And now for part 2!



It was almost a week after we got to Thailand when Noriko went in for surgery. I wanted to go to the hospital and wait for it to be done - but the surgeon said it would just be too long - and too hard to wait so he suggested I go shopping instead. I wanted to receive a phone call when the surgery was over - I had Noriko give the doctors my phone number for both the hotel and my cell - and I didn't want to leave the phones, so I stayed in the hotel room, listened to an audio book on my ipod and painted. It was actually quite nerve-wracking - waiting, hoping everything was going well - fearing for the worst. I actually never did receive that call - which irritated me - but at the same time, no news is usually good news - even though I wanted to hear when she was out of surgery that she was okay.

After managing to sleep somehow, I took a taxi to the hospital the next morning - thinking that I would return to the hotel that evening - so I didn't bring much with me - just some things for Noriko, and also my Nintendo DS, and my cell phone and purse. I was so happy to see that Noriko made it through okay - and at the same time it made me dizzy to see her in such a condition as she was... with tubes and IVs and bandages... Suffice it to say I couldn't bring myself to leave her - and ended up staying at the hospital for the five days that she was there - wearing the same stinky clothing for five days... @.@,, She had a room to herself that had a couch for me to sleep on - and it also had a bathroom with a shower - so even if I had to wear dirty clothes at least I could shower and feel somewhat clean once a day. I subsisted on pastries from the downstairs coffee shop - and played through quite a bit of "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" on my DS. Noriko slept a lot - and she was on a liquid diet for several days - so I made sure she had water whenever she wanted it - all she had to do was ask... and I would take care of anything she needed... Even though she has virtually no memory of the time in the hospital, I feel really good about being there to take care of her because I know that she needed me.. Even with a full complement of nurses - I think she needed me there to feel safe.

I didn't take any pictures at the hospital because I didn't bring my camera... and if I had - its probably not the best place for taking pictures - and not really the place I want to remember ^.^, Even if it was a nice hospital... hospitals are dreary places.

When she was discharged from the hospital, we returned to the hotel - and Noriko stayed in the room most of the time to rest, so I went across the street to the Tesco Lotus in the mall to buy food every other day or so. In the center part of the mall, when we got there, there was this huge back to school setup with school uniforms and stuff - In Asian countries the school year starts and ends in Spring - I remember it was that way in Japan when I was there - I was there right at the time school was starting up again for my host family's daughter...

Anyways, after the 'back to school' setup was over - they brought in a classic car show - and that was really cool to see. I used to go with my dad to the LA auto shows at the LA convention center - so it was good times for me to stroll around and check out the cars.

Here was a T-bird that reminded me of the one I painted in "California Dreamin" - you can see the McDonalds in the background ^.^

I can't remember what this one was - might have been a Mercedes... but it was a great looking car - and this shot also shows off the center of the mall

Cute sporty 1960's Jaguars.... do I want the red one? or the black one? Choices... choices...

They also had a little section of 'pod cars' - tiny odd cars - this one I think was probably the oddest - its made of leather over a metal framework...


It was interesting - the mall was kindof broken up into sections - and in each section there was a group of stores that were similar - like the mall was a giant department store and you could view all of the mobile phones in one section - and the furniture stores in another section - and go to the restaurants in another section.. I think that way it made it more convenient for the shoppers - but probably more competitive for the sellers.

While windowshopping I stumbled across this amazing invention - a hot tub with a tv... (i think thats what it is, it might be a computer).. Either way - thats one of the coolest things ever. It makes more sense than the refrigerator with built in internet I saw once at Best Buy. Here you can see that blue-green water I was talking about. And I'm not sure why they have the bug decals on the window either.


And what made this mall probably the coolest mall I've ever been to - was that on the 4th floor, they had this whole section - called "Yoyo Land" - and let me tell you, as a kid, I would have begged my parents to take me there every chance I got. Its basically a mini amusement park inside the mall...
It had a log flume ride...

A ferris wheel

bumper boats

and this awesome looking ballpit/bouncy house

I was reeeally tempted to go into that ballpit - but seeing as I was taller than many of the adults, somehow I don't think that would have been looked upon too highly ^.^,, Oh well. They also had a rollercoaster, and a train that went around ... and some of those virtual reality rides - a'la Star Tours - but smaller. There were also lots of arcade games and carnival games. It looked like a way cool place to hang out with friends and have fun - like a miniature amusement park in the mall. Before seeing this - I thought the coolest thing I ever saw in Asia was the 10 story arcade I went to in Kyoto, Japan.

Another restaurant we went to was called "Shabu-shi" - it was a shabu shabu/sushi restaurant - owned by parent company Oishii - and it was a great place... It was like - a cross between the hotpot restaurant we went to earlier, and a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. We sat at a table with a pot of stock, and a conveyor belt passed by with an assortment of uncooked meats and vegetables and also sushi... the uncooked meats and vegetables were for boiling in the stock - and the sushi was ... well, sushi =D. It was most delicious. And how they handled payment was it was basically an all you can eat - for an hour and a half. And then if you went overtime, they'd charge you extra each ten minutes - but we didn't need the hour and a half even... I was stuffed after 45 minutes probably. I wish they had Shabu-shi in the US. That place was the best.
Here's a picture of the right of our table, and the conveyor belt...


Okie - next entry will be part 3... where I went to the Grand Palace temple complex to do some wonderfully touristy things =D