If you come to Bangkok looking for blue skies, you will have to be a bit liberal with your interpretation of the color blue.

I believe the English translation of Bangkok means: land of smog. That statement might not survive a fact check, but it sure as heck should. It's too bad that my first impressions of places like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur generally tend to be a bit negative. Because for all the charm they have, it is really hard to ignore the smog, pollution, and noise. Not that I was surprised by these things. I knew when going to these cities, I wasn't going to quaint little rustic lakeside villages. But it really has been a drain on the body touring some of these SE Asian cities. The constant harassment of tuk tuk drivers, scooters coming at you from all directions, the heat, the pollution, the crowds, the language barrier, and just flat out tired feet. Even a simple thing like going to the shopping mall can have you walking in circles wanting to tear your hair out. I went to the mall yesterday to find a bank and trying to navigate the maze of escalators to get out of there took far longer than one would reasonably expect. I distinctly remember during my travels to Europe, that I really didn't want to spend time in hostels because wandering around towns was a fun full day adventure. It is quite the opposite here. Half day jaunts around various parts of these cities make me yearn for those moments when I return to my air conditioned hostels and take the longest showers of my life.

I am not trying to discourage people from visiting these places and by no means do I regret any of these experiences. I went to a floating village today where people were selling goods on bulkheads outside their homes and on boats in a series of canals. I just think the heat and the general way that I travel have everything to do with my luke warm feelings towards these sticky hot cities. Since I can't change the heat, the only thing left to change is to allow myself extra time in each city. In fall like weather conditions, I could see the sights of any city in the world in a day or 2. I would get a general vibe of the people and the feel for the town and leave reasonably satisfied with my experience. Impossible to do that in Asia. You might be able to see and do everything in a day, but 50% of that day is going to be spent cursing the heat and humidity, 25% cursing crowds and motorists, and 25% enjoying food/sights/sleep. The longer you stay, the less you curse heat and crowds because you get accustomed to that way of life. In fact, it almost starts to add to the experience instead of taking away from it. Now that I am about 2 weeks into my Asian portion of the trip, I think I am finally starting to adjust. In general though, as Americans who would generally only have a 1-2wk vacation from work, we don't really have that luxury of getting to places like Bangkok, relaxing and adjusting. We need to see as much as we can in the short amount of time we have so that we can tell our co-workers we did more than just stay in our hotel rooms because it was so stinkin hot.

Man, those 2 paragraphs are a confusing read. Certainly no Pulitzer Prize coming my way for this post. Like my physical body, my thoughts are all over the map today. Apologies.

I do want to thank everyone at home and abroad who have been following my adventures. Nice to know that I have close family and friends thinking about me as well as friends and co-workers I haven't seen in yrs. Makes me feel a bit less lonely during some of these dog days of early spring knowing so many of you have me in your thoughts.

Off to Ban Pin tonight by train. I am going on a retreat of sorts and will be the only guest at this woman's home in rural Thailand. She is going to show me village life, give me some Thai cooking lessons, and just expose me to the scenery and general way of life of rural living. Then off to Cambodia after that to visit the temples of Angkor Wat. Go O's.