Meat Pies, Poopology, and the 24th Century

Found a place that serves meat pies (pot pies to us Americans.) It was a British sports pub. It came with a bowl of brown gravy on the side, which confused me until I opened up the pie. Unlike our pot pies, theirs are cooked dry and you have to dip or mix yourself

On sad thing about leaving so soon is that I am only a few weeks away from getting my degree in poopology and would be able to use the toilet here.

Oh well, I guess I will have to remain a backwards American that doesn't know how to work a modern toilet.

Speaking of the 24th century, I saw Valerian yesterday. It was pretty good. Lots of action and comedy like Guardians of the Galaxy.

Namaste From (halfway to) Nepal

Ole!

Only 2 weeks to go.

Was walking around the area and found another food court;

For some reason, Gollum is watching over it:

(middle of picture at the top.)

There is an interesting shish-kabob place. But, it is not open, yet, at 4 pm.

It is 4 pm and most of the places haven't opened, yet. Bangkok is a late night town due to the heat and this is known as a night market.

Anyway, found a Mexican place. But, the pork burrito was bland, although the guacamole and chips were good.

I am walking more as I get ready for the big move. That is why I found the new market. I got lazy after I tripped. I did figure out why I tripped. I was wearing my tennis shoes. Usually, I wear my regular Walmart shoes which are extra wide. However, my tennis shoes are regular wide, so I have to get bigger sizes. This makes the toe of the shoe stick out about an inch more and this is what catches on the steps. I wore them last weekend and tripped twice more. Fortunately, there was a banister, so I caught myself.

My left arm is still injured. But, I can sleep on it, carry stuff, and put my back pack on. I still can't put my left hand behind my back and it hurts to reach for something with my left arm. This makes it hard if I need to pull myself up, like getting into a bus. Such is life!

I continue to learn Nepali so I will be able to communicate better as soon as I arrive. I am making my own flash cards since they have not heard of index cards here. I also found a good program called "cram." It is an app where you can make your own index cards on your phone/tablet/computer and sync them. You can also use any of the millions of public cards that other people have made.

I made what I figure will be my last Debit Card withdrawal today. If you are going overseas on a trip, I heartily recommend getting a debit card from the institution we all had to get an account for this year. My bank has a limit of 12,000 baht per withdrawal. However, with this card I am able to withdraw the machine maximum of 30,000 baht. Since there is a 220 baht charge per withdrawal, fewer are better.

Namaste From (halfway to) Nepal

Check Off A Bucket List Item

I've made my plane and hotel reservations for Nepal and I will arrive on August 3, 2017.

I am splurging a little and got a nicer hotel that costs $8.00 per night. It is right across the street from Durbar Square. As I have been reading up on Nepal I found some good news and bad news. The bad news is that the smog in Kathmandu is atrocious and will require wearing a mask when outside. I will probably end up living in Patan, about 10 km away - not too bad a commute to the college which is downtown.

The good news is that Kathmandu has had 24 hour electricity since October of last year instead of 8 hours per day. Unfortunately, everyone went out and bought electrical appliances and they may have to resort to load sharing again.

I was looking for a flight and I only found one airline that will allow me to take more than 2 bags without paying $15.00 per pound (they really don't want the extra bags because people will start using the airlines for shipping.) China Eastern Airlines allows a third bag for a one price fee that is reasonable and each bag can be 32 kg (70 lbs), much heavier than I need.

Anyway, I checked the flights and economy is $300 and business is $550. So, I got a business ticket. I always wanted to fly first class. I checked the seats on seatguru.com and it seems that business class today is the same that first class was 15 years ago, while first class today gets you your own apartment on the plane and is super expensive $2000.00. Meanwhile, economy is getting worse. Business class is 6 seats across and economy is 11 seats across. So, I figure I can cross "fly first class" off my bucket list.

Namaste From The Land Of Smiles