Bangkok's Grand Palace "It didn't take much for my friends to convince me, though, and I bought my plane ticket, only to find out that they wouldn't be joining me after all."

Spirit houses for sale "I could have backed out. I could have tried to convince other friends to join me. But I didn't. And it was the best decision I ever made."

The colors in Bangkok were unlike any I'd ever seen. The saffron robes of the monks, the deep purple of the mangosteens (still one of my favorite fruits in the wold), the shining yellow, orange, and green tiled roofs of the Royal Palace, and the deep reds of the curry dishes in the alley markets all competed for my visual attention. But Bangkok has a dirtier side as well, fueled by the black exhaust of the second hand busses and the Thai's penchant for plastic bags which invariable end up floating jelly-like in the dingy river. The hours of gridlock traffic and the humid monsoon air creates a cloak of smog so dense that it causes one's eyes and throat to itch in constant irritation. Since I'm not one for big cities to begin with, I decided to leave for a smaller, hopefully quieter town a few hours west of Bangkok.