Darren's gone and my leech bites itch

Whah. It's all good though because I'm getting the hell out of Bangkok tomorrow and heading for Laos!!! Should be a good time. I'm just planning to take it easy and go wherever my mood takes me, making my way back south again as it gets close to Jan 5th. I don't know where I'll be for Christmas or New Year's. It's kind of weird thinking that Christmas is less than two weeks away because it's over 90 degrees here, and there's not much of a sign of the holidays. The pharmacy was playing Christmas carols yesterday, and there are the odd Christmas lights around. However, it's difficult to tell how many of those are out for Christmas or leftover from the King's Birthday. I think that I've decided to buy a whole mess of cheap bracelets to give to people, wear a santa hat, and sing carols all day to put myself in the spirit.

Onto other randomness - Darren and I had decided that it would suck more than anything to be a dog in this country. Buddhist tradition doesn't allow the killing of animals, and it seems that expense prohibits them from getting fixed. So there are dogs everywhere. Most of them are mangy and missing much of their hair, lots are lame or missing limbs, and some are really scary vicious things. I've seen more than one with really nasty hernias, and we saw what must be the absolute ugliest (unitentionally) hairless dog in the world.

An actual conversation between me and Darren in Pak Chong on the way to the train station. Me: "Wanna stop here and get some fresh pineapple for the train ride?" Darren: "Is that a dead cat?" (in the rubbish basket at the fruit stall) Me: "Um, yeah, let's just go get on the train"

So yeah, that's about it for me. I've got to get my solo groove on and get on with things here. Write to me, folks, cause it's a little lonely on this side of the world ;)