HELLO 2023! A Personal Note

 To All,  I took a trip outside the US for the first time in several years, thanks to the virus making things too uncertain.  They were still uncertain for me.  I am 20th century in many ways.  If I text, on a phone, it takes me forever because unlike kids, my fingers hit the wrong keys on the small key-board.  Then I must erase and try again.  With poor eyesight, I often repeat the error.  Frustration.

       Though I had never been to the Philippines, I decided not to try a new place at age 84 and alone.  I love Saigon (officially now Ho Chi Minh City), but I no loner know anyone there.  Hanoi in December is NOT 90 F, so I was less inclined for that or Taiwan.  I still have a friend in Bangkok, so that is where I went.  My friend was working full time, and after work, had liver problems, so we were not together too often this trip.  We did phone and had a few meals together, but some of the restaurants near my hotel had closed during the virus, so we ended one night just eating at my hotel.  We did have a tasty meal at another restaurant after some wandering.

    The hotel had not travel and tourist brochures.  I was told many of the businesses that had supplied them had succumbed to the virus.  Told to try the hotel's computer.  Did so and found several notices about tourism in Bangkok, but when I phone the numbers listed, got the message that that number no longer existed.

      Happily I had brought a tour book with me, borrowed from my local American library, and at the back, it had a general map of Bangkok and a map of the subway system.  That was most helpful.  I had hoped to have a side trip to a nearby beach resort, but as nothing seemed certain, decided simply to use the hotel's lounge area and swimming pool - which is always so cold, even in the sun.

     The World Cup provided entertainment, even tho some of the games were shown beginning at 2am BKK time.  Most were shown at 10pm, so I could enjoy most.  In some bars chatted with other tourists from many parts of the world.  Amazed to see the locals still wearing masks, while most Americans and Europeans went everywhere without them.

    I did not travel there using America's Southwest Airline, but had trouble on the one I did, and got stuck in a part of the Tokyo air terminal, not allowed into the city or the larger part of the airport, and plane cancelled, and had to sleep on a bench there over night.  When told the next day's flight could be cancelled too, I made other arrangements and left Tokyo to return to the good old USA.

      I seem to have suffered more jet-lag this time and am still overly tired.  I do hope to return to finishing my book soon.  The big question today: will America be able to survive two more years of President Biden's policies? ---------Hugh Murray