storming in Bangkok

It's my last evening in Asia, for the time being at least, and it's storming like crazy in Bangkok. It was warm and muggy as usual all day, then started to cloud up and now it's raining like crazy with thunder and lightning. Actually come to think of it, it did this yesterday as well, although a little later in the evening. So the monsoon may be on its way. Or else it's just raining. But I've pretty much got all my last minute stuff taken care of, got my bags packed (they don't seem too heavy, hopefully not) and got a bus ticket for the airport express bus at 5 am tomorrow. So not too much to do this evening, which is better than scrambling at the last minute. One cool thing though is that I just ran into Dean, the guy I ran into a few weeks ago when I was in Bangkok before, who I know from the Andaman Islands in India two years ago. He'd also left Bangkok, for an even shorter time, and then come back, and then is headed north from here, planning to travel around southeast Asia for the next few months. So I might see him around for dinner tonight. Although, maybe not because we'd arranged to eat at a pretty good street vendor, just across from my hotel, where they have chairs and tables but it's not protected from the rain, so depends on how long this lasts....So I'm not certain that I'll end up getting online once I get to Hawaii, because you have to pay for a membership at the library in Kapaa in order to use the internet. But we'll see. Either way I'll definitely be making some phone calls. If I don't write anything in Hawaii, then the next time I'll get online will be in a little less than 3 weeks, back in California. But good chance I'll end up checking email, etc. in Hawaii at some point.