The billion dollar idea

I’ve always been close to the next big thing: investing in China, a disposable paper suit, leather made from livestock struck dead by lightning.  But this time I’ve come up with something that is both necessary and lucrative.  I’m not going to disclose it all right here or now, but suffice to say it involves [...]

Old and New in the Walled City

Thai skaters in Chiangmai’s old walled city, in front of Anusawari Sam Kasat, The Three Kings Monument.  We walked past this evening as rainclouds gathered.  The walled city is surrounded by a moat

from which fountains jet and around which Thais stroll, run and walk their dogs.
 Seen along Walking Street, which runs through the old city from [...]

Up on the humps, headed downstream, and lost in the old city

Here are some family shots from Chiangmai, where we are staying in a manner we are entirely unaccustomed to, in a splendid condo next to some green grassland belonging to the king and on which cows graze, as guest of my good and far too generous friend Guy Pace.  Guy is a member of a [...]

Chiangmai scenes

I haven’t written anything about our time in Thailand and Chiangmai because I’ve been trying to catch up with Vietnam and Laos — let alone Cambodia, which because I couldn’t help perceiving and, therefore, largely experiencing  it as a country or incredible wounds, I’ve had a difficult time writing about in depth yet.  But it’s safe [...]

Symbols of the facade

One of the interesting things about being in Vietnam and Laos was that they are communist — with single political parties and governments, especially Laos’ that brook no multiparty advocacy — but that otherwise they are places where social and particularly governmental ideology have, like China, been abandoned for the ideology of the marketplace.  A Wikipedia [...]

Medical bills

From an ad in the Bangkok Post, a clinic offers limousine pickup from the airport and the following (this is an abbreviated list):
Sex reassignment surgery – $1,625 U.S.
Liposuction: $625 U.S.
Facelift: $875
Also, several expats I’ve spoken to here have talked about the medical care they receive – without insurance — at Thai hospitals and clinics.  It’s [...]

Listening to Laos

In our week in Luang Prabang I asked several different teenagers and people in the 20s what music they were listening to.  From this by no means scientific survey, some popular performers today in Laos, where pop music or anything like it was pretty much illegal until 2003, are  L-Zone, The Cell  and LOG, Laos Original Gangstaz.
 UPDATE [...]

Laos: Economic indicators and other tidbits

I spent several enjoyable evenings chatting with Lin Thasiniphone, a 21-year-old who worked at our guesthouse, Lao Wooden House (this picture doesn’t do it justice).
 

We spent $40 a night here on two $20-per night rooms, each beautifully appointed and with a king size bed, with tropical fruit and baguettes breakfast included.  The story is that [...]

Updates

In Thailand (about which, more later), taking advantage of fast Internet, have posted several photos to our two previous Laos entries, about the monks at dawn and other stuff too.

Changing face

In Hanoi I imagined I could feel the force of today’s Vietnam: a self-confidence and self-image rooted in its past; a gleeful embrace of the rough and tumble of the marketplace and an aggressive drive to win its rightful share of the world’s economy.