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My Corona Diary December 2020 - 2021


Nasiadai
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 Nasadai, my apologies also for poisoning your thread.

One thing to bear in mind though, MPIH and I are also good friends in real life, and have been for over 15 years now. What may seem like “arguments” to some, are in fact, just akin to siblings squabbling as we “winden sich gegenseitig auf”

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Texas Lone Star was the first bar that dearly departed board member “Dumsoda” and I set off on an epic “Pub Crawl” back in 2004. 

The event was my 40th birthday and the task was”to consume 40 double Gin Tonics in a day” damn stupid in retrospect but seemed like a good idea at the time. We did the Square, Queens Park Plaza and eventually Cowboy,  an epic day out.

MPIH first introduced me to dumsoda in real life, so that means MPIH and I have been mates closer to 20 years than the 15 previously stated. Fark, where does time go to.

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Mpih and Mekong,
thank you for the information.
By the way:
I know DumSoda quite well; or I should say I knew him well. He had a small guesthouse and a wonderful restaurant directly on the Mekong in Nong Khai; together with his Thai wife. She brought a little Thai daughter into the marriage. DumSoda was very proud of his stepdaughter; I could observe several times how he touchingly took care of the girl.
Dumsoda was Australian.
When I came to Nong Khai for the first time after many years - I think it was 2015 - he picked me up at the train station at 7am and chauffeured me to his guesthouse. We had arranged to meet beforehand via this board.
Unfortunately, Dumsoda passed away a few years ago; in 2019, I think.

 

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2 hours ago, Mekong said:

The event was my 40th birthday and the task was”to consume 40 double Gin Tonics in a day” damn stupid in retrospect but seemed like a good idea at the time. We did the Square, Queens Park Plaza and eventually Cowboy,  an epic day out.

Though it seems unlikely, I witnessed that, or at least the early part.   

I'd met with X, at the bar and was introduced to your good selves, already well into the teens of G&Ts.

Though it may have been at the bar in the corner with the excellent ribs special. Same 40 themed event, I am sure.

X - I've forgotten his board name, well known to all of us, large fellow, glasses, out of, and recently returned to, America. 

Dumsoda, fond memories

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God I remember hearing about that event

 

If G/t's involved you knew it was going to hell

 

Suadam is not so healthy so thoughts with him

 

When Dumbsoda moved to NongKai, the restaurant was named after my daughter, wife taught him some of the pizza tricks, most of the western stuff he knew. Good food, not expensive, great location

 

The girl is now about 16, I keep in touch with them, my son is the same age, they met when about 5 or 6, he and her good friends when we lived in Thailand with many stay overs etc She was very possessive and bossy, they looked like and old couple sometimes, really nice girl and mum and as you say, Dumbcunt really loved her as his own daughter

 

Yes, Mekong is a real arsehole, and he's wrong, as only a brother could say about him :)

 

I didn't know you knew Dumbcunt (in life we called him that, seemed more appropriate than Dumbsoda) Nasiadai,

 

My son loved Dumbcunt, they were very close. I remember every Christmas Dumbcunt family would come over, and all the kids would get I think 500 baht to spend at the local Tesco

 

My girls would work out what to buy down to the last satang.

 

My son would spend about 200 baht, and stop.

 

Dumbcunt would say "You have 500, buy some other toys"

 

Nope this is all I want he'd say

 

Good mates those two, my son was very sad when DC passed away

 

Keep the memories flowing, I am sure there are many events we all know but have forgotten

 

 

 

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Coroana and my vicious "health condition" - better disease condition - have not allowed travel to SEA since 2020. Like most others, I am sitting at home; there was and is no thought of long-distance travel.
Therefore, here is another picture report from March 2017, which I sent to my email list.
I have about 30 people on my email list - family, friends, acquaintances - to whom I sent this quickly written picture report. I just wanted to let my loved ones back home in Germany know where I was and what I was up to.

is about to continue ... Report to follow shortly.

 

 

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Yangon in March 2017

I am in the park with the Independence Monument in the late afternoon. It is the Mahabandoola Garden. Large parts of the park are already in the shade. This attracts many people

1514308416_ParkmitSule-DSC00263.jpg.692f0e69f2fb7b74bf025d8aabfd3a92.jpg

The stupa of the Sule Pagoda can be seen in the background.
 

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Two young girls are busy with their smartphones - like probably everyone else in the world by now.

 

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The stupa of the Sule Pagoda.

This pagoda is located in the middle of a traffic island in the heart of the old town. It is more like an "everyday pagoda". Many Buddhist believers come here to perform their religious duties.There is always a lot going on here.

 

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This picture was taken by a friendly young man who spent the late afternoon playing his guitar in the park.

 

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What an umbrella is good for. It can often be very useful as an umbrella. I
t can also be used as a parasol to ward off the blazing hot rays of the sun.
Here it is used very expediently as a privacy screen against all too curious glances. Because behind this umbrella sits a pair of very young lovers, smooching quite vigorously and celebrating their first young love.

 

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Most men wear this fabric as legwear. The fabric is tied with an elaborate knot below the navel.
How it holds is beyond me.
I almost bought one of these "trousers". But I can't tie the knot any more, because 2 hands are absolutely necessary for that.

 

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The pillar of Burmese independence. The country became independent in 1948.

 

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In front of the park is the city hall built by the British. It is an impressive piece of architecture.
Note the refined architecture of the building. The arches provide additional sun protection for the rooms that lie behind them.

 

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Diagonally opposite the park and the city hall is a Baptist church. Above the entrance a picture of our Lord as a shepherd in the midst of a flock of sheep. Actually a very kitschy picture.
Our Lord Jesus Christ really does not deserve that.
The clock does not show the correct time. It simply stopped long before.

 

1099939775_Flagge-DSC00312.jpg.48224f575114b92478ab5ce27718868c.jpg

In the reception of my guesthouse. How did the flag get there?
If the young Burmese couple who run this guesthouse knew what Germany is like. It is in the process of abolishing itself. Germany will soon no longer exist. The country is cowardly surrendering to mass Islamic immigration. The next flood is coming. That is as certain as the muezzin calling from the minaret. Even then, anyone who opposes it is a right-wing populist (at least), even a Nazi.
(I wrote that in 2017. In the last 5 years, hundreds of thousands more have come. Most of them, about 75%, receive social assistance; they do not even think about integrating into the German labour market, e.g. by doing a vocational apprenticeship or training.)

 

873446078_Kneipe-DSC00320.jpg.bbf370de8705e351b8d568e64055c049.jpg

Charly in the evening in Rangoon. In my favourite pub. Over water and Myanmar lager.
This is where my texts and reports are written.
The pub - which is also a restaurant - is a male domain, just like here. Women rarely appear here, and when they do, they are accompanied by their families. The pub is about 100 metres from my guesthouse. Yangon's middle classes frequent here; from the residential quarter of this area; something like that. Temperatures in the evening with the door open, about 28 degrees. I feel comfortable here, almost like at home. In the evening in the "Wellnetz! at Lady Sabrina's or at "Josef's" in the Stoffeln beer garden; two stone's throw from the university. My favourite pubs in Duesseldorf.

Greetings from Rangoon - Yangon - Burma, Myanmar - March 2017.

 

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<<Because behind this umbrella sits a pair of very young lovers, smooching quite vigorously>>

 

Reminds me of some of my first trips to Laos when it was not at all tourist friendly.

 

Sitting on one of the bamboo bars on the high slopes just west of town was a great place to drink ice cold beer laos

 

I was there with a few friends and we could hear disco music every now and then.

 

Being mid afternoon was a tad odd, plus then there was only 3 disco/s in Vientiane, the "Official" tolerated one in one of the hotel that westeners went too, plus one on the way into town from the bridge near where Meena's became and one other

 

So any western pop noise was rare.

 

We noticed young people stopping, coming and going.

 

After a little while we realized on the other side of the dirt soi from us was a bunker type building with thick looking doors,

 

We sauntered over, knocked on the door and admitted to a "Day Time" disco

 

Was awfully good fun, no one would talk to us much,

 

As Vientiane quickly got popular this fun little spots disappeared, and 5/10 years later the wonderful bamboo bars went as well, the dirt roads became sealed

 

I complained about all the wonderful food and bars that went away on the slopes above the river to a laos friend as we looked over the new long bicycle pathway and flattened areas, real restaurants, etc.

 

Why? Look at all the laos people there, they are having a great time, you want the nostalgia they want a future.

 

I do miss it

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