hey there,
well, we're in bangkok now, suffering the hordes of euro-hippies, armed with day-old dreadlock hair extensions, and a seemingly bottomless quiver of stupid "whoa-dude, check out your tats" comments. Everyone feels the need to tell me that i have a lot of tattoos, as if their presence could somehow have escaped my attention prior to their un-solicited expose. Singapore was good. work there was bountiful, and my skills were well-recieved. Everyone there was pretty blown away by my fancy american colors. it felt a bit like i was an american pioneer demonstrating to a bunch of indians the power of my mighty "boom-stick". "that's right, ladies and gentlemen, come out of the darkness, and step into a world where i can turn your tanned, asian skin into a veritable rainbow of colors! ...for a nominal fee of course." i felt like a cross between a rock-star and a witch-doctor. the chinese lunar-new-year was the 25th, after which pretty much everything is closed for a few days. anna arrived on the 26th, so for lack of stimulus in the abandoned city, we hopped a ferry to an indonesian beach resort for a couple of days. it was a bit too civilized for my tastes, but i suppose it served as a good buffer for anna between arctic-new york, and sweltering burmese jungle. we rented a 2-storey, 4 bedroom "bungalo" with our own private swimming pool and maid for about $150 US per person for all 3 days. the beach was nice, and it felt good to go swimming, much against the resorts' "stining jellyfish advisory". no one payed much mind, until one of the guys staying next to us got stung, and then everyone freaked out. everyone on the beach crowded around, examined the little area of slight irritation, and offered gestures of sympathy in a dozen different languages. eventually, everyone went on about their business, and looked cautoisly at the water for a good minute or 2 before returning to the water. in spite of the ever-present pampering, and dissapointingly western feeling the whole experience had, i managed to get into a little bit of mischief. During one of my morning walks along the beach, i was looking out across the water and noticed, between waves, a little black head snaking across the water. it would duck below when a wave went by, only to pop back up moments after it had passed. so of course, it being a reptile of lesser weight than myself,, i was obligated to capture, inspect, and inform it of the dominance which my cranium and opposable-thumbs provided me. so, after keeping one eye on the little bobbing head, and the other searching for just the right stick, i found the perfect one, with a little branch at the end, forming a hook. i scooped him up, and flung him in the beach's direction, and after a few tosses, had him on the sand. it was a docile little banded sea-snake, which although highly venomous, turned out to be pretty docile. i w2as pretty happy with myself, but of course, what good is such a prize without the gratification of gloating. i coaxed him into an empty water bottle, and went back to the "bungalo" to try and redeem myself in annas eyes for ending up in the hospital the last time i tried to catch such a trophy. she's learnd to become nervous when i approach her grinning, and she can't see both of my hands. she closed her book, and forbid me to come any closer until i showed her what i had behind my back. she sighed, rolled her eyes, went back to her book and told me she wouldn't smuggle me burritos into the ICU again. ( she just says that to sound tough, she probably would) the other guys at the house were thouroughly impressed, and i claimed my status as a singaporean folk hero that afternoon. it's amazing the unwanted influence i have over those guys. i'm thinking about trying to get sponsorships from shoe companies over there. i arrived in singapore wearing a red, yarn-snow-cap (thw likes of which are entirely too warm to wear in such a tropical climate) primarily because i was in desparate need of a hair-cut, and it's incessant bouncing and eye-poking was more bothersome than the added warmth. anyhow, after being there for a week, i noticed 2 of the shop lackies showed up wearing similarly colored knit hats, accomanied by little sweat-beaded brows. don't ask me where they hell they found them in singapore, but they were certain they were the cat's meow. so, once i took all of their funny little monopoly money, i sent them all back to work, and made a bunch of appointments for march, when i return to singapore from the jungle portion of this venture. anyhow, i'm going to go track down some food, but i will e-mail you once i get to myanmar....
love as always,
scott