Random Bangkok thoughts

Random thoughts the day before I leave:

- It's amazing what the activity level is of this city at 6:30 in the morning. The streets are jammed, the street vendors are out selling chicken, beef, noodles, etc. And yet the city is still crowded at 11, 12, 1 in the morning. When does anybody sleep?
- If I had a nickel every time I said to myself "Oh God, we're going to die" while we are in the van....well, I'd be able to buy a TV. American driving is soooo much more civil than the rest of the world. it's a free-for-all.
- And the motorcycles.....there are no rules for them. You have three lanes of traffic, jammed bumper to bumper, moving about 20 miles per hour.......and then you have motorcycles weaving in and out finding any possible space between lanes, between cars, even drving on the wrong side of the road.
And yet -there don't seem to be any accidents.
- The broken English that I run into every day is just funny. I passed a sign on a Store:

Index
Home Furnishings
"It's Home Everything!"

What does that even mean?

The locals tried to explain the election day-drinking prohibition to me - but they can't pronounce "l"s very well, and it comes out like an "r". So what day is drinking prohibited? "Erection Day".

- Buses are everywhere. That's a main mode of transportation to get workers to their jobs. Each bus is ornately decorated in 1970's style American gaudiness. Purple, pink, green and yellow are the predominant colors. It's like the Partridge Family bus on steroids, 1000 times over.

- There is some signficant pollution in the air out here. It seems to be worse than LA. A thick haze is over the city during the day. People who work outside wear masks sothey don't breathe in the pollution.

- Food: Food has been fine. I had a problem at one restaurant where they brought a seafood soup out; I can only describe the look of the soup in this way:
Imagine you go to a Southern Gumbo - and you help yourself to multiple bowls of the gumbo, filled with crawfish, shrimp, sausage, vegetables in tomato sauce........
but then you get sick.
The soup resembles what you would have vomited up from that Gumbo.

On the other hand, had a wodnerful dinner tonight - crab meat, scrambled egg and curry. I know, it sounds bad but it was delicious.

Well, off to a market tomorrow before the flight back to the US.....Sunday will be spent in LA as I make Derek wear a Charlie Frye jersey when we watch the Browns and the Bills. I can't believe we are favored by 6. The weather is supposed to be bad; a possible 4-6 inches of snow in Cleveland for the game. Awesome.