settling in just to leave again

After sleeping on it, I realized that the financial issue at home really has very little effect on my trip. You guys won't be getting any Thailand souvenir gifts this year, but I'm still going up north for one week instead of two. It looks like I'll be home for Thanksgiving after all. I found out that I can use my ticket to return home any weekday between now and Jan 27, so o can jet outta here on the 24th of November to avoid needing to buy a visa extension. I can use that money (and what I thought I'd need to change my ticket) for Chiang Mai. I won't actually need to get any money out of the bank like I expected. I'll still have some mess to clear up with a couple of bounced checks and a late payment, but it's not the end of the world.

I'm sitting at the same restaurant as yesterday having a beer again. I had vegetarian fare today. For some reason that felt right after visiting a few of the many Buddhist temples today. There was one I liked in particular. It's normally closed to tourists, but open for a tourism promo during the full moon of the festival. Today is the last day, so I got lucky that someone told me about it, even if he was just luring me into a tourist shopping trap. Once he realized that I was serious about not buying anything, he decided to tend to more urgent matters, like his vehicle that broke down in the middle of our trip around town. He borrowed someone else's to complete the required tourist shopping destinations (these stops provided him with a card for a free gas fill-up compliments of the Thai govt. Once he explained that, I just sat back and let him take me wherever. He took me to the temples, which I wanted to see, so I figured why not help the guy out by listening to a couple of sales pitches so he can get his gas card.

I ended up by the Chitrlada Palace, which is breathtaking from outside the gate, but non Thais aren't allowed on the grounds. Tomorrow is the funeral for the king's sister, so many things will be closed, including the temples. Good that I got my chance to see them today. This guy asked if the funeral was my reason for wearing black, and it was obvious that I was oblivious. He asked what kind of country I was from that didn't know about the king's sister dying, and I told him that he'd be surprised how little Americans know about the rest of the world. It not all of our faults necessarily. The news is presented to us in a way that leads us to believe that we are the center of the universe. It's not easy to discover that we're not.

I'm not going to waste any more of my daylight hours blogging. I can't be out alone at night, so I have to make these hours count. Although I'm done riding the bus and getting lost for today, I do have some things to take care of before going back to the guest house.
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