Day 1 in Thailand (Bangkok)
Breakfast buffet in the Ibis Hotel in Huamark (near Ramkhamhaeng University who I’ll be teaching for) had this great drink that tasted like ginger. And it was NamKing – Ginger juice. It’s the tea colored one in the middle. Not many pictures to show.. We got up, surprised at the blue, blue sky with big, but not threatening clouds and reasonably clear air, and wandered around getting our bearings. We’re not at all in the tourist section, but right in the middle of many Thai malls and the main street – Ramkhamhaeng – is lined with little shops and street stalls. There’s a khlong (canal) down the soi (side street)
we are on and you take a boat taxi into downtown Bangkok. But we slowly wondered down to the University, less than a mile away. The humidity wasn’t bad at all, though in the sun it did get pretty hot. I was nicely taken care of, getting my reimbursement for the plane trip, hotel, taxi, and payment for teaching. Met some of the other faculty – mostly retired male faculty, including Frank Gold from Fairbanks. And got access to the internet and made arrangements for getting to Korat on Friday morning. Thawisak, who was the van driver when we were here in 2003 will be the driver. We like him a lot, so that was nice. I’ve been reviewing my Thai for three or four months now, listening to tapes, working on my reading, and it’s paid off. My available vocabulary is much better than it was when we came in 2003, but I do still have trouble catching everything that people are saying to me. My Thai is good enough that they assume I can understand more than I can. And when they use English 
words and I’m thinking they are speaking Thai, it is really tough. And Sommai’s few Lao lessons really impressed them. In the Northeast of Thailand they speak a dialect that is more similar to Lao. Sommai taught me how to say ‘hello’ ‘delicious’ and ‘don’t worry.’ Someone commented that my Thai was good, but I would need to Isaan (the dialect) in Korat. So I showed off my couple of phrases. We bought a myytyy (hand carry) phone. The lady was great and very patient with all my questions. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer some people would keep talking to me because they thought my accent was so funny. I think that might have been the 
case here.
We ended up napping when we got back and eating in a fast food looking Thai restaurant in the mall. Food was good. Called Mook (my former student in Kamphaengphet) again, this time with the cell and 1-2 card he’d suggested. But then I got a message saying I needed to recharge the card. I guess will go back by the phone shop and ask what’s going on. I only called him twice and we didn’t speak long, even though they said I’d be charged per call, not per minute. I must add, that phone shops are everywhere. If an
yone is interested, the used Nokia was about $34 and the card was about $8. And the lady said I could sell her back the phone when we leave. She even gave us a little pink phone sock for Valentine’s Day.
Breakfast buffet in the Ibis Hotel in Huamark (near Ramkhamhaeng University who I’ll be teaching for) had this great drink that tasted like ginger. And it was NamKing – Ginger juice. It’s the tea colored one in the middle. Not many pictures to show.. We got up, surprised at the blue, blue sky with big, but not threatening clouds and reasonably clear air, and wandered around getting our bearings. We’re not at all in the tourist section, but right in the middle of many Thai malls and the main street – Ramkhamhaeng – is lined with little shops and street stalls. There’s a khlong (canal) down the soi (side street)
we are on and you take a boat taxi into downtown Bangkok. But we slowly wondered down to the University, less than a mile away. The humidity wasn’t bad at all, though in the sun it did get pretty hot. I was nicely taken care of, getting my reimbursement for the plane trip, hotel, taxi, and payment for teaching. Met some of the other faculty – mostly retired male faculty, including Frank Gold from Fairbanks. And got access to the internet and made arrangements for getting to Korat on Friday morning. Thawisak, who was the van driver when we were here in 2003 will be the driver. We like him a lot, so that was nice. I’ve been reviewing my Thai for three or four months now, listening to tapes, working on my reading, and it’s paid off. My available vocabulary is much better than it was when we came in 2003, but I do still have trouble catching everything that people are saying to me. My Thai is good enough that they assume I can understand more than I can. And when they use English 
words and I’m thinking they are speaking Thai, it is really tough. And Sommai’s few Lao lessons really impressed them. In the Northeast of Thailand they speak a dialect that is more similar to Lao. Sommai taught me how to say ‘hello’ ‘delicious’ and ‘don’t worry.’ Someone commented that my Thai was good, but I would need to Isaan (the dialect) in Korat. So I showed off my couple of phrases. We bought a myytyy (hand carry) phone. The lady was great and very patient with all my questions. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer some people would keep talking to me because they thought my accent was so funny. I think that might have been the 
case here.We ended up napping when we got back and eating in a fast food looking Thai restaurant in the mall. Food was good. Called Mook (my former student in Kamphaengphet) again, this time with the cell and 1-2 card he’d suggested. But then I got a message saying I needed to recharge the card. I guess will go back by the phone shop and ask what’s going on. I only called him twice and we didn’t speak long, even though they said I’d be charged per call, not per minute. I must add, that phone shops are everywhere. If an
yone is interested, the used Nokia was about $34 and the card was about $8. And the lady said I could sell her back the phone when we leave. She even gave us a little pink phone sock for Valentine’s Day.These are three different islands of phones for sale in this small section of this mall. We bought the phone at another mall.
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