So far Thailand has been pretty wet. Last night we had a flash-flood in the alley outside my guesthouse. The front of the guesthouse is open to the street and we got an inch or so of water covering the floor of the lobby. It would have gotten deeper but the back hallway is sunk below the level of the lobby so the water was draining out there. Glad my room is on the second floor. One of the men from the family that runs the guesthouse pointed out a water mark a couple feet up from the floor from a major flood 8 years ago.

Ayutthaya has been a nice break from Bangkok. This island town 60 miles north of Bangkok was once the capital of Thailand and today the western half is a historical park containing dozens of ruins.



These next two pictures are for my nephew who loves elephants.

Here are a couple pictures from Bangkok. The first is a shot of Khao San road taken at night. The second shows some spires at Wat Pho.



I'm off to catch a train to Ayutthaya for a couple days while I wait for my visas to be processed.

Arrived in Bangkok last night. Finally got to the Khao San road area around 12:30 AM, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and fell into bed. Today I have to arrange visa's for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. I should be able to have them by Thursday so it's looking like I have a week to kill in Thailand.

So, I have my tickets, guide books, traveller's cheques, malaria medicine, and mp3 player in hand. I think I'm about ready to hit the trail.

The picture at the top of the sidebar shows the Vittala temple in Hampi, India. I've started posting my pictures from that trip here.

My ticket to Bangkok arrived today :). It's all falling into place.

My LP guides for SE Asia arrived today, so I spent the afternoon planning the trip at a high level. Right now it looks like I'll be flying from Bangkok to Hanoi, heading south through Vietnam, then working my way back through Cambodia and Laos by land. Crossing overland out of Vietnam seems to be less painful than going the other way, and the weather should work better in this direction as well.

Just under a month until I'm off again, and most pre-trip preparation is done. Wish I'd thought of setting up a blog last January before heading to India.