Thursday, June 16, 2005
apocalypse now
bloody hell,... 2 days in bangkok and i am already missing northern thailand. had such a wonderful time there, even got offered a few hilltribe women for marriage. had to decline, but might come back to the offer in future years/months. have to say the north is the highlight of this trip so far. it will be hard to beat. dirt cheap, friendly and honest people. the scenery wild, stunningly beautiful and very mountainous. for the last 3 days i rented a chopper (honda 250 cc) and raced up and down the mountains over some roller coaster hills, luckily surviving without a crash.
was hard to say farewell to all the friends i made in pai. first of all willow "the sadhu", a 75 year old american hippie who dropped out in the 60s and never came back, still munching acid, magic mushrooms and 5 joints a day as if there is no tomorrow. 5 days on his permaculture farm brought me back to a saner reality and slowed me down considerably, after buzzing for nearly 3 months in singapore. his discussions about life and the universe will be missed. realized my journey has just begun.
there was dang, a jolly 35 year old thai woman who cooked like a real pro and opened her heart and house to all kinds of weird people, including myself. one day i came back from a motorbike trip with some forest mushrooms, bought from 3 lisu girls on the side of the road, and dang made the most delicious meal. i will miss her smile.
spent my birthday getting back from pai to chiang mai in a weather beaten bus, with half the locals vomiting after the hundreds of hairpin bends. had dinner with a swiss friend and then to the railway station to get the night train to bangkok. fell in love with the female train attendant. some of these thai women are just stunning. as soon as i arrived in chaos city i realized i wasnt ready to leave thailand. luckily i was able to change my flight to sri lanka once more, thank you sri lankan airlines.
now i am back at kaosan road in bangkok, after not having been here for 6 years. the place has changed a bit, more commercialised. the big money has arrived. still the crowd is the same, a meeting point for travellers from all over the world. at night you just sit back and watch the circus in front of you, the different tribes of travellers parading up and down THE ROAD in colourful outfits, usually a telling sign where they just came from.
i am staying just off kaosan, in a real fleapit, the room wallsstained and live wires coming out from the light switch, the heat is unbearable, a huge fan hovering above my head, reminding me of martin sheen in APOCALYPSE NOW..... and loving it. just waiting for marlon to come through the door at any moment.
will be going to pattaya tomorrow and maybe check the area along the cambodian border, might find a few khmer rouge still hiding in the jungle. ah life is exciting....
was hard to say farewell to all the friends i made in pai. first of all willow "the sadhu", a 75 year old american hippie who dropped out in the 60s and never came back, still munching acid, magic mushrooms and 5 joints a day as if there is no tomorrow. 5 days on his permaculture farm brought me back to a saner reality and slowed me down considerably, after buzzing for nearly 3 months in singapore. his discussions about life and the universe will be missed. realized my journey has just begun.
there was dang, a jolly 35 year old thai woman who cooked like a real pro and opened her heart and house to all kinds of weird people, including myself. one day i came back from a motorbike trip with some forest mushrooms, bought from 3 lisu girls on the side of the road, and dang made the most delicious meal. i will miss her smile.
spent my birthday getting back from pai to chiang mai in a weather beaten bus, with half the locals vomiting after the hundreds of hairpin bends. had dinner with a swiss friend and then to the railway station to get the night train to bangkok. fell in love with the female train attendant. some of these thai women are just stunning. as soon as i arrived in chaos city i realized i wasnt ready to leave thailand. luckily i was able to change my flight to sri lanka once more, thank you sri lankan airlines.
now i am back at kaosan road in bangkok, after not having been here for 6 years. the place has changed a bit, more commercialised. the big money has arrived. still the crowd is the same, a meeting point for travellers from all over the world. at night you just sit back and watch the circus in front of you, the different tribes of travellers parading up and down THE ROAD in colourful outfits, usually a telling sign where they just came from.
i am staying just off kaosan, in a real fleapit, the room wallsstained and live wires coming out from the light switch, the heat is unbearable, a huge fan hovering above my head, reminding me of martin sheen in APOCALYPSE NOW..... and loving it. just waiting for marlon to come through the door at any moment.
will be going to pattaya tomorrow and maybe check the area along the cambodian border, might find a few khmer rouge still hiding in the jungle. ah life is exciting....
Monday, June 06, 2005
tried for the last 2 weeks to write up on my adventures since the big poker game. no such luck. instead i got stoned on homegrown weed freshly picked in northern thailand, not far from the burmese border. as my friend willow would say: the arrow that never aims always reaches its target. so here i am giving it another go.........
after losing S$ 300 in 5 days, my friends decided to dump me in johor bahru, just accross the border from singapore, only to meet another crazy crowd, whom i hung out with for the next week or so. meet habibi, former sarawak headhunter and animist, now a proud converted muslim and to be married soon to his 26 years younger malay wife suriyani. he has a wonderful backpackers in the middle class suburb of jb, far away from the sleazy site of this great city. his place feels like a malay kampong, including chicken, dog, rabbit and cats.
on the first night i woke up with bottles being smashed, a female voice shouting. reminded me very much of my former wife. anyway out of experience i kept away. habibi turned up the next morning with a badly scratched face. nothing was said about it.
meet omar, a tunesian, not much cash and an invalid passport, ready to go illegally across the border to thailand, god knows what for. his girlfriend rose, a filipina barmaid in jb, milking omar for his last money and turning up with new clothes every day.
meet a japanese guy, who never talked, just once. his question was: what does spitfire mean?? maybe his grandfather was shot down in wwII by a spitfire, who knows. just some of the interesting people hanging out at habibis place.
for food i usually went down the road to vedhas (advertised as: for the best northern & southern indian cuisine) stuffing myself with dum briyani, tandoori chicken and naans. life couldnt have been any better. realized after a week that i will never make it to the perhentian islands. urgent measures had to be taken. decided i might as well fly up to chiang mai in northern thailand, with an air asia ticket, cheaply booked on the net.
after losing S$ 300 in 5 days, my friends decided to dump me in johor bahru, just accross the border from singapore, only to meet another crazy crowd, whom i hung out with for the next week or so. meet habibi, former sarawak headhunter and animist, now a proud converted muslim and to be married soon to his 26 years younger malay wife suriyani. he has a wonderful backpackers in the middle class suburb of jb, far away from the sleazy site of this great city. his place feels like a malay kampong, including chicken, dog, rabbit and cats.
on the first night i woke up with bottles being smashed, a female voice shouting. reminded me very much of my former wife. anyway out of experience i kept away. habibi turned up the next morning with a badly scratched face. nothing was said about it.
meet omar, a tunesian, not much cash and an invalid passport, ready to go illegally across the border to thailand, god knows what for. his girlfriend rose, a filipina barmaid in jb, milking omar for his last money and turning up with new clothes every day.
meet a japanese guy, who never talked, just once. his question was: what does spitfire mean?? maybe his grandfather was shot down in wwII by a spitfire, who knows. just some of the interesting people hanging out at habibis place.
for food i usually went down the road to vedhas (advertised as: for the best northern & southern indian cuisine) stuffing myself with dum briyani, tandoori chicken and naans. life couldnt have been any better. realized after a week that i will never make it to the perhentian islands. urgent measures had to be taken. decided i might as well fly up to chiang mai in northern thailand, with an air asia ticket, cheaply booked on the net.
