"There is nothing in the desert .. no man needs nothing."

So, in my time lounging around Thailand waiting for my next flight, a thought has begun to form in my mind:
What's the next step?

Wanting to see the world is lovely... it's all very romantic and everything... but it doesn't pay the bills. Ultimately, when you get to your destination, or whenever you stop anywhere really, you have to be making money somehow, or else you're losing money. This trip has made me much more keenly aware of this plight than I have been in the past... though it has certainly always plagued me.

Through discussion with Maria, we have settled on not staying in Russia forever... I love the cold, but she just doesn't. She wants to live somewhere warmer, and I can hardly blame her for it (though I certainly prefer the cold). I won't provide a lot more detail than that, but it has put into our minds the irrevocable knowledge that this isn't permanent. Furthermore, when we leave Russia, her accounting degree will basically become a useless piece of paper... so we will need to decide on new careers.

My job history has been largely in customer service and hospitality... I'm good with people... and I can do that anywhere. If we settle someplace where English isn't the primary language, I can give English lessons.... however, I've been thinking of ways to supplement income. My writing might not be riveting, but I like to think I have some skill with a pen (metaphorically of course).

I know there aren't many that read my blog, but I'd like to ask your advice... Does anyone know any writers that might be able to offer advice on making the leap from hobby writer to professional? One that could at least offer some advice on changes I could make to my writing style? =D

Suggestions?

Oh Lord...

So, in Thailand, there is no president, there is no Prime Minister... there is a royal family still. That's not so strange, I'm sure there are plenty of countries that still have a King and Queen... but something I've observed now, is that there is a law regarding respect towards the royal family.

Nearly everywhere you go, there are portraits of the royal family... I could identify the King of Thailand in a lineup of 10,000,000 Thai people already. Again, not so strange. However, the law includes defacing any image of any member of the family, and of course his image is on the currency.

Beware, if you are in Thailand, and drop a coin, don't step on it to stop it rolling... don't step on that bill that's blowing away... lest you get arrested like that poor bastard just did.

A Whole New World

So, whereas before I was staying in Patong which is for all intents and purposes solely a tourist attraction and is rife with Russians and Australians, I am now staying in Phuket Town in basically the heart of downtown.... and I'm not the only white person... but I'm certainly the minority now. Last night I ran into 3 Americans (very rare... plenty of Australians and Brits, but not many Americans) that were eating at a pizzeria around the corner when I went exploring, but for the most part, I draw more strange looks from people here that seem to ask with their eyes if I'm lost.

That being said, I'm quite enjoying it here actually. I miss Maria tremendously of course... but I'm getting a much more accurate feel for what life is really like in Thailand now that I'm away from the beach. Most storefronts seem to be closed until about 5pm when everything opens and everyone is selling something from their front porch, but until then, I don't know where everyone is. Does everyone work a 9 to 5 job and then come home and sit on their porches and sell wares until 10 or 11? Or do they sleep until 4pm and live off the income from the noodles they sell at night? Without watching individual houses I really don't have any idea to be honest... as I don't have the slightest clue what rent is like here or what the hourly wages are comparable to.

However, I did go out last night really for the first time to explore. Usually I map out online where I'm going so I know exactly where I'm headed, and while I did use maps to get a feel for the surrounding area, and always knew where I was, I did a bit of meandering to try to find somewhere that had cheap Thai food. My search was a bust, excluding one sit down restaurant that I may check out later... but I did find a small mall about 5 minutes walk away. I think mall isn't really the most accurate way to describe it to be honest... it seemed more a place for kids to hang out after they get out of school. There was a movie theater, a video game store, a few various and sundry clothing shops, a hair salon, KFC, Dairy Queen, the aforementioned pizzeria, another Ice Cream shop (guess ice cream is popular.... considering we're at the equator, I'm sure I can't figure out why), and hundreds of kids and teenagers just sitting around staring at the white guy walking through the mall alone.

Too bloody hot though ... tried to take a cold shower, but apparently the electric shower doesn't have a cold setting, just a not-quite-hot setting. So that didn't help much. It did help temporarily with the "I feel like I'm drowning in my own sweat" experience that happens every hour or so though, but I can't just stay in the shower constantly. Trying to stay in the room as much as possible to be honest though; I had my fun the past two weeks and this is just a waiting game as I'm trying to save my money for Russia. I love it here, but really can't wait to move on to Russia .. got a woman waiting for me that I miss too damn much ;)

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto..

Well... Where to begin? Maria made an interesting observation about vehicles here. Though lots of people drive motorbikes, there are still many many many people that have cars... and though there are some clunkers, she pointed out that 90-95% of them are VERY nice cars... Are vehicles very cheap here? Or have the followed the American tradition of being able to buy a nice car because they didn't spend much on their house? You do seem to see really nice vehicles parked in front of not really nice homes a lot.... Maybe not so strange, but interesting.

I have to withdraw my previous statement about driving laws in Thailand after having done a lot more driving. Apparently in our little corner of Phuket, it was mostly locals that ... well, drove like locals. After further exploration, I've found that most everyone follows laws like wearing helmets, and the road habits have made more sense to me after driving enough. The left lane is for motor bikes; the right is for larger vehicles. You are allowed to use the other lane, but only when there is a lack of the other already using it.

Everyone always uses turn signals... always. It puts a slight buffer on the craziness of people swerving all over the place in and out of lanes if you at least know they're about to do it. If you're passing someone, never assume they're paying attention to their mirrors... honk first before passing. The center lines however... well, they do seem to be more of a suggestion than a law.

I was also wrong about driver's licenses not being required though... Though it doesn't seem heavily enforced unless you go on the highways between cities. We ran into a checkpoint where I had to show mine, though they didn't pay much attention to the fact that I'm only authorized to drive cars and trucks, not motorcycles.... so no, not strictly enforced... Though they were ticketing an Australian that didn't have his license with him.

Which brings me to my next point. As for most of Thailand, I can't say... But if you only speak English, Patong beach in Phuket is the place to go. It seemed initially that Russian was the only alternative... but down by the beach there's a half-mile long road called Bang-La Road.. You'll hear some people call it walking street, because after 6pm, you're not allowed to take vehicles down it. Why? Because it has 12 million Australian bars and night clubs. Everyone goes there at night, and you can always bet you can easily find someone that speaks English there. It seems like this is a relatively close and inexpensive place for Australians to vacation, and they hold a strong permanent influence over the city near the beach.

Through an interesting turn of events, after Maria returned to Samara, I got stuck in Thailand a further 2 weeks after missing my flight for complicated reasons. They couldn't return my money so I could buy new tickets for a later flight the same day.. they could only exchange them for a later flight to the same destination with the same airline ... and the next flight is in 2 weeks.

So I booked into a hostel in Phuket Town that costs basically the same as my previous hotel, but cost less to get here because there are busses that run from the airport regularly. Planning to lay low and spend my time watching Russian tv and reading all the Russian I can to try to improve my language skills before I get to Russia.

Got my hotel in Samara rebooked for 2 weeks from now since I obviously won't be using the time there I had booked for .. well, yesterday. Can't say I'll have anything terribly fascinating to share for the next two weeks, but I'll keep you updated on any further developments))

Be Grateful for What You Have

So... something that should be pointed out. You know how public restrooms are free and come with free toilet paper? Be grateful for that, because in the rest of the world, that's not how it works. There are public restrooms here, as in Russia, but here, also like Russia, they don't come with toilet paper. But it gets better!

Sometimes restrooms are little more than holes in the ground that you have to pay to use. Granted, it's only about 10 baht usually (about 30 cents), but the fact remains that you sometimes only get a bucket of water to pour over your posterior for cleaning purposes. The nicer restrooms feature a hose attached to a real toilet that you use to spray yourself off with. But wait, there's more!

The reason they don't use toilet paper is because some brilliant mastermind designed for Thailand a septic system that can handle human waste, but not tissue paper. So, in some of the nicer restrooms, when you pay, they offer you 4 or 5 squares of toilet paper to dry off with after you hose your waste all over the place. This must then be thrown into the trash, not the toilet, lest you blow up Thailand via septic blast. This, in turn, leads to not very pleasant smelling bathrooms((

In summary, when you use a public restroom, and don't have to pay, and it has toilet paper, and it's an actual toilet... be grateful.

Disco disco!

Dear America, you have no clue how to party - sorry. The night before last, we started off at Hollywood Disco. No cover, and a decent size club. It was divided into a front and back club, each with dramatically different club music styles. In the front, bad, in the back, good. Inexplicably, the front was more packed than the back.

We ended up only staying for about 30 minutes because despite having good music, it was pretty much just unattractive girls that no one had ever told were unattractive shaking what their mommas gave them for lots of old guys... No real dancing, just lots of reasons to vomit.

We headed to Tiger Disco next, which was markedly better. Again, no cover, and a much larger crowd.... Including a fight which broke out basically right on top of us. Some drunk guy tried to make a pass at one of the girls and was jumped by 5-6 security instantly... I mean they were on top of him before I knew what was happening, and I was there. Security here is on top of their a-game.

We had one of Orasa's friends with us though, and since she worked at Tiger, she couldn't come in and had waited outside, so we moved on quickly. Finally, we ended up at Seduction Club, which was hands-down the best. I had some reservations about the place because I had read about it online before about girls being offered money to go home with different guys, and I wasn't wholly comfortable taking Maria there. Orasa assured me it was the best though, and nothing like that, so I just resolved to stay on guard.

The cover charge was 400 baht (about $13), and a Corona cost me about $8. Now, the stupidly high prices aside, this really was amazing, and a must-visit if you're in Patong. The DJ may have been the best I've ever heard, and the crowd was fun, not fantastically intoxicated, and the evening was wholly enjoyable. We didn't stick around too long though, the day had been exhausting and our legs hurt from extended travel.

Yesterday, Orasa had the day off, and took full advantage of it. We hopped on our bikes and made our way to the eastern end of the island, then down the coast to ... not where we were trying to go. She was attempting to take us to the Big Buddha statue, but we went the wrong way, and ended up at a temple.... and then the zoo. Since we were planning to visit both anyways, it ended up working out though.

The temple was gorgeous. No other way to put it. My one regret was not being able to speak Thai, because I would have loved to have known what the murals on the walls said. Not a lot to say about it I'm afraid, it was a temple. It was beautiful and we got some great pictures. We discussed the lives of the monks in brief with Orasa because the differ a bit from the lives of holy men in our own countries, so that was interesting to learn about)

The zoo, which despite being a bit decrepit, was a ton of fun. The tickets were only 500 baht (about $17) and included entrance to all of the shows. We made our way around for a bit, and then caught an elephant show, which was great. The played football, painted pictures, and played (read: broke) musical instruments. It was cute, and very fun. I remember growing up hearing about Barnum & Bailey and the animal cruelty charges, and haven't even much a fan of captive animals since. That being said, the animals seemed remarkably well taken care of, and though I'm not a certified elephant shrink, they seemed happy and like they had great relationship with the handlers.

We went on to see a monkey show, where they rode tricycles, played basketball, and answered math problems... kind of. The crowd would pick two numbers to add or subtract, and the handler would solve it, then draw with his finger on the board what shape to get and the monkey would retrieve it. Still impressive, but not as impressive as it might have been ;)

We skipped the crocodile show to save time, and made our way on to the Big Buddha statue. It was in some state of renovation and was covered in scaffolding, and the entire grounds were in a rather dramatic state of disarray. Still, as usual, the amazing beauty of the place made up for it, and we were glad to have made the trip.

There was an amazingly high-pitched siren sounding off the whole time that took me the better part of an hour to realize was for meditation, which I thought was lovely, although I doubt any tourists realized it that weren't Thai.

After another half hour of driving, we made it to the southern tip of the island just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset with 30,000 other people. We got there earlier than most it seemed, and so we sat down near the cliff face on a rocky outcropping with no one in front of us, and got some beautiful pictures before a giant cloud mass completely obstructed the sunset just before it hit the horizon... stupid clouds.

We made our way back up the west coast to Patong and arrived back at the hotel at 7pm. We showered and changed and met Orasa for dinner at her favorite Thai restaurant which was thankfully right around the corner.... I don't think I want to ride a bike again for a while. The food was buffet style, but all raw. When we got back to the table there was a bowl with a fire in it and an over-turned colander on top you pour water around the sides and cook the meats on top and the rest you put in the water to cook. You're given a few choices of sauces to pour over your food, but all were spicy and didn't agree much with Maria. Still, the food may have been the best I've ever had, and although long, the day was arguably the best day ever. Altogether, the bill came out to about $6 for way of us... which was impressive considering how much everyone at the buffet was eating. It had to have been the cheapest food on Earth.

Tooooon of pictures ... I'll just post the highlights)) Take care all, see you in a few days))

Elephants and Such

So yesterday we met with Brian and his wife Irina and their son Sasha and went elephant trekking. Being new to riding motorbikes, and immediately taking it out on mountain roads was exciting (read: terrifying) to say the least, nevermind the fact that we were in a country we weren't familiar with which has obnoxious traffic laws (read: none).

After getting thoroughly lost because our map failed to mention all the roads were one way until terminus and having to back-track almost 30 minutes, go back to where we started and leave again on a parallel road. We arrived 30 minutes late because of that nonsense, and because of the no traffic laws I couldn't answer the phone while driving because it took every ounce of concentration I had to not get us both killed. By the time we finally arrived ... well, there's no polite way to put this... if you've never ridden a motorcycle before, don't make any long trips for a while, it'll wear out your spine and your butt will be so sore you won't want to sit down again ever.

Then of course we got to sit on an elephant for an hour, which was of course not a stable ride, and further impacted my spine. I felt like an 85 year old man dying slowly from a severe case of scoliosis... hurt like hell.

That all being said, we had a fantastic time which words can't adequately describe. We rode the elephants to the top of the mountain, and had an amazing view of what seemed like the whole southern end of the country. Pictures attached ;) We went back to Brian and Irina's hotel, which wasn't really even a hotel so much as a luxury resort, and were treated to coconuts while laying out on a lawn right along the sea. Wish I had taken pictures of the place, but was too busy doing nothing for it to occur to me to be quite honest.

They were absolutely amazing and their insight into what was in store for us was fantastically helpful (Irina being Russian and Brian American and having moved to Russia to be with her). They had a lot of advice on where to work and what fields would be the most promising in the coming years for the region I'm moving to.

We made the drive back in the light of the setting sun (gorgeous, hard to pay attention to driving) and didn't even want to sleep... it was the kind of day you never want to end.

Today we almost got arrested, which was exciting since I don't speak Thai and had no idea what was going on. Apparently the only traffic law in Thailand is that at this one intersection in this one city, you have to wear a helmet when driving. Had no clue of course, and after realizing I wasn't being arrested but just fined, it wasn't so bad.. just 300 baht ($10).

Went to the beach and experienced the saltiest water known to mankind. Couldn't stay in too long; had to lift Maria over all of the waves because the salt was bothering her contacts and she was going blind. That aside, another fantastic day... learned how to tell the 8 million vendors to scram, which was useful but I wish had been unnecessary. I'm at the beach to relax, not to go on a shopping spree... do I look like I want to buy a dress from you? Don't answer that; just go away.

We went to the mall to get lunch/dinner (trying to get used to the shopping for fresh food everyday, rather a new concept), and mostly just lounged the rest of the day because we're going dancing tonight at the disco.... or rather several of them.

On that note, it's about 11pm now, and Maria is ready to go now, so I've got to take off ;) Hope everyone has a great day!))