Joss stone keeping me company in my lonely office on a breezy Thursday afternoon. Thank god for the breeze, this heat is killing me. I finally have a cool minute to gather my thoughts about what has been happening these past few days, and months really. Time alone to think. Soft music, gentle breeze, birds playing in the trees out the window, a trumpet being played softly in the next building over. Finally, the moment I have been waiting for.

In less than 72 hours, I am moving to Bangkok. It wasn't in my original plan, but essentially, it was fate, if I was to believe in fate. I saw a school while I was in Bangkok, and it was so beautiful. It worked out so well. I didn't know where the school was, but then a friend of rin's who we were staying with said his friend's mother happened to teach there, and so we found out where it was, went to see it, met with all the right people, saw the buildings, saw the gardens, the marble walkways, the resources for the farangs, the swimming pool, tennis courts, organization, people respecting their school. So beautiful. I knew this would be a great job if i could get it.

I went to an internet cafe and emailed the director of the program who was away on holiday, and said I loved it. We discussed things further, and as it worked out, he wanted me to start on the 28th, but I am still under contract here. Then, in some bizarre flash of fate, I decided to email him on tuesday and ask him if he had found anyone, as I would break my contract if it meant I could come and work for him. He emailed me back to say bizarrely, he wanted me to come and work there, so he asked his boss for clearance to hire me, and he was going to email me to see if I had found something else. And so, it is working out. My contract starts tomorrow, and I will be working at Thewpaignarm School, English Program for the next eleven months. I will go home in September for a holiday, likely with Rin.

This leaves the logistics. Rin and I are crazily running around trying to organize a moving truck to move our stuff to his place in Chumporm tomorrow, and he will go also, I will stay with a friend until Sunday when I will fly and meet with him in the 'kok. I am truly excited about this. I am at peace with my decision. I knew I needed to make a change. I knew I needed to do something for myself. And this I have done. And Rin is doing the same, and I am thankful that we can make them work together. He has been amazing. Going away, I have seen him in such a different light. Seeing his life, seeing where he has been, meeting his friends. He is much more amazing than I have given him credit for. Which I suppose is an awful thing to say, but it is the truth. We have grown so much together this past month. There is a lot of love and equally important, friendship and trust between us. Things are going really well right now. New horizons, and both of us supporting each other.

So this means I will proably be on internet hiatus once again. I will be able to catch up this weekend, but then am flying out on Sunday, and who knows when I will be in touch again. But I will keep things logged.

I am sad to leave Phuket...this island has given me a lot. I am sad to leave the things I have gotten to know. I am sad to leave my dog in Chumporn!! I am sad R is leaving. I am sad that I won't be able to have bagles on Sundays anymore. But at the same time, I am excited for what the future will hold for me....

voice from the jungle (part 1)

(written on Sunday, March 20th, 2005., in a notebook with a scratchy pen.)

Five days, four nights and counting. As I write this I sit on a bamboo daybed in the middle, of well, the jungle. Rin and I arrived here early Thursday evening after riding the train from Bangkok. Bangkok was the polar opposite of this experience. Being in Bangkok made me feel like I was back in the west. Maybe a really hot Montreal or a dirtier New York, ten years ago, with tuk tuks and lots of Asians. But here, in Lang Suan, things are slightly different.

While the drive by car from Bangkok to his house (Chumporn province, about halfway between Bangkok and Phuket) is about five hours, the train took eleven. This train, my friend, is not one that would pass any safety standards, or health standards for that matter, in the west. Don't think about Via Rail, think about those old western movies where they jump on and off trains at high speeds, all dirty with cattle and hay. Well this train had seats, but walking between cars there were no doors, and I spent a few hours with my feet being swung around in the breeze as I dangled them off the side of the train as we sped along the Thai countryside. The train was 90 baht per person, a little over two American dollars. Locals hopped on at one stop with food from that area to sell and get off at the next. Reminded me of the beggars in Paris, train hopping. Pork with sticky rice, 10 baht (25 cents). Cold water, 5 baht. (13 cents). Coconut cake snacks, still hot, enough to feed a family, 10 baht. Not priced for the lonely planeters, this was Thailand at its best.

Once we arrived in Lang Suan we walked for about ten minutes to buy his grandfather some coffee, as I was told he loves the stuff. (a passion we share...) (I later found out coffee is what keeps this stuff alive. He is a fanatic, to say the least. At minimum, I have seen him drink twenty cups a day. Perhaps an explanation for the dark smile.)

After buying the coffee I was told to get on the back of a motorbike with a toothless man and that Rin would follow. So I grinned politely and tried to balamce the three enormous plants we had bought for his mother in Bangers. We slowly started to drift to the edge of town. I thought 'sure, his house is a bit out of the way.' I had no idea.

When we arrived, after being slapped in the face by palm branches, almost falling off as the toothless man threw our weight around trying to avoid potholes on the dirt path, I recognized the house from photos. The house itself is not bad at all. Build by Rin about three years ago, and a stone's throw from his grandparents', where about fifteen people live. (Though I could be wrong, as there is a constant flow of people in and out of the house.) The house is made of cement, beautifully shaded by hundreds of palm trees. Enormous, beautiful long branches spreading out to keep it cool. Inside the house there is one big room, his mother's bedroom and a big kitchen off the side of the house. (Which I later found out we were going to tile the next day.) No ceiling, only open space up to the tin roof. Airy, cool, but definately rustic. Breezy, and shockingly, not hot. A nice change from Phuket, the inferno.

The bathroom has been an adventure. While I am quite accustomed to squat toilets by now, I am not, however, used to houses without running water. This makes taking a shower an adventuire. Espencially when the water in the holding talk gets so cold overnight. Showers in the morning are impossible.

Rin introduced me to his mother, waied, and greeted me with a giant smile. To clarify, a giant red smile. The eomen here chew something along the same lines as chewing tobacco. They chew on the leaves from some tree that are some sort of stimulant, I ate one yesterday and it gives the feeling of being stoned. With these leaves they spread this pink paste kind of like play-dough, roll it up and chew on it, occasionally spitting out this red water. All of which leaves these women with red lips, tongues and teeth. Rin said I could try some if I wanted, I said no, as I forgot my floss in Phuket, Rin asked what floss is. Case closed.

That night we had dinner on the floor, as Rin and I do in Phuket, and set up a bed in the livingroom. He said I should sleep with her mother in her bed, as I would be more comfortable, and I said that made farangs in fact, feel, uncomfortable. And so we slept together on the livingroom floor.

As we fell asleep I heard a familiar sound from a summer in New York when our old victorian house had a bat infestation. I glanced up towards the roof and saw about five bats gliding in figure eights between our room and the kitchen. Bangarang. I nudged Rin, and he was watching me smiling, seeing what I would do. He said not to worry, as they were there to eat the bugs, and they would come nowhere near me. As he said this one swooped down near my pillow and swallowed a bug lingering in the light.

'I warned you,' he said in Thai. Yes, he did. He did indeed. He said there were bats. In the same conversation he told me we would be eating lizards, snakes and cats, and that animals would crawl over me as we slept. He told me he was kidding. I fell asleep that night with a blanket over my head, wedged into his underarm, wondering what was in store for me over the next week.


to be continued...

nothing says fun like...

nothing says fun like being scared to death by your neighbor sticking his head in your bedroom window as you and your boyfriend sleep with hardly any clothes on to tell you that there is another tsunami coming.

get up, watch the news, make fried rice, worry again, feel deja vu, can't help but think...'this is what we should have done last time...' frantically try to make phone calls while the phones don't work, talk to your mum, let her know you're okay, and in fact not coming home, smoke a bamboo cigarette in the breeze, look up at the sky and hope for calm waters, and sleep.

i will be off this island in less than a week...

updates

many many words written while away, trying to sort out my life and move here while typing them up. to be posted this week, FOR CERTAIN.

oh how i have missed the internet...

finally getting through to him after six months that i do NOT want to eat curried fish, rice and pork skin at 7 in the morning, rin went to buy me some coconut cakes. happy happy girl 

 

flowers we bought for his mum going to good use 

fishing 

to arrive in the middle of the jungle. to a house with nothing around it. where we spent ten days playing cards, watching the bats and learning to speak each others languages more and more. at first a rough experience, which turned out to be so rewarding and relaxing. 

11 hours on a train. beautiful scenery, but hot and not quite clean... 

 

look at the sweet boy in the vermont tshirt! 

touring wat pra kaew and the grand palace 

flying kites at the grand palace 

rin and his younger cousin...after being dressed up at the hotel 

what bangkok does to farangs 

relaxing in the suite in bangers...met up with some old friends staying in a posh place and took full advantage! 

holiday photos, in the city and by the sea 

arrival

arrived, in bangers.

and i have to say, i have never given this place a fair chance. sitting here now, knowing this is a place i am 99% sure i am going to call home in the next month, i see the mazing things it has to offer. there is so much life in this city. so many people, and so much energy. so many farangs wandering around, so many people, thai and farang alike who just want to talk. perhaps this is what my life in phuket is lacking.

rin and i took the overnight bus from phuket, which is something there is no possible way i am going to do again. we took a vip bus, thinking it would be nice and relaxing. it ould have been if the five following things didn't happen:
1. the ladyboy infront of me didn't pour her coke all over my left leg before the bus had even left phuket. 'what is that honey? your coke is a little shaken. then pour it on your own freaking leg."
2. the same said ladyboy didn't feel the need to smash her seat into my knees which are obviously taking up more room than the average thai's, and then groan when i scream in agony.
3. there wasn't "white chicks" dubbed in thai blasting over the speakers the whole time.
4. rin wasn't taking up one and a half seats, and playing games on his phone with a constant "beep. beep. beep. beep. beep. beep." for hours on end.
5. my stomach wasn't wonky.

other than that, the trip was bangarang.

we arrived in bangkok and headed to kao san road, something i had always avoided, but turns out to be quite cool. backpacker heaven, something the snobbiness in me turns away from, but it has been awesome. (minus the one incident of the farang couple making lololololove in the street at 7am.)

we are staying at the four seasons, unfortunately not the same as the ones in the west, but damn nice nonetheless. we found one nice place, but do to the reputation of thai women with farang men, there was a big sign out front saying "thai people not allowed in." charming. so the four seasons it is.

rin got a passport today, which took hours. hours. thai beaurocracy. i will never understand. either will they, this is the problem, you see. we met up with a friend of his, and should be meeting up with my friends who came to phuket a few weeks ago tonight.

so far, bangkok is great. open mind, open heart, and wide open eyes.

more updates to come in the next few days....

ps, miss odd, i can't post comments on your blog. so if you read this, know i sent you a message today thinking you were in town. we should be here until wednesday or so...will you be around?

update in 30 seconds

school finishes tomorow

i am going to bangkok tomorrow night

while in bangkok i have two interviews

as we are moving there next month.


(a little has been going on...will explain when i have more time with the freaking computer)

bisous