Where'd Mano Go?

Follow me on my travels

Page 4 of 8

Fun facts about Thailand

1) It is currently year 2564.

About to be 2565 (happy new year!). Thailand uses the Buddhist calendar, which begins the year Buddha died, instead of the Gregorian calendar (which begins when Jesus was born). So their calendar is 543 years ahead of the one most of us use. It was a bit of a shock when I ran my first google search here and saw articles from 2560.

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Wearing face masks in the Land of Smiles

After touching down, we were funneled through the airport to a roped-off section of folding chairs facing the exit doors. Every second chair had a big red X above the words “maintain social distance” and people were actually complying. A very compact and competent man picked us out of the bunch, liberally sprayed our bags with antiseptic, and deposited us in a private shuttle sent from our “Alternative State Quarantine” hotel. At the hotel, we had a long chat with a kind manager about how things were going to go down: for the next 24 hours, we were not allowed to leave our room. If we wanted food, medicine, anything, they would be happy to run out and grab it. They would even spot us the money because we couldn’t go to an ATM. An hour later, a woman in a full hazmat suit came and administered COVID tests from within our hotel room. After our results came back negative the next day, we checked out (in a separate, “clean” part of the hotel) and were told to report back in 6 days with the results of another test. Five months traveling during a pandemic and I have never seen anyone take COVID as seriously as Thailand.

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The most beautiful place I’ve seen

I suspect that to many people who read this blog, Pakistan feels like a pretty remote place. Sure, you’ve heard of it, but you never imagined you’d actually go there. Obviously, it wasn’t the same for me. Even on the tails of a 20 year separation, I always figured I’d find my way back to Pakistan. That is, at least to Karachi. But there were other parts of the country that felt as inaccessible to me as they probably feel to you.

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