Another Shore ………….Berlin

Interestingly, the Thai Railways divide the kilometers along the railway lines into sixteen sub-units, each (presumably) 62.5 metres apart. This contrasts with Malaysia and The Bundesrepublik, which divide into the more new-fangled tenths. I don’t know what the late lamented BR used to do; maybe one of my many contributing commenteers could inform [...]

Standing still in Siam square with thousands of other people at six pm, of course, paying respect to His Majesty The King, as the national anthem of Thailand rang out, I was struck by the beauty of other people. Dr S, in an unguarded moment in between polishing my teeth and explaining something to Boy, [...]

The baht has gone up a lot, despite the rather chaotic political situation over the last few years and, of course, the military coup. This is a bad thing, apparently, because it makes exports too expensive. But from what I read, there is no real chance of another financial crisis. Last time, [...]

Well, I’m back in Bangkok and ensconced once more at the Sathorn Villa, a place that is similar to the Victory, but in a different location. It’s very close to the river, though I can’t see it from my room. But a few times I’ve used the boats to get some wind in [...]

Penang’s OK, but I’m still ill with a cold that is becoming chesty. I went to the Cornwallis fort, and read about the colonial past. It was all to do with the East India Company, and someone called Francis Light, whose son founded Adelaide, Australia. Then I happened upon Little India, which [...]

Penang, Malaysia is exactly the same as Hanoi, Vietnam. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. On the day I arrived, I was ill with a bad cold and had to spend over half a day doing nothing. As a result, I did not see the inside of Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum (neither [...]