Had a late start today from planning the route out. Turns out the journey may well end up 700km instead of that 616km listed on Lonely Planet. * gasp * And our first destination may not be Nakhon Ratchasima... Its the boring... dusty... city of Ayutthia. Yes, I've been there back in high school. I can almost remember what it was like back then. Miss Nyugen, with Mrs Yeo and that whole gin-gang of TKGS classmates, pretending to be interested in looking at countless monuments, wats (temples) and all that relics. We wounded up shopping at the nearest shopping mall we can find. Can't expect too much out of a bunch of girls' school girls, can you?

So anyway, back to the story of the day. I went to Chatuchak Market to try shoot some photos. And I actually did! There was the one with the goldfishes inhumanely kept in little plastic bags filled with air, the one with crickets and grub as snacks (which I had gamely eaten yesterday already), the one where there were poor huskies that enthralled the passerbys in this heated Saturday and here comes the catch of the day... COCK-FIGHTING! I actually walked/wandered/roamed so deeply into the markets that I saw a cock-fighting ring! (And its just when we all thought it was outlawed)

I couldn't stay long cos I really wanted to get out and watch Pirates 2. So I wounded up walking round and round the pet section of Chatuchak. It was NOT good at all. I kept seeing poor little animals cooped up in cages. You name it, they have it. There were birds, fishes, snakes and the worst of all... SQUIRRELS. And the squirrels are not just regular squirrels. Its the little baby ones too. I was really really emotionally worn by seeing these poor little creatures taken away from their natural surroundings by these people to sell.

And yes, just to make a point – I don't like the Visa ad where Richard Gere paid to “free some birds” just so somebody gets good luck. You know why? Cos the birds are caught right back! Its a negative reinforcement by this ad, cos soon enough more people will try to “free more birds” by buying it from this really sad trade of bird-catching.

I tried to get over it by watching Pirates 2. But no, this was way beyond Johnny Depp to rescue. I meant both my emotions and the movie. The movie was well made, well produced and damn... it looks too well finished. And there was the ending cliffhanger... Looks like I've no choice but to catch Pirates 3! Good movies come in 3s now eh? Still the movie was way too long and draggy, tho the plot was sufficiently developed.

We're aiming to start off early tomorrow morning at around 5.15am, when its first light in Bangkok for Ayutthaya – the first stop. If we're lucky, you'd hear from me soon enough.