Leaving behind Thailand, going to Xiamen, China. Could this be more random?

When things could have gotten real heated in Thailand, Thaksin gave a taped speech to suppoters at Sanam Luang promising not to get involved in Thai politics again. This diffused the political rumors of his comeback and gave the country a relative political calm. Some supporters still claim foulplay by the new government but Thaksin only has one worry now, and that's his billions of dollars frozen up in Thai bank accounts.

Instead of politics, he's actually turning his focus to football ...err... soccer that is, and is looking to buy Manchester United. I don't know, and really don't care about the details, or if the deal will go through but with his money inaccessible, he's not ready to spend hundreds of millions of USD just yet. On top of that, the government has now changed its mind and demanded Thaksin return to the country to face the charges brought against him. How this all turns out only time will tell, but luckily for my poor mother, I'm out of the country and working on bigger and better things for her to worry about.


And so I switch my focus from Thailand to China...



A 4 1/2 hour plane ride took me to Xiamen, the port town just across the straight from Taiwan. There was little to do there but spend the night and wait half of the following day in line to buy a train ticket, then return back to the hostel to collect my things before returning to the train station to catch my train. May not sound too exciting but when you're in China, and if you're in the right mood, everything can be exciting.

Among the things I saw during my not-so-exciting day:


This lady riding her bike through town with live chickens tied to it. (Look closely.)

A Wal-Mart in China. (Not pictured.)

An entire downtown that seemed to all be under construction at once.

A man with a bamboo pole balanced over his shoulder with live chickens, ducks, and turtles tied to it. (Not pictured. Sorry.)


And I had just a tiny bit of time to take a stroll through this Chinese park.