims in their charge to Serb death squads.

France offers no more than 200 engineers to join the peacekeeping force that the United Nations Security Council has mandated as a buffer on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The last time French peacekeepers ventured into Lebanon, a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed 58 paratroopers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has appealed to Italy to lead the 15,000-strong UN force. The last time an Italian army confronted a well-armed and

determined force in the region, at the Ethiopian battle of Adwa in 1896, the Italians suffered 70% casualties.

Otto von Bismarck pronounced the Balkans unworthy of the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, and Europe's governments seem unwilling to sacrifice a single soldier to maintain the peace in southern Lebanon. This raises the question: What is Europe's interest in the Middle East? The answer appears to be: To disappear and be forgotten with the least possible fuss.

A people without progeny will not accept a single military casualty. If this generation is the last, there will be no children for whom to sacrifice. Today's Europeans value their distractions and amusements more than they do prospective children. Germany's 2005 birth rate of only 8.5 per 1,000 inhabitants indicates that Europe is following the low variant of UN population estimates. These guarantee the virtual disappearance of the Europeans by the end of the present century.

Only 300 million Europeans, nearly half of them geriatric, will remain at the end of the present century against more than 700 million (including all of Eastern Europe) today. Europeans younger than 60 years of age now number about 560 million; that number will fall by only 150 million by the year 2100. This number excludes immigrants, overwhelmingly from the Middle East and Africa, who show no signs of assimilating as Europeans.

The number of Americans will exceed the number of Europeans, Russia included, by around the year 2080, although the aggregate numbers mask the true extent of the catastrophe, for nearly half of Europe's survivors will have reached retirement age. A fifth of Europeans are past 60 now; by 2050 more than a third will be above 60; and by the end of the century nearly half. The United States' elderly will number about 30%, so that the number of Americans younger than 60, at 280 million, will be close to double the number of young and working-age Europeans.

It might be objected that Europe's demographic catastrophe lies a generation hence, and that it need not determine European policy today. Just the opposite is true: it is Europe's present attitudes that dictate the demographic catastrophe. Europe began to die in the 1990s when deaths outnumbered births.

It seems unlikely that French diplomats deceived the world by promising French leadership and boots on the ground to enforce the latest UN ceasefire resolution. It simply is difficult to find volunteers to bell the cat.

From this we should conclude that the so-called "international community" is an empty construct. The Europeans, Russia included, are the walking dead. Europe wants a quiet transition to the cemetery, while Russia plays spoiler indifferent to future consequences; whatever those consequences might be, very few Russians will be alive to see them. The United States is the only superpower not because no other Western country will have sufficient people to act like a superpower a century hence; the United States will have more people a century hence precisely because Americans think and feel like citizens of a superpower.

All that matters is the coming confrontation between the United States and Iran. Iran's own demographic future resembles that of Europe more than it does the United States. By mid-century, Iran's aged will compose nearly a third of its population, and its population pyramid will invert. Social and economic catastrophe threatens Iran, persuading its present leaders to establish a regional empire while they still have the opportunity.

The Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect because Washington threatened Tehran with something extremely unpleasant if it continued to enrich uranium. Iran is not sure how far the United States will go, or how it should respond, and wants to buy time. That is why it kenneled its dogs in southern Lebanon, at least for the moment. Israel shrank before the number of casualties required to neutralize Hezbollah, and was happy to let the United States have a heart-to-heart conversation with the dogs' master. The rest of the matter, notably France's buffo part, is light farce.

What happens next is entirely up to Iran. I have predicted that Iran will remain intransigent, for it cannot abandon its last chance for a new Persian Empire. The Persians have been an annoyance since the Battle of Marathon, and it will not displease me to see them fail again. If Iran refuses to change course, nothing short of force of arms will keep it from building nuclear weapons, something the US is reluctant to employ. That would bury what is left of America's nation-building exercise in Iraq, and possibly throw the world economy into recession through much higher oil prices. The two protagonists are circling each other, while their proxy warriors - Hezbollah and Israel - lick their wounds and watch.

In the end, I believe the US will attack Iran's nuclear facilities. But the outcome is in Iranian hands. Even Nineveh repented and was saved after hearing Jonah's prophecy that it would be destroyed otherwise; who can tell if Washington's threats are as potent as the execution?

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

Börjar det koka? SvD

2006-08-29T17:47:00.000+02:00

Olmert och hans kabinett vägrar fortfarande titta ut genom fönstret för att se det växande antalet demonstranter mot honom. Israel är ju inte precis berömt för att ha långvariga regeringar, men han vill visst till varje pris bita sej kvar. Åtminstone har han inte som högsta prioritet att avfolka Västbanken längre, så på det sättet har Sommarlovskriget gjort nytta, och kanske på andra sätt också, förutom att snabba på regeringen Olmerts fall. Peretz' arbetarparti vill inte ta pengar de har lovat i socialbidrag till fattiga, för att försvara Israel, vilket har lett till brytning mellan dom och Olmers Kadima - en annan fördel.

Här i Sverige är livet som vanligt. Svenska Dagbladets diskussionsarea Brännpunkt vägrar ha några diskussioner - en kollega berättade om ett rekord, det hade tagit mindre än en minut för dess Sune Olofsson att läsa igenom en anti-terroristartikel och refusera den p.g.a. "platsbrist", samtidigt som de har den ena hata-Israelartikeln efter den andra. Deras Bitte Hammargren har krafsat ihop en snyftartikel om "araberna i Israel" genom att snacka ett par minuter med några av dem, och besluta att de har det fruktansvärt. Hon är helt ointresserad av den lättillgängliga statistiken om deras åsikter, helt ointresserad av att jämföra genomsnittsaraben i Israel med genomsnittsaraben på Västbanken, Gaza, Egypten, Libanon . . . . . . För att inte jämföra genomsnittsarabiska kvinnan i dessa områden, eller för den delen genomsnittsjuden.

Diverse judehatande organisationer som Amnesty International har skyfflat ut "rapporter" som beskyller Israel för det ena och det andra - till och med al Jazeera undrar hur idiotiska de kan bli. Human Rights Watch kör parallellspåret med judehat. Internationella media sväljer allt med hull och hår, utan någon som helst kritisk eftertanke.

Vår förnämliga utrikesminister, Eliasson tror jag han heter, var mäkta stolt över att ha totat ihop den nygamla variationen av FN:s Human Rights Organisation emot USA:s och Israels vilja, så den garanterat innehöll tillräckligt många länder som inte på något sätt uppehåller några mänskliga rättigheter för sin egen befolkning, och så att judehat blir en permanent egenskap därstädes. Från Wikipedia kan man hämta:

Position on Israel

The new UN Human Rights Council voted on 30 June 2006 to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every council session. The Council’s special rapporteur on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is its only expert mandate with no year of expiry. The resolution, which was sponsored by Organization of the Islamic Conference, a block of Muslim countries, was passed by a vote of 29 to 12, with five abstentions. Israel, the United States and some human rights groups raised concerns about this revival of a practice of the UN's discredited former Commission on Human Rights^[3].

Vad tycker libaneserna om aktionen i Libanon? Mycket varierande förstås, men en som nog talar för rätt många skriver såhär i en engelskspråkig tidning i Beirut.

En del tycker att Hezbollah är generösa som skänker bort packar med dollars till människor i södra Libanon för att bli älskade, andra har talat om allt som säger att de är hemmagjorda.

Efter kriget?

2006-08-17T14:48:00.000+02:00

Folkstormen i Israel börjar - med kommentarer från återvändande soldater som:

Many Israeli combat soldiers take a pretty dim view of their superiors and elected leaders

August 14, 2006, 10:20 PM (GMT+02:00)

Their views were freely expressed as the first groups exited Lebanon Monday with great relief after a ceasefire went into force

DEBKAfile summarizes some of their comments:

- The rear command did not know what was going on in the field.

- Some of their orders were suicidal. There were cases of officers and men agreeing to ignore such orders.

- Some of the tanks were ten years old and were confronted with an enemy armed with the most sophisticated, up-to-date equipment.

- Our training prior to being sent into battle was not adapted to the conditions we found in Lebanon.

- Their officers called Hizballah fighters terrorists or even primitive. This was a misleading misnomer. They are highly-trained, professional soldiers.

- Although we were better, Hizballah fought like lions.

- We had no food or water.

- Our entry into battle in Lebanon was belated.

- The troops were short of accurate intelligence.

- We were not prepared for combat against camouflaged bunkers.

- We had no information on the Hizballah’s anti-tank missile techniques.

Till och med det vänsterinriktade Ha'aretz, Israels Aftonbladet, skriver vettigheter och anklagar regeringen Olmert/Peretz som
A Spirit of Absolute Folly
Defense Minister: IDF didn't warn me of missile threat in the north
Dead man walking

Andra röster i frågan kan läsas på
Sellout
Why go to war if you don't intend to fight?

* * *

Israel och folkrätten

2006-08-14T14:24:00.000+02:00

Detta debattinlägg blev självklart omedelbart refuserat av Svenska Dagbladet.

Professor Bjereld har http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/brannpunkt/did_13430610.asp ett antal betänkliga luckor i sitt resonemang om Israel och folkrätten liksom utrikesminister Eliasson. Han har i dagarna sagt att Israel bryter mot ”andan” av FN-beslutet (ej tvingande), medan han är ointresserad av om Hizbollah gör motsvarande. Eliasson, som sitter på delad sits, var glad när han lyckades omskapa FN:s grupp för mänskliga rättigheter mot USA:s vilja, av många länder med skamfilat rykte i frågan – och gruppen har i huvudsak ägnat sig åt att fördöma Israel, inte Sudan och Darfur, inte Kina och Tibet, inte Ryssland och Tjetjenien, inte kvinnans ställning i muslimska länder. Cuba, Pakistan, Saudiarabien och Kina är med, men inte Israel. Därför är Israels brott ”välkända”.

UNESCO har judarnas heligaste plats, Tempelplatsen, på sin bevarandelista sedan 1982, men inte ett dugg har gjorts mot att muslimerna försöker hacka bort alla judiska lämningar från området. Vad hade FN sagt om judarna hade gjort motsvarande i Mecka (ej på världsarvslistan)?

Ordet demokrati bör nog läggas på is ett slag. Vad säger folkrätten om ett krig där den ena sidan har byggt skyddsrum för sin civilbefolkning men inte den andra? Vad säger den om ”demokratiska” val i en miljö som har haft flera generationers statlig och religiös hatpropaganda, till den grad att ungdomarna har förlorat självbevarelsedriften och mödrar villigt sänder sina barn i döden?

”Vägplanen” inleds med ett absolut stopp för denna hatpropaganda – den har intensifierats men EU/Sverige beivrar aldrig detta. I stället betalar EU skolböcker, fulla av hat mot Israel/judar, för palestinska barn.

Israel har översköljts av FN-resolutioner (jämför gärna med arabländerna) – men aldrig ett kapitel 7-beslut, vilket är de enda som är bindande. Däremot är San Remo-beslutet från 1922 folkrättsligt bindande, där hela Mandatet Palestina skulle utgöra ’judiskt folkhem’ medan den återstående 539/540-delen av Ottomanska Riket blev arabiskt.

Fram till 1967 existerade inga ”palestinska områden”, enbart områden illegalt ockuperade, av Jordanien och Egypten och ”palestinier” betydde fortfarande ”judar i Mellanöstern”. En 19-årig illegal ockupation av Jerusalem (förutom de judiska förstäder som började byggas för drygt 100 år sedan) kan knappast bestämma stadens hela framtid. Judarna hade accepterat staden som internationell, ingen protesterade under Jordaniens ockupation, men när Israel åter förenade sin huvudstad sedan 3000 år, under försvarskrig, blev det full kalabalik. Övrig legal ockupation försökte Israel förhandla bort med Arafat, utan resultat. Gaza lämnades helt och hållet – under ansvar – och vi vet hur väl araberna vårdar området. Konstigt att de har råd med enorma mängder dyra vapen men ej mat.

Ockupationen av Golanhöjderna är ett problem, visst, eftersom 80 kvadratkm köptes av Edmond Rothschild 1892 och gavs till den judiska staten några decennier senare av hans son.

Tortyren i arabiska fängelser vill vi gärna höra mera om. Liksom vilka förhörsmetoder som kan vara lämpliga med människor som har varit beredda att offra sina liv för att mörda så många civilpersoner som möjligt, när informationen kan förhindra ytterligare massmord.

Antag att världens ”judeproblem” måste lösas efter andra världskriget – dels återstoden från Europa (fortfarande finns färre judar än före Hitler) och alla från Arabländerna, vilket var ännu flera. Antag att UNHCR fick hand om problemet – de har framgångsrikt omplacerat 50 miljoner (10 gånger Israels folkmängd) som ej har flyktingstatus längre. Placerade i länder med samma kultur, religion, språk och inte mitt i en öken. Israel är då enda möjligheten. Detta skedde nu utan att världen behövde betala en enda krona till UNHCR, placering i vad som 1922 bestämdes skulle vara ’judiskt hemland’.

Tvåstatslösning? Ja, Israel och Jordanien. De mellanliggande områdena har varken visat intresse eller förmåga att skapa en ekonomiskt livskraftig stat, utan det är västvärlden som har försökt tvinga det på dem. Israel började bygga sin första kibbutz och stat för ca 100 år sedan, palestinaaraberna har inte börjat än – och ingen vågar ge dem lån för uppbyggnad.

Till syvende och sist gäller det judarnas överlevnad. Som Irans ledare sa: ”Bra att judarna samlas i Israel för då kan vi avliva dem med en eller två atombomber. Om de svarar med en atombomb försvinner bara några miljoner av oss, en droppe i havet.” Tänk om världssamfundet hade varit lika intresserat av att få stopp på Irans atombombsproduktion som av Israels försök att avväpna en terroristgrupp!

* * *

"Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem"

2006-08-12T01:54:00.000+02:00

Om du söker på ovanstående rubrik, inklusive citationstecken, får du hundratalet hits på ett tal av Olmert. Det hade varit intressant att försöka klassificera reaktionerna. "Se hur bra han är!" "Äntligen har han lärt sej!" "Näääää, nåt är fel." och de som förklarar att det är från Ma'ariv, ett stycke som skrevs - vad som Olmert borde ha sagt. http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/olmert.asp

Vad han verkligen säger: tja . . . .

. . . . .

OLMERT TODAY devotes his attention not to addressing the question of how Israel can win this war, but rather to how he can convince the Israeli public that he is not a failure. And he is not alone. Over the past week or so the main push of the Olmert government, the IDF General Staff and the left-wing establishment in Israel has been to prepare the public to accept their version of events.

. . . . . .

* * *

Media ljuger om Libanon. Reuters, CNN, BBC . . .

2006-08-08T14:31:00.000+02:00

Reuters admits to more image manipulation

News organization withdraws photograph of Israeli fighter jet, admits image was doctored, fires photographer. Reuters pledges 'tighter editing procedure for images of the Middle East conflict'
Yaakov Lappin

Reuters has withdrawn a second photograph and admitted that the image was doctored, following the emergence of new suspicions against images provided by the news organization. On Sunday, Reuters admitted that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, used software to distort an image of smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut in order to create the effect of more smoke and damage.

The latest image to face doubts is a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet over the skies of Lebanon, seen in the image firing off "missiles during an air strike on Nabatiyeh," according to the image's accompanying text provided by Reuters.

Reuters has recalled all photos by Adnan Hajj

The owner of the My Pet Jawa web log noted that the warplane in the picture is actually firing defensive flares aimed at dealing with anti-aircraft missiles.

In addition, the Jawa blog says the flares have been replicated by Reuters, giving the impression that the jet was firing many "missiles," thereby distortion the image.

"The F-16 in the photo is not firing missiles, but is rather dropping chaffe or flares designed to be a decoy for surface to air missiles. However, a close up (of) what Hajj calls "missiles" reveals that only one flare has been dropped. The other two "flares" are simply copies of the original," Shackleford wrote. "But what about the 'bombs' in the photo? Here is a close up of them. Notice anything? That's right. The top and bottom "bomb" are the same."

Another manipuated Reuters image

Following the accusations, Reuters conceded that a second image it provided had been manipulated, and released a statement saying it had recalled all photos by Hajj. "Reuters has withdrawn from its database all photographs taken by Beirut-based freelance Adnan Hajj after establishing that he had altered two images since the start of the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hizbullah group," the statement said.

The news outlet said that it discovered "in the last 24 hours that he (Hajj) altered two photographs since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hizbullah," Reuters added.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image", Reuters' statement quoted Tom Szlukovenyi, Reuters Global Picture Editor, as saying.

'Tighter editing needed'

Reuters also said it would apply "tighter editing procedure for images of the Middle East conflict to ensure that no photograph from the region would be transmitted to subscribers without review by the most senior editor on the Reuters Global Pictures Desk."

"Reuters terminated its relationship with Hajj on Sunday... An immediate enquiry began into Hajj's other work," the statement said.

Hajj had provided Reuters with several images from the Lebanese village of Qana, many of which have also been suspected of being staged .

Other Reuters images have been called into question by blogs in the United States.

A reader of the Power Line blog , Robert Opalecky, wrote: "I don't know if this has been brought to anyone's attention yet, but in a quick search of the authenticated Reuters photographs attributed to Adnan Hajj, I found the following two."

The first Reuters image of July 24

"One is from July 24 of a bombed out area in Beirut, with a clearly identifiable building in a prominent part of the shot. The second is of the exact same area, same buildings, same condition, with a woman walking past "a building flattened during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs August 5, 2006," he wrote.

Reuters' second 'Beirut attack' photo, dated August 5

A film released on the YouTube video sharing website compares the two images, and appears to show striking similarities between the photograph used by Reuters on both July 24 and August 5.

However, Reuters needs to explain clearly to the public several critical issues:

Why did a Reuters photographer manipulate the images to make the damage look more severe than it was;
How could Reuters editors not catch the fraud when a blogger and a group of amateur photographers noticed it easily;
What steps is Reuters taking to punish all those involved in the creation and distribution of this forgery and what Reuters is doing to prevent these hoaxes in the future.

A CNN MAN LETS SLIP
"CNN senior international correspondent" Nic Robertson admitted that his anti-Israel report from Beirut on July 18 about civilian casualties in Lebanon, was stage-managed from start to finish by Hizbullah. He revealed that his story was heavily influenced by Hizbullah's "press officer" and that Hizbullah have "very, very sophisticated and slick media operations."
When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program "Reliable Sources," Robertson acknowledged that Hizbullah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hizbullah "had control of the situation," Robertson said. "They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath."
Robertson added that Hizbullah has "very, very good control over its areas in the south of Beirut. They deny journalists access into those areas. You don't get in there without their permission. We didn't have enough time to see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, a taxi driver by day, and a Hizbullah fighter by night."
Yet "Reliable Sources," presented by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, is broadcast only on the American version of CNN. So CNN International viewers around the world will not have had the opportunity to learn from CNN's "Senior international correspondent" that the pictures they saw from Beirut were carefully selected for them by Hizbullah.
Another journalist let the cat out of the bag last week. Writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, Time magazine contributor Christopher Allbritton, casually mentioned in the middle of a posting: "To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I'm loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist's passport, and they've already hassled a number of us and threatened one."
Robertson is not the only foreign journalist to have misled viewers with selected footage from Beirut. NBC's Richard Engel, CBS's Elizabeth Palmer, and a host of European and other networks, were also taken around the damaged areas by Hizbullah minders. Palmer commented on her report that "Hizbullah is also determined that outsiders will only see what it wants them to see."
Palmer's honesty is helpful. But it doesn't prevent the damage being done by organizations such as the BBC. First the BBC gave the impression that Israel had flattened the greater part of Beirut. Then to follow up its lop-sided coverage, its website helpfully carried full details of the assembly points for an anti-Israel march due to take place in London, but did not give any details for a rally in support of Israel also held in London a short time later.

Following an Israeli Air Force strike against a building in the village of Qana, Israel is once again subject to some severe criticism in the international media. TV viewers and newspaper readers have been confronted with highly emotive and disturbing images of bodies being pulled from the rubble.
Undoubtedly, the loss of life is extremely tragic and the vast majority of Israelis deeply regrets this incident. However, while some media wishes to portray Israel as a malevolent force that deliberately murders civilians, some wider context needs to be added to the coverage of the Qana story:

Some 150 rockets have been fired at Israeli cities from Qana over the past three weeks. This IDF map traces how these rockets have been launched in 30 salvos at Haifa and other locations, including Nahariya, Ma'alot and Kiryat Shmona. To date, 18 Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded as a result of this rocket fire.

Hezbollah has been deliberately hiding behind and operating from within civilian areas in the knowledge that Israel does not deliberately target civilians. Thus, when an incident such as Qana occurs, Hezbollah is presented with a propaganda coup, as is currently the case. Indeed, Australia's Herald Sun published damning photos "showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia. The images...show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons. Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon."

As the Washington Times points out:
One photograph depicts a fighter with an AK-47 rifle guarding "no-go" zones after an Israeli attack, and another with a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun in an apartment block, with sheets hanging out to dry on a balcony. Another shows the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. An Australian was standing just down the street when the block was obliterated. "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said. "Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then, it was totally devastated...It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more."

While Israeli civilians in northern towns and cities have between 15 seconds and one minute to find cover after an air raid siren is sounded, Lebanese civilians have been forewarned of IDF operations, in some cases, by days. The residents of Qana were warned 48 hours in advance of potential IAF air strikes.

DOUBLE STANDARDS
The Qana incident is likely to be a defining incident in this current conflict, aided by a media that lacks context and prefers to judge Israel by different standards to other nations involved in military actions. It is, for example, interesting to examine the record of NATO forces that bombed the Serb military in Kosovo in the late-1990s. In the face of an estimated 500 civilian deaths, NATO admits that: "Strikes were also complicated by the cynical Serb use of civilian homes and buildings to hide weapons and vehicles, the intermixing of military vehicles with civilian convoys and, sometimes, the use of human shields. In this way, NATO's concern to avoid civilian casualties was exploited by the Serbs."
EMERGING DOUBTS?
In past incidents such as the Mohammed Al-Dura affair, the "Jenin Massacre" and the Gaza Beach deaths, Israel has been castigated by the international media only for new evidence to emerge that has changed the nature of the story. While it is still too early to draw any conclusions before the results of any official investigation are known, there are a number of questions and inconsistencies regarding Qana:

The Red Cross has published that 28 corpses were evacuated from Qana, 19 of which were children. These figures clash with the Lebanese report that 57 people were killed.
Why is there an unexplained 7-8 hour gap between the time of the air strike and the building collapse? Initially the IDF speculated that Hezbollah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse. Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. "It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, IDF Brigadier General Eshel said. "I'm saying this very carefully, because at this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added.