Thailand. I'm on my way. A week and a half ago, I didn't even know I was going. This is one of the more impulsive things I've done in my life!

My original intention was to go to the Seto Inland Sea and ride my bike from Shikoku to Hiroshima, then maybe down to Kyuushuu. I didn't really have it firm in my head about which way I was going to go, or where I would stay, but I was just going to take it as it came.

Then, last Friday I was at work, and during my break I was surfing the net a little. I saw some pictures a guy had taken of his recent trip to Thailand, and I thought 'hey, I'D like to go to Thailand. I wonder how much tickets are.'

So I looked up tickets online. 18 000 yen! (about USD$180). Nice! But there are always hidden charges, and I was curious as to how much the total cost would be. So after work I called up the travel agency and asked.

"Including taxes etc., 45000 yen."

"Forty-five thousand yen? It says 18000 on the website!"

"There are no more of those tickets left".

"Then why do you have them on the site? That's bait and switch is it not?" I exclaimed, a little pissed off. She said it wasn't, but after I harassed her a little, she searched around and found me one of the cheap tickets. 28000 yen including taxes, fuel and everything.

"Daaamn" I thought, "that's cheap".

So I booked the ticket, and went home to Yoko.

"Soooooo, I was planning to go to the Seto Inland Sea, but, well, you know, I'm um, thinking..."

"Where?".

"thailand".

"THAILAND!"

Needless to say it was a shock to her. But, being Yoko, the great girl she is, after a little discussion she gave me the ok, and there it was, I was going to Thailand.

The next week was a blur of work. Long days, late nites, lots of stress.

Fast forward to yesterday, Saturday. I had a million things to do. I hadn't started packing, and I had a bunch of stuff I needed to clean up before I left. It was a crazy busy day, and I literally worked through the night. I had to leave at 4:55 this morning, and I got everything tidied up just before I left the house. Good timing - if you ignore the fact that I didn't even sleep a wink!

Yoko drove me to the station, and now here I am, blogging on the train. Technology is great. We picked up a nice little e-computer a couple months back, and my boss leant me his e-mobile, it's a wireless modem that works anywhere in the country - apparentliy even on the train! The great thing is, I didn't even plan to do this blog until I got on the train, it was just a random throught. But being a web guy, putting a sit online only takes a few minutes, and apparently I can even do it on the train! So this is the start of my first blog, and the story of my solo trip to Thailand.

It's now 6:56 AM, April 26, 2009. I'm passing through a station called つが right now, and I will arrive at Narita airport in exactly 40 minutes. My flight is at 9:40.

Technology is cool stuff.