Trent and Julie

This is a self-portrait of Dung and I along with Trent and Julie at the Bed Bar last Saturday. Trent and Julie came out just a couple weeks after we did from DC as well. We've known them for a few years, they were friends of our mutual friends Bob and Thuan back in DC. Trent's in the Political Section now just down the hall from me, and Julie's hanging out at home like Dung after having worked for the Discovery Channel back in DC. It was just a coincidence that we all got posted out here at the same time. Nice to have friends out here right away.

Going to Bed

We went out to dinner at Limoncello's on Soi 11 tonight along with some friends, including Laura and Giang who live on the floor above us, Trent and Julie from the Embassy and Lan Anh and Susie who work for Thai Day, the Thai news insert in the International Herald Tribune. We happened to have met Lan Anh in DC when she was doing a Fulbright program there and had to get surgery on her elbow. Small world.

We went to the Bed Bar after that, just up the street. The Bed Bar has beds along the side with pillows so you can stretch out and take a nap, at least you could if there weren't tons of people with loud dance music. Which was great. There was also what looked like an old Dodge Charger in the middle of the room for some reason. They even made the list of Best Bars in the World.

http://www.worldsbestbars.com/city/bangkok/index.htm

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=449695998203&page=1&sort_order=0

Soi Dawgz and Soi Cowboyz

Here's a link to pictures I took in Singapore during the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. This should get you to a slideshow. You don't have to sign up at Kodak Gallery if you don't want to, just click on view sideshow without signing up.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=thk7vzj.2oifnjmz&Uy=cgt58c&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=

Singapore Open

Two Bangkok Ultimate Frisbee teams headed to Singapore last weekend for the Singapore Open, a regional tournament. 24 teams came down from as far away as Korea and included Shanghai, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Soi Dawgz (pictured above) were our highest ranked team at #7, the Soi Cowboyz came in at #18. Both teams played teams above their ranking and took home victories, the Dawgz lost their semi-final game in the end to finish a very respectable #4 for the tourney. I played for the Soi Cowboyz (named after a local street of disrepute) for the weekend after only hooking up with the Bangkok Ultimate scene a few weeks ago. Good tournament play experience for everybody and good experience playing as a team rather than a bunch of guys playing pick up. Bangkok hosts its own tournament in February, getting time to start organizing that. Check us out at www.soidawgz.com.

September 11

The Embassy held their September 11 ceremony today, September 12, since the 11th was a Sunday. A color guard did their thing, the Charge gave a speech, then nobody was too sure what to do so we went back to work. Some day this will just be a normal day.

Home on the Range

We packed our golf clubs in our air shipment, not content to wait until our sea shipment makes it here in October. We pulled them out for the first time and went down to the driving range on Sukhumvit Soi 42 (we're on Soi 6), about four sky train stops down the way. A pretty decent place, a tray of 40 balls for $1.25, cheaper on weekdays. We knocked out about five trays before calling it a day and grabbing a cab back.

Medical Tourism

So we all trooped off to the dentist on Monday. We'd put off check-ups until we could get out to Bangkok where health care costs are lots cheaper. Plus the facilities are first rate and the docs are great. Unfortunately my teeth weren't, I had to go back on Wednesday to get a cavity filled on one of my front teeth. But hey, it was only $25! Nevertheless, I'm committed to a new brushing regimen, plus more regular checkups at our new favorite dentist....

http://www.dentalhospitalbangkok.com/english/welcome.htm

View

We borrowed a camera from a friend and took a shot off our balcony, here's a view of the back from our place. The balcony fronts on to Sukhumvit Road, the main drag through our neighborhood. You can see the sky train stop right there, we're just a couple blocks away from the Nana stop, pretty convenient.

Pad Thai

After hitting the gym this evening we crossed over Sukhumvit Road to Soi 5 (we're on Soi 6 on the other side of the street), went to the Foodland to pick up some milk and found a little stand outside making Pad Thai. We picked up a couple bags to go for dinner, only 60 baht! That's about $1.50 for the both of us. And outstanding Pad Thai, too. Food can be really cheap on the street, but you can spend plenty of money, too. Last night I got taken out to dinner at a nice restaurant, dessert alone was 450 Baht, more than $11. Good thing I wasn't paying.

Shipments

We got our UAB on Tuesday (Unaccompanied Baggage), aka the air shipment. We put in some vital things that we couldn't carry on the plane with us, like, say, the coffee maker. It was a long four weeks waiting for that. According to the Department we'll get our POV (personally owned vehicle) later this month and our HHE (household effects aka sea shipment) sometime in the beginning of October. It's a bit more like home with some of our stuff in here now, but it really won't be our place until everything makes it.