As of this posting, Google shows zero results for this word. Hence, I am claiming authorship.
Inflammocyte - an inflammatory cell.
This word was created in order to save space on notes.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
So...
I was in Thailand for four days and then my hard drive crashed, taking with it 700 photos and two blog entries. I am going to recreate the blog over the next couple of weeks; I am aiming for one entry per day. Stay tuned.
P.S. - this counts as the entry for Saturday.
P.P.S. - Happy Fourth of July.
P.S. - this counts as the entry for Saturday.
P.P.S. - Happy Fourth of July.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thailand, Day 2 (May 28) - My feet have no compass, and the benefits of getting scammed.
OK, Blogger sucks at photos and now so does Facebook. Photo sharing is becoming more frustrating than it should be. I'm behind on blogging so here is day 2:
So it turns out that the tuk-tuk yesterday was a scam (no, really?). However, I didn’t really buy anything so it worked out great for me. More on that later.
I got out pretty early, intent on walking today. I cut to the left from my hotel where I came across a noodle cart and had breakfast. The soup I had was flavored with peanut and cilantro, with wide noodles, meatballs, and bean sprouts. Basically, the only thing that is kept warm is the broth. The vendor then puts everything in a basket, dunks it in the broth a few times to heat it up, and then tosses everything in a bowl with more broth. It was quite good and again, rather inexpensive.
As I was eating I looked around at the other tourists walking by. It seems that our area is basically a backpacker’s paradise. (Warning - highly critical portion follows). While backpacking is a great way to see a country, would it kill you to shower, or maybe just comb your hair? Most of the people around me looked like they had not rolled out of bed but off the sidewalk. Some didn’t have shoes, which after parasitology and learning about the fun little geohelminths (ascaris in particular comes to mind, but more likely ancylostoma and the other skin-penetrating parasites are what they should worry about) was to me just asking for a geohelminth infection. Anyway, highly critical portion ends (I think so anyway).
I started walking, eventually finding myself on Khaosan Street. Khaosan is where the producers of WALL-E must have gotten the idea for the Axiom. Everywhere you look is sign upon sign, advertising whatever business is crammed into the multi-story buildings lining the road. In the road itself are hundreds of vendors with wares covered by either tarps or umbrellas. I picked up a dish of pad thai from a vendor and sat in a silver market to eat it.
I continued to walk, coming to the end of Khaosan and to the National Gallery of Art. I normally don’t really care about art (especially if I have to pay, I’m a philistine), but I had time to kill. Nothing inside the gallery was particularly striking – there were some paintings by the various kings, as well as old traditional Thai paintings depicting various portions of Buddha’s life. In the courtyard of the museum is a really great statue. It was called “Coyote Dance” by Manop Suwanpinta. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture and there’s nothing on Google that matches (and don’t search for it as the results are generally NSFW) . Basically it was a large bronze statue of four women who had their torsos hollowed out and their faces replaced with the skulls of snakes, cattle, or gharials. At their feet were their brains, mouths, noses, and ears – all of the senses had been discarded in favor of whatever the artist was trying to condemn. It was quite good.
After the gallery, I continued to walk and ducked into a Thai supermarket. For some reason I like to go into regular stores whenever I travel overseas, and it turns out that this one was a smaller version of Super H. I went through and found a couple of things that I needed, but it turned out that they didn’t take non-Thai credit cards. Hence I spent about twenty minutes looking for an ATM that didn’t power off when I put my card in. I returned with money as the cashier and security guard were about to start a bet as to whether I was coming back or not.
Walking out again I bought some peanut cookies from a vendor and reached Pom Phrasumen Pier. Along with the pier is a small park with a large white structure built next to it. Along with a couple of monks was an expat doing yoga on the grass. At this point, I had made a big-ass circle and was down the street from my hotel, but I didn’t know that and was feeling pretty good about myself. I spent some time sitting there plotting my next move, although I wasn’t really sure where I was. While I was doing this, I overheard an expat making “arrangements” for a tourist over his cell phone. It was a bizarre conversation to hear, especially since I was only hearing one side.
I made for the pier and decided to walk along the river walk. It turns out that the Chao Phra Ya has large clumps of some sort of aquatic plant. It is a very active river and seems to be used heavily by tugs and barges. It is ridiculous to see a small boat about thirty or forty feet long towing three or four barges that are each easily twenty times its size. The walk itself is pretty well-maintained, and even contains a strip similar to what you find on Metro for the visually handicapped. During straights, the bumps are elongated, while during turns and corners they become circular, alerting walkers to change direction.
My interest in the river was suddenly broken by a sign to my left saying “United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.” Realizing that that was across the street from the hotel and that the bridge ahead was down the street from the alley upon which the hotel faced, I may or may not have been rather profane towards myself and my navigation abilities. I looped back onto the road and walked back towards Pom Phrasumen.
This is where the scam from the day before came in handy. I decided to take a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace, but each driver demanded 100 baht (then down to 30 when I walked away). Deciding to stand for the principle of the 10 baht ride, I started walking. When I reached Pom Phrasumen, a tuk-tuk driver honked at me. It turned out to be Ot, the driver from the day before. I asked him if he would take me to the Palace for 10 baht and he agreed.
The Grand Palace is further down along the Chao Phra Ya. Admission is 350 baht. One can either get a tour guide for an additional fee or an audio guided tour, although this requires a deposit of a credit card or passport (don’t be a moron, don’t give up your passport to anyone). I paid and went in, and as luck would have it, a free English tour was starting at that point. Our tour guide was an energetic middle-aged Thai woman with a large blue golf umbrella who referred to us by our countries of origin (I was the only American). She took us through the outer and middle palaces, including the funeral home, coronation hall, temple of the Emerald Buddha (there was some legend involving lightning and a monkey I think), and a scale model of Angkor Wat.
Many of the walls of the palace courtyard depicted scenes from the Ramayana. Turns out that Thailand’s version of Hinduism is somewhat different from Indian (actual?) Hinduism. For one, Hanuman has a wife and kid (the kid is half-monkey and half-fish, don’t ask). Ravan’s image is also predominant not only in these freizes but in the architecture surrounding many of the temples. In short, let’s hope the BJP or Shiv Sena never visit Thailand.
Once the palace tour was done I started walking again. Taking a route through the flower market, I ended up in a part of town that was considerably messier than the rest of the parts I had been. Walking through this market was like being forced into a narrow tunnel which had only two possible directions – forward and back. One had no choice but to either brush next to people coming the opposite direction or get out of their way to let them pass. The market reeked of marigolds, although other flowers, such as lotus buds, were also being sold. Trash was strewn in the streets without much regard, increasing in volume until I got to the river, where it formed a gigantic pile. Finding two bridges next to each other, I sat down and tried to figure out where I was and what direction I should go in. I apparently forgot about the compass that was sitting in one of my pant’s pockets, so instead, I noticed that the map had 7-11’s marked on it. I realized that one was the one that I had passed, so I started off in that direction, back through the flower market.
Some may navigate by the stars, others by moss on the trees; I instead use convenience stores.
Counting Kwik-e-marts worked quite well until I got to the big park next to the bridge. Here, I hung a hairpin instead of a left, Walking relatively quickly as I wanted to get home and get showered, I was paced by a Thai woman who tried to make small talk. Unsure of what her angle was, I eventually got the NRS# spiel. It was at this point that I started wondering if I was going in the wrong direction. My first clue was seeing the Grand Palace and mentally cursing myself. I ended up buying a salak drink and sitting at the park for an hour. It was strange as after a little while, I somewhat forgot where I was and felt like I was sitting on the Mall.
Eventually, the sun threatened to go down on me completely, so I got up and started hiking back to the hotel. I probably was about a mile or a mile and a half away, so it didn’t take that long. Getting in, I showered and noticed that I had a message from Carolina, a girl in my group. This was the first actual contact that I had made with a person in my group. Since neither of us had eaten dinner, we walked around looking for a restaurant, eventually settling on the restaurant across the alley where we had a rather non-Thai meal (chicken and fish). I’m finding that if I’m sitting down, I don’t usually want Thai food, but if I’m walking I want to try what’s on the street. I am not sure what this means, other than that I’m probably a cheap bastard.
So it turns out that the tuk-tuk yesterday was a scam (no, really?). However, I didn’t really buy anything so it worked out great for me. More on that later.
I got out pretty early, intent on walking today. I cut to the left from my hotel where I came across a noodle cart and had breakfast. The soup I had was flavored with peanut and cilantro, with wide noodles, meatballs, and bean sprouts. Basically, the only thing that is kept warm is the broth. The vendor then puts everything in a basket, dunks it in the broth a few times to heat it up, and then tosses everything in a bowl with more broth. It was quite good and again, rather inexpensive.
As I was eating I looked around at the other tourists walking by. It seems that our area is basically a backpacker’s paradise. (Warning - highly critical portion follows). While backpacking is a great way to see a country, would it kill you to shower, or maybe just comb your hair? Most of the people around me looked like they had not rolled out of bed but off the sidewalk. Some didn’t have shoes, which after parasitology and learning about the fun little geohelminths (ascaris in particular comes to mind, but more likely ancylostoma and the other skin-penetrating parasites are what they should worry about) was to me just asking for a geohelminth infection. Anyway, highly critical portion ends (I think so anyway).
I started walking, eventually finding myself on Khaosan Street. Khaosan is where the producers of WALL-E must have gotten the idea for the Axiom. Everywhere you look is sign upon sign, advertising whatever business is crammed into the multi-story buildings lining the road. In the road itself are hundreds of vendors with wares covered by either tarps or umbrellas. I picked up a dish of pad thai from a vendor and sat in a silver market to eat it.
I continued to walk, coming to the end of Khaosan and to the National Gallery of Art. I normally don’t really care about art (especially if I have to pay, I’m a philistine), but I had time to kill. Nothing inside the gallery was particularly striking – there were some paintings by the various kings, as well as old traditional Thai paintings depicting various portions of Buddha’s life. In the courtyard of the museum is a really great statue. It was called “Coyote Dance” by Manop Suwanpinta. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture and there’s nothing on Google that matches (and don’t search for it as the results are generally NSFW) . Basically it was a large bronze statue of four women who had their torsos hollowed out and their faces replaced with the skulls of snakes, cattle, or gharials. At their feet were their brains, mouths, noses, and ears – all of the senses had been discarded in favor of whatever the artist was trying to condemn. It was quite good.
After the gallery, I continued to walk and ducked into a Thai supermarket. For some reason I like to go into regular stores whenever I travel overseas, and it turns out that this one was a smaller version of Super H. I went through and found a couple of things that I needed, but it turned out that they didn’t take non-Thai credit cards. Hence I spent about twenty minutes looking for an ATM that didn’t power off when I put my card in. I returned with money as the cashier and security guard were about to start a bet as to whether I was coming back or not.
Walking out again I bought some peanut cookies from a vendor and reached Pom Phrasumen Pier. Along with the pier is a small park with a large white structure built next to it. Along with a couple of monks was an expat doing yoga on the grass. At this point, I had made a big-ass circle and was down the street from my hotel, but I didn’t know that and was feeling pretty good about myself. I spent some time sitting there plotting my next move, although I wasn’t really sure where I was. While I was doing this, I overheard an expat making “arrangements” for a tourist over his cell phone. It was a bizarre conversation to hear, especially since I was only hearing one side.
I made for the pier and decided to walk along the river walk. It turns out that the Chao Phra Ya has large clumps of some sort of aquatic plant. It is a very active river and seems to be used heavily by tugs and barges. It is ridiculous to see a small boat about thirty or forty feet long towing three or four barges that are each easily twenty times its size. The walk itself is pretty well-maintained, and even contains a strip similar to what you find on Metro for the visually handicapped. During straights, the bumps are elongated, while during turns and corners they become circular, alerting walkers to change direction.
My interest in the river was suddenly broken by a sign to my left saying “United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.” Realizing that that was across the street from the hotel and that the bridge ahead was down the street from the alley upon which the hotel faced, I may or may not have been rather profane towards myself and my navigation abilities. I looped back onto the road and walked back towards Pom Phrasumen.
This is where the scam from the day before came in handy. I decided to take a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace, but each driver demanded 100 baht (then down to 30 when I walked away). Deciding to stand for the principle of the 10 baht ride, I started walking. When I reached Pom Phrasumen, a tuk-tuk driver honked at me. It turned out to be Ot, the driver from the day before. I asked him if he would take me to the Palace for 10 baht and he agreed.
The Grand Palace is further down along the Chao Phra Ya. Admission is 350 baht. One can either get a tour guide for an additional fee or an audio guided tour, although this requires a deposit of a credit card or passport (don’t be a moron, don’t give up your passport to anyone). I paid and went in, and as luck would have it, a free English tour was starting at that point. Our tour guide was an energetic middle-aged Thai woman with a large blue golf umbrella who referred to us by our countries of origin (I was the only American). She took us through the outer and middle palaces, including the funeral home, coronation hall, temple of the Emerald Buddha (there was some legend involving lightning and a monkey I think), and a scale model of Angkor Wat.
Many of the walls of the palace courtyard depicted scenes from the Ramayana. Turns out that Thailand’s version of Hinduism is somewhat different from Indian (actual?) Hinduism. For one, Hanuman has a wife and kid (the kid is half-monkey and half-fish, don’t ask). Ravan’s image is also predominant not only in these freizes but in the architecture surrounding many of the temples. In short, let’s hope the BJP or Shiv Sena never visit Thailand.
Once the palace tour was done I started walking again. Taking a route through the flower market, I ended up in a part of town that was considerably messier than the rest of the parts I had been. Walking through this market was like being forced into a narrow tunnel which had only two possible directions – forward and back. One had no choice but to either brush next to people coming the opposite direction or get out of their way to let them pass. The market reeked of marigolds, although other flowers, such as lotus buds, were also being sold. Trash was strewn in the streets without much regard, increasing in volume until I got to the river, where it formed a gigantic pile. Finding two bridges next to each other, I sat down and tried to figure out where I was and what direction I should go in. I apparently forgot about the compass that was sitting in one of my pant’s pockets, so instead, I noticed that the map had 7-11’s marked on it. I realized that one was the one that I had passed, so I started off in that direction, back through the flower market.
Some may navigate by the stars, others by moss on the trees; I instead use convenience stores.
Counting Kwik-e-marts worked quite well until I got to the big park next to the bridge. Here, I hung a hairpin instead of a left, Walking relatively quickly as I wanted to get home and get showered, I was paced by a Thai woman who tried to make small talk. Unsure of what her angle was, I eventually got the NRS# spiel. It was at this point that I started wondering if I was going in the wrong direction. My first clue was seeing the Grand Palace and mentally cursing myself. I ended up buying a salak drink and sitting at the park for an hour. It was strange as after a little while, I somewhat forgot where I was and felt like I was sitting on the Mall.
Eventually, the sun threatened to go down on me completely, so I got up and started hiking back to the hotel. I probably was about a mile or a mile and a half away, so it didn’t take that long. Getting in, I showered and noticed that I had a message from Carolina, a girl in my group. This was the first actual contact that I had made with a person in my group. Since neither of us had eaten dinner, we walked around looking for a restaurant, eventually settling on the restaurant across the alley where we had a rather non-Thai meal (chicken and fish). I’m finding that if I’m sitting down, I don’t usually want Thai food, but if I’m walking I want to try what’s on the street. I am not sure what this means, other than that I’m probably a cheap bastard.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thailand Day 1 - Buddhas and Tuk Tuks
OK, so today started kind of late. I’m currently writing this the day after at about 5 AM. I got up around 8 AM and browsed the Internet for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, since I didn’t have a map this made things more difficult. I ended up getting out around 9:30, walking down the alley on which Erawan House resides to the corner. I was thinking of getting breakfast but ended up getting orange juice from the vendor on the corner. Thai oranges are very small, similar to the oranges nani once used to make achar. They crush the entire orange to get the juice, imparting a bitter flavor. A 16 ounce or so bottle was 25 baht, about .75 USD. I purchased that and ducked into a 7-11 for a map. This particular one didn’t have it, but I would return later in the day for a SIM card.
I then started down towards the left. UNICEF and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization buildings were across the street from me. Checking in at a local bus company yielded no map, so I continued all the way down the road. As I passed underneath a bridge, I noticed some food vendors so I crossed over. It turns out that I am right next to the Chao Phra Ya river. I purchased five rambhutan from an old woman (which I still have to eat) and then continued to walk. Bangkok in the morning is filled with the smell of eggs, fish sauce, and frying, which would make anyone hungry. All around me people were sitting on plastic chairs or concrete in front of large bowls of steaming noodles. I was concerned about eating anything too heavy though (or big, since I don’t really eat that much in the morning), so I carried on.
The road terminated with Thammaset University. Figuring that I wouldn’t be able to get on campus (and not particularly interested in trying), I turned around and went back to a different 7-11. Here, I found a map and an Ovaltine, so I sat outside trying to figure out where I was and drink my breakfast. I positioned my bag next to my legs so I could watch it easily. This is where the fun begins.
I was approached by a guy who was very friendly. He asked me where I was from, how long I had been in Bangkok for, and when I had gotten in (furthermore referred to as N,R,S#). He then asked me if I had a map, which I took out. Proceeding to mark up tourist sites on the map, he explained that I had a special opportunity, as the government had been running a tourism promotion program where a person could take a tour of the multiple attractions for 10 baht. I explained to him that I wasn’t really that interested as I wanted to walk around, but then another tuk-tuk driver came over. This one must have been a kid, about 14 or 15, with a rainbow earring with a marijuana leaf embedded on it. He gave me the same exact spiel, and I declined again. Both left, and then a third came up. At this point I was rather concerned for my bag, and so I kept my eyes more on their hands (which was easy since they were holding the map) than on their faces. This third one delivered the same exposition, so I decided that I could walk another day. The sky was also threatening rain.
So onto the autorickshaw went I. My driver’s name was Ought, which was pronounced with a rising intonation. Turns out Thai has five intonations for a word, each of which changes the meaning. My destinations altered between temples (which I would describe, but basically all of them were glittery and had a large statue of Buddha in some variation) and stores which were apparently part of the tourism promotion. It turned out that whenever the driver went to a store, he got a coupon for 5 liters of gasoline. Hence, I visited tailors (all of which asked N,R,S# and most of which were pretty unhappy about me not being interested in buying a suit RIGHT NOW) and jewelers. It turns out that a good negotiation tactic in Thailand is to just to look at an item as if you’re not really sure about it and not say anything. The prices start dropping somewhat quickly.
Eventually, after visiting the Marble Temple, Golden Temple, the Lucky Buddha, and I’m sure some other temples my driver dropped me off in front of t
he Grand Palace. The most I got to see of it was the architecture. Immediately I was accosted by an elderly man carrying a stack of cloth paintings. Asking me if I was Hindu, he immediately flipped to images of Hanuman, Ram, and Vishnu. Declining, he dropped the price from 200 to 100 baht. As I walked away, he followed me down the block, finally offering 50 baht and proving the maxim. I declined and went on my way. Briefl
y pausing to negotiate for some shirts, I came across vendors selling food outside of a university. Since it was about 1 at this time, I purchased skewers of chicken and chicken hearts (referred to as “I love you” chicken by the vendor’s son). Both were good though the hearts tasted similar to kidney. I then purchased a skewer of chicken that was coated with panko and fried. This was also really good, but was basically a large chicken nugget. All together, lunch probably cost me about 1.20 USD.
It turned out that I was too late to get into the Palace (if you go, long pants and sleeves are required but can be rented). As such, I began walking again. I came onto the Chang pier, which had a large number of vendors selling fruit and food. I came across an old woman selling rambhutan and mangosteen. She picked up one of each and cracked them open for me to try.
. Moving to the other stalls, I found longan, lychees the size of jawbreakers, and jackfruit. Eventually, I came upon a stall that was selling coconut ice cream topp
ed with peanuts, jackfruit, sticky rice, and what appeared to be lotus seeds that had become translucent. I purchased a serving, but it was not nearly as good as the skewers I had just had.
Walking away from the market I came across another man who did another spiel. I ended up getting into a tuk-tuk to go back to another temple, which it turned out was the same temple I had been to earlier. In the second temple,
I met a tourism agent who asked for N,R,S# and then explained to me that the tourism promotion for jewelry was because the mines were being shut down. I then took advantage of this to go to The Oscar, a jewelry shop that I had heard about from the tourism official. These guys were friendly and even gave me an explanation of the way that rings are resized. Ultimately though, I couldn’t afford anything (and nothing was particularly nice), so they were a little disappointed.
I came back to the hotel as my shoulders were killing me. Here is where my dislike for tuk-tuks manifests. In India, you can sit in an autorickshaw with your knees at an
angle approximating 90 degrees. In Thailand, not so much. Your legs are at least 130 degrees, and if you are my height (I'm not exactly Shaq), you will have your neck bent. At that angle, you won’t really be able to see anything but the asphal on t
he road, so you have to lean down in order to see what’s going on on the street. In short, unless you are pygmy-sized, riding a tuk-tuk is not a grea
t way to see the great city, but it is a cheap way to get around.
I was intending on going out again, but I ended up falling asleep. I woke up at 5 AM and that’s where we are now.
Blogspot does not play well with pictures, it seems.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thailand Day 0 - Stream of Consciousness Style
It is currently 2:14 AM on May 27, 2009 in Bangkok.
Check-in at IAD was surprisingly quick, so I walked up and down the B terminal, looking for stuff to buy. Basically this turned out to be nothing much, so I purchased some food, including a Five Guys burger for an experiment. As my landlord in Grenada has asked me to bring back Burger King for him, I thought that I would do one better and get him a Five Guys burger. As such, I needed to know whether it would keep over the 12 hour trip to Grenada. 24 hours later, my experiment is entering its final phase as I am eating said burger. Granted, this may be a bad idea, but I think that I've eaten worse.
The flight to Narita (NRT) was full and I had a center seat between an elderly Japanese man and an elderly Japanese woman. Many people, including the flight attendants, wore surgical masks (surprisingly, the flight attendants on the NRT-BKK leg did not wear anything on their faces). The masks made the normal safety demonstrations a little more interesting, as it looked like ninjas were putting on life vests. Furthermore, there was something we were supposed to do in the event of an "emergency vacation." I was remembering Neha jiji's advice not to touch any pigs while abroad, but I really doubt that that will be an issue.
The 777 had a 3x3x3 configuration in economy, and smelled like Five Guys fries at the start. However, this smell either dissipated or I got used to it. While taxing ANA has a video channel that shows a feed from the nose of the plane. You can see the runway and what's in front; the camera also runs while in the air. I had not seen this feature before and thought that it was kind of neat.
I thought I would sleep, but being in the center made this difficult so I watched six movies instead. Whoever chooses ANA's movies must really like Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, and Jim Carrey because these were the predominant stars.
- Seven Pounds - good. Can't really say anything else without giving away the plot though.
- Slumdog Millionaire - I had not seen this yet. It's good but ghastly in some parts, although having been told what happens to little kids in the slums it wasn't really surprising. I watched this after Seven Pounds so that may have colored my view.
- Dirty Harry - there is a lot of full-frontal female nudity in this movie. If this is the airplane cut then I can't imagine what goes on in the unedited version.
- Ocean's 12 - Meh. First one was better. Catherine Zeta-Jones was not her usual alluring self either. I thought the fourth-wall break with Julia Roberts was great though.
- Ocean's 13 - Less meh than 12, but still not as good as the remade Ocean's 11. Bernie Mac is awesome though even though he is in the film only briefly. The man has charm and class.
Which brings me to:
- Ocean's 11 (1960) - the original version. This movie sucked. Maybe it was good when it came out but apart from Sammy Davis Jr. and Normal Fell (Mr. Roper), it blew big time.
I'm looking through my notes and I must really have been bored because I talk about the way that the lines on the runway merge together and split away from each other.
In the air to NRT, we were told to fill out health questionnaires due to the "pandemic influenza." These were supposed to be collected at the airport but I still have mine. Maybe I'll make a paper airplane or something.
ANA's food is borderline awful. They get high marks for presentation but everything else basically falls flat, save for a bag of rice crackers that they serve as snacks.
NRT is a decent but otherwise unremarkable airport. The B gates are like a small Tysons Corner Center as there are stores for Hermes, Cartier, and a bunch of other high-end luxury brands that I don't remember. You can buy tech stuff but it is expensive. There was a store selling digital cameras from point-and-shoots to professional-grade DLSRs.
BKK is a rather remarkable airport, if only for the architecture. It is very open and all concrete and steel. I got my bag and headed to the airport taxi service, where a driver (attempted) to take me to the hotel. The problem was that when I told the taxi desk people where I needed to go, neither of them knew where it was. Hence I had to look it up on the Internet. Then the driver was unable to find the hotel without stopping three times and asking. It turns out that the hotel is down an alley off a main road and we were passing it in the search. Although he didn't know much English, he knew enough to tell me that he didn't understand my questions and to ask if I wanted a "lady friend."
Anyway, I've checked in now. The room is small but otherwise clean. More later.
Check-in at IAD was surprisingly quick, so I walked up and down the B terminal, looking for stuff to buy. Basically this turned out to be nothing much, so I purchased some food, including a Five Guys burger for an experiment. As my landlord in Grenada has asked me to bring back Burger King for him, I thought that I would do one better and get him a Five Guys burger. As such, I needed to know whether it would keep over the 12 hour trip to Grenada. 24 hours later, my experiment is entering its final phase as I am eating said burger. Granted, this may be a bad idea, but I think that I've eaten worse.
The flight to Narita (NRT) was full and I had a center seat between an elderly Japanese man and an elderly Japanese woman. Many people, including the flight attendants, wore surgical masks (surprisingly, the flight attendants on the NRT-BKK leg did not wear anything on their faces). The masks made the normal safety demonstrations a little more interesting, as it looked like ninjas were putting on life vests. Furthermore, there was something we were supposed to do in the event of an "emergency vacation." I was remembering Neha jiji's advice not to touch any pigs while abroad, but I really doubt that that will be an issue.
The 777 had a 3x3x3 configuration in economy, and smelled like Five Guys fries at the start. However, this smell either dissipated or I got used to it. While taxing ANA has a video channel that shows a feed from the nose of the plane. You can see the runway and what's in front; the camera also runs while in the air. I had not seen this feature before and thought that it was kind of neat.
I thought I would sleep, but being in the center made this difficult so I watched six movies instead. Whoever chooses ANA's movies must really like Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, and Jim Carrey because these were the predominant stars.
- Seven Pounds - good. Can't really say anything else without giving away the plot though.
- Slumdog Millionaire - I had not seen this yet. It's good but ghastly in some parts, although having been told what happens to little kids in the slums it wasn't really surprising. I watched this after Seven Pounds so that may have colored my view.
- Dirty Harry - there is a lot of full-frontal female nudity in this movie. If this is the airplane cut then I can't imagine what goes on in the unedited version.
- Ocean's 12 - Meh. First one was better. Catherine Zeta-Jones was not her usual alluring self either. I thought the fourth-wall break with Julia Roberts was great though.
- Ocean's 13 - Less meh than 12, but still not as good as the remade Ocean's 11. Bernie Mac is awesome though even though he is in the film only briefly. The man has charm and class.
Which brings me to:
- Ocean's 11 (1960) - the original version. This movie sucked. Maybe it was good when it came out but apart from Sammy Davis Jr. and Normal Fell (Mr. Roper), it blew big time.
I'm looking through my notes and I must really have been bored because I talk about the way that the lines on the runway merge together and split away from each other.
In the air to NRT, we were told to fill out health questionnaires due to the "pandemic influenza." These were supposed to be collected at the airport but I still have mine. Maybe I'll make a paper airplane or something.
ANA's food is borderline awful. They get high marks for presentation but everything else basically falls flat, save for a bag of rice crackers that they serve as snacks.
NRT is a decent but otherwise unremarkable airport. The B gates are like a small Tysons Corner Center as there are stores for Hermes, Cartier, and a bunch of other high-end luxury brands that I don't remember. You can buy tech stuff but it is expensive. There was a store selling digital cameras from point-and-shoots to professional-grade DLSRs.
BKK is a rather remarkable airport, if only for the architecture. It is very open and all concrete and steel. I got my bag and headed to the airport taxi service, where a driver (attempted) to take me to the hotel. The problem was that when I told the taxi desk people where I needed to go, neither of them knew where it was. Hence I had to look it up on the Internet. Then the driver was unable to find the hotel without stopping three times and asking. It turns out that the hotel is down an alley off a main road and we were passing it in the search. Although he didn't know much English, he knew enough to tell me that he didn't understand my questions and to ask if I wanted a "lady friend."
Anyway, I've checked in now. The room is small but otherwise clean. More later.
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