My eyes are burning as we load the van in Bangkok. We've got about a 6 hour drive ahead of us. Thankfully my eyes are only burning from the fumes in the air, not from the severe lack of sleep that's stinging Al.
Jet lag is an interesting thing. Yesterday I was in a travel-induced fugue state after planes, connections, crossing date lines and a sleepless night. Today it's poor Al who was up most of the night and slept through his alarm. I'd attach a picture, but viewing his grim visage might be too disturbing to for some of the younger members of our audience.
Highway north toward Khon Kaen.
It's a bright, hot, blindingly sunny day. We're blasting north along the highway toward Khon Kaen where we'll be seeing some of the areas where the carbon offsets are in action.
The whole idea of carbon offsets is complicated and I keep trying to come up with a way to simplify it. So, very basically, farmers are payed for planting trees and plants and managing the land to help make up for carbon that's been emitted and is being released.
I want to point out that the above sentence was crafted after literally an hour and a half of discussing just the right way to sum up the idea of carbon credits in a simple sentence. Jay Samek of the MSU Forestry Department is terrific at explaining the intricacies of how carbon markets work, but let's face it, this is a blog. You're probably not here for a detailed analysis of carbon offsets and the implications for Annex 1 and Annex 2 countries as determined by the Kyoto Protocols.
Or am I wrong?
I'm surprised by how good the highway is out here. The streets of Bangkok are an exhaust choked maze. This road is wide open and fast. A nice change.
Journalist Jamie DePolo and I are the only ones awake as we cruise along.
9:30a.m.
Ah, the magic of a truckstop.
We're stopped for gas and everyone, except the slack-jawed and snoozing Al, piled out of the barely air conditioned van and into the Thai truckstop. "Jiffy Stop," technically.
Thailand truckstop.
I love truckstops. A couple of weeks ago I bought two breakfast burritos at a spot just of I-80, deep in Wyoming. Leaning heavily on guidance from knowledgeable denizens of such environs, "Yup. I'd go with the steak and taters or that there eggie kinda porky thing if'n yer hungry," I found myself with some heartstoppingly good roadfood in the cradle of the interstate at 2:00a.m.
But this is Thailand and there's no "porky thing" in site. There are, however, fresh dim sum and the ever-present rolling hotdog cooker with frighteningly pale tubes flecked with Thai.
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1 comment:
So were you able to coax Al into eating one of those rotating hot dog thingys? It may cure his jetleg.
- Mike
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