Quick Update

- Just arrived in Bangkok a few hours ago. Took Jet Airways from Kolkata and once again my opinion was validated. Even though the flight is only two hours, it is on an international class plane with video on demand and free drinks, including legit Australian wine. My only complaint is that they turned off the TVs for landing before I finished Ocean's Thirteen.

- So far I have to say that anyone who thinks that Bangkok is roughing it should never go near the entire country of India. Honestly so far it is very modern and orderly, especially since things are still at India prices. We arrived at a gleaming new airport, took a taxi for only 300 Baht (9 dollars) the 25km into town. The taxi was a real Toyota and drove on a real highway and the driver gave us no hassles whatsoever. We quickly found a nice basic dorm-like accommodation with private bath for 490 Baht (14 dollars), with cleanliness up to 1200 rupee (30 dollar) standards in India. Walked across the street and am using a cheap Internet cafe, 10 Baht (25 cents) for 25 minutes. Not a tout or hawker in sight.

- Just want to announce that we will be back to writing for real. The Internet situation here seems back to what we are used to, so we are back online.

- I have a HUGE backlog of things to write about from India. In fact I might we writing about India for a while before I even start with Thailand. Honestly, I think our travels in India and Japan are going to represent the part of the trip where we really try to delve into the culture and really understand what the countries are like. I am predicting that Thailand is going to be a little more like a vacation. We will see however, I could be wrong.

- Have been able to watch most of games 1-3 of the World Series as well as game 7 against Cleveland. Man, have I missed baseball. Maybe Colorado can pull it together, but right now the Sox look pretty unstoppable. I love that the young guys are contributing so much to this World Series, looks like we might have a good young nucleus to drive the Sox for the next few years. So far it is looking exciting.

- I got food poising last night and spent much of my evening worshiping the porcelain throne, as they say. I can't believe it happened on the last f---ing day. Anyway the final tally was:

-- 2 weeks of eating carefully
-- 7 weeks of eating whatever I wanted to
-- 1 day laid up with fever in Udaipur
-- 1 evening spent tossing my cookies in Kolkata

Overall, I think it was worth it.

- They have real bars here in Bangkok, and they sell beer everywhere. Just letting you know because I will be in one of these establishments in the near future.