Good night, sleep tight, the bedbugs will bite.

First-person shooter simulation of me water-fighting in Songkran.

Once again, I find myself in a sweaty little guest house room in the back-alleys of Khao San Road in Bangkok. I was getting a bit anxious about the increasingly ominous stand-off between the red-shirts and the government, but thank goodness things seem to have settled down for now. Outside, the Songkran madness is still going full blast, and it is turning into one hell of a party! Back home, there are simply not enough water-fights available for adults to partake in, much less massive parties with water-fighting as the concept! Event-organizers take note.

I’ve pretty much gotten used to the cockroaches and rats here, but I have to say I had a pretty nasty experience in the guesthouse I was staying for the past few nights. In the mornings, I kept finding these bites all over my body, and they were often in neat, straight lines, which can usually only mean one thing: bedbugs. The ferocious little bloodsuckers live in the furniture and the mattress, and only come out to feed when you are asleep. The guesthouse was, however, by far the nicest (and most expensive) where I had stayed, so when I couldn’t find the actual culprits, I assumed it was just esthetically minded mosquitoes or something. Imagine my shock when last night I woke up to find big bedbugs scurrying all over the pillow! What followed was the famous “ten-minute check-out”, where you pack your bags as quickly as possible in the middle of the night and just get the fuck out of there. I sprayed enough insecticide in my backpack to turn it into an entomological Auschwitz, but I’m still worried I’m carrying the vermin and their eggs around with me now. If I find any, I guess I will go to the nearest 7-11 and ask them to put my bag in the freezer for a day or two. The bites on the other hand have swollen up into enormous welts, and itch like crazy! It’s taking all my self-restraint not to scratch them with those rusty nails protruding from the wall. Fuck.

So, tomorrow morning I am heading to Myanmar/Burma, where they are just starting to celebrate their New Year. In a surprising turn of events, this also takes the form of a gigantic water-fight! I have no idea what the internet connections are like there, but apparently there are only a few places you can even get online. Also, I’ve heard the local government takes a screenshot of computers in internet-cafes every five minutes, so I might just stay pretty much incommunicado rather than let them get all Orwellian on my ass. Will definitely post about it after I get back though! Laters!