Updates To Blog Pages January 14, 2016

The flowers that appear in the photos from Vientiane, Laos are of the Lotus tree. The lotus flower is the official flower symbol of Laos, and the white version adorn many items including all Laos Airlines aircraft. They come in many different colors from white to deep red, yellow etc, and grow in the same locations. The Christmas tree was examined up close, and, amazingly, it is made from shredded water bottles. The bottles are somehow shredded into strips about one quarter inch wide, while the caps are still on the bottle. The caps are what helps to hold the material to a central frame. I saw these "trees", in many cities. On Monday morning, I delivered a letter to my local Bank Manager concerning the issue of no one being available at TD Trust VISA. I wish to emphasize, I am only speaking about TD Trust Visa, as I do not know about other Banks, or what they are doing. I laid out what happened to me, and my concerns about the fact that if someone lost, or had their Visa card stolen, the thief would have up to eighteen or twenty hours to spend on the card before action could be taken to freeze the card. To my great amazement, no one at the Bank was aware that there was no need to call and give one's travel plans, NOR the fact the office was closed from nine at night until nine in the morning, Eastern Standard Time!. I also requested a refund of my ten dollars for the second call to Canada. On Wednesday, I was out for a few hours in the morning, but did receive a call at home from the local TD Bank Manager. He apologized for the problem, informed me that they were looking into the matter, and thanked me for bringing the matter to their attention. As I understood from the message, they were not informed of either move by the Bank. He also said that twenty dollars would be put into my account that day, and it was. I have heard nothing further. I expect to include one more set of photos from Laos, then move on to Other areas of my travels. As of January 1, 2016, Laos and seven or eight other countries began a formal Trade Zone, similar to the European Union, and it is known by the acronym, ASEAN. The Association of South East Asian Nations. China is not a member!. Laos is probably along with Myanmar, (Burma), the poorest country in the area and this group. This may cause some problems with people moving about freely and going to the countries that have higher local salaries. It will probably prevent the better off countries from seeing improvements to their wage conditions for some time.