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This log is current to the end of 2003 Please check our Nepal photo galleries. On December 11, 2003 we will celebrate the completion of our 4th year of travel. When we depart Nepal we’ll head for Thailand. After a month or so (including a visit to the beaches in the south and to the jungle hospital where we volunteer our assistance), we’ll head for Laos. November 29, 2003 in Kathmandu November 30, 2003 in Kathmandu
After two months here and a new understanding of many things that are wonderful about Nepal, and others that are contemptible, we two members of The Gypsy Wagon Expedition will depart for Thailand at mid day tomorrow. December 2, 2003 departing Nepal for Thailand We have posted 163 Nepal photos in our galleries, but many thousands more in our minds and hearts. We have seen pain and compassion here, in extremes we never dreamed possible. We found you horribly burdened and yet somehow strong and proud, a nation of honest, hardworking people who will not forever be cruelly oppressed by those who are corrupt and crazed in the quest for power. To those who steal from orphans, murder the innocent, cheat and lie without conscience, may you somehow learn compassion, humanity and love.
December 4, 2003 in Kanchanaburi, Thailand We soared over over Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal and then high above the evil military dictators of Burma before landing gently in Bangkok. It’s a good thing we’ve been in Bangkok so many times. Otherwise our confused taxi driver might never have delivered us to the correct bus station (the Southern Bus Instead of heading south to Hua Hin as planned, due to the crush of travelers tomorrow, on the King’s Birthday, we’ll remain in Kanchanaburi. Please check our updated Expedition Statistics. December 8, 2003 in Kanchanaburi, Thailand December 17, 2003 in Thailand After Christmas (and don’t let any of those screwballs tell you not to use the word Christmas, or put up the Christmas decorations or displays of your choosing!), we’ll head to Bangkok to take the December 28 night train north to the border of Laos. A challenge of traveling the way we do involves obtaining visas for various countries. While we’re in western Thailand, a travel agent in Bangkok will be obtaining our rather costly Laotian visas, allowing a 30-day stay.. We hope you can read this item from the Moon Handbook on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. At one point we considered taking the train in Cambodia. Since service is said to depend on “whether the track or engines have been blown up,” we’ll find some other way to get to around that country. We’ll also avoid the capitol of Cambodia because of its recent diplomatic trouble with Thailand, resulting in the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh being burned to the ground. Fortunately, our Cambodia goal is Angkor, one of the world’s premier archeological sites. Happy birthday to Don’s mother, who turns 84 tomorrow. Followup: in a previous log we reported that the former four-term governor of South Dakota (and currently the state’s lone Congressman) Bill Janklow would be tried on manslaughter charges as a result of having blown through a stop sign at 70 mph and killing a motorcyclist. We were particularly outraged by Janklow’s long history of driving like an arrogant maniac and his lame excuses for being a public menace who obviously considered himself above the law. Photo: the intersection where the former governor routinely failed to slow down to the speed limit, let alone stop, until he finally killed someone. In our opinion, South Dakota has made some hysterically bad choices in the election of public officials (ie: U.S. Senator Tom “politics before statesmanship” Daschle; Former Senator Larry “press release” Pressler). Fortunately, Janklow may spend years in the very prison he was long responsible for as Governor. At last: a ruby in the dung of state politics. This man, who once proudly stated in his “state of the state” address as governor that he would continue speeding just because he could afford to, will resign his congressional seat in humiliation January 20, 2004 the day he is sentenced by the court. As South Dakota residents, we will vote absentee in next year’s special election, hoping that our next congressperson will elevate the overall quality of the state’s representation in Congress. Maybe they’ll take down the “Beware: Congressman Driving” signs at the state’s borders. Now, back to the exploration of Asia’s nooks and crannies. December 18, 2003 in Kanchanaburi Things are coming together for Laos at the end of the month, followed by China, Cambodia -- and maybe, finally, Tibet! We’ve been studying our guides for Laos and came across this rather interesting line: “The main non-Buddhist 'religion' is phii worship, a spirit cult that is officially banned. Hmong/Mien tribes practice animism and ancestral worship, and some follow a Christian version of the cargo cult, believing Jesus Christ will arrive in a jeep, dressed in combat fatigues.” December 22, 2003 in western Thailand We think you would like Alyie, because she is like you -- she never gets tired! You could tell her all about your life in America (including listening to the shell Uncle Don and Aunt Becky brought you from the Bahamas), and Aylie could tell you all about life as a blond little girl in western Thailand, with a Scottish mother and American father. CLICK HERE to read about KRCH. We’ve been invited to Christmas dinner with friends Jane and Mike tonight. We’ll be joined by other “outsiders” who have been drawn here for a variety of reasons. On Christmas day we’ll head back to Kanchanaburi on an ancient, underpowered bus whose driver likes to honk his air horn every few moments. December 27, 2003 in Kanchanaburi
One important update: the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu has heightened its warning for Americans traveling to Nepal. In addition, the U.S. has designated the Communist Party of Nepal (the Maoists) a terrorist organization. December 28, 2003 looking back Although Nepal is a poor country with huge challenges, it is rich in brilliant individuals like Raju, who exhibit uncommon levels of common sense. We close this last 2003 log with something well worth pondering -- words of wisdom gleaned from one of Raju’s E-mails. “At the highest levels of thinking, you can understand things as they are -- not as you are.” How different the world would be if more people thought with such purity. Happy New Year, everyone. |
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The adoption fees collected last year -- and now blown on foreign junkets just completed -- approximates the gross annual incomes of about 66 laborers working six days a week, 12 hours a day to feed their families. The tiniest portion of that money would keep scores of starving people alive. In a nation where conditions are so grim that the suicide rate has now surpassed the alarming number of deaths resulting from the Maoist insurrection, making off with money from the Nepal Children’s Organization is, in our option, sickeningly despicable. 
To our many new friends, and all those who simply wish to live in safety and with dignity, please know how deeply you have touched us. Thank you for demonstrating that the radiance of the human spirit can not be extinguished with cruelty. You have taught us many things we never knew, even about ourselves -- and that has been our quest since the day we began our expedition 1,452 days and nearly 180,000 miles ago. With our hearts, thank you. Namaste. 
Station is actually in the west-northwest part of the city) for the ride to Kanchanaburi, where we arrived just in time to catch up with old friends and take in the annual program simulating the construction and eventual bombing of the bridge over the River Kwai.
Forgive this total diversion from our stated mission, but it’s nearly Christmas and we feel the need to communicate a message to Becky’s adorable five year old Nephew Gabe in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. 
Gabe, we have found a friend for you to have someday. Her name is Aylie and she’s the four year old daughter of church worker friends of ours in Sangklaburi, Thailand. 
This train engine wheel in front of the Kwai River Christian Hospital (KRCH) in Huay Molai, Thailand is from WWII’s infamous “death railway,” built by the Japanese, who worked thousands of Allied soldiers to death in the process. Today, KRCH stands near the route of the abandoned railway, serving ethnic Thai and hill tribe minorities, many of whom suffer crushing poverty and jungle diseases. It also serves minorities fleeing Burma’s cruel Army.
We offer our wedding congratulations to new friends Colin (from England) and Aoh (from Thailand). It was a delight exploring the area and sharing Christmas with them near the Burma border. Meeting individuals like these two thoughtful travelers is a prime benefit of Gypsy life on the road.