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The Thailand Connection

BED &
BREAKFAST!
  - Knoxville -
 Walking dist.
 to U of Tenn.
 Football !

 An Irish Tune

Did you
  hear that?

   Just What is a
 "Computer
 Guru"?

FLORIDA
HURRICANE!

To Arms! 

Truth, Fact, &
Common Sense

Chess McCartney: America's   Goat Man

John "Duke" Waynes' MOTTO

What is to be said about the Irish?

The HISTORY
   of CHILI

The
"Civil" War

   FORREST's
     ESCORT
  CAMP 1239
      Sons of
  Confederate
     Veterans
-Villa Rica, Ga

After
Appomattox...

The
Farmer's Friend

We wereYoung

The
Bill of Rights

Tugboat Gumbo

POEM:
The Legend        of  EL GATO

Songs of the Confederacy

Separation of   Church &  State??

33 Million
ILLEGAL
Mexican
Aliens -
(and Counting)  BUT is there a
 Silver Lining?

A Short Article
about Environmental
Issues

Of AK47's,   "Hunting," and
"Gun Control"

HillaryClinton's
"VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY"

The Communist Party-USA
...which party and candidate do they support??

"Yellow Dog"
defined

Of Democrats
and
Gullible Dupes

Who is the
Funky Chicken?

              An Old Irish Prayer    
     I have adopted this prayer as my own,
                                 ...because it just seems to fit me and my life 
                                                                                           ...Tony Miller

 ♣ My Irish Prayer: ♣

Dear Lord,

Give me a few friends who will love me
for what I am, and keep ever burning before my errant and vagrant steps
the kindly light of hope...

And though I come not within sight of
the castle of my dreams, teach me to be thankful for life, and for time's olden memories that are good and sweet.

And may the evening's twilight find me gentle,
...and still.

  Amen  

                                                           
  Tony Miller
 

A Wonderful
 BED & BREAKFAST
Experience!

Please indulge us.  This is daughter Tomica's and her guy David's creation, which they just recently sold.  I altered this spot on our website, originally put here for their benefit, and I leave the following for the benefit of their successors....
 

     Welcome to the Brimer House Inn bed & breakfast. This Neoclassical style home was built in 1909 and is located in the Historic Old North Knoxville Neighborhood. The neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is walking distance (less than 1 mile) from downtown attractions,  the  University of Tennessee football stadium, and the U. T. Campus. It has 3 guest rooms for rent, all with period décor, private baths, and lots of amenities.
 

          

                 (Click to enlarge the two pictures L & R)

          Amenities:
           Private baths
  Cleaning the                                   King/Queen rice beds
      Fish Pond                                      Down comforters
                                                            Cable television
                                                                 Data Ports
                                                                    * * *                                                      David Whaley &
                                                                                                                                    Tomica Miller
                                                       Full gourmet breakfast
                                                 Complementary airport shuttle
                                  Complementary cold/hot beverages available all day
                                     Complementary fruit & snacks available all day
                                                        Morning newspapers

          Dining room
                                           Parlor

♥  History and Restoration  ♥

     The Brimer House Inn was built in 1909 as a single-family residence. The home was purchased in 1998 by David Whaley and Tomica Miller, and the complete restoration of the home began immediately.  While David is a native of Knoxville, Tomica attended the University of Tennessee and has been a resident for 15 years now.
       Everything had to be done, from the chimneys to the
                                   foundation, and everything in between.
      Fortunately, the house had never been seriously altered, so everything was there waiting to be re-discovered.  David and Tomica did all the restoration themselves, taking special care to uncover, and restore original woodwork, artwork, floors, wall colors & wallpapers to their original splendor. Also remaining in the house were all the original gas & electric light fixtures that were restored, rewired and re-hung in their original locations. The home still has the original ornate radiators, which are still used to warm the home with a nice, comfortable, even, toasty warm heat.
     One of the most spectacular finds during the restoration was the discovery of hand painted frescos under 13 layers of wallpaper in the dining room. The owners commissioned a restoration artist from Chicago to restore these paintings.
     Another interesting story to ask about is the wallpaper border in the foyers and halls. Once again, David and Tomica discovered a jewel under countless layers of wallpaper. The original border was discovered but was not salvageable on the walls. It was a very large 18” lotus flower design. After extensive research they found that this particular design was not already in reproduction and had never been found before. Once again, professional help was commissioned, this time a studio in New York, who specializes in custom reproduction of period wall coverings. After 4 years of research & design, the owners now have one-of-a-kind wallpaper border that is also original to their home. The design is now copyrighted, and a sample hangs in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York.
     After 6 years of intense hands-on restoration, the home was ready for visitation and enjoyment. A period of wildly successful operation followed, after which the current owners purchased it outright.  The house is still furnished with antiques, family heirloom pieces, and period reproductions.

(Click the pics to enlarge)

                       
      Stairway             The Brimer Suite   The Thornton Room   The England Room     Original       
                                                                                                                                         Frescoes
 

The Brimer House Inn welcomes you to Knoxville!
The Brimer House Inn
203 W. Glenwood Avenue
Knoxville, Tennessee 37917

 ~  For Prices and Reservations call or E-mail the current owners; or drop by their Website   ~  
(Current information is not yet available) 

E-mail:
 
WEBSITE:

Current Owners:
 

                               ♦ ♦ ♦ § ♦ ♦ ♦
                        An OVERVIEW
of My Ongoing Southeast Asia Experience and my first three months there (mostly in Thailand)  -  June 1 thru Sept 1, 2005
 

              "The Thailand Connection"
                                                     by Tony Miller
 

                                                       (I lived here for a week)

There is a special kind of travel.  The kind Albert Camus describes in his book:
          "What gives value to (that special kind of) travel is fear.  It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country...we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits.  This is the most obvious benefit of travel.  At that moment we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to the depths of our being.  We come across a cascade of light and there is eternity.  This is why we should not say we travel for pleasure.  There is no pleasure in traveling, and I look upon it more as an occasion for spiritual testing.  If we understand by culture the exercise of our most intimate sense--that of eternity--then we travel for culture.  Pleasure takes us away from ourselves in the same way as distraction, in Pascal's use of the word, takes us away from God.  Travel, which is like a greater and a graver science, brings us back to ourselves.
                               This puts it into words I never could.   ...Tony
 

                                           ~   S Y N O P S I S   ~
(NOTE:  A link to the big  PHOTO GALLERY  is at the end of this synopsis and following account of my first 3 months in Southeast Asia, mostly Thailand.)

     September, 2010.  For over 5 years now, I have  been living primarily in Southeast Asia, Thailand mostly, along with time spent in Cambodia, Laos, and Myamnar (Burma).  I originally came here to research and write an adventure novel in the Historical Fiction category, being motivated by my cousin Tony Coalson of Oxford, Alabama.  Tony had been a helicopter pilot for the CIA owned Air America airlines during the Viet Nam war, flying covert missions as needed in that part of it that is now called the "Unknown War".  Tony had remained and lived in Thailand for 12 years afterward, and his stories of action, danger and intrigue halfway around the world, whetted my appetite and intoxicated me with the desire for some similar adventures of my own.  And too, since almost day one I felt challenged to dive into a part of the world with a culture and language diametrically opposed to my own, and as an extension of that plus the need to find excitement and meaning in my life, I began to cavalierly poke my nose into remote areas and places forbidden to such as I, with reckless abandon.  Too complex to go into here, it is, I suppose, a possibility that I unknowingly had a "death wish", so desperate was I to escape the tedium and boredom of rocking myself into the grave at my small hometown in America after the last of our children "flew the coop".  After all, I myself, earlier in life, had some harrowing and untellable adventures in the service of my country as well, and once so inoculated, a void remains which strives to be filled, even if long suppressed.
     In a nutshell and as an individual only, my activities have included helping Hmong political refugees and freedom fighters escape the vicious, tyrannical and communist regimes of Burma and Laos primarily, and doing repair/restoration work to some remote Thai and indigenous Hill Tribe schools in poor,  mountainous regions of mainly northern Thailand. 
     At one village that had no school building at all, I was able to buy the materials and enlist the help of the men to build a two room school with a side area cooking/living quarters for a teacher if they could find one.  At other schools I repair roofs, window shutters, floors, do painting and whatever else that needs doing and that I can do.  It is mostly the materials they need and cannot buy.  They can and want to do the work themselves, if motivated and encouraged.  At one school that had pitifully inadequate toilet facilities, I built two toilet buildings using concrete block and ceramic tile, each with 5 stalls.  I usually alternate days working with a hammer and a nail apron on, and the next teaching English at the earnest entreatment of the school principal.  Many of their "English teachers" have never even heard a word of English spoken, and all of Thailand is desperate to learn English, the world's language of business.  But surprisingly, it is the old used children's books (from the U. S. and in English of course), that they seem to appreciate the most.  Teachers have burst out in tears at the sight of them coming out of a suitcase. 
     I have helped the Hmong refugees (our valued allies during the VN war, still fighting for their freedom) carry their equipment and belongings as they fled the hot pursuit of the Burmese Army, at one time with mortar shells landing nearby, and another with artillery shells hitting a small nearby village across in Thailand where we were believed to have fled - about 3 miles from where we actually were.   It was during this time that I broke my leg.  I had helped tend their wounds on the way, and then upon finding a hidden safe haven in the jungly mountains, I was living among them as I had done before with other groups, for weeks at a time, while helping them build bamboo huts and plant small crops.  They are beautiful, handsome, intelligent people, many highly educated, and all so deeply appreciative of me when I come that is is embarrassing.  They treat me like a king wherever I go among them.  Even after the U. S. abandoned them after Viet Nam, they still like and admire Americans.  There are few places in the world these days that do. 
     I have bought 110lb bags of rice for them out of my meager monthly Social Security checks, having the bags sent to certain points to be picked up discreetly, because the Thai government does not want the  Hmong either.  They can and do deport them resulting in their deaths.  A Hmong friend was so killed after being forcibly returned, this I know for a fact from another Hmong contact.  They might become a burden is the reason often heard from the Thai authorities, but I strongly suspect because of  secret agreements with the rulers of the other countries.
     But these activities came to a screeching halt, and now, a year and 2 months later, I am just beginning to get back into some of these activities.  While helping a group of Hmong build bamboo huts and carrying two long bamboo poles, I fell off a swinging bamboo bridge across a deep ravine into a mountain stream filled with huge boulders and broke my leg.  There were multiple breaks to the femur bone of my right leg - "multiple comminuted compound fractures" requiring metal plates, a metal swing arm, and several metal pins.  I was lucky to have been carried out on an improvised stretcher to where my truck was hidden, and then 226 Km to a hospital in Chiang Rai before bleeding to death.  Unfortunately for me, it did not heal right and resulted in that leg being about 1 1/4" shorter than the other, residual pain with every step, and a permanent limp.  But more importantly, it appears that it will probably limit my ability to do many of the things I was doing before, requiring strength and balance using both legs.  Being stout and agile for my age then, I am far less than that at present.
     But overall, the upshot for me in my activities here, is that for once in my life I am doing some little bit for my fellow humankind, which I seldom ever did before...and doing it in a place where it is truly needed and greatly appreciated.  I try to be a good ambassador for our country and a Christian witness whenever and wherever I can.  These people will never forget the American who actually cared enough to come to them, live with them, and help as he could as an individual.  You could not know the satisfaction this has brought into my life.

                                                                                        ...............Tony
    

       Here follows a rather disjointed overview of my first 3 month stay in Southeast Asia:
                        ~  Thailand, June 1 thru Sept 1, 2005:  It is now August of 2010, and when I have time I will write a more comprehensive, up to date article.  Maybe even complete the book I originally came here to write.   Bear with me.

I drove to Carrollton, Georgia from my home in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, and left my car with Mr. Joe Earnest, a relative on my mother’s side of my family (his mother was a Brock same as my Mother). Cousin Tony Coalson from Oxford, Alabama picked me up from here and took me on to the Atlanta Airport. Tony was a helicopter pilot for Air America, the CIA-owned airline during the Viet Nam war, and one of several such former pilots who tweaked my interest in Southeast Asia and in writing a Historical Fiction Adventure centered around this area and time.

In Atlanta I boarded a big Boeing 747-400 aircraft for a 14 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan, where I changed to another such aircraft for the 6 hour flight even farther east to Bangkok, Thailand. Having missed the next flight south to Phuket Island, I had to wait all night in the terminal for the next flight in the morning - about 2 hours to Phuket - about exactly half the way around the world from home, and 8 degrees from the equator - time difference: 12 hours....

I will spare you here, most of the frustrations and harrowing experiences I encountered in a culture 1400 years older than ours and where I spoke not a word of the language on arrival. I will save such for the book for which I went to Southeast Asia to research and study for, along with some of the most dangerous situations/places I went and things I did in search of first hand knowledge and adventure.  I took many pictures, but missed many I wanted due to lack of picture card capacity and no way to charge my camera batteries in the more remote situations I found myself in many times.  I have it all in my head though, and that is the most important thing.

So to begin my planned 6 month sojourn in Southeast Asia, I made my way to the “Simply Red” guest house near Patong Beach and after a couple days I made contact with Alex Malcolm, a Brit expatriate who I had befriended on a Phuket internet forum. Alex put me up in one of his apartments just outside of Patong where I stayed a week getting acclimated to this extremely hot and humid area. Had to make sure I left my screen patio doors closed day and night though, lest a stray cobra come in to visit - so advised my landlord Alex. The apt. overlooked Patong and Patong Beach and the Andaman Sea. The air was heavy and sultry night and day, with a sweet scent of some kind at night. The night-callers were different from home, yet similar, but I missed the katydids and cicadas. Alex’s Thai wife Wallee brought me my first dish of Thai food - very hot and spicy (don't know what it was) over for dinner - noodles like I never saw before, and a dish composed of about 8 things I never saw or even heard of before, spiced up mighty strange, with a lot of HUGE shrimp in it - scrumpdidleyishous? You bet! I love Thai food - basically ate nothing but that the whole time (when in Rome do as the Romans do). Fresh Jackfruit grew in the garden area, coconut palms and the biggest Mimosa (I think) tree I ever saw, along with a lot of other beautiful plant and flora. I rented a Honda “Dream” motorcycle from Alex to get around on. Narrow roads, having to drive on the left and amongst gobs of other bikes, busses and trucks, cars, etc and missing them by inches is a daunting task - all while assimilating a gob of other strange cultural aspects  as well! These Thais are frantic (yet courteous) drivers, and seem to have little value of life. I read where there are 85,000 deaths in Thailand from motorcycles alone.  But there is no gratuitous hornblowing, (tolerance and courtesy is their way of life) turn signals are carefully used and observed, and right-of-way is graciously yielded "sometimes".  All is the direct opposite of Mexico.  There is another and disturbing aspect to the way Thais drive however, but not enough space to detail it here.

I got a Thai cell phone first off, made a draw from my bank debit card, and had a cup of coffee - the first I had. Real good in fact - Thai coffee (Arabica) grown by Hill Tribe people in the North of the country. Had real cream and a coarse light brown sugar made locally from sugar cane (as is all sugar, but this was local all the way - our sugar is just more refined). Hadn’t learned to speak much Thai at all by this point, but could say good day/morning, good luck, see you later, ask where the toilet (“hong nahm”) is, and say “I don’t want it” to the vendor touts - ("my ow!)"

From Patong I made contact with Don Battles, a friend and former NASA aerospace engineer (indeed, rocket scientist) who has lived in Thailand for many years and speaks the language fluently. Don is a businessman who owns several businesses in Thailand including a restaurant near Nai Harn Beach, a bakery, wine cellar, minit-mart, and a food distribution business with offices in Bangkok, Ko Samui, and Chang Mai. Had a nice supper with Don - another Epal and an American expatriate. He seemed glad to see me - and called some of his expat friends over and we all had a ribald good time swapping lies. There were some Americans among them and Don treated all of us to meals and drinks, but I passed on the drinks. Took Alex Malcolm with me -  another Epat of long standing (or rather, he took me in his Land Rover) to Nai Harn near Kata and RaWai Beaches (the other end of the island). He had been wanting to meet Don anyway. Two days later, for a reasonable price, Don put me up in one of his houses he keeps for his staff overflow, in a room with private entrance, frig, A/C, TV, and bath - in walking distance from his restaurant.

Here below is an interesting thing Don sent out, as he says, "to the world" (his friends and business contacts) - about 1,200 of them:
____________________________________________________________________________

Don Battles <dontek@loxinfo.co.th> wrote:

Dear friends:
As you all know, we are still suffering from tsunami blues at Don's in Phuket. This Saturday night we will use the assistance of the two Daniels boys, Dr. Jack Daniels, doctor of feel good and Dr. Charlie Daniels, doctor of sounds good in preparing a special ceremony to chase off the ghost and blues. Come and join us for this special occasion to eat some great southern American style barbecue along with good cheers and companionship. We will be featuring the following:

                             Prime Rib of Beef
                             Barbecued Sausages
                             Barbecued Ribs
                             Charcoal Grilled sirloin steak
                             Coleslaw
                             Potato Salad
                             Green Salad
                             Grilled garlic bread
                             Make your own Tacos
                             Two great Thai dishes
                             Apple-pineapple cobbler pie

Our special guest this Saturday night will be Mr. Tony Miller writer of historical novels. Come and get acquainted with Tony and ask him about his new book that he is writing that also includes Thailand. We will start the special ceremony at 19:00 by ringing the dinner bell and bringing on the Daniels boys. Bring a friend along for some great food and fun. See you Saturday night.

Best wishes.
Don
______________________________________________________________________________


I worked on my book during this time as well, and interviewed Don Battles along with several of his friends (former Air America pilots and other expats of compelling interest), in pursuit of this work.  Of particular note I will mention Dan Jackson ("Jack"), who turned out to be my best friend in Thailand in addition to Don himself.   Jack is a man about 50 years of age, a Viet Nam Veteran, and a 6 year resident of RaWai, Phuket, Thailand.  He is married to Caisson, a Thai lady, and they have a beautiful young daughter named Nikki.  Jack also speaks the Thai language very well.  My book as currently conceived, will be sort of a combination Traveloque and Historical Fiction adventure with the setting in Southeast Asia, mostly Thailand. The plot? Well, maybe you can guess the gist of it but it will surprise me as much as anyone.

                            Dan "Jack" Jackson, wife Caisson, and daughter Nikki

I traveled to the island of Ko Samui while living in Phuket. Went up the length of Phuket Island, crossed over into Thailand proper, crossed the breadth of it west to east, caught a big quadruple-decked ferry at Phang Gna, and landed many miles out in the Gulf of Thailand on the island of Ko Samui ("Ko" means island).  I must say, "The Joint was Jumpin", with many more Thais and westerners than Phuket, due to Phuket’s bad press after the Tsunami. Who would have thought that I would live to see the day when I would sit in a big air-conditioned ferryboat half the world away, and on a whim, call home on a phone no bigger than a cigarette lighter with the clarity of a residential phone, and only a second of delay. So on arrival there I sat in the "Paradise" of  Southeast Asian splendor (only went because Don had a truck of stuff he sent from Phuket and I hooked a ride).  Stayed in Don's apt. and first off I had a very nice meal at a Swiss Boutique restaurant where the atmosphere was intimate and cozy, the food choice, well-prepared and presented with grace and elegance. Later I interviewed the owner of the famous Banana Fan Beach Hotel, a nice fellow from Boerne, Switzerland who was a customer and friend of Don's, named Deter.  Beaches and things all nice, but I knew I must get on with my adventures into the “real” Thailand.

I must say though, if age has much to do with it there are a lot of other guys my age in Thailand. I have seen and run across some of all nationalities who are here, some for many years, many with Thai wives and children, who are here for various and sundry reasons, all with interesting lives and interesting stories to tell, but all like it and either will not leave Thailand or Southeast Asia or they go back and forth if they can afford it. Many are wealthy enough, but just as many are hanging on by a thread. They get into these little cliques some of them, others live with Thais and will have nothing to do with other Westerners. Weird? You bet! I met one of the island's "characters" one night at Phuket's Kata Beach area. He is called "Seven Eleven" - a Swede about my age who seems to float around on the order of a beach bum or gadfly, always joking around, always outrageous, always seems to be half lit, always the center of attention, but you cannot help but like him and everyone seems to.  And if you ask a serious question or say something that he wants to talk about or that makes you interesting to him, he will find his way back to you quietly sooner or later, sit down and talk serious with you as if you were old pals - a 180 degree change of personality. I got a lot of fodder for my book from him in just a few minutes.

I drank no water at home except in juice, but I began drinking 6-10 twelve ounce bottles a day in Thailand. It cost from 7 to 15 baht per bottle (18 to 38 cents), - all farangs (foreigners) and most Thais drink bottled water, and all houses collect rainwater just as we do at home our in Mt. Pleasant (the only ones I know who do this).   Many have wells, but they are not to be trusted. There is no public water system I ever saw, perhaps only places like Bangkok and  maybe not even there - I need to check this out further.

There is still more damage on Phuket from the recent Tsunami than they want to admit (got a few pics of it) - it is behind fences now, to hide it from the tourists. The lower level café at Patong where 50 people died so suddenly, is still just as it was, minus the bodies.  On Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand there was no damage at all, but on up northward from Phuket only 150 kilometers at Khao Lak, there were more than 2000 Westerners alone, killed along one stretch of beach about 800 yards long - not to mention all the local Thais who were killed.

While living in RaWai I came up behind an elephant on my way to Nai Harn - a big one. Then saw another one in a sugar cane field and stopped to take a picture of it and it's Mahout. Two Thai young ladies and a young Thai man stopped (all 3 on a motorbike), and I took their pics as well. The young man took a pic of me with one of the girls who put her arm around me and hugged me up pretty good (yes she was VERY pretty!). Although it is a strict no no to touch another person in public in Thailand generally speaking, the Thais love to have their pic taken and I think it is their custom to be hugging and smiling in their pictures. Then the girl took the young man's pic with me, as we posed as if we had been great pals for a long time. My wife did NOT like these pics, but when I told her the pretty girl was the young man's wife, all was fine again (I think). At this point I made arrangements to take the first course in Elephant Handling which, when the next one is completed, will entitle me to get a Thai Government Certification to wit: "Certified Elephant Handler" (there is such a need for this you know, hehehe).

Some family email snippets:

My family saw the first pics I emailed back, and one shot back: "Better watch how you put your arm around those young Thai girls."   Aw, heck. If they do it first it would be impolite not to return the favor don't you think? [Hehehe].  I knew that one might get me in trouble.

They said: "Just remember, they have an agenda if you know what I mean........................"
 I replied; “You got that right, and big time. Most are after the money and security that all Westerners represent to them. No matter what or how you tell them, they will never believe you are not rich (thanks Hollywood) and this applies even to the average "upcountry" Thai, though not nearly as much. Indeed many of these who do not have TV's have no opinion at all about foreigners, and just to see one is an unforgettable experience for them. But there is another very important aspect which must be understood. Thailand has no social welfare net to catch those that need it. Each is his own welfare provider. When old and unable to work, they simply die or beg in the streets if they have not managed to assemble some savings or other security. Along those lines too, it must be understood that Thais are strongly family oriented.  For instance most of the bar girls in the big cities are not prostitutes in the same way as in the West.  Most are simply girls who have no other job or way of making money to send home to their parents and children, hate to be doing what they feel they have to do, and will leave it immediately when they can find another way of making money for their children or family.  Some come for a few weeks just to get up money for seeds for the next crop.  And too, sex to them is a natural body function and does not carry the same baggage for them as in Christian/Western culture. 

And by the way dear family I said, you must remember the main purposes of my trip in all aspects. There may be more pics on the order of the one you mentioned.  I cannot write about any place or country or culture without at least touching the fringes of all of it I can, first hand. For instance I took one whole evening and went in and out of many of the bars on the infamous Bangla Road there in Phuket to see just what goes on, (only drank Shirley Temples), and talking to other "farangs" like me who I found there not otherwise "distracted". Hope that doesn't shock or upset anyone too much, but I didn't come half way around the world to get a distorted view of the overall life and culture of the area. In all aspects I must have a correct and balanced knowledge and understanding of it, even if I were not writing a book with the setting in SEA and deep dark sultery intrique and adventure. Don't forget that it has been many many years since I even saw the inside of any bar anywhere, and such is not the reason I did this.

My family also wrote: "Yes, you are right about the picture of the girl with your arm around her, you are in trouble on that one,  The fact is that they shouldn't be hugging you first....."  The fact is that yes, they should. Their whole upbringing, their culture demands such as this, and it must be viewed through their eyes, not ours. This is just one example of the clash of cultures in any other country and especially all of Southeast Asia. In Thailand one must have what is called "Chai Yen Yen" and "My Pen Ry"- which literally translates as a ."cool heart", and "never mind", "forget about it", or "no problem" - which is another way of saying you should never show anger or frustration and always show a willingness to forget troubles and problems and to always display friendliness and tolerance. (We could learn something from them in this.) This requires that they always demonstrate these things by always smiling and trying to be happy and outgoing in the face of any adversity. Thias love to have their picture taken, they take it as a high complement, and so they will always have a smile and usually be demonstrating their Chai Yen Yen in their pictures. Even though it is a strict no no to touch another person in public, they make exception, show tolerance and good heart by going the extra mile by hugging etc in pictures many times, especially with someone from another country.

Another time one of my family wrote: "I read on the internet that the best shopping is at night. I would enjoy that." Yes because it is cooler then, and people are off work. But let me tell you this: let a Thai set up anywhere along a street or road with his motorbike/sidecar, or a covered vending setup - mostly food but other stuff as well. He will have some business. Let two or three or more set up together and they will have many people stop and buy. But SON! Let there be a "understanding" of where there is to be a market on a given day (a "Talid Yai") and there will be 200 - 250, 300+ little covered stands appear as if by magic, there will be jillions of motorbikes out front and a huge traffic jam, people selling any and everything from gobs of different veggies I have never even heard of to all kinds and cuts of fresh killed beef, pork, chicken, goat, mutton, seafood of every description, fresh fish caught out of the ocean and bay only a few kilometers away, and clothes, jewelry, gold, silver, cosmetics, pirated music and first run movies, you name it, and I suspect that if one knew the ropes, illicit stuff (to us) of every imaginable thing as well. A muted loudspeaker hawks stuff in a language you cannot understand, from maybe three locations, a radio station with music and commentary is heard (the same agreed upon station) all over the whole thing, kids are playing (but well behaved and not in the way), and lots more. They are a sight to see, these markets - major social events every day of the week at a different location every time, and extremely interesting. Each booth/set up is seemingly a family effort, and each food seller with his own special way of preparation others just have to try. They are each other's customers, and all have a good time, all have smiles on their faces and there is much fun and good humor. Such would utterly amaze you - it does me, and I myself can hardly avoid stopping and walking through every one I see. They are addictive.

___________________________________________________________________________


And then came this: "If I were there with you , would I ride on the Motorbike with you ?  Yes. unless we had a car, and that could be very cumbersome for other reasons you could not understand right now. Whole families ride on one bike here. The most I have seen so far is a family of 8. And the wife was holding a cellphone to the husband's ear, and across three children at that. Some of the girls - I suspect girlfriends - ride side saddle for modesty, balancing without holding on, some putting on make-up all the while, and in the midst of awesome traffic and gobs of other motorbikes and cars - all passing and being passed within about 3 or 4 inches many times - close ALL the time. There are 85,000 deaths a year in Thailand on motorbikes - not counting all the gruesome injuries. (NOTE: During my stay in Thailand and riding a “Motosai” myself, I saw five fatalities from motorcycle accidents.) I have talked to three Western guys in Don's Cafe that have had bad accidents and are all pinned up inside from it. The Thais seem not to worry about it at all - Don says because Buddhism teaches a better life to come (many believe in reincarnation if they have been good in life), so they don't value life in the same ways that we do. There are many very nice and good things about Thailand and its culture, but as in life anywhere, there are some big time downsides as well.

I was given a pic of a huge catfish caught in the Mekong River, and have seen some other eye-popping things as well, so far. Would you believe a baby elephant being carried on a little Honda "Dream" motorbike? It was gone in traffic before I could get out my camera. I wouldn't have believed it either had I not seen it with my own eyes.  I saw cut up, flattened pieces of junk cars being carried on a special rack on a motorcycle w/sidecar, and a fellow carrying a 4x8 sheet of tectum board (heavy, cement based). Saw a family of 6 on one again yesterday, and both the mom and Dad were holding a cellphone to their ears - Mom with babe in arms.

Splurged and had a nice seafood dinner with an expat from Ohio (a nice fellow named Dave Miller), served at a table set out on the beach, with our feet in the sand and water washing over them on occasion, and it was nice watching the sunset with a soft breeze wafting across - reminded me of a time a long time ago when I was a "beach bum" for a few days in South America, sleeping on the beach- having jumped ship when working on a freighter. We had huge prawns, shrimp, Red Snapper fish and the trimmings - all Thai-style, with a big, green, opened coconut to drink the milk from.

Picked a banana, ,mango, lime, jackfruit, orange and mangosteen, to eat one of each - all from my yard and just a few steps from my door at the place where I lived at the time (couldn't reach the coconuts). Went to the nearby Talid Yai (moving market - sets up at a different location every day, and only the Thais know where!) and you wouldn't believe all the stuff I have never seen or heard of - tried some of all I could hold of food from the food vendors - all very tasty, like roasted squid, fish eggs w/coconut cream, sauteed silkworms, grasshoppers and other stuff I don't know what the heck it was - all very tasty indeed. HUGE tiger prawns, HUGE shrimp, red snapper, grouper, catfish, eel, mackerel, tuna, lobster, crab, oysters, and many other varieties of fish and seafood, all fresh-caught from the Andaman Sea, and all available fixed ready to eat, each one several different ways. Many other dishes too many to name even if I knew, and fruits and vegetables - WOW!  Next door neighbor brought over a dish of some red, warty fruit on branches about 8" long (Rambutan) - the fruit about the size of a big walnut. Peel off the spiney outer and thin inner membrane and it looks milky, and has a hard smooth pit. Very delicious!! Lot of things here eaten as every-day food I have never seen or heard of. Tiger prawns are $3 a Kilo (2.125 lbs), roughly less than 1/12 the price at Kroger where I bought the last I got.

Geckos are everywhere in Thailand. Our word for this is a perversion of the Thai name which sounds like "Jink-Jo".  They are harmless and zip along the walls, ceilings and floors and eat mosquitoes, but they deficate everywhere and it looks like rat dookey. I quit wearing socks and shoes about this time - nobody there does - sandals and thin, light cotton shorts/shirts are the deal. I had an interview with the editor of the Phuket Gazette about this time (big writer from USA you know, hehehe), who carried a story about me in their paper.

At the ever-present street vendors, many have places for customers to sit and many just set up wherever they can or take a notion. Between these and the thatched roofed imprompto bars with the twinkley lights in the tourist areas, the party goers have but to start walking for full bellies, and hope they wind up able to get home. The good places are inundated with people, "farangs" (foreigners) and Thais alike. Also, to live cheap you have to live like a Thai - that is, shop and eat only at the "Talid Yai" (moving market), - they pop up out of thin air and it looks like a country fair we grew up with in the South. But there are always other smaller markets selling everything imaginable in the way of all the fresh vegetables, fresh-caught seafood of every description, fresh-killed chickens, beef, pork, lamb, etc - (skinned boneless chicken breasts are about 29 cents a pound (they use all metric system here and sell by the Kilo). A whole roasted/BBQ'd chicken here costs about 1.20 and these people KNOW how to do chicken, believe me, - there is a sweet/hot sauce they dip each bite in that will make you want to eat 2 whole chickens!
 
It seems everyone, even the heartiest of Western systems, develops the runny bowels at some point until they get acclimatized to the altogether different foods, herbs, spices, and ways of preparing them. Me no exception, but I found that if I started off with what they call an "American Breakfast" such as Don served in his restaurant (eggs any style, big gob of hash browns, either sausages, bacon or ham, toast & jelly, and coffee) - about $2.50, then the system adjusts better. There was no such fare when I moved upcountry.

I had many things to keep in mind and to do that tourists would never ever think of doing. In fact I must say that having emailed for more than 2 years with many people living here and in the States, having lurked on many Thailand forums, (Thai as well as Expat), and researched it on the www, I thought I was a walking encyclopedia on Thailand --- until I set foot there. There are people I have met who have lived here for years who say they will never fully be able to understand the Thai culture. The trick is to learn of their lives, religion, upbringing, values (or lack of them in some areas) and look at them and their country through their eyes and experiences, not ours. Remember that "slant eyes" refers to the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, etc, and that "almond eyes" refers to the Southeast Asian people and their culture - Thais, Lao, Cambodians, Viet namese, Malaysan, Burmese, etc - a profound and distinct difference I have begun to readily see, and the Thais will quickly inform you of the difference. (We by the way, are "round eyes" to all of them). They are proud of their identity and country, and LOVE their king and queen for good reason, since they are constantly doing things to improve the Thai people’s lives. When we stopped at a gas station on the way back from Ko Samui I thought of my grandchildren and the time I explained to them that we look as weird and different to them as they do to us. Two little Thai country boys hid their faces and peeped out at me in smiling and embarrassed wonder at the white-skinned, round-eyed "farang". I felt like a monkey in a zoo.  The pissoirs are out in the open at the service stations, as well as all the lavatories, men on one side and women on the other - and no need for freeze-proof valves in Thailand.

The area where I lived on Phuket was in a Muslim area (mostly Muslims), and a nice old Muslim lady who lived next door to Don's Cafe did my laundry except for what I washed out myself (socks and underwear) and hung out to dry. For 10 baht (25 cents) she washed and ironed shirts, and 12 b (30 cents) for pants. She sealed them all in a cellophane wrapper when finished - I took them in one day, and picked them up the next morning.  There was a big Muslim temple in walking distance from my room, and the call to prayer sung out in Arabic over their loudspeaker comes at about 4 odd hours of the day.

I ordered a Laptop computer from Bangkok - about 32,000 baht ($800+). It didn’t have a Pic Card slot for XD but with the patch cord I was able to download from the camera, burn to a disk, then mail my pics home. After the 512mb pic card sent from the States got to me, I had plenty of capacity, with a 16mb, 128mb, 256mb, and  a 512mb card. Thailand may be a poor third world country in many areas, but when it comes to IT they may well be ahead of us. They have everything here that we have in the States, and possibly more. When it comes to cellphones, I have yet to see ANYONE without one - seems to be a fetish with them, or a national status symbol. They talk on them whizzing down the road on their motorbikes and working in the rice fields, and I counted 42 stores in one of the three big malls selling ONLY cell phones, and this did not include the kiosks!

At the “World’s Highest Bungy Jump” they wouldn't let anyone else but them take pictures. Their deal is they mail them to your home address along with a certificate, after the fact, and by the "cheapest way". And they charge you 1,300 baht too. Westerners do the serious hook up stuff and the Thais take the pics and collect the money.  I gave them Don's address - he'll get them to me. What a blast that was! Another strange thing was that they stopped me from taking pictures in the two biggest supermarkets on the island. Wierd.

I stayed on Phuket for about a month, learned much about the Thai culture from Don, his unique and interesting expat friends who each had compelling and interesting lives, and from my own experiences. From the get-go I determined to immerse myself in the country and go places among its people and culture without fear and reservation such as regular touristy types would show. Phuket is a major tourist destination with more than 15 fabulous beaches (some remote and with few tourists), a National Reserve, many pristine nearby islands, and gobs of touristy things to do and see (which was never my object in going to Thailand). You understand that I did not generally do the tourist things - laying around soaking up the sun and beaches, scenery, eating at fancy places, instead I tried to dig out what it is really like to live in Thailand and think like a Thai - impossible but a worthy goal I think. So I had many things to keep in mind and to do, that tourists would never ever do.

I left for Phechabun in Central Thailand on a great leap of faith. A 12 hour bus trip, a tough time getting through the indescribable city of Bangkok from the arrival bus station to the correct station Mo Chit (westerners call it "More S___t") to catch a bus for the 6 hour trip on up to Phetchabun - not speaking the language and finding precious few who had more than a dozen words of English to ask directions of, and in the pouring rain at that.  Try being a different man alone in a strange country with a different culture entirely, and not speaking the language.  A daunting prospect.

Arrived in Phetchabun at 3:00AM and it still pouring down rain. I got off at a bus stop where most of the passengers got off (didn’t know the place had a big bus station a few stops further along). Got soaked again as in Bangkok, and finally got a samlor (the successor to the rickshaw) to take me to a hotel. After haggling some, I put up at the Kosit Hill Hotel, the most expensive one there so I would find out later. A couple days later I had made contact with a Thai English teacher who I had emailed some with, before leaving the States. They will say in Thailand, “I take care you.” She did. She helped me find cheaper digs at a guest hotel that appeared to be the center of things for traveling Thai people of that area, as well as for many business meetings and other functions,.  She took me around to many places I needed to know about and introduced me to many who also helped me in many ways.  In the end I made many friends in this area, it got to feeling like home, and when came time to leave I hated to jump off again into the strange and unknown as I headed north again, this time over the mountains.

This Phetchabun now, was the "real Thailand" and not a good place for emailing until I made some contacts and learned my way around. I sent my first email home from Phetchabun from the ADSL connection in the home of a Thai attorney, now my friend, who I met through a Thai business lady with several business interests, including a radio station where she asked me to be interviewed on an English language program and to give talks on the air on such topics as "the business of writing and selling books", and "the business of Construction," etc., with a question/answer session after each.

Bear in mind that initially I could not converse with anyone, not even with the Thai English teacher except in the most rudimentary fashion, using simple words and sign language. I found that she was trying (and basically failing) to teach a language she had never even heard a Western person even speak a word of. But from her I learned a few words and phrases with which I managed to get by, and as time went on I found a few Thais who had enough knowledge of English so that I could move about in that area. But it was an hour by hour, day by day challenge, especially for the first few days.

Of all things, I met another lady at a Christian Church Service right in Petchabun, Thailand, who was a great help to me.  The service was being held in a big room in the guest hotel where I ended up staying for some weeks. Believe it! I poked my Western face into the door where they were meeting in a big room, and they rushed over and ushered me in, welcoming me with "open arms" but Thai style, since they don't generally touch in public. They "Wai", that is, put hands together with fingers pointed up just under the nose and bow slightly, giving a nice smile. A nice Thai woman (another business lady who was a member there) brought me to the front row, sad down beside me and interpreted the entire sermon for me word for word, as best she could. It felt just like a church service back in the states. The pastor was a young man badly crippled from polio, but who did not let it bother him in the least. Afterwards I had dinner with them, and met the Chief (captain) of police for the town of Lom Sak - a bigger town about 30 kilometers up the highway, who also happened to be the nephew of the Governor of Petchabun (that is like the Governor of Tennessee). Therefore especially in Thailand, a very powerful and influential young man, and a very nice guy I will add.

Afterwards the police captain invited me and the lady out for the evening with he and his family, which started off with a session at a golf driving range (yes there was one right there in Petchabun, Thailand) on a large Thai Army Base just outside of the city, managed by soldiers. Very nice. The guy is good enough to play in the Masters in my opinion. He could drive the ball a mile and put it wherever he wanted it. They also had a 9 hole and an 18 hole course on the base as well, and open to the public for a pittance. After that we went to the Talid Yai (in this case the Sunday Nite Market) - an experience in itself, then later we went to a Thai restaurant where you chose all manner of raw meat, seafood and veggies to take back to your table to a big ceramic container with hot coals in it on middle of the table with a special “thing” on top where you placed your strips of meat to cook and eat as it got done. The name of this place translated to “The Sweet Bee” in English.

I had lunch with the Thai lady from the church the next day, who is, I suspect, wealthy. She spoke fairly good English, had several business interests including a spa resort near Khao Kho, and was married to a Singaporean engineer. They have one son. This lady offered me a minimum of 20 hours a week in her language school ("Smart English"), teaching English to Thai businessmen in Petchabun at 500 baht an hour (about $12.50/hr - a large amount for Thailand), and she offered me a desk and space in her office to receive visitors and do consulting as well. I thought about this, but I wasn't there to teach or consult, but to learn and write, and I didn't want to be distracted from my focus of "adventuring" and book research. Didn't want to linger too long in one place too long like I did on Phuket.  I learned far more here about the real Thailand than I did anywhere else.

I speak of some of the more business oriented and higher education aspects here, but in fact my time was in larger part spent amongst the average Thai people in the shops, farms and marketplaces and out in the villages. For instance by that time I had lost so much weight that none of my clothes fit me and had to be altered, and almost on every corner there was a lady sitting with either a powered or old foot-operated singer sewing machine (the Singer company is BIG in Thailand), ready willing and able to do any and all sorts of alteration and/or clothes creation desired, and for a pittance at that. A cool drink taken to her would assure the finest of work.  The other USA business franchise to be seen the most  was Seven-Eleven stores - so many you were almost never out of sight of one.  Other than in Bangkok, McDonalds and KFC struggled to have single store in the larger towns.

Being a Western man in such a place is a profound and unique experience in many amazing ways. Reactions to me ran the gamut from curiosity and suspicion, to amazement, extreme interest, desire to meet and be seen with me, or just to speak English with me, and for consultations and conversations in many matters and areas. I soon was an object of intense interest in a town of about 40,000 people, and known of in other parts of the Province, also called Phetchabun, which is a huge farming area known for its sweet Tamarinds and a prime producing area for rice and many varieties of fruits and vegetables as well as fresh-water fish (including catfish). The many reasons and areas of this interest in me would take far too much space to go into here, but suffice it to say that my time was not much my own from day one almost. I was “used and abused”, treated like royalty, and given all manner of respect and consideration as well. I was invited into many homes, asked to give lectures at the University, was offered a position as English Professor, and given space and a desk there to receive visitors and to be interviewed as well as give consultations. I was asked to give talks and interviews on the main radio station which had an hour-long English language show every day and that had a very large audience - Thai people are desperate to learn English - American English, the world’s language of business. I was offered a new car and a position as Architect and Project Manager to design and build a large Health Spa on property near Phetchabun which had thermal mineral waters 40 feet down. I was amazed that Phetchabun has a large, modern airport which sits closed and unused due to a lack of paying passengers, and people there are desperate for ways to increase their market for their bounteous produce, and for business investment and tourism (which there is almost none of).  It gave me an erie feeling when I visited this airport.  I had many other offers and did many other things they wanted me to do to let them see and have experiences with me as a white-skinned foreigner (farang) of great interest, and as an American in particular, which they seem to like and respect very much. A big smile would always break out when I was asked “where you come from?” and I replied “America”.

All this was somewhat surprising to me when I later found that there were indeed a few other Westeren men there - all with Thai wives and  living out in the countryside around the town - two Frenchmen, three Germans, a Swede, one Brit and an Irishman from Dublin that I knew of, and probably others. They kept to themselves (as I later learned to do myself), and were not at all gregarious. None I met appeared inclined towards even limited conversation except for a German guy who was smoking himself to death, and one other, the man from Ireland. I knew of only one other American, who I had no use for at all, for reasons it would serve no purpose in expanding upon. It might as well be said right here, that there are many reasons Westerners come to live in Southeast Asia. Some come for the freedom to do basically as they please and live on the cheap, some just to enjoy the smiling people and their tolerant culture, some for the gorgeous SEA women, and for many other reasons, chief among them is to disappear. Understand that there are not just a few criminals running from the law for every crime imaginable, tax evaders and other n’er do wells, all hiding out and living on the cheap and for many other reasons not on the up and up. There are also tens of thousands of Viet Nam veterans who never left this area after that war, and about as many others who returned after being spat on in the US. I got to know only one other Westerner very well, the man from Ireland with a Thai wife who lived in the community where I had a set of toilets built for the poor little school children of the Takoktan School in and area called Domonlek, with my own money and some given by the Mount Pleasant Rotary Club in the town where I live in the States. But for those who know me best - brash, bold, audacious and curious beast that I am, it may not be surprising that I delved into and participated in a lot of things others would not, and would not only avoid but have no interest in.

But I must say here also, that all this extraneous stuff was very distracting to me, from the standpoint of researching for my book and having adventurous experiences out in the countryside amongst the people and areas of the “real” Thailand and Southeast Asia. So I respectfully declined all the kind offers and began to extract myself from the clutches of all those who were using me for mostly their own purposes, and I began to go off on pursuits of my own, previously planned and partially thought out.

At this point I began my effort of repairing a couple of needy and dilapidated country schools with the encouragement of Roscoe Turner who had "recruited me" to his efforts. Roscoe is a retired Special Forces guy, a little younger than me. Roscoe appears to be on a one man mission to improve the lives of as many desperately poor little school children as he can, and to make friends diplomatically for our country - a worthy cause I have contributed a few bucks to, along with my supervision as needed and my labor as well (I can still swing a hammer you know). At one school I taught teach English a day and worked a day until the work was begun and about half finished (it is now complete). And by the way, Roscoe is on my case again to scout out some money for these school projects, so if any who read this care to pitch in a few bucks you can contact me or you can contact my dentist friend Mike Tyler in Mt. Pleasant, Tn and contribute through the Mount Pleasant Rotary Club in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee. Email Mike at: moogatpleasant@hotmail.com - anyone can donate through them as well.

 Here is an email I sent my family and Mike Tyler about this time:

I spent the day today at the Takoktan School near Domonlek. They had a big deal community/school meeting they wanted me to attend. Something to see!! About 265 school children from kindergarten on up to about 12 years old, all the teachers, the most active parents, and a program designed to enhance and continue their fundraising for this little project around the community, - and they are abuzz about it. They had a "money tree" with many donations of money clipped to it, a program of promoting the work, and presentation of honors to the children. They all gave me much honor and respect, sang praises to their King and Queen [whom they love dearly and well they should - they spend most of the money that comes to them on the people and do good things for them], took pictures, etc. I took a lot of pics too, met with the community leaders and teachers afterwards, and then later I rode in the back of a truck to Phetchabun where I spent the first $200 from the Rotary Club on some of the materials needed - toilet fixtures, ceramic tile, sand, gravel, cement, doors, hardware, roofing material, water piping, etc. You would be surprised how far $200 goes in Thailand (8,000 baht), and work will start in the next day or two. The workmen in the community are to donate their time to do the work so as to save money. It was humbling to see so many poor families digging deep to give more than they could really afford - some only 20 baht (about 50 cents.

This thing has taken off. I have been the catalyst that brought this need to their attention (Thais make do with what they have and accept life as they find it) - I seem to have gotten them enthused to do all they can to help themselves, which was also my goal. Giving fish is not the way - teaching them to fish lasts far longer. With the additional $200 just given by the Club, more money will be raised than will be needed I feel like, and if enough money can be gathered up, another set of toilets will be built at the other end of the school so that half the children will not have to walk in the rain to go to the toilet. Nothing can be done about the two buildings that get 3 feet of water in them several times during the rainy (monsoon) season. The government has been talking of jacking them up on concrete stilts for the last 15 years they say, but the community has no belief that anything will ever be done.

Also, if I can scrape up more than the $400 promised by the Rotary Club in Mt. Pleasant, and with money of my own, I will also have a concrete wash stand built with several spigots for the children to wash their hands before eating their sack lunch (and after using the toilet). There is such great need in such schools - they drink rainwater and ground water (and have an average 18% absency rate due to sickness from doing so) when a relatively inexpensive (for us) water treatment machine would at least give them one spigot of pure water to get their drinking water from.

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(A reply to an email with a cousin from Georgia):

Thanks for the contact, kind words and good advice, Cuz.

Since you broach the subject of hygiene in SEA, I will enlarge on it a little.   I am doing the best I can to keep body and soul together, successful most of the time. But feature a culture with customs and way of thinking almost totally different from your own and pitiful few that speak even a dab of English - those few with no more English words than I have Thai, which I can count on my fingers (but I have one big advantage I didn't count on - see below). Even so, yes. A memorable trip. A fantasmogorical unforgettable trip - assuming I live to tell the tale. At times I am having to sail "close to the wind" as they say, and have been very lucky.

As to getting anything that don't wash off, I am doing the best I can, but I resolved long ago that I would not allow worry about such as this to rule my life here. Que Sera Sera, as Doris Day used to sing. I have lived a reasonably successful, fulfilled, rewarding and happy life thus far, and I had much rather "die with my boots on" than otherwise. Back home I was fast going to seed as it was.

In fact it is almost impossible to live anywhere in Southeast Asia and avoid whatever little nasties are about, including the ones you probably have in mind. The culture will not really allow it. There are micro-organisms in the air, in the water, in the food, on the surfaces and in them that these people are basically immune to, which can, and do jump on Western people like me. For instance culturally, glasses are passed around communally when a home is visited, and when eating with friends at restaurants. Spoonfuls of choice tidbits of food from their plates are offered guests and friends as well, as the communal meal is eaten. Such cannot reasonably be avoided much less refused, for to do so is an insult of the highest order. Only if you come strictly as a tourist can such be avoided (maybe, providing the girly bars in places like Bangkok and Pattaya are not visited). Moreover, I cannot credibly write a book with the setting in SEA if I have not lived among and experienced the culture of the people themselves. That was my purpose in coming, in addition to putting some adventure and excitement back into my life (for instance while in Phuket I bunge-jumped off the highest such jump in the world, and splashed the water at the bottom of it. A thrill? You bet!). Another example: while waiting for a bus, I counted 43 people who drank water from the same cup at a big water keg. After I quit counting at least this many more drank from that cup, and after 5 hours of waiting for the bus, I myself lustily drank 4 cups of water from this same cup. Thirst drove me to it because if I walked off looking for bottled water to buy, I was afraid of missing the only bus to where I was going, and would have had to wait there all night.

I have had the Whistling Willies (the s__ts) several times already (at least I think that is mostly what it was) - most times no symptoms except runny bowels, other times that plus fever, nausea, aching, etc. There are almost countless things carried by mosquitoes here, including Dengue Fever and Hepatitis. Vaccinations can be had for many things - some get the shots, some don't (I didn't) which are of questionable value. These instances of loose bowels are getting fewer and farther between though, the more I get used to things. So far I have lost over 30 pounds.   NOTE: I lost a total of 51 pounds in three months on this trip due to the heat and eating only about a third the quantity of food I consumed at home, and only drank water - plus the fact that I ate no red meat, no bread (these are not served most places in Thailand), and no potatoes, along with much more seafood, rice, chicken, pork and vegetables, which are the norm there. 
 
     Those who know me best may want to click on this link:  "Author's Bio"  and scroll down to see what I look like after losing all this weight - the pics were taken day before yesterday (Sept 10, 2005).
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There are many criticisms that can be applied to Thailand, but there are so very many more that far offset them in my opinion. I felt safer in most places for instance, than anywhere in the states. People are more basically personally honest, more truthful, there is no vandalism, far less crime, they exhibit far more courtesy and genuine good will towards everyone, they are very tolerant and slow to anger, and are fastidiously clean and neat. Drugs?  Woe be unto you if you are caught with just one tiny bit.  You will still be in jail awaiting trial for the next 10 or 20 years, and if you are caught red-handed selling any or with a large quantity you will be summarily shot after a short obligatory trial.  And if one is not careful of the cultural differences he can quickly come into fear of his life without realizing or really understanding what caused it. Some of these little Thai men can kick the dowaditty out of you and worse, quicker than you can say scat - as several "farangs" like me have found out after waking up dead. One of my friends in Phetchabun was Khao Kor "Galaxy" - the former Thai national boxing champion with 19 straight wins to his credit (his twin brother Kho Sai is the current champion), and I stand head and shoulders over him (see pics of him and me shooting snooker that I will send the group sooner or later).  There is a statue of him there in Phetchabun, his home town.  All in all, I don't have a serious criticism of Thailand or anyplace I have been in SEA so far, except Burma (still a harsh and dangerous Communist regime), and possibly Laos - I wish I had gone to SEA 10 years ago, and had I not precious family here I would go back now and never come back to America.  Believe it. In fact there are tens of thousands of American soldiers who never left SEA after the Viet Nam war. My cousin Tony Coalson in Anniston, Ala (a former Air America pilot himself) lived in Thailand 15 years afterwards, and is going back there to live if his aged mother passes away.

On one occasion I had a two-hour "Traditional Thai Massage" (no sex) in the home of a Thai business woman. The massage was given by a beautiful young 22 year old Thai girl who still lives at home with her parents, (the woman keeps her on retainer for such purposes), and the two-hour massage was absolutely fantastic - addictive - beyond description.

After the school project was completed I had planned to go to Chang Mai, rent a sizable motorcycle and play hippie touring Northern Thailand and parts of Laos, Cambodia, and maybe Burma - in addition to seeing as many other sights as I could, such as the museum, graveyards, and the Bridge over the River Kwai, the old Flying Tiger airbase at Chaing Mai, some spots along the Ho Chi Min Trail through Laos and Cambodia, etc, etc..... As it worked out I did not get to do many of these things in this first there-month stay, or see the completed school toilet project before having to make a “visa run” as required every 90 days in order to keep within the crazy Thai visa laws. So I decided at this point to come on back to the States to regroup, and also because my round trip air tickets expired about the same time and it would have cost me several hundred more dollars if I ran past that date.  Hopefully I will get everything done when I return.

But to continue:

From Phetchabun as a base, I branched out also to the old mountain stronghold of the Communists in the 80's until the Thais ran them out with the help of the United States military, a fact which is to this day is still not widely known. I spent a few days and nights exploring Khao Kho, visited a Wat (Buddhist Temple) where a dead monk was on display, visited many other historical places around the area (Phetchabun was once the capitol of Thailand), and lived for a week in the remote home of a Thai family who (like most Thais) were living and farming just as their ancestors had done for the last 1400 years. They had no furniture except two wardrobes, they sat on the floor, ate sitting on the floor, slept on the floor, and deficated through a hole in the floor.  Much was learned during this time. You will just have to read my book, assuming I live to finish it, because I plan to return for some more adventures not of the rocking chair variety.

Then, having heard of the newly established Hmong refugee village in the mountains to the northeast of Phetchabun Province (and south of Pitsanoluk), I bought a small motorcycle (“motosai”), packed up, traveled there and lived among them for a week and a half. Since the time I lived among them the plight of these Hmongs has made the national news around the world. At the time I was there, there were 6,000 of them who had trekked 125 miles though mountainous jungle fleeing from the murderous Laotian Communists, and converged along both sides of a mountain access road in North Central Thailand. They had built bamboo huts and were living from hand to mouth in a desperate situation. No telling how many there are at that place now - there were a total of 225,000 in Northern Thailand both there and other places in the Thai mountains at that time.


Here are some excerpts from emails I managed to sent my family and Epals during this time:

UPDATE # 6

This one is to both my family and to my "Main Group" of Epals;

Dear All;

I have done so much, and so much has happened since my last message to you. To the family, please forgive me for not emailing for awhile - as I have said many times, you are not to worry about me because there will be many times and many places I will go where the "internet" is not even understood much less available. Nothing will happen to me that God has not allowed, and that should be good enough - it is for me.
 
Doing repair work to poor country schools in Thailand:

Met with Roscoe Turner finally, on Wed - at 5:00 AM - met him at the bus station and arranged for a samlor (the motorized three-wheeled successor to the rickshaw) to take him and his luggage to my guest house. Had meetings the next day with Gov't School Administrators and teachers, toured 3 schools (one in the mountains), and met with the Pastor of a Christain church and some of the members, as well as with prominent Thai businesspeople there in Phetchabun. Next day more meetings, and more school inspections - all day until late at night, got soaked twice, but did good work finding and establishing real need at one school. Met with the School Principal and the Head Man of the village. Will begin work on this one fairly soon - there is great cooperation, intense interest in the community to better their children's school (and appreciation for the interest and help of we 2 Americans). Each family will contribute something to the effort, if only 1 Baht (about 3 cents) and I have a good feeling about this little project which, with what can be gathered up among the families and what I can promote on the local radio station, plus the money sent from my local Rotary Club in Mt. Pleasant, Tn - I hope will be sufficient for what is truly needed for the little children of this country school (kindergarten through what would be our 6th grade).

I will promote and supervise the work by local Thais, work myself on it, entertain the kids and teach English at times along the way, and be the best Christian Diplomat and Ambassador from the United States that I can. Before and after pictures personally taken by me will be sent to you - just be patient.

If any of you care to help with a few chips, you can contribute in a tax-deductible way if you wish, through me and/or through the Mount Pleasant Rotary Club (Dr. Mike Tyler, DDM). You would have cried as I did, at the pure joy in the faces of the teachers when Roscoe handed out used children's books in English which he had rounded up in the States. This sports fans, is people to people, individuals helping individuals personally - no big nebulous top-heavy "NGO's", no pomp and ceremony, no gratuitous photo ops. And the impact and good will on the teachers, government and local officials, not to mention the 265 school children and their families can never be measured over the course of each of their lives for the next 100 years or so. They will never forget the white-skinned Americans who cared enough to come to see them, teach them, laugh with them, have fun with them, and help them. There will be no "Ugly Americans" in their lives, ever.

Thailand's Hill Tribe People and Hmong Refugees:

I have been twice so far, to the recently "established" village of the Hmong Tribe and Lao people - including some Chinese Christians run out by the Chinese Communists - all refugees from the brutally oppressive Communist regime in Laos. 6,000 people - men, women, old and young, little children and babies, the sick, maimed and crippled who have been driven out of Laos and then recently driven out of the deep mountainous jungle in the Thai mountains where they fled and were hiding. All 6,000 of this bunch have converged along about 1/3 kilometer of a mountain access road, and the Thai Army keeps a detachment of soldiers with automatic weapons there, ostensibly to "protect" them (keep them in one place while they decide what to do with them). There are 225,000 total, of just these tribes out of many, in Thailand. When Thailand tried to return them across the border to Laos these Hmongs held a meeting at this new village (I had heard of this, and was later told this personally by their "Head Man"), and they all decided collectively that they would commit mass suicide before they would be driven back the 125 miles they had already walked through the jungle and mountains from Laos, to where the Communists have promised to faithfully kill them every one, should they return. So far, world outcry has caused the Thai gov't to halt these plans, but the soldiers and M16's are still to be seen prominently. I tried to take pictures of them but was prevented by the smiling but dead serious Commander of the detachment. These Hill Tribe people are mostly either remnants of, or direct descendents of the Laotians who gave so many of their lives helping us fight the Communist Vietnamese along the Ho Chi Min trail which ran through Laos during the Viet Nam war (this is the "hidden war" in Laos we never heard about). American blood obviously runs in the veins of some here who I saw personally, and there are not just a few slant-eyed Chinese Christians who were run out of that country to Laos as well, and now here. And yes, these Laotians still love America, even though we abandoned them after we left Viet Nam.

And on that subject, there are approximately 10,000 Christians among them (out of the 225,000). I visited a little Christian "Church" in the Hmong village, and took pictures which I will send when I can. The Thai Pastor (Christian) who first took me to this village was asked by the dozen or so who were at this little church at that time, to pray for them, and when they found that I was an American and a Christian also, they crowded around me crying and asking me to pray for them as well. It was the hardest thing for me to do, without crying myself, which I surely did do. There are things in this world I never had an inkling of, and this is one of them.

But another thing that broke my heart was to see a crowd of about 50 children and teenagers gathered around watching a single television set out in the open, run by a generator, that was showing guess what, a filthy Hollywood blood, guts, violence and sex movie. Too bad that fat Hollywood slob (Michael Moore) who directed it was not there for me to strangle at that moment.

It is common knowledge that, but for the dab of money sent these Hmongs from certain of their family back in the USA (children, wives and our former American soldiers), they would have starved long ago, harassed as they have been. Now, with this brief respite, they have planted crops and are raising food, and are on the road to self sufficiency - of a sort. I stopped a woman walking along crying, with a baby on her back and a 2 lb bag of rice. Through my Thai interpreter friend, the reason was that she had to feed herself and five children for a week with this allotment of rice, and knew she could not do it. Her Lao husband had been killed a year earlier by the Pathet Lao Communists, and with no husband she is in desperate straights. I gave her a 100 baht bill (about $2.50) and she turned back to the "store" and bought a bag of rice so big she could hardly carry it, so we put her in the back of the truck and drove her back to her little bamboo hut. You think you have seen appreciation? I think not. And yes, I bawled my eyes out along with her, and those few hundred-pound bags of rice I bought for this village went far, believe me. This was the first time in my life I ever wished I was rich.

And yet do not feel overly sorry for these people. In the face of all, they are happy, smiling, cheerful, full of hope, and have a profound sense of family, of tribal togetherness with bonds stronger than we could ever imagine, and I only wish I had just a tiny bit of this feeling. These are gentle, kind-hearted and beautiful people, and it is all so heart-rending that they have no country, no home, no place to drive a stake in the ground and call their own - they are ignored, forgotten downtrodden outcasts, homeless refugees in the truest sense of the word. They are a proud people who don't want handouts, just a county and a home - a place to "belong", a chance to provide for themselves and to vote, educate their children, and to have a say in their own lives. No too much to ask you think?. But for now they have fresh clean water (it rains at least once every day), they are growing their own food and it looks to me like they will have enough in a few months if allowed to squat where they are along this road. They have enough clothes to wear, and a thatched roof to keep the rain out (the run-off flows through their huts which are all built up on short stilts along the sides of the road, with a sleeping platform up off the muddy ground and a rock-lined "fire place" to cook on.
 
They bath when it rains, standing out with briefs on, the women behind tarps or woven mats hung up, - or as many do, walk down the road about a kilometer to a creek crossing with a low waterfall, and bath communally about 10 feet from the road, covering themselves with a few strips of cloth for modesty, the children butt naked (boys and girls up to about the age of puberty). I will send pics soon as I can manage it.

I spent three days and nights with them, in the home of the village “head man”, and plan to return soon as I can get the school work going (or finished), to build my own bamboo hut and live among them for awhile, helping whoever, whenever, and as I can. (NOTE: I did this, and lived with them for over a week more.) My little savings is in dire danger, but one man alone can do just so much and I must not over-react. You simply would not believe all the smiles and "wai's" of appreciation just to see an American among them and to know that someone cares enough to come to see them - not to mention to live among them.

Today I started building my hut amongst the Hmong refugees. Having let my intentions be known, I set off to gather bamboo as other new arrivals were doing. But when I got back with the first few stalks, there were people busy as bees building my hut for me and I had little to do with the actual construction of it. It took them about 3 hours, and many people donated their extra bamboo.

I stayed over a week with the Hmong refugees. Not enough time or space here right now to tell you of all I saw and experienced. You can come see me when I get home, or read my book if you want, whenever it may come out (or not).

As you can see, my book research is either on the front burner and cooking away, or on the back burner with the fire out - I don't know which.

This does not nearly bring you up to date on the things I am doing and what I have seen and experienced since the last update, - there is so much to see and do, but this is the best I can do right now.

More Later,

Tony in Thailand - (sometimes Laos, sometimes Cambodia, sometimes.....??)

______________________________________________________________________________


Somewhere around the first part of August I went from the Hmong Village on up in the mountains farther on over to Khao Kho on my little “motosai”, and spent another two days and a night. This was to the area of the main Communist stronghold during the Viet Nam War and later, where many thousands of Thais and Communists were killed in the fighting there. It was cold - don't know exactly what the elevation is, but I was scrambling to keep warm - only wore a T shirt under my other shirt. Slept on a former battlefield where an occasional land mine still explodes to kill and maim. Visited a Christian Church group near there, who were having a Retreat for the week. Gorgeous scenery - jungle, waterfalls, caves, etc.

From there I went back to the Phetchabun area (Domonlek) again, and spent a week in the home of an Irishman named Desmond Love in the village where the school toilet project was about half complete when I left for the States. It is now complete I have been told, but I only have pictures of it as almost  complete to show the Rotary Club. Will try to get back to photograph the finished project when I return in a few weeks.

From here I loaded my belongings onto my little Honda “Dream” motorbike, and continued to travel on down through Phetchabun (all told I traveled almost the full length of Thailand North to South) on down through Bangkok, crossed the width east to west from Chumphon to Ranong, and then on down onto and to the southernmost tip of Phuket to my old digs at Rawai. This last leg took me 3 days and 2 nights - the trip back down from Chang Mai to Phetchabun earlier having taking 2 days and a night and the same going up. There are farangs and Thais alike who question that I ever made such a trip on such a motorbike. I averaged 70 kilometers per hour (about 45 mph), and had no trouble except for one flat tire on the rear wheel. It happened right in a little town far away from another in either direction, and right in front of a motosai repair shop. Another example of the charmed life I have always led, it seems.  Cost me 50 baht for a new tube and 15 baht labor - about $1.75! It was a memorable experience which deserves its own separate telling, and God willing, so it will be at some point. But for now, feature getting soaking wet and then drying out in the wind and rain on an average of two and more times a day, the rain so hard that just the water through my pants legs filled my boots every time. Imagine having to find a safe place to sleep at night not speaking the language or being in the least familiar with any of the areas, grabbing food and drink when possible at every stop for fuel when and as available, and an unbelievably horrible 3 hours trying to get through Bangkok during the height of the traffic with jillions of motosai’s, motorized vendor carts, delivery vehicles, tuk tuks, samlors, songthou's, cars, trucks - and pollution so bad tears streamed down my face and every policeman wore a painters’ mask. I was unable to do it quick enough to suit me and I finally hired a taxi to lead me out to the outskirts to the highway I needed to head South, and I had to keep close with the crazy driver who made a game of trying to lose me in the traffic so he could pick me up again and charge me even more. He couldn’t do it, and on arrival he said, “You drive motosai like Thai man!” Feels good to beat a man at his own game, and you can bet I did not give him a tip. I spent that night in the most dangerous sleaze-bag hotel I ever slept in - the only one I could find at 11 PM. The next night, which I spent in Chumphon, made up for it in spades though, and someday I hope to spend some time in this great little coastal town full of friendly,  fun-loving and happy Thai people on the Gulf of Thailand.


======================================================================

On August 30, I boarded a plane in Phuket, flew the 2 hours to Bangkok, then after a 2 hour layover I boarded a 747 for about a 6 hour flight to Seoul (Incheon), Korea. Then after a 3 hour layover another 747 was boarded for the 14 hour flight to Atlanta, reaching there only an hour later than when I left Bangkok ON THE SAME DAY (Aug 31 2005) - reverse jet lag - heading into the sun instead of chasing it, and crossing the International Date Line.

On this 3 month trip in Thailand I ate nothing but Thai food except for breakfast at Don's a few times when I was there, and I lost weight from the first day I arrived in Thailand. I just hope I can keep it off. During my entire stay I had absolutely no trouble with indigestion or acid reflux, like I had been having with the stomach ulcer my Doc said I had, even though the Thai food is very HOT and SPICY (maybe even because it is!). I did not have to take a single one of the Zantac pills he prescribed for me, and as to my weight, I lost a total of 51 pounds (but I still weigh 20 pounds more than what I should).

Best Wishes, and  I hope you found the above disjointed acccount interesting.......

Tony Miller     ...chasing my little stars again...finally.
 

  → To give me your comments about the above Synopsis, I would be happy for you to
                      contact me by clicking here:       Tony@books-n-sundries.com

     ►Click below to see my 
Thailand Photo Albums
         NOTE:  There are about 1,400 pictures here, in 30 albums.  Scroll the titles and look first at those that interest you the most.  Getting many of these took intense effort, so I hope you enjoy them!

                                            ********** FINAL NOTE:
Since writing the above I have made several more extended trips to Southeast Asia.  I have seen, learned  and experienced much, been broken up a bit in two more motorcycle accidents, and at this update ( March 28, 2007) I am in the States again but scheduled to return to SEA next month.  The book remains far from finished due to my "adventures" getting in the way, but they will enable me to write from personal experience and conviction when I start in on it again in earnest.               ...Tony

                                                 

 
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