First Day Home
I arrived on November 23rd. San Francisco Airport; has BART! Bought a ticket at $11.95 and headed to the East Bay. There ain't no taxis at North Concord BART station, in case you're wondering. I bought another ticket to go back one station where I know there has always been a busy taxi queue. It was cold, 24 hours out of the tropics and the taxi driver is telling me this is the first day of a cold snap and it was "below freezing this morning. It was 70 degrees yesterday." Let's see, (70-32)/1.8 = 21 degree Celsius. He thinks that was what? Warm? Great, just what I wanted to hear. Let's see, I've got some tee-shirts, couple of Thai work shirts, the warmest jacket I ever used in Thailand and a couple pairs of light-weight chinos. I've been miserably cold ever since.
The flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to SFO is not a short one. The layover at Seoul/Inchon was just long enough for a quick (overpriced) shower and a small (overpriced) meal. The North Korean attack was either just over, in process, or minutes away. I found out about it when I got home. At just under twenty-four hours, you would think my first priority would be a shower and bed. I was so jazzed to be home I wanted to get started. Right now!
The Motel room I checked into has a heater, turn it to 80 and it's livable, barely. Time to get situated, I wanted to see my friend, in person, I needed a US phone number. Got a taxi to see my pal. his first comment, "You look old." Well he ain't no spring chicken either, nor has he spent the last twenty-four hours in transit. Next time, I'll take that nap. There's this new thing, to me anyway, called Metro PCS, the taxi driver tells me. She says it's good thing can be temporary or permanent. Taxi driver also tells me there's a $10.00 minimum when the meter reads $6.00. I don't take any more taxis. Ten Dollars is 300 Baht for Christ's sake. I can have fifteen bowls of noodles for that!
The flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to SFO is not a short one. The layover at Seoul/Inchon was just long enough for a quick (overpriced) shower and a small (overpriced) meal. The North Korean attack was either just over, in process, or minutes away. I found out about it when I got home. At just under twenty-four hours, you would think my first priority would be a shower and bed. I was so jazzed to be home I wanted to get started. Right now!
The Motel room I checked into has a heater, turn it to 80 and it's livable, barely. Time to get situated, I wanted to see my friend, in person, I needed a US phone number. Got a taxi to see my pal. his first comment, "You look old." Well he ain't no spring chicken either, nor has he spent the last twenty-four hours in transit. Next time, I'll take that nap. There's this new thing, to me anyway, called Metro PCS, the taxi driver tells me. She says it's good thing can be temporary or permanent. Taxi driver also tells me there's a $10.00 minimum when the meter reads $6.00. I don't take any more taxis. Ten Dollars is 300 Baht for Christ's sake. I can have fifteen bowls of noodles for that!
Getting out and About
Stopped in to see my friend. We talked for a bit. He closed his shop and asks, "How about a cocktail?" Cocktail? How about a shot and a beer? Yeah man, an All-American Ale! I refuse to drink another lager. Give me an ale please! I think I drank a six pack's worth of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in short order.
A brief digression here, more about "things miss while living in Thailand." You live in Thailand if you live with a woman like mine you start watching every Satang. I like to tell people that ales were impossible to find in Thailand. This ain't exactly so. Reasonably priced ales are an impossibility. I say "reasonably priced" not cheap. I am not as cheap (or thrifty?) as my wife. But when the stores start charging about $3.00 - $8.00 US for a twelve ounce bottle or can for imported beers and you can get a twenty ounce local lager for less than a Dollar? You can drink fruit juice like me. or tough it out with the local lagers, Thai breweries don't "do" Ales. For a while one store was offering a fairly tasty suite of ales, Coopers. Their Amber Ale, named "Sparkling Ale" was quite tasty, the Pale Ale was weak, watery and the stout? Not so good really. but it was reasonably priced, until the store owner saw how popular it could be. Price increased by 70% overnight. that was the end of my occasional bottle of ale. I am not a daily drinker, but I do love a good ale on occasion. I think I had 18 bottles of ale over a two month period in my entire nine (plus) years in Thailand. So quaffing a six pack of a strong ale in short order was a given - given the chance,
After the bar my friend takes me to his favorite restaurant. Why do people think that after living in Thailand for over nine years the first thing I want to do is go to a damned Thai restaurant? The waitress couldn't speak Thai, the food was westernized Thai and Thai-ized western. All I wanted was a big Bacon Cheese burger on a San Francisco sourdough roll, some hand cut russet potato (thai's don't "do" russets either) fries and maybe a malt. After dinner, we shot pool on a real pool table. My first night was good intro back into the western world.
A brief digression here, more about "things miss while living in Thailand." You live in Thailand if you live with a woman like mine you start watching every Satang. I like to tell people that ales were impossible to find in Thailand. This ain't exactly so. Reasonably priced ales are an impossibility. I say "reasonably priced" not cheap. I am not as cheap (or thrifty?) as my wife. But when the stores start charging about $3.00 - $8.00 US for a twelve ounce bottle or can for imported beers and you can get a twenty ounce local lager for less than a Dollar? You can drink fruit juice like me. or tough it out with the local lagers, Thai breweries don't "do" Ales. For a while one store was offering a fairly tasty suite of ales, Coopers. Their Amber Ale, named "Sparkling Ale" was quite tasty, the Pale Ale was weak, watery and the stout? Not so good really. but it was reasonably priced, until the store owner saw how popular it could be. Price increased by 70% overnight. that was the end of my occasional bottle of ale. I am not a daily drinker, but I do love a good ale on occasion. I think I had 18 bottles of ale over a two month period in my entire nine (plus) years in Thailand. So quaffing a six pack of a strong ale in short order was a given - given the chance,
After the bar my friend takes me to his favorite restaurant. Why do people think that after living in Thailand for over nine years the first thing I want to do is go to a damned Thai restaurant? The waitress couldn't speak Thai, the food was westernized Thai and Thai-ized western. All I wanted was a big Bacon Cheese burger on a San Francisco sourdough roll, some hand cut russet potato (thai's don't "do" russets either) fries and maybe a malt. After dinner, we shot pool on a real pool table. My first night was good intro back into the western world.
