Photographs from "With the Wisp" Film Shoot, Ballydehob, Ireland

Finally, the New York-bound plane as we passed by enroute to London:

3/29 - Arrival in HKG

Just off of a very pleasant flight, in very nice seats, from Bangkok. Had a great time watching episodes of Little Britain, The Office, and Arrested Development, especially because I could start and stop them at will. I've found that TV shows are just the thing on flights for me. Due to my shortened attention span (is it the lack of oxygen?) I often find that most movies won't hold my interest, so a half-hour show, especially comedic, is perfect.

Just had one of the nicest showers of my entire life in the lounge (comparing only with my previous HKG shower back in January). We were lucky enough that they let us in for tonight, and not just on the actual day of our flight. Perhaps this is policy and I wasn't aware of it. Anyway, now the lounge will close on us for 4.5 hours. Must go.

3/29 - Good Old Don Muang

At Bangkok Airport now, also known as Don Muang. I don't know how I feel about the name of the new airport about to open to the east of the city- Suvarnabhumi, if I've got the spelling correct. I like it about as much as the King's name, Bhumibol. He can also be called Rama 9 though, and I rather enjoy saying that. And now that I've been able to see three versions of the King's Song (and accompanying video of course) at the cinema, I have to say I like him. To the extent that, if I had the chance to meet him, I'd be excited. Remember- in Thailand, you must never step on a banknote or coin, as it's the equivalent of kicking the King in the face.

The earthquake last night was not felt by us, nor would it have meant any danger to us if a tsunami had materialized, but we were watching BBC World when the news came in about it, and it did give us a dramatic hour or so, in which we pictured the wave hurtling across the ocean in the dark, not all that far from us. In case further clarification is necessary, I imagined it from the perspective of someone hovering above the ocean at a height of about fifty feet--a scary thought in itself, really.

I'm sitting in the First Class lounge, which is highly disappointing when compared with the splendor of those in Hong Kong. To think, they don't even have a dedicated restroom, and make us go out and use the commoner's toilet in the main terminal area! (That was sarcastic airline snobbery, by the way, though the lack of restroom does in fact annoy me). Good cappucinos, bad dragonfruit. What is it with this on-again, off-again fruit? Just now I was relieved to see that the Cathay A330 loitering outside the window isn't in fact our plane, and it looks like we'll be getting the promised A340-300 after all. Why, you might ask? Well, the A340 features the newer, long-haul type of fully-flat business class seats, complete with video on demand. It shouldn't really matter for a sub-two hour flight, but of course it does to me. In fact, what should be concerning me more right now is the night we're about to spend in Hong Kong airport (we arrive at 10:30 p.m. and leave at 9:15 a.m.) Actually I'm looking forward to it. The Wing (one of the lounges in Hong Kong) opens at 4:30 a.m., so we'll end up with just a six-hour stretch of non-lounge airport wandering. I've no idea how dormant HKG becomes in the middle of the night, but I'm envisioning that being in that massive space (longest indoor structure in the world I think) with no one else around will actually be pretty cool. And besides that, we've managed to somehow stay on UK time this past week- not feeling tired until 2 or 3 a.m. and waking up with great effort around 1 p.m.- so it should suit us fine.

Which reminds me- at some point I'll comment on our time in the UK and Ireland, which was most enjoyable. Ireland was the best week I've had in a while, due in large part to the great group of people that were there with me, and also to the very cool short film that we managed to shoot. And Colin was most kind in hosting us for a couple of nights in Caversham, which we spent relaxing and catching up. But more on that later.

Speak to you next from Hong Kong or Sendai, depending on there being anything newsworthy between now and Japan.

3/27 - Stalked by a Tiger Fish

It's been a pretty nice beach-life for us the past couple of days, even though our arrival here on Thursday was mildly disastrous. After two nights in Bangkok sorting out our Japan Rail passes and visiting an amulet market which we missed the first time through, we had a fairly smooth journey down to the island of Ko Samet, off the "east coast" of Thailand (three-hour bus, hour wait for ferry, half-hour ferry, ten-minute songthaew). The problems began when we arrived at the place I'd called the day before and made a "reservation" with, and was told that we should try somewhere else by a strangely zombie-like young girl. After persisting, she showed us a room, and it looked and felt like a prison cell, so we ended up moving on anyway. Then we found a basically acceptable bungalow down the beach, at a place called Tub Tim, but were told we'd have to leave in the morning because they were booked full for the weekend. All this time it was terribly hot and sunny and with the weight of the bag I ended up drenched in sweat, cursing the island and all the people who were taking up space on it. So the next day I went door to door looking for rooms, and only three places had them. Two rooms were also prison cells so I took the one that was a little better than that, at Jep's Bungalows, even though it featured shared mosquito-infested dirt-covered bathroom/shower combinations which did not agree with me whatsoever. So, two nights avoiding the bathroom and shower at all costs, and now it's Sunday, people have cleared out, and we've managed to move to a nice bungalow up the hill at the same establishment, which has its own bathroom and even a television featuring BBC World (and ESPN, Randy, in case you were considering a visit). Here we will be for the last two nights.

Ko Samet (pronounced kaw samet) is about like you'd expect an island within three or four hours of Bangkok to be. It's fairly overrun and overdeveloped, with bars proclaiming on their signs "Let's Get Fuckin' Wasted!" and sellers of fruit, sarongs, and massages marching in an endless procession down the beaches. But at least it seems to be a destination attracting an equal number of tourists and Thais getting out of the city, and for that reason feels a bit like we're not just holed up in some western-tourist enclave of artificiality and consumerism. And then there's the fact that the sand is finer and whiter than I've ever seen sand before, and the water is blue-green and refreshing. At night there's a pleasantly loud chorus of insects and the crashing waves. So I can almost forget about the fact that it's a bit too crowded, and I can hope that some time in the future I'll find a beach where no one else is, and where the Gwen Stefani album doesn't blast nightly from the rowdy beachside bar. Although, to be honest, I like the Fiddler on the Roof cover song. I don't know why, and I'm ashamed of it, but I've been singing it for the past two days, much to Aubrie's dismay. Anyway, for a five-night island retreat before the end of the nearly 10 week-long Asia trip, this will do fine.

Today on the beach of fine white sand, I fed a stray puppy, brown and extremely cute, most of the mango that I'd just bought (though when he went for the pomelo I had to stop him). Who knew that dogs liked mangoes? And while we're on the subject, pomelos are something I like very much. They're a massive citrus fruit, with a pleasant flavor, kind of like grapefruit, watered down. And actually, I should also state that I no longer denounce dragonfruit as a tasteless waste of a nice outer skin. I had some recently that actually was very good and lived up to its looks. Furthermore, here I've been drinking Chang Beer the whole time in Thailand because it has elephants on the label, but as it turns out Singha is the superior beer after all.

Also in the news of today, Aubrie and I were stalked in the water by a miniature tiger fish. In fact, I only named it tiger fish because it had stripes like a tiger, and it's probably called something quite different in actuality. It was maybe an inch long at most, and darted towards us no matter how much we tried to move away and in confusing directions. After a while we actually got worried enough to get out of the water for a while. Later, on our second visit, something which I did not see bit my finger, and I'd be willing to bet it was that little bastard. Why he was so interested in us is a fine question. In a similar incident, I had a large insect fly directly into my eye and get stuck in there last night.

In this week's headlines, Aubrie had the audacity to buy a pair of boots at Gatwick Airport as we were leaving to come here. Admittedly, they're nice ones, in the Pocahontas-chic style. But I was firmly against it, considering the added weight, as I'm sure Aubrie's mom will be when she sees the Pound to Dollar conversion in her bank account.

I have a good long rant about Emirates Airline written out in my notebook, which I'll probably end up posting here once I've got some time to kill in Japan. In the meantime, try not to fly with them.

Strange to think that we set off on this back in early January, and now we're about to head back to Japan (on Tuesday) and call an end to this period of wandering through the tropics of Asia. More than you might expect, I'm looking forward to being able to relax for a while, without worrying about my bag, foreign currency, finding guesthouses, getting the air-conditioning to work on buses, avoiding cockroaches, etc. etc. But of course, I'm sure I'll miss this lifestyle in a way. And I have a distinct feeling that I'll be missing these 40 Baht Pad Thais most of all. That and the geckos plastered all over the walls.

3/23 - May Our Souls Follow Closely Behind, by Aubrie

Back in Bangkok. The street noise is deafening, there are all those strange smells that creep out in the heat, and with current humidity levels, Weather.com tells me that the city feels like 116 degrees fahreheit, or 46.6 degrees celsius. It's good to be back, although the stress of traveling in Asia for 3 months is testing our nerves. Like William Gibson says, when we fly, it takes several days for our souls to reenter our bodies. The physical realities of Aubrie and Gabriel have made it here, have checked into the New Empire Hotel in Chinatown, have been walking along Si Lom road preparing for our departure to Ko Samet--but our ether is somewhere between London's Gatwick airport and Bangkok's Don Muang airport. Of course, since we flew Emirates Airlines via Dubai, our souls could very well be riding camels through the desert, or doing some last minute duty-free shopping. I would be willing to wager that Gabriel's ether is smoking a double apple narguileh.

About the New Empire Hotel: it sits in the center of Chinatown, and is a good deal at 700 baht a night, about $19. For all you Murakami readers, the hotel is a perfect replica of the Dolphin Hotel, which features prominently in his novels "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Dance Dance Dance." So the New Empire Hotel doesn't feel like a hotel at all, actually--more like a tiny pocket of the city where time has stopped, a whole other dimension. Sure, there is a front desk with receptionists. A bell boy even carried our bags up to our room. But once you step out of the elevator, the lighting is dim, the hallway is slightly curved, there are endless numbers of rooms and doors and yet it seems like no one else could possibly be staying there. It's eerily quiet. When you shut the door to your room, you could be anywhere. There are no distinguishing features whatsoever. There is a place where a mini-bar and fridge should be, but like the cheap-end models of certain cars, the space is empty. There is a hot-pot, but no tea or coffee to make in it in sight. There are desk drawers, but no phone book and no (gasp!) Bible.

Tomorrow we are heading to the island of Ko Samet, off Thailand's East coast. It takes about 3 hours by bus, and then you must take a ferry to the island itself. We'll be staying in a hut on the beach, doing nothing much until we head back to Bangkok (again) for our flights to Japan. Gabriel informs me that although Ko Samet was declared a national park, it's known to have a large litter problem, and since Gabriel gets more and more concerned with enviromental issues as the trip goes on (and justifiably so), he may choose to stay on the island and forge an anti-litter campaign.

Gabriel apologizes for his absence of posts over the last week or so. While we were working on a friend's film in Ireland, internet access was scarce, if even available. The tiny town of Ballydehob, in West Cork, had little in it but petrol stations and potatoes, and of course a string of Irish pubs. In seriousness, Gabriel and I both found the brief trip to Ireland refreshing and grounding. I had been to Ireland once before, on a high school EF tour when I was 17. Gabriel had not, however. Being there a second time made me fall in love with it all the more, and since I'm going to be applying for Irish citizenship when I return to NY, I've had the idea to buy an old farmhouse somewhere in Ireland and restore it, with the help of my father, of course. Now all I have to do is find a job, start paying off my school loans, and become one of those people who exists in the real world, whatever that is.

Back to the subject of this trip being grounding, with a shout-out to Michelle F., since she enjoys a good emotional discussion: I find it strange but somehow appropriate that such a whirlwind trip through Southeast Asia should make me feel more grounded. I think Gabriel would agree on this point as well. It's as if my "self" has acquired a greater gravity, in the physical sense. Like a table with a wobbly leg or two, as you place more things on its surface and distribute the weight evenly to all four corners, it becomes more steady. But more on this later.

3/23 - Dreamstate Bangkok

I thought I might note that being back in Bangkok again feels much like what happens when one has been in a place and left it, and some nights later dreams that they are back in that place, with the awareness that it couldn't possibly be happening.

More from me (Gabe) soon.

3/12 - Brief Report From LGW

That's London Gatwick. It's not quite 5 a.m. and most people around me seem to have spent the night here. We were lucky enough to be holed up in the Ibis Gatwick Hotel for the past 15 hours or so, of which we slept about 13. Trying to comprehend what time it is at the moment is very confusing, mostly because we've had to wake up in the dead middle of the night to get our flight to Cork. On Thai time we actually slept on a fairly normal schedule, since 3 a.m. here in Britain is 10 a.m. there, but we missed a full night before that (sleeping wasn't much of an option on Emirates, but more on them later). On top of that we left Bangkok at night and arrived in Dubai with it still dark, at around 4:30, and now we're in an airport and it's dark again, having slept through the day. I don't believe the mind was made to cope with this sort of thing....

Still, we're enjoying it in a sick sort of way. It's great to be able to say 'yeah, we've just come in from Bangkok' and other similar world-traveller statements.

Of note also: the immigration woman grilled me about my permanent resident status in the UK for five minutes, as if looking to find a hole in my story somewhere. There are actually some holes (like the fact that I don't actually live here) but it worked out, as usual.

And: our shuttle bus driver was the ultimate British stereotype. I like when a country sends me a stereotypical greeting as I arrive in it. After a failed mobile phone conversation, he turned to us and exclaimed 'Drives me bloody baaarmy, they're all foreigners, they are!'

My time is running out. 10 pence a minute is more than I'm used to!

Off to Ireland now.

Wat Xiang Thong and Kuang Si Falls, Photographs

A at the Wat, by G:





Various stages of Buddhist Hell, by A:





Tourists at temple doorway, by G:





Monks chanting, by A:





Self-portrait 1, by A:





No shoes, by G:





Self-portrait 2, by A:





Unused Buddhas, by A:





G Self-portrait with Buddha:





Buddha in the "calling for rain" pose, by A:





A in temple shadows, by G:





At the falls: