May 1st, 2004
108432521179915633
Chinatown and Jim Thompson
I’m staying at the White Orchid, a cheap little place on the main drag in Chinatown. I’m not sure if I’ll be here the whole time so I’m paying day-by-day. My room is not technically a bedroom as it has no openings other than the single door. This makes sleep incredibly easy at any time, but gives me kind of an unnatural feeling not being able to see the outside. It’s the thirteenth room on the twelfth floor, but this is actually the thirteenth floor, since the entrance level is ‘G’. This is Thailand, however, so dimensional paranoia may affect different alphanumeric combinations. The shower head sets news standards for unusability, with its three foot height and three foot hose tethered two feet below the neck.
The TV is much like the farce in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, there are about six channels, half of which are identical. They mainly consist of news and documentary, though I found and extremely phone six-and-a-half foot westerner teaching how to get custom clothes made in Chinese.
[VIDEO AND PICTURES GO HERE]
When I arrived at the airport this afternoon, I was picked up by a net friend, an extremely tired looking middle age Japanese man. We proceeded to have Thai ice tea at the Jim Thompson house before a huge dinner outside in the sweltering night heat. After a semi-invigorating shower of lukewarm water I fought my way through the sex laden street vendor haven of Patpong for dancing at Lucifer. The music was actually pretty decent, and the six dollar cover wasn’t bad either.
I think it’s a mandate (at least for Norse-blooded vacationers like myself) to take two to three showers a day.
