Cop-out Preview of Coming Attractions

An
American in Asia:

His Quest for Cosmic Truth

(or at least a Decent Espresso)

If anyone reads this regularly they may have noticed that installments have become irregular. Writing news stories and features for the travel industry is pretty fun but as it's all in a certain style, this website is a nice release. However, after writing thousands of words during the workweek it's sometimes difficult to sit myself down in front of the home computer and write some more. So I'm toying with the idea of making this thing an every-other-week affair. Except that knowing it's coming out every other Sunday is not as predictable as knowing it's coming out every Sunday, and that's kind of a nuisance. So I'm still toying.

The busy job took me back to Pattaya last week for a day. It was pretty fun as I was mainly trying to document the shopping options. I ran around town doing what I really do best, which is finding cool stuff at cheap prices.

Pedal for your life, man. Pedal like the you're wearing the Devil's own underpants!

Another thing I got to do last week was meet someone from Thailand's royal family. She works in the hotel industry as a head of public relations. I'm not sure how appropriate it was, but I am interested in all the different ways that humans approach existence and I engaged her in a conversation about the inconveniences of being royal.

Honestly I wouldn't choose the royal life if it weren't hereditary and could be chosen, and here's why: royal folks have to plan ahead. If they go shopping, guards have to scope the stores and clear out the riffraff. If they've scheduled day X for the shopping trip but they wake up and feel like they'd rather just see a movie, well they can't. The stores have already been forewarned but the movie theatre has no time to prepare for a royal visit. In certain ways there are more opportunities for a royal, but it is very questionable as to whether they have a richer life than the rest of us penniless bums who can do whatever we feel like within our budgets.

And the fact is that Kublai Khan never had a microwave or a TV or a personal computer. The average joe lives a life that a king only 100 years ago could never have dreamed of. The Khan never even had a fridge, though he may not have cared much for freezing things in Mongolia.

A spot in Bangkok not five minutes from my apartment. A man raises chickens here, next to that pipe that spews sewer water into the canal.

It is now Sunday night and I've got to work in the morning and I just didn't feel like putting the effort into writing something meaningful and educational. Sorry. Things ought to get interesting beginning next month though. I'm scheduled to spend the first week seading anyway..

Jeffrey Studebaker has been (in no particular order) a SE Asian correspondent for a Singaporean travel magazine, a teacher, consultant and translator in Japan, a guitarist with the band, Swoon 23 in every city of the US of A, a coffee roaster in Seattle, a bike messenger in Portland, a marine fire system repairman in Seattle, an osteoporosis clinic researcher in Providence, a mental ward counsellor on the night shift in Portland, a brief success in New York, and he has now returned to the US after nearly a decade in Asia to pursue a publishing career.