I so cannot sleep. It's almost 2am. I'm supposed to be getting up at 4am to catch my 5:55am train to the Cambodian border. I did actually get to sleep at around 8pm, but hunger pains (and a noisy motorcycle outside) woke me up at 10, so I went downstairs to the Atlanta's dining room and had a pancake. The pancakes here are huge, have fruit (usually banana) mixed into them and are served with lime, sugar and maple syrup.

Today I found out how little I know about buying currency. I went to one exchange booth and three banks before I found someone willing to sell me some US dollars. As for Cambodian Riel and Vietnamese Dong, I had no hope, but the US dollars will cover me for now.

One exciting thing happened today. During my search for currency, I hailed a taxi on a strangely empty Thanon Sukhumvit. In the taxi, the driver remarked on the lack of vehicles on the road. "Tumaiya?" (why?) I asked. In heavily accented English he said "Train coming". I thought that was a bit strange, since the train runs on an elevated line 20 metres above the road - why would the clear the road for the train? Then the driver said "Cleaner coming". This seemed strange too. I wondered, do the the municipal authorities really not understand the traffic mayhem that would result from clearing the road in the middle of the day just to clean it? Finally the driver said "King coming". "Aahaahhh", I said. A couple of minutes later King Rama IX's motorcade, consisting of his car, two police pickups and about four police motor cycles, tore past my taxi down Thanon Sukhumvit heading in the direction of Koh Ratankosin, which is where the Grand Palace is. Probably the most exciting thing that happened to me today, even though I didn't actually get to see the King.