NevaTryNevaKnow

All right well at the request of one of my friends here, I've decided to post up some entries from my journal here in Thailand. Enjoy! This is the first journal I've really kept up with and you'll just kind of have to bear through the first few entries since I wasn't really sure how to even write one. However a month in and over 100 pages now I think I'm figure this whole writing thing out.... read more

- The Pineapple Lady - I know there's a number of you back home who I've told this story to because it's probably my favorite experience that I've had here yet but I'm retelling it just in off-chance that something happens to the physical copy of my journal. January 21, 2012 9:50pm - Reggae Bar - Chiang Rai I'm still reeling from the last four hours of my life. Everything here has this way of becoming so surreal when you least expect it. This morning I rented a motorbike from my guesthouse for 200 baht for the day (~$7). After about 30 awkward minutes of pacing around the machine and faking phone calls (I'd never ridden one before and I wasn't looking forward to learning in the chaos that is Thailand traffic). The ropes course in ... read more

January 19, 2012 - The Golden Triangle - Chiang Mai en route to Chiang Rai I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and did my best to catch up with what our tour guide was saying from the passenger seat. My spot in the back of the 15-passenger van was getting cramped. The Englishman in front of me decided to move his seat back as far as possible while I was sleeping. It was probably out of spite because of a comment I'd made to his girlfriend earlier in the trip. It was just too hard to keep my comments under control because I just couldn't believe my ears. She was actually chastising our tour guide because her seat didn't have a seatbelt. After refusing my offer to switch seats, she continued to detail the importance ... read more

5:40pm - Tip #1 Guesthouse Eyes open for a good sign and the unverse delivers in the form of an angel. I lay on the couch back at the Tip #1 guesthouse where we had our orientation for the jungle trek. Morale was precariously balanced between at-peace and despondence. I'd spent the last two days wandering Chiang Mai looking for a sign. Something that might give me a nudge in a direction for what to do next or where to go. Any less-than-incredible emotions were all but forgotten in the shadow of group companionship and shared experience in the jungle. The high I had from my trek had subsided and I was back in town. I'd already said my goodbyes to all my new friends as they moved on to their next destinations, and I was ... read more

Excerpt from: Chapter 4 - The Simple "Bear" Necessities After spending a week with no one but foreigners and three of those days in the jungle, I've learned that if it sounds like a compliment treat is as one. other than that, it's more important to actually put forth a little effort in understanding both culture and language. There are so many small cultural differences that are harder to pick up on but fun to find when you watch people interact with each other. It's gets tedious at times, but I think a little bit goes a long way. Rules I'll try to live by when I'm here 1. Admit ignorance 2. Maintain a level ego -It's easy to let this one slip away from you when you're here. 3. Search for understanding 4. Project genuine ... read more

6:30pm - Khao San Rd., Bangkok - Four-Sons Village Guesthouse and Restraurant Second day in and I'm sitting in a guesthouse bar satiating my only remaining drives: beer, cigarettes, and food. I checked into one of the busier inns near Khao San for some god-forsaken reason. It's full of muscle-shirted, masturbatory, dickheads. There was an interesting enough story to it though, I only picked it because I had to piss so bad and it was the closest thing I could find-hilarity ensued. I stopped at the counter and asked for a room. The front desk worker dismissed me pretty quickly after determining that everyone in line behind me would be faster customers to deal with. It was only my second day here so even the minor language barrier was tenfold harder for me to work though- ... read more