Rest Day in Bangkok, Saturday, November 21, 2009

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We arrived at the Southern Bus Station about 4:15am, Saturday morning, although I walked around a lot before I figured out where I was. Wanted to make sure I was in Bangkok. I was too tired to try to find a bus into the city, so I asked a taxi to take me to Ekkamai, Soi 12 (1, 2). He drove like mad and I was back at Bill's at 5am. I paid the 241B fare with 260B. I found Bill's door too hard to open, like it was locked, so I let myself into Roger's apartment, drank some of the OJ I had left in the refrigerator and went to bed, falling asleep quickly. Bill said later that the trip can take over 2 hours on local buses.

I woke up about 8, and remained tired all day, having had less than 3 hours sleep. I stretched and showered, then had more OJ and started to update my diary, which I was unable to do on the Surins, both because I was too tired, and because the electricity wasn't available til 6pm.

I talked with Bill, about 11. He has a dental appointment on his day off, Monday, so we won't be able to go together to Ayuthaya.

I had lunch just before noon at the nearby cafe, a soup with big noodles, bean sprouts, fish balls, some other meat and bread rounds, for 40B. Tasted good, in spite of my sinus congestion.
I needed a walk to loosen my back so I walked down to the Big C where I bought tissue, 15.5B, Listerine, 57.5B, 1L of mixed fruit juice, 69B, 4 steamed dough buns, 32B, a small tray of fried rice, 10B, and 2 small bags of cooked rice, 10B, for a total of 194B.

About 2pm Trish called. She had talked to Mom who had just done some eye surgery on her good eye. Results won't be known for a while, but it is only intended to preserve the remaining sight. Trish sounded fine, but is tired from the IRS problem tension.

I ate the dough buns while they were still warm. They were wet on the bottoms and dried out on the tops, and the fillings were nearly tasteless, although that may be partly because of my sinus congestion, which causes most foods to have little taste. They weren't nearly as tasty as my memories of ones I've bought from street vendors. I drank the mixed fruit juice during the afternoon and finished it with dinner, a bag of rice mixed with the fried rice, which had small pieces of sausage mixed in it. I also ate most of the bag of creme cookies I had left in the refrigerator.

When I tired of the diary entry typing, I watched some DVD movies, checking all of the setups and menus til I found the culprit for the lack of voice. The sound for the DVD player output was set to 5.1Ch, so when I changed it to stereo, the DVD sound was fine on all of the movies. So I rewatched 'The Gathering Storm', then watched 'District 9' which was hard to follow and too bizarre for me, 'The Other Boleyn Girl' which was a fine story and well done, and the beginning of 'Miss Potter' which seems like a family film, as it probably should be.

I rested a lot, hoping to get rid of the cold.

So my outlay for today is 494B, about $15.