Marinus van der Lubbe,
24, was beheaded in 1934 after being convicted of setting fire to the
Reichstag, an event Hitler used as a pretext to suspend civil liberties
and establish a dictatorship.
In 1967 a Berlin court
bizarrely changed the sentence to an eight-year prison term. In 1980
the same court lifted the sentence completely, a decision later
reversed by the federal court. Then in 1981 a West German court
overturned the conviction on the basis that Van der Lubbe was insane (and Gay - or is that the same thing..?),
but campaigners pushed for full state pardon arguing that he had been
convicted by a Nazi court.

It took a special law in 1998 to make the full pardon possible but it is unclear why another 10 years went by before it was granted.

On our very last day in Thailand I was very lucky to have a meeting with my lost friend Wim. I know him from my Prague years and it turned out that he has been living in Bangkok for more then 7 years. If only we had known before... It was great to see him and to hear that he is doing fine. His speaks Thai (and a dozen other languages) and could give us some very last insights of the Thai culture and people.

In Thailand they still use painted movie posters: nice!

Sergeant Darren Manzella is still an Army medic who has suffered no repercussions from his commanders for announcing that he is gay, a violation of military policy. On CBS' 60 Minutes he said that his fellow soldiers knew he was gay and the program aired a home video that showed him kissing a former boyfriend (wow! ;-) )
"They found 'no evidence of homosexuality,' " Manzella says. "They recommended that I just go back and keep doing my job." He soon headed to Kuwait for his second Iraq war deployment... Why don't stop by in Amsterdam Darren???

At our last day in the south of Thailand we went snorkeling at visiting the Phi Phi islands. With plenty of sun block, cool Diet Cokes, warm see-through sea water and a rapid speed boat it was a great day with a nice sun set at the Resort as a farewell from Phuket.

At the end of the day we took a classic long boat (with an even more classic old sailor) to take us to what is called James Bond island (remember "The man with the golden gun"?). It turned out to be a very memorable trip because we were the last boat to leave and were the only guys on and around the island. Just before sunset we returned to the harbor.

The Phuket island is completely commercialized and it was way too crowed when we did a tour. Beaches are like ant colonies and we are happy that our resort is just outside Phuket itself...
They do have a nice aquarium however, so that's where we spend most of our time.