So it's been back to some good old tourism here in Bangkok. I have enjoyed the last couple of embassy-free days, doing lots of walking (mostly because I get lost too easily) and seeing the sights! I got lost in a huge Chinatown market the other day... But in my defense, I think it is designed that way so you have no choice in the end but to pay someone to tell you how to get out. I've been to my fair share of markets on this trip, I prefer them to plodding aroun...

I took the train overnight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to get a new passport. The consulate in Chiang Mai has the authority to hang a sign outside his door and grow a ridiculous mustache, but that's about it so there was nothing I could do from there. The ride was uneventful, I once again slept in the coffin-like upper bed but it is way cheape, the only thing I sacrificed was a window... And when it is dark outside (which, being an overnight train, is a safe assu...

"It" happened. And in slow motion. It was just a regular day and I was cruising down a lane on my bike as one does, with my backpack in the front basket (dorky but keeps the sweat at bay!) and a guy pulled up besides me on a motorbike, grabs the bag and rides off. I thought he was kidding at first. And then I realised I had just been robbed. So screaming and frantic pedalling followed, I rode to the end of the street and turned left and threw my bi...

I took the ordinary bus from Soppong to Mae Hong Son. I won't say big mistake, because to my knowledge there is no other choice, but it was so uncomfortable! I can't claim to be a very tall person and yet my legs did not fit, even a little. So I spent the whole 4 hours sprawled across two seats with my legs in the aisle, feet up which is considered rude in Thailand, but you would have done the same thing. Mae Hong Son is... well boring. Anything of interest is u...

This morning was pretty standard (including the roosers at 4am which seem to be following me), I got up after my first night at the Lisu house, took a doxycycline for malaria and went to eat a breakfast of pineapple and papaya, enough to feed a small army. After breakfast, we set off to someone else's house in the village, and all piled into the back of their pickup truck to go to the fields, in the mountains above. I was sitting between a small engine and a buc...