I decided to tape our friend Arkom because I just knew he was going to give me a good story. This was from a couple of nights ago around midnight. The background to the story is that Arkom, for all intents and purposes, has a 5 year old daughter named Geena and a wife named Sai. We were having a typical discussion about life and here Arkom is telling a story about a typical saturday afternooon at home. What’s great about this story is that it begins with 500 baht and ends with 500 baht. 500 thai baht is $14.95US. It’s the middle of the month, there are 3 mouths to feed and Geena wants to go to 7/11. And who can blame her? And to sum the story up, it’s cheaper to send Geena to summer school than it is to deal with 7/11 and the ice cream man. Sorry for my swearing.

Now, you know… I spare the food in the refrigerator, almost finish now. Have to spare the last time again. Have only 500 baht left. And Geena “I wanna go to Seven, Seven, Seven, 7/11″. Noooo. “I just want to buy some candy, not toy”. Geena, I tell you now, we don’t have any money for toy, for candy, only food. Only. You understand? I tell her. “Yes but, I want to go Seven.” You want to looking Seven? 7/11? You want something, you want something there? You want to, only looking ok, I take you go. “I want some only candy.” She don’t understand. She don’t understand her mother don’t have any money. But when ice cream coming, she run to me. (hum, damn fucking ice cream cart, ya know? Right? Does it come past the house?) Yeah. (Ice cream cart, will you get the fuck…. (Unintelligible. Laughter.) And this evening, roti. (Wait, what is it? Wahl’s?) Wahl. (Wahl?) They have like a sound doo-doo-doo. (Does he say something?) Yes. (What’s he say? He says it in Thai, what’s he say?) Hey say, uh, ‘Ice cream pormae (mother and father), Wahl coming or something’ (laughter, Wahl coming). And then, then the kids running (yeah, of course) and then Geena, running to me, “I want to buy”. If… I can’t say no because, the kids go around the ice cream and then Geena… if… she upset… I have to give her. (How much?) 20 baht. (Shew, Lorraine only spends 9 baht at the Dairy Queen). But, they come, you know, every 3 hours and different brands. (Oh good lord, ya know when you hear it coming, close the door. You should tell them like, listen, don’t come around). No, now I realize about teacher said, uh, you want, you want Geena coming to school for summer? 500 baht. Now I agree with her, I agree with teacher. (Yeah, 500 baht, cheap).

And… a picture of the bar food from the other night:

Some better video from takraw tonight.

Sepak Takraw, Bang Lamung, Thailand

Here is a nice shot from the other night at takraw. These guys were pretty dream team. But, I was pretty much the best white guy out there.

It’s a complete toss up, this Miike Snow album or Phoenix’s ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix‘. I could ride out 2009 on these 2 albums alone. If Velveteen put out a new album right now, my head would explode.

And I leave you with nice picture of food taken by Lorraine. We tried to take the motobike over to Koh Larn which is a small island just off the gulf. We were denied for the noon ferry. As we were about to leave the pier we were treated to a nice moto-on-moto crash. I looked away at the last second but, Lorraine had to see how it ended. Jeb! Meh, we wound up at Jomtien Beach.

Food vendor on Jomtien

No, not New Orleans, not a blizzard in the city of Buffalo and we haven’t walked into Iran yet. What’s become of the Land of Smiles? Staged violence (?), Suvarnabhumi is closed and no one can tell who is to be trusted. Democracy is an idea that is sure hard to grasp here and the kids don’t get it. The King will solve the problem, at least temporary. However, if and when the Prime Minister resigns, it will be as the Thais say,”same, same”.

Otherwise, we had a nice batch of thunderstorms for a good hour this morning which has given way to a beautiful burst of sunshine. SOE or not, they’re still building and building over here in Chon Buri.

I was invited tonight to play the “local sport” known as takraw. As soon as I was explained what the game was, I knew I had seen it before. Since I spent time in hippydom, I knew I was made for this sport. If you are unfamiliar with this game, this clip from YouTube might refresh your memory.

We drove about 5 minutes from my house to a back street where it opened up to the “local stadium”. This local stadium consisted of a small clearing amidst the palms where a net was strung between 2 poles cemented in 2 old tires in which a volleyball net was strung across. We had green tea made from rice and practiced as the locals showed up slowly as their work day ended. We practiced for a few minutes with a break or two to correct the net poles. Within a half hour we had enough guys to begin playing actual games. It’s 3-on-3 and I believe there were 9 of us in total to rotate in and out.

This was easily one of the greatest sporting experiences I’ve had. I think the locals got a kick out of seeing a farang practicing as they showed up. I think I did pretty good for my first time out. I’ve always enjoyed playing hackey-sack so this wasn’t too far of a stretch for me. Everyone was very supportive and when I made a good volley or return, I’d hear them laugh chatter to eachother with the word “farang” being thrown in between. I was beaming with the feeling of acceptance and the local comraderie. This was everything I hoped I’d be thrown into when we signed up for this new world.

In searching out more info and tips I came across this awesome piece from the Onion, enjoy!