Bangkok Stop

At JL's insistence, we added a night in Bangkok on our trip home from Hanoi. J was in my Peace Corps group and was in the next province to mine 40 some years ago. He's been involved with Peace Corps and/or AID until he retired and now lives in Bangkok in a house he and his wife built [remodeled] on her old family property. [She said she would have built such a big house.] We're staying in a beautiful guest house in the back.

They heard that banana trees were a good way to green up the yard fast after the construction and so now they have a collection of lots (I forgot the number) of different kinds of banana trees. This was perhaps the strangest - it's got hundreds of tiny bananas.

This condo building towers above their place. It's distinction is that every condo has its own swimming pool. But J isn't sure they have enough money to finish it. It seems that nothing's been done on it for a while and it's not done. The penthouse on top comes with its own helipad. So if you're interested, email me and I'll get you in contact with J.

We walked around the neighborhood. This will give you a little idea.

J wanted something at the supermarket, so I checked out the fish department.

750 Baht is about $20. So this Tasmanian salmon is under $10 a pound.
Presumably this is previously frozen salmon and farmed salmon,
but I didn't see anything that gave that sort of info.

Then we stopped at the Spa for some iced chocolates and I had mandarin-passion fruit.

Then tonight we had dinner at a beautiful Northern Thai place close by.
Here's the fish dish. With all the ingredients of Miang.

Here are the culprits at dinner.

I really don't have much time to say much more. I'm feeling a little guilty staying at this beautiful spot while my colleagues are a few kilometers away sleeping on the street in front of Government House. I did talk to Bon by phone today and the Prime Minister has signed something - I think to set up a committee to study and resolve the issues the farmers have brought to Bangkok. I'm hoping to get down there tomorrow before we fly home. They are due to bus home tomorrow night.

I'm letting Hanoi sink in before writing anything more. All I know is that I was headachy the whole time. That's not my style. I'm guessing it was the traffic and noise - and trying to dodge motorcycles every time I crossed a street.

Oh yes, tomorrow is the 50th Anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising. Tibet's been closed off and they are expecting protests at Chinese embassies around the world. Apparently there's been disputes among Tibetans and there may be more vigorous protests than in the past, possibly even some suicides in protest. Or so the rumors go.