Wow!

Paew, Me and Oi with our Katrong.

Sage and Oi.

Loi Katrong

We didn’t really have a Thanksgiving here, What we did have was Loi Katrong. That is when the Thai people make floating flower displays from slabs of cocoanut trees decorated with folded banana leaves, and flowers topped with three sticks of incense and a candle. They’re made to apologize to the lakes and rivers for polluting them. The holiday shows the reverence for nature that is so strong in the Thai people. We didn’t spend the day folding banana leaves and placing flowers on our floats, we just went to Bubbles, and bought them. Well, Harv and I did….Sage’s friend Oi made hers. It was really beautiful, totally traditional. The ones Harv and I bought were really big ones that show the kind of unfortunate influence of Western culture corrupting a far more simple beautiful way of life. The ones Harvey and I bought had a bead foam base, and a lot of the decoration was made from nylon ribbon. They were really beautiful, but I felt a little bad about putting non biodegradable stuff into the ocean. They assured us that they all get picked up in the morning, so off we went to float our Katrongs. Pattaya is a beach with no rivers or lakes to speak of, so the Katrongs here are floated in the ocean. If you float them at the beach the waves knock them over immediately, so we walked out to the dock where the fishing boats are moored to float ours. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we were joined by Ann, On’s sister ( and Miss South Pattaya 2004) and Nok (Miss South Pattaya 2005) we made quite an impression walking through Pattaya with all our beautiful Katrongs, and five beautiful Thai girls. As we were walking to the end of the pier a boatload of Chinese, and Japanese tourists were walking off the pier, so there was a jam of people trying to go opposite directions. Harv had his Katrong on his head….they get really heavy….anyway the Chinese and Japanese tourists started oooing, and awwwing at Harvey’s Katrong. Harvey started saying WOW!…..WOW! That just made the tourists ooooo and aaaaaaa more. It was pretty funny. When we got to the end of the pier it got very serious. This is no joke holiday. At least Paew was really serious about what we were doing. You add a piece of yourself to your Katrong…a strand of hair, or in my case a fingernail (no hair to spare), and then put some baht in it (I think that’s part of what gets them all picked up in the morning), then light the incense and candle. As you float the Katrong away you make your apology to mother nature for having done any damage. It seems rather quaint, but I actually felt pretty strongly affected by it. It’s wasn’t quite Thanksgiving, but it was a holiday that I’ll remember forever.

On the way to Loi Katrong.

My Birthday in Pattaya

Tuesday was my 44th birthday…..Woooohoooo. It was one of the nicest birthdays I ever had. The day was pretty mellow Sage and I spent time hooking up Harvey’s computer system. He’s now set up much like I used to have at Lucerne. He’s got a huge display projected on the wall, with a remote mouse and keyboard. We loaded up a bunch of music…14 gigs worth, and his sound runs through a nice sound system. All in all a very nice system.

That evening we headed out to my favorite restaurant. Star Dice is a quite good restaurant and bar across the street from the beach in Pattaya. It’s right next to the Hard Rock, so I’ve been going there for quite a while. They know me pretty well, in fact they’ve given me a free hat at least five times. I really don’t like the hats they’ve got a plastic inside front that doesn’t feel too good against my bald head, so I always give them away. We sat down to dinner, and got drinks. They had the usual set of singers on stage Thai and Western music. After a while Paew got up from the table, and walked over to the front of the restaurant, and came back with a huge flower arrangement. Chrysanthemums, Roses, and exotic tropical flowers I can’t name…..She is so sweet. Well after that we had a nice dinner, and then the wait staff brought over small plates with little forks, and a large plate with a big plastic knife…..Hmmmm what could be coming next? Enter my birthday cake. Harvey had gone out and bought a cake that day and left it at Star Dice to be served later. Then the band broke out in Happy birthday….Woooohoooo. Of course then they gave me and Harvey a free hat…..what a nice surprise.

Next we went off to my favorite go go bar….It’s my birthday right! We’re pretty popular there. So they knew it as my birthday. I got a lay….I mean Leigh upon arrival. It was a Tuesday night, so it was pretty quiet. Good for me cuz I got lots of attention from all these pretty girls. Then they all sang happy birthday to me for the second time that night. It helped that I rang the bell. [Every bar in Thailand has a bell. Ringing the bell means you want to buy the bar a round of drinks.] By now I’m beginning to get a little buzzed, Then the Tequila came out. After a few rounds of Tequila it was time to go, but first the girls got me to dance with them, and according to Sage I was pretty funny. I thought I was just way too sexy for my shirt. The wonders of Tequila…..

Next we went to a disco called Hollywood….go figure. This place is huge! It’s like a rave Thai style. There were probably a thousand people in there. Harvey had reserved a table front and center so we walked right up to the stage and sat down. One thing about Pattaya disco’s is they are pretty gay. There’s always a bunch of gay guys dancing with each other, and lots of full tables with not a single girl among them, Whatever that doesn’t bother me. The bathrooms……now that can be a problem. They have way to many bathroom “attendants”. If you’re not careful these guys will swarm you as you’re standing at the urinal….one guy will massage your shoulders one guy will massage your calves, and a third guy will rub an ice cold towel under your shirt. Not only that these guys are peepers! As I walked into the bathroom, (I held it as long as I could) three guys came running up to me…..I held up my hands and yelled “back off!”. It was pretty amazing how the three of them stopped dead in their tracks. Anyway I was safe. I went back to the table, and the show began. They had a really good band, and a bunch of dancers it was a great show. We brought along one a couple of the girls from Bubbles to Hollywood, and one of them invited a couple of her guy friends. These guys came up to the table, and put another birthday cake in front of me. I guess the girl that invited them had asked them to pick up a cake on the way. After a while the Two lead singers came to the front of the stage, and said they wanted to wish Mr. Mikey a happy birthday. That was amazing, Then they sang happy birthday, and I blew out the candles on my cake. Sharing my birthday with a thousand people was definitely pretty memorable……What a night!

Sage fishing.

Harvey, On and Thurston

Paew and I at lunch. Thanks for the pic Sage.

Too much fun.

You're right Jenny, we've been having so much fun I haven't done a post for a while. Harvey, Sage, and Thurston all arrived well. Thurston took a few days to get over the doggy tranquilizers, but seems to be OK now. He's the same as he is in LA. If he's outside he wants inside if he's inside he wants out. The only difference is when you try to let him out, as soon as he feels the heat he turns around and wants to go back to the air conditioning. Harvey has been keeping himself busy with house stuff. We got DSL at the house. It's kinda slow, but just having a constant connection is a real luxury. Harv seems really happy to be back with On. Sage is having a mind blowing vacation, and is plotting ways to stay here. I certainly can't blame him. Pattaya is light years from Boulder Colorado. I'm enjoying myself as usual. Paew is taking great care of me...It's good to be king. On Thursday we went to the Miss South Pattaya contest. It was really fun....beautiful girls dressed and made up even more beautiful. In between the swimsuit and evening gown parts of the contest they had a ladyboy show which is always good for a few laughs....."hey dude, your boob is falling out of your dress". I wish I had taken pictures. I just assumed they wouldn't let me but there were plenty of people taking pictures. Last night we went to the movies, and saw some live music at dinner. They had a great band with a horn section. It was a really nice night. On Monday were gonna go out on a boat fishing, and later in the month we'll be going to Cambodia...I can't wait for that, you all know how much I love Phnom Penh.

Wang Kan Lueng Waterfall

My trip to Central Thailand.

I've been trying to figure out what to say about my trip to Paew's family's house. I doubt I can put it all into word, but I'll give it a try. I learned so much about Thailand from this trip. To begin with I learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road. Over the four day trip I drove 1200 kilometers. By the end of the trip it felt OK, but at the beginning it was rather unnerving to make turns and go into what feels like the wrong side of the road.

As we drove through the countryside I got my first look at the non tourist part of Thailand. The places where life in is unfiltered for foreign consumption. Farms, factories, and family run businesses lined the road as we traveled. In my former posts I said I was going to Petchabun. I was wrong. That's the nearest big city. Where we actually went was a very small town called Si Thep. This is the town where Paew was born, and the town where her family still lives. As we traveled Paew explained that the house we were going to was hers. She bought it a few years ago, and at the time it wasn't much more than a concrete post frame covered with corrugated tin roofing material. While that doesn't sound like much, for Thailand just the fact that her family lived on land they owned was a pretty major deal. The next thing I found out was that the money that Paew has got from me has all been spent on re-modeling her house. Now it has a blue porcelain roof, and walls made from concrete block covered with a smooth skin of plaster. The floor is a concrete slab, and a very Spartan but complete bathroom is to the rear of the house. Since it's my money that did all this, Paew keeps referring to it as my house. Her family is just the same, they really expect me to come and live there. All that was pretty difficult for me to deal with when I got there. Her family is so totally welcoming, I felt really comfortable......we’ll socially comfortable, Thai lifestyle is not really something I'm used to. They really don't use furniture except for closets and dressers. When you sit down it's on the floor with a rice mat under you. The same for eating, food is brought to the center of the rice mat, and you eat right there. During the day the family,(and most of the neiborhood) hang out in a Palapa out side the house. It's built with an elevated platform where you sit, and a roof made with a bamboo frame, and palm frond shingles. When I first got there it was a little uncomfortable, but as I spent some time I realized it's really a comfortable was of life. It's kinda hard for me to sit cross legged for hours and hours, but they brought me a cushion and after a while I got used to just reclining on the rice mat either in the house or out in the Palapa. They were constantly trying to feed me, and they eat a lot of fish, so I had to decline as politely as I could quite a bit, but they didn't seem to take offense. The first night I was there, they put a bowl of what looked like a spiced and deep fried string beans in front of me, so I tried one. The flavor was pretty good, but it was way crunchier that a string bean should be. As I got closer to the middle of it I realized it was not vegetable.........not chicken, not pork, not beef.......oh shit, I'm eating a little fish. Well it turned out I was eating some sort of mudfish, that had a spicy stuffing. I politely finished it, but I didn't have another. When the family and friends sit in the house or outside the men sit on one side, and the women and kids sit on the other. That meant I was sitting with the a bunch of guys who didn't speak a drop of English, but nonetheless were very interested in talking to me. I did lots of nodding and smiling. Sometimes Paew was close enough to interpret for me but most of the time I had no idea of what was beng said, but I got the general idea that these were really sweet people who really seemed to like me. The second night we arrived at the house a little late, and the guys had worked their way through almost two bottles of Thai whiskey, so they were pretty buzzed, and even more talkative......great! They really wanted me to drink with them, but I was driving(on the wrong side of the road) so I really didn't want to drink too much. I had a little of the whiskey, but mostly just drank beer, and smiled and nodded a lot. They really seemed to want to take me out, either to go to a Karaoke bar, or to go play snooker. I wasn't really against going out with them, but not with them so drunk, so I told them I'd go out with them tomorrow night. So the next day I was outside on the palapa, and a group of guys showed up to take me out to play snooker. Paew had no intention of going to the snooker hall, so off I went by myself with all these Thai guys. Well we arrived at the snooker hall, and it really was snooker....not pool. Snooker is played on a huge table. It's like six feet wide, and twelve feet long. Ya know I had no idea how to play snooker, and there was no one there who spoke English to explain it to me. Anyway I just watched and did like they did, and actually had a really good time. Even without speaking their language I could tell that they liked hangin out with me, and I really liked them too. Paew eventually showed up to take me home, and I think she was a bit surprised that I was enjoying myself so much.

The next day we went to a local waterfall and had a picnic with Paew's Mom, her sister, and her two kids. This place was really beautiful. The water flows over limestone rocks it dissolves the rock as it flows over them. The rocks tend to shape themselves to the flow of the water giving the whole area a very soft and gentle look. Much like this whole country.

All in all I have to say it was a really eye opening trip. I think the experience of getting into the local lifestyle is like getting to level two of my travels. I'm not sure I could really move to Si Thep, and live there permanently like they want me to, but the idea of it swirls around in my head. What an interesting turn that would be in my life.

Back in Thailand

I've fully escaped Hong Kong. Packing up and getting to Thailand has been like being reborn. The air, the people, and the vibe here is so much more like I prefer....light, and easy. Paew met me at the airport, and today we're wandering around Bangkok. It's funny, but I know this town better than she does. Anyway, we are here for the next few days then I think were gonna go to Pattaya and rent a car, then drive up to Pethchabun. Fun, fun, fun!

I watched the election yesterday, and I gotta say it's too bad. Personally, I'm gonna stick around the Bhuddists. Come join me.