And today, we rested.
I partied two nights in a row. And lost my voice. It didn’t help that I’ve been coughing since I got back from Phuket a week ago of all the sinus drainage. I sound like Demi Moore right now. Hahah.
Monday with my family at my brother’s girlfriend’s bar and restaurant. 3 tables for 5 people was filled end to end with food from glass noodles Pad Thai wrapped in thin omelet, fried nuggets of pork “Larb”, to giant Lobster Thermidor the Girlfriend whipped up herself as a promise to my brother.
Then there was the booze. I had a mojito, Long Island iced tea, and a special slushy concoction by the Girlfriend of frozen strawberries, tequila and triple sec. My sister in law started with gin and tonic, half of the iced tea and most of the strawberry thing and had to sit out for a while before we could drive her home.
Then there was the band. An awesome jazz and pop rock band entertained us for good two hours. When we were the only table in the house, they saw Brandon and dedicated “Leaving on a jet plane” to him. We laughed our little heads off.
Last night had a lot of food and booze too. Note pulled out all stops with the food, the booze, and the dessert. I had something made with Frangelico (only 100 restaurants in Bangkok has the license for its distribution), Midori, vodka, and other yumminess, followed with god knows how much wine at dinner, and topped with a flaming shot drunk quickly through a straw with 3 of my friends.
The highlight of the evening? When we tried to explain the “pearl necklace” joke in “Sex and the City” to a bunch of seemingly innocent Thai women. LOL.
And just today at dinner, Brandon also enlightened my dad on the the term “Coconut”–brown on the outside, white on the inside.
On the airport front, the news reported that the Suvarnabhumi airport is not as damaged as they think it was. It is the goal, as a present for the King’s birthday, to get the airport up and running by Friday, December 5.
I hope that’s true. That will cut at least 3 hours out of our impending ordeal. If we go through U-tapao, we have to be at Bitec for check in 6 hours before flight time–that’s 5 a.m. If it’s Suvarnabhumi, we might be able to be at the airport only 3 hours ahead at 9 a.m. Then a 5-hour flight to Taipei. Then a 7-hour layover in Taipei. Then 11-hour flight to LAX.
Oh yeah, baby. A whole lotta waiting awaits!
On the political front, I probably should give a little bit of an explanation of the situation.
The Constitutional Court ruled that 3 political parties are corrupted and therefore must be disbanded and all members are barred from politics for 5 years. One of those parties was led by the current PM and therefore he was sacked. The remaining political parties are to select another PM to hold this post until the term is through (or, this being Thailand, until the parliament is dissolved or a coup is staged). Right now the deputy PM is holding the post.
This pleases the PAD enough to stop protesting and giving up the airports. However, they did say they would return. Like a petulant child waiting to throw another tantrum.
Just like us, everyone gets to rest a bit for the long weekend. What’s beyond that for Thailand is going to be a struggle politically and economically. What’s beyond that for Brandon and I, well, let’s just say that we will have one heck of an interesting vacation story to tell.