still in Ranong

Nothing too exciting to report. I'm still in the coastal town of Ranong, on the Andaman Sea. I decided to stay one more day here, as I like my hotel room and wasn't feeling up for a long day spent on a bus quite yet. Besides I'm in no big hurry since I don't fly out of Bangkok until Thursday. Yesterday was rainy here, I'm not sure if it's the monsoon creeping in or just a random rainy day, but it was pouring down pretty good there for a while. But the monsoon is supposed to be on its way, which is why the tourist season is waning here. For anyone who doesn't know, the monsoon is basically just the rainy period in this part of Asia, I guess all of south Asia gets it, not sure about China or Japan. But different areas get it at different times, and certain places get two monsoons, as it moves up, passes over and then comes back down. So it's sort of a huge rainstorm that can last for months, but with periods of sunshine at times as well. Apparently it can be a great time to visit, as long as you're not in a flood zone, and don't mind the rain. Prices for hotels come down, and you can get a taste of a place when it isn't swamped with tourists. Although, I hear that when it is a sunny day, it's so humid it can be even hotter than anything I've experienced so far. But today it's back to being partly cloudy and isn't too hot out there. But I'm sure it will be plenty hot when I get back up to Bangkok. So I'll probably leave here by bus tomorrow, stay a night or two in Hua Hin and arrive in Bangkok Monday or Tuesday, then I'll be flying out of Bangkok Thursday. The weird thing is that I leave Bangkok at about 8 am on Thursday, fly for 12 or 14 hours or so, and then arrive in Honolulu at 6 am, also on Thursday, so two hours before I left. That's because of the international date line, so I'll be gaining back the day that I skipped over when I flew here, but that's going to be one long Thursday.