Better late than never 2...

I left Sweden on January 15, and arrived in Nong Khai sometime later that week. On a thursday I think. Almost 4 days of traveling and an endless amount of waiting around in airports and bus stations took its toll, and with a serious lack of sleep and general feeling of confusion I was pretty much ready for bed as soon as I arrived. There wasn't any time for that though, first I had about 12 hours in Bangkok to kill before my final bus ride up to Nong Khai , and I realized as soon as I landed that I somehow had managed to forget/misplace my cellphone charger somewhere along the way. Good job!

I've had more fun than running around Bangkok suffering from serious sleep-deprivation trying to find stuff for my cellphone, but as far as I knew Nong Khai could be two huts in the jungle next to a Travel-to-Teach sign with no Sony Ericsson stores to be found. So I figured I might as well get it done right away. It took a while, and I got lost in Chinatown for some time (it smelled really bad there) but I managed to get what I needed and decided to do some well deserved sightseeing, since I still had about 6-7 hours left in Bangkok.


You often hear that thai people are very friendly and welcoming, but I didn't expect to stand on a street corner with a map of Bangkok in my hand, and one hour later having a beer in that same hand trying to explain what Malmo ( a swedish city) was like to a 60-something man who worked in the telecommunications industry and was about to go to Sweden in a couple of weeks on a business trip. Since I hadn't been to Thailand before and he had never been anywhere, we both tried to share as much useful information about our countries as possible. He must have either been very pleased with the information about Sweden he got, or it was all the beer we (he) drank, because he later took me around the city including the old parts of bangkok and some of the temples, and even though I insisted on paying for my beer and at least one taxi ride, I left Bangkok that evening with a new cellphone charger as my only expense*.


*Except for a quick stop at Pizza Hut.