BANGKOK IS A GHOST TOWN

... well, not exactly - how can a city with close on 8 million inhabitants ever be deserted, but in comparison to every other day it was deserted this morning. This is for two reasons - firstly the World Cup Final ended around 3.30am this morning and my guess is that a substantial proportion of Thailand stayed up to watch it. It was shown on all of the channels - so if you don't like football then tough luck. For those that are interested I didn't stay up - anyone who knows me will also know that I value my sleep too much. The second reason for lack of traffic and people this morning is that tomorrow (Tuesday) is a public holiday here. I'll give you more details about the reason and some background later on today, but essentially it marks the start of Buddhist Lent. Today (Monday) is also a holiday for schools and government organisations, and also about 25 per cent of my office who, for one reason or another, aren't here.