I detest multi-human transportation.   I’m glad it exists.  It can be cheap.  But it reminds me of school which I don’t like.  There is that unmistakable institutional feel that permeates the entire experience.  I also hate the smell of airplane farts of which there would be 20+ hours of.  So it had to be a place as special as Thailand to allow me to overcome this foolishness, to get motivated to embark on such a big trip.

After flying to JFK from Boston, I boarded a behemoth 14-hour flight to Beijing.  I sat next to a gentleman from India named Sidhu.  He had spent five weeks or so visiting a daughter in New Mexico, family in Vancouver and a son in NYC.  Sidhu was 63 and had been retired for three years.  From the age of 14 and a half through 60, he was a police officer in India.  At 14 and a half, I hadn’t stopped playing with Legos yet.  India clearly has noteworthy trust in its youth.

In many movies, there has been that moment when the President of the United States is in danger and quickly gets ushered to safety.  This is how it was for me when I landed in Beijing and Air China realized I was about to miss my connecting flight to Bangkok.  I was aggressively ushered with shouts and important hand movements through multiple checkpoints.  The irony was that my connecting flight was delayed three hours due to mechanical nonsense.

I finally got to Bangkok at 3:30 AM and took a taxi to my hotel, Lamphu Treehouse.  The lobby was open with dark wood everywhere.  I started to notice that in a climate like this, it was hard to see where outside ended and inside began. It was a quiet, tucked away place right on a canal.  After five hours of sleep, I was arrested by a fine American breakfast buffet.  Thai food may be the tops in the PM, but in the AM, my body and soul desire American food styles.

In the six hours since I arrived to my hotel, Bangkok transformed into a complete traffic-choked nuthouse.  You couldn’t walk ten feet without passing a food vendor or being attacked by a shifty character trying to sell you something or swindle you in some way.  Later that night, a tuk tuk driver tried to gain my business by simply saying “Happy Ending”.  If I was offered a happy beginning, perhaps I would have considered.  Never before had the color of my skin betrayed me so.  I instantly became a lightning rod for all sorts of unwanted transactions.

Almost instantly, I started to enjoy the Thai’s questionable but enjoyable use of the English language.  An entertaining example of this was a yellow sports car with the words “Top Secret” dangerously written on the side.  It must be a challenge to remain so top secret with the words “Top Secret” written in big letters on the side of your car.

I headed south through the famous, crowded Amulet Market but as my amulet needs were practically nil, I moved on.  The only time I’ve ever used an amulet was in a video game.  I was about to enter the big temple known as Wat Phra Kaew when a security officer advised me to return later when the crowds had died down so he waved down a tuk tuk driver for me and told the driver to take me to a few notable sights.

I should probably tell you what a tuk tuk is.  More than a gas powered vehicle, it is potentially the most fun way to get around a city.  It’s about four and a half feet wide and eight feet long.  It has two wheels in the back and one up front that is steered with handlebars.  They have a distinct sound and smell and they look like something you would find in a children’s ride in an amusement park.

My driver was a short, smiling man of 60 years.  His tuk tuk looked older than I was.  I soon found out it was actually the same age as I am (40…gross).  I looked at all the holes, dings and overall lack of luster that this tuk tuk had and I suddenly felt old.

My driver was a force to be reckoned with.  What amazed me most is how comfortable everyone was with everyone else’s absolute lawless driving.  He showed no remorse as he drove on the wrong side of the road after sitting in traffic for a few moments (an all too common practice as I would continue to see).  He abused bike lanes often.  He zigged zagged.  He cut people off.  It was all too glorious and I loved it.

He took me to Buddhist temples.  The temples were beyond description.  They were ornate to the point it looked like some impossible computer graphic or a prism of colors not done by man but by some powerful force of physics.  Every temple was ornate inside and out.  Upon entering, you were required to remove your shoes which created the perfect scenario for a shoe thief.

The only thing that rivalled the beauty of the temples was the suit I had made for me at B.B. Fashion, a shop that my tuk tuk driver took me to.  I chose a luscious burgundy-colored Thai silk for the suit and black silk for the shirt.  The employee, Alex, tried to sell me the store but I was able to resist.  I was measured at 2:00PM on a Thursday and the suit and shirt were ready by 10:00AM the next day.  Someone was certainly exploited in this process but I still felt joy in this piece of custom clothing that would make its way to stage on the body of Barry Tattle.

The morning my suit was to be ready, I called Alex to see how it looked.  He professionally replied “very sexy”.  Alex was shady and it made me happy.

After eating and sharing a beer with my driver and seeing a gigantic reclining Buddha in Wat Pho, I bid farewell to my excellent driver.

The next day I tried my suit on and the fit was alarmingly perfect.  It was tight in the way Barry Tattle’s suits yearn to be tight.  The final price for the suit, the shirt and shipping was $310.  Absurd.   I left B.B. Fashion and headed to Suvarnabhumi Airport where I would meet Green.  As it turns out, Green is much more than a color.  She is also a dear Thai lady.  I met her through a Thai nanny in Boston that I met during a job.  Green and I had emailed a lot before we dramatically met in front of an airport Starbucks.

The two of us boarded her Toyota Corolla that had some fine custom trimmings added to it around the door handles and gas cap.  Around the door handles read the words “Be your own star”.  So basically this Toyota Corolla was like a loving grandmother that built your confidence by dropping positive anecdotes on you.

Our ultimate mission, our ultimate desire was to visit Thailand’s finest jungle, Khao Yai.  But first, we would spend the night at a small house she owned in Prachinburi.  On the way to her house, we stopped at a well-known temple covered in white marble.  Watching Green I realized how superstitious and spiritual the Thai Buddhists were.  Green bought a few things to leave in front of Buddha as offerings.  After kneeling in front of Buddha and praying, she grabbed a cylinder filled with numbered sticks.  She shook the cylinder until a stick fell out.  She looked at the number on the stick and walked over to a space on a wall that had various fortunes with numbers that corresponded to the numbers on the sticks.  But not all the fortunes were good.  Green told me that you could tell which fortunes were bad since they were the ones that still had a large quantity still hanging on the wall.  If someone had shaken out the stick of a bad fortune, they would often leave it on the wall.

We drove on to her house which was located about 30 minutes from the jungle.  Living in her house were a couple people she used to work with when she lived in Prachinburi: Ohm and Ainst.  She had since switched jobs and moved to Bangkok which is why she rented her place to Ohm and Ainst.  The four of us crushed lots of food we cooked ourselves at a restaurant that put a bucket of flames underneath a grill device that cooked meat and heated a stew in a surrounding moat.

After eating, Green and I explored the wonders of karaoke.  In America, most women would not karaoke with you unless they were your mother, girlfriend of ten years or dying.  Green made her way through so many Thai pop tunes that delight was all that was left in me.  I returned fire with some Sinatra, Joe Cocker, Elton John and “You’ve Lost That Love and Feeling”.  By the end of our karaoke sojourn, it felt like we had taken a bath together…there were no more secrets between us.  This is the power of karaoke that no one talks about.  It exposes and shames you like your first day at Shawshank Prison.

The next morning we headed towards Khao Yai.  Everywhere we drove, the driving somehow got scarier.  My favorite remains how people drive a small motorbike or scooter in the breakdown lane as small motorbikes or scooters drive the opposite direction in that same breakdown lane.

“Is this allowed?” I asked.

“No.” Green told me.

Lawless.

What looked like a shack and a patio hiding behind some bushes turned out to be a shockingly cheap and amazing Vietnamese restaurant.  We had not had breakfast so we decided a spicy Vietnamese meal was the best way to start the day (and it was).  From there we visited the great jungle.  A jungle is not as interesting as great food or terrible driving so I won’t go into wonderful detail about it.  There were waterfalls and monkeys and people there.

 

In the park was a Buddhist shrine dedicated to a man that was instrumental in making the roads through Khao Yai National Park.  Here I tried my luck with the can of numbered sticks and managed to get a very good fortune that more or less said:  I will be lucky with everything I wish for.  If I am sick, I will get well.  I will find my soul mate.  I will become friends with my enemies.  If I lose something, I will get it back.

On our way back to Bangkok, we stopped at a strange steak house.  If you ignored the Thai employees and clientele, you would have thought you were in a hokey, middle American restaurant.  There were wholesome red plaid curtains and wooden booths to sit in.  Afterwards, Green dropped me in Bangkok where I checked into Korbua House on the same canal as my last hotel but a few hundred yards away.

The following day I met up with a close friend of my Boston comedy friend, Bethany.  Nong was born in Thailand, moved to the states in her early teens and moved back to Bangkok only a month ago.  Most of her family lives in Bangkok but Bangkok also happens to be a good place to embark on her clothing design business.

I will not tell you Nong’s age but once I discovered it, I could not believe it.  She was fit and lovely (if I ever start a lady gym chain or a yogurt company, it will be called “Fit and Lovely”).  I told her she must be some sort of immortal “Highlander” or “Thailander”.  With her compact, athletic figure, the flashes of red that ran through her hair and the choice eyeliner work around her eyes, she had the appearances of a dangerous and desirable character in the movie Highlander.

In addition to visiting Bangkok’s biggest temple, Wat Phra Kaew (with all the suit measuring and beer drinking, I never made it there the other day), Nong wanted to also visit a temple that was known for bringing fortune to those starting a business (among other things).  She bought some offerings, placed them in front of a shrine, kneeled down with her feet pointing away from Buddha (it is extremely disrespectful to point your feet at Buddha or anyone else), and silently prayed.  This was the second time in a couple days that I got to watch a lovely Thai lady pray and I had no objection to it.

While Nong was occupied in prayer, I walked over to a small stage where three Thai ladies, dressed in some sort of traditional, royal looking garb engaged in a very loud comedy that was accompanied by music.  It proved to be an odd pairing with the nearby holiness but Buddhism rolls in a different style.  I could not imagine a stage on the grounds of a church with some person telling jokes within earshot of praying people.

The two of us then took in the over-the-top wonders of Wat Phra Kaew.  The craftsmanship and attention to detail were other worldly.  It made me understand why some people think aliens are responsible for certain human creations.  It also struck me how “bling” Buddhism could be and perhaps offered an explanation as to why many Thai cars and tuk tuks were sometimes amusement-park colorful.  The key attraction of the temple is the Emerald Buddha.  Although not very big, it is very old and considered to be one of the most important Buddha statues in Thailand.

 

As special as it was, I had a hard time keeping my eye off one of the temple employees that had four inches of hair growing out of a mole on his right cheek.  Perhaps there is a reason for its profound presence.  It’s funny because this man’s job was to coax people to leave the main temple area so others could come in.  Perhaps this mole pony tail helped scare people out.

After leaving the temple, we enjoyed some ice cold coconut water.  This had become a favorite of mine.  They hacked open the top of a young coconut with a large knife and put a straw in it.  When you’re done, you can scoop out some coconut with a spoon.

Nong and I walked over to a market area where we purchased colorful bread shaped like a lotus.  Stuck into the bread were a candle and two sticks of incense.  The purpose of this was to give thanks to the river by lighting the candle and incense and putting it into the river.  This was part of the Loi Krathong festival, something Nong had strongly wished to take part in.  After we set our lotus bread boats loose in the water, we hopped on a very crowded boat and headed down the river to a sky train station.  Our object was to avoid the festival crowds that were starting to swell along the river so we headed east, away from the river, to a trendy area known as Siam Square for dinner.  Then we moved further east into Sukhumvit.  Here we had drinks at a sleek bar that had upside down Barbie Dolls hanging from a ceiling.  All of the Barbies were connected by string to various gears that moved them up and down at different times.  It was unsettling.

The next bar we visited was Iron Fairies.  What a fantastic place this was!  Imagine a 30-foot wide by 30-foot deep by 40-foot tall box filled with various wooden landings that were all connected by wooden staircases.  The place seemed to be lit only by candles.  It felt like a deep, romantic place out of a fairy tale.

Shortly after we sat, a jazz quartet started to play.  They were fronted by a desirable Thai lady singer.  She spoke in what I could only call “Jazzy English” but with a thick Thai accent.  Once she started to sing, her accent vanished.  As I sat there, I noticed a few couples composed of white men with younger Thai ladies.  I know that in Thailand it can be common to hang out with a Thai woman in a PG manner.  If you want your manner to be rated R or S (for Scandal), that is also possible.  At least one of the couples looked to be something more.  This something more was probably a more permanent solution.  Green had told me that many foreign men would travel an hour or so from Bangkok to the coastal city of Pattaya to collect what might become a long term girlfriend or wife.   Many of these women were poor and this arrangement provided them a way out.

The following day I saw what looked to be several cases of this walking around Phuket airport, the main landing point for the southern beaches and islands.  I guess that’s what you do after you pick your lady up at the lady shop; you first try her out in a paradisiacal environment.   It made me sad.  Hopefully some of these relationships become genuinely romantic.  But from what I saw, they had a dark futuristic tone to them, like something you would see in a science fiction movie where society has become something you can relate to but something you hope we avoid, something you’re glad was only in a movie.

Nong then brought up such a funny and accurate point.

“Maybe everyone here thinks the same about us, that you hired me.”

I returned fire. “No, they probably think YOU hired ME.”

The two of us said our goodbyes and I enjoyed my final Bangkok tuk tuk ride back to my hotel.

The following day I flew down to Phuket and then ferried my way to one of the less trafficked islands known as Koh Yao Yai.  On the ferry ride, I met a man named Daeng.  He worked at a hotel on the island.  When I mentioned I was from Boston, he told me that he was in Falmouth, MA the previous year to deliver his boss’ cremated remains to a church that contained his father’s remains.  I’ve heard of bosses asking for a cup of coffee or to pick up some dry cleaning but this was something entirely new.

At the pier, I was picked up by Dam, the owner of my hotel for the next three nights, the Thiwson Beach Resort.  I was shown to a very proper, charming wood bungalow.  Everything here was friendly and relaxing and right on the beach.  One of the employees showed me to my room.  He attempted to instruct me in locking my door but could not as the key was bent.  To comfort me, he said, “No need key…safe here…no mafia.”  I didn’t have it in me to tell him that although I was no longer worried about the mafia breaking and entering into a bungalow on a remote Thai island, I would still like to be able to lock my door.

The next day I rented a scooter and scooted my way south.  The island was inhabited primarily by Muslim fisherfolk that seemed quite friendly.  Dam had told me there was a gas station one kilometer.  From the hotel, I drove right by what I thought was a juice station but turned out to be a gas station.  It was a tiny little shack that had one-liter bottles of gas lined up on a shelf.

As I drove on, it was nice to take in the simplicity of this place.  Basic structures on the roadside served as tiny restaurants and shops.  Everywhere I went, there seemed to be a smile waiting for me.  It wasn’t until I reached Thailand that I realized how much my smiling muscles atrophied in Boston.  Children especially were amused by my appearance.  To them I must have seemed to be some foreign, lightning-white wonder.  At one point, I drove by a school in a remote area and all the children ran to the edge of the schoolyard and started screaming and laughing.  On the way back, the procedure repeated itself.

I managed to find a few nice beaches.  One was much removed and of decent size.  Besides a couple locals, I had it to myself.  Now that I think of it, I also shared the beach with a lot of trash.  This was a shame because without it, the beach was better than a best friend.

The following morning I boarded a longtail boat right on the hotel’s shoreline.  The plan was to visit several of the small islands just east of Koh Yao Yai.  Sharing this experience were three Belgian gents named Dirk, Krist and Joris.  They were friends from university and decided a two-week sojourn to Thailand was in order.

The islands are part of Ao Phang-Nga Marine National Park and provide an abundance of karst scenery – think dramatic cliffs against the ocean, the likes of which you see in “The Man With The Golden Gun”.  We stopped at many pretty little beaches and did some mediocre snorkeling or as Joris pronounced it, “snuggling”.

 

 

Although the beaches were also full of many other fellow foreigners, we did enjoy the tour.  There also seemed to be many Russian tourists which spurred on a funny observation the Belgians had made during their visit to the Similan Islands.  The phenomenon they enjoyed was that of Russian men taking pictures of their girlfriends in the most ridiculous poses on the beach.  Dirk showed me a couple rich examples on his camera.  There was a lady laying in the sand, on her back side with her arms stretched out wide as if she was expecting a hug from the sun.  The only parts of her back side that that touched the sand were her toes, butt and shoulders.  She must have looked like the letter “M” from the side.

 

On one of the islands, I walked along a path that became the evacuation route during the tsunami nine years previously.  I saw the wreckage of a couple smaller boats deep in the woods.  It was almost impossible to imagine how they could have been brought back into such deep forest and vegetation.  To my knowledge no one was killed on this tiny island during the tsunami but they did have to be rescued.  What a horrific, certain-death feeling these and the other victims must have felt.  If I ever survived a tsunami, I would probably wear a jetpack for the rest of my life.

The next morning was all about rain so I sat around and wrote.  Since I checked out of my room, I had to use the common area toilet when business needed to be executed.  Normally I don’t need to discuss movements with people but this experience allowed for my first skirmish with a Thai toilet.  For those that don’t know, it’s basically a hole in the ground that one is supposed to stand above and mimic the position of a baseball catcher (except there is no catching; only “throwing”).  Even though the stall area was roomy, they felt it necessary to place this thing snug in a corner so it felt like trying to crap an 8-ball into the corner pocket.  Fortunately, I’m a pool shark so it all worked out.

Afterwards, Dam drove a few of us to the pier in the back of a pickup truck taxi.  We boarded a ferry to Ao Nang.  I introduced myself to a couple I shared the taxi and ferry with: Ineke from Holland and Simon from Belgium.  Simon’s name was fortunate since he looked like a sharper, more handsome version of Simon Pegg.  He expressed his regret at booking their trip through an agency.  He felt a complete lack of control, especially when transferring from one place to another.  I reflected on my relatively smooth experiences thus far but that was about to change.

They both had an admirable handle of the English language which seems par for the course for any European traveler I meet.  English seems to dominate the world.  It is truly the Lord of The Rings “Common speech”.  If two people from two different countries that have different languages converse, it will almost always be in English.  Even in Asia, this was the case.  It amused me how a Chinese person would use English, the language of some far away land, to communicate with someone in a nearby or bordering country.

From my understanding, once reaching Ao Nang, I was supposed to get on a longtail boat that took me to Railay, my next stop.  Although Railay is on the mainland, one can only reach it by boat.  After reaching a harbor near Ao Nang, I was told a taxi would take me to Ao Nang center where a longtail boat would take me to Railay.  When I asked around where this taxi was, no one seemed to know so I approached an amiable British fellow who sported a fine northern accent and asked him for advice.  He told me to walk down the beach for about a mile to a restaurant known as “Wang Sai”, buy a longtail boat ticket and wait until eight or more people showed up.  I was told a longtail captain would not travel with fewer than nine passengers unless you were willing to hire the boat out yourself for $50.

I bought my 100-baht or roughly three-dollar ticket and waited for an hour.  No one else showed up.  I asked the ticket vendor if there was another way to get to Railay so she refunded my ticket and told me to walk ten minutes down the road to another point where longtail boats departed.  I walked down the road only to find the boats were no longer running so I angrily walked back to Wang Sai bought my ticket back (which mysteriously increased to 150 baht) and enjoyed the fine fortune of twelve people showing up to take what was the last boat of the day to Railay.

As we walked towards the water, we realized that our boat was about 100 yards offshore and that we had to walk into the water with our luggage above our heads.  Among the passengers were two Japanese ladies with heavy suitcases.  They were on their way to a wedding in Railay.  One of them desperately dragged her suitcase through the sand that was wet from the ocean and the rain that was falling.  I took the suitcase from her, lifted it above my head and walked like a third-world market gypsy into the water.  By the time I reached the boat, small waves were compromising my balance.  It was dark and the water was now above my waist.  After handing the heavy case to someone on the boat, I scrambled up a slippery ladder, feeling as though I would tip the boat over as I climbed.  Fifteen minutes later, we reached Railay West and experienced the reverse boarding process but in more shallow waters.

After helping my two new and very grateful Japanese lady friends with their bags, we walked ashore to a very wet, drizzly Railay.  The first thing I noticed was that this place was engineered with only temporary pleasure in mind.  There were no cars or streets and seemed to be no real homes or schools.  There was only a walkway that lead through bars, restaurants and hotels that were all next to each other, competing for your financial love.  The vibe of the place was compared to one of reggae in my guide book which was true for a large part.

This relaxed vibe was also shared by the fella on duty, An, at the front desk of Railay Garden View Resort, my hotel for two nights.  An casually strolled up to the front desk with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.  It’s odd they called it “Garden View” because most of the bungalows have a legitimate sea view.  All the bungalows were situated on different levels so nothing, save a few trees, obstructed the view.

The next morning, with light, I could now appreciate the impressive scenery of Railay.  There were partially vegetated cliffs that stood close to 100 meters tall.  These cliffs acted as bouncers, keeping the douchebags out of (or perhaps in) this club known as Railay.  They would not allow anyone in or out unless by boat.

On the way back from breakfast, I met who would become my new friend for a day or so.  His name was Son and he was about six or seven years old.  I assume he was a child of one of the employees.  He came over to me while I navigated my iPhone.  I showed him a picture of the War Doll.  He responded with great pleasure, so much so that a young Japanese lady and her mother also came over to take a look.  They were genuinely pleased to witness the true power of the West.

After a few hours of sea kayaking and viewing a cave, I returned to my bungalow.  Before ascending the stairs to Railay Garden View, I saw Son rolling some old bicycle tires down the concrete walkway along the small beach.  He was shirtless and very wet from a recent swim.  American parents would never allow their young child to play among strangers, so far out of view, much less swim in the ocean.  But if Son makes it to adulthood, he’ll be stronger for it.

My father once told me how he too had a very long leash as a six-year old growing up in the Bronx.  He would often walk, by himself, to the western edge of the Bronx.  This by itself is noteworthy but what made it spectacular was that to reach his destination, he had to cross some very busy train tracks in a train yard.  And not just one set of tracks either…he had to cross over at least four tracks that constantly had trains travelling on them!  And if that isn’t maniacal enough, he had to avoid the lethal “third rail” that contained enough voltage to kill a mountain.  This is more natural and outlandish than a storm!

“Watch out for the third rail,” his parents might politely say as he left the apartment.

“Chris!” my father would say, “It’s amazing I’m alive!  But this is how it was.  This proves I was meant to be here today.”

Perhaps Son will someday be bald with white hair, a powerful creature passing on powerful tales of his past to a younger, softer generation.

Son had a big smile on his face which made me happy since he didn’t appear to have any friends his age in sight.  And I also got the feeling he didn’t go to school.  His life seemed to be using his imagination to create an interesting world.  As I sat out on my front porch, doing a combination of writing and staring out at the sea, he walked up the stairs to my bungalow and confidently took a seat next to me.  He never spoke but he always had a pure smile on his face.  I entertained him with some simple gags, one of which makes it appear that the tip of your index finger has separated from your finger.  This evolved into guessing which hand behind our back contained a hidden object.  His mother called him and he was off.

Before hanging out with me, he walked up to the two young German ladies in the adjacent bungalow.  They were relaxing on their front porch too.  Son cutely and silently stood in their presence.  I imagine Son did this a lot – walking right up to the guests without speech, without reservation like a friendly pet.  This was his education and it must have been a unique one.

As I ate my tasty American breakfast, a blonde woman with a face full of professional features asked to share the table with me.  Ingrid was her name and she was a flight attendant for Lufthansa.  She lived in Limburg, Germany and was on a two-week holiday. As it always seems to do when you meet people while travelling, the conversation lead to stories of other travels, both completed and ones filed under “Dreams”.  Everything about her made me think she was engineered to be a flight attendant: her face was very pretty (and it smiled genuinely), she had nice hair, she wanted to make those around her happy and she looked strong enough to pull my body out of a seat and throw it into a life raft.

By the time we finished our breakfast, it was just after 9:00AM and a strong wind picked up.  The rain that had been annoyingly but harmlessly tagging along like Bobby Brady for the past three days had now come back like Patti Labelle with a new attitude.  Ingrid said goodbye and made her way to Railay West where she would catch a longtail boat that would bring her a few hundred meters offshore to a ferry on its way to Koh Phi Phi.  Just like that, another pretty lady left my life.

I had to do the same procedure 30 minutes later to catch a ferry bound for my next destination, Koh Lanta, so I packed up my things and walked over to Railay West in the type of rain I thought only happened in movies.  I looked out at the water and saw a sea that had gone from “annoyed” to “visibly upset”.  When I reached the beach where my longtail boat was supposed to leave from, I was informed that all ferries were cancelled.

I walked ten soaking, wind-driven minutes back to my hotel that I just checked out of to find it was now fully booked so I decided to go back to the beach in hopes of finding some other way off this place that could only be accessed by boat or wizard’s spell.  On my way back, I bumped into Ingrid again.  Her ferry to Koh Phi Phi was also cancelled but being a seasoned traveler, she was able to smile through all of this.  I told her that I was trying to get to Koh Lanta.  After some short consideration, she decided to join me.  In that authoritative German accent, she explained that Koh Lanta was on her list of islands to visit.  That and the fact that the ferry cancellations were due to a ferry practically sinking off the coast of Koh Phi Phi made her change her course.

We both wanted to leave Railay.  It was a fine place but we both found it to be suffocating.  Even if the weather had been pristine, I would have been itching to leave this place after two days.  The place was filled with too many bros in search of a laid back beach paradise.  And because Railay is famous for its rock climbing, there were also lots of straight up bros and she-bros in search of that perfect climb.  All of this if fine but I was hoping for something a little more authentically Thai.  I was beginning to think such a thing did not exist in the south.  I guess there was much Thai authenticity in the south but it felt diluted by Russians and Europeans who approached southern Thailand in the way Americans would the Caribbean.  I never got the feeling that many of these beachgoers cared they were in Thailand.  They wanted a warm, relaxing holiday.  There is nothing wrong with this nor was this the case with all the beachgoers.  Many of them, like myself, would soon travel north in search of a more distinct cultural experience.

But the Thais have no qualms about catering to these beach hunters.  They’re quite happy capitalize on this arrangement.  The foreigners are happy because they enjoy a lovely tropical situation for little money and the locals are rewarded with a dependable business.  I wondered what the south was like 30 or 40 years ago.  It seemed to suffer the same fate that the Costa Del Sol did in southern Spain.  What was once a more charming, low key paradise had now become a bit overrun.  That said, with places like Koh Yao Yai, it seemed still possible to encounter a less worn environment in the south.

This wanting to leave pushed us to find some way to get out of this place.  Perhaps foolishly, we finally found a longtail captain that was crazy enough to brave the seas for 20 minutes.  Twenty minutes is what it would take to get eleven of us to a small pier where we could take a taxi into Krabi.  From there, we would take a minibus to Koh Lanta (via a couple brief car ferry rides).

We waded out to our boat.  How silly I have been all these years for taking for granted all those times I was able to board a boat without having to get soaked from the waist down.  Acting as a second mate was a young boy of maybe ten years.  I couldn’t believe this brave little bastard was allowed to join us on this trip.  Judging from his leathery, hobbit-like feet, he had already logged many hours at sea.  He had no life jacket on either.  But then again, none of us were given life jackets on what would soon prove to be a very life jacket-worthy journey.

As everyone struggled to board the boat with their possessions, I again appreciated that Railay is a place for the young.  There is no way that most older folks would have the patience or physical capacity needed to simply get ashore.

Next to me on the boat was Keith the Canadian.  Keith was in his 40’s and was absurdly fit.  He wasn’t large but he clearly worked out.  Even his face looked like it worked out.  Keith could have been a person used as the successful, “this-could-be-you” role in an over-40, testosterone supplement commercial.   Keith and I wondered why there was no pier in Railay or Ao Nang or so many other places.  Later that day, I found out the reason: the royal family rarely gives out permission to build a pier in Thailand.  I guess Railay won’t be building any nursing homes any time soon.

Once out in the open water, we were no longer just soaked from the waist down.  Waves crashed over so frequently that it was no longer a series of waves but one continuous watery punishment.  It was also at this time I began to relish the captain’s Olympic talent at navigating the boat through extremely rough, ever-changing waters.  He allowed the boat to shake side to side only once or twice (although front to back, the boat rocked furiously which was obviously beyond his control).  He moved the boat around the waves as if he had somehow been given a map of exactly where the waves were going to be at exactly what time.  When we reached the shore, everyone heartily clapped and cheered our protector.

It turned out that Keith was headed in the same direction so the three of us eventually got on a very cramped minibus to Koh Lanta.  Ingrid liked the sound of my hotel so she checked in to her own room there too as Keith broke off and pursued his own hotel destiny.

Although not swept away, I was growing a tad fond of this German creature.  Unfortunately, this 29-year old beauty could not stop talking about her 51-year old “love” back in Germany.  Officially, they were no longer together but in many ways they still were.  The massive thorn in the side of this romance was that Ingrid wanted children and he did not.  I told her to be careful but that ultimately, it seemed like getting burned was her only way of getting through this.

“But we’ve been together for three years.  You should hear the things he says to me!  He says he loves me!”

“Well,” I said, “A 51-year old guy is going to say whatever he has to say to keep a hot 29-year old around.”

Wow.  I hope I didn’t just say that because I was attracted to her – further proof that beautiful women cause problems.  Or maybe it’s the men that like these beautiful women that cause the problems.  It didn’t help matters that she kept using the word “love” to the point that the word was in danger of becoming a mosquito.

Ingrid’s parents were only nineteen and seventeen when they had her.  Although they divorced, the parents remained friendly.  Perhaps this older man provided her with both lover and any piece of a father figure she subconsciously felt she lacked.  Maybe she just liked guys in her 50’s.

After drinks and dinner, she wanted to walk down the beach.  Was she getting lusty with me?  I borrowed some of the finest lines from Barry Tattle.  I tried to find words inspired by this romantic setting.  I think I likened her to a flower at some point.  She smiled and laughed.  She adored my attention but replied, “You are cute.  There must be women at home that like you.”

This was indeed a polite way of telling me that her “love” still had power over her, even from six time zones away.  All I could do is look at the ocean and blame it for its inability to assist me in my sexy efforts.   God!  If only Barry Tattle were here…he would have been able to safely arrive on the shores of Lady Land.

Back at the bar, we talked at length with one of the owners, Michael.  He was 34 and from Switzerland.  His sharp mind, ability to speak several languages (including Thai), his charm, his natural attraction to people and his predator disposition made him the perfect business owner and host of the resort.  His slight vanity was tempered by intelligence and genuine humility that would surface from time to time.  He had first visited Koh Lanta in ’98 and kept coming back a month at a time until he joined forces in 2007 with the other owner, a Muslim Thai named “A”.  Like his fellow countrymen, Michael seemed to have a strong handle on finances, using words like “spread sheets” and “silent partners”.

Technically, there was an invisible line down the middle of the resort, one half belonging to Michael and the other to A.  This just wasn’t for financial reasons but also for religious ones.  Being Muslim, A did not want any alcohol or pork on his premises so all the porky drunks had to stay in the bar on Michael’s side.

Ingrid noticed a mango sitting on the bar.  She practically begged Michael to eat it.  Michael looked at A who shook his head and smiled and dutifully cut up the mango for her.  Michael looked at the mango and asked me, “What fruit are you?”

“I couldn’t really compare myself to a fruit,” I answered.

“I said the same thing,” Michael told me. “but upon reflection, I realized I’m a coconut.  It’s got a very hard exterior except for a few spots on the top and once you break through, there is a soft, watery substance without much to it.”

“But is a coconut even a fruit?” I asked.

“Well I don’t know…I’m not a scientist.  But think on this for a couple days, you’ll be able to think of a fruit you resemble.”

Weeks after this conversation, one thing happened and one thing didn’t.  The thing that happened was that I discovered that coconuts are indeed classified as fruit.  The thing that did not happen is me thinking of a fruit I resemble.  I’m tempted to write something of this fruit quiz on TripAdvisor:

“Make sure you know what fruit you most resemble before checking into this hotel.  If you really want to freak out the owner (the non-Muslim one), tell him he reminds you of a coconut.  Oh, and the beds are comfortable.”

The next day I rented a scooter.  I was going to scoot with Ingrid but she mentioned the word “shopping” so I decided it was best for me to go it alone.  I rode north and then east and then south along the coast.  Just like I saw in Koh Yao Yai, I saw gas being sold in bottles outside all kinds of shops.  But since Koh Lanta is not as Muslim as Koh Yao Yai, most of the gas was stored in used Thai whiskey bottles.  This was ironic because Thai whiskey looks and tastes like gas.

I made a stop at the charming Old Lanta Town.  As I was about to leave, I saw a Thai couple in their 60’s making fruit shakes so I ordered one consisting of coconut and mango.  I’m a big fan of a drink that requires the use of a machete which was the tool required to open up the coconut (or as I now call this fruit, the “Swiss Michael”).  The fruit shake man sat down with me and taught me some words in Thai.  He grew up in Koh Lanta and lived in the house that his father built.  This man was great.  If you took Neil Diamond’s hairstyle from the 70’s, aged it, and thinned it out by 60%, that’s what his hair looked like.  I’m not really sure what was keeping this guy from renaming himself “Neil Thaimond”.

The next day I headed south on the scooter and made it to Mo Koh Lanta National Park, located at the southernmost tip of the island.  I walked through a little jungle and then to a lighthouse.  At the base of the lighthouse, I stopped to reflect on the fact that I was at the southernmost point of my trip and now further south on this planet than I had ever been before.  I’ve never been south of the Equator and this is as close as I’ve come.  I hope I did not tease the southern hemisphere too much with such a near miss.

While I walked back to my scooter, two Russian men walked towards me, the opposite way.  Even in a Thai body, the man on the right would have seemed momentously foreign and out of place.  The way he walked and held his body was almost cartoonish; there was this sensational oblivious pride to every step.  This is why it was so delightful when, without warning, a little monkey ran up to him, ripped open the paper bag he was carrying, quickly identified a pineapple, grabbed it, darted over to a tree and climbed it as if gravity was momentarily suspended.  By the time the man realized what was happening, the monkey was already 20 feet from him.  By the time the Russian became angry, the monkey was perched on a branch about 50 feet up.  If you brought this monkey feat to a human scale, it would be as if a human grabbed a keg of beer and made it to a height of 150 feet in a tree in under fifteen seconds.   The monkey was now eating the pineapple and staring at the Russian who was shaking his fist.  Eventually the humor of the situation took over and the man (and I) started to take pictures of this wonderful little bastard in the tree.

Although out of my way, I decided to visit my favorite juice-making couple again.  I ordered the same coconut-mango brew from yesterday.  I sat down to drink and conversed with Neil Thaimond, realizing this out of the way juice run was worth it.  For whatever reason, I consciously chose to understand that I would probably never see this man again.  I typically don’t think this way.  But most of the people we encounter in life are ones that we probably see once or twice and then never again.  Because of this, I tried to enjoy this unique moment.  The man told me his name but I can’t remember it.

Upon returning to base, I decided it was time for a Thai massage.  My masseuse was in her 50’s and little but when I closed my eyes, I felt I was being slowly crushed by the Terminator or some other mechanical act of God.  There were times I feared I would break but I tried to relax and have faith in this little lady torturer.   When it was over, I must say I felt alright.

I had not seen Ingrid the night before or during the day (I actually phoned her at one point to make sure she was okay).  I was at the bar drinking a beer and reading “A Prayer For Owen Meany” when she walked over.   Ingrid told me about her adventures since seeing me last.  She got a flat tire, got it fixed and finally made it to some bungalows known as “Where Else”.  Since I met Ingrid, she incessantly kept talking about this place.  I never asked why she wanted to see it.  My brain unknowingly registered it as some repetitive item you encounter in a novel.  At first it seems unimportant but then suddenly, this little clue sheds light on some crucial feature in the novel later on.  Finally she explained.

Ten or so years ago, her “love” travelled to Thailand and stayed at “Where Else”.  He loved it so in an attempt to feel a special connection to him, she felt compelled to go there.  As she went on about this place, I noticed her small black shorts and black top.  She really looked good.  Why do women have to look so good when they’re talking about their older German boyfriends that are so far away, they may as well be fairy tale characters?

I stepped away from the bar for a moment and when I returned, Ingrid was speaking in her native tongue to a young handsome German man with a tank top and tan shoulders.  They talked so long that I started to read again.  They showed no signs of letting up so I got up, said goodbye and let them carry on.  I simply couldn’t compete.   The handsome, the young and the German are all things I could handle but the tan shoulders were simply more than I bargained for.

Today I had breakfast, said good bye to Ingrid and made my way north to Krabi.  I checked into the Orange Tree House hotel and was greeted by a wild-eyed, entertaining and friendly man in his 30’s.  He took my details and arranged my next day’s transfer to the island of Koh Phangan which is off the gulf coast side of Thailand.  When I asked his name, he said “Tiger”.  But he didn’t just say “Tiger”, he put his hands out like claws as he spoke his name.  I would have paid double for my room if I knew this was how my stay would start out.  Soon after, I met OIL.  OIL also worked at the hotel and was a friend of the same Thai nanny that introduced me to Green.  That’s right, I had now met a Green, a Tiger and now an OIL; things were getting pretty Disney around here.

I left the hotel and found myself in a town that did not inspire awe but one that was cute in its own way.  One thing I did enjoy was that there were not too many tourists.  There seemed to be regular Thai people doing regular Thai things.

In the morning, OIL was kind enough to bring me breakfast.  I returned the favor by picking up a few snacks for her and Tiger at a local market.  I was beginning to love these local markets.  I was boldly diving into them with little regard for food poisoning.  Being from half a world away, partaking in these exotic, often less than sanitary food dispensaries was like walking on the moon without a spacesuit.  The locals had long ago developed a hardy resistance to the bacteria and God knows what else found in these markets but they were all new to my foreign figure.  I was amazed that I handled it all so well.  There were a few times I felt small disturbances in my bodily force but at such time I would take some homeopathy remedies given to me by my friend’s wife.  Did this homeopathy work or was it more of a placebo effect?  I don’t know but I’ll take them again.

The van that came to pick me up looked like a run-down, dumpier version of the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo, although this van looked like it created more mysteries than it solved.  And so began what I was finding to be a typical transfer experience.  I thought, foolishly, this one van would drive me to the ferry about 100 miles away.  Instead, I was driven to one travel agency/station in Krabi where I stood around for 30 minutes.  I was then told to get on another van that stopped at a couple restaurants, travel agencies and finally to some 5^th world bus station.  The roof of this station was supported by thin logs and was made of corrugated metal that was heavily dented from all the coconuts that had fallen onto it.  There were mismatched plastic chairs scattered about the dirt floor in no specific pattern.  One of these chairs almost broke in half when a man sat in it.  A bathroom that cost about sixteen cents to use was home to putrid aromas and urinals that were somehow mistaken for ashtrays.

After 90 minutes in this glorious hole, I was ushered to a large bus that was going to take me to the opposite coast.  The wonder of it all was that after two and a half hours of short van rides and standing around, I was no more than five miles from the Orange Tree House hotel, my original point of departure.  If someone had simply told me I had to be at this bus “station” to catch a bus at a certain time, I would have taken a taxi from my hotel and avoided over two hours of thumb-sucking nonsense.

Once the bus got going, I realized the air conditioning system somehow caused me to sweat more than if there was no air conditioning.  At one point, the bus pulled over to the side of the highway in the breakdown lane where two vans appeared to be waiting.  One of the van drivers came aboard and called out for people going to Surat Thani.  About 20 people got up and left.  After this professional exchange, the bus pulled out into the highway, only to pull back over three minutes later.  Another van driver got on to our bus.

“Anyone else go to Surat Thani?” he asked.

We all looked around but no one moved.  The man asked again but no one moved.  He counted us, shrugged and left.  The bus pulled back out onto the highway and drove to the pier where we barely made our ferry.

On the boat, I sat down in the seating area located in the lower deck and tried to relax.  To my right, along the windows, was a ledge where I noticed something odd.  About two feet away, ants were slowly devouring a dead dragonfly.  At that point, I didn’t care so I rested my head on the ledge anyways.  Besides, the ants seemed to be more interested in the dragonfly than me.  A few minutes passed and I suddenly sensed something heading towards me so while keeping my head on the ledge, I turned slightly and saw a mouse running on that same ledge, heading for my face.  He was about six feet away and closing fast.  I pulled my groggy head up fast which scared the little creature so much that he fell off the ledge.  I looked all around the floor area beneath the seats but didn’t see him.  That was the time I decided to sit in the upper deck.

When our boat pulled into the harbor at Koh Phangan, it was dark.  Lucky for me, Watcharin, the owner of the hotel I was to stay at for the next three nights, happened to be at the pier and drove me to the Longtail Resort.  The road that took us through the middle of the island to the northeast corner was a mess due to construction.  On our way, I told Watcharin I was headed back to the mainland on Saturday to spend a few nights at the lesser known beach town of Khanom.  He informed me that he would be leaving Koh Phangan Saturday morning on a car ferry and driving right by Khanom if I wanted a ride.  I immediately accepted his gift-like gesture.  I became drunk on the idea of not having to put myself through another transfer like I had today.  In the fifteen minutes that I had known him, Watcharin had become my best friend.  I privately decided that he would be repaid for his efforts in whiskey or gas.

The next day I rented a scooter.  I wanted to drive back into town and over to a jungle where I could hike to the island’s highest peak.  This idea was lovely in theory but in theory it would remain.  The heavy rains of the previous night and morning had made the road too muddy to travel.  I tried to navigate it with my scooter but I was all over the place.  Because of this, I was confined to a small corner of the northeast part of the island.

I drove down a road to look for some waterfalls.  I stopped at a small shack with a sign that told me the waterfall was 100 meters into the woods.  An older man came out to greet me.  After looking at the waterfall, I bought a bottle of water from him.  It wasn’t until he counted my change three inches from his face that I noticed his almost complete blindness.

I thanked him and drove further down the road, managing to get stuck in a rut on a very steep slope.  I eventually made it to a small beach with many bungalows and a few restaurants that climbed high up the steep hills that surrounded the beach.  It was eerie because there was no one around.  I’m sure the rough road I travelled and the fact it was not yet the high season had something to do with it.  Soon after I walked onto the beach, five white guys came out and swam in the rough water.  They had a slightly frat-boyish way about them and I figured they were on vacation.  But there was also a European lady in her 50’s with a whiffle haircut that walked by me and said hello.  The whole thing was playing out like a rejected screenplay for The Beach.

I drove back the way I came and passed by the old man again.  The bottom of my scooter was covered in mud and in need of a quick spray so I stopped to see if the old gent could lend me hose.  After explaining what I needed for about a minute, he opened his mouth and a revelatory “Ahhhhh!” jumped out.  He smiled and grabbed a hose that he attached to an open top, 80-gallon tank of water.  There was no pump involved and therefore no pressure.  He turned the valve on.  The water dripped out of the hose with the force of drool slowly leaving a geek’s mouth.  Although he could not see the ineffective result, the blind man smiled and exhibited a strong sense of accomplishment.  I laughed my ass off on the inside.  In his mind, I had enough water pressure to fight back a line of 80 rioters.  There was no way I would in any way compromise his glee so I pretended to wash my scooter, graciously thanked him and gave him a little money.

The night before I left Koh Phangan, Watcharin informed me that we would be leaving on a 7:00AM ferry instead of the 10:00AM one he previously planned on.  This meant I had to be awake at five in the morning.  This is typically a terminal diagnosis for me but for some reason, I’ve been going to bed earlier on this trip and often waking up at 6:30AM.  For anyone that knows me, this is noteworthy.

The reason Watcharin wanted to leave so early was because he was not able to make it into town earlier in the day since all the rain had caused a certain hill to be slippery with mud and ultimately impassable.  I went to bed, hoping things would remain dry.  Of course things did not remain dry.  It was not raining when we started towards the pier but the damage had been done.  At the bottom of the cursed hill, Watcharin stopped, put his truck into four-wheel drive, took a deep breath, and speed up the hill.  At the halfway point, the wheels started to spin dramatically and I could already feel myself spending the rest of my trip at the Longtail Resort.  Watcharin persisted and now the vehicle started to shift sideways.  To my disbelief, the truck somehow managed to inch up the hill.  It made no sense but I still appreciated this event that defied physical logic.  At a hysterically slow pace, we made it to the top.  The next mile was rough but nothing that paralleled the dodgy nature of our last obstacle.

When we waited in the pickup truck to exit the ferry, we were slightly delayed by a tractor trailer truck that was trying to drive off the boat but couldn’t due to the seas that had grown rough.  The truck gave up, backed into the boat and let the other vehicles go by.  I was happy to be on the mainland.  Had I fully realized how wild the weather could be this time of year, I would have chained myself to a radiator back home and eaten the key.

At the time I booked the trip, I read that the weather is pleasant in November on the Andaman Coast where I was last week (Koh Yao Yai, Railay, Koh Lanta, Krabi).  I assumed that the weather on the opposite coast, just 60-100 miles away would be similar.  No.  Apparently, the gulf-side where I was now enjoys a second, smaller monsoon season that ends in December.  So now here I am in the quiet beach town of Khanom for three days, still on the gulf side, hoping I know of the sun for a few generous moments.  If not, at least the rain will hide my tears.  And, my last week of this trip will be in the Chiang Mai area which is supposed to be slightly cooler and drier.

Once again, I have my own bungalow here at the Talkoo Beach Resort.  And once again, I have two small bottles of drinking water, honorably waiting for me.  It’s funny how every place has two.  Not three, not one…always two.  I guess they figure there will be a couple staying in the room so one bottle for each.  If that’s the case, my invisible wife has died from dehydration due to me drinking all her water.

This place is decent.  I have a neat wooden sink.  I also share my shower with a giant cockroach.  As far as the whole resort is concerned, I’m sharing it with about 100 Thai youngsters who appear to be fourteen or so.  I don’t know why they’re here but there are boys and girls and they’re often wearing athletic jerseys.  Every once in a while, they cheer about something.  There’s a lot of giggling.  Maybe they’re here to watch me clog up the pool filter with an inordinate amount of chest (and shoulder) hair.

There’s also a bunch of random animals on the Khanom beaches (and other Thai beaches, for that matter).  Right now, I’m listening to the beginnings of what promises to be a great cat fight.  One of these cats that appears to be feral but was recently taken in by the hotel has found its way into the clean towels and sheets that were left for me in front of my bungalow.  Also on this beach, as in the others, I find loads of garbage.   It’s a shame as these beaches are arguably the nicest in the world and they are marred by trash.  I find bottles, single shoes and for whatever reason, lots of toothbrushes.

Every bar or restaurant I went into was empty, making me feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Was I talking to the only employee in the establishment or was I talking to a figment of my imagination?  I couldn’t tell.

During the evening, I noticed my toilet paper supplies were disturbingly low so being the proactive type, I decided to avoid a most certain future calamity.  I walked into the reception area and turned quickly into the front desk.  As luck would have it, the woman on duty at the front desk was blisteringly hot.  Had I known this, I would have waited for the wart-covered ogre that probably works the night shift.  But I was right in front of her by the time I could see who was on duty so there was nowhere to run.

With all the casual coolness I could muster, I put one elbow on the high desk, turned slightly and said, “Oh hi…I was just wondering if I could get some toilet paper.”

“Okay.  You need it now?”  she questioned.

What a loaded question.

“Well, I don’t need it right now but perhaps at some point in the next day.”

“How much you need?”

Another loaded question.

“Oh, I guess one or two should do it.”

I then did what was probably the worst possible thing which was staying there and talking to her for about 45 minutes.  When another guest walked up, I told her goodbye.  When I was almost to the door, she shouted across the reception lobby, “sir, you forgot toilet paper!”

I awkwardly retrieved it, got a funny look from the other guest and was on my awkward way.

The next morning I asked my hotel for a scooter to rent.  The receptionist asked me to wait a few minutes and then placed a call to someone.  Shortly after, a man in his early 50’s drove up in a ridiculously pink scooter.  I was about to start making fun of this guy in my mind until I realized this was my scooter.  If the color scheme wasn’t bad enough, for some reason, the words “chic”, “Scoopy!” and “Lover” were written on both sides of the scooter.  To make matters somehow worse, the “o” in “Lover” was a heart.  Thankfully, my helmet was moderately tough looking.  It was black with a tinted visor.  It looked like something an Imperial Welder would wear while constructing the Death Star.

The appearance of my scooter did not stop me from taking it up a mountain and down numerous, rough jungle roads.  One of these roads, without a hint of a warning sign, had a huge, impassable gaping hole at the end of a bridge.  If I wasn’t paying attention, I would have driven right off the edge and into this eight-foot deep canyon.

This was not the first time I’ve come across a dangerous road condition without warning.  Earlier that day, while I ascended a mountain on a small, winding road, I noticed the earth just to the left had completely washed out.  There was not one single sign or orange cone that warned me of this.  If I had driven close to that edge, there was a sizable chance that I would have taken a 40-foot plummet.

For lunch, I stopped at a great, seaside seafood restaurant.  I sat at the edge (all the excitement today was found on edges) of a large deck and digested not only a wonderful seafood meal served in a coconut but equally delicious views.  My waiter was a young South African man with very striking blue eyes.  Later that day, five miles away at the bar next to my hotel, I saw those same eyes again on someone else serving me dinner.  These eyes belonged to the brother of the waiter from the seaside restaurant.

The brother who worked the bar was scruffier, older and bolder.  He kept calling me “bro” but pronounced it “breu” with a tiny roll of the “r”.  He was full of tales, more than would be expected of someone aged 20 years old.  He went on at length about his experiences as a diamond smuggler in Africa.  I’m not sure about the validity of these stories but they went well with my beer.  One story in particular that struck me as outlandish was that he claimed Nelson Mandela was already dead.  He said that his father was in the military and knew someone important that said Mandela had passed away a while ago and that they were making it look like he was alive for the sake of upcoming elections.

“Breu, Mandela is dead, breu.”

I also didn’t believe this kid since he really disliked black people.  I thought he said Mandela was dead because he wanted Mandela to be dead.  It was odd because he looked like a young hipster but was racist.  Who has ever heard of a racist hipster?  On the inside, I laughed at his claim but when two or three days later the media said Mandela had died, I wondered if this pecker was right.

After dinner, I headed over to the receptionist area to collect my breakfast coupon for the next day.  Why they didn’t just initially give me three coupons for the three days I was going to be here was beyond me.  Maybe they thought I was going to try to scalp these tickets to what has been a very mediocre breakfast show.  Or maybe they did it this way since they knew it would give me an excuse to go talk to the gorgeous, oil painting of a lady at the front desk.  You know the one: she provided me the previous night with a resource more important than diamonds: toilet paper.  She was there again tonight!

We chatted for a couple hours which was amazing given the language barrier.  She told me that she watched a couple of my videos online but didn’t really understand them.  I would have given plenty to be a gecko on the wall while she tried to make sense of my foolishness.  After ten minutes of chatting, she brought to my attention to her co-worker who I did not see since he was sleeping on the ground behind the tall reception desk.  This was odd but great.