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Recent events in Myanmar (Burma) have been dramatic, to say the least. It appears that the public confrontations have ended and that changes will come as a result of pressure on the government from the international community. A number of our customers have expressed concern about the safety or practicality of visiting Myanmar, and we want to address those concerns. Aside from the brief closure of Schwedagon Pagoda during one of the protests, places where visitors go and stay have been completely unaffected. There are no unusual safety risks. Airlines are flying. Hotels have not closed. Schools and public offices never closed. The only visible change over the next few months will be the conspicuous absence of buses packed with tour groups, and the crowds that always result. All but one of our customers chose not to change their plans to visit Myanmar. In fact, several went to Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay as planned immediately after the first protests and reported feeling comfortable and safe. We continue to encourage people to visit Myanmar, and we believe that there may be no better time to do so. Tourism has very powerful effect on local people. Some hotels have made many staff members redundant (laid them off) because of a sudden drop in tourism, and that means they can not feed their families. Just as important, having "foreign eyes" around reminds people that they are not isolated and alone and also reminds the junta that the world is watching.
The state of affairs in Myanmar is a complicated issue and there are many strong opinions about what can and should be done. What must be remembered is that opinions are neither right nor wrong, and that we are really all on the same side. We want the best for the Burmese people. Douglas shares his own opinion in his blog.
To read more about what we do in Myanmar
go here.
Where to Sanook for the Holidays Year-end holidays are not far away and we continue to receive hopeful requests for late December reservations that we hoped we would receive in April or May. If you are a last-minute planner, the information below might be helpful if you still want to visit our part of the world between 18 December and mid January 2008: Thailand. There is still time to book space in many Bangkok hotels. Chiang Mai will be a bit more difficult, but not completely impossible. Beach resort destinations (Pattaya, Phuket, Samui, Hua Hin, Krabi, etc.) are next to impossible at this point and we regret that we can not put much time into finding hotels in these places. Laos. Vientiane is still a possibility. However, Luang Prabang hotels have been sold out for months and most hotels are keeping waiting lists. Cambodia. A glut of hotels in Siem Reap means we may be able to find something for you if you are flexible about cost. Phnom Penh is less difficult. Vietnam. We have never seen anything like what is happening in Vietnam this year. Hotel prices in Hanoi and Saigon have doubled and tripled and we are finding it difficult to accommodate anyone anywhere in either of these cities before March 2008 unless you do not mind sleeping in Lenin Park. Hue, Hoi An, Dalat and Phan Thiet are still possible if we can find flights. India. Forget it. Think about December and January 2008/2009 before next April or consider visiting during March through September 2008. Myanmar. As you might guess, Myanmar hotels and flights are wide open for the most part. If you want a beach holiday, this is the place to go in 2007.
China. If you do not mind chilly
weather, December is off season in most of China and we can find plenty
to keep you busy there. Hong Kong will be somewhat more difficult, although not
impossible. Some people actually prefer to visit China this time of year. Somehow the
steamy dumplings are more delicious when it is cold outside.
Yahoo, Schmahoo
We have contacted Yahoo they have no comment and do not seem to care. Since we do not send spam or anything inappropriate to anyone, we think this is a pretty lousy attitude. But what do you expect for free? If you use Yahoo and think we have been ignoring you, please forgive us. In the future, we may not be able to serve you properly unless you give us an alternate non-Yahoo email address. If you are receiving this email at a Yahoo address but want us to change our records to another email service provider, all it takes is an email.
Andy, one of our favorite customers, is making a bid to carry the Olympic Torch on its way to Beijing. Andy has lived in China for the past five years and we think it would be pretty cool for One Of Us to take a turn running with the big flame. You do not have to know Andy to help him achieve his dream. All you have to do is vote for him here
Do you have a personal website that our Members might be interested in visiting? Please let us know. We
can not promote anything naughty, of course, and your website must somehow involve travel in our part of the world.
Disease du Jour
The Bit "C". One tragic thing about cancer is that many people do not
learn they have it until it is more advanced and more difficult to treat. Many
different kinds of cancers can actually be detected with blood tests and other
simple outpatient procedures. Men over
50, for example, should have a "PSA" test for prostate cancer at least every two
years or so. Practically all of the economical yet comprehensive physical exams
offered by major hospitals in Thailand include tests that identify the early
signs of liver, pancreas, stomach, intestinal and other kinds of cancers.
Spending just half a day of your holiday to get a thorough exam and evaluation of
your health could literally save your life. You can see several plans from
different hospitals compared side-by-side
here.
Next time: Dental Care Without Painful
Wallet Extractions
This Month's Contest
Answer all of the questions below correctly and we will enter you in a drawing
to win one of this month's prizes, an amazing ThaiLex travel DVD, which combines Thai
language learning with information about destinations, events, and culture in
Thailand. You can find answers to all of these questions on the Purple Dragon
website. If your name is drawn and you also answered one of the bonus question correctly, we will
throw in one of our lovely Purple Dragon polo shirts. If you can also answer
BOTH of the bonus questions you will win the DVD, the shirt and a $50 Purple
Dragon voucher if your name is drawn.
1. Name the city where you will visit the "Administrator's Garden."
2. Name two animals you might see at Ranthamabore National Park.
3. Name one of Myanmar's two major beach resorts.
5. Name one Purple Dragon package that includes massage.
6. Name one country you most want Purple Dragon to add to the countries we
already offer. (The answer is not on our website, so every answer is correct.)
Bonus Questions:
B1. Please identify the event shown in the photo on the right.
B2. This year is the twentieth anniversary of publication of the first edition
of Eric Allyn's landmark guidebook The Men of Thailand. The fist two
editions of the book were co-authored by someone else. What was his name?
To enter this month's contest,
go here!
China "Relaxes" HIV Rules
We regularly receive email from Members who want to visit China but are concerned about the country's
1994 law that denies entry to HIV positive visitors.
First of all, we have never seen nor heard of anyone being screened for HIV at a
border or airport. Most visitors nowadays have no visible symptoms so there is
no reason for Chinese authorities to wonder about anyone's status in the first
place. If that is not enough to put you at ease, however, we note that China is
in the process of revising this antiquated and draconian law, which also
includes individuals infected with TB.
We have been told by two of our Members that they disclosed their positive HIV
status on their visa applications and were issued visas anyway.
The Chinese government has also directed that all hotels in and around Beijing
supply each each room with condoms during the coming Olympic Games.
Regency Park Returns
Regency Park is Back! After a long year of redecoration and construction
noise, we are very happy to welcome the Regency Park Hotel back to Purple
Dragon's collection of hotels. You can enjoy a stay there using any of our
Bangkok packages. We have also created a special "long stay" Bangkok package
using the Regency Park exclusively for Club Sanook Members. You can see it here
Thailand Faces Fashion Catastrophe!
There is very little to look forward to when commuting in Thailand. The traffic jams are legendary and taxi drivers who spit, take the longest possible route to any destination and tweeze their whiskers with two one-baht coins turn trips around any Thai city into a memorable cultural experience. However, nothing probably brings more joy to people on the street than the sight of a lanky police offer in a skin-tight uniform. A uniform fetish is not required to get a little turned on by the sight of a cop in his legendary dark green livery exacting fines from unlucky traffic scofflaws. It is with the utmost sadness that we must report that these fabled, crack-hugging, nipple-teasing uniforms will soon disappear from Thailand's streets. They are destined to be replaced by something new, brown, baggy and far more modest. While it is a sad fact that Thailand's gendarmerie have put on a few kilos in recent years, we will all miss the sight of fresh new recruits in drab olive that is still unstretched by time, wear and laundry. The good news is that a lot of used uniforms are about to go on the market for those who might like to play traffic cop at home. A New Way to Get our Newsletter Some Club Sanook Members have told us that they prefer to receive our newsletters and postcards attached to email in pdf (Adobe Acrobat) format so they can save these pages and enjoy them off-line and send our newsletter to friends. If you want to receive your newsletter in this format please tell us. Seeing Double? If you received two or more emails regarding this issue of Bulletin from Bangkok, that means we have duplicate records in our Membership list. Please let Miss Fu know so that we do not clutter your In box redundant email.
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More about Myanmar
We have grown weary of the antics of Yahoo
email. While Purple Dragon receives email from customers who use Yahoo without
any apparent problems, most of our guests with Yahoo addresses never receive our
replies. Recently one customer came to our office after he did not receive any
of the
five replies we sent him and told us "I thought you were out of business."
Some of our customers have been far less restrained, and we can understand why.
See Andy Run
4. Where does the boat stop on the way to Kamu Lodge?
Bangkok's famed Rose Garden will host a major orchid show from 30 November
through 5 December 
