Valentine's Day in BKK

John and I are sitting in the Bangkok international airport, waiting for our flight to Cambodia tonight. We're going to tour the ancient temples of Angkor Wat for a few days, then its off to a Thai island north of Cosumui to don my "tankini" (read: two piece for those averse to physical exercise) and get some serious relaxation done. Not too shabby for Valetine's day. Well...I look pretty shabby. We've been in and out of airports, train stations, and hotels non stop for the past week.

There's quite a serious hole in my blog, and in that whole was John and my trip to Calcutta this past long weekend. I took him to my ancestral hometown on Wednesday night and we had a lovely (if too short) four days in the city, visiting historical British buildings, having cheeks pinched mercilously by relatives, and eating delicious Calcutta street food---trying to skillfully dodge the hepatitis-B-type eateries. A good time time was had by all. My Mom was an excellent hostess and restored the Palit house of old to its historical beauty.

More hartals today and tomorrow in Bangladesh!!!! I'm so glad to be out of there. We had to take a cab at 4:30 am to the Chittagong airport to ensure that we could get transport before the strike began at 6:00am. I'm still in a sleep-deprived, euphoric state.

What else? The train journey across Bangladesh (Dhaka to Chittagong) was breath-takingly beautiful. John was greatful to see a part of Bangladesh outside of polluted Dhaka. Also, we had our palms and astrology charts read in Calcutta. The guy said John and I would both fair very well career-wise in "educational institutions," perhaps teaching. Hmmm...

Reading the Davinci Code. I've read better writing (Rushdie!), but the story is too juicy to put down. Why am I so drawn to novels that center around controversial religious themes?

Well, must run. Anna and the King are calling....

TKP