Lone has left the building

Guilty of delayed postings. But I have a good excuse, or so I think.

For two weeks, I had a nice time being a host to my sister in law, Lone, here in Bangkok and with a short stop in Malaysia (a bit about that later). And in the midst of it, a very important court case that unfolded and got postponed, involving a very wonderful person who is director and webmaster of a popular website in Thailand (also a bit more on that later).

Before that, Noel visited for a weekend, and we had a nice time checking out food places and some night spots:)

This time, with Lone, we had a nice dose of jazz, also with another Malaysian friend not only enjoying the music, but also singing a couple of songs at the Mandarin Oriental (where the resident band was great but the crowd was too snobbish...it comes with the territory I'm sure, of staying in a hotel like that!) But no bitching! Bangkok jazz is fantastic. There are so many talented folks literally at every corner. And not just jazz. The symphony orchestra is mainly Thai names, unlike the Malaysian one, which has more foreigners than Malaysians. Maybe this sounds nationalistic. Okay, so I'll settle for the fact that its really good to be able to enjoy good music and inexpensive prices. I like KL and Bangkok for that, maybe the latter more:)

It was also an opportunity for me to check out some of the sights in Bangkok but most of the time, Lone was on her own as I was at the office. Everything was fine, until we decided to take an organised tour to Kanchanaburi because I thought going by ourselves was just a bit too inconvenient. That was a mistake. I now have learnt the 10 different meanings of "10 minutes" - the guide was a cacophony of sounds, she knew little and repeated the little she knew 10 times, assured us the train would arrive in 10 minutes every 10 minutes, and made us have our food in 10minutes. I don't even remember what the highlight of the trip was. The museum was merely a collection of photos and news articles, we were forced to take the boat on the River Kwae (which was actually nice, but getting to that point was frustrating) and a train ride that lasted 1 hour over the bridge to nowhere but our lunch spot. I think if we had gone on our own, we would choose what to see and how we would see it. Kanchanaburi itself is a tourist place but I'm sure the nature park would be very interesting.

Despite it all, it was nice to get out of Bangkok even if just for a few hours, to try and see more of the provinces and districts. I should make it a point to explore outside Bangkok.