I read an article by Pico Iyer today (in a NYTimes Sunday magazine that is a few weeks old) on jet lag. Interesting subject..
Thanks for posting Clary's message, Piffka, you beat me to it!
Sorry about your internet problems, Clary .... Hope you're receiving us loud & clear now. If not, feel free to post to me (& Piffka, too) if you experience these problems again.
Sooooooooooo ..... I assume you are on Hong Kong/somewhere in Asia now? Oh, how I envy you! You know you're in a totally different environment the minute you leave the plane. The aromas, the crowds ..... Hope you're enjoying yourself enormously!
Oh, I have SUCH itchy feet!
Waaahhhh....
Clary, I haven't been on a2k much lately, so didn't realize that you were traveling. Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.
I hope there will be as much pleasure as there is business.
Hong Kong! Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi All -- I've sent Clary your posts. I rec'd another message this evening. Sounds like she's already having an amazing time!:
Quote:In the nature of a round robin, since sitting in an Internet cafe amongst noisy gamers is not the best use of time! Again, I can't access able2know so can't post today's update (Fri 19th here, still Thurs in UK and US I suppose. Piffka, yesterday's was cut short by sudden cut out here, so I resume!
The hotel internet was open till 5 30 so when I emerged from the shower at 7 I was told to walk down the road, cross the main road and walk through the autosales and would find a noisy but cheap internet cafe - which I did, only when I got to the fearsome sextuple lane main road and other concrete structures on and over it (the sky train perhaps, a light rail system?) I looked pathetically about me for a way to cross it. A courteous and educated voice asked if it could help, and there was a polite young man willing to escort me over the massively high, dangerous-seeming iron stairs and footbridge. He was called Enrique and was an IT expert from the Philippines who teaches an online course from Bradford University... so nice these Asians, polite to the elderly and pathetic! In the cafe there were several brown leatherette sofas, packed with kids of all ages playing raucous games such as ragnarok. The noise level was amazing. For 10 baht I got half an hour and then it cut out abruptly, so made my way over the fearsome bridge again and past the food stalls,wondering if the things on sale were salubrious or not. Eventually got to a proper restaurant with fairy lights and seating out on the tarmac not actually in the road, where I conservatively ordered green chicken curry and a Singha beer - bliss! Although frogs and ostriches were on the menu for some extraordinary reason. On my bowl was written "What is a day?!!" Quite what I was supposed to answer I don't know. The dogs here are nice; quiet and peaceful, torpid even, living in the streets off scraps from the food stalls, they don't appear especially thin, just rather dirty. I gave one a handful of rice left over and he rested his nose on my knee gratefully for a couple of minutes before going to lie on the pavement again.
I went back to the hotel around 10 30 and tried unsuccessfully to access my travelling companion, Simon, who I'm supposed to meet and go to Cambodia with. Man who answered the phone didn't know him, spoke only Thai and the phrase 'loom number?' which I didn't know. So slept, as torpid and hot as a dog on a pavement. Today's American breakfast was undoubtedly Thai but really good ($25US a night for this hotel, incl breakfast), omelette with sliced peppers/capsicum, ham, salad, rather airy toast, 2 tangerines, nescafe with coffemate. and orange squash - a pity about these 2 last but... why be picky?
Ready for the internet I went to the door only to be told Internet no good. I appealed to a higher authority and 15 min later got the same response, so I did the trek again, better by daylight since the pavements are not only dogged but also broken and holy. And here I am again in the sofa-rich cafe, unair-conditioned it seems, but then it's only 33 degrees...
Signing off for the moment! With love to all my readers, close and far...
Clare
Have got onto the forums in my pal SImon's room; he's been renting a place and working (product design), and has friend coming out from England expressly to take home his computer, cd burner, dvds etc. So as to travel light. We have decided to go south in Thailand for a bit, to a beachy sort of place with greenery, since Bkk is so concretey and noisy and awful, really. But the friend won't arrive till tomorrow arvo, so now we are going to take a flask of green tea up to the roof of his building, where there;s a pool and views of the city, at sunset. Tomorrow is a day unto itself and I make no plans. HK will be in a couple of weeks, and probably a visit to Cambodia next week though I want to go back for longer later. But one of the joys of travelling like this isw not to have an itinerary, really, except in vague and general ways; and things have a habit of not going according to plan in these countries.
Thanks, Gus for the recitation, I shall notforget them, indeed I believe it is difficult to, since there are many disfigured and crippled people in the population. I am not sure whether I can stomach going to the war museums, they are said to be very graphic and stark.
But now, the roof! This is the life!
That rooftop idea sounds great. Enjoy yourself.
Enjoying every word Clary - keep em coming.
Clary, I'll say it again: I'm SOOOOO jealous!
Some travel tales, please!
Rooftop was wonderful even though there was a cool shower - all to ourselves, and no time constraints as it never closes. Simon says he goes at 3 a m usually! No stars in Bkk, just neon and cloudy sky, but never mind. We had a comparatively expensive Chinese meal at about 10 o'clock, again ostrich on the menu (?not a Thai bird) in his rather upmarket suburb (when I say expensive, $18US for two), and then a taxi back - now that is really cheap, about a dollar for a 2/3 mile ride. Then the jetlag caught up and I lay not sleeping from 12 to 5, doing wordgames in my head to wear my brain out! Forced myself to wake up and get up at 8 30 for that American breakfast, so I don't spend the next weeks on European time. And miracle of miracles, I'm sitting in the breakfast room at the Internet Corner (under the gift shop sign which says Nice and Cheap Prices) and thinking what to do next. The skytrain is the bset way to get about in this traffic-rich city, a monorail of smooth modernity which whooshes you around in some style. Again, dirt cheap, 30 cents a ride. (US prices are easiest for me to calculate, apologies to the others out there!)
Today is market day and the biggest market is just around the corner from this hotel - called Sunday market on the map but apparently just as active on Saturdays. So I'll check that out first!
More whenever... love having all your comments and support!! It's easy here, no bravery once you've got here I assure you. Washington is more violent, Tokyo more incomprehensible, London more full of foreigners!
Clary, wonderful to 'hear' you.
Up on the roof.
I'll be singing for sure.
ehBeth, thanks for being there today!! What's with the rabbits? You and Mac have sprouted bunny ears all of a sudden - could it be Easter round the corner? And down the road quite a way...!
Pacco already has bunny ears, almost...
Clary, I am excited for you going to the market, I loooooove markets. So, are you taking photos at all, or is that too "separating"?
Thank you so much for posting...
too separating, and too much hassle; carrying and guarding a camera is too much!
Markets are the same all over, in a way, aren't they? Great atmosphere, rather smellyy in the food section, lots of cheap and cheerful clothes.
I love them and have a few good pictures, but mostly they are for enjoying...
I am so excited to hear of your travel(s)...how exciting...glad you found a way on to the a2k...keep the diary coming..enjoy yourself!
Clary wrote:Markets are the same all over, in a way, aren't they? Great atmosphere, rather smellyy in the food section, lots of cheap and cheerful clothes.
So True!
Thanks, Clary, for sharing your exotic travels. I am fascinated!
Stay well...
listening and lurking - envious!
A lovely autumn Sunday here today, Clary. How's your's? Yep, I know what you mean about cameras .... More trouble than they're worth in these situations.
Pssst: Tell us about FOOD! What have you been indulging in? Discovered anything new & exotic?
Tell us about everything that interests you!
Cheers,
Olgs
