Monkey Mayham

Yah.... I have loved monkeys all my life... i have gone so far as to write songs about their brilliance in my mind..."Monkey Town" anyone??? Yes, finally seen scores of monkeys everywhere in South East Asia after my disappointment in Australia was one of the highlights of my trip.... but then came the monkey from hell....

I was walking around a temple on the top of a mountain along the eastern coast of Thailand when i was beset by a monkey. That is correct folks... I was bitten by a monkey...3 times... What followed was rather crazy... I talked to some monks at the top of the mountain whose advice was simply "No" and a point towards the man monkey... ahh, ok, thanks, now i know that that monkey is mean for sure... check... i then went to the tourist information center in town and pointed to the bite and asked if there was anything special i needed to do about it... they called in like 5 experts, they consulted for a while and then determined that I needed to go to the hospital... So, 2 of them drove me out to the hospital, where i got 2 more people following me around which made the total 4 at that point.... i went to another room and got 2 nurses around me... they smeared some stuff on my bits and were then like "ok, we give you shot now, ok?" not ok.... i was not about to gt a shot i knew nothing about in the "mass casualty room" yah, that is what the room was called in English... translation difficulties, lets hope so.... so i went back to a computer, phoned home, and after a hour of consulting with no fewer than 6 medical experts, it was determined that i could get the shot for rabies in Thailand so long as it looked all hunky dory.... i went back into the hospital... walked straight into the Mass Casualty Room, got the "hello big white man what you need?" face from a nurse... had a nice Young English speaking Doctor come talk to me an give me my injection... the total cost ... $1.50 to talk to the Doctor and another $12 for the shot.... nice and cheap....then i went to the nearest 7eleven, snagged some Listerine and a toothbrush... scrubbed the hell out of my bites... and that was that... oh yah, i am talking some of the meds i brought with me from the states to prevent any infection and i have to get another injection in Bangkok, but other than that life is sweet....
stupid monkey!!!!

My Time with the Steve Zissou Foundation

Due to events which i will soon describe, this post will not be neat or elegant, but short and to the point giving only a bit of an update....
Well, it certainly has been a surreal...surreal, but nice, few days... I am now certified as a SSI Scuba Diver...woot!!! I past the test!!! it was four days of "studying" which really meant watching about 3 hours of videos, listening to 2 hours of talking, and about 1 hour of filling in worksheets... the rest was just diving to my hearts content... i got down to 20 meters, or about 62-64 feet underwater... it was like a whole other universe down there... the best part is getting to the point where you forget that you are SCUBA diving and are just "there" as a member of that world.... so cool, so many fish... freaking great... yah, so i have spent the past week on tropical island paradise, diving and carousing with my classmates... yet i by it at a great cost.... apparently dry bags in Thailand are actually just hunks of crap... so yah, my iphone got totally wet, and now doesn't work worth shit, as in wont turn on... apparently it is not to bad of a fix, and i can get it fixed in the states for like bucks at a place in SF... or i am also sure that i could get it done here in Bangkok, but i kinda don't feel like handing it over to some dude in Bangkok, so yah, i am going to wait until i get back, it is only a week away... but that means that i now have to pay for Internet and blog writing time... so yah, you wont get much anymore, but i will tell u all about Bangkok and such when i get back... i am pretty sure you will all be OK without reading about every little thing that i do here.... this whole blog thing is a little creepy anyways... very self importizing (i don't think that that is even a word)... but meh...

i am leaving the south and heading back up the coast toward Bangkok where i fly out in a week... i can believe that i have been gone for 2 months already and that i will soon be back to life as i used to know it... sad to leave, but i am getting to the point where i am starting to miss the little things about my California life and not just the most important things... like my doggy... and then the rest of my family and friends... but i really miss my dog!
See everyone back on the West Coast soon, and to everyone else reading this beasty, i will be back in normal contacting patterns again in like a week... so if you can't hold on... hold on!

972km and a 1000m dash

By fery, moto, bus, train, shuttle, catamaran, three-wheel cab, pickup, and foot I have traveled in the last 48 hours... From the small islands near the Thai-Cambodian boarder, I left the fishing grounds by decrepit boat to the island of ko chang, from there I travel by moto through the treacherous mountain paths to immerge from the jungle at the ferry landing... By ferry I came to a tiny port village where I continued through the night by moto, braving both the dark and suicide bugs, to come upon the city of Trat.  In Trat, across the endless lanes of traffic and mozzy infested feces swap I trudged on foot to government bus station, by bus (which I can't really complain about, it was quite nice, oh, but they did tell me I had 20minutes to get food, so I ordered and not 3 minutes later I was getting screamed at in Thai to get my white butt back on the bus, so there) I say, by bus which starves the very hearts of men I came to the Bangkok airport bus station, from there I caught a immeasurably cramped shuttle bus to the airport, through the churning throngs I made my way through the airport to yet another bus, whose driver was a drunkard from the very bowels of the earth... Not only was he drinking scotch as he drove, he committed the ultimate crime bagicide... That is right, he tried to kill my bag...  At some point, I looked back down the bus to the luggage rack to find that my bag was no longer there!  I, thinking that someone had taken it by accident, yell at the driver to stop the bus, to go back, yet he does nothing... So I get up and beat upon the doors until my wrath crumbled his hellish will, for no demon of the dark realm can withstand the noble heart when it is awoken to righteous fury... Out of the doors I spang into the concrete jungle of Bangkok wreathed in a mist made of smog and gasses escaping from putrid flesh and I ran... Flat out for what I aproximate was 1000m I spirinted taking no heed for the safety of those I passed, leaving them to find their own way through the storm I surely left in my wake, until, at last I came upon my quarry, the group of lost looking whities milling around the last place the bus stopped... There I found out the true nature of the bus driver, it was he who had put the bag off of the bus, he who had done me this wrong completely, it was then I realized that this was no mere demon of the dark, loe, it was Lokey come upon us, and fortunate do now I count myself to have escaped his webs so lightly... Once I had gathered myself and my just belongings, I again set forth toward the train station, this time by three-wheeled taxi... At the train station, I climbed into the last remaining bench to spend the next scheduled 9 which actually means 11hours try to imagine that I was in some far away place, where hawkers of smelly meats were only a distant nightmare, and the closest you ever had to sit to another human was farther than one edge of the universe to the other including a constant expansion... After the train, I crawled into the back of a pickup to be transported like a sack of fertilizer to yet another port, where I got on yet another boat, this time in the form of a catamaran, to sail the sundering sea to the island of ko toa... From the docks I went, by my most trusted of forms of transport, my feet, to a nice little shack on the beach, where I proceeded to lay myself down, for a long, long sleep.

To be fair, at about hour 8 on the train, I did go snag a beer and sit on the steps looking out into the night rockin to some led zepplin, so yah, that bit was bitching... But the rest sucked.

To bail or not to bail

After what I have already described as the easiest boarder crossing ever, I caught a mini van into the next big city of trat... Walked about a mile or so from the bus stop into the city. Wandered around aimlessly until I found a place that would rent me a mtor bike... Great deal 5 bucks a day rather the ten here on the island of ko chang... Rode my moto another 12 miles to the ocean where the port and ferries are... The price of a moto taxi from the city to here is more than my moto... Hehehe really proud of myself... Then hopped on the ferry for an hour to the island of ko chang... Again really proud of my moto ideal because I then rode all around the island looking for a place to stay, which would have cost me a good deal in taxi, even if I had just gone from the ferry landing to the nearest moto rental... I am so pleased with my efforts, I went into like 5 different places before I could find someone who understood English and anther 6 to actually get the moto, all the while I am hot and tired of the pack on my back.... But oh how smart I feel now having gotten my wheels off island and bringing them here...   So here I am, laying in a hammock listening to jazz music... Anywho... This place if freaking beautiful... I am not kidding it kinda puts the Hawaiian islands to shame.... Because here u get a good sized island (still way smaller than kawaii, but big enough to explore) but then there are these little buggers just sticking ip all o erthe place along the coast.... That and it is so far less developed and rugged, there are still nice resort type places, but it just feels a little less hectic.... If only there were waves here I could surf.... But still the island is amzaing, I spend a great deal of time just cruzin around on the amazing roads... Basically the steepest things I have every been on with crazy turns and such... This it turns out, would be my downfall, I dumped my moto at one point do avoid actual disaster, only to afterward realize that that meant dumping my camera... Yah, bad news bears... Thankfully my camera body... The really expensive part, is just fine, the lens on the other hand, came
Flying off at the impact... I broke the little plastic sun hood 15 bucks no bigy, but I also broke three of the mounts of the lens... The little plastic do dads which hold the lens to the camera... I think I can replace this when I get back to the states for not to much, but for now, I have to be really careful with the stupid thing... I squeeze the lens tight against the camera body whenever I take a picture, and when I am not shooting I tie a bandana around the whole thing to keep the lens from falling of... Am I pissed... Oh yah... Will I give up moto driving... Hell no... Anyways, I sleep in a hut under a mozy net for 5 bucks a night, i go down to the nice place down the road to lay I there hammocks and listen to BB King and John Coltrain... And the food is still cheap as hell... Heheh... I wonder if they know I am not actually a guest... Tomorrow I am going deep sea fishing for like $30... Kinda a splurge, but inalso found the cheapest place on the island to sleep, so I am going to treat myself... But that means I have to get up early... So G'night!

Out of Cambodia and into paradise....

Well I left Cambodia, a little later than I had planned on... The problem was getting a visa... So I get 15 days on a land crossing... Not enough time... I would get 30 days if a flew, but being here has turned me ubercheapskate.... So I tried to get a visa from the Thai embassy... Refusing to go through the proper channels (in this case the guard outside who if I gave him 20 bucks and my passport would get me q visa in a day) I stupidly tried to do it myself believing ignorantly that legitimacy was the right way of doing things... Wrong... It took me three days just to figure out the rules of getting in the embassy door.. And once I did, do to "holidays" and other such things, my visa would not be ready until... u guessed it... 15 days before I flew out of Bangkok back home... Sooo I decided to silly cross by land, get a 15 day visa and the. Pay the overstay fine at the airport when I left... Yet, since the fine is per day, I decided to head down to the south of Cambodia for a few to lessen my overall fine... So I went south to Sihonoukville, which was a very strange place indeed, water like a warm bath 80-90 degrees... For Real... It was a really nice beach with wooden huts along the length of it for around a mile... But I soon left heading down to the boarder town of KoKong... Which I really liked... It sits right on a river and is only about 1 mile from the ocean... So the port is a rather large influence on the town... This is a Cambodian port, not like the port of Oakland, we are talking about boats I wouldn't get on for fear of drowning even if it was in a dry dock... I spent a few days there enjoying the vibe of the place spnding the evenings with a few people from an NGO after I watched the sunset with the little kids fishing down at the pier... Then early one morning I crossed the river and made my way by moto to the boarder... Which was amazingly easy because I was one of the few people there that early.... 

Seeing how this ends my account of Cambodia, I feel it is an apt time to make some final impressions of the place... Ok, yes it is poor as shit, yes there is virtually no infrastructure, and yes corruption is rampant; but, despite the fact that your chances of moving up in the world are very small if you don't have cash (yes I realize the paradox here, that is the point), despite the fact that I on many occasions climbed into the back of a camary of Toyota pickup parked alongthe side of a dirt road only to have a small child placed in my lap and have some sort of bodily fluid come out of said infant all over me, despite the fact that I had to pay traffic "tickets" of q few bucks which went directly to the pockets of the nice officer... I say despite all these lovely qualities... "The Bodge," as Xpats call it,  still has it's charms... In the words one Peace Core Officer... "It was "F"ing, disgusting, I loved it!" it was a great place, many parts are beautiful, the people are extremely happy despite the fact that they have been kicked around by pretty much everybody for every, and these factors mix to create this feeling which haunts you everywhere you go, from the truly epic ruins, to the tiny villages, the relaxing shores, to the killing field where the paths are literally lined and in some places paved with the bones of murdered innocents... I would not change my time there for anything...

I'm in Thailand now as The title implies... I made it, that's all I am saying for now, more to come soon...

Mud, salt, crab, and yet more mud

So after a few days of city life in phnom penh, I figured that it was time to get out to countryside... So I hoped on a nice bus and rode down to the river town to kampot... After a bit of searching in the dark for a place to lay my head down for the night, with the help of my drug dealing moto driver, I finally came to find a nice little place off the main drag... I spent the night laying in a hammock listening to my books on tape before retiring to my mozy net covered bed.  The next morning I strode down the waterfront to a motorbike shop, hopped on, and started driving to the seaside... Thankfully it had rained the night before, so all my fears of cruzing down a dusty dirt road were for not... Instead I should have prayed for dust as opposed to the alternative, mud.  Lots and lots and lots of mud.  After about twenty miles and managing to get around as many large construction trucks such fling up copious amounts of mud, I pulled out onto a side road and realized that of the 8 choices at the roundabout said twenty miles back in town, I had chosen poorly... So back I went through a fine mud misting.   When got back to my starting location, I was pretty concerned that the heavens were about to open up because it was so damn dark outside.  I took of my sunnys to have a better look at things, and lo, I was blinded by light!... I peered down at my goggles to see that their mirror surface was nearly completely hidden under mud, as was my entire person... I had a good laugh of the sight that I made... Big bearded white man covered in mud!  (you have to realize that I haven't seen another gringo in this town yet)... After another 20 miles or so up the right road, I came upon the sea, and oh how joyous was my heart at this meeting.  I was shocked at how emotional I was at such a sight and can only attribute it to the fact that after living next to it for four years and being gone from home for a great length of time, my heart was overcome by the familiar sights, sounds, and of course smells.  I parked my moto and dove straight into the sea, clothed as I was.  Never have I felt the waters so warm in all my life.  It was like a hot bath which has been allowed to cool for half an hour or so... I scrubbed the mud from my face and clothes noticed that my stomach was rumbling and that I had not eaten a meal in 2 days (it is almost as if I simply forget to eat entirely, or that I mean to but put it off in order to do something else and then forget about it).  So I popped up the beach a ways until I hit the crab market where I sat down and had easily one of the ten best meals of my life... Flavor I cannot begin to described overwhelmed me... Crab fried with vegetables and herbs in a slightly sweet curry that tasted nothing like curry, but rather like a pleasure greater than that of Paris an Hellen their first night in Troy...  I am talking about PASSION in my MOUTH!  An now I sit here, at that restaurant, with the ocean wind in my hair, listening to the sounds of the waves lap up underneath my seat, watching little fishing boats putter up the coast... I realize now that I better not find a Cambodian girlfriend while I am here, because if I do, I might not be leaving any time soon.

The next day I woke up early before dawn to the sound of creation, or rather what I imagine it sounded like 5,000 years ago when god made everything... I say, the heavens were dropping a remarkable amount of water on my tin roof and oh how the win howled from the south and east... A tarried there in an uneasy sleep for some time until mid morning when the Storm broke rain curtain pealed away like silver glass to reveal a far green country... It was then that I decided to head up the mountainside... After a three dollar "road fee" to the nice police men, I was off up the hill into Bokor National Park.  I got about ten km before I hit "road closed for construction sign" and there was a string across the road, lowered for all save me... I blatantly tried to bribe the guys but u think their lack of English made it particularly hard... I went so far as to plop down a ten spot and push it toward the string operator and point to me going through (thats serious bribe money here, for perspective it only costs about five bucks for a hit here, and I am talking about killing a person, drug are way cheaper according to the nice drug dealer who tries to sell me stuff every time I step out my guesthouse door)... But alas I was to no avail, i found out later that since the road is being worked on by some big company, apparently if and westerner gets hurt the guys who saw him that day never see another day, that way any bad press about the accident never happens because no one is around to sing the tale... I ruv this county!... So, with the day still ahead of me and a full tank of gas in my moto, I went cruzing down to the seaside again to see about some new cruzing roads and maybe a fried crab or two... In Kep, I found a trail onto Kep National Forest... And I cruzed through through the jungle mountainside on little more than a dear trail... Needless to say it was pretty bitchin... Think of the Napali Coast Trail, add in about an extra foot or so of clearance, and you'll have a good idea... I am once again sitting at my little shack restaurant, having polished off a few more crustacean, drinking my tea, and looking forward to my ride back to my hammock and maybe a 4 dollar massage if I get to feeling really loose with my pocket book... A very great "unsuccessful" day indeed!

Purely Bitchin

Regardless of whether or not who we are is determined by factors other than our experiences (the current hold up on my philosophical quest to find reasons for a subsequently prior moral power in addition to the two identified by Rawls, which I have given a great deal of thought to in my time abroad)... I say, regardless of this question, it seems to me that we still might have defining moments which might act as a signpost along our development as individuals, moments which we might point to down the road of life as times when clarity came into our hearts as to who and what we are. For example, Writing this on the back of a speeding moto with air wiping by, Cruzing through the numerous temples which make up the Angkor Wat complex, bathed in the warm red glow of sunset, Blasting some bitchin tunes in my ears which both reminds me of my past and hints at my potential future all the while supplementing the beauty of the moment... I know for sure that despite the knowledge of suffering in the world, I am reminded of our inherent ability to experience pure, unadulterated joy... Hell yes this is a life moment.