One night in Bangkok...

and the world's your oyster! Okay. Three nights in Bangkok. Pretty cool city and Songkhran is absolutely insane. Songkhran is the Thai New Year and is celebrated by a week long waterfight throughout the city. You pretty much can't go anywhere or do anything without getting soaked by waterguns, hoses or just buckets of ice water. When you are trying to accomplish things it is extremely frustrating but you can't stay angry very long when the people are all smiles. When you AREN'T trying to accomplish things it is probably just about the most fun holiday ever. You just run around splashing strangers and smearing flour/talcum all over them. I fully intend to ring in all of my future birthdays with a Songkhran party the week before.
Bangkok is a much nicer city than I had imagined or the travel books had led me to believe. It is not as filthy, smoggy or congested as I thought it would be. Sure, it is nowhere near the level of Singapore when it comes to glossy finish and greenery, but its not so bad in its own right. Certainly beats Athens!
Yesterday I arrived early in the morning and spent the good part of the day searching out a bicycle box. Finally got a nice one from Cannanasia, an absolutely awesome Cannondale exclusive dealer with a stunning amount of bikes on the floor (the Factory Scalpel was looking pretty nice to me...). I made use of a fancy enclosed taxi to safely deposit the box back at Peak's house (my gracious couchsurfing host) and then I headed down towards the notorious Patpong area for the largest waterfight I had ever seen. A wet, floury mass of thousands of Thais (and a few farangs) writhed and squirmed their ways through the streets and alleys to the thumping beat of Thai pop and electronic. An absolutely amazing experience. I wish I had photos to share with you but alas I have no waterproof camera!
Today I may repeat the experience or I may just take it easy, not quite sure. Tomorrow I have to get everything packed up and find a big enough taxi to take me to the airport because I'm doubtful my stuff will fit in a normal sedan type. I'm also far to lazy to deal with dragging the bike box and near-50 pound bag of gear onto and off of various trains and buses required to reach the airport.
After all this goes down (and a nice 9 hour layover in Beijing) I will arrive in San Francisco. I will travel for 23 hours or something, but arrive only 11 hours after I leave. The jet lag is going to be monstrous. Thank goodness San Francisco is a hobo's haven and I have no less than 3 couches offered to me already! Brace yourself States, the hobo cometh!