After an uneventful flight, including a one-hour stopover in Hong Kong, I arrived at Don Muang Airport at about quarter to four and cleared customs and baggage at 4:30pm. Hmmm, I thought, my train from the airport doesn’t leave until 9:30 tonight, so I’ve got time to run into Bangkok for a few hours. Yup, I can’t resist this city–the sights, the smells, the sounds, the weirdness all assault the senses in fascinating and overwhelming ways. The traffic is as bad as always, the pollution is omnipresent, though the skies aren’t too hazy. It is overcast and ready to rain, which has helped to cool things down. Smoke rises from the street vendors’ bbq pits and the smell of chicken, pork and beef lies heavy on the air. The sidewalks are terribly crowded, even though this is “low season,” but I haven’t spotted any elephants yet. (I’ve only been here for a few minutes.) I love it! I only have a little time before I head north to Laos. I have to buy some mosquito repellent, but I might also have time to grab a quick shrimp curry at one of the locals’ favorite eateries just down Sukhumvit street–I can’t remember the name right off the top of my head, but I always eat there when I’m in town. Then I’ll grab a taxi back to the airport, take the overnight train into Nongkhai, where I’ll arrive at 9:30 in the morning. Nai is supposed to be there to pick me up and then we’ll cross the border into Laos. More later.
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I’m off in an hour to begin my vacation to Laos and Thailand. I’m taking the bus to Seoul today, since the plane leaves at 10:30 tomorrow morning. It’s a 3 1/2 hour trip to Seoul, meaning I have to spend the night there to catch the flight on time. No problem–Seoul is always fun, though expensive. I’m meeting my Korean friend, Charlie Shin, for lunch. I also have to buy a good, time-wasting book for reading while lazing the hot summer afternoons away along the banks of the Mekong River. It’s been raining a lot in Laos, my friend Nai tells me, but I hope the rainy season is not too rainy. I get into Bangkok airport about 4 tomorrow afternoon, then I take the 9pm overnight train to Nongkhai. It arrives at 9am and Nai will meet me there. Then we will cross the Friendship Bridge into Laos, where I have to get a two-week visa. Nai lives about 20 kilometers outside Vientiane. I hope we’ll be able to take in some of the beautiful sights of Laos, including Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. At any rate, I should have good internet access, so I’ll be making frequent posts to the blog. More later. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, mainly because there is not much going on. We’ve finished final testing for the semester, so now it’s just the matter, somewhat tedious, of calculating final grades and entering them into the official grade books and onto the university website. In the meantime, I’ve still not received any invitations to interview for jobs here in Korea, nor have I heard from SIT for the Indonesian teaching positions. I continue to hold out hope for something to turn up. In the event that nothing pans out along those lines, I might pursue the possibility of remaining in Andong another year or two. I’ll see how the administration is doing as far as getting enough qualified applicants. Maybe they’ll let me change my mind if they’re having problems hiring the 6 or 7 new teachers they are going to need. However, vacation begins on June 24th and I’m off to Laos and Thailand. I might pursue job opportunities in those two countries while I’m there, though almost all the positions are very low-paying ones. As a final resort, I can always get some kind of good-paying job in Korea when I return from vacation. Someone is always hiring over here, albeit the institutions don’t offer much in the way of vacation time or they work you to death or the admin is crappy or . . . Well, things will pan out, one way or the other. But, I’m going to enjoy the trip to Laos and Thailand and put job worries aside for a month. More later. |
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