All of the posts below were originally contained within lengthy rumination-style articles that I wrote upon my arrival here in Thailand in 2007. I decided to chop them up and present them in a more concise, reader-friendly layout. I hadn’t read these in almost two years and it brought back some good memories of events and thoughts that I had drifting from my mind. Enjoy the observations throughout my first year of living in completely different surroundings.

Note: Written on 27.09.09 NOT 11.01.08 (Exclusion from Loop plugin doesn’t work with 2.8.4)

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Spent Christmas Eve inna fine style. Chilled out at Reggae Bar in Nai Harn and then went over to a really small cove called Ao Sane and listened to Job 2 Do, Thailand’s biggest and best reggae band, play a free show. The evening consisted of lots of people dancing in the audience, a festive Christmas atmosphere, fire performers, huge fireworks, lots of beers consumed, many a joint smoked, watching people stumble onto their dinghies to get back to their yachts in Nai Harn Bay, relaxing with some friends, and calling a hammock home for the night.

Christmas Day was spent in a way that is totally unlike I have ever experienced before. That is not a preface for something grandiose happening either. As a matter of fact, it was just another day around here. Nothing special going on and absolutely none of the traditions that I am familiar with taking place. I have to say I like all the aura surrounding Christmas much more back in the States. I described some of the things I missed to my family and they include relaxing with family and friends, eating delicious lasagne on Christmas Eve, sneaking cookies from the pantry that are intended for guests, opening up one present the night before and hoping it was a video game I could play all night until the next morning (oh wait…that one is from when I was 10 yrs. old), avoiding shopping malls, checking out lights on houses, checking out the tree on top Stone Mountain, drinking hot chocolate, watching A Christmas Story, and many other things that were are noticeably absent here in Thailand.

New Year’s Eve was spent with some friends at Ska Bar on Kata Beach. Consumed buckets of Sang Som and Coke, smoked some fatties, relaxed by the sand and waves, protected myself from the kids throwing fireworks, flew a red Khom Loy (that got caught by the wind and ended up in the water), mingled with the other folks there, and enjoyed the stroke of midnight when the entire bay lit up with fireworks from all directions. A memorable night for sure. Happy 2008!….(or 2551 according to the Buddhist calendar). Hope the year ahead proves to be both pleasant and fulfilling for you.

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I found a snorkel and mask in my closet and have been spending many days lurking in some bays around Phuket as of late having my mind blown by the aquatic life underneath the waters here. Ao Sane, Laem Singh, and Hat Yanui are my top destinations at the moment. I seriously have never gone snorkeling or diving before in my life and after exploring what is probably considered novice locales, I can immediately see why people swear by this activity. Impressive stuff for sure.

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I took a trip over to Krabi about a month ago, and had wanted to make it there since I arrived here, but just never did. So I went with two of my friends here, Paup and Rose, and two of their friends who were visiting from Bangkok. Aside from the simply stunning landscapes of the Krabi area, other notes included:

• Listening to Britney Spears latest album Blackout as we left Phuket to head over there. I’ve always been one who carefully selects road trip music to get my mind primed from some exploring and when I sat down in the car and heard what was playing on the stereo, I immediately yelled “What the fuck?” to myself. Luckily the horror ended soon there after.

• After having agreed that we would were going to drink poolside before going out that night, we went to buy some brew at “7″. When I opened up the fridge door at the shop, I grabbed four double-deuces: two Tigers, two Heinekens…for myself. When my friends opened up the fridge door, they each grabbed two 12oz. Changs. I have drank with them plenty of times before, but I guess we had different visions for what that particular afternoon and evening were going to entail.

• Consuming said beers that were purchased and then proceeding to be completely hammered by the time we ended up at the bar later that evening. Drank bucket after bucket, chilled out to the music that was playing well above the designated level of safe decibels for one’s ears, and fell into the bushes as I tried to get into the car to go back to the room. Somehow, I can recount everything…at least I think so.

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My quest to keep my wallet until the day I died came to an end last Sunday. Here is the rundown. I was watching the New England game around 10 o’clock in the morning and had my door open to let the fans push the air out. I dozed off on the couch during the game. I was awakened at one point to find a lady in my front room milling about. I asked her what she wanted and she asked me if I wanted her to clean my house. I refused the offer and told her to be on her way. What I did not discover until about 8 hours later, when I wanted to go to the gym and started looking for my wallet, was that she swiped one of my most coveted possessions, the wallet I have had for 11 years. Fucking bitch.

I don’t know what to say, but theft has hit me hard. Of course I want everything back including the 3,000 baht, my credit cards, and my driver’s license, but if she just would have left the wallet, it wouldn’t have hit me so deep. I was even going to do a photo essay of my wallet titled “Hope I Never Lose My Wallet” that would document it going from the completely haggard and homeless-looking state that it is currently in to having it repaired and reassembled by the seamstress that lives around the corner from me. Looks like that idea is gone forever. Along with my fucking wallet. Fuck me.

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December 26th marks the third anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Much love to all who either lost family or friends, or were displaced by the catastrophic event.

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I was at my computer the other day and my neighbor was outside having someone install a new stereo in his truck. After an hour or so, the job was complete and what song do I hear filling the streets as he tested the system out? That’s right, fuckin’ Sultans Of Swing! I immediately went outside and gave him the thumbs up for his choice. Anyone who has spent time with me at a bar (Northside Tavern) that has this song on their jukebox will know it is one of my all-time favorites.

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Ironically, I can simply paste the beginning from my second to last post, back on September 21st, right here since the circumstances have come full circle since then. So…..Finished working at The Evason Phuket on Tuesday, December 18th. It’s moving on to the next endeavor, whatever & whenever & wherever that might be remains uncertain as I write this.

Yeah so job wise, I spent the past two and half months teaching at The Evason Phuket which is a resort located on the southern end of the island in Rawai. I taught four classes there including front office, housekeeping, food and beverage, and a general class for all departments.

I really enjoyed working there, but it turned out to be quite a bit more work than I thought it would be. My friend, who placed me there, gave me some resources, but after meeting my students and understanding their level, I realized that most of the materials were far below their abilities. So, it was up to me to prepare roughly 80% of the lessons for the 10-week course.

One thing I discovered quick about teaching is that if you haven’t prepared your lesson then the class will end up being way more difficult than it should be. I only had to wing it on a few occasions and that was in the first two weeks when I was researching topics to cover and more or less figuring what works and what does not work when conducting a class. Once everything was more or less planned out, then all the classes went smooth.

All of my students told me they really liked coming to the classes (of course they got paid to come also, but nevermind that) and, more importantly, were benefiting from doing so. The human resources staff also told me they enjoyed having me on board. Unfortunately, the course finished up and I recently found out that they would not be doing the course again largely as a result of it being high season here. That’s fine though, I’m thankful that I was given the opportunity to gain some experience there.

Now, the job hunt begins. Especially considering that the other business I was involved in, The Compound Phuket, recently had to postpone the project we were working on. Yes, the company name is taken from Compound, off Howell Mill, since my friend, Wes, was one of the owners when he lived back in the ATL. Fortunately we were not developing another Eurotrash club to be avoided at all costs, but, rather, a property in the Chalong area that was going to contain nine villas. However, building costs per square foot went up recently and he was forced to wait until a few years from now to make the project happen or just abandon it all together.

I’m not sure where I will end up in the near future. I’m entertaining a position in Trang, Thailand and a position at the InterContinental Hotel in Bangkok. Completely opposite lifestyles for both of those places. Other prospective destinations include both Lijiang and Yangshuo in China, or I might just stay put here in Phuket. Again, uncertain would be the best word when it comes to all this.

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Latest idiot move includes getting ready to go to the gym one day and misplacing my card to get in. Looked around the house for about ten minutes or so, but no luck. Called the gym and asked if I left it there the last time, but no luck. Finally just left to go to the gym. Stretched out and started to run, and, while running, I could feel that something was different with my shoes. Stopped the treadmill, and after thinking to myself “No way”, I took my shoes off only to find my card waiting for me right there. After cracking up at how moronic the whole scenario was, I thought about the saying “Right under your nose” and never thought it would be possible to take a step down to “Right under your foot”. Fuck me.

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Barakas – Stabilo Bossa 12″
Various Artists – Killer Jazz From The Groove Merchant
Cat Power – Jukebox
Cesaria Evora – Cabo Verde
Y Society – Travel At Your Own Pace
The Whitefield Brothers – In The Raw
Various Artists – Red Hot + Riot
Various Artists – Sister Funk Vol.1
Bob Dylan – Theme Time Radio Shows
Lack Of Afro – Press On
Fela Kuti – Beasts Of No Nation b/w O.D.O.O.
Bruce Springsteen – The River
Afro Cuban All-Stars – Distinto, Diferente
Los Zafiros – Bossa Cubana
Various Artists – Hotel Costes
Mishka – Self-Titled
YNQ – The Joe McDuphrey Experience
Saru – Downtempo Dojo
The Slackers – Better Late Than Never
Yabby You – Jesus Dread 1972-77
Jah Stitch – Original Raggamuffin 1975-77
James Brown – In The Jungle Groove
Son House – Father Of The Delta Blues
GB – Soundtrack For Sunrise
Silhouette Brown – Self-Titled
Belleruche – Turntable Soul Music
Various Artists – Ubiquity Cookin’ Series
Kashmere Stage Band – Texas Thunder Soul

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Thanksgiving weekend was spent with zero items checked off from the list of traditional activities. The flipside is that it was the same weekend as Loy Krathong festival which I had been anxiously awaiting every since I saw a picture from it years back. The picture I had was from Chiang Rai which holds the largest celebration in Thailand with thousands and thousands of khom loy, paper lanterns (literally “floating lamps”), sent skyward. However, I was not disappointed by going to Patong Beach to celebrate. There were at least a hundred or more drifting away at any given time and it looked amazing in the skies over the sea and the hills.

Stayed up late that Saturday nite to listen to the Tech game online. Tech fucking blew it again…or at least we were just really unlucky this year. Never saw any video coverage, but it sounded as though every break went UGA’s way. A fumble on the one-yard line, phantom interference, another call there, strange penalties, etc. Of course I wanted a ‘W’ when the game was over, but I was satisfied with at least having heard Wes Durham with the call on 790 The Zone. On the college radio note, it is only befitting here to offer my best wishes to the legendary voice of the opposition, Larry Munson. Hope he stays healthy enough to call another season, but it looks as though this past season might have been the last one.

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I don’t even know where to begin with the Phuket Vegetarian Festival that took place back in October. It was easily one of the most exciting events I’ve attended since I have been here. It lasted for nine consecutive days and while I could not make it to all of the parades, I watched the two that I really wanted to see including the Samkong Shrine parade which went down my street and the Jui Tui Shrine parade which was the biggest of them all. It was one hell of a spectacle and the pictures included do it no justice whatsoever.

The main street near my house was flooded with food stalls, all serving vegetarian food of course, and provided a welcomed relief to the monotonous cuisine I consumed regularly here. I ate up there every day during the festival since my favorite local vegetarian shop went from having one customer, yours truly, to being completely overcrowded with people on a nightly basis. So, what is normally just a passage way to my house, that rarely gets a second glance while riding by, became a hustling and bustling area filled with tons of people, aromas of all sorts, delicious foods, worshipers at the shrine, and firework explosions in the air. One of my favorite stalls was the guy serving chai tea. Not because of the great taste of his drinks, but the acrobatic way in which he both prepared them and served them. Wish I had video of that one. It’d make you smile for sure. Overall, it was a refreshing and exciting atmosphere.

The finale was a procession from all of the shrines on that Friday evening to the waterfront area in Phuket Town known as Saphan Hin and this was when the festival went from an insane visual spectacle to all out mayhem. Again, words do very little to paint this picture because, to the untrained eye, Phuket Town was an absolute riot zone. On the motorbike ride down there, Khun Ree and I crossed over a hill only to see fireworks exploding in the sky and being thrown by the crowd in every direction on the streets. As we followed the hoards of bikes down to Saphan Hin we meandered through the back alleys and when we got to the parade we both had jaws down to the ground and, were it not for a generous girl giving us cotton for out ears, we would have had both hands over our ears as well. The streets were literally ablaze and we took no time in deciding whether or not we wished to partake in the chaos. After hours and hours of explosions, we called it a nite and headed off to the local pub to celebrate what was surely one of the most memorable moments of 2007.

Anyone wishing to visit Phuket in the next year should either schedule it around the Vegetarian Festival which takes place from September 29th – October 7th this year or Songkran Festival which is always held from April 13th – 15th. Both will surely not disappoint in the excitement department.

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Nice shot from one of my favorite spots in Atlanta…or outside Atlanta. The view of downtown atop Stone Mountain. I spent countless days there in 2006 running along the paths or climbing up to the top. In the fall, hardly anybody goes up there when the sun starts to set early and it allowed for a great spot to let your mind settle. Many sunsets were watched from up there, some looking just like this one, and many moments were spent thinking about leaving that city in the distance behind and moving here. I certainly miss those days, but at least I know it’s not going anywhere and I’ll be able to climb up there some time in the future.

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One of my students asked me if I could write down the lyrics to a song for her because she wanted to learn it on guitar, learn the lyrics, and then perform the song for her husband in a few months for their anniversary. She told me the song was called “What’s Up?”, but I had never heard of it. After looking up the lyrics when I got home, I discovered that it was the one-hit wonder song by 4 Non-Blondes. What the hell? I remember when I first moved here that I almost spit my drink out, as a result of laughing, when I heard a band play that live. I still don’t understand why a song such as that would be able to withstand the test of time over here. Then again, they might have just discovered that song within the past year. Who knows?

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One of the guys who works at a shop near my house rides this motorbike. I’ve been wondering why the hell he has a Nazi flag on the back of his bike ever since the first time I saw it. I understand that the symbol can be used in the context of religion, but this here flag is undoubtedly a Nazi Germany flag. There actually is a etymological connection between the flag and Thai culture with the Sanskrit word “svasti” being the root word of both “swastika” and “sa-wat” which is a Thai greeting. Nonetheless, it remains completely bizarre.

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