“Well, Nazy,” I said. “We’re too late. The sign says that they are distributing tickets for the 12:30 tour. We have to be heading to the airport by noon. Let’s go. I told you that we should have hurried. I told you..”

“Dan.”

“Maybe we should just get a postcard or something.” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Will you wait a minute, Dan?” Nazy replied as she walked to the ticket counter. “This is a beautiful building.” Nazy told the ticket agent. “And we would really like to go to the bridge.”

“The next tickets are for the 12:30..”

“Yes, I know,” Nazy replied. “But we have to leave for the airport by noon. We’re from Switzerland and we’ve come a long way to..”

“Everyone has come a long way to see this tower,” I thought.

“Could you possibly find a way to let us take the next tour?”

As we joined ‘our’ group in the elevator, Nazy turned to me with a smile. “See? Watch and Learn.”

The flight to Bangkok was smooth. The country was adjusting to a recent coup – which as coup’s go, was quite uneventful. More boldly, we were flying into a new airport – an airport that had been open for only 10 days. Airport systems had lost a lot of luggage, but we had no problems.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, I dashed into the conveniently attached shopping mall to get some Thai Baht. There were several ATM machines and, unlike the ones in Switzerland, these dispense cash before returning the card.

Thailand has always seemed to be an exotic place. Bangkok’s population of 12 million is about 20% of the population of the country. Observational skills honed during our visit have led us to believe that there are 18.3 million motorized, wheeled vehicles in Bangkok. (But, nothing with more than three wheels actually moves.) Traffic lights take forever to change. Air pollution would have been unbearable if it hadn’t been for the daily torrential rain.

Exotic? Yes. Efficient? Well, we did have a lot of time in the taxi to read up on the local culture and customs.

“Did you know, Dan,” Nazy said, looking up from her guide book. “A woman is not allowed to touch a monk.”

“You won’t be tempted, my dear,” I replied. “A monk is not allowed to touch soap.”

Our first excursion took us to the Grand Palace – home of the Emerald Buddha. It was here that I realized..

“I don’t have my ATM card, Nazy Dearest.”

“What did you do with it? Dan?” There was a long pause. “Dear?”

“I left it in the banking machine,” I thought. “Perhaps it is in the hotel room,” I said.

“You probably left it in the ATM machine. You are always rushing – that’s the problem.”

“I was not rushing,” I said in a rush.

After touring the grand palace, an enormous complex of royal buildings, Pong, our guide, had a suggestion.

“People in a rush,” he said, looking at me, “like to go directly back to the hotel. But for relaxed people with time, I can make special tour. You see the government buildings, the victory statue and government craft store.”

“My ATM card is missing.” I replied.

“What a great idea,” Nazy exclaimed.

The craft store was actually an enormous emporium specializing in gemstones found in Thailand: ruby and sapphire. The shop assigned a ‘guide’ to help us, eh, to help Nazy, understand the profit of buying ‘our’ gem from them – and the peril of dealing with other suppliers.

Luckily, I was too worried about my missing ATM card to concentrate on a gemstone purchase. We extracted ourselves and made our way back to the hotel. A complete search of the room failed to locate the missing card. Luckily, we had internet access in the room. I fired up my PC and..

“What are you doing, Dan?” Nazy asked.

“I’m going to send an eMail to Martina to cancel the card.”

“Then my card might stop working.”

“So what do you suggest?”

Nazy wanted to ‘see’ the ATM machine that I had used. [“Great idea,” I thought. “Maybe the card is still sticking out of the little slot.”] Then, if the card wasn’t there, we could visit the bank and ask for help. [“I’m sure that will work.”]

The card wasn’t in the ATM machine, but Nazy found a nearby Bangkok Bank branch office. They didn’t have the card, but:

“He told me to call Mr. Tarawansate in one hour.”

“They don’t like to say ‘no’, so they just pass you on to someone else,” I thought. “Well, if you can get the card back, you’ll get major bonus points, Nazy.”

“You are calmer about this situation than you were when I lost my ATM card.”

“Yes, well…”

“And calmer than you were when Mitra lost her purse.”

“But..”

“And far more relaxed than you were when Darius forgot lost his mobile phone….”

“…. and his passport, house keys, driver’s license, winter coat, winter coat, winter coat, winter coat…”

When Mr. Tarawansate promised to call Nazy at the hotel if the card turned up, I snickered – to myself.

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