thailand. take two.

december 24th. left the foreigner-girlie-bar-beach-jungle of Patong Beach, Phuket and headed for Khao Sok National Park. Very nearly running out of money (I had exchanged about 65,000Yen and was down to the last bit of it), I started getting smart about transportation and bungalows. Taking local whenever possible and haggling the bungalows. I made it to the jungle and found some bungalows and haggled them down to 100Baht a night (about $2.50/300Yen). Very sweet.

december 25th. jungle. went on a lake tour which included taking a long tail boat across this ginormous and beautiful lake (serves as a watershed for south thailand) and caving. god i love caves. met a cool guy from Alaska, Mark. we had good rapport throughout trekking about the woods.

december 26th. jungle. rode an elephant and met a very talkative guy from Singapore. his name eludes me. two syllables. Zhi Hou? Anyhoo, he was fun. went on a date with a jungle man who had started crushing on me the 24th and i liked him too. Ja, his name. he was sweet and oddly nervous about time "What time are you going to the bar? What time do you want to meet your friend?" where most Thais in the jungle couldn't even keep track of what day it was. Ja took me to listen to him and his band play. he was the drummer.

as an aside, I think i should add, i was wildly popular in the jungle. I had at least five guys interested in me. I could have had my pick of any one of them to sleep with. It was amazing. Thai people think I'm hot. It's kind of funny.

december 27th. i go to the small tattoo hut to get my tattoo. i had an appointment for the 27th because tattoo dude said that he was going on the jungle tour on the 26th and wouldn't be around. i go to hut only to find that he's preparing to LEAVE for jungle tour. "Uh. Tattoo?" I inquire. he slaps his palm to his forehead. convinces me to come with him and two tourists on the jungle tour (overnight) and that he'd do my tattoo the next day. swear. these jungle men. smoke too many joints.

i let myself get talked into the tour even though i shouldn't have because it cost 2,000Baht that I didn't really have. went jungle touring which was awesome. walked through jungle, scaled rock walls, swam in waterfall pools, looked at freaking AMAZING waterfalls, camped at the top of the waterfall. ate food cooked in bamboo and ate off bamboo plates. slept in hammocks. froze my ass off. even though Ja had helped me pack and knowing that i got cold at night, insisted that i take two blankets. i think i needed about four. and socks probably would have helped.

december 28th. come back from the wilds of the jungle. got tattoo (ankle. thai style using two needles tied to an end of a bamboo). go to a wedding reception with Ja. it was awesome-- girls in lame in a big stage in front, huge (and I mean HUGE tent) with dozens of tables under it filled with people pigging out. there's no way the couple knew all those people. but i guess the more people come, the more popular you look.

later that evening . . .have a fight with Ja in the bar in front of the guys i was playing cards with. he had gotten totally wasted and got into a motorcycle accident. scraped his arm and got himself a limp. i wasn't happy that he hurt himself. and he was drunkenly making a fool of himself trying to get my attention by playing with the fire throwers and nearly setting himself on fire. didn't need the unnecessary drama. decided it was time to leave the jungle.

december 29th. head for beach with Mark, the dude i had the good rapport with from the lake tour.

>>>> tired of typing. more later<<<<<