Courage

Hi,
Dateline: The Road. After a harrowing, three hour ride through mountains, detours and a stop by the police, our bus made it to the big city. After a brief bargaining session with what seemed like a mellow Tuk-Tuk driver, we went on the Mad Hatter's Wild Ride. This reporter likes a thrill and enjoys the feeling of wind in his face, but damn. We squeezed through gaps in traffic that should have scrapped paint. Near misses every block, from the station to the hotel. We are so out of practice. Or maybe we've just grown accustomed to small town life.
Back to reality. Didn't hear from too many of you yesterday. And I thought you knew your tunes. Here's the lead into the hook:
"They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, call me __ __..." Hint: Now really, does that need explaining? It's a classic from two prolific guys.
I keep remembering things I meant to tell you. Being in a hotel again reminded me of a card that was in our room in Bangkok. It had to do with a certain type of guest. The term they used was 'Lady Joiners', and there were lots of rules and regulations. Every hotel has some type of notice. In Chiang Rai, at our first home, The Wangcome, they had a person at a desk in front of each elevator, to sign visitors in and out. Hmm.
This afternoon we walked for miles, looking for an art supply store. We were given a tip at our favorite eatery, but the store we found wasn't what we were looking for. After tramping around in the heat, we returned to the hotel and went for a swim. Oh joy. It was a big pool that went from very shallow to not too deep. Each lap in one direction had to end early because my hand would hit bottom. We had a great time since it was empty. Then a big party arrived and took over one end so we just hung out for a while. Most relaxing.
This evening we dressed for dinner and ate in the hotel dining room. We were their first guests of the evening. Talk about service. After our meal we asked for the check. Our server brought us each a cookie and flowers: three roses for me to give to Lisa, and a garland of jasmine for her to give to me. Still no check. Then she returned with two snifters of brandy. We sent them back and asked again for the check. This time she brought it. We could tell by the smile on her face that she also thought all that stuff was a bit much. She was a trainee and did a very good job. The bill was pretty small considering we got dinner, cookies, flowers and booze. Tomorrow we hit the same room for the breakfast buffet.
A big part of our mission was to see an art festival. After dinner we went to the Night Bazaar in search of same. After asking many people, we finally got it straight, from a desk clerk at one of our former hotels. It was a disappointment. With the exception of three artists, all those assembled were doing the same thing. Namely, photo-realism. It's amazing what they can do, but it's not very creative. That's what we were looking for. The artists we did find that were being creative, were mostly doing variations on a theme. One artist really moved us with his scenes of monks in various settings. Oh, we did get two address for art supplies so tomorrow we'll track them down.
And now it's time for Happy Tuesday.

Peace,
Danny

PS Click it, I dare ya.

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."
~Raymond Lindquist


Gettin' Funky, Thai Style

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