Friday, December 28, 2007

first room with air-conditioning, actual mattress

Splurged an extra 50 baht, or about $1.66 US dollar and got a nicer room with air conditioning and an actual mattress, instead of the 4 inch thick sad excuse for mattresses I had been sleeping on, which pretty much felt like I had been sleeping on the floor. Now I am up to paying 300 baht per night. Plus the room has a small television with a few channels on it including HBO, although I doubt that I will ever use it, unless I want to watch some soccer, or futbol as the rest of the world calls it. My last room cost 250 baht per night and was noisy, hot - had a ceiling fan -, and not very comfortable although I don't need or expect to be living in much luxury during travels in Asia. It was a traditional style thai house - that is what I was told - with an old thai man running the front desk and I think a family living there. There were cats running in and out of the place. In the alleyway outside the house there were mobs of cats slinking around and making all kinds of noise of night keeping me awake. Them damn things can be noisy when they are in heat and looking for attention.

In regards to soccer, the thai people are mad for soccer, particularly English League Futbol. It could also be the influence of the many foreign, mostly European, in the area I am at, but soccer is on television at most of the bars and televisions u see in the area. During the big games involving teams like Manchester United there are often groups of people sitting around watching and cheering on the teams. There are even a few large screens in the area that play soccer for large groups to watch. I was told that every year several of the big name English League teams come to Thailand put on some exhibition games for the people here. It has been a while since I have played soccer but I am looking forward to playing some beach soccer when I make it down to the islands in about a wk. Just hope I don't mess my ankle up at all. I think I will have ankle problems for life on my left ankle from tearing ligaments about 15 yrs ago.

I have already lost about 5-7 lbs since being here. I feel alot slimmer and leaner from when I arrived. I weighed myself today and came out to 84 kilograms while fully clothed. This comes out to about 184 lbs. I was around 190 lbs when I got here. I am sure I will be down to 180 in several wks, especially after I get down to the islands and start yoga training all day, and playing soccer and hiking during off days.

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