Monday morning, Bangkok

I keep forgetting to put these two little fact in this blog.

1. Since I have been in Thailand and Laos, I have not had a bed with two sheets. The beds have all had a nice tight clean bottom sheet, and a thick quilt type cover folded on the end of the bed. I have a silk travel sheet (kinda like a sleeping bag,) and I have used it every night of the trip. It has come in very handy.

2. The eating utensils here are a large spoon (not a kitchen spoon but larger that a teaspoon) and a fork. No knives. If I need to cut something, I hold it with the spoon, and cut with the fork. Sometimes however the fork is so flimsy that the tongs bend, so I cut with the spoon.

If, however, you are eating Chinese or Korean food, they eat with chop sticks. .... My thought on this subject is that the knife, fork, and spoon we use in the US is a better system, but so far no one here has thought to ask me, so I'm staying silent.

Oh yea, one more thing that seems kinda strange. In some of the Guesthouses, you leave your shoes at the front door, as you do here in many stores, and all houses. But what's strange is that when I am leaving my room, and trying to make sure I am taking everything I need for this excursion, and I feel like am leaving something as I walk out locking the door behind me. What it is of course is that I am walking out of my room and locking the door barefooted!

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to church with my friend. There are three Protestant churches in Vientiane, Laos , all of them government controlled with no foreigners allowed in leadership.

It was a nice church service, with communion. Very much like a service in the States, and the back two rows had earphones for English interpretation. There were 200 or so people in attendance.

After church we had lunch and I went to the bus station to catch a bus to Nong Khai, Thailand. It is just inside the border and where the Thai train to Bangkok begins. Leaving Laos, you first go through Laotian immigration, then cross the "Friendship Bridge", (border bridges around the world are called "Friendship " ), then to Thai immigration. Always take off your dark glasses and hat at immigration so they can compare your good passport photo with your sweet face, and now most take a picture of you for their records .

I had an upper berth on this train, and that calls for good pre-planning. The upper berth is only about two feet high, so "squirm around" room is limited and strained. You kinda need to get everything for the night ready and in place before you crawl up into the berth and fix the curtain.

I got my socks and my windbreaker on, my water, my day bag, and my headlamp flash lite and book all in place, and snuggled it. It was very nice and I only woke up once. Oh yea, to get in the berth I had to climb this skinny little ladder with thin (narrow) steps that really hurt my feet when I climb the ladder. So this time I just wore my sandals up into the berth, then removed them. It was much easier getting down not worrying about my feet hurting.

The last train was 4 hours late. This train was on time so we arrived in Bangkok at 7:00 this morning. I had reserved a room in the "Your Place Guesthouse",just across from the train station, and up a little dead end street. Since I'll only be here til midnight tonight I got a room with fan and no bath. It only cost 320 baht, which is a little less than $10.00.

So, I checked in, took a good hot shower, turned my travel home clothes in for a good washing, had a good breakfast (egg,toast and coffee included with the room), and then just hanging out in Bangkok, waiting to catch an airplane to Atlanta!

I leave tonight at 5:30 a.m., fly to Japan, then direct to Atlanta I think, or I may go back to Detroit, not sure. It's not important, cause whatever it is that's the way I'm going , and I end up in Atlanta,..... that's important.
I'll write again from Moultrie telling about my flight.
Thanks for coming along with me.
Johnny Ray