Greetings from cloudy, rainy and cold Beirut. Quite a contrast to the tropical sun and sweaty warmth of Thailand. We're unpacked and settling in on a stormy night looking forward to a fun-filled day of school tomorrow.
(Ugh.)
The return flight was uneventful except for a bit of excitement on the travel scrabble board. Marcey bingoed twice, the second time with FLOODERS. (We looked it up and sure enough it means "one who floods") I returned the volley with DIMENTIA, a bingo on a triple word score. It was neck and neck, tit for tat, nip and tuck, parry and thrust all the way to the end. Marcey prevailed by more than ten points. Kudos to her.
Otherwise the flight was a yawnfest. In fact, we had an entire cabin to ourselves from Bangkok to Doha. Fifteen rows of eight chairs across were all empty. There were probably thirty passengers on a three hundred seat plane. They lost money on that one. Doha to Beirut was packed though, with many Indians, Pakistanis, and other small, brownish men smelling of spicy sweat. I helped one Bangledeshian fill out his entrance card. Actually, I filled it out completely for him. He handed me his passport and residence card and indicated that he wanted me to fill in the immigration form. So I dutifully found his name (Anjar something something. There were three names and I couldn't be sure which was a forename and which was a surname), birth date (1958), nationality (Bangledesh. Imagine that, it's own country now), and expiration date (of the passport presumably, not Anjar). I left the lines for occupation and address blank rather than making something up.
Sure, it would fun, but since I wouldn't be around to watch him get dragged off to jail, what's the point.
Daylight savings time began in our absence. Thailand doesn't change her clocks. She probably figures she's got plenty of daylight so there's no point saving any. It's getting dark later and the "ALLAH AKBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR's" are getting longer. They have to stretch five call to prayers over a longer period of daylight so I think the mezzanine guy throws in some extra glottal stops. Maybe he's wishing everyone a happy Easter or offering a eulogy for the pope.
Jet lag and gut rot are taking its toll so I'll sign off for now. Just wanted to let everyone know we returned from our trip safe. I'll try to get more stories off soon.