080602 Thaikarl - where is he now? why so quiet?

friends,

yes, i'm back in the USA.  the transition is dreary, but i can't complain.  well, actually i could, but it's the same old complaint so why bother?  i've been fortunate to have been quite busy with jobs since i returned, and i have other things lined up for the next couple of weeks.  got caught up on some "past due" notices, sent money to the family in thailand so they aren't living on fumes.  and i'm looking forward to returning home, probably in october as our wedding is November 11th.

speaking of wedding stuff.  a number of people have expressed interest in coming to thailand for our wedding, and to have a little vacation there.  this is wonderful!  november is a good time of year for thailand- the weather is cooler, and the rainy season is finishing.  if you are considering coming to thailand, please email me, i will make a separate email list for possible wedding guests.  if you turns out that you can't actually come for the wedding, that's okay.  we realize it can be difficult to get the money together and get time off work for those of you who have, like regular jobs.  i can answer questions, offer travel and hotel tips etc.  we are planning to be as helpful as possible- we can come to bangkok to retrieve visitors, set up accommodations in the area according to your tastes, suggest things to do and places to go whilst you are in country.  so email me back and i'll get the list started and i'll post a info page on my website.

i miss tok, and thailand very much.  we've been using Skype lately, because it has audio AND video - and it's free.  works pretty well actually, just like the video-phones we were promised in the future.  our DSL connection in the village is a bit flakey, and i suspect the ISP throttles down the bandwith, so tok has to reconnect with me fairly often but it's not that much of an interrruption.  we are used to it from all our daily phone calls.   i use a calling card from nobelcom.com, when i call her the call is routed thru local phone systems, and all sorts of computer systems, into the cloud and back down to her mobile phone, so we get garbled signals, bad sound, wrong numbers, failure to connect issues all the time.  but the calls are cheap - about 20 hours talk time for 20 dollars for the USA to thailand mobile phone cards.  but Skype is free.

i'm presently staying at my sisters in north seattle.  but i'm looking to get more self-contained and mobile.  gasoline is getting to be a big issue.  i'm looking for the right van, camper, or small mobile home so i can have a place to live, be near where i'm working, and spend as little as possible to live here.  after all, i am only here to make money to go back home to live in thailand!  so every dollar i save here, is another dollar for thai country life!

onward!