In L.A. of all places!

Forty-eight hours ago, I had no plans or intentions to be in Los Angeles right now, the other city of angels (Krung Thep, the way Thais actually refer to Bangkok, means "city of angels" too!). But here I am in California, enjoying a cool night, something, you almost never get in Bangkok, with nice clean air, something you never get in Bangkok (without the "almost").

It went down like this: I was feeling a bit down after the exhilarating high of my trip to Cambodia. On Monday, I met with my friend Chris on Khao San Rd. for lunch and we both agreed that we were not feeling our best. He had the idea to go shoot guns at a shooting range, which sounded kind of interesting except this I'm anti-gun and it was expensive although I've heard that it really helps you blow off steam. However, after more thought I nixed that idea. Then, we considered going to a golf driving range - a more civilized way to relieve my stress, I figured.

So Chris went home and I started emailing pitches for some story ideas I have to different publications. It was about 5:00pm when I saw that Chris was calling, presumably about the golfing. Instead, he asked me if I wanted to fly to L.A. the next day, suggesting that this might be a good way out of the little rut I felt I was in.

I had trouble believing it was real, but indeed, his girlfriend Pim's friend's uncle (it's always something like that, isn't it?) needed someone to courier some Nike bathing suits to a manufacturer in Irvine in southern California by Wednesday at 10am when a buyer from Macy's would be there to look at the Nike 2007 collection. If the goods couldn't be delivered by then, millions of dollars could potentially be lost.

I was incredulous. It seemed too good to be true. I would fly premium economy class non-stop on Thai Airways and could stay as long as I want but I had to leave the next day - on July 4.

Everyone who I asked whether I should do this or not, said that they wouldn't. They suggested the obvious: What if something was stashed somewhere in the bag like drugs, diamonds ... or worse? Some were like, "hey ... it's Bangkok, I wouldn't get involved with something like this."

But my friend Pim, who I do trust, vouched for him and everything the Bathing Suit Guy was saying totally checked out.

I insisted on inspecting everything and that I would use my own bag which BSG had no problem with. So everything seemed OK.

My sister Leah, uncle Dan and aunt Marguerite live in L.A., as well as a bunch of old friends including Ryan (who visited me last year in Thailand), my ex co-worker from Air America Radio, JZ (who will be visiting me in Thailand in August), my oldest friend Aram and his wife Dunia, and weirdly, Rob, who I had just spent the past two weeks with in Cambodia and Thailand.

So with so many peeps in gold ol' Tinseltown, I decided to go for it. The drama didn't quite end until takeoff though, as I had to get to BSG's office by 4:00 to pick up the samples. I got stuck in horrible rainy Bangkok traffic and ended up getting there at 4:30 - a half hour later than I was suppsed to and the flight left at 7:00.

It turns out that BSG's stuff arrived late too, and his employees were still putting the suits togther: threading through the strings to tighten the bathing suits, tagging the suits, and cutting holes in them to make sure that they weren't of any monetary value so I wouldn't have to declare anything.

That wasn't it though. Someone was to meet me at the airport less than an hour before my flight took off and give me more samples, which she also strung, tagged and cut - in the airport waiting area!

But everything was completed in time and I just have to deliver the materials to Irvine tomorrow morning. Hopefully there's no problem with that ...

I even got to see some July 4th fireworks while I was stuck in terrible L.A. standstill traffic on the PCH from LAX. It's funny how I left at 7:00pm on July 4th from BKK and arrived 8:00 pm in L.A. because of the time difference.

When Rob left Thailand on Sunday, I said to him, "I don't know when I'll see you again. It might be a while since I don't think I'll be coming to California any time soon."

Well, here I am.