BANGKOK, Thailand
18 January 2002 11:05p.m. Bangkok time / 3:05 a.m Jan 19 Sydney time
I'm beat, and I've run into a snag. I've decided that I don't really like Bangkok. At least I hate their airport. It is riddled with mosquitos. I hate mosquitos.
Second, I am tired. Really tired. I just had a 9 hour flight from Sydney. And my checked luggage is inaccessible to me. They were checked to Bangkok and arrive on the belt beyond Immigration which means if I went to get my bag, I'd have to leave the airport, and come back in the a.m. and pay the airport fee to come back. So I checked with a Thai Airways rep who told me that my bags would be left in storage if I don't pick them up (and if somebody else doesn't pick them up, I guess they won't be left anywhere at all). Now I just have to hope that the Buddhas are on my side and that I am in an honourable country and that my bags will be taken care of. If they're not, there goes everybodys' gifts. So then I went to check in to the airport transit hotel and they charge rates double what the 5 star hotels in town charge. It's highway robbery! Or maybe I should call it runway robbery.

So I'm left to fend for myself in the lounges till morning. Hopefully I can stand the 14 hours of transit sitting in airport seats. Luckily, dear Chuong will pick me up at the airport in Saigon, and he'll probably feed me too, and then I will get a nice day's sleep.

Otherwise, everything in Sydney and NZ were great. I spent the morning at the Powerhouse museum where they had three really cool exhibits. The first exhibit was 50 years of Festival Records, then marc newson design works (he is the designer for many objects I'm sure you've seen before, including works for Alessi, Idee, and Ikepod., and the third exhibit was 'ecologic: creating a sustainable future' which was an exhibit "about the way we use the world.... new ideas and technologies that can reduce our individual and collective impact on the planet." Very cool museum and especially cool for kids.

It's sad to have parted with Kim - "who am I going to speak English with?" I complained, but it 's okay. Only a few weeks more till I'm back in the States. Maybe return to the real world - maybe. And that would mean working and living back in New York again... Anyone have a job I can't refuse? By the way - minimum four weeks vacation a year. I've learned my life lesson. Never take a job with less than 4 weeks of vacation.

Time to get offline. Everything in Thailand for foreigners is so expensive.
Ciao tutti.
H