from a BBC article discussing how an insolvent bank is handled. As a warning, so you can keep an eye out and make sure your own funds are safe, here's what's truly important for your bank to do apparently: 

 

"Almost the single most important aspect should be implementing a clear communications and PR strategy"

 link

I hope my bank is good at lying to me if that's the case. Isn't that sad?

....that lets you get a divorce in 2 hours, start to finish, as long as your identification papers are in order. Done as of yesterday, for those who keep track of these things.
So just hours later, already on the bus to return home, one of the bus tires blows out and everyone who was sleeping (myself included) wakes due to the noise. Less than 30 km later, the bus pulls into a tire repair facility for the particular bus company we are using. Don't know enough Thai to discover if this is coincidence, or they just have so many repair facilities that you're always close to one. Do know that the word 'repair' in the business title is quite misleading....
It's actually 1 am when this occurs, and for the next 90 minutes I'm blessed to watch a man use a sledgehammer and pick to remove the shredded carcass of the old tire and put a new tire on the wheel. No fancy machines that remove the old rubber with the touch of a button here. It's not until he stands the tire up (it stands about 4 feet tall, bus tires are big after all) that I realize the rubber he has just installed is missing the outside tread, a good 2 inches wide, for about 1/3 of the circumference of the tire. It's gone, but you can't see inside the tire, it's still airtight. For now. There's a crack in the sidewall that's big enough to put my little finger in. So we're not getting a NEW tire, just a DIFFERENT tire.
But I'm pleased to report we managed to travel the remaining 4 hours to Bangkok without further incident. I'm writing this in the Taipei airport, waiting for the last air leg of the trip back. Can't say I'm excited to go home, I miss Thailand again already. But there's always next summer to look forward to. My stepdaughter has asked to come to the US for a vacation. Maybe next May, when the Thai schools are closed.
I'll fill in more details for any who are to ask. Yes, things are percolating with my Thai neighbor across the street. We didn't spend alot of time together this trip, she's scared to death of what Lena might do if we are found out, and if I do end up making this a serious relationship we will probably have to move to Mae Sot (big downside there, that's the town on the Burma border being overwhelmed with refugees today due to the current repression). But that might also offer the chance to help some refugees. Who knows what opportunities lie ahead for those who aspire to help others?

24 November, 2550

At least, that's the date here in Sukothai, Thailand. Loy Kratong, 2007 for you who insist on the Western calendar. Loy Kratong is the lover's holiday here in Thailand, the 11th full moon of the year each year. It also happens to fall close to the King's birthday, 5 December, this year, (his 80th) and so is especially poignant. Tonight 'kratongs' will be set afire and floated out into the river, to better carry away strife and trouble and begin life anew tomorrow. Makes for a beautiful scene, lots of candles floating downstream, some rather large as towns and organizations compete. Most small, as that's all a few units of local currency will buy these days. And a few units is all anyone has here.

Sukothai is a World Heritage Site, renowned for old ruins of a past society that was never completely conquered by outsiders. Few, if any, can make that claim. Today it's descendants don't pay much attention to anything happening outside their borders. Maybe that's the way to do it. Get the US out of Iraq and stop paying attention to anyone else outside our borders. Bet that would get the currency moving back up again!

In closing, here's to you and yours, on the auspicious occurence of His Majesty's 80th birthday. Long Live the King!

 

[Follow-up, 27 Nov: Having arrived so close to Loy Kratong, I missed the heavy promotional campaign waged here in Thailand to make the holiday 'green'. Traditional kratongs, made of much plant material, also contained much plastic. Some few were all plastic. In these few days since the heaviest night of floating Kratongs (the locals float them nightly for a week to some degree) the news is full of complaints that 'Yes, there was a lot less plastic in the kratongs this year, but people carry them to the river in plastic bags, and just drop the bags which then get blown into the river....'

I also rode the bus through the Sukothai Heritage Park Sunday at noon. I have never seen so many plastic bags littering a park before in my life. I'm sure every person who attended the festivities/fireworks Saturday dropped at least 2...... It's just embarrassing.

 

....to look up at a newly sat table in my section and see a man, with 5 (yes, five!) children strewn around a table meant for 4, with all 5 between the ages of 18 months and 6. That's a huge span of control, for one adult, and the heart shudders at the mayhem you just know is about to ensue.

But even after feeding spicy cheese sauce to the 18 month-old, all the children were well behaved, but able to play and have some fun. Daddy was even able to carry on at least 2 work-related phone calls over dinner. It is pleasing to be reminded that not all children are rowdy animals.