After clearing immigration and tossing our checked bags to get rechecked on our flight back to New York through LAX, we went through the regular security check line at Tom Bradley International Terminal and passed our carry-on bags through. Much to our annoyance, the tray with all three of our laptops in it got marked for inspection, and we waited over 20 minutes for a TSA rep to do a formal check on our computers. When we asked why there was no one coming to do an inspection, a rude TSA worker said they didn’t have anyone to do it. Chris said to her that we had a flight to catch. She responded back, clearly annoyed, “Everyone here has a flight to catch.” Yet, she stood there the entire time just looking around and not physically doing a single thing. The even more ridiculous part about this was that there were three other TSA reps standing by the body scanners, chatting away and doing little to nothing, plus a random TSA employee standing there and watching the trays pile up at the end of the security line (while there was a shortage of them at the beginning of the line), and the TSA guy who ended up calling out for bag check ended up doing the check on our bags. So he called for someone who never ended up coming, and in the end after over 20 minutes, he decided to do it himself. Wow, what a good idea.

As much as I love Elizabeth Warren, I have to strongly disagree with her when she gets mad that people knock government agencies and say that “nothing in government ever gets done.” When you see incompetence and flat out laziness like what I’ve described above, it’s quite hard to have respect for government workers when they do not value efficiency and actually getting their jobs done (which they are paid very well for). At the end of the day, what is their incentive to work faster with getting travelers through security, anyway? Their wages will be the same, and they’re not incentivized to work faster, be friendly to travelers getting through, or to take on tasks that they may not have gotten officially assigned at the beginning of their shifts. People work based on incentives. If there are no incentives, there’s no reason to do a better job.

Our last day in Thailand included a complete cluster with our in-unit washer at the hotel. We thought it would be a good idea to return home with all clean clothes instead of the massive dirty laundry bag we normally have, especially given we’re coming back from a very humid city, but it resulted in a flooded kitchen and sopping wet clothes. We had to manually wring out all the clothes into the kitchen sink, then dry the clothes in the dryer machine three times before everything was dry enough to pack. Why do washer and dryer units have to have so many complicated settings and then fail? You’d think they would have gotten simpler and more intuitive as time has gone on.

I’m sad to be leaving Thailand, especially all the incredible street food and the array of beautiful colors everywhere, but I think I’m ready to leave. Traveling to cities as crowded and fast-paced as Bangkok is rarely relaxing, even when you are taking breaks for indulgent yet cheap activities such as massage or facials. And with places like Chiangmai, there is so much to do, see, and eat that you feel like you have to see as much as you can in order to make your time traveling there worth it. I’m actually looking forward to relaxing on the couch when we get back to New York, because as Chris says, our vacations are not our relaxing times; that’s what couch time back home is for.

We returned back to Bangkok today after some delicious last few Isaan dishes and mango sticky rice, and while checking back into our same Bangkok hotel, we were greeted with little glasses of the most intriguing iced tea. It was a faint green color, lightly sweetened, and probably one of the best thirst quenchers I’ve ever had. I asked the woman checking us in what this was, and she responded that it was pandan tea made from pandan leaves. It’s a popular tea here in Thailand, and though I have seen and had it in desserts before, I never realized it was actually consumed as a tea. So now it’s my quest to find this tea before we leave Thailand. And so far, I am failing.

I’m guessing the reason no one is selling it in the loose leaf or tea bag format is because locals actually brew the whole fresh leaves, which are easily purchased at fresh produce markets anywhere here. I saw it so many times when browsing markets in both Bangkok and Chiangmai, but not once did I see the leaves in a dried form. A recipe I found online notes that for two cups, you just need four fresh pandan leaves. Where am I going to find fresh pandan leaves in New York City?! I’d never even seen them in Chinatown.

The only dried versions online I could find were on reseller export sites and eBay, so this was clearly marketed toward people outside of Thailand. I guess I will just need to search for it in depth when I return to Manhattan Chinatown.