Monthly Archives: May 2005

After checking out of my airport hotel and surviving a (terrifying yet exhilarating) taxi ride, I decided to start my day by exploring around my guesthouse, called “Bed and Breakfast Inn” in the Siam Square neighborhood. Wow, does Thailand have good shopping and food! I had spicy noodles at one place and later a fish sandwich from Santa’s Hamburgers. I also bought a great “Esprit” purse for about $4.00 and a cool Bangkok map.

My guesthouse is really funny. There is a high-quality lacquered sign in the main hallway that says, “NO PROSTITUTION! NO PROSTITUTION! NO PROSTITUTION!” There is another computer-printed (homemade) sign, complete with digital images that says, “You might ask guesthouse why I can not (sic) throw item from balcony?! Why can not (sic) try this? We tell you (1) it maybe (sic) danger to person, maybe (sic) cause of death!!!! (2) damage to posessions under balcony!!!! (3) damage to roof of person house!!!! Thank you for your cooperation. The Manager”

Tomorrow I’ll check out of the Bed and Breakfast Inn and check in to the Wendy House, which is the guesthouse next door to it. It’s much cuter and bigger. Hopefully it will have good signs too.

I’m off to search for dinner. Until next time…

Tylenol PM is the secret to avoiding jetlag! I took one of those last night at 1:00 AM Bangkok time because I wasn’t sleepy, and I woke up at a normal hour this morning. Downstairs in the restaurant they had a HUGE sumptuous breakfast buffet waiting for me, with a whole group of smiling Thai people in suits wishing me good morning. I had papaya, pineapple, pancakes, some sort of Thai omelette and strong, thick black coffee. This place rules.

Hey folks,
I just exchanged $10 U.S. to get some yen coins, so I thought I’d try out this Internet kiosk. Everything in this airport is making me laugh. Well, that could be because my brain thinks it’s 2 AM, when it’s really 4:00 PM here, local time. United airplane food is really very good. They showed “Because of Winn-Dixie” dubbed in Japanese, which was surreal and totally awesome. It made up for the alcoholic businessman sitting next to me who chewed up sunflower seeds and spat them into a cup for the entire 15 hour flight! My next flight to Bangkok boards in about an hour and a half. Until then, I’m going to use some more of my yen coins in the automatic massage chairs. I’m still trying to figure out how a flight that leaves Japan at 6:10 PM and travels west to Thailand could arrive at 11:00 PM… It must be another long flight, but this time I have the window seat, so I can see Bangkok by night.
Wish me luck! I’ll post again when I get there. Sayonara!

If you haven’t been reading my blog until now, here’s a recap of the MASTER PLAN:

I’m leaving this Thursday — yes, this Thursday — at 7:35 AM to Chicago; then it’s non-stop to Tokyo, where I’ll change planes for Bangkok. For 45 days I’ll write articles about HIV and adolescent reproductive health for UNESCO and visit commercial sex workers in gogo bars (to interview them, duh) before Carly arrives in Thailand. She’ll meet me in the northern part of the country so we can travel by cart and slow boat over Laos to Vietnam. Then I’ll work at a small NGO in Hanoi on a family planning project grant proposal until the end of August.

Stay tuned for the first episode of Crystal’s Adventures in Asia…

By the way, here’s what I envision our cake to look like.

Phew! Just finished my first of four finals.
My two “hard” finals are both tomorrow.

Meanwhile, wedding planning is going fine. We just saw two photographers and two bakers. I want to go with the happy but shy little French baker named Jean at the “Croissant D’Or” who seems like he would really make the cake with lots of care. He also has such a cute accent. So much for my dream of a red velvet wedding cake. According to the experts, that kind of cake cannot be stacked because of its soft consistency. Also, its red coloring bleeds right into the white frosting. Now I’m thinking about almond buttercream cake with lemon, pineapple or raspberry filling. Not too original, but tasty.

Last night I worked on the editing of my SIDS educational video for 5 hours (!) with my friends Dan and Elizabeth. I stayed up doing that until 1:30 AM by eating Starburst and drinking KoolAid, then got up again at 6 to study for my final this morning.

Wish me luck on my huge tests tomorrow!