full mo---

since we last spoke (the title of a good album as well... anyone on the artist?):

1) picked up a TINY bit of german
2) danced with 20+ thousand people on the beach at 7 am
3) have a growing interest in mountain biking as a hobby
4) rode an elephant (and hated it)
5) rode on some form of transportation for 36+ hours
6) have been up at 5 am twice
7) went back to bangkok for a short bit
8) got a cd
9) climbed a "mountain"
10) thought i was indiana jones at one point
11) ate a spider
12) got an invitation to come out for oktoberfest - 2007
13) stayed in a HOTEL room--- ohhh dear. sub point: had a hot shower. sub point: that was one of two showers since we last spoke.
14) learned of a very cool place to stay in vietnam: na trang (sp?)
15) thought about making some progress on an apartment search in chicago (please..)
16) saw a shooting star
17) got about halfway through my book and dont have too bad a headache
18) talked with my parents
19) learned a very cool card game: shithead!

i'll elaborate more with a bit of time. i am having trouble gathering all my thoughts as odd as that sounds.

in some pretty sad news, my cousin died this past week. very scary and serious stuff. it was on the news and in the papers which i read from over here. very chilling. its difficult to type words that describe the intricate emotion associated with the death of a loved one. so i just ask that if you are the prayer or meditating type to channel some positive energy towards the families of scott and melissa in this time of need. i cant thank you all enough for the support i have received.

i dont mean to be a downer, but that has been on my mind this past week.

in funny news: this past weekend i went on a mountain trek here in chiang mai. we were told to bring certain things, etc in order to be prepared for this trek of sorts. we show up and bryan and i are the only "non-couple" on this excursion in our party of about 10. that started things off in a jovial spirit. we begin the day with a hike and the guy that is taking us is completely piss ass drunk off a days worth of whisky, but he will not stop laughing in this high pitched voice which makes him closely resemble a small girl. we do not understand a SINGLE word the guy tries to say in english. and i mean as we are going up this damn mountain in tough terrain with all kinds of critters and shit all over-- you kind of want a "guide" to "guide" you along. well, this guy was good for about nothing other than the pungent odor of whisky as he spoke. we pressed onward up the mountain and the one thing i did actually understand the guy say, i didnt follow. see, we got to this area of the trek where there was a water hole. the guide told us to swim in it or else we would really be hot going up the mountain. HAH! i laughed to myself as i looked at my sturdy pack and infinite amounts of trekking equipment. i thought as i looked at my figure i closely resembled indiana jones... and indiana jones was not swimming in that damn water hole. he never drinks water for that matter. so i passed on the swim and damn near sweated my life away as we climbed up about the steepest portion of the mountain. the old drunk bastard was right, damnit. i got a kick out of it.

and im sure everyone wants to know about the damn full moon party as well. all i can really say is this: INCREDIBLE.

ok... more. well. lets see. the ingredients for a full moon party:

1) a full moon
2) a beach
3) dancing, dancing, dancing, jumping, dancing, singing, dancing, dancing, dancing, jumping
2) 20,000+ people from all over the world on a portion of an island designed for about 5,000.
3) lots of red bull
4) lots of whisky/vodka
5) for many-- lots of drugs (i happen to be scared silly of the thought of an experience in a thai jail)

now, simply take the ingredients, stir them together in a mixing sort of fashion and you have one hell of an experience-- a party, rather.

the highlight was high and far seeing the sun come up, drunk as a skunk with bryan, jumping and dancing like mad to a perpetual thud of bass and music from all angles--- and all this time as the light from the sun increased, realizing the sheer amount of people that were surrounding you on the beach looking to do exactly the same thing.. so many people, so much fun.

it should be noted that the collective sweat that bryan and i had produced from our little jumping and dancing extravaganza could have easily drowned a small animal. i think we had a radius of at least 10 feet on the circle that formed around us... and that circle didnt form so that a group of people could marvel at the sight of our crafty dance moves, but rather for safety purposes. the fist pumping and yelling i could tell scared off many people (i am serious here) throughout the night.

those that know me well are well aware of this fist pumping and yelling that manages to find its way in to the finest of evenings.. ahhhh, mark... you get me?

best party i have been to (other than, of course, the 40's party for my 21st birthday party on orchard street-- hahaha)

i will get a bit more up later in the week. later dudes..

the land of 1,000 smiles

so it has managed to rain for about the third day in a row here.. and now honestly i dont mind that so much other than the fact that they don't do the massages on the beach when the rain is pissing down.

massages on the beach-- thats right. all for 200 baht (roughly $5). doesnt that sound nice? i think that is the selling point for convincing anyone to come to thailand.

last i left off in patong beach we had still quite a bit of time left. we spent some time on a couple of different islands-- phi phi and pang nga. both were really incredible. phi phi was more beaches (first pic at the top) and snorkelling type whereas pang nga was more mangroves and mountainous types of views. and monkeys... monkeys... tons of fricking monkeys. both islands were really incredible.

so we are in ko samui now which the previous post alluded to. as i had wished before, we managed to get a quiet place on bhoput beach. by quiet, i mean it is nearly desolate. the beach is quite small, but as you walk further down there are some other resort-type places which are just screaming for me to come back to in years to come. continue down the beach and there is a fishermans village which actually has some world-renowned restaurants. apparently the locals tell us that this is the up and coming area for tourists. currently, chewang beach (an area about 5 km away) is taking the top spot, but i couldnt be bothered hanging out there as much-- it resembles quite closely patong beach with all the commotion.

amidst the rain and quiet time, i picked up a used book at a book shack. lord knows what enticed me to grab this little pot of gold off the shelf-- its called "the politics of experience" by r.d. laing. its extremely heavy on the psychology end (if you are reading lamia, perhaps you can confirm this guys notoriety?). i damn near have to read every page 16 times to take it all in. i stand up after reading the thing and i am dizzy... however, it does parrallel a lot of the thoughts i have in life. it talks a lot about personal "experience" and how our "experience" of others relates to the way we lead our own personal life and how it affects the way we limit our existence as human beings in relation to others "experience" and our "experience" of them (which of course isnt a good thing). ok, ok.. thats too much. haha..

we went for a trek through the rainforest yesterday. "intense" would be about the best word to describe our little adventure. there was a giant waterfall tucked in the middle of this rainforest and we decided it was a fantastic idea to climb up the rocks to the top as opposed to the nicely fenced off path.. brilliant.

...now, it was a challenging climb/hike but it was pretty fun as well. at left you can see the time we took to take our glamour shots for the summer 2006 patagonia catalog. we are going to send the photos in next week. bryan lost his watch whilst falling on a rock which was a bummer, but other than bruises and a lot of soreness i think we all came out ok.

and see, i continue to get shit for my stylish swimming apparel. but all the hipsters are going for these new "board shorts" and i couldnt be bothered with that. i'll gladly stick with my 1989 vintage hawaiian print trunks. thank you.

thailand is pretty big on their sports-- thai boxing is of the brutal variety (roundhouse kicks to the face and spinning punches-- its like mortal combat) but we happened across a more friendly sport called dah kroa. i have certainly butchered the spelling, but this is one of the more amazing things i have seen in a while. its like volleyball with your feet and head playing with an oversized hacky sack. we found a match one night and were just absolutely amazed at the way these guys were hopping around and kicking back and forth. when they go to spike the ball, the "spiker" physically gets his legs above his head to kick the ball down extremely hard on the other side of the net. its unbelievable-- the pictures dont even give justice.

other than that, been doing a whole lot of nothing-- which has been nice.

the full moon party is coming up tomorrow evening so we are really saving our guns to go all out for that. the boat takes us to the island about 8 pm and then picks us up at 8 am or thereabouts the next morning. accomodation is all booked, but your not supposed to sleep anyway.

more on that madness later.

top 10+ albums of 2005

ok, its a rainy day here on bhoput beach.. and what do we do on rainy days in bhoput beach? remember that i never officially reported my top 10 albums of 2005 and that i need to do that immediately.. see, i have been doing it since about my first year of college and i think it will be cool to look back on later in life. so i know this probably isnt the blog you had in mind, but that is coming in the next day or two.. promise. i just need to get some pictures lined up and such.

so here we go, top albums of 2005 (it was a dynamite year for music in my opinion):

1) my morning jacket - z
2) elbow - leaders of the free world
3) of montreal - the sunlandic twins
4) spoon - gimme fiction
5) brendan benson - alternative to love
6) the go! team - thunder, lightning, strike
7) sufjan stevens - illinois
8) jack johnson - in between dreams
9) mason jennings - use your voice
10) annie - anniemal (2005 release in the USA)

just for good measure:

11) arcade fire - funeral
12) emiliana torrinni - fishermans woman
13) josh rouse - nashville
14) engineers - self titled
15) the mobius band - city v. country EP

for even more ooomph, my new favorite category i started last year. the "throwback" artist of the year (last year was steely dan):

nick drake! such a champ.

and there you have it! more to come from koh samui...

i have thai'd and gone to heaven

so lets start with today, and then i will backtrack to when we first arrived here in thailand..

we woke up with the birds chirping at 6:40am to get on a boat out to phi phi island (which was in fact leveled by the tsunami just over a year ago) only to find out that they didnt have room for us on the trip.

bummer, right?

HAH! we picked our shit up and rented motor bikes. it was sweet. we were rocking and rolling all over this island of phuket checking out all the different beaches (kata beach pictured at left which was our first beach of the day and then we made it our last for sunset), even managed to make it through some villages which was a real eye opener. on a sort of a downer side of it, we did manage to see a lot of the areas that were nailed by the tsunami and that was pretty sobering stuff. from the evacuation routes that are still posted, to the leveled villages, all the way to the construction that is actively going on-- the tsunami's effects are still felt.

BUT we are back to being badasses on motor bikes.

by day we were touring the beaches, but by night managed to get in good with with a local biker gang and were kicking it straight gangster through the main drags--poppin' wheelies and throwing up gang signs. you know the drill. boys in 'da hood shit.

just kidding mom, no wheelies or gangs-- we are safe. love you!

so that was today, now i will backtrack allllll the way back to our arrival in bangkok just under a week ago.

the plane ride over was smooth. and by smooth i mean drunken. yeah, i thought it would be a great idea to revel in the beauty that would be my first taste of thai beer (and whisky, and wine).. and well, not a bad decision i have to say. about 5 or 6 beers later, some whisky and after dinner wine i felt like a million bucks. then i slept. easy peasy.

we arrived and i felt fresh as a daisy-- even though it was 1am local bangkok time and pushing 5 am sydney time.

ok, so we checked in to a guesthouse and that was cool. we immediately flocked to the backpacker haven that is kho sahn road. it is just a big street in bangkok with everything from illegitimate thai massages to bars open all night.. fake cd's and all the fake handbags and gucci that any woman could handle (for some reference here.. you may as well call canal street in NYC childs play-- kho sahn road is serious shit folks), and well... lots and lots of pad thai carts and backpackers. fair enough?

its a fun place, i promise.

we toured bangkok for all that it was worth-- we even managed to get toted around the city in a "tuk-tuk. a cart of sorts with a carriage in the back for people to ride in. haha, and with that description-- driver, toted-- you would think we were living like kings. and we certainly thought we were, but all for a measly 20 baht each (thai currency) which translates to roughly 50 cents.

its cheap here folks, yes indeed.

the tuk-tuk driver took us to every temple in the city-- we saw standing buddha, sitting buddha, golden buddha... hell, get this-- RECLINING buddha. thats so "urban hipster" of them isnt it? lots of temples!

we even managed our first taste of thai food whilst in the country. i loved it, cant get enough even to this day. and yes mom, we even got the vegetarian crap so that we can avoid bird flu at all costs..

however, now is a perfect time to say that all that crap about bird flu is complete bullshit. its so silly. its such a governmental hype. i feel like old GWB didnt pick up the bill on the whole hurricane disasters down south, didnt quite cut it with the relief effort and we werent prepared as country to deal with such crisis. so now, in the face of another POTENTIAL disaster (what... p90.. MAYBE?!) why not scare the hell out of everyone in the world so that IF shit hits the fan--- "well, i told you so!" ahh, bologna and cheese i say! STUPID.

alright, enough of that.

so the food is good, and HOT! spicy as hell, and i couldnt be happier about that.. although, softer toilet paper would make things a bit more comfortable.

the thai people are an incredible lot of friendly peeps. i cant believe how many times people-- in a pure state of altruistic behavior-- took a lot of time to help us out. it wasnt odd to have someone talk with us on a street corner for 20 mins asking about the USA, our families and telling us what to do in thailand-- just lovely. so that is incredibly nice as compared to a lot of places that want to take a big dump on any american they lay eyes on.

bangkok as a whole is a busy city-- it puts any metropolitan city or innercity commute i have ever done to shame with regard to traffic. taking a 7 km cab ride during rush hour could EASILY take nearly 2 hours. ridiculous. the city is smothered in a thick layer of smog and pollution which certainly tarnishes your thought of it.. i mean to the point where you pick your nose before going to bed and when you take your finger out all your buggers are black and grimey.

a very gross way to put it-- i know. but now you really get the point.

now, having said the above.. bangkok seems like crap. but truly, the bona fide sweetness of the people that inhabit the place make up for any issue with inflated amounts of car exhaust in the atmosphere.

the style is a redeeming quality of the city in certain parts, namely siam square. it is what i would like to think the modern portion of the city (its huge geographically speaking by the way-- the entire city that is.. you could NEVER walk it all.) with avant-garde shopping malls that give harrod's in london and macy's in NYC all a run for their money. im talking malls that i even liked-- really sweet stuff. siam had a unique contemporary asian style-- something similar to what i saw in tokyo years ago. the asian "pop" culture (music, clothing, etc) mixed with business professional style that would please those aged 30 and up. really an interesting area.

but on to phuket!

the ride over on the bus was supposed to be 12 hours-- it took just under 24 in total after it was all said and done. i managed to make friends with a swede who slipped me some sleeping pills-- that made it slightly easier. but then again, it was pretty shitty when they unloaded us from the bus at 6 am to tell us a new bus would be picking us up in 2 more hours to continue on to phuket. my eyes still definitely wanted to be shut at that point. we sat and waited, eventually the bus came and we were on our way. 9 hours later (and 2 more buses) we made it fricking phuket.

we immediately went to the beach.. funny we all walked off feeling "small stings" all over our body whilst swimming and afterwards. turns out they were minor jellyfish stings-- no wonder not a single person was swimming then.. hah i believe our words were something like:

"ahh! this water is so refreshing.. it makes just no sense that people dont swim in the peaceful waters while watching the sunset at 7pm!"

well, i guess the jellyfish are the reason. but fear not mom, i am ok now.. no marks or abrasions. remember.. i said they were "minor. "

we are staying in sort of a seedy beach town called patong beach wich is just outside phuket town. it is certainly not a favorite of any of ours. there are tons of what we like to call "package tourists" flocking about and it seems every man here has a goal to shack up with one of the billion thai prostitutes inhabiting the island. and for some, thats cool... but it just gets overwhelming at a certain point.

needless to say, other parts of the island.. namely day trips to OTHER islands and motorbiking across to OTHER beaches make phuket pretty sweet.

the plan is to stay here a few more days and then on to koh samui where we are told we have a reservation at a "quiet little place."

i can only hope.

(i am having trouble uploading pics.. so more later when i have some more time)