Ayutthaya temple

Lunch

Taking photos at Ayutthaya

We got to sleep at 2:30 this morning.

Bangkok has two international airports, one for major airlines and one for discount airlines. We arrived at 12:30 this morning at the major one and took a cab to our hotel, which is beside the minor one. Laurie woke up early this morning but was able to get back to sleep and we both got up at 11:00.
There is an instrument of torture my side of the bed, a small electronic box. It has multiple buttons, some of which control the lights, some signal to have the room made up or "do not disturb", and one controls a very shrill alarm. A previous occupant left the alarm set for 7:00 this morning. I thought the world was coming to an end. I punched random buttons but couldn't get the thing to stop shrieking until I woke up enough to put on my glasses so I could read the functions of the various buttons.
We took a leisurely hour to make tea and coffee, showered and walked across the street for lunch at a noodle stand. The proprietor spoke enough English to take our order (there was no menu) and we both had a very tasty bowl of soup. Two soups and a bottle of water came to 70 baht, about $2.20.
After lunch we walked across another road to the train station and paid 30 cents apiece to ride 45 minutes north to Ayuttha. Ayuttha used to be the capital of the Thai kingdom and the ruins are mostly ancient temples. We hired a tuktuk to take us around the sites, finishing up at the spot where I took this photo. We are now on the train heading back to our hotel.

Taipei airport

Laurie is posing with Hello Kitty here in the airport. We had an uneventful flight from LA, nearly 15 hours on the plane with 14 of them in the air. Our layover here is around five hours, then roughly four hours on to Bangkok, where we'll arrive at 12:30 a.m. Things get better after that.

Off to Asia

We're sitting on the EVA Airlines plane, waiting to take off for Taipei. Then a three hour layover and on to Bangkok. We spent last night at a hotel near LAX and had supper at a Mexican restaurant across the street from the hotel. Worst Mexican food I ever had - mine was dry and tasteless and Laurie's was cold.

Not an exciting post, I know, but I wanted to write something before we left the States.

I see in the Los Angeles Times that Kip Thorne was one of this year's winners of the Nobel prize for physics this year. What a guy he is - very deserving of the prize.

Photos from 2015

Miscellaneous photos from our trip to Tibet and Thailand in 2015
The first photos are from the flagpole raising ceremony at Tarboche.

There's something happening here

Two moms with two kids

The top of the flagpole

The man sitting on the pole is adding prayer flags to it

Mt. Kailash in the background

A difference in rooms. We prefer hot water, a flush toilet and clean sheets, but sometimes...

A "guesthouse" room on the kora around Mt. Kailash. Laurie and I had the room to ourselves, but, if it had been busy, we would have shared with strangers.

A room at the Vieng Mantra hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a few days later.

Waiting for dark to take photos of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. One or two other people had the same idea.

That's it for this post. I wanted to share a few pictures from our trip to Tibet because I couldn't post from China.

Off again

Laur and I are heading out again, this time for what seems like it will be a frenzied three weeks in SE Asia. I have been reading quite a few travel blogs as we plan for the trip, most of which purport to give vital information about cities or what to pack or how to get from point a to point b. I still prefer reading travel guide books, particularly Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. I used to always read nothing but LP, but lately I have been including Rough Guides in my planning and feel they are the way LP used to be. They are practical, have a mild sense of humor, have good advice and one can get a sense of the writer's personality. That used to be true at Lonely Planet, but the Wheelers are no longer involved with the business and things change.

Packing for a trip. There are a lot of guides online telling how to pack for international travel. I think that, for the most part, if you need to read a guide on what to take then you should just stay home. I once gave a presentation on how to travel independently for several weeks and showed the audience my backpack/suitcase. I use a twenty year old Eagle Creek Continental Journey pack, minus the day pack that came with it. The people in the audience laughed when I held it up - they couldn't imagine traveling so lightly. I start packing long before my trip and repack my bag several times before I go to make sure I can easily get everything in the pack and still have a little room for the trinkets I know I will buy along the way. I try to have enough clean clothes to last a week or more and figure I can wash things in the hotel room sink or have laundry done if I am staying in a place more than a couple of days. I don't need much other than that. Of course, I also carry a camera bag that is big enough to carry my DSLR, a couple of lenses, filters, charger and spare batteries, and a few other odds and ends.

Eagle Creek Continental Journey

The goal is to be able to walk down the street with everything I am traveling with on my shoulders.