Saturation......

Hmmm, Where was I? I think I was about to get wet last time. That ended up not happening, instead Matt and Aomi lagged a little and we got some food before heading over to meet the crew for our weekend "holiday". First we had to cross the river, and since some people can be too lazy to walk across a bridge we took a boat for mere pennies. This was to be our first rendezvous with Carolyn, a french girl doing volunteer work with impoverished neighborhoods in Bangkok. A fairly righteous girl, but smokes like a chimney. After a little confusion we hopped a cab through the water filled streets over to Janna's place. Janna is a tiny girl from Singapore, who sounds Indian in her accent and always wears a big smile. A beautiful view from her rooftop abode and a monster spliff were waiting as we reached the 6th story. At first i was wondering why we should leave her house, but I was traveling people who live and work here everyday and have for the last 2+ years. So after a round of gin and tonics we caught a cab and headed to the bus station, where as soon as we got off the cab a man said ,"Kannachaburi ?" as if he knew exactly where we were going. We ended up having the whole bus to ourselves most of the way, while Thai TV blared in the foreground with images of Songkran.

We arrive at our guesthouse VN after the 2+hour ride and a 5 minute truck ride to smiling faces and the river glistening with the lights of the river boats. Our rooms were on the water and the guesthouse restaurant had a killer view, too bad it was closed. This first night started mellow with the usual gargantuan spliffs Janna could roll, and a few Singha's until we took a walk to the bar. We ended up at the Jungle Bar where everyone got one of the absurd mixed drinks with names like "Typhoid", "Gonorrhea", "Diarrhea" etc. They actually tasted great and had a kick too. I stuck with the beer. We ended up breaking the Foosball table, although not for the first time I'm sure. Hunger began to set in as we headed past the P.O.W. cemetery. Explanation/Tangent : This is the town of "The Bridge over River Kwai". You know, the one immortalized in some movie by some guy about the 16,000 people that died during the making of the bridge and railroad. Of course that's only if you count white people, 100,000's of thousands of Asian workers died as a result of the Burmese (Death) Railroad as well. I read somewhere that the first train to cross was a Japanese brothel train. This would seem extremely merciless if it is true. Damn Tangents. Anyways, we grabbed some food, beer, and more beer for the walk back to the guesthouse, and all crammed on the little patios for more of the usual. Peaceful way to end the day.

A lawnmower. A chainsaw. A tuk-tuk. A air compressor. A pocket bike. One of those annoying Honda's in high gear. No, an unmuffeled engine driving a long tail boat screeched into my dreams and lifted the haze so I could realize just how freakin' hot it really was. "I should have turned the fan on last night", was my thought as i stepped out side to enjoy the view, I look down the river and see Janna already in the midst of rolling. It going to be one of those days.... All except for Carolyn convene on the deck as the haze forms againn. Coffee! We head up to the restaurant and to find Carolyn sipping coffee and smoking. We order coffee while staring at the river and listening to insects do there thing with interruptions by those boats. Juice is cheap and unbelievably tasty here and everywhere in Thailand. In fact I'm drinking fresh squeezed O.J as i write this and it only costs 50 cents. Rice and panang curry and we were set to go. We all reconvened on my balcony after a refreshingly cold shower and went for number 2 or 3 ....or 4 of the morning. As we were staring off into the distance a long tail boat decide he want to say hi, he pulled right up to our deck and we negotiated a little tour, some cave and the Bridge. Sweet deal with front door service. We hop in the boat and head down stream alongside the countless river boat shacks and floating discos. The boats just as loud on the inside, but it's fun because your hauling ass downstream in little more than a few sticks of wood and an old car engine with a makeshift propeller attached to it. You know how they turn it off? Put you hand over the intake valve. Anyways, the guy drops us off at this cave/ temple. It was a short hike to the top and worth it. The view was stellar, the main attraction, the cave, was not. Smelly, ill preserved and filled with a group of kids and elderly folks it took along time to get in and out. Back to the boat we head up to the Bridge, once again the ride was the best part. The bridge was completely filled with Chinese tourists and took forever to walk across. My question is when did people decide to visit such a place, after the movie comes out? How many years after something horrific happens is it OK to start taking pictures of/on it and selling cigarettes, coca cola, and commemerative t-shirts? After Sept 11th it didn't take too long. C.ash R.ules E.verything A.round M.e. No matter where I am.

Back to the story. Back to the guest house for more of what we came to do. Chill. The patio/balconies are small but accommodating. We finally moseyed enough energy to leave and found the Buddha Bar with cheap a beer and free hookah. After abusing Homer and a few rounds hunger set in and we all stumbled down the road while someone was mentioning massage.. We found the food first and it was excellent. I haven't had a bad meal yet but then again its only been a few days and Aomi's been helping me out with ordering. The notion of massage was not forgotten as we stepped into the a few parlors. Being my first massage ever i had no real idea of what to do/expect. Now i can see why people get them all the time. Shit feels Good! Well that is if someone does it right and you don't have people switch and awnser their cell phones with halfway through. Oh and they actually do both sides of your body evenly. We all agreed it wasn't the best but nonetheless it was relaxing. Matt even complained about getting molested. Strange because we were all right next to each other in the same room.

A night cap was in order so we ducked into a small bar to play pool and have a gin and tonic. The Thai owner served us drinks in a thick Australian accent but when we asked for pool a few minutes later he informed us that the cops had just told him to close. The bars technically close at 12:00 but the local cops say 1:00. Turns out the Bangkok police we cracking down in full effect all over. Of course if you go to the bars owned by the cops you can stay all night. As we walked back I reminded Matt of the bottle of Chivas I bought him from the Duty Free. Since a 7-11 was in sight we stopped for refreshment and mixers. Someone bought a bucket. Back to the patio and we all crammed onto the floor and had about as much fun as five people can have with a bottle of Chivas a few big beers and Janna's rolling capabilities. I swore I'd never drink a bucket again but i didn't have far to walk home and it was Chivas not Sangsom. By the time we all parted ways the sun was coming up and birds were starting to sing.

Sunday. This was the day I was waiting for. I woke fairly early and quite refreshed considering the torment I'd put my body through earlier. My initial plan was to write on of these blogs but i saw the Carolyn was alive too and we chatted about poverty, the world and how superior Americans are to French or was it French to Americans..... either way after coffee, juice, and fruit the rest of the zombies arose way passed checkout time. We ate and tossed our stuff into one room and got ready for the real Songkran. As we walked up the dirt road from the guesthouse you could hear the madness, kids screaming, loud music, water hoses, etc. Shit was on, water in hand we began dousing each other and everyone else in sight. We eventually settled back at the Buddha bar where they had a hose and buckets of water not to mention 20 little kids armed with guns and buckets. I felt like i was 10 as we threw water at everyone and everything, then came the clay. You gather the clay and touch people on the cheeks ever so lightly. Once again its hard to be mad when everyone is smiling, although you could tell the disdain in some faces hidden be smiles. We settled for some more beers but most of the day was spent with water and clay. Those poor kids on motorbikes and in cars, a virtual traffic jam where if someone stopped you you had to stop and get the water or clay no choice. Completely soaked we all were and kinda drunk again. We had a bus to catch because Carolyn had to work today at 8:30AM. Back to the guesthouse where we all showered and enjoyed to view for a while. A little to long in fact, because we ended up missing our bus. Determined that we would have to stay open more night, I reminded them of the minibus option and soon we were on our way back to Bangkok. Our final bill was somewhere around 20 bucks each for the two nights with the food and drinks. Try doing that in the states. So now I'm in Bangkok waiting , once again for Matt to sort his shit out with Aomi and then were off to Cambodia or Laos. Somewhere. - Ive already rambled way too much. - Peace and Love - Z