The Billiken's Bluff

Our boat approaching an island off of Hanoi.


The traffic in Saigon is out of control. Everyone and their mother owns a motor bike.


We were at this Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Wat Pho, and found this basketball court sitting right behind it. Looks like a good setting for NBA Street 2005.


This girl didn't take it so well when I told her I wouldn't be purchasing any dragonfruit from her.


Here's St. Nick at Marble Mountain. Kind of blurry, but there isn't much lighting inside a cave.


I think its pretty obvious why Bird Flu is a problem. The chickens are getting even with us for keeping them in such tight quarters.


Here's some Muay Thai boxing.


We went to Monkey Island in Halong Bay. The Lonely Planet tourbook described monkeys on this island as, "a fairly good source of rabies."


However the only problem I had was that one of them stole my can of coke.



But in hindsight, I got off easy because this German woman next to me got one of her sandals grand larsoned.

Not everything in Southeast Asia is cheeky monkeys and motorbikes. Southern Thailand is known for it's beaches and beautiful landscapes, but its rapidly becoming the next hotspot for global Jihad. The three southern provinces that border Malaysia are home to over 6 million Muslims. They want to secede from Thailand. Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been taking a strong stand against these three provinces. Thaksin is a shady character. Earlier this year he declared a war on drugs, claiming he would send drug dealers to 'meet the prince of Hell.' He then sent the police on a spree, killing over 800 suspected drug traffickers, no trial, just swift enforcement.

Two days ago the Thai army suppressed a protest, arresting over a thousand Muslims. They bound and gagged many of them. Over 80 suffocated to death. Muslims were outraged. Indonesia, the world's most populated Muslim nation, did not take too kindly to it. It seems likely that global Jihadists will take an interest in Thailand, using it as a new front on the war against the West. With all the Western tourists, such as yours truly, flooding the country's island beach resorts, it looks like a Bali-style nightclub bombing may be in the cards. Thaksin needs to take it easy with the suffocations and the executions.

That being said, I'm leaving tonight to go to an island resort. Godspeed. Gotim.