Last Post...

As I sit here, spending my last day in my favourite continent of this planet, it feels both exciting and sad to say goodbye. After a week in Chiang Mai where the slightly cooler weather prevented my sweat glands from doing overtime the hot and crowded streets of Krung Thep come a bit as a shock. But still, I'm glad to have made it. (One word of advice for the weak hearted, don't take the front seat on the VIP buses, you sit a floor above the driver and all the traffic and swerves in the road as he races downhill come at you trough the front window in a way that computer gamers only can wish for. I'd take 3 hours in a roller coaster any time if the choice is given.) So this is it, time to go home, time to say goodbye to the land of smiles and the colourful people that inhabit it, time to go back to old fortress Europa, a place by no means less colourful, only the pallet of tones might be a little different. And about those smiles, well, maybe it's not filled with smiling strangers, but that's what you have friends for... I'll be seeing you all!

Going with a bang, Bangkok version...

So this is New Year... Yesterday at the end of the year the City of Angels was bomb struck, as six bombs went of around the same time at different places. The countdown at wireless road was cancelled and all Shopping Malls were closed well before closing time. I found myself at the outskirts of the city and didn't really felt like going to any crowded place to try and party, but luckily I was in charming company and together with a bunch of University students we missed out the exact first minute of the new year (everybody seemed to have their watch on another time, and on TV there was a feature about the Thai King, so it was 5 past twelve when we noticed fireworks in the distance. Couldn't have been too many people out there, as the traffic was less than light, one could say you have heavy traffic in the prominent town of Erps Kwerps during a Sunday Night compared with the number of cars and even less taxis last night. By the time I went back to the hotel I passed the ill-famed Kao San Road where many a backpacker usually can be found dumb struck and passed out, but it felt more like Belfast with police check-points and army troops surveilling the area. There was a kind tiny lady with a big speaker who calmly pointed her speaker towards small groups of beerfilled youngsters and telling them from behind that speaker in a type of English only Thais seem to master so well to kindly buzz off to the guesthouse. " Or else... Well, since they didn't actually expect any tourist to place a bomb
(unless he had a black beard and a white sheet for new year outfit draped over him) there most where just left wandering the street, trying to find either their guesthouse or a place that would sell beer under the table. All in all it was a strange beginning of the year, and instead of mourning the absence of a big crazy party I wish for the people who got hurt to recover in friendly surroundings and to find a meaning in all this. And to the bad guys, whether it be insurgents of the south or opposants of the government, may their bombs go of in your kitchen whilst your cooking up another wicked plan of chaos and terror.

No picture this time, cheers.