Bangkok

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I left Laos on December 29 - my visa was up on the 30th. I took a bus across to Mukhadan on the opposite bank of the Mekong and then waited all day for a night bus to Bangkok. The bus trip was uneventful - I managed to sleep on the reclining seat.

I spent my first night in Bangkok at a guesthouse called Baan Hua Lamphong, near the subway station of the same name. Unfortunately, my bed was full of bedbugs! I got bit more than 30 times on night of the 31st - great new years gift. It turns out that I am allergic, very allergic, to the spit used by bedbugs to freeze their bite point. The bite points become itchy and red at first, then form a pus blister. I felt extremely ill on new years day - changed hotels, dropped all my stuff in the bathroom, sent all fabric in my pack to be washed and scrubbed myself.

I had previous bites from the village visit in Thakhet and they followed me to Savannaket. I had misdiagnosed them as either hives or some allergy to a plant that I touched on the trek.

So I didn't see much of Bangkok - I spent the 3 days I was there dealing with my bedbug problem!

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