rpk here-
i haven’t yet titled this blog entry yet, and hopefully i think of something clever before i hit the post button.
an interesting theory, mr. Tony Brown. but we have the bug bites, sunburns, and (i swear) photos up the wazoo to prove that we are currently about 10,000 miles from home right now and not hiding out in our basement. although lately, i’ve been missing some comforts of home. like online poker, pizza delivery, some news stations besides BBC and Fox freaking News, which by the way, is the most trusted name in news internationally. they’ll begin a broadcast with a disclaimer thanking Bolivia or some other random country for makingFox Newsthe most trusted name in news. that is the scariest thing that’s happened on our trip so far and i’ve jumped off cliffs, seen spiders bigger than hamburgers (mmmmmmm, hamburgers), and driven a Moped at night in the rain on the wrong side of the road. that was actually about half an hour ago, but scary nonetheless. rest assured, Tony Brown, we are far far away.
we’re staying in a little bungalow near the beach. the staff is so friendly and cute, it’s ridiculous. Our main man, who has helped us out with everything, including hooking us up with akayaking adventure tomorrow (more on that in a minute), booking our flights to bangkok on sunday, and renting us the aforementioned scooter, is named Chart. Chart also set me up today with an authentic hour-long Thai massage for 200 baht which is around 5 bucks, right on the beach. it took me a few minutes to orient myself after it was done. I wish we had three or four more weeks to explore the rest of Thailand, or at least a few more islands. it would be neat to go further north to Changmai into the thick of the southeast Asian jungle, head down to Phuket (careful how you pronounce that one, you dirty birdies……it’s foo-Ket), and explore some of the territory talked about in Alex Garland’s book/Leo DiCaprio’s movie’The Beach’. the book is way better of course. and go back to bangkok to see more wats and as many giant Buddha statues as we can.
the scooter also only cost 200 baht for an entire day. when filling out the paper work for it, we askedhow muchinsurance was. the little ladies, looked at us with confused expressions and looked at each other. then the one with the best English chirped, ‘no. no insurance. just go slow.’ i’m not even that good on my bicycle, and CR did not want the responsibility of killing us so she let me have it. equilibrium and balance with someone clutching your mid-section, constantly asking if i’m nervous — let’s just say i needed that massage today. we found ouselves at this famous rock formation called Grandfather and Grandmother Rock because of the shape of…..it kinda looks like…..photos show this one tall rock…..a penis. the rock looks like a penis. i didn’t see the grand’mother’ part of the rock, but i think i saw enough. we rented another one today because we didn’t know what else to do, so we went to a movie. it is the first time in two months that we’ve done this, the last film we saw was DaVinci Code the night before we left. We went to see Pirates of the Carribean and it was really good and made us both laugh and set itself up bigtime for a third movieand i’m sure they’re already in the works for it, and we left to hop back on the scooter and it was raining. curse you, monsoon season! so not only do i have to drive us home on a scooter, in heavy traffic, at NIGHT, but it’s raining too. sweet.
tomorrow’s kayaking adventure includes getting picked up at 7:30am, and bein taken to a high speed motor boat which takes us to some much smaller, less inhabited islands in the Gulf of Thailand where we will go snorkeling along some coral reefs, hiking up a mountain to see an emerald green salt water lake called Talay Nai, kayak into enormous caves and caverns only reachable by kayak, and lunch, wayter and soft drinks included. i think it’s about a 9-hourday-trip in all. just in time to get back to our hotel, the Montien House, for a little thai massage,dip in the pool,and banana shake, before enjoying another island sunset and fierce Scrabble competition. CR has been slumping lately. i’ve taken about 12 out of the last 15 games. : )
the other night, we had another camera scare. we went to see some Muay Thai boxing, which was so cool, BUT some of these fighters are about 10 years old and weigh less than my nephew. there is nothing to these boys, but they are kicking the life out of each other with completely impassive stoic expressions on their faces. even when they get a mouthful of KICK, they calmly look a little dazed and collapse to the canvas while mothers look on with mouths agape. this is national pastime here. our ten-year olds are learning how to catch a baseball. Thai ten-year olds are beating each other literally bloody for sport! anyhow, i was trying to get some photos of these amtches, and it seems i was zooming in and out a little too hurriedly. the camera shut down and said Zoom Error and wouldn’t turn back on. boy, we were in peachy moods after that happened. here we had just bought another camera in Dubai and it lasted all of 9 days. thankfully, it just needed to rest overnight and reset it’s little computer chips. it’s fine now. still snappin’ shots.
some thoughts……did tina and don have baby number two yet? i figure no because there will probably be a mass email from Proud Papa, but just wondering. also, my sister Holly and Hubbie Nathan who now live in Rochester will be celebrating anniversary number 3 on Wednesday the 26th of July, so happy happy to them! their 3-year,our 2-month! second to lastly, at the grocery store today, we saw Corn flavored yogurt and thought it would be something Joel might eat. finally, we haven’t heard from Debbie T. all summer long. Debbie not on the net is like Carson Lee not smoking cigarettes. CR and I hope that all is okay and our thoughts are with her. ? miss you all kinda……….
posted Thursday July 2006