Can I do it again?

Sitting, sitting here in Lund. Is that the rest of my life? We got a small apartment on the ground floor a year ago, just before I was forced to start using rollator. Now I am dead scared of going back to the crutch! It is so much simpler moving around with that stick, but it feels extremely unstable, like falling all the time - it has stopped me from going to the dentist all this time as she has her clinic in an old house with a small staircase up from a complicated entrance, so my teeth are in no good shape, but now finally beginning of April my wife, Yui, will come along. She is a strong farmer girl and can easily bring up the rollator there. I can get up just with a good handhold.

I have had ulcers in my feet since last time in Samui - Yui discovered it after coming back to Sweden, I was there alone but would not dare that again. It started with a small hole, then two both big ones on both feet, first on the left, one month free then it jumped over to the right, now only a small hole left on the right, with some luck and good care it should be more or less gone coming summer, when we plan to go for a month, only to her village, no travel around, and anyway - it is the only thing we barely got money for. She has studied on her master in Malmö this year and it IS more costly than just taking the bike to the university here in Lund.

So it is crucial she gets a job after summer. Next January I am a real retiree and the money I will get will be lower, I have not bothered about the exact details as I cannot do anything about it. When I left my last job at the Provincial Archives here in town, we got a multimedia job, that was successful enough to render an article in the biggest paper here in Southern Sweden about it, but no follow-up, and soon that director died, and none of the bunch among those deciding there is innovative at all. The old director and I had several projects planned.

I just spent some nightly hours looking at old articles on this blog and dreamed, sigh. I feel like I could not do a thing, have hardly moved the last two years since we were in Thailand last, by necessity I must move more when we go there. So we will try to go there this year during appr. July. Unless Yui gets a response from all her job applications.

Some weeks later, April 12.

Strange, my brain does not feel too senile, it is very active. But also getting more contemplative, I like to travel to certain places, not just travel randomly, big areas I am not gonna cover in this body. Europe - ah well, our father taught us to appreciate that, he took our little Volkswagen already in 1955 driving all the way down to Rome, not too common in those days! I joined family on holidays until 1970, when I first went myself, hitch-hiking to Spain.

So I am also thinking more of why I enjoy travelling. Enjoy sitting with my laptop in a nice warm surrounding with nice people, nice food and no snow! Without comparing me, I think of the famous Arthur C. Clarke, he with lots of famous books of Science Fiction AND Science ideas, he was the one who came up with the idea of communication satellies that the modern world couldn't do without. And he lived his last decades in his retreat in Sri Lanka.

I wonder if a month's stay in the little jungle village will be interesting, boring, rewarding - depends on if I activate myself a bit. Take a short walk every day, what you see is simply two houses along a small country road, go down in this blog and look at this place.

I can be there as the internet is decent enough to use, no down- or uploading of videos and films and music.........   I use a small plug looking as a big USB memory stick, that picks up Wifi. If I had stayed longer and we had money, it is rather cheap to put up an antenna where several people then can use the Wifi.

What the future will give - I can only say thank you for what I experience, I do not really feel it is time to go yet in spite of 55 years of diabetes, half the time with bad kidneys. How bad - well, in a few years I might start to need dialysis, and then - we will take one step at a time.

Now only to wait, if my health is not worse and Yui does not get summer job, we are off during July, then she has to look for a qualified job fulltime. She has just taken a one year magister course in Malmö in Interactive Design, working on her final thesis now, and the best would be if she got into one of the company projects where they do research. We will see.

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

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

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.

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

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

2011.06.11

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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..