Still Hangin'

Our metabolisms have slowed to a stop and between stuffing ourselves on Thai food and grilling on the beach, we are doing little else. Although, like bats, we do come out at night. Ivan has been jamming like crazy with all the local bands. Last Night we were at another biker bar called The Easyrider Bar where they have a smokin' house band. Ivan says the guy on guitar is now one of his favourite players, and he's cute as a button too. He just stands there and plays with a huge grin on his face all night and the bass player is really great too. Tonight we are going back to a place called Scruffy Murphys and Ive will play there with an English dude and a Thai drummer named Goff. The interesting connection here is that when Ivan said he was from Canada, the drummer said he knew a guy who played sax from there who had died. The guy's name was Wayne Diggins who had actually lived in Whitehorse. Amazing. Wayne and Goff were very close here in Thailand, like brothers, and one night Goff got a call from Wayne saying that he had a very bad stomachache, so bad he couldn't play. Wayne then went back to his bungalow and the folks around him could hear him in pain in his room so they called Goff to let him know. He then got quiet and in the morning people around his bungalow didn't hear anything so they went in and he had passed away. Goff had to arrange sending Wayne home and taking care of his affairs here. He is going to give us a photo to take home for Wayne's mother. Very sad. Goff is an amazing drummer, has worked all over the place but now is in Patong for good as he was in the Tsunami and just wants to settle down with his wife. They were in Khao Lak, where thousands of people died; they were driving along the road when the first wave came and rose up to the hood of their car. When the second wave came, it washed right over their car and he had to smash the window out to get himself and his girlfriend - now his wife - out. It was very frightening. We talk to a few people here about their experiences and it is very fresh and difficult for them to talk about so if they want to they can, if not, we don't push.

Sat down to lunch yesterday and a cockroach the size of a Buick came throttling at me full speed! I decided that I was not that hungry and we left. We are tootling around the island on our scooters and sometimes forget that they drive on the other side of the road which makes for good fun as you can well imagine, it doesn't take long to correct your course when the headlights are all pointing straight at you.

Last night was the huge festival here for the full moon and it was very beautiful and romantic. The festival called Loi Krathong is the festival of light. Everyone takes lovely little flower offerings, very fancy little boats with incense and candles on them and money, and floats them out on a little lake in the centre of town, but the coolest thing is the hot air balloon thingies that you buy for about $2.50 and light the bottom of them and they fill with hot air and ascend heavenward at a rapid speed (although some of them flame out and threaten to extinguish tables full of tourists); there are hundreds of them in the air at one time over the ocean and they look like big shiny stars in the sky. There are food stalls and lots of selling and live music and dancing and they even screened a big movie on the beach. Sigh.

I am posting some new pictures today. The elephant comes around the hotels every night at 7pm for bananas and photos. It's touristy but it's fun. It's kind of different to see an elephant walking down the street, a bit of a head turner. In the event that you think that I only have one shirt on this trip, well, you are not far off. I am as sick of wearing it as you will be of looking at it. It's the fashion thing I'm not doing too well with. Healthy, but fashion deprived. Oh well, I know, stop complaining. It is, to say, the very least of my worries.