The choices, it's always the choices

After sitting in the numb, dull existence that is Khao Lak for the afternoon, I finally head to the bar to see who was stirring (the lack of rowdy foreigners in the bar is a testament to the fact that the volunteer organization grossly overstates the number of volunteers present in the town). I end up speaking with a Dutch guy and a Brit.

After a while hanging out in peaceful calm, and speaking of, among other things, the astonishment the Brit experienced when he traveled to Tennessee and witnessed the outright racism still rampant there; he decided to move the conversation to his own outrage at a lack of protectionism in western policymaking. Specifically, this was spurred by his own disgust that "wages in the UK are held artificially low by immigrants" and, moreover, "that the elvis ashtrays in Graceland are made in China." Seriously. This is what pissed him off.

When I informed him that I didn't really care who put Elvis's profile in the little dish that sits next to the guitar-shaped pool so that people can suck on their death-sticks before heading to the Opry no matter the implications on balance of trade or international economics, he became downright irate - spurting out prophecies that the US (and Europe, the entirety of which he encorporated into his own nationality somehow) would soon be a third world country. Somehow I also became responsible for the Chinese government run oil conglomerate's bid to buy a US oil company.

When I told him I try to think more internationally and see more the fact that international condition is much more desperate than the US condition and...blah blah blah, I became a "traitor" against my country. I'm dead serious, he turned his back to me - this retired Englishman - then said "I don't even want to talk to you anymore. Don't say another word to me." and then muttered periodically over his shoulder "traitor" just as a first grader might mutter "cooties."

This absolutely stunning experience marked the first time that I have been barraded overseas for differing with the policies of my country, and for trying to think somewhat independently, as much as that is even possible. Everyone in the bar was stunned.

So then I talked with Tom, who's living in Laos doing development work and recently managed to swim through the bureaucratic nightmare there to marry a Laos woman (it is illegal for a Laos woman to sleep with a foreigner - and he has a 2 year old son). And we spoke of his overall experience there.

Next day, I spent time wandering down the deserted main road, wondering what I would do with myself for two days were I to stay until Monday when the volunteering would begin. After a few hours of doing this, and of staring at the ceiling, I realized that I really didn't feel a pressing need for my mediocre skills and spontaneously jumped the bus to Bangkok.

Here, I arrived at 5 am and headed to Khao San Road, again, as my passport was waiting in a travel agency there. I found a group of "travelers" (mostly just drunks) still going from the night before, and sat with them - a few of whom were very cool. I was only the second one to get out of there at about 9:30, after the Argentinian rugby player fell over backwards while trying to lick Daniel in the face and then poured beer all over himself.

"Yes sir, for three times the price we'll give you a smaller room whose floor tiles are so scratched you can barely tell what color they were in 1960 when we installed them. We will also provide gross grime slowly working its way down the shower tiles, and will replace your western toilet with the asian squat toilet. We will make your desk smaller and older, and make your windows open into the hallway where the lights will be on 24 hours a day. We will also remove any curtains. But, you will be away from Khao San Road."

Sign me up.

Then I jumped the sky train to go to the "world fellowship of buddhists" to see about the rumored sunday afternoon mediation classes. When in rome, why not meditate? Except I got off at the prescribed stop and found the center of Southeast Asian commerce. You could feel the money pouring out of this place. Skycrapers of offices and apartments sprouting every few feet. Designer shopping centers. Everything in English. I did manage to find one sign for the fellowship, but whoever named it the fellowship of buddhists should be shot, as there is no less understood phrase in SE Asia except maybe "Aphrodite picked lilacs for lucifer," and that's really a sentence, not a phrase. Plus, I'm not sure the place really even exists anymore.

So after a few hours of looking, I hop back on the skytrain to go do the very opposite of meditation and walk around the friggin mall. This place is 7 stories high, with three story high billboards and TV screens. All the models both on said billboards and in the "model search" going on are white. KFC, Starbucks, McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Mrs. Fields....my god they're all here. Everything is in English - I ate at a restaurant named "noodles." Dentyne is sponsoring a concert outside and teenagers are bowling upstairs. Across the street is a similarly sized mall. And across the other street is a gigantic outdoor market. I may as well have been in New York, save the really terrible teenage asian haircuts, karaoke booths, intestine soup, and buddha shrines.

Nevertheless, I'd like to drag that Brit from the Bar in Khao Lak right up to one of the signs that reads "Brand new technology from the United States!" and say "yeah, it's true that if China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia took their money out of the NYSE, we'd all be screwed, but tell me, just tell me, the ideology of the United States - the idea of the US - is not alive and well."

Then last night I finally got in touch with Bum, a friend of mine who I met in Costa Rica, who is working at Exxon while simultaneoulsy getting a master's degree. She took me to a traditional puppet show and then treated me to the most fantastic meal I've had while I've been away. Last night definitely ranks among the best nights I've had thus far, just reminiscing and catching up - and getting filled in on a few details of Thai life that have been perplexing me.

Now back to life as usual...