The last few days

I didn't have email for a few days while I traveled so I have not been able to write but that doesn't meathat there has been nothing going on. The one hinge i really wanted to do while I was in thailand besides see temples and some historical sites was to spend a couple of days just relaxing on a warm beach and getting to enjoy some sunshine and beautiful water. My original plan was to go dowto the southern part of the country and stay in Krabi. But ...... After a month of solid rain and flooding that has killed many people it just wasn't to be. So i found an island called Koh Chang down near the border of Cambodia and Joanne went along with the idea. We rented scooters and blazed up and down the coast for part of the day before finally finding an almost empty beach with warm beautiful water. We spent the better part of a day just goofing off in the ocean and sitting around. I know to read about that doesn't sound very exciting but it was a great end cap to my vacation. But backing up a little bit to how the day started...... It has been really funny that I was actually moe adjusted to the time here when i first arrived. As time has gone by I have been more and more off schedule, generally waking up really early in the morning and going to bed a little bit early as well. Kind of like an old man. But I was fortunate that Joanne generally gets up really early so we would generally get up early and get out before the crowds which worked pretty well. So crazy as it sounds I wake up close to 5 am in the morning. I can't get back to sleep so i sit in bed and start to read while i wait until a reasonable time to knock on Joannes door. But while I am sitting there I start to hear signing. Faint and just off key slightly enough to know that it is not the radio but someone close by belting out a tune...... But wait that's he wall to Joannes room? No way, she doesn't sing! Wait, wait, yes it is coming from her room. I swear it. I wait a few minutes and lean out the door to see the light on next door. I knock and sure enough she was singing her little heart out while working on sketches at 5 in the morning. It was the funniest way I have started a morning in years, especially one at 5 am.

I have to say that Joanne has been a stellar travel partner. One of the easiest going and kindest people I happen to know. It has been a real pleasure to have her join me for the last week of my trip. She is staying on for another couple of days to explore Bangkok and I hope she has an amazing time.

In the pool

So Joanne showed up and we made our way up to sukhothai to see some temples and enjoy the end of San Kram. After a really hot day and tons of walking all over the place and riding bikes around the temples we headed back to the hotel to swim in the pool. We ordered some food and Joanne decided to sit out of the water and eat while I was swimming. I swam up to the edge of the pool to talk for a bit and she sort of looked to the side of me and said ..... Whats that? I looked over and we both realized at the same time that it was a dead baby pidgin floating about a foot away from me. All featherless, pale skin and a tiny beak. We scooped it out of the water and went back to our tempura plate.......

A lost day, sort of.

I woke up bright and early this morning to wait for my friend to get off the plane and make her way to my hotel. Se was supposed to arrive at 6:30 in the morning and be at the hotel by 7:30 or so. I waited and waited for hours. At first wondering if the flight was delayed and then just all out worried when it was after 11 and she had not shown up yet. I decided to send an email and see if she was alright. Well it turns out she had the days wrong and comes in tomorrow instead of today. I was relieved and bummed all at the same time. Oh well I thought to myself what to do now. Its a holiday here so most of the temples were closed. Why not have a little spa day. First a little breakfast at the hotel then a walk out to go shopping. I went to a local shopping center here called MBK. Try to imagine a shopping mall crossed with Mexican TV. Buzzing, swarming and full of people milling around and selling all sorts of stuff. I picked up a second pair of pants and a tiny hair shaver because my side burns were getting so long I was starting to look like wolverine. Then I realized that wasn't going to do it so I hopped into a salon and had my hair done. Pretty good cut I must say. I look halfway human again! When I was in Hua Hin I mostly just ate at little restaurants because it was easy and cheap. But here in Bangkok it is a bit to expensive to eat out every night like that so I cruised up and down little alleys until i found some street food that looked interesting. A tiny little cart making soup. So i parked my ass on what can only be described as a plastic kiddy chair and wolfed down my meal. ( about 1.50 gets soup and bottled water at this here cart) This week is a big holiday week in Thailand. It is Son Kram ( probably spelled that wrong. ) Thai new years. On the big tourist street here it becomes a giant water fight with squirt guns and buckets. What the hell, I'll go check it out. Once again the tourist let me down so i left that about as fast as I could. The taxi driver that took me away from the dreaded tourist trap and I started to talk and we hit it off pretty well. He was just a really cool guy. He suggested that i get a massage and relax...... Well now there's an idea. Finish off my day in style. So he takes me to a place and says he'll wait for me. I went inside and whoa. I think he had a different idea about massage. It was the place you see in the movies and here the stories about. There were about 80 women seated in a boxed in section with numbers on there dresses...... And i politely make for the door. When I made it out. The driver ( Mr. Big) starts to laugh. " oh you want massage " hahahahaha we laughed for a minute and then he took me to a place that did thai massage without happy ending. At the end of the evening he was kind enough to ask if I was hungry. When I said yes he took me to a tiny out of the way place that had awesome spicy fried chicken. And then finally back to the hotel for some sleep before an early wake up call.

The train...

I have not written much in the last few days because I have just basically been relaxing. But at last it is time to head back to Bangkok to meet up with a friend. So the people at the hotel drop me off at the train station and wave goodby. The hotel I was at did not have a staff that spoke English very well. Just the basics.... Toilet, chicken curry, you pay bill.... So when they dropped me off at the train station here was no advice or direction. Just that loving smile and nod goodby. It would be the same if you were going off to get married or an execution. I walk up to the counter and asked for a ticket. A very non humored woman dispensed the ticket and sent me on my way ..... Well lets just say that I should have done more research. Here in Thailand like most places in the world. There are different trains. The more high class and nicer first and second class models and then there are the " locals" or third class. I ended up on the third class model. A broken down relic from railroad history. The color of that 1950's turquoise but so beat on that it was more grime than blue green. I hopped on and stowed my stuff overhead, then sitting down I noticed the pad wasn't much of a pad.... Just a material cover over hard wood. All of the windows were open because there is no ac and as the train gently started to roll forward the scent of diesel train exhaust started to pour in...... Aaaaahhhhhh my new home for 5 scheduled hours....... Or wait, lets make that 7 hours with delays. When I finally made it into Bangkok and to my hotel I went to the sink and got a wash cloth to wipe my face off a bit before going to dinner. The cloth was black, I had been covered in a film of dust and diesel fumes so thick I probably looked like I had makeup on... Lets just say that from here on out. If I take the train, I will be in the newer air con 2nd class cars.

Princess, polo and snakes.

I forgot to mention that the last night in siem reap Cambodia I went out and had dinner. A delightful mixed grill arrived on my plate along side a few 50 cent beers. The mixed grill included, chicken, beef, shrimp, and ..... Snake. I'm not exactly sure what kind of snake it was mind you but it was snake the lady assured me. She laughed and said. " don't worry, not dog. Hahahahaha" but then she went on to tell me how good dog was and that I really really had to try some. So I made my way through some of the m ore familiar delicacies and then dove into the snake. Believe it or not.... Not to bad. A little chewy and it was almost kind of sweet. It did have some sauce on it as well. The closest I can get to describing it is kind of like the eel at a sushi bar.
After a four hour flight delay and a three hour drive I ended up in a city south of Bangkok called Hua Hin. It is where the king has his summer palace and it is on the beach so you can imagine that it is a little more upscale than some of the other places I have been hanging out in. I was so exhausted when I arrived that I just went straight to bed. But when I awoke I went down and rented another scooter and blazed my way about an hour south along the coast to one of the national parks here. It was another awesome easy rider through palm trees and mountains. The only freaky part is that Thailand drives on the left. So when I first took off I almost killed m yself trying to figure out the road ediquite here. If anyone reading this has Katie Bartons phone number give her a call and tell her that I saw monkeys! No they did not attack me, but the furry little bastards did have a look of evil in there eyes so I took off quick. Remember the warning from the clinic! Momma didn't raise no dummy.
When I returned to town and got back to my hotel it was still about mid afternoon so decided to take a walk along the beach and check it out. Basically right next door there was a pavilion and a sort of rectangular area of the beach sectioned off and there were horses under big expensive canopies.i stopped to ask some other people what was going on and they told me that it was a big event. It was an international polo exibition overlooked by the princess of Thailand. Ha, ok i have to stay and check this out. So I stayed there for about an hour and a half sipping on a freshly cracked open coconut and watching polo on the beach. I even got to watch the princess throw the first ball out into the area to start the match..... Yes thats right I got to see a real princess.

Holiday in Cambodia

It was something of a fast trip to Cambodia but I am so glad that I had the chance to do it. Most of the time i was there was brutally hot to me. He locals just laughed and said, oh this is nothing. Wait until it gets hot. I didn't realize it but april is the hot month in Cambodia! Two days of amazing temple tours have left me a little in awe. Most of the structures are almost a thousand years old and even though some of them are in bad shape and being restored it was amazing to me that so much of it is still in amazing shape. But this morning was a great send off. I couldn't sleep very well so I ended up waking up very early, maybe around 5:45 and just sat thee reading in my room with a faint light starting on the horizon through clouds. Then all of a sudden it was a full on tropical storm. Rain, thunder and lightning as the sun was coming up. The interesting part was that all of the city noise just sort of stopped. I couldn't hear the car horns, motor bikes prowling by or any of the street hawkers pushing there wares. Just the rain hitting the windows and the crack of thunder. As I finally put my butt into gear and made my way to the airport to leave town I slapped my headphones in and turned on the iPod that I picked up just for this trip. Over 10,000 songs and what should come on as i head to the airport? He old dead kennedys tune holiday in Cambodia. I'm not joking or making it up. It came on during the shuffle and I laughed my ass off.

Personal notes nothing important.

I have a long lay over in the ho chi min airport this afternoon and it has left me some time to think. I am about two thirds of the way through my trip and it has been really good for me so far. It was strange at first to be traveling alone for so long and I have to admit to sending tons of emails and pestering several friends while I have been away. But after some adjustments I realize that it has been good for me. For so many years I have just had my head down and working away at some irrelevant goal just trying to reach that end for its own sake. I sadly realized that I had lost all of my desire to do art, or anything creative at all for the last few years. Just in a state of trying to stay alive and make the next bill or some other bullshit. I am slowly coming back around. Taking time to look at things again for what they are and a little less concerned with the next marker. It is so strange to me that I went into commercial photography so that I could make a career out of being creative and it ended up stealing all of my creativity and left me as something of a husk. Maybe it was the fact that so much time was spent trying to develope something for other people more than for myself. So I have decided to do a couple of things when I return. I am signing up for serious classes in a foreign language and I am going to convert part of my basement into a studio/darkroom for creative projects. The other thing I realized from this trip was how much I missed traveling. All of the years i spent working with steve were fantastic. It was tough at times traveling so quickly and not getting a chance to stop and see things but the chance to see so many places in the world on someone elses dime was a great opportunity. As much as i have been burned out by commercial photography it saddens me to see it die as a profession. Replaced by computer terminals, shoots on white seamless and a feeling of being nothing more than an assembly line worker. But I suppose that's evolution. I am writing this mainly to remind myself later when I start to be a shit head again.......

Pass keys and cobras

I arrived in Cambodia late in the afternoon after a two hour flight delay. It was extremely hot and dusty. After the long travel time I just wanted to cool off and settle into my room for a minute before venturing out. I realized that I had forgot to ask the desk about something so I graves the plastic room key card out of the wall switch and went down to the desk. After a short conversation I went back up to my room. But I was rather tired and turned around so I end up coming up to the wrong door. I put the key in the lock .... And voila the lock opened. I walked in and realized that it was the wrong room! Holy shit. So I backed out, closed the door and went to what I thought was the right room again. Put the key in and ...... Opened the door. Wrong room a again..... So all in all my key opened 5 doors in the hotel. Its a shame there was no hot naked women lying around..... Didn't really give me. A sense of security in my room.
Today I went to angkor wat and some of the surrounding temples. Really cool. It was hot as he'll and dusty but it was so amazing that I just pushed on and walked around to see all that I could see. As you enter a ngkor wat there is a long stone entry way over a moat to get you into the city. As we started to walk over the walkway. My guide stopped me and pointed out into the water at something. It looked like a stick sitting up slightly out of the water. But it was moving..... He leans over to not say it to loudly around other people. " look, that is a cobra" are you fucking kidding me! He then goes on to tell me that they clear most of them out so there are no problems with the tourists but occasionally one or two make there way back in. " if we see cobra .... Run quickly" no shit I thought to myself. I don't think you have ever seen a white boy run so fast my friend. I had to guess that the snake was at least 5 or 6 feet, and swimming at an alarming pace. The cool thing was that just like when you see them in the movies when they rear up, they do the same thing in the water. While swimming it can
raise its head up to get a better look at where its going. Hopefully away from me. That aside the temples and area around Angkor wat are pretty amazing. It is something to see in a book but completely different in person. Even with tons of other people there it was amazing to see. In my travels i have to say that I have started to develope certain stereo types about the personalities of other travelers..... I have had a great time with Australians, and British. The germans are a mixed lot. Either amazingly fun and outgoing or that bland stuffy personality you see in the war movies. However there is a group that I have learned to avoid. The new breed of traveling Russians. Jesus christ what a bunch of asshole travelers.....

Dinner with the ladies.

I had some clothing made for myself here in Hoi An. I made friends with the ladies who make the clothing and they were kind enough to invite me out to dinner. We ended up going to there favorite restaurant near there house. We started with squid and then moved on to fresh crab. It was great and I was having a good time. The ladies were very sweet and even though communication was a little difficult it was awesome. Then the next course came out.... Chicken, freshly steamed. I do mean fresh. They told me that they kill them out back just before cooking. S this little birdie got cut and dropped into the pot just moments before I ate him. Still doing pretty good the last course came out. Congee. Basically a rice and broth soup ..... With chicken intestines and other bits as well as the feet sticking up out of the pot. It was one of those classic moments where I would be insulting if I didnt have some. So I went for it. I ended up not only getting the intestines in there but the heart as well! At first it ws a little rugged at first. But honestly it was pretty good.

Easy rider Asia.

Yeah okay so it is a little odd that I chose now to try out riding a scooter around through crazy traffic. I went down to the front desk because I have heard that you could cheaply rent a scooter and it was a good way to get around and not have to pay for taxis and tours. So for the low price of ten dollars a day I said okay. The woman showed up with the scooter and a set of keys. No paper work. No insurance, no nothing. Just a set of keys, a helmet and a 30 second tutorial...... Yeah so it was so damn fun I had a smile on my face all he way around town like those photos of idiots smiling at the rental car office. I made my way up to a place called he marble mountains. A beautiful rock platue Comprised mostly from marble. On top here were several temples and a series of caves that had carved statues and temples inside. It was super cool, complete with rays of light streaming in to light up the statues. It was probably the most impressive thing I have seen since I arrived here. After that I hoped on my trusty steed and made my way back to town for lunch. Tomorrow I ride the long haul up to Hue.