So much of this city is so big and in your face. Yesterday I went in search of a cell phone at one of Bangkok’s many shopping plazas, MBK. I figured I would just roam around the place until I encountered the cell phone shops. Almost a fatal mistake. This mall has 12 stories and is packed in with shops. Luckily, the entire floor of cell phone shops was only on the fourth floor and not on the 12th! By the third floor, I was wondering where these supposed discount cell phones were that a former classmate had told me about. Ascending the escalator to the fourth floor, there it was: the Mecca to cell phones. Shop after shop selling, used, new and Lord knows what else condition cell phone was crammed onto this floor. From ... read more

Ahhh....life on vacation in Ko Samui. The beach, the sun, $5 massages and $3 pedicures on the beach, a full service resort with WI-FI...what more could one ask for? I must admit the workaholic in me is having to adjust to a lifestyle where the biggest task of the day is going jet-skiing, learning how to make Thai curry, visiting the Big Buddha temple or going on an elephant trek in the jungle. Life's rough, I know. There's that little part of me that still feels guilty for staying in a luxury resort. I actually upgraded from the so-called Chaweng Villa "Resort", which boasted much better kept rooms on the web than in real life. The poverty fighter in me says I don't really need to stay in such a top-end place. But, ya know what? ... read more

Somewhere along the 3,000 or so miles between Tokyo and Bangkok, the magnitude of what I did finally started to really hit me. Did I really just pick up and move literally to the other side of the world without anything set up on the other side? Walk away from a full time position in Washington and consulting at the World Bank for a yet unsecured volunteer position in Bangkok a city I've never been to, with only limited consulting to pay the bills? Leave behind all my friends and family and great rent-controlled apartment in a trendy area of DC? It will be fine, I tell myself. Upon arrival at the aiport and preparing to queue for immigration, I realize everyone is holding an arrival card but me. Damn it. I must have been asleep ... read more