Rain in Buri Ram

Tuesday, July 13, 2010—Buri Ram

I had trouble sleeping at first last night. I think I had an allergic reaction to the laundry detergent used to wash the sheets at first. I was scratching. And when I got up and turned on the light, my arm had a light rash. Anyway, it passed and, using my earplugs because of the sounds of the train announcements at the nearby station, I slept well.

I finished reading White Jacket by Herman Mellville. Its another book I chose from a list of books that provide excellent descriptions. What this book described was what a frigate and life on it was like in the mid-1800s. Unfortunately, it was not in the style of a novel. Instead, it was a series of essays on the various topics. And much of the book seemed to be written for the purpose of trying to convince the U.S. government to pass laws that would protect seamen from bad practices that took place on ships at that time. I found it mostly boring. One interesting aspect is that although he spent 367 pages being quite specific about all aspects of life on the ship, he left out the topic of sex. If he had included that, it might have been better. I gave it 1 1/2 stars (out of 4).

I had been asked to show up at my new hotel, the Lek Apartments, at 11:00, so I knew I needed to pass some time before leaving. I didn’t want to go to the lobby to use the Internet as I had done last night. By opening my room door and holding the computer in the air, I could just barely get a strong enough signal to connect to the wi-fi network. I sat on my bed and read and wrote e-mails and read the newspapers. Each time it was necessary to upload or download via a command, I had to raise the computer in the air and aim it at the door. When I closed it down at 10:10, my wrist was sore.

It wasn’t so bad walking here this morning. The skies were a bit cloudy. Still, however, my shirt was damp from perspiration by the time I completed the 40-minute trip. I wore the dirty clothes I had worn in the heat yesterday afternoon when searching for the new place.

It’s actually difficult to convince myself to ever put on clean clothes. As soon as I go out and travel a few blocks, everything is clammy. My tendency is to think that I should just put back on the old clothes I have already worn rather than quickly mess up something that is fresh. I don’t remember the weather being this hot and humid before, but maybe it’s just been a while since I traveled in Southeast Asia during this time of the year.

The new room is so much more comfortable for me. First, it is brighter. That’s due to having a window with see-through glass that looks out over the leaves of large trees, as well as the fact that the floors, walls, etc., within the room being a nice, bright color. It has cable TV instead of just the Thai channels that the other place had. And the wi-fi reception is great inside the room—all bars lighted vs. just the one smallest bar in the old place.

Because of my clothes situation, the first thing I did was wash laundry. This room has a balcony with two stainless steel drying rods on it. I washed shirts, socks, shorts, etc. Then, because it was the hottest part of the day, I just did more exploration on the Internet while keeping my eye on the weather. I downloaded Firefox to use as a browser since I read an announcement that MS will end all service for XP Service Pack 2 today which includes no longer providing upgrades to any of its Explorer programs whatever the version for computers using XP. Firefox will continue to update its program assuring better safety when surfing the Internet as they patch problems that are discovered.

Eventually, I heard thunder and brought in everything I had washed. My shorts were already dry. After the storm passed, I put everything else back on the balcony to continue drying.

Unfortunately, lightning apparently shut down the broadband connection during the storm. I was still connected to wi-fi but could not pull up web pages anymore. So I watched English-language news on TV and started reading a new book.

I am living in the neighborhood where many expatriates live. Buri Ram was the home of an American air base during the Vietnam war. Quite a few American men married Thai women and stayed here after the war. Also, there are Germans here, too. There are some large homes in fenced-in compounds. There are special restaurants serving pizza, steak, etc. There’s even a book store. If the rain holds off, I will look around for a place for dinner tonight. I had intended to go to a public swimming pool late this afternoon, but a second squall of bad weather came through. Therefore, I just stayed inside. When it is time for dinner, I’ll go out nearby and look for a good place to eat.
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I decided to splurge and went to eat at Muang Pizza operated by a young man from The Netherlands. I had a meat-lovers pizza and a large beer. The waiter was concerned about the size of the pizza, but I asked if I could take whatever I had left with me. He said I could, so I ordered it. He brought me a small loaf of bread hot from the oven with freshly-made garlic-chive butter. Ummm. When the pizza came, it was large, but it had a very thin crust. It was so nice to have something different that I just ate the whole thing! The flavor was a bit strong, and the salami on it was way too salty, but what a nice change of diet. It was definitely a splurge meal, however, since it cost more than 10 times what I normally pay for dinner in Thailand. I’ll consider it a belated birthday treat!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010—Buri Ram

The owner of the pizza restaurant last night told me about a nearby coffee shop operated by an American that has a book exchange where you leave a book, take a book and pay 50 Baht (about $1.65) for the privilege. Therefore, I took the book I finished yesterday by there this morning. As I expected, however, he had nothing that I wanted to read. They were all the typical best sellers by authors such as Nora Roberts, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, Ken Follett, etc. I just gave him my book to keep and didn’t pay to take one with me.

I walked from there to a retail area. I went inside a home improvement store and looked around for a while. Then I went to a Walmart-type store where I bought a large bottle of strawberry drinking yogurt for lunch and a bottle of water. By then, it was close to noon and getting warm, so I returned to my room.

For the second day in a row, my hopes for going swimming at the public pool here were spoiled by thunderstorms which started coming through around 14:30. At least today, they did not knock the Internet out of commission for 4 hours like they did yesterday. But the rain did keep falling for the rest of the day. I stayed on the computer doing things that I should have done before—downloading and installing the free AVG anti-virus program and the free Zone Alarm firewall. I also read the newspapers and sent a couple of e-mails.

I went out for dinner around 19:00 during a lull in the rain. I just went around the corner to a place where I had seen several people eating yesterday. It was a bit awkward at first, because the lady didn’t offer to show me what she had for making meals. I just walked to a table with two young women eating and looked at what they were having. It looked good, so I ordered that--khao kha moo—a rice dish with pieces of pork, small green leaves, small slices of green onion, and pieces of red pepper in a sauce.

My plan is to leave for Surin tomorrow, but I will let the weather decide that. This time of the year, rains can continue for days. I was stuck in Chitwan National Park in Nepal once for 7 days with heavy rains each day. I’m comfortable where I am living, so I will stay here and be happy if the rain is falling in the morning.