Last Blog Entry....maybe

Well, I've been meaning to sit down for awhile now and write one long "what does it all mean" entry to sum up the whole trip. Think I'll break it up into bite size pieces to make it easier on all of us. So here we go...

• Thailand Overall: Thailand is awesome and I will go back in a heartbeat if/when given the chance. You all should too. The culture is great, the people are super-friendly, the food is great, its cheap, the massages are universally awesome, many parts of the country are beautiful, English is widely spoken. What else do you need?

• Return to Normal: After 5 weeks, it was great to get home. Missed Katie (and Mocha and Zipper...) a bunch. And on my first night back, remembered how totally wonderful it is to sleep in my own bed. That said, I probably experienced more culture shock coming home than going to Thailand in the first place. The shock was just how quickly I was plopped in the middle of "normal" after having such a long adventure. On my first day back, there I was having breakfast with Katie, mowing the lawn, paying the bills, etc. It wasn't boring or anything thing bad, it was just so...normal! Like the 5 weeks I was gone was a dream and then I woke up and it was just the next day of my normal life. Hard to explain...

• Work Thoughts: The time off (if a trip with 10 dental visits and 3 hospital visits can be considered time off...) was just what I needed. I was really burnt out before I left and I had some fear (hope?) that the time off and the space would bring into clarity that it was time to make a move and force me to take the hard steps needed to do that. But the opposite occurred: the break let me forget about all the stupid little things that were bugging me and I re-entered work fairly easily and the afterglow of the trip seemed to stick fairly well. I expected to spend a good amount of time while in Thailand "soul searching" about what to do with my career, but in actuality I barely thought about it at all. And that was just what I needed. Not sure what my future career path will be, but for now I am in a much better place to be where I'm at and make the most of it.

• Thailand Work Thoughts: That said...I am certainly interested to see if any opportunities pop up with South East Asia Energy Efficiency group that I met with. Sounds like they will be looking for a "lighting expert" sometime in mid-2008. Its possible that expert could be me and if they want me, I will seriously consider it. At this point it is very unclear what that might mean. The job would probably be short term and possibly part-time and probably would involve lots of travel to Thailand, Vietnam, Loas, Indonesia, China, and India but probably would not require me to move to SE Asia. So, we will see what comes of that, if anything...

• Medical and Dental: Overall my dental and medical care was incredible. I would have no reservations doing something like this again if I need to and I'd have no problems recommending it to others. It was cheap, professional and easy. I'm sure you can get bad medical treatment anywhere, but that wasn't my experience. The remote-planning process is probably the hardest part as I certainly learned with my "complicated" dental situation. But aside from that, awesome. In many ways both the dental and medical stuff seemed more professional or at least more "patient focused" than anything I've experienced in the US. Nothing ever felt rushed. All my doctors/dentists seemed to have plenty of time for me and were happy to answer all my questions. They had plenty of medical assistants always. Much more than the US; I guess cheaper labor has advantages. Coming home and watching Sicko only added an exclamation point to what I had just experienced first hand.
  

• Thai Food: While I was happy to have "American Breakfast," I never got sick of Thai food. Even after getting sick. Twice...Most of the places I ate at had many other non-Thai options (Italian, American (i.e. hamburgers...), Japanese, even Mexican...) but I rarely ever ate anything but Thai food because it was so good and so cheap.
• Things that I really liked: street vendors selling grilled chicken and yummy little sausage things, vendors selling fresh squeezed orange juice for less than $1 a bottle.
• Things that surprised me: that fried chicken and fried rice seem to be a stapled in Thai food. You never see them in Thai restaurants here.
  
• Grossest thing I ate (aside from whatever made me horribly ill...): I ordered some fried chicken from a street vendor that was really good, was extra juicy and fatty. When about half way done, I realized it wasn't eating a chicken thigh, but was eating a whole bird of some type. Much smaller than a chicken. But what was it? Pigeon? I didn't eat another bite.
  
• What "American Food" I craved the most but couldn't get: Fat Tire beer.
• What Thai food I miss the most now: Tom Kai Gai soup.
  

Anyway, I think that's it. I really enjoyed writing the blog and getting all the feedback, comments and emails from y'all! It really made it feel like I wasn't alone and I think really played a big part in keeping me from getting lonely on my 5 weeks alone. So thanks! I had so much fun writing the blog that I'd totally like to keep doing it, but something tells me that the stories about my adventures around the office and the house just wouldn't be quite as compelling. If I come up with a great idea for a new blog I'll let you know. (How about "Laos Lighting Lab"?...). Until then, it's been a lot of fun sharing this with you....

-Erik

More Pictures and GPS

I've added the rest of my pictures to my Picasa site with several new folders. Even though I know you have all bookmarked it and visit it regularly, here is the address anyway

http://picasaweb.google.com/erki666

Also, I've uploaded the GPS of my bike ride in Chiang Mai. You can see the ride with photos embedded here:

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/kml_info/3760.kml

or for those biker nerds (4750 feet of descending!!!) , you can see all the data here:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4564967

Feeling much better now and almost over the jet lag I think. Gearing up for work tomorrow. We'll see how many hours of work are required to undo 5 weeks of no-work...

Home

Well, the Tokyo to SFO leg hurt (and the SFO to Sac leg was delayed for a 1/2 hr which also hurt) but I finally made it home. Good to be home. Showered and am now finally wearing something different than the handful of clothing items I took with me. Now trying to stay up at least until 8pm or so. I saw the sun rise twice today (once in Bangkok, once somewhere over the Pacific near SFO) , so I guess its OK for me to be tired.

Great to see Katie. And Mocha and Zipper. Alot colder here though. I wonder when I can get another 5 weeks off of work...

One Night In Bangkok

Another Tokyo post. Instead of going to bed early resting up for my 6AM flight, on my last night in Bangkok I finally went out and experienced the night life and it was great! I (finally!) was able to connect up with the Bangkok person I befriended earlier in the trip and she took me out on the town with here friends. It was a blast. At first we went to the part of the city that is all decorated for the Kings 80th birthday (which was the day before...) and it was amazing. Lights and posters of the King everywhere, Thai people everywhere taking pictures of everything. The more I learned about the King, the more I understand the passion Thai's have for him. He really does seem to be a "King of the People" (I believe his name even means "touching the ground" or "down to Earth" or some such thing). Anyway, it was truly a spectacle. Here is another picture of Thais taking pictures...

Then we went to a bar/club/concert. It was also incredible. Probably a 200-ish person club and I only saw 2 other white people. Cool! That's what I was counting on my local contact to do for me. The band was a Thai (of course...) modern rock band. They rocked hard and were pretty funny even though I have no idea what they were saying. There were actually very good and I really enjoyed the whole show. There were kind of like a Thai version of the Pixies. People in the club certainly know them well and sang along on many of there "bigger hits." I think I just found their myspace page...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=130100730

The bar was fun too. I just knew my one friend (Jang) but met 4-5 more of her friends who while generally drunk and/or had limited English skills, were very friendly and welcoming. Any several other people came up to me and asked me where I was from and generally wanted to know what I was doing there in an very friendly and welcoming way. People were there to have fun, not "look cool". I'd probably go out more if the scene was more like that in the US. Ok, you're right, I'd probably still stay home...

Speaking of having fun, the way they do drinks in clubs (or that club anyway?) seemed WAY better. I didn't figure out exactly was happening (and stopped trying after 3 whiskey/cokes) but every little clique of friends seemed to have there own table with there only bartender. You then buy a whole bottle of whiskey, coke, whatever, and then you can mix your own drinks or the bartender takes care of it for you. I don't exactly know how much it all cost, but I'm pretty sure its a hell of alot cheaper. (I paid about $30, which I believe was for of my and Jang's drinks and maybe some of her friends. There was either no cover for the band part of my $30 also went to that.) And, at least for me, you drink alot more because you don't have to think "hmmm, another $6?" everytime you want a drink. At least twice the bartender just took my 3/4 empty glass and restocked it for me. All this adds to the fun, at least up to a point. Happily somehow I managed to not cross that line and stayed in the "fun zone" for the whole evening. Stayed till closing time (2am) then I took a cab back to my hotel to finish packing, take a shower and write a quick blog to let my Mom know I was not dying of Malaria on the other side of the planet. Took a 1-2 hr nap, then on a 4:30am taxi to the airport. This all helped me sleep through most of my flight from Bangkok to Tokyo and as I can hardly keep my eyes open now (so please excuse any typos, etc... ) I'm counting on it helping me sleep on my longer Toyko - SFO leg too.

Anyway, I think that's all I got for now. Still more to tell so check back later...

Dental Final Notes

Hey. In Tokyo with one flight down and two to go (Toyko --> SFO, SFO --> SAC). All the typical "it seems so quick, but also seems so long" feelings now.

Many many stories still to tell, so I'll offer up a few now as I have 2 hours before my flight. Here is a picture of me and Dr. Narang on my last visit with me giving my tooth-iest grin. See why I don't normally smile like that? Anyway, he was great and I'd have no probably going to him again (or refering others) if needed. Very skilled, very nice, spents lots of time with me, perfect English, inexpensive, nice clinic, etc. Here are two of his office assistants...

Anyway, all-in-all, although the dental work did not got at all like I had expected (different clinic, different procedures, etc...) I think I'm very happy with how it turned out. I don't think I'm done with teeth stuff forever like I was hoping I would be, but this was a simpler, cheaper procedure and certainly is much better than where I was. And if/when I need to do something again, I'm sure I'll be ready for another month in Thailand!

Better

Feeling much better today. Sorry if I worried any of you (sorry Mom!). It was horrible, but the 2nd Doc visit did the trip. They switched my antibiotics and I got better almost immediately. Not 100% yet, but 1000x better. The picture here is me on my first doc visit. Feeling better than that now!

I am very tired though. It is 2am here now and I'm off to the airport in 2.5 hrs to come home. Decided to just stay up tonight and sleep on the plane. Must finish packing now. Ok, then I might try to catch an hour or two before the 4:30am taxi.

Anyway, but a quick note to tell y'all that I'm gonna live (I think...) and I'm excited to be coming home!

I'll probably write at least one more detailed summary when I'm back covering alot of the stuff that I didn't have time to hit when I was on the road.

See ya all soon...

Medical Update

Believe me, you don't want the photos that go with this post. My health has not been good as I've gotten some intestinal bug that I can not seem to shake. Been 3-4 not-so-fun days. That "wonderful" curry in the earlier post may have been the culpriate. In any case, I've been to the hospital twice now (including this morning...). Stopped throwing up after getting a shot in the clinic on the firt visit (I think I earned some sort of travellers purple heart badge for puking in the bathroom of rural 3rd world country clinic...). (Side note: Care was very good though. And my hospital visit plus shot plus antibotics cost less than $10. That is less than my Kaiser co-pay for a doc visit...) Lower track still seriously not-normal. The 7 hour bus ride the other night (10pm-5AM) was NOT fun...

Trying to make the most of my last days here, but pretty weak. Today is the Kings b-day and a national holiday. Hope to take in the sights tonight at the festival here in Chaing Rai.

Anyway, I think I'll live, but this isn't the way I wanted to wrap up the trip. Certainly makes coming home sound that much better though (aside from the 17 hr flight...)

Lame quick post without a picture

Hey. Pai is to touristy so i'm leaving tomorrow. I did go on a nice (but way too long) hike today to a waterfall. I saw the biggest, fastest, scariest snake i've ever seen in the wild. after I almost steped on it, it ran off, then coiled and raised its head and checked me out from some near by brush. I think it may have been a cobra. I got a few pictures (and a video or it slithering away) but can't post now as I'm at an internet cafe and don't have the camera.

I caught a cold yesterday. Pretty nasty, but hopefully won't stick around for too long or slow me down too much. Eating spicier foods (not hard to find here...) to help clear things out. Had probably one of my best meals yet for dinner today. The North is more known for the curries and tonights was amazing.

Anyway, outta here for know. Think I'm heading to Chiang Khong (sp?) near the Loas border tomorrow if i can work out the transportation...