Life And A Cough

The night beckons…

It’s absolutely impossible not to get sucked in by the Bangkok nightlife. There’s just too much to do all the time; no matter how strong my resolve is to go to bed early, wake up early, and get work done, something invariably draws me out: a call from a friend or an invite on Facebook or some once-in-a-lifetime event that I just can’t resist. That’s really the main reason why I’ve continued to remain behind on blogging (that and a few other factors, like the US income tax deadline and yet another not-so-brief sickness – which I’ll get to in a minute).

It’s also the reason why life here in Thailand has pretty much leveled out into a repeatable pattern: fun on the weekends, and programming / regular computer correspondence / apartment-hunting during the week. It’s life as usual, just with a nontrivially heavier slant towards “fun.” 🙂

That’s alright though – I’m happy to say that sales from my plugins have actually reached a level that can pretty much sustain me – at least here in Asia – which eases the financial burden of living on the road. It’s really my other commitments (including some self-applied ones like keeping my constant stream of photos organized) that keep me tied to the screen more often than I’d like.

So what’s the long-term plan at this moment? It’s tough to say. Originally I intended on staying in Bangkok until my visa expires, then heading to Cambodia to renew – but a few weeks ago a really interesting opportunity came my way. Rick, the engineer I met in Singapore who manufactures handheld power generators, has taken hold of the perfect opportunity to head to Japan in the wake of the recent tsunami…and as the only Japanese-fluent engineer he knows, he invited me to come along. We’d be there for up to 3 weeks doing a combination of business and relief work: distributing free equipment to disaster-struck areas and making contacts for future channels of distribution. We’re still tossing around whether or not it’ll actually happen; at this point it mainly just depends on funding.

(This is one of the reasons I never moved into an apartment – because I’ve been unsure when I’ll have to leave.)

I’ve also been talking with my dad about coming to visit. At first he was hoping to join me in Thailand then tag along to Cambodia, but the uncertainty about Japan and my soon-to-be-expired visa made flying to Vietnam a more viable option. By doing it that way I could fly out early and have a few weeks to work before his arrival. We’d then travel together in the North, and I’d continue South through Cambodia on my own – ending up back in Thailand for one more 2-month stay.

Anyway, it’s anyone’s game at this point. And before I can start putting any real time into planning there’s a somewhat more pressing issue that needs to be resolved.

I’m sick again. Really sick.

For the past nearly two weeks I’ve had a horrible dry cough – so severe that I often can’t sleep. At first I thought it had to do with a change in weather as it started right after a dramatic temperature shift (insanely hot and humid to dry and chilly in a day). But apparently the shift was just a fluke, and even when the climate returned to scorching the debilitating cough remained. It eventually got so extreme that I had to go to the hospital; I had a few instances of coughing nearly to the point of suffocation. The doctor told me that it’s almost certainly allergies – common this time of year especially among foreigners. A bit of Googling did indeed turn up several forums for expats in Thailand, all describing symptoms identical to my own. Plus two of my friends have been experiencing the exact same thing. He gave me some medicine that didn’t help, I went back a few more times, and we eventually stepped it up to an asthma inhaler. It seems to be doing the trick, and the doctor isn’t worried – he says that at this point it’s just a lingering inflammation that’ll heal in time. At least I’m finally seeing some improvement.

One day at a time, I guess.

Note: These posts are behind realtime; the above was written on Tuesday, March 29th.