Recently, I made my best purchases in Korea:




Mine isn't as colorful, and it doesn't have pink trim at the bottom, but it still works as well.  I had not used one of these before, except when I traveled to a malaria risk country.  But after dealing with unwelcome entrants through my air conditioner, small holes, faulty screens, and ill-fitting doors for longer than my threshold of annoyance, it was time to take action.   Life becomes easier when I haven't had to wake up for the buzz or waking bite.

I was was good at the one handed mosquito grab, but I hadn't mastered the "trapped in palm squish".  Thus I got another toy:



This is an electrified racket, which when it comes in contact with a living thing, makes a surprisingly large shock.  One swing will take down a mosquito or anything else flying through the air.  I got one with a rechargeable battery- one that charges by usb connection to my computer.  My hunch is that these come with an incendiary guarantee, so unlike this picture, mine does not rest on flammable material.



I have not put up some pictures about my vacation time, so here comes the first installment of: Catching Up with the Past.  This edition centers on the start of my vacation and a trip to Bangkok.



Jinhee and I were pleased to fly into Bangkok without problem, and could find our hotel easily.  I thought we were stuck in traffic the entire way to the hotel, but my guidebook told me that is the case any time between 6am and midnight.  Our driver told us he didn't know where the hotel was (obvious lie) and drove us to the place he gets kickbacks.  I mention it only to point out that studying maps and knowing where you are going is important before taking a trip to Thailand.  Or maybe having your hotel pick you up is a better idea.

Once we were there, transportation wasn't a problem.



As you can see above, there were walkways, railway transport, and taxis all around.  Bangkok was filled with things to do, so we tried to get a good mix into our travels.

We went to some temples,




Went to shopping districts, ate some street food,




Went to the man-woman show,





watched the sun set over the Chao Phraya River (the main river that runs through Bangkok),



and did plenty of other things in the city.

I enjoyed visiting Bangkok and would recommend it to anyone who isn't adverse to taking an adventure on their vacation.  I would recommend reading the guidebook on all the scams that happen in the city, as they were continually tried on Jinhee and I.  After reading about the scams, they seemed pretty funny.  The guidebooks even named the exact money amount for the scams (or seeming good deals).  Either that or the scammers read the guidebooks and followed them word for word, out of laziness.

Probably the most enjoyable part of Bangkok was the wide array of fruit available.  Every night, I could buy several cheap mangoes and carve them up to enjoy no matter what I was doing.  My travel partner, Jinhee, was much more interested in the massages, however, which would go on for an hour or more for less than $10.

More on our trip later.  Following in the Catching Up with the Past Reader: our flight and fun down to Phuket, the vacation island in Thailand.