My Old Blogs at Yahoo!360 / MTP

We went to Loei in NE Thailand for the second time and the trip was great. It was "cold" for us. Will blog in details after I move all the pics from camera into my pc and have them uploaded somewhere. Maybe I will do it this weekend or next week...

In Loei we went down a cave that had stalactite, stalagmite, and a well of "sacred water" and a few buddha statues inside, including a reclining one, which was huge. There were some real bats at the vault of the cave!!!!! We climbed the steep stairs up the cliff which was the outside of that cave, we came down the cliff and took pictures of monkey-like creatures that were called "Presbytis phayrei Blyth". They looked like spectacled langurs. We had lunch on a free floating roofed raft in a lake, we crossed the Thai-Lao bridge over Heuang river on foot -- without any paper with us, until an officer on the Thai side came riding a bike to tell us to get back to the Thai side, while the officers on the Lao side were overwhelmed by the number of "illegal" tourists that had no permits. We went to a fresh market and saw fried bugs, rat meat, bird meat, mole meat, boar meat, beehives, etc... Many were from Laos. These were supposedly illegal!!!!!!

Anyway... right now our country is mourning for the loss of King's elder sister. She passed away in the morning of Jan-2, of cancer. She had been hospitalized since June. A greatly loved princess, who had started many useful projects for the benefits of the Thai people.... I feel sad for the King, too.   HM had been visiting her at the hospital everyday!!!!!!

HM is 80 years old. Was ill and hospitalized, but is OK now. He gave several speeches on different days to different groups of people before the New Year. HM encouraged those people in the government and the Congress to always exercise tolerance, justice, and to help bringing harmony back to the society. HM is greatly loved and respected in this country....