Spent It All In One Place

I was up early Wednesday morning to get some work done. Then, at around 10:30, it was off to Bangkok on the bus. I hate the bus.

I met up with Rangsima at The Emporium shopping center, which apparently is about 2 blocks from her main property, and I got the rent paid on my house.

From there, it was off to the American Embassy where I picked up my new passport. It will be nice not having to answer questions anymore about the picture.

Outside the embassy, I hired a cab for the rest of the afternoon... Mr. Pong. First, he took me to Thai immigration so that I could transfer my visa to the new passport. From there, it was off to Chinatown where I did my gold shopping.

When I got my tax money back, my mother sent me an e-mail telling me not to spend it all in one place. Well, I kind of let her down. This half-pound of jewelry is pretty much where (aside from rent) it all went.

(Well, no worries, I've got 2 more tax refunds coming after this one, so more spending fun (in more than one place, natch) will be forthcoming.)

After that, Mr. Pong drove me back to Pattaya while I drank beer in the back seat.

While on the way back from Bangkok, I called my friend, Mr. Anonymous M. Jailbird, and reached him on his mobile phone in Pattaya's big-house. Apparently, a friend of his who is in Thailand on a tourist visa stopped by Mr. Jailbird's place of business for a visit, and sat down at a computer to check his e-mail. He was sitting at a desk when somebody from the Thai Immigration Department walked in, accused Mr. Jailbird's friend of working in Thailand without a work permit, and dragged Mr. Tourist Visa and Mr. Jailbird down to the slammer and wouldn't let them go until a substantial amount of money was coughed up by the (ahem) "guilty" party.

Luckily somebody managed to get my friend out of the situation he was in just as I was getting back to Pattaya. Lucky for me too, because if my friend was still stuck, I would have been taking my new-found half-pound bauble straight back to the shop for a cash loan to avoid having him spending the entire night in the pokey.

Well, early to bed anyway: 8:00 by my watch.