sonic in SE Asia

bleh...

2006-02-16T20:55:00.000-08:00

such an emotinal trip, I feel recovered in some ways and exausted in others.

I made it home without cash, in my airport wanderings managed to find myself in the first class waiting lounge of one of the large airlines. I had a shower, got changed and had some cake and orange juice. Didn't have the guts to get a serve of pasta from the bay-marie, but I could have... Now I'm sure this is as boring to read as it is to type, but, its sometimes good to know one still has the capacity for hunger. and if you have the confidence you can pretty much walk anywhere you please.

I'm in adelaide now staying with friends, nursing my arm and decompressing (what other word can I use???). when your primed with fresh stories, jacobs ladder conversation with fast food staff is assured.

thanks for the diethylamide and the ginger beer!

normal oscillations will resume from the regular outpost.

back through the 'pore

2006-02-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

back out the 'pore through which I seeped, I am finally on my way home and am chomping up the free net at singapore terminal 2 in 15 minute morsels.

this time I'm stranded in singapore terminal 2 for 10 (ten) hours :P
this time with no money left to waste.
I have a pack of red orange mentos and a back pack with 2 litres of water until my next airline meal... unless I manage to make a friend that is. hey, this is nothing, I did the 40 hour famine before with little more than water and barley sugars!

patong beach and phuket in general is very pricey by thailand standards (and very crappy by my standards). I reason the same reason for ko samui, the tourists that go there tip 100 baht like its nothing (well it isn't really) and the locals get used to it. well I wasn't used to it and I was extorted and threatened out of my money right up till I got on the plane. because the 150 baht bus gave me the slip saying I could walk to my hotel (never leave the shuttle bus until you can read the sign over the concierge) i had to get a tuktuk, and I gave him 50 baht to take me down the street (very generous) I would normally call the tuktuk drivers bluff and glare the little shits off if they try and threaten me for more, but over something like 50 baht, carring all my gear with a grazed arm + leg I didn't want any trouble. 100 baht for 100 meters.. WOOF!

after an expensive dinner and a 500 baht taxi to the airport, my last baht dropped for AIRPORT TAX! the airport is private so each passanger has to pay 500 baht (cash only) or they are not allowed to leave LOL! how cute is that! I scrounged up 410 baht in crumpled notes but was knocked back... not panicing at all, having lost my wallet a few days earlier (no cards, no options) I started asking wealthy looking passangers for the extra mile so I could.. ahem GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!. most everyone I asked turned me down (probably couldn't speak english), except one couple who checked their wallet for me... only to discover they were in a similar situation!
really should have been warned about this when I payed for my tickets...

maybe I was warned...

yeah, yeah you read right, grazed right side...
foot, knee, elbow and pride.

Joy and myself went out riding on my last day in the 10-day torrential rain that has just begun. riding through puddles a foot deep on a motorbike is infinatly more fun than the normal puddles! ko samui has SHIT HOUSE (useless) drainage, even the main street of chaweng beach (reed: starbucks, burgerking, hagendaz) had a foot of water! people were sand bagging it up and according to joy, this chaos was very mild and not uncommon. so we rode to the top of the mountain to say goodbuy 360 style, then back down for some food. after dinner, I was riding home on the highway (shallower puddles) when suddenly, out of nowhere! a HUGE gaping hole in the middle of the road took a liking to my front wheel...

we were only going about 40-50ks when I put the bike down but I slid for 10 meters or so on my right side. joy bounced off after we hit the pot hole (CANYON!!) and copped it in the oncomming lane on both knees, I was freaked actually... she could barely walk and a very kind young man gave her a lift, on his motorbike, to the hospital. I say "very kind young man" 'cause nobody else would stop for such a small accident. I was full of adrenalin and didn't get the pain till I got to the hospital, which was good cause I had to fucking limp myself most of the way there! everything is fine though, according to "what the bleep do we know" I didn't actually even make contact with the concrete :) ....errrr :(

Joy is fine, I spoke with her this morning. of course such a nice girl has many friends, I got to meet them when we got home from the hospital because they all came to visit and cheer her up. I know they are bringing her food and seeing to her very well. as for lowley I, took my bandages off yesterday and am feeling great. mind you I am on antibiotics and other government drugs (yay!... not @_@) the graze on my elbow is pretty deep but it could have been alot worse, lucky I got shots before I left. I'm glad I survived my first motorbike accident, and have a new found love for the TAC and australian road rules!
(would have been totally fine if I had been following them but... when in rome...)

so um, yeah! thailand is great!
...for about as long as you can keep your wallet/money/skin well stocked.

seriously though, fuck thailand. I am definatly not a traveller (as my ex-girlfriend liked to make the distinction between herself and everyone else)
I am a tourist!
(press play on the midi file national anthem of choice)
and I stand proud in any country but my own. thailand is a tourist hell. if I didn't make so many friends there I would not be going back anytime soon.

goodbye thailand! and get behind me satan...

okay, well I might go to the "prayer room" now, noticed the sign on the way here, if only to get away from the creepy jazz music they've got on loop.

ODD DAY

2006-02-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

I dreamed last night that I was living in Tokyo again, Kaori and I were sharing another smoke on the balcony of a much larger house. Kaoris sister Megumi was there, she wanted to join in (the smoking and the conversation), there was nothing stopping her except her own knowledge that she was not ready (I say knowledge, not awareness).

as I woke up, for the glint of a facet, Megumi became Joy and I was natsukashi (no english, sorry :P) about Kaoris understanding, wisdom and cunning.. a little bit more.

after a shower, played more autechre and read up to chapter 10 of my 100 baht pornographic novel. I picked it up from the dusty book store because it looked like the book from my dream. I've never intentionaly read a book written by a woman before, its foreign and exciting... but really really soppy and rediculous, I mean if I male notices things like... how furniture is delicate, yet strong or... how the first glimpses of winter sun are more silver than golden, he's gotta be a homeowner. or at least he's going to be too effeminate to invoke any quiver(ing), shudder(ing) or anticipation of the independant female charachters described, IN MY EXPERIENCE ANYWAY lol'age

yeah, fun to be had reading books by chicks... wonder if those same chicks are laughing at me?
I hope so..

say my name

2006-02-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

noisy sex perturbs me.

there is something archetypal about the music of Autechre. and it is something that developed countrys and provinces are trying to re-discover (re-define?). here, it is something ominous, everpresent... and something which the locals are trying to ignore. You could write an essay on why Thais dont like Autechre :P but its easier to say...

I went shopping last night at the MASSIVE Tesco. its like a supermarket on steroids.. you walk past mountains of chicken and flesh just sitting in stainless steel tubs.. then you walk past clothes and whitegoods, anything you want is there. Joy bought alot of stuff for her new house. at the checkout, when her new plastic tub was scanned, I recieved a scowl for prematurely putting in straight in the trolley. everything needs to be put into plastic bags and they have various sizes. the logic is, if your paying for something, why not get the most value for money you can.

Consumers in their infancy, with all the zeal of new converts.

went out to a club on thursday night, the DJ played the same cds that you might hear in your friends VCD player, on the radio, walking down the street blasted from the shops or from a passing adver-ute (everywhere). there some kind of a pop distillery going on because as people come and leave their mark, the tracks that get the international crowd rev'ed (buying more), gets added to the playlist. there is something for everyone and that seems to be prevaliant here. remixes of american songs like "if your going to sanfransisco.." and other housey, happy tracks "everybodys hot, everybodys drunk, everybody thinks.. everybody THUNK.. I dont want to be, EVERYBODY!"

'ken LOL

I danced a fair bit but I've been dancing for... a while now so its a big joke now.. some good clean fun. sickass Tsekas taught me well. sometimes you get a green pup who comes up to me and lays down some "MOVES"(tm) probably to try and steal the affections of my company (if I have any) more than actually try to dis me...
BUT I AM THE UN-DISSABLE FREE-STYLING MONKEY! SQUAWK!
only this style is not free, this style is 35 baht, kop-in-my-kup ;)

before the DJ there was a band.. a dolled up thai chick screaming "wont you take me too... " then an ear splitting "..funky-TOOWWWWWN!!!!" that only an asian woman could deliver. some drunk ozzy got on the stage and managed to blurt through a functioning microphone, "THIS MUSICS SHIT!" with his hands in the air to recieve the praise of a few snickers in the back row :P

I couldn't dance when I first walked in tho, it was too overwhelming for my acid-cured brains.

thai clubs are like noisy sex, its hard to alter your concentration.

noisy sex

2006-02-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

had a calm dream last night,

was walking down the beach and every 100 yards or so was meeting an old friend.
after a long while I came to my old school chum Nick (of 36er fame), he was looking much older.. he had a child in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. he invited me into his beach shack which was made of jarrah, very small but well designed (:P). after a while staring through the large front angled window and listening to his side of the mobile phone conversation, he looked at me kinda annoyed and exited through the other door. Then I noticed I was talking.. into an imaginary mobile phone... I exited the way I came in and kept walking down the beach.

as I was waking up I designed my ideal swimming pool and garden for my ideal house. it had a temple on posts in the middle that you could swim up too, it wasn't that large but the space was well used. it would be cool to have enough money to entertain ideas like this. I also had another idea last night for a club that you have to enter by swimming underneath a low gate.. that way everyone in the club will have been BAPTISED and will be NAKED. inside the club would be like a disneyland version of the garden of eden and the music would be not too loud, clean and clear.. and probably funky, FuNkY techno. the club would be called....
...it would be called (mini-hyperventilate)...

"eden"

you could have microphones planted everywhere that mixed into the music in arbitrary
speaker locations ala: the acid tests...

..sweet oven of shit cakes that would be so great and so popular/talked about but nobody has the balls to do anything like it. 'cept for my man disney... "a theme park with no ferris wheel?? what are you STOOPID? that will never work!"

Tom Kah Koong (coconut soup with prawns) is probably my fav dish at the moment.. I get a side of rice and flood a spoon full with soup, YUMMO!!! Joy said she would cook for me tonight. we are going to TESCO, a big wallmart thing, she finishes work at 3, I need a new scetchbook.

thrifty link

2006-02-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

I just had breakfast on dads amex because I'm such a brilliant financial planner.
hope I get to do the same for my child, it will make it less embarassing :P

things couldn't be stranger, I'm staring at a tour brochure that says "discover Koh Samui by sea" from the company "SAMUI EVASION". last night was reading a book belonging to Joy, "what does the bible really teach" (shes christian). there are illustrations of people smiling and one page says "how did satan offer all the wealth and kingdoms in the world to jesus, if he did not own them?"

hrrmmmm... VISA? Amex? Mastercard?

You know your a sick puppy when you manage to laugh and cry at the same time.
You know your a sick puppy when you manage to watch the sunrise and sunset at the same time.

last night I dreamed I was with my ex.. and things were going shite as usual. we went to the beach with her step dad and the car got bogged/broke down and she totally flipped out. then an old friend of mine invited myself and another friend on a private world tour, he had hired a sea plane and we took off. from then on life was easy and I remember thinking, why hadn't I thought of doing this sooner...

T-shirt of the month: "BROS BEFORE HOS"

save the best drama till last

2006-02-07T05:32:00.000-08:00

there are alot of girls I like. if you put them in a blender, and strained off the expectations they want you to bear, I reckon whats left would be "the one". actually it would be a bloody mess, but hey.. maybe thats what "the one" actually is for me! who am I to judge?

I had a cracker of a dream last night...

was driving through the countryside with a good friend.. kinda looked like my home town in south australia, dry. there was an empty paddok with a row of trees. my friend informed me that it was the dreamworks studios in australia. we were both confused as to why they had no sinage out front! surely making an impressive "Dreamworks" sign would be something the cleaner would be able, no, more than HAPPY to do from the pride of working at such a place. we stopped the car and set to work making a large, 3D "Dreamworks" out of ply wood.. we were going to paint it SILVER! when some cops rocked up, then a whole swat truck and we were suddenly under fire!
Dreamworks obviously liked anonymity, so we bolted looking back I noticed the sign spelt "DrewmWErks", I wonder how we messed that up, apart from that it was a very nice sign.

after that we went to the mall in adelaide and hung around out front, bored.

any advice on dreams, females, blenders... or getting fake watches and DVDs through customs, would be most appreciated right now @_@!

"round and round she goes"

2006-02-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

more girls, more motorbikes, more sticky sheets @_@

koh samui aint that bad...
LOL

might stick around with my new friend Joy for a few more days. shes gonna let me crash with her so I'm going to hang here, save some money on accomodation then my last few days in thailand will be... ferry, fullmoon, phuket.. ouch.

to be honest I am looking forward to getting home.. bit of a rolling stone, is I.

check out this site: http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/

Appointment by the Queen

2006-02-05T02:54:00.000-08:00

I had a crazy and vivid dream last night (think the sansong helped).

in it I was in england this time, I think.
I was in a large open palace, the buildings had tall, windowless walls (I think this was from the photos of china currently on sams blog). in the garden there was some sort of elaborate royal shrine, but people had stolen the wooden walls and case.. my grandma was pissed off about it so people were comming back with the peices and reasembling it. it was square, with a low wall maybe 50cm high. I was soap shoeing along it with normal shoes and adrian who had soap shoes said "well my grind plate is pretty much gone anyway so its the same as normal shoes" to try and make it seem like I wasn't doing anything special.

my grandma gave me a book, it was "CAPITOL HILL", by Bill Hartnol and by appointment by the Queen ???!!! (doesn't exist according to google) there was another book but she said I wasn't ready for it yet. she said once I read this book I would find her in England, when I woke I actually thought for a moment that she had died and she was giving instructions for astral projecting to her in England.

I also visited a library in my dream, there was one book titled..

WHY DO MY FRIENDS
OF GOOD FORTUNE
AND 100 LIVES, RING
ME AND TELL ME MY
DAYS ARE NUMBERED

I thought WOW, what a cool title! then I woke up and thought... hang on a second.. this is my dream, therefore this is MY title!

stories from ko samui need to be spoken not typed unfortunaly.. most involve money, thai boxing and cute girls on motorbikes.

spinal block

2006-02-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

had a crazy dream this morning about a taxi ride in new york (but it was a tokyo map cause I have no direct memory of NY). the guy paid him 20 baht instead of 20 USD and he took it.. then we were in this crazy temple with lots of red carpeted stairs and a I was with a girl who kept getting pissed off and trying to hit me when she tried to meditate with me.. I said "what did I do~!" she said "you know!" and I said "I understand (meditation) but not in that way!" which made her more frustrated but stopped her hitting me :)

a few nights ago I had a dream about a girl who was mentally ill and she was perceiving reality in reverse so anything she said came out backwards...

come in spinner ;)

samui

2006-02-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

KO SAMUI
ko in japanese means small.
samui in japanese means cold.

...I dont want to learn thai :)

I'm just about at the limit of the absurd,
drinking starbucks in thailand.

koh samui is shit, but I had to see it beacause
A: its on the way to koh pangan.
B: it is notorious.
C: I am allergic to the good life/angst adds a nice patina to my art.

its not that bad, I'm being dramatic.

the night boat was very educational! 6 hours of sporadic sleep with a british couple, a gay NZ/AUZ couple (one of which was playing drunken musical beds all night, between intermittent vomiting) and 3 rude, yet stunning, sweedish teenage girls. but I got through loud and clear.

cant wait to leave :)

oh canada

2006-02-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

a morning swim before breakfast is great, especially when you dont feel like it but you just stumble down the peir half asleep and dive in anyway.

met this canadian guy and chick yesterday when the rest of their group of 18 was off on some snorkling trip, otherwise I wouldn't have had the pleasure. he was 20 and fun to talk to, she was a post grad med student with lots of grisley storys. I think she had the hots for me cause she ditched her friend and came down with me to the internet milkbar thing for a bit, then we went for a swim together. damn, canadian chicks love to talk! after the swim I just tried on a bit of silence for about 20 minutes. I thought it was all the chill and during that time managed to realise I dont like her voice anyway.

but I think she flipped out a bit cause the walk back was a bit of a tug of war between her fast strides and my carefree lumber.

"seeya!"

but later she got over it cause she invited me to watch a movie with her gang, which she didn't watch anyway. I brought out my pirates and, after a long stint of indesicion, we ended up watching one of mine (madagascar) instead of ongbak (my culture sensitive choice). most of their group was busy getting ready (for getting drunk in the arvo, wtf?!) so it ended up just the 20 y/o guy from before, some buff 'dude' and myself. both of the guys were looking over their shoulders and laughing extra hard to try and get a little group going...
FOR THE WHOLE FREEKIN' FILM!
justification through popularization!! it's got to be one of the worst human traits of all time.

I should had said something... no no, I did right not saying anything. *sigh* so I pretty much watched it alone, apart from those of our servants who could read (the thai subtitles I turned on).

I've got a good routine going on by now, weird how I fall into comfortable routines on holiday because my working life doesn't have any...

Dinoflagellates

2006-01-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

on the bioluminescence, which is usually used for attracting mates or food..

"Dinoflagellates have an interesting twist on this mechanism. When a predator of plankton is sensed through motion in the water, the dinoflagellate luminesces. This in turn attracts even larger predators which will consume the would-be predator of the dinoflagellate."

sheesh, little blighters, wont be skinny dipping with them tonight! I wonder how large the "larger predators" are tho..

blue bugs

2006-01-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

freeking awesome! last night after dinner I went for a stroll down to the end of this floating pontoon jetty thing to see all the lights from the resorts reflected in the bay.. after my eyes adjusted, I notest some little blue lights flashing in the water and remembered that movie the beach... so I swiped my hand through and it lit up with all these crazy bluey bugs! AMAZING!~ I knew it was something I was looking forward to seeing but had forgotten all about it till then.

on the walk back I saw one bug washed on the beach pulsing and pulsing his blue distress light, so I scooped him up with some sand and threw him back with his mates :)

this morning got up, jumped off the pontoon and swam back to shore before breakfast (yummy beans on toast + OJ). I was shocked to meet a butterfly about 150 meters off shore, in the middle of nowhere like me! I treaded water there and she came to check me out, then started to make her way back to the beach.. I kept up with my BUTTERFLY STROKE LOL, I just thought of that, just to make sure she made it back safe... still, I wonder what she was doing so far out.

like I said, this is the best I've seen of thailand.. fewer people and lots of clear water, butterflys and neon sea bugs :)
now I'm here, expensive internet again but I have cut a deal so I am charging my PSP and 1 hour for 100 baht. but dad has helped with some more credit-tsunami relief fundage, cheers dad!

koh lanta

2006-01-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

here I am on Lanta Island...

this will be brief because internet here is 2 baht per minute!

to be honest, I was a bit sick of thailand yesterday during my transfer from ao nang, so I was happy to arrive in resortland.

the night before I left for lanta, hooked up with 2 kids (24-25) from england and went to an irish pub with them. shoot, they come all the way to thailand and all they wanted was a slice of england :)

so I got a good taste for the tourist side of things and it was fun as, but a little more expensive. had some good chats with those guys and a british investigator who likes murders cause he gets enough pay to come here and enjoy a couple of weeks paid leave. then, following my 3 new friends, ended up late in the night at a gogo bar talking to the old Dublin bloke who owned it and his friend who went off every now and then with dublin humor.

I'm here till the 3rd and thats not long enough, this is so far the nicest place I have been. unlike pattaya and ao nang, the beach has no oily film from rusty longtails (which british people dont seem to notice anyway) and the water is nice and clear. I am enjoying very nice meals from the hotel cafe about 100 meters up the side of a cliff that looks out over the peacefull bay (10 meters down from my private shack). the only distraction is the occasional guy trying to sell me a ride on a boat.. wtf, I just got to this island and you want to take me somewhere else?? let me enjoy my pizza in silence for chris'sake. yeah, pretty over the locals trying to cheat you at every oppourtunity.. if they wanted us to buy them dinner, why dont they ask like normal humans? $30 australian feeds about 8 people at a buffet, and for the two brits and myself to go thirds, no stress! but if they dont ask me beforehand then they can deal with the manager, I will pay my share and walk away.

so yeah, bring on the isolation :)

oh man, some white dude came in and seriously WHEEZED "cigaretes?" to the shop keeper! oh man, tobacco companies should make little electronic key chains with a polite british voice requesting their favorite brand, just to make the journey a little easier LOL

holey shit, 1 hour 120 baht...

PEACE!

snooze

2006-01-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

you snooze, you looze.

enjoying the live music in encore cafe again tonight, they had a good 20 minute jam, out of born to be wild, with a couple of ex pats coming on stage with claranet and sax.. I am getting average at pool now.. not average enough to beat an american couple on holiday from their residence in northern china.

met some more sweeds and they gave me some "snooze" which is a small packet of sweedish wood with enough nicotine to make you dizzy that you stick under your lip. they wanted to party on after the 2am close time so I took them both on my bike to a little alley that has some late night bars.. I said "watch out for lady men" and went back to pick up fa but when we got back they had dissapeared! the possibility of lady men was too much! but I have their emails so I can terrorise sweden one day.

I think I am going to ko phiphi with fa later today, it will be heaps cheaper than the tourist trips on offer..
its funny cause phiphi is a popular island you get long tail pilots asking everybody passing in the street "you wan' go pee pee?"
HAWHAW, OH MY ACHING SIDES HAW.
yes I am a child.

singed vanilla

2006-01-27T04:14:00.000-08:00

today, chillin with my new local friends on the beach.. they gave me 2 henna tattoos in exchange for me bringing my little speakers and music to the party :) one anchor with "hey nasho" on one arm, because my grandpa got an anchor when he was a national serviceman (nasho). and one horse head because it is lardner tradition, it says "lard ner".

I bought a panda ice cream and got a winning stick for a free second, but I gave it to a little girl. apart from that I got to shoot 10 rounds with a 9mm hand gun which was fun, its really hard to shoot rounds in close sucession thats all I can say..

back to encore bar tonight for more hyjinx with fa and nan I spose, I want to go kayaking tomorrow but I am almost out of dosh so its looking like it will be more fun with the locals and more drawing from here on home...

my exgirlfriend had a bad accident, she wont tell me what happened but apparently she had to cut her vietnam trip short and go to hospital in bangkok. @_@
perhaps its better that I didn't go as well...

mmmmmm, I smell pankakes...

easy rider

2006-01-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

ok kewlies.

yesterday, rented a powerful (125cc) motorbike and took off up north with a crappy map. got well lost, 'twas propper fun.

I made it up to "tha pom" and stopped at some kind of small nature reserve.. the area is near the sea, so it alternates between salene and freshwater and there is an ongoing battle between a native tree and the mangroves. there was a 700meter boardwalk loop that also gives the locals access (farang have to pay) to an amazing little swimming area in a crystal clear river. I didn't have my shorts but it didn't stop me jumping in... jumping in a little too quick, I bruised my foot on a rock!

it was really great fun and I stayed a while there swimming and eating fried sort-of-tempura banana, coconut mash and pumpkin(?). this stuff was only a few baht, I knew I had made it out of farang land. most things here dont have price tags and have extremely variable prices. again, you always get what you pay for and you can tell that this environment has been crafted around accomodating cheepskate tourists.

I stopped at a road side cave with a buddah inside and a few, very friendly monks, crafting a wooden gate. there was a small cafe type thing that had shut, but a cute, and quite besotted, young girl speaking little english gave me a rasberry fanta and some bananas FOR FREE! I felt really happy about that, its so rare to interact with locals without currency involved. we had a little chat, and with directions from a wise looking blue-eyed thai monk, was on the road again..

I eventually made it all the way to "ao luek" and then to lod cave, (soooo lost), at around 1800 so they had finished the kayaking for the day. I stayed for some dinner before turning back and some girls at the table opposite left me their number with the waitress... like a friend said, its so hard not to be a dirty bastard. I let them go this time and didn't call, everyone I get close to usually comes away with head trauma.

night fell and the lights went out, I had a hairy ride on the way back to krabi and ao nang... thais are the worst drivers! motorbikes are expected to straddle the edge of the road and let cars race past IN BOTH DIRECTIONS!!! so if you let your mind wander a little you find yourself heading straight towards an on coming car!!! wtf!! busses are the worst, they think they are king of the road!! you learn quick and its actually pretty relaxed once you run with it. everything is relaxed.. I might even say it is a vision of our future, intergrated communitys with a distributed sense of what is right and wrong.

later last night I just wanted one more egg + banana pancake before bed and bumped into 2 thai girls trying to get customers to their bar... I wasn't into what they were selling (reggay and golden oldies rock) but they were cool as, and we shared some pancakes on the street corner mucking around. I dropped by their bar with them just to have a look and ended up having more laughs with an ex pat american soldier who has been here for 23 years(!). his sense of humor was the kind that borders on the obnoxious/sexist/racist but he rode that fine line like a true veteran. I didn't stay too long because I had made plans with one of the girls (Fa) to go to tiger temple this morning, which we did!

tiger temple is atop one of the larger straight-uppy type moundains near krabi town and it takes 1261 steps to get to, but those 1261 steps get you so damn high!

some of the inclines are pretty vertical but I made it up with little stress thanks to robins coaching with running (its all in the head). it was nice at the top, there was a huge buddah looking out over the land and sea and you could see in all directions. and other from the cool breeze it is very quiet...

the silence was broken by a group of canadians or americans reaching the last step with triumphant cheers and much rukus, then they walked about the temple saying stuff like "it aint all that!" and "its so not worth it!" with the acute nasal vowels that carry on the wind making you think they are yelling at you. I hope it was sarcasm, but there was no respect regardless. some others and ourselves decided to make the decent which proved more aduous (legs started to shake). then we rode back through the mountains and stopped at Fa's house.

Fa had said she couldn't get much sleep cause the band that was playing in her pub the night before had crashed with her.. I didn't understand till I saw them, crashed with her, on the tiled floor of her small lounge room! seeing the stars of last night shouted shots of tequila by my loud american friend, to seeing them uncomfortably trying to get some rest (in between the two shouting female occupants), was more humbling than the temple climb. I can only guess that most of tourists are spared having to understand these logistics.

now they did play alot better after the tequila shots :) but they would probably also play alot better if given the tequila money for a hotel room and a decent nights sleep!

ok, need more after sun gel... broom broom broom.

Krabi

2006-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

now I'm over HERE! in sunny K r a b i !

lies. its been raining actually, not that I mind it. I just caught the free shuttle service, (a young bloke in a muddy ute with two wooden plank seats bolted in the back) from my hut to the shopping street during a dry spell.

the train ride was ok, I had a bunk bed and slept most of the shunty-rockey way. I shared the ride with a thai couple and 3 canadians who liked to play poker alot and do very good impressions of americans "good call on the dawgs man" (hot dogs). I had a relativly expensive vegitarian soup (90 baht) and went to bed pretty much. my bladder woke me up and I had a piss during the night and stared through the bars of the glassless window at the passing volcanic landscape, trees, glowing red lights from powerlines and small houses...

...for some time.

after train, a sleepy 8am bus to krabi where I waited half an hour for Mister Bannana (not his real name). Mister Bannana, who I gathered is a famous local, and picked me up in a shiney black ute and was polite enough to give me some quiet time, instead of chattering away (like everyone else) I guess he knew I would be tired.

Mr BNN: "have you been, Krabi before?"
me: "no... have you been to Krabi before?"
Mr BNN: "HAHAHA! I was born, Krabi.."

My hut and the 20 odd others is about 5 minutes from the main street and beach and is tucked underneath a MASSIVE, straight-up, volcanic type mountain. during the rain I sat and drew some postcards on my small veranda looking down over a small valley of lushness and palm trees.. there is another mountain on the opposing side.

thats it really. I love the rain, I love the scenery and I cant wait for tommorow.

But for now, I miss Oy. she taught me everything I know about thailand and how to get by, so we'll see how I go from here.

"kopkunkrap!"

The chaos continues...

2006-01-22T04:29:00.000-08:00

The chaos of bangkok continues...

Today was uneventful story wise, although I did "cherish the elephant" as advised by my uncle dave. it was very spiritual, he was right about that. I thought I was going to stick gold on a real elephant for some reason tho, maybe cause he was blotto when giving said advice.

On alchohol, I went to a club last night with Oy and Bew.. I wanted some techno but, at least as Oy told me, its rare in thailand and my options were limited to hip-hop, RnB or rock (another example in confused catering? or the bad aftertaste of transient americans?). first club, the plastic-american thai DJ was spinning american chart hip-hop and "RnB" (although I have no freeking idea what "RnB" stands for anymore). I had a glass of jamesons and post-mix-pepsi and regretted it about halfway through. even 1 glass did not ride well with my engine, it was yet another reminder that I have really lost my patience for substances like this. ANYWYAY! no regrets, no regrets.

I will make a comparison, something I try to avoid but here I make exception.
in australia, because merchandise is relativly expensive, when most people go shopping they use the excess time between actual spending to meander endless opulent complexes gawking at things out of their price range before actualy buying what they came for (if they came for anything at all). probably, shopping itself has become a desirable symbol of being part of club-cashed-up and, this situation is not helped by the stores. not that I "shop" that way myself but here its a little different from home, perhaps in a good way.

Oy took me shopping today at "MBK" which is a multi-storey, polished and sanitised, yet unstylish mall (of many) that is home to hundreds of stalls and boutiques. here piracy is an institution. they sell pirate games, movies, electronics, clothes, accessories, bug zappers and self defence... you name it, they have it! and they have a knock off version right beside it. because everything is so cheap, shopping is not so much a desirable experience so much as a mad rush to forfill your wildest consumer dreams, even the locals (especially the locals?) are in on it. its like being a rat in a cage of hundreds, fighting over a food source that will never run dry, no matter how fast and how much we try to stuff our spawn-of-the-west, greedy, stinking gobs. with every one for themselves (yes, for themselves), if you like the sensation of money passing through your fingers, I'm afraid this is the wrong place for you. even with my best efforts, combined with a good 6 hours of this insanity I only managed to wax $100 AUD.

for this I got my brothers a pair of oakley sunnys, 3 gameboy advance carts, a few more xbox games, 9 DVDs (including 2 thai boxing movies Oy is a fan of), a small pair of speakers for my PSP when I'm drawing in my hotel...
breakfast for two...
lunch for two...
a mosquito zapping tennis racquet and a very cool remote control helicopter for my younger brother ben :)

yeah yeah yeah, I'm a freeking shopper, born and bred OK! HAPPY? thankyou..

I think alot of wishfull holidayers relax first, then shop before getting on the plane home. in my case I'm shopping before heading south to postcard land. speaking of postcard land I leave for Krabi by train tomorrow evening.

yeah yeah yeah, another long post SORRY! I'm on HOLIDAY here! :)

chinese new year.

2006-01-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

when I was getting a suit measured, one of the clerks kept coming over with something new to blurt at me in english (I think to impress one of the girls). he explaind that in thailand there are celebrations for chinese new year, and many other nationalitys festivities. I didn't quite know how that would affect me at the time, but I cam back to the hotel today and a huge chinese gate had been erected in the foyer.. I'm back down kao san road (with my friends this time) and there is a big party in the street with some thai death metal band making one hell-ov-a din from a large, chinese red and gold themed stage.

we got back from pattaya yesterday and I checked back into the royal hotel, this time in the "new wing". its much better, with a pretty shwank room for the same price.. one more thing I dont really understand here I spose but hey!
yesterday Oy, her cousin Bew and I had sukiyaki for dinner at a very shiney and new shopping mall near her condo.. it was all very japanese actually, although they (or the japanese) will be the last to admit it. after that we made it to a barbeque festival.. sponsored by singh beer with world music and lots of food, it was a pretty ace thing to do because there were few foreigners.

Today I got to the.. palace temple(?) which is all gold and incredibly ornate.. there are new parts and old parts, I caught a few peoples renovating one of the large paitings on one of the walls.

after green tea hagendaz and another 3 baht ferry we went to the weekend market which is perhaps more ornate than the temple, yet a little more confused as to what it is supposed to actually be or represent. there was more clothes and practical items for the locals than the nick nacks you come to expect which was good. but there was a higher percentage of examples in complex communication between the stores and the tourists. the locals basically try their best to provide for a wide scope of tourists, sometimes you think they are just taking stabs in the dark but why would they be there if they didn't sell anything! ITS CRAZY! like on the beach in pattaya, wandering icecream, fruit and snack vendors make some sense, but there was a dude trying to hawk carved buffalo horn... ON THE FREEKIN BEACH! anyway, I bought my sister a rolex and my brother a rediculously HUGE bling-bling type designer watch.

ARGH, sorry for the long post, no time for a short one.. I gotta run :)

HAPPY CHAOS AND CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Oy!

2006-01-18T19:46:00.000-08:00

and I find myself in the infamous Pattaya. why? because anywhere else with a beach is booked out!

my new friend "oy" (who is as cool as her name) and I have caught a bus down to Pattaya, a little 2 day trip to go to the beach and get out of bkk.. we got in late last night after a 3 hour bus ride drifting in and out of sweaty conciousness, being woken by drips of condensation off the useless airconditioner. but we got here and had some great vege food followed by some sticky rice and mango desert (!) before a walk down the beach. :)

the population along the beachfront mainly consists of old (50-120yrs) white men and ALOT of women trying to get their money. its really scary actually, some of the girls are 14 or even younger. the sight that stuck in my mind was one white dude that seriously looked like emperor palpatine, playing a slow, senile round of connect four with 3 stunning young girls out the front of one gogo bar. I drew it but its kinda hard to scan stuff without a scanner.

t-shirt of the day: "good boys go to HEAVAN, bad boys go to PATTAYA"
I might buy one for my younger brother :) either that or a rolex...

GOING FOR A SWIM NOW! :)

start your day right.

2006-01-17T03:55:00.000-08:00

starting your day right is important.

if you start it with a queezy car ride to the airport at some ungodly hour like 7am, you find yourself in an awful mood and end up making posts like my last.

today I started my day with 2/3rds of a hershy bar and a swim in the hotel pool with 3 pretty german girls (and 1 snooty german girl). I stepped out the front of the hotel and had the offer made of a 2 hour personal car tour showing me all the tourist places including the golden buddah... for 60 baht (thats about 2 dollars).
so happy that my rip-off streak had finished, I jumped in the car and we were off. we were off to the thailand tourism board, and I sorted out all my travel down south (krabi, panang.. phuket) and accomodation for 20 days starting monday. then we were off to a suit shop :) then we were off to a jewlery shop :| then we were off to a PERSIAN RUG SHOP :( after avoiding buying a $3000 rug from the indian salesman... good old slow me figured out this 60 baht offer was supplimented with comission from the stores.

he kind of sensed that I sensed it, and took me to a massage joint. after 1.5 hours of massage you cant really be pissed with anyone :) so he tried it on one last time, a restaraunt that wanted 1000 baht for a prawn dish. unfortunatly the massage girl told me to pay no more than 150 for lunch, so I dodged it and he finally took me to the golden buddah.

I sat there for about half an hour, and if he wasn't waiting in the car park I prob would have stayed till closing. I'll make a separate post about this and the second LARGE buddah he took me too later...

obviously he had had his fun and we parted at the entrance to the large buddah. I had a root beer (freekin awesome) and set some birds free which, I swear, must have been captured just as swiftly behind the temple... I spose I shouldn't have encouraged this behaviour but they were cute birds and I was still in lala land from the massage.

then I had a 25 baht (!) vege padthai* at a joint with lots of locals, and was invited to sit at a small table by an old chinese man with blue eyes. he spoke english very well and wanted some company. he obviously liked to tell storys because he had finished his meal when I sat down and stayed until I had finished mine.

I spose the coolest thing he said was about the thai's and the 5 laws of buddhism..

1. dont kill
2. dont lie
3. dont have sex the wrong way (?)
4. dont... uhh, he had trouble remembering this one too.. maybe it was dont eat meat (???) correct me if you know about this...
5. dont steal

and he said, "confucius said the same with 1 sentance. 'dont do to other creatures what you wouldn't want done to yourself'"

he talked alot about confucius with a little kanji lesson I will have to research more when I get home.

I gave him my trippy blue iris pin when I left.

anyway I am happier... bangkok aint that bad once you get to walk to a few places. gonna try and find that vege bar, go for a swim.. then call my friend.

"ahh, ROOT BEER!!"

:)

*(about 2 below the toorak'o'meter, dad ;)

2006-01-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

wow.

caught a taxi from the airport and got ripped off. I would have been pissed if it wasn't for the drivers evil smile, which seemed to had affected his cheek bones and muscle into a sort of a joker from the movie batman. this, with my first taste of bankok traffic, was all fun.

but I understand why a one year relationship broke with this place involved, syncronisity aside for a second, this is sin city.

my ex-girlfriend said "kaosan road is where its at!" and I can just see her drunk and obnoxious, stumbling down this glistening rod. but, unfortunatly, I can also testify that it is not quite "where its at!". I caught a TUKTUK (15baht) to the end of kaosan road and ambled all the way down passing up countless offers for lust, drunkeness, cheap shit, knockoff merch and all maner of seared animal flesh. when I had reached the opposing end after my stroll (a walk has too much purpose in this place) the street sighed along with me and I was met with the smell of sewage.

I'm staying in a smokey-non-smoking room at a hotel near kao san.

my next mission is to get out of here asap :P

to be continued...

the 'pore

2006-01-15T23:57:00.000-08:00

here I am in the 'pore..

...singapore, where I am being held consumer hostage at the shiny terminal 2 for the next 3hours. whoop de fuckin' woo, what on earth can I do? certainly not on the market for booze, smokes, designer watches or perfume..

the flight was alright, cute girls and my PSP dispatched the 7 hours in minutes.

at least they warned me about the harsh drug laws and I managed to flush my boogie-board down the toilet. there is also free net, I want to complain or protest but I'm just so bleeding comfortable. Im gonna to visit drawn now.. I might be back here if I manage to sneak a little day dream through their anti-dream matrix.

you just press start and play!

2006-01-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

I have done as little preparation for this trip as possible.
partly because of lazyness, partly because I love discovering a country like one descovers the world of a video game. you never read a lonleyplanet guide on a video game world before you play, you just press start and play!