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No, I’m not riding a horse; I’m back in the saddle of a bicycle. One of the teachers’ contract is finished, and he’s chosen not to renew. Instead, he’s entering the Peace Corps in late spring or early summer. Less than a year ago he bought a Cannondale F7 mountain bike up in Seoul. It’s made by one of world’s great bicycle companies and it’s really a sweeeet ride. Here’s a picture of the model from the Cannondale website.
It gets mostly great reviews, including a bunch from this website. The guy paid around $700 for it, but he’s letting it go for around $300, a price a bit beyond what I wanted to pay, but too good of a deal to pass up. I can probably sell my motorbike, which I rarely use, to offset some or all of the price.
Walking around or taking the bus last summer and fall to various locations around Yeosu, I thought that it would be great to have a mountain bike, and I promised myself that I’d look into getting one this spring. I love bicycles, but I haven’t had one since I worked in Morocco. The Dominican Republic was just too unsafe to be out riding alone and after a year without one here, I realized how much I miss riding. Now, I can hardly wait for the weather to warm up. Yeah, it’s still chilly winter here, despite a few decent days a couple of weeks ago. Soon, though, (well, a few months) it’ll be spring and I’ll be out riding regularly.
The two extra classes I’m teaching finish this week. That means I’ll have more time to get into the gym beginning next Monday and start working out and running on the treadmill (too cold and windy to run outside). I’ve probably put on a few pounds since my last regular workouts at the beginning of December, so I’m anxious to get going again. I’m looking forward to being svelte.  It also means I’ll be posting more often. Stay tuned for more later.
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- Thailand — 12/31 — Nong Khai Happy New Year, everyone. We’re a bit later than the folks back in the States, so I’ll let everyone know what the new year will be like, since I’ll see...
- Bike Shop and Baseball Season My former colleague, Stewart, who sold me my “new” used (fantastic, wonderful, superb) bike told me about a good bike shop, MTB Plaza, here in Yeosu, and where to find...
I arrived in Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport with nothing extremely noteworthy happening on the flight here. Viet Nam Airlines still leaves a lot to be desired–just so-so food and absolutely no in-flight entertainment. (They said that the system had a mechanical/electrical failure of some sort.) Mostly the cabin attendants were polite and attentive, but one guy was having a bad day. A couple of older Korean guys sat in the seats in front of me, and they seemed a bit goofy to begin with. The attendants handed out Viet Nam immigration forms to fill out at the beginning of the flight and, a bit later, one of the Korean guys tried to hand his passport and form to the aforementioned attendant, for what purpose–who knows? The attendant waved him off and went about his duties. About ten minutes later, the fellow again tried to give his papers to the attendant, who got a bit perturbed and told him (if hes gestures and tone of voice were any indication) that “I don’t do this–You
do it! Don’t ask again.” The Korean guy didn’t.
Then, one of the female attendants handed out lunch menus and about 30 minutes later our previous male attendants came along with the meals. Only then did the two Korean gents open their menus and proceed to discuss the choices with each other. I imagine the conversation was something like:
“How about the fish?”
“I don’t know. You hungry for fish? The beef might be ok?”
“Maybe. What does the beef come with. Let’s see . . . hmmmm.”
The attendant was really getting impatient by this time.
“C’mon fellas. Order already. Why didn’t you look at the menu before? I only got about 150 other passenger to serve. And look, the bald-headed guy behind you is laughing at ya.”
It was humorous, I thought, but I wasn’t laughing out loud. Really.
The Koreans finally ordered their meals and even managed to choose what they wanted to drink after only a little hemming and hawing. The attendant was surly the rest of the flight.
The Sky Cafe in Noi Bai looked the same as last Christmas. See the post below. (I wonder if they keep the decorations up all year round.) However, the rest of the transit area has changed.
I posted previously about the construction at Noi Bai. It’s finished and they opened up some of the usual duty-free shops–Tobacco/Liquor, Confections, Watches–and the rest of the ample concourse went to souvenir shops. But, every . . . single . . one . . . of them is selling the exact same stuff at the exact same over-pricing. What a waste. Another restaurant or two would have been nice; perhaps an Internet Cafe, bar or whatever would have upped the interest factor, but as it is, nobody used any imagination. Ah, well–on to Vientiane.
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- At Last–MontanaRon Succeeds Well, nothing earth-shattering, really. But, I finally achieved my long-time goal of jogging for an hour-and-a-half, non-stop–91 minutes, to be exact. That works out to about 8 3/4 miles, 35...
- Shwarmas in Meknes Not that I spend a lot of time at Label Vie anyway, but on the second floor a Lebanese fast-food restaurant opened, complete with shwarmas, hummus and other goodies! But,...
Yesterday, the 11th, was Pepero Day in Korea. It’s akin to Valentine’s Day, which is also celebrated here, with young people and couples exchanging candy, mainly the Lotte Corporation’s Pepero brand. The 11th is Pepero Day because, according to this article, the date 11/11 resembles four sticks of Pepero. However, the name Pepero in Korean, which you can see on the product box below, also resembles 11/11. At any rate, some of my students gave me several boxes of the treat, which makes for good munchies. (Reminder to self: jog an extra half hour next time out.)
I was out walking around a few weekends ago and took the following shot from near the Soho Yacht Marina area, along the sidewalk back toward the main part of town. Yeosu is quite pretty at nighttime, as you can see from the photo. I took a bus there and back. The bus system in town is very extensive and you can travel almost anywhere for 1,000 won (about 85 cents), unless you have to make some transfers. It doesn’t run like clockwork, though, because you might have to wait 30 minutes for a specific bus to come along and then 2 or 3 of them show up within 5 minutes of each other. There are no timed stops, so it’s kind of hit and miss as far as timeliness. More later.
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- Final Exams We’re elbow deep in final exams and paperwork. Today and Thursday I have 3-and-a-half hour morning-to-afternoon sessions (11-2:30) sitting at a desk and giving final 5-minute, individual oral interviews to...
- The Return of the King No, not me, though I am back safe and sound in Meknes, though desperately missing Southeast Asia. As I pedaled to work yesterday morning, I noticed an unusually large amount...
No, I’m not suffering. But, our little area of low pressure has blown up into a tropical depression, soon-to-be Tropical Storm Noel, then Hurricane Noel. At least that’s the current prediction. Overnight we had a steady, but not heavy, rainfall, and on the field nearest my room, the warning track and part of the outfield grass are under water. Play between the various teams in the Instructional League was supposed to start tomorrow, but I’d guess that’s going to be delayed a day or two. At the moment the intensity has picked up a bit. There have been no thunderstorms or heavy winds, and it looks like the system will be long gone from our neck of the woods by the time it attains tropical storm strength. I have to go into Boca Chica today to make some copies for this coming week’s classes, but I certainly won’t be taking a motorcycle taxi! More later.
Related posts: - After Noel The BBC reported that 20 people have died in the D.R. due to Noel, most of them east of Santo Domingo, which is our area. I haven’t been out and...
- Another Noel Update Here’s what the Weather Underground blog had to say this morning about T.S. Noel under the heading of “Noel dumping torrential rains on the Dominican Republic”: “Tropical Storm Noel hit...
- Tropical Storm Noel Hmmmmm, it’s getting worse, according to this report on Weather Underground. “Tropical Storm Noel continues to represent a serious rainfall threat to the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to the storm’s...
Thought I’d better check in with a few jottings of goings on here and elsewhere.
We’ve got a nice mix of players right now, comprised mostly of Dominicans, but with several Venezuelans and a few Nicaraguans, Panamanians and Mexicans. We’ve also got two kids from Brazil, and, for a few weeks, a couple of guys from Holland. At the end of next week, 8 players from the U.S. are coming down to work out with the regulars. All in all, a pretty interesting mix.
After being shut down for 6 weeks, the camp seems to be having more than its share of problems. First, the generators were acting up, leaving us without electricity and internet for the better part of a few days. Once that was taken care of, the water pressure started acting up, meaning we were without water for half of last weekend. The maintenance crew thought they fixed it, but we’ve been dry for most of today, again. They’re still working on it and I think I just heard a trickle coming out of my bathroom faucet.
Then, earlier today, one of the grounds crew was working underneath a front loader when the large bucket assembly in the front fell on top of him, mashing up his back pretty bad. I didn’t see it happen, but everyone is very worried about him; he’s now in a hospital in Santo Domingo. We’ll definitely keep him in our thoughts.
We’ve also been having quite a bit of rain lately, mainly very intense, early afternoon showers. Sunday, though, it rained off and on for most of the day, frequently heavily. I took a beat-up old taxi into Boca Chica around 2 p.m. and it started raining hard enough to obscure our view through the windshield; however, that wasn’t the worst of it–the driver’s wipers didn’t work too well and his heater was inoperable, so that the inside fogging of the windows pretty much shot vision all to heck. Luckily, we managed to make it into B.C. without getting slammed into by one of the heavy trucks which frequents the highway in these parts.
I see that the Red Sox have pulled off another unbelievable comeback to put themselves into the World Series against the Rockies. I guess that’s ok, because how many people would have watched a Cleveland-Denver Series anyway? (Not that a whole lot are going to stay up late watching Boston-Denver either.)
I hear through the grapevine that Brian Cashman, General Manager of the Big Club, and a few other VIPs might be coming down sometime this fall. I’d love to meet Cashman, who I think has been one of the most competent people in the front office over the last 10 years. More later.
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Take a look at the time stamp at the bottom of this post. If you add 11 hours to it, you should come up with a time of about 6 a.m. Actually, I was up about 3 a.m. this morning, after finally succumbing to jet lag around 5 yesterday afternoon. I’m feeling pretty good today, so far.
Yesterday, I got checked into the guesthouse ok and after cleaning up, I went next door and had a nice, relaxing Thai massage–NOT! Good Thai massages are not relaxing, since you get pushed and pulled, twisted and turned, kneaded and prodded. I opted for a 1 1/2 hour massage, and checked to make sure that the masseuse, a young lady, could give a strong massage (and no hanky-panky, if you know what I mean). She could and did. Though it wasn’t relaxing, it sure helped relieve some of the muscle tension built up from the long flight over. During the massage, a vicious thunder and rain storm broke out. It sounded like it was directly overhead, the lightning flashing and then followed by almost instantaneous cracklings and boomings of thunder. The rain lashed the city, and the side street the guesthouse is on was ankle deep with water. It was an astonishing display of nature, but not all that unusual this time of year.
After the massage, I went to the Sizzler Restaurant in Mahboonkrong Shopping Plaza to take in the salad bar. I made a couple of trips to the greenery and when I left, I found myself very tired, in a sleepy drowsy way. Still, I had to make my way to the Hualamphong train station to buy my ticket to Nong Khai. Once there, I found that the train was already full until the 29th, so I have to delay my trip until then. I’ll get into Nong Khai on the 30th, instead of the 28th, so that gives me a few extra days to goof around in Bangkok. After purchasing the ticket, I went back to the guesthouse for some much-needed sleep.
Ok, I promised the Thai Air menu in my last post, so here it is:
Dinner:
Thai Salad with Chicken Sausage and Garnitures
Beef Bourguignonne with Steamed Parsley Potatoes and Mixed Vegetables OR Stir fried Seafood with Garlic and Pepper and Steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice
Roll, butter, cheese and fresh fruit
Breakfast:
Fresh fruits and yogurt
Creamed Scrambled Eggs, Chicken Sausage, Fried Gem Potatoes and Cherry Tomatoes OR Chicken Yakitori with Yakitori Sauce, Japanase Rice, Sauteed Mixed Vegetables Oriental Style
Roll or croissant, Danish Pastry, butter, cheese
Snack:
Mixed green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing
Spaghetti Napolitan with Meat Ball Tomato Sauce and Green Beans OR Thai Fried Rice with Shrimp Paste, Dried Baby Shrimp and Chinese Chicken Sausage
Roll, butter and assorted petite fours
Very delicious and just listing these has started to make me very hungry. Breakfast is on the way. Well, actually I have to go to it. I think I’ll head over to Crepes and Co., which makes a marvelous, huge and expensive breakfast. I’ll need to get stocked up, though, for all the potential activities to do: cruise the river, take in a wat or two, go to Chinatown, get another massage (perhaps at Wat Pho), eat real Thai food instead of Sizzler and Crepes & Co. stuff (like at the Suda restaurant, an outdoor eatery on Suk Soi 14 that has a huge menu of cheap Thai and Chinese goodies), etc. Too much to do and not enough time. Better get to it. More later.
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- Thailand — 1/20/2005 — Bangkok It rained last night in the city even though it’s dry season. The streets had puddles of standing water this morning and it is now overcast and cool (well, relatively...
- In Thailand and Laos It’s been an uneventful trip so far. The flight over to Thailand was long, but there were plenty of entertainment options (movies, games, music) on board the China Air plane,...
After a very long flight (17 hours), I finally arrived in Thailand at 6 o’clock this morning–that would be about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Montana time. (Ignore the date stamp at the bottom of my posts for the next two months–just add eleven hours to it to get the correct time that I’m making the entry.) I can always tell I’m in Thailand by the smells that greet me when I walk outside the airport to catch the bus into Bangkok. Mostly it’s gas, diesel and airplane fumes, mixed in with a bit of a sewer smell, especially in Bangkok. In the Big Mango itself, I’m surrounded by the smells of the various foods being cooked by the street vendors–grilled chicken, beef and seafood, corn on the cob, noodles and other Thai delicacies. There’s also the exhaust from the traffic, but also the sounds–a steady noise from all the automobiles, buses, tuk-tuks and motorbikes, sort of like a background white noise, always there. There are also the human noises from the densely packed sector of the city in which I’m staying, Sukhumvit, as I’m accosted by tuk-tuk and motorbike drivers, vendors trying to sell me shirts and what-not, beggars on the sidewalk, and others. Chaos incarnate. I love it!
I left for all this madness on Monday morning, Missoula time. I made a last minute stop at the bank to buy some travelers checks, and the haze from the past few days had dissipated somewhat. I had a one-hour delay in Salt Lake City, so I “only” had a 6-hour layover in Los Angeles. The Thai Airways flight was about half an hour late getting started, but we arrived in Bangkok right on time, 6:10 a.m. It was exciting to be in a truly international airport (LAX) once again, surrounded by different languages and clothing. The new Thai airport, Suvarnabhumi, is also quite interesting and beautiful, a step up from the older Don Muang Airport. I don’t feel as affected by jet lag as I did last year after flying from Bangkok to Montana. Hopefully, though, I’ll get a good night’s sleep later.
I was going to write down the menu we were offered on the flight over, but I seem to have left my complimentary copy back at the guesthouse. Yes, everyone was given a menu to choose from, with two choices for each of the three meals we had. I’ll post it here later if I can find it. I also had a choice of about 25 movies to view and, between catnaps I watched “The Last King of Scotland,” “Blades of Glory,” “Disturbia,” “The Incredibles,” and a Thai movie. As always, more later.
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- Thailand — June 25 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,...
- Thailand–12/23 Yup, made it to the Big Mango in good order. Left Seoul early this morning and it was COLD! Knowing that I wouldn’t want to lug around any heavy coats,...
Yup, today’s game was postponed here, due to a muddy field, though the rain passed us by. The away team, the Bombers, I think, got their game in at the Dodger field. The away teams have been having luck with their games, so it seems like were in a narrow “rain slot,” getting drenched these past few days. Unfortunately, it didn’t rain enough today to wash out my jogging schedule (yet, but I can still hope). 
I still have some more photos I want to upload concerning opening day and a few I took in Boca Chica. I finally got smart and brought the camera to the beach and took some shots, including those of a Harley-Davidson festival that was held a few weekends ago.
I forgot to mention something about the trip to the capital yesterday. It’s only the second Monday that I’ve made the trip from the campus into Santo Domingo, but both times I’ve been caught up in huge traffic jams. A half-hour trip takes 1 1/2 hours and both treks took place around 10 a.m. I’ve made the trip on other days around the same time and it was a breeze getting into and around town. I wonder if people are still making their way back into the capital after taking long weekends, though there was no holiday yesterday. Hmmmmm . . .
I’ve decided to try to devote more attention to the blog, as evidenced by all the recent postings, and quit wasting time by being a troublemaker writing fractious emails that alienate friends and relatives. My good intentions might fade in a couple of days, because I also have a lot of “stuff” to do before leaving here in July–paperwork to fill out for the job renewal, room reservations to make in Thailand, forms to fill out, reports to file, etc. I think I’m going to be very busy the next few weeks, so if the postings dry up, you know the reason why. But I am going to make the effort. More later.
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- Lightning and Rain It was 3:13 a.m. on my clock when I was awakened this morning by a loud crack of thunder and then another and another. The rain began to fall and...
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Yeah, it’s been raining off and on, during the night and/or day since Friday. Not just sprinkles, but pretty heavy downpours. Saturday and Monday’s games were called off because of wet and muddy fields, and it looks like today’s games are doubtful, as it appears there is another gullywasher heading our way. It’s nice to have the rain, but it’s not good for playing baseball, obviously.
I’m attempting to try to patch things up with the southern branch of the Andersons. Hopefully, I can work it out, because I don’t feel very good about this whole thing. I just have to be very careful about hitting the “Send” and “Reply” buttons before I email people. That’s one of the unfortunate things about this technology–there’s absolutely no way to recall a sent email. 
I’ve been invited to the U.S. Ambassador’s July 4th party in a few weeks. I’ve heard that it’s quite an affair. Should be interesting, but since it doesn’t begin until 7 p.m., I’ll have to book a hotel room overnight. Finding a taxi to go from Santo Domingo to Boca Chica later at night will be tough and probably extremely expensive. More later.
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- Back to Nongkhai Well, with the extra 3 weeks added on to my Thailand/Laos trek, I’ve decided to go back to Nongkhai, in Northern Thailand, for about a week, and then on into...
- In the Slot Yup, today’s game was postponed here, due to a muddy field, though the rain passed us by. The away team, the Bombers, I think, got their game in at the...
The wireless signal that I can sometimes get from my apartment is becoming rather sketchy, so I’ve not been able to post as frequently as I’d like to, and sometimes I’m just too lazy to walk to the Internet cafe down the street. I’m usually able to check my email when it’s on, but it doesn’t stay on for too long. Oh, well. . .
I think I’m finally learning the difference between salsa and merengue music. Salsa is fast and merengue is faster. I really can’t tell the difference and my Dominican friends are surprised at my lack of discernment. As I jotted down notes for this post, I was sitting in La Parada listening to very fast music, so it must have been merengue.
La Parada, an open air bar/restaurant is a great place to while away some time. It sits right on the Malecon with a good view of the Caribbean and is great for people watching. There is also the occasional cargo or cruise ship coming or leaving. A few weeks ago I saw a HUGE cruise ship putting out to sea. I think I counted about 8 decks on this leviathan. Awesome.
The afternoon showers seem to be increasing in frequency and are making walking an adventure. Friday, I had to walk to UASD to meet another teacher. The threat of rain seemed small as I left the apartment, but several blocks away, a large, black cloud that had been hiding somewhere suddenly appeared and I was caught in a downpour. Santo Domingo is blessed with an abundance of leafy trees, so I ducked under a large one (sorry, I don’t know too much about tree names), and stayed somewhat dry. Usually I seek refuge in one of the numerous rain shelters dotting the city–Santo Domingans call them “bus stops,” but their covered benches make for a good place to stay out of the rain. After finishing up at UASD, I started walking to La Parada and, luckily, got there just as another torrent washed over the city.
Saturday, though, I wasn’t quite so lucky–I was caught in the open with only a few smaller trees anywhere nearby and I got drenched as I made my way to their somewhat ineffective shelter. I know what you’re thinking–buy an umbrella, dummy! I should, but I never remember to get one when I go to the market. Usually the warm tropical sun comes back out and dries me off very quickly.
Great, only a few more weeks left until I return to the Yankee campus–I can hardly wait. I’ve been working on lessons and materials to use in class, but I feel that I can never be prepared to my satisfaction. I’ll probably be doing a lot of things “on the fly,” master procrastinator that I am.
Geez, I keep reading about crappy things going on in Thailand. First, the coup, then the New Year’s Eve bombings, then a big train wreck, more beheadings in the southern provinces, and a new law limiting foreign ownership in businesses. Crikey (thanks, Steve Irwin), I hope they don’t ruin my retirement plans. That’s right, folks, many of you probably think I’ll eventually return to the USA to settle down in beautiful Montana, but I’ve got a news flash for you. At the present time, it ain’t a gonna happen. I can’t go into all the reasons why, except to say that’s where my heart lies. Of course, nothing is immutable, so things could change. More later.
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