As I sat on the Thai Airways flight from San Francisco to Thailand, I realized that I had done it. My car had been sold just a day before the flight a true nightmare. The last few days had been crazy packing, selling everything which could fetch any value, and attempting the impossible task of knowledge transfer to a sad colleague and friend. The day when I was finally leaving, as my friend quietly cruised through 101 to drop me of at the SF Airport, I felt that the toughest thing to leave behind was not job, neither luxury, nor security, but the relationships which I had built with few of my colleagues, friends, and activity partners, whether they be Indians or otherwise. And a sudden thought crossed my head of what an old man on his death bed would think about the life he had led

And so, throughout the flight, I didnt feel anything. Perhaps, my brain had just shut off; unable to think ahead into the future of what this all would lead to. When the in-flight announcement barked off Ladies and Gentlemen, we have arrived at the Bangkok airport I switched to auto-pilot, and finally found myself standing in Bangkok airport with two suitcases and a backpack, at 2:00 in the night (or the morning) and trying to decide on the next step. I had to get rid of my suitcases of course so the first job was to deposit them into the lockers - which I did; and then called home to tell family that I was safe. The next thing to do was to get hold of a guide book so I grabbed a copy of the Rough Guide to Thailand (which, as my later travelogues would reveal, was an invaluable friend). And then, there I was, alone, my entire existence caught inside a backpack, zero plans about the future, and every acquaintance a long distance phone call away

I called a few hotel numbers, but soon realized that the cheaper ones wouldnt pick up their phones in the middle of the night, and the expensive ones didnt make sense. After all, my savings were my only security, and I had to preserve it as much as possible....

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I have broken up the blog into pieces due to its length. If you wish to read the entire bit right now, visit

http://desoumal.blogspot.com/

It allows photographs, and is in general more readable...