Video above: Thai dancing during Loy Kratong and Loy Krathong Parade excerpt (turn the volume down) Unless you have a particular interest in the text, just CLICK on the video frame above then scroll through the photos below The first week of October I used my Aeroplan miles to fly from Toronto to Bangkok. From Toronto to Tokyo I flew an Air Canada 777 then from Tokyo to Bangkok with All-Nippon Air. All-Nippon Air was an hour and a half late to leave Tokyo but the service was first class. Unfortunately because [View Full Entry]

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Miami Beach All extremes of people are to be seen on the streets of Miami Beach. Paris Hilton wanna-bees include both skinny girls and football player sized guys. Shirtless studs looking at each other and shirtless big-bellied vacationers just looking cool. Lots of mentally handicapped and still stoned hippies from the ´60´s all seem to [View Full Entry]

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Another Road Trip I arrived back in Toronto from Thailand around the second week of May and after some necessary paperwork I decided to take a short version of the roadtrip I did last summer. My camera had been damaged by one of those electromagnetic wands searching for weapons when going into a bar in Phnom Pehn and I didn't feel like purchasing another so this blog has no photos. I headed to Niagara Falls, NY which kind of looks like a disaster zone. After a few days there then I headed to Cleveland to see a place that's always been [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia Past The first time I was in Cambodia, 1998?, I could go to the Russian market and see piles of marijuana available for farmers to sedate their pigs when they strapped them over the back of their motorbikes. Laced brownies were on the bars like peanuts are nowadays. It was easy to go to target shoot with an AK-47, M-16 or even to shoot a cow with a bazooka if you wanted to pay $100. The expats were people often misfits who were comfortable in Cambodia but ostracized by modern society. Then , you were supposed to be able to [View Full Entry]

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Another Visa Run to Cambodia The Thai tourist numbers are down for the year yet they still haven't relaxed the requirements for foreigners to stay any length of time. Many long term expats stay in Cambodia because they aren't interested in dealing with the bureaucracy to stay in Thailand. Myself, I'm heading to Cambodia from Chiang Mai to get another tourist visa. I wanted to catch the early morning 6:30 am train from Bangkok to Pattaya so I took the 3:00 pm overnight sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok (it was an hour late in leaving). It was scheduled to [View Full Entry]

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TURN OFF audio for video , bottom-centre of video panel above Even though volume control was at lowest during recording, because of the proximity to the speakers, audio is terrible Chiang Mai: February is one of the more comfortable months weather wise. This is when strawberries are abundant and strawberry shakes are available on Sunday walking street for 10 baht (30 cents). Chiang Mai province is Thailand's major source of strawberries. Also, February is when the Flower Festival occurs. This was the 33rd Chiang Mai Flower Festival featuring [View Full Entry]

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Things To Do, Things About: Chiang Mai Re: Photo #1 Chiang Mai (literally: "walled" "new") was founded in 1296 by King Mengrai. Its seven hundred km north of Bangkok and about 1000 feet above sea level, so it's a little cooler. Chiang Mai's a Good Place To: Learn a New Language: I attended a Thai language school last year but because I forgot everything I'm back. It's not so easy. Even the animal language is different. Thai dogs say, "Hong. Hong" instead of "Bow-wow". Pigs say, "Ut Ut" and cows say "Maw Maw". Become part o [View Full Entry]

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Turn Down Volume before playing (bottom of video screen, right of centre) New Year Entertainment at Night Markets Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai Bangkok..ChiangMai click on photo to enlarge I flew out of Toronto Thursday November 20, 2008 at 8:30 am and arrived in Bangkok at Friday midnight, Thailand time. Although I can get better accommodation for the price they ask around the backpacker's Kao Sarn Rd area, it's easy to get here at night from the airport. After a couple of hours sleep I took a bus to downtown Bangkok. Bangkok can be interest [View Full Entry]

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. Salt Lake City I arrived here Saturday September 27, 2008 from Reno: One especially attractive feature of this city is the wide streets. It's said that Brigham Young had asked the architects to make the streets wide enough that an ox cart would be able to turn around comfortably. It was still warm there and I intended to see the number one attraction of SLC : Temple Square, which I only saw superficially the last time I was here. Mormon missionaries are everywhere in the world. The tour guides are Mormon missionaries. And even though the young people of Utah [View Full Entry]

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. San Diego was great. From there I drove north along the coast to visit a cousin who had re-located from wintery North Bay, Canada and had settled into the California life quite comfortably it seemed. Los Angeles Tuesday September 16th: I arrived at a cheap North Hollywood hostel which didn't have as many backpackers as there were guys from LA who were doing projects from sound engineering, script writing, book writing and photo editing on their computers. They were all living in this dormitory and you'd over hear conversations like, "...Bogdanovich fin [View Full Entry]

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