Live for the now

So many people I talk with when I am traveling have similar ideas about life. Most are taking a break from something, or have one month off and decided to see the world in a whirlwind of travel. When I spend time with Couchsurfers here in Bangkok, I am presented with a completely different mind set. The people I have been hanging out with here have real jobs, and are doing very well for themselves. One guy owns several buildings here, and runs four companies. He is wealthy, educated, and connected both here and in the states. He has already offered to help me out if I want, and while I was initially excited about the possibilities, I now realize that I don’t want to even begin looking for a job now, even if it was one I would be stupid to turn down. (Already turned down a pretty damn good one to come over here)

The whole idea of networking and setting up possible futures is something that has a place when you are uncertain about where you are going, or are working back home and want to always better your social position. Currently, social status means jack to me. I am a traveler, moving randomly from one location to the next whenever I feel like it. I have no ties to anywhere, and no obligations to anything or anyone other than myself. (Well, I am still paying AT&T for my cell phone plan back home… the bastards.)

This means that conversations with employed people who are plugged into the working life are always a little awkward. They want to offer me positions, see what I can do with web pages, pay me to build them one, and for a while, this was what I wanted. But now, I just want to have no obligations. After a while I have to tell them that I am not really looking for a job now, and they give me a slightly odd look, as if I am somehow crazy, but they can’t put their finger on why they think this.

Last night I went out with some Couchsurfers in Bangkok, and we had a really fun, crazy night. We went to a club for a while, then left and went to another club owned by the same person, who knew one of the couchsurfers, so we spent the night getting a tour of his $120 million property that he is renovating, and got all of our drinks for free. Afterwards, we went back to the Sheraton Bangkok where Ryan, a couchsurfer, has been put up in a very expensive Grand Suite. We spent some time in the hot tub before making fools of ourselves to the front desk guy in the lobby at 3 am.

It is going to be a rough transition back to the real world when I get home, but maybe I can find a way to work and have fun with it, instead of sitting at a desk from 9-5, five days a week. If I budget right, I think I can get by with three to four months of work a year, then spend the rest in 3rd world countries. Just kidding Mom, but not really.

So… random trail of thought as I sit here, slightly hungover from a night out with these highly successful people who want me to send them my resume. My resume? Not for a while my friends, not for a loooong while.

Busy day

Today was busy as hell. I got a hair cut, a shave, picked up my suits (which look really, really good, and I feel sorry for anyone who stands next to me when I wear them) and mailed a bunch of stuff home. I mailed four boxes out, one with my suits and my climbing shoes to myself by boat, which means they will get home in about three months. The other three boxes were full of T-shirts and they went out to Matt, and some guys from Elon. I apologize to everyone who I did not mail a shirt to, but I sent them to people who could distribute them because it is expensive to send stuff across the world.

Tomorrow I am going to explore some old cities two hours north of Bangkok to pass the day, and try to fly out of here on Monday to Cambodia.

Do you know where you live?

Kevin Kelly, the Editor-At-Large of Wired magazine, posted a list of intriguing questions a while ago on his blog and I stumbled across it recently again. Since I have been traveling, I have become more in tune with where exactly I am at any given moment because that knowledge becomes helpful when you are in a sticky situation.

The first question / direction is to point north. Can you do it? Where does the water in your tap come from, and where does it go?

For the full list, visit Kevin’s web site. www.kk.org

Urghh

What a stressful day. We had a big night last night, so I got a later start than I would have liked. I made it to the Chinese embassy, which was an hour away, at noon to find out that it closed at 11:30 am. There was a posted sign saying that as of four days ago, the price went up for the US visa. Great.

I had my brand new broken camera with me, and I went back to the place I bought it to see what they could do, but the warranty doesn’t cover “broken” so that was out, and I ended up taking it to a little shop where they will charge me about $100 to fix it. Bullox. Hopefully it will be less, but they won’t know till they open it up.

Cambodia can’t come soon enough. Bangkok always treats me wrong. I spent the rest of the day messing around with my new lens, which is amazing. De-stressed a little through photography. Hit the jump for more photos.

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Visas, suits and cameras

So I am in Bangkok for a few days because the visas will take a while. India is a seven day visa process, and China is four. I may wait on India, because I don’t want to stay here that long. Today I have to pick up my suits and mail them home. Should be some nice ones.

Yesterday I bought a new lens for my camera, an 18-200 mm with image stabilization. Pretty cool, and now I can get some good shots of people without being right up in their face. I also bought a small, pocket sized digital camera. It takes good video and is great for taking out when my big SLR would scare people. Let me rephrase that. It was good for those things. We went to the French embassy yesterday to see a movie at the cultural center there, and I dropped it. It broke. I hadn’t even had it for five hours. So I am taking it back today to see if they can give me a new one, or fix it… Hopefully it will work again, otherwise I just pissed $250 down the drain.

Night out with Mimi
Me, Mimi (Couchsurfer) her friend, and the two guys I met on the bus to Bangkok

Making my way to Cambodia

I am off to Cambodia today, and after talking to a lot of people, I have decided to skip the lower half of Laos. I was going there to see the 4,000 islands area, but this is the dry season, and the water is reportedly very low, thus making the sights significantly more dust than beauty. Oh, and the 24 hour plus bus ride deterred me a little as well.

So I jump on a bus back to Bangkok tonight, not because I have any earthly desire to go back there, but because it is the fastest, most comfortable way to get to Cambodia (I am thinking about flying from Bangkok to Phnom Phen to save time and my backside) I also have to arrange my China visa, and possibly my India one as well. Three days max in Bangkok, then I am out of there again.

In Cambodia, I am looking forward to Ankor Wat, and as demented as it may sound, I am also interested in seeing the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge.

Oh, I am also going to be buying a new camera lens in Bangkok, because it is a very cheap place to do so, and I really need a decent lens for Everest. I want to be able to start getting some good people shots without having to be literally up their nose.

 

I was recently told about cheap flights from India to Egypt, and am thinking about that possibility.

Sunday Barbeque

I have felt extremely useless here since I arrived, because Pear has taken care of absolutely everything. We had a cook out on Sunday, where they invited some of their friends over for lunch / dinner and we grilled pork ribs, chicken and beef kabobs.

I was looking forward to helping because it has been forever since I grilled out, but no luck. We went to the market with Pear early in the morning to pick out the meat, and after walking past vendor after vender offering fresh cut meat, Pear stopped at one place, shooed Rob and I on, and proceeded to buy everything.

Her friend Pocky came over with the grill, and they began to get it all set up. Again, I tried to help, and was told to sit down, read a book, or drink a beer. I complied.

When everything was ready, Rob and I were allowed outside to enjoy the food. Owen (an Australian I had met a few nights before) and Cam (another Aussie) showed up a little later, and we grubbed out for a few hours.

Afterwards, Pear and Pocky cleaned up, but I was able to force a little bit of help on them (mostly shuttling dishes from outside to the kitchen…) before we all sat down for drinks and conversation. It was a great Sunday afternoon, and I am lucky to have found this group of people.

girls making food
Pear and Pocky making the food

me and owen rob
Owen and Me – and Rob enjoying the garlic bread (with homemade garlic butter)

It has been a while

Sorry for not posting anything relevant for the past few days. I have been staying with Rob and Pear, his roommate, and their dog, Pebbles. Pear is Thai, and the manager of several restaurants right in downtown Vientiane, and she knows everyone, so we have been going out a lot and meeting people. She is an excellent cook, and I have found myself getting every meal cooked for me, and it has been amazing.

We went out the other night with some of her friends to a Lao club, and I have to say – I hate Lao music. It is horribly, miserably annoying. Imagine a love affair between Britney Spears, the soundtrack to the Matrix, and  Nelly.

Today we are doing a barbeque at there place, and they have invited over some other English speakers, and the group that went out to the club with us. Should be fun!

I still have 10 days or so on my visa, and I only need three or four to see everything else I want, so I am planning on leaving here on Tuesday.

Staying with Robert

Robert is the guy I met in Bangkok a month ago, and we hit it off. He lives in Vientiane, and we met up last night. He has an extra room in his house, so I moved my stuff over there and will stay for about two nights.

The total rent for his house, which has three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a family room, a dining area, a fridge and a laundry machine is $200 USD a month. It is about the size of my house in at Elon. Crazy. 1/10th the cost. Water bill is $1, gas $1, electricity $10, trash $2, yard guy $10. He has offered me the room if I want it… and his roomate, Pear, has some jobs with adversitign and graphic design agencies that she has mentioned to me. Tempting, but I think I will continue to put time into making the NPO work.