Last night Hans Fritschi watched the moving inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. This had a surprising or even stunning effect in Thailand: Nasty Nong Khai Donald lost his voice overnight! This dog is still a threatening menace, but now in complete silence. Hans Fritschi takes this wonderful development as one more sign of hope.

Language salad: In his first German-language video from the Discovery Garden Nong Khai, Hans Fritschi explores the question of why it is dangerous to christen a white dog snow in Thailand. Snow in tropical Thailand? That fits like a fist, but it’s not the problem. There are many linguistic and cultural differences and misunderstandings. And Donald reports back. With subtitles in English.

When I flew from Pattaya to Udon Thani four days ago, there were no Covid related controls between the airport and my Nong Khai home. But the next morning the village chief or Poo Yai Baan sent two girls with masks to check my temperature. I was later informed, that I was to stay within my premises until January 10th. De facto I am now quarantined at Discovery Garden Nong Khai which is no real problem for me since this is a magical place anyhow.

Just one week ago Hans Fritschi spent a very cheerful and optimistic first day of 2021 in Jomtien Beach Pattaya. Restaurants were allowed to reopen after a short and erratic closure, but have almost no customers presently due to the fear of Covid 19 and the ban to sell any alcoholic beverages. Even Jomtien Beach is much emptier now than a week ago since “Banglamung” aka Pattaya has been declared a Covid 19 red alert zone. Travelling in and out has become dubious and leads to a lock-down without officially being declared a lock-down. Return to Jomtien Beach Pattaya in this Clip just one week ago which seems to be away ages ago.