Back in Business

I have been moving about a good bit lately en route to my present location of Surin, Thailand. I left Vientiane by bus Monday morning and arrives at the surprisingly pleasant town of Udon in north east Thailand a few hours later. What was most interesting about that leg of the trip was crossing the border from Laos to Thailand. In Laos traffic drives on the right as we do. In Thailand traffic is on the left, so there was a criss-cross intersection where vehicles from the south (Thailand) would cross in front of the traffic departing Laos. It was almost like a vehicle ballet and reminded me of an ad that Mazda used to have on television with all the cars doing graceful interweaving maneuvers.

When I got off the bus in Udon I really was unprepared and not even clear as to where I was going, so I took a room near the bus station for the night. That way I could investigate possibilities to go to Surin. While exploring the town I ran across a beautiful air con mall so I spent a good bit of time there . I found a new camera to replace the one I don't like so much. On the top floor of the mall was a Sizzler and I enjoyed a delicious American style meal of meat, a baked potato (first baked potato in months and was it ever so good!) and a fantastic salad from the salad bar.

The following morning I took a 0630 bus on the first of a 2 bus journey to get me to Surin and arrived here mid afternoon. Surin is a quiet provincial capital in eastern Thailand except for the one weekend of the annual elephant roundup. Since guidebooks warned of limited hotels during this time and since I was unable to book a reservation online I got here early and now am happily located in my second hotel here after moving from a lovely but remote guesthouse to a centrally located hotel. There were several elephants roaming the streets last night and this morning was supposed to have been a procession of elephants, but it never seemed to happen. English speakers are not so common here and it is difficult to get info sometimes.

Backtracking a little, I foolishly opened an email from DHL yesterday and infected my computer with a virus. I left my laptop in the shop overnight and now all is well, so I am always happier when I can send and receive messages. Be warned so this does not happen to you.

I think I should return to the street to see what is happening. I would not want to miss any of the festivities. More about the roundup later.