Movin' on up ...

Note to self: next time bring a cell phone and pop in a cheap SIMM card. I realize this while trying to coordinate a rendezvous with the apartment rental rep who will drive me to the complex of brand-new units several miles outside central Bangkok. We have a plan to meet at the Krung Thonburi skytrain station at 10 a.m.

To make it easy for him to identify me, I email him a picture of myself, including the shirt and daypack I will be wearing. I even leave early for the station.

He has the picture. We have a place, we have a time. This plan is foolproof -- or would be, had I seen his follow-up email specifying exactly where to meet.

And so, he waits downstairs at the exit ramp, and I wait upstairs at the gate. Bottom line, we miss connections. Later, when I find the nearest wi-fi connection back in town, I read his string of testy emails. Sample: "Where are you. I am waiting at exit 2 from last 30 minuts. I have other works to do. Y u do not call me? I have told you to buy a sim card so we all save time. The owner is also waiting at the room. Because of not having tel we all are wasting our time"

Shorter translation: "Hey, Stupid!"

Happy ending, however: The sales rep does eventually try upstairs at the BTS station and learns from the very helpful woman gate attendant that I had been there all along and even borrowed her cell phone to try and call him. An hour later we finally do connect, I secure the studio apartment, and tomorrow I move in. More about my new digs soon, but it will be my first exploration of middle-class Thai society. For example, my landlady is a lawyer who also lives in the complex. (She and her boyfriend, also a lawyer, are both in their early 30s and stunningly gorgeous.) Whereas up until now my only experience has been with the street denizens of old Bangkok and service workers in the destination locales. No, not THAT kind of "service worker."