We're leaving Bangkok tomorrow, though I'd rather invade the palace first.

It's been a cool past few days, but today has been a horrid funk for me. Last night I was trying to sort out where else Claudia and I can go during my 5 weeks here. Thailand's much smaller than India, but it's a dense country. We could go just about anywhere, and probably find enough to keep us occupied for days.

This morning I ran some ideas past Claudia, and we worked them around and around for a while. She's much better at figuring this stuff out than I am. Planning is also really difficult right now, as we're on the cusp of 2 national holidays: Dec. 5 (Friday) is the King's birthday, so the whole of Thailand has a huge 3-day weekend coming up. Then, Dec. 10 (Wednesday) is Consitution Day, commemorating the kingdom's change from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

Usually when I plan, I just feel like I'm beating my head against a wall. I'd rather have a rough idea, and just take off. Trying to plan around 2 big holidays doesn't help!

Yet Claudia makes it all come together somehow. So we're planning to leave tomorrow and head straight to Sukhothai and then Chiang Mai. On the way back to Bangkok we'll probably catch Ayutthaya.

In the meantime, we've still managed to get up to a bit of mischief... with the exception of my attempts to invade the Grand Palace.