Last Day in Bangkok

I have had two surprises today. First, I noticed that I had only one breakfast voucher left at the hotel. That caused me to realize that it is tomorrow that I fly to Yangon for my travels in Myanmar. For some reason, I had been thinking that it would be Saturday when I depart. I probably would have realized it anyway, because I knew that the flight was scheduled for Sept. 2, but it sure was helpful to have the vouchers bring my attention to it.

The second surprise was to get here and find that my blog had published yesterday. Every time I tried to view it after making the posts, I saw a version without the new posts. I guess that computer was relying on a cached version of the page. I should have thought to hit the button for refreshing the page. Anyway, I thought I had wasted all that typing.

My finger looks better and better. It is amazing how fast it is healing. Is it the Far East doing that? Or do laser cuts heal faster than knife cuts. When the doctor finished on Monday, the hole looked as big as the one I had when a knife had been used a few months ago. But that hole took much longer to heal. Maybe it was deeper than the laser cut and I have just forgotten.

Several people have asked me if I am aware of the Hurricane Katrina. I have BBC on my TV at the hotel, so I have seen coverage every day. The devastation is terrible. It's what I always feared might happen before I sold my house in Corpus Christi. I feel so glad to be free of it and the treat of such a disaster. Those poor people in Louisiana and Mississippi are going to have a horrible few months ahead of them as they deal with the lack of water, lack of sewage, clean up operations, rebuilding, etc.

I have no special plans for today. There is a movie that is opening I think I will see. It seems to be from Afganistan or somewhere like that. The poster doesn't say whether it has English subtitles, however. I will have to go to the theater and see. Sometimes foreign films like that already have English subtitles and the Thais only add their own. But usually there is a sign on the poster indicating that. If I can't see it, I'll just be lazy another day, I guess.

I finished reading Being Dead by Jim Crace. I have it 3 stars out of 4. It is an interesting story, and his method of describing everything and every process in scientific detail is fascinating. It's not a book for the religious or the squeemish; they would have trouble sticking with it.

There is an apartment building behind my hotel that sweems to have no electricity. I've seen movement during the day to indicate people are living there, but there has been no light in the building at any time during the evenings. I don't know if it's an abandoned building with squatters or if people are renting apartments with no electricity. Either way, it's a sad situation for the people living there.

I had breakfast this morning with an Australian man who is married to a Thai woman. They live in her home village near the Cambodian border and have three children. She was the hotel maid, and he fell in love with her and moved here about 12 years ago. Now he works as an independent contractor here in Thailand. There are about 6 homes in their village--all shacks except for their nice home. It was interesting talking to them about their life. He's trying to raise his kids without undue influence by western standards, so he hasn't taken them to Australia.

Well, this is when I go silent for about 25 days. I leave Myanmar for India on May 24. So on May 25 or 26 I hope to be back online. Sometime during the next few days after that, I hope to update the blog with some of the highlights from the journals I write in Myanmar. Of course, there is always a chance that the generals have or will relent and let tourists access the Internet while I am there. If so, I will post while there. But I have not read anything to indicate that this has happened or is being considered. You might check the blog in a few days just to see if there is a post of some king. It will seem strange being out of touch with everyone. There should be some good stories when I do get back online!!