Back to Japan

I woke up at 5 in order to be out the door by 5:30. Augie and Lada drove me to a taxi queue at the entrance to her parents' neighborhood. Her mom and dad both hugged me, and her mom invited me back anytime.

The taxi ride was ฿300; all I had was a ฿1000 note. The driver gave me what he said was all his change, which was only ฿600. I point this out only because I ended up, not two hours later, down to my last ฿20 note for the entire trip. I've kept that ฿20 in my wallet ever since, to remind me. I'm not sure what it's supposed to remind me of, but I think of something every time I see it.

At any rate, I ran into Carol and Rachel at the gate. We had planned our trips separately, yet had run into each other more or less by accident in Siem Reap, and had caught exactly the same flight out of Bangkok. We played cards on the floor of the gate, and a little girl whom I think was Korean joined in. The flights themselves were uneventful, though Hong Kong, freaking out about the swine flu, was requiring everybody to go through security again, and inspecting every single carry-on bag. Many people were wearing masks, which didn't bother me in the slightest. However, there were some American tourists near my place in line, and I overheard how obviously rattled they were by the sight.

This is where my notes and my memory end, mostly because I was pretty well exhausted from the past few days of waking up early and seeing so much. I made it back to Tsushima safe and sound.