It stopped raining for 2 or 3 days and since then it has been raining every day, but just not all day.

(Farang is Thai for foreigner) I agree with Phil.uk.net that Farangs seem to rave about places that aren't very good. Yes you and I must have been away the day they put magic mushrooms in evertyone's tea, which causes them to think : "Everyone does... so it must be great".

Me I make my own decisions no matter what other people think. I was heading from KL to Koh Pha Ngang, but I like to stop off at small towns on the way so it took me 2 weeks to reach there. When I arrived I thought 1. It's not Thailand as prices are double, and locals rarely smile and 2. I didn't like it much.

It seems Burma has exclusion zones by use of strong laws. Thailand has achieved the same thing by virtue of Lonely Planet and brainwashing. Thus there are 2 zones : Real Thailand, and tacky tourist zone Thailand. One can see that Farang are confined to Kao San Road Bkk, Chang Mai and Trekking, Phuket, Koh Samui Ko Pha Ngan and the diving islands like Koh Tao. Malaysian tourists are largely confined to the border brothel areas.

One can find equally gorgeous beaches on the mainland quite easily accessible without ferries and the food and transport are not double prices, but Farangs seem to love the artificial places, whereas they don't go to the normal Thailand of generous, smiley friendly people.
The Thai culture in those touristy areas has been squashed and mishapen. It's as if Thais can only work there if they hold a Mafia work permit. Maybe Thais and Mass Farang tourists mix like orange and milk. It seems to bring out the worst in both of them. A lot of the Thais become slimey greedy manipulative moneymakers, while the Farang are more often ignorant arrogant and loud.

Seems as well as these "unindependent tourists", in the other places the foreigners seem to be weirdos. Do I fall into the weirdo category ? No wonder many Thais don't like Farangs.

Overpaying I hold to the principle of getting the right price, though I don't mind tipping for good service particularly to poor & Myanmar workers. That way you are not making it more expensive for the travellers after you and not skewing the local market. . But all too often the Farang's principle is "ah fuck it, it's only $2, $5, $10"

Phil points out this doesn't help the poor as the rich class take the money and continue to pay their workers a pittance.
OK by rights, the government could restore confidence in the Baht and pay people like rice farmers properly. So that a 200 Baht hotel room costs 20 quid and a 25B fried rice should cost £2.50. But they don't so that's one big reason we come to Thailand.

It started raining on saturday night 72 hours later on Tuesday night it stopped. Then it rained for 5 hours on Wednesday morning I

Thailand Government sinking like the titanic 5 ministers resign over corruption

Listened to some good documentaries on Radio Netherlands - Chávez, Escher, Orang Utans

Fri - it stopped raining so I went out to the famous grass hills out of town, which face the cliff-face streams (near vertical waterfalls) across the highway.

Green Hills Panorama video from my site

Outrageous foreigner pricing : I walked 1.5Km to the Ngao Waterfalls NP, but they wanted me to pay 200B ie 10 times the Thai price. So I just said no, I would like to give some money to Thai National Parks but that's more than my hotel, or 10 plates of fried rice, or 10 glasses of beer and even in England I wouldn't pay that much for a waterfall. Yet super cheap prices in this region Instead of being 10B the ST is 5B, a coke was 5B, Rice/meat soup was also 5B

I walked down the road to the village, there were shops selling the area speciality : cashew nuts : which I don't like, but none sold the cashew fruit which I really do like.

Nothing exciting in the village - so went to the Wat at the end of then green hills nice view

Green Hills Temple Panorama video from my site
had to hitch back .. rain again

Sat - yes the rains back all day. Saturday - rain stopped so I walked out to Governor Kaw's grave - nothing exciting

walking and doing internet work

- I checked the transcript

"Our field research suggests that they're saving an average of 30% of monthly income for people"
- bollocks no way do people spend 30% of ther income on one light

"each lantern it's a staggering 360 kilograms of carbon dioxide a year. So one of these little lanterns puts up a tonne of carbon dioxide, .. every seven years ",
- eh ? hang on his maths is crap .. 1000Kg over 7 years is about 143 Kg a year

my calculation : the molecular weight Carbon is 12, of CO2 is 44, so 1Kg Carbon gives 4 Kg of CO2, they use 35-40 litres of Kerosene/year that’s no way 30% of their income is it ? it could be as low as $7/year @ some prices
Even if his first figure of 360Kg is right we could multiply by 2.5 and it still wouldn't be much

" I imagine you flew out here (from the UK), Jeremy." also "I flew out of Brisbane. " (what no sleeper train ?) yes he flew at least twice