|
~eastbound~ Monday, 15th January 2001
today is the day. my backpack is packed. it weighs 26 pounds. knowing that you will have to drag around all the items you include for next four weeks makes the packing surprigingly easy: you only take the things you really will need. and all you need obviously fits into one backpack. interesting to see. and now it is only some more hours, then i will leave winter behind and board the flight towards the East, and so i sit here, and write the first lines in my the yellow travel diary i bought for this trip, a book of empty pages yet
if the planes are in time, it will be takeoff 7.30 p.m. in Stuttgart. a stop over in Zurich, and then at 8.45 on from Zurich to Bangkok, where i will arrive at 1 p.m. local time, which is early morning home time - the timeshift from Germany to Thailand is seven hours instead of heading direclty to Bangkok from the airport, i will take a train towards the mountain ranges of the North. my first stop will be Ayuthaya, a smaller place that should hopefully provide an easier start than the 6 million people megacity of Bangkok. Ayuthay was once the capital of Thailand, and there is a temple park in the middle of town. and a range of guesthouses close by where it should be easy to find a room. at least that is what my guidebook says.
it also knows that the temperatures there will be in the twenties and thirties at this time of year. so i will spend spend the first days basically adapting - to the different culture, and to the different climate. hard to imagine that i will wear t-shirts tomorrow. hard to imagine that i will be there at all. maybe that is why i need to go. to see this places i only know from maps and guidebooks so far. to be there for real. greetings~~~ | |||
