Aftermathew

I had the good fortune to be invited to help out on a photo shoot yesterday.  The shoot was being put together by my friend Aviva Palmer and her friend Patrick Wright.  For those of you who have never helped out on a photo shoot before, let me say there is a lot of hanging around and waiting for costume, makeup, and lighting changes.  Being adventurous souls, who like to DO things, we decided to take a lesson from the professionals around us and do our own little shoot on the side.  The theme was “Psychedelic Warrior”.

Special thanks to:

Nicole S., my producer and photographer

Aviva P., Invitation and hostess, creative concepts and costume components, psychedelic warrior concept

Kailin G., Costume help including ribbons and tights, and general psychedelic warrior inspiration

Angel D., makeup.

Enjoy the gallery here.

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Today Azure, Mike and Myself visited the MBK mall in bankok with the intent of buying cheap ‘designer’ jeans (average price around 600 – 800 baht, or about $20 – $25).   The jeans all look real, and the imitations are good.  It’s hard to know for certain if they are knockoffs made at the same factories that make the real jeans (at least brands that make their clothes in thailand) or are total rip offs, but in many cases the jeans look good even if the quality isn’t all there.

Well Mike and I spent about 40 minutes at the first store we found in the MBK mall (we think the name was Built-In), and had really enjoyed the experience of trying on different jeans and taking the advice of the salesperson working with us, who had been pretty cool the whole time and fun to shop with.  After a while Azure shows up and offers opinions.  Mike and I have done OK, but she’s not sure about any of them.  We decide to wait and come back later.  A switch is flipped in our salespersons mind and she gets PISSED.

All sentences paraphrased:

her: “I spend one hour with you!  You no come back later, you no more shop at built-in!  I no want you come back!”

azure: we really do want to come back, we just want to look around a little bit.

her: “you no come back.  I no want you come back.  You are stupid!”

one of us:  “we’re not sure why you’re so mad… we just want to look around.  We were planning on coming back”

her: “you no longer shop at any built in here!”

So we walked off and found other clothing stores and it wasn’t a big deal.  But it did feel to us like we had run into a culture clash.  In thailand are you obligated to purchase something if a clerk helps you for a while?  Or was this lady crazy by thailand standards.  The funny part is we really were probably going to come back.  especially for the jeans that Mike found (don’t worry, he actually did find better ones anyway…).

We felt somewhat drained after the whole experience and had to sugar up a little later and decompress a bit.  For me it was one of the most interesting and one of very few cultural clashes we’ve had.  Without talking to people who have spent a lot of time here i’m not sure if it really was a cultural clash or just an angry shop owner with sales-entitlement issues.

I arrived in Thailand about 5 days ago. After flying directly from Bankok to Krabi, i excited the airport to find my friends waiting for me. We ate the first of many incredible meals in Thailand and headed on our way to Koh Lanta, and island about 2 hours drive south of Krabi.

Lanta is kinda touristy, but absolutely gorgeous. Mike and Azure have already spent enough time here to have found some less touristy spots that the three of us can relax. Lanta is a perfect place to leave Seattle and all the stresses that accompany home behind. It’s been sunny every day, the beaches are gorgeous white sand with cliffs and jungles just behind them. The water is pale blue. Paradise beach post indeed.

This is the kind of place where relaxing is really your only option. I’ve been reading (finished Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, started Against the Stream by Noah Levine) gotten a few Thai massages, written a few postcards, and eaten many a good meal. I’ve managed to get myself a day of diving (awesome) and the three of us enjoyed a day of snorkling together.

Tomorrow we plan on getting on a train to Bankok, where we plan to do some clothes and gift shopping for a bit before we head north to chang mai. I’m really excited about heading north and seeing the other end of the country as well.

Early impressions of Thailand– Key moments that have defined the place for me….

• The food is incredible here.  Besides that, it seems to make my system really happy.  Something that always seems to happen when traveling, much of the conversation inevitably leads to digestion and everything surrounding: thai food works in my system.  Curry has taken on a new meaning for me here and last night we had a Thom Yum Phak (veggie spicy soup) with fruit in it that was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.  I could write for hours on the food and maybe I will in another post.  For now, suffice it to say it makes me very very happy.
• Beverages (hah! You thought I was done talking about food) are also a treat here.  Fruit juices and more commonly, fruit smoothies are prevelant and good.  Nothing takes the edge of the heat (the rather blunt and comfortable edge of heat anyway) off better than an icy cold mango, pineapple or coconut drink (beach paradise post indeed).
• The people have been really freindly.  The thai people I have interacted with have all been really warm, trustworthy and a joy to interact with.  It really makes it a pleasure to be here when people are welcoming of tourists.  And there are tourists.
• Tourists are plentiful.  I must say I’m excited to move on to a place where the tourists make up less of the overall population.  ALthough leaving the gorgeous ocean behind will be hard for me, the gorgeous mountains have a strong pull as well.  I find that the tourists here are, as is often the case rather annoying.  I’m tired of beaches aimed at “party people”, and look forward to places aimed at “relaxing quiet people” more.
• I had one interaction so far with the sex industry here, and it left a very weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I hope to write in detail in another post about this experience and all the issues it raised for me, but the short of it was that someone rather young (16-20?) was clearly attempting to offer me some sort of sex when no one else was around.  She looked frightened and unhappy.  I wonder how much of that is from her prior experiences.  I turned her down gently and resolutely, but the entire experience left me with a weird and saddened feeling.  It was the only negative experience I’ve had here, and it was over very quickly.  I hope to write a full post about it soon.
• Seeing this gorgeous island turn into a tourist haven is interesting.  On some levels this sort of thing is always sad, but on others, as mike and azure point out, the tourists have been confined to a arather small area.  I have bigger issue with the number of businesses being run by foriegners, but at least a lot of them are still also run by locals.  It will be interesting to see if big business ever really wins this tourist industry away from the locals.  I hope not.
• I love riding a scooter.  I think I want to take a motorcycle trip around S.E. Asia at some point in the next few years.

Ok that is a brief overview of where I’m at.  I am excited to see what comes next.  Lots of love to all. 

I left seattle a little over 24 hours ago. Probaby been about 26 or 27 since I left my door. I’m rather woozy from a mixture of lack of sleep, sleep on a plane, funny positions, sore muscles and stench (that would be my own at this point). I’m also sugared up from limeaids with my meal (dinner? breakfast? lunch? what do you call it when it’s 3 am in the timezone you’re in and 12 noon in the one you left 24 hours ago?). But overall I’m doing pretty well and I’m wrecked with excitement.

These are the first things I noticed:

The tokyo airport was not nearly as organized as I would have expected. Lines seemed haphazard, and random. Boarding our plane seemed more madness than method. This shocked me.

The one child I saw acting really badly on the trip was in tokyo. This was the first culture shock I experienced, and since it was an isolated experience I can’t be sure it was truly a cultural one. That said a little girl (4?) was screaming loudly for at least 10 or 15 minutes in a public place. No one seemed to shush her (she was complaining, not bawling) or pay her much heed. In america a parent would definietly have shushed their child. It was interesting for me.

The bankok airport is UP at 3 am and 4 am. I imagine the rest of bankok is too. I wouldn’t know (yet).

Delta’s gluten free meals aren’t half bad. ITs weird that there is no glutenfree/vegiterian option though.

Every time I’m in an interent cafe, I realize I could do it better. THis is no expection, adn writing this post is really hard on this computer. I’m going to end it here.

I just checked out books from the Seattle Public Library!!

I know, I know, you are not very impressed.  You and your enlightened selves have been checking out books from the library like it’s been going out of style since the paleolithic era.  You know that SPL has real RFID in the books so that checking out has become a simple drop book and scan card event.  BUT ALL THIS EXCITING TECHNOLOGY WAS NEW TO ME because I don’t think I’ve checked out an anything from the library since I was in college.

I know it’s kinda lame, but I guess I really like owning books and I buy them used most of the time anyway.  But I recently have come to realize that libraries are way cool.  I think even cooler, much cooler (is that possible?) than book stores.  They are cheaper for one, and they allow for the knowledge to be shared for another.  They are like a physical series of tubes, (books are tubes too you know) that the entire community shares.

I had the Library Tubes deliver a book that I couldn’t find used, and didn’t want to buy new or used that much, to my local branch and I checked it out.  I checked out another book too.  I didn’t know how to do it and I felt dumb saying it, but I know the lady knew.  Oh well.

I checked the clock at 7:52, and ran to the library by 8.  I just made it in.  I was hot and panting.  But I managed to get my books.  I am excited to read them now .

I bet I will be a huge library user very very soon.  I was converted before it even began.

Fanfarlo started the show quietly, but quickly filled the stage, and the room with their sound.  Throughout the show I think I counted 14 different instruments being passed between the 6 different musicians – Drum Kit, 2 Guitars, bass guitar, at least one mandolin, tom tom drum, melodica, keyboards, a violin, a musical saw, a clarinet, a trumpet, a tamborine, and something I’m forgetting.  The lead singers voice wrapped Chop Suey up like a blanket and the harmonies, especially the main backup singer (the only woman in the band) accented intimately.

Tonight was one of those rare instances when everything regarding a concert just lined up.  The band, playing their first show on their first US tour were both nervous and excited.  They were tight, but still spontanious.  They needed us as much as we needed them; we ached for each song and lapped it up when they delivered.  The crowd at Chop Suey tonight was excited to see Fanfarlo play, and we made sure they knew.

After the first wonderful encore came to a close, the small but determined crowd chanted “one more song!” until the band came out for yet a second encore.  They announced to us that they were very touched and also “very very jetlagged. [insert cute accents here]“  To which we as a crowd responded that they were “very good.” Because they were…  And then they began to play for us again.  Giddy with the response.  Cute.  Composed.  Humbled.  The band and the audience both thankful for the moment.

Fanfarlo is charging $6 to buy their MP3s and the show was only $10.  If you live in one of these cities, I can’t recommend the show enough.  Their prices are more than reasonable, and the show was incredible.  Special even.   I really think this band is about to blow up big, but if you have a chance to see them in a tiny venue, do it.

I’ve been wanting to move to a 2 column wordpress theme.  I did this in just a few minutes.  It’s still a work in progress.