Sawasdee (again)....

Talking of cars - which we weren't - it never ceases to amaze me how many different vehicles Toyota makes - i'm assuming that most are just variations derived from core platforms - but it just seems bonkers - how do they ever keep track of them all? They must have a legion of brand managers and marketing people - and the sheer cost of type-approval; design; manufacture - not to mention the squillions of components - and yet they presumably all maintain Toyota's legendary quality & reliability....

For instance over here they have the Innova; the Wish; the Vios; the Fortuner (great names, eh?) & the Isuzu MU7 (a variant of the Fortuner) in addition to the usual Yaris & Corolla & Camry, etc. It makes you wonder - it's either fiendishly clever or niche marketing gone mad - no idea which.......

I've been catching up with reading, too - having read very little in South America. I came across Qiu Xiaolong & his enjoyable series of Inspector Chen mysteries that are set in Shanghai and give an insight to the changing life of early 1990's China; a couple more Colin Cotterill books that are not related to his excellent Dr Siri books that are set in late 1970's Laos - "Evil in the Land Without" is interesting for its comments on Burma (Myanmar) & "Pool and its role in Asian Communism" - which i'm still reading.

I'm also reading "Fool" - Christopher Moore's latest book and have to say i'm struggling with it (never thought i'd say that about a Christopher Moore book) (i must be getting old) (i mean really old). And i've read several George Pelecanos books - gritty books set in Baltimore & Washington DC - he was also involved in the series "The Wire" - so if you liked that you'd enjoy his books.......

In terms of non-fiction, I've recently finished "In Search of Kazakhstan" by Christopher Robbins - which was very interesting indeed - excellent book; "I was a Potato Oligarch" by John Mole - interesting but a bit odd at the same time - i'd be intrigued to know what Penny would make of it as it is about trying to set up a business in Russia - and have at long last started "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown - which is astonishing and painfully sad at the same time. I've got Simon Payaslian's history of Armenia to read next.....

A few months ago i read "From Russia with Lunch" - a truly awful title for an excellent book on Lithuania by David Smiedt - reading about former Soviet states is heartbreaking because of the suffering caused - primarily - by Stalin and his regime - and then to read what the settlers in America did to the native Americans.... - anyway, i started thinking about this travelling & reading malarkey - there is only so much you can take-in; only so many books you can read; cd's you can listen to & countries you can visit - oh terrific! - bumper sticker philosophy strikes again - but how you choose.....

So, having let me stay in her very fancy Sukhumvit appartment back in October, Lucy very kindly offered to let me stay on the way back from Australia on this trip - in October i was full of "woe is me" now, of course, it's the whole Alfred E Neuman "what - me worry?" schtick - exactly - what happened to the "inspiration" i was going to find on my 12 weeks of travelling? Damn! - i guess it means going to Syria after all....

Anyway, last weekend we went to see the Tiger Temple at Kanchanaburi - they have other animals there in addition to the tigers - and, of course, you can stroke the tigers & have your picture taken with them. The tigers are incredibly docile - they each have a handler and the tigers have one leg chained to the ground so that they can't suddenly leap up at you if they're feeling peckish - which they aren't, of course, as they are well fed - well worth going to...

Although we went on the 26th (the day after Anzac Day) we went to the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi to pay our respects and to the nearby museum - which is very interesting - but understandably grim. In the museum i read that Thailand had declared war on America & Britain in 1942. Now, i've always been ignorant of Thailand's role/fate during the war - so this statement surprised me and so i looked on the Internet for some background on what happened. Very (very) briefly:

Phibun was the Thai prime minister at the time - having come to power in 1938. He set about modernising the country - and changed its name from Siam to Thailand in 1939. In late 1941 Phibun agreed to a collaboration with the Japanese in what he believed was the best interests of the country & its people. By 1944 the tide was turning against the Japanese & Phiburn was forced to resign and a pro-Allied Forces government took over. After the war, Phibun was charged with war crimes but acquitted after intense public pressure. He came back to power in 1948 - pursuing moves to democracy and with American support - please note that was a very brief summary; it misses out lots of detail and expresses no particular view....

Lucy spoiled me by booking a table at the Breeze restaurant at the Lebua State Tower (www.lebua.com) - with drinks at the outside Sky Bar to see the sunset - the Sky Bar being on the 64th Floor and with panoramic views over Bangkok - not for the faint-hearted, though - Lucy wouldn't go close to the edges and Carla - you'd hate it :-)

The restaurant we had dinner at was on the 55th floor (i think) - again outside and just fantastic - a lovely meal with lovely service.....

While in Bangkok i decided to renew my passport - a relatively simple exercise as it meant i could drop it off & then pick it up when it's ready. It takes 10 working days and cost 6,448 Baht (124 gbp) (not cheap) and the accompanying photo has to be 35 x 45 mm and the head has to be between 65-75% of the picture area. The new passport will be what they call "biometric" - now, i just assumed it just meant that immigration people had found a way of recognising people by looking at them & then comparing their faces to the picture in their passports - but apparently it is even cleverer than that :-)