Wiskey Lao

We have gotten into Luang Prabang, or however you pronounce / spell it. We've met a few really interesting people here and gotten beer lao / food extremely cheap. There is something so cathartic about flushing your own toilet with the bucket / bowl combo.

The slow boat was amazing. A bit cramped, but the view of untouched (or rather post bombed) Laos is amazing. Like, seriously, amazing. I'll send pictures the next time I can. I don't know how specific I can really be at the moment. We spent the day riding mountain bikes around the town and drinking beer lao. The relaxed atmosphere is a nice change of pace.

Oh yeah, I took out $150 today... which is the equivalent to 1,444,000 kip. I took "gangsta pictures" to show how hood I am.

I honestly don't know much else. This portion of the trip is fairly hard to translate. It's like zen. The more I attempt to encapsulate it into words, the more the actual experience fails to be conveyed. I guess we are doing nothing... but we are also doing everything. I guess all I can really say is that I am really enjoying myself.

Oh yeah, my eye infection seems to be completely cleared up, which is great news (I was kinda freaking out as my eye felt 2 times its size and was leaking pus like a motherfucker).

Yeah, I'm sure my parents are listening, but I also believe that they might have a bit of an open mind to the experience. I really don't mind informing them that I'm smoking opium with the hill tribe people. As long as it's not ice.

I also spent most of the slow boat really stoned. Adam and I also bought a bottle of moonshine with the makeshift label "whiskey Lao" over a ketchup bottle. Whiskey Lao treats us good sometimes. She can be a cruel mistress.

There is a debate over skipping Cambodia and not seeing angor wat. This doesn't sit with me at ALL. I may have to break off with the group before we fly down to Phuket if they REALLY don't wish to see the most significant thing in SE Asia.

Dycycline Dreams

So, we have just arrived back from our 3 day trek through a few mountain villages to the north of Chiang Mai. We are absolutely filthy, but in some of the best spirits of our lives. We met some fantastic people and I got fucking maggoted on Australia day (I got to be an honorary citizen knighted by Rowan). I guess I could go through some of the details, but mainly what I've realized so far is fuck europe, go to Thailand. Sleeping in village huts, playing drinking games under the gorgeous mountain stars. Smoking mass quantities of Opium and banana leaf with the locals... it's pretty fun.

We went with some great people as well. Rowan, this great fucking Aussie. Nicole and Shirley, two Londoners who were both kicks in the pants. And quite a few more who were all exceptional human beings.

The activities were all just great. I actually got to drive (and was commented as the best driver) the lead elephant in a pack of 5.

I now know lots of new phrases (get involved), and lots of new drinking games (eyes on the prize). We have yet to actually really meet any Americans on this trip, and I must say, I like it that way.

I think I was possibly the most fucked up I've ever been in my entire life last night (in honor of Australia day). I drank a lot of this Thai village moonshine... had 4 beers... smoked a joint... and then went back with Mr. Kei for 2 pillow-talk sessions of opium smokage.

Well, shit. Gotta go book our shit to Laos. Here are some pictures...






Once again, I know blogger is going to crop these... right click -> view image. BONZA!

Edit: here are a few more pictures.... I'll just hotlink them.

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3410/temple2sa6.jpg
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4720/bigmantl2.jpg
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1537/templers7.jpg
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3410/temple2sa6.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1103/hillpeoplezy3.jpg
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8919/thedogkj6.jpg

Rock Star Trek

When I said that Thai hookers cost roughly 3,000 bhat, I was wrong. When evening rolls around on the beach town of Pattaya, the streets surge with hookers. I don't think I can keep count of how many times I have been called "sexy man" and groped while walking down the back roads going to and from the beach.

Pattaya is a town spawned from GIs taking leave here. The sex industry (and when you walk down the assembly line of hookers, you really do really realize it's an industry) was spawned merely 30 years ago and looks as if it's not going anywhere. Needless to say, after a "foam party" at one of the nicer hotels, Adam and I decided to "mingle". We stayed up till roughly 4am on a ever increasingly deserted street drinking Tiger beer, talking to a couple from Manchester and desperately being solicited for sex. There was also a Thai transsexual hooker at the bar that spoke surprisingly good English and--secure in my masculinity-- was a pretty hot manchick. We drank till drunk on 40 bhat Tiger bottles and waltzed home with a line of "friends" that wanted a sleepover for the low low price of 500 bhat. Adam continued to barter, suggesting that maybe they should be paying HIM for such propositions. Unfortunately this concept, like us, was foreign to them.

Pattaya is dirty.

Today we are leaving for Chiang Mai to go on a 3 day trek which includes riding elephants, river boats, and apparently a gorgeous landscape. I don't expect much access to a computer.

Goodbye Pattaya

I don't really have much time to type anything right now, so the amazing (and they are amazing) stories of Pattaya will have to wait. I have a few pictures uploaded, but this computer is probably the most annoying piece of machinery on the planet.

^-Very gangsterish.




^- may be a bit dark...



^-- that probably encapsulates Joe better than any other picture on the planet. Khao San Joe is kind of one of my favorite people at the moment.

The Beach

After a mind blowing night last night I now know a few things I didn't before. 1. Johnny Walker is, aparently, the shit in Thailand. 2. A Thai hooker costs 3,000 Bhat. 3. Muai Thai kickboxing is surprisingly fun to watch.

I have some pretty nifty pictures so far. I have yet to run across some Internet service that will allow me to USB up and upload them, so it may be a bit.

On Wednesday we decided to catch a Tuk Tuk over to the Kickboxing stadium, pay 800 bhat, and stand in the outer ring, soaked in sweat, drinking warm beer, and soak in the rabid betting spectacle that takes place. The first few bouts, the fighters couldn't have been older than 14 years old. This of course led back to the Khao San ghetto bars where we proceeded to drink with other Anglo looking entertainment seekers.

Last night, as you know, I ended up back at one of these bars, playing on their free internet. Not always a good idea... but not entirely bad, either. Anyway, we stuck around Khao San for the entire duration of the night. Ate some overpriced (but still incredibly cheap compared to west Europe) food and stumbled around to a few clubs. Basically, we all just got pretty faced. Adam and I ended up down an alley off Khao San and found a full on rave about 2 floors underneath this place. It was packed with the grime of backpacker culture. Dread locked Aussies "moving" to the bass line. It was awesome.

We finally ended up back at that bar, where I met a Dutch chick, whom after talking to a bit, really wanted to know the price of a Thai hooker. So, I immediately found one and asked. We all then ended up back at our pool, located on top of our building overseeing the polluted horizon of Bangkok. Oh, and Charlie, at about 4am, opened our room door and "fire extinguished" us... our room was coated in fallout.

Today, we are at the Beach, feeling quite hungover.

On the Khao San Road

Yeah, I'm reading Jack Keorack right now, and I'm in Alex Garland's Backbacker's ghetto, Khao San Road. The epitome of tourism and capitalism in Thailand. To be realistic, though, it's still extremely cheap and incredibly entertaining.

I'm a bit lit right now, I'm in a club at about 1am taking advantage of their free enternet. I think it's about noon back home. Crazy.

Anyway, my bowels are doing fantastic when you consider some of the sketchy places we've been eating. 20 bhat for a meal if you leave Khao San. Talk to you guys in a bit.

Chasing the Rising Sun

I have but a few minutes to jot down some feelings. We have entered Bangkok after following the afternoon sun for nearly 10 hours. Tokyo's airport was a nice jolt of culture shock, and the arrival in Bangkok hit me well.

Surprisingly, a 17 hour plane ride didn't effect me as much as I thought it would. Anyway, I'll have to catch up a little later, this internet cafe is quite expensive.

Much love to those back home.

Anxiety and plastic.

The last few nights have been a swarming fog of placated laughter, forgotten faces, and marred memories. It feels good to be running from this city right now. I've been running on rocket fuel and it's begun to burn my eyes. Onward and upward.

Though it's snowing outside, I have a flight today at 4:50pm to the city of Seraphs. From there, the rest will all be unique. Stepping into the unknown is making my heart race, but it's good.

This is my blog for the trip. I'm sure I will post in various states of mind. For authenticity's sake, everything I post (and hopefully everything you respond with) will remain untouched.

Catch you kids later.