8 am. I am tired, my vision is blurred and I want to lie down. But it is a fantastic sunny day, perfectly suited for our trip to Taktshang Goemba, one of the highlights of this trip for sure. Legend has it that when Guru Rinpoche was out flying on his tigress he saw this really nice spot for some meditation and landed on this steep cliffside some 800 meters above the Paro Valley and sat down to cleanse his mind of all thoughts. Like most places where the holy persons have meditated, it became revered and later the place for a chorten, filled with relics and artefacts. In this particular case a monastery was erected around this very chorten and it now clings to the side of the mountain like an outstanding piece of architechture. ... read more

Arriving early morning in Bangkok i am rather tired but flush through the airport in no time. I really know most of the ins and outs of Don Muang by now and don't like the fact that the new Suvarnabhumi Airport will open soon, especially since it will be on the southeast end of the city, the northern end suits me very well. Anyway, getting out of the airport i am about to realize that my long sleeve blue shirt probably wasn't such a good idea, since it appears to be signaling "here's the money lads". For the first time in my travels to Bangkok a taxi driver is trying to con me. He suggests a fixed price to my hotel at 300 baht where the metered ride would be less than half of it. Still, ... read more

Well, back at the hospital again. My eyesight has been pretty much blasted during the past few days and I get a new appointment with another doctor. They conclude that my vision is down to 0.3 and that maybe the medication wasn't the best thing to do. The infection has become worse since last time around and the general theory is that the cortizon that was supposed to blast the virus has mainly succeeded in disassembling the immunosystem instead. Nice going! The head doctor is summoned into the room, and he looks into my eye for a whole fifteen seconds before recommending even stronger medication and then disappears as quickly as he came, and I am starting to lose my faith in the system. Fortunately the doctor shares my opinion about leaving out the heavy stuff ... read more

As if packing up and leaving was not depressing enough the ordeal sees the wake up call coming at 4 am and by five I am outside picking up my last Bluebird Taxi for a drive to the Soekarno-Hatta airport. I still have around two million rupiah left to spend, of which 85.000 goes to the taxi and another 100.000 for the departure tax. There's not much action going on at this hour, the near empty concourse slowly comes to life, mainly with business travellers and some tourists. I am surprised to learn that the Garuda service to Bangkok is nowhere near full capacity. I had guessed for a huge widebody, not a 737. Another suprise is that the flight is not even non-stop, making a stop in Changi on the way. Perhaps it should not ... read more

A good thing about making ambitious trips is that you can stay home afterwards lazily doing nothing and still feeling proud of your achivements. I spend most of the morning in the horizontal position until finally dragging myself outside after noon to meet up with Vanessa after she has finsihed work. We head over to Kelapa Gading for her lunch break. Afterwards she helps me find those music stores we visited last time and I complete my previous purchase with some more hard to get titles. Afterwards we spend some time outside talking in the early evening. I have finally begun to realise that my trip is coming to its end very rapidly, and it is freaking me out. Those work related dreams were the first sign I guess. We end the evening with a late ... read more