MAY

2005: JULY, JUNE, APRIL, MARCH, FEBRUARY, JANUARY,
2004: DECEMBER, NOVEMBER, OCTOBER, SEPTEMBER, AUGUST, JULY, JUNE

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - HONG KONG, CHINA - I said goodbye to John and headed out with my loaded pack. I got breakfast and then a tram to the U.S. Consulate, where I boarded the Peak Tram to ascend up to Victoria Peak. It was a slow, ten minute ride to the false summit (there are a bunch of TV and radio towers at the real summit). It was a nice view - fairly clear in Hong Kong that day - and I debated walking the 3.5 kilometer trail circumnavigating the peak. I could not get rid of my backpack anywhere - everyone thought that it was a bomb - so I checked the time and decided to take care of my train ticket out of town. I caught a bus to Star Ferry, the ferry to Kowloon and a bus to Hung Hom. At the station I was informed that today's train would be traveling to Beijing, and tomorrow's train would be going to Shanghai. Even in futuristic Hong Kong, where the transportation is excellent and everything works, I was getting hit with the "Hmm, no train today, maybe you come back tomorrow?" I bought a ticket for Shanghai and headed into Kowloon. I debated heading to Beijing, as the trip is not much longer than going to Shanghai, but I am road-weary and travelled out. Too many hotels, too many new languages, too many new currencies, too many different laws governing automatic weapon and gun possession, prostitution and the cost of evading homicide charges. Time to head home.
I checked into the Mirador Arcade, a guesthouse called Cosmic Guesthouse. Dorm bed, $60HK. I took a tour of the neighborhood, finding a reasonably priced copy of Don Quixote, as I'd just finished Catch-22, and dinner at a non-descript Hong Kong restaurant. I got talked into an entree by the waitress. It turned out to be basic fried rice. That's a good portion of how I closed out June.

Monday, May 30, 2005 - MACAU to HONG KONG, CHINA - After another egg and bacon sandwich with coffee, I checked my bag and headed out on portions of a few more walking tours. I headed up the hill to Dom Pedro V Theatre, located on Largo de Sto. Agostinho, opposite St. Augustine's Church. I walked through the neighborhoods on the southern portion of the peninsula, dodging school children, taking photographs that will not turn out nearly as well as they appeared and eating more ice cream. I continued back to Largo de Senado and walked up to Fort Monte, on the hill just above the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. I walked to Camoes Garden and Grotto, where old men played chess and fanned themselves. I saw several men carrying up to four birdcages. Apparently it is popular in Macau to take your birds with you to the park. There are already strings attached to the trees, so you can find a nice shaded spot for your birds and hang them while you wax philosophically with your fellow droogs. I continued down to Terceda St., where there were supposed to be many curios sellers. I found a shop selling Blackberry currant juice and pudding and purchased both. Back in my neighborhood, I bought more beef jerky, then boarded a bus for the Macau Grand Prix Museum. It was very good, with many racecars that span the 50+ years of the race, including the first car to win in 1954. Next door was the Macau Wine Museum. It was small and uninformitive, but it included a tasting of port. They had an impressive wine cellar, with bottles dating back to the mid 1800's. In the shop were bottles selling for $6,500 HK from as early as 1924. Since it was on the Underhill account I ordered seven bottles to be delivered to my sister, who does not drink alcohol.
I caught a ferry back to Hong Kong, then walked to another ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Mui Wo on Lantau Island. I got on an 8:30 ferry and enjoyed the slow, 50 minute ride. Once I arrived I learned that the last bus to Ngong Ping had stopped running at 5:50, which meant I would not be able to stay at the monastery and I would not be able to get up at 4am and hike to the highest peak in Hong Kong to watch the sunrise. Fate had dealt me a setback, so I ordered a strategic retreat. I was the last person on the ferry I had just stepped off of, and an hour later I was in Hong Kong.
I tried calling John, who I'd stayed with earlier, but couldn't get through, so I walked over to his house and imposed on him for one more night. He was gracious, served me soup and set me again.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 - MACAU, CHINA - I planned a full day of sightseeing, but predictably completed only a portion of it. Only one of my 8 tourism cylinders is running. I tried to return to the Dairy Company for some fresh milk and a Sunday morning coffee, but they were closed, as were many other restaurants. I guess since there is a prevailing Portuguese influence they feel they don't have to work seven days a week like Chinese. I walked into town through the Largo de Senada to another restaurant and ordered up coffee, egg and bacon sandwich and rolls with jam. Sated, I mucked about until I could motivate to head down to the Maritime Museum and start a walking tour. I visited the Tin Hau/A-Ma temple, of which there are a lot in the world. Tin Hau is the goddess of the sea and protector of seafarers. There is a great deal of sea in the world, a great deal of cities on the sea, and therefore a great many seafarers. San Francisco has a Tin Hau Temple, it's on Waverly St near some good Dim Sum restaurants.
I'm writing in a hostel in Hong Kong. A dryer is drying clothes a few inches from my left knee and it is very hot. I don't know why they are using a dryer, since it's 87 degrees with 66% humidity.
The Maritime Museum was very good. It was five floors of Maritime Madness, though it could have used some interactive exhibits like the Hong Kong Space Musuem. The H.K. Space Museum had a video game where you lie on your stomach and pilot a glider through Le Canyon Grande-esque landscape, trying to run into Dragonflies and small birds for points. I didn't run into any Dragonflies or small birds, and I'm not sure the video game needed to be in Space Museum, though it certainly enriched the experience. I sauntered on, around the Southern tip of the Macau peninsula. I bought an ice cream and it turned out to be a red bean ice cream. Yes, red beans, not unlike those that might be found in a burrito, were in my ice cream. I walked to the Macau Tower, a towering tower overlooking the peninsula, Taipa and Coloane. I wanted to go to the top, but at $70 (almost $10 USD) I chickened out. I was glad I had a fiscal excuse not to ascend 338 meters into thin air. I continued and an passed an upscale grocery store. Dormant reserves of msg triggered and impulsive search for Doritos. Sure enough, they had them, for $18. I snatched up a bag of Cool Ranch and began to eat them vociferously. I tried to stop myself from eating the whole bag by stopping at a Peking Dumpling shop, where I ordered some dumplings to go. It turned in to thick noodles in peanut sauce when I opened it up back in my room, but still tasty.
Around 8pm I headed out to the Canidrome. I was very excited to see dog racing, as I'd never seen dog racing before. Dogs are very lazy creatures, and it was nice to see them work for a change. Greyhounds run very fast. There were 15 races, most lasting one lap, others 3/4 of a lap. The dogs were all very excited to start running; many would piss and shit when they finally got on the dirt racetrack. Most races had six or seven dogs and two rabbits. The rabbits ran very fast, but they had an unfair advantage as they were fastened to a pole that had a powerful motor. Dog racing is not dissimilar to horse racing, but in horse racing there are no bunny rabbits, and in dog racing there are no jockeys. Even if a midget had a midget son or daughter small enough to ride a greyhound, I don't think they'd try. Those greyhounds look frail. After the races they put up a barrier about 100 meters from the finish line. The dogs run into most of the time, still chasing the rabbit, some skid and stop just before it. The highlight of the evening occurred when one dog somehow broke through the barrier and continued to chase the rabbit, which had stopped moving about 200 meters from the finish line. He mauled those poor, defenseless rabbits, with a gratified air of violence. How many times had he chased those bunnies, only to be stopped by a large red and white barrier? Maybe they drugged the race-dogs so they would not remember that they had never caught the rabbits, and today would probably be no different.
I bet heavily and whimsically throughout the night. It was only one race, the 12th race, where I bet $20HK on Prompt Warrior, the #3 dog in blue. S/he seemed determined and poised before the race. S/he performed horribly, embarrassing me and my impressive gambling record. S/he came in 5th, barely, should have been sixth. After the race s/he smiled excitedly. S/he had no idea that s/he had just turned in an icnredibly abysmal performance during an incredibly consequential performance. Lives hung in the balance, and Prompt Warrior failed me. Disgusted, I tore up my ticket and departed the Macao Canidrome.

Saturday, May 28, 2005 - HONG KONG to MACAU CHINA - After finishing watching Shaolin Soccer, an excellent Hong Hong movie that set all kinds of attendance and revenue records in Hong Kong, John and I walked down towards his office to his favorite dim-sum restaurant. We dined on shrimp dumplings, beef meatballs, honey tofu, mini-lobsters, steamed buns, rice soup, and a few other dishes. It was excellent. I'm glad I got an authentic HK dim-sum meal while here. We sauntered on and he put me on a tram. The weather was decent - sunny but storm clouds on the horizon. I've been trying to get to Victoria Peak the entire time I've been in HK, but the weather has prevented it. I rode too far and ended up in Wan Chai. I decided to walk to the Expo Center to go to the seventh floor, look through a seven story window (apparently the biggest window in the world) out to Kowloon and HK Harbor. I couldn't get up to the seventh floor, so I snuck in to a BMW Convention. They had their 2006 line inside. There were some incredibly extravagant cars inside, some priced out above HK$2M ($250K USD). I was just browsing and didn't buy anything. I headed back to the street and saw fog and storm clouds had settled on Victoria Peak. A quick metro ride to the Macau ferry terminal, then an expensive hour ride to Macau on a hydrofoil. I took a bus into town and found the only reasonably priced hotel on the island - San Va Hospedaria. Everything in Macau is in Chinese and Portuguese. I was surprised to see so much Portuguese, and so few non-Chinese. My neighborhood is cool - tons of pastelerias and bakeries that seem to sell nothing but a flattened beef jerky marinated in honey and other sweet sauces. I bought a sheet. I tried to get dinner at a restaurant, but it turned out to be Sam Po Dairy Company. I bought a pineapple ice out of curiosity, which was pineapple chunks in ice water for $1.50 US. Great. I ended up in Loja Sopa de Fita Cheong Kei Noodle Shop. They were in one magazine ten years ago or so and they'd more or less wallpapered their restaurant with the two page spread. Classy. I considered ordering plain fun in soup, just to see what it was, but opted for the edible shrimp dumplings and a San Miguel. Good eats. I walked through the Sands, Golden Dragon and the Hotel Lisboa casinos, gambling a bit. The tables were all crowded, mostly with a $6 USD minimum. there were very few foreigners - mostly Hong Kong fatcats over for a Saturday night. I've gotten myself into a lot of trouble when people like that lose big while I win big - they think I'm taking their money - so I wandered through and spectated. The main games are blackjack - and I was told roulette, but I didn't see any of those tables. There were many other very popular games that I'd never seen before. Someone in HK had told me that Macau takes in more money than Vegas, but this is simply slander, there's no way they can unless all the online casinos in the world were located in Macau and maybe if Macau was the only place I gambled, which it most definately is not. I was feeling the heat, as most of the casinos knew I was there before I'd entered the building. I cried No Joy and went to Oskar's.

Friday, May 27, 2005 - HONG KONG, CHINA - Headed to work with John to his design studio, where I'm working on this page and the Orphanage Report. Worked for a bit in his office, then got a lunch of Singapore noodles around the corner. I walked throught the Cat St Bazaar and bought another mask - this one from Nepal, to add to my collection. I looked into the Man Mo temple, one of the oldest and picturesque temples in Hong Kong. The tourism will keep it that way too. Strangely, the temple is dedicated to two deities: Man, the god of literature, and Mo, the god of war. I noticed a few fortune tellers, one who spoke English. There were a few Chinese waiting to see the Chinese fortune teller, so I impulsively sat down. It was $20HK (2.50 USD), so I figured I could afford that if he could tell me exactly what will happen with my personal and profesional life in the next one to 30 years. I gave him my birth year - 1976 - Year of the Dragon - and picked a stick. He found a story in one of his books and asked me if I'd lost a job this year. "No," I replied candidly. "Do you work now." "No, I travel," I replied, helping him out a bit. He postulated a bit about how I'm a free spirit and said artlessly "you like to do what you like to do." The session ended after five minutes. "You didn't tell me much sir, you only told me about work, and since I'm not working and don't want to work, maybe more personal information would be more helpful," I persisted. "More fortune $20," he said smiling. That's business in China. I headed through Soho, taking a portion of the 800 meter (half mile) escalater. I followed the direction of the other pedestrians, fighting urges to run the entire length of the escalater in reverse. That stunt has made me no friends before, though there is a small but loyal internet fan club that has carefully documented my international escalator hijinks. Eventually I made it onto a Star Ferry to head over to Kowloon. I walked down Nathan street, dubbed the Golden Mile because of all the shopping that people do there. After a ride on the subway I emerged into light rain in Mongkok. I was directed here to investigate the camera shops. Hong Kong is supposed to be a good place to be a good place to shop for electronics, but I wasn't seeing anything near US prices. I need a digital camera. Maybe its time you get rid of your Canon Ixus 50 and upgrade to something with 10 mp? It was pouring down rain, and I was the only one without an umbrella. I don't use 'em. I stepped into a McCafe, curious about what it was and considering a coffee. Small coffee $16HK - about $2.15US - 20% more expensive than the upscale coffee shops in Hong Kong.
I headed back towards HK Island and stopped in the Space Museum. It was very cool - good exhibits and lots of interactive games. I would've liked to've put on a space suit, eaten some Astronaut Ice Cream or used a space shuttle toilet. No dice. It was empty at 8pm on a Friday night, so I had the place to myself. That's when the real science nerds go to museums - no kids, no tour groups, no problems.
Back in HK Island John and I went out for a nice meal of steamed clams, fish, chicken, rice and beer. A good local meal. I headed out to meet up with Cecilia and her friends at Gecko in Soho. Soho is a strange, gentrified place. I haven't seen more foreigners in one place since I was in Shanghai, and that only happened a few times. It was like a Marina bar. I met more Spanish, a Mexican and a German-British guy who ran trail marathons and wrote trail guides. We chatted, then headed over to Cafe 71 with his girlfriend. at 2:30 it was closed. Next up, the Feather Boa, an old Victorian style lounge with Billie Holiday singing and lychee martinis served up cold. They were closing in 5 minutes. I blew kisses goodbye and hopped in a cab.

Thursday, May 26, 2005 - HONG KONG, CHINA - I headed out in the late morning to explore Hong Kong. I was looking for a dim sum shop for a dim-sum-goodie breakfast with tea, but had no luck. I got a map of the area from a Ramada - "And where are we on this map? - We are here," the nice concierge girl pointed, the middle of a restaurant ad on the far side of the map. Helpful. "Can I walk to Central? - Oh no, you must take a taxi. - How far is it?" She asked another person behind the reception. "Mmm, maybe twenty minutes. Is best you take taxi." I thanked her and started walking towards Central, passing Shark Fin and Deer Antler shops. I didn't find my dim sum, so settled on a bustling Hainan Chicken restaurant in Central. It was the busy lunch hour. As they cleared my plate and I sipped the second half of my coffee while perusing my notes on the area, my check was delivered with a few sentences of Mandarin. I interpreted this as "I think it would be best if you left now, many people are waiting outside." No problemo. I dodged the crowds of Central District and tried to find the International Finance Center. A man noticed me with a map and tried to help. He didn't understand where I wanted to go, but he grabbed my arm and directed me into a supermarket. Every now and then he'd speak English to me "I am going to church right now! You can join me, it will only take an hour." I thanked him, checked email at Pacific Coffee, then walked around the incredible IFC mall. Hands down the nicest mall in the world. I stumbled upon their theaters and couldn't come up with any good reason why I should not see Star Wars III. Surely I deserved a little cinematic therapy, as I sure as hell couldn't engage in any retail therapy. There were no Gap or Mervyn type clothing stores, rather Escada, Kate Spade, Versace, etc. There were no Cinnabon or fast food restaurants, only white table cloth fine dining joints. I found City Super, possibly the nicest supermarket I've ever been in. The cheese counter wrapped around the deli section for several hundred meters, a welcoming sight after all the time I've spent in Asia with only processed cheese singles. It was extremely pricey, of course, well outpacing Andronico's or other top-shelf markets stateside. Doesn't your local market have complimentary giftwrap?
I managed to get a hold of John, not an easy task when you don't have a mobile phone in Hong Kong. There are very few pay phones because something like 118% of the population carries at least one mobile. He was coming back from China, so we planned to meet at his apartment for dinner. He brought back some HK noodles from a favorite restaurant of his. They were delicious, washed down with a Tsingtao beer. We listened to some of his music from his excellent collection. He told me about his design studio, of which he owns and operates, and at which I am currently working (on this cursed site). He is an extremely hospitable person, setting me up with a place to stay for 3 nights, serving me food and beer, lending me his $600 digital camera. Those who have traveled in this capacity realizee the immense import of having a contact in the city. It transforms the experience from the cookie-cutter tourist formula into a more organic, enriching experience. We stayed up late chatting and watching movies. Cici stopped by and gave me a wealth of tourist information, of which I'm not making very good use of yet...

Wedneday, May 25, 2005 - BANGKOK, THAILAND to HONG KONG, CHINA - I ran my usual Bangkok errands - dropped my shorts off to get sewn for the third or fourth time, got breakfast and read the Bangkok Post, made some phone calls (20 minutes with Cingular to get $110 in billing errors removed), Internet, shopping (best of Manu Chao), a shirt, and ten Red Bulls, which proved to be much heavier than they looked on the Sevvy shelf. I headed to the airport and caught my flight to Hong Kong. It was the end of a chapter in my Asian travels - leaving SE Asian and the second and third world elements and returning to China. I was happy though, drinking wine on a nice big plane, heading to an extremely modern and upscale city. I had a contact through Globalfreeloaders.com, so I wouldn't be checking into Chungking Mansions, the skyscraper with 80 guesthouses. I took an airport bus into the City - Hong Kong Island - and met up with Cecilia and her Spanish friend Fernando. The drive into the city was amazing. I was impressed with the waterfront in Shanghai, but the neon skycrapers in Kowloon and the North side of HK island are like none in the world. Ultra-modern, indescribably collosal, Hong Kong stands as a bastion to Eastern metropolitan prosperity. Everything was immaculate, decorous, logical. People waited for the pedestrian light to change to green before they crossed the street, a habit I've only seen in a few countries in the world. They've done that everywhere I've been in Hong Kong. I sat on the upper level of a very nice airport bus and noticed a monitor with a closed-circuit television broadcasting the luggage rack, so I could make sure no one ganked my bag.
I met up with Cecilia and Fernando and caught a cab to her friend John's place in Western District. I put on the cd, and settled in a bit before heading out to get dinner. Cici and I had some Hong Kong goose with vegetables, rice and Tsingtao beer (nice to return to the Tsingtao) and chatted about traveling, working (and of course the merits of unemployment) and life in Cali & Hong Kong. We repaired to one of her favorite bars in Hong Kong, Cafe 71. It used to be Cafe 64 a few years ago, I can't tell you why they changed the name. She explained that this has been a cafe where artists, musicians, young revolutionaries and the usual malcontent demagogues have come to drink relatively cheap liters of beer and discuss the fine state of affairs in this small world, or the wretched circumstances that we all wake up to every morning (or evening). We met her friend Kung, an artist from Lantau Island. He was excellent conversation. He did his undergrad in Hawaii, then moved to Boston and NY for his graduate studies. Cecilia left, as it was well past midnight and she had work the next day. Kung stayed and bought me a beer, as the money I'd changed over in Bangkok had disappeared rather quickly. I got back to John's apartment and he still wasn't home - he wouldn't be home until 8pm the following day. I would have been overwhelmed with this display of trust if I hadn't been in the same position with guests and globalfreeloaders on many occasions in San Francisco.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA to BANGKOK, THAILAND - Early morning. My 6:15 wake-up call came at 5:49. I got up at 6:15, showered, put in a fried egg sandwich order, then checked out. I hopped on a motorbike to the Central Market, where I boarded my bus to Poipet. It was a long and arduos journey. We rarely exceeded 50kph, as we were sharing a lane and a half with other trucks, buses, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, cows, pedestrians and lots of potholes. After Battambang the road deteriorated. A somewhat paved road turned to a dirt road, then a dirt track. It started raining, turning the track into a muddy bog. There was more traffic than I would have expected, everyone moving very slowly on the treacherous road. After 8 hours of driving me arrived in Poipet. I hopped on a motorbike to the border and got ripped of $0.50 from my motorbike driver. I got an exit stamp from Cambodia, then entered Thailand. It was my fifth visa for Thailand in four and a half months. Silly. A block in to Thailand was a travel agency arranging a bus to Bangkok. That's how it goes in Thailand, not in the rest of Asia. They were offering horrible rates to change money, so I went to the street to get rid of the rest of my riel and USD. I bought my ticket for 280 baht and hopped in to a transport truck. We drove 10 minutes or so to a roadside restaurant where we were dropped off with no information. I was hungry and asked one of the other passengers if he knew when the bus might be coming. ",Only He knows,", he said, pointing to the sky. Fair enough. I ordered some pork fried rice and an iced coffee. I fed a hungry looking black cat and read Catch-22, then finished up lunch with a triple-chocolate Cornetto. Muy delicioso. I called Raf and Jen to try and set up something for tonight in Bangkok, but they're out of town, so here I am on Khao San updating my site and continuing work on the Orphanage Report.
The bus ride from the border was good - four hours, and I had four seats to myself to lie down on. We arrived around 9:30 and I checked in to a 120 baht room at Nat II. I reckon this is the tenth or so hotel I've stayed at on or near Khao San, at least. Very excited to bugger out of SE Asia and head to Hong Kong in the morning. I've lined up accomodation for my time there with two globalfreeloaders, so that will keep some HK dollars in my pocket in a very expensive city...

Monday, May 23, 2005 - PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA- I woke around noon and began preparations to head to the orphanage. The events concerning the orphanage are in production in the form of a report. This will be delivered first to the shareholders in this operation, then linked publicly. Stay tuned.

Sunday, May 22, 2005 - ANGKOR WAT ARCHOELOGICAL RUINS, SIEM REAP, to PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA- I headed to the hospital after breakfast to give blood. It was an amazingly effecient experience. The blood donation center had state of the art equipment and a friendly labtician who spoke decent (enough) English. He gathered some details from me, then tested my blood. I'm B+, the blood type that they need the most. Maybe I got so many B+s in school it changed my blood type. 39% of the population has O+, followed by 34% with A+. I'm third with B+ at 8.5%. 0.5% of the population has AB. I was informed that my Hematocrit is 48%, and my Hemoglobin is 16. He explained that that might be good for Lance Armstrong, but he expected a little more from me. I gave 350ml of blood, received a Sprite, multi-vitamins, a packet of coconut crackers and a t-shirt. I headed back to the guesthouse to meet my bus.
I read Andrew Pham's Catfish and Mandala, an interesting story about American-Vietnamese. There were three accidents that I saw. The main national highway between the two capital cities is a lane and a half, probably only recently paved. Bikes, Motorbikes, horsecarts, cars and buses all compete for the same space. The buses honk their horns every ten seconds or so. I don't know how their aren't more accidents, especially in the capital. At the intersections, there are very rarely any lights, so a maddening sea of cars, trucks, motorbikes and bicycles all converge into the maelstrom. Turning left is an adventure. You inch into the other lanes until the oncoming traffic eventually decides to head into the other lane to go around you.
I was met by my man from Happy and delivered to the guesthouse. I'm busy tonight arranging to go to Lighthouse Orphanage. Tomorrow morning I'll head to the bank to get a cash advance on my visa (there are no atms here), then head to the market to buy heaps of clothes, food and toys, then head to the orphanage to rock and roll with the little annies. I've received some donations, so the orphanage will receive a rather hefty envelope of USD (or maybe riel if I want to buy a briefcase). That's my plan, details forthcoming...
I ate dinner at King Bar, next door to Happy Guesthouse #11. It's not a bar, it's an Indian Restaurant. There were three girls/women watching TV in the empty restaurant. I sat down at a table, content to continue Joseph Heller's Catch-22. One of the girls came over with a menu. "Why you come alone? You have no friends? How long you Phnom Penh" "Yeah, hello, gimme the number 3 Set with meat." I was not impressed, but she was just making conversation. Out of extreme boredom (I later found out that I was the third customer that day after being open for 10 hours) she made conversation with me - or maybe its my good looks and debonnaire grace. She came back after dinner and invited me out with her friends around midnight to Heart, the bar/club I went to last week. I didn't have any good reason to say no - my day was a wash with the long bus ride from Siem Reap - so I conceded. At midnight I showed up with the last half of my Sangsom bottle, ordered a coke, and watched a Hong Kong movie, dubbed in Thai with three subtitles shown. It was a rather good movie about a gang of three who were on some kind of important journey. They went to a pool hall and beat the unbeatable mamacita at pool, and the invincible cardshark at poker. They were cheating, but it was the creative and legal kind of cheating that everyone tolerated, somehow. I still have a few questions about the plot.
Nary and I raced off on a motorbike and met up with her friends at Heart. Ironically, I knew one of the group that we met from last week. It was packed - it doesn't get busy until after midnight, any night of the week - and the dance floor was hot and uncomfortable. Cambodian women who see tall foreigners on the dance floor don't mind dancing close, though I suspect their intentions. After a few drinks I headed outside for some fresh air, which in SE Asia, is not always that refreshing. There were a lot of people hanging out in front of an air-conditioner in front of the entrance, but I bypassed them. I never made it back in. Nary and I went next door to her friend's bar, which wasn't much more than a couple of tables on the sidewalk. Three English and Irish lads showed up and struck up a conversation. They were all teachers, in their thirties, two living in Phnom Penh, the other in Vietnam. We talked shop about teaching. Steve has been living in Phnom Penh for 13 years, but did not seem that attached to it. "Yeah, maybe I'll head up to Shanghai in a month or two and teach there, it doesn't sound too bad." Not too uncommon in the Asian English teacher from abroad. Two o'clock became five o'clock. Nigel and Steve went home. Tom wanted to head out on his motorbike. I'd abandoned my new friends most of the night and didn't know if I should again. I suspect that my night turned in to a date for Nary at some point. With Nary at the table, Tom said, "We can go to any number of places where you can do better than her, probably for less." Tactful. She didn't pick it up. I told him that wasn't my game plan, but I was game for a change of venue. I bid Nary farewell and left her drinking cokes with her friend and raced off with Tom on his motorbike. This is one of those times in Asia when I'm thinking to myself, this is not a good idea. But alas, I'm impotent to do much about it. Not impotent, I mean powerless. We stopped by The Walkabout. There were a dozen or so girls hanging out with each other. Suspicious. I urged us on. We drove around for ten minutes or so. Not much else was open at 5am, despite Tom's assurances to the contrary.We ended up going into The Walkabout. After a beer the girls realized we were not going to buy drinks for them, so they made a truce and came over with their watered down orange juice. We chatted them up in English, Thai, Chinese and Cambodian. They were very funny and excellent conversation at that godly hour. Night turned to dawn, and soon the sun was shining bright. Two teenage women did laundry on the second story balcony across the street. Well-dressed men hustled down the street. Older women followed, walking much slower, with baskets of Rambutans on their head. At 6:30 it was time for me to go. I jumped on the back of one of the motorbikes that had been waiting patiently all night for this ride. "To the Lake!" I exclaimed. It was a glorious ride through rush-hour Phnom Penh.

Saturday, May 21, 2005 - ANGKOR WAT ARCHOELOGICAL RUINS, SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA- I had intended to catch sunrise from one of the temples, but it was raining at 5:30, sooooooo. I headed out after a cambodian pancake and coffee breakfast to do the big circuit (yesterday was the traditional little circuit). This is a 26km route that starts at Angkor Wat. My first stop was Ta Prohm. This temple complex reminded me of Tikal, in Guatemala, as the jungle had taken it over. There were 4 or 5 banyan trees that had wrapped their roots around the laterite and sandstone blocks. Here's a picture I found. Apparently this temple was used in Tomb Raider. I bought the services of a guide for $3, as I wasn't getting a whole lot out of the temple meanderings. He was extremely knowledgeable about the temple (or he was a very creative liar). He was able to answer every question I had about the temple.
I continued on with my extremely bored driver ("Why don't you bring a book?") to Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Eastern Mebon to Pre Rup. It was not as long of a day as yesterday, but good archeological fun for all! We returned to the hotel for a short while before I got a lift into town. I dined on a calzone, then stopped in the travel agency to get some information on flights back to China. I checked email, then caught a tuk-tuk through the Siem Reap traffic to the main hospital. Dr. Beat Richner performs a cello concert there every Saturday night. My boredom brought me there, as it did many tourists. The hospital has a very nice concert hall, as one would expect from a third-world hospital. He played some Bach, laced it with some silly lyrics and went on to give a lecture on the sad state of medical services in Cambodia. He urged the younger visitors to return to the hospital to give blood, and the older visitors to donate. The performance lasted an hour. I caught a motorbike back to the hotel and hung out with some other travelers - Siem Reap is not a big Saturday night party town, though I'm sure there was a party somewhere there.

Friday, May 20, 2005 - ANGKOR WAT ARCHOELOGICAL RUINS, SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA- I had a filling breakfast at the guesthouse and headed out to Angkor Wat on the back of a motorbike. There are many ways to get around Angkor Wat - motorbike, tuk-tuk, private car, minibus, elephant, bicycle or just walking - but for $7.50 a day it looked like the best option. That's $7.50 for up to 12 hours. In San Francisco, $7.50 would get me from the financial district to pier 39, without a tip. We headed through the town of Siem Reap to the entrance. I bought a three day pass for the exhorbitant rate of $40. The temples at Angkor Wat cover a huge area and cannot be seen in a day. We stopped near the temple of Angkor Wat to get gas for the motorbike. My driver handed over 3000 riel for a Johnny Walker bottle filled with fuel from the roadside stand - there was no pump there. We bypassed the main temple and headed for the fortified city of Angkor Thom. This 10 sq km complex was built by Angkor's Donald Trump, King Jayavarman VII (reigned 1181-1219). It supported a population of over one million people, making it one of the biggest cities in the world at that time. I circumambulated the Bayon, then the Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Tep Pranam and some smaller ruins. Then on to Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Spean Thma and Ta Keo. I finished the day at Angkor Way. It's difficult to imagine the magnificence of the temple when it was built in the mid-12th century, but it was still incredibly impressive and very well restored. There were a lot of tourists, predictably, so I struggled to get some pictures that didn't include large Chinese tour groups. I walked around the central temple complex and inspected 800m (that's half a mile) of bas-reliefs. I don't know how they could be in such good condition after 850, especially considering how well I've constructed gingerbread houses, only to see them disintegrate after a week or two.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 - PHNOM PENH to ANGKOR WAT ARCHOELOGICAL RUINS, SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA- I couldn't sleep at all. I layed in my sweltering room, worthless fan, window only opened to the hallway, and listened to my watch alarm beep on the hour. After a few hours of this is started beeping incessantly. It was 6:25am, and one of those mornings where you feel like you never went to sleep. I got up, dazed and confused, showered, checked out and waited for a the minivan to take me to my bus. The bus was decent. I was given a miniture water and a sandwich which consisted of two pieces of white bread, lettuce, and what I gathered to be a 1000 Island with pickle relish sauce. Tasty! I slept through most of the six hour drive. In Siem Reap I was accosted by a phalanx of hotel and tuk-tuk touts. I've never seen it as bad as in Siem Reap. I could barely get off the bus. 15 or so hotels had their agents there, plus twice as many drivers. there were 22 people on the bus, and most of them were Cambodian, so most of the touts would head back to their cafe to drink tea. I decided to stick with Happy Guesthouse, as I'd spent three decent nights at their guesthouse in Phnom Penh. We motored a few kilometers to a new, three story building and I checked in to a much nicer room than I had in P.P. for $5. There was a tv, which is a novelty/luxury. they had HBO, so I got my fill of HBO for the second time on this trip. I was exhausted and wasn't planning on starting my tour of Angkor Wat at 3 in the afternoon, so I relaxed and caught up on sleep that afternoon and evening.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA- Someone stole my camera. It was the last thing of value that I own. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, somewhere between Luang Prebang and Phnom Penh. That's a long list of baggage handlers and hotel staff. I can't discriminate against any one or their country, but hope that my Canon put a lot of food on someone's table. That leaves me with the task of photographing Angkor Wat with a disposable. I could have used the camera today. I went to the Killing Field, where 17,000 people were buried by the Khmer Rouge during 1975-1978. Most of them went through the S-21 Prison, which I visited as well. Chilling. Pol Pot was a bad, bad man. I really cannot fathom how these regimes get in power, stay in power, commit atrocious acts of genocide, then disappear. He didn't even disappear. He was on the scene in Cambodia until his death in 1997. There were lots of disinterred bones at the Killing Fields, 15 kilometers outside of town, where the 17,000 were killed (many by blunt-force trauma to the head while kneeling in front of the mass grave). The museum was excellent. The prison is actually an old high school, and looks much more like an old high school than a prison, until further inspection. Of the 17,000 that were processed there, 14 people survived. The torture rooms have not changed since the liberation of the prison in 1978. The prison was used mostly for political prisoners. The crude cells are still intact, as are the torture devices used to extract confessions in Stalinesque purges of the regime. I don't see any difference between the Nazi concentration camps and this prison and the Killing Fields.
On a lighter note, my motorbike driver took me by a shooting range. For a price, you could shoot a number of fully-automatic weapons. AK-47 rifle - 30rounds $30, M16 rifle - 30rds $30 and M60 machinegun - 50rds $30. They also had an anti-aircraft gun, a rocket launcher, grenades and a variety of handguns. I didn't shoot any, as I am a poor traveler at the end of my trip and $30 represents almost two days of travel here. And I didn't take any pictures because someone stole my fucking camera. But I did find a picture of the same place I went to, Happy Club Shooting Range. This guy shot everything, check out his pics.
I stopped by the central market, then drank a cup of coffee at a cafe across from the market while reading the history of Cambodia. Finished Life of Pi. 7am bus to Siem Reap. I chose the $5 bus over the $2.80 bus, as travel (with the notable exception of my last flight) has been shitty for a long time. Let's see if the bus resembles the one in the picture, which is rarely the case...

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA- Touristy things, saw a very boring National Museum (it contained only statues and similar things), then the Russian Market, the Royal Palace (similar to the one in Bangkok) and back to my hotel on the lake. Ate pizza at Happy Herb's that night.

Monday, May 16, 2005 - VIENTIANE, LAOS to PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA- I wisely woke early, at 8am, and headed down to the travel agent. I wanted to fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia, but there were only 3 departures each week. There was a flight to Phnom Penh at 10:10, so I hopped on a tuk-tuk to the airport and bought a ticket there on Vietnam Airlines. The flight was short but highlighted by a nice lunch - the first salmon I've had since I was back stateside, some dim sum goodies and fresh bread.
I got a $2 motorbike ride to the guesthouses on the lake and checked in to Happy Guesthouse. Standard $2 room. I had a nice conversation with the Cambodian girl in the book stall. She sold me a photocopied Cambodia Lonely Planet for $2.50 and gave me some beta on the area. Nice to have a guide after going through Laos blind. It's raining a bit now, which means its time to sit down in a cafe with a real coffee and read up on Phnom Penh.
Cont: I headed out to the river on a long walk. I stopped in to the Foreign Correspondent's Club, a nice joint along the river. Had a beer there, imagined holing up there for a summer and writing. They have rooms (3) you can rent - expensive at $50 a night or so - and an excellent menu. I'd write on the third floor, nursing beers and Cuban cigars, and throw things at the tourists and motorbikes on the street. For $150 I can join their little club, which apparently gets me access to the impenetrable bastion in Hong Kong. I scribbled some notes, then continued at The Jungle, a few blocks down. Had a conversation with the proprieter, a Los Angeles native. Continued on to The Heart [of Darkness] and ordered up more cervezas. Nice joint. It was going strong well after midnight. Lots of Cambodians and expats. Decent music. Met up with some people, continued things at The Walkabout down the street, and that's all that can be printed here...

Sunday, May 15, 2005 - VANG VIENG to VIENTIANE, LAOS - After a hurried breakfast I boarded a cramped bus for the capital. It was an uneventful 3 hour drive into Vientiane. It was a very anti-climactic arrival. Vientiane doesn't seem to have any buildings over 3 stories, nor does it have any kind of downtown, markets or tourist district. I found a $3 hotel and dropped my bag, then began my peregrinations around the neighborhood to find something, anything. I eventually found dinner - deep fried bacon, more or less, and rice.

Saturday, May 14, 2005 - VANG VIENG, LAOS - Some of my readers, perhaps more than half, would be quite excited if they woke up this morning, put on their swimsuit and found it was a few sizes too big. If this is you, I recommend contracting the sort of illness where you eat a half sandwich a day for over a week. I've been battling this, and short of the Pakastani Lentil Bean diet, it may be the best way to shed the exta 10-15 pounds as we enter swimsuit season. I, on the other hand, really don't need to lose any weight, and will now have to try and eat huge meals, then sit around the TV like a sumo wrestler to get to a respectable weight.
I'd heard about Vang Vieng months earlier. You can float down the river, drinking beer, pull in to a riverside bar and buy fresh marijuana, opium, space cakes and other-worldly treats, then continue floating on down. I got my inner-tube today, got a Beer Lao and started floating. There were riverside bars every 100 meters - at the beginning. Lao men would throw a bamboo pole to you, pull you in and have you join their party. They'd replenish your beer supply and pass around Lao-Lao, the Lao rice whisky. Stay for ten or twenty minutes, meet the locals and other travelers, then back on to the river. The police had cracked down on illegal substances, so there was only beer available on the river. Many of the riverside bars had constructed elaborate structures so they and the tourists could climb up the bamboo and jump into the water. Others had zip lines across the river.
I floated for 4-5 hours or so, taking in the scenery as well as a few Lao boys who'd climb on to my craft for a free ride. They'd try on my glasses, get bored, dive off. Tough life. I think I missed the exit point, as I floated past town. Eventually I ditched my inner tube and walked back through town back home. Good day. Tubing is a sport I need to look into a bit more...

Friday, May 13, 2005 - VANG VIENG, LAOS - Hung out in town - Vang Vieng is a strange place - the main intersection here has 4 restaurants that play Friends during all business hours. They play it loud to compete with each other. The laugh track becomes quite annoying whenever I approach the intersection, in addition to the simple aggravating fact that Friends is always being played. Ate pizza for dinner for the first time in a long time, watched Kill Bill Vol. I & II. When I ordered my pizza I got the hard sell to make it a happy pizza, which I believe consists of adding happy mushrooms. Many things in Vang Vieng can be made happy by adding mushrooms, marijuana or opium.

Thursday, May 12, 2005 - LUANG PREBANG to VANG VIENG, LAOS - I headed out around 9:15 for the bus station. There was a 10am VIP bus I was intent on taking, and I was happy to find it front and center at the bus station. I bought my 80,000 kip ticket and waited until 10am, then past 10am and eventually until 10:30. The powers that be decided there were not enough people to send the nice VIP bus to Vang Vieng, and instead the tourists could take the slow regional government bus that would be plying the same route. It was like a school bus, but with bags of peanuts stacked well-high in the aisles. I got cornered into a seat next to a Lao man. There was a man with a machine gun in the back of the bus. I got the feeling that he worked for the bus, in some capacity. He did not try to hide the fact that he had a machine gun, although it was very old. The journey was looking predictably wretched. We made very very slow progress. The road from Luang Prebang to Vang Vieng is 85% dicey mountain road. The old bus shifted uneasily between first and second gear. The rains came, flooding the roadway but motivating our driver. Up and down, left and right, lovely traveling when you're sick. After five and a half hours we were afforded a meal break. I drank some more water and waited to continue the last leg.
We got in to Vang Vieng around 6pm. I got on a tuk-tuk with a hotel tout, turned down his first offer, turned down his second offer, then walked to Riverside Hotel, which was recommended to me. I checked in and went to sleep, skipping meals again.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - At this point I was very tired of being sick and wanted to get out and play. I got on a waterfall trip to the nearby falls around 11:30 and drove into the mountains for 45 minutes. The area around Luang Prebang is quite pretty, I was glad that I'd motivated out. The waterfalls were very impressive - far better than anything I'd seen in Thailand, though in Thailand water cascading down rocks often qualifies as a celebrated waterfall. I climbed up and explored the area with some of the others who came in my tuk-tuk. There were several scenic pools for swimming. We spent several hours here, then returned to L.P. - after a stop in a village so we could buy bracelets for $0.20. We headed down to the river to get some drinks, I sipped a Beer Lao. Cursed illness, can't even drink a beer. I returned to my hotel, a cheaper one I moved in to after two nights in the castle. I tried to make it out to get dinner with everyone, but couldn't find anyone and went back to sleep after buying two opium pipes at the market.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - My big chore for the day was to go to the post office. I got a tuk-tuk for the 200 meter journey, mailed a box home, then got another tuk-tuk back. Slept.

Monday, May 9, 2005 - LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - Slept. My fever was long gone but I had absolutely no energy and no appetite. It had been four days with almost no food, but I couldn't force anything down...

Sunday, May 8, 2005 - LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - Did next to nothing but watch movies and sleep, all day, all night.

Saturday, May 7, 2005 - Towards LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - My guesthouse mamacita had told me the boat left at 8:30, but at 7:25 she told me I needed to be on it by 8am. I showered and packed, both prodigious tasks, and walked down to the boat. I was one of the first ones on the boat, a different one than the previous day, only slightly more comfortable. The boat didn't leave until 9:30. When we took off I snuck back to the aft luggage storage next to the diesel engine. I decided I'd brave the noise and exhaust of the engine in order to stretch out and pass the trip in a semi-conscious sleep. This plan worked reasonably well. By 5:30 I was in Luang Prebang. I'd skipped all the scenery but didn't care as the rolling hills couldn't have been much different than the previous day. I stumbled up the hill and was accosted by hotel touts. I usually don't listen to them, but jumped on the motorbike of the second one I came across. He took me to an upscale $10 a night joint with AC, hot water, a big comfortable bed and best of all, cable TV. I settled in and went to sleep.

Friday, May 6, 2005 - HUAY XIE to LUANG PREBANG, LAOS - I woke feeling effete. I could barely make it in front of my hotel to get my ride to the boat. I wanted to toss my 750 baht ticket and sleep the day through, but I was hoping that the boat would be accomodating to such setbacks in health. No such luck - another cruel prank by the travel deities. There were simple wooden benches with 90 back supports and no cushions. Standing would have been more conducive to sleeping. About a quarter of the way through the voyage a guy got reassigned to sit next to me. Apparently the boat had been tipping precariously starboard, and by moving him stability and balance had been restored to the vessel. He was unsympathetic to my height and need for sleep.
Around 5:30 we pulled in to a village on the Mekhong of forgotten name. I grabbed my pack and headed in to find a room. I found suitable accomodation and went immediately to sleep, skipping meals for the day.

Thursday, May 5, 2005 - CHIANG RAI to CHIANG KHONG, THAILAND to HUAY XIE, LAOS, - The fear descended on me in Chiang Rai. A viscious fever sunk its claws into me shortly before the bus ride to the border. Fatigue and an unquenchable thirst set in. The bus ride was slow and tedious, of course, but once in Chiang Khong I got a tuk-tuk to Thai immigration and checked out of the country. I found the boats that crossed the Mekhong for 20 baht to Laos and hightailed out of the Land of Smiles. In Laos I checked in, bought a slow-boat ticket to Luang Prebang and found a hotel for 200 baht. Laos is officially on the kip, but they prefer USD or baht. I slept from 5pm to 9am the next day.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 - CHIANG MAI to CHIANG RAI, THAILAND - Another successful day of the cooking class, learned 7 more delectable recipes. Hopped out to Chiang Rai around 5:30, eventually found a place here around 10pm, then headed down to the Teepee Bar. There were a bunch of Thai hippies (different from Thai Rastas on the islands) maxing and relaxing. They gathered around the television i rapt attention watching Guns n Roses videos. Axel belted out a long rendition of Patience, also Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child of Mine. I drank two Singha on my last night in Thailand and cut out just before high midnight...

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 - CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - I woke at 8:30 and had the typical farang breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee, then headed out with Richard, Manny and Ya, our driver and master chef, to the cooking course. Gap's is supposed to have one of the better programs in Chiang Mai, so I justified the expense with the inevitable mastery in Thai cooking that I will possess when I am back stateside. Thai food is some of the best in the world, and I owe it to Brent Gwynn to cook him up some SE Asian delites whenever and wherever our paths may cross. We began with a trip to the local market, which was largely ceremonial - the schools don't do all the shopping with the students, but it looks and sounds nice that you get to go to a local market. We bought some mushrooms, coconut cream and I found an old 20 baht note in the gutter. We continued on to their open-air kitchen and got to work. We started with green curry. Curry is a staple in the Thai diet - much better than the Indian curry - but the paste is not usually made by the locals. You can buy the paste - red, yellow and green - in most of the markets here (and probably many of the markets in California). We made our own though, just as I plan to do when I cook Thai in the future, just as I plan to make my own ketsup and croutons in the future. We cooked some jasmine rice, then added the curry paste to Green Curry Chicken. It turned out well and we set it aside to eat for lunch a few hours later. We continued with stir-fried chicken with cashew nut - one of my favorite Thai dishes. Set aside. On to a fish soufflé steamed in a banana cup. That's the kind of dish that will cost you $14.95 in a Thai restaurant. We continued with Thai style fish cakes, then Tom Yum soup, which is the popular spicy and sour lemongrass soup with shrimp. We stopped for lunch and tried to eat everything we'd made. I like the idea of having five dishes to choose from, but those were all for me and equalled five meals. We continued with steamed whole pumpkin with coconut custard, a dessert, thai spring rolls and fried noodle thaio style, or Phat Thai. The last three are in my room waiting to fulfill their destiny as my dinner...

Monday, May 2, 2005 - BANGKOK to CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - I woke around nine and cleaned up as best as one can on a train, then breakfasted with OJ, canned coffee, bread and more from Theroux. We got in a little before noon and I hopped on a sawnthaew to Gap's. I was in luck - they had a room - though it was a bit expensive (350 baht). I'd tried staying there when I was in town with Scott in January, but no joy. I got a nice room with all the amenities - towels, soap, air-con and hot water. I settled in and cranked the AC and slept for 4 hours; I guess I didn't sleep as well as I thought I did on the train, but George and I had been going strong for two weeks and a nap was in order. Traveing ain't easy my friends. I didn't have anything planned for the day, except line up a cooking class and head to the night market. I'd already seen most of what I wanted to see in Chiang Mai in January, so no temples this time. I headed out as the skies darkened and got some sticky rice with mango on the street. It was excelent, much better than I would have expected. I ate it on the tall brick wall that surrounds inner Chiang Mai. There is a moat the extends around part of it as well. Chiang Mai, or the "Rose of the North" was founded in the year 1296 A.D. by King Mengrai and made the capital of his kingdom of Lanna (Northern Thailand). The new royal city was built on high ground west of the river Ping and surrounded with a defensive brick city wall that was encompassed by a moat, both of which are still here, but do little to stop foreigners from entering. The skies [Note to editors: Can the plural be used here?] darkened and thunder and lightning foretold of a wicked storm. I ducked into an internet shop and the downpour, torrential in quantity and biblical in proportion, dropped an immense amount of rain. It was very windy - sheet metal was flying around the street and trees were bending 90 degrees. Power was quickly lost to most of the inner moat area. I husted back to my room to read a bit a headlamp.
I dined at Gap's, a delicious 80 baht meal of vegetarian buffet. I couldn't see most of the dishes I was eating, but they were excelent and filled me up after the scraps of food I'd eaten during the day. I headed back out to the night market and began shopping for a few things I'd put off. I found some honey for my dad and a mask, discounted from 1200 baht to 300 baht - the man gave me a "special price" because I was his friend. It's nice to know that after all the harsh rejections by Thai prostitutes, empty guesthouses telling me they were full and all the restaurants I've been to recently that have told me "NO FOOD TODAY", I finally caught a break! I didn't buy it though, as there were plently more masks to consider. I sauntered on, through the proliferation of t-shirt and music stalls and found many a cool things I'd like to decorate my house with. A few minor considerations, though: I have no house. I have no money. I have no way of getting 5 foot tall Buddhas back to California. Moral was high though as I fought the "welcome my friend!" on my circuit.
Power came back on around 12:30 and I enjoyed sleeping in an icebox.

Sunday, May 1, 2005 - BANGKOK to CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - I had an unsatisfying breakfast on Khao San with George, then headed off to take care of some travel chores - phone call home, train ticket to Chiang Mai, laundry, internet - before heading to the Chachucak (?) Market. I've got heaps of gifts to pick up there. In my immediate family, I have, in the next six weeks, 4 birthdays, a mother's and father's day to celebrate. The market was a little overwhelming - I get burnt out shopping after 45 minutes or so, especially if there are lots of people. George and I bought some shirts, and he found a cool opium pipe made out of a Vietnamese water buffalo horn. I had a 9:30 night train to Chiang Mai, so we hustled into the subway and made our way to Sukhumwit. George had generously offered to get dinner - some Western food - as both of us have been a little starved for a good steak, legit burger or Mexican food. We tracked down a Mexican restaurant with a decent review - Senor Pico at the Rembrandt hotel. It's an upscale marble staircase job in the expat sector of Sukhumwit. The restaurant was very impressive for a Mexican restaurant in Bangkok. The waitresses looked almost Mexican in their flamenco dresses and the joint was feng-shui'd with various Mexican accoutrements. We ordered Margaritas, the red kind that was recommended by the waitress. The menu pointed out that it was "for men only", which was just asking for a gender discrimination lawsuit, but the waitress held her ground. She definately didn't look like a kratoy. We were served hot corn chips with red and green salsa. This may not sound like much, but its been a long, long time since I've had anything resembling Mexican food. I ordered fajitas, George got an enchilada and a burrito. They came with all the extras that should accompany them - sour cream, cheese, guacamole, red rice and beans. The tortillas were hot and the chicken and beef were on par, if not better than many of the fajitas I've had in Cali. It was an excellent meal, a great way to finish off a good few weeks of traveling with George. He headed off to Greece later that night, I left Bangkok for good.
We cabbed back to Khao San, I grabbed my ticket and bag and wished George well. I tuk-tuk'd to the train station, bought some bread, OJ, canned coffee, water and a bottle of Sangsom (better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it) and boarded my train. I got comfortable in my upper bunk, read Theroux's Stranger at the Palazzo D'Oro and had strange dreams about being back in high school and having a party at my house. The train was loud, which translated into loud music in my dream, and I kept trying to find the source of the music at my house so I could turn it down and avoid the wrath of my parents. Hasta..