November 23

After a good night’s rest we left to go the MBK and Pantip Plaza. MBK is very large department store where they sell everything known to man. I had caught the corner of the glasses on my carry-on baggage taking it out of the overhead and broken the nose piece off. So we first when to a glasses place and they fixed it in less than 10 minutes. Then my mobile phone was not working so we went to the mobile-phone floor and fixed that, then to Pantip Plaza where we were looking for a used lap-top computer for Aek. He has a difficult time getting time at the Internet Shop at home in Hat Yai and is much easier to contact him by computer. He has been so wonderful to us over the years and has so little that we wanted to do something special and utilitarian for him. We were very fortunate to get a very nice Acer used laptop with Microsoft XP and a few programs loaded with wi-fi for a bit over $300. Good bargain and very clean.

After that we took a long taxi ride back to the apartment through BKK traffic and finally arrived home about 5 pm. After a much longer nap than planned we struggled up and went around the corner for a less-than-wonderful meal. It as 9pm and there was no one in the restaurant and we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by all nine personnel. I think we were the first people they had seen in some time. They hovered. Very disconcerting when you are eating and trying to carry on a conversation with everyone staring at your every bite. Even the kitchen staff came out of a look. Being the very daring Allen, he ordered “fish cakes” which turned out to be made from rubber and tasted even worse. He was nice enough to insist that I try a bite and after subtly gagging, I passed on helping him finish his meal. Aek and I had pork fried rice which as passable and actually quite good. We finished and left not giving them the greatest recommendation and packed and went to bed.