Hi Daffy

So I referenced the movie The Beach in my last post. This may be the best movie ever. Well, not really, but it can be good in certain situations. And i think it's actually a disturbingly large part of the reason I came to this country.

So here is a picture of me in the hostel. Man, do I look ridiculous, or what? I should mention that on the first night, I kept thinking I would run into the blood-soaked Daffy character every time i turned a corner, or see blood running out under the doors.... ok, so I'm a little crazy, but we all knew that already, right.

Here's some other stuff about Thailand: The country name means the land of smiles, and indeed, lots of teeth visible here. People are really friendly, except that a lot of cab drivers try to rip you off. And apparently the organ trade is alive and kicking here, so I'll try and stay out of that. But aside from that, things are great. Also, the food is relatively clean here compared to other countries in the region, and especially compared to Latin America. they also have a weird calendar: they use Western days and months, but count the years from Buddha's enlightenment. Therefore, I am a time traveler and am writing to you from the year 2550. Also unusual are the large number of girlie boys here. If you don't know what that is, imagine walking up to a counter staffed by a pretty girl. However, when she speaks you realize she isn't really a she. And she has big feet. Also, not all girlie boys are in the same state of transformation, making things.... interesting. Bert, it might not be for you. Also, I'm very close to the james bond Island. If you are asking yourself "which one?" and then continue with "that one?" the answer is yes.

And here's a picture I just felt I had to add. My caption is: "Naked Gun come to life". If anyone has other/better suggestions, please feel free to share them.

Last but not least, shout outs to Prachee, who continues to be amazing every day.

....and I'm back!

No, not in Europe, you sillies. I'm back to blogging. But then again the two people who still read this knew that anyway.

I've decided that it's pointless for me to try and play catch-up, so I'm just going to skip the rest of my time in South America and New Zealand for now, and start talking in the present.
I arrived in Phuket in Southern Thailand last night. The food here is amazing, I can already tell that the ASia section oif my trip is worthwhile just from a culinary perspective. While South America was ok, this is great: I started my day with a curry over rice, and it's been heaven ever since.....

I also want to say that although New Zealand was very nice and all - and ammentities like drinkable tap water and smooth roads, English spoken commonly, ets - I'm really happy to be back in an LDC. I walked past a canal this morning that smelled of stale water, rot and maybe a little bit like human waste... and was happy it did. Weird.

I'm staying in the hostel from the movie "The Beach" with Leonarde DiCapri. When I saw last night that it's here in town, I just had to stay there. And I'll tell you, it's just as creepy and grimy as in the movie, theyt didn't have to bring in any set-building whizzes to get it like that. I keep thinking i'm going to run into Duffy's body in the hallway or find blood running out from under the door. The only thing they've changed is that the mosquito netting between the rooms (at the top, where Duffy pokes through to smoke weed with Leo's character) has been replaced with wood. I'm guess too many people were reenacting the movie scene......

Bad Blogger

Many of you are probably wondering why I have such few posts (and am so many months behind) on my blogging. The truth is I have become disenchanted with Blogger. It constantly loses my posts when they are in draft mode, and sometimes when I click "publish" half the text I've typed disappears.

Thus, each post takes forever to complete (and I have to write it about 4 times) - the last post is a perfect example. I'd spent an additional hour adding photos, links, and far more text, all of which got lost when I published the post.

So in conclusion, sorry I haven't ben more consistant, and I'll rework that last post so that it actualy males sense.