Dear Family and Friends,

I have a favorite cab driver: I don’t know his name, but I long ago noticed his slightly battered, aging yellow and green painted Toyota taxi parked parallel in the W House soi, with him, weathered face, arms crossed, fully relaxed against the car, awaiting his regular morning customers (?) or a fare from an emerging customer on the soi (?). His cab has tropical fish stickers affixed on the front passenger side window – utterly incongruous even on a Bangkok cab. This driver over-charged me to go to the train station when I purchased my train ticket to Chang Mai (60 THB – about a $1 – I wasn’t truly unhappy with this) but we agreed to metering when he drove me to Vertigo and thereafter. From the choppy English discussions that we had, he respected that I was a teacher (although I’m positive he found me careless of time and money) while I became convinced that he was a hard worker and I always tried to talk him into driving me when I needed a cab (which wasn’t often, actually).

I was very grateful for the association that he and I had built on my last Tuesday in Bangkok. I didn’t require him first thing that morning when I walked down the Jim Thompson tourist-stand-laden soi to find an already-decided upon amusing gift for my father and I was thrilled to finally discover a bell ala Doi Suthep. I don’t know why those bells touched me but I had utterly regretted not buying a bell that day. My bell wasn’t as musical as the one at Doi Suthep but I love it nonetheless. Next, I successfully returned to the Korean embassy to collect my Visa and went shopping at the Jim Thompson store in the posh Siam Paragon mall (I wanted a scarf but couldn’t find one that suited me).

After a quick lunch, I showed my cab driver the address to Korean airlines, he consulted a friend via mobile phone and then drove me to the Bangkok headquarters of Korean Airlines, where I fulfilled my reservation and purchased a direct, one-way plane ticket from Bangkok to Daegu. I had been advised by my recruiter in Seoul that this flight couldn’t be done and was grinning ear to ear when I emerged from the building, ticket in hand. I dreaded the energy and expense of traveling from Seoul to Daegu and was relieved to eliminate that concern (one down, dozens to go!). My driver then returned me to W House where I packed items into a bag and then my cab driver drove me to the cavernous Thai post office, where one postal worker placed everything into a surprisingly small box (grimace) and charged me 27 THB ($.50) and while another lewdly smiled at me while he processed the box, some cards and charged me a lot more than 27 THB to airmail items to the States. My driver returned me to W House. So by 3:15 pm, I had finished my long list of things to do plus I had secured a ride to the airport at 9:30 pm the following evening for less than half the price I had paid to arrive at the Davis. I was packed and pleased – my plane didn’t depart ‘til 1:30 am on Thursday morning so I had one more (stolen day) in Bangkok.

My traveling friend and I celebrated over plates of noodles and iced coffee that night – and planned to have fancier dinner with a third the following night.

I spent my last morning in Bangkok on the Chao Phraya Express to Bangkok’s China Town. I had been there once before for dinner with a few CELTA boys and a few of our students but I had read that it was a must-see in Bangkok and went to take a better look. However, I must confess that I had developed sight-seeing fatigue and the marvels of Chinese-speaking crowds as well as the towering piles of low-priced merchandise such as earrings, watches, Hello Kitty merchandise, fruit, roasted chestnuts, fried pig skins, barrels of rice, already-prepared food steaming on street vendor tables were enjoyable but not heart-gladdening nor even amazing. At first, I followed the LP advised walking tour of the place, took some pictures but then strayed when I began avoiding rain by ducking under a mostly marquee-covered market, discovered some chocolate-mint flavored tim tams at a drug store (hooray!), and risked the purchase and consumption of a hum-bow. I pressed my face against glass to view a few of the famous gold stores lining that main street of China town before I began making my way South to the train station and the MRT stop to return to Siam Square, where I bought a few small gifts for W House friends and took a bit of a nap – knowing that sleep wouldn’t be good that night and not knowing what I was going to find in Korea the next morning.

I then practiced a few extravagances: I had a 30 minute foot reflexology message where the masseuse marveled at my tight calves and my flexibility. She kept saying “Wow” and while I kept getting alarmed: was this a good “wow” or a bad “wow”? And then I had a pedicure. I had never had a pedicure until a kind friend treated me to one in the States on the morning of my departure and in Bangkok I proceeded to make up for lost time by having 3 more - which combined, including tips, may have equaled the expense of my friend’s kind gift. And I discovered what I dubbed “the fat lady” section at the Tokyo department store and splurged on a new silk shrug + white cami to prepare myself for my new job. I drove the sales clerk there mad – I tried the top on, declined to buy it and then returned later to purchase it but ended buying it at a different cash register, which necessitated a lot of odd paperwork. I returned to W House and commenced with the inevitable, bittersweet good-byes. --L