Transit day

We landed at Bangkok at 0610 local time and were allowed to stretch our legs. The airport smelt of deodorant and humidity, common in Asian buildings. On the next leg I tried to "sleep in" to adjust. Eventually I had to resort to the entertainment system. The in-flight film (definite article, as this was in the days before personal screens) was Enchanted April, of the people from gloomy England find happiness in a warm Mediterranean clime genre.

We had made up all but 10 minutes of the delay on arrival at Schiphol. I checked into my tiny but spotless room. I took myself for a walk to stretch my body clock. It was a warm day. People were enjoying the balmy weather in Vondelpark, around the corner from the hotel. A didgeridoo busker was playing, but he faked the modulation by waving a mute across the mouth rather than controlling his breath. There was a kermis in full swing at Damrak and another at Museumplein. Traffic was snarled, as usual; anybody who drives in Amsterdam is a fool.

I had a look in the Virgin Megastore but CDs were expensive. Anyway I didn't want to load myself down with purchases at the beginning of a holiday. The Netherlands had created a 5 guilder coin since my last visit, for inflation or vending machines, or both.

I tried to stay up as late as possible to adjust. I had a conference tutorial to attend next day, and inevitably I would wake up in the small hours of the morning and not get enough sleep. And because it was a Sunday there would be less trams running.

At this point I will skip several days in the blog, past the conference, because I don't have any photos for those days, and I would bore you with just a wall of text.