Summary
- I have experienced many sights, foods, and cultures along the way.
- The USA is located almost on the opposite side of Thailand, and it took nearly an entire day to arrive.
Highlights
Aerial Photography
Thailand
- The scenery with rice fields is similar to Japan, but we can see a clearer separation based on districts.
- The roads are almost straight, and even the blocks tend to have a rectangular shape rather than a square one.
- The buildings are relatively low-rise but densely packed, with a highway connecting them.
Cambodia
- The altitude was high, but the large red colord river had a magnificent presence.
- I couldn't find the city, but there were tall clouds, which are common in tropical regions.
Vietnam
- This place is far from the city center, but we can see highways crossing the land.
Philippines
- Similar to Shanghai, the coastal area is more like a swamp, and some blocks may be reclaimed or just flooded.
- The city center has tall buildings, but small, unplanned towns are still dominant.
Airports
- BKK was clean and built with a large metal frame and grass.
- It's a slightly different topic, but the aircraft was old, and I could see the Linux system booting. The MNL airport was also old and only provided me with 1 Mbps internet.
Foods
- This Pad Thai was way better than what I had on the airplane. Pandan has a unique, somewhat artificial sweet smell that didn't match with the butterfly pea.
- As always, food in the airport is expensive or rather, almost the same price regardless of the country.
- These buns cost almost 1000 yen but were filled with BBQ meat.
- The coconut bake was sweet, made of coconut, marshmallow, and corn.
- This beef might look like curry but is more akin to Chinese red meat, having a more gelatinous texture.
San Francisco
- San Francisco actually has a good transportation system. Although it's not frequent, it's much cleaner than New York.
- The subway system is minimal, but the city is covered with a comprehensive bus network that helps us climb the steep streets of San Francisco.
- The buildings here are more traditional than I thought, similar to New York, but they are more suited to human scale.
- Every road has pedestrian walkways, making it walkable, similar to Japan.
Impressions
- The air is icy here, which is comparable to a Japanese autumn, although it's still summer. This brings serious problems to our throats since it takes away humidity as it enters the mouth, causing the temperature to rise. Not only that, it seems I'm experiencing symptoms of hay fever even though it's still summer, and this mild temperature also gives mosquitoes a chance to thrive. However, it would be a really comfortable climate if I didn't have those problems.
- The people here are friendly and even say thank you every time they leave the train.
- Japanese people tend to imply things subtly, while here it is more explicit, using verbal and facial expressions.
- The culture and values are completely different from those of Asian people. This is probably comfortable for the locals but sometimes not for us and sometimes unintendedly gives us discomfort or worry.
- Asian people are commonly seen, yet the majority of the population is still of European origin, especially dominant in wealthy neighborhoods.
Conclusion
- Each country has unique characteristics of cities, such as planned/unplanned, high/low density, and even visibility from the sky.
- Some nations might have dirty streets, but this could be due to the mud the river carries.
- The food here frequently incorporates coconut, but it tastes different from what we eat in Japan, which usually only uses oil.
- San Francisco has an extensive bus network rather than a metro; it takes time, but it is accessible from every place.
