This is a pretty long entry (though abridged for mass consumption) covering Thursday through this morning (Sunday).... read on....

I left Chiang Mai on Thursday to head to Sukhothai. On the way there, I met up with two very nice women from Belgium, who became my traveling partners for the day. We shared a ride to the guesthouse, and wound up splitting a room with two huge beds in order to save some money. The ruins at Sukhothai were stunning. We rented bikes to get around the historical park, which covers something like 35 sq. km. Wanting to experiment with the 35 mm camera I brought (this being the first time I've used anything but a point-and-shoot), I took just over a roll of film. Had some great shots... beautiful lighting, a touch of color from the flowers, great composition. None of which came out, since I messed up loading it. The film never advanced. Doh. Live and learn, right?

I took a late bus on Friday night to Phitsanoluk, which is the closest major town to where my friends Wanda and Matt are taking a permaculture course. A very nice university professor who arrived at the same time was concerned that I was wondering around alone looking for a hotel, so he shared his sangthaew with me (sort of a pickup with two benches along the sides of the bed) and found me a hotel that wasn't charging an arm and a leg. He told me to be careful, he worried about me, and advised me to not trust everyone.

Saturday morning, I checked out of the hotel, and hailed a rickshaw to the temple my professor friend recommended I go to. Ate some green papaya salad for breaktfast at the market outside the wat (temple). As I wandered toward the main entrance, two young women approached me and asked if they could interview me for their English class. Why not? We chatted for a good hour or so. They took me into the temple to show me how people were having their fortunes told in there. I'd never seen it before. There's a bamboo cylinder with a bunch of flat sticks that look like tiny oars inside. Each stick has a number on it. You shake the cylinder until just one stick falls out. Remembering the number, you go over to a counter where there are printed fortunes with a number at the top. My number turned up a fortune that translated (very roughly) as "Shit happens, but then it gets better."

My interviewers took me to the bus stop, and I made my way to Sapraywon, about an hour away. Arriving, I inquired about a hotel. After many failed attempts at communication, I was told I had two options - the Sapraywon Grand Hotel & Resort (which sounded a bit pricey) and some place vaguely across from the police station. Both of which were 2 or 3 km out of town, but in opposite directions. I picked a direction and started walking. A girl on a scooter picked me up (which is pretty common), and gave me a ride to the Grand Hotel. Rooms started at 1850 baht (ludicrous), but special rate for me would be 1450 baht (gee, thanks). I persisted in asking about other guesthouses or hotels until the coiffed and dramatically genteel hotel ladies broke down and started calling around for me. They found me a place that 300 baht rooms, which is still a bit steep, but much more reasonable. They wrote down the name in both Thai and Roman alphabets, and offered to drive me for a 100 baht service charge. I told them I'd walk the 7km instead.

As soon as I hit the road, a bus came by. Flagged it down, showed the guy my paper and said the name of the place. 5 baht and a few km later, I'm asking for a room at a riverside bungalow place. Hotel lady shows me a big room with 2 beds for 400 baht. I ask for a 200 baht room with 1 bed. She shows me a 300 baht room with one bed. I ask for a 200 baht room. She offers me the room for 250. I accept. I try to pay, but she can't break my 500 baht bill, so I tell her I'll hike back to sapraywon to the 7-11 (they're everywhere) to get change.

About a kilometer down the road, I see a pickup pull over and turn on its hazards while a girl hops out and goes up a driveway. Her family waits in the pickup. I walk up, ask the driver if I can catch a ride to Sapraywon. No problem. Five minutes later, girl comes back with man. Girl gets in cab, man climbs in back with me. Smile, nod. Another kilometer and there's a police road block with a little shade structure set up and a dozen or so officers. They ask us to pull over. Other traffic continues on. Did I catch a ride with drugsmugglers or what?? I watched the man sitting across from me for clues. He seemed calm. I was calm. Half a dozen officers began milling with a little more purpose, and milled their way over to me. Hello, where you going? Sapraywon. Where you come from? Phitsanoluk. (I never quite know how to respond to that question. Where I come from and where I'm coming from are two different things.) They look at the small shoulder bag I'm carrying, and laugh. I somehow explain that I'm staying at the hotel down the road, and I'm going into town to use the Internet. They laugh again. OK, have good time.

The nice family in the pickup drops me off amidst waves and smiles and much nodding of heads between us. I use the Internet at this place with lots of unruly boys playing video games. Then I head to 7-11, but am distracted by the food vendors across the street. I go to one, see what she's making, and ask for the same thing. I sit down next to a table of guys who are very amused by me. They bring over the fish sauce and put it on my table. A few minutes go by. They bring over the assorted pepper condiments. A few minutes go by. They bring over the toilet paper/napkin dispenser. My food comes. Where you from? California. Aaaaah.... California. I eat. I get up and ask one of the guys how much I should pay the lady for my dinner. No pay. I pay you food. No I pay you food. No I pay you food! Somehow they resolved who was going to buy my dinner for me. I laughed, and wai'ed (bowed with hands in front) to them all, and said thank you.

Now to 7-11? Not quite yet. Turns out I was eating right next to 7-11, but I didn't see it, so I headed off in the direction I expected it to be. Ran into the guy from my hotel. He asked in Thai if I was going back to the hotel. Don't know how it was i understood him, but i said yes, I wanted to go to 7-11 and could I meet him back here in a few minutes? He nodded a lot and went back into the shop next to him. I realized I was heading in the wrong direction, went back to 7-11, got beer, smokes and change for my 500 baht bill, and caught a ride back to the hotel on the back of the guy's scooter.

Unlocked my door, flipped the light switch, waited the 30 seconds it takes for the fluorescent tube to flicker to life, dropped my bag on the bed, and immediately executed a 2-inch cockroach that had scurried into the corner and was trapped there. As my friend Jodi says, what the cockroaches here lack in numbers, they make up for in size. I don't see many, but my lord they're big! I then scooped a lizard dropping off my bed, poured some beer into the Goofy glass that had been provided in my room, and sat myself down on the back porch which would have overlooked the river if it hadn't been pitch black out there. Wrote in my journal a bit, then read some, then bathed (poured water over myself with a plastic bucket and rubbed soap around as best I could while attempting not to drop anything in the squat toilet next to me) and went to bed.