More Random Thoughts

Some more observations for you to devour! Once again, please remember that I live by the Nehm-ism “Why let the truth get in the way of a good story” – so don’t go all Oprah beatin’ down James Frey on me. Also – these are purely my thoughts – and may very well both offend and not be true. I’m not so much into the PC thing (different can be good AND funny – and I am laughing WITH others of course). You have been warned. And I thought this was going to be about a page of quick observations – but as usual I turned a page of material into a short story – but things are broken up and should be pretty easy reads. Oh yeah – stay tuned for Malaysia next. You’d think being unemployed I’d get these things out faster. You’d think.

“Have None” – This phrase is the substitute for “I’m sorry, we’re all out of that.” And restaurants are out of things so often – could have something to do with having a million items on the menu. But it is just so good – you almost can’t wait for it. A while ago we were at Chinatown and boiling and we walked up to a Dairy Queen and saw some dude walk away with a fruit smoothie thing – and it looked so good. So I ordered one and the girl is like “oh, have none – so sorry.” So I order a different flavor – and she runs her hand over the whole smoothie part of the menu and says “so sorry – have none.” Ok – so did we just run out of every type of fruit, or ice, or electricity?

Chinatown - Speaking of Chinatown – it is awesome in Bangkok. And this is a place that is amazingly crowded and almost unbearably hot with all the people.

And many of the store owners are just plain surly. Weird – I have found the outdoor vendors to be so nice and pleasant – but the store owners – try and get a smile out of them. Anyway – how could I like a place as crowded and hot as Chinatown? OJ and corn. Fo’ shizzle. We are talking about vendors of course. They have these OJ vendors – and they have these little contraptions that squeeze oranges into fresh OJ right there. And you see them do it, fasten the lid on the plastic bottle and pop it in the ice container. And it is unreal. I can’t even describe it – better than any fresh OJ that I have ever had. So much better. I can’t figure it out – they must put something in there – but I watched them for 10 minutes to make sure it is just the juice! Any of you who have traveled in Asia – these are the oranges where the peel is more green than orange – could that be it? And corn. So we were walking by this corn vendor – and they sell cups full of corn kernels – just cut from the cob. And as I was walking by I saw what they used for the mixture. Throw corn into a hot wok. Add butter, sugar and condensed milk. Are you effing kidding me? I knew how good it was gonna be before I even had my first heavenly bite. And I have tried this elsewhere now – but it ain’t the same. Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.

Can I Get a Receipt? – There must be an ATM for every person in Bangkok. They are everywhere. But if you want a receipt good luck! This just cracks me up – the ATMs are out of paper for receipts so often it is amazing. The main ATM I go to has been out of paper since October. Honestly – can they not have the money people (this is a technical term) carry a few rolls of paper too. These are the kinds of things that just make my day. Every time I get money out I just chuckle. And it isn’t just “my” ATM – I’d say it is a 50/50 chance at any ATM in Thailand.

Chatuchak – This is a huge (HUGE) outdoor weekend market. Did I mention it is big? It is in all the guidebooks – and I bet most people who have done Bangkok have been here (assuming they got out of Khao San Rd. – which I still have not been to – and am debating – everyone says you need to see it, but do I really?). Anyway – we spent one Sunday afternoon there – four hours to be exact. It is so cool – but so crowded and hot that it just wipes you out.

We got some cool stuff there and really want to go back and yet really don’t want to go back. Two things that might shed some light: A) Within 15 minutes someone had stolen Margaret’s cell phone out of her backpack. 15 minutes! I am still convinced it was this dude that bumped into her when we were leaving the train (the whole situation seemed weird at the time – how hard he ran into her and how much he apologized – I wish I was better at reading weird situations when they happen), but Margaret is convinced it happened inside Chatuchak. 2) After four hours we were tired, cranky and just about fall over exhausted. It took us over 20 minutes to find an exit.

Yes, Yes, Yes! – No matter what, Thais will answer you “yes” – so you have to be very careful. When you get in a taxi and try to explain where you want to go, even if they don’t know they will tell you yes (if they say no then you know they for sure understood you). So you need to make sure. Also – when there is some sort of miscommunication then “yes” always comes into play.

Where’s the TP? – Public washrooms in Thailand are not quite up to Western standards. I think they are nowhere near as horrific as other parts of SE Asia, but Margaret disagrees. Many of them are squatters and (ladies especially) should have TP with them at all times. Only very occasionally do you get lucky and have to option to purchase a few sheets of TP.

Nose Sniffing – Ok – so a ton of Thais (mostly women) are always jamming these nose spray things up their noses. I’m not sure how to describe them – but they are like the nose spray stuff people use when they have a cold (or when do people use these things?) – but it is just a normal everyday thing here. Like a cigarette maybe. Anyway – it is hilarious to see people do this in everyday situations. And they just jam those things up their noses – no shame. It reminds me of Anders and his snus! These things must be addicting. I smell (pun intended) a class action lawsuit!

Bike Reflectors and Who’s Your Tiger? – So kids use CDs on their bikes as reflectors. Commonly here – I think only the weird, cool kids do it at home. Every Thursday night there is a market on the street I live on (Soi Ong Iam). One of the vendors always wears a light blue Tigers cap.

Every time I see him with it on I give him the thumbs up. He probably thinks I’m retarded. His stall is always busy, people always waiting for food. So we actually just stopped by Mr. Tiger Hat's stall last night to order up some food. And we thought he only BBQ'd meat which is why we had stayed away so far - but I thought I would try some chicken. Turns out he mainly makes papaya salad! And it was the best one I have had yet - so good but so hot too - your lips are on fire but you can't stop eating (this after we told him to use only half the amount of hot peppers he started with). No wonder there is always a line at his stall. Anyway one of the most annoying things in Thailand is that almost every Thai who wears a baseball cap wears a Yankees cap. It is really sad. So Po-Fu just sent me a package with an extra AL Champion Tigers cap – and said vendor is going to have 2 Tiger caps soon. I just wish my job could be to find all the Thais with Yankees caps and trade them for any other team they want. Then we could have a big NYY cap burning!

No In-Between – So most stores (especially in the malls) have about a million employees. You can walk into the electronics section and there might be one customer and 20 employees. I’m not kidding. And there are two types of service. All of the employees standing around will not take notice of you there, and if you have a question you have to interrupt their, ah, rest time. Or as soon as you walk in a store one or more of them are all over you. There is no in-between. And option two is far worse. You feel pressured, uncomfortable – and a lot of times they will try to sell you anything. Let’s say you are looking for an oven. You look at their options (with two employees looking over your back – well ok, they can’t see over my back) and decide you will look elsewhere and say thanks and start to walk away. The next thing you know one of the employees is holding up a blender for you to inspect. Man – it is so unreal it is funny.

“We goin’ to Sizz-lah, We goin’ to Sizz-lah!” – Who knew that Sizzler had such an international operation? We have been to the Sizzler in the mall a few times – all for the western salad bar. Anyway – every time it is like crazy busy. And the menu makes it out like Sizzler is this amazing American steakhouse. Um, yeah. Anyway – Moth it reminds me of the days we used to “leave it all out there” playing volleyball in the Delta Sig sand lot – and then go to Sizzler (ok, it was Sveden House) for the all you can eat buffet! Damn Sidney – you said we was goin’ to Sizz-lah!

Did you say excuse me? How rude! – I know I have talked about this before – and I still can’t quite put my finger on it and not sure exactly how to describe it. But Thai people can be very, um, slow and laid back. Sometimes I feel like I will never get across the pedestrian bridge because it is too busy for me to pass anyone so I have to go at the Thai pace. And I know I am a fast walker (Nehm, among others will attest to this) but sometimes it gets so frustrating. And it also seems like Thai people have no idea other people are around. They just don’t consider that maybe standing right in the middle of the aisle where no one can get by isn’t a good idea. Or a group of friends just stop and chat blocking people from both sides. I think I shake my head at things like this on a daily basis. And this isn’t to say it doesn’t happen back home – and of course I am generalizing here (stereotyping!) – but it just seems more prevalent here. Maybe it is just a divine intervention to work on my patience (because yes, everything is about me). Ok – so we have established the slow pace here. But then out of nowhere Thai people can become very aggressive, especially in line. There seems to be no rule against cutting in line. It happens all the time – to the point that I just expect it now – and shake my head and laugh. But NEVER does anyone call out the line jumper! And this must be part of the whole culture, where any type of public confrontation is frowned upon (the three major concepts/spirits the Thais live by are Jai Yen – “cool heart”; Mai Pen Rai – literally “it can’t be helped so why bother”; and Sanuk – “fun”). And no one ever says excuse me, or anything like that. As if saying excuse me would be ruder than cutting in line! Although maybe that’s why they walk so slowly – they just laugh at me when I rush by, knowing they will cut in front of me later!

What did I just say? – The Thai language is very hard to learn. Not that I have made any great effort to attempt to learn it yet. But it is a tonal language – so the same word can mean very different things depending on how you say it. One thing I refuse to do is call a place the first time for food delivery. I just don’t have the patience to describe where we live, so I make Margaret do it. Once they have your address the first time, then it is no problem. And we live basically across the main road from where all the food places are. Anyway – the first time we ordered from Pizza Pizza (no, not Little Caesar’s) Margaret must have spent 25 minutes on the phone. First she tried to explain our address – we live on Soi Ong Iam (you can see it on the sign under the 32 as sois have both a name and number) – that took 10 minutes.

Just listening to it frustrated me. Then she orders the pizza and it goes something like this:

- Do you want any buffalo wing?
- Oh no – no thank you.
- Ok, one pizza and order buffalo wing?
- Um, no – no Buffalo wings.
- Oh, no buffalo wing? Ok, one pizza? You want Sprite or Coke?
- No thank you – just one pizza.
- Ok, one pizza and Sprite?
- Um, no – no Sprite.
- Ok, one pizza and Coke?

You get the picture. Now I wasn’t as frustrated as I was amused. I wouldn’t have been amused had I been on the phone though. So after all of this the lady goes back to asking about our address. Agggghhhh! Anyway – to make a long story short, Margaret says the lady keeps repeating her – Soi Ong Iam – and isn’t getting it when Margaret hears someone in the background go, “Oh, Soi Ong Iam!”, which to Margaret sounded like exactly what she had been saying. And then she hears a bunch of people in the background laughing and saying “ahhh, Soi Ong Iam!”

Doormen and Whistles – Guess what item our doorman doesn’t have? A key-card to the building! It is absolutely crazy – he can’t even get into the building! There have been a few times when I have come home and the doorman has been waiting for someone to come back to let him in! Too funny. And all the doormen blow their whistles like EVERY time a car or bike comes by. So all day long it is like whistle bursts up and down the road. Our main doorman is quite weird. He doesn’t speak any English so we can basically say hello, goodbye and thank you. He seems to have two personalities – one where he just stares at us like we are his worst enemies and won’t say anything. In his other personality, he keeps talking to us, even when it is obvious we have no idea what he is saying. He is not right. The substitute doorman is the nicest guy ever – always smiling at us and making conversation through smiles and motions.

Free Size or Why I Haven’t Bought any Clothes Since I’ve Been Here – Margaret and I try to look at things optimistically. Therefore we describe shopping for clothes here as “easy.” You walk into a store, see tons of cool stuff that you want and realize none of it will fit – so you just leave. It does allow one to save money. So many things (especially for women) are “free size” which means one size fits all. Well, one size doesn’t fit us. And it can be really funny when you ask if they have any larger sizes (do you have this in XL, XXL, XXXL, etc.) because they can be very blunt – “so sorry – no size for you.” So funny. On the not so funny side I have seen so many cool t-shirts that don’t fit me. Arrrggggghhhh! Also – our friends Angie and Josh were telling us about a store in the mall for larger sizes that was called “It’s OK” or something like that. And I noticed a store for larger sizes called (and I’m not kidding) “Fat Story” – nice.

5,000 Kyat Camera (Myanmar) Update – So a few people have asked me if the 5,000 kyat camera I bought in Myanmar worked or not. I guess I forgot to put this in the Myanmar blog. Anyway – one roll of film got messed up in the camera and we were quite pissed at the time that we wouldn’t get those pictures. When we got back we developed one full roll and there was one roll still in the camera that wasn’t quite finished. So did the camera work? Here’s your answer - after we got the developed roll back, we weren’t so angry about the messed up roll and we won’t be finishing and developing the unfinished roll. Lucky that I was able to trick my digital camera battery for a few pix here and there towards the end.

The Emperor’s Chair – Movies are the best over here. Most movie theatres have one theatre that is designated “Emperor’s Chair” – this is where you want to be. The movie theatre at the mall near us has 10 screens. And they are all nice – new, comfy chairs, and my favorite – assigned seating. Why we don’t have assigned seating in our theatres is one of the great unanswered questions. Movies are about $3-4 here in the normal theatres. And they are usually showing 2 or 3 western movies. I have seen Casino Royale and Blood Diamond since I have been here (and I think I will be seeing The Holiday soon – guess who wants to see that?). Blood Diamond in the normal theatre and Casino Royale in the Emperor’s Chair theatre! What is the Emperor’s Chair you may ask? Well – let me tell you. It is a normal sized theatre with 24 chairs in it. Basically going First Class at the movies. The seats recline all the way. You get a pillow and a blanket. It rocks. And of course alcohol is allowed! Some theatres even have waiters for the Emperor’s Chair (sadly, ours does not). One warning – if you drink two towers of Singha while throwing rocks (“Shut the fuck up Donnie!”) during a pre-movie game of bowling, and then drink Singha during the movie, you will miss some of the movie while making frequent visits to the bathroom. And there are so many commercials and previews before the movie you could probably arrive 20 minutes late and not miss a second. I still need to be there (sitting in my chair – Emperor’s preferably) at least 5 minutes prior to posted show time.

Bowling for Towers of Singha – The more I think about this, the more I think it deserves its own blog. Yes it does. Sorry, you’ll have to wait a bit for this one.

Long Live the King! – The King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) is the longest reigning monarch in the world. He began his reign in 1946, making this year his 60th year on throne (also his 80th birthday). Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, which means the King has no direct power. But don’t fool yourselves, Rama IX is so adored and loved, his words command loyalty and respect. And it isn’t a forced kind of love; he is really revered by all Thais. It is quite something to see a leader loved and respected by his people (granted, he isn’t a political leader – and as the recent coup demonstrates the politicians aren’t much loved here either). Still, it is impressive. The easiest way to make enemies here is to talk badly about their King.

The King was born on a Monday (the day’s color is Yellow) so every Monday the vast majority of Thais wear yellow, most of them wearing a Kingdom of Thailand shirt. You will also see “Long Live the King” t-shirts and wristbands everywhere. The Thai flag is raised and lowered every day (6am and 6pm I think) to the National Anthem. If you are out and about at 6pm (probably at 6am too – but I doubt I’ll ever find that out) you will hear the National Anthem and see every Thai stop and sing to pay respect to their country and the King. Coming from a country where that seems almost silly (neo-cons please don’t put words in my mouth – not saying it is silly to pay respect to your flag and country – just imagine every American stopping what they are doing and singing the National Anthem everyday at 6pm), it makes it that much more powerful here. I guess because it seems genuine – it isn’t a forced patriotism. Before each movie there is also a little clip about the King and everyone stands during the clip. Rama IX is known for: his dedication to the underprivileged; his central role in resolving government conflicts (and the politicians here give him no shortage of opportunities); his focus on reforestation and water (dams, etc.) projects; and emphasis on health care (Thailand has an amazing AND affordable health care system). Long live the King!

Hold on to Your Butts! – Traffic in Bangkok is a nightmare of anarchy. The first time I went to Hanoi I was overwhelmed by the traffic, but Hanoi traffic is sane compared to Bangkok. There really aren’t any rules – it seems more like suggestions. First, Bangkok is notorious for its traffic – when it gets backed up you aren’t going anywhere.

And there are lanes and speed limits, but no one seems to obey them. When you get in a taxi it pays to not really pay attention to the ride. Add in all the motorbikes and mopeds, and their disregard for the traffic rules and you get chaos. Motorbikes zip in and out of lanes, go the wrong way and even go on sidewalks!Seriously – it isn’t uncommon. You have to pay attention all the time when walking on the sidewalks or you are gonna get hit by a motorcycle. And many roads don’t have sidewalks, and then you just have to have faith that the passing motorbikes (and cars) are gonna leave you enough room. Ye gods.

I’ve also heard (and haven’t done any due diligence to see if this is true – but it sounds good) that the accident policy is that the bigger vehicle is at fault and pays for any damage. Which may explain why motorbikes zip around like crazy and cars, trucks and busses honk at absolutely everything.

The “best” taxi ride home we had was coming home from some friends of ours after Thanksgiving dinner (thanks Kevin and Lisa!) – we were clear on the other side of the city so it was close to an hour in the cab (a $9 fare). And it was pretty clear that our taxi driver wasn’t completely sober when we jumped in the cab. And as soon as we got started he wanted to know if we wanted to listen to Country Roads. He had a CD of western music and most of it was actually pretty good – but he kept playing Country Roads – it was his fav. And he had a kick-ass sound system. I can still remember chuckling as my ear drums were being pounded by Country Roads while we swerved from one side of the highway to another (at 80mph+) all the way home. City roads, take me home . .

Green Place Condo – My “condo” is pretty small – and in a very Thai neighborhood. I get looks every time I walk up and down our street – as in what is the farang doing here? But it is all good. I am across the “hell bridge” (see entry below) from Central City Mall.

There are lots of street vendors around, especially for the Thursday market on my street.

I am just steps from the main road, Bangna Trad where you can catch taxis, motorbike taxis or maybe cholera from the "canal" there (notice in the pictures that people's houses front the disgustingly polluted and smelly canal).

And also just steps from Family Mart (a sort of local 7/11) where I spend a lot of my time.My place has a pool – but it is in the middle of the buildings on the ground floor, and therefore gets no sun which means Margaret is never there, which means I am never there.

The workout room is ok – but the equipment isn’t built for big people and I feel like I am going to break the treadmill with each stride. And it also doesn’t have any AC. It does have a couple of fans that don’t really do much good. Right now is the “cool” season in Bangkok (it is almost over, and we are heading to the hottest season – ruh roh) and I still have soaked my shirt in ½ an hour in the workout room. It is gonna be fun in a couple of months – medic!

The hot water in my shower is sometimes hot and sometimes luke-warm. I hate it. The two things I need in a shower: scalding hot water and huge amounts of water pressure. And the hot water comes from one of those little contraptions (if you have been to Asia you will know what I am talking about)

and it breaks every once in awhile and then it is cold water only until I can get the handyman to understand me. Try using hand motions to describe you have no hot water. Amanda – watch out b/c when I get back I am gonna have honed my game night skillz!

I do have AC in my place – and I’m sure most of you figured that I did – or else there certainly would have been a blog about no AC already. However the AC unit is in the bedroom and doesn’t exactly keep the whole place cool. And now it seems to blow out cold air 75% of the time and regular (not cold) air the other 25% of the time. No rhyme or reason to it of course. And about two months ago it started leaking. So I had to buy a plastic bucket to catch all the water. It is a pretty big bucket – and yet I get three good bucketfuls of water per day from my AC dripping. I mean who knew it created this much water?

Lucky that for right now I can sleep through the night without having to empty the bucket. Why not get it fixed you might ask? Well – my maintenance man looked at it and couldn’t fix it. Then I went to see the manager. He said he would make an appointment with the AC company and call me to tell me when they were coming. After I checked again he asked for a key so they could fix it when they got here and not have any problems with me not being around. That was two weeks ago. UPDATE – the AC people are here right now!!!

My fridge is like a ½ a fridge – not a full fridge but not one of those mini college fridges – somewhere in-between.

If you put it on a setting cold enough to keep things frozen in the freezer it becomes like the top of Mt. Everest. The freezer starts icing up and I think the air gets thinner. This takes about a month. And then I try chopping away at the ice with a knife (I need an ice pick and other good mountain climbing equipment) until that proves futile. And then I wait until I have eaten most of the stuff in the fridge and defrost it. My washing machine takes about 45 minutes to fill up with water.

There is no dryer. Anyway – if it seems like I’m complaining, I’m not. Somehow it all seems right.

The Hell Bridge – Ok – so like I said I live off a main road – Bangna Trad. All of the different sois (streets) of the main roads have both a name and a number. As I have mentioned before we live on Soi Ong Iam, also know as Soi 32 (pronounced “Soi Sam Sip Song”). Anyway – not sure how clear it is when I say Bangna Trad is a major road. It is a highway with express lanes and a toll road as the elevated part of the highway. I have never seen a higher elevated highway. The street is huge and busy. The only way to cross is the pedestrian bridge, which I have come to call the “hell bridge.” And I guess it really isn’t that bad, but it is so busy most of the time you have to walk with the pace of people traffic – there is no passing anybody because the bridge is too busy and there isn’t much area to pass with all the vendors/beggars on the bridge. Sometimes you actually have to wait in a line to walk up the steps to the bridge – especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

And about two weeks ago they finally opened an extension that goes right into the mall on the 2nd floor so you don’t have to go down the steps outside and then into the mall. Me love it. So maybe now it can be downgraded to the “heck bridge.”

My Trip to Get My Visa Extension – So I will get more into all the visa requirements in the Malaysia blog coming up so stay tuned. But basically I got a 60-day tourist visa, which I could extend to 90 days once I got here. And I was teaching at the time that my visa was going to run out so one day when I didn’t have any late classes I took off early to go to the Immigration Bureau (IB) and get my extension. Of course on this day I had run out of t-shirts – so I was wearing my normal teaching uni of khakis (nilla you’ll love them if you give them a chance!) and a short sleeve collared shirt (calling this shirt a dress shirt would not be right) sans t-shirt.

As I left the school I waited for a Songtaew (basically a small, covered pickup with bench seating in the truck-bed – they run up and down smaller streets and drop you at the major street), but one didn’t come for awhile and I was guessing that they may only run once an hour or so when it isn’t busy. But then a taxi pulled up and dropped someone off and I jumped in. Quite the luck! Now a lot of times I have trouble communicating with taxi drivers – about ½ the time I’d say. So I tell him the IB and he has no idea what I am talking about. So I say Lumpini Park – everyone knows where that is and the IB is somewhat close to it.

Before I left the school I had gotten a map for the IB from the “visa lady” at the school. On the map it looked like the walk from Lumpini to the IB would be 10 or 15 minutes. Um, the map wasn’t to scale and I should have figured on that. Plus I started walking the wrong way. Anyway about 45 minutes later I was almost there and a sweaty mess. It was like the hottest day out (this was the end of November before the “cool” season) ever – and I was a real mess. My shirt was a light yellow and I looked like I got hit with a few wet basketballs. And I was just dripping sweat. I called Margaret and told her that I was almost there, but worried about my appearance – and she just laughed and said I had nothing to worry about – and that I should check out some of the people when I get inside. She was right, although I did get quite a few stares. The whole extension process took a total of about 20 minutes, and I think it is pretty much a given as long as you aren’t on a blacklist. I promise more about visa stuff (and much confusion) in the Malaysia blog. Should I mention that again?

Final Quick Thoughts – Ok – just a few more things – leave off on a positive note – great things about Bangkok – and I may have covered some of these before. The food. From restaurants of all kinds to the food vendors (“street meat”) it is all good. The fresh fruit – amazing – on my street I can pick up fresh watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, papaya, mango (unripe too – yum!), dragon fruit, Thai grapefruit, etc. My favorite local foods: fried morning glory, mango and sticky rice and papaya salad. Margaret loves the local green curry (I like it too but it rips apart my stomach).

The public transportation is cheap – buses, cabs and the BTS. The BTS is the elevated train system – and it rocks. The only complaint is that it doesn’t have more lines – but they are extending it currently – all the way to the new airport (but it won’t be done for three, which means five, years).

Massages are cheap and just about everywhere: foot, foot scrub, body, neck and shoulders, etc. I have not seen the shampoo massages (an hour massage of just your head and hair – most of the time under running water) that I loved so in Vietnam.

The cheap DVDs on the street – movies, TV shows, anything. And they are on DVD as soon as the movie is out, if not before. I have probably watched more TV (on DVD, our TV actually gets a total of zero channels) here than I have since college. And the quality is usually quite good and the vendors we deal with have a policy to take back anything we don’t find satisfactory. I introduced Margaret to “The Office” recently and it took her about 3 minutes of the first episode to love it. I have recently seen the first season of “24” and we are jones-ing for the second half of the second season of “Prison Break.” And I also have to admit that Margaret got me to watch the first season of “Joan of Arcadia” . . . and I liked it!

And for some reason I am going to leave off with this: the main grocery store is called Tops. I spend about as much time there as I do at Family Mart. A couple of things: you can buy alcohol from 11am – 2pm and 5pm to 11pm. I don’t get it but it be the law. Imagine the first time I tried to buy wine in the “no alcohol” window and the poor cashier who didn’t know the English to explain it to me. You have to buy your bread separately. The loaves of bread sit out in the open air (which I find strange) and you have to put them on a tray and bring it to the cashier in the bakery and pay for it there. And then do the rest of your shopping. All of the unpackaged produce you have to put in a bag and get a sticker in the produce section – or else they can’t ring it up. Why on earth did I need to tell you all this? And as a conclusion. Ye gods indeed.

Ok – next up – two weeks in Malaysia and clarifying the visa rules!

I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season! How's that for PC? Anyway - here's a picture of our bling-bling X-mas tree.