This text is a slightly changed e-mail that I sent to my friends from Bangkok, on February 13th, 2006. It is a part of the text 'Thailand 2006 - the trip'

Number 13 has popped up several times during my trip:
- on the plane from Shanghai to Singapore I was sitting in row 14, but planes don't have
row 13, it goes 10, 11, 12, 14..., lousy superstitions...,
- I was staying in room no. 213 in the hotel in Singapore,
- the bus I've taken from Singapore to Melaka was no. 471313,
- in the hotel in Georgetown, Malaysia my room was no. 413,
- and today is February 13th:
When I woke up it was raining. With nothing to do, I started reading a book - yesterday I caused a little furore when I walked up and down Khaosan Road (the backpackers' road in Bangkok) in pouring rain, taking pictures, my camera is waterproof, and today I didn't feel like it.
After two hours I decided that this would drive me crazy, sitting in my hotel room (no. 403 this time). It'd stopped raining, so I decided to go to a Snake Farm, a research institute where poisonous snakes are kept 'milked' so that anti-venom can be made.
I took a taxi, 71 baht. The Snake Farm was closed. According to my guide-book it was supposed to be open, but when I got out of the car one of the security guards at the gate just shook his head and pointed to a sign posted over the ticket window that said 'today open - till noon only.'
Disappointed and dispirited, and the rain was about to fall again, I took another taxi back to Khaosan. The driver was a wizened, shrivelled tiny old man who seemed to be half awake/alive. With backtracking, driving round in circles it seemed, getting back to Khaosan Rd took twice as much time as leaving it less than an hour previously, and cost 81 baht.
I decided it was beer time and walked to the restaurant right next to my hotel where I'd been eating lunch or dinner every day since I arrived in BKK.
I'm a good tipper (and to be honest that 20 percent of a tip, 40 baht on top of a 200b meal is not that much at all, considering that 40b=1USD) and the staff already recognized me and seemed to treat me better than an average customer, an example will follow in a sec.
I sat down, the waiter responsible for my half of the restaurant came over, and, knowing what my first words would be said: I'm sorry Sir, no beer today. Buddha day (meaning - a religious special day/holiday).....
Damn you, 13th.
But. A few minutes later, after conferring with the owner, the waiter came up to my table again, leaned over and said in a conspirational whisper: but I can pour beer into a glass, if you want, so that there is no bottle on the table. Or I can give you two bottles (I usually had two beers with my meals) for later, into your backpack.
I felt like laughing, and I said I'd take two cans and drink the beer later in my hotel.
A few minutes passed again and then the waiter came over and put a glass of tea on my table. I looked at him, thinking what the heck was that, and noticed that he was holding a plastic bag in his left hand, sort of hiding it from the eyes of other customers behind his back, quickly put the bag into my backpack...
The moral of the story? Tipping is a good idea. And number 13 isn't always bad... ;)
03.2006