Aah, I have time to post my next update. Let me tell you something about my Thailand travels...

The moment I cross the border with Thailand I sense a feeling of dissapointment: Thailand is so very civilized and, well, basically westernized. For instance, the roads are in perfect shape (no holes) with decorative gardens bordering it and with these crash barriers thingies, more cars than motorbikes are on the road, the local buses are very luxurious (touringcar with airconditioning, spatious seating and - as it is a nightbus I took to BKK - a blanket, water, and cookies), the streets have lights, the toilets have lights and are (appear) cleaner, and so on. Initially, I thought this feeling originated from my very positive Laos experience but as I started to think about it, the same feeling came over me (in reverse order) the moment I crossed the border with Cambodia. I even remember saying to my sister: This is more like what I was expecting to see in my trip through Asia. I wanted to experience a life completely different to that of mine and, to conclude, Thailand is basically too civilized for that. I do not want to be all negative though. Thailand is a very beautiful country with a lot to offer to tourist who are looking for a good and relaxing holiday. I also had, of course, good experiences such as sitting in a saenthaew with appr. 30 school children all too shy to sit next to you, [accidentally] free riding the local bus to Thanon Khao San(or is it free to everyone? I still don't know...), only one person helping you to sort out the right bus instead of ten, and buying a bus-boat combination ticket without worrying that they (thai) will 'forget' you bought a combination ticket (tourist trap in Vietnam). And I got my PADI at Koh Tao! Whoohoo!

Its just that while travelling through the countries I kind of tried to summarize my experiences in the countries into one word. Cambodia is more Traditional, while the Vietnamese are really Energetic in all emotions including shyness (salesgirl didn't dare to look at me while I only needed a SIMcard), enthusiasm (smiling teenager jumping up and down while waving ‘hi') , and aggressiveness (only country in which I was threatened with this electric police stick thingy because I dissagreed about the amount to be paid), and the Lao people are just as the LP describes Lay-Back people who are rather lazy than doing something which could initiate bad karma -we wouldn't want that to happen now would we. I still find it hard to find a word that can mean a similar thing to Thailand. It appeared I am not the only one who has that opinion; I met quite a few travellers who travelled through Thailand in 2005 that claim it changed a lot in the past few years as it has seen just too many tourist coming its way changing the country's charme into a structured major tourism destination. Knowing this I would like to re-travel through the country once more, hopefully sometime soon.

What have I visited in Thailand? Well I was meeting Ingeborg in BKK on the Saturday, so spend a few days therewith sightseeing and shopping (weekend market is nice!) and met with Lily and Paddy who I met during the trekking in northern Laos. After a few days in BKK, Ingeborg and I decided to travel on the typical tourist path but to skip Kanchanaburi as it is less easy travel in rainy season. We went to Ayuthaya and Sukothai to visit the ancient tempels and stayed in Chiang Mai for a few days. There we walked around town, went to the zoo and did a cooking course which was really nice! There was also this german-american couple with a small kiddo present, Luna, and she was soo very cute! Chiang Mai is among others famous for its night and Sunday market, and Ingeborg and I couldn't get enough of it. So many beautiful things and such a good vibe. Unfortunately, we had two full days of rain and it wouldn't get any better so we had decided to go to the Islands in the south. The night train down was fully booked so we were ‘forced' to fly to the south - such a burden - so we would be in time for the Full-Moon-Party. There we had two days of sun and - yes, you can see it coming - it started to rain a little and the full four days during our PADI the weather was overcast. On the day we left for BKK the sun decided to shine again (is this a hint?). On the 16^th Ingeborg flew back home again and I flew to HK (itchkey

Knee update: Its doing perfectly fine! In BKK they removed the stitches and because they did that the scab came loose and showed a fullyrecovered skin again, yay! Okay, almost recovered as I still had two skinless spots where the holes were before, but these are now fully covered, unfortunately, with scartissue. The tenants?? And muscles around the knee were still very soar?? and especially started to get annoyed by airconditioning so the day before I flew to HK I got a steroid injection which really did its job. Basically, I can do everything with the knee again; just bumping into something still hurts more than normal. Ah well, at least I have a permanent reminder from my beautiful travels through Laos.

--Suzanne

p.s. Pictures are/will be uploaded again in Thailand file soesan.myphotoalbum.com

p.s.2 To give answer to your reactions: I rebooked my ticket to 18^th november;