Wow. I Slept Through An Entire MONTH That Time...

This man could have undoubtedly have found a more peaceful place to be snoozing than along a walkway in the departures terminal of Taoyuan International in Taipei... but there he was.

Most of you have heard the expression "be careful what you wish for", and I'm here to bear witness it might be something we'd all be wise to take to heart more often.  This past few months I'd been happily bobbling along, working on three of my five regular, ongoing projects and trying to convince myself I didn't truly need to visit Asia as much as I wanted to. Friends in the Land of Smiles would regularly send tempting emails about one enticing festival, event or place they thought I ought to be at or a part of, but I managed to stay on task... until the middle of January, anyway.

Then one day about seven weeks ago an excuse came to light, an opportunity arose, an airfare I couldn't resist popped up and - after a 20 hour voyage - I found myself again trudging along through the arrival corridors of Suvarnabhumi International Airport. It was a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision, and while I don't regret making the trip it was another whirlwind series of adventures that find me in somewhat of a damp heap today; back at home with a pile of laundry needing attention, two full notebooks and another daunting heap of pocket notes, scribbled on whatever happened to be within reach at the moment. 

So, now that you know where I've spent the past five weeks or so, I'll try to fill you in on more of the details as time allows.  Now that I'm home my life will return to what passes for normal here, so while I'd like to post like I used to, that's not going to happen. I'll make an effort, though. 

This trip I caught up with a precious few of my Thai friends and only three of my usual farang contacts, but I did meet some new folks, ventured off to some new spots with a couple of old stand-by friends and stayed in a handful of new places. As usual, I took a lot of pictures - in fact, I believe I set a new record with close to 8,000 in five weeks - but then I was slowed to a near-standstill by a cold for about four days.  

So, let's give this another kick in the butt and see what happens. It's nice to be stateside again. To those who sent email and other messages asking where/how I was - thank you.  

To those who wrote saying they wished I'd begin posting stories and photos again: be careful what you wish for!