They have quanrantined me in Laos because they think I might have the swine flu. Bummer.
When I arrived here the other night, I went in the queue for people with a visa, and I was quite upset when they rejected my visa and said go buy another one. But I had just bought one only a few days earlier, and it lasts 30 days! Yeah, it lasts 30 days if you don't leave the country! It's a single entry visa. Fuck I'm dumb. So my 18 hours in Laos cost me $30US on top of the rest of it. Anyway, when buying the new visa, they asked for a passport photo. All my photos were in my checked luggage, so I didn't have one. Therefore they charged me an extra $1US for the photo...um, but they didn't take another photo of me, so really, they charged $1US for ignoring the fact I didn't have a photo. Hmmm.
Anyway, I got a room in the guesthouse where Cathy lives. It's quite nice. Except for the chicken (well, rooster) who crows to let everyone know its three hours before dawn. Fucking chicken. The neighbours are going to wake up to find a dead chicken (rooster) one of these days. They'll probably think it's died of SARS or Avian Bird Flu, or even Pig Flu, unless they look closely at the big fat strangle marks around its neck.
I had a banana/coffee smoothie. It was fucking disgusting. I feel like vomiting now. Don't ever have a banana/coffee smoothie.
The Thais seem to love dubbing movies, instead of subtitling...I watched Jaws in Thai. Actually, it was pretty effective, probably because it's one of those films you've seen heaps of times so you basically know what they are talking about. And the scenes of people getting eaten by a shark don't need a lot of translation...
There is obviously a real skill at dubbing, and the Thai dubbing is quite good. The match the thai words with the lip movements very closely, and they even do all of the sound effects that each person makes, heavy breathing, grunts, squeals and screams. Still, it's pretty obvious these people are not actually Thai people getting eaten by the shark, so the whole dubbing thing is pretty silly. Obviously can't stand watching anything dubbed into English.
I've spent a lot of time in the lobby - which is where there is a bank of computers. For the first two days here they've been playing the same Western songs CD over and over (they've changed it at last, but the music is still shit). It was a compilation of forgotten hits from the 70s and 90s (that's right, not the 80s). Actually I read somewhere that because of some shame or other, the Thais are in total denial about most of the 80s, so they are not allowed to refer to it at all. Crazy Thais.
I just got online to get the footy score - glad I'm here and not in Melbourne.
In China they are not very good at translating things into English. I remember in Shanghai there were quite a lot of things with English translations, including menus. All very amusing because their English is so incorrect. Not much English in Kunming. I guess this is because there aren't anywhere near as many tourists.
The two I noticed in Kunming was the restaurant "The One World of the Fish" which still makes me chuckle. I guess it's a fish restaurant. The other was an ad for mango puree, which they called "Mango Pure Day". Actually, that's pretty clever. Could it have been intentional??
I think in three days in Kunming I saw about ten white tourists. Here I see ten farang when I come down into the hotel lobby.
When I was in Kunming I twice tried to buy some throat soothers (like strepsils). I went into the chemist and in my broken chinese conveyed that my throat and chest was sore. Both times I walked out with what I suspect would be prescription only drugs in Australia (looked them up), and not throat soothers. I gave up. I didn't take the drugs either - too scared after that TV show I saw about fakes.
I'm still sick. I've done to Chang Mai what I did to Kunming - hang around and be sick. Will spend the rest of the day in bed reading, sleeping, and watching Thai tv. Thinking maybe I should even see a doctor...it's been one week now and I'm really struggling to breathe, and I have no energy at all.
I remembered Sam told me I could claim sick leave if I'm sick while on holidays. Then I remembered, I took leave without pay :D
Bangkok tomorrow. Will check out the book stores and see if I can join a riot. I never heard how all that go resolved...did the prime minister step down? Which reminds, the bus I was on from Chang Rai to Chang Mai was stopped for a police check...and also, the minivan I was on to Houayxai in Laos was stopped in the middle of nowhere by men who didn't look like police, but certainly acted like them. The actually searched through the van as well as checking out if the passengers looked suspicious. Unlike the Thais, they didn't actually look at people's IDs (do Lao people have these?) or my passport.
Which also reminds me...on the tuk tuk/taxi from the Chinese border, as we went over the hills, we went through lots of little, very poor, villages by the road. I took a few photos but I missed out on the best two sights.
The first was a huge pile of fruit - they might have been coconuts still in their complete husk. Each fruit was wrapped in one of those foam things they wrap bottles of alcohol in at duty free. There were a dozen guys standing and sitting around, and more than half of them had put the foam thing totally over their heads. They were just sitting there totally indifferent to how silly they looked.
There were a lot of kids in these villages. The second highlight was a skinny brown kid, riding a bike too big for him so he had to stand up on the pedals, and across his eyes he was wearing a scuba diving mask! Special effort. I think he thought it was like a bike helmet. He was probably the coolest kid in the village because he had the scuba mask! Good luck to him.
Because I've been travelling by myself, I've been chatting with people more often. Waiting in Chang Rai for a bus I got chatting with a monk from Bangladesh. He was very happy, thought everyone was good, thought Thailand was a wonderful country, and all the Thais had "beautiful smiles". Well, he was a monk. He is the second person from Bangladesh I've chatted with. The other was on the way from Guangzhou to Kunming. He was dressed in an orthodox muslim fashion, with a little cap and a long, but thin, beard. So we talked about the cricket ;)
Even in Chang Mai, which is a bit of an ugly tourist trap (which is what I thought the first time I came here), I'm happily chatting with the locals who want me to buy things, even if it's just saying hello to all the waiting tuk tuk drivers. I had a conversation with a guy from Burma who wanted me to get a suit made. I remember in the past I would have avoided such encounters, probably because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to say no, at least not without embarrassment. Now I just don't seem to care.
Chang Mai seems really quiet too. There are a few tourists, mostly fat, old guys with local girlfriends. I really try not to stare. Oh well. It's hot (and humid) though, seems to be the hottest time of year. I thought rainy season was supposed to have started, but Tom the Irish guy said up here in the north it starts later.