Thanks Dad

Thank you for trying to understand.

Day 15: Last Day

(the last picture i took in thailand)

went to emporium for brunch, practically the only remaining foodcourt in bangkok that i hadn't tried yet. fried chicken was bomb, as was dessert.


went back home, packed up and hopped in a cab to the airport.

that's it! that was the end of the trip! thanks for listening. all two of you.

Day 14: Bangkok

memories are shot now. strictly going off pictures at this point. arrived back in bangkok in the early morning and hit up tesco, which is like target meets kmart but even cheaper. they sell breast pumps.

at night, went back to the mistress of the wok. ted was so enthralled he looked like he was in pain.

Day 13: Krabi

after breakfast ted and i hit a really awesome hiking trail that was so steep you had to use ropes in some spots. my amateur ass was all, "wow, is this like rock-climbing?" and ted's all, "uh no."

either way, it was maybe the most fun i had in thailand. well, except st. patrick's day--although that wasn't so much fun as just drunkenly surreal:

Day 12: Krabi

i am remembering less and less about this trip. woke up, had a shitty breakfast (never order western style breakfast in thailand--soggy wonder bread toast, a limp fish dog and instant coffee. stick with the noodles).

went out on a five island snorkeling tour, which was nice. saw a weird brown jellyfish--found out later on that it stung some guy in our group on the face.

Day 11: Krabi

now this is more like it!

arrived at our hotel expecting the worst because ted told us there was no hot water. so i'm thinking 'great, it's going to be like mexico (where we stayed in a straw hut on some dirty beach). but actually our place in was pretty nice, with a view of diamond cave.

as soon as we checked in we headed straight for the beach. if i could turn into a fish and swim out into the ocean and never come back, i would totally do it.

although my current job is practically a volunteer gig, it does have its perks. every saturday, i lead a group of emerging performance artists on a tour of some of l.a.'s cultural landmarks (yes, l.a. has cultural landmarks). the first week, we took them to east l.a./boyle heights (self-help graphics, casa 0101, plaza de la raza, etc.) last week, we took them to j-town (east west players/visual communications, janm, jaccc, etc.) and this weekend we did leimert park/watts south central (lula washington dance theatre, watts towers, etc.) we stopped by the studio of sculptor john outerbridge, who had this awesome piece which was a hand-built(!) outhouse, covered from top to bottom with ku klux klan pictures. doooope.

Day 10: Bangkok

funny how after a is vacation over, it can seem like a dream that wasn't even real. just like mexico and england, thailand is starting to become a jumble of fragmented images. like this day:

went back to jj market again. all i remember is it was HOT.

visited a temple to pay our respects to tony. very nonchalant ceremony but i still caught a lump in my throat. poured water on a little tree and said goodbye.

hopped on a bus to krabi. watched a thai-dubbed version of some steven seagal movie. made up fake english dialogue with katherine (what?! you don't like my ponytail?! do you know who i am?!?") fell asleep. woke up in krabi.

Day 9: Bangkok

hungover. took a mid-morning nap to sleep it off, then made a last-ditch effort to dig for records. sadly concluded that there is no vinyl in all of asia (except maybe japan).

went out to dinner at a seafood resaurant for food orgasm #3 (#1 being that noodle joint and #2 being them bamboo things). spilled crab sauce all over myself.

went to karaoke afterwards but sadly, thai karaoke is just not the same. they had songs by janet jackson even I'VE never heard of. bonnie tyler but no 'total eclipse of the heart'? sad...

Day 8: Bangkok

headed out in the morning, realized quickly we were headed for another day of mall mazes, broke off from the pack to meet up with marie and michelle and ended up back at a mall. it was st patrick's day so we went to an irish pub. things got a little hazy after this but i have vague memories of:

-a methed-out elephant sticking its head in the door
-yet another cheesy thai cover band
-spicy pickled bamboo shoots that were so good i kept clenching my fists (soop na mai?)
-stumbling around patpong rd afterwards and concentrating more on walking straight than looking at the dancers
-leaving our friend at the bar with the singer of the band, not seeing him til 24 hrs later.

Day 7: Ayuthaya

kat and i took a train to ayutthaya and despite what i've been saying i think i'd officially od'ed on temples by this point. but it was cool--actually it wasn't cool it was fucking hot. we shared our tuk tuk with this australian who was hell-bent on seeing every last temple and me and katherine were all, "you go ahead, we'll meet you back at the entrance."

on the way back, the australian asked me if i wanted to go watch some table tennis with him and i was all, "now why in the hell would i want to watch table tennis" and then it dawned on me that he was talking about those girls on patpong road who shoot ping pong balls out of their coochies. i took a rain check.

that night we went out for drinks at a bar, where the house band played every annoying song known to humankind (ymca, funkytown, it's raining men, etc. etc.)

Day 6: คน...ผวา(Crash)

angie and ted were working again so on marie's recommendation we checked out the jim thompson house. thompson was an american who built this compound in the classical thai architetural style and when he died it became a museum. items of interest include an antique mouse house and a porcelain cat that some prince used to pee in. again, neat in a nerdy kind of way.


spent the afternoon watching "CRASH" which, boy what a load of horseshit that was. i cannot believe that pile of crap beat out brokeback for best movie. even from watching the trailers, i was like, "boy, that sure does look like a very white movie about race" and man, was it ever. it's all, "ooh, black people are so multi-faceted!" i bet the screenwriter was really pleased with himself for this revelation. shit, hustle & flow was better than this doo-doo.

Day 5: Bangkok

another day, another temple. katherine and i went down to wat po to check out the giant reclining buddha. it may not sound like a big deal but when you get there you're all, "whoah... that thing is fucking BIG."

headed back to central bangkok and hit up MBK, yet another mall. i mostly just followed katherine around. to every store. on every floor.

then hopped on the skytrain and went home. oh yeah, bangkok has like the best public transportation in the world sky-train, subway, boat, bus, cab, tuk-tuk, moped--you can get almost anywhere you need to for less than a metro fare or bart ticket. now why the hell can't l.a. have that?

sidenote

civil unrest seems to be brewingeverywhere lately. in bangkok, we landed smack in the middle of some of the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in decades, then, as soon as i got back home we landed smack in the middle of some of the biggest protests in los angeles history, in response to HR-4437. every morning last week, i awoke to the sounds of thousands of kids marching down sunset avenue at 8 AM. i'd rush out to watch and take pics, and come home to watch thousands of frenchies going buckwild in the streets of paris. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.