random jumble of observations

Arrived today in Bangkok at 5.30 (on the plus side, hardly any pestering Tuk-tuks, even on Khao San), and checked in at the guesthouse from last time whose host is sort of a grown-up ladyboy: even though he is correctly dressed in black, he gives off the impression of constantly waving a feathery boa or a tiara... but his English is swell and he writes down instructions in Thai for safety. His name is Pan. How cool is that - second only to the Burma boy in Ko Tao whose name is "Mojo", and I seriously consider naming my first-born thus (dibs!).

Anyway, here are some random observations

All you can eat: Bht 268 for Ladies, Bht 278 for ladyboys and Bht 298 for Men

every thai cafe ONLY AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION plays sugary thai pop. oh, and here's the current "hymn," the one thai song (reggae) that is either ok-bordering-on-good or one has heard it so often that the soul just gives in... kinda like with fashion sometimes. anyway, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAdZzr0ysxg
(title, as far as I can see: job 2 do doo doo doo.. I think actually that pretty much sums it up...)

Things I'm looking forward to : less noise, especially sugary Thai pop, less stink, even in supermarkets; more f-ing VARIETY in supermarkets, damn 7/11! This feels like back in Eastern Europe (says the old lady)! I want rows and rows of cereals and yoghurt and CHEESE for god's sake, and BREAD, not sugary white rolls, not brown-colored sugary white rolls; they have sugar on the table instead of salt and pepper, doesn't that tell you something?
I want to be understood with more subtle wishes or questions; I want showers and WCs where you can hang stuff - seriously, how do Thais do it? is this only for us Falangs?
I'm looking forward to walking down the street without being stared at, without the constant semi-harrassing calls, Hey you, Miss / Lady, ho! hallo!

backpackers who can speak thai are blond, lean, tanned, and never smile back at me.

Having mostly meet party travellers or India-Zen-style people who didn't give a rat's fart for politics, I had been afraid they wouldn't show the electoral results - but yes, they did! OBAMA BABY! I had goosebumps and was reaalz happy! I had thought they would pull something, somebody would pull something... otherwise I'm starving for news. the bangkok post is not really exactly thorough. But I guess I'd notice if there was a bomb or something...

Thai subtitles are a dish, seriously. Things like "we need being to get it"are of the more harmless nonsense sentences, more disturbing is when Morgan Freeman, in The Dark Knight (OMG!) qualifies something as "unethical and dangerous" and the pothead who guessed the subtitles translates this as "Africa dangerous"... more examples would abound, but then I was watching the movie - again, OMG?!! and I had missed the beginning...

a note on bowel movements and their relation to a traveller's mood. Those precious, longed for signs typically come when you are at the least inviting toilet imaginable. Probably some test on how much you really want it.. And we all want it. The good kind, the proper kind.The happy or grumpy looks on fellow travellers often have less to do with getting some,I am sure, than with "leaving some" or whatever would be an appropriate slang term. As the slow Boat Brit put it, after a bout of traveller's affliction: Have you 'passed a solid one' yet? Best feeling in the world...

Cute: On the map given out by the gueshouse in Trat, there were listed under "Daily needs" both a "herbal sauna" and "lawyer"(this one's for you darling :)you are a daily need!)

unholy: In laos, they gave out papers with the correct bus prices, an explanation for them and the comment:"your book is wrong" on the prices because of inflation and rise in gasoline prices...