[Author’s note: I wrote out the Thai alphabet longhand. Why, what did you do today?]Do be careful, each letter has five tones and seemingly harmless mistakes are unforgivable. Like writing W instead of w. Each letter has the name of a familiar object, comparable to English Cble Baker Charlie or Apple, Ball, Cat mnemonics.
More Thai food. Fried noodles in soy sauce called PAT-SEE-EE-YOU is nice. Soup can be spicy, the all round best [food] is still chicken fried rice. If you order shrimp, they leave the tail part on, yuck. You can't go wrong with fruit juices but avoid the local white wine. Barbecued squid is considered a delicacy. It is so tough they put it to a small ringer to pre-chew it. There is a soup called mole, and it may be.
I watched Cheech and Chong in “Nice Dreams”. I see more movies on airplanes now than I do at home. It's been dreadfully hot. Neon is gone to Pipi [another island] with her friend.
The roadside food stalls are a site. They are homemade sidecars on motorbikes, complete with the awning and a propane bottle. Sidecars are big here, they sell anything from these contraptions. It's not uncommon to see four on a motorcycle with another load of kids or a sleeping grandfather in the sidecar.
The priests, or monks you could say (I'm not for a moment knocking the religion nor am I suggesting a Christian priests contributed an iota more) but there are so many here. There are hundreds of thousands of them. They simply must drain a lot of resources from an economy that can ill afford it. They cannot even alleviate suffering since they are forbidden to own anything. It has been put forward they could take in destitute children, that there is nothing that forbids it. From my booklet, it looks a task for them to memorize the rules, they spend hours of the day at it.
[Author’s note: I learned later that anyone can become a Buddhist monk for a while in his life. I was commenting on how these priests are reduced to begging for a living. The wearer orange robes and carry a little wooden bowl to beg for food.]
PS. I somehow wrecked my tachometer.
