Mar 2007

Alright, as most of you know, Thailand has a thriving industry of prostitution. I knew that coming in, and so far had only scarcely seen obvious cases (i.e. old fat discusting white guy with young Thai girl). I must make something clear: I haven't seen any child prostitution so far and I kinda hope I never see it. It's unfortunately also a very thriving industry (although illegal) here.
What I've seen is more like an escort service...but it's still discusting, old, repulsive men with more or less young girls...I was talking about it with a few people at the Sanctuary and, someone made a point that it was a job like any other, and that if there was a market for it, why not...Well, my opinion is, it may be ok if it's between consenting people, but as long as it doesn't involve organized networks that "enslave" women in the "trade" (which we don't know if there is or not, but I wouldn't exactly be surprised).

So anyway, being on the island of Ko Samui (the most touristic area of Thailand after Phuket) I'm surrounded by these "couples", and I must admit that I have a bit of a hard time with it. I'm staying in one of the cheapest resorts around (there are only 10 bungalows), but 3 to my left are occupied with old (and really gross) German men (at least in their 60ies) with Thai women. These women are a bit older (probably late 30ies), so there is a slight chance that these are legitimate relationships (they do exist!! -I have a friend who's mother is Thai and father English - and were together for a long time - anyway!), but...I doubt it. The other 2-3 bungalows to my right are occupied by Thai people, mostly girls - who definitely work around here, but I don't know what they do.

While walking around yesterday, I stopped at a bakery run by an english guy and we talked a bit. He told me that the bars (there a little strip on the road going to my, and others, resort) were run by ladyboys. Ladyboys are guys that dress up as women. It's actually quite accepted here. A lot more than in Canada. Some of them are really good (I went to a restaurant last week where all the waitresses where men - I didn't notice until one talked to me - man voice, girl body/outfit!hehehe).

Alright, whatever! There was a live concert at one of these bars and I felt the need for some socialising, so I decided to go. The band was made of Thai guys who sang Nirvana, Red Hot Chlli pepper, Bob Marley. Just when I started to wonder if we'd get Thai music (I'm curious to hear some), this white guy made a request to go on stage and he started talking in Thai and sang a song in THAI!!! hehehe He ended-up signing 5 songs, all in Thai!!! It was so funny to have Thais sing in english (the words were not alwways right, sometimes...often it was more a sound that kinda sounded like the word! hehehe, so funny! It reminded me of people in Qc who don't speak english and sing along english songs. They don't always know or understand the words, but fill in with sounds that kinda sound right! HAHAHA! I'm guilty of it too when I was a kid! hehehe) It's funny that it took a white guy to sing Thai pop music! The girls at the bar, all Thais, loved it!

Anyway, this brings me back to the fact that this place was a clear pick up place for "a girl" (I don't know if they were actual girls or ladyboys, but they looked convincing to me). I was the only white women (almost, aside for 2 other tourists who stayed 1 song), amongst Thai girls and white guys...

I just read in a newspaper (Samui is sooo touristy that their newspaper is in both languages) and there was a news that they had arrested a gang of ladyboys...I wonder if they are the equivalent of our pimps/biker gangs in Canada...

Well, on this "not so cheery" note, I leave you for now. I'm going back to Ko Pagan tomorrow until approx April 7-8 then leaving the south to Bangkok, then Laos and Cambodia. I'll post pics while in Ko Paghan.
Cheers!

Written on March 22...
Alright, it's been a while since the last post. I went from my cousin's to a place called "The Sanctuary" which is a resort on a secluded beach - you have to take a boaty to get there) where people go to do healty stuff (yoga, fasting, colonics - this is a cleaning of your colong through the insertion of a tube with a mixed liquid that apparently dislodges shit...hehehe no pun intended, but litterally!)
Once there, I went to 1 yoga session (at 250B a session, it's a bit out of my reach) and I realized that, although still enjoyable, yoga is better for me when I actually feel stressed. I must say that I haven't really experienced stress since the beginning of this trip, so the benefits weren't as important + I can do yoga with a bunch of westeners at home anytime, so F that.
So anyway, this place was a bit too much for me and/or not enough Thai so I left after a couple of days. On a good note, I was living in the dormitory and got to hang out with some cool travellers (none of us were into any of the "spa/healthy" shit, so we connected there). I ended-up coming back to the actual party central of Ko Pagnan (a town called Haad Rin) with a Canadian girl I had met at the Sanctuary and we booked at the same hotel and hung out, drank to much and met guys (well I did, she wasn't into guys really, but she did meet a girl!) for a couple of days. Nothing really interesting though. I should be careful because my cousin is dating a Israeli guy, but all you (I) met in Haad Rin are Israeli guys wanting to get laid...hehehe, it's not as much fun when it's too easy and/or interesting when the guy is barely taller than 5'7" and bald! hehehe! So I dind't go through with any of it yet (I realize that I have a blockage against meaningless sex with guys that I wouldn't even reccognize in a crowd the following day - so no XXXrated events for me (I wouldn't really tell you about them anyway! hehehe), well maybe 1X...hehehe
Moving on!
A bit on Haad Rin:
It's THE MOST Western place possible. All that you have are bars (with western food, barely any Thai food at all) and shops - all of the above way overpriced. I kinda made a point of not having any Thai food while there because it was more than double what it is anywhere else in Thailand (i.e fried rice with veggies: anywhere 30 to 50B, there 100-120B!!!!). I had pizza, schnitzels (they do the trick at 3am after several "buckets" -more on those in a minute), fries, Indian food, falafels, "continental breakfast"..you name it!

Anyway, enough about the food. The buckets I refer to are actual buckets that kids would used to play in the sand (not here, but you know what I mean), and for 180B (for Thai wisky, more for vodka and whatever), you get the plastic bucket, a 10once of booze, a can of pop, a redbull & ice) We looked at the bottle and it said 80 proof on it, but that's really impossible because we ended up having 3 buckets (between the two of us) and, although quite hammered, at 80% we would have been completely dead... I took a few pics but this computer doesn't reccognize my memory stick, so I'll post them another time.
So anyway! Good times... the concept is that there are bars on then beach and they each play their kind of music (top 40 and techno mostly) and they have chairs and stuff on the beach to hang out on and people that do juggling with fire and stuff. Quite a good time - for a day or two. I couldn't have gone though this for an extended period of time + I have a fundamental problem with going to another country and not trying to live like them and learn about the culture and stuff. Haad Rin is not the place for that at all!
So, with a few days to kill before and "intro to meditation" followed by a "Tantra" workshop back at the yoga school my cousin is so into, I decided to go to Ko Samui, a neighbour island. I just got here a couple of hours ago and it feels good. This island is also super touristic, but I'm on a beach that's not too bad + it's only for 3-4 days).
I expect to write a bit more over the next few days, now that I'm back in the land of "1B a minute" Internet (as opposed to 3B at the Sanctuary and 2B anywhere in Haad Rin - rip off!!!)
Cheers!

Written on March 14…
Today was both great and shitty.
It started on a low note when I found out that I wasn’t accepted at McGill because my grades weren’t high enough (it’s true that I only have a B+ average…). Oh well, I really only wanted to go there for the name and to potentially eventually transfer into their law program. That won’t happen anymore! As I say, they really don’t want me there, so F them! A (normally very classy) friend said "F the F'in F'ers", I like it! hehehe
I’ll give my money to another institution. I just have to decide between Concordia and SFU now….I’m leaning toward Concordia, mostly for financial reasons (because I’m from Qc, tuition is half than in BC, not to mention cost of living in MTL vs Vancouver…) but if you have any comments or input, please feel free. I always like to hear different perspectives on things. My mom's BF suggested to do a degree in law in Qc, then either in english canada or they have a master's at a U in Mtl in common law....arrgghh, so many options. I'm thorn between business (which I know) and law (of which I want the lifestyle)....

Anyway

So I moved on with my day and went to visit a temple/monastery and met this great monk who “spoke English”. It all started when I saw 3 guys walking out of a building adjacent to the structure on this picture
One guy told me they had just prayed with a monk, looked at pictures, and received, and I quote, “some memobirilia”. He looked kinda stunned and amused. Right then, this monk came out and told them that he’d take their picture in front of that same structure. He told me to go in the building they had all came out of, and he went to take the guys pic. So I waited and looked at them, then I followed him into the monastery. He made me sit with him in front of the Buddha and pray while he prayed and use what liked like sort of a broom to spray some water on me (similar to how the priest does it with the holy water – but with A LOT more water! hehehe). After that he suggested to take a pic of my “praying” and them of him. The one of me just looks silly, so here is the one of him.
He then brought me to another part of the building (it’s a small building), which was clearly his living space (bed, TV, desk…) He offered me coffee or tea, had some coffee and a cigarette (didn’t expect that!) and handed me several picture albums of different people that had come to the temple, some got married there, others, most, were just visiting like me. Other albums were of him and random people in different places in Europe, where he had visited people he had met at the temple. hehehe, it was funny and totally unexpected of a monk (or at least of my idea of a monk) . He then opened a drawer and took some bright string and measured my wrist and proceeded to cut the string, cut it in his hands, bring them in prayer position and pray for at least a good minute, mostly in silence, then with words, then with the English version (!). He prayed for luck, no accidents, happiness, money, joy, and a good life. Nice! We talked a little more and he pulled out of another drawer 2 pendants or Buddha and asked me which one I wanted, I chose one and he prayed on it too then put it around me neck. The pendant itself is super cool, but the string is the same brightly coloured as the bracelet (not exactly fancy! Hehehe). Anyway, he makes those and gives them to people like me who visit. He then asked me for a donation (I totally didn’t see it coming but should of). I only had 45Bath on me (30 = 1$), so I felt bad, and his face didn’t seem too impressed, but I hadn’t brought any real money with me as I was just coming back from a beach… So anyway, he asked me to send him a picture of me, either just like that or the one he had taken in the temple (for his album I assume) and took our A BUSINESS CARD!!!! Hehehe! Something else I wasn’t expecting!!! Anyway, he’s been at this monastery for 20 years and to answer my question of what had made him become a monk, he said because it was easy! Hehehe That was an overall quite good experience and great memory.
Here are a few pics of this temple:


This Buddha is actually 300yrs old.

Later in the day I went to a herbal sauna at another monastery and that was great. It felt so healthy and serene, and it was a place actually frequented by Thais!!! (believe it or not, it’s not that easy to find here). When I was getting dressed back up (aka putting clothes over my bathing suit) a tall white guy asked me for the time. We ended up chatting very briefly and he’s from Alberta, living in Victoria, just finished University and sort of taking a break before “starting life”. Hmmmm! Sounds good to me. He’s heading up to Laos for a month, then back here in Thailand for another month, etc. Kinda like my plan (not exactly, but close enough). So stupid me, instead of trying to find out more about him (even though I’m interested!!!) I just sort of wish him luck and start taking off. He says that maybe we’ll meet again, I say “yeah” and I LEAVE!!!! Why you ask? I ask too!!! No freaking idea and now I’m beating myself up. This could easily have ended up as a travel buddy for a while (so far I’ve only hung out with people for a day or two), not to mention potential man!!!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghhhh! Stupid stupid stupid!!! Anyway, I guess “if it was meant to be” we’ll meet again….I'm not very convinced….I don’t even know his name!!! So, from the high fo the sauna to the low of the…letting the potential man of my life go (ok, I might be dramatizing a little here, but you get the point!)
So that’s that for now.

Aftet that I went to get some food at a local market and I had, for the first time, a curry as eaten by locals (they have these food stands with curries already made, people buy then and bring them home to eat or something.) I'm not kidding, I though my ears were going to start bleeding! hehehe, IT WAS SO FREAKING HOT (spicy) it's uneblievable. My mouth hurt, my head hurt, even my fingers hurt!!! I only had a few bites and had to admit defeat. hehehe, my mouth actually hurt for almost 1 hour after that (that is after having some bread and ice cream to try to make it go away!) hehehe

Final story, you remember Killer (the massive spider that was on the wall) , here's a pic of her:
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What you see at the bottom is the corner of the door. It was freaking big. So anyway, we lived with ehr for 2 full days (she really stayed still during the day, moving only at night). On the 3rd day, I walked in my room and there she was. That was it, Killer had to die! We ended up trapping her under a bowl and realeasing her outside (which is much better than trying to squish her under a show (eeeeww I'm just thingink of the juice that would have come out of her....) Anyway, all is good and peace is restored.

Sorry for the long blogs, but I won't really post again until I leave this town for another part of the island (can you say paaarrrttyy time!), so here you go, that should give you almost a week of peace and quiet from me!

To conclude, a couple pics from the beach again...just because!
Cheers!

Written on March 10…
Days and nights are pretty quiet these days… I only went to the first day of the yoga school and wasn’t hooked at all for several reasons. Although I believe in the concept of energy, and that through yoga and meditation one can channel this energy in ways that are almost unbelievable, this school and it’s “swami” (aka guru) didn’t attract me at all. The schedule was another very strong deterrent (every morning at 8:30am!!!). I’m like: Hey! I’m on vacation here, getting up early is soooo far off the plan it’s not even funny!!! And we can’t even eat before going to class (which I understand, eating before doing yoga isn’t good) but getting up at 7:30-8 and not being able to eat until 11am is totally against my religion. So it didn’t work out! Rafale would like me to give it a fair chance (it’s true that I’ve only been that 1st day) by going at least 3 days in a row. I might do that next Monday-Wed…we’ll see.
She is still pretty big into the whole thing (but she’s more advanced and has a different – better – schedule, yet she is at the school for different things most of the time) so my days consist of getting up whenever I want, hanging out in the hammock on the balcony and going to the beach and/or exploring this tiny island we’re on. Not too shabby indeed!
I haven’t taken any new pics yet, but will go tomorrow with Rafale on a little visit of the island (which she hasn’t had time to visit yet) and I’ll make sure to take some pics. My tan is getting pretty nice, although I’m careful not to go to the beach before 2pm and I put on 45 UV protection sunscreen.
My best purchase so far? Snorkeling mask and scuba!!!! It’s soooooo fun!! First of all, the water temperature is just sooo perfect! The water is quite shallow here, yet by swimming only a few feet away from the beach, we get to nice coral and a super abundance of all kinds of fish!! I’ve seen fish in all shapes, forms and colours, some completely white, others with vivid colours (bright blue/green that changes when the light changes), others striped, dotted, purple, orange, yellow, with a kind of mask, others that blend so well with the bottom that you see them at the last second. There are also many many sea cucumbers (I think that’s what they are) which kind of creep me out because they are sometimes up to 2 feet long and are quite big and, although hey seem completely passive, I don’t know if they can strike and bite me or something and I’m so close that they totally could! All of this life is in water no deeper than 3-4 feet. I often have to be careful not to kick coral.
On that note, I’ve seen many shapes of coral too, some that look like a brain, others that move with the water, other red one that are like a big rock formation. Fish hide in those quite a bit.
No pics of any of this as it’ll require a waterproof camera, which I’ll get only if I decide to take the scuba diving course (a lot of $$$, unbudgeted $$$, so I’m debating…)
So that’s that, not much else to report, as Rafale’s place is pretty far from everything, in “remote jungle” (ok, it’s only 10-20 minutes from anything on the motorbike – but still!) so I haven’t been going out and partying at all, and I probably won’t until I move on with my journey in approx 1 week).
Tomorrow we’ll visit a Chinese temple (as if I haven’t seen enough! Hehehe – but it’s the only one around) and an elephant “safari” place.
The story with elephants is as follow: For the past several hundred years, they were used here for work on many things (construction, farming, and I don’t know what else) but a law was passed a few years back that banned using elephants for work. Great for the environmentalists and “anti-cruelty” organizations, but all of a sudden, there were all these elephants and their handlers out of work (and I only assume, but I think elephants eat quite a bit! hehehe) and no way to make a living. At some point, people realized that, us foreigners were quite impressed with these big animals and that we would pay good money to go on rides and learn more about them. And thus came the business of elephant riding. Since it’s for a good cause (preventing elephants and their handlers from starving) I will do my part by going on a ride or two. The bulk of the industry is in the north of Thailand, but this island has a few elephants, so I might go on a ride tomorrow, if not at some point during my stay for sure! It’s a tough life, but gotta do my part! Hehehe
On that note, cheers!

Written on March 12…
Well, finally gotta a few pics from yesterday, and I went to the yoga class this morning. I was already kind of awake, so I figured “might as well!”. It was better today than on the first day (we actually did almost a full hour of yoga) but it’s still, and will always be very slow. It’s not exercise (not cardio at least, or even strength, it’s mostly flexibility and meditation). I paid for the day, so I’ll go back for the afternoon session and see, one day at the time…
Alright, pics time!
Let's start with a pic of Rafale and I. Now, to be honest, this pic of her is not so great. We took 2 pics back to back and in the 1st one she looked good, but I looked way too bad, so we took this second one where I at least look like myself (or the image I have of myself! hehehe), but she doesn't look as good as she does in real life... Fortunately for me, since this is my blog, I can post whichever I want! hehehe

And here's another quick one of myself - to please the family!

These wried pants I'm wearing are called fishermen's pants and are quite common here (on the islands and remote places, not in Bangkok at all!). They are a kind of "one size fits all" pant, and you simply flod the excess fabric in the front and tie the whole thing with stings that are attached to the pants.... Sounds weird, doesn't look particularly good, but quite comfy!
Here's a pic we took at the chinese temple...

Here's a pic of fish on display at a market here, I don't know if youc an see, byt there are severla black dots on teh fish, yes yes, these are flies just hanging out (or eating or I don't know what!) hmmm yummy! No need otmention that I've stayed away from meat since I started travelling. Veggies don't attract flies nearly as much!

To conclude for today, here are a couple of pics we took at the elephant safari place. They have 5-10 elephants on which we can go ride. Rafale wanted ot get more info on how they are treated here before paying for a ride, but yesterday I saw a poster for this place at her yoga place, so I asume that this will be good enough for. We might go on a ride at some point soon, we'll see.

So that's that for now. This morning I woke up to find the MOTHER OF ALL SPIDERS on the wall of the kitchen. I didn't kill yet and left asap, came back a couple of hours and it was still there, I still didn't kill it (I'm normally not scared of spiders, but this one is quite intimidating). Anyway, I took a pic and will load it on here next time. You'll see what I mean!!! I figured it'd also be a good occasion to discuss the animals and things I've seen around here so far. Next entry!

Written on March 13...
I just found out that I got accepted at Concordia for a BA in Management with a minor in Economic. No news from McGill yet (also for Management). I have to answer them by May 1st, but I also want to live in residence, so I'll have to make a decision fairly soon ot make sure I get into residence. I figured I can wait a couple of weeks to see what McGill says...In any case, I need to check, but many universities guarantee a place in residence to 1st year students, so I should be fine. Yeah, about that, they would only transfer 6 credits (of the 18 I've done over the past 2 years), of this 90 credits degree... bit of a bummer... Anyway, I have time to think this over.

Cheers!

Alright, one thing that is everywhere ehre in Thailand, is picture and reverence to the King (I think his name is Rama IV). His pic is in every shop, they sell shirts with a Thai embrodery that I was told was to celebrate the King, he has statues and displays throughout the city.
This display blocks the main entry of a large commercial centre!! Thais sure love their King!!!
Another thing that's everywhere are temples.


Unfortunately, the explanation written on the signs are only in Thai, I therefore have no idea what/who/why it's for.
I'll really look into meeting/staying with a Thai family sooner than later, as it will make the world of a difference in understanding life and the people here. Actually, for India, I met a couple of girls from Denmark who stayed with 2 families while in India. They loved the experience and gave me the coordinates to contact these families and do the same thing! I think it's sooooo cool!
Well that's pretty much that for now. Hope everythign is going good onyour side as well, and keep in touch!!!!
Cheers,
Mistrale