The Heart Of The Day

I arrived on Samui, an island in the south of Thailand, from Bangkok on tuesday. Doug, my son and his Thai wife Luk found me a lovely quiet hotel with a pool right in the middle of Lamai but back off the street. Of course there was a method to their madness…Luk loves the pool but last night, she hit the bottom and chipped a tooth. She’ll have it fixed in Trang, where she is from, when we take Ting Tong (their Shamitzu) to stay with her mother while we all go to Kuala Lumpur next month. Prices much lower in Trang.

Bought an internet card at the IT Internet Complex up on the ring road so now if I walk up to the 2nd floor veranda of the hotel I can get WiFi reception on my computer. There is WiFi access over much of the island now.

Hard to believe how much Samui has developed since I was here two years ago. And the government has recently eased up on foreign investment after having previously clamped down. But a welcome change from noisy smoggy Bangkok. Blue sky…blue water…eye candy.

I have not been able to access Wikipedia or the external links to Blogspot and Bootsnall blogs since I have been in China. My daughter-in-law who lives in Beijing says that she often can access Wikipedia by going to Answers.com first.

Interesting.

As small as Jinghong is there are internet cafes every few yards on the street where I am staying…each filled with 50 to a 100 spikey-haired bed-head boys all playing video games. Internet usage is very inexpensive and China is very concerned about young people becoming addicted to computer games. I use the internet and they are there. I walk by hours later and the same ones are there! The internet places sell instant noodles and drinks so they don’t even have to leave to eat! At the request of parents China has even introduced “recovery” programs.

Related: The beginning of March, China is cutting the cost of mobile phone usage by 50%. Every other person already has phones almost permanently attached to their ears!

E When I sent e-mail had not seen your messages. Your place sounds great--will spend a couple more days here before moving on--would like to access your place. gonna run back to hotel ... [Continue reading this entry]

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We went to Re Hai Hot Springs..a short half-hour bus ride from Tengchong. The Asian and European continental shift also resulted in over 80 crystalline hot springs...grand Boiling Hot Cauldron...age-old Toad-Mout Hot Spring...Drunk Bird Hot ... [Continue reading this entry]

Tues May 28,2002 To Sitatunga Camp near Maun Botswana Up at 5:30 again. Had wieners, eggy bread (French Bread) with honey and canned spaghetti for breakfast. James is doing his usual antic-body stuff ... [Continue reading this entry]