I wasn’t sure if I’d have to do this, but the reports keep coming in and it doesn’t look good. Nepal just had their biggest earthquake in 80 years, a 7.9, and the death toll is over 750 so far, with a state of emergency declared and people sleeping outside in expectation of aftershocks. (The Guardian’s page on the event is here.)
It makes “90, feels like 112” seem almost tolerable.
I expect a number of you will hear this news story today, so I thought I’d put out a quick update and let you know that I know and that I’m changing plans accordingly. It looks like I’m staying on Koh Samui another month. The place is available, the owner Steven says he’ll give me a deal, and it’s a bit late for me to try to make a more elaborate plan. And too early, I think, to go back to Chiang Mai. They’ve had terrible problems with the smog this year, and with drought, and there’s just not enough rain yet to clear out the air. And it’s been raining more here, which makes it cool and pleasant on many days — and also adds more gnats and mosquitoes, but, hey, at least my home won’t collapse in aftershocks, so I’m calling that a win.
I’ll still fly to Kuala Lumpur on Monday: I have to leave and reenter the country for my visa. Haven’t decided whether to stay a few days there, or just come straight back the next day. It may depend on the price of last minute hotel reservations, but I’ll figure that out tomorrow.
it took me a minute to find the news story on Nepal. Most of the news sites are focusing on the bigger and more critical news story of Bruce Jenner. However after the 6 page article in his Adam’s apple, I did find the tragic natural disaster story your refer to on page 7. (Under the blurb about what kloe kardashian thinks. M
You made the right move leaving the U.S.
Kloe Kardashian thinks? My gods, that is news. Stop the presses!
That’s a real bummer about the earthquake changing your plans, but glad it happened before you got there. So what about your Croatia option? I guess it is too late and last minute to just switch to another destination for a month?
Yeah, it’s definitely too last minute. I fly out tomorrow afternoon, and there’s just not enough time for me to properly research a new country and find a place that I like. But the place I’m in is not terrible — well, more specifically, it’s *great* in some respects, and super annoying in a couple of other, but the net sum is a positive, and that’ll do.
Wow, the gods truly were kind to let you even have time to make other arrangements – so glad you dodged that bullet! And at least you do have A/C if the heat becomes unbearable. Meanwhile, the rain sounds heavenly. 🙂
And the earthquake is headline news in California, but then, earthquakes are our thing…
Yeah, I was thinking that it was particularly good that I wasn’t there when it happened. It was around noon, when I’d have been most likely to be out looking at temples and such, many of which are quite collapsed now. As a Californian, I’ve been poorly trained for such a thing: all of our buildings are built to withstand quakes like that, and we’re often pretty casual about them. “Oh, cool! The building’s swaying! Fun!” I’m not at all sure that I would have panicked properly and run outside before it came down.
Heard about the earth quake on the radio, but have not heard about it on the TV news. If it had been tornados it probably would have all over every station. Glad you hadn’t already gone over there. Love reading your blogs. Take care.
Love to my favorite nephew…..O
Well, I’m not surprised it’s not on the TV, there’s no mystery to it! Not like an airplane missing over the ocean, which requires weeks of intense, if uninformative, coverage.
Love to one of my favorite aunts (whom I love equally in every way, that’s the story and I’m sticking to it),
Charles