Today is our last day in Thailand. Rachel flew back to the UK last night, and Chris and I fly on to Delhi, via Colombo in Sri Lanka, this evening.

In the past in my blog I've made a few negative comments about Thailand, and I think now might be a good time to set the record straight. It's a great country really, and I think I'll miss it more than I realise now. The people are friendly, the food is great, the scenery - from the mountains of Chiang Mai to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand - is stunningly photogenic, and the temple architecture in Ayutthaya and elsewhere is beautiful. I've even grown to like Bangkok, after a couple of attempts.

Most of the things I don't like stem from the sheer volume of tourist traffic that passes through the country. Tourism is easily Thailand's most important earner of foreign exchange, and it makes it a very easy country to get around, but it makes it hard to step off the well-worn Lonely Planet trail and similarly hard to feel you're getting somwhere that's unknown and uncharted, which for me is what real travel is all about. The second problem is that there are always a few unsavoury hangers-on in any tourist area, which means you unfortunately have to treat the legendary Thai friendliness with a little circumspection.

Going to India is an exciting and a daunting prospect. It's a country I've wanted to visit for a very long time, but from what I've heard it's unlike anywhere I've been before, with the possible exception of Burma. A few friends who have been to India have given me some snippets of information: I must watch where I walk at night, as people sleep in the streets and there are no streetlights. I must also beware of the skiddiness of elephant poo, lest a cyclist skid on it and full under the wheels of my bus. I expect, though, that it's not somewhere you can explain to someone else: you have to go there for yourself.