Okay off my soapbox. Like the other early mornings,
I fall back asleep and wake up around 11AM. I missed the free breakfast
again. I think I should check out the pool that is on the 26th floor and top
floor of the hotel. I get arrive expecting a full house on a 90 plus degree
day, but there is no one around. I just see a beautiful edgeless pool
that seems to empty into the backdrop of the Bangkok skyline. After about
an hour, a few more people trickle in. Maybe they have had insomnia as
well and just woke up. I'm laying there, almost ready to drift off and I
smell it...cigarette smoke. There are three Asian ladies, about in their
mid twenties, just puffing away, it makes me sad. I can't stand the
smoke, never could, even when my dad would be puffing away at the dinner table
while the family ate.
I roll off my low slung pool side chaise lounge
chair and take the elevator back down to the 18th floor. I decide to go ahead
and start packing for my trip to Kathmandu, Nepal in the morning. I have
to take out all my clothes from my big 60 lbs. wheeled duffle bag because all
my cool/cold weather attire is at the bottom of my bag. The last time I
used the long sleeve pants/shirts, grey wool hooded swather (the one my
daughter Sydney got me for Christmas one year), my Detroit Tiger "D"
sock cap and light jacket was in the cool and damp Amsterdam. I also need
to do a little tub and shower clothes washing. I'm getting pretty good at
this. I have learned not to use as much soap, cool rinse after and wring
those suckers out real tight so it doesn't take two days to dry. Plus, I
don't want to stick too may sweaty clothes at the bottom of my baggage.
My plan is to store my big roller bag and my "souvenir"
suitcase at the hotel since I will be coming back here Saturday.
I finish my "chores" and head out for a walk about.
There really isn't much around the hotel, except new tall
"business" buildings and a few restaurants. I decide to go back
to the hotel and have free happy hour, since I didn't get my free breakfast
this morning. I head back to the hotel where Im greeted by the usual
"praying hands" and bow from the doorman. The elevator takes me up to
the 4th floor and a young lady greets me by name and asks if I need help in the
morning storing my bags for my trip to Kathmandu. Wow, that is
impressive. This is the same lady that checked me in on the executive
floor when I first arrived three days ago. I had told her my plan for checking
in, then checking out for my Nepalese trip and then checking back in Saturday.
She remembered. The finger food is a wide collection of three kinds of sushi,
chicken skewers, lamb meat balls, cheeses, breads, desserts and my favorite
open bar. I take my small appetizer plate, that isn''t much bigger than a
coffee cup saucer and load up...I go back three times. Tonight a change
of pace, let's try scotch because my favorite, Johhny Walker Black, is
beaconing me to stop by and visit. I have about three of my blended
Scottish friend on the rocks. Okay, now its 8PM...don't go to sleep yet.
I decided to join a couple of chaps that I find out are from Wales
(England, for those geography deficient readers) watch qualifying for the
European Cup (soccer for those sports deficient readers). I bypass the
JWB for a Chinese Tsing-Tao (that's a beer for those deficiently uneducated
booze readers).
The game is over, and my new pals are not a very
talkative pair, and its just after 10PM. Okay here we go again.
I've had three scotches, two beers that ought to do it. I get back
to my room, check my damp clothes...they should be dry by morning.
Tick-tock, tick-tock...its midnight...
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