2:42 p.m. - 2003-12-10
Utopai
Been spending way too much time with James. We're getting annoyed with each other, rather it's more me who is getting annoyed with him. I'm just annoying him by constantly hassling him for Spanish lessons. He is a good teacher though, I lucked out there.
We went to Burma yesterday to renew our Visas. Had to get up at 4am and sit in the minibus for 6 hours driving through the mountains on treacherously winding roads. James told me that when he was in Thailand last year, 200 people died in total on the road going from Bangkok to Chiang Mai during the holiday rush. There were a few dodgy overtakings that I didn't like. We spent 45 minutes in Myanmar and had just enough time to eat and buy some bootlegged CDs, even cheaper than on Khao San road. 80 baht and much better copies too. You couldn't tell the difference between fake and real.
I have decided to skip India this trip and do Laos instead. India is hard work to do at the end of a years travel. I need to devote a few months there just to get used to it. 6 weeks would be 6 weeks of gropings, delhi belly and stress I imagine. James is coming with me to Laos. I hope he stops being annoying. He isn't doing anything wrong. He just likes me too much and I'm a fickle bitch, I need my independence and space. He calls me sweetie which I hate so I told him to call me by my name. He does lay it on a bit thick, and afterall, I just want to have fun. He is talking about having me stay with him in Pensecola, Florida and going on cruises and road trips to New Orleans and shit. All paid for by him! Crazy. The most worrying thing is that at breakfast the other day he was talking about us buying land in Pai and living here, and then I swear he said in a roundabout way, that if I ever wanted kids then he could get his 350 baht vasectomy reversed (he had it done in Chiang Mai a few years ago). I didn't spray my mouthful of coconut shake all over the place in horror as I imagine I would have, but looking back on it, I don't think I allowed that mad declaration of his love/obsession to compute. I think I just nodded in vague agreement. After breakfast we went up to see some posh guesthouses in the hills, that James wanted us to move to. They were really nice but it was then that I realised I had really gone off him (also what he had said at breakfast was sinking in - with a tinge of horror). There were not many other guests at these places, and although James relished the thought of romantic nights with me alone on the balcony, I couldn't think of anything less appealing. I kept saying "But there's no one here and we're so far from town. I want to be near everyone else." So we stayed at Golden Huts, I dread to think what would have happened to me if I'd agreed to be dragged off into the hills.
Anyway, whatever happens I am going to live in Pai for part of the year and paint. There are some really cool people that have settled here. I love the community spirit. 50 Satang is the coolest bar I've ever been to. It was the first bar in Pai, 17 years ago. The guy who runs it is called Pong and he really makes you feel like an old friend. His father was the local doctor who prescribed herbal remedies before there was a hospital here. So all his whiskys are herbal and very cheap too, only 10 baht a glass. He does play the same music every night though.David Bowie, The Doors and CCR! This is the place I've been looking for. It is Utopia. Quiet, simple and it feels like a different time, not just a different place. I found a fantastic website on Pai, with piccies. It is exactly as described! http://www.lurkertech.com/chris/travel/pai/ http://www.hobotraveler.com/097paithailand.shtml
