Wooooohooooo!

Vrooooooom vrooooooom....

New Vehicles and root canal.....

Harvey got a Truck very nice.....I'll let him comment, and tell ya bout it. By popular demand, I'm posting a pic of me on my "hog"....not. 100cc hog I don't think so. It is cool having readily accessible transport. This week I've been getting a root canal done on one of my front teeth....Fun...fun, fun. Actually it hasn't been so bad. I found a really gentle Thai lady, who did a nice job on Paew first. Hopefully in a couple weeks I won't have the off-colored crooked tooth that conveniently appeared underneath the piece of lip that Doctor Stu removed. They call this the Land Of Smiles, so I might as well fix up mine.

My scooter.

Fun with English

I never told you guys what we did on Christmas. We went to the Marriott where they have an Irish Pub, and restaurant. On Christmas they had a buffet with all the traditional fare. Harvey, On, On’s sister Ann, and her boyfriend as well as Paew and I all went for the Buffet. They had turkey and ham and all the trimmings. It was all pretty good, but not the kind of food Thai girls like. As we were walking out Paew asked me if I like “the big chicken”. After laughing a bit I told her it’s called Turkey. That’s not an easy word for Thai’s to say. Anything with an “R” in it is a problem. Anyway a couple weeks later Harvey and On are at dinner, and On asked Harvey if he wanted to eat Dookey….more laughing. Harvey explained that Dookey is Poo Poo. So last night Paew and I are driving around on my new scooter, and she tells me that she needs to use the toilet. Pee pee I asked, no dookey she told me. Ahhhh….the ever expanding vocabulary. We laugh at them speaking English, and they laugh at us speaking Thai….so were even.

I got the scooter a couple days ago. I’ve been renting one for a month or so, and it just made sense to get my own. Our house is about a mile from the main part of Pattaya so it’s a lot more convenient to have a bike. You can get around on the Baht bus (a pickup truck with benches in it) but ya gotta walk a couple blocks to get where you can catch one. Traffic is pretty bad sometimes so even when you catch the baht bus you often sit in traffic as you slowly get to town. All the while people on motorbikes are just cruising right past you. So now I’m cruising too.

Lucifer's

That darn comfort zone......

Well I'm Back in Pattaya all comfy again. Oh well, I'm just goin with the flow...thinking hard about this business we might start. Paew is even more attentive and loving. Thailand is very very seductive. I'm sure I'll travel more, but it's futile trying to pretend this isn't home. It's kinda funny to travel a third of the way around of the world, and end up at home, but that's how it seems right now. Waaaaa....poor mikey has to live in paradise....sniff...sniff.

Last night we went to Walking Street and hung out at Lucifer's. It's a pretty cool disco with fake rock walls, and a devilish theme. They had a great band playing live. The most amazing thing about it was that it's a straight club. I've never been to a disco in Thailand that wasn't overwhelmingly gay. It was a nice change from the ordinary, and ya don't get attacked by attendants in the bathroom. That's always a plus.

I'm in Phnom Penh still.

Congratulations Robert and Jamie! I'm not sure I'll make it to Vegas, but I wish you good luck, and happiness.


It's a little harder to write a post now because the times are so heavy. Writing about my own happiness or sadness while so many people have had it so rough seems rather self centered....but here goes. It's true were completely unaffected by the tsunami damage, but there are some indirect effects. Pattaya is full of people. I've never been here for a New Years, but the town was packed. New years was kinda fun, but my girlfriend managed to piss me off before the night was over. It's not a good idea to upset me at the end of my visa. I had to be out of Thailand by the 4th or 5th, so I packed my bags and left for Cambodia. Kind of a Draconian move, but it was a good excuse for me to get some time on my own. Paew's a great girl, but things seem to be moving a little fast for me. I'm supposed to be traveling round the world, and it feels as if I'm settling down in Thailand. Spending a couple of weeks in Phnom Penh isn't exactly the best way to clear your head, but at least my time is my own, and I can think about what I really want. I've decided, all I want is more! Living with Harvey in Pattaya now feels like being at home. It's incredibly comfortable, and as the days pass I could see myself staying there forever. The problem is I'm not really supposed to be at home. I'm supposed to be seeing the world. From LA this might sound rather strange, but the exotic flavor of far off places is rather fleeting. After a while the novelty wears off, and it all seems normal. When I first arrived here everything I did had a twist to it. Going to the market, or the movies had an exotic flare...like "I'm going to the movies in Thailand!". Well now it just seems like going to the movies. All this has made me kinda antzy. I feel like getting out of the comfort zone (again) and going out in search of adventure, and the exotic. All this has to be reconciled with my relationship with my girlfriend, and plans I've made with Harvey. Paew is expecting happily ever after, and Harv and I have some business plans in the works. I'm not feeling like I want to rule these things out, but I feel like I need more. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a few of the other countries in the region over the next few months, then resume my plans to complete the trip round the world. My sister Maureen has spring plans for Tuscany, so that would put me in Europe for a while, then I probably will come back through LA. At the very least I will by then have completed my mission and this blogs theme. After that settling down doesn't seem so bad, I think the whole idea of round the world is gnawing at me.

so much for whining....Phnom Penh is wild as ever. There seems to be a lot more people here as well. I think a lot of people in the region are picking alternatives to the destinations that were destroyed. Last Saturday Walkabout had the 24 hour drinking challenge. People who entered received a tee shirt, and had to drink thirty six drinks in a twenty four hour period. I didn't indulge, but I hung out to watch. It was hilarious. Only 2 people made it through the whole 24 hours, and those guys must have been superhuman, cuz they were back at the bar just a few hours after the challenge ended. Martini is staying busy. I went there my first night, which was a Sunday night, and it looked as if it was Friday night. I burned some CD's for them cuz their music in the outdoor bar was sucking. Now when I go in, the bar manager slips my CD into the player. It's nice when ya get what ya want....isn't it.