Missing In Asia

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! This is your captain speaking. We have passed over the Thai-Lao border and will be landing in Bangkok in a little over half-an-hour. The weather in Bangkok is clear as was predicted. Temperature is now 97 degrees Farenheit. We should be right on time for an 11:30 PM landing at Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport. Thank you.”

Harwich woke up refreshed and gratefully took a plastic cup of orange juice from a stewardess. Hot season, he thought, not overly excited about having to deal with the killing heat that ravaged Southeast Asia at this time of the year. Still, it was better than the monsoon season that brought life to a virtual halt. He still hadn’t the vaguest idea about why Glenn wanted him over here but he trusted his feelings and those made him take the weather into account. Maybe Glenn just needed his linguistic or cultural skills but if so, why hadn’t he told Harwich that over the phone? No, Harwich felt this whole business could be related to his activities in Indochina and if so, the weather conditions had to be watched and worked with.

This is where you start earning your keep, John, he thought.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are on final approach to Bangkok. At this time, we would ask you to return to your seats and place the tray tables in the upright position, stow any luggage you may have taken out in the overhead compartments or under the seat in front of you and please fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing in ten minutes. Thank you.”

The 747 descended lower and lower still, the darkness of the peaceful rice paddies giving way to a well lit-up industrialized brightness. Bangkok was not far off. He could hardly wait to get on the ground and reacquaint himself with his old stomping grounds. After he got done getting to the Oriental and meeting Glenn, he’d pop over to hit Patpong Road. assuming for one thing that he didn’t fall asleep in his bed and secondly, that Patpong itself was still same-same.

Things must be so different in the City of Angels nowadays, Harwich mused. The guidebooks spoke of a city he wasn’t sure he’d recognize. What he’d  read on the Los Angeles-Tokyo flight and in the waiting lounge at Narita told him how much Thailand had grown since the end of the Vietnam War--his era--and especially in the ’80s and  ’90s.It made him a little sad to think that much of what he’d known had changed. The guidebook described a Bangkok of approximately ten-twelve million souls, dangerous smog levels, perpetual traffic jams, flooded streets during monsoon season (something he remembered from his time in Thailand),McDonald’s, Pizza Hutt,7-Elevens, ATMS and computer shops. However, much of the old did remain. The Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha, Wat Saket, Wat Arun (his favorite temple),the Reclining Buddha, the klongs. All was not lost.