Models and Falang

I got up at 6:10am feeling a bit better from the cold that's kept me from the gym the last few days. I ate a bowl of cereal. The soy milk here is fresh so it tastes real beany. To make it a little more palatable a coconut milk was added. Originally my morning breakfast consisted solely of coconut milk until Wong told me how much saturated fat my body was taking in. The water wasn't running for some reason, not that it mattered, and ten minutes later I was on my way to Tesco Lotus.

Every morning a visa run service takes off from Tesco Lotus bringing foreigners to the Cambodian border for a 30 day renewal. The trip takes most of the day and 2,000 baht, about 60 dollars. When I got there at 6:30 there was already a decent amount of filipinos hanging out on the sidewalk waiting for the german who manages the business to show. The German, Claudio showed up half an hour later with four, 10 passenger, mini vans. The mini vans have air conditioning (which can make the ride quite chilly) and a tv/dvd player. The ride to the border takes about 3 hours and we stopped once en route. The driver, a lao looking guy bought us bottled water. I slept through the majority of the morning trip through eastern thailand to the Cambodian border but woke up when the movie Deja Vu came on. Deja Vu stars Denzel Washington as a Federal Tobacco Fire Arms agent in New Orleans attempting to stop a deranged "patriotic" terriorist from blowing up a ferry full of navy sailors. It really warmed the heart.

The border that I went to is in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at noon and handed the thailand exit people our papers. Our passports were stamped and then walked across the border where agents of our company waited to take our passports and paperwork. They took our papers and spent an hour or so processing them. In the mean time we went to lunch. Lunch was held in a small casino. The casino offers blackjack, slot machines, and some sort of gambling game that I don't understand. The casino has a small buffet. Lacking any vegan fodder I asked the chef (like last time) to make some fried vegetables for me. I ate lunch with an english guy who originally came out here on vacation. He had extended his vacation by two months and was staying with his thai girlfriend. It was a pleasant enough conversation. The rest of my time was rather pondering my options when I go home.

The return trip had us finish Deja Vu and watching Master and Commander, a historical fiction starring Russel Crowe (not worth watching). We stopped by a gas station. The young man who sat in front of me kept getting his photo taken. The women at the gas station giggled a lot. He laughed and told me about how he had recently become a model out here in thailand. He'd been working here for five months and has done two magazines, a fashion show, and three commercials. He has a bit of trouble going much further as he can't speak thai. He was rather average looking, pale, dark haired, tall, and half thai half german. Evidently young women everywhere are starting to recongize him.

My visa is extended to Febuary 18th. My return flight is for the 29th. I can either make a trip to Laos and get a new tourist visa or pay a 500 baht fine for every day I overstay in thailand. The visa laws here in thailand prevent me from going to Cambodia for another thirty day extension.

Yesterday the majority of my day was spent in the backpacker's ghetto of khao san road. An ex coworker of mine came into town and I let her stay at my place. She needed a mobile phone sim card which we acquired at the large, centrally located, MBK mall. Then we met her friend of a friend in the khao san area. Her sort of friend, Matt Noble, trains occassionally at Sor Vorapin muay thai gym. The gym is located at the end of the ghetto and costs 500 baht for one session. You can buy packages of up to 30 sessions for 4500 baht. It works out to be about $15 an hour. For the location the gym was okay. I was surprised by the trainers attention level and the low participant to trainer ratio. I didn't participate as I was still feeling a bit sick. Noble told me later that he constantly was bribing the trainerby buying them beer and food in order to get extra technical advice.

The Khao San area is pretty repulsive and a place that should be seen once then avoided like conversations about feelings with therapists. The road is about 5 blocks long and attached to it are a swarm of guest houses, pubs, restaraunts, internet cafes, and travel agencies. Tons of foreigners walk the streets, many of the men bare chested (which is extremely offensive in this modestly dressed society). The falang are busy getting their hair braided, buying cheap henna tattoos, or soaking up suds while ogling other each other. While a good place for white people to meet other white people the khao san area has the cultural sensitivity of a KKK Grand Dragon leader robed up at a Black Panther Party meeting.