6th entry

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hello family and friends. i am currently in thailand. yay!! some of you may have known that i was heading out to thailand for a week to visit my brother. i arrived late last night, and spent the morning shopping. my first impression of bangkok was that it was smelly, noisey, and dirty. the next morning i confirmed my initial thoughts, adding to the list, damn hot. but inspite of these seemingly negative characters, i quite like it here. i haven't seen so many foriengers (caucasians) for about 5 months now, and the shopping is unimaginable.

so, i woke up early this morning, prepared to do cultural things, such as check out the grand palace. however, i ended up shopping for hours. i did develope a useful system. because it is too hot to barter well, and every store has the same items, i offer about 1/3 to 1/2 of their initial asking price and when they say no, i walk away. this works well, b/c if they don't change their mind, i can just buy the item in the next store.

after my shopping workout, i went back to the hostel to cool down and drop off my newly purchased items, and ran into luke. it was very nice to see my brother after 5 months. we went for some beer with his friends, then being particularly ambitious, got massages and pedicures. we did try to see cultural/educational things, but they all close between 3-4.

which leads me to this computer in the airconditioned internet cafe, eagerly waiting for someone to finish their pedicure.

i shall finish here, and i apologize that there are no photos. when i get back to japan i will update you all with some photos. if anyone has any requests for items, or suggestions, please let me know soon, as i am only here for a week.

anni

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