Changover

BeerChang=Death.
Jackie and Yumi decided to spur of the moment come and visit me in Thailand! So we met up in Bangkok and I've been taking them to all the must see spots. Mr. Yim's vegetarian street food, Koh Sahn road street bar, Tuk Tuk mania, Weekend Market Madness, Garden Massage, etc. And I feel kinda bad because I am pretty used to all the craziness and I can tell it's a lot for them to take in, but I think overall they're diggin it. And SOOO ready to roll down to the beach! And we've been boozin it up to celebrate their arrival and today it finally all came crashing down. I felt sooo bad. Why Why Why do i do this to myself I ask you, i BEG of you! After a long day of Wats, Train Stations, Hustlin, Marketing, etc. We all needed a beer. Well Jackie and I did at least, and one turned into eh, five. And we chatted up some people sitting around us at the street bar. Andy, Curry's Austrian doppelganger(yes this is my new favorite word) and Irish man Mike, we bonded over drunken shopping and Beer Chang as Jackie fell into the frog lady trap and Andy haggled over a Jade Buddha Print. Overall though it was a great night filled with Mojito buckets and new friends and yes, drunken shopping.

The Changover lasted well into the day and that night we had to catch a train down south. BIGGEST MISTAKE YET. Originally the train seemed better than a bus because you can get a sleeper cabin and walk around too. But buying tix prevented the sleeper cabin, OR the air conditioned seats, which left us in this hella ghetto sweat couch style seats and open windows for eh, about 12 hours long. Hello sickness. But I'm convinced that the fates had this be their plan because if we hadn't taken the shit train we would have missed two awesome happenings.

INTRODUCING... the Schitzo Tuk-Tuk driver.
We originally were planning on hopping in a cab to the train station to save our lungs and cause we didn't think our bags would fit, but when crazy(that's what i'll call him) offered us a tuk for 1/3 the price, what can you do?
so we three pile in rucksacks and all and off we go. And pretty standard chit chat. Crazy will also speak in all caps from now on. WHERE YOU FROM? America. HOW LONG AMERICA? Um, 23 years. HOW LONG AMERICA? HOW LONG AMERICA? okay, i get it, this guy likes the repeater. Then he asks where Yumi and Jackie are from and I say America too. He looks surprised and points at his jet black hair and then to theirs and says NO, NOT AMERICAN! SAME SAME (in reference to the dark hair). Then a couple of repeaters and then a bit of a crazy back and forth of Yeah, YEAH, yeah yeah yeah, YEAHEYAHYEAHYEAHYEAH, and then a semi laugh-a-thon which led me to thinking that he's not just normal crazy, but crazy crazy.
Then he of course wants to know where we're going. So I make up some itinerary cause the last thing he wants to hear is "we don't know". So I say Koh Pi Pi, Koh Samui, and Koh Pan Ngan. HOW LONG KOH PI PI? um two days. BETTER THREE. okay three days. GOOD. HOW LONG KOH SAMUI? two days, BETTER THREE. HOW LONG KOH PAN NGAN? three days (finally catching on) BETTER FIVE!. OKAY KOH PI PI, KOH SAMUI, KOH PAN NANG, THREE DAY, THREE DAY, THREE DAY. He says, figuring out our trip for us, and then I'm pretty sure telling every Thai person he passes on the road our itinerary, nationality, and perhaps tries to pimp us out too, we're not sure, but we just roll with.HOW LONG AMERICA? so i do it back to him... how long thailand? FIFTY YEAR. i wait a minute. How long THailand? FIFTY YEAR!!!,another pause, so... how long thailand? ONE HUNDRED YEAR? ahhh, he just got played at his own repeater. BOO YA.
The key moment of the night was when he shook all our hands and told each one we were his favorite and then said I LOVE YOU and just stares at you. uh, i love you too crazy, we all reply giggling with unsure nervousness. Moral of the story: travel in tuk tuks in numbers. NO JOKE. But we got to the train station okay and the rest is history.
We also met a very nice Canadian girl named Erin who was on our bus from the train station to Krabi and who traveled with us for a while and was loads of fun, so you see, it all works out.
Pix still aren't working for some reason, so check back soon for some pix of me and the girls in BKK!