Two days before take-off I am calmer than I should be.

Tuesday I fly. First time in Asia, and like Montenegro in June, alone again. I notice I am going with a lot of respect. Not fear, more that feeling of knowing that for two weeks nothing will really be under control: language, heat, traffic, food I cannot read. My expectations are high and I have no idea whether they are right.

Honestly, my head is more at work than at the departure gate right now. The calm is suspicious. On Sunday I finally booked the hotel for the first three nights in Bangkok and filled in the TDAC, the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. That is the online arrival form Thailand has required since 2025 instead of the old paper slip: passport details, flight, first address, done within three days before arrival, free, ten minutes. After that the trip felt real for the first time.

The suitcase is small and glows in an almost fluorescent green. The plan behind it: it cannot get lost, and a thief would be visible from a helicopter over Bangkok. The rest of the packing list is unspectacular. Whatever is missing I will buy there, that is part of the programme.

The route is set only as a broad arc: Pirna, Prague, Doha, Bangkok, then north and back via Bangkok. The details are allowed to appear on the road. From here on I write along: short chapters, straight from the day, with food, encounters and enough respect for the unplanned.