Bangkok, Thailand - An afternoon at the park...

I went down to a park on the river and heard some volunteer musicians playing traditional Thai music on archaic instruments. It was very cool! The've been doing this for five years, I think for free. They don't appear to have a donation box, hat, basket or whatever. I think the main guy really wants to keep the ancient music alive. The songs I heard told stories of Thailand a 1,000 years ago or more. He would sing in Thai and then translate into English. They started out with 5-people and then 3-more musicians of their group joined them. I guess they got there whenever they could after work. The tones are strange but they grow on you. Some of the instruments are very cool! I took some photos, hope they came out OK, it was later in the afternoon and less light.

I've had a couple of technology snafus. My camera will not longer stay in the electronic eyepiece viewfinder mode. I think it got moisture in it in Vietnam and hasn't recovered since. I can still use the large LCD on the back of the camera, but I loved using the eyepiece and it worked best for me without needing my glasses. Oh well, I may see if I can find someone to fix it here or someplace along the road.

I forgot and left my MP3 player in the seat pocket in front of me in a plane from Hue to Hanoi. I called "lost and found" for two days, but they didn't find anything. I've ordered a refurbished one from the USA. Tony is sending it to me. This stuff happens...

I do love the "street food" way of eating here. My favorite street foods are a 1-egg omelet on rice in the morning, 60-cents, fresh orange juice (kind of taste like tangerine juice, no sugar, no salt) for 25-cents. Lunch or dinner - Chicken drum stick barbequed with a sweet glaze for 75-cents, corn on the cob with the corn shaved off the cob and mixed with salt and butter for 40-cents, spicy chicken with basil on rice for 60-cents. If you avoid restaurants you can eat very cheaply here!