Finally, an air-blowing hand-dryer that really works. Leave it to the Japanese (Mitusbishi). It blows air in a confined space from front and back when you stick your hand in there. Only the newer building has these guys.Sunday, November 30, 2008
Surgery. News about me, and an inappropriate photo.
My shoulder surgery is now scheduled for 6:00 AM on Friday morning. Hopefully, I'll be up to flying home on the very early morning of the 17th. We'll see. In fact, I still have to pass one more test with the heart doctor, an MRI to see if I have fat incursions into the wall of the ventrical(s) in question. That test is one of those long-shot tests, so I assume I'm going ahead with the surgery.
Finally, an air-blowing hand-dryer that really works. Leave it to the Japanese (Mitusbishi). It blows air in a confined space from front and back when you stick your hand in there. Only the newer building has these guys.
Finally, an air-blowing hand-dryer that really works. Leave it to the Japanese (Mitusbishi). It blows air in a confined space from front and back when you stick your hand in there. Only the newer building has these guys.
Laundry. Let's discuss!
The first and second time I went "traveling" on a budget, I was relatively young. Just not quite 30 years old. We (in this instance, I) traveled very light, with just a large daypack. It was back in the day when you'd need to plan on doing a lot of hand washing. Wherever you are in the less developed world you can easily and cheaply buy a clothes-washing brush (you have to operate it yourself, no batteries, and do it in your room's bathroom, most likely). Also there are small individual packets of laundry soap normally available, for, say twenty-five cents. (Shampoo can be purchased this way, too, in little plastic packets.) Hand washing your laundry often makes you look like a perfect tramp. And it doesn't get better as the travel weeks play out. I'll get a photo of the typical backpacker in SE Asia up here one of these days.
In the city where there is no available space to spread your laundry to dry, conflict can arise with your traveling partner when one or the other of you is the first to figure out how to utilize any [or all] available space for hanging things up to dry (see the photos above) "Hey, I need to do wash, too!"
In the present trip's case, I found a sort of a laundromat down the alley where I could do a large tub of wash for about $1.20. But there is no fluffy-fluffing fluffety automatic dryer (remember your carbon footprint, dears, and leave your fabric softener at home, too.) Anyway, here in my tiny air conditioned 24 dollar room, drying space is an issue allright! P.S this sort of washing makes most of your clothes look like crap, but they are clean! Try it out at home, if you don't believe me. The only saving grace in this instance is that the hotel supplied the room with several enough shirt hangers (don't count on it). I remember now I use to carry a clothesline twine.
Thinking of the laundry issue today has prompted me to take an actual inventory of the clothes I've packed (You see, I had packed without much thought. That takes practice, and also staying in practice.)
10 pairs of socks, mostly all white of one stripe or another. I have to change socks often because of ever threatening athlete's foot attacks.
2 shirts with short sleeves and collars. These are needed so as to not always look like someone who drives a motorcycle taxi (here in Bangkok) for a living. It's very helpul if these shirts are both comfortable (in hot weather) and look pretty good without ironing (this is quite a trick). Some rayon does this, and some definitely does not. There is very little in the way of synthetic fabric, or blends, of choice. Start searching now.
8 T-shirts, half of which will soon be useless because, though they used to fit me well, and look good, they are now old, stretched, stained. If they were getting that way at home, it will take only about two washings here in the humid tropics to make them disgusting.I recommend shopping for T-shirts at thrift stores at home. It's the only way to find some that have proven themselves to hold up in the various ways to repeated washings.
8 pairs of underwear, including one or two pairs that are comfortable for sleeping. Some of these 8, I knew would be soon ready to throw away, and that's useful because our bags have a way of soon becoming fuller, or much fuller than they were when we left home. You can always buy more underwear.
3 pairs of long pants, one new, and two in various states of wear, that can be thrown away before coming home.
2, 3, 4, or 5 pairs of shorts, depending how you count. One is for sleeping. One is for swimming. If you look good in these shorts, are young(ish), and aren't going to be visiting churches, temples, government offices, businesses and the like, then you might only bring shorts plus one pair of long pants.
1 small towel or large wash cloth. Mine I'm now using to mop up the bathroom floor, as otherwise it takes about 6 hours to dry. Dangerously slippery.
What if your flight takes you through Tokyo in the winter; you don't know, the flight might be delayed there. Maybe the ever present air conditioning gets to you. You need one of something warm. In my case, one rather middle-aged, gray, zippered, hooded sweatshirt. I can throw it away if necessary.
In the city where there is no available space to spread your laundry to dry, conflict can arise with your traveling partner when one or the other of you is the first to figure out how to utilize any [or all] available space for hanging things up to dry (see the photos above) "Hey, I need to do wash, too!"
In the present trip's case, I found a sort of a laundromat down the alley where I could do a large tub of wash for about $1.20. But there is no fluffy-fluffing fluffety automatic dryer (remember your carbon footprint, dears, and leave your fabric softener at home, too.) Anyway, here in my tiny air conditioned 24 dollar room, drying space is an issue allright! P.S this sort of washing makes most of your clothes look like crap, but they are clean! Try it out at home, if you don't believe me. The only saving grace in this instance is that the hotel supplied the room with several enough shirt hangers (don't count on it). I remember now I use to carry a clothesline twine.
Thinking of the laundry issue today has prompted me to take an actual inventory of the clothes I've packed (You see, I had packed without much thought. That takes practice, and also staying in practice.)
10 pairs of socks, mostly all white of one stripe or another. I have to change socks often because of ever threatening athlete's foot attacks.
2 shirts with short sleeves and collars. These are needed so as to not always look like someone who drives a motorcycle taxi (here in Bangkok) for a living. It's very helpul if these shirts are both comfortable (in hot weather) and look pretty good without ironing (this is quite a trick). Some rayon does this, and some definitely does not. There is very little in the way of synthetic fabric, or blends, of choice. Start searching now.
8 T-shirts, half of which will soon be useless because, though they used to fit me well, and look good, they are now old, stretched, stained. If they were getting that way at home, it will take only about two washings here in the humid tropics to make them disgusting.I recommend shopping for T-shirts at thrift stores at home. It's the only way to find some that have proven themselves to hold up in the various ways to repeated washings.
8 pairs of underwear, including one or two pairs that are comfortable for sleeping. Some of these 8, I knew would be soon ready to throw away, and that's useful because our bags have a way of soon becoming fuller, or much fuller than they were when we left home. You can always buy more underwear.
3 pairs of long pants, one new, and two in various states of wear, that can be thrown away before coming home.
2, 3, 4, or 5 pairs of shorts, depending how you count. One is for sleeping. One is for swimming. If you look good in these shorts, are young(ish), and aren't going to be visiting churches, temples, government offices, businesses and the like, then you might only bring shorts plus one pair of long pants.
1 small towel or large wash cloth. Mine I'm now using to mop up the bathroom floor, as otherwise it takes about 6 hours to dry. Dangerously slippery.
What if your flight takes you through Tokyo in the winter; you don't know, the flight might be delayed there. Maybe the ever present air conditioning gets to you. You need one of something warm. In my case, one rather middle-aged, gray, zippered, hooded sweatshirt. I can throw it away if necessary.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Skipping ahead to hospital
Pot of plants at the foot of the altar in front of the hospital
The altar
The altar from up in the main building
the main bulding from the other main building
the King's portrait at the entrance
The car drive through area
The main building
View out of the 14th floor, not towards the other building
The main building from the other main building again
The Buildings down at the corner.
The ubiquitous tuk-tuk.
An old Chinatown building, actually a few blocks away.
Early in the morning. Most of the buses aren't small gems like this one.
Typical street scene, about 8:00 AM
Yes, McDonalds is (was) down at the corner.
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Neigborhood. Near Wat Po, near the river, bordering Chinatown.
The coffee house where I get free WiFi Internet Access along with my coffee. Closed on Sunday.
In front of the coffee house, these ficus (variegated) seem to be growing right out of the sidewalk (but not). They could though!
The street's abandoned only because it's early in the morning.
All of these are from early in the morning. Embarrassing to be a tourist always with a camera.
The container gardener's paradise. Tropical plants everywhere!
This is coming out of the alley entrance to the building's (where I was staying) courtyard.
This is looking the other way, towards the courtyardWat. This is a wat. Wats are Thai-Buddhist Temples.
In the photo above, you can see the stupa off to the right. Don't ask me the significance of the stupa. Try wikipedia. I think though, in China, this translates into the pagoda.
This Wat is called Rajaburana. Cool name; Raja being King, of course! It's about 5 minutes walk from where I was staying at first, near Chinatown. Thursday, November 27, 2008
First entry, not some photos of the hospital, Bumrungrad
Bumrungrad International hospital: Bum- rung- rad.
Pronunciation point: Do you know the English words, "singer" and "finger?" the "ng" sound is very different in these two words. This matter often comes up in b. Indonesia. In that "perfectly spelled" language, these two would be rendered: "singer" and "fingger." So the sound called "velar n" is the sound in question, in this case, not followed by a "hard g."
The last syllable of the word is "rad" not "grad." Yes, it's difficult for English speakers, but not impossible.
Think of the "Ring Wraiths" in The Lord of the Rings.
Pronunciation point: Do you know the English words, "singer" and "finger?" the "ng" sound is very different in these two words. This matter often comes up in b. Indonesia. In that "perfectly spelled" language, these two would be rendered: "singer" and "fingger." So the sound called "velar n" is the sound in question, in this case, not followed by a "hard g."
The last syllable of the word is "rad" not "grad." Yes, it's difficult for English speakers, but not impossible.
Think of the "Ring Wraiths" in The Lord of the Rings.
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