Back in Bangkok, Thailand

December 27, 1997

OBSERVATIONS ON THAILAND:

MARY LYNN IS TALL!! We have been in Thailand for a month. ML walks down the street in Bangkok or Chiang Mai and towers a whole head over many in the crowd. She’s thinking of taking up basketball. Wait a minute...that’s kind of like exercise isn’t it? Most of the people are shorter than ML (and Patti, too, for that matter, but she’s not here).

Many of you have asked us what Thailand looks like. Well, it looks exactly like Vietnam - at least the Vietnam we all know and love from the movies: “The Deerhunter,” “Platoon,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Heaven and Earth” were all filmed here.

The Thai economy would grind to a halt without the aid of wee Christmasy twinkle lights (which surround the Buddhist shrines), motorcycles, or motorcycle-like vehicles. It is hot like Dallas in early June, but nicer and cooler at night.

A policeman, while offering a share of his midday dish of armadillo(?) tongue, rice and whiskey, thinks nothing of offering to sell you opium to aid your sleep and enhance your dreams. But buying drugs from The Man - armed and dangerously drunk - is not on the list of smart things to do in Thailand.

Squat toilets are no fun. What if you broke your foot four years ago? What if your foot slipped? What if something fell out of your pocket, like, say, your toothbrush?

The mosquitos here have bumper stickers on them that you can read from 50 paces: “Texas mosquitos are big wimps.