Back home, safe and well...

[Christian PERRIER]

Of course, it's quite some time that I'm back home!

But I realize that I actually didn't give feedback nor news since I
came back home.

First of all, I want to thanks everybody again for that great week. It
has been a really motivating and exciting experience, and a real joy
to meet everybody, have some good time squashing bugs (all kind of
bugs), chatting with everybody, sharing our experience with Debian and
see some bits of Khon Kaen and its neighbourhood.

You made a great job in organizing this event and all we can hope and
wish is it to be even better next time..:-)

After I left you folks, I went back to BKK by plane, the lazy
way... Nothing special to say about it except that it's so short that
one has barely no time to fold the laptop out....before one has to
fold it in because the descent begins..:-)

Being such a lazy guy, I had a car waiting for me to drop me at the
hotel I booked in order to stay for 3 days in BKK. The hotel was
great, a nice piece of comfort which has been appreciated on evenings
after long days sightseeing..:-)

About sightseeing.....eh, I think I've seen each and every wat in
BKK...:-). On saturday, I decided to go around by walking instead of
getting cabs, skytrain, boats or metro. By walking, one can really
feel how a city is, how people live in it...and very often spot nice
little things one would miss otherwise.

Of course, you can imagine I was amazed by each and every street
corner. And I really was. BKK is such an exciting and amazing place,
with surprises everywhere for newcomers. So, I ended up walking over
19km in a day (my GPS watch recorded that and it makes indeed a very
nice set of data for OpenStreetMap....I'll post an URL later on, with
my full "travel"). Of course, I went to the "big places" such as Wat
Po and the like...but I also went to less big places and really
enjoyed visiting nearly empty wats and enjoy the peace and serenity in
there. And always so welcoming people around....even for people who
happen to speak no Thai... Eh, I think that if I was tempted to fall
in some religion some day, I'd definitely go for following the
buddhist philosophy. I mean it. Probably one of the biggest strength
Thai (and other neighbouring) people have. Keep it. That's precious.

Of course, that 19km walk was done after a little bit "exercise" in
the hotel fitness center, running about 10km on running
machines. Crazy runners..:-).

I ended the day with a magic moment at sunset, on Chao Phraya river
bank, in a completely lost street end  featuring a mini Buddha temple
in the middle....of a parking. No noise of cars or people, only
Chinese music (this was in BKK Chinatown) and less heat..:-)


On Sunday, after a great rest, I decided to go running...but
outside. And, in BKK, when one goes running, this has to be in Lumpini
Park. So, well, I went there (by taxi...better than 3km running along
the dangerous streets!) and just did as hundreds of Bangkokers:
physical exercise. It's interesting to see the very various ways to do
it. Of course, I took care to go there *around* 8 a.m. so I could be
part of the moment where everybody pays respect to His Majesty The
King, with the Royal Anthem being played and everything
stopping....and everybody stopping and standing up.

Later on (after a really needed shower!), I again went out, this time
to Chatuchak market...the place one has to be on week-ends in
BKK. Apparently, Paul and Andrew were there also at the same time, but
unsurprisingly we didn't meet...:-). I spent like 2 hours over there,
just enjoying the various shops and places....and trying to escape
from the (hot) sun!

My way back bringed me to the Wat Phra Keo and the Great Palace,
palces I wanetd to visit the day before....not knowing that they close
at 3pm. After dressing properly (no short pants in there!), I really
liked wandering around the temple and all areas and even more enjoyed
it with a really high quality audio guide in my own language...that
could give me all keys to understand the building of these temples and
some parts of the history of Thailand. Great moment. Very tiring (and
hot! Damn long pants!)...but memorable.

At the end of the day, I was dead tired (walking, walking...) and I
met Andrew and Peul back in my hotel from which we headed up to Siam
neighbourhood in order to find an indian restaurant where Andrew had
great (and vegetarian) food last year. Actually, we went into a first
one....ordered...then finally realized that was not the one. Anyway,
we finished the meal...went out...and finally found the right
restaurant....and, as crazy as we are, entered it to have a *second*
meal! The restaurant owner was a really welcoming Sikh and most
cuisine was indeed Punjabi cuisine...and was worth it.

After we came back, I left Paul, we had a big hug (as he was planned
to leave early on Monday) and I headed up to my bed.

On Monday, Andrew joined me at my hotel again and we went to Metamedia
Technologies to meet a few people (uh, I won't risk trying to write
down names!) where we had an interesting discussion about the
development and adoption of FLOSS in Thailand. The discussion
continued in a nearby Japanese restaurant (nice place and good
food)...you can see Mr Choke's photos on the URL he sent today...and
we finally splitted up.

Aftyer all this, I was really too tired to do something more involving
some walk(and it was again really hot!) so Andrew and I headed up to
my hotel and improvsed a bug squashing party in the Hilton's
lobby. Maybe the first 5-star BSP ever (and with the most expensive
beer in BKK, I guess).

Finally, at 7pm both of us headed up to our return trip: Andrew to the
bus station for CHiang Mai....and me...to the airport.

Nothing really interesting to say about the trip back, except that
B747 upper deck is definitely worth it if you have that occasion some
day when preregistering flight seats..:-)

Time for me to close this small report (I'm arriving home in my daily
commute). Hope you enjoyed as I enjoyed being in Thailand....and see
you soon, I hope!