A Passage to Thailand

So, the title of my blog has officially become outdated. However, due to the confusion that a title change would inevitably cause, and considering the possibility that this might somehow upset my loyal fanbase (all two of you), I'm going to maintain the status quo. Just be aware that I won't be spending any more than 2 more days in India during the current trip; the rest of it, besides my final departure from Delhi, will be spent touring in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and a possible little beach jaunt in southern Vietnam.

Speaking of that - I just remembered I've been promising a brief run-down on my tentative itinerary for the last couple weeks. Well, as a preamble I'll emphasize that it remains just as subject to change as it was when I first mentioned it. So, if all you gambling fiends (you know who you are!) are placing bets on where I am anytime in the next couple months, and are "cleverly" basing your wager on the following rundown, don't be too generous with the odds you give to your opponent.

I'm already about 5 days into my trip, having stayed in Bangkok with my friend Sarah since Monday. Bangkok was fun, although according to Sarah, I'm a huge square and pretty well failed to partake in the rockin' good times that the town has to offer (probably pretty accurate). So I won't spend much time on that, other than mentioning that 1) the city is massive, 2) there's a crazy travellers-gone-wild district called Khao San (surely butchered that spelling job) that resembles Wasaga Beach x10 in Asia, and 3) there are some pretty sick temples (see photos). This morning, I left for the ancient capital city of Ayuthaya, which is where I am now. I checked into a groovy-little guest house called Tony's Place, and then spent the day riding around the town on a bike that I rented for about a buck (don't worry Mom - I assure you it didn't have a motor). I saw some cool museums and ruins, and booked a train ticket to Phitsanulok,which is nearby to another ancient capital city I plan on visiting. Man, my plans sound exhilerating, don't they? I bet you wish you were travelling with me, so you could get your name in the Guinness Book of Records under the category of "most monotonous temple visits within a period of 4 months". What can I say - I'm a bit of a history buff.

After Phitsanulok, I'm off to Chiang Mai, which is in the extreme north-west of the country. Apparently it's a big city in the middle of the mountains, so I'm planning on using it as a "base camp" for a few days, as I make day trips to check off the Lonely Planet reccomended destinations in the surrounding area (don't worry, I plan on ripping out the "temples" page in order to resist the temptation). By the time I leave Chiang Mai (probably around April 26th or so), I'll visit a few smaller towns in the north, and probably go on a couple overnight guided treks in the mountains.

I plan on crossing into Laos around May 1st, and taking a riverboat down the Mekong River to the town of Luang Prabang, which seems to be a highly-reccomended destination. I plan on spending about 1 1/2 weeks in that country, and then I'll fly down to Cambodia on about May 12th-13th. By this point, I plan on meeting back up with some friends from the India semester, and we'll do some sightseeing in Cambodia, and spend the last week or so on a beach somewhere, possibly southern Vietnam. After that, I'll likely catch a flight from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Bangkok,where I'll get my flight back to Kolkata, and finally make my way back to Delhi to fly home.

Basically, I might as well have got the 12 year old internet cafe attendant to write that last paragraph for me - his gibberish probably would have been just as close to how my plans will actually work out. Speaking of that little Thai squirt, he's asking me in the typically polite Thai manner to get the heck out of his store, because it's closing. Those pics will have to wait- I'll try to get them up in a couple days. I'm off to eat dinner at a floating restaurant!

Cheers
Tom