I just pet a rat!!!

Ok, I didnt really "pet" it, it kinda "pet" me, kinda...

So im walkin home, a bit a buzzed, listenin to tunes and dodging all the normal obstacles (ad signs, people, food vendors, kids playing (and YES its after midnight), merchandise, awnings, garbage piles, broken water run off drains, motorbikes, etc, etc...) where the sideWALK is suppost (bitter?) to be. THEN, I decided to take the path between a garbage pile and a water run off drain, partly, so as not to risk stepping a foot nearer then needed in the way of scowling tuk tuk and taxis because i realize what would benefit them most %( . So Im strolling along, with a little pep in my step, been a good night, hung out with some peaceful red shirts, drinkin with some police officers (on duty :), hanging out after walking the sweet sunday market in Chiang Mai (more on that at a later date). So anyway Im boppin along, ok, truth be told, Im dancing my heart out, swingin my hips, pointing this way and that, lip syncing to a slurred version of what SHOULD be the right words, when damn near all of a sudden I feel something with course fur brush against my leg! Wait! I gotta preface this with the understanding that there are cats and dogs everywhere, some limping from being hit by cars, most scratching the infinite itch of flees leaving bumps, bare skin and bone, and they sleep like they are dead, no chasing mailmen dreams for these mangy pups, when they finally get exhausted enough to accept the infinite itch they are OUT. Some are living fat and happy, these ones have established prime locale, ie market scourers, they have the luxury of picking what they eat, and most of them pick everything that slips through greasy fingers so they are living fat and happy. One of them who lives down the street I actually mistook for a pig! No joke, until I saw her furry face and feet. The cats are more behind the scenes, they got all they can handle chasing Geckos, and rats, rats, o yea sorry....

So yea... (where was I going with this?) ...yea so, I'm waltzing through, when out of nowhere/(the pile of garbage) I feel this furry thing brush my ankle, I thought it was a cat so I just picked a foot up and twisted around to see what it was, then it brushed my other ankle, so I'm thinking its just looking for lovin. Let me remind you, this all is taking place in less then a second, which is understandable to the misfortunate many who have fallen prey to my foosball fury. So then, I realize where this thing came from, so I jump high as my height while looking back to confirm my prediction, and off to the drainage hole scurries meaty mouse. Did I mention that Im decently drunk at this point, and its a good thing cause I was then able to shake the inevitable chills that where crawling up my spine from replaying what had happened. It was no mouse at all, it was a full grown, meat n potatoes n khao soi eatin RAT! I was close enough to hear its little squeeks and catch a glimps of its chubby hairless tail.

But, after thinking about it for a second, it wasn't all too bad. He was kinda soft, in a fibrous kinda way, and I think we give those guys a bad rap, he was just grubbing on leftovers when I came waltzing through. I don't really mind the little scavengers cleaning up after us. Which must be a common feeling here cause they let the Cockroaches grow to be monstrous!

OK, I know it was long winded (and mostly fabricated), BUT, would you rather read:
I just got brushed by rat tonight...
The end...(???)

Moral of the long story short:
Don't come between a rat's home, and his diner plate...................

Red shirt update

With a national "bird" like that its no wonder..............

So there are two main parties:
The RED: mainly rural poor and urban working-class red shirts, who support Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister
The YELLOW: who staged their own street protests that led to a 2006 coup ousting Thaksin the then red shirt prime minister

The yellow shirts said a week ago that they would give the government a week to solve the problem and if nothing was done then they said they would take matters into their own hands, launching thier own protest, not ruling out direct confirentation with the red shirts. The yellow shirts could make things alot worse as evidenced by taking over Bangkok international airport with thier own protest. The week is up and the red shirts are not showing any signs of letting up so there is the possability of Yellow shirts taking the streets tonight (Monday, April 26)

A lead red shirt protester was quoted as saying "We don't want to talk to the government because there is nothing to talk about. We cannot agree and the only way is for Abhisit to dissolve the house now." and "We will continue to fight until our victory is achieved." At least 26 people have died since the protests begain over 6 weeks ago

There is actually another protest of the protest, Bangkok businesses have banded together to protest the red shirt protesters, so of course they needed a color for thier shirts, they decided pink would be a good choice. The businesses are fed up with the red shirt rally and the effects it has had on the businesses in Bangkok because of the original protesters attempting to shut down Bangkok to get the attention of the current prime minister and show that the majority is not happy with the yellow party and they want an imediate disolve of government with new elections.

Ive heard from other backpackers that the red shirts have moved to the main shopping area of Bangkok to slow business and that they got ahold of some grenade launchers and bombed one of the sky trains.

There are investigations underway looking into if the former red shirt prime minister is funding these terrorist activities.

I hung out with some peaceful red shirts the other night, drinking cheap rice wine, shootin the shit with some police officers. They all assured me that Bangkok is the only area being targeted to get attention from the government.

So, allswell in Chiang Mai Mawwwww

WATER FIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Song Kran is amazing
SSsssooooo much waterfightin fun for all ages and origins!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran

So much fun in the morning, more Thais and more kids then other times, with all the little Thai kids having a blast (heh) dripping (heh) with enthusiasm and wide awake for the antics to come.

I cant see anybody not loving it!!! It is some GOOD CLEAN FUN, little kids and food vendors everywhere (even more then usual, which is ALOT), and getting little kids to chase me around, so great, o and people driving around drinking and truckloads of people throwing ice cold water, and parade of Buddha statues going through where people throw water scented with ginger and tamarind at the statues, everybody is SOAKED, tuk tuks with loads of people hanging on getting doused, and there are transvestites and cross dressers dancing their gay asses off, it is what i would image like a gay pride parade is as free and nonjudgmental, and so much FUN, you should REALLY come see it at some point in your life!!!

Safety is def an issue though, all of this is happening on the side of a major road, and most all the roads as a matter of fact, kids chasing each other next to the road, water being thrown in the faces of motorcyclists while driving, food vendors with friing vats of hot oil right next to a bucket of water right next to a lady holding her baby, the moat of stangnatin water with kids and tourists swimming and people throwing buckets with a string to refill pistols or throw at others, cars in que at idle with exhaust spewing out and everybody running around sucking it down, people driving with a beer in hand, tuk tuks popping wheelies with people hanging off the back in a crowd full of people, etc etc etc.

BUT, this is part of what makes it so great, its much less regulated but it still works without having all the rules and restrictions like back home in our rigidly standardized and regulated western societies.

A tangent:

It seems like this could have negative effects on people, it seems that people can be bound up too much resulting in the urge for rebellion. Ive noticed westerners getting a kick out of inapropriate actions, doing what we shouldnt do and getting a charge out of it, pushing the envelope, trying the limits of what is appropriate, and its funny. It seems like theres a notion of indomitability, (and ive heard some people say this) "We can do whatever we want, we're in SE Asia!"

I was hanging out with some English peeps and they where talking about getting some motorcyclist to wipe out from throwing water at them, or pushing unsuspecting people into the moat. Just my oppinion, but seems to me that getting surprised by a shot of water is one thing and these are another.

I havent seen that in other cultures, it could be because I dont understand the culture enough to see it, or language barriers.

Just a thought................................................................................................................

Never thought it could happen but im actually starting to get sick of the water fight, its been going on ALL day for about 5 days, its too much, time gets lost, your distracted from everything and your exhausted from the rollercoaster of emotions. squirt, retaliation squirt, laugh, walk, bucket dump, retaliation squirt, laugh, walk, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. For 12 hours. Never thought id say it in this hot hot heat getting cooled down and playing with kids and haveing a blast why would i get sick of it, but i guess even this is best in moderation. The recipients of my suprise attacks also seem much less humored by a large, attemptingly acrobatic westerner on the 4thd day of the water fight marathon when compared to the first.

But I still had some great fun hanging out with people I wouldnt otherwise have interaction with because when it comes to water fightin, words just get in the way..............................................

Shop-pinggggg

Made it to an amazing weekend market in Bangkok, Chatuchak market, HUGE market, home of hundreds of 10foot square cubes, stall after stall of home made fashion, really cool (size medium) T-shirts, and unique girls clothes, 2nd hand clothes and piles and piles of 2nd hand shoes (all size 9 or less). Puppy dogs, paintings, food food food every other stall and carts chasing you through the streets, fashion: home-ade and hand-made, musical instruments, ripped dvds and mixed cds, crafts and culinary, Buddhas Buddhas Buddhas sitting/standing/walking, hammocks and plastics, rugs and fried bugs, custards and curries, statues, clever and creative, fresh and fried. Sensory overload inducing, anything and everything. The fashion was really impressive, lots of hand made stuff, screen printed on some 1st, some 2nd hand clothes. Plain and printed, shirts and skirts and scarfs and shorts. Long Ts, tight sheaths, nickers to the knees, thick fleece, full lengths and short sleeves.

Back alley bound, deafly disorientated with a carb quazi coma on the wounded winding route,



"is the sun still shining?"

I think my camera is pissed at me

About a week ago it started getting some weird lines on the LCD screen so i couldn't see the whole screen. Then a couple days later a couple more. A couple days, a couple more. It must have expected me to get more upset about it or something cause then a big black dot came up on the screen. No matter if its on or off there is a big black dot taking up about 1/6th of the screen. So the combined deficiencies leave about half of the LCS viewing area. Ive been fliping it over to see half of the pic im taking and just hope for the best, and maybe Ill need to use a bit of cropping. So then I think my cam started conspiring with my memory card cause now I cant remove my memory card from my camera!?!? Figured some peice of metal bent out or something. I can still use the camera cause if i get a USB cable i can plug the camera into the puter, the only way it wouldnt work is if the memory card was locked. Whatta ya know, its locked (locking a memory card is used when you want to make sure you dont copy over some important pics or something, it doesnt allow you to add or delete any photos from memory) So I got a bunk screen with only about half visable, a memory card that is locked and stuck inside the camera so i cant replace it, O O, and did i mention that the zoom is only working sometimes. I have to coax the lens back in every time i turn it off!

FYI
Panasonic DMC-FS62
Worked pretty good while it works but dont get on her bad side cause she will turn on ya!
If Murphy was right, the warrenty probobly ended yesterday :)

2 Cameras down...

It might be worth the extra coin for a drop/water/dustproof camera

Red shirts

Whenever you take a bus somewhere the driver always takes you to an area where some of his friends are waiting with a taxi, tuk tuk (little 3wheeled motorcycle/taxi/go-kart thing), or travel service, or hotel hawkers so they can get a piece of the tourist pie. So this particular morning, we got to Bangkok at about 3am and I was met by snickers and pointing fingers. I thought they where laughing at my shirt cause I was wearing a red Japanese baseball jersey i found 2nd hand in KL. The graphics are kinda falling off so I figured they were laughing at my silly shirt. Come to find out there is a red shirt rally going on in Bangkok right now and unbeknownst to me I was backing a post government official who was fired then convicted of corruption sentanced to hard time and fined somewhere around a billion baht bucks (3B). So after his trial and conviction he took off so he didnt have to pay the fines. Then he starts stirring up the red party to try and get his spot back in office. He and the red party have a boatload of money so they are funding the delivery of supporters of the red party, who are primarily in poor rural communities, to be brought to Bangkok to attempt to influence the government by slowing down the city because of the protests.
The red shirts have shut down 4 major streets that lead to a round-a-bout located at the democratic monument. There are people everywhere down these streets, they are just camping out, hanging out day and night with even little tarped off showering facilities. There are vendors selling 2nd hand clothes, food stalls, people cooking food for their family on the curb, men, women, children, grandparents, and everybody else sleeping on blankets laid over the ground, I just saw today some guys with flame thrower looking devices that where aimed down in the sewer to smoke out, what im sure to be, oceans of cockroaches waiting for their chance to storm in.
From my hostel I can hear angry speeches all hours of the night. There has not been any confrontations yet between the red shirts and police or military but the government has set up precautions in case it comes to blows.

I have been taking advantage of a sweet deal on cheap tuk tuks. The government is giving out free gas to tuk tuk drivers who take tourists to the tourist travel centers so that they will get the hell out of Bangkok. Then the tuk tuks will take you to the sites for like 10Baht! The weird thing is that they have the same deal for tailoring shops. I was told that the gov is doing this to promote the sale of Thai silks and suits made here but that sounds kinda fishy. I never really get the whole story is SE Asia when things are being explained with a THICK accent and in broken English. Along with them not knowing all the facts and coming from whatever motivations they have.

So anyways, thinking bout skidadlin up to Chang Mai for a bit and check out some treking!!!
Some long walks with maw nature and cool mtn air sounds amazing

(more(?)) Success!!!

Can you believe it (you, as in, my make believe friends out there in interwebland that I imagine care about my day to day ramblings)
I was searching searching searching for a replacement pair of sandals to somehow replace the vacancy in my heart. And, whadaya know....

Same color even!!! So, needless to say I was pretty ding dang stoked!
till of course.........
I saw the price tag...................ouch, ok ok, not toooooooooooooooo bad.........
then I asked for what sizes they had..................damn!

And Some might say I am putting waaaaaa aaaa aaaaaayyyyy too much emotion and effort into all this. Well listen here Mr/Mrs Some, if thats your real name! You have not been around me enough to realize the difficulty I have had and continue to have with my feet!
Between the time I lost my super sweet love sandals till now Ive endured:
-1 pair of cheap knock off Teva sandles that made my feet bleed in 5 spots that i can see from here
-1 pair of cheap knock off Converse that gave me shooting pains in my heals and made my ring toes bleed
-I walked about 12 miles a day through downtown and surrounding Bangkok area with the heals of my feet hanging out the back of said "Converse", THEN a friend dragged me to some overpriced club with Beds all over and was expected to partake in a Redbull induced shaking of goods till 4 in the morning
-I have asked damn near every shop, stall, and 2nd hand sidewalk entrepreneur in Bangkok if they have ANYTHING above a size 10
-1 pair of authentic Clark shoes (maybe?) which has been about the closest Id come to replacement but then after about 2 days the TOPS of my feet started hurting me, and not like "ow, what was that", more like "ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, rest... ow, ow,ow,damn,ow,damn" etc...

Poor me!!!

Getting through all this tribulation and torture was made a little easier by seeing these amazing Buddhist statues, and being reminded of some great ascetics. Ones who STOP running for pleasure and away from pain, then turn around and start chasing away pain.
Keeping these ideals in mind, I continued attempts to accept the pain, without it effecting my emotion or mood, then taking the next step (heh) in getting a new pair of shoes.

And a bit of Hong Thong Thai wisky didnt hurt the process :)
Cheeeeeeers!!!