I certainly did have an interesting New Year's celebration. I offered to take a couple of people out for dinner, so we set off for the Hard Rock Cafe with aspirations of a decent Western meal. When we arrived a queue about 100m long was waiting for us. We passed. Down the road we found a TGI Friday's, complete with raucous wait-staff renditions of "Happy Birthday", which we figured would suffice. While waiting at the bar to get a table, someone asked the inevitable New Year's Resolution question. Now, my personal opinion is that these resolutions are bollocks, but I chimed in, "My resolution this year is to still be breathing next year at this time so I can make more resolutions." [Despite the excitement that the night would bring, so far I have not violated my pledge.] The high point of the evening was when I commented to the others, "Wouldn't it be funny if it just happened that all four of us had birthdays today?" Somehow I got the idea to call the waiter over and I told him about our bizarre coincidence. He said, smiling, "I'll see what I can do." Fifteen minutes later, we've finished our main course and have forgotten about the whole thing, when the entire restaurant staff materializes and launches into song, bringing with them four cakes, each with a lit candle. Oh, it was a Kodak moment!

We moved on to the town square, which was fillled to capacity (over 50,000) by holiday revelers. As we approached the witching hour, the fireworks began, but, amazingly, the fireworks were not actually coordinated with the bell ringing midnight, and went on for 10 minutes afterwards. Strange. Anyway, there was no official countdown, so we provided our own, belting out the numbers, until the bell rang, and we immediately launched into "Auld Lang Syne", not mindful of the fact that we were the only people in the whole crowd doing so. Luckily, some visiting Singaporeans next to us joined in, and soon after sporadic bursts joined in from other points in the crowd.

Soon the time came to leave the town square, and so the entire crowd tried to exit through one alleyway so that they could all fight to cross a meter-wide foot bridge. We were going to try going the other way, but it's useless to argue with a crowd, and so we were pulled along like cattle. Along the way the two girls in our group were being continually groped and prodded by the Malaysian men; I felt the situation might get ugly as me and the other guy in our group were obliged to try and protect the girls from this onslaught, but the other men were relentless, and I thought one of us might lose our temper and take a swing at someone. Not a good idea when you are the only people of one race within a large crowd. [Note: Later on we learned that nearly every single woman who had been there at that time had had a similar experience.]

We found a nightclub in the Central Market which had outdoor tables, and had a sit. Amid the people shooting Roman Candles at each other and the Muslims on the periphery looking on, we ordered a few beers, and had another round of "Auld Lang Syne". We were all tired though, and half of our group went home. The German nurse whom I had befriended suggested we should do the same before we got too drunk. I agreed, as I was beginning to tire of the other people who had sat down at our table already piss-drunk. So we left the bar at 2:30AM, and headed back towards the Traveler's Moon lodge, where we were both staying.

Rounding the corner onto our street, we began walking towards the entrance to the hostel, about 100m away, when WHUNK my head is thrown forward by a blow from behind. Dazed and shocked, I turned around as fast as I could and saw the brick at my feet, and then the group of over 20 men on the corner, one man prominently grinning, and all advancing toward me. Enraged and frightened by the assault, I belted out something like, "Why the hell did you do that?" [At this point you might say that this was an impolitic thing to do, but if I could describe the look in their eyes, you would know that I was in trouble no matter what I did.] I was not reacting very quickly, because of the blow to my head, and it took me a second or two to realize that Bettina, the nurse, was yelling, "Run! Run!" and following her own advice - and then that the group of men were getting a lot closer and starting to encircle me. Rage gives way to sheer terror as I turn and run like hell towards the hostel entrance. [Bettina later tells me: Six men immediately took off after me, and caught up with me just as I was several feet away from the entrance.] I don't actually remember having run to the entrance, just that I got there somehow. At first my intention was to escape up into the stairwell, but something was holding me back and I only just barely made it to the entrance, where for some reason I could not go further. I was vaguely aware of being held and assaulted, and so I tried pushing the doorbell repeatedly and I started screaming bloody murder, appropriate because I was having a hard time seeing with all the blood streaming down my face. Suddenly I was freed and I groggily got up, turned around, and saw the thugs running back down the street, all except for one, who paused to heft another brick in my direction (which missed, thank God) as if to say "And another thing..." after the argument is over. I turned the other way, thoughts immediately on making sure that Bettina was safe. There she was, walking towards me from the other direction - she had apparently done a much better job of running than I had, and no-one had chased her. But she was fairly unmindful of herself, as she saw me walk up, bloodied and still bleeding heavily. Another group of men assembled around us, but this time they were well-meaning. By this time Bettina was getting a bit panicked, and I was dazed and unbelieving as she told me that the thugs had stabbed me seven times in the back and shoulders, in addition to splitting my scalp with the brick. The men around us hailed a taxi and Bettina yelled like a horse jockey when it arrived, telling him to take it faster as we wound our way through 20 minutes of wee-hours traffic to the pathetically-understaffed hospital. The only time during this whole escapade that I thought I was in real trouble was when my head became glued to the gurney by way of clotting blood. While at the hospital we ran into several others, caucasian and otherwise, who had been set upon by the same group. I came away finally with 15 stitches and a headache.

Bettina and I climbed into a cab and arrived at the hostel around 5:30 in the morning, desperate to clean ourselves off and just try and get some sleep. Sleep proved hard, however, as parts of my back had begun seriously to hurt, the deep wound in my shoulder made lying on my side an impossibility, and the stitches in my head were throbbing.

The rest of my time in KL was slightly more pleasant but extremely uneventful.

When finally I departed I was accompanied by a Swiss girl, Nicole, who was heading my way and had changed her ticket around so that she could be on my bus and not be the only white person on another bus. Fine with me. So it was that we boarded the "VIP" bus to Thailand at 8:30PM Jan. 3. Ostensibly, one is to sleep through the twelve-hour journey into Thailand, but this is hindered by the bus stopping almost on the hour for bathroom breaks, money exchange, food, what have you. Then, when you make the border crossing, you have to get out at the Malaysian side of the border, go through exit procedures, get back in your particular bus (out of 20 others), drive a short distance to the duty-free supermarket in the mile-wide "no-man's-land" between the two borders, shop a bit, board the bus yet again, then drive 200 yards to the Thai border, where you dismount again to go through Thai immigration, then re-board the venerable machine to speed you merry way into Siam. But only for fifteen minutes, before the bus is boarded by a tired-looking customs official who grumpily walks through the bus, giving the odd bag a squeeze and just generally giving people bad looks. If I were out to smuggle something into Thailand, I think I would use this route, because Thai Customs makes EU Customs look like supergods.

We finally arrived in Hat Yai at 7:30AM Jan. 4. At 9AM we took a sleepless 5-hour minibus ride to Krabi. In Krabi, we negotiated for a boat to take us out to Rai Lei, as this is the only way to reach Rai Lei and the surrounding bungalow settlements. This place seems like an island but technically it is a peninsula - it's just that the neck of the peninsula is blocked off by a 200m limestone mountain and therefore unfriendly to road-builders.

What can I say? This is as close to a tropical paradise as I can think of. But, I haven't been sitting around on the beach, as most are wont to do in this situation. I have been taking advantage of the unique outdoor sports avenues open to you here: excellent spelunking and rock-climbing due to the limestone formations surrounding us, and snorkeling off one of the 4 main beaches. I can see how people get stuck here for weeks on end. By the way, early on here I hooked up with two guys from London, and have barely seen Nicole at all. These guys are mostly doing the beach thing during the day, but they make good company at night.

On the 10th of January I decided that I had had enough lazing about and set out towards Bangkok. I took the overnight "VIP" bus which was filled with other travelers who were unimpressed that they were going to be in Bangkok soon. We pulled in to Khao San Rd. at 7:30AM Jan. 11th. I set up camp at the Classic Place Guest House again, but the manager informed me that they might not have a room until 11 or 12, so I deposited my bags and made my way to the Post Office, where I discovered that my AT&T Calling Card was no longer operable. I reluctantly called home collect, to learn that apparently someone had gotten hold of my card number and had been making hundreds of calls with it. I wished my mom a belated Happy Birthday, then capped that off by telling her about the stabbing. She seemed to take it pretty well. She wanted me to call AT&T but she didn't have the number right offhand and asked if I could call back tommorow at the same time. I said OK without thinking that that meant I would have to be up at 8AM the next day as well. Such is life. [When I called back the next morning Sally, my sister, was on the line and immmediately launched into, "Luke, jeez, are you alright? I mean, all the teachers at school are so worried about you!" "What?!?" I said - now I've done it, I should have known better than to tell my mom, and I'll probably walk into the deli down the street and have the waitress asking to see the stab wounds. Christ.]

Got back to the Guest House, got a room and timidly settled in, then went downstairs and met a Canadian woman whom I agreed to meet for dinner later (she had just flown in the day before and was fairly in need of company). So I set off to points beyond and basically tried to get tasks done. God- I'd forgotten how hot Bangkok was in the afternoon. Got back, had dinner, then the Canadian woman decided that she wanted the whole Bangkok experience, so off we went to Pat Pong. Can't say it was much different than last time. She was also going to Chiang Mai shortly, so the next day we met and went to the train station to look into our options. Or 'option', I should say, as the trains to Chiang Mai were all fully booked that night. So here we were at 2:30PM being told that a VIP Bus left Bangkok at 5PM and that was the only way to Chiang Mai at the moment. Well, we took it, and after a visit to a temple we collected our bags and returned to the train station slightly late. You may ask how we managed to be late when we did so little. The answer? In Bangkok it can take over a half-hour to cover a distance of four kilometers.

After yet another long cold 'VIP' bus ride, we arrived in Chiang Mai at 7AM, only to find that instead of the twin beds we had reserved back in Bangkok, what they had for us was one double. I really didn't give a second thought, because at this point in my trip I've been in just about every awkward situation possible. It was at this point she started driving me nuts - she said she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, that it was OK, but she just kept referring to trivial details of who would get what side of the bed and what-not. It was her first time really traveling, and only her third day in Asia, and she was still in the highly uptight stage when you still think your trip is going to be organized. I offered (and was quite willing) to move out and take a room to myself, but she seemed not to want to lose face, and insisted. I'm only going to argue so much. So I went out and rented a 100cc Honda step-through and did a little touring. Later on, I swung back around to the guesthouse and had a shower and a nap...

...and when Karen returned we went our to grab a bite to eat. She was looking to join a trek (I wasn't too keen) so I shuttled her around on the bike. Then we ate, and saw sights, and ate more, and saw some more sights, and ate, and ate, and ate... I went to sleep with the promise of a swift execution should I snore.

This morning Karen found her trek and set off. Personally, I renewed my bike rental for another 24 hours and went touring. I will be perusing the night market tonight for some new duds. Will be going back to Bangkok tomorrow night to get some final tasks in before I head out to HK.

I think I have decided to forego Japan on this trip, instead spending a week or more in Southern California looking at universities. This will be a big ease on the wallet, as well as a nice way to slide back into the Western world. Instead of being dumped right into my parents' laps straight from Tokyo, I'll have had a buffer in between Asia and home. Also, I won't have the trans-Pacific and trans-continental flights back-to-back, which is nice.

Back in Bangkok I ran into a surprise - remember Jason, the Australian whom I met the first time I was here? Well, he was back, and offered to let me stay my two nights in his room in exchange for a round of beers (relative costs make this come out slightly in his favor; we had some cheap accomodation!). We mutually agreed to once again terrorize the staff of the Nat Guest House. It was fun until the last night, when during a video he was rather rude to one of the waitresses (who had never been Miss Manners herself) and she gave him a good rap on the head to chastise him. He nearly smacked her in the face, and after that we were persona non grata in the Nat (for me it was Guilt by Association). My days were filled A) helping Jason around Bangkok as he tried to get together the money to get back to Australia and b)getting in some last-minute sightseeing.

Wistfully, I said goodbye to Bangkok and boarded the plane to Hong Kong. The flight to Hong Kong was as scary to me as I guess it is to anyone who goes through landing at Kai Tak Airport -- I'm just not used to flying in between apartment blocks to get to the runway. Once in HK I [original journal ends] - picture of Victoria Harbour - picture of Victoria Peak