The Journey(s) of Ian

Let me start by stating—I have never been a dog person. Now, they are on my hit list.   In the interests of keeping my blog 'real' I will tell the following story, as it happened. A few hours ago I was walking out of a coffee shop in Surin, then a large, silent (i.e. non-barking) dog ran towards me and bit me on the leg! I did not see and did not hear the dog running towards me, but then it did start barking, and I had to fight the animal off! I immediately washed the wound (not serious), and then started panicking about RABIES. This is a fun disease, which can be contracted by a DOG bite or even saliva from a DOG. I took myself off in a tuk-tuk to the public hospital, which everyone told me was really good. Let me add here that I know five Thai people in Surin well. I phoned each one, no one answered. They were all: busy, sleeping, or not answering. Let me also add that my morning was not the best. All in all it was shaping up to be one of those days :(. I got to the hospital,...

* I have added a few pics, but in the usual poor google blog fashion the pics are jumbled. They are of a visa run I made from Pattaya to Cambo. All fairly obvious. The bus, the people, the places. * ------------------------ The Thai visa run There is a necessary ritual in Thailand, which many farang have to endure. Like many rituals it could, potentially, be easily be avoided with forethought, or a modicum of good sense, but this is not the case. Let me explain. If you (that is to say, a foreigner, a non-Thai) wish to visit Thailand for a holiday—no problems—get on the plane, land in Bangkok, and as you exit the airport you will receive a 30 day ‘visa’ ‘stamp’ in your passport. [Sidebar: even though people invariably refer to this ‘stamp’ as a ’30 day visa’ it is not a visa, rather it is a ‘tourist visa exemption’—the opposite of a visa.] People from most countries are eligible to receive this non-visa, visa, stamp. This fits the needs of most tourists. They come to Thailand for a few ...

In Australia tipping is a rarity. There is, in this globalized capitalistic world, still a simple Australian aphorism—which runs counter to the ethos of tipping—that a fair days work should be rewarded by a fair days salary — has lead to the belief in Australia that one’s salary should provide a fair income, sufficient to fund one’s way in the world. In day’s gone past Australia even had the notion, applied via government regulation, that there was such a thing as a ‘basic wage’, but that is a story for another day. The rare beast of Australian tipping is in turn rare in the external world. In the western world tipping is a common practice, and something travelers need to be aware of in order to avoid potential problems. In the 3rd world, such as Thailand, thing are even more complicated, where there is the added complication of the relative disparity in incomes and social expectations between the western guest and the local Thai. To understand this important practice lets start w...