I just read Andrea Massari's blog about your trip on the certain website. I assume you didn't join in the 30 minutes of laughter when the bus narrowly escaped the collision...

Hilarious, eh?

'The journey was thrilled by an encounter with another bus that almost caused an accident. I was sitting in the front seat and all of a sudden we were shocked to see another bus just 3cm from our window and on the other side there was just 10cm gap to the edge of the road...'

There was another serious near-miss in the dark on the way back.

Luckily I wasn't there for the 4 hour transfer from Patna [where the trip ground to a halt] when the driver took the wrong road and delivered the passengers to their Varanasi hotel 14 hours later.

Fun, fun, fun.

I, too, read the Blog. Pure fluff. This is why self-serving posts are more than useless. They are totally misleading. Do you think the blogger is aware that 3 cm is only slightly more than an inch. Yikes. We rely on canine accuracy.

When an Operations Director describes an incident that could have killed or maimed a busload of passengers as "thrilling," there's something very, very wrong...

The blogger knows precisely how far 3 cm is. It's the distance between life and death.

It's also worth knowing that one passenger lasted precisely four days on the maiden voyage. Which puts another blog in a new perspective...

Oh I am enjoying this already, perverse as that sounds.

Isn't there a movie here? A raucous black comedy. Lots of politically incorrect thickly accented characters of the subcontinental type. Pompous pommies on board. Hapless lead to be played by, dunno, Bill Nighy?
Being a man of Scots persuasion, Mr. A has found a way to keep your money. It's in his DNA. But you got that other cruise so cheap, it all evens out maybe. But maybe someone's trying to tell you something: Don't get on another boat!
You're a dog after my own heart, sir.
Tangata must be enjoying this...

"Priapic"??? Whoa!

John Cleese as the cruise director.

It is rather Fawlty Towers-ish, isn't it? It could be done as a series on the Beeb, with Dogster writing. A sort of black farce Love Boat. Most scenes take place in the boat's bar. I can do a good Cockney accent and pratfalls if there's any character like that. Pretty good with Peter Sellers-like Indian accent too.
I noticed priapic too. Show-off!

Full of characters names Penelope, Priscilla, Ian and my favorite Bertram. Hugh Laurie in his younger years.

Well, having read the blog and dogster's hints, I'm ready for the full story, no holds barred!

Perhaps a "play within a play" wherein to catch the conscience of a cruise line?

I just finished reading Amy Tan's SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING about clueless Americans abroad in Burma but this promises to be even better...

We've sailed with Dogster and his companions many times, laughing all the way. I think that this time the passengers are in harm's way due to incompetence and stupidity, making the dog very angry and casting a dark shadow even on the hilarious aspects of the cruise...

That's why I said "black" Marija. But the best way to avenge the incompetence is through satire. But time needs to pass as Dogster wisely points out.

Our Dog has deep loyalties. He feels this loyality to his host/friend. I see the quandy in different terms. Dog's followers (and I am one) expect both interesting adventure stories which we may, or may not want to emulate, and good advice about trips, hotels, restaurants, cruises, guides, drivers, etc. that we would follow. We know that some trips, hotels, restaurants, cruises are not ones that Dogster's followers would enjoy. We expect our leader to let us know which are good and which are good to avoid. Otherwise, there I will be with my three darling grandaughters and their parents on a holiday in India or Nepal and when things are not going well, I will be asked if I am following the advice of that someone from Fodors that I have find so clever and interesting and knows the best places to go.

lol lol great responses from you all.

This is written in haste: I'm on the move today. I forget where. Net access may be difficult - or easy. Time will tell. Packing.

Wonderful thread to stumble on during a moment of insomnia. Memories for me since the '70's. Nepal can make you stupid. Sure I can stuff a blob of hash into my climbing boot for a souvenir. Take it home. Through Thailand. They never check me. I stayed in the Hotel Courtyard, or one just like it. Before trip advisor. I threw up there. Still it was a nice hotel.

Looks like we've all been taken for a ride by another whippersnapper. The OP vanishes, leaving us to ponder his/her fate...

There has been a Dogster sighting outside a seedy bordello in deepest Patpong. Apparently a man answering to his name was chased into the street and beaten to a pulp by over 300 lady-boys, angry at his refusal to commit to a new lifestyle as Dogalina, the ugliest transvestite in Bangkok.

He escaped and fled to LeMeridien where he may, or may not be hidden in room 1803. He won't come out, claiming writer's block.

Soon, The Ghost Who Walks will go home, wherever that is. In the meantime, while he can stay in the very, very nice LeMeridien for 2,900 baht [US$89.50] a night on latestays.com, he says he ain't going nowhere.

www.lemeridienhotelbangkok.com