My last post from Thailand, for now...

Well it's 12.22 am local time, which means today is officially my last day. I have got a couple more photos to post but they're on Stan's phone and he's crashed out. I'll ask him to email them to me and post them when I get back. I spent the afternoon with my friend Aey (we had lunch then went across the river and spent the afternoon talking and drinking by the river,) and the evening with Stan, Pook and William. We went to Pan Pan, an Italian restaurant I've visited before and might have mentioned, I can't remember. Had a very nice meal. Then we went to the Luan Sum Night Bazaar and had a beer (Erdinger, mmm). As we left, despite thinking to myself moments previously to not forget my bag I managed to do precisely that and leave it on a chair. Fortunately I remembered within a few minutes and the staff had put it to one side. Since I had my passport in it to cash a traveller's cheque it could have been disastrous.

As much as I'm looking forward to seeing you all I'm sad to leave. I've had an amazing time, met some lovely people and done some brilliant things so I'm hoping to return soon. Stan, William, Pook and Dick have been amazing. As have various other people, friends I've made and random people I've met. Especially when trying to get to places on public transport. Trains, planes and auto mobiles are OK but buses are difficult. Few of them have their destination or route transliterated so you have to go by number unless you can read Thai script. The only problem is the same number bus doesn't always go to the same place. There are no timetables and no reliable websites with route information. There are a few buses which seem to follow the same route (number 29 from Hualumpong up past Patumthanee being a prime example.) But generally, the best I can describe them as is "erratic." Fortunately people are generally very keen to help. Often the conductors can't speak English but passengers will try and help. On several occasions I've had between 1 and 6 people trying to help me, including walking me from the bus stop to the bus stop for my connecting bus and to relevant taxi ranks etc. Not everyone is so helpful - yesterday I got mildly harassed by a weird, smelly gay bloke who kept touching my leg pretending to steady himself when the bus went over bumps. Since there were no other seats and he couldn't speak English much I just gave him evils until he got the picture. Even then he followed me after I got off the bus. If he wasn't a bit "spechial" I'd have hit him, but I think he licks windows so I refrained.

On the subject of spechial, Kriang helped me find this site again. Kriang first showed it to me years ago when we were at uni and I thought it was amazing then. But I couldn't find it for years. Finally I can peruse and laugh at my leisure. A sample for your delectation:

Brilliant.

Anyway, I digress. Thailand general verdict: I can't wait to come back and I've not even left yet. It must be good.

Right, that's it. I'll probably write a few bits and pieces once I'm back, add anything I remember and those photos I mentioned but I'm signing off from Thailand. La gon krap.