This entry is really aimed at my family, part of which I shocked, to some extent, last month.

I spent New Year's Eve in Bangkok — at very short notice, I must say. One of those spur-of-the-moment things, I've been known to do before.
During my stay in BKK, I (actually that should be 'we') made arrangements to get married (the part that surprised those that were unaware of our plans).

My first visit to Asia has left some overwhelming impressions, so many, in fact, that I am leaving you with my pictures, to tell most of the story about what I saw:

Temples and the King's palace covered in gold, while only yards away hundreds of people sleep in an open square, because they have nowhere else to go. Nightly market stalls offering fruit and vegetables unknown to many Europeans, along with food (e.g. crickets and grubs) that many would never consider trying. One of the most polluted rivers worldwide, which just happens to flow through the hottest metropole in the world. And the ruins of an imposing Capital, built in the 13th century.

In Bangkok I was able to see many official offices while registering divorces, applying for various papers, applying for name-changes and queueing to get married ...
The officials all wear military uniforms with wads of badges pinned to them, to show how much red-tape they have fought.

Many dozens of Kilometers were covered in various taxis, while traveling back and forth between these offices. Two things struck me on these jaunts:
First — Although the temperature outside was between 35° and 37° the taxis were always cooled to 17° — after two days I developed the worst cough I've ever had.
Second — If there are any traffic-laws in Thailand, no-one ever follows them!
Personally I would say there are none. Just do your own thing.
If the road has three lanes, open up a forth and fifth or even a sixth!
If the lights change to red, just sound your horn and keep on going.
If a pedestrian tries to cross the road, even on one of those silly pedestrian-crossing-thingies, he or she is fair game — just go after them!
If you can think of an unusual method of robbing someone of his right of way, just try it; even if it means turning at junctions on the wrong side of the road!

Outside the cities, it is not unusual to observe eight-feet-long snakes slithering across the roads. Luckily (for the snakes) 95% of Thailand's population is Buddhist. Unlike pedestrians, it is a sin to kill an animal.
Public transport: A pick-up with two benches perched in the cargo-area and covered with a cloth roof to protect against the sun.
The driver sounds his horn every time he passes a Statue of Buddha or a temple, so that his passengers may raise their folded hands to their forehead in a 'Wai' as a sign of respect.
The drivers of all the cars around you do exactly the same, abandoning their steering-wheels for seconds on end ...
... even if the holy statue just so happens to be in the middle of a traffic island!

Pictures say more than a thousand words — enjoy ...

Now that, I call strange!

Some time in December, both my main hard-drive and my backup hard-drive failed. I have had to reconstruct work from the last ten years from Web-Sites and from crumbs that I've found lying around on various external drives.

Amongst other things, of course, this blog.
I found some backup data containing published blog-entries on one drive and look — I was able to reconstruct (I think) my complete blog — but could I publish it — I could not!
I can't say how many dozens of times, I've tried to re-publish these pages without success.
Please don't ask me what I did differently today — I have no idea.

The main thing is — I am back online.

More to follow!

Perhaps a fitting title for the time of year?

Peace!
Standing in the Swiss meadow, I take in the tinkling of the sheep's bells, the rhythmic 'dong, dong, dong' of the cowbells as they munch the grass, the twittering of the birds as they go about their business.
The sky is blue and the snow-capped mountains look crisp and beautiful in the morning sun.
Allaa eea eea eeahh!

The serenity of my surroundings is suddenly disturbed by the tinny call of the Mullah as he calls people to prayer from his minaret!



The SVP began one of their usual discriminating campaigns this autumn and called people to vote against the building of minarets in Switzerland. As usual the posters were defaced or ripped from the walls but, surprisingly, the Swiss people went to vote and decided that minarets shouldn't be built here in Switzerland.

Tit for tat you might say, after all, Christians aren't allowed to build their churches in Muslim or Islamic communities, so why should Muslims be allowed to build their houses of worship in Europe?
Well, European constitution stipulates freedom of religion, for one thing!
I'm not quite sure what it was that moved the Swiss to vote as they did. Although I respect the fact that it is [usually] the people that decide what may or may not come to pass in Switzerland, I think the SVP successfully created a vision of minarets being built in Swiss areas of beauty.
That is rather short-sighted. I would expect any Minaret to be built close to a Muslim or Islam community, and I can't see any such community being situated outside the main cities.
Any building erected in Switzerland is, just like anywhere else in Europe, subject to rules and regulations. This means it would not be possible to build a minaret anywhere close to open landscape or living areas where the rules stipulate that no building may be erected that is higher than two stories. This poses quite a restriction, I would say.

I recently visited a Buddhist temple. A marvelous building in bright red and yellow, with a roof of gold.
It sat right next to the Aldi car-park in the middle of Gretzenbach's industrial area.
It is visited by Buddhist from all over Switzerland — it is, after all, the only one in Switzerland.
Why is it the only one? Not, I think, because Swiss Buddhist enjoy traveling between two and four hours to worship, but because building any house-of-worship devours enormous sums of money — almost impossible for small communities.
The Buddhist temple wouldn't be in Switzerland if the King-of-Thailand's-Mom hadn't paid for it to be built.
The same applies, I think to minarets — 4% of the Swiss community is Muslim. Without help from abroad, not too many more mosques (there are 90 already, with and without minarets) are going to jump up in the Swiss mountains.

This time, I think, the Swiss were ill informed before they went to vote and didn't take the time to inform themselves of the present situation ...

The weather is changing ...



Wednesday to Friday we had smatterings of snow and I had to clear snow off the windscreen before I could go to work.
Well, at least it gives me time to look at the scene around me ...

Yesterday, it snowed all day long. I had quite a shock when I pulled off the road to let a car pass on the single-track-road: I always knew that wet meadows are not ideal for driving in and even the best 4x4s have problems driving in them ...
I drove off the road and onto a meadow covered in wet snow and, even though I'm using winter tyres, my car just slithered uncontrollably down the hill and refused to be braked until it left the meadow on the other side.
Luckily there wasn't much in my path, other than a wire fence (which didn't survive the encounter and which I hid afterwards).

To change the subject ...

This is what todays weather is doing:






Just in case you didn't really believe me — it is snowing!

The leaves are changing colour again and up here in the mountains, this always goes hand-in-hand with some of the most amazing morning views.



Here is one I photographed on Wednesday morning. Click to see the larger version.