Weight

Greetings from Bangkok! We are stopping here for four nights before we reach our final destination of Kathmandu, Nepal.

The door is closing on September, and it is both strange and familiar to be in Bangkok again.  The smell of noodle stalls, frying bananas and raw sewage occasionally waft through the air, alternately delighting and repelling the senses. Our last trip here was during the dry season, and it is fascinating to note that while the thermometer reads the same as in April, the spectacular monsoon thunderstorms keep the sun at bay and the apparent temperature down.

The monsoon also brings a weight to the air that we didn’t feel in April. We didn’t notice it at first this morning as we walked down Silom Street, but then we stopped for a couple minutes to get something out of our bag. Within moments, sweat beaded up and dripped down around our foreheads, necks, face. Ah yes, our forgotten friend HUMIDITY is paying us a visit. Ladies, that dewy look shown in a lot of cosmetic ads? Live in a humid place and you are guaranteed to have that glow, naturally.

After lunch we came back to our hotel room and took our second showers of the day. Air conditioning and cool showers: two things to appreciate in humid climates!

We think we have everything we need for trekking in Nepal. I certainly hope so, because our bags are completely stuffed. Before we left for the airport (only yesterday?) we weighed our bags. My two bags came in at 56 pounds; Mark’s came in at 77 pounds. Mark would like me to note that those totals include:

• Two sleeping bags
• Three guidebooks (two on Nepal, one on Thailand)
• Four bottles of wine (which are staying in Bangkok) 
• Six books:
  • American Prometheus by Kai Bird
  • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • Middlesexby Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Anathem by Neal Stephenson
  • Too Big to Failby Andrew Ross Sorkin
  • Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Plus a few (bulky) extra layers each to stay warm in the single-digit temperatures we may encounter on our trek. Packing for 96 degree Bangkok and sub-freezing Himalaya makes for one very full bag!

We also ate very well during our time at home, and so a few extra pounds have joined our bodies for this trip. While some of it is muscle, so of it is…not. We trust Nepal will work that off for us just in time for holiday egg nog to add it back on.

Tonight and tomorrow we are staying with our friends Jeff and Daneah, who work outside Bangkok at an international school. Jeff also moonlights as an internationally renowned expert on integrating technology generally and social media specifically into the educational process, and has a great blog here. We’re looking forward to good conversation, tasty Thai food, VIP movie theater seats, and $7 Thai massages in the Bangkok burbs this weekend, our last shot at relaxed laziness for a month!