Koh Samui

Bang Rak Beach Ko Samui

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The taxi at the airport wanted 400 baht to take me 5 minutes up the road to Bang Rak Beach. I just laughed and set out on my own down the road. Next two taxis wanted 300 baht but finally talked the third one down to 200 baht. Good grief, I could have gone clear from the airport 40 minutes to Lamai for 500 baht! They know when they have you!

The guesthouse in the Beach area Doug had found for me to stay in was full. Trudging down the road with my wheeled luggage, probably looking a little forlorn, I waved down a moto taxi driver who took me to the lonely modest but cozy Bang Rak Bungalows facing the water. Just a mattress on the floor but so what. It’s only 500 baht a night and I’m here only two nights before flying into Bangkok.

Good coffee and French Breakfast (hot croissant and French bread) at the French Bakery the next morning made my day.

Alarm went off 4am for the taxi to the airport for the flight to Bangkok. OMG! I thought I wouldn’t make it the couple of kilometers! The “boss” had left for another province so this old guy, who really didn’t know how to drive, took me in an old jeep…changing the automatic shift every 2 seconds at 10 miles an hour I think. And of course a new departures area had recently been constructed. And he had to stop and ask directions twice in spite of the fact that he had lived there for years! “It’s been 20 years since I’ve been to the airport” he said. Whew! Just made it!

Lamai Beach Koh Samui is

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Doug flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and spent a couple days with his dad in Pattaya before going back to Samui again to say goodbye to old friends and close down his rented house.

I flew into Samui a few days later on Jan 19th and stayed at a guesthouse he had found for me for 500 Baht a night right on the ring road and near a great French coffee shop and bakery.

I enjoy early morning Pork Rice Soup and chinese donuts at a street stand a few yards down the road each morning. I get there early because by 8am they are “finish.”

It is fun staying in a place you know well. We flew out to Krabi on Jan 26 for a few days…a place we both love.

Back To Chiang Mai

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Stayed in a good location…the ThaiLanna Guesthouse just outside the Anapurn Night Market. Good to be off the Soho bar street except for a couple very loud young Russian women next door.

By this time, after an orgy of seafood and Chinese food with Josh and Polly in Hong Kong and all the great Thai street food for a couple months, I welcomed the big American and British breakfasts and rack of BBQ ribs at Malloy’s Irish Bar in the market.

Met a nice woman from Tennessee who accompanied me to a rather hokey restaurant featuring Khao Soi Curry…a northern Thai specialty…with a personal apron to boot. Felt weird to be eating Khao Soi this way after years of eating it on the street. I guessed the restaurant was owned by a foreigner which the cashier confirmed as I left. I regret paying 300 baht for the apron.

I also regret paying the 700 baht for a double scoop of Haagan Daz ice cream!

An occasional Mango Lassi at one of the Indian restaurants rounded out my travel cuisine.

Apparently this is what this visit to Asia has come to…eating! I’ll spare you photos of all the food!

Doug found a wonderful massage place…two very strong NE Thai women. Seems like massage is never strong enough. “You can do strong!” I always say. Nothing worse than being disappointed when you know what a really good massage can do. I think they get frightened by foreigners who don’t understand that Thai massage is supposed to hurt to get the most benefit.

Flew off to meet Doug who had preceeded me to Ko Samui on the 19th of January.

Samui-Chiang Mai-Pai

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Doug had been on Koh Samui while I was in Bangkok having my teeth taken care of after we first arrived in Thailand in November 2013. While there, Doug had taken his boat, that he had just finished refurbishing, out into the open sea off Samui. It was just a little fishing boat and the boat launchers forgot to put the plug into the back of the boat. The launchers realized it but it was too late. Luk tried to call him back but he didn’t hear her.

Needless to say the boat sank and since the life vest got caught on the bottom of the boat Doug had to swim about a mile back to shore nearly drowning in the process. “You almost lost a son today,” he said, when he called me!

Fishing Boat Launch

He lost his wallet, credit card and phone with the boat so we spent quite a bit of time finagling with banks and getting him a new phone.

Understandably, Doug decided to get off Samui so he flew from Samui to Chiang Mai and I flew from Bangkok on Dec 23rd to meet him for a couple weeks. He had his motorcycle sent from Samui to Chiang Mai…through the post! Amazing!

While in Chiang Mai we took a 4-hour trip north through the mountains in a van to Pai for a couple days. Couldn’t believe how much Pai has changed into a hippie backpacker town! Seemed like there were more foreigners there than village people!

I’m about fed up with Japanese princesses who take up more than their fair share of space on the planet to take those blasted photos! And loud crude Russians! And besides that the princesses hold up the van for 20 minutes while they talk on the phone and pack the van with bags of gifts. Perhaps I’m just getting tired. Sigh.

Then…serendipity! A guy I know used to live across the street from us years ago in Salem Oregon. He turned up in my life again in the late 80’s when he happened to be the legislative fiscal officer in charge of the budget for the Commission on Hispanic Affairs where I was the Executive Director. I would run into him occasionally over the years at a coffee shop whenever I was in Salem in transit to Asia.

Well, here in Chiang Mai, one day I was strolling down a little soi near Suan Buak Haad Public Park in the SE corner of the old city and saw a nice looking new guesthouse. The Tulip. I walked into the outdoor reception area to check it out and who was sitting at a table with his laptop open on the table? Geronimo!

What are the chances?

Family Reunion on Koh Samui

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The Big Deals...Josh, Greg, Doug

Me And Greg

It had been Christmas 15 years ago, Josh remembered, when the whole family…Bob, Greg, Josh, Doug and I…had been all together at one place at the same time.

Bob Charmed The Help

Luk, Doug's Thai Wife

Polly, Josh's SO

So Bob, retired from his pediatric practice in Salem, Oregon and realizing we weren’t getting any younger, rented a resort villa on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand where Doug lives part of the year in a rented bungalow with his Thai wife Luk. We chose Thailand because Doug was already there and it was easier than trying to get Luk a tourist visa to any other country.

Josh brought his Cantonese significant other, Polly, from Hong Kong where he lives and works as the Executive Chef at the American Club. (Not that it has anything to do with America!) Greg had taken off a couple weeks of his anesthesiology practice in Las Vegas to meet Josh in Hong Kong and then spend a few days in Hanoi together before flying down to Samui. Bob flew in from Pattaya where golf is his life. In November 2012 I had flown in from Oaxaca Mexico where I live so it was no problem to fly down from Bangkok where I had been sitting in a dental chair for days.

Four whole days together was wonderful but it was just about the right amount of time for resort living. We all had our own villas right on the ocean. Several Thai girls and a cook were at our beck and call. They spread out an elegant breakfast of our choice each morning by the pool. A massage table by the pool was ready for us. Doug and I had rented a pick-up and Josh and Greg rented motorbikes to run around the island. The only decisions we had to make were what to eat the rest of the day.

Sitting there watching the boys in the water I shivered remembering Christmas of 2004 when Doug and Luk almost lost their lives in their bungalow 14 feet from the water when the tsunami hit the Krabi coast. About 8 in the morning Doug heard what he thought was a bomb. Lukily they had the doors and windows closed. When he pulled back the curtains to the sliding doors, the water was engulfing the entire bungalow. When the first wave went out they grabbed their phones and ran up the hill behind the house.

But then Luk wouldn’t live on the Krabi beach anymore. She said there were many ghosts and she wouldn’t eat the fish because she said the fish had eaten the people. So Doug had rented a pickup to move them to Koh Samui on the other side of the Thai peninsula in the Gulf of Thailand. I was in Bangkok at the time and seeing the news on TV I was frantic. But after 30 minutes of trying to get through to them on the phone I heard those sweet sweet voices. A movie about the tsunami is in the theaters now called “Impossible.” I can’t bear to see it.

Anyway, this was the first time any of us had experienced a self-contained resort like this. But as we were all very familiar with Thailand and Thai life, we weren’t sacrificing anything by isolating ourselves. We did remark how sad it is that many people only experience a country in this way though. Our time together ended with “When are we going to do this again?” All of us looking at Bob who footed the bill! LOL

Doug Brings Electricity To Samui

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Doug, my son, flew into Bangkok yesterday from Oregon to fly out again two days later to spend his annual several months with his wife, Luk, on the island of Koh Samui. We had a bit of a scare just before he arrived because a scheduled utility maintenance on undersea trunk wires went bad and Koh Samui and Koh Phagnan were both out of electricity for several days. It went back on in the morning just before he flew in to Koh Samui so Luk, my daughter-in-law, was ecstatic…saying that Doug bring the electricity with him! 😉

Tourists were leaving the islands left and right and Thailand has reportedly lost 1.2 billion baht in income. Poor Thailand. I was in Thailand for the 2004 tsunami where Doug and Luk nearly lost their lives in their bungalow on the Krabi beach, 2006 for the last coup, 2009-10 for the Red Shirt Rally and in 2012 for the Yellow Shirt Rally. If it isn’t one thing it’s another.

I’ve written about the tsunami on this blog where Doug and Luk nearly lost their lives in their bungalow on a Krabi Beach on December 4, 2004. I was in Bangkok at the time and nearly had a heart attack when I came back to my hotel and switched on the TV to get the daily news. Half hour later I was able to get through to them, however. What sweet voices! Doug immediately hired a pickup to take them to the other side of the Thai peninsula to live. Luk said there were ghosts on Krabi and she wouldn’t eat the fish because they had eaten the people. So that is why they live on Samui instead of on Krabi…a place we all dearly loved.

On Dec 22nd I’ll take a bus to Pattaya about an hour west and spend Christmas week with my husband…or Oregon Bob…as his golf club buddies refer to him because there are 3 Bobs in the group. He wants to cook a turkey for me and his golfing friends. He says he needs someone to peel potatoes! hahahahaha!

Back Home in Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Whew!  What a ride! A week in Vegas, a month in Salem Oregon, a week in Hong Kong, 5 months in Thailand (4 in Bangkok and a month on Koh Samui) a week in Hong Kong again, 2 weeks in Salem, 10 days in Vegas and now back home in Oaxaca. Right now, I don’t care if I see another airport again!

Oaxaca is in the middle of an historical heat wave. Am I still in Thailand? Three fans on in my bedroom at night. Oh where is that Thai A/C?! Too hot to go grocery shopping!  (Maybe I’ll lose some weight.) Tomorrow I’ll just water my plants and drink what’s left of my Arizona Iced Green Tea.  And then take a nap.

Bangkok To Ko Samui

Posted on by Laughingnomad

All in one day on my street in Bangkok I saw a very good-looking farang (foreigner), who was old enough to know better, in a big wide straw hat…wearing no shirt…showing off his severely “cut” abs…attracting the stares of the Thai women and the rest of us who are not use to seeing shirtless farangs who forget they are not on the beach anymore! :))  But much better viewing, however, than the overweight European women in shorts and bra in the City of Angels where those things should never be seen!

The same day I saw a father and his 2 year old boy walking by one of those paid women beggars who sit at the foot of the stairs to the skytrain holding a borrowed infant. The little boy had been eating chips out of a small bag and he held out his bag to the infant as he passed by with no prompting from the father…so heart-warming to see his natural generosity!  I saw a young Thai guy wearing a T-shirt that said in English “Merry Clitormas” instead of Merry Christmas!  And I visited for hours with some newly-made friends at the sidewalk tables at the Parrot Cafe run by a Dutch guy and where you can get good brewed coffee.

Now I am on the island of  breezy Samui where I am helping my daughter-in-law and her mother set up a small tasteful Thai-style “restaurant” on the beach in Lamai that Doug leased before he temporarily returned to the States last month.  There is a water trench that winds through the restaurant that Luk wants to fill with fish. Yesterday we bought a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and a wicker table and chairs.  This is great fun! Luk’s mother is gregarious and an excellent cook so we hope for success! I am suggesting to Doug that he offer good American and British breakfasts that are difficult to come by on this part of the beach. They will have a juice bar and Luk will go to Bangkok to learn how to operate and make coffee with one of those nice Bon Cafe machines.  She is all excited to make artsy fartsy designs in the foam. :))

Luk and I stopped by the Thai immigration office on Samui to check on my visa regulations.  You have to leave Thailand the young good-looking officer says.  Aren’t there any other options for me…I don’t want to leave Thailand!  You can marry, he says.  Can I marry you, I ask?  Yes, he says.  But I already marry!  Me too, I say. And we laughed!  Anything I can do for you, you come see me, he says!  So much for those mean immigration guys!  As we were leaving, I wanted to tell the young waiting backpackers in dreadlocks to SMILE! :))  It might help them a bit!

The A/C doesn’t work in Doug’s bungalow where I was originally going to stay, so I am in a lovely artsy beach hotel with an ocean view and so close to the water you can hear the waves through the sliding glass doors!  I’m walking distance half way between the bungalow and the restaurant. Luk’s mom has been bringing morning rice and pork soup to my room in the hotel and cooking the late afternoon meals for us in the restaurant-to-be. The other evening a farang from Hungary and his Thai girlfriend were walking the beach so Luk’s mom invited them to finish off our generous meal.  Talk talk, talk!

I’m driving Doug’s pickup on these narrow ring roads around the island which is much better than renting one of those little jeeps that are hard to shift.  I just have to remember to stay on the left side of the road and watch for cars and motorcycles who want to pass on both the right and left of me…sometimes on both sides at the same time!

Today we are taking time off to rest.  Luk is sore from working on the restaurant and will not be grilling pork sticks out in front of the restaurant by the road. Wednesday, Luk and her mom and I will take the ferry with Doug’s pickup to Suratani and on to Trang Province south of here where we will see grandma and pick up Luk’s mom’s motorcycle and a few household items.  Doug and Luk will be giving up their beach bungalow in February and moving into a walled off section of the restaurant to save money. Hmmm.  We’ll see how that works out! :))

I would love to take the ferry to the diving island of Koh Tao where there are no cars and where I haven’t been yet.  Or Koh Pha Nang famous for the full-moon parties…only pure white sandy beaches with restaurants jutting out into the water.  But no full-moon party for me!

So now I need to figure out how I am going to get out of Thailand before February 9th and where/when to come back in.  A van to Panang Malaysia? Or a flight to Singapore? Maybe a week on the beaches of Krabi before hitting Bangkok again?  I get the crowns on my implants in March in Bangkok before flying back to the states.  Whew!  I’m tired already!

And that, so far, with the exception of watching the heart-wrenching devastation in Haiti on my hotel TV, is my time on Koh Samui.

A Month in the States on the Way to Asia

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 This mainly for fam and friends…

Flew into Las Vegas from Oaxaca the end of September to spend a few days with my oldest son, Greg.  Always a big treat.  My old U.S. Samsung flip phone was on it’s last legs and Greg couldn’t get ahold of me when I landed so he decided I needed an iPhone so he bought me one.  I can even text on it like all the kids all over the world. I have a Mexican phone and a Thai phone for local calls but I keep the U.S. number/phone just in case I get a court order to appear for something…or my kids can reach me in an emergency! :))  Otherwise I use video-skype on my computer that I travel with.  Come to think of it I also have a WiFi skype phone when I don’t have my computer with me!  With my cameras and phones and computer, it’s now called “Flashpacking” Instead of backpacking!

Bob flew in to Las Vegas from Thailand while I was in Vegas…was fun listening to all the banter between the two of them.  Then we both flew to Portland where we are ensconsed in our middle son’s (Doug) rental house in Salem where he has been for the last few months trying to earn some money so he can go back to Thailand.  His Thai wife, Luk, was here with him for a couple months but her tourist visa ran out so she is back in Thailand waiting for him to return in November.

Otherwise lots of errands like the accountant, bank, doc, pharmacy, going through stuff at the Azalea St. house to give to Doug and other stuff to set aside to take down to Oaxaca. Took my little computer to the Apple store for some more memory and re-install of the OS which I hope clears up some of the goofy stuff it has been doing. Toyota is dead so guess we will just store it at the farm until Doug can arrange to have a new motor put in it. Took the little ’94 Lexus in for a rehab so it ought to serve us well while each of us is in Oregon in the future for visits.

Got my Thai visa at the Thai consolate…very easy and quick…1 year multi-entry…good thing Bob was with me cause we used his retirement visa as a back-up to prove that I was going to Thailand as a tourist to visit family. Cost me $175 but is better than going across the border every 15 days or flying in and out every 30 days. You’d think they would make it easier for tourists to go spend money but they are trying to keep out the backpackers who they don’t like very much and who don’t spend much money.

Bob saw his mom for her 90th Bday…we will go up to Portland again next Sunday for a family get together again with her and the rest of the family.

Josh, after a visit from his wife, Amy, this last week, has informed us that they have agreed to go their separate ways. He seemed quite relieved and was actually pretty chipper. Think the worst of the bad feeling was the shock a couple months ago when she left Hong Kong and told him she didn’t think it would work.  We are relieved a decision has been made.

When I get back to the States from Asia next spring I’m going to drive some more stuff down to Oaxaca.  Have looked at so many cars I am now thoroughly confused and can’t even remember the first ones I looked at. :((  As of now it looks like the Toyota Rav4.  Nice highway driving but hardy enough for Oaxaca potholed mountain roads.

Bob and I both leave on Nov 1…he back to his house south of Pattya in Thailand and me for Hong Kong to see son Josh. Doug will leave for Thailand first or second week of November so he will be there by the time I leave Hong Kong for Thailand. So I will see him and Luk on the island of Koh Samui.

There is a huge couchsurfing get-together in Istanbul in May but I just realized I might not be able to make it. My MEX visa is up June 16 and I think they said I needed to come in 30 days before to renew…or whatever it is they make you do. So if I am going to fly back to Oregon, pick up the car, and get down to Oaxaca by the beginning of May, I’ll have to leave Asia about 2-3 weeks before that….in April sometime. I’m thinking out loud here. March and April is hot in Thailand so maybe I’ll roam around Turkey and Syria before flying back to the States. Unless I’m sick of being on the road by that time.

So we have a few friends to visit still and some phone calling to do and should be good to go by Nov 1.

We have been waking up way too early. Maybe just good prep for the impending time change/jet lag. 😦

Asian Travel Update

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Last week Amy, Josh’s wife, flew down to Samui from Beijing with a colleague from her international school where they teach history. Four short days but it was a treat to see them!

    Koh Samui to Trang to Krabi

The day before they left Doug, Luk and I drove to Trang to leave Ting Tong, their dog, in the care of Luk’s mother during our week-long trip to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to renew Doug’s Thai visa. We had planned on spending the night in Trang before driving over to Krabi International Airport to catch a plane to KL but that was not to be. We checked into the hotel at 11am and was told the rooms would be vacated at noon. Noon came and went and so did 1pm and 2pm. Rooms were supposedly being made up for us. Finally at 2:30, with absolutely no concern being shown by the dour desk clerk, we decided just to drive the 1.5 hrs to Krabi for the night. So much for the land of smiles! Typical foreign “customer service.” But we were not really surprised and quickly let our frustration go. We have had a lot of practice at it!

Driving to Krabi in a monsoon rain, a dog ran out in front of doug’s pick-up. I thought we had hit a rock. Needless to say the rest of the trip was a pretty sober one.

    Kuala Lumpur

Now we are in Kuala Lumpur. We checked into the Backpackers Travellers Inn in Chinatown recommended by Lonely Planet and an expat in KL. Wrong! Filthy concrete floors, no top sheet, had to purchase a towel, no soap but for $25 a night, in their generosity, we did have air/con. However with no sheet it got cold during the night and turning off the air/con just meant we got hot again. But the owner/manager was quite the charmer…think he charmed Lonely Planet a bit too much!

The next day, we found a nice hotel for $40 a night…worth every penny. Think the kids on the road are a bit too tolerant of some of these backpacker guesthouses. $25 a night was robbery! Usually a room like this is $5-10.

    Thai Immigration in Kuala Lumpur

The next morning we took the local train to the Thai embassy…and after a two hour wait Doug was nearly ecstatic to get his Immigration O visa renewed for another year. We have learned to make it easy for the officials. Shove all the documentation you can think of in front of them (some of which could have been rightly questioned) and ask absolutely no questions! You never know what the requirements are in whatever immigration office you are visiting. “Depends,” Doug says, “on what how the local office interprets the myriad of rules, on what they think of you, what their mood is and whether they got laid the night before” Told Doug shame on him. But don’t think it’s too far from the truth.

One very angry farang, married to a Thai but living and working in Malaysia just wanted to get a Thai tourist visa to visit his wife’s relatives. It is required that he have a letter from his boss verifying his employment. But I am the boss, he said. I own my own company! Didn’t fit the rules. They refused to give him his visa. An older Malaysian gentleman spent quite some time at the window arguing with a young female officer. I told Doug to try to get the the guy at the next window who was whipping them through. Suspect that if you try to argue you are doomed.

    Meeting a Burmese in Kuala Lumpur

While waiting for Doug, I had a great conversation with a young guy from Burma (Myanmar he calls it…I said we foreigners refuse to use the names changed by the junta). We lamented the damage to southern Burma by the cyclone that has killed more than 20,000 people and knocked out electricity and basic services like the food supply. A Thai friend and I have plane tickets to fly to Rangoon on May 19 for a week but think that trip is not to be. Probably can’t get a visa now. Internet is down and I can’t get ahold of my guesthouse. Travel web sites are awash with friends trying to get information about friends traveling in Burma. Pictures of Rangoon that looked like they had been taken from a plane on a Malaysian TV news program this morning showed widespread devastation.

A report by a young woman living in Rangoon found on the net:

“Hello everyone: I am finally in Bangkok after a Iloooooooong try to get out of Yangon. The cyclone was horrible, I felt guilty leaving all of my friends who have so much to deal w/ roofs off or w/ huge holes, windows gone or broken, cave-ins, tropical trees laying around on tops of houses, our school, roads and everywhere. yangon will never look the same…

The local people have no expectation of governmental help – they are used to a lifestyle that deals w/ daily challenges unsupported by the use of machinery nor having an expectation that their govt. will come to supply aide. they do not have one ‘iota’ of the services ‘we expect’ in the states. I only saw govt. people working close to the airport areas on Sunday and Monday when I was trying to find out about the airport traffic. its been a huge community effort to clear things up. people from all social economic levels were out sawing trees, clearing dibree and offering a helping hand. There were a few chain saws about, but very few.

The worse is yet to come. Our school will be closing due to lack of fuel and fresh water available for people. There are many unknowns – the last stat I heard about death toll was over 15,000 – there is no way of knowing the numbers. I pray for these peaceful people. Going there without support of an NGO or other agency to help would be foolish. Be careful!

Am beginning to wonder what is going on here…student demonstrations in Istanbul, tsunami in Thailand, military coup in Thailand, bloody 7 month teacher strike in Oaxaca, freezing cold among stranded travellers in freak storm in China…now Burma. Better get the hell home before the monsoons start in Thailand…assuming nothing will happen again for the next few months in the NW. Last year 8 tourists were washed away in Koh Samui. So glad Doug has his pick-up now.

    U.S. Customs in LA

Meanwhile in the US of A Bob returned to Salem via LA and Las Vegas. Said he was “detained by customs in LA who were certain that they had apprehended the kingpin of child porn. Went thru everything including a half hour search of the nooks and crannies of my computer. Subsequently I missed my Las Vegas connection and had to spend the night in the LA airport sweet place between 2 and 4 a.m. Complained at the custom’s office but was patronized. Will write a few letters as they were abusive and caustic and played ‘big cop.’ A little scary re the potential of what the government can do in the name of national security…..”

The AP wire service today released an article:

“Interpol launched a worldwide appeal to the public Tuesday to help identify a man suspected of sexually abusing young boys from Southeast Asia – hoping the rare move will lead to a quick arrest. The suspect in the latest case is a white man, shown with gray, thinning hair in photos released by Interpol. He appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s in the images.”

No wonder Bob was detained! Told him not to go through LA but what do I know…

Actually this has happened to Doug three times. Fitting the drug “profile” with only a small backpack and a frequent traveller back and forth from SE Asia to the U.S., he was very rudely harrassed in the PDX airport by customs for over an hour. He refuses to travel with his computer anymore.

    Free WiFi in Kuala Lumpur

Doug and Luk have gone to the Thai immigration office again today to pick up Doug’s passport. This city is totally wired with free WiFi everywhere. Now I am ensconsed in the Golden Triangle in the BB Plaza in front of a shopping mall and coffee shop where I can pick up free WiFi and even plug in the computer for a limitless power supply and watch this diverse Malaysian city meander by. I am set! Glad to know I am not the only one who can sit for hours with my computer though. An Australian woman sitting behind me just got up to leave. It is 11pm. We sat down at 5.