singapore

things started with the bangkok airport. my bag is the size of a baby killer whale, and i feel entirely too much like a tourist. we throw some baht for a tiger airways flight to singapore, about 100 dollars, and wait in line for an exciting 2 hours, which i spend juggling and making a clown out of myself for any chlildren in my immediate vicinity. i succeed only at making one child frown, and many adults wonder why in gods name there is a juggling american in a plane full of singaporians. we board the plane, the seats are large enough for a malnourished child, and i regrettably sink into my chair in the most comfortable position possible. so thats what it feels like to be at the gynecologist. we touch down in singapore sometime at night, along with my group of regular buddies, kennypeggyjuliabrenda and thomas, (though thomas and kenny will arrive later) and grab a cab. everybody here speaks english, our cab driver validates this assumption. all of our troubles of finding a place quick and efficiently are lost, as we head north on imaaculate streets of singapore. well painted, organized, very prussian. everything that bangkok has proven itself not to be. this city is the OCD disorder of southeast asia, and i find myself wondering why i dident put the peices together before i arrived. any city which fines 1000 singapore dollars for spitting, nearly 600 dollars, and has a death penalty for murder of any kind, or for traffiking hard drugs in over 500 milligrams. this pleace is neater and cleaner than my home in america, and i am ashamed that that seeing this alone strikes me as amazing as any waterfall of kao yai did. we arrive in little india, a small suburb of singapore, laden with indian food shops and honest looking markets. it is dark so i dont see much other than partying white people, and the few people yearning for a singaporian nightlife, which i feel will never come. the promise of constatnt and effulent foods tommorrow leaves me to feel a bit like a child. we are at a small backpackers hostel, very gross, thank god for the small sown sleeping bag, keeps the gekoes out. i am in a room with julia brenda and peggy, and upon seeing the closed shops and depressing condition of every bathroom in the hostel, decide to konk out. i find myself awake wondering whether singaporians find their culture to be a meltingpot as much as american culture is. i wonder if i had been in school here, whether i would understand asia, or get the taste of true poverty that slaps the face of every foreigner in every country other than their own. there is little to dislike in this place. it feels very complete, but it also feels like the city is waiting for something. whether it be more money, less money, success, failue, it remains to me to look like a large cement creature waiting in limbo. sleep comes through concentration. the fan is always louder than you want it to be.

second day, sigapore is a diamond among pebbles. the city has the reputation of wealth, cleanliness, and kind people, but i couldent have known a south east asian country to surpass the booming metropolitian feel of an american city. upon a quick wake up and exploration of little india, we met peggy's friend whom lives here, and had a quick lunch of butter curry, garlic naan, tandoori chicken, chutney and aloo gobi ( potatoes and califlower spicy dish). not nearly enough to satisfy my inner food demon. we go to the business district and quickly jump on a boat for the tour of the city, and witness the massive amount of skyscrapers, and cleanly cut grass and plum trees, surrounded by small coffe shops, and a few low key shops by the river side, called the quay side. we witness a few good sights, my favorite being a salvador dali statue under one of the random buildings, a large obtrusive thing which makes me feel like an ant beneath the never ceasing mind of one of the greatest artists of all time. we go to the museum of history in singapore around 7 at night, and witness massive exibits of ancient malay lifestyle, and the different lifestyles which shaped singapore from a dingy, potentially dangerous port and trading town, (often known for pirateering) to the 17th largest economy in the world. the exibits are large and loud, with massive amount of decorations and colouring on each item, be it a peice of silverware, a book, clothing, parchment, boats, or weapons. by far the most interesting exhibit was the one focused on the more primal tribes of the old singapore and maylasian mainland, most notoriously known as the headhunter tribes, with exhibits ranging from infinitely inticate skull carvings to shields made from human skin and hair. this truly made me eat my own ego when i assumed that a museum could ever put a chill down my spine. we finish the exibit far too early for my tastes, and head home, to get ready for the festival. we soon discovered after our arrival that it is the Deepvali festival, a large hindu festival, the largest of the year, where hindus pray, eat, and preach kindness on all beings for many days, 14 i believe, though that number might be off. at this time, every body seems to go bankrupt, spending all their money on food for anybody who passes by, drink every night, celebrations galore. the shops are alight with people, smells, and foods of every realm of the earth. everybody has henna tattoes, and everybody, man or woman, has customary dots or designs on their foreheads and faces. it is getting late, we go back to the hotel, when i decide to go on a snack run. julia comes with me and we end up going to a closed shop, which due to the festival, opens faster than a jack-in-the-box to serve us, or anybody at all. upon discovering that the owner knows no english whatsoever, he orders us to sit down, gives us some anchor beer, ( maylasian beer, a great kind, much smoother than anything in thailand) and starts going insane in the kitchen with bread, chicken, and more spices than i knew could grow on this earth. the end result, a folded roti (flat sweet pancake) with egg, larger than the head of an ox, filled with curry and spices, dhaal everywhere, eggs everywhere, whole chicken legs cooked with chili sauce, and more greese than a southern idaho cafe could ever muster. we gorge ourselves, especially after brenda and peggy arrive, and unknowingly get swept into the euphoria of a deeply southern indian kitchen ready to serve, and end up with their own massive dishes. we pay a ridicuously low amount which the owner only reluctantly accepts after a while of courteous gestures, 5 dollars i think for everything, and leave to go into a food coma at the hotel. i go to sleep directly after, fat and happy.

time to go to indonesia. i will go with brenda and julia, we will break from peggy and her friend whom will stay in singapore, and thomas and kenny have yet to arrive, which they will before we go to maylasia. we sit at the ferry station for a good couple hours in the morning, so i pull out the juggling balls and go nuts for a while, play some cards with brenda and julia, and finally the ferry comes, to blow us away to the south where kind faces wait, and the shorelines will recieve no justice ( though it is deserved) for many years to come, i feel.

motercycle to tong pha phum

sorry this is a bit of a delayed blog, but heres what i remember from motercycling north to tong pha phum, from katchanaburi, as well as erawen falls...

southern bus terminal, bangkok. its 700 in the morning, and i feel like a burnt rubber band, strung out on bronchitus pills and some real shitty 7 -11 rice and meat thing which tasted a bit like a microwave. i walk into the station with liam, a friend from canada, really quiet fellow, but a more than capable travel mate. somebody who you might instinctivly trust though you have no reason to. we get the tickets, and immediatley board a double decker leaving that instant for katchanaburi, a more northern city, 4 hours, 100 bhat (3 dollars). we zip thorough the smaller cities, dropping off thais and picking them up along the way, and sooner than later arive, and are swiftly taken by bike taxi to our homebase, the motercycle renters named the jolly frog. we get 2 bikes, max speed 140 kilometers per hour, 150 bhat a day, and after a few crashes and good laughs, get on the main highway amid the smoke and turbulent air of a growing agricultural nations bloodline to economic stability. this vein, however, begins to die after a while, and soon all that liam and i have in mind is the single want and need to get away from the city, the coughing, the stagnant air to take refuge in the northern city of tong pha phum, right along the burmese border. maybe see some good stuff along the way eh? first stop, Hellfire pass. auspicious name eh? this was the memorial for the transcontinental railway that connects thailand to burma directly after world war two, where 23 thousand prisoners of war, mostly chinese and austrailian, were tortured and beaten, in order to cut into the hillside by hand for years, and more than 18000 of them died from sickness, starvation, or exaustion. i had never heard of this before, so seeing the rock chisled down into the earth a good 50 feet, and knowing it had all been done by hand by prisoners put things into perspective. but railways gotta get built right? the railway only lasted for 2 years after its completion. the memorial lead liam and i along the trail of their toil for a long ways, and soon we had to turn back, in order to make it to the small city before nightfall. we started engines, and got moving again, once to stop and have some fantastic fried rice at an old womans home, whom dident know english, and possessed one of the best smiles i have ever seen. the mountains started to grow from the horizon, in a sea of green which makes me a little uneasy when i think about it still, coming from a desert, the amount of verdent life makes me nervous. thunderstorm. waiting under a bamboo hut for an hour before we decide to brave it due to the impending dark on a small road on the border of burma, a country and specifically border that is infamous to be unwelcoming and unfreindly to tourists. cold. cold. cold. finally we arrive, with grins like the cheshire cat, dripping fat raindrops and checking into the dim, smoky town's solitary hotel. the receptionist seems to think we are more of a sight than we believe ourselves to be. this would be vindicated the next day when we get the same idea from the locals, who i now know have seen very few white people throughout their lives. face paint is abundant here, white streeks from wide paintbrushes on both sides of the face, mostly on girls and women, good luck, keeps bad spirits away. liam and i dodge between shelters to find a place to eat, and after a while decend upon a small, smoky, restaurant, where a fair number of locals are enjoying a type of barbecue that i havent seen. and as quick as we arrive, the scene changes, dead silence, a few smiles, a few frowns, and one courageous girl who sits us down, and without asking what we'd like ( like it would have helped) brought us two changs (beer), a barbecue stove, and two plates full of meat, chinese broccoli, noodles, eggs, basil, celery, and salty broth. we thank her as a well as we can, due to the language being a kind of burmese dialect, they couldent understand the thai that liam or i spoke, which with we had easially managed to order earlier that day. best barbecue ive ever had, hands down. 140 bhat for the both of us, and many smiles as we left and made our way back to the hotel, filled with spiders and cockroaches, and a small squat toilet. slept very well. made our way the next day along a backroad for 2 hours to a tiny farming town home to the best cup of coffee ive ever had, and strong enough to make john wayne sour. this small cafe i will always remember, due to the good 50 or so cages in the front all filled with cats, jumping around their compounds, and going generally neurotic. i doubt i will ever know where, why, or how these cats lives will be taken, used, or implemented, but it is still something that perplexes me now as i write this hahaha. thai society, however, has given me a unfortunate frame of mind to things such as the cat farm, and i find myself trying to think of other things. we find the waterfalls, pad somethingorother, but regardless of my amnesia ill remember the beauty of these to the day i die, an entire mountainside, bleeding with water. seemingly the fountain of youth for the world. and entire mountain made of water. we stick around for a while, flashing our student cards to the tiny park officals like triggerhappy new york detectives, and wondering how much more water could possibly erupt from the ground. soon, we make our way back to katchanaburi, and after 5 quick hours on the motorbikes, arrive at the t and t guest house, and meet up with our friends thomas, julia, brenda (the regular group by now), and a few others from our school. ryan, from iowa state, the man is more proud of the corn riddled state than you could ever know. vanessa, from california, alwys smiling, very beautiful. we spend the night in tourist ridden bars. wake up early the next morning, have some massaman curry for breakfast, (strong, fatty peanut curry with lots of cinnamon and spices, i think cardimum). we make our way to Erawen falls, the most famous national park in thailand. this is due to one waterfall, well, seven actually, all resulting from the same stream of water. the 7 tier'd waterfall it is called. we throw off our shirts, start sweating, and make our way up the trail. out pops the first waterfall and pool. undescribably georgous, a jewel of blue amid the green trees, with a fat waterfall, maybe 50 meters across. above that, the secont tier, and above that, the third. the third is by far the most beautiful, with the tallest waterfall, with a massive pool full of attention starved fish, eager to school around and nibble on anybody who dives in and desides to stay still. there is a large cave behind this waterfall, which i discover with the same glee that a child might upon discovering a 100 dollar bill. so there i sat, with the waterfall abusing my back, a rough massage, for a good 20 minuets, until my shaking brain tells me its time to leave before an anuerism. 4 tier, 5th ( rocks that you can slide into the pool below), 6th, and finally the 7th. all distincitive in their own way. all one of a kind. we make our way back down, jumping in each pool of aqua, and wondering why we decided to leave bangkok as late as we did, not knowing of this fantastic place. we suit up, and quickly get to the bus station before dark, and pass out on the bus until it arrives in bangkok. this is one of the only times i have been unhappy to return to the metal organism, i miss the trees, and the mountains. i miss the way that the world contstructs itself without the impediment of man.

oct 3, after kho tao

so heres how it stands. ive been a few places, im not too dilligent of a writer, but i just got back from the best place ive been yet i think. after a 7 hour night bus, some really sketchy thai food, and a 2 hour ferry, we arrived at kho tao, 'turtle island', origionally used to stash bootlegged items, its become thailands premiere diving spot, with everything from shallow snorkeling to deep sea diving, all with a multifarious amount of colors and sealife. there are islands all over close to the main one, one of which, below, is by far the most beautiful. we arrived in the morning at about 10 am, and spent the day recouping, and eating curry and fried rice at our bungalow hotel, with a room shared with thomas for 350 baht a night, or 4 dollars a person. right on the beach, its perfect for nightlife, and everything in between.
upon arrival, we seeked out a nice, quiet beach thanks to the help of an absurdedly nice cab driver, which ended up being more by a 4x4 driver, who pointed up to the beach of white sands and no sounds. lots of sand castles, lots of snorkeling, lots of very little at all. we got hit by a good rainstorm that brought out the frogs, and kept in the tourists, which meant at nightfall we had to find our way back to our home beach. we chilled that night, spent a while at the bar for a friends birthday. we were with julia and brenda, peggy, also a girl from california, and one of julias friends, amy. things were going good until thomas decided it would be a good idea to try to swallow a 10 peice baht coin, which is a little heaver and wider than a quarter. things went downhill from there, but we ended on the beach, and had a blast staying up until about 4 in the morning talking about everything. the sound of the beach and the feel of the ocean streaching forever on in front of you makes words flow more easily i think, and each experience with the ocean teaches me the same lesson. the next day we rented a snorkeling boat with the 6 of us, and spend all day in the ocean at five different spots. the highlights were seeing a black tip reef shark on the first dive that only one other person saw, it was a pretty large one, and i was a bit freaked out learning that i was the only one that saw it. also, thomas and i breaking pretty far from the boat, and discovering a massive school of fish which was as dense as a mountain, and about at large as one too, big as anything ive seen on animal planet or the like.

we ended up taking it easy that night, and finding a good food joint with good music, which seems to be in abundance here. it has become my hobby to find good indian food here. though thai food is well sought after for good reason, my taste still lies with indian food, and with all foods here being so cheap, ive become a bit of a self acclaimed indian food guru. anyways, good curry, good company, fell asleep with a good foot sized, pink and white gecko above thomas' and my bed. next day, i woke up with a craving, which is one thing i find thailand gives me regularly, cravings. this particular one was for a good hamburger and fries. though i havent wanted that for years back home, it was a bit like an itch that wouldent go away. so i settled for the best meal ive had for a long time, a pineapple burger with huge cut sweet potato fries. 2 dollars.
so another 7 hours on a bus, the bronchitus made it kind of a pain, but its getting better now thank god. i think now that im back in bangkok i need to stop traveling for a week and recoup, becausei seem to be dragging this lung illness on and on. maybe this weekend ill chill at jj market, largest open market in asia, and see how things go.