Saturday, January 01, 2005
It is the new year
It's now the first day of 2005. How crazy is that?
How'd it go out here? Not too bad. Not too badly at all. Our flight into Bangkok went without a hitch. No delays or anything. The airport didn't seem very busy to us. The only obvious signs of what happened down south are the flyers all over the airport asking for blood donations from foreigners. I guess Asians are RH- and most westerners are not? Which makes for blood shortages. Anyone know what blood type I am? I forget.
Never mind. A taxi dumped us at the door of the RW Marriott (doormen?) and we checked in. Our room? Shitebox! On the 12th floor with a hellishly nice view looking out over the city. The room was huge, the bathroom was huge, a shower AND a tub. Tv with 3 movie channels, 2 huge comfy beds and all sorts of goodies. It was great!
First order of business? Nap. Then a short walk. There was a grocery next to the hotel and it was almost like being in a grocery back home! We went looking for some wine but came away with wine, cheesy poofs, nacho chips, a block of cheese, salsa and refried beans. And milk and brownie mix. It was awesome! No, we didn't have a feast (at first). Our dinner reservations were for 8:30 so we showered and got dressed up (I even ironed that damn suit of mine! Who is this guy?) and went to dinner. Had a nice dinner and made it downstairs to the....big area with tables and waitresses and a band/dance floor by about 10. It was great! We each had one drink (cost us about $59US each) and listened to the band. Playing mostly upbeat western music (even some Bon Jovi!), it was awesome. At one point some girls in traditional (?) dress came out and pranced a bit. Then the countdown, balloons and singing and whatnot. Fun times. By 1, most of the staff was out daning with the crowd (I know. I had a great view from our table-which was placed on the dance floor) and one girl got R up to dance with her. I declined. Why? My dancing bone hurt.
So it's late, right? Bed, right? Nah. Fancy hotel and food to eat, no sleep allowed! Feeling it necessary to maximize our usage of the place, we broke out our food and had cold nachos while watching movies until almost 4.
Crash
Up. Guess what we did? We went and used the exercise room! We both ran for about 20 minutes and I played a bit with the weights. It felt SO good! Then pool time. While R cooked, I went back to the grocery to see if they'd restocked on something I had forgotten about, but wanted badly (all we saw was the empty spot on the shelf). Nope. Out of stock. What a tease! I was looking for the tabasco habanero sauce (don't worry, i got it somewhere else tonight). Instead I walked out with a box of mac and cheese (kraft)(I'll find a place somewhere eventually to cook it up) and a bag of pop secret popcorn (eventually it'll get cooked). Then we packed up, took one last beautiful round of showers, and ate the rest of our beans before grabbing a cab to our new place. Further from the main area. But way cheaper. Not a bad place. As it turns out, it's a couple bloks from a package shipping place (more boxes coming home, mom!) and 2 blocks from the Uzbek embassy (where I need to go on Monday). Good times.
What next? At 4am my watch alarm is going to ring, and we are going to watch the Rose Bowl! Our place has a bar/restaurant with tvs and cable and the game's gonna be on! How cool is that?
Yes, we'll be sleeping in tomorrow.
Happy new year
Make some nice resolutions that involve sending me money and stuff. I swear I'll appreciate it and send thank you notes.
How'd it go out here? Not too bad. Not too badly at all. Our flight into Bangkok went without a hitch. No delays or anything. The airport didn't seem very busy to us. The only obvious signs of what happened down south are the flyers all over the airport asking for blood donations from foreigners. I guess Asians are RH- and most westerners are not? Which makes for blood shortages. Anyone know what blood type I am? I forget.
Never mind. A taxi dumped us at the door of the RW Marriott (doormen?) and we checked in. Our room? Shitebox! On the 12th floor with a hellishly nice view looking out over the city. The room was huge, the bathroom was huge, a shower AND a tub. Tv with 3 movie channels, 2 huge comfy beds and all sorts of goodies. It was great!
First order of business? Nap. Then a short walk. There was a grocery next to the hotel and it was almost like being in a grocery back home! We went looking for some wine but came away with wine, cheesy poofs, nacho chips, a block of cheese, salsa and refried beans. And milk and brownie mix. It was awesome! No, we didn't have a feast (at first). Our dinner reservations were for 8:30 so we showered and got dressed up (I even ironed that damn suit of mine! Who is this guy?) and went to dinner. Had a nice dinner and made it downstairs to the....big area with tables and waitresses and a band/dance floor by about 10. It was great! We each had one drink (cost us about $59US each) and listened to the band. Playing mostly upbeat western music (even some Bon Jovi!), it was awesome. At one point some girls in traditional (?) dress came out and pranced a bit. Then the countdown, balloons and singing and whatnot. Fun times. By 1, most of the staff was out daning with the crowd (I know. I had a great view from our table-which was placed on the dance floor) and one girl got R up to dance with her. I declined. Why? My dancing bone hurt.
So it's late, right? Bed, right? Nah. Fancy hotel and food to eat, no sleep allowed! Feeling it necessary to maximize our usage of the place, we broke out our food and had cold nachos while watching movies until almost 4.
Crash
Up. Guess what we did? We went and used the exercise room! We both ran for about 20 minutes and I played a bit with the weights. It felt SO good! Then pool time. While R cooked, I went back to the grocery to see if they'd restocked on something I had forgotten about, but wanted badly (all we saw was the empty spot on the shelf). Nope. Out of stock. What a tease! I was looking for the tabasco habanero sauce (don't worry, i got it somewhere else tonight). Instead I walked out with a box of mac and cheese (kraft)(I'll find a place somewhere eventually to cook it up) and a bag of pop secret popcorn (eventually it'll get cooked). Then we packed up, took one last beautiful round of showers, and ate the rest of our beans before grabbing a cab to our new place. Further from the main area. But way cheaper. Not a bad place. As it turns out, it's a couple bloks from a package shipping place (more boxes coming home, mom!) and 2 blocks from the Uzbek embassy (where I need to go on Monday). Good times.
What next? At 4am my watch alarm is going to ring, and we are going to watch the Rose Bowl! Our place has a bar/restaurant with tvs and cable and the game's gonna be on! How cool is that?
Yes, we'll be sleeping in tomorrow.
Happy new year
Make some nice resolutions that involve sending me money and stuff. I swear I'll appreciate it and send thank you notes.
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