I’m still so sleepy. Grr. the last five days have been exhausting, and the thought of doing twice that just two weeks from now is truly worrying. I’m hungry. And I hate leeches. Really hate leeches. So to recap. I have just gone on a week long hiking thing, returned home, left to Khon Kaen for three days, returned home, organizeed my music and I’m at school now, bored and actually waiting for the next trip to start. It’s weird, but sometimes it really is too lonely here and I really wish for some sompany and something to do. Meh, I’ll survive. “My hope is that my girlfriend wont dump because of this game, but hey, priorities right?” I love gamers. Speaking of which, may I take a slight pause before the storm. I’d just like to comment on one of the largest legal monetary crimes of recent times (contradictory, no?). Does anyone know EVE? It’s a huge space based online game of mining and clans and politics and pirating and warfare. Since like most MMOs items and currency are actually worth real money, pirating can actually be literally profitable. Usually it’s just a chosen proffesion of some gamers to up their clan status or buy a bigger ship of for kicks or something, but recently a smal orginization assasinated the CEO of a major corporation, looting his office and stealing good worth $16,500 american in goods. Since it’s in game, it’s all technically legal, except with in game police, who will track and in theory “arrest” the characters, but nothing bad with the people. Weird no?
So yeah, I just climbed the mountain of Phukradung, picked out some swag, got exhausted came home. Here’s my itinerary. The first fay I left home I headed to Khon Kaen, where I watched a large parade, as it was some sort of massive Chinese festival holiday thing. I got hit by some shrapnel from one of the thousands of firecrackers poppers and fireworks. They had these massive cool giant dragon things being carried by a whole bunch of people. I think they were obviously these things of wisdom and respect, but they were always led by these people I kinda assumed to be dragon tamers carrying these shiney gold and silver balls on sticks which they would wave around to let the dragon duck and bob in following. Point being is I had this massive feeling of See Before You, a Practical God, Great and Powerful, full of Wisdom and Knowledge, that is Nevertheless Obsessed with Shiney Things! I chuckled for a while. Having travelled there with Henriette, I stayed with Moritz a very nice and entertaining German guy with perfect teeth. There was also Jamie, the singing Canadian guy from Ontario, Jade, the south africen oldie, Jeff, also from Ontario, Madie, I think from Ontario, and Lindsay, from ______. I have no bloody idea, sorry. But yeah, all and all a cool group of people and after the parade we all hung out at Fairy Plaza, the big Khon Kaen mall, which is not nearly as confusing as the pride of Mahasarakham, Serm Thai Plaza. we have the most confusing mal in the world. It’s mainly divided into three sublevels for each floor, each slightly offset, one in the centre and one to ither side, except some arent connected to the others on their “Floor” eg. Sublevel ‘3a’ is not connected to ‘3b’ or ‘3c,’ rather it has a randomly placed escalator that leads down to ‘1c’ or stairs up to ‘4b’ I’m lettering levels from left to right and not including the ground floors, because there’s seven of them, and one you can only get to by a an opening at the back of the thrid ground floor level (cellphones) or little 3 foot opening you can crawl through on the fourth ground floor level. Yes a mall entrance door thing is only three feet high, I don’t know why. I just recently discovered an new entrance to the mall in the back of a clothing store by the parking lot a little way off that leads to a long, narrow, downwards sloping corridor that opens into some weird section I had never seen before (now dubbed ground floor sublevel seven) which came out by the stairs up to ground level subsection 2. I still get lost on a regular basis in there, and almost inevitably, get stuck on one of the lingerie levels with no idea where to go. It’s weird.
Sorry about that deviation, but it was fun. So yeah, the next day we hopped in a van and drove to the foot of Phukradung. We hung out there, ate a huge buffet thing, sang ridiculous amounts of kareoke, and talked. For a long wile Sam, a fellow Canadian (dunno where from, probably Ontario), and I sat in a hamoc and talked with each other and Jono, who claimed the other seat. Sam is very cool, pictures to be posted, she plays the cello, loves classical and indie music, as well as a variety of others, and is very entertaining. Jono is a funny south african oldie who has a thing for my zippos and is the good kid of the oldies, no drinking, smoking etc, which seems to be rare amoung exchange students. Not that they’re bad students, they just have a slightly different lifestyle from mine, which sometimes places me in the role of chaperone. Not that I’m really complaining, I enjoy the time I spend with them, they’re all delightful (almost all) and I find my niche fairly well, I think. But yeah, we chatted till a bit before midnight, before we went our seprate ways, them off to hang with a group, while I headed out with Heidi, another random cool person to chat with. I got to bed pretty late, crashed, and was up bright and early to shower and head out in the morning after a steaming cup of Milo - the nestle ovaltine. And up the mountain we went. And up. And up. Did I mention up? There was a vertical component by the way. Really, it wasn’t a long hike, but it was HARD. Maybe I’m really out of shape, having put on some weight recently (I’m not fat yet but not so skinny), It was only a few kilometres hike, but 1300 metres vertical, and most in one section, so it was intense angles, sometimes clambering over rocks. There were these three staircases in succession that on the way down I noticed that in the posture I sat in to balance I couldn’t see the next stair without leaning forward dangerously. It was cool, but exhausting. I walked most of it with JD, the guy from Quebec who speaks basic english and Moritz, the german who speaks basic english. It was cool. Then there was this nice little 3k stroll along the plateau at the end, which was nice and relaxing. We were the second group to get there and won scarfs for it (because it’s so cold?). Rotary later threw mine out because… um. But I bought a similar one because I liked it. We stayed up until about 3 that night, talking playing games, avoiding leeches. Relly no one slept much that trip because of the leeches. they were everywhere, in some of the beds, clothes left lying around, and certainly on people. It wasn’t much of an issue at all really during the day, but at night, as it cooled off and the dew moistened the grass, you could shine a flashlight on the ground and spot them crawling (slither, whatever word constitutes end over end movement) about. I was one of I think maybe two people who didn’t get bitten out of the fourty five as I wore socks, closed shoes, jeans, etc the whole time. I certainly got them on me though, I just got them of in time due to diligence and paranoia. Some others fared much worse, getting bitten multiple times each night. Someone tried to tell me that they weren’t actually leeches but worms that just happened to look like leeches and suck blood. I dunno, I’m no biologist (aka technically I may be wrong) but I call bloodsucking worms leeches. Misquitos weren’t too bad, and ants were almost non existant, so as a whole I was actually pretty happy about it all.
The food was good, Mostly Here’s a barbeque of sorts, here’s some other stuff. Cook. For dinner, but breakfast and lunch we just had pre payed Resturants/cafe things, not like in canada, but kinda a combo of a corner store and eat-standing take-out it was good though, especially with unlimited free food and drinks. I went through a lot of pepsi, and a lot of kit kats because, hey they’re there, they’re free and they’re bloody expensive anywhere else. Yum. I love cow phat klai (basically chicken fried rice) but thai style. I ate that alot, despite the oilyness. The second day ontop of the mountain we did a twenty kilometre hike around the edge of th plateau looking at all the cliffs (pics to be posted because it’s pretty). It was nice, but tireing. I spent most of the time talking to either some random australian rotary dude tagging along, or Sam, see above. It was fun, some good conversation, some amazing cliffs, nice pictures, the usual scenic tour. I headed home to find someone had busted my deodorant spraying it everywhere to cover some sort of smell in out shared cabin. Thanks dude. Speaking of hygene, you would not BELIEVE the showers here. I’ve become a bit of a fan of cold showers, or at least cool ones since I got here, it’s refreshing, and sometimes it’s just so hot and muggy you don’t want a hot shower. But even than it’s only really cool, I don’t think anyone really voluntarily has a genuinely cold shower. These were cold. You would be a lot warmer rubbing a big block of ice over yourself because at least ice heats up but this is fast running FREEZING water. It’s pumped straight from a mountain spring and was sooooooo cold you would not believe. It wasn’t refreshing, it was painful. You know that sharp ache pain thing you get from keeping your hands in snow too long? Inagine that everywhere. I got in the shower the first time just before some thai guys claimed the adjascent stalls, and there was literal screaming. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been gasping for breath. Plus you don’t have a shower when the sun’s down, either early morning or night, because then you can’t watch for the leeches in the shower stalls. Euuch. Once again that night I got to bed around three after the usual festivities.
The next day we went about touring the waterfalls. I had fun wandering off on my own, listening to the elephants trumpeting in the distance, and seeing the monkeys play in the trees. It was fun. Stupid giggling girls in the background. We were warned not to chalenge the wild elephants as some one got trampled here last year. How do you chalenge and elephant anyway? Stick out your ears. Trumpet at it? I was more worried about the wild boars anyway, I never saw them but they sounded HUGE! Plus the random howling circling around you at night was kinda creepy. No idea what that was. Meh. It was pretty, Swimming people were funny, I twisted my ankle in the bizarre hole in the rock by a waterfall, just kind a 35cm diametre 80cm deep hole in the rock that I managed to fall into. Ow, ankle was swollen for the next four days or so.It was cool. Didn’t get to bed till 4 that night. Woke up the next morning, ate, headed down the mountain. I spent most of the time chatting with Nicole and Maddie, Nicole being this very active small oldie from south africa, one of those people you just feel that they have a bit toom much energy or personality to fit inside their bodies. Maddie is a relatively quite girl who suits her name, I always think of her as a Maddie as opposed something else, which I do to many people. It was cool, and relaxing. We had a big brunch at the bottom of the mountain, then headed home. I hung about for a while then headed home, showered etc posted the last post and fell into bed. Next morning I headed out to Khon Kaen. Why? Because I am an idiot.
Not to say it wasn’t fun, I was just already tired and voila, I’m up until 4 that night. I was traveling with Jade, Nicole, and Ian, a guy from Ontario who’s certainly interesting. He’s very nice and charming, I quite like him, and he’s got this weird vaguely cute thing goign that contrasts with most of his personality. He’s just not who I would interact with at home, though he’s very nice. Meh. Three nights, not one night have I been to bed before 4 am. I get home yesterday afternoon, organize my music collection, celebrate father’s day/the kings birthday with my host brother and father, possibly the most important day in thailand because everybody loves/worships the king as a god/savior/father. NEVER say anything bad about him within hearing. Not if you want to ever have any friends. For some bizarre reason I wasn’t able to sleep last night and didn’t fall asleep until like four, in time to get up at six. Arrggh! Teh sleep madness grasps at us. Not really, I’m perfectly awake right now, but it’s annoying to lie around for so long. I think it’s mostly because I just got kicked from my room because my hostmother has a backache and wants my bed so I’m now on another ant infested, unpleasantly squisky bed, in a room with no fan and no aircon. Hot and uncomfey does not make for good sleepys.
A few other things I’m going to comment on. First off all the answer to congestion! these wonderful things all the thai kids walk around with up their noses and Ian finally convinced me to get one. Its a tube. There is a connector piece in the middle which comeis in different colours for accesorization (I got mine in hot pink). ONe end is a lid whic covers this tube thing han you breath in from like some sort of smelling salts that clears you up and the other is a little container you detatch and put come liquid from it on you fingers to put beneath your nose so you continue to breathe it in for a while. It sounds odd but it’s very useful and everybodies doing it. Also my music tastes are changing and expanding as I spend a lot of time listening to music in my vast amounts of free time. A few current favorites: 1985 by Bowling for Soup, Bittersweet Symphony by ______ (someone fill in that blank), and Welcome to the Black Parade by ______ (help again, I know it, I just can’t remember now, but their new album is good). Also enjoying Powerman 5000 for some good thrasher music, anything I can get my hands on of Postal Service, Such Great Heights and The Decemberists.
Lots of love from Thailand.
Evan