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The following was written 7-15, in Sukhothai Historical Park
11:30AM Fruitless, here in the shadow of ruins. Man’s labor, great civilization reclaimed by nature.
Crumbled stone returning to the womb of the Earth to become life once again.
Why keep playing?
The river is change, but endless. Coming and going.
Spirits returning to shadow, and the darkness engulfing all.
Only questions.
Looking and searching and grasping.
The following was written 7-15, in Sukhothai
1:30PM I’ve done the unthinkable!
Turned in a garbage bag full of clothes for actual laundry.
I cannot prance around naked, so not everything will get washed, but the clothes I wear most.
I walked to the halo Buddha’s Wat a little bit ago. It was much closer than the map made it appear. It is, I think, the most impressive Buddha I have yet to see.
Afterwards I stopped by an internet cafe I had seen while walking to the Wat. I’m hear now, in the loud room, on a computer that is getting constant pop-ups and virus warnings. A far cry from the Debian machine I had last night.
Speakeasy claims I’m getting 774k down and 364k up, but it feels much slower.
I’m almost out of time, but not looking forward to leaving the AC.
The following was written 7-15, in Sukhothai, partly by flashlight
7:30PM I went out to an internet cafe this evening to type up these entries, but before I could get much done, the power went out.
What worries me most is that this is the first time I’m unable to clean the computer. No cookies were deleted, no cache cleared. Though I think it will be alright. The cafe ran Debian, and if you can’t trust a Linux admin, who can you trust?
The power was out for the whole city, but walking back to the guest house, every window was lit with the glow of a candle.
It’s back on now. Was out for about 20 minutes.
My laundry isn’t dry yet, which means there’s no point in taking a shower till tomorrow. I hope I don’t sleep in and not give myself enough time to shower and pack before the 11AM check-out time.
Let’s hope the electricity remains – the prospect of a fan-less night is not appealing.
The following was written 7-14, in the attic of an old lady in Sukhothai
8:30PM The bus left Chiang Mai at noon and arrived upon Sukhothai at 5:30PM. From the station, I caught a tuk-tuk to the Baan Thai Guest House. They were full, but I was told there would be a room for me tomorrow night and another solution for tonight. A home stay, she said.
And so tonight I bed down in the attic of an old lady (she must be 80) who speaks no English. The bed is quite hard, but will do.
Tomorrow I will leave the room to the spiders.
The following was written 7-16, in Phitsanulok
1:45PM Before I left for Thailand, I heard from a few people that, by the end of their trips, the Thai language got to annoy them – it’s so tonal and can sound very much like whining. That hasn’t happened to me.
But the French!
I’ve discovered that if you see another white person in Thailand, there’s something like a 97% chance that they’re French. As such, you hear the language all the time around guest houses and the tourist strips. I have no idea why, but it’s really begun to annoy me.
And it’s nothing else about the people. Sure, they’re a quirky bunch, with their attention to manners and being so proper, but it’s only the language that has grown to annoy me.
Nothing against the French. Only an observation.
The following was written 7-13, in a windowless room in Chiang Mai.
8:54PM Back in Chiang Mai.
The bus ride over played Tears of the Sun. Bruce Willis shouldn’t be dubbed in Thai. It doesn’t work.
I must be staying in the Italian quarter of town. Pizza and other Italian restaurants abound. I found a tasty one for lunch. Homemade ice cream, too.
Even in Thailand, I’m told I look like a pirate…
Today marks day 1 of 7 that I must take Malarone out of the malaria zone.
Found another used book store and traded
The following was written 7-12 in an alley in Chiang Rai.
6:04PM Chiang Rai is one of the few cities in which the bus station is actually near the center of town. Within walking distance, even with a huge pack.
I didn’t have anything to do this evening, and ate dinner just a block away, so I decided to wander on over and buy a ticket to Chiang Mai for tomorrow.
The bus station is a noisy place, already hard to hear each other speak. As I was talking to the guy at the ticket window, this loud music started blasting. I thought to myself “Cut this horrible racket! I can barely understand this guy as it is.” The music stopped as soon as I finished at the window, and I turned around in time to see the whole station sit back down and return to business.
Oops. It was the National Anthem. Hey, at least I was standing.