Thursday July 20, 2006: 'Would you like fries with that?'

We had some promising results from the past days' experiments, so tomorrow we'll begin some larger protocols and really start pushing through data.
Liz and I went back to the mall for dinner, except we tried the food court instead of a sit down restaurant. Everything was Thai food and 80% was written in Thai as well. I decided to go with the boiled chicken and white rice. A young Thai student was ordering at the same time, and she helped me choose a sauce to put on my dinner. Thank goodness she helped because the sauce I would have poured on my meal likely would have burned a hole right through my tongue- it was so spicy hot! The girl also helped Liz by answering about 50 questions about all the meals at one particular food place in the food court. The "restaurants" were closing while we ate, and much to my surprise a lot of the supplies were left out on the counters, like rice cookers, plates, and kitchen utensils. If they were left out in the US, someone would probably have stolen them. This surprised me because Thailand is not a very wealthy country, yet they are not worried.
Tomorrow we go to Koh Samui, and island off the eastern side of the southern penninsula in the Gulf of Thailand. I can't wait to go to the beach!