Why Kites From Phuket?

I have been fortunate enough to have had a favourable career as a federal civil servant in Canada. Having retired after 29 years of service to the Correctional Service of Canada. During that time I worked in Kosovo under the auspices of the United Nations Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK) and I began to chronicle my personal experiences and observations of being in a post war country as an outsider in Kites from Kosovo. In many ways the inside of a prison is a place that most will never experience, but many have opinions of what they think it is like. In a prison environment the ability to communicate information inside and sometimes out of a prison was by a written note or letter. The prison colloquialism for this note or letter is a kite.
My friends and family were regaled almost weekly with my experiences, reading about things they could only imagine and hearing the realities of life in other parts of the world. Sometimes places they had never even heard of or only heard a very little bit in a 2 minute clip on TV evening news. Later in my career I had the opportunity to work with a contractor providing services to the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) on the reestablishment of a prison service following 45 years of conflict. My experiences were chronicled to family and friends as Kites from Sudan. After I retired my family and I moved on a one year retirement visa to the island of Phuket in Thailand. I began writing again and this time Kites from Phuket emerged. After much prompting from family and friends, I decided that i would venture out into the cyber world, with my kites. They are peppered with my dark humour, embarrassing anecdotes, photographs and practical information. I hope the information is of use to travelers, as well as people who may be considering coming to Thailand or anywhere that they may have dreamed of. I also hope it is of practical use by the people of Thailand to see and heard an outsider perspective of this very wonderful and beautiful country and people. It might give you some insight into the complex and bizarre thinking and customs of some of us falangs!