Changes in Bangkok

Thursday, July 31, 2008--Bangkok (Continued)

After being on the Internet, I decided to eat at the street stalls near here where I have often eaten on my previous trips. I picked out one that seemed to look good and had noodle soup with slices of red pork. It was delicious.

I was tired from a long day. I stopped at the supermarket and bought a few items for the room, and then returned for the night. Did you know that Oreos are now being made with a peanut butter filling? I tried them, but they still needed a bit more of a peanut taste, I thought.

I have a new item to put on my packing list when traveling: a strong light bulb. So many rooms, especially in Asia, have limited lighting. Where they do have lights, they are low-wattage florescent ones. Here, the florescent bulbs are made with U-shaped tubes, and the typical hotel buys the ones with only two tubes. That's probably the equivalent of 35-40 watts for an incandescent bulb. I want to pack myself a bulb with 3-4 tubes so I can put it in place of theirs when I want to read or see well for grooming.

Friday, Aug. 1, 2008--Bangkok

I awoke wondering if the breakfast at my new hotel would be as good as the one I have enjoyed at the Mandarin for the past few years. Going to breakfast there each morning has been a special treat. Well, the Pinnacle has just as good a breakfast. In fact, it is better in some respects. It is a buffet, and I followed my usual routine. I started with a plate of non-sweets--omelette, cheese, grilled tomato, ham, chicken sausage, mixed Asian vegies, fried potato chunks, and chile sauce. Then I had a plate of French toast with bacon. (The bacon was tough and not as tasty as at the Mandarin, unfortunately.) Then I had a plate of fresh fruits (watermelon, papaya, and pineapple) and pastries (cinnamon pastry and cheese pastry). I drank pineapple juice and coffee. UMMMM!

On my way to the dentist this morning, I passed the United Airlines office, so I got my seat assignments for my 3 flights with them on the new ticket. While here, I also need to go to the Turkish Airlines and the Lufthansa Airlines offices to get seat assignments.

Although I had an e-mail confirming an appointment, it somehow didn't get on the books at my dentist office. They were fully booked for the time I expected, too. But they have a second office just 3 blocks away, and there was an available dentist there. I was surprised when the dentist found four cavaties. I haven't had but one cavaty in the last 35 years or so. The only fillings I have been getting are along the tops of the teeth where I've had receding gums due to aging. Anyway, 3 of the four were apparently very small and the other was a bit bigger. He drilled and filled all four of them in less than 20 minutes. Then he cleaned my teeth. I was out of there in about 45 minutes total. The cost this time was a little over 4000 Baht--about $120 U.S. for inspection, cleaning, and filling 4 cavaties.

I knew that the foreign films normally begin at noon here, and it was 11:50 when I left the dentist's office. I rushed to the local theater nearby and got a ticket for the noon showing of Red Cliff, a John Woo film. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was only half a film. It ends with the words, "To Be Continued." So there will be another film coming out showing the great battle that is about to happen when the film ends. It was interesting. I enjoyed the story. I had trouble at times telling the characters apart, since they all wore similar armor and had similar facial features. I hope I will remember to see Part II when it is released.

Unfortunately, there aren't many choices in foreign films right now. There are too many American big-budget films showing. I had hoped to see 3-4 films as I usually do. I will be lucky to see more than two this year.

It's fun to see the changes when I return to Bangkok each year. Finally, a two-tower construction project I have been watching for years has been finished. It actually began about 10 years ago, I guess, but it was a victum of the economic bust in Asia that occurred back then. The towers stood as a skeleton for years. Then construction began again maybe 4 years ago. They are just now opening. One is an office tower, the other is a condo tower, and between the two is a food court/shopping area. Only a few establishments are open in that lower area, but there is much work to open more in the near future. It's just good to see the metal fences removed and the huge area coming to life.

Another fascinating change is with the shopping mall called Siam Center. It was built years ago as a mall with exclusive boutiques by major designers. But then two more malls were built on either side of it and stole those retailers from them. Last year, Siam Center was undergoing remodeling while staying open. Well, this year it is a totally different mall. It is being called the Siam Center for Fun and Fashion, and every store in it is for the trendy young crowd. The only designer names or major retailers there are the ones that cater to the young--Esprit, Swatch, etc. Most of the stores are names that are unknown. And all of them have unique and exciting options for the truly young--high school and college crowds for the most part.

I stopped at the university to go through their gallery as usual. There was nothing of interest to me this year. One of the smaller galleries that usually has some good exhibits isn't open right now. Maybe a show will open in the next week while I am still here. In the meantime, I also went to the floor in Paragon Center that has the contemporary furniture stores to see whether they had anything of interest. I did see a nice dining table, but not necessarily one I would want. It was fun to look, however.