Doldrums

It's hot as blazes in Bangkok---it's that time of year---and you'd think the angry red shirts and indignant yellow shirts would give it a rest. But no. The red shirts are still camped out at Democracy Monument and threatening unspecified havoc unless the Abhisit government agrees to new elections. Face-to-face negotiations over the weekend went nowhere. A number of grenades have been hurled at government buildings with little damage and no serious injuries so far. The red shirt leaders say they can't imagine who is doing these bad things. No one knows what will happen next.

Joe's terrific pictures of Burma (below) made me wish I had quit smoking at age 26 instead of 46 so that I could have accompanied him on his treks among the Chin and Shan. What a superb adventure, and what a keen and eager soul taking it all in.

I did my visa run to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and a weekend in K-L, as the locals call it, is about right. The city is San Diego with mosques. There are said to be Islamic secret police keeping an eye on people, but I saw no evidence of that. On the monorail that loops around the city, the young people were voluble and easy-going. A teenaged girl in a Muslim headscarf kidded around with a boy wearing a T-shirt that said Beer for Brains. The Malaysians are often great-looking people. With a history of being on the main trade route from China to Europe, the former Malaya attracted large populations of Indians, Indonesians and Chinese, a real melting pot. At the National Museum, I saw a display extolling Malaysia's harmonious multi-ethnic society. Then my Malay taxi driver spent 15 minutes ranting about the perfidious local Chinese and their "monkey tricks." A highlight of the weekend was the Islamic Arts Museum. It made me want to book early passage to Samarkand, Tashkent, Baku, Cordoba.

Instead, we head home in three weeks. We have one last excursion to make, nine days (April 7-16) at the Jungle House resort that is owned by our friend Dick Sandler. It's in a rainforest near a national park in southern Thailand. We've been receiving reports of tropical rains in New England, so this will be good preparation for coming home.