THAILAND - Bangkok, Thursday 4th May

Wow. I'm suffering from an acute, reverse culture shock. Yesterday a hair-raising taxi ride (mainly in the wrong lane, towards oncoming traffic) brought me to Hanoi airport, where a smooth Air Asia flight swept me off to Thailand. I glimpsed Bangkok, while crawling through heavy traffic in an air conditioned shuttle bus, and was deposited at The Kao San Road.
Alex Garland, author of 'The Beach', describes the the Kao San Road as a sort of decompression chamber between East and West. It is a jumping off point from which to explore South East Asia and is consequently full of beaded, dreaded Travellers (yes, with a capital 'T') shuffling around looking bleary and bewildered. There are the aging hippies, who seem to be stuck here, the fresh-from-school kids, who travel in packs, delirious with excitement (and too much Sang Som), and the rest of us South East Asia trampers milling about from bar to clothes shop to Internet cafe, trying to figure out how to get to our next destination and having to pinch ourselves to remind ourselves where we are.
Jazz and I, happily reunited, wandered around the neon-lit, thumping streets feeling like two out-of-towners, marvelling at the bright lights, pounding western music and abundance of (tanned) white faces.
Travelling has come to remind me of university: Starting impromptu conversations with strangers, forming brief but significant friendships and loosing track of week days. If that is so, the The Kao San Road is the culmination of Fresher's Week. Everything is arranged for our entertainment with the sole aim of parting us with our baht. Movies play on loop in cafes with sofas, tour offices sell trips to the islands, bars churn out cheap, lethal cocktails and tattoo parlours are literally a-buzz, taking advantage of travellers' sense of abandonment which comes from being so far from home.
After my last few months in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam I find this jolt back to 'the West' a little unnerving and I'm feeling a little misplaced. It is also rather exhilarating. I can see how easy it is to get swept up in this surreal bubble but it is disconcerting when you can so easily forget where you are.
I'd better get used to it, however, there is a definite Full Moon Party buzz about the place at the moment so I suspect I've just found my travel companions for the next week or so...
Still, if you can't beat em, join em.