Self-portrait - Sri Maha Phot, Thailand

Taken after a day full of teaching. I 
was waiting to talk to someone in 
the admin building at school.

After the flooding in Sri Maha Phot receded, we started classes again on Oct. 15. I was not notified by my agency that I was not returning to the school until Wednesday. I thought I was going to be there through the end of the week, and then start the new term the following Monday. I am disappointed that there was such a breakdown in communication between the agency and myself. I should have been given timely notification concerning my status. I was ordered to pack up my stuff and relocate to Bangkok until they reassigned me.

On Wednesday, I bought a large duffle bag for my clothes, and a new book bag to replace a North Face book bag I have been carrying for about six years. The zipper on the NF bag splits now after zipping it up. I don't want to part with it, as I have carried it so far, from Chuncheon, South Korea, to George Town, Malaysia. However, on Thursday, as we loaded into the van for the trip to Bangkok, the duffle bag ripped. The next day the shoulder strap on the new book bag broke. I won't be buying luggage from Tesco-Lotus anymore. I am one who has brand loyalty to only three companies, made up of Apple computers, Cannon cameras, and The North Face line of bags and clothing. 

Thursday I got to Bangkok, and checked into the New My House Guest House, located on Soi Rambuttri, behind Wat Chana Songkram. It is in the Khao Sahn Rd. area of Rattanakosin Island, and is in walking distance of the National Gallery, National Museum, and the Grand Palace complex, among other tourist attractions. The island became the site of Bangkok's Old City, which was founded in 1782. I didn't do a lot of tourism, but I did find a couple of places to photograph for the first time. Romaneenart Park is the site of a park located on the grounds of a former prison. The towers still stand, as well as a long section of wall and gate leading into the yard. Before leaving Bangkok, I took climbed the Golden Mound, which gives a nice view of the vast expanse of Bangkok. Unfortunately, you can't see the river from its height. 

Over the next few weeks, I was waiting to hear from my agency regarding a job, which didn't happen. I started the job search again, and remembered a card I was given in July. A pastor at the Saraburi SDA church told me to contact him when I became available. I followed through about a week ago, and this past Friday I checked out of the guest house and relocated to Saraburi. The pastor and I discussed briefly the job with the school, and I am now waiting to talk with him tomorrow regarding where I will live, as well as training and starting date.

Saraburi is a town located about two hours from Bangkok on the highway to Khorat. The ancient capital of Ayutthaya is located southwest of Saraburi and is directly connected by railroad. By train, we are perhaps four to five hours from Bangkok. 

Fort Phra Sumen was one of 14 armed positions constructed during the reign of King Rama I that were to defend the old city of Bangkok. This fort is located in the northwestern corner of Rattanakosin, Island, where Banglamphoo Canal flows into the Chao Phraya river. Construction of the forts and city walls took place in 1783. A second fort, Ft. Mahakan, and part of the city wall still stands on the NE side of the island. The other 12 forts and city walls were torn down.

All photos were taken with a Canon PowerShot A800. Film speed 1600 and stopped down 1/3. 

A week before my birthday I purchased an Android tablet. I told myself I would regret it. My iPod Touch stopped working in August. The button that closes screens stopped working. It charges and the power switch work, but there is no way to navigate between screens and apps. I miss it a lot. Its size was perfect. I went to a tailor to get three dress shirts made for school. The pocket was custom made for the iPod to ride in, featuring a zipper so it wouldn't fall out. And it was so easy downloading podcasts from the iTunes Store. And I never had problems with Youtube or Google Maps. It was one of the best purchases I ever made. The only problem was that it never let me post blogs to xanga. The ANDROID lets me post blogs to xanga. However, I do not like the formats used for Twitter, Facebook, or Yahoo. I get xanga updates in the mail, but never the complete message. Also, when replying to email, I am given limited space for the message. I do not appreciate character limits. They are useful when working on Twitter, but such limits have no place when writing email. The iPod had eight gigs of memory. The ANDROID has a 16-gig SD card installed. Without the SD card, there is no meaningful storage space. I installed Winamp onto the tablet two days ago. It is nothing compared to the version used on desktop and laptop computers. I do get access to Internet radio stations, though, and need to see if it will stream podcasts. At this time I have a number of apps to try out. Most are related to photograpy, and some are related to foreign languages. I have a dictionary, two Bible translations, and a handful of books to read, and that I appreciate. I do not like the fact that it is so blooody difficult to remove some files. I need to get a cover to protect this device with, as I do not like the slick surfaces. Feels like it could slip out of my hands, and that would be rather inconvenient. I don't hate the ANDROID, but I don't like it, either. Its a wannabe device wishing to be accepted by its peers from. Apple and Samsung. Buy one only if you feel sorry for it. It is cheap. I bought this tablet and 16-gig SD card for under 5000 baht.

I've been in Bangkok for the last week, staying in a guest house in the Khao Sahn Rd. area. It's been a quiet time spent waiting to hear from my agency concerning a new placement. I am playing catchup with my journal entries. Should have it done in about a week. There are times when I am tired of words. I get tired of looking for the right words to say, to think, to write. I hear many accents, dialects, languages, and with it varying degrees of speed as words are poured out. Fast talkers from Wales. Clear-speaking New Zealanders who sound Australian, but claim to be more cultured (less slangy) than the Aussies. Met a pair of Koreans, one of whom was going to Chiang Mai and happy to hear of a Korean restaurant in the area where he could get some bibimbap. In the guest house restaurant we have people people checking in, people lounging around reading, people conversing. Shania Twain is still the one on the radio, along with a bizzare mismatch of international musi ranging from MNM to Gangnam Style. I'm tapping away on an Android tablet wishing my right knee would stop aching. The movie starts at 1:00. At my last school I asked about vegetarian food. The only thing they had on a regular basis was a three egg omlette that occasionally had something like onion added to it. Eventually I stopped eating the eggs because the cooking oil didn't taste good. Thai food in a Thai restaurant in the US or somewhere outside of Thailand is not the same as what you will find in a Thai village. Its hit and miss. The fresh fruit purchased from a street vender will always be good, though. Nothing compares to fresh watermelon, pineapple, papaya, or mango. I've eaten better here than I did at my last placement. Over the next-to-last weekend of September, the rains were heavy enough to flood the parking lot where I was staying. On Monday the water was ankle deep. Eventually it would be a little deeper, but in some places it was knee deep. At school the ground floor classrooms were flooded. We were closed until Oct. 15. On Friday I started having problems with my right knee. It was a real pain during my visa run to Vientiane. I asked a teacher with a medical degree about the swelling. He told me that there were torn ligaments in my knee. So I am resting and giving my knee time to heal. Money is very tight right now, and payday is Tuesday. Let's see what happens next...

Random questions asked by @Barbieboo_Annie

1. If you were able to time travel, where would you be at this moment?
I am a Creationist. I would want to see the preflood world and find out where I am right about them, and what parts I got wrong about the people and the culture of that time period.

2. If you could choose your own name, what would it be?
I'm okay with the one I have. 

3. The first thing I'd buy if I won a $100 million dollar lottery is..
another college degree.

4. Which is worst, losing which sense: sight or sound?
I am a visual person. If I lost my sight, I'd probably stay home all day. I would probably be okay if I was deaf. 

5. If you could bring one person from history to our time, who would it be?
the idiot who started the Industrial Revolution. let him see if what we have done is what he had in mind.

6. Farthest distance you've gone from home.
Thailand is pretty far from where I grew up. It's about half way around the world.

7. If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be?
at this time, I have no idea who I would like to switch lives with for a day.

8. Best memory of a kiss.
still working on it.

9. Worst trend of all time.
the music style known as "grunge" comes to mind, as well as "the shaky cam," legwarmers, and the mullet (which only looked good on professional wrestlers)

10. Person (real, fictitious, dead, or alive) that you would love to meet.
Mr. Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series is the fictional character. It would be cool to hang out with Leonard Nimoy and talk about photography.

11. Favorite love song.
"Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol - but only when performed by either Cherry Lee or Mike Masse. Videos of both are available on youtube. 

12. Craziest spur-of-the-moment thing you did. (Or would want to do.)
Take anger management classes taught by Bruce Banner (The Incredible Hulk) and Ben Grimm (The Thing from Fantastic Four)

13. What's number one on your bucket list?
write a novel and not care if it makes the NYT bestseller list. just want the thing written.

14. I feel sexiest when I'm wearing...
I never feel "sexy." I have no idea what that means.

Put the sun to my back
let the wind comb my hair
I want to run from this place
and find a place to live without a care

let the sky turn to black
let the wind run through my hair
I want the stars burning bright
in a sea made with the tears of the moon

and though the flood is receding
I know your heart is bleeding
but you don’t want me around
let me leave you behind
I promise not to make a sound

put the sky to my back
let the wind cut through my hair
some day I will find my place
where love lives without fear

The last few weeks have been a literal washout. At my school we were preparing for final testing and looking forward to some time off before the start of the last half of school. What we got instead was several inches of rain covering the roads. Flooding was expected, which was why they moved up the testing schedule. When I got up on Sept. 24, the water was ankle deep in front of my place. I live about 50 yards from the main four-lane road into town. It was down to two lanes. I called a fellow teacher from school and found out school was closed until Oct. 15.

The last week of September I celebrated my 48^th birthday on the computer. It was rather boring. That Friday I got my pay and headed to Bangkok, and experienced some places where the water was rather deep. Where I live, the water got to be about knee deep. However, it was receding nicely by Friday, and I got to get out so I could prepare for my trip. Thing is, my right knee was swelling up for some reason, and even now I am still dealing with the pain.

I spent the night in Bangkok, and in the mid-afternoon booked a train to Nong Kai, the end of the line of the Royal Thai Railroad Service. I needed to hop the Thai-Lao border on Sunday morning, and so the overnight train was the best way to get there. The train left late and arrived late. I hoped the border successfully, limping slightly because of the knee. I guess most of the pain was caused by the overloaded backpack I was carrying, as well as a slightly overstuffed book bag with a busted zipper. It got cold on the train, so I was wearing a sweat jacket, but it had to come off as it warmed up rather nicely. My taxi into Vientiane, Laos, was an A/C van, and the ride was smooth. I got dropped off at the Talat Sao mall and walked the rest of the way to the guesthouse where I stay when I am in Vientiane. It is conveniently located, an easy walk to downtown, the bus station, and the Thai consulate. I had to reacquaint myself with the town, as it was my first time back in two years.

I spent most of my free time playing on an Android tablet, as well as reading A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I tried to sleep as much as I could, as well.

Monday I went to the consulate, and was told there might be a problem as I only had three blank pages left. I was told they were cover pages and could not have a visa stamp placed on them. I was not happy about this. I paid extra to have someone process it for me, and was not in a good mood when I left. The SDA Mission in Laos is located three blocks from the consulate, and I dropped by for a brief visit, and told them about the possible problem I was facing. They invited me to have lunch of fish, rice, sticky rice, and vegetables. I had the vegetables and rice, as well as some sticky rice. It was good hanging out with them for a little while. I walked to Talat Sao, got some bottled water and a drink with electrolytes, and looked for some information concerning a bank with Western Union. The exterior of the building is interesting, not the most attractive mall exterior in the world, but inside it is rather pleasant. My knee could only take so much more, though, so I went back to the guesthouse.

 Anticipating a problem with my passport, I paid for one more night at the guesthouse, then went to the consulate. I was given good news. They used one page that I was counting on, and now have to apply with the American embassy in Bangkok for a new passport. The rest of the day went by smoothly.

On Wednesday I checked out, and headed to the bus station. My next destination was Udon Thani, where I would pick up the train to Bangkok. At a mall near the bus station I found a Western Union at a Robinson department store, and then got a kiwi-flavored ice cream cone. From the mall I walked to the bus station, got my ticket, and learned that the train was running late. It took about 12 hours to get back to Bangkok. I spent some time walking Sukhumwit before going to Victory Monument for a van home. I still do not feel rested up from the trip.

School is back in session in six days. I should have the novel finished by then, even though I know how it ends. Other than that, I’m going give my knee a rest, and get over a sore throat. Over the last two days I have been dealing with a swollen tonsil. Let’s just say it has been a rough few weeks. More to come.

The night of black before my eyes
holds for me the promise of
the coming light of endless day
when there’s nothing more to say

the sun rides high the moon rides low
over lands of deepest snow
though I am scarred by the cutting cold
I must stand and be bold
I must stand and be bold

I know not why it falls on me
this passionate storm of life
moves me closer to the day
when men have nothing more to say

the stars ride high as the moon rides low
over deserts of burning sand
though I am scarred by the furnace heat
I must stand and be bold
I must stand and be bold

these blood-shot eyes have seen too much
this battered heart is numb to touch
but the coming light of endless day
helps me to find my way

I ride high and I ride low
through the valley where I must go
though I fear the shades of death
I must stand and be bold
I must stand and be bold

-------

I am a fan of a song called "Sail the Sky" by the Bedlam Bards. It was featured on a recording they released called On the Drift - songs inspired by Firefly and Serenity. I listened to the song several times while I wrote this. I'll give the writer of "Sail the Sky" a writing credit if he asks, as I feel I borrowed too much from his lyrics. 

one more time girl
one more time
and, please, this time girl
don’t hold back girl
don’t hold back
all the passion all the pain
‘cause in due time girl
in due time
all the rain’s gonna fall
and the world’s gonna end
right on time

one last fight girl
one last fight
and, please, this time girl
don’t hold back girl
don’t hold back
all the passion all the pain
‘cause in due time girl
in due time
you roll with the punches
and the fight’s gonna end
right on time

one last kiss girl
one last kiss
and, please, this time girl
don’t hold back girl
don’t hold back
all the passion all the pain
‘cause in due time girl
in due time
true love will find you
and the hate’s gonna end
right on time