Vagabonding begins!

There are worst places to be stuck I suppose but I really have worn this town out. It is time to move on.

I packed all my things and walked to the train station but all the trains are full. The famous Orient Express happened to be there which was unusual but Im glad I got to see it. I booked passage to Surat Thani tomorrow on the overnight train. I hate to go into the south already because of the costs, but I am tired for some reason and lounging on the beaches sounds wonderful. I guess I’ll go North to Chiang Mai later hopefully and do the trekking.

On the way to the train station I met a huge German with Fabio-style hair named Jeurgen. He actually turned out to be pretty cool and we ended up friends. We did some snooping around the Orient Express together and he is going to be sleeping underneath me on the train in our bunk beds. He’s friendly but dear god I hope he doesnt snore, he will rattle the whole car if he does.

This crap-ass internet cafe actually infected my digital camera with a worm/virus..haha. I hope I dont loose my pictures, it has been writing things to my mem card in the camera! I should have been flipping the write-protect switch on the card, but I never imagined getting my bloody camera infected. I managed to upload some photos to my site, but no time for explanations or captions yet so many will seem strange. The pics are here:
http://www.fotki.com/bucho-ky

I walked the 5km back into town tonight with an English backpacker for New Year, saw some traditional Thai dances and music and drank some Asahi and Singhas. I ate the street food which was awesome. We were the only farang for miles so it was very cool, I kept catching people looking in our direction and smiling as we enjoyed ourselves at the celebration. An old woman gave us some orange soda to drink while we ate, she didnt speak English….but was with a family so I assumed that it wasnt drugged. The older people here are very kind and giving, very much like the older Polynesians.

I actually paid to have my laundry done, only 20 baht a kilo but it needed it. I have been doing it myself so far but a sink and shampoo can only get things so clean anyways. As I sat there eating my bundle of mini-bananas for breakfast, an old Thai woman sat down and I shared my breakfast with her. She was obviously very poor and never stopped smiling at me. I have almost quit negotiating with many of the older vendors…they are just trying to earn a living and the .30 cents I save means more to them than to me.

I have been preparing myself for the more expensive tourist islands though, by practising Thai haggling with Lisa and studying the numbers in the back of my Lonely Planet.

Good thing they fed the tigers today...the one I was scratching lazily rolled on his back and looked at me with one eye. It was obvious that he was too hot, too full, and too lazy to rip my throat ... [Continue reading this entry]

I got up today around 07:00 to the sound of a machine gun fired in the air followed by lots of firecrackers, etc. My jetlag so ... [Continue reading this entry]

I got up this morning and decided that Chinese New year or not, I was going to follow my heart and get the hell out of Bangkok. This was the first decision that I have made to balk the "touristy" ... [Continue reading this entry]

I will probably go back and re-write these entries...for a number of reasons. I am making updates just for friends and family to know that I am alive...it is hard to be creative when I am being charged by the ... [Continue reading this entry]

I made it to Bangkok last night around 01:30am. Exhausted from 22 hours of flying. I was not prepared for my welcome. I dragged myself out of the cab and down Kao San Road and apparently the bars close around 01:00am here ... [Continue reading this entry]