We’ve now moved into a two-bedroom apartment with a decent view in the Sathorn district of Bangkok. So for just shy of a month, we’ll have our base camp in one of the city’s many, many unnamed neighborhoods where you’ll find just about everything needed for day-to-day existence within reasonable walking distance – including a 7-11, several tiny restaurants, a couple of laundry shops, and one really good massage place. Both Charlotte and I enjoyed a 90-minute Thai massage there and we were both impressed. Next to it is a yoga studio that I’ll have to check out someday.

The apartment is a 15-minute leisurely stroll along busy Rama IV Road to Lumpini Park where I spent about an hour near the clocktower (seen near the bottom on the right of the photo) this afternoon. I found a spot to practice Qigong at under a tree full of a dozen or so noisy crows. I managed to focus to the point where I was completely unbothered by the crowing and let the rowdy birds do their thing while I did mine. Will be back tomorrow morning to meet with a lady that teaches Tai Chi at the same location.

Nowhere near as large as New York’s majestic Central Park, Lumpini is still big enough to provide sanctuary from Bangkok’s insane intensity. Not sure if the trees can absorb and convert the surrounding pollution into clean air, but it at least seems easier to breathe when I’m there.

Pleasantly surprised by how it’s not as devastatingly hot as we expected it to be. Da Nang at night was a comfortably cool 24C and it’s not that much warmer in Bangkok, at least not a few hours after sundown. I barely broke out in a sweat, even when in direct sunlight, during my 14k walk earlier today. I suppose this is the new normal for November. My earliest memories of Bangkok, just about now but in the fall of 1988, are otherwise somewhat clouded, but there were surely monsoon rains and probably a general haze from those backpacking days of yesteryear…

More images from Bangkok here.

Here’s the short film from our visit with Sue, Cat, Marie, Julian, Nori, Lola, India and the rest of the gang at the NGO Vietnam Pets and Vets outside of Hoi An, here in Central Vietnam. Publishing this video today coincides perfectly with our daughter Elle’s 19th birthday. After all, it’s thanks to her genuine interest and compassion for all living creatures that we’re eating healthier and staying clear of the meat and poultry industries’ disasterous behavior towards animals and the planet. While Elle’s celebrating with friends on Bali, we’ve now moved out of the countryside and installed ourselves in a nice corner room at a beachfront hotel in Da Nang.

This is Julian, one of two pigs we met the other day at an energetically operated combo rescue and shelter organization called Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue This is Julian, one of two friendly pigs Charlotte and I met the other day at Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue which is housed in a tiny village outside of Hoi An. The other rescued pig is Lola and I’m currently working on a short film with both of the pigs and a few other rescued animals we had the pleasure of meeting, along with founder Cat and her co-workers Marie and Sue during our short visit there the other day.

Experiences like these are wonderful and really add a silver lining to our stay here. It also fuels our enthusiasm for maintaining a 90% plant-based diet and to veto consumption of beef, pork, and poultry. I have yet to come to terms with my inexcusable seafood habit, but I’m working on it.

Like most red-blooded Americans that haven’t been completely brainwashed from having Fox News or CNN as their only source of information, I’m skeptical about every word a politician exudes. You have to be. It’s not so much about distrust as it is understanding the nature of the game.

Politics, at least in a functioning democracy, is essentially about delegating representatives with an ability and will to compromise and find common ground in all kinds of important societal issues that need to be legislated and regulated in order for the wheels to keep turning. And in order for politicians to “succeed” and keep everything running smoothly, it’s key they are willing to make trade-offs and, yes, even break promises along the way. I totally appreciate this as the very nature of politics – hence me having a healthy dose of skepticism when listening to political rhetoric.

Unfortunately, not much of the above seems to be happening these days. Not exactly sure why, though. But it’s likely symptomatic of our strange era where many desperatly grab for the easiest answer, even when the questions are extraordinarily complicated and therefore often inconveniently hard to comprehend – for laymen and politicians alike.

I totally get why so many people tune out and feel disenfranchised by much of what’s going on in today’s political arena. Regardless of whether you believe this way or that on any given subject or current political event, the fact is that most national politicians are definitely not doing what they should be doing, i.e. negotiating, finding common ground and processing legislation that benefits both the citizens that voted for them in the first place and the delicate planet we all share.

We’re not celebrating Halloween this year. Not that it’s usually much of a happening in Sweden. But I will never forget our cool Halloween celebration whilst living in Santa Monica back in 2014 which was where and when the above shot was taken at a super-spooky corner house a few blocks away from us.

The strangest part of adjusting to slow life here in rural Vietnam, especially when coming from a country like Sweden – where new stuff is readily and rapidly adopted – is paying with paper money again.

Not only do I barely recognize any of the Swedish bills or coins currently in circulation, the vast majority of stores I shop at back in Sweden don’t even take anything but digital payment these days. Which adds a scary level of Orwellian surveillance potential.

Once a week I visit our local village bank here where two ATMs have been placed side by side in a claustrophobically small booth on a busy street corner. I watch during each visit – with some trepidation – as my lime green Mastercard gets sucked lickety-split into the belly of one of the grimy cash machines. Superstitiously, I alternately use the left and right ATM, just to even out my odds, should one day my card be swallowed permanently by either.

After choosing English as my preferred language, punching in my code and agreeing to the transaction fee for a withdrawal equaling roughly USD$100, twenty colorful and neatly stacked 100.000 Dong bills are ejected. Unlike my wife Charlotte, I never request a receipt and just shove the wad of cash into my right back pocket before stepping back out onto the street again.

While two million Dong sounds like a lot of money, I mean, it’s hard not to be just a little hypnotized by all those zeroes, to put the currency into an everyday perspective, one hundred thousand Vietnamese Dong is actually only about USD$4:30. Or, in our weak Swedish currency, about 42 kronor.

A large watermelon at our local market cost approximately 25.000 Dong and at Bamboo Chicken on Cua Dai Street, a generous portion of tasty Pho soup or stir-fried veggies with noodles (or rice) with a choice of Saigon beer or non-alcoholic beverage, will set us back 40.000 Dong. Prices vary widely depending on where you’re at and more importantly, the proximity you have to Hoi An’s main tourist attractions. I’ve paid almost as much here for a bottle of beer as in Sweden.

Very few shops, restaurants or minimarts accept card payment in Hoi An and I’d likely be laughed at if I even showed my credit card to any of the often unapologetically brash women working the stalls at our local vegetable and fruit market.

Though Vietnam no longer has coins in circulation, paper cash is still the undisputed king on the payment pyramid. Digital emoluments like Swish and Apple Pay are nothing but science fiction here. Which is kinda cool. With the risk of sounding like a nostalgic curmudgeon, I think paying in cash feels more tangible and adds an old school level of privacy to my choice of consumption. Though my phone’s is certainly being tracked and my location sold to the highest advertising bidder, at least nobody will know for sure that I ordered that extra beer or if the restauranteur pocketed my wrinkled Dong to pay for his daughter’s biweekly piano lessons.

From yesterday’s assignment for Charlotte’s popular Swedish hotel web site hotelladdict.se While probably not the most eco-friendly adventure I’ve been on, oh boy, was it fun driving and riding the M72 (Dnepr/Ural) – a vehicle with a long-ass production life, from the original BMW R71 (1938) to current day Chinese (PRC) version: Chang Jiang CJ750. Read more about these incredible beasts on Hoi An Sidecar Tours – the tour operator’s website.