My last night in Chiang Mai is a night I will surely remember for the rest of my life. First I packed my bags. I have a family of great packers. My brothers have minds for organization and have helped my mom, sister and I move so many times when we were young. Holt especially took pride in the art of moving, and if I remember correctly he had professional experience to draw upon. I learned from them and my dad. Dad has lived a large portion of his life either on a boat or in a trailer. This gives a person a certain since of space, a very economical since of space. I remember my dad teaching me how to stuff "10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag". On top of all this I took a job in a shipping department when I was 19 for a while and took great pleasure in the real life 3D tetris game of it all. Any way, to conclude a long story. I fit everything that I had used in 4 months, excepting a tea kettle, into my 2 bags. Beniot said "you travel light", "you call this light", "Holy Shit, I don't think they will let you check that.". That was the next morning and I am getting ahead of myself. I finished packing my bags and and my girlfriend came over. I spent 30 min joking with her and trying to convince her to come out. Only god knows why she never goes out with my friends and I. Maybe she doesn't like my friends, maybe she is embarrassed by my poor manners? Whatever. I had a great dinner with Beniot, Renata and Andrea. I guess nothing really happened I can write about, but it was a great night, full of love.
At dinner the next day with Ben and Renata I order a thai curry. After 2 months in Thailand most people get tired of thai food every day. I love thai food so this never quite happened to me but the last week I ate thai food morning evening and night. Ben (French) and Renata(Italian) are leaving before the end of the month so we talked about how much thai food will cost back home. Chit chat, it is a wonderful thing, I have heard so many people say disparaging things about "small talk" but I have learned that there is no such thing as small talk, only small minds.
I had Ben buy me a train ticket when he go into Chaing Mai. He told me he bought it because I asked him to but he felt guilty subjecting me to the misery that he went through on his trip. I also got bad reports from others. I got on the Train to Bangkok at 6pm. When you are expecting something really awful it is hard to be disappointed, and I wasn't. The train had a working A/C and I had a good book. I slept a few hours on the fold down bed but for most of the 13 hour trip I read. I finished Acacia and started the next one. Acacia was SO good. The writing was dexterous and the plot line was unexpected. The best thing about it though was the way the realistic way the story was framed. In the course of a life we are born into a world with a complex history, into circumstances we don't understand. By the end we have understood little and resolved nothing. The book was actually a trilogy and the end made you really wish there was a forth book.
I had 6 hours in Bangkok before my flight. I was waiting in line for a taxi which would be the cheapest way to get around when I was propositioned by a tuktuk driver. He wanted twice what I would pay. After going back to the line I stuck up 8 fingers as an offer to him, he squinted, paused and excepted. I was tired of standing in line and was willing to pay a few baht not to. He told me to wait where I was, but before he came back a gaurd told me to go with another driver. I started to explain that I was waiting when he cut me off and ordered me to go. I was putting my things into the other tuktuk when mine pulled up and I quickly switched to the first driver. I told him what happened and that I have a hard time saying no to a man with a gun. He said they were ting tong, crazy. I have been told that the name 'tuktuk' comes from the race car like humming of the muffler on these tricycle, open air, covered vehicles. Maybe he was inspired by the sound because this particular tuktuk drove like he was in the Indie 500. It was quite fun. I was off to Wat Po to get a massage! It was a good massage and greatly needed. Wat Po was interesting for a Thai temple, which is not saying much because they all look almost exactly alike. On my way out I caught a tourist trap tuktuk. The deal is they bring you to a restaurant that they have a deal with, then to a temple and then to a jewelry shop. I thought there had to be some sort of trick but a 20 baht tuktuk that would get me lunch and closer to the airport seemed like a great idea at the time! There was actually no trick in the end.
The plane to Taiwan was short and unspectacular. I met a nice English kid going to Mexico to be a dive instructor who was in need of a book so I gave him Acacia. I also realized that I had a thing for women in uniforms.
Taiwan to LA was lucky. I sat down and commented to a man on the exit row that I had come all this way to be within arms reach of the best seat to no avail. Like there was some kind of skill involved. He replied kindly. Less then two minutes later I was asked to switch seats with a Chinese woman and her child. Not only was I being changed to front row seating I had an empty seat next to me! I helped the mother move her stuff and offered to help in any way I could and proceeded to gloat to Mike that I now had the best seat on the plane! Mike and I hit it off, we talked for about half of the trip to LA. He was a father of 2 who lived a beach bum lifestyle until his late 20's when he started working in business and was now a consultant for Intel. When we landed I helped June carry her stuff so that she could attend to her son Eric. Then I kept him busy while we waited for passport control. When June had some difficulty due to a mistake filling out her paperwork I explained to the officer what the problem was so that she didn't have to get her bags searched. She was very happy and asked if I was interested in Chinese women and offered to show me around China when I go that way.
LA to Atlanta was disappointing. When I talked to someone and he said something that made no sense and I understood what he meant I was very excited. Native English slang! My enthusiasm fell off from there though. I don't really want to talk about it.
Finally I got to Tampa! After 50 hours of travel I got into the car with my dad to go home!
I will continue to write as I carry on my journey through the US of A but right now I need to go to the bathroom!
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