I get up early, as I feel completely fine this morning and head out for some breakfast. I walk up the street and stop at this place that looks to serve something that resembles a fry. Let's go. As I'm sitting there Alex and Maria walk past and so they sit down and join me. Breakfast was first class, egg, hash brown, bacon, sausage, toast, orange juice and coffee. Just what you need to start the day. After breakfast I go back to my hostel to see about booking a bus to Bangkok.
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What a disaster, all the buses are fully booked and there is nothing available until the 4th. Well this is just no good because that is when my visa expires and so I can't leave it until that late. What am I going to do? I consider paying at the hostel for them to extend my visa, but it is so expensive and the offices will be closed because of new year. I look at the possibility of doing a visa run, but that means that I am going to have to head north, when I want to be heading south. I get them to check if there is space on the visa run. There isn't, all fully booked, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. s***! This is bad. I toy with the idea of booking a flight. No don't be so stupid, there must be another way, plus the flight will be a small fortune at this stage. I maybe have to book a private mini bus to take me on the run, how much is that going to cost? I get the hostel to check the 4th, they have a space. Thank god. 400bht and I am booked on, I even manage to get them to agree to drop me in Chiang Rai instead of bringing me back here. This means that I will get to see the white temple. What a result, from the ashes of despair. I think that was the most stressed I have been since I started my travels. This 2 week visa thing is a real problem, in hindsight I should have applied for my visa in advance, then I would have had to paid, but I could have got a month or 2, and saved me all this hassle. Good planning there.
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I spend the afternoon with Maria and Alex, we head to a coffee shop and all sit antisocially on our phones or laptops working away. This is fine because everyone knew the arrangement. I have work to do. I notice that I write considerably more when I am using my keyboard, perhaps I should just use my phone. Ha. We grab an early dinner with Alex before he heads home, then I head back to my hostel, only leaving for a coffee and something to eat later on in the evening. I bring my camera with me in the naive hope that there might be some lanterns tonight, the were not, I return home disappointed that I had not brought my camera last night.