Shopping in Bangkok......

I just love this city...it's big, exotic, beautiful women everywhere, so Western you wonder if you're really in Thailand, cheap beer, beautiful women everywhere...and well, just a very easy city to get around..safe and a hell of a lot of fun.

I went to the US embassy this week to get added pages for visa stamps in my passport. That was a task I don't wish to repeat. Every US embassy I've ever visited in the world, always drives me nuts and pissed off, seeing all the tax money we pay out and these people are probably the most inefficient in the world. I arrived at Consular Services at 10:30 a.m. to be told they would be closing at 11..I asked the cute little blond from Texas (her name tag told me...and gees, any wonder why I'm from Texas working in Bangkok??) why and she said lunch. I said, ok, what time do you all get back...answer...1:00. I say..1:00..2 hrs for lunch?? Who gets 2 hrs for lunch..answer...We do. So, I go away..pissed of course, and come back at 1:20. Cute blondie goes..hello, may I help you? I say..yeh I need to get more pages in my passport for visa stamps...answer..you'll have to come back tomorrow...we close at 2 pm. I say...but you just got back from lunch at 1!!! Answer...we close at 2...come back tomorrow. So, I left and came back in the morning to get it done. People in the US should see how embassy staff live in foreign countries and how our tax money is spent....they live like kings here.

Found great bike shop here to pick up things I didn't bring with me. ProBike shop is a Trek dealership and they had all the new toys there...all the new Madones and a full lineup of Trek mountain bikes. Bontrager very big there.......but I picked up a backup bike pump, several more tubes and a spare tire.

I went down to the Asian bookstore today (8th) and picked up Laos guide book and maps. This trip was formulated out of a bike trip my buddy I met on the Vietnam bike trip in Jan/Feb 2007. We hit it off, and talked after that trip of doing a self supported bike trip through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The idea initially was to take the train out of Bangkok to Phitsanuloek near Sukothai in northern Thailand, ride to Chang Khong/Mai Sai then cross over at the border crossing of Laos at Huay Xi, ride the length of Laos over to Vietnam border, then down western side of Vietnam to Cambodia, across Cambodia and back to Bangkok..a ride of somewhere around 3000-3500 miles. We'd thought about 6 weeks for the trip. But then I got this offer to work in China and "negotiated" a deal with the company to still do the bike trip, but we'd have to tailor it down to riding about 4 1/2 weeks.

So now the basic plan is to still take the train to Phisanuloek north, then ride north and cross over into Laos at Chang Khong, ride southeast and south to Lu Prang which is an ancient World Heritage site, stay there a couple of days, then south to Vietienne, the capital and continue south to Cambodia and across Cambodia back to Bangkok. I need to be back in Bangkok by Feb 15th as I'll be flying back to States on the 18th (pay King George the war tax) then back to China on the 27th. But this will still give us much ride time and fun.