Angels, shots, visas, noodles, and a stolen wallet--summary of week one

Well, we're "one week in". We left our house in a much more hurried / frenzied state than we imagined. Our last few hours / minutes at home included sealing the grout (thank you, Carlos!), Transferring the car (thank you for selling it, Steve!), Taking kitty to her new home (I'm sure she's already in love with. .. you, Evelyn!), throwing things into suitcases --- and overall realizing we were a little less invincible than we thought. Vivek ended up giving more than just a ride to the airport-rather, 45 minutes of frantic "carry this to storage" and "this goes in the trash" kinds of instructions.

So, our "80/20" system of packing resulted in three knives in Yvette's carry-on-two Victorinox paring knives and one lock-blade, and flint / matches in Neil's carry-on. All of this sailed nicely past the sleepy US security staff (our flight was at 2am). Taipei security staff picked up on the two paring knives. But we arrived in Bangkok with the third. And with most of the things that we intended to bring! Plus our compass, Neil's pillow, "Go Dog Go" (and other Dr. Seuss books which happened to be in our bag from babysitting a few of the Beacon Hillbillies a few nights before), plus a few orphan socks. . .

After connecting by Skype with our "Beacon Hillbilly Angels" (Kim and Kelly who have fixed a last few things on our house, managed the house cleaner we hired to clean it, and made sure we didn't look to our renters like the overly. ..-ambitious fools that we were!!) to ensure things with the house were moving along okay, we made it to our hotel in Bangkok. We had a bowl of street noodles (um, how do you say vegetarian noodles in Thai? Another customer came to our aid), an ice cream cone, and a shower, then crashed for about 12 hours.

Our first order of business was to go get our Japanese Encephalitis vaccines-and what a lovely experience it was-no, really, it was. We went to Bumrungrad Hospital, and we thought we'd been dumped at the Nordstrom's spa. Beautiful facility, efficient staff mostly dressed in dupioni silk, free juice and water while you wait, a whole bank of registration desks dedicated to Arabic, another dedicated to English. We were escorted to the various desks / locations, got our shots with our clear bandaids-and it all cost US $ 55 each, rather than the US $ 500 it would've cost in Seattle. Great!! Our attempts at getting a 60-day Laotian visa weren't so successful. Despite finally trekking out to the embassy ourselves, they were firm in only giving a 30-day visa, which can be extended but we'll have to make a "visa run" across the Thai border a couple of times if we want to stay. . . a full three months. Ah well (she says now, not having yet experienced the 10 hours of bus rides, one way, in Northern Laos that will be required for this endeavor).

A bit of play time in Bangkok included taking a cooking class at May Kaidee's Vegetarian cooking school-very well worth it so we know what we're looking at in the market! We learned about lemon grass, galangal (Thai ginger), Thai basil, kaffir limes, kaffir lime leaves, mushroom sauce (to replace oyster sauce), soy sauce (to replace fish sauce), and lots of yummy recipes, and what makes them. . . yummy. We've already made a yummy batch of tom kha soup!

We've also hooked up with good friends from PATH-had a lovely Moroccan dinner Monday night at Gopi's house, meeting Shilpa, China and Chantal, and also getting to see Michelle who Yvette had replaced in South Africa (yes, a small world). . . With Michelle and Gopi, we attended "Calypso Bangkok"-a humorous cabaret show put on by a group of stunningly beautiful and talented "lady men"-transgender men who possess more grace / beauty than one can imagine. Unfortunately, that evening I also somehow managed to part from my wallet. Darn. And a first time for me. So. . . the late evening meant several Skype calls with credit card companies in the US-who confirmed someone had used my Visa card to enrich themselves with ~ $ 1000 of merchandise. Fortunately, I don't have to pay that, so besides the ~ $ 100 of cash in my wallet and the hassle, I'm not much worse off. And between Gopi and Michelle offering me their addresses, or money up front - and the overall infrastructure in Bangkok (mail, telecomm, etc., Is very easy here), we weren't too stressed, just briefly frustrated.

We've also connected with Therese Caouette (good friend from Seattle and from Pangea who is also Yvette's former bosses, Chris', wife). Right now we're staying for a few days at Therese's farm, we're surrounded by rice fields, birds, frogs, and Therese's large extended family. Visiting with Therese and hearing her story of 20 + years in Thailand working on social justice issues was a highlight for me. I've known bits and pieces of her story, hearing the fuller version underlines for me the things I know Therese stands for-a deep value for human rights and justice, a desire to understand with depth and nuance (including becoming a rice farmer to. . better-understand the people she was working with), a love of play and whimsy, and a willingness to live a somewhat chaotic and creative life to do the kind of work she values. On the way to the farm with Therese, we stopped and visited Don, a family member who's serving as a monk for 3 months in honor of his father's passing. He's just finished his university degree in economics as well.

Here at the farm we've relaxed and read, learned how to ride the scooter (Neil), gone into town and explored the market and shops, gone to grandma's house (Therese's former mother-in-law) to eat and to cook. So far we've managed to avoid going on a frog-catching hunt, but Neil just might have that in his sights.