Updating the Blog

Notes: 1) My finger is not as bad as I expected. I have wrapped the bandage as tight as possible to try to avoid hitting more than one key at a time. If you see inappropriate letters, that may be the reason, however. 2) This is another strange keyboard--well worn. Sometimes letters just pop on the screen when pressing the shift key, so that could be another reason. I'm sure you can all read around any extra letters you see.

Saturday, Aug. 27, Seoul to Bangkok

I finished reading The Last Juror by John Grisham last night. I gave it 2 stars out of 4. It was much like a mainstream Hollywood film--no thinking necessary and rather fast-paced. I left it inb the breakfast room with a note for someone to take it, read it, and pass it on.

Today is a travel day. I'll leave the hotel around noon. The bus to the airport runs every 20-30 minutes, so I should get one around 12:30. It takes an hour to 1 1/2 hours to get to the airport, so I should be there by 2:00 for my flight--3 hours early. I'll arrive in Bangkok at 9:10 and will have to catch a bus there. It may be too late for the bus directly to my hotel. If so, I'll have to take the one to Lumphini Park and walk the half mile (1 km) from there to my hotel;. It's a procedure I know. I should be in the hotel by 11:00 p.m. or so.
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Because one of the zipper pieces broke on the main compartment of my suitcase on the flight to San Francisco, I've had to reorganize my luggage--moving anything valuable to my locked small pockets on the suitcase or to my carry-on bag. I moved my shaving kit and my metal box of emergency medical supplies to my backpack and moved books from it to the unloced suitcase. I moved sharp metal objects from my shaving kit to a locked small compartment of the suitcase. All I have to lose from my unlocked case now are clothes and books, but they are all the clothes and books I have with me!
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I ate lunch at the airport--noodles with black bean curd. It was tasty--a bowl of noodles covered with a brown sauce with onions and small chunks of beef and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It was served with yellow pickled rounds of radish.

Bus to Airport 8000 won
Lunch 5000
Total: 13,000 won = $ 12.80
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Spending Update: I spent $181.73 in Seoul for a daily average of $36.35. Since leaving Texas I have spent $370.73 over a total of 9 days for an average on the whole trip of $41.19 per day or $1235.70 per month.
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I've started reading Being Dead by Jim Crace. It is really different in the way he uses a biological approach to describe what is happening. The book starts with the brutal murder of a husband and wife. Then it works backwards to tell their life events leading to this moment and forward to describe what is happening in terms of their being missing. It's an honest, yet brutally clear scientific description of events. And it is very well written.
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I'm in Bangkok waiting at the airport for my bus. As usual, the one directly to my hotel has finished for the night. I'll have to walk to the hotel from a nearby stop.

I sat beside a nice Thai young man--an engineer who had been to Korea to learn about some new machine he will be using. He had a strong accent, but it was possible to understand him. And it was so nice to visit with someone for a while. We had a laugh when he said his watch cost only 1250 baht, and I responded that mine cost only 250 baht ($6)!
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It was a fast bus trip to town. There were only three passengers. It was warm and humid, so I was sweating by the time I walked the half mile (1 km) to my hotel from Lumphini Park where I got off the bus. The walking route, however, was lined with rather nice upper-class prostitutes, since it was from the Patphong area. I don't recall prostitutes being there before.

Airport Bus 100 baht
Hotel Tip 20 baht
Total: 120 baht = $2.93

Sunday, Aug. 28, Bangkok

It didn't register in my mind until I walked off the plane last night, but the last time I was at the airport here was when I was changing planes to return Arne's remains to Denmark. Walking down the corridor to immigration was another one of those one-year-ago type experiences.

We had reservations to stay in the same hotel last year. Arne would have loved the buffet breakfast which I've just finished today. Buffets are so much more in Asia than they are elsewhere. From all the offerings, today I had: a rice noodle-celery-meat dish similar to Filipino pancit, scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon, croissants, butter, jam, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, and pineapple juice. There were far more choices, but I will be here a week.

This hotel is cheaper than the onbe in Seoul, and I get much more for my money--a bigger room, a better air conditioner, a better bed, a quieter room (better windows), a swimming pool, a better brakfast, etc. The only ways the Seoul hotel beat this one was its free Internet and maybe its more central location. But this hotel is near to where I need to be--my dental office.
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First days in new cities or countries always bring comparisons to mind. Seoul is so much better organized and so much cleaner than Bangkok. And S. Korea doesn't have as much poverty as Thailand. Of course, Thailand wins in the language category, since harly anyone in Korea speaks English and it seems like almost everyone does in Thailand. Thailand has cheaper food, too.

It's a HOT day here in Bangkok. I'm sitting in the shade of a tree in Chatuchak Park. There's a slight breeze, but it's a hot one. I've been next door to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It's a huge Saturday-Sunday only makrket full of both locals and tourists. It has everything from beatle specimens to furniture (possibly beatle infested), souvenirs, pets, clothing, food, etc. There are even several people selling jello shots. (They know why most backpackers travel!) I saw a stall selling great woven leather bracelets with metal beads and tubes woven into them. When I couldn't find anything else similar, I tried to go back and get me one. I re-traced my steps, I thought, but I never found the stall again. The market is just too large and too much of a maze.
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I returned to the market and ate at a food stall I noticed had people waiting constantly for tables. I tried to order "grilled porkneck with spicy sauce" which looked like nice lean slices of meat in the photo, but they were out of it. Instead, I got what almost everyone else was eating--"fried chicken hips." It was a nice size filet of chicken battered and fried. It was crispy and delicious with a small dish of hot dipping sauce. I ordered a bowl of sticky rice and got a can of Chang beer to go with it. It was tasty, satisfying, and only $1.59.

The heat was bothering me. It just wasn't fun to be out in it. I decided to return to the hotel and stay inside the rest of the day. I stopped at 7-11 hoping to get a Diet Coke. I never remember which countries do have diet cola and which don't, but I guess Thailand is a don't country. It's too bad; cola would be so nice on these hot days, but not cola with all those calories.

Hotel (6 Nights) $138.00
Buses (2) 14 baht
Lunch 65 baht
Water (.6 l + 1.5 l) 23 baht
Totals: 102 baht = 2.49
Grand Total: $140.49