The main reason to be making this trip at this time, is that 3 of my former English students in Japan are taking a trip to Saigon, and we have made plans to meet there.  Also, i wish to push forward the stalled Khmer 1858gc printing.  But i’m a bit afraid that i will be a burden to the people there.

The Cambodian visa people are like always: “1,000baht”.  No, i’ll only pay 20dollars.  “900 baht”. No, here is 20dollars.  “20dollars plus 100baht”.  No!  I’ve seen the Cambodian govt’s web site, and i know it only takes 20dollars.  Here is 20dollars.  Please give me a visa.  “100 baht for express service”.  No thank you.  Five minutes later, there is my passport with the visa in it.  The man standing outside the office talking to people doesn’t have a uniform on, but it is very evident that he is working with the immigration people, splitting all “proceeds” that come in.  Well, have fun splitting the 0 you got from me.  Just maybe you might think that if you didn’t do these kinds of shenanigans, more people might be interested in coming to your country.

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in cambodia-vietnam-cambodia feb-mar 2007Read More »

Starting that Thailand-hopping thing again this year.  This country is just so convenient to travel around SE Asia from, and there are people here who let me stay, and i know where many things that i want are located, and the SDA College is nearby, all things that make me keep coming back again and again.

My computer is on the fritz again!

What to eat for supper?  It is already late, and the vegetable market is closed.  I buy some cooked rice for 5baht (14cents), thinking i’ll just have that with maybe p-nuts for supper, when lo and behold, what is that registering on the back of my irises?  Could it be, yes! it’s pickled plums that my Japanese friend brought me in January!  I had forgotten about them, but they quickly form the main side dish for my supper tonite – yummy 🙂

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in thailand march 2007Read More »

The lady at the tourist information desk at KL Sentral station is very helpful in pointing me to an area where there are many cheap lodgings.  It is just one stop north on the LRT, so i think i should be able to walk it, but she is adamant that it is not walkable.  In looking at the map, i agree that it is not feasible, as Kuala Lumpur is crisscrossed by so many expressways, that it is difficult to walk for far.  So i catch the train, and quickly find a 10myr/nite (almost 3usd) dormitory.  Our tiny cubicle room, without a window, hold 4 people, but only one other guy and i occupy it until around midnite.  Seems that there is some Hindu festival where people poke themselves with sharp objects etc., and get into some ecstasy, and the main procession winds up in some cave.  That attracts many of the tourists here now, but of course i’m revolted by it.  It is nice being in KL again, and i remember this “China-town” area from when i stayed a couple of nites in 1996 on my way back from Cambodia.  KL is getting quite rich, and this “cheap” area may go the way of some skyscraper some day soon.  I hope not.

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in malaysia-singapore jan-mar 2007Read More »

The Air Asia flight was only half full, so got a good 2 hours of sleep by laying out on 3 seats of the brand-new Airbus A320.  With these discount carriers, it is good to get a seat near the rear of the plane.  Usually the last row, and maybe one more, are reserved for flight attendants, but most everyone wants a front seat, so as to get off early, so usually you can find empty rows near the back.  Even with getting off, if, like bangkok, you have go by bus to the terminal, they wait until the last person gets off the plane, so while there may be 2 busses, and those in the very front of the plane get to the terminal 5 minutes earlier, the rest all come at the same time 🙂

The former “Clark Airforce Base” is where the budget airlines come into Manila.  Actually, it is around 80km north of Manila, but there is a bus waiting to take you downtown for 350peso (7usd).  I try to call my friend, but, similar to last time in the Philippines, things just don’t work right.  One telephone doesn’t take coins, and the shop that is supposed to sell cards doesn’t have any, while the other phone doesn’t give any dial tone.  Fortunately, a lady in the bus lets me call on her cell phone, and my friend’s smiling face greets me at the PhilTranco bus terminal downtown.  I was in the Philippines 15 months ago, but in Manila only a couple of days, so don’t remember it well, except that it seemed very, very third world.  Something has changed, and now it only seems very third world – ha!

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in the philippines 2007Read More »

Perhaps instead of focusing on long, country-specific bloggings this year, i should instead try to put more little “incident” postings up….

Getting off bus #551 from the airport at 10:30pm, i adjusted my backpack, set my big black bag holding 50 English 1858gc books onto the ground, and waited for bus #54 to come.  “Show me what’s in your bag!”  A policeman coming up on a motorbike barks at me.  I’m in shock, as i’ve never heard of the police in Thailand asking to see what’s in your bag.  Thinking he might be a fake policeman, i look at him closely, and he asks to see my passport.  Still confused, i oblige.  He looks thru things, says “thank you”, and roars off.  What was that all about?

#54 had come while he was searching me, so i wait another 20 minutes until….one flies by me.  Now i’m getting a bit worried.  Not being sure just where i am, or what time the busses stop running, i edge closer to the light emanating from 7-Eleven.  Good old 7-Eleven!  It’s great to see civilization 🙂  The bus finally comes after waiting over one hour, and i find out quickly that i’m near Victory Monument, where it dumps me out.  The books are just too heavy to carry 45mins back to the Chinese Church, so i take another bus, which lets me out near MBK Plaza, where i ring in the New Year watching many pickup trucks with sirens on screaming their way thru the nite.  I find out later that some bombs had gone off, and 3 people died.  Sure glad i wasn’t caught in it.  My angels must have been on high alert tho. 

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in thailand 2007Read More »

Bangkok, with its friendly SDA Chinese church pastor, easiness to get a visa, freedom of religion, SDA college, and proximity to all the other SE Asian countries, has become a base for my travels in SE Asia.  There is a brand new airport (Suk???) situated a bit out of town, but bus 552 takes me close to Rama IV road.  551 takes you to Victory Monument.  The ticket girl on the bus tries to cheat me out of 5 baht (15cents usd), but i don’t let it pass.  She tells the bus driver about it, and they have a good laugh.  It is great coming from areas of the world where cheating is a common pastime, but done in a gruff, aggressive manner, so the cheating done here with its laugh and smile is much more appreciated.  I was told at the bus station near the airport that i would have to transfer to another bus, so wait about 15 minutes getting my blood thinned out quickly after being in cold climes for awhile.  No bus.  So i start walking to Rama IV road, lugging my two-good-wheeled suitcase behind me and up and down stairs.  I was given two tickets at the station, so thot i should give one to the bus i transfer to, but am told i have to pay again, so i get down.  Finally someone helps me to understand that i have to pay again, so i do for the next bus, a total of 32 and 11 baht for the 2-hour, traffic jammed ride.  Even after just being gone 7 1/2 months, it seems like Bangkok has become richer.  The inner city is definitely cleaner and richer looking than all the countries travelled to since Italy.

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in thailand 2006 – vRead More »

Selamat Pagi from Kudat, Borneo,
Almost one week has passed since coming to Sabah state, Malaysia, and it has been an exhausting, interesting time.  Arriving at the biggest Malay-speaking church coming straight from the airport in the evening, and seeing a table laden with a good number of English 1858GCs and the two-week-old Malay version books too, it made me very, very happy.  And they were selling too!

It was very nice when at the airport, the immigration officer apologized to me for taking so long with the man in front of me!  It was a very, very pleasant shock, as coming from places where surly faces, seemingly uninterested in their work, don’t even pretend to recognize that you are human — starts to make you dislike being a human.  No doubt it is partly because the way that people look at and treat them.  Anyway, this SE Asia attitude and way of looking at people is very sweet to be the receipient of.  I give a big, surprised smile back to him, tell him it is no problem, and walk out with an extra spring in my step 🙂

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in malaysia 2006Read More »

Nepal is mostly a land of hills, but surprisingly, there is a large portion of it that is hot lowland next to the Indian border.  The population is around 26,000,000, and it has been one of the most closed non-Islamic countries to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have been the only officially Hindu country in the world.  You can be a Christian, but you cannot proselytize, and of course you cannot have a church or do anything Christian openly.  The Seventh-day Adventist church has had an unofficial presence here for 50 years or so, all thru the auspices of a hospital in the capital.  However, the hospital has been kept from spreading the gospel both by the govt. and by employees who were afraid of ruining the medical work here.  So while not much has been done for the people’s souls, there were around 1,000 SDA members when the current SDA mission president was elected 7 years ago.  Now there are 6,000 SDAs, praise God!  And the most exciting thing, is that just this summer the people of Nepal overthrew their king, and are on the road to make a new country based on secular standards.  That means the Three Angels’ Messages can be spread openly thruout the country!  And this wave has spread to Bhutan, perhaps the most closed country in all the world, where the king has promised democractic reforms by year 2008.  God is working mightily to open up the whole Himalayan region, and now we need to be faithful in fulfilling our duty to bring those in darkness to truth.

While not even being considered until about 40 hours before actually landing in this country, my trip to Nepal turned out to be the most exciting from the standpoint of opportunities and vision to spread the gospel, and is also the country where i was treated more royally than any other in all my travels.

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in nepalRead More »

Everybody raise your hands if you know where Sharjah is? No one? OK, raise your hands if you know WHAT Sharjah is. hmmmmm.

I can’t recall the first time i heard about this city/Emirate, next to Dubai which makes up part of the United Arab Emirates, but can remember the first time it really hit my consciousness – when i was in an airport, and the “Flying Today” or something like that magazine trumpeted Sharjah on its cover, calling it the “up and coming destination”. The first airport where i saw that destination mentioned was either Bangkok or Colombo, and distinctly remember a long queue at the Air Arabia counter at Colombo around 1am when i was checking in for my flight on Air Sahara to Chennai.

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in uaeRead More »

After paying 15euro for my visa, i line up with everyone else, waiting for the customs inspection.  It is cold and rainy, but fortunately we are mostly under a tin roof, so by stamping the feet once in a while, and perceiving warmth from the multitude of fires lit on the end of tobacco sticks, the 40 minute wait slowly whiles away.  An old lady tries to walk by the young customs men, and they get ugly with her.  She turns back, unintentionally banging one hard with her umbrella – ha!  When she tires of waiting again in a few minutes, they let her proceed to the other side.  That is one thing i despise – no set rules to follow.  Because of this, the ones who push and shove and scream the loudest know that eventually they will get what they want, so the whole country becomes that way – yucko.  After the head inspector returns from the bus with 2 bottles of found vodka, the young men speed search everybody’s stuff, going thru my suitcase in less than 5 seconds.

That border is the first time in my life when i have physically stepped across 2 time zones.  It was around 6:30 when i finally got past the Georgian border house, but the next clock i saw on the Turkish immigration wall showed 4:30.  It seemed very strange to already be so dark, and only 4:30pm.  The scenes in the towns as we pass in the dark was more back to what i can call “normal” – 5-8 story apt. buildings, with lit up stores selling all manner of goods, with street lights etc.  In the 3 countries i just came from, each capital city is like that, but nothing approaching that kind of lifestyle exists in the countryside.  We roll on.

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in turkey 2006 – iiRead More »

Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan – three countries that don’t get much respect.  Two days ago in a grade-school classroom in Malaysia, a map of the world showing each country’s flag had these 3 countries all lumped under the title “Georgia” with only the Georgian flag displayed.  Sure hope that doesn’t cause some war somewhere!

The greatest thing about going to this region was in seeing the willingness of the top leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist church in each country look with favor on this 1858 Great Controversy translation and printing project.  In two of the countries the book will be/has been translated by the head of the mission their, and in one country the mission board officially voted to pursue this project.  So from not seeing much of a need to go there until already in Europe in July, to leaving this area on November 14th after staying over one month, many things happened to show me that yes, God definitely had a hand in directing my feet this direction.

Entering Georgia by bus was the worst experience i’ve ever had in crossing a country border.  First, everyone got out about 1km from the gate, and a truck came which unloaded all the cloth bot in Turkey, being imported into Georgia.  Then they put us back on, and we got out at passport control.  Being a bus full of Georgians, there was very little in the way of lining up nicely, with most of the people pushing and shoving to cram their passports to the seemingly mindless agents accepting any one within an easy reach.  I get a bit worried as the young man who was friendly to me on the bus is told he cannot get an exit stamp from Turkey.  He tells me that there is only around 5 months left on his passport, explaining the disappointment.  After getting stamped, i walk in the general direction of where most people seem to be going (noticeable by the arising cloud of smoke – ha!), and after waiting a few minutes at a little slat of a window, i see someone puffing away in a dingy office lit by one dim lightbulb, and a computer screen.  Well, at least they have computers here 🙂  Soon i am on the other side, in Georgia.

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in the caucasusRead More »

Having called my Kenyan-born friend’s friend a few days before arrival, and having his home and cell number, i don’t expect much problem reaching him.  His work ends at 11pm, and my plane lands at 11:30, so the timing should be just right – wrong.  I call several times, even cautiously ringing the house once, hoping i’m not waking up the family, but get no answer. 

A 50-something year old tout latches onto me after the bus lets us out at Syntagma square, the main square in Athens.  He asks “ladies?”  I tell him “No, hotel or internet cafe”.  He points down the street, tells me a name, and then points up the street to a internet cafe, then, while walking with me, asks me to buy him a pack of cigarretes.  “They only cost 4 or 5 euros”.  What a joke, i respond by giving him a one euro coin for his 20 seconds of trouble, and when he spits out “Stingy” after me, i almost turn back to ask him to return it if he doesn’t want it, but just ignore him, and walk up to the internet cafe.  The lady in Malaysia is pleading for the cover artwork for the book to be printed soon, but no one here has a usb port, so i am out of luck.

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in greeceRead More »

The afternoon of September 6 finds my train pulling into a nice old station near a lake.  There was no passport check or anything, but now you’re in Switzerland.  There are people biking and walking and sailing all over, and the general feeling is very relaxing.  One train change places me on a packed express bound for Zurich.  The beautiful green countryside in the late afternoon sun with the cows grazing peacefully pleases the eyes and provides a pleasant contrast, if it can be called that, with the high-tech life that makes up city life in Zurich.

The friend who is to meet me is someone who posted a few times on my earlysda forum.  It was not even in my mind to come to Switzerland when first planning this trip to Europe, and only the last week or so in India did it occur to me that if i was in Germany already, that perhaps it would be worthwhile to meet this man who said he has Greek friends who may be able to help get this gc book into that language.  I don’t have any clue to what he looks like, or his spiritual condition, except that he is Kenyan-born.

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in switzerlandRead More »