Notes from a Hot Country . . .

Well, everyone, we've arrived! We've actually been in Thailand since yesterday (Monday, 28 November), and we're definitely feeling a bit lagged. It took us about 28 hours, all told, in travel time until we were in a hotel last night where we expected to spend three nights. However, our first impressions (albeit in the drugged-like haze of sleep-deprivedness) of Hua Hin were that it was a lot like New Rhodes . . . without the benefit of 1. being in Greece and 2. having the largest continually inhabited medieval fortress in the world. There were, however, lots of 1. beach supply stores and 2. northern European tourists. Also, there was a frog or something weird outside our room all night not quite periodically croaking. So, all things considered, we got up early and got on a bus to here . . . which starts with a PH but I'm way too tired to remember what comes next. I will say, too, that Hua Hin was more interesting from the back of a tuk-tuk, which is what tourists call the little moped-trailer taxis putzing around the streets.
Here are a brief list of my impressions, so far.
There is a healthy number of healthy-looking dogs, most of which appear to be pets.
Many, many people wear helmets on their mopeds.
In general, turn signals are used (which is helpful for those of us getting re-used to everyone driving on the left)
The food is fantastic, without exception, from the rice and toppings purchased with scrip at the Bangkok train station, to the vegetarian meal served to us on the train (soup, stirfry, rice, pineapple), to the amazing soups and salads and spicy things we've had today, to the fried bananas on skewers with caramel sauce and the toasted peas bought on the street.
Some things are really cheap. Train from airport to train station: $0.25 Hotel room last night: $20. Hotel room tonight, and, yes, tomorrow: $3 per night. Not a typo.
People are very nice. Our friends in the Peace Corps really can't believe their luck, being stationed here, and we can see why.
There's just enough adventure, too, from being dropped off on the far side of a highway from town and having to make our way, Frogger-like, across the road, to being picked up by a "taxi" (this one had a truck engine rather than just a moped) at exactly the right moment (he swerved across three lanes of traffic to get us), to ordering a salad described as "Mung Bean Noodle" and receiving something with squid, tuna, tomato, peanut, and some sort of spicy leaf. Oh, yeah, and the bean noodles.
And now, I think, we'll head back to our $3 room, where we have a fan, and a shower and toilet, in our room. Heaven!