On 2nd June I lay in bed thinking. I had seen and done most of what Phuket had to offer, and was ready to move on – especially as I’d heard a report that a US Navy vessel had docked, and that Ao Patong was about to fill with 1500 sailors on R&R.

The problem is that having already spent a couple of weeks touring other parts of Thailand 2 years ago, the country doesn’t hold much that is still new and exciting. So the question of what to do now was now becoming rather urgent. The only certainty is that I am definitely nowhere near wanting to go home yet. In Phuket I’d heard a few more comments about Burma opening up slightly, but it was all third hand information – nobody had actually been there.

In any case, I needed to head for Bangkok, so after checking out I headed for the bus office and was told “bus full”. Anther travel agent in Ao Patong told me the same. I got a local bus to Phuket town and another agent said the bus from there was full. However on finding the bus station, I found a Bangkok-bound bus that wasn’t full, and managed to get a ticket for it. It wasn’t air conditioned, and was rather sticky.

I spent the rest of the the day and night on the bus. A few meal stops provided some fresh air and reprieve, and after tuning in to the BBC for most of the evening I had a reasonable sleep. But I was still glad to reach Bangkok first thing in the morning. I headed straight for the central district of Banglamphu where the rather seedy backpackers’ enclave of Khao San Road provides everything a traveller might need. Accommodation, supplies, food, travel agents, bars, nightlife, and what I sought most: information. It is the Mos Eisley Spaceport of SE Asian travel!

After getting some breakfast, I went to a recommended backpacker’s travel and visa agent, to get the latest on Burma. Bad news awaited me. The country is no longer issuing tourist visas. Not even for organised tours. Nothing. The military government is in the middle of some kind of clamp down on pro-democracy campaigners.

However… there was a silver lining. I was almost heading for the door when it occurred to me to ask about Indochina. The travel agent smiled and his voice dropped in an almost conspiratorial way as he told me to sit down again. “We can now get you visa for Cambodia, if you fly in from Laos! – and we can get you visa for Laos!”.

This sounded more like it…

It seems that Cambodia is still far too dangerous near the Thai border for land entry – pockets of Khmer Rouge fighters are still hiding in the hills, and battles rage occasionally. However the capital Phnom Penh is safe enough, and the government has recently allowed their embassy in Bangkok to start issuing visas to independent travellers to fly in to Cambodia with much-needed hard currency. However there are no flights from Bangkok to Phnom Penh – hence the connection via Vientiang in Laos.

I thought about this. Clearly “turning right” at Bangkok was the “wrong way” (if I was heading home) so the big question was what would I do after a possible adventure in Indochina. But then I remembered one of my crazy fevered dreams in Bali, that had me flying to the Philippines and then China. I’d previously had no intension of going anywhere near China, but if Burma was blocked, and I had several more months available… maybe (just maybe) “turning right” would make sense. After all, China has long been high on my list of countries to visit…

“So…” I asked the travel agent “…Do I fly to Vientiang?” He shook his head vigorously. “No flights there!” This wasn’t sounding so easy. “So how do I get there??” I asked.

“You take train to Nong Kai, on border. Vientiang is on other side! Very close! You can see from Nong Kai!” This sounded suspiciously easy. “So then I can just walk across…?”. He shook his head in despair “No walking! No walking! River Mekong! You must take small boat across Mekong – then you in Laos!!”

That was it! I was totally hooked…

Up until that moment, I had been feeling a definite “travel lassitude” from reaching Bangkok, a somewhat familiar city in a country I had already explored. This was made worse by the possible overland route through Burma being now blocked. But this lassitude was instantly vapourised by imagining myself as a pioneer, crossing the Mekong in a small boat, as a “secret entrance” to explore isolated, Soviet-dominated, Indochina, where independent travellers have not been allowed for decades…

And it got better and better – the travel agent said that a Cambodia visa would allow me to leave by land to Vietnam, and that I could easily get a transit visa for Vietnam if I had a booked flight out of there. The icing on the cake was that there is a once weekly flight from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Manila in the Philippines, to provide my route out at the end.

By lunchtime I had filled in a lot of forms to get the 2 visas, and ordered the air ticket. The slight catch is that it will, of course, take a few days to get the visas and I needed to leave my passport. I was given a stamped signed photocopy of my passport, in case I need to prove my identity. Then I headed for the post office in a tuk tuk (the typical noisy smelly, fast 3-wheel taxis). There were 3 items of mail waiting for me – this was the last poste restante pick up location that I have scheduled so far. Maybe I will need to schedule some more!

In the Sukhumvit Road area I found the Sabena (Belgian Airlines) office, where I delayed my flight back to the UK (from India) until mid August. But the way I’m thinking, I may never actually need that ticket…

Then, finally, I checked into the Atlanta Hotel a little south of nearby Nana Plaza. I was starving by this time and went for a double helping of pad thai. Then I decided to go for a beer or two, to celebrate the fact that a new and exciting travel plan seems to be coming together. I ended up in Woodstock bar in the corner of Nana Plaza, which was somewhat more laid back than a few of the more boisterous places nearby, but still a lot of fun…

On 4th June I was a bit late out of bed, but before too long I found myself at Bangkok’s east bus terminal, with a plan to relax on a recommended nearby island for a few days. A couple of hours on a comfortable bus got me to the coastal town of Si Racha, where it wasn’t at all obvious where to go to get the boat. In the end I walked to the port. After a long wait, a poorly ventilated and very sweaty boat took me out to Koh Sichang (island) about 12 km (7 miles) off the coast. A taxi in the form of a moped gave me a ride to the recommended backpacker lodgings.

Koh Sichang seems a very laid back place – ideal for relaxing while visas are issued. At the hotel I got talking to Lee, an English teacher from Barcelona, and and Irish couple, Alan and Alison, who told me what there is to do on the island (not a lot…). But finally I can relax after all the decision making, and readjust my mind to the idea that I won’t be heading west for home yet, but instead will be heading 2000 km east and then likely north…