Thai Boxing match, and Angkor Wat.

Well, it is now a chilly evening in Toronto, the 4th of February. I've been back from my travels for 10 days, and my body is still feeling the effects of the time adjustment, not to mention sudden decrease in sunlight.

I madly tried to catch up on events while in Bangkok for Christmas, following which I flew to Hanoi, Vietnam. As it turned out, the Internet in Vietnam was victim to disruptions caused by an earthquake in the South Pacific. I attempted to maintain this blog, but find the time spent in dingy Net cafes wasn't worth it. It would take ages just to access simple mail, by which point I'd racked up a lot of dong on the meter. Forget about uploading a picture. Besides, I had an adventure to attend to. So the blog was abandoned..........

Now that I'm home, adjusting, and resigning myself to 9to5 in order to pay for what I have just experienced, I decided to prolong the feeling just a bit longer and finish this little project. To get my money's worth, you understand. It feels too awkward to leave this thing dangling, anyway.

So if you've hung around this long and still checking out this site, I'm going to summarize of the rest of the trip over the next couple of weeks. Think of it as a "Get Out of Slideshow Credit". So without more preamble, the rest of my trip:

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On the 24th of December, I returned to Bangkok by bus. Upon arrival, I hired a moto driver to take bags and all, from the bus station to Chatachak Market for some last minute Christmas stuff. I hiked around the narrow aisles with my big knapsack, often getting caught in eddies amongst the flow of people. You thought your Christmas eve shopping was brutal.

After spending 15minutes longer than I could take in that environment, I hopped on yet another moto (really IS the best way to deal with the traffic in this city!) The destination now was Khao San Rd to make some travel arrangements for Vietnam. (Things are in place, though I've decided to forego southern Thailand completely, opting instead for more time in Vietnam. Besides, Ko Tao had the diving. but Mui Ne has windsurfing!)

Spent a great Christmas with Cousin Norm and Karen, friends Cath and Michael. After a lazy day of tearing open presents and hanging out in pajamas, we ate some amazing bird. Cath and Michael had duelling desserts, so more of a score for me.

Had a very traditional Christmas Night. The lot of us headed out on the town, wearing a fine set of paper crowns hashioned by Cath. We first took in a drag show which featured a wicked Whitney Houston lyp-sync. Had a bit of a problem getting in at first (due to flip-flops), and after negotiations failed, situation was resolved with neon orange Crocs.

Next off to do Karaoke, although venue turns out to be a brothel. Girls wearing Santa suits line up for every new customer, while we wail away at "My Heart Will Go On" (Celine Dion) in the background. Hopefully the customers took their business offsite, for their sake. Yet another club, with what turns out to be more lip-syncing.....

On Boxing Day, I dragged myself out of bed. Surreal.... Norm, Cath and Michael getting ready for a beach mission south of Bangkok, I'm packed and off to Cambodia. It felt like I'd just arrived.