Bangkok is beginnging to suck and ohh how i hate General Zao's sauce!

I feel really shitty today. I think the noise and the pollution plus the gringo heaven of Banglamphu is finally getting to me. Bangkok is just one of those cities you either come to party day and night or use it as a spring board for other ventures. Unfortuantely I don't like to party 24/7. Today was a pretty decent day considering I feel like ass (granted I don't know what ass really would feel like). And no, I didn't go drinking last night. I think maybe it was the sushi I had last night that drained all of the energy out of me when I awoke this morning- but whatever the case may be, I randomly decided that today would be my last day in bangkok. I scurried off to find a mini-adventure kind of close to Bangkok and decided to head down a little south to some of the islands near phuket. I plan to swim like crazy and just slug by the beach. Hopefully I'll get some nice clean crisp air. My lungs are needing it after Pune, Indian and BAngkok. I booked an overnight bus trip which takes about 8 hours. From there I will take a boat through part of the gulf of thailand to my random lil island. Wish me luck. Unfortunately my trip of S.E asia ends on Monday without really seeing all of southeast asia. I have a relative that lives in Singapore but after reading about things to do in Singapore, I'd rather not scarf up the cash to fly down there-i hear it's nothing more than a techonolgical and crazy clean city--not much of a cultural experience.

Besides booking the bus, I visited Wat Pho, a series of buddhist temples which are beautiful as anything and also the sight of the world's largest laying buddha. It was pretty cool and hopefully i'll post pictures soon enough. I getting sick of Thai food. The currys have been nice but other than that I haven't taken to a fancy of all my meat tasting like the General Zao's marinade. I hate that crap. Probably my 2nd worst taste when it comes to food a close second behind these nasty fried yellow balls filled with cauliflower that I had in Guatemala.

Ok, I'm done typing. I had a massage which felt awesome. a total body massage for only 100 baht.. well 150 after i tipped the lady. I got to admit that it was painful at times and my joints were making popping sounds every once in a while and I even thought for a minute that I herniated my disk when she attempted to push my legs over my head. But I'm fine and it definately feels relaxing.

Ok now i'm done typing. So basically today I acted like a mean grumpy old ape.

Thailand

It's been ages since I last posted. I had a lot of shit going on since I left africa. I'm proud to announce that I'm headed to the University of Pittsburgh in their Internal medicine residency program. Totally stoked about that. I also found an apartment in Pittsburgh, and with all my residency paper-work filled out and about a month's time when I have to start orientation for intern year I figured what else to do with the free time than travel again! This time for purely pleasure as I am all globally worked out. My adventure started in Bangkok, Thailand where I've been for the past 3 days. Sadly, I had to make a deviation from my original plans to backpack down Thailand into Malayasia and Singpore, as I found out my grandmother who lives in pune, India suffered a stroke. Since I am in the region, I made a quick trip to India to visit her at the hospital. The trip to India was pretty hectic. I don't know what it is about India, but out of all the places I've been in the world I still consider India to be the most difficult to travel around. There are probably many reasons behind this. First of all one has to deal with so many elements all chaotiaclly slamming into each other creating nothing much more than chaotic grandeur (if that makes any sense). The heat, the population, the strange and undescrible smell, the noise, language barriers, the constant stares, and the hardships of traveling around and being mobile are things that cross my mind. Also what troubles me is how materialistic India has become. A land known for a religion that preaches non-materialistic living is caught in a quagmire where the world of Bollywood dominates every facet of indian life. From young to old, people are simply addicted to Indian films and it seems to dictate how people perceive the world. What troubles me, is that these films show an image of false reality where glamour and riches predominate. While actors and actress reep the profits 75 percent of the population struggles while a subset of these struggle to even live. It just angers me how this false glamor can brainwash a population.

But I digress.

I visited my grandmother in India, and apparently she suffered a embolic stroke in the the right cortical area. I don't know exactly what branch of the cerebral artery was hit but apparently she went into Atrial Fibrillation which was the supposed source of the embolation-a likely clot in the left atrium. She was pretty much paralyzed on her left side, but is now recovering movement in extremities. She's doing well and the day I left she was discharged from the hospital.

From India, I headed back to Bangkok where I know sit. I am staying in Banglamphu the backpackers haven of Bangkok. Yesterday, I walked around town and saw different areas-Chinatown, various Buddhist temples and of course curiousity brought me to the most notorious seedy area of the world.. patpong. It was very sad seeing young women with sad faces forced into the arena of prostitution--however a very necessary thing to see as I try to understand the pathologies of power. Today I plan to see some more temples and just chill out-- eat some rice and red curry, sushi with green tea and just hang out and enjoy life.

More later.