Back in Bangkok now, but not for long. I arrived last night after a hellish bus ride that took a lot longer than normal because of the traffic. The APEC conference (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) was held on Monday and Tuesday here in Bangkok and yesterday the city was aswarm with people coming and going. Shrub was here and in an effort to impress him and other 'important' people, Thai authorities collected thousands of homeless dogs roving the streets of Bangkok and dumped them in Northern Thailand. I've never seen anything like it really... no one seems to bother fixing their pets and I've seen dozens of litters of kittens and puppies everywhere I go. So cute! Yet so sad.

I went for another swim on my last night on Ko Chang and unfortunately did not do an adequate job of dumping the water out of my left ear. I now have a brutal ear infection. Ouchy. :( At least I got to see that plankton again.

This morning I awoke at about 5 AM to the disorienting sound of a male Thai voice over a microphone. I remembered the guesthouse is near a temple and deduced it was someone leading the morning prayer. I haven't heard that since I was in Lebanon during Ramadan. Fotunately this one only last about a minute rather than an hour.

I went to the travel agent this morning and discovered my only option for getting to Kuala Lumpur cheaply was to leave today, as all other trains were booked until the 29th. Under normal circumstances that would be ok and I'd just cavort around Khao San Road some more, but there's someone special waiting for me in KL. Jon's meeting me, and we're going to be traveling together for 4 weeks. I am over the moon and really looking forward to traveling with someone I know and love.

I bought a new backpack today about half the size of my current one, and am about to pack it up. I will leave the other one in storage for something comical like $3 a month. It will be liberating to not be schlepping so much crap. Off I go...