Taking Asia By Storm

A riddle, of sorts:

What's kind of on the biggish side, tends to leave a path of destruction in its wake and smashes into Thailand this weekend?

a) Tropical Storm Ketsan

b) Me (Kitty)

c) All of the above

Yup.

The storm has already killed 300 people in Vietnam, Cambodia and The Philippines. 2.3 million people have had their homes flooded.

Here's my route above, on the left. On the right, the red areas are countries with Ketsan related deaths in the past few days, and the pink ones are just countries declared to be in a "state of calamity".

Our idea was that I have a great adventure and take a month or so off to go backpacking across southern Asia before I get really serious about starting a new career. Be careful what you wish for huh? I get uncomfortable and can't sleep if the pillows are arranged wrong on the bed, I'm allergic to spicy food and I'm afraid of bugs. What WERE we thinking?!

Last week:

Tom: "Did you buy trip insurance yet?"

Me: "No. I'm finding it unreasonable that I'm expected to read 29 pages of policy details. Who reads 29 pages of travel policy fine print?"

Tom: "People who need to file travel claims."

Regardless that some of the streets in Bangkok will be under 2 feet of mud, I'm going anyway. Maybe I can Sean Penn around in a boat and help. We talked about my going on a more altruistic "voluntour" and agreed that it would be better for all concerned if there were few-to-no expectations around my involvement in either roofing or digging. The price was right, so I signed up for this ultra-low-budget-college-kids-stay-in-youth-hostels-sleep-on-trains trip.

This whole natural disaster thing could really bite into handbag shopping.

Stay tuned.