Thailand, Pattaya, 05-03-2009. Thailand, Pattaya. Apparently Moo took a room in my guesthouse the day I arrived and then spent the whole night in the foyer while I was in my own room upstairs sleeping the sleep of the innocent trying hard to sleep off all the expensive booze and good food at that Bangkok upper class spoiled brats party, where every young well-dressed Thai youngers was happy to show off Oxfort-bred English, a nighttime taxi drive to my hotel on Khao Sarn Road to pick up my gear before leaving Bangkok behind...on the way to Pattaya while sipping cold cans of Heineken having a hard time to stay awake. So what did Moo do their the whole night...?...waiting for a h*rny and drunk as a skunk farang coming back to the guesthouse after a night ... read more

Thailand, Bangkok, 03-03-2009, nightime. Bangkok has turned from a chaotic messy third-world city into a modern affluent mega-town harbouring a well-off middle class and millions of desperate mostly nothern Thais dreaming of a their Break in this sweltering hot metropole, Burmese day workers happy to slave away all day for a full cups of boiled rice with a few chunks though chicken meat. It is near 19.00 hours and our Tuk Tuk is moving swiftly to and fro in the early evening traffic jam. Our driver, a young Karen hilltribe person from near the Burmese border is a maniac reversing in full speed, taking a short cut across the pavement and thereby forcing innocent diners at food stalls to literally jump for their lives - where are Bangkok's Boys in Brown, as the call the coppers ... read more

Bangkok, 03-03-2009, The skytrain is rattling overhead me while I sit on the back of a Bangkok motorbike taxi as always risking my very life in the madhouse, superjammed Bangkok traffic. Despite the early hour this metropole is already swelletring under a hot Thai sun while early commuters quietly accept the pointlessness of their haste caught up in a static traffic line. Exhaust fumes poisoning the lungs of fast-food cooking stall merchants selling dozens of varieties of typical Thai sweets, so popular for breakfast among the Thai. At other stalls I see Thai business men in expensive Armani suits quickly finishing off a steaming bowl of noodle soup chicken, hungry white collar workers on their way to the office. On my way to the tourist district of Khao Sarn Road, with my driver quick-manuevering us through ... read more

Malasia, Penang, Buttersworth, 01-03-2009. As usual when I stay overnight in Penang I lodge at the Li Peng Hotel, cheap but you really get what you pay for, spaciouos rooms though but noicy with the Chinese channels on TV at the highest volume all day and deep into the night. Twenty-two years ago when I first arrived at Penang by 500 Dutch Guilders first class return air ticket bought by the Dutch Embassy but whith my own dough, after my little stint in a Thai police holding cell, I came to Penang. I remember walking down the tourist district wondering how I was going to survive holding hardly any hard currency - a second class single way ticket would have been just fine leaving me at least 300 Guilder more in my pocket, the difference between ... read more

Sumatra,Medan. 27-02-2009. Back in Medan, this dusty typical third world muslim town full with stinking open gutters, heavy traffic of the rusty type and people evrywhere going to and fro on a mad quest for Allah only knows what. For the sake of convenience - and still having lots of local tatty notes of Rp. still in my pocket that need to get out of there - I decided on an airco minibus to Medan - 25.000 Rp. for a local bus and 70.000 Rp. for a airco minivan with the added advantage they drop you off in front of the hotel of your choice which in my case was Hotel Residence near the Meshid Raya, the main mosque an the location of the tourist district in Medam. The Meshid Raya is also the only real ... read more