Intermission

It's hard to say which dogs have it better,
the ones at restaurants in Vietnam or the one below....

Hellride (Not the first and not the last)

Part 2:

If the first few days in Bangkok were fun, our insane trip to the Koh Samui was its antithesis. What should have been bliss on a beautiful Thailand Island was sandwiched between two hellish 12 hour bus rides. But let me start at the beginning... Matt's parents were scheduled to go there and Matt really, really, really wanted some company, so Yesca and I begrudgingly obliged. They all flew, we took the bus. Nuff said. This was also the final parting point for Peter, who was surprisingly cheerful despite his monetary issues with his dive program (long, long, story). So after some of the best food in Thailand at a place Called Chote Chitr, which really is a orgasmic gastronomical delight, we departed for the hellish 10 hour bus and 2 hour ferry ride to Chewang Beach on Koh Samui, which is very similar to Kuta, Bali which is very similar to say Tijuana, Mexico on a Beach. A sort of trashy elegance takes over when bar girls, beaches, euro-trash and fake designer products collide. In other words not exactly the beach bliss we were searching for, it was more like escaping Bangkok just to arrive at a place that contains all the worst parts of it but on a beach. Yey.

So, when we finally arrived we made the best of what we could, which was paying too much for a shitty room, meeting Matt's parents for sundowners and attempt to find the nightlife outside of girly bars, which was not so easy. Some of the highlight include: Finding out Matt's mom feels 17 at heart and hates the word moist, walking through bar girl hell to a reggae bar that didn't play reggae , and discovering Matt's least favorite word "fleshy". The next day Matt and his parents left and Yesca and I hightailed it to a quieter beach called Mae Nam and actually went in the water. Our goal was finally achieved, unfortunately we had to leave early the next day for the second, and even more uncomfortable, half of our hell ride. The majority of the bus ride consisted of us plotting the many ways we could torture Matt if he didn't compensate us heavily for our trouble, which he didn't.

We didn't have too much time to dwell, or enact our plans of revenge because the fourth and final member of our traveling party was to arrive that evening. After a stressful day of baking brownies and lounging we went to meet Kellie. She landed around midnight and was quite lucid after her 20+ hours of travel. Fitting right in on the rooftop, we ran in circles and inhaled the cool misty night air. The next morning Yesca and Kellie arrived early after staying up all night discussing life, but mostly their "interesting" mother. We left Matt, who rarely seems to get more than 4 or 5 hours sleep due to his penchant for alcohol and the nightlife, and took the sky train to Chattachuk market. Cahttachuk was not really what I expected although it did contain everything and more. A surprisingly clean and well laid-out series of rows and stalls that contained everything from flying squirrels to underwear. Kind of like a outdoor Wal-mart where you can bargain. After another meal at Chote Chitr we split up and Matt gathered his entourage to eat the "Happy" Hummus he had been making all day. As one can imagine not much else happened after that, event though I didn't partake. Back to the roof for "just one last spliff" which resulted in us staying up all night in preparation for the 6:00AM bus we were supposed to catch to Cambodia. Unfortunately the girls didn't arrive and we fell asleep around 6:30 ready to go. I awoke to a phone call from Yesca and the 9:00AM sunshine. Since plans were already in flux, the morning spliff was inspiration for another hair brained Jesse creation. And thats where the next adventure stars. Four countries in a week and a mother fucking boat down the motherfucking Mekong. Stayed tuned. Peace and Love - Z