Phitsanulok

I was filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation as I boarded the bus to Phitsanulok. Tired, haggard, hungry and a little bit hung-over from my adventures with yadong the previous night, it did not help that the bus was late. I had spent well over two hours meandering around the station, starting on a pleasant note with a full English breakfast and a kaffae ron - it eventually devolved into walking around in circles nervously smoking.

When the 659 eventually pulled up the wiry bus 'host' hastily refused me access to his coach, my heart sinking when he hastily yelled "No space!" at my general direction. I looked on in confusion as he then proceeded to let two Thai nationals board the 'full' bus. I had been waiting a lot longer than these two bastards, so I was about to let out a barrage of angkrit-accented Thai slurs in a burst of anger reserved only for Farang who had reached the last reserve of patience and could not  care less about losing face as long as it got shit done, when I paused for a moment, drew a breath, and asked as calmly as I could why they could board and I could not - giving the wiry man a chance to avoid the hell-fury I had been ready to unleash a few moments before.

I rolled my eyes at his surprise that I could string together a heavily accented string of Thai words that would be scoffed at by scholars, but managed to convey my question. After a few moments he managed to recollect himself and explain that all the seats were taken - I would have to stand. I laughed and told him it was fine, I didn't mind and shoved past him on the bus. She said it was only 2 hours, I thought as my mind drifted back to her - I could stand in a cramped bus for two hours...

It was simple math of course. Lop Buri is two hours north of Bangkok, Phitsanulok is four hours away. 4-2=2 right? Yeah... Not in Thailand. Not when you get on the wrong bus. Not when you stop at every stall, farm and village as you zigzag west and east whilst heading north into Central Thailand.

Every thirty minutes my phone would ring.

"Where are you now? Where are you now? How long do you think?"
"My GPS says four hours...?"
"Don't trust the GPS."
"Ok."

I should have trusted the GPS. It would have been faster to take the bus/train back to Bkk and get the right bus up north.

After a grueling five hours, I eventually reached my port of call. Tired, angry, hungry and sore, I could eventually call her and say "Hey, I'm here."

As I waited for her to come pick me up I looked around for a place to wait. Preferably, a place where I could have a drink and a smoke to calm my nerves. No such place stood out, so I propped myself up against a pillar in a side soi, put on some Amon Amarth and lit a cigarette.

Monopoly

I feel so guilty when I see the link to this blog - it probably feels as lonely as I do these days, and that's my fault. This seems to be one of those projects which I pick up with gusto and abandon with the same amount of enthusiasm. I'm determined to change some things though - and hopefully my inactivity here will be one of those things. I refuse to take responsibility for what I do and do not change in my life in the next few weeks.

There's a quote that struck a chord with me today, and by struck a chord, I mean I spent some time on Google looking for it. I was reading up on madness and writing and how the two have always seemed to be intrinsically linked. Aristotle once said "There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.", and while I don't claim to be a genius per se, I've always been able to treasure my own particular brand genius and of madness. It's becoming harder to do so these days however.

The quote that struck me however is from Miguel De Cervantes. He said "Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be." Lately I seem to find myself preoccupied in the harsh realities of my physical limitations and consequences of mine own design, instead of the fleeting glimpses of a mad future tense where everything would resolve like a good fairy tale should.

In some way I feel like I've gone too far down the rabbit hole, passed sanity without collecting $200 - and here we go again, round the board, landing on properties owned by others, with chance and the community chest as my only saving grace. I'm bound for jail and I know it, but I've been playing this game for far too long and I don't know how to end it. . .

There's no resolution to this yet.

One Night In Grungeland

Went to a place called Nest on Saturday - a fancy rooftop lounge in Nana. I had been there a few times before with the old pub crawl group, but tonight was a Grunge themed night, and I had a friend whose band was playing. It was sponsored by some or other vodka brand, and there were two free bottles being given away for the best dressed.

Girlfriend set her mind on winning herself a bottle of Vodka. This of course meant that we would arrive late as she had to go buy shoes, cut her hair, colour her hair, and then go to the Tesco looking for a checkered shirt, which was not a fruitful venture.

The end result was that my outfit now had to be butchered - and she stole my shirt.

We arrived during the last song of the set.

While I was grabbing us some drinks, she ran into one of her friends, so she ended up at their table, and I sat with my friends. My little group consisted of the band, their girlfriends, and a strange little Austrian girl called Fleur. She instantly grabbed my attention with her vibrant, vermilion hair.

A conversation struck up and ended up talking for what seemed like hours... I had a long night planned out... It was Immortal's anniversary, and a friend's birthday, but I didn't really want to leave... and it was at that point that Girlfriend's friends left and she joined our table. I had already explained our odd relationship to Fleur, but she kind of withdrew after that. She was curious about it, but made it clear that it freaked her out.

It wasn't long after that before I was ready to leave, but I made sure to grab her details.

I don't remember much of Immortal but I do remember that it was packed. At some point the owner grabbed me and pulled me into the pit, which is probably why I could not move when I woke up on Sunday. Can't tell if I'm not moshing enough or getting old.. either way - it's not good.

The usual farang crowd was noticeably absent, so Girlfriend had noone to talk to. She made sure to show that she was bored and becoming disgruntled, so we didn't stay for too long.

We didn't feel like going back to the Khlong, so we went to her boyfriend's house party where everyone was drunk and carefree, garbling nonsense at me.

I spent the rest of the night dreaming of the girl with vermilion hair..

Kanchanaburi

From time to time you tend to find yourself in a situation, and at first you're confused and then excited - when you realise that this is one of those moments that you'll look back on when you're 85, and elicit a smile.

Every now & then however, the smile drops when you realise that even though you're on the precipice of that moment, it ain't gonna happen, and today is just another day that will fade with memory.

Bangkok Blues

I googled Bangkok blues today, and the results were more or less inline with how I am feeling tonight.

Bangkok Blues - CLOSED - Falls Church, VA

F.C.'s Bangkok Blues Closes Its Doors | Falls Church News-Press ...

Okay, granted - the articles are about a Blues restaurant in Virginia, USA - but nonetheless. I'm starting to get the feeling that Bangkok is not a kind place.

During the day the place seems so alive with smells and sights and sounds, but there is a dark energy here, and it only shows itself at night.

Walking through the streets late at night you will see that dark underbelly of this city, littered with drugs and drunks, as even the timid soi dogs who beg for food in the cutest way turn into roaming packs of howling hounds to watch out for.

Sometimes you can catch glimpses of it during the day, but for the most part, the monsters here only show themselves in the dark. Recently, I've been seeing a lot of them, and I'm starting to feel blue, and I don't think it bodes well.

An End To Songkran

Songkran had swept over Thailand and everything was wet. It was Sunday night now, and all that was left were a few diehard Thai's and a couple of over-eager foreigners. Things were settling down and drying out. Not us though.

Kids throwing water during Songkran

My friend John from Europe had called me the previous night and had arranged to meet me Sunday night after his flight in from Koh Samui, he had spent Songkran on the islands, and had a few days in Bangkok before heading back North. I in turn had called on my American comrade, Chad from the journey to Laos, and his girlfriend, to meet us at Immortal.

John arrived shortly after me, and we quickly opened a bottle of Thai whiskey. Chad and his girlfriend arrived after the second round, and promptly added another bottle to the fray. He had brought one of his other friends along as well - Will.

Chad explained to me that Will was feeling a bit down after a fight with his girlfriend, and needed a bit of cheering up. He strongly hinted that what Will needed was a trip down to Nana, as I had vividly described the spoils that Nana offers to Chad when we were in Laos, and I quickly got the picture.

John is European so I knew he wasn't going to object, but nevertheless put the idea to the table. The idea was greeted enthusiastically, so we proceeded to finish both bottles, and ventured forth to find a taxi.

Mario, our Italian comrade from Laos, had been informed of our little get together earlier, and made a surprise appearance at the Victory Monument BTS, along with his zealous Catholic Filipino girlfriend, and her church friends.

We realised that if we revealed our plans too soon they would quickly shy away and draw our unwitting Italian comrade away from the temptations we would subject him to, so we concealed our plans. I suggested in an offhand manner that I knew of a great little Australian bar down at the end of Soi 4, and although their suspicions were aroused, they seemed to relax after I allayed their cynicism.

The entrance to Nana Plaza

As we passed the entrance to Nana plaza, Chad and I simply picked Mario up and marched inside. They had little choice but to follow. Mario was sputtering with fear, insistent that his girlfriend would murder him for this. We acted without mercy and made our way up to the second floor and into Angelwitch, carrying a distressed Italian.

For all his worries, the girls seemed to enjoy the show. Mario was however convinced that this was all an act, and he would answer for his supposed crimes later that night. He eventually wriggled free from between Chad and myself, and escaped. His girlfriend and her friends stayed for another show while he waited outside, frantically trying to avoid eye contact with the girls and Kathoeys beckoning him inside.

His party eventually collected themselves, thanked us for a great evening, and dragged our poor Italian friend off to the dog box.

My guests were still enjoying themselves though, so the night wasn't over yet. I had planned to drag them to Billboard next to see how long they would take to figure out the difference, but received a spanking on the way there. My guests seemed to enjoy it, so we entered Spanky's instead.

It wasn't long and myself, Chad and John were up on the stage dancing with the girls, noone seemed to mind. Chad and I sat down again, but John seemed mesmerized and just sat down on the stage and folded his legs, alternating his time between staring at the dancing girls around him and sipping his Singha.

The girls seemed amused by him as his facial expression was frozen the entire time. They started playing a game trying to get him to smile or frown or do something other than stare almost past them with the expression of a blind man. Occasionally, when the girls weren't looking he would look over at us and throw a big smile and attempt to give two thumbs up, almost dropping his beer on the stage.

The mama-san wasn't too impressed by this and we were asked to leave. Will was disappointed as he was busy enjoying a 'free' dance from a girl who was expecting a lady drink. Confusion ensued, so I quickly ordered and paid for a one before words were exchanged and we left.

Will, Chad and the girl thanked us for a great evening, but they had work in the morning and it was way past their bedtime. I had no commitments on Monday and John was on holiday, so there was no way we were going to bed now. We decided to go to Wong's, Bangkok's favourite little dive.

We started to walk in the direction of the BTS out of instinct, not realising it would be closed already, talking and laughing without a care in the world. As we walked past one of Sukhumvit's many mobile beer bars John suggested we make a pit stop, so we did.

There are many little bars like this along Sukhumvit

We sat down and were immediately served by a rather stunning post-op Kathoey. John doesn't seem to have a very good eye for these kinds of things though, and seemed a bit oblivious to this. It wasn't long though before John got bored with the conversation. She and I had hit it off, and he got up to see if he could strike up a similar spark with one of the other "girls".

I had no interest in doing anything other than talking, but this girl had other plans, and asked if she could come with us. I responded by explaining I don't do bar fines, and she said no problem, she just wanted company.

The three of us took a taxi to John's hotel. He had offered that I could stay there earlier, and he didn't mind that I was bringing a friend. We received a few funny looks walking into the hotel, as one always does, but we ignored it and took the elevator up.

Once inside the apartment John poured us some whiskey's, and my new friend leant over and started to kiss me. My hands slid up the inside of her thighs, feeling warmth... I took a sip of my whiskey.

The next thing I knew John was naked behind her, and before I knew what had happened the two of them were on top of each other in bed.

I watched them for awhile and then retrieved my cigarettes and whiskey, opened the sliding door and stepped out on the balcony. I gave one last look back at them and slid the door closed, drowning out their noise with the early morning traffic of Sukhumvit.

Bangkok waking up...

Across the way I could see another red eyed foreigner, drink in hand, having a late night smoke. I wondered to myself what he had done that night, and what he had seen. I wondered if he too was visiting his homophobic friend from Europe - blissfully unaware behind him - closed off by a glass pane and the sound of the morning traffic, staring at the sea of activity in the streets below as the lights of the city faded and the sun rose, and I felt an odd kind of kinship with him.

To Laos and Back Again Pt. 1

I left Bangkok at 21h30 Wednesday night.

I was seated next to a cute Thai speaking Chinese girl. My Thai isn't good enough for a prolonged conversation and I can barely count in Mandarin anymore, so it was a rather quiet trip.

We arrived in Laos early in the morning and headed straight to the embassy. After some paperwork, we moved on towards the hotel.

After brunch, a shower and a short nap, I joined in a prolonged game of basketball in the heat of Laos. I though at first that the heat would finish me off rather quickly, but I got used to it rather quickly and found it rather enjoyable.

By now it was almost 3pm, so I headed back for another (desperately needed) shower.

A troupe of four was formed, consisting of myself, Chad the American, Mario the Italian, and Manuel the Fillipino.

We piled into the free van from the hotel into downtown Vientiane.

First stop was the midtown market, and we were quite surprised to find that everything was priced at about half of what it would cost in Thailand.

I can only stand so much market trawling though, so I rallied the troops and we decided that now is the time for beerlao, and settled into the first little place sporting the yellow banner indicating the availability of beerlao.

Beerlao is a very light but refreshing lager, brewed from the finest international malts and loas-cally produced rice.

The sun was setting slowly on the four of us, enjoying that fresh beerlao for the first time, and gearing up for a long night in Vientiane.
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