So I made it to Thailand. And in the process, for the first time in my life, went up to a counter at an airport and said, "I'd like to purchase a ticket", and was on a plane 40 minutes later. I just don't think that happens in the USA. We were saying, when, if ever, will someone go up to the counter at Delta and say "yeah, when's the next flight out to Pensacola because I'd like to buy a ticket". Oh you want to fly right away, one way, and you're going to pay with cash, and you're not checking bags? Wait a minute right here, I think there's someone who is going to want to ask you a few questions.
Laos continued to impress since my last post and our trip to the Kwang Si Waterfalls was in my opinion nothing short of amazing. Only pictures would do it justice, but being in the jungle, sitting under a waterfall in the middle of a torrential downpour, and hiking to the top of the falls isn't something you'll do on any given Sunday, or Monday or whenever it was. Yeah, we could have probably stayed for another day in Laos, but we were ready to move on.
Something I've been thinking about here as we move from city to city and trek to trek, is everything that can go right, and conversely everything that can go wrong. Henri Mouhot was a Frenchman, and an explorer, and is credited with the rediscovery of Angkor Wat. Mouhot was based in Bangkok in the late 1850s and his schtick was making treks into the jungles of northern Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Apparently Mouhot had a hunch that there was something "big" in Cambodia. Some lost city or something. So he set out into the jungle with a couple elephants, a bunch of ramen noodles, and flashlight, and found Angkor Wat. Not too shabby. I imagine he got back to his base in Bangkok and was like "Ok, guys, I'm like pretty sure I found something and I'm pretty sure you're going to want to come with me and check it out". His rediscovery of Angkor Wat...a great thing that happened. The prevalence of lady-boys in Thailand...the opposite of a great thing. Everybody come play the Lady-Boy game with me. It goes like this. Walk down the street and try to pick 'em. Lady...lady...boy...lady...boy...boy. Truly scary stuff. When I left my room to get breakfast this morning I saw all of these old white dudes with Thai women eating breakfast. Either these guys met these Thai women years ago and the Matzah Ball and courted them like normal folks, or they met them last night, paid for their company and are now doing some community service in the way of supporting their favorite charity "Buy a Pro Some Pancakes". It's sooo shady and of all those guys looking for love in all the wrong places, I have to imagine that one of them got fooled last night. And this brings me to another issue that we've been talking about over here for a few days, which is who the hell are these dudes?
At what point do you decide to live in Thailand (or Phenom Penh or where ever), telling the rest of the world to kiss it, while you basically decide to live the rest of your life trying to have sex with locals but not pay for it but that's what it is. At what point do you make that your life. Is it when you are divorced, and your kids want nothing to do with you, and your job at the factory is as painful as ever, and you just can't deal anymore. I need to know what the tipping point is for these gentlemen, because there are so many of them over here it's shocking. Or maybe it shouldn't be shocking and I'm just naive. Probably a combination of both. If anyone has insight let me know. I'm off to dinner.
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