~ train border ~
first impressions are important -right...and especially of a new country. So this tired sojourner appreciates the fact that the nice Malaysian immigration lady welcomes me into her country by asking me where I'd like her to put the stamp!
Also nice to enter a new country for 90 days free of charge. Maybe this passport, with its 2 remaining full pages is gonna last the whole 3 months' trip after all. I'm at the end of my second since leaving NZ seven years ago now and the last one cost me almost US$300...it has lasted only just over 2 years! Like the cost of visas and new passports is rarely calculated by the budget traveler...and that I certainly am...
It's a cost that I begrudge in a way... couldn't just be about being of Scots, could it? This is the 21st century after all...what's with all these expensive bits of paper...we're all citizens of the one planet after all.
If you can read it... a notice on the subject of dress attire on entering the Kingdom of Thailand...dating from an earlier ['60s] generation...mine. So all you 'hippies' out there that plan to spend time in Thailand...beware. But don't pay it too much attention if you've been yuppied since then.