Yeah! It's 4:30 am, and I decided half-an-hour ago that instead of going to sleep, I'm gonna go and catch the 5:55 am train to Aranya Prathet. It seems to be the best idea I've ever had, and possibly the best idea in history, but I'm prepared to concede that this may be because I'm overtired.

The reason for this trip is to check out the border market properly, something I wasn't able to do when I passed through the area on may way into Cambodia a few weeks ago. While I'm there I'm going to try to fill up the few empty spots on my Christmas shopping list.

I have to say that this is very exciting (again, possibly due to overtiredness). I've spent the last two weeks sitting around Bangkok writing and programming on my laptop, and the prospect of escaping Bangkok to go somewhere where I'll be hot, get really dusty and sweaty, be hassled by kids for handouts, and above all get to sit on a hard bench 3rd class train seat for 6 hours each way is quite exciting. The only part that seems silly (at 4:30 am) is that I'll only be able to spend about three hours there because of the way the train timetable matches up. On the upside, I'll get to eat those funky "tuna" sandwiches from the Hualamphong station mini-mart for breakfast again. Yeah!