Life As Canvas

I, being the lucky girl I am, share some DNA with a friendly and successful guy named Joe. He’s actually my father’s cousin, lives in Bangkok and has a condo and a sailboat on the beach and, though I’d never met him before, he invited Erika and I to stay a few days with him at his condo. So generous!

The first night, he showed us around the heart of Pattaya, a beach town south of Bangkok known for its sex district. Though I’d known about Thailand’s sex reputation, I’d never really seen it up close. Pattaya was a little shocking, with its mass of flesh for sale clicking in heels up and down the street and the dredges of Western society stalking around like hungry lions, leering and smiling, pointing and wanting. The streets filled up with vendors, fake Rolexs, lots of red neon, and girls. Girls in miniskirts, girls in go go boots, girls standing in front of bars with signs, girls that are boys, girls gyrating in windows up above the street, girls on poles, Thai girls, Russian girls, walking hand-in-hand with old worn out white guys in Hawaiian shirts, their faces blank, or seeming to say “yeah, I know he’s gross. But what do you want me to do about it?” One beautiful young Thai girl smiled ironically while she walked past us holding hands with a man who must have been 75 years old or older.

I appreciated seeing it the way I was glad to see a cow being slaughtered in South America. We’re told this is the way things work in the world but without actually seeing it, it’s hard to imagine, or even believe. I don’t want to see every uncomfortable thing that goes on behind my shiny happy world but coming face to face with a few makes for a good, grounding sort of experience.

The next day thrust me back into the dream world, and it did feel like a dream sitting on cousin Joe’s sailboat listening to his classy chill out music and then arriving at an abandoned island where we snorkeled to a white beach and kicked around some shells, did cartwheels, gawked at the scene before us like something from a postcard or a tropical computer screen background in a grey office. Teal waves and choral, warm water. Bathtub warm. And we had it all to ourselves. Erika and I selfishly soaked it all up.

And Thailand continues to be a mix of the uncomfortable, the dirty, the dreary with the bright, overwhelmingly pleasant. One thing makes you appreciate the other, even exaggerates its effect. After these last two days, two images are burnt on my brain: the hungry smiles of badly shaved men, sweaty and old, shabby and shaking with anticipation, and the bright white of the island beach, the choral patterns in its waters, their soothing soft rhythm and the rattling beetles in the trees, these nature sounds, the only sounds around.

Sunset from Cousin Joe’s Condo

Cousin Joe

Capt. EO Relaxing

Takin’ The Wheel

After cooking up Thai delights, Erika and I were excited to get out of town and see some jungle. We met our flirty tour leaders, Jen and Chew, the night before at a group meeting where they started joking around in broken English and making eyes at the females in the group. The next day after a breakfast of eggs, toast, and some strange sticky sausage we piled into the back of a truck and went a-bouncing up into the hills.

Rice fields and banana trees whizzed by as we wound up the left side of the road. We saw some elephants milling about and, with a wince of the brakes, we pulled over to the side and hopped out.

They raised their trunks up to us, ever the banana-hungry beasts, and we happily fed them, trying to avoid the wet end of their enormous nostrils, blowing banana breath up into our faces and curling back into their mouths.

I think we were all a bit giddy when we got to step up onto their backs. Erika and I couldn’t stop laughing at the touristy-ness of it all. These poor elephants do this all day, it’s hard not to have mixed feelings about their simple lives, taking tourists up into the trees and back. But I can’t deny that it was a lot of fun rocking back and forth on the muddy trails and feeding our elephant banana after banana while her baby followed along beside us.

Atop an Elephant

Then it was into the trees, our own feet carrying us up damp trails. Jen and Chew started throwing seeds and things at the girls and showing off by breaking off leaves and blowing bubbles with the sticky stems, falling litchis and giving them to us. I now have a new love for litchis as a mid-trail snack.

Slipping around on a thin layer of mud and leaves I walked through the jungle trees following my guides and a group of 14 other young, adventurous travelers. I retreated into my thoughts as I walked on through the heat and listened to the insects singing above. It felt good to work my muscles, to sweat, to let the jungle absorb the frenzy still in me after exploring Bangkok streets.

Strange sounds surrounded me. Sometimes I heard far-off rock music coming over a staticky radio but the noise, like some sort of ghost never faded, followed me through the trail. Bugs. Ever present and singing, they sound like a number of things from singing pipes in an old building to table saws, rattles, old broken radios, sprinklers. The crickets back home make for a nice subtle soundtrack. These Thai bugs take center stage. When we got to our bamboo hut we ate some – all of us hesitating at first – and then went for seconds. Turns out grasshoppers are kind of salty and good!

crunch

By nightfall we were singing songs around the fire and telling stories. Jen called me a monkey because I have hair on my arms and kept pulling it and giggling. This was some sort of come on, I think. Then Chew said “Do you have a boyfriend? Sometimes it’s good to have two just for fun.” They moved from one girl to the next in the group, trying to wow us with magic tricks and telling us we’re cute. Chew gave his attentions to Erika, ever the blushing beauty, but went home pouting. Such attentive guides!

Jen wows Erika with magic…

…and then with song.

Chew relies on good looks and pouting.

The next few days were full of waterfalls where Jen and Chew showed us the best places to slide down the rocks and pretended to push the girls in the water. We jumped from little cliffs and dried off in the sun, ending each day with a new curry dish and fresh pineapple.

Erika watches our guides goof off.

A perfect place to swim.

After days of orchids and rice patties, elephants and flirts, we regretted leaving the jungle but were happy to have a shower again. The group got together for a last drink and our guides said goodbye with hugs and pouts.

We have another day to spend in the North and then it’s back down to Bangkok to meet cousin Joe and head to the beach.

For Erika’s version, check out her blog through the link on the side of this page —>

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