Lunch today was from a road-side vendor, fried chicken.  Not bad at about $1.05.  Assuming I can find two passport-sized photos somewhere I'm booked to Laos tomorrow afternoon, and will then do Vietnam after that (I think, but of course that didn't work out well the first time).

Back in Thailand for a quick visit after my first trip here over 17 years ago.

Much more affordable than Singapore or Japan for sure. Met a nice Kiwi/Aussie guy on the plane and we split a cab to the area where he was staying, where I needed to book a room.

​About the room.  Went to he front desk and asked if they had any rooms and they said that they were fully booked.  Then, I went to the concierge and they made some random phone call, and then some random women showed up and took me back to the front desk and got me the room that I was asking about in the first place.  I'm not asking questions on this one, yet.

I got to Singapore last night and decided to spend today figuring out my next move, which is Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City), tomorrow morning. Booked the flight but still need to book the hostel.

​I posted to a FB Friend today, and chatted to my bro last night, that the hardest transition on this trip is to figure out a way to be 'comfortable being uncomfortable'.  I never realized what a safety zone I was in for so many years in Corporate America, and the so many things I took for granted that I don't have now.  I'm sure that I will get there very soon, but it was eye-opening!

​Dinner last night was spaghetti Carbonara, definitely not the local cuisine but not too expensive...

I'm in a four bed dormitory with its own bathroom, which for US$35/night is pretty reasonable.  And the shower head is hooked up to the sink and not segregated from the rest of the bathroom, so that's a little different.

Where I am staying has a bunch of Turkish places.  So lunch yesterday was Turkish Food...

I got here Saturday night and my first food was a pepperoni pizza.  As usual, I don't plan too much in advance so I tried to book a trip to the DMZ today (Monday in Korea) and they don't do Monday tours.  I had completely botched my flight from Japan to Seoul, which was supposed to be Friday (and was now Saturday) which meant that I had to buy a last minute ticket and I think that changing that one may incur more penalties.  Anyway, I have just been relaxing in the Itaewon area of Seoul and not really doing anything as far as sightseeing goes.  People seem friendly.  There are a lot of Westerners either living or traveling through here.

So I went earlier today and was able to get into Sushi Musashi at the Kyoto train station without a wait, which has this never-ending conveyor belt of all types of sushi and you take what you want and then I guess they look at the color of the plates you have stacked up to figure out what you owe at the end.  Or they just make up a price, who knows.  I know that they have this in the US but had never been.  It was fantastic.  10 pieces ran about US$12, so not bad...tempura shrimp, cooked shrimp, ham and cheese sushi (never had that before), raw tuna, and raw salmon.

I'm not a very good tourist.  This was the fourth shrine/temple that I saw in Japan and that was quite enough for me.  Kiyomizu Temple outside of Kyoto center.

After the super-healthy convenience store hot dog and sandwich for breakfast, I wasn't very hungry for lunch. But I stopped in for a quick plate of pickled food on my way to Kiyomizu Temple, which is just a quick 15 minute bus ride from Kyoto station...various radishes and the dark brown thing may have been a small tree branch.  This was definitely a tourist trap (almost US$6 for this little appetizer...) But they did have free Wi-Fi.  The only things you need to travel the world are an AMEX, a Mastercard, an ATM card that takes Plus/Star or Cirrus, a passport, and access to free Wi-Fi.  The rest is just extra.  I've already booked my four nights in Seoul at the hostel so I need to research how to get there by train, and figure out how to get back to Toyko airport tomorrow.  Haven't booked my train this afternoon back to Tokyo yet, so I hope I can still get a reserved seat on that super-fast bullet train.  I hope the trains in S Korea are just as confusing as the ones in Japan.  I haven't gotten lost in at least four days now, so that is quite an accomplishment.