SAWASDEE INN BEDBUGS AAGH!

Hello,
I had in the photos of my last newsletter a picture of bedbugs.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan02_01.shtml

I was in room 320 of the Sawadee Inn for 6 days and lived with them.
I told the girl EH at the reception,
"I do not want BEDBUGS!"

Well, I was in room 119 and guess what, that room has bedbugs.
All hotels can and could have bedbugs. They get carried in luggage, and backpacks and all sorts of ways. I said I was not going to say which hotel, but after the extreme hassle I had in moving room, and asking just as a hope measure to have some insecticide spray I am telling on them. The have 2 wings and they moved me to the other wing, and they seem to know about the problem.

I had to stand at the desk for 20 minutes while I kept saying BEDBUG! Then they brought me some spray finally after they say,
"Cannot" for 20 minutes. Sawasdee is a big chain, they have about 10 hotels around Thailand and they have a motto,
"A service of mind."

So go figure, do you think the Thai people would say something to look good or to sell something?

OK.
I have been trying to figure out how to write a solution for bedbugs for the last year or two, I will get busy and try to work this out. I do think I have come up with a solution of using a mosquito net. The problem is inside the net and the bed. I will set up my newly HAMPI, India redesigned mosquito net and see if it works.

All the solutions I am reading say to put outside in the COLD... Tropical folks.

I went to the store today to buy some spray. I cannot read the Thail labels to see if they kill bedbugs. It is not my problem, the hotel should take care of these situations.

I wrote a tip about boiling water for washing clothes for this reason. In the tropics they alway or almost always wash clothes in cold water.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/newstips084.php

I have a bucket and hot water cookers to sanitize my clothes. I know you people think you live in 5 star hotel to avoid this, BULL! This is not a solution, just hopeful.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/090travelbucket.shtml

Links for me to research...
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/DK1022.html

BACK IN BANGKOK - WILL GET VISA FOR CAMBODIA

I arrived back in Bangkok or Krung Thep as the Thailand people call the city at about 7:00 am and took a taxi to the Sawasdee Inn. I guess I am a creature of habit as I have only stayed in this Hotel. I did stay in the Peachy one time, it is cheaper but noisier, and I am getting too old to deal with the noise to save a dollar. I do sort of like the people that live in that hotel better, but the Sawasdee INN has a color TV and movies downstairs. Sawasdee is cleaner also for the 180 Baht I pay.

Cambodia! VISA APPLICATION TODAY

I will go see an archeology site called Angkor Wat; I will do my best to try to spell it correctly. It is a 12th century construction as best I can tell and this would make it old enough for me to care. I like Hampi in India, but it was really a modern construction, and not really much in the way of innovation of construction. The Incas just had a big pile of rocks. The Mayans so far with Tikal is the most stupendous construction for the age and time, I have ever seen. Rocks as big as houses pile as high a 7 story buildings. I am told that Angkor Wat is pretty spectacular. It is the right age to get my attention. The pyramids in Egypt are very old and will probably be great.

ANGKOR WAT
1200 AD

MAYAN
(1) 1200 BC to 200 AD built Temples and ended around 900 AD
Mayan - Meso-American Indians occupying a nearly continuous territory in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize.

INCAS
1200 AD to after 1500 AD when the Spanish destroyed a lot.

EGYPTIAN
2500 BC
(1) three 4th-dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 BC) pyramids erected on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River near Al-JYzah (Giza), northern Egypt; in ancient times they were included among the Seven Wonders of the World. The ancient ruins of the Memphis area, including the Pyramids of Giza, ˜aqq(rah, Dahsh¨r, Ab¨ Ruwaysh, and Ab¨ ˜Yr, were collectively designated a World Heritage site in 1979.

The date, time, construction methods, and just plain how difficult for the terrain and available stones are a factor in my opinions.
http://whc.unesco.org/heritage.htm

FINALLY - GOT JEFF UP AND AT THEM WITH HIS OWN BLOG

Jeff my traveling partner in India, Nepal, Tibet, China and Mongolia is off to Russia and Scandinavia countries about there.

I made him a blog page.
He has already posted a lot and if you wish you can subscribe, bookmark, monitor, or whatever you stationary people do to monitor blogs.

If you want a blog also for your travels also, I can probably arrange to do the same.
This is paid for by the ads at the bottom of the page.

OOGLE them please.

JEFF - THE WANDER BLOG
http://www.hobotraveler.com/jeffwestin/

READER CHRIS ON ANTS

Hi Andy,

Ants hate pepper. Ground pepper & the fresher the better. It interrupts
their scent trails, so they back out and leave. What I do is sprinkle it
down where they are entering the room and then go about mopping them up with
a wet paper towel or tissue, then throwing that outside or flushing them
byebye (taking them swimming). They don't re-enter the room, but for a few
stragglers staggering around confused by the black pepper and by the next
day they are gone too...and if any remain I physically evict them. How's
that for "Ahimsa"? I have no experience with fungus powder, but I can't
help but think there is some human toxicity blood level building up there,
especially on your head.

Since you are in the land of hot food you might try something like Tobasco
sauce at their entrance points. If all else fails, there is ant poison in
small containers made to lay at the baseboards that will send them on to
their next life on the karmic wheel of transmigration (the Wheel of
Transmigration always goes forward, never backward). At least you don't
have Army Ants that will carry off your bed (and with you in it). Jeje.

- Chris

I think anticide or some form of genocide is needed.
The problem is I cannot even see these ants.
I need to kill them all first before the pepper.
The huts in Thailand have about 3000 holes to enter... or more.
So how do you block them. I must coat my body somehow.

I got a special mosquito net, and I am thinking I will kill them inside.
They get on my head and cruise around. They drive me crazy.
The are so little.

I agree with the toxic thing. I will not adhere to any "Ahimsa" doctrine.
The die.. Army Ants
I use to have that domain, until it got nabbed.

NEWSLETTER TODAY HAD YAI - BUT PHOTOS OF KOH PHA NGAN THAILAND

HAD YAI NEWSLETTER 145
http://www.hobotraveler.com/newsletterhobo145insert.shtml


KOH PHA NGAN AND A FEW BANGKOK
Khao San Road - Ferry to Koh Pha Ngan - New Restaurant at Chicken Corner - Thailand
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan01_01.shtml
Chicken Corner of Koh Pha Ngan - U.S. Flag Sandals Thailand
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan01_02.shtml
Bedbugs Photos - Reading Light - Swedish Girls Thailand
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan02_01.shtml
Island of Koh Pha Gnan Thailiand - Transportation
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan03_01.shtml
Steve World Traveler - Koh Pha Ngan Scuba - Internet Cafe - Thailand
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145kohphangan03_02.shtml


TIBET AND MONGOLIA MONK PHOTOS
Buddhist Monks on Cell Telephone - Playing Counter Strike War Game Tibet - Mongolia
http://www.hobotraveler.com/145monks01.shtml

HOW TO GO BACK TO BANGKOK OR KRUNG THEP?
There are various ways to return to Bangkok from Had Yai.

1. Train 850 Baht
2. Bus to Khao San Road. 450 Baht
3. Normal bus to normal bus station in Bangkok. 650 Baht.

I suppose the 450 Baht option that is only or easiest to purchase at the Cathay or Cathy guesthouse is the best option for me. But the train is comfortable. I am told though that some single or solo traveling girls got raped on the train last year, so for women the bus seems the best option. Hard to get raped on a train.

DARLING ANCIENT MASSAGE
In the middle range and I am sure often in the 5 Star Hotels of Thailand there is a room or set of rooms built into the Hotel set up specifically for people to go have a Thai Massage. Now being that this is inside the Hotel and there is a small jump between getting a massage and paying a prostitute, you can understand this is not a leap or brain power to know that they deliver to the room.

DARLING - THE WORD MAKE ME LAUGH
I do not understand how some cultures decide or adopt a English word. They have adopted the word “Darling” as a word to describe a type of Massage. I would say this rings of sex, but I do not think they associate the word with sex. It is something different I believe, but really I not know what they mean and this line of reasoning take months to understand.

Darling in the dictionary means a “dearly loved person.”

SOUTHERN THAILAND IS WORRIED ABOUT TERRORIST
I have learned that there is some what seems to be copy cat terrorist that are blowing up building in southern Thailand. I do not really understand the situation, but there appears to be some groups that are copying the Islamic terrorist factions of just causing terror. There are Muslims in southern Thailand but from my understanding it is not them, and the groups are basically just copying the crazy methods of just blowing up bombs. But I guess there is less tourist from Singapore and Malaysia than normal.

ONE BOMB IN KOH SAMUI
I was bringing up in conversation with a Thai person that if the war on terror is not continued by the U.S.A. than the Terror will rule the world, but even more important if one large bomb explodes in Bangkok then the whole economy of Thailand will be devastated for a couple of years similar to Bali Indonesia.

She said, “Just bomb in Koh Samui.”
I became aware that I really was not informed of the real subtle nature of how much the Thailand people are cognizant that they are in danger. They are very intelligent people in a save-face not talk about it way. Hard to have a good discussion on danger to yourself when you will not talk about anything that would make yourself look bad.

RESTORE NEEDED
I needed to use the feature of Windows XP that restores the computer to former settings.

What I have done:
1. Installed Thai Fonts.
2. Had a directly LAN connection to the Internet here in Had Yai. I think that Microsoft tries to do auto updates.
3. I allowed Steve to connect up his Palm Pilot and utilize some features.

HAD YAI BUYING

I have been working on my website a lot and not really going outside as much as normal, but than again I am in an room that is cool, color TV, and very comfortable. I do like air conditioning, but it does sort of make a person want to stay inside and do less, I am not sure this is good as I am working more and spending less time playing at being a tourist. I am not really a very good tourist. Tourist are suppose to like to look at beautiful Temples and such, I like to look at strange things.

I have spent the last 15 minutes trying to photographs some micro-Ants, I do not know how to describe these Ants, but Thailand has some Ants that are about the size of the top of a needle.

I really do need a special camera to take photos of Micro-Ants, or a zooms lens that magnifies. I do not think I captured any good photos that give a good perspective of the size of these extremely small Ants.

These little Ants drive me crazy. They crawl around on my body and get in my hair. The are so small they are almost impossible to kill. I can only hope that an extremely hot shower washes them away or the anti-fungus soap I now use regularly drive them crazy. I have fungus powder that I know they do not like. I will put some in my hari also.

MONEY BELTS - READER QUESTION

Dear Andy,

I want to buy that money belt/pocket combo but Paypal.com
is not formulated to allow a foreign address to be entered!

I'm in Thailand, any suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve

ANSWER:

Hello,

Thank you for the what’s up or notification of glitches in the system.

I am not happy with the "MONEY BELT" situation or belt I am selling.
In fact I am going to stop selling it as a money belt.

The secret pockets are good.
I really do not want to sell you the money belt combination.
I am going to remove or separate them out and sell them as just "Fanny Belts." or hip belts or whatever they should be called. They can be worn inside or outside.

I am not happy at all with the "money belt world." The more I study the Money Belt and how people use them, the more I am sure that these money belts help people to lose money and not protect money. I am about to come out with an opinion that money belts should not be used. Fanny belts are dangerous also, but according to the country.

Any bag a person carries can be nabbed. But money belts have a special problem:

They are uncomfortable and because people can remove them....
"The remove them."

So what happens is they sit down in a restaurant. Then the feel the uncomfortable money belt in their pants. It is hot or sticky and they take the money belt out of their pants and put it on the table or in their bag.

NOW - The money belt becomes a liability and not an asset.
People see them do this and they steal the belt or grab it.
But probably more likely is they leave it on the table and walk out.

I know of a girl in La Paz, Bolivia that this happened to and she was quite distressed with herself. I am sure that way too many travelers or tourist have their money belts stolen or lost.

The secret pockets are so much better because you cannot remove them. It removes the temptation. I suppose secret pockets sown in a persons pant are sort of a pain for a 2-week tourist, but not for a 6-month traveler.

There are so many people that get robbed it is ridiculous. People do not advertise...
"I was robbed."
It is like saving face, they do not want to admit they were stupid or they lost the money belt. I would say about 75 percent of the "robbed" were really, "I forgot it" and not "I was robbed."

I am the absent-minded professor. I am sure that I would leave any bag if I do not have it tied to me. I have this little red bag I carry now that I can clip to my belt loop when I am sitting down in a restaurant or more likely the Internet cafe. It has funky items like a book to read, my floppy disk, or other miscellaneous things.

So because I cannot remember what I am doing, I must not have a money belt that I can remove. The one time I was robbed in 7 years was because I took off my neck money pouch and put in the top of my bag. I now do not use the neck pouch. I use it by putting in a special pocket of my travel pants.

I wrote a tip on the travel pants. They are the military ones that I modified.

But for the solution to your pockets you want to buy.

Send me your address. I am in Thailand and I will send you a bunch for Free.

Oops.
Paypal.com solution.
I will try to see if I can make sure there is a “Comments” area includes in the payment. Paypal.com has some real problems, and it is made for people that have only one address. The really do not address the people that live all over the world or the expatriates.

There are so many glitches in selling a product worldwide that I cannot count that high. I have learned a lot of them, and will soon add more and more products I design to sell, in fact that is one reason I am going to Vietnam to see about some backpacks.

I will think about the paypal.com problem and see if I can come up with a system that is very easy for people. I hate to ask them to fill out a separate form that sends me their present address.

Andy HoboTraveler.com in Had Yai

WEIRD ADVERTISEMENTS ON FOX NEWS

I watched the Fox News Channel here in Thailand yesterday, being that it is only one of three channels in English and the others are basically about nothing, it is my only real choice. What is strange though is that I watched the channel for about six hours or more yesterday while in the hotel room and the advertisements were almost exclusively about raising money for “Save the Planet” organizations or maybe just NGO - Non Governmental Organizations that suck cash from people.

The Fox Channel seems to have the USA format and they even say good morning to the viewers although it is night here, so it must be the same Fox Channel as the people are watching in the USA, but now way to know. What is weird or ironic is that I noticed that 90 percent of the advertisements were for one of these three organizations:

Save Mother Earth and other such noise.
http://www.oneearth.org

Commercial about Bears that have bile being harvested in China
http://www.animalsasia.org

Save the water, because we are water Planet.
http://www.panda.org

The other 10 percent was on some travel-booking engine Website about booking Hotel room in Thailand. The booking webpage made me believe these were

TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT TO ASIA
I would think that advertising on Fox New in Asia would be one of the most expensive ways to advertise in Thailand or Asia. So when the whole advertising market is filled up with .ORG websites or “Save the Planet,” make the people feel guilty advertisement so they donate money this is a concern. There is so much corruption in the NGO and “Save the Planet” sector of the world that it is hard to believe they raise money in this fashion. It is like an attorney promoting themselves by advertisement on Television; it always has the ring of not being proper.

COINCIDES OR COLLABORATED WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE ADS
I also noticed when I am on my page here in Thailand that the have the same “Save the Planet” advertisers in the Google Adsense Ads.

For instance go to pages on Laos…. Look at the Google Ads at the side. They may be for TOURS in the USA or Europe or wherever you live. They serve up the ads that make the most money according to WHERE you are in the world, but here in Thailand they are a lot of non-profit sites popping up.

http://www.hobotraveler.com/103lao01.shtml
http://www.hobotraveler.com/103lao02.shtml
http://www.hobotraveler.com/103lao03.shtml

The concern I have with these ads is that NGO are not monitored in the world. Anyone can start and NGO in the world with no problem.

For instance in India there is some 60,000 plus NGO’s. Now tell me that is a little on the too much to be real side.

I like to know how WebPages make money, and I am constantly watching the methodology, and some of the ways they make money is just too shifty or dodgy. Hehehe… I can start and NGO to stop NGO’s from being dodgy. (JOKE)

MARKETS AND SUCH
Tonight I am planning to visit a market with my friend Gai. We asked where it was yesterday and now we can go there tonight before they close after she gets out of her seminar. I think they sell CD players and things like that. Had Yai is a very good city to purchase supplies and small items that you may need for your backpack. I am buying or restocking here with all sorts of small things like duct tape, copies of keys, a mirror and other strange things that I want or need.

I have a mirror that I have been carrying by putting directly on top of my computer, and it being flat protects it, but now it is all scratched and hard to use. I am going to buy another one and tape up the back very flat with duct tape to protect the mirror backing.

ADDED FONTS AND CLEANED COMPUTER SCREEN
I want to have some words typed in the Thai Language so I added the fonts of language to my computer. I can now change the fonts to Thai characters when I want to, and a person from Thailand can type words into my computer. I really do not like to do this, because the computer is not a perfect device and especially with languages it will get confused, so I was very reluctant to do this, but in the end I want to type in differently language like Thai, Hebrew, and Chinese. I will only do the Chinese when absolutely necessary and then maybe on the computer in the Internet Café.

Strange as it may seem, I have had a dirty computer screen for almost three months. There was a very persistent and dirty spot on the screen. Yesterday I purchased some rubbing alcohol to clean the screen. I am always amazed at the cost of rubbing alcohol, in the USA a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol cost less than a dollar, but in other countries of the world it cost one dollar for a very small bottle. Since I am in a not-so-touristy city the cost of the larger bottle is one dollar or 50 Baht and half the price of the tourist places. I used this to clean my screen.

I have a direct connection here in Had Yai with my computer just around the corner from the Cathay Guesthouse. Go toward the train station from the Cathay Guesthouse and turn left and there is the Internet Café.

HAD YAI - 3 STAR - MAYBE 5 STAR HOTEL IN IRAQ

I am in some Hotel called the Pacific Hotel it is directly down from the Cathay Guesthouse that is the “Popular with Backpackers” Hotel of the Lonely Planet and the Hotel where I stayed last year. It cost 200 Baht for a double or single in the Cathay and the Pacific is 420 Baht per night. I am going to share the room with my friend Gai and she wants “Air Con” as they call it here in Thailand that means Air Conditioning. I end up paying the same more or less, when you split the price between two people. I would pay 200 for the Cathay by myself, but I pay 210 splitting the cost with her.

She is a Pharmacist and works in a Hospital; she is coming to Had Yai for a Pharmacist or Doctor convention of some kind in the Lee Garden Hotel.

So I have:

GOOD
1. Color TV with Fox New.
2. Hot Water.
3. Air Con or Air Conditioning.
4. Small closet with 5 hangers. Like that will remove the need for my backpack organizer… Hehehe. That is 5 more than normal.

BAD
1. NO - HASP: I cannot put a lock on the door and that means I have to worry about getting robbed. I am putting all my valuable in my bag and chaining it to the desk when I leave the room. Stops the cleaning ladies from stealing.
2. The window does not have a lock and they can come in from the balcony.
3. No Shower - For some reason there is a large tub and a sprayer, but no proper stand up shower with a curtain or door. I can spray myself by holding the handle. Most cheap hotels in Thailand have showers.
3. Light switch it turned on with Keyboard. I insert and the lights stay on. That means normally that I have to rig it to stay on so the battery in my computer can recharge.

What to see in Had Yai? I have no idea, but I have a free guide that speaks Thai. The only thing that is funny that I know about Had Yai is that they have male prostitutes here that proposition women and I think old European women comes here.

Why people come to Had Yai? Staging point to jump to Malaysia for a Visa Run.

HAD YAI - SOUTHERN THAILAND
I arrived in Had Yai about 4:30 PM in the afternoon after having a mini-van ride that was interesting. We made 7 separate transfers but the ridiculous ones were in Surat Thani when the Thai people kept transferring us down the line until they filled up a Mini-Van to make the trip. In the end we went from a Farang filled van to a mixed or normal mini-van of the Thailand people. I suppose the paid one-fourth the price that we paid. What these Mickey Mouse transfers did is devalue the reason to buy the package and also increased the time. I could have taken a boat and went straight to the bus station and the trip would have been quicker. It took two hour more than they said it would take.

LIST OF TRANSFERS
Mini-van to Boat
Boat to Bus to Surat Thani
Bus to Mini-Van
Mini-Van-to-Mini-Van Station
Mini-Van to another Mini-Van Station.
Mini-Van to the third Mini-Van Station
Changed at the stations from one Mini-Van to another - Trip to Had Yai

All this is humorous in a way, but dangerous for the bags. Each transfer is a way to lose a bag.

SATURDAY NIGHT 9:45 PM Koh Phangan Thailand
I am going to bed, but thinking about the island of Koh Pha Ngan. It is a great island, although I am thinking I am getting a little old for this Island and would enjoy a little more cultural and older crowd. But is it still one of the great beaches of the world for me.