Going home

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

... 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

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

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.

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!

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.