Mid-week Musings

Immediately upon getting home from work today, I changed into a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers and walked over to the basketball court at the southwest corner of Marian Anderson Park, at 18th & Catharine Streets.  As a sidenote, the t-shirt I wore was my black Singha Lager Beer t-shirt that I bought on a corner store in Bangkok on the last night of my TLC tour (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) with Paul.

It felt good to be out.  I was there for over an hour, the first 45 minutes by myself and last 15 minutes or more with Jeannie and Seva.  I was shooting the ball pretty well tonight.  I'll periodically shoot 10 free throws in a row.  When I did so at one point tonight, I went 8 for 10, which is the best I've shot in the few times I've played recently.  After Jeannie got there, we played a game of horse (as we did last time) and I won with only an "H" against me.  I'll grant Jeannie that I was warmed up nicely by the time she got there.  But the point still remains: I was shooting very well tonight.  It felt good and made me miss playing basketball.

The day started out on a different note.  I slept in until 11am.  Today, of course, is Wednesday, thus mid-week and I just needed a break to catch up on rest.  Seva has been an absolute blessing, but she has certainly altered our sleep schedule, which is to say that I haven't slept for eight hours straight since before she was born.  Since I didn't have any morning appointments at the office, I figured I would just stay home and sleep in.

It may not have been the responsible thing to do, but I've always been one to follow my intuition.  If my body is telling me to sleep in, then I'll very likely sleep in.  My health is one of my most important priorities.  I know others that pride themselves on being into the office every day by such and such time.  I really don't care about that; I'm not trying to impress anybody.  My goals are staying healthy and getting my work done, even if it's not within the cookie-cutter schedule that some others would prefer to squeeze me into.

A random note from yesterday.  I went to lunch at Beck's Cajun Cafe at Reading Terminal Market.  As you may remember from my post the other day, I've been loving the vibe I get at RTM these days.  And as you can probably easily glean from my posts over the past year relating to work, I'm always happy to be anywhere but at the office.  So my lunch hour yesterday was a win-win.  I had the blackened chicken breast po' boy topped with a sprinkling of their devil dust ("everything seasoning & dry rub") every few bites.  It was pretty good.

Another random note, this time relating to a current event.  Yesterday a federal judge struck down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage.  And today, Governor Tom Corbett announced that his administration is not going to appeal the decision, meaning that marriage equality has now come to Pennsylvania, the last state in the Northeast to do so, if I'm not mistaken.  I have no problem with this.  In fact, I'm in support of marriage equality.

But all the buzz on social media in support of these current events has provoked a criticism on my part.  I've seen so many friends post and re-post the same couple of articles over and over again on facebook.  It's like they're all parroting each other.  And on a very "safe" position for the year 2014.  It ranks up there with anti-racism against blacks as one of the safest social positions in this day and age.  And this is my criticism: nearly all liberals are too scared to stand up for anything but a non-controversial position.

Can I blame them?  I guess not, most people by nature are going to maintain their self-preservation, most people by their nature want to be liked by the most people possible.  But it's bullshit when everyone is too scared to stick out or do anything contrary to the masses.  For example, it's easy for liberals to be angry at a guy like Donald Sterling, because he says something (wrong, yes) that fits squarely within the "racism against blacks" category, against which all liberals are champions and defenders.  And now, it's easy for liberals to post and re-post articles reporting that Pennsylvania is a marriage equality state, since that fits squarely within the pro-gay marriage category.

If you hear me, then ask yourself: what are the edgy social issues of the future? what are the social issues that are not yet ripe according to the masses, but are still the right thing to stand for today? in what way(s) are the masses complacent to something unfair or biased or bullshit?  Who's going to identify these issues and wake up the liberals who are too scared or blind to see the next step?  As my friend Andrew would probably agree (based on a pendulum theory he shared with me), in what way(s) has the pendulum swung too far in another direction, creating an unfair or unjust imbalance?

Reflections on TLC

Vapex. For some reason, in Bangkok especially, many men and even some women periodically put a small white plastic tube (similar to Chapstick) into their nose, sniff, and then repeat with the other nostril. Several men that I observed did this obsessively, to the point that I thought it was some kind of narcotic or chemical stimulant. We found out from an 18 year-old American girl who has been living with her mother in Bangkok for over a year now that this practice is meant to open the air passage from the effect of the city smog. She said that a lot of cab drivers use the strong menthol smell kinda like people back here at home use coffee: as a quick jolt to stay awake. In fact, the cabbie that drove us to the Hualamphong train station -- when we made it at the very last minute -- was using the Vapex like a fiend. Here's a pic from a guy on the Chao Phraya Express Boat gettin' his fix:


Volleyball. It seemed that everywhere we went in Cambodia (which was admittedly limited to just the town of Siem Reap and then the road from there to the border town of Poipet), we saw games of volleyball being played. When we first arrived in Siem Reap, we took a walk around town. After crossing a bridge to the other side of the river, we saw a spirited game of volleyball being played. And then on the day we took a taxi to the border (to eventually return to Bangkok), I saw at least two games of volleyball being played out in the Cambodian countryside. It made me wonder how the Cambodian Olympic volleyball team fared in Beijing.

Asian tourists. In my previous trips to Central America, Europe, and Egypt, the great majority of fellow travelers (not that kind, silly) were Europeans. On this trip, it was quite different. Most of the tourists generally -- as opposed to the subgroup of backpackers -- were Asian: from my estimation, they were mostly Korean and Japanese. Of course among the backpacker crowd, the travelers were almost entirely "white," but even here a slim majority may have been Australian as opposed to European. One look at the map or a globe explains this phenomenon. Nevertheless, it was a new experience for me. As a final sidenote, I can count on one hand the number of Americans (i.e., from the USA) that we met on the entire trip. I guess the typical American tourists were all in Cancun or other Americanized neo-colonies: too scared, narrow-minded, or culturally conservative to step outside of their own culture.

Bangkok sidewalks. The transformation of the sidewalks of Bangkok over the course of a night is quite striking. In the normal hours of the night, up to midnight or 1am let's say, the sidewalks are characterized by streetside vendors selling souvenirs, t-shirts, and handicrafts. Besides that, there are handfuls of prostitutes on each block, just standing around waiting to be picked up by middle-aged white guys with lots of American dollars in their wallets. After 1am or 2am, though, as we realized when we took a cab at 4am to get to the airport, the sidewalks turn into a nocturnal, and much rougher-around-the-edges, version of Paris: by that I mean that there are lots of people still out drinking beers and smoking at tables all along the sidewalks. Believe me, this was more than just a couple of tables on one block; this was many tables block after block after block. By virtue of staying active throughout the nighttime hours, Bangkok must be classified as a world city.

Same Same But Different. That was a common phrase that we heard throughout all three countries of our trip. It was used in every situation imaginable. For example, you would ask if a certain dish tasted similar to pad thai, and the waiter would respond, "same same but different." It was funny, but vexing. But the phrase was so common that everywhere we went we saw t-shirts announcing it: "Same Same" on the front, "But Different" on the back. If you look closely, the girl on the right in this photo is wearing the t-shirt:


Prostitution. I guess it should come as no surprise that prostitution was prevalent where there were older, relatively wealthy tourists -- thus, in Bangkok and in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Although I have to admit that some of the prostitutes were quite pleasing to the eye, it didn't take long for me to feel disgusted by the whole scene: rich white guys basically "buying" companionship and sex from young women. But hey, that's capitalism, right? Money talks. I felt pity for most of these guys, who back home probably have no chance to get a beautiful woman. So can I blame them? Yes and no. And I pity the women too, because I wonder how many of them are pursuing any worthwhile goals, like education or an eventual career, while they sell their bodies; probably not too many, unfortunately. The whole situation is just shitty. I also thought of another byproduct: how many beautiful girls in Bangkok -- who are legitimately not prostitutes -- are eyeballed and objectified by old white guys who jump to the conclusion that they must be a whore because they're young and beautiful? Terrible, really terrible.

Ladyboys. Well, as long as we're talking about the openness of sex in parts of southeast Asia, we may as well talk about the openness of sexuality too. This is one thing that I felt was refreshing. For those not in the know, "ladyboys" are basically southeast Asian transvestites: men dressing like and adopting the mannerisms of women. Don't get me wrong, coming from a comparatively sexually-conservative culture like that of the United States, it was a bit weird to see the ladyboys. Here in Philly, it's easy enough to walk down to the Gayborhood and you can see all the transvestites that you'd like. But that's the big difference: here in the U.S. the places that sexual expressiveness is culturally acceptable are quite limited and the boundaries are clear; they're kinda like modern-day ghettoes (in the Jewish sense of the word). In southeast Asia, though, you could see a ladyboy anywhere. For example, the receptionist at our hotel on our first morning in Bangkok was quite androgenous; we really couldn't figure out that person's gender at all. And this openness of sexual expressiveness, without boundaries, was noticeable throughout much of our trip. Being the fan of freedom that I am, I found this facet of southeast Asian culture to be very refreshing and quite advanced of our culture in the United States.

French legacy. Continuing with my smooth segues, I'll dovetail off that last comment about culture in the United States with an observation of the cultural legacy of southeast Asia. In Laos and Cambodia particularly -- formerly colonized by the French -- you can see the lasting influence of French culture. Baguettes and crepes are common. Restaurants have French names. And not only that, but outdoor seating at bistro tables is widespread. And for the first time in my travels, I met a traveler who was French; her name was Anne-Sarah and she was studying law at a university in Can Tho, Vietnam. She was traveling with a group of fellow French students to Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Although the international lingua franca is now most definitely English, it seems that the French enjoy visiting areas that remind them, even a little bit, of home.

Backpacker circuit. Paul and I followed an itinerary that can be described as a big oval: from Bangkok, north to Chiang Mai, east to Luang Prabang, then south to Vang Vieng, Vientiane, Savannakhet, and Pakse, then southwest to Siem Reap, then west back to Bangkok. On the map it makes the most sense to follow this route, especially if doing most of it overland: by bus or train. And apparently we were not the only ones with this approach. When we were in Siem Reap, a girl came up to me at Temple Bar and told me that she remembered seeing me back in Chiang Mai. And from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, we hung out with our Aussie friends, Nick and Josh, and our English friends, John and his girlfriend Jenny. And lastly, the French girl, Anne-Sarah, and her friends were on our minibus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, and I spent the entire 4-5 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng to Vientiane sitting next to and chatting with Anne-Sarah. The point is that, in southeast Asia, there is definitely a well-worn path which backpackers follow, what I called the "backpacker circuit."

Philly at Angkor Wat. Walking through one of the many temples at Angkor, I saw a Cambodian artist sitting on a rock, painting a picture; he was wearing a Philadelphia Eagles hat. I pointed it out to him and said "I'm from Philadelphia." His response was simply "godson", in the speech of a deaf man. I said, "ahh, your godson lives in Philadelphia," and he nodded his head. Later, as we were about to walk up the long and steep climb to the top of the tallest hill in the area -- where we were gonna watch the sunset -- I saw a guy in his early-20s wearing a red baseball cap. I was almost sure what it was, but I walked closer. Yup, it was a Phillies cap! So I approached him and said, "Phillies!" We talked for a few minutes. He asked me what it was like on the streets of Philadelphia when the Phillies won the World Series, he said he missed it because he was already in southeast Asia, I told him that it was mass joyful chaos, and I described the scene from Market Street and along Broad Street from that night. The guy said he lived in Northeast Philly. It was cool to see -- not once, but twice in one day -- Philadelphia being represented halfway around the world. Three cheers for the Two-Fifteen!

The Roots. Finally, speaking of Philly represent, I was at Temple Bar in Siem Reap when, over the loudspeakers, they played a song by The Roots. How appropriate: I graduated from Temple Law in North Philly and they were playing a song by Philly's very own hip-hop leaders, The Roots. Everything seemed just right at that moment, as I sipped on my Angkor beer, listening to "The Seed (2.0)", a great song that you can enjoy right now by clicking HERE (I couldn't find any videos that I could embed directly onto this website).

One Night in Bangkok

Classic 80s song that I wanted to post onto my blog from Bangkok. Please enjoy responsibly:



Lyrics can be found HERE.

Bangkok airport under siege

While lying in bed this morning, listening to the BBC World News Report on NPR, I heard that anti-government protesters stormed the Bangkok airport, thus suspending all outgoing flights. This is the airport that I flew out of exactly 66 hours ago!

It reminds me of the advice of our taxi driver on our first morning in Bangkok: he said not to wear either red or yellow, because those are the respective colors of the government supporters and the anti-government protesters. As the BBC reported (see the article and video clip HERE), hundreds of yellow-shirted members of the People's Alliance for Democracy broke through police lines and entered the main terminal of the newly-built Bangkok airport.

Bangkok's two year-old Suvarnabhumi international airport is really nice; it may be the nicest airport that I've ever been in. Its architecture is sleek and modern: a steel lattice framework with large transparent windows, all lit up in a cool blue light (good photo HERE). It is spacious without seeming immense. It is multilingual and thus inviting to all visitors. I can only imagine the reaction of travelers at the sight of hundreds of yellow-shirted anti-government protesters; the article describes it as one of "bewilderment", I would guess that it would be one of incredulity along with a sick realization of misfortunate bad timing.

Runnin' on empty

I got food poisoning yesterday. I'm recovering now, but I'm really angry that the trip has to end this way. I'm not sure who or what I'm angry at, but it fucking sucks that my trip is ending on such a terrible note.

It began with the taxi ride from Siem Reap to Poipet, two towns in Cambodia, the former is where we had stayed for the previous three nights, the latter is the town on the Cambodia-Thailand border. Poipet is the stereotypical border town: dirty, dusty, and just plain nasty. Paul and I were fortunate to get hooked up by our remork (the Cambodian word for tuk-tuk) driver, Mr. Prom Meta, with a personal taxi ride to the border; Meta called up a Thai friend of his who then drove us the three hours to Poipet. The ride was through the Cambodian countryside, which was characterized by flat marshlands. The first two hours, from Siem Reap to the town of Sisaphon, was on a bumpy, rocky, dirt road; this is when I first realized that I wasn't feeling normal, because I could hear a lot of liquid sloshing around in my stomach with every bump in the road, which was literally constant throughout the ride. The ride from Sisaphon to Poipet was not as bad, because it was a paved roadway, but by then I knew that I had to get to a toilet as soon as we'd arrive in Poipet. When we got there, I went inside a hotel within 50 meters of the border crossing to use their toilet. The bathroom was nasty and looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. There was no toilet paper in the men's room, so I went into the women's bathroom where I found a half-full/half-empty bag of napkins, which I took back into the men's room. This time I emptied my insides in a way that felt different that other times on this trip; even though I had diarrhea for many days on this trip, I never felt so terribly unwell as I did this time. Previously it was just a matter of letting loose and then going on my way, feeling better for letting it out. This time I still felt like crap afterwards.

We walked across the border and the barrage of putrid smells -- from garbage to fish -- began to make me feel nauseous. But I kept going, knowing that I had to reach my ultimate goal of making it to Bangkok, where we had a nice hotel, with all the amenities, already booked. We walked through customs, and entered Thailand. Upon walking out into the streets, we got a tuk-tuk, which took us the few kilometers to the bus station of the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet. We were just in time; a 4:30pm bus bound for Bangkok was already loaded and about to depart. So we quickly bought our tickets and had our luggage put under the bus. Taking our seats on the bus, it seemed like the ride would be comfortable.

But for me, it wouldn't be. Not long into the ride, I realized that any smell would begin to make me feel nauseous. Paul had bought some potato chips, and I didn't say anything to him (he still doesn't know now), but the smell was making me feel sick. It wasn't more than a few minutes later, while looking out the window, that I felt the sudden impulse to run to the bathroom; I made it just in time to puke for a few minutes straight. The last meal that I had eaten, breakfast at Angelina's in Siem Reap that morning, came out. I continued vomiting until nothing was coming up, and still I kept gagging. I felt like shit, hunched over because the ceiling was too short for me to stand up, in a cramped bathroom at the back of a bus in Thailand. And right then, I knew it was going to be a long bus-ride back to Bangkok; it was four and a half hours long, and we hadn't been on the road for very long at that point.

There is no point belaboring how shitty I felt for the rest of the ride, or how various smells continued to nauseate me. By the end of the trip, after other passengers had gotten off at earlier stops, I was sitting in the very back of the bus, in an open area behind where the bathroom was, gagging and spitting up the last of the fluids from my insides into a plastic bag that someone had fortunately left behind. I had tried drinking some water when the bus stopped for its only pitstop, and while sitting in the seat next to Paul, and I had started puking that water into a long-sleeve dress shirt that I had in my hands. The entire experience was wretched.

Upon arriving to the Bangkok bus station at around 9:30pm, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, Suk 11. That ride was about 20 minutes long, and was uneventful. Paul checked us into the room, while a woman at the hotel took me directly to the room, where I immediately dressed down into more comfortable clothing and settled in for a few minutes. When Paul came up to the room, I told him that I was giving in, and he gave me an antibiotic, Levaquin, to begin killing the bacteria in my system. Then I got up to take a long, warm shower, and then got into bed. At that point it was probably 10:30 or 11pm. I stayed in bed for the most part until almost 12noon today. I only got up once in the middle of the night to puke out the one slice of white bread that I had eaten earlier in the night and the bottle of green gatorade that Paul had gotten for me.

Relative to that entire experience, I'm feeling better today. Thanks to God, I'm holding food and drink in my system today. I've drank some more gatorade and eaten some more white bread, and just before coming to this internet place, we went to a Starbucks, where I drank some hot English breakfast tea, and ate a cinnamon bun. I'm sure I've lost a couple more pounds in the past 24 hours. I'm happy to be ending this trip and returning home. A comment that I made to Paul earlier today is really unfortunate: I told him that I don't think I'll ever come back to this part of the world; out of 16 full days here, I had some degree of diarrhea for all but probably five days, that's not my idea of a good time. But I guess that's what I get for trying to eat the local food and for not being a tight-ass about washing my hands every two minutes. I don't mean to discourage anyone for coming to this part of the world. And maybe I won't feel so bitter once I'm home and I'm able to re-read this blog and look at all the photos from this trip. I guess you can just say that I'm ready to go the fuck home. I miss Rocky and the Baby. And I miss my regular and humble life at the double-deuce and Spruce. I guess I can really say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

Anyway, I may post once more later tonight; I leave to go to the airport at around 2 or 3 in the morning. My flight out of Bangkok departs at 6am, then I'll have a layover in Tokyo, and then it's on to Newark-Liberty International Airport, in beloved New Jersey. The flights will be about 6 and 14 hours respectively, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I maintain my constitution throughout the flights and continue to feel and get better quickly. Once again, thanks so much for keeping up with my travels. I look forward to seeing and talking with everyone once I'm back home.

Philly, here I come!!!!!

Another day in Bangkok

Another day in Bangkok begins now. We got a late start today due to our late night last night; we figured we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drink a bunch of Singha beer on a Friday night in Bangkok. When I get back to the States and have more time on the internet, I'll have to post the video for that song ("One Night in Bangkok" (?), an eighties song) on to this site.

Well, we're on Soi Rambuttri, a very beautiful tree-lined, red-brick road -- located near Khao San Road --that we'll walk to the end to get to the Chao Phraya River again. From there, we'll get on an express boat like yesterday and visit the Grand Palace, an enormous compound that looked absolutely amazing from the outside yesterday, and will almost certainly blow our minds away in just a short while.

The weather is a bit overcast today, but it's keeping the temperature slightly down. Nevertheless, I'm sure its still much warmer here than in Philly.

Finally, because we're gonna get going in a minute, I want to say that I loved the feeling I got from Bangkok as soon as I got here. As much as I thought language might be a problem, it hasn't been at all. Although I feel badly to appear to be a typical American tourist speaking English in a foreign country, it doesn't seem to be taken badly here, so I guess it's okay. But I always try to show my respect for their culture and language by using the Thai greeting and by saying thank you in Thai.

Well, folks, thanks again for checking in. I'll likely post again later this evening, before our 7:20pm overnight train to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Alright, bye bye from Bangkok for now!

Sawat dii!!!

"Hello" in Thai. So I'm finally here in southeast Asia, more specifically I'm writing from a small internet cafe in one of the tiny alleys behind Khao San Road, here in Bangkok, Tighe-land.

Despite getting a pretty solid 7 hours of sleep last night, I still feel a bit fatigued from a combination of the 3 hours of sleep I got on my last night in Philly before the trip, the 13.5 hour flight from Newark to Tokyo, followed by the 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, and also the fact that here in Bangkok we are exactly 12 hours ahead of the clock in Philly (meaning that I'm typing this at 9:20pm Friday night in Bangkok, while it's currently 9:20am Friday morning at the double-deuce and Spruce). But, in spite of any fatigue or jet lag, I'm loving the fact that I'm here. But bear with me if my prose in this entry is not quite up to par; I'm just gonna go in chronological order so I don't miss anything.

So last night (i.e., Thursday night), Paul and I met up near the baggage claim in the brand-new (and beautiful) Bangkok airport. Because our hotel for the first night was already booked, and it is located near the airport, we were hooked up with a pre-arranged van ride to the airport to the hotel. Once we got there, a hotel worker slid open the door to the van, bowed with his hands pressed together in a greeting of namaste, and said sawat dii khrap, thereby greeting us. We went up to the room, and after taking turns in the shower, hit the sack by 2am.

This morning we got things started at about 9:30am. We brought our backpacks down to the front desk, and then went for a walk to get some food. I had a bowl of egg noodles with roasted pork in brown broth, healthy and very tasty way to start the day. After that, we got a taxi to take us to our next hotel, located off of the famed Khao San Road, for better or for worse, main street for the backpacker crowd. The cab driver was a guy who asked us to call him Mr. Pao, and he was a really nice guy who spoke pretty good English. We took advantage of the half-hour car ride to ask him lots of questions. During the ride, Paul mentioned to me that there had been a bombing the other day here in Thailand. So I asked both Paul and the driver where the bombing had taken place; the cab driver said that it was in Bangkok and that it had to do with the ongoing demonstrations regarding the prime minister. The cabbie also warned us not to wear red or yellow, because those are the colors of the two respective political parties that are in disagreement. Fortunately neither one of us was wearing either color, and I'm pretty sure I didn't bring any shirts of those colors. The cab driver also pointed out a road where some demonstrators were camped out; of course by total accident Paul and I walked down that very same street later in the day, no bombings much to our relief.

The hotel that our cabbie delivered us to is called Sawasdee Banglumpoo Hotel, and it's located amidst a maze of back alleys, lined with vendors' stalls, selling everything from leather products to food to bracelets to cds to sandals. And as narrow as these alleys are, we learned when we got here that the Thais are skilled enough to drive motorbikes through these alleys, somehow managing to avoid the shoppers. The road itself that lends itself to the hotel's address -- Khao San Road -- is lined with all sorts of street-front restaurants and bars, with signs everywhere. Now that it's nighttime, it looks like a smaller, Thai version of the Vegas strip -- all the signs and lights and people just sitting at roadside tables and also walking by on the street.

After checking in to our room, we began our exploration of the city of Bangkok, and as any journey truly begins, we started one step at a time by setting off on foot. Navigating by the useful maps in our Rough Guides book, we slowly and not-always-certainly made our way to Chao Phraya River. From there we actually accomplished our plan of riding a boat down the river to get us closer to our first cultural destination: Wat Pho.

Wat Pho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it surely deserves that recognition. It's centerpiece is a 45 meter long statue of the Reclining Buddha. The smile itself is 5 meters wide. The enormity of it can only be appreciated live, and its beauty was breathtaking. Because it is a holy Buddhist site, we had to take our shoes off before entering the building in which the Buddha reclines. The statue was the color gold and its feet were inlaid with iridescent mother of pearl. Also very interesting was seeing Buddhist monks walking through and taking photos of the Buddha with their digital cameras -- welcome to the 21st century.

But Wat Pho is really a large complex of temples, fountains, and courtyards, all within the confines of a white wall about 15 feet high. After leaving the Reclining Buddha, we started walking around the compound, and that's when I thought to break out my iPod to listen to the songs "Shambala" and "Boddhisatva Vow" from the Ill Communication album by the Beastie Boys; the first track is an acid jazz track that begins with the chanting of Buddhist monks and the second track is MCA's hip-hop track laid-over the subtle background of the chanting, dedicating himself to the Buddhist faith. Hearing those tracks in the heart of a holy Buddhist site was something very special. And I will always think of Wat Pho when I hear those songs.

Right before leaving, I pointed out a small temple that we had not yet entered. And boy was that a good decision. When we started to take off our shoes, a couple of guys said that we couldn't go in because there was a film being made inside the building. We looked in and saw a couple of beautiful young women who were getting make-up put on by others. After much cajoling and many attempts to get information, we eventually got the name of the film. But we did it by asking one of the guys to take our guide-book to one of the attractive actresses and have her autograph it for us. She did so, writing the name of the film as "In Search for Sunshine"; she signed her name as Miss Thailand Universe 2006. So we met a star!

Anyway, time is getting long here, and it's nighttime in Bangkok, so we oughtta live some life. Our afternoon and evening after the visit at Wat Pho consisted mainly of walking around, lost for much of the time, but not minding it since we were exploring the city. We ended up eating at a restaurant where we were the only "white" (European-descent) people. There we had our first taste of Chang beer. Then we got a taxi to Hualamphong train station to buy tickets for an overnight train to Chiang Mai, which we will take tomorrow evening at 7:20pm.

Alright, amigos, thanks for checking in. I will continue to post everyday if possible. With love from southeast Asia. Peace!

Bangkok, Thailand -- early morning

I met up with Paul near the baggage claim upon arrival here at the Bangkok airport. Now we're at Queen's Garden Hotel near the airport. Paul just got out of shower; now its my turn. Be right back . . .

Wow, what a great feeling after a nice, warm shower and a thorough brushing of teeth. Well, it's now time for bed. Gotta rest up to begin the trip in earnest.