Lol - glad you enjoyed your trip to the land of smiles, or where I live in Bangkok it is still the land of facemasks!
You chose part of the country that has a lot of real beauty - Phuket to Krabi.
What you noticed about the 5G is absolutely true.
And it happened during Covid starting with lockdown one in 2020-the 5G towers were rolled out big time. Before that there was little 5G here.
And they propagandized the "cash is dirty" and you must pay with digital payments, and the government had a promotion of 50:50 if you paid with digital payments where the government paid 50% - billions and billions of baht were spent on this program - and it mostly benefited people who had money, jobs and businesses, while all the peoples lives and businesses that were ruined by the policies, got nothing.
Just like everywhere the wealth transfer was shocking as all the big businesses like 7/11 and Big C stayed open and the mom and pop shops were sent broke.
And if you search the World Economic Forum's partnership list you find all the biggest businesses here, especially banks are members! And for those that are not you'll find that Vanguard, BlackRock and Statestreet own a good chunk. In some cases like the Thai bank Krungsi Bank, the 5th largest, it is owned by MUFG, the Japanese financial group which is a senior partner of the WEF.
After the 1997 financial crisis, the IMF insisted that the banks must be sold off to foreign investors and would not allow local rich people to bail them out - which they could have done.
Thailand's banking system is a colony of the internationals.
Yes I think that is true in the islands and out in the small towns and rural areas.
But not in the big cities especially in office areas. All the office workers are mad about using their phones. Some small vendors here in the city have started waking up and are putting up signs saying no digital payments. But not many here.
And thanks for answering - nice to hear from you Jessica.
Ah, I just won't ever get on a plane again so thanks for a window to another place. I felt that way even before Covid. Luckily there are trains for us landlubbers. Sometimes I think the only way to stop the 5-GUMs will be if the grid goes down, say, forever. Not a solution so much as an eventuality.
i am a turtle...when the plane took off, I would have to imagine I was a giant (stork?albatross?flamingo? def flamingo...) running faster and faster....till liftoff....
I understand your concern! I look forward to safer flying in the future although without better testing for pilots because of the poison shots, flying a huge risk. Put my daughter and granddaughter on a plane last week. Thankfully they arrived safely.
I did say before, reading her blogs, that she would make a great contribution to the National Geographic or indeed any travel section of the broadsheets or TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet et al!
Memo to self: Move 5-G way up my list of future topics to investigate and write about! I don't sleep nearly as well as I used to. I wake up every night. Sometimes I get out of bed and check Substack at 2. or 4 a.m. I can tell other people are doing the same thing. My take-away: Many other people aren't sleeping through the night either. I think you might be onto something big.
I enjoyed the travel bits and breathtaking photos as well. Thailand. Very cool.
Another rarely-noted medical change in recent decades seems to be a massive increase in people experiencing "stomach" or "digestive" issues/discomfort, etc. I'm in this group. My wife is in this group. It seems that half the Big Pharma commercials I see deal with stomach issues. I'm sure gastro doctors and urologists are doing record business. I think this is a fairly "new thing." What's going on here? Something in our food has changed?
I believe everything has to do with the overgrown or undergrowth of the parasites in our bodies... someone posted “why don’t we deworm ourselves like we do our pets?”
A good portion of the immune system is in the gut.
However, I am unsure what is chicken or egg here. Are there changes in the gut because of autoimmune disorders, or are there more autoimmune disorders because, in part, of changes in the gut microbiome?
I don't know your age , but I read something about the VAQs , we let our kids get, and mine are 43,38,33. This age are experiencing high numbers of digestive, mental , basically every illness that's EXPLODED into our lives, are coming about from the shots , 1986 (approx) till current. All SIDE EFFECTS OF VAQS. 1986 is when multivalent shots were introduced. Like MMR, DPT ,POLIO/TETANUS. NO SAFETY PROFILE. IMHO
This maybe why you slept well near the airport. Not a expert so will quote and link experts.
''The Canadian Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development will follow the example of its US counterparts and will restrict 5G connectivity where planes take off and land. The move will affect 26 Canadian airports where mid-band 5G antennas will be banned outdoors but allowed inside the airport buildings. The restrictions come as the potential for 5G signal interference with a plane altimeter can not be ruled out with absolute certainty, claims ISED.''
I live in a part of Canada that has 5g but not 5g+so turning wifi off at night seems to help. Sound like it make it so it can go through buildings. Ugh. Can't even get away from it. I check the providers coverage maps often. I get headaches and nausea from it if I sleep with it on.
I live very near an airport, just about on a landing strip, but just around the corner from my (pretty rural) property, I discovered a well hidden cell tower.
Thanks, Jess, as always, for your awareness, insight, and awesome sense of humor. I greatly enjoyed reading this and seeing your splendid photos! On the subject of 5-GUM, have you seen this latest from Arthur Firstenberg and Tess Laurie: https://cellphonetaskforce.org/electrosmog-policy-brief/. Who knows whether it will do any good, but it's a potent summary of what's needed. Blessings to you!
This will probably upset some of you, but there's two sides to Thailand - the part you're reading about here, which I admit can be fun, and the other part, which is much darker than most people realize. My brother lived in Thailand for 12 years. Ran a traveller's bar in Chiang Rai with his Thai wife, sold the place and moved to Bangkok where he worked for a German company until the crash in 97/98, after which they bailed and moved to Vancouver. So, that's the first point against Thailand: engineered currency crisis to rob foreign investors. No other way to look at it frankly, once you realize how Thai society operates.
Examples:
Army guys decide they're going to set up shop at my brother's bar. Not that kind of a place guys. No girls here. Won't listen. Fortunately my sister-in law is well-connected, being from a police family, so she made a call, some people showed up, and the army guys left. Not that they forgot, mind you. Later on one of them fired a round at my brother in a different bar. Not at him exactly, but near enough. Nothing done about it.
Night bus from Chiang Rai to Bangkok with my wife. Cops come aboard at a stop and arrest three passengers. Two girls from Myanmar, obviously underage, and their Thai handler, a woman in her 30's. Later my SIL tells me this is a common occurrence - not the arrests, they just do that for show - but the trafficking. Girls headed for the clubs, or worse. Who knows? No one seems to care. Maybe a few do now, that was a while ago, but still.
Brother takes me on a tour of Bangkok. First stop, up the escalator in an office tower in the business district, and straight into an industrial scale brothel. I'm not joking. About 30 girls sitting in tiers behind glass, all in their little girly uniforms, each with a big red button on their blouse with a number on it. This is upscale mind you. The girls on the bus don't end up here. These are Thai girls, baby. The real thing. Disgusted yet? It gets worse, but I won't go into it. Some of you know.
Single women have a vastly different experience of Thailand than guys, of this I'm very sure. If you're a single guy in Thailand, especially older, Thais assume you're there for only one thing, which is a pretty safe assumption actually, but very annoying if you're not. They'll leave you alone if you're with a women of course. So guys, if you visit Thailand and don't like being hustled, take your wives...lol.
Buying stuff. You Falang. You can afford pay more! Brother gave up on shopping and assigned the task to his wife. This is just after they moved in. Word gets around who she's married to and next thing is... you guessed it. You marry Falang! You can afford pay more! Same story everywhere nearby, so they had to go across town to shop.
Rented a Jeep CJ. Well... not really. It was a fake Jeep, made in Thailand. Lots of fake brand name vehicles in Thailand, including buses. Seriously, if they could build a fake Airbus that's what you be flying on Thai Air. Everything western is fake there. Gucci, Rolex, Adidas, etc. etc. Drugs there are fake too, not all obviously, but do you want to take that chance? Buy your HCQ before you arrive, and have enough for your stay. Incidentally, the mosquitoes are the size of helicopters and hurt like hell. Malaria's not everywhere of course, but people who have it are.
Not everything fake is western either. Up around the border with Myanmar there are even fake hill tribes! Some Thais actually dress their kids in ersatz tribal clothing and charge money to take their picture, or just beg and pretend to be poor. It would be funny, except they're competing with real hill tribes, most of whom really are dirt poor. I would never cut in on a poor person's action. I mean, who does that?
Insufferable heat and humidity at certain times of the year. I suppose you get used to it if you live there. I wasn't there long enough to adjust. Extreeeeemely bad traffic jams in Bangkok back then. I doubt it's improved any. Don't waste your time, just get out and walk. Or take the green bus with aircon for 5 times the price. Executive class buses...lol! You're still going nowhere.
Hey look, the food's great, the people are gracious (for the most part) and the scenery is spectacular, BUT as a culture, they think nothing of selling women and children to foreigners, some of whom seriously abuse them. What kind of a sick culture allows that? Oh we so poor, just doesn't cut it. I've been in far worse places than Thailand where women and children were not only NOT for sale, but if you even suggested something like that you'd be arrested then deported, possibly after a good beating. Not to say it doesn't happen everywhere, but not on an industrial scale with everyone turning a blind eye for God's sake. This is criminal corruption at all levels, made possible by western money, but also by Buddhist indifference and avoidance of responsibility.
I'll never go back. Why spend money in a place that supports that sort of thing?
Last point. I have two great nephews that were born there, now in their late 20's. No interest at all in the place. Both look Thai to me, but Thais can always tell. You guessed it. You have Falang father! You can afford pay more! Shaken down by your own people! Who needs that?
Well thank you too! I wasn't sure how you'd take it, given your enthusiasm for the place, and I admit I did get on a bit of a high horse about it. Obviously you can't tar an entire people with the same brush, and there are people in Thailand addressing the problem, which takes a lot of courage given the criminal element involved. It just irks me how the whole trafficking issue is taken for granted there, as if it's somehow a reasonable cultural element and not an aberration, even under Buddhist principles, which are admittedly loose on the subject.
A case of the pot calling the kettle black can also be made, given the huge levels of human trafficking in North America and the EU. This is a universal problem sadly. It's just that Thailand is sort of a poster child for how the problem is ignored or swept under the rug, as in Britain, where grooming is studiously ignored by the political class for fear of offending certain voting blocks. This does nothing to help reasonable members of that block either, who also get unjustly tarred. That's who I was referring to when I made the comment about the consequences of abusing women and children in some places, Chechnya being an example of what I was thinking of, but most Muslim nations take the same approach.
Where I worked before there was a cluster of single guys who used to take their annual holidays in Thailand, then talk up their exploits in the lunch room, so besides what I saw and learned from family, that also coloured my thinking on the subject. Incidentally, one of those guys was later convicted of statutory rape of a minor - not in Thailand, in Canada, but that tells you something about what he went there for.
Jul 27, 2023·edited Jul 27, 2023Liked by Jessica Rose
Dear Jessica,
What a great read! I am excited about the prospect of visiting Thailand.
That said, I am more excited about you delving into 5g.
I have lived in the Metro Atlanta Area of Georgia for almost 30 years where I practice law.
My home where I have lived since Oct. of 2019 is in a newly developed residential community. It is surrounded by forest, creeks, and hills. When I first moved in, the area teemed with life - bees, moths, mosquitos, squirrels, birds, beaver, cayotes, deer, the occasional bear and lots more.
Since moving in, 5g towers as well as small transmitters have inundated the area. Everywhere! And if you don't know what to look for, you would never be the wiser to their existence.
My sleep and my wife's sleep have degraded over these years. The reason? Who actually knows? I do know that our new protocols at night do seem to help our sleep. Airplane mode on and unplug the router. This is probably a purely psychological effect. But again, who actually knows?
What, however, is objectively observable and quite irksome? Right now, July of 2023, heart of Georgia, the insects, small bugs, their almost entirely gone, disappeared if you will. And the number of birds, squirrels and smaller animals around, is significantly less (80 percent less by my guestimate). I live in Georgia for gosh sake. It is summer time. This vanishing which has occurred progressively over the last three + years, is now manifest.
I turn on my porch light at night. Where are the moths? I look into the forest. Where are the fireflies? I go for a walk. Where are the pesky mosquitos? Indeed, my savings on "Off" (deet), which I used to use religiously, are noticeable. The world seems eerily bereft of life. I won't go into the health of my 17 year old son, but as to etiology, I have my suspicions. His symptoms align quite well with mild radiation sickness. I did steer him and my other two children away from the mrna and dna contaminant cocktails at issue nowadays. Where everyone called me a bad parent way back when, I was right to have looked at the available data and the negative inferences to be drawn from the lack thereof. For that same reason, I feel comfortable questioning the sanity of saturating our cities and neighborhoods with emfs.
Allow me to canary the coal mine here. When it comes to dangers to health - covid, vaccines, global weather hysteria, pale in comparison to the telecommunications grid and its myriad of radiating tentacles. Sadly my neighborhood canary, the killdeer, which used to be everywhere, is almost completely "vanished".
Nice travel account. We travelled around Thailand around 15 years ago. No towers, that I can remember. However, I discovered my sensitivity to MSG, which they use a lot. MSG in my food meant not falling asleep for hours. I still know the Thai words for "no MSG".
I am an expat American who first came to Thailand in 1979 and have been living here continuously for 20 years. This is imo the most eastern of all nations. Yes, Levis and rap have made inroads, but the Thai culture is extremely resilient and unique.
A brief example, when a group of Thai people gather they do not use the first person singular when they speak. They refer to themselves from the group point of view and use their names to express themselves. It is a far less egocentric and self-obsessed culture when compared to the West, and happily so.
Second those lovely big lizards you photographed are monitors. Thai people hate them. To call someone "hia" (Thai slang for a monitor) is about the worst thing you could say. They are not at all nice and cuddly.
There is much more to see and even occasional good surf. As in most places what tourists have access to is quite a bit different than what the Thais enjoy. Come back soon!
I have written many letters to our only English language newspaper warning of the dangers of 5G - of course to no avail. One good thing is that it is not really full fledged 5G yet -the LTE version is in place at present. You may have noticed that although the masking requirements have been lifted the overwhelming majority of Thais still wear them. Logic is not part of Thai culture. Making a rational reasoned argument gets you nowhere here. All Thais are not moved by thinking really. Even an Oxford educated former prime minister consulted a "mor du" - a clairvoyant or shaman when running for office. All of them do this. They blow white powder on a toad's back to divine lottery numbers. So 5G is here to stay. My bedroom has aspects of a faraday cage built into it - that is one answer to ubiquitous electromagnetic pollution. But there are many places that remain unaffected. You visited the touristed places where 5G is de rigeur, next time take a walk in the jungle. It will take you back 100,000 years - one can feel immediately the profound difference a jungle makes. We belong there really. Try reading the biography of Achaan Khao, available free at Luangta.com. Take a walk in the jungle with him and find yourself on a spiritual journey par excellence.
What an adventure. I enjoy your writing style, felt like I was there. You seem like a cool person and super smart too. The photos, just wow. I too love sleep and value good sleep. It’s a little concerning what 5G may do to harm good sleep. Good to have you back.
Dr. Jessica, you are not only incredibly smart but also a great writer, traveller, and gifted with an incredible sense of humour. Thank you for taking me along on your journey. Incredible pictures. I can't even find the right word that describes how I feel, looking at the wonders you got to enjoy. Thank you for keeping life real. :)
Jessica, have you looked into the concept of grounding mats, sheets or grounding in general? The idea is having your feet on the earth, connects you to ground and a near infinite absorption of excess energy in the human body. If grounded and touching something electrical, look out, you're cooked. Wear rubber shoes and you're safe. The goal is to take all the 5GUM energy constantly inputed in your system, that we do not have a choice whether we touch because it is in the air, literately, and channel it safely into the ground. Where it is safely stored away....
Lol! The Philippines used to be kinda like that for me. I was glad to be getting on the plane out of there. But soon after takeoff I was looking forward to my next trip back. Some places need to be digested in small bites till you get acclimated to the taste.
Lol - glad you enjoyed your trip to the land of smiles, or where I live in Bangkok it is still the land of facemasks!
You chose part of the country that has a lot of real beauty - Phuket to Krabi.
What you noticed about the 5G is absolutely true.
And it happened during Covid starting with lockdown one in 2020-the 5G towers were rolled out big time. Before that there was little 5G here.
And they propagandized the "cash is dirty" and you must pay with digital payments, and the government had a promotion of 50:50 if you paid with digital payments where the government paid 50% - billions and billions of baht were spent on this program - and it mostly benefited people who had money, jobs and businesses, while all the peoples lives and businesses that were ruined by the policies, got nothing.
Just like everywhere the wealth transfer was shocking as all the big businesses like 7/11 and Big C stayed open and the mom and pop shops were sent broke.
And if you search the World Economic Forum's partnership list you find all the biggest businesses here, especially banks are members! And for those that are not you'll find that Vanguard, BlackRock and Statestreet own a good chunk. In some cases like the Thai bank Krungsi Bank, the 5th largest, it is owned by MUFG, the Japanese financial group which is a senior partner of the WEF.
After the 1997 financial crisis, the IMF insisted that the banks must be sold off to foreign investors and would not allow local rich people to bail them out - which they could have done.
Thailand's banking system is a colony of the internationals.
Cheers.
But you know what? Everyone, absolutely everyone used and preferred cash and made a point of using it!
Yes I think that is true in the islands and out in the small towns and rural areas.
But not in the big cities especially in office areas. All the office workers are mad about using their phones. Some small vendors here in the city have started waking up and are putting up signs saying no digital payments. But not many here.
And thanks for answering - nice to hear from you Jessica.
Ivan
Thanks! I’ve just had a free trip to Thailand!
A free trip to Thailand…sans the stomach and sleep issues!
Ah, I just won't ever get on a plane again so thanks for a window to another place. I felt that way even before Covid. Luckily there are trains for us landlubbers. Sometimes I think the only way to stop the 5-GUMs will be if the grid goes down, say, forever. Not a solution so much as an eventuality.
i love flying. even now.
i am a turtle...when the plane took off, I would have to imagine I was a giant (stork?albatross?flamingo? def flamingo...) running faster and faster....till liftoff....
I understand your concern! I look forward to safer flying in the future although without better testing for pilots because of the poison shots, flying a huge risk. Put my daughter and granddaughter on a plane last week. Thankfully they arrived safely.
Re flying now: You n me both JS!!
they never do long flights with out 4 pilots now. not sure but it seems to me they increased the number since the clot shots came out.
Why are you wasting your time in biology, your vocation is writing travel blogs! Best one I've ever read! ;-)
Aww! you're too sweet. And don't tempt me!
Best way for me to BE a biologist!
I did say before, reading her blogs, that she would make a great contribution to the National Geographic or indeed any travel section of the broadsheets or TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet et al!
Memo to self: Move 5-G way up my list of future topics to investigate and write about! I don't sleep nearly as well as I used to. I wake up every night. Sometimes I get out of bed and check Substack at 2. or 4 a.m. I can tell other people are doing the same thing. My take-away: Many other people aren't sleeping through the night either. I think you might be onto something big.
I enjoyed the travel bits and breathtaking photos as well. Thailand. Very cool.
Check the sheets and the bathrooms!
Another rarely-noted medical change in recent decades seems to be a massive increase in people experiencing "stomach" or "digestive" issues/discomfort, etc. I'm in this group. My wife is in this group. It seems that half the Big Pharma commercials I see deal with stomach issues. I'm sure gastro doctors and urologists are doing record business. I think this is a fairly "new thing." What's going on here? Something in our food has changed?
Look into parasite cleansing. 🪱 I’m using Cellcore Bioscience and my results are shocking. There are lots of vids on YouTube.
I believe everything has to do with the overgrown or undergrowth of the parasites in our bodies... someone posted “why don’t we deworm ourselves like we do our pets?”
A good portion of the immune system is in the gut.
However, I am unsure what is chicken or egg here. Are there changes in the gut because of autoimmune disorders, or are there more autoimmune disorders because, in part, of changes in the gut microbiome?
I don't know your age , but I read something about the VAQs , we let our kids get, and mine are 43,38,33. This age are experiencing high numbers of digestive, mental , basically every illness that's EXPLODED into our lives, are coming about from the shots , 1986 (approx) till current. All SIDE EFFECTS OF VAQS. 1986 is when multivalent shots were introduced. Like MMR, DPT ,POLIO/TETANUS. NO SAFETY PROFILE. IMHO
This maybe why you slept well near the airport. Not a expert so will quote and link experts.
''The Canadian Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development will follow the example of its US counterparts and will restrict 5G connectivity where planes take off and land. The move will affect 26 Canadian airports where mid-band 5G antennas will be banned outdoors but allowed inside the airport buildings. The restrictions come as the potential for 5G signal interference with a plane altimeter can not be ruled out with absolute certainty, claims ISED.''
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Canada-bans-5G-antennas-around-airports-for-potential-interference-with-aircraft-altimeters.580845.0.html
I live in a part of Canada that has 5g but not 5g+so turning wifi off at night seems to help. Sound like it make it so it can go through buildings. Ugh. Can't even get away from it. I check the providers coverage maps often. I get headaches and nausea from it if I sleep with it on.
https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/rogers-launches-faster-5g-service-on-3500mhz-mid-band-spectrum/488609
Thank you Jessica for all you do.
Really good data. (I live in Canada.)
I've looked at those maps.
I live very near an airport, just about on a landing strip, but just around the corner from my (pretty rural) property, I discovered a well hidden cell tower.
My ears ring constantly. Including now.
Thanks, Jess, as always, for your awareness, insight, and awesome sense of humor. I greatly enjoyed reading this and seeing your splendid photos! On the subject of 5-GUM, have you seen this latest from Arthur Firstenberg and Tess Laurie: https://cellphonetaskforce.org/electrosmog-policy-brief/. Who knows whether it will do any good, but it's a potent summary of what's needed. Blessings to you!
This will probably upset some of you, but there's two sides to Thailand - the part you're reading about here, which I admit can be fun, and the other part, which is much darker than most people realize. My brother lived in Thailand for 12 years. Ran a traveller's bar in Chiang Rai with his Thai wife, sold the place and moved to Bangkok where he worked for a German company until the crash in 97/98, after which they bailed and moved to Vancouver. So, that's the first point against Thailand: engineered currency crisis to rob foreign investors. No other way to look at it frankly, once you realize how Thai society operates.
Examples:
Army guys decide they're going to set up shop at my brother's bar. Not that kind of a place guys. No girls here. Won't listen. Fortunately my sister-in law is well-connected, being from a police family, so she made a call, some people showed up, and the army guys left. Not that they forgot, mind you. Later on one of them fired a round at my brother in a different bar. Not at him exactly, but near enough. Nothing done about it.
Night bus from Chiang Rai to Bangkok with my wife. Cops come aboard at a stop and arrest three passengers. Two girls from Myanmar, obviously underage, and their Thai handler, a woman in her 30's. Later my SIL tells me this is a common occurrence - not the arrests, they just do that for show - but the trafficking. Girls headed for the clubs, or worse. Who knows? No one seems to care. Maybe a few do now, that was a while ago, but still.
Brother takes me on a tour of Bangkok. First stop, up the escalator in an office tower in the business district, and straight into an industrial scale brothel. I'm not joking. About 30 girls sitting in tiers behind glass, all in their little girly uniforms, each with a big red button on their blouse with a number on it. This is upscale mind you. The girls on the bus don't end up here. These are Thai girls, baby. The real thing. Disgusted yet? It gets worse, but I won't go into it. Some of you know.
Single women have a vastly different experience of Thailand than guys, of this I'm very sure. If you're a single guy in Thailand, especially older, Thais assume you're there for only one thing, which is a pretty safe assumption actually, but very annoying if you're not. They'll leave you alone if you're with a women of course. So guys, if you visit Thailand and don't like being hustled, take your wives...lol.
Buying stuff. You Falang. You can afford pay more! Brother gave up on shopping and assigned the task to his wife. This is just after they moved in. Word gets around who she's married to and next thing is... you guessed it. You marry Falang! You can afford pay more! Same story everywhere nearby, so they had to go across town to shop.
Rented a Jeep CJ. Well... not really. It was a fake Jeep, made in Thailand. Lots of fake brand name vehicles in Thailand, including buses. Seriously, if they could build a fake Airbus that's what you be flying on Thai Air. Everything western is fake there. Gucci, Rolex, Adidas, etc. etc. Drugs there are fake too, not all obviously, but do you want to take that chance? Buy your HCQ before you arrive, and have enough for your stay. Incidentally, the mosquitoes are the size of helicopters and hurt like hell. Malaria's not everywhere of course, but people who have it are.
Not everything fake is western either. Up around the border with Myanmar there are even fake hill tribes! Some Thais actually dress their kids in ersatz tribal clothing and charge money to take their picture, or just beg and pretend to be poor. It would be funny, except they're competing with real hill tribes, most of whom really are dirt poor. I would never cut in on a poor person's action. I mean, who does that?
Insufferable heat and humidity at certain times of the year. I suppose you get used to it if you live there. I wasn't there long enough to adjust. Extreeeeemely bad traffic jams in Bangkok back then. I doubt it's improved any. Don't waste your time, just get out and walk. Or take the green bus with aircon for 5 times the price. Executive class buses...lol! You're still going nowhere.
Hey look, the food's great, the people are gracious (for the most part) and the scenery is spectacular, BUT as a culture, they think nothing of selling women and children to foreigners, some of whom seriously abuse them. What kind of a sick culture allows that? Oh we so poor, just doesn't cut it. I've been in far worse places than Thailand where women and children were not only NOT for sale, but if you even suggested something like that you'd be arrested then deported, possibly after a good beating. Not to say it doesn't happen everywhere, but not on an industrial scale with everyone turning a blind eye for God's sake. This is criminal corruption at all levels, made possible by western money, but also by Buddhist indifference and avoidance of responsibility.
I'll never go back. Why spend money in a place that supports that sort of thing?
Last point. I have two great nephews that were born there, now in their late 20's. No interest at all in the place. Both look Thai to me, but Thais can always tell. You guessed it. You have Falang father! You can afford pay more! Shaken down by your own people! Who needs that?
i know. and i am glad you wrote this up so well. thank you.
Well thank you too! I wasn't sure how you'd take it, given your enthusiasm for the place, and I admit I did get on a bit of a high horse about it. Obviously you can't tar an entire people with the same brush, and there are people in Thailand addressing the problem, which takes a lot of courage given the criminal element involved. It just irks me how the whole trafficking issue is taken for granted there, as if it's somehow a reasonable cultural element and not an aberration, even under Buddhist principles, which are admittedly loose on the subject.
A case of the pot calling the kettle black can also be made, given the huge levels of human trafficking in North America and the EU. This is a universal problem sadly. It's just that Thailand is sort of a poster child for how the problem is ignored or swept under the rug, as in Britain, where grooming is studiously ignored by the political class for fear of offending certain voting blocks. This does nothing to help reasonable members of that block either, who also get unjustly tarred. That's who I was referring to when I made the comment about the consequences of abusing women and children in some places, Chechnya being an example of what I was thinking of, but most Muslim nations take the same approach.
Where I worked before there was a cluster of single guys who used to take their annual holidays in Thailand, then talk up their exploits in the lunch room, so besides what I saw and learned from family, that also coloured my thinking on the subject. Incidentally, one of those guys was later convicted of statutory rape of a minor - not in Thailand, in Canada, but that tells you something about what he went there for.
Dear Jessica,
What a great read! I am excited about the prospect of visiting Thailand.
That said, I am more excited about you delving into 5g.
I have lived in the Metro Atlanta Area of Georgia for almost 30 years where I practice law.
My home where I have lived since Oct. of 2019 is in a newly developed residential community. It is surrounded by forest, creeks, and hills. When I first moved in, the area teemed with life - bees, moths, mosquitos, squirrels, birds, beaver, cayotes, deer, the occasional bear and lots more.
Since moving in, 5g towers as well as small transmitters have inundated the area. Everywhere! And if you don't know what to look for, you would never be the wiser to their existence.
My sleep and my wife's sleep have degraded over these years. The reason? Who actually knows? I do know that our new protocols at night do seem to help our sleep. Airplane mode on and unplug the router. This is probably a purely psychological effect. But again, who actually knows?
What, however, is objectively observable and quite irksome? Right now, July of 2023, heart of Georgia, the insects, small bugs, their almost entirely gone, disappeared if you will. And the number of birds, squirrels and smaller animals around, is significantly less (80 percent less by my guestimate). I live in Georgia for gosh sake. It is summer time. This vanishing which has occurred progressively over the last three + years, is now manifest.
I turn on my porch light at night. Where are the moths? I look into the forest. Where are the fireflies? I go for a walk. Where are the pesky mosquitos? Indeed, my savings on "Off" (deet), which I used to use religiously, are noticeable. The world seems eerily bereft of life. I won't go into the health of my 17 year old son, but as to etiology, I have my suspicions. His symptoms align quite well with mild radiation sickness. I did steer him and my other two children away from the mrna and dna contaminant cocktails at issue nowadays. Where everyone called me a bad parent way back when, I was right to have looked at the available data and the negative inferences to be drawn from the lack thereof. For that same reason, I feel comfortable questioning the sanity of saturating our cities and neighborhoods with emfs.
Allow me to canary the coal mine here. When it comes to dangers to health - covid, vaccines, global weather hysteria, pale in comparison to the telecommunications grid and its myriad of radiating tentacles. Sadly my neighborhood canary, the killdeer, which used to be everywhere, is almost completely "vanished".
Your fan
Same in southern Canada
Nice travel account. We travelled around Thailand around 15 years ago. No towers, that I can remember. However, I discovered my sensitivity to MSG, which they use a lot. MSG in my food meant not falling asleep for hours. I still know the Thai words for "no MSG".
I am an expat American who first came to Thailand in 1979 and have been living here continuously for 20 years. This is imo the most eastern of all nations. Yes, Levis and rap have made inroads, but the Thai culture is extremely resilient and unique.
A brief example, when a group of Thai people gather they do not use the first person singular when they speak. They refer to themselves from the group point of view and use their names to express themselves. It is a far less egocentric and self-obsessed culture when compared to the West, and happily so.
Second those lovely big lizards you photographed are monitors. Thai people hate them. To call someone "hia" (Thai slang for a monitor) is about the worst thing you could say. They are not at all nice and cuddly.
There is much more to see and even occasional good surf. As in most places what tourists have access to is quite a bit different than what the Thais enjoy. Come back soon!
What do you think of the small cell tower infusion?
I have written many letters to our only English language newspaper warning of the dangers of 5G - of course to no avail. One good thing is that it is not really full fledged 5G yet -the LTE version is in place at present. You may have noticed that although the masking requirements have been lifted the overwhelming majority of Thais still wear them. Logic is not part of Thai culture. Making a rational reasoned argument gets you nowhere here. All Thais are not moved by thinking really. Even an Oxford educated former prime minister consulted a "mor du" - a clairvoyant or shaman when running for office. All of them do this. They blow white powder on a toad's back to divine lottery numbers. So 5G is here to stay. My bedroom has aspects of a faraday cage built into it - that is one answer to ubiquitous electromagnetic pollution. But there are many places that remain unaffected. You visited the touristed places where 5G is de rigeur, next time take a walk in the jungle. It will take you back 100,000 years - one can feel immediately the profound difference a jungle makes. We belong there really. Try reading the biography of Achaan Khao, available free at Luangta.com. Take a walk in the jungle with him and find yourself on a spiritual journey par excellence.
What an adventure. I enjoy your writing style, felt like I was there. You seem like a cool person and super smart too. The photos, just wow. I too love sleep and value good sleep. It’s a little concerning what 5G may do to harm good sleep. Good to have you back.
Dr. Jessica, you are not only incredibly smart but also a great writer, traveller, and gifted with an incredible sense of humour. Thank you for taking me along on your journey. Incredible pictures. I can't even find the right word that describes how I feel, looking at the wonders you got to enjoy. Thank you for keeping life real. :)
Thank you so much!
I really appreciate hearing on the spot reports from travelers. Far better than any guidebook.
Indeed. I only listen to what actual people are saying.
Jessica, have you looked into the concept of grounding mats, sheets or grounding in general? The idea is having your feet on the earth, connects you to ground and a near infinite absorption of excess energy in the human body. If grounded and touching something electrical, look out, you're cooked. Wear rubber shoes and you're safe. The goal is to take all the 5GUM energy constantly inputed in your system, that we do not have a choice whether we touch because it is in the air, literately, and channel it safely into the ground. Where it is safely stored away....
Lol! The Philippines used to be kinda like that for me. I was glad to be getting on the plane out of there. But soon after takeoff I was looking forward to my next trip back. Some places need to be digested in small bites till you get acclimated to the taste.