DAY 473: Twelve days before, just two minutes before my introduction of Noelle as a "character" on the Blog in Bangkok, I ran into a recurring character one last time: Paul from Manchester, who I had met on the Everest Trail in Nepal (before my unfortunate near-fatal incident), and again, by chance, in Delhi International Airport en route back to Bangkok. Our third encounter was also by chance, but in a way it was no real surprise.

"All roads lead to Bangkok," I told him.

"Yeah, that's right! I remember you saying that on your website," Paul said. "All roads lead to Bangkok. Really, you can get anything you want here, as long as you have the money."

Bangkok was our southeast Asian hub city as it was for most travelers in the region. This fifth time in Thailand's capital would be my final one, a short layover day to plan and book the next leg of my trip around the world.

AS PAUL SAID, "You can get anything you want here." True; from bootleg movies of films still in the theaters to sex shows involving vaginas smoking cigarettes, it was all available. But what I needed this time were train tickets and I knew they would be easy to come by, even without any advance notice. As predicted, two berths were indeed available for the southbound overnight train to the southern Thai hub town of Surat Thani (air-conditioned car only though) and Noelle and I snagged them that afternoon by booking them at one of numerous tour agencies in the backpacker district.

Nothing really exciting happened that fifth and final time in Bangkok, unless you consider sitting in front of a laptop all afternoon in a Starbucks to work on Blog duties exciting -- although drinking a Grande Rhumba Frappucino was mildly exciting when it gave me a brain freeze. Khaosan Road was the same old scene with its backpackers wandering around in Von Dutch t-shirts and flip-flop sandals. The 7-11 convenience stores were still getting my business every time I went in to get a yogurt drink (a staple of mine since Jack got me into them in Spain). High-speed internet was readily available as always, and it was our gateway to upload the latest for our Blogs.

By six o'clock, Noelle and I were in a taxi to bring us to the train station (picture above). We got to our assigned berths with time to spare so that I could continue to work on Blog duties by hand (after staring out the window for some time) and Noelle could continue and eventually finish reading my copy of Deception Point before switching over to a copy of Entertainment Weekly. We ate dinner later that night, served to us by our flamboyant ladyboy waiter, and shortly afterwards we settled into our respective bunks. The train sped southbound away from Bangkok and towards Surat Thani through the night and straight on until morning.

Bangkok faded away into my travel history for the fifth and final time on my sixteen month trip around the world, but I knew that as long as all roads continued to lead to Bangkok, it was merely my fifth and final time -- for now.