Crazy times in the City of Angels

Hello again,

Wow, I actually managed not to write any kind of mass-communication for a week or so whilst on the road. And, while a week may (as the saying goes) be a long time in politics, it seems like forever when you're travelling. In that week I have:

- ended up singing duets in a beach bar on Ko Phi Phi with a Swiss girl
- watched an awful lot of football
- had a distinctly unpleasant overnight bus journey from Surat Thani to Bangkok
- unknowingly had my spare credit card stolen in the course of said unpleasant journey
- praised various souls from my bank (for possibly the first time) for noticing some dodgy transactions coming up on said card and putting a freeze on it
- experienced the madness of Krungthep, the City of Angels (better known to most foreigners as Bangkok)
- specifically, experienced the madness of Khao San Rd, the beating heart of Bangkok's backpacker scene, albeit one with high blood-pressure that would need a defibrilator kept to hand
- got drunk and practised my German (again)
- had a very bizarre (and totally unplanned) evening out on the town in Bangkok in the company of a Swedish girl called Elin (and no, to those of you who will reply with the obvious questions, I didn't)
- contemplated buying a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "No, I don't want a f*%king Tuk-Tuk!"
- refused even to contemplate joining EVERY SINGLE OTHER backpacker in Thailand and getting a "Same Same But Different" T-shirt
- bought the cliched "flag-patches" for most of the countries I've been to to sew on my backpack
- realised that I've been to rather a lot of countries now and this is going to result in an annoyingly large amount of sewing to do
- marvelled at the comfort, price and service on the Thai State Railway compared to the nightmare that is the British train system (thanks a bloody million, Mr Major, you w*&ker)
- marvelled about the comfort, service and security on the Thai State Railway compared to the Thai Robber-Baron Backpacker Express VIP Bus Companies
- had a fascinating conversation over dinner with a Burmese gentleman on said train, which has convinced me I definitely want to see Myanmar/Burma, but not until those idiots who currently run the country are gone (amusingly, Burma's press is apparently not allowed to report on the coup in Thailand, as the Burmese junta is worried that the moderate way the Thai generals are going about things, and their credible timetable for putting things back in the hands of civilians, would make them look bad...)
- decided that Chiang Mai is a very nice place that I would like to spend more time in, then cursed that my Thai visa runs out on Thursday, so I do indeed have to go over the border into Laos pretty much straight away

And that's about where I'm at. Hopefully gonna do some kind of a cookery course while I'm here, just got to decide between the 3 million or so different schools (possible slight exaggeration there, but not by that much). Apart from that, gonna chill out and carry on with redecorating my backpack.

Hope you're all well! Take care and have fun,

Pat