Sandwiched in a narrow alley between a cluster of banana trees and a dilapidated cart full of fresh papaya, a platform seats a handful of people at a row of computer screens.
Makeshift Internet shops like this one at Thailand's Sawasdee Bangkok Hotel have popped up across Southeast Asia.
Catering to the throngs who flock to the hot spot for budget travelers, Internet access has changed the way backpackers travel. "Now I write emails instead of sending postcards," says Matthias Schepp, a 32-year-old engineer from Switzerland.
Nomadic travelers who roam across borders with no particular itinerary have been notoriously inaccessible in the past. Now this bedraggled bunch has found some high-tech ways to ease the strain of a haphazard life on the road.
Checking Globaltrip and Backpackers' Guide before heading out helps them find the next Internet café on their routes. Through a haze of clove-cigarette smoke, budget travelers congregate to check email, look up weather reports, or consult a travel agent about a lost ticket.
"Eventually, you can catch up with people you meet," says Jenny Latham, a nurse from North London, who depended on luck to reunite her with other travelers until she opened her Hotmail account.
Leonard Quiat, an unemployed engineer from Seattle who has checked out five countries in nine weeks, tries to log on daily. If he's not paying his bills online or coordinating the next leg of his six-month trip, Quiat sends an update of his worldly adventures to a distribution list of 45 people.
"They're sitting back there in their offices, so they get to live vicariously through me," he said.
Other travelers, like Matthias Schepp, take a more pragmatic approach. "I check the latest stock quotes, and try to figure out how I am going to finance this vacation," he said.
Responding to the insatiable appetite for cheap communication, terminals have sprouted in such places as the shadow of an ancient mosque in Sumatra, the back of a dusty money-changer's office in Malaysia, or a guest house in Thailand's Chiang Mai.
When Nick Malins of New Zealand needed to contact his girlfriend to arrange a meeting, he found access in a remote area of Nepal. Connection worked by way of a microwave link to Kathmandu.
Swedish student Sigurd Hermansson hiked two hours in Northern India to reach a terminal where he emailed his geochemistry thesis advisor about a breakthrough in his research.
Under a noisy fan, Napadon Taechakitcharoen sits at a wooden desk with an array of stopwatches and a red logbook. The manager of the Internet Center at the Sawasdee Bangkok Hotel waits for customers to budge.
When they do, Taechakitcharoen jumps up, bangs his stopwatch, and opens his moneybox. According to his count, 50 to 60 customers log on daily, and 30 percent stay online one hour or more. Six months ago, one minute online cost 11 cents, but the price has steadily dropped to about six cents.
"The backpackers want it cheap, that's all they care about," says Leypoldt Kurt, a German expat who oversees the computers at Bangkok's New Joe guest house. "It doesn't matter if you have a good connection, a bad connection, or a reconnection."
To compete, shops are offering free peeks at email ("look, no touch"), abolishing the 10-minute minimum, and buying faster modems.
It's a very important service for the traveler," says Taechakitcharoen. "But for the people of Thailand, it's not so famous."
