If you ever come to Bangkok, one experience you should not miss is rooftop dining.  It must have been more than two decades ago.  I was staying in the Banyan Tree Hotel, which was then a Westin.  In any case, at the top was  Vertigo , the first roof top dining restaurant in the city.  The building has 61 floors, and you are at the top. Since then I've dined at a few more.  As the second of its kind,  Sirocco  opened in 2003 on the 63rd floor.  Read about  my experience in 2015: ... the symbol of supreme dining extravagance in Thailand, remaining as the highest place to enjoy a meal with only the sky above you, on the 63rd floor of the State Tower.   I took the photos below awaiting my table and saw the sunset. Maybe your mind might recall this scene, for parts of  Hangover 2  were shot here. This posting  provides cuisine and wine details for every dish. So, the chef came by to chat with me, for maybe the third time, and we joked around enough that I don't think he was insulted

 Our M Club dinner with drinks last night. Went to bed early.  Note that we essentially did nothing in Singapore. We catch Thai Air from Singapore to Subarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.  Started in some strange sounding and dingy looking lounge.  No tomato juice for a Bloody Mary.  Had Asahi Beer and a glass of Chardonnay with curry rice, which was lukewarm, but okay.  Huge chunks of good-tasting beef. Thailand is, geographically, 700 times larger than Singapore, with 13 times more people.   However, the annual GDP are very similar, $495 million for Thailand and $467 million for Singapore. Thus, the GDP per capita of Singapore is $82,808 and $7,082 for Thailand. Singapore is #1 in world competitiveness, Thailand #40. Global Peace Ranking:  Singapore #6, Thailand #92. Almost everyone in Singapore was fully vaccinated against Covid-19  by September of 2022.  Thailand is now up to 77%. Thai people are friendly.  While not unfriendly, Singaporeans are not particularly friendly.  Singaporeans

SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the pandemic virus first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019.  Why that name?  Because it looked genetically similar to the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.  You've regularly seen the COVID-19 virus as a sphere with what looks like golf tees sticking out of the surface.  First, this virus is so small that you can't see it using an ordinary microscope. Bacteria are between 0.2 and 2 micrometers, so you can't even see this in a compound light microscope. Viruses are not measured in micrometers, but nanometers, which is one-thousandth a micrometer.  The coronavirus is just 50 nanometers across, or 0.05 micrometers. But visible light ranges from 300 to 700 nanometer, so light photons are too large to distinguish something so small as 50 nm. You thus turn to an electron microscope, invented in 1930, but improved to what is now called a Scanning Electron Microscope, or SEM.   Yes, instead of photons, something so small as an electron mus

The  Russo-Ukrainian War  is now in a stalemate: Started in February of 2014. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. In February of 2022, Russian launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some history. Crimea was part of the Crimean Khanate from 1441 until it was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. In the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine was absorbed by the Russian Empire  as a constituent republic Ukraine is the second-largest ( 1.7 times bigger than Germany ) European country after Russia. In 1922 the Soviet Union was formed with various  union republics , and until its dissolution in 1991, varied from 4 to 16 countries, always including Ukraine. Map of the Union Republics from 1956 to 1991, as numbered by the Soviet Constitution: 1.   Russia , 2.   Ukraine , 3.   Belarus , 4.   Uzbekistan , 5.   Kazakhstan , 6.   Georgia , 7.   Azerbaijan , 8.   Lithuania , 9.   Moldavia , 10.   Latvia , 11.   Kyrgyzstan , 12.   Tajikistan , 13.   Armenia , 14.   Turkmenistan , 15.   Estonia In