i arrived in bangkok this afternoon...yes, i'm switching cities pretty much every other day. i think i was too ambitious, but i wanted to hit everything 'cuz i dunno when i'll be back. so i went to ha long bay yesterday on a tour...the tour itself was very unorganized and the tour agency promised me certain things that they definitely did not deliver (ie, a smaller group, longer boat tour of the bay, etc.). but, what little i did see of the bay was really beautiful...woulda be incredible to spend more time exploring the bay, but that woulda required a few days...them's the breaks. ;p

before we left for the tour, i heard that there was a storm expected to hit the area...made the trip a little gray, but the blessing is that it didn't start raining hard until we got back to the port after the tour (it was pouring so hard that you couldn't see very far)...that was actually fun, making a run for the bus from the dock...having to jump over a rat that was also fleeing the rain, and getting soaking wet in the process. (i like rain)

so i ended up commiserating with other people on the tour that felt gypped by the tour agency...a couple from sweden and two med students from the uk. we met up after the tour for dinner and ended up hanging out at the restaurant until it closed...really cool bunch. the only problem is that you meet people traveling in every direction, so you spend a day hanging out, then you may never see them again. i do, however, now have three more e-mail addresses to add to my collection. hehe.

so i'm in bangkok, and it's really huge and modern. whereas all the other cities i've been to have felt cozy and navigate-able, this one is gonna be a challenge. i met an australian girl on the plane who helped me get to the backpacker district (she's been living here for the past 6 months), and she told me that there have been threats on the railroad by muslim extremists down near the malaysian border...the route i was planning on taking to get to kuala lumpur...hmm....may need to rethink my plans...