DAY 355: "Won't you be relieved when you get home and you don't have to move on anymore?" Liz asked me the morning I left Tokyo as we walked to the train platform.

"I can't wait 'til I don't have to write anymore."

MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT GOING ON THIS TRIP is a big vacation, but allow me to clear the air right now; I never in my mind considered this trip to be a "vacation," even from Day One. For me, it was a way to gain a personal spin on as many destinations as I could that interested me, so that I could have an angle for future articles to pitch to travel publications, in a continual attempt to "climb the ladder" in the travel publishing biz. The efforts of all my note-taking and practice is seen in this here Blog, an entity that has personified itself in my mind as a nagging wife every time I fall behind.

Going around the world is one thing, but going around the world and maintaining a daily Blog that can hold an audience is another.

Pepe, the Dutch guy I met in Ecuador, had also kept a Blog of his travels through South America to impress newspaper editors, but at a certain point he told me he couldn't keep up and said 'Fuck it, I'm on holiday.' He told me in an e-mail that he's in awe that I've managed to keep the pace for so long. I knew he could appreciate what I've been going through.

Imagine going to work 24/7 and having to write a 1,200-word report about every day, everyday. But you're in exotic locations while I'm stuck at this desk you may think, and yeah, sure that's right, but after a while the routine of daily Blogging becomes work. Imagine the stress you get when you fall behind -- and you can't take a day off to take a break because then you inherently fall behind another day and give yourself more work. With all the time I spend doing everything that I do on the road, and an average of three hours of work per entry, there really is no time to sleep. (Since Mongolia my eyes have been red from lack of sleep, hence the wearing of my glasses in recent photos.) I swear at times I'm more burned out than when I had a 9 to 5 job; I jokingly tell myself, "Man, I can't wait to work a 9 to 5 again so I can get some rest." (Mind you that's still a joke. Nine to five again? Puh-lease.)

I've received e-mails saying that I could just take it easy and just post pictures, but I say I'm in this too deep now -- it's over 300 entries so far and I haven't skipped a beat yet. When I've fallen behind, I've always sacrificed "play time" for The Blog and gotten things back on track. Skipping a day is simply not an option; it's not fair for one day to get treated more special than another. (My God, am I personifying days now too?) Besides I'd hate to give a bad impression to any of the new readers who still seem to be discovering The Blog to this day. (If you are one of them reading this as your first entry, please forgive this rant and go read this one.)

I WAS STILL OVER A WEEK BEHIND ON ENTRIES when I left Japan's Narita International Airport on an airplane with my 60 lbs. of baggage, more if you count the figurative weight on my shoulders. The only thing I wanted to do was catch up; being behind kept me from looking ahead. The bad thing was the fact that I was headed for legendary Bangkok, Thailand, renowned for his party scene and sex tourism. As the 80s pop song goes, "One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster... The bars are temples, but the pearls ain't free..."

My reason for going to Bangkok was for none of that (at least for the meantime); it was to arrange a cheap flight to Kathmandu, Nepal at the suggestion of Tandin, my travel agent in Tokyo. The world would have be my oyster at a later date.

SIX HOURS LATER AND TWO TIME ZONES BACK, I touched down at Bangkok International Airport, landing point of an international array of backpackers, all in summer clothes to keep cool in Thailand's hot, tropical weather. I was also welcomed by Bangkok's Friday afternoon rush hour -- a one-hour bus journey took over two hours with the traffic.

I was dropped off in Bangkok's party district near legendary Koh San Road (picture above), an area of cheap beer, cheap travel tickets and cheap accommodations -- it's no wonder it was a haven for backpackers. I walked down the street with no hassles, presumably because touts thought I was Thai. Every Caucasian person I saw walk down the same road was always called over to take a bicycle rickshaw or tuk-tuk (motorized tricycle) ride.

I HAD NEVER BEEN TO THAILAND BEFORE, but Thailand to me was what Harry Potter was to a lot of disgruntled people during the overhype around the time the first movie came out -- people wouldn't shut up about it. Harry Potter this and Harry Potter that. "Did you see Harry Potter yet?" "Did you read the book?" "The book's a lot better than the movie." It got to be so much that the disgruntled people were so turned off, they boycotted seeing it altogether. (On a side note, one friend I have was one of these disgruntled people and went to see it anyway under influence from his girlfriend. He now tells people, "Harry Potter got me laid.")

Anyway, back to Thailand. Thailand to me is like Harry Potter. I don't know if it's because I'm in contact with a lot of backpackers and divers, but everything I've heard is Thailand this and Thailand that. "Have you gone to Thailand?" "I love Thailand!" "I have to go back to Thailand." The recent mass interest of the southeast Asian country has given Thailand the biggest boom in tourism than any country in history it seems. But with all the overhype I was turned off from going there -- but alas, it was inevitable.

However, being in Bangkok I finally got a taste of what all the fuss was about with its energetic vibe and ability to seemingly do whatever you want. Wow, this isn't so bad at all, I thought. Sure it's no longer an authentic exotic location with the entire area overrun by Westerners, but hey, most of the female Westerners are wearing hot-looking halter-tops. I resisted though, The Blog nagging me to stay in and catch up. Work before play, The Blog nagged me in my head. Just catch up and then go back to your normal life. You're not in Bangkok to play just yet, this is simply a layover en route to Kathmandu.

FINDING A CHEAP ROOM in a decent guesthouse was easy -- there's no shortage of them in the Koh San Road district -- but finding one with a room with an electrical outlet for my laptop was another thing. It took me a while, moving from guesthouse to guesthouse, but I eventually found one for a little bit more (five bucks USD instead of the usual $3-$4).

And so, I locked myself in and wrote on my laptop that "one night in Bangkok [where] the world's your oyster..." That is, your oyster, not mine -- not yet anyway.