Glap Bahn

GGGGGRRRRRRRRR

I just wrote up this whole thing and then deleted it somehow. And this time the whole page is in English so I don't even have an excuse.

Well, I'm back home (glap bahn) and I decided I feel like I've been in a coma for the past three months. I remember/recognize most things but there are subtle differences people need to clue me in about. For example - Angelina Jolie is pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby, Rory is back at Yale, both Erica and Alex's rooms are now offices for my mom and dad, and there's a motion sensored, singing and dancing, five foot Santa Claus in the living room. The last one I kind of figured out by myself.

So far since I've been home I've...
1) slept a lot
2) put on all the accessories I've accumulated in Thailand (2 bracelets I bought from Hill Tribe women, an elephant bracelet from the park, the necklace from the boy in the Karen village, the elephant bell necklace from Kopi, my two hat purchases from the Sunday Market, simultaneously, and a scarf or two) and walked around the house pointing to things and saying them in Thai
3) reazlied what it's like to Mom, in that I was cold, like uncomfortably cold when no one else was
4) possibly gotten sick (I think my stomach is jet-lagged and upset)
5) spent a lot of time on the internet.

Most of the time on the internet has been on Asian elephant conservation websites. Mostly because I just miss them a lot and can't stop thinking about them (the ones at the park, but the species as a whole too), but I also have this idea that I can figure out how to make a real job out my obsession with them and I feel like sitting on the internet for hours may help spark my genius solution.

www.elephantnaturepark.org(the park!! It's an old, ugly ugly site, with a lot of dead links and some weird English, but a lot of information on the elephants, and Lek)

www.helpthaielephants.com(the site with the stolen footage from Lek that caused the elephant camps to get together to put a contract out for her head! Ahh! She had to hide in Burma. But it gives a simple explanation of "phaajahn" process.)

www.digital-rampage.com/serengeti (the Park's USA non-profit, outdated, and mostly the same info as ENP, but a nicer website and you can donate online to Elephant Nature Park. And don't worry, the Park gets 100%.)
www.serengetiusa.com (same group, similar website, better website name)

www.allforelephants.org (another non-profit in California for the Park, also outdated, but there's sound and a cool intro.)

www.elephant.org.th (an ex-friend of Lek's who joined in to accuse Lek of staging the footage. She's generally not good. Ask me for more details if you're interested.)

www.elephants.com (an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.)

And then I've had some suggestions for the zoo option. But it seems like elephants aren't really made for zoos.

There's currently a huge debate about 8 Thai elephants being sold to 2 Australian zoos for their "conservation programs" and Lek, along with a bunch of other animal rights groups are trying to stop the trade. A lot of zoos say they have elephants in "conservation programs" but the fact seems to be elephants aren't into breeding at zoos. I read somewhere that since January 2000, US zoos, with more than 120 female elephants, have produced just eight babies, and only three survived. Still births and infanticide are much more common in zoos. Uh oh.

Here's an article from the International Fund for Animal Welfare about why elephants shouldn't be in zoos. There are a bunch more articles available through the link below if you're interested.

Elephants are Born to be Wild
Australian zoos are planning to import eight Asian elephants from Thailand to start a zoo captive breeding program.

We are fighting this import because elephants suffer in zoos and this program will do nothing to save the endangered species.

Will captive breeding save the Asian elephant?
No. The zoos plan to captive breed Asian elephants is only to create a "self-sustaining" Australasian zoo population. The zoos themselves have stated there are no plans to return calves to the wild.

Research indicates that zoo captive breeding programs for elephants are not viable.

Birth rates for Asian elephants in zoos are ten times slower than those occurring in the wild. Wild Asian elephants give birth to an average of six calves during their lifetime. This is usually reduced to only a single calf for zoo elephants.

An elephant has never been born in an Australasian zoo.

Is it really about conservation?
The facts speak for themselves.

Elephants feature prominently in marketing campaigns and are seen as a drawcard for zoos.

Taronga Zoo's long-term resident elephants Â? Â?He-ManÂ? and Â?BurmaÂ? Â? were recently sent to Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo while finishing touches were put on the new $40 million Asian Elephant Precinct (complete with 600 seat restaurant overlooking the elephant enclosure). The new elephant exhibit has been built for the four juvenile elephants the zoo wants to import from Thailand.

There can be little doubt that the primary motivation behind the elephant import is increased visitation to the zoo resulting in increased revenue.

Asian elephants cannot be imported for exhibition or for primarily commercial reasons. This is why the zoos are arguing that it is for conservation reasons.

There is no guarantee that thecaptivecaptve breeding program will be successful and none of the calves bred will ever be returned to the wild.

How do you save the Asian elephant?
Efforts to save the Asian elephant can and must be focused in their home range states.

IFAW works throughout Africa and Asia to protect elephant habitats and works with local communities to find lasting solutions to human-elephant conflict, funds anti-poaching measures and works globally to end the trade in elephants and ivory.

Captive breeding in Australasian zoos will do nothing to save the species.

Aren't elephants better off in a zoo than a Thai camp?
The ideal situation for elephants in camps is to be rehabilitated in a Thai sanctuary rather than transported thousands of kilometres for a life in a zoo.

Evidence indicates that elephants suffer severe anxiety when transported. In February this year, two of eight Asian elephants sent from Thailand to China died just weeks after arrival.

Transportation is only one problem. No matter how good the new facilities are at Australian zoos are they can never replicate an elephant's home and family.

IFAW has revealed that one of the nine elephants destined for an Australasian zoo was returned to the elephant camp it came from. It was rejected for displaying aggressive behaviour, developed since it had been in quarantine.

This is the second of the nine elephants, which have been in quarantine in Thailand since October 2004, to develop aggressive tendencies. As a result of this latest incident Auckland Zoo has temporarily dropped out of the import proposal.

Approximately one in 600 elephant handlers in the United States is killed each year and elephants kill more zoo personnel than all other species of animal kept in zoos and circuses combined. In Thailand it is estimated that about 200 mahouts (elephant trainers) are killed each year.

Is IFAW Opposed to Zoos?
No. We recognise that zoos around the world do some good conservation and education work, and IFAW works closely with many zoo experts on wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary projects.

However, there are animals, such as elephants, that science and expert opinion have found to suffer tremendously in zoos. This is because, despite their best efforts, zoos cannot meet the physical, behavioural, psychological and social needs of elephants.

Interesting, huh? The zoos don't seem to have too much of a response either. They say stuff like, "we're doing exactly what's required by law," which doesn't really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Oooh, there's a position open at IFAW in Sydney for an Executive Assistant. Could I do that??

Right. This whole getting a job thing. Stressful! Not because I don't have enough options, but because I feel like I have too many and I can think of like a billion ways that I would probably be happy. Last night, after looking at elephant places, I started looking at TOEFL certification programs so I could go teach English in Thailand. Before this crazy Asia idea the plan was to live abroad in New Zealand for a year and if I stayed here, working at a school and getting certified, then I could go back to Thailand where I could live abroad for a year (one of my goals from Walkabout), teach kids in an unconventional setting (another goal from Walkabout), and be closer to the park and get back to learning Thai (more recent goals). Then tonight Laura said there might be an opening in the children's department at Simon and Schuster and I thought that sounded cool too. And then there's Jordan who has been trying to get me to work at The Agency Group since I went to college.

I realize this is actually an awesome position to be in, but it's still kind of stressful. Oh the burden of being a 22 year old college graduate in the suburbs of New York City, returning from a 3 month vacation in Asia.

I have to shut up.

Tomorrow I'm going to clean my room.

Kung Hey Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year from Hong Kong!

Wow, people are excited. It's the Year of the Dog so there are pictures of happy puppies ALL over the place.

And kids all get new clothes and the little ones all get red or gold outfits. Pretty cute!

Koh Pha Ngan was nice. I talked with Mote about working/living in a place so saturated with foreigners. He said he liked it usually because he likes practicing his English but not the Israelis cause they get into fights and are really loud. Woo hoo! Worse than Americans! I tried to talk about Buddhism with him but he said it was hard to talk about in English. I did find out he was a monk at a temple for 9 months and took it really really seriously. I also found out that the Thai army makes 20 year old guys pick a peice of paper out of a box and if it's red they don't go into the army and if it's black they do. He got a black one and carried a gun but never used it.

Then I left and went to Mae Haad! Laura (from Elephant Nature Park) showed up and came with me to Mae Haad with her friend Dave. Woo hoo! I saw Ot's rooster that he fights in Thong Sala and makes money off of (that was weird), "worked" at the bar, learned more Thai, made friends with a 6 year old Austrlian girl named Jade who also really likes elephants, went to a Chinese Temple and learned how to pray to Buddha, went back to Koh Ma (the tide wasn't nearly as annoying, there's a new guy running it and he found the shorts Danny left there and was wearing them!), met Chau's 3 month old baby, met my first always-angry Thai person (Chau's wife), and pretty much chilled out, sometimes discussing the difference between 40 year olds in Mae Haad (very tan, lots of tattoos, not that much clothing) and 40 year olds in the States (morgages, jobs, less tattoos, more clothing) with Laura.

Since then, I've been slowly getting back into Western society. The beach I stayed at in Koh Samui had a McDonalds, a Burger King, 2 Pizza Huts, 2 Haagen Daz stores, and several Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Converse stores each. There were a ton of fancy restuarants with Italian or French chefs and menus that all had correct English. Weird, weird, weird! I got a salad for the first time in a very long time.

And now Hong Kong. Woah. I'm wearing my jacket after 10am and put on my shoes for the first time since in over a month. I used a jetway (is that what it's called?) for the first time in two months, the hotel I'm staying at has a bathtub with a fixed shower ("shower"in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand usually meant a shower head hanging from the wall in the area where the toilet and sink were. It was hand held and you just kind of tried your hardest to make sure it didn't spray the toilet paper roll) and it's more than $10 a night. Like a lot more.

So tonight is a big parade for the New Year. That'll be fun. It makes up for missing the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It'll be cold, but I mean cold like "Oh no, I guess I'll have to wear my sneakers, my track jacket and my cute new hat!" not like actually cold cold. And then tomorrow...

I'm going home! I'm not that excited about being here and all the hotel rooms under $300 are booked up so it's a lot cheaper to change my flight than to stay in Hong Kong two more nights.

So this is it. My last night in Asia. I feel all sorts of weird. Leaving Thailand this morning I was actually really sad but I'm hoping that leaving Hong Kong will just feel like a relief.

Jan. 30th - 10:15am (Hong Kong time) Leave Hong Kong
Jan. 30th - 12:50pm (New York time) Arrive New York

Back to spending too much time at internet cafes!!

I never made it back to an internet cafe. Monday I finally made it to the Hill Tribe Museum. I didn't plan very well so I left without eating lunch and got there an hour before it closed and could only think about food the whole time.

The main question I wanted to know was how Karens decided that pink was going to be their color of choice and where they get (or used to get, cause now I hear they buy it from cities) the dye from. The museum didn't answer that and I felt like I was in too grumpy of a mood to talk to anyone. Usually the tuk tuk drivers are really talkative and I try to practice speaking Thai with them but that day I was cranky and I was just giving one syllable English answers. I was thinking about saying, "Sorry, I'm very hungry right now and I have low blood sugar. I'm normally a much more pleasant person" but I didn't know how to say the second part in Thai.

So Tuesday morning I flew to Bangkok (again, didn't leave the airport), then to Samui. I got to Bangkok pretty early (I went to Chiang Mai Airport early because, again, I didn't buy the ticket beforehand) and was able to get on a flight leaving about 20 minutes after I arrived at the airport. Stand by is awesome! So I got to Samui, went to Koh Pha Ngan on the the cheap, wood boat, starting getting hit on by Israelis not even 10 minutes after the boat took off. He said, "are you Israeli?" and I said no and he said, "Because you are beautiful, like Israeli women." I said thanks. Mote met me when I got off the boat. He had arranged for a room for me (cheaper than the place he works at) which was really good cause for some reason a lot of the places are full here. Still! I don't understand. Full Moon Party is a couple weeks away. Someone said because of Chinese New Year, but I still only see Israelis here and I doubt they're here to celebrate Chinese New Year.

It was raining when I got to Samui, raining when I got to Koh Pha Ngan, then it stopped for a little bit, but then I went for dinner it started raining again. Then the electricity went out for about an hour, on the whole island. When I was here last time it happened too but it was either during the day when it didn't matter that much or only for 20 seconds if it was at night.

You're not left with a lot of options when the electricity goes out at 8pm on a beach island when it's raining. I just sat at the restaurant listening to other people's conversations. Lots of girls saying, "When's it going to come back on???" Over and over. Like anyone around them had any idea. One time I asked Pom (in Thai!) , "When are we going to leave?" and her answer was, "When we leave!" I feel like Dad would have a very interesting time in Thailand.

Ooops. Mote just stopped by and told me check out time was 10am for the bungalow I'm staying at. It's 11:19 so I guess I'll stay here another day. That's ok. I bought two books yesterday and reading in Haad Rin is pretty similar to reading in Mae Haad so it's not that bad.

Oh! Yesterday I started learning the Thai alphabet. Tough stuff! They have 44 consonants, 11 vowels (each with a long and a short version), 5 tones, and then a couple more other little punctuation marks for some letters (and no song!). I know about 9 letters so far. It's fun to write the letters because they're all really squiggly with lots of circles.

The computer I'm on isn't allowing me to upload pictures but I'll try to give you a quick run down of my favorites of the cast of characters from the elephant park last week.

Will (aka Will the Thrill/Patrick Swayze) - 38, Louisiana. Half the time he was (understandably) freaking out about coming back from Iraq. He just quit his Haliburton job there of 6 months. He was on a ton of drugs and extremely emotional. He would often get into really deep (one way) conversations about it with a lot of, "you haven't seen what I've seen," "you've didn't have to carry your friend's dead bodies from the battlefield" and stuff like that. Pretty fucking (excuse my language) intense. After about a half hour of depressing stories he would go into how much he hated George Bush now, how we're all fucked, there's no solution, we shouldn't have gone in the first place but now that we're there we can't leave, and neither the Republicans or Democrats are going to get us out of this mess, only the Independents, and therefore, yes, we're fucked. The other half the time he was being, um, a Southern Gentleman, but not really. He really liked being macho, but he also really liked complaining. Example: Sitting in the back of the pick-up truck is pretty cold when you're going fast. Therefore we had blankets on us. I was sitting on the right side, Isabelle was on the left side and Will was in the middle. He was constantly trying to make sure the two of us had enough blankets (after we said we really didn't care) but then would start yelling, "I'm so fucking cold!"

Isabelle, a fairly quiet girl most of the time, eventually lost it, sat up and screamed, "Take the fucking duna!" (duna = Australian for comforter) I put earplugs in my ears, pulled my beanie over my head and tried to not hear him as much as possible. Another time Rachel said, "I'm going to go to sleep, but if you want to put your legs out wake me up, and I'll move. It's not a problem. Ok?" When she woke up he said something like, "It's about time you woke up, I was so cramped, all I wanted to do was put my legs out...." Rachel said, "I said wake me up!" His response, "A Southern gentleman can not wake a beautiful lady up when she's sleeping!" But endlessly complaining is totally fine.

Will is why people think Americans are loud, obnoxious and rude. He had what Laura called his "center of attention jumpsuit." If at any time not enough people were paying attention to him he would put it on and do something with fire or a big knife.

I realized he wasn't going to help my "not all Americans suck" cause on the first night. Some football game was on and he went on this rant about how "A man knows he's found a good lady if she can sit back and enjoy a football game with him," or something like that. He went on for about 20 minutes on this. I told him that, although I'm not even a fan of football, I've been to more football games than my boyfriend. He didn't have a response to this. Will was really into making sweeping generalizations about America and Americans and especially American men. This killed me! I felt like I had to walk around following him saying, "Guys, please don't believe him. He's just weird, and he just got back from Iraq, and he's from Lousiana. Most people in America don't fit this descriptions I'm pretty sure." But then again George Bush is president so what do I know about the average American? I have no idea. I've been asked on more than one occasion, "Hey Beth, you're American, why did George Bush get elected again?" I usually say, "I don't know. Half the country, myself included, was just as surprised and disappointed as you and, what seems like, the rest of the world." I wonder what they thought I was going to say. Nex time I'll add "There are a lot of people in America and I don't know most of them. Sorry I can't help you out more."

After being quiet for a day (very un-Will like) he ended up freaking out and taking off in the middle of the night. Like 2 in the morning he just left, started walking down the street. It was at least a hour walk to anywhere that may have been open, but it was so late, I can't imagine there was anything open for at least 3 or 4 hours. Apparently earlier in the day he had asked someone if putting your thumb out works for hitchhiking in Thailand too. We felt weird but what can you do? Chase him down and beg him to come back? He's 38, not 6, right? Weird weird weird. I just hope he got wherever he wanted to go alright.

Awkward moment Monday morning in the office in Chiang Mai when an English girl he had told about the park showed up:
Her: "Hey, so you were at the park last week! You met Will! I'm friends with him! Did he tell you I was coming up this week? When did he leave yesterday? He was supposed to meet up with me last night." (Rachel and I looked at each other and stayed silent. Jeff stepped in.)
Jeff: "Um, well, there were a couple of different vans that left at different times yesterday."
Her: "Oh he probably forgot where we were going to meet up. What a great guy, huh?"
Jeff: "He's a character all right."

There are a bunch of people who stayed up there for the second week. I wonder if anyone will tell her what happened.

Moose and Adam- England. A vegan English couple from Hastings (South coast). They were extremely funny. Adam, a very expressive, fast talker, stood in front of a village of Karen people (99% of whom don't understand English) and said, "Hello everyone, my name's Adam. I'm from England, the south coast. I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon, and I'm very happy to be here." And maybe a couple more sentences. His girlfriend Moose is the quieter, slower speaking one of the pair then introduced herself, "My name's Moose. I'm from England." My first conversation with them kind of scared me. They were talking about laundry and I said, "Oh I have some extra detergent if you need it." Adam's response, "Is it eco?" My answer, "Eh, no. It was the cheapest stuff that 7-11 had at 7:30 this morning." They sometimes made me feel like a bad person who hated animals and the environment but mostly made me laugh so it's ok.

Isabelle - 19, Australia. Will said he had this fiance he was in love with (but hasn't met in person yet, only email and phone calls) and knew that Isabelle has a boyfriend of three years, but neither of these facts stopped him from being obsessed with Isabelle. Honestly, obsessed. She handled it pretty well most of the time. Making a lot of, "oh my god, what is wrong with this guy" faces to Rachel and me. I'll admit, the first day I saw her I was thinking, "Uh oh, her clothing's really nice and she's wearing make up. I wonder if she's going to hate this place." But she loved it. I love when I make assumptions and then end up completely wrong.

Laura - 31, New Hampshire. Laura is currently teaching English and Journalism at a university in Shanghai. She has a ton of really funny stories. I think I wrote before about the English names for the kids in Danny's dorm. Laura's student have even better ones. "Lots of Kinkys, Sprite, Pepsi, Pear, Orange..." and a ton more I can't remember. She said she tries to tell them, "It's fine for now, but when you put out your CV you may want to think about changing your name." Before her Chinese professor job she worked for NPR in New Hampshire. She knew Interlocken (oops, Windsor Mountain) because she had done a story on the whole controversy and told me a story about a Michigan Interlochen lawyer calling up and being real sketchy with her. Booooo Michigan Interlochen. She also told me when she had her first radio flashback dream about NPR in a really long time. She said she was in an editing room and Ira Glass walked in and she said to him, "You're really becoming a parody of yourself these days, don't you think?" I thought that was really funny. She's never met him and said if she didn't she can't imagine herself saying something that mean to him so it was a very bizarre dream. I had been carrying around the copy of The Onion Beau had sent me for Christmas so I passed it on to her. I was waiting to meet someone who I knew would fully appreciate it. Laura, like the Onion, is really good at saying really funny things with complete seriousness. In the Karen village the first night it was decided that we (the villagers and us) would stand around a huge fire and exchange singing songs. Laura's vote was for Twinkle, Twinkle. "Seriously, we should do 'Twinkle, Twinkle.' I think it would be a good song for the kids. 'Twinkle, Twinkle' everyone? Yeah?" I guess it doesn't sound that funny now but I couldn't stop laughing. Twinkle, Twinkle unfortunately didn't happen but the biggest Chicken Dance that village has ever seen (and probably will ever see) did. All the village kids were into it. Only the first hand clapping, wing flapping, butt shaking part. For the spinning around with a partner part the kids all ran away. But then came back for the next verse of hand clapping, wing flapping and butt shaking. We also did the hokey pokey.
Laura's currently in Bangkok, possibly coming down to the islands so I might be able to see her again.

Paul - 30, Australia. Paul was Will's roommate. He also talked a lot but about really interesting stuff that people wanted to hear about. He went to a boarding school for 6 years so he had an awesome repetoire of pranks and jokes and stuff. He led the "Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie," game. I knew this from when I was 10, so I was in the clear of looking like an idiot. But besides me there was only one other person who knew it. Leaving about 10 people completely clueless and trying for hours to figure out what the secret was. It was great. Paul was cool because he was also trying to learn Thai and I got to try to help. My most important teaching was the difference between "kah" and "kap." Females (and ladyboys) end sentences, questions, etc with "kah." Males end with "kap." He had thought it was based on who you were speaking to. So for the whole time he had been in Thailand he had been saying, "kah" to any women he was talking to and therefore declaring himself a ladyboy. He had no idea. Oopsies!

During the Jumbo Express he was desperately trying to find some big green bamboo to make a didgeridoo out of. I tried to put the words "green," "big," "bamboo" and "where" together but with no sucess. Eventually when we back at the park he found some and made a didg. Very cool.

Michael - 18, England, wait no, Canada. Nice kid but young and I feel like he was faking an English accent the whole time. He talked about the 2 and half months he spent building houses in Costa Rica and how it was with all British kids and that's how he developed the accent, but I'm pretty sure his accent became increasingly British over the week he was at the park. At one point Rachel was talking about one of the dinner dishes and she said "baaa-zil" and I said, "Uh, Rachel, it's called 'bay-zul.'" Rachel's has this ridiculous mix of American/British/Australian accents from growing up at an International School in Singapore. My comment was obviously a joke. Rachel knew this. Michael didn't. "Actually, Beth, either pronouciation is correct. In England they call it 'baaa-zil.'" I then said something like, "Michael. I realize this. I understand how accents work." That was probably the most stern I was at my time at the park. I had wanted to add, "people in my own town, sometimes even in my own family say some words with accents. Why would I expect someone from Singapore to say anything the same way as me? Don't worry, I don't" but I didn't. He also kept on saying, "I really should learn Thai, I'm going to be here for 3 months, but for one month I can't talk because I'll be a novice monk at a monastery and I'll only be allowed to talk once a day," about 20 times. He wasn't mean or a bad person in any way, we talked about music for a while one day (he plays bassoon), he was just a bit "wordy" sometimes as Laura put it.

Em - 26, Australia. Em was awesome! First off she had a conversation with Michael about the whole "one month at a monastery thing." She asked him why he was doing it, if it was purely for the novelty of the experience or if he really had something deeper interest in, and how he planned to use the experience in a meaningful way when he went back home. Em's questions were a lot better than Michael's answers. She didn't come on the Jumbo Express trip and from the first day he arrived stayed as far away as possible from Will. She was very much apart from any of the drama. She was usually stationed over by the 3 new elephants. They were really nice to spend time with. The foot messed up by the landmind just swung back and forth and was really uncomfortable to look at. Elephants are HUGE, so to imagine not being able to use one of the four points of stability seems horrible. To balance that depressing story, I got to watch the baby elephant grow from 2 weeks old to 3 weeks. The relationship between the baby and the mother was very sweet. At the beginning the mother wasn't making any milk, a product of the terrible condition she had just come from. The baby had to be given milk from a bottle. But by the time I left the mother was producing her own milk and the baby went from 3 bottles a day to only 1 bottle and mostly mom's milk. Very very very cool. Unfortunately one of the baby's legs is messed up (I heard that she gave birth on a mountain side and he fell down the mountain right at birth) which may mean that the owner won't want him back (they're both on lease right now) because he won't be able to work. Kind of a mixed blessing.

The mahout for the new mom and baby was an 18 year old Burmese kid named Jokuku. Em hung out with him and the other Burmese mahouts a lot and I joined them occasionally. Kopi (my, now 18 year old, Burmese mahout buddy) now had friends! Jokuku was one of a couple new Burmese teenage boys that came since I had left. When I was there last time Kopi was the only young Burmese mahout. He was so much happier this time. In May he's actually going to be going back to the Burmese Refugee Camp he came from. He said his mom wants him to go to school.

The first time I was I thought, "wow, living at Elephant Nature Park versus Westchester County - what a completely different world." And now, "Burmese Refugee Camp versus Westchester Country - oh god." I'm trying to figure out how to even think about that. Em and I gave Kopi our addresses and email addresses. We tried to ask, "Can you send mail? Maybe one day do you think you may have email?" but his answer to both was, "I don't know."

On the last night a bunch of people played cards, got drunk and started singing very loudly at the main hut. Em had volunteered to babysit with Raki (The 14 month old! Now walking!) while his mom, Jodi, went to a wedding (she wore sparkly fake Birkenstocks and flowy black pants and shirt) so I hung out with her instead. Raki was unfortunately already asleep by the time I got there. We watched Discovery Channel DVDs on Pygmy Mammoths and Elephants (both in Thai). She was supposed to leave Wednesday but then decided to stay one more day, then two, then another week. I'm completely jealous. She came into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening but went back to the park on Sunday night with the Korean Film Crew who had come into Chiang Mai to some editing.

Korean Film Crew - Three guys from KBS (Korea's PBS/BBC) were there for the week. Very strange. I sat in the car with them for a while to relieve Jeff on the way up to the Karen village. He said they were boring and quiet so I said I would switch with him so I could sleep and not be cramped in the back of the cab of the pick up. But then when I got into the car they got really excited that I was from New York. Our conversation went like this... New York --> Sex in the City --> Sarah Jessica Parker --> Jennifer Aniston (one of the guys didn't know the difference I think) --> Brad Pitt --> Angelina Jolie. I didn't get to sleep at all. I learned how to say thank you in Korean. They played a lot of Korean pop in the car which was pretty terrible. They also kept on stopping at nice places to take video and pictures and then would speed on scary, winding mountain roads to make up for lost time. On the plus side, they bought ice cream and peach iced tea for the car. The Korean film crew thought Will looked like Patrick Swayze.

Jeff - 26, Canada. I knew him a bit from last time but got to hang out with him a lot more this time. He pretty much goes wherever Lek goes and she was up at the park a lot this time and did the Jumbo Express trip (which they were going to go on last time but she was sick, so he stayed with her). I found out that he's vegetarian but not because he doesn't want meat in his body, just because he personally doesn't want to create the demand because of the bad conditions for the animals at factory farms. "Let me put it this way - if I order a veggie pizza and they throw bacon on there by accident, I consider it a blessing and enjoy it." I thought that was interesting.

Jeff's now a chicken mom. Lek's brother had found a tiny baby chicken in Chiang Mai sometime around Christmas when it was just a ball of fluff. Jeff adopted it, named it Kulasoo (the Karen words for black foreigner I think?) and is now determined to make it a big tough chicken capable of scaring off the dogs. Right now it fits in his pocket. The Jumbo Express trip was tough for Kulasoo. Some little village kid threw a rock (bigger than the chicken) at it and messed up his foot. And then some insect I found that I thought he may have been interested in eating got some nasty stuff in his eye. He's a trooper though and is recovering well.

Hanging out with Jeff is cool because he knows Thai. Not fluently yet but he's been here for a while and while I know random, useless nouns, he can actually say words with the right pronouciation so that Thais actually understand him. I learned, "kow jai mai?" which means "do you understand?" from him. Very important.

Jeff is Canadian and has flat out said he doesn't like, "the average American." I think this means loud, obnoxious, uninformed, center of attention Americans. He decided that I was from this place called America but it wasn't the same one as that other America. It was a completely different place, just happened to have the same name and make people with a similar accent.
To make judgements about "the average American" seemed kind of harsh, but the more I think about it, I guess he's not completely wrong. I don't think I've personally have never thought about the "the average American" because it seems like too stupid of a concept. But realistically, American probably has more Will type personalities than Beth type personalities. (I forgot to mention before, Will threatened to beat up some Dutch guy on a street in Chiang Mai because he made some comment on a shirt he was wearing. Moose and Adam had to pull him away. Will was proud of himself for letting the guy know he "wasn't going to take that shit.")

Rachel also told me that she thought all Americans are either overweight and eat McDonalds all the time or super skinny and only eat low fat organic stuff and go to the gym 6 hours a day. First I got upset saying, "No! That's only on TV!" But she's not really completely wrong either. I just googled "percentage of overweight Americans" and came up with a 2002 CNN.com article saying a Harris Poll just reported 80% of Americans over age 25 are overweight. Another article said 30% are obese. And if she ever walked into Club Fit she would see the creepy old lady with the spandex leotard and headband who spends all day on the stepper. I guess Singapore doesn't have that woman.

So I guess my mission in the world can't be to represent "the average American," only to act as a reminder that there are Americans who aren't average.

Ugh! Being American is exhausting.

I'll end this with two emails I got from my novice monks friends. The English isn't perfect but a lot better than my Lao, so I don't judge. Also, I like reading how they write because it turns out kind of poetic I think.

From Thong (the good one who may decide to be a monk):

Hi ! Beth .
I am so glad to hear from you today , What are you doing now ? Are you doing good now ? I really hope that you have been doing well as me in Luang pa bang .Was so glad that you happy with Elepants . I hope in southen of Thailand now , How about the weather here ? I hove no much much information from Luang pa bang to let you know , Because of now , I am sick , I just only stay at stay at the temple everyday .
I wish you good luck with your trip , happy , enjoy with your friends all the time .
Please take a good care of yoursself .
Be smile all the time
Talk to you soon
Thong

From Nanh (the bad one who showed up at the bar but then wrote an email saying he was really embarresed and sorry, and felt bad for getting drunk and asked if I would forgive him because he wanted to be friends. I said it was ok, I'm not upset, just a bit suprised and confused.):

Hi Beth
OK,if you dont upset i wouldon't be worry,Actually,I dont go to bars alot,and that's my second time with you,and you thought is correctly,in the fact,monks and novices can't do like that,but how should i do,everyone in this world never behave well all time,some time a person have to do wrong also,but not mean is wrong forever.
Because,som time if some one is in the wrong because of they want to try or want to know how about it,asfor me,that's my first time that i had went to bar with foreign,and i was very exiting to make fun with you,but i know i'm in the wrong,and i intend i would not do more again,because i have really know that doing like that,that's not help anything is better,it just bring failure of life to myself.anyway,I hope you would not show other people know about what i did.
I'm very happy to hear you dont mind me.
How long you will stay in ChiangMai?
Actually,I dont have anything to do I just keep practises with tourists,and i have just finished exam french in last friday,and i think i did well indeed,I hope i can get number one in my class.
i'm not sure how long i will be at the Wat,because right now i dont have any thing to prepair,so i can't tell you now,but when i going to leave i will tell you ok?and if possible can you show me the pictures?
OK let me end here,I hope to see the pictures and keep in reading your letter soon.
Have a good time.
Take care.
Bye.
nanh.

LEAVING THE INTERNET CAFE NOW! IT'S SUNNY FOR ONCE IN KOH PHA NGAN!

Total time - 3 hours, 46 minutes. This is terrible.

Dee Mahk Mahk!

Things are dee mahk mahk!!!!!

Elephant Nature Park was amazing (of course). There were 3 new elephants that I spent some time with, we did another Jumbo Express trip to a village very close to where I went the first time, I actually did work that helped out the Park this time (picking up elephant poo, washing this shelter that was going to be painted the next day, doing inventory for a medicine cabinet, trying to clean/organize the storage room), met a whole new batch of interesting people, got to catch up with people I knew from last time, ate a ton of really good food, learned more Thai and a little Burmese, and on the last day 2 more elephants came. It was really really nice and the week went by way too fast.

And last night at the Sunday markets I bought two new hats. They're really cool.

Tomorrow I'm going back to Koh Pha Ngan and then on the 29th I fly to Hong Kong to get my plane back to New York on February 1st.

If you're wondering if I'm freaking out about all of "this" ending and going back to "the real world" the answer is yes. Very very much so. I'll write more later but right now I've got to get to that Hill Tribe Museum!

Monday

I leave for the elephants in an hour!

Luang Prabang Part 2/ Novice Monk Pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/72057594048631725/

News from Elephant Nature Park -

The Rescue of Malai. The elephant handicapped by landmine explosion

Malai, a 25 years old female elephant, was born at Ta-Song-Yang district in a Karen tribal village along the Thailand / Burma border. After going through the training crush she was sent to work at a trekking camp until she was nine years old. Her owner then took her to the work at a logging camp by the border along with another 100 elephants.

In early November 2002, after hard work all day, her mahout released Malai to browse the jungle and feed. Around midnight, the workers at the camp heard a loud explosion followed by screaming from the elephant herd. Elephants ran in panic to the work camp. Confusion
everywhere.

Malai was missing so they searched for her at day break. A trail of blood led them to Malai where she stood under a tree shaking with fear. Her back right feet were badly damaged and tears ran down her cheeks. Her Mahout managed to walk her from the jungle to the road.
This painful journey took 4 days and nights up and down steep jungle hills. She struggled along in excruciating pain, shedding a lot of blood, along the way. They took her to the hospital and she was under a vets care for nearly a year.

The wounds began to heal. Malai lost about 20 inches of her legs and she will never walk properly again. He mentality and body shape became a problem for her logging work and her owners decided to sell her and salvage what they could as she was no longer any use to them.

A month later she was walking the streets begging for the group for a new group that had bought her. They though her handicap would gain more sympathy and money for them. They took Malai to walk the hot streets of Bangkok. Her injuries caused her to use only three legs to support her big body. Malai walked, every day, on the concrete streets until the toe nails of her three good feet started to crack and they then became infected, The wound on the injured feet began to open again . The mahout decided to take her back to the vet and whatever treatment he could find for her.

On November 18, Lek went to the Surin Elephant Round Up Festival. This year she brought her staff to help with research about street elephants and check on how they were looked after. Lek made 300 questionnaires for the mahout at the festival.

There were 276 elephants at the event in Surin province this year and the staff of Elephant Nature Park interviewed their mahouts. Suddenly Lek saw the young elephant chained by both front legs standing in the corner of the stadium field . She walk to ask the mahout and owner to find out about Malai.

The owner told Lek they will took her back to walk to streets as a beggar just before Christmas. Malai’s feet are still badly cracked and we are very worried that she will get sick again. Lek then decided to talk to the owner in an attempt to rescue her.

The talks were successfull and, with the help and support, of Nancy and Tony Mann from Malaysia, Malai was free at Elephant Nature Park on 22 December 2005
Malai is the elephant number 15 that we rescued to the park with in 2005

Elephant mother and calf rescued

On 03 January 06 the park received the request for help from the owner of an elephant mother and baby. The mother elephant is named Thongkam and is age about 35 year old . The owner of the elephant signed a contact with a tourist elephant camp to put her to work carrying tourists on her back. No one knew Thong Kam was pregnant. She worked with no time off and was so skinny.

On the 31 December 2005 she gave birth in the bush behind the camp. The mahout saw the baby with the mother in the morning, but baby is under weigh and so tiny. His weight was 50 Kilograms about half weight of the normal new born baby. The baby can not walk. Both back legs are too weak and he can not stand up. The mother was not producing enough milk, because of her bad condition.

The Karen owner came to the Elephant Nature Park to ask for help , but it take many days to rescue because the owner had a contract in place with the elephant camp and they still wanted the mother to work. Finally on the 4 January 06, Elephant Nature Park asked the owner to decide and we provided transport to pick up the baby and the mother to take them to the park .

We provided enough food for the mother, bring them to the shelter of the older elephants. We have not enough shelter but and we had to squeeze them in. The group includes Thong Jan and Mae Buathong.

At the park we have trying to help the baby and lift him up to take a milk from his mother. Today the baby can stand up for a short time and then goes back to sleep. We will do the best to keep both mother and baby and let them heal. Updates and more news soon.

Full Moon Party at Sirimounkhounsayaram!!!

I'm so happy I was in Luang Prabang and not Koh Pha Ngan.

Thursday I went back to the temple in the afternoon. They asked me why I came so late. So we made a date for 9am for Friday.

(Before I get there -
4:00am - wake up
Between 4:00 - 6:30 - meditate, pray, do serious Buddhist stuff
6:30am - walk around town, collect alms, eat breakfast
7:30am - go across the street to "the outside" and watch a movie on some family's television. It was King Kong that day)

9:00am - I show up and we sit on the steps of the wat. Some of them have their notebooks and pretend to study. They say hello to almost anyone who walks by. If it's a cute girl or a group with at least one cute girl in it they say, "come here, come here!" Anna, from Australia, like me, says, "Um, sure."
11:30am - Someone brings a bag of rice cakes and some other stuff and I think that was lunch.
12:00pm - Go to school. This was monk's high school. There's a monk primary school and a monk secondary school.

(We didn't go to classes with them. I went back to my guesthouse. On the way back I passed a couple of guys who run an internet cafe and they said something and I said something back in Thai but it turned out it was the same in Lao so they said, "Oh, you're learning Lao, do you want a lesson? We can teach you!" I felt bad saying, "Hey listen, Thai is difficult and useless enough. I don't think I want to confuse myself by adding Lao phrases that may or may not be the same in Thai, because, honestly, I leave here on Sunday, and when else am I going to speak Lao?" so I said ok, and we made plans for 2pm. It worked out well becuase they weren't very good teachers. So one of them gave up and started working on a business card. Tourism is the cool industry here so he was trying to make a business card for himself as an "Historical and Cultural Guide." He printed it out and I immediately noticed he had spelled "Please" "Lpease". I pointed it out to him and he didn't understand what was wrong with it. I asked if I could help. I changed stuff around for about 2 minutes and at the end I almost felt bad for anyone who was potentially going to see the card cause now it looked like he actually knew what he was doing. I'll post the before and after pictures of the business card.

4:00pm - back at the temple for a bell ringing and then a big drum performance. Big as in the drum, not the performance. There was one kid with a playing a pair of cymbals and then a couple of them took turns banging a huge hanging drum. I have a little video.

After that - chill some more, take a shower, talk to people walking through the temple. They can decide how much to talk because while most of them actually know English (and French) really well they can pretend not to understand just as easily. But usually they're really nice and will be the one to start a conversation with someone walking through. This is when Beau called (talked to Nan) and Barabara called (talked to Thong). They all wanted Stephanie to call but no such luck.

5:30pm - chanting. Anna (and her brother, who had come back at 4 with her) had left to go see Phou Si at sunset, but since I pretty much had nothing better to do I was still hanging out with them. They said they were going to pray and I should come into the temple and watch if I wanted. Lay people in Luang Prabang aren't allowed to be inside the temple when they're doing their thing but idiot Westerners who don't know anything are. Funny how that works. At first it was kind of strange because there were only 3 or 4 of them inside. Not even the head monk (the temple is 20 novices and a head monk, he's 24) was there. But they started and were off. It went on for maybe 15/20 minutes and by the end the room was full with maybe 16 of them (apparently it's not mandatory, Nan said he doesn't like going, so he doesn't go). The sound was incredible. My desciption is going to be terrible. It was repetive and hypnotic but in a really good, interesting way with rhythm, dynamics and a melody of some sort. And I think I've heard monks do it before but the novices' voices are totally different (due to the fact that most of them aren't even 18 yet) and more interesting sounding. It was crazy. I sat in awe the entire time. And watched out the window as the sun was setting too. It was just all really beautiful and unreal. I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to novice monks chant in the States again. Ha ha.

6:00pm - free time again. Some of them go off to check their email. The internet cafe closest to the wats gets swamped with novices and people crowd around outside to take pictures.

6:30pm - some kids leave to go to French class. From then until 10 or 11 they study and/or hang out.

I found out the 10 rules. This is how they were told to me...
1. No killing animals (I thought first he was saying, "no killing anymore")
2. No stealing
3. No touching women (unless she's sick)
4. Don't tell a lie
5. Don't drink alcohol
6. No eating dinner
7. No dancing, no boxing, no soccer
8. No perfumes or smelly things
9. No sitting higher than a monk
10. No taking from another person (I found out later that it was in reference to money)

I witnessed 7 of them being broken. Not to any extent that make them terrible people, but I was still surprised. One thing that was really surprising and possibly made them terrible people was Saturday night.

So Friday was cool. I walked with Nan to his French class and then later met up with this little bartender (He was 21 but he was no taller than 5 feet) that said I should go to the disco with him and his friends. I got these two Australian girls to come along too so I felt like it was safe. It was. Safety was not a problem, coolness was. Walking in there I was by far the lamest person I saw. All the cool kids of Luang Prabang were out. There were trucker hats, hoodies, punk rock haircuts, ripped jeans, studded belts, swoopy hair, everything. I couldn't believe it. As soon as we got there I said, "Um, thanks for bringing me, but I think I'm going to leave. This is too weird." All I could see was 4 feet tall super cool Lao teenagers with hair gel, and cell phones with ear peices. He said if I went inside and still didn't like it he would drive me back, so I went inside and it turned out to not be that bad. I actually had fun. There were a bunch of other Westerners inside (dirty, smelly, uncool ones) and everything turned out fine.

Saturday was funny. I said I thought I would take a day to go see the cave and then the waterfall and Nan and Thong said, "Oh, ok, cool, then we'll go!" (That's what the one day tours do so I figured I should go.) I got there at 8:30am. Anna and her brother were supposed to come at 9 but she hadn't showed up by 9:30 so we figured she'd slept in and left without her.

And then we got a boat! Other guy (we'll call him OG, I can't remember his name) used my cell phone, called someone and 10 minutes later a boat driver appeared. Very cool. We got in (Thong, Sin, Nan, OG and I) and were off on a very slow boat to Pak Ou Cave where there are 4,000 (mostly tiny) buddhas. I think it's the old, falling apart ones that were brought here, but maybe they're just falling apart now.

The boat ride was long and slow. Or maybe slow and therefore felt long. I'm very happy I didn't do the 14 hour slow boat ride to Luang Prabang. Or the 6 hour speed boat. One went by and it looked terrifing. People were wearing helmets. No one I talked to said they would do either boat again.

So we finally go there and the caves weren't that spectacular. The novices were much more impressed by the bats and the scorpions than the buddha images. The being in a cave part of it was cool but I wouldn't go back. Walking up the steps we met two older Welsch gentelmen. When I asked where they were from they said England, then I asked where in England and said, well, actually Wales, and I said the Welsh I know (1,2,3). They were amazed and asked how I learned that. I told them I sat next to a Welsch weatherman on a plane once. They asked if I remembered his name and I said no, so we went back and forth describing someone and then as soon as they said, "Derek" Someone and I said, "yeah!" I remembered the guy's name was Alec Hughes. Then they wanted to take a picture with the girl who learned Welsch from sitting next to Derek Someone on a plane who was friends with the novices.

After the cave we went across the river and had lunch. I offered to buy. I foun They had told me they weren't supposed to eat after 12:30, but it was 1:30. I didn't say anything. I told them lunch was on me. I was hoping they would get some traditional Lao food so I could try it, but 2 of them got fried rice and fried egg with sticky rice. I tried sticky rice.

We finally got back around 4pm, they did the drum and then I sat for the chanting thing again. Anna and her brother showed up for it this time.

We left but decided to meet up at 8:30pm. Nan wanted Anna and me to go to the disco with him. I thought it would be too weird. I felt out of place and I wasn't wearing an orange robe. So I said I just wanted to go to the bar. Anna and her brother decided to go with me on that. So we said goodbye and were off to the bar.

And then about 20 minutes later who walks in but Novice Nan and Novice Sin dressed up with NORMAL CLOTHES! I freaked out. I didn't like it. They were wearing beanies to cover their shaved heads and jeans and shirts and NOT ORANGE ROBES!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I felt like a terrible person. Earlier in the day Sin had gotten the waiter to buy him cigarettes and I had felt bad enough about that but this! And then I kept saying, "ok, if they don't drink it's ok." And then Anna's brother got a Beer Lao and poured them a glass and they drank it. Remember the whole "not eating past 12:30pm" thing? They got drunk.

At about 11 Anna and her brother said they were going to leave. Nan was still set on going to the dance club. I said no way. There were two Australian girls who we had introduced them to (while we were at the monk's school waiting for class to begin) and they ended up going with them. Oh my god. I feel like the "no touching girls" rule went out the window too. When I said goodbye they both gave me hugs (against the rules but not making them terrible people).

WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.

This morning I went to the temple to try to find Thong. He's actually good and not trying to look like a bad ass all the time. I found this very refreshing. He's the only one that thinks he may actually be a monk. I find of hope he does so that I can have an actual monk friend. He was sitting in the front of the temple so it was easy to say goodbye without running into Nan and Sin. I didn't want to see them. I was still too mad.

Ok, I'm in Chiang Mai now. Rachel is here. She's waiting for me to finish so we can eat. Tomorrow - back to Elephant Nature Park!!!

Pictures, Joy

My Laos pictures-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1825146/
Danny's Haad Rin/Koh Ma pictures-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbomb/sets/1765858/

Got this email from Joy (sneaky travel agent who left my return flight open instead of telling me the Friday flight was all booked, but invited me to her birthday party anyway) -

It glad to hear you.
hey girl how are you ? i am doing good still go to work everyday and busy also but i am still got the time to come check my mail .is gald to hear from you Beth hope you have a good trip in loas too . and take care .and thanx to let me know when you back here again . well i wish you can have too much fun and be enjoy yourself on your trip too. i have to go now will come back to write email to you again soon. peace and luck , joy . always yourfriend

Wednesday

It's a good thing that Monday was so cool cause Tuesday was not cool. I changed guesthouses, immediately fell asleep and then woke up 6 hours later very ill. I'm not going to get into the specifics but it was not pretty. Not pretty at all.

Since I couldn't sleep and I was up at 5:30 anyway I decided I should try to go see the monks collect alms. What this means is that they walk around town and people stand on the streets with little buckets of rice and give a little bit to each monk that passes. I was under the impression that the whole town would be out and the streets would be packed with people and monks and it would last for hours. It wasn't anything like that. There were some people out giving food and stuff but most people that were out and about were selling their stuff at the morning market. I watched pretty much a full pig get chopped into all the different pieces. That was a first. The monks came in groups of no more than 10 and walked on the streets next to tuk tuks and motorbikes. It lasted 20 minutes at most and I only saw maybe 4 groups. Maybe I wasn't standing in the right place.

I went back to sleep after that and pretty much slept until 2pm. My stomach was feeling a little better so I ventured out. I found the temple Amy (the girl from Wisconsin) told me to find. It was really easy. I walked passed a bunch of temples, none of them the right name, and then in front of one were a group of 5 boys hanging out. They looked at me and said, "Hello, where are you from?" Teenage monk novices wanting to practice their English! Awesome! I said, "Does Tong live here?" and they said that he moved to Thailand two years ago. This was confusing cause I thought Amy had met him a couple weeks ago.

I figured it didn't really matter cause they wanted to talk to me anyway. There was a 15 year old, a 17 year old, a 19 year old and a 22 year old. None of them want to become monks. They all plan on leaving and going to a regular university, not a monk university where you'd have to learn Sanskrit. Also, as a novice you have 10 rules (including no dancing and no killing) and as a monk you have 227 rules. I talked with them for a while (teaching them the word "pregnant" while talking about Erica). Then the 17 year old asked if I had been to Mount Phou Si yet which is this temple on top of a hill that overlooks Luang Prabang and is really nice at sunset. I said no and he asked if I wanted to go with him and the 15 year old. I said yes.

I walked through town with them, which was interesting. People are constantly taking pictures of them. Some try to be discreet and are, some try to be discreet but aren't, and some just jump right in front of them like creepy paparazzi. I asked if it bothered them but they said no because they kind of feel like celebrities. I think that would have been my answer too.

When we got to the bottom of the 300 something stairs they said that I had to go first because they might not be allowed up if it looked like we were all coming together. Woah, monk novice drama! So we met up at the top. It was packed up there but they were the only monks. It was really pretty but hard to get a good picture because it was so packed. The two boys sat on a bench on the other side of the temple while people kept walking by taking pictures of them watching the sunset. One girl saw that I saw her take a picture of them so she put her finger over her mouth and said, "sshhh" and smiled. I wish there was a "how to interact with monk and monk novices" handbook. I know I would really appreciate one and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Also when we were at the top of the mountain the 17 year old asked me my name again. I said Beth and then asked his again and he said Tong. Which makes complete sense, Amy had said Tong was 17. I wonder what they thought I was saying when I asked if Tong lived there. I guess I don't speak Lao well.

When I had been at their temple we had started talking about music and they were telling me all of the cheesy 80's songs that they really like. The 22 year old even started singing. I wish I could remember what song it was. Anyway, they asked if I had CDs and I said I had my iPod and I would bring it tomorrow. They're really excited. I asked the 22 year old if I could take video of him singing and he said tomorrow.

Oh yeah! And they all know Lao and Thai (sometimes very similar) and a good amount of English and a little French. So I can attempt to speak Thai with them. They'll even speak Thai to see if I can understand it. That's really fun. When we were on the mountain Tong looked at me and said "Mee yung yai" and I knew it meant "I have a big mosquito (on me)." I'm fluent!

My stomach hurts again so I think I'm going to call it a night and go to sleep.

Sa bai dee

(hello in Lao)

I made it here safely. The flight was not as scary as I thought it was going to be. I met a kid who had been here before and he helped me find a guesthouse. I'm paying $7 for a really nice room in a French colonial building kind of overlooking the river. But there's construction outside and it's a shared bathroom with cold water so tomorrow I'm going to move to one further away but my own bathroom with a hot shower. And no construction.

Luang Prabang is really nice. There are more bicycles than motorbikes, a majority of the roads are rocky dirt roads, the markets have a lot less screaming, the food is really good (baguettes all over the place!) and there's toilet paper in public bathrooms. There are also a ton of temples so there are a TON of monks and novices (pre-teen and teenager boys). Chiang Mai has a lot of temples too but I never saw any novices.

So today I decided to just walk and walk and walk. I didn't have a watch or a map. I (with the help of Erica) bought a watch before leaving but ended up keeping in my backpack and usually only looked at it on plane rides. So I took it out on my flight to Luang Prabang and realized it stopped working on the 4th. Oops.

Anyway, I had heard that Luang Prabang is pretty small so I figured it'd be hard to get lost.

I was completely wrong and was actually totally lost but I didn't realize this until I was already safely back at my guesthouse. I wandered around for about 4 hours taking every little dirt path possible. My only goal was to say "sa bai dee" to as many people as possible. I passed a ton of old ladies either cooking or sewing on the streets, a couple of schools with school kids all over and boys playing a soccer version of volleyball (with a lowered net), a dozen groups of monk novices, about six big houses with tables of people eating what I guess was lunch, a university (with kids apparently learning English cause they said "Hello!"), and a bunch of tiny dirt path villages with chickens, goats and dogs running all over. I didn't see white people for 4 hours. It was really cool. I learned a game call Throw Your Shoe Into The Street, Then Go Get It, Then Repeat. It's a hit over here. I also learned that little kids love digital cameras.

At one point I wandered down what I thought was a street but ended up just being a driveway (if you can call it that) to someone's house. Everyone was sitting outside, so it was kind of awkward for a minute but the little kids (playing in a pile of dirt) started screaming "SA BAI DEE!!! SA BAI DEE!!" I looked at the adults, said "Sa bai dee," they said it back and smiled, so I took that as an ok, and crouched down to little kid height. They continued to say SA BAI DEE really loud and fast so I did the same. It's the only Lao I know. I asked if I could take pictures (pointing to my camera, and asking"Ok?" with an Asian accent) and the adults nodded and smiled again. One of the older women came over and said something to the kids and I heard her say "yim" which I knew meant "smile" in Thai so I guessed it meant "smile" in Lao too! Go me! So I said, "yim yim!" I got kindly laughed at.

Later on I ran into the ice cream man so I decided to see if "ai team (ice cream)" was the same in Lao as in Thai but turns out it's not. The ice cream man was not happy with me. "No! Ai team Thai!" I forgot how to say it in Lao. Surprisingly, it doesn't sound anything like "ice cream."

Walking around these villages was really cool. I've never stood out so much in my entire life. Most people would stare for a little bit and then laugh and smile. Jokes on me, they all knew how lost I was. Then I'd say "sa bai dee" and then they'd say it back and laugh and smile even more. One guy (not at the university) saw me and said, "Hello!" so I said hello. He asked "How are you?" and I said "I'm fine, how are you?" and he said, "I'm fine, thank you." So then I decided to return the South East Asian compliment and said, "Your English is good!" (Is that even good English?)He said, "No, no, no, little bit." He was the Lao version of me! When I walked back down that street he had gathered his friends outside and was pointing and staring at me through binoculars. I'm pretty sure that was a first for me. He said "Hello hello" again so I walked towards him to see how close they would keep the binoculars on me. About 30 feet away was the answer. Personally, I would have put them down earlier. I figured since they were looking at me through binoculars, me looking at them through a digital camera screen was a fair trade. I tried to ask him how to get back to the center of town but I'm not sure he knew what I was saying. He timidly pointed up a street so I said thanks and headed in that direction. About 15 minutes later he came up on his bike. Instead of saying "town center" this time I said "night market?" and he knew exactly what I was saying and said he would take me. Turns out the route back to the city center is all kinds of left and right turns and about 10 minutes. I wouldn't have had a clue. Whoops.

My day was really cool. I'm really happy I had no idea how lost I was. I bought a map on my way to dinner. It doesn't cover the area where I ended up but at least if I do end up in the middle of nowhere again I can point to where I want to get to. (I also realize I was very very very lucky to get a ride back from a complete stranger and very very very lucky that the stranger didn't end up being a complete psycho. Any future wandering will be more planned.) When I got back to town and walked down the travel agent strip I realized how little interest I have in doing those things. There are elephant treks (definitely not), visits to hill tribe villages (don't think it could top my Karen experience) and kayak and whitewater rafting trips (easily done at home). They have one day trips to see some cool caves and waterfalls so I'll probably do that one day but I much rather just wander around and say hello to dirty little kids. Pretty stuff can get old fast. Dirty little kids never do.

There were no flights back to Chiang Mai on Friday so I'll actually be here until Sunday. I could go down to Vang Vien (backpcker's capital) and go tubing or check out Vientiene (actual capital) but I don't think I feel like 1) being around backpackers 2) being in a big city or 3) using any method of transportation other than my feet. So I think I'll just stay here. The Wisconsin girl I met in Haad Rin told me a temple to visit and the name of this one monk novice she had talked with a lot and become friends with so I think I'll try to find him. She said he was really eager to practice his English and had all of these stories about sneaking across the river to play soccer or getting drunk or doing normal 16 year old things. Totally unexpected from a boy walking around in an organge robe and not eating past noon. She said when she was leaving she said, "Maybe we can be pen pals and keep in touch through letters?" and his response was, "Maybe email would be better."

Yeah, I want to find him.

I Met The Coolest People Yesterday! Except for one!

So since the last post I...
1) Got a 4:40 flight from Samui to Bangkok! Very exciting.
2) Decided again not to stay in Bangkok and to just go straight to Chiang Mai. Everyone I've talked to has told me that Bangkok is a cool city but if you're only there a couple days you'll probably hate it. It's fast, confusing, noisy and smelly. I'm not against trying it out but I figured I'd see if I met anyone at the Elephant Park that's also going to Bangkok and maybe try it out with a friend.
3) Had to buy a ticket to Chiang Mai at the Bangkok Airport. The cheapest airline said they had tickets available if I didn't mind a delayed flight. I kind of laughed (It was the same company as my 11:45 --> 1:15 flight) and said that was fine. But then the lady told me something wasn't working and she couldn't sell me a ticket. The second cheapest airline had tickets available but only business class cause the guy (who cut) in front of me got the last one. I tried Bangkok Airways but they were done with flights to Chiang Mai for the day. The last airline with flights was Thai Airways, which might be the nicest Thai airline. And it ended up only being $10 more than the cheapest company. I can't believe I got to Chiang Mai from Samui with no tickets. I'm amazed.

My Saturday was really cool!

Joy - I picked a random travel agent to get plane tickets to Laos. Turns out her name is Joy and it was her 24th birthday. While we were waiting for the tickets to come form some random guy down the street she got a phone call from her ex saying happy birthday and he told he missed her. Oh man. She was making angry faces throughout the whole phone conversation and when she got off she decided to tell me the WHOLE story. She told me about her ex boyfriend (now in Cambodia), her new boyfriend (currently in Mexico) and her new boyfriend's ex. International girl gossip. I loved it! She showed me pictures. The ex was English and the current boy is American. Oh these Thai women sure do love their white boys. I got to talk about me and Beau too. But there wasn't nearly as much drama so I'm not sure how interested she was. Eventually the boy with the ticket showed up and as I was leaving Joy told me I should come out tonight for her birthday. Then she told me about all the white boys who were going to be there because she doesn't like telling them she has a boyfriend. Oh, Joy. More on the party later.

Guy - As I leaving Joy's travel agency a French hippie kid came up to me and told me that I had been at the travel agency for the same amount of time he had been at the Wat down the street. Interesting observation. He asked if I wanted to check out some market with him and I told him I was really hungry and asked if he wanted to eat with me. We went a Western place and I ordered oatmeal. He got it too but was really scared. He had no idea what it was. And then the waiter asked if we wanted cinnamon on it. I said yeah, and he said, "Euh, wot iz cinnoman?" I said a spice and he shook his hands in front of his face. Then I tried to explain, it's not spicy, it's just a spice. It's so weird to think about all these random little things. He got it and ate it and liked it. "Ahh! First time with oatmeal!" He didn't speak English well and I was surprised how much French I didn't know anymore. It was an awkward breakfast. After breakfast I asked if he was still going to the markets but he looked nervous, so I said I had to go to the internet cafe and we split up.

Kendra & Mike - For dinner I went to a place that I had been before with easy Western food. Ahead of me in line were two North Americans who couldn't decide what to eat. The woman said, "You can go ahead" and the man was giving off a really weird vibe and just babbling on about how it was so expensive ($3) and he didn't know why everything had become so expensive in Chiang Mai and blah blah blah. I asked him where he was from he answer was, "California, USA." The woman sat down and I asked her the basic meeting people in a random place questions. She was from Winnipeg, has been teaching in South Korea for the last 7 years and was in Chiang Mai for 2 weeks for some schooling thing. Very vague. She asked if she could sit next to me and explained that she just got in today and Mike (the weird guy) was the only other person in her program around so she asked if he wanted to eat with her. When my food came Mike asked me if I wanted to give thanks to the Lord for our food and our blessing in being happy and healthy in Chiang Mai. Um... he kept going for a while. I was just completely silent and then he asked me if he was making me feel uncomfortable. I said yes. I said he was free to do whatever thanking of the Lord he wanted but I was just going to sit this one out. So he went into this 5 minute thanking of the Lord, with the hands clasped and the eyes closed with a whole lot of, "we hope our new friend here realizes what the Lord has given her and can soon learn to give thanks for all the blessings in her life" and all this crazy talk aimed at making me feel guilty. Even stuff about my hoping the Lord would keep me safe even though I was lost or something! Kendra was in on it too. I was really embarrassed. The rest of the restaurant was staring at my table. The last time I was in this place I talked to a table of 8 or 9 Texans who were in Chiang Mai for some Christian mission thing but they didn't try to convert me. Why are all Americans crazy religious people???? I continued to talk with Kendra and tried to tune out Mike's weird babbling how he didn't like that there was cheese in his soup. When I was done with my food Mike started asking me what role Jesus played in my life and how I planned on living life if I wasn't down with Jesus (he used different words). I tried to be honest and polite with him. I said that to my understanding the main idea about religion is to be a good person to yourself and to others and although I've never had any religious upbringing I was pretty sure I was doing an ok job with that. He asked me if I ever wondered "what it all meant" and I said I was pretty sure I didn't have a clue but I was completely at peace with that. And had no interest in trying to search for any absolute "meaning of life." I handled it all pretty well for a while but then he started to be a bit much and I decided I was finished. I said I had to go and Kendra said she did too. We walked though the Night Market for a while and then when it was time to split up I asked her if the school thing she was here for was religious. She said yes, but then said she has her beliefs but realized everyone may not agree with her and she's fine with that. She seemed embarrassed about Mike's creepy behavior. I decided that religion is kind of like Long Island where it's not that all religious/Long Island people are bad it's just that it's always the over-the-top ridiculous ones who make themselves stand out the most and give the rest a bad name.

Tong Kham - This was a random old Thai guy sitting on the street saying hello to everyone that walked by. He said hello and then "sawadee kap" and when I said "sawadee ka" back he said, "Oh! You know Thai! Come sit!" I sat with him for a while and he talked about all the friends he had all over the world. He didn't seem to have any ulterior motive. How refreshing after sitting with Mike. This dude just liked talking. He said he stayed at the Wat down the street and he did paintings. He taught me a lot of Thai. Before I said I had to go he showed me this book he had tons of little notes of people who, I'm guessing, responded to his "sawadee kap! sit down!" invitation. It was really cool to see. I signed it as well and said I'd be back to talk with him more next Saturday when I was back in Chiang Mai. He also had a hat with a ton of Canadian flag buttons and I said I would find an American flag button and give it to him. He was excited.

Adi and Yuvul - Before heading to the bar for Joy's birthday I stopped at the guesthouse and met Adi and Yuvul. They're from Israel. They were really cool! Completely different from the annoying, sleazy Israelis from Haad Rin. I talked with them for a while about Israel and about their time in the army (they just finished). They've been together for two years and they met in the Intelligence Force of the army. How different from my life. I asked if they wanted to come to the bar for Joy's birthday. They said yes.

Joy's friends - Madness. We went to this bar called InterBar and it's the only place in Chiang Mai with live music I think. The live music consist of middle aged guys playing The Beatles, The Eagles and Bob Dylan covers. Joy was wasted. She introduced me to her friends and we were all instantly "BEST FRIENDS!!!". It was so strange. Adi and Yuvul looked terrified. Drunk Thais all over the place. Joy also introduced me to the 4 white guys who showed up who she hadn't told she had a boyfriend. Oh Joy. Her friends were one Thai girl who runs a bar that I said I would go to when I got back and two Thai guys. One's a mechanical engineering student and I'm not sure what the other one did. Oh wait, there was also the thug that showed up. He was soooo funny, not on purpose. His name was Bobby and he had a basketball jersey, tons of bling, a du rag and sunglasses (it was night). He said he lived in Harlem for a while and his English was hysterical. It was pretty good but he tried to use "phat," "yo," "keep it real," and like a ton of other phrases that I had to work very hard not to laugh at. I think Joy has a picture of the two of us. Joy and her friend Sheeny both gave me their email addresses and phone numbers. Coming back on Friday should be fun.

So today I go to Laos for 5 days. Wish me luck on Laos Airways. Friday I come back to Chiang Mai and hopefully Monday I go to the Elephant Park. This morning I tried to go to the Tribal Museum and the post office. It's Sunday so neither one worked out. The tuk tuk driver first went to the National Museum by accident and when I said, "Oh, I was trying to go The Tribal Museum" he said, "Oh sorry, sorry, sorry!" I said, "Mai pen rai!" and he said, "OH! YOUR THAI GOOD!" This place is so funny.

Pictures up!
Koh Samui & Haad Rin - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1787399/
Koh Ma/ Mae Haad - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/1787642/

It's raining again

Surprise, surprise....

Right now I'm in a bakery/internet cafe on the street outside the Samui airport. I'm not sure if I explained it before but the "airport" is a collection of cute tiny huts with straw roofs. One for the domestic departures, one for domestic arrivals and one for the international departures and arrivals. Then there are maybe two little restaurant huts and a gift shop hut. It's all very cute. Until it starts pouring. Oh well. It stops eventually.

So Wednesday night Chau (the bar owner) told Ot and me that were in charge of the bar again. People came this time!! We did really well! Ot was young, dark, and didn't understand what people were saying half the time, so he made you feel like you were in Thailand and I made it not look empty and then could actually speak with people who came in. There was a Spanish guy, a Finnish couple, an Australian/English couple, a German couple, an English painter guy, and then a bunch of Thais who were really amused by my attempts to speak Thai. My favorite part is when they try to teach me something, then I say it exactly how I think they're saying it and they said, "Noooo!!!! Not (however I said it)," and then repeat exactly what I thought I had just said. Language is crazy. They have Bs and Ps but then they have half way between Bs and Ps. Same with T and D. It's really hard to get. It's the same when I try to teach Ot stuff. When he says stuff sometimes it sound sooooo wrong to me but he thinks he's saying it exactly the way I'm saying it. Yay language!

Anyway, Ot and I were doing awesome but then someone ordered a Mai Tai. We looked at each other. I said, "mai ru" (I don't know). Same with him. Luckily Chau came running in. I have no idea where he was or how he knew we were stuck. That night I said (for the fourth time?) "I have to go tomorrow." Chau said, "No stay! Work at the bar! I'll give you money to pay for a bungalow! Come on, stay!" I said, "Ahhhh!!!! Don't tell me that!!! I would love to stay!! But I have to go do other stuff! I only have a month left!" We had had a conversation about Laos (Chau speaks English really well) and he was really excited about me going, so he understood.

So that was Wednesday night. The bar was so fun that night I decided I couldn't leave. So I said, "Ok, one more day."

That turned out to be a really good decision. I had been trying to meet up with Mote (from Haad Rin) who does the boat tours but either the trips had been canceled due to rain or I had missed him when he was in Mae Haad. But yesterday (after being pulled over by some Thai women to try some random things shoved in a leaf and drink warm soy drink with things floating in it) I finally met up with Mote and did the rest of the boat tour that I never did the first time. Yay! I went back to Haad Rin too and Mote and I went on a one hour motorbike adventure from the southern most tip to the northerwestern most tip of the island. Very very cool. Except for the hills with the 20% grade. Ahh! He would put the bike in 1st gear and we'd go really slowly up the hill. Walking may have been faster. Then he'd say, "My motorbike, not so much power." It's ok! Mai pen rai! And for the record, I didn't die again!

So last night was sad. Mote came to the bar for a little bit and when we sat down I said, "What do you want?" and then got it. Mote was freaking out. I told him it was ok. Then I asked if he wanted to get ice cream with me. He said yeah and when we were getting up he started freaking out again because he was scared Chau would think he was trying to steal the beer. I got Chau to tell him he knew I'd be back and he wasn't worried. It was really really really cool. Chau earlier that day had said, "If you need anything you just take it, ok? You're like family here. You understand??" Oh god, I almost cried.

I kind of have this feeling the whole village wanted me to stay so that I would eventually marry Ot. People would scream stuff from the motorbikes when they saw us and I'd say, "What did they say?" and he'd laugh and say, "soo-ay" which means beautiful, but I'm like 90% sure that's not what they were saying. He wouldn't have laughed every time if that's what they were saying.

Anyway, last night was nice. The bar had people. The artist English guy and his friend had been painting a new sign and then other little random things all day and the place looked really nice.

This morning I thought I was going to get a taxi to Thong Sala (where the ferries are) and then Ot said, "No! Motorbike!" I laughed and said, "Big bag! No power!" His bike is pretty weak. He said, "Ok ok ok, I change" and came back with a really nice one! I have no idea where it came from. It took him, me and my huge backpack to Thong Sala in no time. The boat wasn't going to leave for another hour so I asked him if he wanted to eat breakfast. He said yes and took me to a Thai breakfast place (no English menu) where we got soup, and pork and rice, which comes with your choice of second meat. We went with chicken. He got me to order it and do all the communicating. It was very very cool.

The boat ride was fine. I fell asleep. When we got to Samui I got to go do something I've wanted to do my whole life. It was up there with "driving across a time zone change."

I went to an airport without a ticket!

Woo hoo! Everything worked out fine. I got another Discovery Pass. Samui to Bangkok, Bangkok to Samui and Samui to Hong Kong. I can get to Chiang Mai cheaper with a different company or take a bus or train. And then the Luang Prabang flights from Chiang Mai are with Lao Air. The website for Laos Air is TERRIBLE (http://www.laoairlines.com). It looks like a 3rd grader put it together when they were first learning about HTML, but the flight is only an hour and to go by bus takes two days. Laos isn't known for their superior infrastructure.

My showing up to the airport without a ticket decision has landed me with an 8pm flight. But I'm on stand by for an earlier flight and according to travel agents and the internet all the flights were full anyway. So I had nothing to lose. One travel agent even told me that the Discovery Pass promotion was over. Kon guy hok! (Liar!) I almost believed her too!

Good thing I'm smart!

Ok, I've finished my baked goods and I'm going to go back and check my stand by status. But everything is going well, no dying on motorbikes, no taking up permanent employment at an island Reggae Bar, no marrying 17 year old Thai boys. When I get to either Bangkok or Chiang Mai I'll finally get the pictures up.

Sa Wah Dee Bee Mai Ka!

(Happy New Year!)

So the last few days have been pretty cool. I'm just going to copy and paste from emails I've sent. They are very very very roughly edited. Please don't make fun of me.....

To Danny -
The boat trip um, sucked. We got into the boat, boated(?) for 2 hours, got to a really really scary/windy/rainy/felt deadly area and then went for the closest beach. Hung out there for an hour, got back in the boat went back to Haad Rin. We got no waterfalls, no snokeling and no refund. (Free dinner and bucket still provided.) Also, the Snoop Dogg Boat Tour had to hand off some of their passengers to our boat in the middle of the water. Their boat was about to sink with the combination of the waves and the overcrowding. Luckily my boat company was the underdog in the boat tour world and had plenty of space. The people who got on were 2 angry Isreali girls and their angry Israeli boyfriends. They were not happy being torn for their Israeli group of 30. They all met up at the beach 10 minutes later.

To Beau -
Danny and I split up and I was supposed to meet him in Koh Ma, one of the places the boat trip stops. But the boat trip was canceled half way though and we didn't actually see anything/do anything. Just sat in a boat fearing for our lives. So then i had to come back (totally drenched too) and hit up the internet place to figure out plan B. Anyway, boat trip was um not such a success. The only good thing was Mote was the trip leader so he sat with me and taught me the words for rain, wet, salt water, tree, mountain, ear and eye. And also how to ask how old are you. There were also some Swedish girls on the trip who I spoke Swedish with. They were totally impressed.
What are buckets? Here we go. Wide assortment, usually small bottle of cheap Thai whisky, can of coke, small bottle of red bull and then all poured over ice, served in a kid's sand pail bucket thing and with like 9 straws. Or 4. or however many you want. Danny and I went with whisky (cheap for one bucket, but found out he's allergic to cheap Thai whiskey, which is actually a common thing, so then not cheap for another bucket) but with Sprite instead of Coke and then of course Red Bull. For more expensive you can go for Red Bull and Vodka and other combos. I think there's mango soda too.
...The Turkish Dude - his name's Fabio. He's 40, big, hairy and not into wearing shirts. I'm wearing my Yorktown Track shirt so his pick up line was, "So, you are from Yorktown? That's in America, right?" Yeah, so we introduced ourselves, had a mini awkward conversation, went over our names again and he told me to come back so we could get coffee. I didn't. A couple of hours later I passed him again and he said something about me not coming back for coffee and I told him I had fallen asleep. His friend then asked what my name was he said he didn't remember. I acted really offended and said "I do not drink coffee with people who don't know my name!" and walked away laughing. I'm pretty sure I don't have to talk to him again now.

To my friend Viktor who tried to teach me Swedish-
Sa wah dee bee mai ka! (Happy new year in Thai) Sorry it's taken me so long to write you back. I'm in Kay Pha Ngan! I just wanted you to know that I meet Swedish people all the time and I say to them "yag fustough svenksa mickeh bra!" (I understand Swedish very well!) And then they say"woe, really?" or something else in Swedish and I say, "Ha ha no, just kidding. Yag fushtough svenska inte so bra. Yag fustough engliska mickey bra! Yag ar americanska" (I understand Swedish not so well. I understand English very well! I'm American.") Then they laugh. Then I say "Yag heiter Beth, vod heiter du?" and then I count to ten. It's very very exciting. And then if they're cool we talk about Kent (a Swedish band) and I try to sing Om Du Va Har (a Kent song).

The Swedes love me thanks to you. I'm like the coolest American they've ever met. Thanks!

Email to Mom 1 -
New Year's Eve was fine. Yeah, very crazy, but very fun too I guess. I think I was outside on the beach until about 6:30. There wasn't any countdown, or at least not one that more than 10 people noticed. Danny and I were actually taking pictures only later realizing it was 2006 because the camera told us so. I met some other kids who said they only realized it was 2006 because everyone else seemed to be making out. So because it still feels like July here and because I don't like even numbered years, I think I'm in denial about the whole thing. But anyway.

So the day of the 1st I stayed in Haad rin and Danny went back to koh ma. I met him there yesterday but when I got there the woman who runs it was talking about she was leaving the next day because there were too many problems. And she really is the only one who runs it so we were kind of concerned. So we went for dinner but she said they already sent all the food back to the mainland. But we should go to the mainland get dinner, and then come back to finish the rest of the beer. At that point I told her I was going to leave in the morning too. So we walked across (water up to our upper thighs) to get dinner and then went to this reggae bar and got vodka red bulls. The guy there talked to us for a really long time and we learned some Thai with him. Then on the way back we noticed there weren't any lights on in any of the buildings on the island. Ann definitely wasn't there anymore. So since it's an island and in the morning (when Danny was planning on leaving) the tide is really high (like up to your neck in parts) and we weren't sure how reliable anne's "I'll have a boat for you at 10am" was, AND there was no more electricity, we decided to just walk back (midnight, no water, a full sand path) to the mainland I find somewhere to sleep there.

We went back to the reggae bar cause 1) we had already talked to the guy 2) it was the only place open that we could walk to. We asked if he knew anywhere we could sleep and he said we could sleep at the bar. The only other kids there were like 17 year old local kids including his cousin. His cousin slept there but the other kids all went home. So Danny slept on the couch, I slept on the hammock and the guy's cousin slept on a big pile of cushions. The roosters woke me up at like 5am. And by 7 we were all awake. Danny then got a taxi to Thong Sala to get to the ferry back to Ko Samui and the bar guy's cousin and I went to another town where for breakfast. He had a motorbike! It was fun. I didn't die. No places in the other town were open either but his mom (I think) was selling coconut mini-pancakes on the street so we got those.

Then went to like all the pretty spots in the area, then went back to the bar, got bathing suit clothes and then went to a waterfall! It was really cool. He brought his shower stuff which was actually a good idea because the waterfall had a lot more pressure than any shower I've used in Thailand. Then he helped me get a bungalow and I tried to buy him lunch but it didn't work cause he's related to everyone around here so he never has to pay for anything. We just ate at his cousin's restaurant and now I'm at his other cousin's internet cafe.

So I think I'll leave here tomorrow and then go back to samui for a night and then to either Bangkok or Chiang Mai. I'm cool with going to Laos by myself. I actually met up with kids from Madison who I kinda knew and they had just been there and they told me I'd be fine and where to go and who to talk to/believe and who not to. So it'll be fine.

Ok so I think I should go now, it's 4pm and I haven't been to the beach yet! ahhh! The tragedy. I'm in the quiet area with families so I don't hate the beach as much as I did when I was on the "only hot people under 30" beach.

yay! Happy new year's mom!

sa wah dee bee mai ka! (happy new year in Thai!)

Email to Mom 2 (her questions are in italics)

How far is the island from the mainland that you werejust walking back and forth?

My guess is like a ten minute walk when there's no water, and then a lot longer when you're wading through water up to your waist.

So the woman who runs Koh ma just decided to close itup???? What kind of problems were there?

No clue. She (24) along with her boyfriend (26) and her nephew (13, speaks no English) were the only ones in charge. She was the receptionist, cook, cleaning crew. And her boyfriend got stuff to and from the island and the little kid carried heavy things. I think the problems were relying on a generator for power, having power for like at most 3 hours a day (6pm to 9pm), having to bring food from the mainland over everyday, not having refrigeration, having water coming from a pipe from the mainland and having that get messed up sometimes and then the 4 feet of water people have to walk through to get to it during the day. She doesn't own it though, she was just running it, and I think she was having problems with the people who own it, who are never there. Another problem Danny and I noticed was that the website for their hostel was copied and pasted from the website for the other hostel on Koh Pha Ngan, including the phone number. So when Danny thought he was making reservations at Koh Ma he was actually making them somewhere else. Ann, the girl who runs it, said she never got a call. And I emailed the address on the website and never got a response. When we asked Ann she just kept saying "too many problems" so my guess is that the owners didn't care enough to fix the things that she was telling them were wrong with the place.

That's my guess.

How do you get to Laos? When would that be? I guess if you go to Chiang Mai, you'll have a lot of computer access and will bewriting more.

I spent this morning planning it. So either tomorrow or the next day I'll go from Samui to Bangkok (Bangkok Air). I figured if I'm going to be in Thailand for two months I should probably see Bangkok at some point. So then around the 9th fly Bangkok to Luang Prabang (Bangkok Air). Then Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai (not Bangkok Air) around the 13th, then back to the elephant park from the 16th to the 22nd, then Chiang Mai for a couple of days. Then back to Samui (Bangkok Air) and then Samui to Hong Kong on the 30th, have the 31st in case there's a problem somewhere. And then fly back to NY on the 1st!

I decided this this morning. I don't actually have tickets yet but I'm going to get another Discovery Pass with Bangkok Air.

Oh so Ot (the kid) pretty much hung out with me for the rest of the day. After the internet cafe he walked to the beach with me. I read, he played soccer, then volleyball with some French hippies. We went back to his cousin's restaurant for dinner and I got a plate of fried rice with chicken. Which was good, but I thought I had ordered "Creamy Rice with Chicken" from the Soups page. Mai pen rai. We went to the bar and no one was there but the music was on. I was kind of confused cause I had seen the bar guy before. I found him in front of the mini mart sitting around a table with all the other cousins. He said "So you and Ot can run the bar tonight?" I said yeah. I didn't see him again, but no one came to the bar. So I guess we did fine. Then Ot invited himself to stay in my bungalow at night. It had two beds and since I guess he normally sleeps at the bar and he had given me a whole tour of the area on his motorbike I figured it wasn't a big deal. In the morning he woke up, said goodbye and left. I thought it was kind of sudden, but then the whole thing was kind of strange to begin with.

But then came back with breakfast.

It was stuff that looked like meat with stuff that didn't look like meat on a skewers. He told me it was bbq "moo" (which is actually pig, cow is "ooo"). I was hoping the "stuff that didn't look like meat" was pineapple but I'm pretty sure it was just pieces of fat. I ate it. Mai pen rai. He also brought fruit yogurt drink juice boxes. Then he said he was going to his friends house at the top of the mountain and asked if I wanted to come. I said yes. His friend runs a little bar hut thing and then lives in a room on top of it. It's bamboo, a couple of 2x4s with a straw roof and then a huge TV with DVD and really nice stereo system. As soon as we got there, his friend, Tum, put his Scorpions Acoustic, Live in Lisbon DVD in. And then they sang along to Scorpions. They love Scorpions. They asked if liked Scorpions and I said yeah and they said "some people don't like Scorpions, like Germany." I said "Germany blaak" which (maybe) means "Germany is weird."

After that we came back and I went back to my bungalow, figured out what I'm doing for the next month and he went back to the bar. I just passed him on the way to the internet place and he was playing Game Boy. It's kind of raining here. I'm pretty sure I'll leave tomorrow. It's hard to leave cause everything's so easy now. I have people to hang out with if I want, but I never have to. The mosquitoes aren't as bad here as they were in Haad Rin. And Ot barely knows English so there's a lot of Thai learning going on.

But I do want to see Laos and elephants and I should see Bangkok so once I leave I'll probably be fine. Of course none of these people I meet have email so it's harder to say goodbye to them than to like the other volunteers at the elephant park who I've been in touch with since I've left.

That's all for now. It's not raining AND sunny for the first time today at 3:43pm so I'm going to get out of the internet cafe.