An Update on this Blog

I am sadly unable to write everything I had meant to write before my departure for the US, so if you’re hoping to get some awesome info on epic Thai culinary bangers, you’ve come to the wrong place. Apologies! Instead, I will be giving my reader(s?) a service announcement. Breaking News (or is it now Important Update, as per CNN? I’ve lost track): I am going away for 6 months.

But that doesn’t mean that I am going to be posting less. In fact, I will be posting more! Starting on January 7, I will be leaving Miami and embarking on what is expected to be a cruise around the world. I will be hoping to post (WiFi willing) from each port of call, starting with Grand Cayman or Colombia (plans keep changing, necessarily I suppose, because of various regulations. I have not been to either country so I do not have an opinion, but my sister pointed out that I would be able to hang out with Armie Hammer if I ended up in Grand Cayman. This is ludicrous, of course. I am not Armie Hammer’s type).

The fluidity of our plans, then, points to various other factors which will be out of our control. As you and more importantly, I, well know, cruises are well known for being incubators for disease. And although I have been told repeatedly by various people that Covid is over, some ignorant people who have not gotten that memo are still catching it! Why hasn’t anyone told them?

That’s not to mention norovirus, which, quite frankly, might be even worse to experience on a cruise ship than Covid (which one would you choose if you had to? It’s like choosing between Hitler and Pol Pot). And that’s not all! Cruise ships are also prime locations for disappearances, either on purpose, or not so much so. Throw in the fact that I’m cruising with my in-laws, and all sorts of shenanigans could ensue.

Obviously, it would make sense to make sure that none of these things ever happens to us. What better plan, then, than to make offerings to the temple of the water dragons in Nakhon Nayok? So on a sunny Saturday afternoon, we drove two hours to this temple, in time to make our offerings and say our prayers at the auspiciously selected time of 3:09pm. What I assumed would be a quick jaunt with incense and some chanting ended up being a 1.5 hour marathon of merit-making, replete with not one, not two, but three performances by a couple of very talented Thai dancers. It was the most rigorous Buddhist merit-making that this particular Presbyterian has ever been to, but then again, it is a six-month cruise.

Now all we have is the uncertainty of what will face us. Will it be fun? Will it be exciting? Will we make it all the way to Barcelona in June? Will I be dead? Only the water dragons know. Until then, here’s (hopefully) a clip of the very talented dancers at work.