Grand Plaza Hotel Hat Yai

... the bridge, it was really bizarre, seeing signs of Thailand. I walked across the bridge and I was in Thailand!! I had to kill some time in Sungai Kolok untilthe bus arrived. I was slightly apprehensive about the bus journey as the provinces of Yala, Puttana and other provinces I was going to pass through had been subject to riots and voilence between religious groups, resulting in injuries and deaths but they ...

... access to dingy rooms, girls are everywhere following me to my room, asking me repeatedly "you like have girlfriend, mister"?. Outside I see buses with Malay number plates unloading hunderts of Malay males, typical Southeast Asian Muslim garb covering their excited bodies, skullcaps trembling in anticipation, I see them arrive on scooter and motorbike, in jeeps and pick-up trucks but whatever their mode of transport their excitement is ...

... its appualing! LOL. There is absolutly nothing to do in this town except prepare for the border crossing into Malaysia, but I'm not ready to leave Thailand yet . . . . So tomorrow I am heading for the costal town of Songkhla, its about 25km away. I still can't find a computer good enough to let me upload photo's! but I keep looking.

... large resort (large in the scheme of Koh Lipe, not most islands) literally having opened during our stay. With no central power station, somewhat random garbage pits scattered around the island and seemingly no effort being made to minimize the damage, especially from bottled water, things could start getting real ugly around here at some point. A perfect example: as I write this I'm watching a group of guys dig up large quantities of beautiful white sand from the ...

... in Vietnam fuer 2 Wochen als Englischlehrer... Dann bin ich weiter nach Krabi gefahren, hab da noch letzte Bewerbungsdinge erledigt und war schnorcheln auf Bamboo Island und Ko Phi Phi, was wegen dem Drehort des Films "The Beach" den Charakter von Heidelberg fuer die Japaner oder Seifen fuer die Wester aufweist. Grad bin ich auf Ko Samui, war auf der legendaeren und abgefahrenen Full Moon Party auf Ko Pagn Nan, und geniess Sonne, Strand, einfach Urlaub...

... a picture I took in Songkhla of a local election.....you know how they bug you in the US with those phone calls?..her they drive trucks down the street with bull horns campainging for the canidates....glad that's over! And there's also a shot of Charmaine at the Japaneese restaraunt we ate at...boy...I'm gonna be disapointed when I get back and have to eat pizza and hotdogs! :) -Shane...aka...Braverhund-

... us in the right direction. Once again though our bank had frozen our accounts! Idiots!! After so serious panicking because we had no local currency and no banks were open at 9pm at night, we resorted to trading our remaining Baht in a sleazy back alley brick-a-brack store. We only managed to get enough together for one night in the room, some chocolate bars and a large bottle of coke. We will have to wait until morning to call the bank and get our accounts unfrozen.

... different city. People were out on the streets, hawkers were setting up shop on the foot path and the night market was gearing up for a busy night's trade. Chumphon's night market is something else...the food is to die for! One stall had clay roasted duck with coriander another had frog curry with glass noodles, drowning in ...

One of these usual no man's land small Thailand cities, I stayed for a day just to split the journey in two and sell and buy new books. Also I preferred to leave Thailand from a more authentic place, not a touristic island, however nice it might be. The landmark was the clock at the junction of the two main roads. Their trishaw are also quite particular.

Sawaddi Khrap! Je suis maintenant a Hat Yai, ville importante du sud de la Thailande. Je suis a la veille de traverser vers la Malaisie apres une course a travers la peninsule. Donc, depuis le dernier message, je suis donc reste a Bangkok a peu pres une semaine. Une des raisons de cela est la reparation de mon appareil photo, qui apres une reparation reussi pour environ 50 CAD, a du etre retourne sur ...