HANGING IN BANGKOK

It felt good to be back in Bangkok again for the 3rd time on this bike trip! I arrived at night, I needed a place to repack bags and assemble the bike (Old Saartjie), so I took a taxi to the Banglamphu “Backpacker Ghetto” area where I had stayed twice before. I could not remember the name of the place where I had stayed the previous time, but by some miracle I found it and now I'm staying in a room just down the hall from where Leana and I had stayed four and a half years ago. I was going to stay a day or 2, but after 10 days I'm still here waiting for my wallet to arrive. Luckily the room is cheap and the area is interesting. I've also made some nice friends.

However, besides losing my wallet at the airport in the US, I have had some further misfortune. As there is no wi-fi in my guest house, I take my computer with me to the little open-air bar/restaurant around the corner where there is wi-fi. One thing led to another, and to my great distress the bag with computer, my room key, and about $100 was stolen. Somebody knew more or less where the thief lived, the Tourist Police came to investigate, but to no avail. Then one of my local friends did some investigation of their own, and found that the computer had been sold to a shady dealer – and the only way for me to get it back was to pay about another $100! Luckily all my important info was still on the computer.

I was planning to take public transport through Laos and Southern China, as I still have a long way to go to the West from Chengdu. But the way that the few Dollars I'd saved has been disappearing, I may have to re-think my former plans.

Oh yes, probably a good thing I'm not on the bike right now. A few days ago I picked up a really bad bug (food? water?), and I've been lying low since then - just over a year in North America and my hard-earned immune system deserts me. Amongst other symptoms, I haven't been able to keep anything in my stomack, and in this hot and humid climate it is not good to be de-hydrated (there is of course no AC in my cheap room, and I have to keep running to the shared bathrooms down the hall). However, I imagine that I am feeling a bit better today, so perhaps I'm getting over it.

I'll probably be in the city for a couple more days, so I'll still have the opportunity to re-live the past and ride the river ferries, the Sky Train, and so forth.

Unfortunately there is not any further cycling distance to report, as I'm not yet back on the bike. Hope to be on the road soon, as this report seems to be nothing more than a sorry tale.