I'm begining to feel like the Rain God in the Hitchhiker's Guide. Quakes and other disasters seem to be following me around. The tally so far is four quakes and two typhoons.This one was felt a little in Bangkok (they evacuated the 64-floor Banyan Tree Hotel amongst others), but I slept through it (it happened around 8:30am and it *was* Boxing Day).

However, there is devastation over a huge area, as you've probably gathered. I'm rearranging my route a little as there's no point my going anywhere near Phuket, obviously, and there are many places further south I'll have to avoid - roads have been washed away and that sort of thing. We sat here yesterday all day watching BBC World Service TV (the Asian service) which had full coverage, and as more and morereports came in it became almost unbelievable.

Went for my new tyres this morning, and even in Bangkok there's a kind of shellshock at the catastrophe. A pair of Dunlop D605s, an inner tube, and fitting cost around 50 quid - would have been more than twice that in the UK. Oh, and that included a cup of tea and a Bridgestone T-shirt.