Siam so far away...
So I think I am going to start calling the places I want to visit by the old names - Siam...Indja (which just might be Nicole Kidman's accent, but sounds awesome anyway)...these might be colonial and therefore not politically correct, but how cool is it to say 'I am going to Siam'. Makes me think of pith helmets, handlebar mustaches, steamer ships taking you to far away and exotic locales...and then attacking, colonizing and exploiting their natural resources....ok, we are going to just forget that last part. This trip we are going to think more The King and I (which is where it is actually set) and less Joseph Conrad and his awful Heart of Darkness. This is exotic and spicy Thailand, not horribly depressing Congo.
I fly out in roughly 7 hours and I think I am going to treat the family to cinnamon rolls as we are getting ready in the morning. Hmm, pillsbury.
Fingers crossed I can fit all of my stuff into my bags. My minimalist plan seems to have some holes and it would probably have been easier to consolidate my bulky bags into my one big suitcase. Oy vey.
I'm off to bed to get a few hours sleep, see you all in about 21 hrs and another hemisphere.
5 comments:
Don't you just love those long flights? It's too late now, you are over there getting skeeter bit already, but rolling your clothes works well. For packing that is.
The King and I? Nagh...Think Apocolypse Now.
Pfft, Apocolypse Now..is that the one where the guy puts the Viet Kong's head in the bag or is it the one with Charlie Sheen?
And I rolled when I packed : ) it did help, but I still ended up with too much and small, narrow Thai trains aren't meant for big suitcases.
Mosquitos are here but I got awesome bug spray and haven't had much trouble. We are digging out a 3X3 meter trench and finding a lot of pottery, but it is slow going and the dirt is really compacted. Some skeletons have already been pulled from another site (or maybe at another plot in this one)and we are cleaning them - second skeleton looks good, but the first one was mostly dirt in bone form and vertebrae were breaking in my hands, sad times.
How are things going back home? I had fries at the hotel restaurant the other day as a little taste of home - its about the only that is good there, street food is cheap and much better.
I bet when you come back your going to be thinking you too too much stuff;)
I admitt, it's been some time...Damn, nearly 20 years, since I have last seen Apocalypse now. I don't remember the VC head or are you thinking about the Col. Sheen was sent to kill (Marlon Brando)that was one of our guys that had gone native? Brando, if I remember right had gone up the Mekong into Cambodia..I was thinking Thailand...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXVGQnJm0w
Haha, yeah thankfully my Thailand experience so far has been not like that youtube clip at all. I think the Charlie Sheen movie may be Full Metal Jacket.
But I am in a military town - Lopburi has military installations peppered all over the place - and from the insignia on the gates it looks like some sort of paratroopers/special forces guys. I didn't know this at first and thought some of the high ropes courses we saw were an effort by the locals to get the monkeys away from the downtown area. Nope.
Charlie Sheen was Platoon.
Well, I don't think the Mekong comes out of Thailand.
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