Part XVII - Beer Chang and Lara Croft

Still hanging in Ayutthaya. Its a worthy place, my only grievance being the barking dogs all over the place. There's an expat English metaller named Des staying at Baan Suan (my guesthouse) at the moment. He works in Bangkok and can speak very good thai, which is amusing to watch. We've been out the last couple of nights cruising the backpacker bars chasing skirt and talking about cricket and Iron Maiden. Drank way to much on thursday night and hung out in the ruins for a little while ony my way back. The big doors on the prang at Wat Ratchaburana were unlocked so I descended down into the crypt. Creeeepy..... Got back home about 3:45 and had to find my way in tomb raider styles... up the fence, along the roof and onto the balcony to get in. Had the hell hangover and its not pleasant in the relentless heat so I spent the afternoon at the nice cool internet cafe playing games. Played Red Alert against this local kid but my skills are a bit rusty and he wasted me.

Last night was a bit more sedate. A couple of quiet beers on farang street.

I went in to recon this bar but it was just full of men talkin' shizer. This dude sitting by himself looked interesting so I rocked over for a chat. Turned out he's a french scholar by the name of Saul. He's been studying Peter and the prophet Malachi and has written a book. I took a look at the manuscript, he's going to rewrite it in a format more palatable for the masses though. Da Vinci code styles. Had a good yarn for a couple of hours about juicy subjects like early man and aquatic ape theories.

Would you believe it. Some little Thai sh!t stole my sandals from outside the internet cafe. May dreadful tinea, gout and any other nasty podiatric complaints plague him for as long as he is in possession of them! They smelt really bad too, maybe a dog ate them.

Aaaaggh. Another hangover! Back down at farang street last night with Des was I. Bad influence is Des. There weren't many people out, met this nice dutch girl though.

Ayutthaya is like a warlord state, much like Mogadishu, but run by dogs. I was wandering around town with the dutch girl in the wee small hours of the morning and every street had its own resident pack of stray dogs which would bark and growl at us. Getting near my guesthouse though, the leader of the local pack came over, tail wagging big doggy grin. She always looked at me with sad eyes when ever I'd walk past. I must have been around town long enough to be accepted as part of her pack as she walked all the way down the street with us and the rest of the pack came too. When a dog started barking at us from behind a gate, she moved in close to the dutch girl and growled at the other dog.

Nearly forgot, I saw a fight! In the street outside the bar, this obnoxious fat balding farang started yelling in thai at the thai barman. I think he thought he was overcharged. The thai took the discussion in side as the thais aren't much down with loud arguments (saving face is everything here) but next thing they were rolling around on the floor. Was great! Des and I ran in to sort it out.

Back in Bangkok now. Khaosan road is as horrid as ever, especially having been away in a much better place. Was a pretty easy trip, a tuk tuk driver at the bus station even pointed the way to the city bus I needed. I ran into Saul at Khasoan too. I was beginnning to take for granted the friendliness of the people I ran into at Ayutthaya, travellers included. I went to the common area at my guesthouse and said hello to this european woman there and she just looked at me. Horrid, horrid place....

Got a not very good thai massage from this mad old woman named Suphap0rn. In Bangkok I got a massage from a woman just named P0rn. Good old thai names.

Gotta get myself across the Cambodian border pronto, cutting it pretty fine with the expiry date on my visa. Looks like its going to be full moon while I'm at Angkor, wicked! Will have to find a local to take me on a nocturnal temple visitation.