"Yii-sib sib!"

Hello Team! It's been a while, there was a lot of traveling, and I managed this sort of sun-burn tan thing while in the islands.

Although I never really left Thailand, the Thai people were almost completely absent from my vacation down south. It reminded me of visiting a very touristy town in Mexico, where everything is set up to cater to people with currencies worth at least five times that of the home country. But instead of overweight Americans baking in the sun, there were fit Europeans bronzing beautifully.

I did make one real encounter with Thai people, however. One night I decided to walk to my hotel from some bars while staying on Phuket. Phuket is one of those places where a way of life has been almost completely destroyed and recreated by tourists. Most of the Thais here are jaded by drunken farang (foreigners), and many of the women in the bars are trained to grab you for sex or partying or massage or who knows what. It's not threatening, just disconcerting. I am sure there is an underground Thai culture as well, one that is completely invisible to me and my farang counterparts, but that may be me thinking glass half full.

(This is Leo Dicap's crazed walk in "The Beach")

Anyway, the walk back to the hotel was a significant one at least after drinking, maybe 7 kilometers or so, especially considering that the exact route was unknown. I happened to have my Thai phrasebook with me, not sure why, and I came across a Thai girl with a flat tire. I asked her, to the best of my ability, if I could help her in any way but eventually resigned, saying "choke dee" (good luck) and walking off. Shortly after, I came across four Thais sitting outside a very Thai oriented bar and told them about the girl with the flat tire. They understood my Thai (score), but we all shrugged it off and they invited me to sit with them. They brought me a beer, and I spoke my most significant Thai conversation to date.

The girls told me they loved me (happens all the time with Thais), I told them I didn't love them because we just met (mwah ha ha). Of course, the girls got offended and told me I was gay for not loving them (another not too abnormal thing for Thais). With a very limited vocabulary, the conversation did definitely deteriorate. One girl said, "20 baht, I will dance for you." I said, "No no, it's okay." This happened a few more times and then she started dancing. I didn't look at her. Everyone got up and left. I was alone with dancing girl. I downed my beer quickly and said "I am far from home and need to go." I peaced out. She danced alone on the side of the road. I thought I had found something real in Phuket, but alas.


On a really positive note, I saw monkeys! All over. Again and again. And then it became, oh... monkeys. Most importantly, I had a little tussle with one on the beach, which was particularly amusing to me. I set my backpack down (dumb move) and went to take pictures of some monkeys around the corner. A few minutes later I said to Alida, who was with me at the time, "I should go check on my backpack," thinking that a human might have stolen it. I arrive back at my bag only to find a small crowd has gathered and a silly monkey is ruffling through my bag. I cannot help but think, cool, wow, a monkey in MY backpack. Then he starts to take out my things. MONKEY! I am not exactly sure what to do so I try to scare it. I stick out my arms and make a stupid noise and face at it. It looks at me, thinks "what the effe," and grabs my glasses case and makes a stupid noise and face at me. Repeat that exchange once. And yes, one more time. He then really starts to grab my glasses and looks like he is about to run off with them. So I take my flip flop hold it out to hit him. Fortunately another beach goer distracts him on his other side and I smack him with my flip flop. He turns to me again, thinks "what the effe," and then the other human (go Homo sapien sapien) distracts him once more. Smack. Monkey is not a fan of me and my flip flop, loses track of my glasses, and takes off before he incurs more abuse.


The rest of the trip was incredible, but not really story-worthy. There was a lot of boats, beaches, cliffs, islands, parties, fun, friends, snorkeling, kayaking, rented motorbikes, and tours. Just take a look at the pictures. Happy New Year, all.


(by the way: Yii-sib = 20, and sib = 10)