Nicole gave me a tablet which started taking effect just in time for the boat to reach the lay of Phuket land, giving me all the icky drowsy side effects and none of the relief. The ferry climbed mountains and descended waterfalls for an hour as I turned greener and greener and quiter and quieter.
I intended to start A Confederacy of Dunces again on Monday on the bus ride up to Ranong. After 2 sleepless nights and a puker’s little helper, I fell asleep the moment my butt hit the seat, slept through the breakfast stop, slept through the downpours, awaking only momentarily to turn from one uncomfortable position into a slightly less uncomfortable position, repeating the process when said position became unbearable, back to the first position. Ryan woke me up after what felt like an hour – we’d been on the road four or five and were in Ranong ready to go through customs and get on the ferry to cross the border into Myanmar.
It then became my intention to read Confederacy on the ride back down from Ranong, but after a lunch which I’d yet again ordered thinking it was vegetarian and ended up picking meat off my eggs prior to consumption, I read about 20 pages and the puker’s little helper must have worn off and all the water I drank sloshed around in my belly trying desperately to hang on to something and finding nothing but slippery egg, and I was carsick again. Spent the rest of the ride laid out on the luxurious back seat watching the end of Singles and fading in and out of a very very very bad movie starring no one important enough to make it worth watching.
I went to Phuket sans Ryan who had to finish up a course before joining me on Sunday, but in company of Nic. And as it turned, other of “the girls” were in Phuket as well. After a somewhat boring round of the Dive Supply shin dig where Nicole bought herself a couple of new toys and I won a couple of expensive land torches, we reconvened for a night out on the Old Phuket Town. A dive called Rockin’ Angels – a little hole in the wall that was meant to be a jazz club as it had been billed to me, but was in fact a blues club with a band covering Dylan, the Doors, Hendrix and “Born to Hand Jive Baby!!!”
Morning came early on Sunday. We’d planned to meet up at 6:15 to go to the Vegetarian Festival. Lisa then found out that the pre-parade festivities were not convenient to us and the time was pushed back to 9:00. Having again not slept the night before I grunted my way through a few conversations with Nicole and was quite pleased to go back to sleep when she finally left.
Morning came early again on Monday as we made the aforementioned mandatory trek to Burma. Monday ended with a meander down the stalls of the vegetarian festival in search of foods for Ryan and my dinner. I came home loaded down with samosa type delights, pad see ew noodle dish, curries and a special dessert treat for Ryan – mango sticky rice.
Tuesday came early again. Thinking that the parade started at 9:00, I’d set the alarm clock for 8:00, thinking we’d luxuriate in a bit of snoozing before finally getting up. But we were brutally awoken at 7:30 by the banging of the drums and the popping of the firecrackers.
I remember when I was a kid, my dad’s favorite show was Ripley’s Believe It or Not, at the time narrated by Jack Palance. Surely Jack must have ended a segment on the Vegetarian Festival with his famous catchphrase, “believe it, or not.” The Vegetarian Festival is a Chinese-Buddhist period of atonement during which members engage not only in a vegetarian or vegan diet, but also in various acts of self-mutilation. We saw men and women parading down the street with a variety of implements speared through their faces – from knives and spears to an umbrella handle. We saw one man hitting himself in the head with an axe, blood trickling down his face. One man had a spear through his cheeks and what appeared like small arrows pierced through the flesh all up his arms and across his shoulders. A few men spasmodic in full on trance were guided down the road. What is unclear is the hoodoo voodoo peyote type junk these people are smoking to get themselves in this trance state. The following images from the Phuket Vegetarian Festival are probably not for the weak of stomachs.
After this strange wake up call it was back to refuge from the rain under the covers of a warm bed and escapist Iron Man on the computer. And another round of the delectables from the Veggie Fest street cars before grabbing a taxi back to the ferry.
Upon one year of living in Thailand we now know the ins and outs of getting around Phuket without getting ripped off.
Now back on PP! It was a slow wet week of too much time sitting in the shop watching the rain pour down in sheets as wind whips broken pieces of palm trees all around the island. The sun didn’t shine and Paradise was dismal looking. It was upon the completion of this dismal week that I quit. Completely unexpected, Saturday night ended with me walking into Barakuda after an unpleasant conversation with the manager and the rude text message that followed to talk to him about exactly how he was and was not going to treat me. We walked to the back, he started yelling at me. I told him he was full of crap and my final words were, “Ed, I’m all done with you, I quit.”
Not the best timing as I had a student, the girlfriend of a previous student, arriving on the island the following day. I was able to find a very nice shop to let me teach my course and was rewarded with a wonderfully delightful student who is doing not only her Open Water, but also her Advanced. It has been a very busy few days as we’re on a very aggressive schedule to finish her off before the 24 hour clock starts ticking down, but I’m very grateful for the work since I don’t know where or when the next baht will be.
Friday will come and first I clean our room, then I update the resume and start pounding the pavement.
I miss my friends at Barakuda a lot even though we’re on the same teeny tiny island. It’s not same same. But I reached the boiling point and the pot was spilling over. I feel like a bit of an idiot because I didn’t make my goal which was quite close, but on the other hand, I made my expectations perfectly clear and they were not met. And, I couldn’t imagine having to go in there one more day and look at Ed’s face and have to listen to him go on and on and on about this or that.
Well, as they say in Thailand, we love you long time.
Peace out!
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