Chang Mai, Thailand

Well, I'm back in Thailand. Got in rather late here, and after finding a room, have found this internet cafe, which has the fastest connection I've been on in....years? It's danged fast. Lousy weather here, rain falls from the sky. The bus ride here was alright, there were only three of us in the minibus, so we each had a bench seat to ourselves, and slept our way from the Mekong here. My mobile once again has a signal so anyone trying to reach me can do so with my Thai number.

Huay Xay, Laos

My last stop in Laos. I took the speed boat North yesterday, it was a six hour trip racing up the Mekong. The day started a bit stressful. I got a tuk tuk, to get to the speed boat port. I have no idea what this man was thinking but I gave up on him after he took me to two different places, neither of them being where I wanted to go. I got another tuk tuk, and this driver knew where he was going. I arrived in time (I wasn't sure), and got a ticket North to Huay Xay, one of Laos' border towns. The first half of the ride was like a pleasure cruise. There were 3 of us in the boat, we stretched out and enjoyed the ride. The landscape as we twisted our way up the river was marvelous.

Then we stopped for lunch. The alternative to the speed boat is the slow boat (no shit), and what we covered in 3 hours takes a day on the slow boat. We stopped at this halfway point for a quick lunch. I didn't really pay attention with the fiddling with luggage on the boat.

After lunch, I learned that we had some more passengers on the boat. 5 more. I was scrunched into a square of space roughly 18" on each side. As was everyone else, but I had a good 3" on anyone else in the boat. Pain. We tossed on guy overboard shortly after setting out (into another boat), which gave us a little more leg room but not much.

Anyway, I've made it up to Huay Xay. I found the Gibbon Experience, and learned that the next spot available is next week. I'm not staying, I must say, I simply detest this town. I've got to run, more when I get back into Thailand.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Finally, a city that has what I'd consider a decent street. I was up early this morning, weirdly, and caught the 10am bus North from Vian Vieng. Good thing, as it was apparently the last bus of the day. It was a six hour bus ride and there was nary a seat to spare. I got squooshed next to another guy who turned out to be Renato from Brazil. We chatted over the course of the second half of the trip and went room hunting together when we finally arrived into town.

The drive here was gorgeous though, the hills stood jagged from the earth and thrust up into the sky, piercing the clouds. Somewhat reminiscent of New Zealand with the fierceness of the hills.

Renato and I had a pleasant dinner after finding the main street, which in full swing as an evening market filled the road with Laotians sitting by their wares. For the first time in Laos, I felt the hum of activity.

Just ran into Justin as I sat down here, who left Vian Vieng two days ago, ahead of me. Seems like he's enjoying this place, and I think that I shall as well.

So, in the converse of the age old adage, "early to bed, early to rise," I follow the lazier more sensible course of, "early to rise, early to bed." So, that's it for now.

Vian Vieng, Laos

Well, today was what I would call reasonably productive. I woke at a reasonable hour, 12.30 and got up to find the sun shining. I got through my morning absolutions and made it out on to the river just as the clouds began to wet us from above. Oh well.

The ride there was interesting. The place where I got my tubes, piles them on top of a tuk tuk and then loads the back with tubers. Our load was 9. The tuk tuk was not the more powerful variety and stalled out several times why en route. We did make it though and proceeded to unload the tubes and splash our way into the swiftly moving river. Swiftly indeed. As the rain season hits, the water is flowing far faster and higher than during the dry. Supposedly, someone drowned just 2 weeks ago. I dunno.

It's a nice river to float on though. On the right bank tower the hills, usually wreathed in cloud. It wasn't long till we floated to the first riverbank bar. Guy's with long bamboo poles drag the tubes to shore and one slides up the hill towards food and drink. And a rather daunting rope swing. It's got a trapeze handlebar and you get flung well out there. Actually, not so bad, much better than jumping. I had a beer at the bar along with brunch, and there met another Yank, Justin from Brooklyn.

As it turns out, Justin's last name is also Stein. I believe he's the first other Stein that I've met traveling. As common a name as I think it is, I don't meet a whole of other Steins. Cool. Interesting guy, a teacher from Brooklyn on his summer holidays.

After tumbling into the waters, it was back to the boats and on to the next bar. No rope swing at this one, but I believe there was a closed jump off place. Pity it was closed...really. Another round was drunk (I had a coke, in case anyone was about to make a comment), and I watched the child behind the till throw up. He seemed fairly nonchalant about it, so I wasn't too worried.

From there, it was time to head back. The sun had sunk behind the hills, illuminating them in a late afternoon glow. The group that I floated off with decided to skip the next bar and I got into a fierce tubing race with a Kiwi for the final leg into the finish point. The nice thing about tube racing, you don't do anything, let karma take over. My kind of racing.

And that was about the busiest day I've had here so far. Woof, I'm exhausted. Probably go get some dinner in front of a movie. If I haven't mentioned it yet, the restaurants here have made these wonderful beds with tables for watching either Friends or a movie while eating. They're such seductive traps.

Vian Vieng, Laos

After spending a few days in Vientiane, I've moved up the road to Vian Vieng, which is best known for it's tubing. While the town itself is fairly dreary, the hills across the river are beautiful, and aparently there are a lot of nice caves in the area. Other than that, I don't have too much to report, I've been rather dull of late, taking it easy, writing and sleeping too much. I'll try and put something more substantial soon. I'll probably relax here a few more days before pushing on. I'm not sure where I'm heading, though I've been hearing about the Gibbon Experience North of here, which sounds fairly interesting.

Vientiane, Laos

Well, I made it out of Bangkok, Yay!!!! I took the overnight bus out of town, which didn't give me the best night's sleep, roughly 3 hours. Woke, bleary, this morning on the banks of the Mekong River, as us on the bus were shepherded into a cafe on the riverbank to take care of our visas. As it turnes out, I was able to get a 1 month visa, rather than the 14 day which I expected to get. Means I don't have to travel quite as rapidly as I'd thought. Phew, that was a close one.

We arrived in Vientiane around 9am, already having been up for 3 hours. I found a cafe and promptly had a coffee, bagel and croissant. Sated, I began my search for a room. 10 minutes and 4USD later, I sunk into a bed and let my exhaustion overwhelm my eyelids.

Not too much else to report, though before I go, I must comment on the free, outdoor community aerobics classes I've seen here in SE Asia. What a great idea!

Bangkok, Thailand

Okay, I'm leaving today, that's decided. I've been sorta stuck here in Bangkok for the past few days, with no good reason for being stuck. Lack of motivation perhaps. At any rate, my visa's fast running out so it's time to make a move, I'm heading North either to Khorat or up to Laos, I haven't really decided yet. Time to get away from the relative luxury that I've been stuck in here, AC, cable, room service. So, I should be on the move again, we'll see where I get to.

Bangkok, Thailand

I find myself surround by boxes, bags and room service. Products of two weeks sifting through the markets of Bangkok adorn my room, dripping from it, in fact. Shopping for myself, for my friends and family, shopping for now, shopping for my future. I've reconnected my phone and found a SIM card, thanks Mildred, darling, and reconnected to the world in that manner. I don't however, know my number at the moment, a bit of a problem, I understand.

In this time, there's been a series of goodbyes sprinkled with helloes and hello agains. I saw Tom, Neil, Stacey, Liz and Hilde (we actually said goodbye this time, huge progress there) off, only to find Paddy wandering Khao San Road barefoot, and Andy, still disapproving of my facial hair.

I've bought a ton: 14 sunglasses to date, 7 pairs of Thai trousers, 5 shirts (3 Hawaiian), 24 DVD's, 4 computer programs, a jacket, a new cigarette holder (thank God), various sundries for my future plans, and other various knick knacks (to say nothing of Tom's switchblade lighter, still inhabiting my room).

Of these, the sunglasses are, of course, my guiltiest pleasure, I think most people that know me are familiar with my vice. I believe that in my room there are currently 24 pairs of sunglasses now....heh heh heh heh. Guess who's smiling? I've got about 9 pairs of aviators, 7 pairs of large to small black ones, 3 pairs of Oakleys, 2 pairs of Elvis', and 3 pairs of Girly, Eurotrashy ones with names like Gucci and Dolce and Gabba (Hope you like them, Babe, even got a pair of clear ones). I do plan to ship some of these mind you and reduce my travelling pairs to 6. Hence, the boxes. I'm sending to packages from Bangkok. One forward and one back.

On the whole, I think that I've done pretty good to rein it in and not go nuts here. My first days were filled with the feverish spending of Tom, Neil and Mildred. Tom somehow managed to buy the strangest things, especially considering he spent the rest of the time worrying about his financial situation. The huge zippos are funny though. After they moved on, I was able to slow down the rush to the markets and peruse at my leisure.

And now, Charlie and Delphine have arrived back, once again heading South to Ko Pha Ngan and the next Full Moon Party, having done their tour of Laos. They've asked me to go. Now there's a thought.....

To be continued.




Just joking.

Despite the worry that my blog seems to have produced after a month on the islands, I'm done with that now, I'm getting old, a month was more than enough, I'm happy not drinking much these days (a few drinks every few nights).

Let me stop here to say this about drinking. I think that there's a difference between much of the world and the US in terms of drinking. Most of the world treats bars much more like "Cheers" places you go where everyone knows your name. Backpackers treat bars as the social hubs of their worlds. If I'm going to go out and meet a few people, the bar is ground zero in this equation. It's also far more of a social norm for those non Americans (you know, foreigners). Ko Pha Ngan was a party spot, and an exception in my life. I don't know if I've drunk that steadly over a period since my winter in Val d'Isere back in the winter of 00/01. Good thing too, I'm still recovering, I feel. But, I do love the mass parties, beyond the drinking, I love the communal wild abandon, what I consider the Nietzsche's Dionysian side of art. And when I plunge into such abbyses of chaos, I do so headfirst and with relish. If you're going to do something, do it right, ja? [ed. note Ww, would you look at the stream of denial and reasoning he's putting up, shows you what a degree in philosophy can get you. He's clearly round the bend. After Denial comes Anger just watch.]

So, Stop Yelling at me about my Lifestyle!!!!

[ed. note See?]

Moving right along...

I'm meeting up with Charlie and Delpine in a little while, to catch up for an evening before they head South once again, back to the Beach, back to the Party. I've got labels to affix to boxes and
then leaving Bangkok with a much lightened load.