Onward...

As Derek sweats his way through Bangkok today, he prepares for his trip to the north. In about 2.5 hours, I'll be taking a 13 hour train ride north to a city and province called Chang Mai. I reserved a sleeper compartment with air con, so it should be a pretty comfortable ride. I'll be staying in the north of Thailand for about 2 weeks until meeting up with friend Tara for several weeks of beach time and diving down south. I hope my spelling and grammar have not been a complete wreck show on this thing, it's been quite a while since I've written anything longer than 3 lines. That's about it for now...Hope everyone is healthy and happy.

So this past Saturday, I finally got my ass out of Bangkok. I stayed 2 more days than planned, and was a bit mad at myself for doing so, but wow am i happy that i left when i did. Life is all about timing and geography right? The plan was to take the train, about 4 hours, northwest to a province called Kanchanaburi. I had a rough idea of what i was going to do while there, and it all went out the window about half way through my train ride. The seating situation on the train...There is one aisle in the middle, on either side there are pairs of benches that face eachother, seating two per bench, 3 with a bit of a squeeze. I was one of the first people on a seemingly quiet car. This all ended 5 minutes later. I find myself surrounded by a very loud, very happy group of about 15 people, all women ages 22-52, with two children thrown in for good measure. As we start moving, several of us begin a cobbled together form of communication, as my thai sucks, and their english was limited. It turns out that they are a team of nurses going on a weekend retreat together. As the train rumbles along, and I'm not saying this to blow smoke up my ass, they all manage to rotate seats many times so to take turns sitting next to me and chat. And the temprature is really climbing. I feel like the not-so-buff version of "The Bachelor" at this point. Not so much "Wind Beneath My Wings,' more like "Sweat Under My Ba**s." Continuing, it's all well and fine and we're really laughing a lot. About two hours into it, one girl asks me if i will come with them to the pier and sing karoke with them later. I say sure, I've been to The Mint! Then she says, ok, so you stay with us at pier? (i am paraphrasing). I say, is it close to where the guesthouses are? Not really. As we meander through this conversation, they basically invite me to stay with them on their "pier," which is actually a floating house located about 78km from where i am intending to stay. After pondering their invite for approximately 23 seconds, i say i would love to, and am flattered. I'm flabbergasted! We've met for all of 2 hours, they are going on a work retreat together, and they invite a total stranger to stay, eat, sing, and later actually play cards (and lose $$) with them. I was really blown away by

a) their trust
b) their genuine kindness
c) their attitude that inviting me along would be nothing but positive and fun

So the following photos are what went on at the floating house. I have a ton more, but i think this is a good summary. And i didn't think that literally we would be staying on a floating house.

It was only a 70 km drive, but a 3 hour drive time. The grade and curves on the road we took called for quite a few 1st gear, 5mph speeds. I'm sure you can imagine how low the gearing on this bad boy is...

This was my view during our 3 hour ride to the resevoir.

As you can tell in my shiny flushed face, it was hot. We just finsished a 4 hour open-windowed train ride, 1 hour of running around the market buying a small army's worth of supplies, and were gearing up for our 3 hour ride northwest. In a stroke of pure genius, someone tapped me on the shoulder from outside the truck when we stopped for some final wares, and passed me this can of beer. It is in my top 5 beer moments of all time. Also, my name is very difficult to pronounce for thais, so for the weekend, my thai nickname bestowed upon me by the nurses was "Jeedo."

This is one big-ass dam containing the waters of the Si Nakharin Resevoir. The smoke in the background was pretty common as farmers burn off their old crops after harvest.

Food preparations begin as our house gets towed across the resevoir to a nice little nook where it is promptly tied to a tree for the evening.

I never thought i would see the day, but alas...my house was being passed by another house.

Words cannot describe how incredible the food was. After the train from Bangkok, we stopped in the city of Kanchanaburi to stock up on supplies from the market. They were sweet enough to let me participate in the food prep, teaching me the thai technique of chopping papaya. After watching my method for 5 minutes, they suggested i peel the garlic and someone else would take over papaya duty. We had red snapper that cooked in this amazing broth over hot coals. Made some sort of a bi-valve, couldn't tell if it was a clam or a mussel, but you had to pry them open after they finished cooking. They assured me this was normal after my "doesn't this prying open thing mean that they were dead already" look. 10 kilos of shrimp, papaya salad, mango salad, the salads being extremely spicy. Noodles, crabs, corn, squid, cucumber...I know i'm forgetting some, but you get the idea.

Some of the girls out for a pre-dinner row

I really bonded with this little one, and for the life of me i cannot remember her name. She really dug my camera, so we would sit together and i would show her photos. She would make comments in thai, and i would in english, neither of us having a clue what the other was saying, but it seemed to work.

Every house comes equipped with a karoke machine and some serious 15 inch speaker systems to ensure Thai karoke is echoing across the lake at almost all times of day.

I was actually jealous of myself for being here.

This is what rush hour looks like on the Si Nakharin Resevoir

Poo and she-who-shall-not-be-named

Our house is being towed back to port.

I got a nice sunburn photographing this guy.

After 2 days of heavy relaxing/karoke, this is the last shot before we pack up and head back to town.

Chinatown

Cuteness exploded in Chinatown.

So each evening, when i sit down with my dinner and a beer, is photo review time. What i'm finding is that i'm taking a whole hell of a lot of photos of scooters and motorcycles. I can't help it. Really. The slogan i put on two-wheeling in southeast asia is "by any means necessary." What they can load on their bikes continues to amaze me. It also appears that while in traffic, they are all really working with eachother to make sure there are no accidents. At first glance, it seems like very aggressive driving, especially at stop lights when the cars are at rest, and 35 bikes are weaving through stopped traffic to get to the front. But when you really watch for a while, there is a nice fluidity to it all. From a high vantage point over a road, particularly over a red traffic light, the bikes look like litte water droplets snaking their way down a window.

Multi-tasking

This guy's entire field of vision would fall under the category "blindspot."

The people of Thailand are absolutely in love with their king. You see photos of him everywhere doing all sorts of activities; Skiing, taking photos, pointing at a ferrari...Sadly he is sick and dying in the main hospital in Bangkok.

So I was standing on the sidewalk, just kind of looking around, and these 3 elephants came tearing around the corner. In my shock I was somehow luckily able to snap a few shots as they rumbled past.

Ahh, Thai traffic

What a catch! I took this today on the water taxi as i made my way to chinatown. Those pics to come...

So let me describe for you what happens at a Thai disco.

--First off, there are no westerners, i was the only one, which is fine.

--There is no central dance floor. Each party of people has their own church bazaar-style, or beer-die-style table if you will, table that they hang out at. There must have been at least 100. You either sit, or dance in the aisle with your party or any adjacent party.

--There is no bar. Each table orders a bottle(s) with all the fixings; tonic, pepsi, ice bucket...There were 6 of us together and we got a bottle of some type of scotch whiskey called "100 Pipers." Thai people like to toast, and I mean like every 48 seconds. I think we had 2 bottles.

--When you use the men's room, and this really scared the shit out of me, there are bathroom attendants much like you would see in a nicer place in the states. Here's the difference. While peeing at one of the urinals, this attendant comes up behind me, puts a hot towel on the back of my neck, starts rubbing my shoulders, and say, "Massage! Massage!" I must have pissed on the wall because of my 6 inch involuntary vertical leap. I tried politely to say no, but I must have looked crazy. Apparently this is normal, and upon further visits to the bathroom noticed guys, while pissing, getting a warm towel neck rub for about .80cents. Not this guy.

The below photos were taken after the disco, which ended at 5, when we were getting food, around 6.

This is myself and Aof. Pronounced "off." Paul, I give you permission to insert joke here.

This is Mun. Mun works in a high-end camera store, and he doesn't dance.

This is Ek. You should see him drink.

This is me shooting some stick with my new Thai friends. I missed this one.

Alive and well

I made friends with the girl working the tank you put your feet in, and she allowed me to put my hand in for a few minutes. The only way I can describe the feeling to someone who hasn't expericenced this, is to say that... imagine the sensation of hundreds of small fish eating the dead skin off of your hand and wrist.

This is an elder monk getting off of the water taxi that i was waiting to board. This is the only monk I've seen that wasn't adjusting his robe. I think they need to get with the velcro.

This was the photo that got me in trouble for taking pictures where not allowed. I had accidently turned my flash on which got the attention of the guard, but thank god, cause it is a cool photo!

This is a result of "natural mummification." He was charged with rape and murder and put to death.

This is a fetus at 12 weeks. Yikes.

This is taken in a museum of parasites in the main hospital in Bangkok. I had to sneak these photos as no cameras were allowed, and yes I eventually got yelled at.

Moving on soon...

So I think I have one more day and night in Bangkok left in me. It would be easy to stay here for 3 or 4 more days, but no sense in getting too comfy. I was so lucky and happy to be set up with my new friend Joe who hosted me my first 4 days in Thailand. Thursday morning I'll be getting on the early train to Kanachanaburi, a provence about 3 hours northwest of here to check out some really cool WWII history stuff (Bridge on the River Kwai being one of them) followed by some more nature type outings...jungle/waterfall/monkey dodging type activities...will probably be there 2 days until moving further north. anyway, i'm going to meet my friend out for a drink or two, i have an early day tomorrow to get to the market in chinatown before all the other "falang" show up! Hope to catch the nfl games this weekend!!

So here is a handful of photos. I have many more to post, but the upload speed at this computer terminal is painfully slow...Today I leave the nest of Joe and Ae's house to secure my own guesthouse down by the river. Probably spending 2 or 3 more days in Bangkok before heading north to Chang Mai with stops along the way. Been starting to seriously practice some of the Thai language. It will be absolutley necessary once I start getting to some of the smaller places up north. Also, I'm getting over a sinus infection that set in almost immediatley upon arrival. I bought a 6 capsule box of z-pak over the counter for $7 usd. Bingo!

First pics

Safe Arrival!

So after a flight so long that both of my feet had fallen asleep due to really tight new socks, I arrived safe and sound in Bangkok. More importantly, I made it from the airport to my friend's place with roughly 15 hitches. No photos yet, but soon to come...A few things I've seen thus far:

. dried squid roving vendor
.50 cc scooter loaded with 4 giant propane tanks and 2 passengers
.one of the most beautiful girls i've ever seen...was a guy

That's about it for now.

Flight to SF

The trip from NYC to San Francisco was absolutely beautiful.  For the route that our 757 flew, over 80% of the country was covered in white, giving the physical features on the ground some dramatic contrasts.