Basically, you can travel wherever you want in south east asia and will always meet the Mekong river. Just last week I have been there again and had lunch in a restaurant on his banks like a queen.

I could write a lot of facts about this river now. I could tell you very smart stuff like the Mekong has many different sources which come from the Tibetan Highlands. That the exact length varies between 4.350 km and 4.909 km. Still it is about the 10th longest river of the world.
And if I really wanted to brag with my knowledge I would write, that the Mekong has 1.300 differnet types of fishes, like giant fish and unlimited numbers of birds and reptiles.
But to be honest. Who cares? That´s why I just better only show pictures:

The Mekong river from the Thai side from Nong Khai






The Mekong with nice weather and water…





...and without water during bad weather





Tags: thailand thai udon thani kumpapwapi country tradition Koonsay esarn e-sarn issan, isaan mekong meenam kong laos vientiane nong khai friendship bridge

Give the case that I called Bangkok my first home then Ko Chang, the Elephant Island, would sure be my second. That jungle island in the Gulf of Thailand close to the cambodian border doesn`t leave all those Robinson Crusoe/Cast Away-clichees unserved. White beaches with palm trees hanging over the water, cliffy rocks and jungle with no end. In addition, peaceful silence.
Ko Chang is for me the exact opposite of Bangkok, which is also the most importnat reason why I keep coming back every 4 weeks. I know almost everybody over here and can roam the island with my motorbike freely without traffic jams and smog whenever I want. A fresh breeze instead of exhaustion fumes, the rush of waves instead of traffic noise, loneliness instead of crowds of people.
I just love it.









Tags: thailand thai Ko chang island travel bangkok trat beach lonely white sand pictures elephant

When the vietnam war spread to cambodia and laos, the CIA created a tribal guerilla from members of the Hmong hilltribe in 1961 to fight aigainst the communists. During the bigger war in Vietnam Laos became a minor battlefield and the US-Hmong alliance dissolved. When the US withdrew from Laos in 1975, they left the field to the communist "Pathet Lao", who consecutively killed more than 10.000 Hmong. Many of them then retreated into the laotian forests to keep on the war against the government. But many survivors also fled to the USA, where today about 200.000 Hmong are living.
Amnesty International assesses the descendants of the fighters of those days as not dangerous to the laotian government:" The Hmong are not in possesion of weapons or only have overaged ones. They are undernourished and without medical support. Nevertheless the laotian Government regards the Hmong as danger to the country's security."

US-author Roger Warner visited the covert battlefields and has a similar report:" We found those reports true on a small scale. Scattered bands of ragged fighters subsist off wild plants, trying to evade the Laotian army … and almost every day, the leaders of these Hmong bands talk on satellite phones with their Hmong-American relatives."
Even though laotian military keeps on attacking Hmong villages.
"In one of the largest settlements with more than 800 inhabitants about 30 percent had gunshot or shrapnel wounds. Due to the attacks by the army many of the Hmong retreat in even deeper jungle areas. Some flee to Thailand, but there they are threatened by forced deportation back to Laos before they are registered by the UNHCR," reads the Amnesty International website.
It is still unclear how many Hmong are living in the forests. Approximations vary from several hundres to uo to 17.000. The human rights organisation also documented that about 780 Hmong have left the jungle of northern Laos last year. They are still missing.

Tags: Hmong Laos lao laotian hilltribe Amnesty International war UNHCR refugees human rights

Bangkok, like most of the large Cities in the developing Countries could become "uncotrolled, toxic anthill", warns the Thai demograph Kritaya Archavanitkul.
According to a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the "dawn of the urban millenium" will begin by next year. Then, half of the world's population will live in urban areas.
Especially in developing countries, where 80% of the urban humanity will be living by the year 2030, this trend is significant.
"Global urban Polulation increased from 220 million to 2.8 billion people during the 20th century. During the next decades we will see a unprecedented growth of population in the developing world.", quotes the Thai Newspaper The Nation aUN-report.
"This is particularly concerning in africa and asia, where urban population will have doubled in the years between 2000 and 2030."
Within a single generation asia's metropoles will have duplicated.
The fact that half of the 65 million Thais already lives in urban areas is due to the "urban bias - rural neclected" policy at the beginning of the developing era in the 1060's, sais Kritaya Archavanitkul, director of the mahidol university population and social research institute.
"Thailands economic growth is based on the withdrawal of resources from the rural areas. Hydropower dams feed the industrialisation and urbanisation but take resources from rural population."
The demograph suggests plans for urban development for a banced to stop the massive migration to the cities.

Technorati: thailand asia urbanisation rural urban areas Kritaya Archavanitkul demography population

Maka Bucha Day is the day of the Full Moon in the third lunar month.
"Maka" referrs to the month of the same name in the ancient indian lunar calendar. The word "Bucha" means prayer. So, "Maka Buch" means " Prayer in the month of Maka".
Maka Bucha Day is also known as the "Day of the fourfold assembly", a specaial congregation in the age of the Buddha, that occured in the bamboo grove of Veluvana on the full moon in the month maka. On that day 1.250 monks spontanously assembled in the grove without having arranged so.
All of these monks were "Arhant", monks who had reached the highest level of enlightment. Also all of them ha been disciples of the Buddha and had been ordained by the Buddha personally.

Watch the following short Clip, showing us celebrating Makabucha Day with firework at the chinese temple on Ko Chang:



Tags: makabucha day maka bucha buddha lunar month fourfold assembly arhant Veluvana firework