May 29, 2004
Web Logging
I'm still trying to figure out a good 'system' for doing all of this....
I dont really want to spend 1 baht per minute at a net cafe type this up.... Which is what I've effectively done just typing in the last major entry, based upon scribblings of events....
I 'could' try to write word for word on a notepad, but I'd still have to type it up either on ace or here at the cafe.
Preferrably I'd pull out Ace (my laptop), go down to the beach, and log away (then transfer to the net later).
I typed the first couple in the privacy of my room, which was fine, but I want to be out on the beach, not in my room. The problem is that if people find out I have a laptop, I'm a target. I've seen NO laptops, the occasional discman, and only heard about people bringing iPods or PDAs.
Maybe I can and will pull out my laptop in a more secluded location... anyone got any great suggestions?
Posted by Dan at 07:31 AM | Comments (1)
Video clip of my Bangkok room
This is a small videoclip of my Bangkok room - it cost my 370 baht, was pretty ordinary, but it had an ensuite and AC
Posted by Dan at 07:16 AM | Comments (1)
26/5 Ko Samui - Beach, Clubs and Cruisin'
After settling in to The Lucky Mother Bungalow, I had drinks out the front, on the beachfront with an Irish couple (Amon and Neve) who I had met during the ferry ride, as well as a Surfers Paradise couple (Greg and Michelle). This was it, I was finally lying on a Thai island beach, drinking my Mai Tai (and Pina Colada), looking up at the stars.... mmmmm :)
After that, Neve, Amon and I went and had a glorious dinner down the (I want to say road) beach, I had a Penang Goong (Prawn) Curry, as well as the free salad bar, all of this ON the beach. Absolutely magic!
These places also have fresh seafood on display, with prices per 100g, from 35baht for mussels to 130baht for lobster. Its not THAT cheap really, maybe it is on other beaches or islands less developed than this.
From dinner, we all went out to Sound bar, whereby i was given a free Chang beer (courtesy of Amon via a coupon). Some Ministry of Sound DJ was playing, as he is now doing weekly - he was ok, nothing special. Neve and Amon left, and I went round the corner to the Green Mango. Now it seems that the Green Mango is a bit of an institution around here, its styled into a BIIIIIG bungalow, with a large 'dance/trance' area, a pool/snooker area, various general drinking sections and a hip-hop/reggae/more general music section.
It was absolutely kicking by the time I got there, and I was already feeling a few feet away, so I decided to stick to Sprite :)
(start late night story)
Not much happened for a while until I met Shane - an Irish bloke with more balls than brains. We gain a bit of dutch courage and started dancing with some girls, who shortly after left (as the place was technically closing). I say technically, because I stayed on (in a smaller, enclosed area) with Shane and a couple of other girls (I wish I could remember names better) for at least another hour to 90 minutes. The girls were pretty cool, and I was given info about Ko Pha Ngan as we shared various travel stories.
At about 3am or so, the girls left, so we decided to go on (someone else had mentioned a Buddy Bar being open - near Lamai, south of Chaweng). The following 15 minutes contained one of the hairiest bike rides I've even been on!!! Shane was an absolute PHSYCO rider!
Anyway, we got there in once piece (well, two pieces, or even maybe three if you consider the bike), and found Buddy Bar pretty happening for that time of night.... although barely any western girls left.
We had a few drinks, including Vodka Red Bulls, and a Thai version of a depth charge (Thai Whiskey shot inside a glass filled with Thai Red Bull - note, Thai Red Bull is apparently significantly stronger than 'western' red bull, which is why it comes in teeny bottles).
(start later night story)
So anyway, dutch courage again, chatted to some good looking Thai girls, one of which seemed very uh, pleased to meet me. I wasn't entirely sure of motives, so I wasnt as reciprocally responsive. Anyway, all four of us left there, and the girls took us to another bar, Lek Bai, which I think is pretty much unknown to farangs (westerners.... I've only read about the term though). We didnt stay there long. It seemed the girl I was with ('Or') was overly 'forward' in part due to the fact that there was some unhappy stuff happening with her (ex)boyfriend... which made her friend ('Ung') umhappy to see her flirting.
Anyway, after hearing this, I relaxed a little, and took the girls home. Shane went back to his place (I was going to meet up with him the following Day, but I never saw him at the allocated meeting point/time), and have not seen him since. It would be nice to catch up again, as I felt a deep underlying sense of companionship beneath his Irish drunken facade ;)
Or wanted to look after me, for being nice, and taking care of her, so we went to the markets (this is about 5am now) to pick up some food for her to cook for me. We went via a beautiful scenic lookout, just as the sun was rising.... I'll have to see if I can wake up early enough (or stay up late enough) to see it again and photograph it.
After a couple of trips to the market, I slept while the girls cooked. We had some spiced pork, veges and squid, yum! We all then had some well required sleep after the meal....
Posted by Dan at 06:31 AM | Comments (1)
Crazy Lighter!
This is the wickedest lighter i've ever seen!!!
And wicked in more than one sense of the word...
I must preface this with saying that I do not agree with the message it sends, but I think this is an absolute collectors item, proving the western/american influence here.
Check it out.... click on the image to get a bigger version.
Things to note:
the flame changes colour!!! (SOOO cool)
The 3 flags
The bombs
The parts that light up
Posted by Dan at 06:24 AM | Comments (1)
May 26, 2004
25/5 part 2: Leaving Bangers and Mash for Ko Samui
(listening to // had enough of the wiseguys // St Germain)
(No More Scam Story here...)
I got in the cab at 5pm, and thought I'd have the time to do a tad more shopping, but we hit peak hour, so I went straight to the Station. Glad to see some friendly faces in the travel agents, I went to have a massage before the bus left. I did that, with just enough time to spare.
The bus to Surat Thani was pretty ordinary, I was chatting with this old Pommie codger named Kelvin for most of it, whilst the rest of the time was spent being uncomfortable - unable to stretch out properly - a sleeper train would have been so much nicer!
Got to Surat Thani at about 6:30. That was 11 hours with a 40 minute break. Oh yes, the break was fantastic! We stopped close to midnight at a dodgy roadside service station food thingy. But dodgy roadside service station thingys are able to offer a clear broth-based noodle soup with seafood for 30 baht, and a 6.4% alcohol Chiang beer for 40 baht. That’s right, less than 2 USD for, well, the best meal I've had on this trip so far.
Left at 7:30 for another 1.5 hour trip to the port. Met more cool people on the Ferry, had some pork buns, and read some of my book.
Yes, I'm now on Ko Samui for those of you who arent mind readers. hehehe
Went to a couple of bungalows/guesthouses before picking this one - The Lucky Mother - what a name?!
The bungalow is not ON the beach, but it’s a 15m walk to the beach. Its cheapish, but nice enough. Photos later :)
Anyhow, I'll go now, send these to the travel log, and see how tonight pans out!
Adios...
Posted by Dan at 10:56 AM | Comments (3)
25/5 What a day!
(still Listening to: The Hilltop Hoods, then some of the Wiseguys)
I definitely didn’t expect to have so much to write about BEFORE I got to my hotel in Bangkok, oh well, that’s probably not so bad. No-one HAS to read these :P
I woke up at about 9, so I had 7-8 hours of sleep. I decided to go for a walk, see if I could find the Train Station, or at least a tourist information centre. I forgot I had a free breakfast, so missed out on that completely. I walked all the way through Chinatown, through some markets, with the expected wild-and-wonderful things aplenty.
After finding myself a fair way up the river, but away from the Station, I managed to get cash out (as aforementioned) (and Dad, yes, I have tried it in more than half a dozen different banks' ATMs). With such wealth, I hired a tuk-tuk to get to Hualamphong Station, as it was 11am and checkout was 12. I booked my bus ticket to Surat Thani, combined with the ferry ride to Ko Samui, picked my bags up from the hotel and left them at the travel agent for the day.
Pantip Plaza hasn’t changed a bit! (except for the free, yet unreliable ADSL stall on the ground floor). I did some browsing, and bought 4 DVDs (shock! horror! Only 4! Such control!), and a very small mouse for when I've had enough of the touchpad.
(Start Scam Story here...)
I started my expense list on the back of my hotel reservation, and realising it's limited capacity, attempted to find a notepad. This took me to 7-11 across the road from Pantip Plaza. Before entering, I was asked where I was from, by a man standing out the front. He seemed ok enough and had a good grasp of English, so I continued to talk for a few minutes. He (Andy) mentioned that he had a daughter heading to Australia and asked if I would be so nice as to have a chat with her. I told him I needed to buy some things, as well as get a massage. He helped my look for a notepad (without success) and suggested a cheap 1.5 hour massage near his house, where his Daughter would be. I met his niece (was shopping in 7-11), and chatted with them in the taxi on the way to their home. Long story short…. No I cant do that… hehehe - they seemed very nice, quite good English, and seemed like a very hospitable Thai family. I was invited inside their house for a coke and a brief meal. I chatted with the guy's nephew also (probably early thirties), and he told me about his work as a croupier. In fact, he was willing to show me some tricks with his speciality, Black Jack. Why not?
Why not indeed….. After a few minutes, we (the niece and I) went upstairs where the nephew (Alex, if I recall) had set up a small table with cards and some basic plastic chips.
He went through the basics of Black Jack, which I knew, as well as the rules to the international standard (eg. Banker rules, such as 'must hit on 16 or below, must stay on 17 or above, etc). He then continued on to show my how you have a 50% guaranteed chance of winning, by seeing the next card in the deck with some basic sleight of hand movements…. I now realise that this wouldn’t be able to completed in a professional Casino, but I went along with it. The next step, said Andy, was the 100% move…. Whereby you know what the downward facing card of the banker is based upon the croupier's gestures (fingers to indicate 1-9, a hair movement to indicate 10).
I understood, and Andy offered to 'have a go' sometime when he was next working. In fact, he told me about an injustice that had occurred the night before, whereby a (and I quote) 'cheap charlie' had won $50,000, and had only given $200 to the croupier/Casino as opposed to the 'standard' 10%. This guy was a middle-eastern bisexual (relevance?), and would I like to help rectify the situation and teach him a lesson?
The middle eastern man was supposed to be coming to Alex's house to take him to get Shark-Fin soup, but was running late. We could dupe him out of maybe 10,000 dollars, and I would take 25% as my share (the niece would be my 'girlfriend', and I could go with her to her place to hand over the money). I was given the $200 that was given to Alex - this would be my starting capital.
I wasn’t tempted by it, however I was going to offer to join him at the Casino next time I was in Bangkok, and give it a few minutes of my time. I wasn’t even given enough time to propose this, as the middle-eastern man arrived, and came up the stairs.
The game started all so suddenly and rapidly (definitely part of the scam) that I barely had time to react, let alone think about it. The 'other guy' didn’t even look middle-eastern, he just seemed like a dressed-up Thai - things didn’t gel, but time to think was not on my side. A few hands went by, me winning each time (obviously, yet almost too obviously - these guys need to go back to Acting School).
During the next round I had a winning hand, but the ante was upped to enough that I had run out of chips, and would have to come up with some cash. I didn’t like the idea, and told them I had no money on me. Currency? Not a problem, we will accept any currency. I still didn’t give them anything, so they decided to offer me credit - had given them a glimpse of a credit card to prove I 'could' if necessary. I signed for $250, so I figured, worst comes to worst, I'm out $250. Not so bad compared to the tens of thousands they were talking about.
I won the hand, and ended up with about $2000 worth of chips. I wasn’t comfortable at all, so I told them I'd had enough and that I wanted to leave the game. Their clever response to this was that the other guy still had chips on the table, and that it was completely disrespectful to him for me to pull out on a winning streak while he still had chips.
After a lot of coaxing the next hand started. I had a winning hand, obviously, but after the other guy ran out of chips whilst putting money on the round, he pulls out a WAD of US $100s…. It was waved in front of my face for reality, and handed over as $10k - exchanged for chips. The other guy then proceeded to put all of the money down (as I had demanded it to be the last round).
"Now you need to match it."
Right.
"I don’t have any money, I told you."
"We'll credit you the money"
I don’t FRIGGIN think so. $250 is one thing, and can be blown off as a bad gambling experience, but $10,000 is DEFINITELY another thing altogether.
I was almost visibly shaking now…. What was going to happen? Me win $10k and take 25%? If it's too good to be true, then it probably is dodgy.
I forcibly told them the game was over, I didn’t want to be there, and that I'd had enough (staying 'with it', I used air and drinks as excuses). I said I didn’t care that I lost my whole hand and all the money. The 'other guy' up and left. After a minute I went back downstairs, with both Alex and the niece doing their best grumpy faces. Alex reminded my that he lost $200, but didn’t ask for it, nor did he ask for the $250 that I 'had' on credit, although the 'other guy' technically owned that, and didn’t ask for it either.
I asked for a cab (Andy's Daughter was going to be late - really? wow), and they said they'd called one. I didn’t particularly feel like hanging around, so I went outside, Andy trailing, and we went in search of a cab. I was still feeling a bit shaky, so I was keeping an eye out for any 'placed' cabs as well…. Anyhow, the cab ride back was safe and unproblematic. It was over.
What a freakin amazing experience!!! What did it cost me? 130 baht in cab fare, plus a couple of hours….. That’s the same time and cost as the 'Last Samurai' DVD I bought, yet much more amazing!
What 'would' have happened? Would I have won it, then got busted by some undercover cops for fraud or something?
Would I have lost somehow? Maybe - so then would they really try to hold me to the $10k signature? I'm not sure, but I'm glad I didn’t find out.
How about that hey? Heres a couple of lists for you to ponder :)
Lucky/Smart things:
Not pulling out any cash
Only signing for an affordable amount of credit
Forcing the game to end - I was sure something was going on.
Things that were odd:
The 'other guy' was FAR from middle-eastern, yet half of the original $200 was seemingly in Iranian currency.
Alex was not terribly upset about losing $200.
The other guy didn’t ask for the $250 on credit.
Timing was all a bit too sus, and pressured.
The niece was being far too nice, sitting far too close to me than any non-prostitute Asian typically would, even BEFORE she 'became my boyfriend'.
Also, the niece apparently didn’t know how to play, but she played FOR me for most of the hands, or at least told me what to do.
Scam? I think its highly probably. What do you think? Feel free to comment!
I have since heard many people talk about this as a known scam – I obviously missed that one when reading about recent scams…..
(End Scam Story)
Posted by Dan at 10:53 AM | Comments (2)
24/5 - Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Note - Trains not included in set)
(Listening to: The Hilltop Hoods)
Well, this is the first opportunity I've had since arriving in Thailand to sit down and recover my thoughts. Its been quite an action packed 36 hours - quite unexpected on my part - I thought it would all be a bit slower and smoother.
The flight over was mostly smooth - well, no it wasn’t actually, we went through some 'light to moderate turbulence', followed by a 'jet stream'. The meal was good - I had the beef on pasta, with an Italian tomato-based sauce - very tender. I sat next to this softly spoken pommie called Kat, who had been working in IT in Sydney for three years. I had a reasonably good conversation with her during the first few hours, and I think that this helped me stabilise my emotions during the flight (the emotion of leaving family and friends really did hit me, albeit as I was physically leaving).
I watched all 3 movies - Along came Polly (Ben Stiller flick, very funny), Lord of the Rings 3 and Barbershop 2 (Ice Cub, etc - probably would have been funnier had I seen number 1).
Interesting to note were the two times I got emotional during Lord of the Rings, both times at the very end, and both quite different angles. After Frodo returned from completing his mission, he awakens to a slow-mo of all his adventure-bound friends joining and expressing their happiness in seeing him alive. The final figure who enters is Sam, Frodo's best friend, skulking through the doorway - seemingly uncertain as to how Frodo will accept him. I saw Sam as Nick and Tim, my boys - upon my return, what will our relationships be like? How will we have changed?
The second time was when Frodo realises that he doesn't fit into his original home or community, he has moved beyond it all. I thought that this is likely to happen to me upon the return of my Journey, and the effect of this really hit me hard. I am guaranteed to be a different person upon return. To what degree I do not know, nor will I know my 'fittability' back into Sydney and the 'old' Dan-related community of people and places. However, I have good friends and family to return to, which means there is something to go back to (unlike Frodo).
Anyhow, I got to Bangkok alright, I stayed up the whole time, so I was tired. Customs and exit was smooth. However, when I went to get money from the ATM, it gave me errors….. Grrrrr. So I had to resort to using the USD I had to get the taxi to the hotel. I'm STILL having the same problems, but somehow I managed to get money out using a 'quickcash' function (I think it ended up being a cash advance from my VISA, but at least it worked).
I got to the hotel, went up the four flights of stairs (no lift), had a well-required shower, made my first audio-journal entry, and went to sleep.
Posted by Dan at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)
May 24, 2004
My first post - I'm almost gone!
Weeeelll......
The time has almost come....The bag is packed (Except for Ace - my laptop), anything that needed to be sorted is sorted.
To be expected, my head is mixed with emotion, yet I'm trying to hold it off until the airport, or at least until all tasks have been completed.
I'm about to embark upon (potentially) quite an amazing Journey.... yes, it's not a trip, it's a Journey.
I have to go now, family and the airport beckon...
Posted by Dan at 12:39 AM | Comments (1)