These songs of fleadom is are I've ever had

Ah Bangkok... you're almost like New York... almost. I'm sitting in my preferred restaurant, the only one I've found that has free wi-fi, it's nighttime, and most of the patrons are working on their buzz. I'm working on my blog. But we're all listening to this fantastic guitar player/singer. Up until the most recent tune I might have mistaken him for a native English speaker. That would be the Bob Marley tune which is the title of this post, pronounced with an Asian accent. I don't mean to laugh, but it just really snapped me out of this mental funk I've been in most of the day, so I'm actually grateful for this little slice of humor.

I'm starting to feel like I'm going around in circles in this city. I was thinking about how much easier it would be to travel if I weren't trying to be economical. I keep trying to get to this place or that with my Lonely Planet and local maps to guide me, but somehow I keep getting lost. Don't get me wrong, getting lost can be fun. Today, for instance, I happened upon what appeared to be the silkscreen district of the city. There's a huge t-shirt business here and they need to be made somewhere. So that was kind of interesting. What I didn't get to, however, was the Jim Thompson house, which is supposed to be a stunning example of Asian architecture. I did manage to get to Lumphini Park, though, the Bangkok version of Central Park.

A note about the Thai language. So far I know how to say "hello" and "thank you," but because there are five tones in Thai you have to say it in a specific way. This is challenging because 1) you can't really mumble and make your words pass for something sensible and 2) you can't use the normal inflection you would in English, for, say, a truly heartfelt thank you. I know I'm messing up the tones half the time; I only hope I'm not insulting somebody's mother by doing so.


Silkscreens in the queue.


Bangkok traffic. This can be maddening when you're in a taxi watching the meter tick up as you're not moving, not sure if the driver is taking the long way around to begin with.