B

After our arrival in Bangkok we didn't tarry too much in getting out and doing our business. In doing this we brought back to the front of our brains lots of what we used to know about Bangkok and had forgotten. What was the name of that hotel we stayed in? What was the hospital and where was it that we'd visited? Soon we answered these and many other questions.

After spending a few hours in our room cooling off and unpacking we went out to see a bit more of our neighborhood. First we ate at a Chinese restaurant on the street-level of our hotel and then we headed for Silom Rd. In 2001 we'd been down it many times; near where we were there are many jewelery shops and we'd almost made a purchase in one of them. Our strongest memory of the neighborhood is that of a confidence man: on one walk down the street he struck up a conversation with us and as soon as he learned we were going down to the ferry created some story about going to visit his sick wife in a hospital across the river. When we said we were stopping at the Shangri La (not disclosing that it was for their nice loos) he suddenly remembered that he had another appointment. We were so unkind as to ask him about his sick wife and he didn't know what to say; he'd apparently already forgotten his "cover" story.

On returning to the BW Elegance we passed a bookstore and popped in. To our good fortune we found a Lonely Planet Thailand Guide book. Of course we'd come without one because we didn't want the extra weight in our baggage that just topped our allowance anyway. In Turkey one can only find LP Guides in the two or three largest cities and we'd passed half of our time there without a guidebook. The same may be true in Thailand, but now we were in the largest city and snapped up the book.

Having it was like having cataracts removed. It was easy to put the LP Guide and Gerry's memory of maps together and determine that it was the MBK (Mah Boon Krong) center where in 2001 we had had great buffet meals and Gerry had found a good deal on eyeglass lenses. In the same way we found the name and location of the Bumrungrad (confusingly pronounced Bamroongrat) hospital. Finally, we also found that if these two sort of formed the two ends of the top of a T then the US Embassay was a the bottom.

After a good night's sleep and halfway to being on Bangkok time, we set out to visit all three of the above mentioned. We walked over to the Saphan Taksin Skytrain station and took it, via a change at "Central" to Ploenchit. This initiated a series of alternating between hot and cold: a hot walk in to the station and then a cooling period on the aircon Skytrain. The sweat had hardly evaporated when we got off and walked ten minutes to Bumrungrad and lost another liter of our bodily fluids. Inside, Bumgrungrad was just as we remembered it: ultra modern and ultra pleasant to be in. At the inquiries desk we got a brochure listing four different types of health check-up and the prices. (The most expensive is cheap: 6000 baht or about $160). Not wanting to make an appointment our business was done and we felt we had enought time to make the American Embassay before they closed. The walk was longer than expected (and as sweaty or more than expected) but we did make it. There Gerry turned in a completed application, showed his old passport, and paid $67 and was told that in two weeks he'd have a new one.

We felt we'd done a lot and it wasn't even noon yet. Now we could go to the MBK center for lunch. We walked back to the Skytrain Ploenchit station and took it just one stop to near MBK; it was well worth it for the sweat it saved. You might ask why we didn't take a taxi or tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled taxi). It's because we wanted to get where we were going. Taking a taxi has the risk of being misunderstood as to directions. The one-way streets and long distances to make a U-turn or right-turn (Thais drive on the left, as in England) give rise to anxiety that the driver is not going where desired.

We found the MBK Center much more crowded than we remembered it. In 2001 it felt very open; now there were continuous crowds. We might compare it to the change that took place in Tsim Tsa Tsui East, the district of Hong Kong where we lived three years. When we first moved there in 1982 most of the hotels, restaurants, and shops had been open only a few months; we helped inaugurate Pizza Hut. When we returned as visitors in 1999 all had acquired a patina of age overlaying a forest of signs that adorned the sides of the buildings, converting them from their original Bauhaus simplicity to a cacophony of impressions.

Now in the MBK center we couldn't find the restaurant we wanted to go back to. Eventually we convinced ourselves that it had been replaced and so settled on a Japanese sushi restaurant. After lunch we went to look for our 2001 hotel, the one in which we had first heard of the 9/11 disaster. It was a few blocks away and instead of being called "The American Hotel" or something similar it had a very American name: Reno. In five years we've moved upscale a bit; the BW Elegance is nicer than the Reno. Of course, it also costs more.

We'd originally booked three nights in Bangkok with the idea of moving to another hotel for up to a week more; part of our program was to check some out. After seeing the Reno we'd originally thought to go on to some others. But jet lag caught up with us and we went back to the Elegance, swam a bit, and then hit the sack. The next day we went directly to the area near Pantip Plaza (where we intended to research lap tops) to look at the Baiyoke. On the way we passed the First Hotel and inspected it. From there we set off to find the Baiyoke Suites, which was harder than expected because we didn't know which soi it was on and connections between sois are pretty haphazard. We did find it and didn't like it: it's a very tall tower. The room felt as big as an aircraft hangar which was fine but the wait for elevator was so long that we thought we'd be unhappy on ordinary days and terrified in case of an emergency.

In seeking the Baiyoke we'd been stopped by a couple who offered their help. The man was Steve Van Beek, an American who has made his career writing books about South East Asia. He now also offers tours. We checked out his website and it looks pretty interesting We also passed the "Iranian Restaurant" and went back there for lunch. It was excellent food. A good start to Thailand: first Chinese, then Japanese, and then Iranian food.

We then made it over to the Pantip Plaza, across the street and down a few sois. Gerry wanted to check it out from corner to corner, all five flours. Jan was having none of that; it was too late in the day and jet-lag was still having its effects. We went into a few shops on the second floor and found they had pretty much the same machines at the same prices as we'd seen in a shop in the MBK Center. We were more or less on our way out when we passed a dinky shop that seemed to have second-hand computers. Why not take a cheap, stop-gap measure? We stopped and asked what he had. To our surprise he had a Compaq very similar, and a slight upgrade, to the one stolen from Jan. Because he was very accommodating he let us check out all the functionality, including Wi-Fi (we checked our email there). Jan asked why the original owner sold the machine; her underlying fear was that this machine had been stolen from him. Perhaps if we had things to do over we would not have accepted the answer so blithely but we did. As everything worked we made an impulse buy, saving 20% on an equivalent new machine.

Jan's brother Dave is married to Jhap, who is from Thailand. Her niece Poy, has been studying to be a doctor and a few weeks earlier had started a residency in Bangkok. Jan spoke to Poy on the phone but we couldn’t see her immediately because she was on call.

As our third night in Bangkok approached we had to make a decision: where to move to? We liked the First Hotel but they didn't have any rooms available for the coming weekend and we weren't sure that we wanted to stay in Bangkok. The next day would be the beginning of three days celebrating the 60th Jubilee (sixty years on the throne) of the Thai king. Lots of events were planned and, while we would like to have seen them, we thought we had almost no chance of getting up close. In particular, there would be a parade of royal barges on the Chao Phraya River. In 2001 we had visited the museums where they are kept and had been very impressed with them. And just a week earlier we'd visited the museum in Istanbul where the Sultan's equivalent barques were kept. But the newspaper indicated without a reserved seat in one of the riverside grandstands we would have almost no chance of seeing them.

Because we had to wait two weeks for Gerry's passport to be ready, and because we had one of the two replacement computers, and because we wanted to see Poy, and because it was hardly more difficult to move to a hotel out of Bangkok than one in it, we elected to go to Kanchanaburi on Thursday.

Bangkok

The MBK or Mahboonkrong center is unbelieveable, until after you have seen it. Imagine something as big as one of the towers of the World Trade Center on its side, or as big as the biggest luxury cruise liner and imagine it entirely devoted to shopping and eating. Want a cell phone? There are at least two hundred independent merchants happy to oblige

But we were not cellphone buyers this trip, even though Jan's brother Dave has been nudging us to buy a phone so that he can call more easily. It's not that we wouldn't enjoy talking to him, it's just that we need more than one reason to add yet another item with its charger to our mountain of electronic stuff.

The other focus of our shopping habits is Pantip Plaza — five stories of everything to do with computers. If it has something to do with computers you can get it here.

We are sort of on vacation — if only for a weekend! We have several remaining things to do here in Bangkok, like get a health check-up, get Gerry's visa transferred to his new passport, and so on, but that all has to wait until Monday. That means time today to spend an hour in the swimming pool trying to take off some of the weight gained from day after day of buffet breakfasts. Isn't life tough!

Yesterday Gerry spent about six hours looking for his next machine at Panthip Plaza. That process will continue today but down around MBK center. It will probably take him a few more days to make up his mind.

Our guide books say it is the rainy season here in Thailand, but that is not always so clear. We don't really know what to expect: should there be periods where it just rains and rains all day long, day after day? We haven't seen that. But in Kanchanaburi there was an afternoon shower that often came as we were eating lunch. We just sat in the restaurant, usually open air but covered, and waited. Then we'd be off with relative dryness. Our first three days in Bangkok had some showers but nothing that inconvenienced us. Now back in Bangkok we yesterday had a quite terrific thunderstorm with lots and lots of lightning and torrential rain. The nice consequence of that is that it is cool enough today to dispense with air-conditioning. The local weather makes us follow the US and UK weather charts more. We don't seem to be doing too bad compared to them.

The World Cup matches are all in the news, local and international. There is no escaping it. We take some mild interest but it doesn't grab our souls as we are not great supporters of any team, including England. On the other hand Jan is very much hoping to catch some tennis when Wimbledon starts. We just heard that Agassi has announced he will retire after the US open this year. That's too bad, as it means there's no chance of catching him at the Australian open — assuming we can get there by January!

Our second evening back in Bangkok we got to meet Poy. She came over to the First Hotel and we had dinner together and so we got to know her a little bit. Like all the Sonphao girls she's both pretty and smart. We enjoyed talking to her about her ongoing medical studies.