great comic strip...

http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html


It's very funny and beautifully drawn, particularly this one:
http://cheston.com/pbf/PBF011BCNotTodayLittleOne.jpg

And this one:
http://cheston.com/pbf/PBF027ADBillyBunny.jpg

Dammit read them all they're all GREAT!


laters.

Harumph.

In Bangkok.

Bought some dvds for when I go home, various movies and all of the fururama episodes.

Nothing else to report really... Drank beer out of coffee mugs the other night. It was after hours and the waiter kept asking us if we wanted more 'capuccino'.

I'm leaving for Koh Chang tonight, I'll spend a week or so there, then back to Bangkok for the last hurrah.

The laundry tore the arse off my favourite pair of shorts too.

meh.

I kinda just wish I was back already, it seems like a sunday evening watching the antiques roadshow when I should be doing my homework. prolonging the inevitable is no fun.

Leaving Laos

So, we're leaving Laos, and I have to say I'd liked to have seen a bit more of it, but things weren't to be. Next time I'll give it the attention it really deserves, it's such a nice, friendly laid back country. Anyways, Catching the super VIP bus to Bangkok tonight.

That's it for now, I know it's boring...


We did go to a football match in the National stadium the other day, it was all of ten pee to get in, didn't know who was playing but both teams sucked.

I get up, and nothing gets me down.

You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around
And I know, baby, just how you feel
You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real

Ah, can't ya see me standin' here
I got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't ya see what I mean?
Ah, might as well jump.


Kayaked down the Namlik river from Vang vieng yesterday, it was ace fun, we traversed some grade 2 rapids and just before lunch we got to jump from a 15 metre high cliff. It was very cool and I didn't hit the bottom this time. I'm a little pissed cos now I'm in Vientiane (possibly the world's smallest and quietest capital city) and there's nothing for me to jump off.

Still it's nice here. Went to a Lao Nightclub and danced around to some crazy happy hardcore strangeness, which was a nice change.

nice one.

I've just seen a man in tight green speedos.

He was fat and bearded and walked past the internet place. It's the middle of town. What in Christ's name does he think he's doing? Some people...


Went Tubing yesterday, or perhaps I should say Toobin' http://www.backntime.net/Arcade/Arcade%20Party%20Pack/toobin.gif

Seven of us went and lounged on the river drinking lovely Lao beer for about five hours. It was quite a leisurely pace, made more leisurely by the many 'bars' on the river bank, some of which had their own crazy jumping platforms and rope swings and stuff to mess about on. Had the most fun, especially on a rope swing halfway up a massive tree and a big cliff bit that was a good six or seven metres high. After my bungee jump it seems I am willing to jump off anything. This is not entirely a good thing as I volunteered to be the first to leap from this weird wooden ladder ramp thing into the river, only to find out it wasn't 'quite' deep enough. luckily the rocks at the bottom weren't that jagged and I got away with a grazed shin and a big bump. It's all good fun though, I think we're going to do it again tomorrow.

Ate some Papaya in rotten fish sauce the other day. Don't reccomend it.

stay Crunk.

So long Stringy Cheese.

The blog has changed name. I've decided that Monkey holding peach is a far better name for my uninteresting ramblings. The full name is 'White monkey holding peach'. I hope everyone will enjoy the new name as much as I do, if you liked the old name better, I'm sorry.

Arrived in Vang Vieng yesterday, it's a small dusty town resembling a building site. There are five hundred thousand restaurants here and they all show episodes of friends constantly all day and night. They also all sell the now obligatory 'Happy' Pizzas and milkshakes and stuff. So, most of them are full of people who probably just went in to eat, but have since been transfixed by the perky, yet non threatening comedy stylings of that famous New York Sextuplet. Add mind altering drugs to the bargain, and aint nobody leaving till they turn the TV off. Of course I haven't been tempted by the dark side here, and instead went to watch 'Love Actually' which is rapidly and very worryingly becoming a favourite of mine.

There are a few things to do here:

Go tubing down the river
Climb the Massive Carsts opposite the town.
Go caving
And Kayak around the place, including a two day journey to the capital 'Vientiane'.

I am planning on doing a few of these activities, especially the tubing and possibly some Kayaking.

We're staying at a riverside spot with a nice view of the Carsts from the restaurant and an ensuite with hot showers! It's $6 a room, but between the two of us only $3 a night each and the little comforts like that are sometimes needed.

That's all for today, Off to wander around aimlessly for the rest of the day.

It's a hard life.

BTW finished that book 'Perdido Street Station' It's ace, despite being a fantasy thing with magic and stuff, it's one of the first I've read that hasn't in some way ripped off Lord of the rings which is nice. On the look out for something else now, before people think I'm some sort of weirdy beirdy, or as Emma puts is 'yoghurt platter'.

Ahoj.

Luang Perbang Kipperbang.

Arrived in Luang Perbang last night after a two day slow boat ride down the mekong from the Thai border. The boat ride was cool, we were basically trapped on the boat for the whole day, so there was nothing to do but listen to some great music (of course) on my walkman and watch the landscape go by. Laos is 85% covered by unmanaged wild jungle and has a population of only 5 Million people, so even though we were on a crowded boat there were definitley some moments where I felt pretty isolated. It was definitley and experience that I would reccomend to anyone, although my arse would probably disagree somewhat. Lunag Perbang is a beautiful little town along the Mekong river with a decidedly french air about it. It was designated a world heritage site, and because of this it has retained a lot of it's colonial character. Sorry to sound like a travel brochure, but it really is nice, spent today just wandering around, reading my book and generally being quite lazy, but it's all been in an idyllic setting. The place reminds me a lot of Hoi An in Vietnam, but without the four hundred thousand tailors cramming the streets.

Not sure how long I will stay here before moving on, but I have to say I'm not in any rush at the moment, especially as the next stop is Vang Vien, described by the lonely planet as a mini Koh San road. Still, I'm sure there will be fun stuff to do there... I'll keep everyone posted!

As a conclusion, these albums are good to listen to whilst sitting in a boat watching jungle pass by. (And the occasional inflated dead wild pig.)

Mogwai - Rock Action
Ian brown - Music of the spheres
The Cinematic Orchestra - everyday
DJ NU Mark - Hands on
and my new favourite album; Amon Tobin's - Supermodified.

umm... That's it, netx time I will hopefully be in the other internet cafe where there is a very cute ginger cat that was sitting on my lap getting very cross when I was trying to type.

Hope the takings are easy...

The greatest website in the world ever...

This is fantastic. A great gallery of graffiti that's not about wildstyle or art.

Use the walls as post it notes... It's the way forward.


http://www.picturesofwalls.com/gallery02/000.html


Thanks Ben! :)

Today...

Today is Thailand's election day. There have been posters of all the candidates everywhere since October, and over the last week here in Pai there has been a constant convoy of Pick ups driving around blaring music and handing out flyers and stuff. One of the posters has a very frightening picture of a man brandishing a sedgehammer in a threatening manner. Apparently he's one of the favourite candidates! I'll never complain about European politicians again! On the other hand maybe we need our own pick axe weilding firebrand to stir things up in parliament?

Drove up to the top of a mountain today and with the upmost respect to Mark Woolley who did this very thing years ago on the top of Ayer's rock, sat and watched the landscape whilst listening to the whole of 'Mogwai fear Satan' ( A fifteen minute long instrumental song of truly epic proportions). It was truly awesome... Half the mountains were on fire and the vegetation on the other half was brown and dead. It was a funny moment for me, a few clouds moving across a perfectly blue sky, then this arid dead landscape below. Got me thinking about stuff, which is always a bad sign! ;) I'm very glad I did it though, it's kinda spiritual.


So... Top tip for anyone anywhere... Get to high ground, get yourself comfortable with a decently loud pair of heaphones and check out Mogwai fear Satan on their Young team album... It works.

Still in Pai...

It's a hard life sitting by the river reading books and listening to music. Not to mention the fruit shakes.

Reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (still) it's good, but very long. I think I'll finish it today, I reccomend it to anyone who wants to read a good adventure story with a bit of mathematics and geekines thrown in. Also has a guide on the perfect way to eat cereal if anyone's interested?

After that I've got Perdido street station by China Mieville. It's a big book too. It's a bit of a fantasy one but it's been compared to Gormenghast so it must be quite good. Amazon quite likes it saying "It's got love, loss, crime, sex, riots, mad scientists, drugs, art, corruption, demons, dreams, obsession, magic, aliens, subversion, torture, dirigibles, romantic outlaws, artificial intelligence, and dangerous cults. " So maybe I'll like it too. After that it's a book of short stories by Robert Olen Butler called "tabloid dreams." The first story is about a waterbed haunted by ghosts from the Titanic so it seems like my cup of tea.

In other amazing news I saw a white dogshit the other day by the side of the road! Unfortunatley I didn't have my camera with me, but I managed to take a blurry picture with my mobile phone, so as soon as I work out how I will post the picture up here. I was very excited and screeched to a stop on my bike to marvel at this blast from the past. Cody didn't really understand my joy at seeing such delights and was a little nonplussed as I photographed it for posterity. I guess in the US white dogshit is still a common occurence?

Whilst riding around the other day we rode through a forest that was on fire, the flames came up to the road on either side, it was like some early 1990's car commercial. All the leaves are off the trees here, not because it's cold but cos it's so dry and rather than sweep them up or leave them the locals set the lot on fire and start again.

All the locals wear ski jackets, balaclavas and scarves here, despite the fact that it's incredibly hot. It's an unnerving experience seeing someone riding around in the middle of the day with a balaclava covering everything except their eyes and mouth. Especially when they stop ominously right by you and stare you down. luckily the guy suddenly cracked a huge smile and pointed to my arm and stuck his thumbs up. Turns out he was just admiring my tattoo!

Umm

Ahh

so

That's it. Back in Chiang Mai on Monday, then Thursday we set out for Laos.

piece of pai

Got a nice wooden guesthouse by the river, Cody says it's more of a 'creek' but he's from Texas. It's nice and quiet except when the high school across the road has brass band practice at ridiculous times in the morning.

Pai's a very chilled place, all art galleries and macrobiotic coffeehouses, not exactly party central but really really nice nonetheless, and it gives me more excuses to get on a bike and explore. There are waterfalls and caves and minority villages all around so most days have been put aside for riding our machines without being hassled by the man.

sorry, got a slack jaw, not much to say. Despite not being in a den in Bombay.

Will post more another time.