Bangkok-> Nong Khai

10/21/2011
-Decided to get my haircut, after a slow, social morning, set out walking around my neighborhood looking for a place that could shave patterns like the thai kids have.
-Not three blocks away from my guest house, walking on the sidewalk when two thai police pull up  their motorbike right next to me on the sidewalk and ask to search me. i ask "what for?" "drugs and weapons" is the response, I say yes, because i have no drugs or weapons, and i don't think i have the option of saying no.
-The cops search my pockets and bag, opening everything multiple times, smelling my cigarrettes, even going so far as to page through my journal. obviously, they don't find anything, finally they tell me they searched me because I "looked like an artist."
-parted ways with the cops and shortly thereafter found a men's hair salon, that had won the bangkok championship for free style hair. got  a haircut for about $10, more expensive then anywhere else but they did a great job.

 

 -Went to the record store, hung out for a while, listened to some Isan 7s as well as original Studio One cuts, and original Mulatu Astake from Ethiopia. 

-Took the Skytrain to the victory monument, a massive roundabout surrounded by food stalls and other stalls selling everything you could imagine. Incredible amounts of people moving every-which way. Had a dinner of delicious duck soup, after wandering around trying to find water (the city was sold out due to threats of flooding). bought six bottles of water, saw a brutal car walk on the way back to the skytrain. chilled out and read on the roof of the guest house for the rest of the night. 

10/22/2011

-Slept in and had a prolonged tea. 

-Spent the morning researching the weekend market scene, in bangkok there are an assortment of markets which only spring up on the weekends. 

-since most of the markets were really active at night, decided to go to chinatown because i had read that there was vinyl there. Chinatown is a massive sprawl of alleys crowded with vendors selling an array of wares, mainly food products and chinese imports. 

-didn't know at the time that there is one street in Chinatown that used to be the center of  the Thai record industry, the only place to find records in Chinatown is from the Chinese families selling the backstock. Now i have it marked on my map, so when i return to Bangkok...

-didn't buy much besides some snacks at the chinese market, but enjoyed walking around. 

-accidentally got on the boat going the wrong direction and wound up at Khao San road, which is the bangkok backpacker district. I was immediately uncomfortable there, and left after walking around for an hour (i wanted to at least see the place), despite plans to eat lunch there.

-Took the boat and skytrain back to the hostel, visited the record store, hung out for a bit. 

-Met a friend at the guest house and went to this strange hipster market in a parking on the outskirts of BKK. arrived after an interesting experience with a cabby who had picked us up despite not understanding at all where we intended to go, but took half off the final meter. 

-Interesting collection of stuff. Lots of vintage clothing, old Vespa parts (old Vespas are huge in BKK), American movie posters, and action figures. Bought a watch from a guy who makes new bands out of leather for old watch faces. 

-Read on the roof a bit before bed. 

10/23/2011

-Woke up fairly early and headed to Chatuchak Market.

-Spent a while outside recording a Phin player and his son. Wandered around the market for a long time, Awesome array of vintage goods, pets, new clothing, military surplus, home goods, anything you could think of they'd probably have, asked a couple of people with antiques about records to no avail, with the exception of two small collections of american classic rock. Picked up an awesome pair of sunglasses from the 60s, some gifts for friends in Nong Khai, including an awesome vintage shirt from the states for the "charlie manson fan club." Two crazy psychedelic shirts from japan for myself.

-visited the record store on my way back, listened to some old Morlam records, Nat gave me two for free.

-had an early dinner of roast duck and rice, read on the roof before bed. 

10/24/2011

-Had a leisurely tea, travelled with a friend who'd been stranded in the guest house for 7 months, to go visit the Bangkok forensics museum. Which happens to be in the same hospital where the King of Thailand is currently undergoing care. The forensics hospital is apparently one of the largest collections of medical oddities in jars outside of Vienna.

-unfortunately, the regular boat shuttles weren't running, due to flooding, so we had to hire a longtail boat, because the hospital is across the river. 100 baht and a noisy wet boat ride later we arrived at the hospital. 

-spent a while wandering through the labyrinthine hospital complex, til we found the museum, only to be told it was closed due to the national holiday for Rama IV. 

-disappointed we wandered the backstreets, til we stumbled on a temple along the water, and vendors selling assorted food for birds and the river catfish. 

-bought some food, and fed the prehistoric looking catfish, while fighting to keep the pigeons from swarming our bag of food. 

-attempted to get a boat back to the skytrain. The only available boat was a ferry that just went to the other side and back. so we hopped to the other side figuring it'd be easier to catch a boat from there. 

-walked away after being quoted 600 baht for the return trip. walked through a massive park and through an ancient temple, stumbled on some junk vendors, lots of tapes but no vinyl. 

-while we were on a broad avenue, the police made everyone on the street stand still for a caravan, of top of the line Mercedes with a police escort driving BMWs. traffic on the road was cleared and no pedestrians were allowed to move til well after the caravan had passed. I assume it was royal family members from the stickers on the sides of the Mercs. 

-caught a bus back to the guest house, took about 45 minutes, but only cost 30 cents. 

-was lucky enough to catch a friend of a friend who works for the Bangkok Post for dinner. Great to meet him, had interesting conversation about Taos NM and the expat life in BKK. 

-roof reading pre bed. 

10/24/2011

-woke up early and went to the train station to make sure trains were still running, purchased my ticket. 

-chilled at the guest house for a while, my train didn't leave til 8PM, played some cards and did internet stuff. 

-went to the record store, gifted my tiger t-shirt to Nat, helped move records upstairs in case of flooding, chilled out in the back room listened to some great records. 

-headed to the train station around 7, forgot about rush hour, got to the train with about five minutes to spare, but luckly the train was an hour late in leaving. 

-I was sharing a bunk with a very interesting Japanese business man who had worked all over the world and hated Bangkok, fun talking to him though.

-While i was outside the train with the japanese dude smoking cigarettes, the train started to pull away and me and the japanese man both had to jump onboard as it rolled out of the station. 

-talked with the Japanese man, a Canadian girl and some Frenchies who were bunked nearby til it was time for bed. 

-I took the top bunk because it was cheaper, which was a mistake, i was right by the ceiling light, so it was bright as day all night, also the top bunk is windowless.

Long overdue update.

Broke my metatarsal in Nong Khai, two days before i planned to leave. After a thrilling visit to the local hospital, and two nights there, where i was misdiagnosed as having a hemotoma. Spent a terrible month in bed,  read a book a day. Very blessed to have many friends in Nong Khai who would bring me food and company. Especially Sam. Eventually went to an orthopedist who correctly told me my foot was broken before even doing an x-ray. He put me in a cast finally, but i was looking at 3 months of healing and didn't want to spend it stuck in bed in Thailand, relying on others for everything. So I made the decision to return to the states. After 56 hours of travel, found myself back in New Mexico. Another blessing, to be able to return to such a peaceful and relaxing space. Visited a doctor there who took off my cast and put me in a walking boot, finally no more wooden crutches! Relaxed in NM, made some art, learned to wire LEDs, and did many radio shows on KTAO. After two months, i was allowed out of my boot, and flew to New York, where i spent a wonderful 20 days, seeing old freinds, live music and eating tasty food (cheese!). On the 17th boarded a plane to Bangkok via Hong Kong, after 16 hours, many movies and a little bit of vomit, arrived in Hong Kong, had a short layover to wander the international terminal, before a short flight dropped me in Bangkok. Rode the Sky Train from the airport to the hostel i had reserved, had some grub and passed out.


10/19/11

-woke up, did some research to find the best market for vintage clothing in Bangkok, while i drank my morning tea, had to take the BTS (the sky train) to a river ferry, take the ferry far down and to the other side of the river.

-the ferry was especially interesting due to the flooding in Bangkok right now, the river was swolen over its banks flowing into buildings, although most spots were effectively sandbagged. Saw many of the historic buildings of bangkok from the river.

-Getting off the ferry to head to the market was a different story however, as the river had moved in at least 2-3 city blocks over the banks. stepped off the floating dock into about six inches of murky river water, on what should have been dry land. Took off my shoes and waded to dry land.

-The first two rows of the market had between two to six inches of standing water, but all the stalls were still open. Wandered around the market for a while, avoiding the flooded bits as much as possible. Bought two shirts, one new t-shirt, a delicious pineapple, a bizzarely cut bright orange/blue/black/white plaid shirt with snaps, some sunglasses and a needle and thread. spent less then $15 on all of it.

-wandered around the area surrounding the market a bit. Then returned to the ferry landing, after a stop at 7/11 for some condensed milk sweetened soy milk.

-the returning ferry was further down the landing only accessible via a flooded hallway, despite sand bags stacked everywhere. took off the shoes again, waded to the ticket stand, bought a ticket from a lady sitting in calf deep water. dried my feet in the sun and waited for the ferry.

-on my way back, stopped at Siam Center, a dizzying, massive, collection of mega-malls surrounded by market style (small stalls cramped walkways) clothing boutiques.

-wandered around for quite a while though  multiple 9 story mega-malls featuring largely American and Japanese brands. Barely a word of Thai to be seen. Starbucks KFC Mcdonalds Everywhere (gotta love the Thai Ronald Mcdonald). Truly a surreal experience all around. "Malls of the Future." Bought a new copy of Marget Atwoods newest book Year of the Flood

-The best part was an elderly Thai violinist plying his trade through a beat up portable amplifier busking for cash. Sounded like something you'd hear out of a noise band in Brooklyn. Asked if i could record, got a nice recording (up on the Earsphere!) left a good deal of cash in his case.

-After treking around the Asian consumer wasteland, returned to the Hostel. Went to grab some eats from the street vendors who ply their trade on the same road as the hostel (I've read its one of the best street food spots in Bangkok).

-chilled out on the roof, did some reading, went to my room to charge the computer and try to get my recording on Soundcloud. While waiting for the upload to complete, fell asleep in my clothes. barely managed to clear all the stuff off my bed before falling into a deep sleep before nine. I've never been so tired.

10/20/2011
-woke up around ten, feeling very rested. researched shops in the area that carried vinyl records and ran all over town looking at records. Most of the Vinyl specialty shops had american and japanese represses/originals of classic rock and jazz at rediculous prices ($100 for Blue Note 180 gram repress)
-the first two store were in this strange mall called fortune tower, half the stalls were empty, and the building appeared to be falling down, all the wiring and ductwork was exposed in the ceiling, and although the mall was 7 stories, each floor contained maybe six stores, the rest was inclosed with plywood promising stores to come.
-Purchased a mini flexi tripod for my recorder but no records there.
-The next store "Record Hunter" was in the basement of a massive movie theater/mall complex near the Victory Monument. The owner was awesome, an avid record collector himself who loved metal music. The store was stocked with American and European Death/Black/Hair Metal, in addition to thrash and hardcore (an original press of Death in Bangkok, who would have thought). After a lot of digging and listening, picked up an awesome Morlam full length Mono from the sixties. Pre-electric, so just beautiful vocals and Kan (the reed pipe), and a seven inch of 80s thai hair metal. The A-side is really derivitive, but the b-side is rocking and fresh.
-After an Unsuccessful attempt to find "Jazzbah" records in the packed Siam Center shopping complex (it was supposedly upstairs above a womenswear shop). Headed back to the neighborhood i'm staying in to visit a shop owned by a British-Thai DJ partnership, focused on mixing classic Morlam and Luk-Thung with reggae and funk from all over the world. Also the duo responsible for the Soundways records comp, The Sound of Siam, and the Finders Keepers Comp."Thai? Dai! The Heavier Side of Luk-Thung Underground."  "Zud Rang Records" has an overwhelming collection of rare 60s-80s Thai music, very well catagorized and organized. The proprietor had an incredible depth of knowledge not only of old Thai music, but of all sorts of music (he was wearing a Cedric Im Brooks "Light of Saba" shirt, and agreed, best reggae record ever). spent two hours in there, talking music, and listening to his private stash of super rare Morlam 7 inches, for example heard one amazingly heavy rocking track that was one of only two known copies of an artist release of about 300. They're working on repressing that particular 7, they cannot find any information about who the original artist was, not listed anywhere. Unfortunately, if i bought many record there i'd quickly go broke, understandably there is an international collectors market for this stuff now, and people pay top dollar so as to not have to dig through grungy crates at markets. Fortunately for me i love digging through grungy crates at markets, and the owner told me anything i found at a market, to bring to him and he'd help me translate and figure out what it is. In addition he taught me how to ask for old vinyl in Thai, which is massively helpful.
-Tired out, so read for a bit on the guest house roof before grabbing some dinner from a street stall pork and shrimp fried dumplings. hit the hay early.
 

Lao -> Thailand (the abridged version)

Since I've fallen so far behind, and have been relatively stationary the last two months, I will do a gloss of the last two months, so i can be caught up when i hit the road again in a few days.
-Took a bus from Luang Probang to Vientiane on the 17th reasonably uneventful ride, sat next to a University student studying English business in Vientiane, had some interesting conversation, but interestingly he didn't really warm up to me until the bus passed Vang Vieng, and he asked me if i had been, to which i said no: "if i wanted to be a drunken asshole floating down a river, i would have stayed at home." After that, the conversation really flowed, once he realized i was not one of the swarm of disrespectful westerners that descend on the country every year.
-arriving in Vientiane around 11 at night, i was worried I'd have trouble finding a guest house. Wound up sharing a double room with a girl from Belgium, who had come in on the same bus as me.
-the next day met a great Japanese dude, named Toshi. hung out with him for the next couple of days.
-Ran some errands, bought three cartons of Cigarettes,  because they're much cheaper in lao, i could get a carton for half the cost of a Thai pack.
-we all were there to sort out thai visas, so we shared a tuk tuk down to the thai immigration office. we got there around 8:30, there was already a large line of people ahead of us, I think i was number 128 in the queue to hand in my passport and paperwork. after you hand in yr paperwork and stuff, you have to go to another window to pay for your visa, they only took Baht, so i had to run across the street, find an illegal money changer and negotiate the rate, i wound up getting 1000 Baht for $40 about $7 more then its worth, but i had no choice.
-had to wait until two the next day to pick up my passport and visa.
-the next day, picked up the visa, went to the guest house, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the public bus station, where there was a bus that would take me to Nong Khai for 10,000 Kip ($1.20) unfortunately the 3:30 bus which i had planned to take was already sold out, so i had to wait three hours for the next one. i had already changed most of my money to baht, so didn't really have any way to kill time, plus i was lugging my stuff around. bought a huge baguette for 5,000 kip and my last beer lao. Shrugged off the tons of dudes offering to drive me to the border in their trucks for exorbitant rates.
-On the bus, sat with the coach of the Lao national running team, they were headed to Bangkok for a competition.
-Also on the bus, the only other Falongs, was a French Canadian couple, the first dude i've met with a beard bigger then mine.
-at the border, was charged by the Lao gov't 9,000 kip for overtime, because we came across so late, luckly i had exactly 9000 kip left. also had to put my bags through an x-ray next to an intimidating sign about the death penalty for drugs... oddly though, when i picked up my bag from the fancy one way glass walled enclosure, i noticed there was no one actually watching the bags going through the x-ray, but two cops making sure you put yr bag through it. The good ol' empty tower.
-teamed up with the canadians to find a guest house, he had a good map, and we decided rather then shelling out for a tuk tuk we could walk and find a suitable guest house.
-after an hour of walking wound up finding a pretty shitty but cheap place on the Mekong river.
-got some dinner on the river.
-the next day i went for a stroll, wound up finding a great Morlam record stand, spent a lot of time there, listening to music and talking sans mutual language with the guy that ran the stand.
-the day after that went for a stroll through the market and along the river, noticed a man with a Phin on his back playing Guitar to some of the workers for the Vietnamese restaurant/ chopstick factory. Ran back to my guest house and grabbed the recorder, spent an hour recording Mr. Samak Sewarak (recordings on Earsphere) bought him a beer and gave him some cash, had a great time. saw him riding around town yesterday actually, got a big smile and a thumbs up.
-That night was coming back after scrounging up some dinner, there were a bunch of Thai skateboarders skating and drinking by my guesthouse.
-one of them said hi as i passed so i stopped and chatted for a while, wound up spending most of the night drinking and chilling with them.
-went to the market to negotiate with this guy who had a big stack of Morlam 45s and had refused to come down in price the previous day. he wanted 200 B per record (roughly $7 for 7 inches which i was unsure of the content, he insisted it was old morlam) wound up spending two hours going through all the record and pulling out the one in the best shape, if i was going to throw down i might as well get the cleanest ones, wound up convincing him, after he made a phone call, to sell me 10 for 1,500 B, so $5 a record. 
-hung with the skater kids again that evening.
-the next day, chilled with them again, figuring that i'd leave Nong Khai the next day. this time they had brought down some speakers, and i provided some music while they skated. one of the skaters, who had not been there the previous day, Ali, was hanging out with his girlfriend and offered to give me a ride to their bar, 60 Station. i said sure, and went back to the bar with them, where i met David, a Swedish wack job who had been staying with them for a while already, and Tom, a super chill Thai kid around my age covered in tattoos.
-I immediately took to Tom, Ali and Breeze (Ali's girlfreind), so when they  offered to let me stay there in the room upstairs for free i jumped at the opportunity, and the next morning moved out of my guesthouse and schlepped my shit down to their bar.
-stayed at the bar until the beginning of may, helped out around the bar, painted a mural on the back wall, did some decoration and painted the sign outside.
-Had a great time staying at the bar, we cooked food together most nights, or Breeze went and picked up food, or occasionally when Breeze wasn't around Ali's wife would bring food over.
-Spent a lot of time chilling at the bar, meeting the various people who came through. also did some trips with the kids from the bar, we went to the buddha park (pictures forthcoming) and drove down to Udon, Went on some fishing trips, etc.
-While i was staying at the bar, one of the regulars came by with a guy i hadn't met before, but who worked for the middle school in town, he said they desperately needed a science teacher and asked if i would be capable to do so. i said i probably would be but would have to think about whether or not i wanted to do that, not being one to jump into things, esp. long term commitments.
-After a day of thinking about it i decided i might as well go interview. called peter and set it up
-got my resume together, and headed down to the school the next day.
-it was a confusing interview, with out much mutual comprehension, but they gave me the job.
-i went into the school a quite a few times before classes started for meetings or to get information on the curriculum i was supposed to be teaching, but everytime i went in, I sat around for a few hours and nothing happened.
-in the meantime, waiting for school to start, i went out and bought a bicycle, and went searching for a place to rent.
-I wanted my own place certainly if i intended to stay, but also i was becoming embroiled in drama at sixty station, I tried my hardest not to get involved, knowing how these things work in small towns, but by proximity alone i found myself playing a roll i didn't want to play.
-Moved into the house on the tenth,  had a small gathering of freinds over, drank a bottle of "Obama" whiskey, and pretty quickly, upset the landlady,  a pretty uptight woman from the states, making too much noise too late.
-The house is a old wooden two bedroom on stilts, with high ceilings, a big bathroom, skylights, and surrounded by a quiet and beautiful garden. I'm sharing it with an American kid a little younger then me, who's been living here for a while, Sam.
-spent the next couple of days getting stuff for the house and finding clothes for work. Bought a pair of dress pants for $7 at Tesco, and found some nice shirts at the sunday second hand market for a dollar a pop.
-The Twelth was my birthday, and also supposedly the day we'd actually have the long promised meeting at the school. went to the school around 2 sat around for a while, no one else was there, so i left. Went back to the house, to meet up with Breeze, to buy party supplies and set up at Sixty station, but it started to rain really hard, and there was drama between breeze and ali, so Breeze, Sam and I chilled at the house for a couple hours til the rain slowed a bit and we went to the store.
-A bunch of people were supposed to come by Sixty and we intended to have the party there, but no one came out because of the rain. so we wound up going to the strip of girly bars where everyone hangs out, once the rain had stopped, there i met up with all pretty much all of the people i know here, and proceeded to get mao mak (thai for very drunk). at one point i punched Sam in the side of the head, and he socked me in the face, partially breaking my nose. Also among the events of the evening Breeze kissed Sam, to get back at Ali for something that happened the previous night.  two bottles of whiskey and an uncountable number of free beers later i headed home, and slept like a rock.
more soon.

Last days of Pi Mai

4/15/2011
-woke up early, had to move to a different, more expensive, shittier guest house. waited for two hours for the korean girls staying there to leave and let them turn the room. all the while the entire staff of the guest house sat outside drinking.
-after i settled into my new room, almost made it to my crepe spot without getting wet, lots of strategic street crossings... but wound up getting outflanked and completely soaked by a large group of kids about 15 feet away from the crepe stand. soaked again after eating. 
-beer and friends were setting up when i got back, hung out on the street with them for a while throwing water and folks, went for a  wander to see what was happening around town, assuming the second day would be more wild then the first, i was not dissappointed, by the time i got back though, soaked to the bone, my everybody had gone to the waterfall, so i decided a solo venture was in order.
-went back out into the street, bought a two beers, stopped in the police station when i saw they were all gathered there drinking, gave them one of my beers and did a hearty cheers. before heading back out onto the street, to get my face covered in black cooking grease, orange and blue paint, and my beard filled with so much rice flower it was completely white, not to mention getting my body completely soaked. ran into my friends from the 13th they were outside their store, armed with blackened cooking pots and a large basin full of water. There was a constant stream of pick up trucks full of drunken soaked kids, coming by where we were standing.
-in order to really get people good in the trucks one has to jump on the back before dumping yr bucket or smearing black grease on somebody, in the process of leaping on and off the back of the slow moving trucks i tore the sole completely off of my shoe
-when the traffic started to slow around 5 made my way home partially barefoot. got lots of smiles from everybody around
-showered, put on dry clothes, and met up with colin and clay for another night market dinner.
-went to bed early

not a real post.

sorry kids for the lack of posts, been in Nong Khai, Thailand sans internet for the last couple of weeks, lived for free above a bar for a while and got a job teaching science, will be here for the next couple of months, updates to come when i get internets in my new house. until then go read a book.

Luang Probang and Pi Mai

4/13/2011
-Woke up, ate a crepe, standard routine...
-Hung out with Colin, Clay, and Beer at the guest house.
-walked around a bit, Pi Mai was starting up, already people were outside of their houses blasting music, drinking, and throwing wat
had some squirtgun fights with some kids, and lots of lao girls and girly boys dumped water on me.
-Grabbed dinner at the night market and ate at the guest house, half a roasted chicken and sticky rice, also home made potato chips.
-Headed out with Beer and his friends, colin and clay stayed at home, first to a freind's birthday party, where there was cake and Kareoke, we went out to Star Bar, i was the only Falong in the place, had a few beers, some dancing. the interior of the bar was all back and covvered with elaborate styrofoam carvings painted in flourescent colors and under black light.
-when we arrived there was a live band, which was pretty good, and then a DJ, Beer dragged me on stage to DJ, but i didn't know the  most of the music they had, and what i did know was the worst of American pop. So we agreed that i'd come back the next night with my hard drive.
Rode back to the guest house and to bed. Had a different room this time, much cheaper, but still very nice, one of the best i've had.
4/14/2011
-the first official day of Pi Mai, Beer and his friends were doing tatoos with henna hair dye, and i did a big sharpie sleeve of paternwork on one kid, turned out good.
-then we set up on the main street to wait for the parade, Beer set up big speakers and i DJed on the street for maybe 3 hours, while there was a waterfight all around me.
-The parade was cool, lots of elephants going to the main monastary in town and drummers playing in front, recordings on Earsphere today 
-Then to a sand bank in the Mekong where they had erected a small tent city the past three days. there were three stages with music surrounded by vendors selling food and beer lao, all along the banks of the sandbar the Lao people were building big mounds of sand, decorated with flowers and covered in Flour. The sand bar was full of people, on either side of the tents was a crush of people flowing both directions, everyone throwing flour and river water at everyone they passed. Beer had an old pump action water sprayer, which had some serious power, all the people sitting and eating that we passed he soaked, it was pretty funny.Also Beer had a military canteen full of lao lao and a hollow horn, he kept feeding everybody lao lao all day.
-Colin bought a case of beer lao, because there were no cups, we filled a bucket with ice and beer and passed it around. some how i wound up with a rediculous hat, and we went dancing to the Keyboard Kareoke set up, i traded my hat with people maybe three times. a lot of fun being in a big crush of people all dancing their asses off sharing a big bucket of beer. after a while dancing we went to catch a boat back, but wound up spending maybe 20 minutes dunking one another in the Mekong.
-walked around for a bit, had some more waterfights, then went to bathe in the mekong because there was no more water in the tap.
-mellowed out at the guesthouse, ate some dinner, went to bed early, drinking all day.

Luang Probang Pi Mai

4/11/2011
-slept in in my huge fancy bed and took a shower that was both hot and cold, crazy.
-Although Pi Mai (Lunar New Year) wasn't supposed to start for four more days, got sprayed with water on my way to the crepe spot for breakfast.
-chilled out with colin and clay at the guest house, and walked around for a bit.
-worked on my playlist for Utopia
-Beer (Bia) the guest house owner's son was trying to figure out a DJ program he had just installed, i helped him play with it for a bit and he gave it to me on a flash drive so i could put it on my computer.
-ate dinner riverside again, then headed to Utopia to see about DJing there
-went to bed early.
4/12/2011
-spent most of the day working on the playlist and figuring out the DJ software, after morning crepes.
-dumped some music onto Beer's hard drive
-went with clay and colin to eat some Lao Barbecue, were joined by a strange french programmer, then we all went down to Utopia, where i was supposed to DJ.
-when we arrived,  Rob said he had found two acoustic guitarists who were scheduled to play, so i wouldn't be DJing.
-Beer showed up with some freinds, told him the story and he suggested we go to this other, local bar. Which was great, better then DJing, we bought a case of beer Lao, and these two ladies stood around in bright yellow skirt suits refilling our glass everytime we finished (the standard beer glass is very small, and they drink it with ice, so this was a neverending job).
-the bar was centered around eight Petanque (french Bocce ball) courts, so after a few beers we rented a court and played an intense game of petanque, it was Beer's younger brother, the french guy and me, vs. three of Beer's freinds. needless to say, we lost.
-took a tuk tuk back to the guest house. the whole time Beer and his freinds followed very close on their motorbikes, Colin successfully tossed a lighter from the back of the Tuk Tuk right into the basket on Beer's bike, they were that close.