In Bangkok

We are in Bangkok. Made it at 6am this morning. We were supposed to be here at 10:30pm last night. Tired.

We took the new airport train part way to our hotel then took a taxi from the train stop. So we are now at the JL Bangkok Hotel, which has free wi-fi and a free American breakfast. We got off at the wrong stop for our hotel so had quite a long taxi ride to get here. Cost almost 3 dollars!

We've been sleeping off and on today Mostly venturing forth to find food. Tonight we at in one of the small Sois (streets) that seem to be turned over mostly to food stalls in the evening. A bowl of pork dumpling soup was 40 baht of about $1.33. We love the street food here.

We forgot how heavily polluted Bangkok is. You can taste the pollution. But, it's still a lot more fun than Topeka.

Sherry Skyped us this morning. We are amazed that she can be in San Diego and we can be in our room in Bangkok and we can see and talk with each other. We tried again this evening but the connection was bad so it didn't work. The only downside to Skype was that when Sherrie called Jim had to put on his pants since he was in his undies and she could see us in the room.

The Haneda airport has the most wonderful toilets in the public restrooms, They are called "Shower Toilets". They wash and dry you automatically. All you do is press the buttons on the wall next to the toilet. Press the wash button and a stream of water is aimed at your bottom. Let go and it stops. Then press the button for the warm air and it dries your bottom. A wonderful system.

Also, at the Haneda airport we heard the little golf carts that are used to take disabled or late passengers to their gates. As one went pass, it was playing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go" to warn people to get out of it's way.

Since we brought the net book computer we can listen to the same radio stations that we do at home. As Jim is typing this we are listening to big band music from KCEA in the San Francisco bay area. Just like at home.

Coming back from dinner we checked out the local movies near us. The closest multiplex is showing "Twilight, Part 4" on four screens, Puss in Boots", "Happy Feet 2" and "Immortals". "Immortals" is being shown in 3D. Think we will pass on the movies right now. None sound good.

We were able to pick up our home phone messages and hear them on the computer. So, no need to call home to see if anybody called us. We just log on.

This morning we saw an advertising sign for HSBC that said "Holland earns more exporting soy sauce than Japan." Never thought of Holland as even making soy sauce let alone being a large exporter. Wonder how that got started?