Travel Journal:

my first trip out of the country - two in one day


two in one day 2007-01-20
 
hey,
I am going on a 3 day trek tomorrow so i thought i'd just write this
and tell everyone my thoughts so i dont forget them...

my thought that the day would be totally different from the others was
totally right on..

So we started the day with pizza for a change in pace.. we entered the
resturant and it was very funny.. The guy at the counter was listening
to thai radio and immediatly turned it off and put on this awful
french "jazz". i tried to tell him he could listen to the radio but my
gestures were to convoluted and thus we listened to crappy jazz as we
proceeded to eat 2 entire pizzas (which we were still hungry from at
the end).. i just thought this was funny..

the day was getting hot and we both felt tired so we decided to go
back to the room and lounge for a bit.. this was the first time i had
lounged since i had been here.. it was quite nice and am looking
forward to a little bit more of this later on in the trip.....we ended
up eating at a thai place that was right next door to the one we were
actually looking for... this was comical... i sat there the whole time
wondering why this wasnt nearly as good as the lonely planet claimed
it to be and both of us realized after a minute that the one were were
looking for was one building over.... oh well.... the intended place's
menu didnt look terribly impressive anyways...

thai respect for the government and the king is very creepy to me...
there are pictures of the king all over the country; in monestaries,
on streets, in commercials, everywhere.... today we happened upon a
market that happens once a week in chang mai..... there was this voice
over a loudspeaker (broadcasting over the entire market) talking about
"this market is thai culture, this market shows pride for culture, and
__________ (various other propaganda)" and the way that the speakers
were placed made it sound like one of the 1984 movies.... you know,
where the voice is playing over the loudspeaker and it kinda echos is
this very disconcerting way... so we turn a corner and low and behold
another king image.... then to totally complete the mood the thai
national anthem starts playing and the entire (gigantic) market stops
and is silent until the anthem ends then everyone goes back to their
business......... that was really funny.... especially because we were
just discussing how braved new worldy the whole thing was.......

on a positive note i found traditional thai music at the market!!!!!!
along with this dude who was playing very western chords and rythyms
but was singing in thai...... the music was very angsty/minor key and
his voice/ennunciation of thai language was gorgeous. to complete it
he looked like he came out of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor
collective... this was refreshing as i am totally tired of hearing
crappy american music all the time.....

FINALLY we had the first good thai food in chang mai (it only took
like five meals)... we also met the other people treking with us..
some of our new friends are going and there are a couple of (i know
this is judgmental) shallow/trendy aussie city girls...... i am kinda
disapointed about that but i will leave it open for them to prove
themselves otherwise..... i found out that there are a couple of
musicians comming, not to play but on the trek, which will give me
years worth of material to talk about............

We went to the sunday market again... it's kool... (sweetie if you
wanna email me with any gift requests do so ; ) )...... currently i am
tired as fuck emailing you all my fun expereinces....

I am tired so i am going to go..... but goodnight (good morning to you
in western time zone) to you all and sleep/wake well.....


till the next exciting installment... this is kent brockman signing out!!
 
Map and Photos for my first trip out of the country
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Thailand Journal : my first trip out of the country - two in one day Travel Photos
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