Anger Management Issues

I keep getting shocked lately. I went up to Kalasin this weekend and stayed with my buddy, Suwit, who is the branch president up there. There are no light switches so when you wanna turn the lights on you gotta plug in a switch. And I swear, every time I would plug in the bathroom light I'd get the crap shocked out of me. And then again at the English camp ... the power to the laptop we were using must not have been grounded cause anything metal on or plugged into the computer zapped me. Even the escalators exiting the subway ... shocks me every time.

This last week I went back up to Kalasin (my greenie area) for a few days. It was great to see all the members there and see so many people that I taught that are still strong in the Church and even contributing to the continued growth of that small branch through their callings and personal missionary efforts. There are a couple guys (Bank and Bon) that should be putting their mission papers in sometime soon. It was great to hang out with Suwit and catch up with him. We were pretty tight there back in my greenie days and he even moved down to the Pakkret branch for a while for work while I was serving there.

To tell the truth, though, besides seeing all the members up there, I couldn't stand being in Kalasin. I forgot how completely boring it is. There is literally nothing going on. I think that's why President sends a lot of greenies there. They don't know any better yet so everything is interesting up there ... but it's not exactly a place where you'd wanna take an extended vacation. I was glad to be up there that week though because I got to celebrate Loy Krathong with the members. If I'd been down in Bangkok I might not have been able too because this year it coincided with the King's older sister's funeral so they didn't really have any big Loy Krathong celebrations.

The same day I got back from Kalasin I had to go up to an English camp in Chainat. I took a bus to meet up with the staff that were gonna be driving up. The money collector lady on the bus would not speak Thai to me. I'd ask her a question and she'd just make a face or something like that was the only way she would answer me. Like she would just point with her eyes. And for some reason that ticked me off ... something so little and stupid like that. I eventually got off the bus farther away from where I needed to be because she wouldn't tell me what stop I needed to get off on so that just put me in an even worse mood. I refused to pay more money for a taxi or motorcycle to take me there so I started walking.

There was this drugged out kid on the sidewalk so I walked into the park and must have walked half a mile in the direction I needed to be going only to find out that the only exit out of the park was the one I'd walked through in the first place. Of course I got even more ticked off. And the whole time in my mind I'm telling myself, "I have no reason to make such a big deal out of this. I'm here walking through this beautiful park and life is pretty great. Just try to enjoy the now." So I guess it's good that at least I can recognize when I'm being irrational and I'm trying to deal with it. Eventually I hopped the fence (pain in the butt) because I refused to walk all the way back to the entrance and I was carrying a couple heavy bags.

The English camp was fun. There were about 100 high school kids that we spent 2 days with doing activities and assignments and helping them apply their English language skills. I decided not to let the kids know I spoke Thai until the end of the camp, but that was a lot harder than I thought because when I hear Thai now or when someone speaks to me in Thai I don't translate it to English first or think of a response in English and translate it to Thai. For the most part I do my day-to-day thinking in English, but when it comes to speaking Thai my brain just switches to Thai mode.

Getting back from the English camp was a hassle. I rode with the staff from Chainat to Suphanburi. Then took a bus from there to Mochit in Bangkok. Then hopped on another bus to go pick up my motorcycle at Big C near Central World. Then I got some gas and started driving home. After hours of traveling I was almost home ... when I got hit by a truck. I've never been in an accident before so this was my first.

I was just driving along and at a safe speed too cause it had been raining and the roads were kind of slick. There was a truck parked (not moving) on the left side of the road (we drive on the left here) with its blinker on. Of course I saw him, but I had the right of way so I kept driving straight ahead in my lane (the farthest left of the two left lanes). And just as I was about to pass him he started to turn into the road. I turned/braked as much as I could on a slick road to avoid him and honked my horn and if he had stopped right then I probably could've have avoided him, but he just kept on turning and I slammed into the front right side of the truck.

Me and the motorcycle went down hard, fortunately not into oncoming traffic. With broken plastic and glass shattering around me. And it was right at that point that I lost control of my emotions and rage took over. As I write about it I feel shame for my inability to keep myself in check. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I got up out of the road and walked over to the truck and slammed both hands on the hood as hard as I could while yelling and swearing at the passengers through the windshield. Could I have hurt someone in the vehicle if they had stepped out of the cab right then? I don't know, but that uncontrollable rage only lasted for about 10 seconds before it dissipated.

I realized cars in the other lanes were honking at me to get my motorcycle out of the road so they could continue on their way home. They see accidents all the time. And I was obviously not badly injured as I was up on two feet. So I pulled my motorcycle out of the road into a side street and the truck drove over too. He called his insurance and we waited. The passengers were a couple guys and a couple girls in their late-20's. They checked to see if I was okay and honestly I did feel okay, but that was just the adrenaline. Eventually my hip started killing like it'd been overextended or something. It's still pretty sore today and so are the muscles in my left leg, left arm, and neck. Otherwise, no major injuries.

The guy (driver) admitted he was wrong, but then started arguing with me about how I had no place to slam his hood like that ... it had left handprints in his hood that he'd have to get pounded out. At first, I got defensive. How could anyone be expected to be accountable for their actions after getting into a car accident? Eventually, though, I realized that even if I felt like the person who had slammed his hood was not me (because I wasn't in control), I still had to take responsibility for it. It reminds me of the guy in Colorado who pulled over cause he'd had too much to drink. Then another drunk driver slammed into the back of his car and it killed the first driver's two kids. So he got out and walked over to the driver of the other car and beat him to death. Now he's in jail. And even though it feels like I can sympathize with him, I don't wanna be resigned to the thought that under circumstances I can't be in control of my own emotions. I know I can be. And especially when it comes to anger ... I have to keep it in check.

So eventually the insurance guy came and after an initial misunderstanding where it looked like the truck driver was trying to claim he wasn't at fault for the accident, the insurance rep agreed that his customer was at fault ... but that there was also the issue of the hood. That would have to be a completely separate case holding me responsible for the damage. In the end, the cost of repairs to the motorcycle would be a bit less than repairing the hood of his truck so they offered to let me just fix the motorcycle myself. The driver did, however, offer to take me around to get the parts for a cheaper price if I got quoted too high. He also told me that if I ended up going to get checked out by a doctor I could call him and he'd pay for the cost of the visit. I haven't gone to a doctor though. I'm just taking some Ibuprofen and trying to rest.

Honestly, the best way to describe how I feel is that "I got hit by a truck," but I'll be fine. And the motorycle didn't have any major damage so that's a good thing. The thing that has affected me more than the accident itself, though, was the realization that I have a long way to go in developing self-control over my emotions and appetites. If I hadn't slammed his hood, the insurance guy would've come and opened a case and would've paid for the repairs to my motorcycle and any hospital visits and that would be the end of it. But actions, no matter how little we may feel we are in control when making the choices that lead to those actions, have their consequences. And my consequences were that I had got hit by a truck and then still have to fork out the money to pay for the repairs myself.

I was supposed to have an audition for this Thai TV show called "Dan Daaraa" the next day, but I wasn't really feeling up to it so I called and moved it to the end of the week. I went down to the Immigration Office because my visa expired on that day and if I didn't renew it I'd get fined 500 baht/day. Fortunately, my friend's (Naam) little sister's (Tan) boyfriend's (Bio) father is like the head guy of Immigration in Thailand. I talked to Bio and he got me hooked up. They took good care of me and got me all the paperwork without having to wait in the obscenely long lines.

After signing everything, though, the lady helping me told me I just needed to pay the 2,000 baht visa renewal fee. I excused myself and got on the phone with Bio quick. I was under the impression that the "help" his dad could get me was that I could renew my visa for free. If it was just a matter of going down there and renewing it like everyone else I could've done that on my own. Eventually, he talked to his dad again and they got it renewed for me for free which was a major blessing for me. Money is tight, if you know what I mean ... like real tight. So this helped a ton. Now I can stay in Thailand for 30 more days and, lucky for me, my plane back to America leaves on the same day my visa expires.

I bought the first 4 seasons of The Office (TV series) for a good deal and I've been watching those a lot. I love that show. I'm getting real excited for Christmas. I'll be here for the stake Christmas activity and I'll get to perform a few numbers with another RM here named Devin Castleton. I'm gonna get together with him this week to practice and eat dinner with him and his wife. I'll get home just in time to celebrate a week of the Christmas season (better than Christmas Day itself) and spend time with my family. Hopefully there's snow. It's so hot here. I'm always sweating. Gotta shower twice a day.

I'm loving it here ... mostly. I honestly do get lonely sometimes, even with as many friends as I have here. The fact of the matter is, I can only handle seeing most of my friends (members, former investigators, etc.) occassionally, and there are only a select few that I would really like to spend most of my time with. But I don't think those select few believe me when I say that because they see that there are so many other people here that want a piece of my time. In the end though, I'm the one who gets to decide how I divide my time and who I spend it with.

I went to use an internet cafe the other day and I saw this sign "Thai Only." I asked the people working the food stand out in front if that actually meant they refused to let foreigners use the internet there and they said that it was really only meant for the black people in the neighborhood (there are a lot of different nationalities in this area where I live). I couldn't believe it. I've only experienced minimal racism in America against black people and I never thought I would see it anywhere else, especially somewhere like Thailand where there's not exactly anyone with the Aryan mentality going on. And here I thought all Thai people were equally as kind and ใจดี. P.S. I love Ernie Halter's music. Check him out.

As Far Away As I Can Get

Here's a picture of me and Kami on Halloween. I already wrote about it, but I'm putting a picture up here cause she asked me not to put the pictures up on Facebook. Even the pictures we took at Pattaya with her and her friends have the rumor mill within the Church here in Thailand working at full capacity. Creepy picture though, huh? I don't know how Kami can manage to look scary and beautiful at the same time, but she pulls it off.

I moved from Don Muang down to Srinakharin. Today I started riding my motorcycle back up to Don Muang and got pulled over by the police. I'm settled to my lot in life as a cop-magnet. I wasn't wearing a helmet and apparently I was driving in the wrong lane and apparently I need a motorcycle license in addition to my driver's license. So basically I should've been screwed.

Of course I tried to talk only in English with the cops at first. They kept pointing to their heads and telling me in Thai that I needed a helmet, but then I'd just take off my hat and wave it in their face and tell them I already had a hat. Eventually, I realized they weren't just gonna let me go so I figured I could do better at saving myself in Thai. After initially being offended that I refused speak Thai to him when I could speak it just fine, he became a lot more easygoing and I talked him down from 1,000 baht fine to 500 to 300 and in the end only ended paying 200 baht. Then I bought a helmet.

By that time I was already late for my lunch meeting in Don Muang and then to top it off a huge storm hit right where I was at. Not only was it raining cats and dogs, but I swear there were hurricane-strength winds blowing around. I ended up soaked before deciding to park the bike and take a taxi. I met with Kung and she introduced me to one of her mentors, Suwit, who is a rich businessman in Thailand that has set up concerts for big name singers for a number of years. He's gonna help introduce to a lot of other producers and singers and take me to their concerts and stuff.

He also told me that as opposed to a demo CD or just singing acapella when I go to various music labels, I need to have a backing track that I can pop into the CD player and sing along with to give them a better idea. So I bought some cheap music programs (i.e. Cakewalk, Finale) to get working on that. I also made some business cards (just my name and contact info) at his recommendation.

I'm so glad I'm not back in America for all the election drama that's going on right now. I'm settled to the fact that it looks like Obama is gonna win the election, but when that happens I am predicting with a 95% certainty that there will shortly be an increase in terrorist attacks (on a large-scale) on American soil. I'm talking about the next few months after the New Year.

Terrorists are smart ... and they're patient. They've been waiting silently over the last few years (since the campaigning has started) for America to feel falsely safe and elect a president with weak international policies. Then when they hit America (which they will), we will be exposed as a weak superpower with neither bark nor bite. This is my prediction.

Vintage Wine of the Lord's Thai Vineyard

I got plenty of sleep on Saturday night, but for some reason I kept dozing off in church on Sunday. I'm usually drowsy in church and/or the temple, but this time I was like sleep-deprived. So when I got home at about 5 PM I took a nap ... and woke up at like 12:30 AM haha. So I've been here in this internet cafe all night and the sun just barely came up.

On Halloween I had a date with Kami. I rode my motorcycle all the way from Don Muang down to Srinakharin. I realized as I was driving 100/kmh on the main road that it probably would've been smart to get a helmet as I was the only one without one.

I stopped by Tesco-Lotus and bought some small watermelons to take to her place. Thai pumpkins suck for carving. They're too short and too hard. Watermelons worked great though. First of all they're easier to carve cause the shell or whatever it's called is pretty thin and plus you can eat the guts!

Then I wanted to make-up our faces Halloween-style. Kami didn't really want to, but eventually I won out. We went with the dark eyes and some dripping blood down the face. It was pretty simple, but freaky-looking. It scared all the neighborhood kids. I think the reason Kami didn't wanna make up her face was cause she knew everyone would stare. The thing is, I'm already used to everyone staring at me cause I'm a farang!

We went to Seacon Square and ate pizza and then went to see a scary Thai movie called Coming Soon (โปรแกรมหน้า). We found out when they got there that the theater was having a promotion that everyone who went to see that movie all dressed up on Halloween night got to see it for free! That was an unexpected surprise. They said we were the first two people to take advantage of the promotion and we were there for the last showing.

This movie was seriously intense. It wasn't like all the American horror movies that crank up the gore factor and just leave you feeling disturbed. Coming Soon was just more jumpy and intense than anything. I thought Kami was gonna break my arm she was clutching so tight. There's a Thai movie coming out in early December called On-Bak 2 that I seriously cannot wait to see. It looks even better than the first one. When we left the theater it was raining like crazy and all the streets were flooded. Driving home was like motorcycle surfing.

On Saturday I drove downtown with Naam to meet her friend Lerm. So it was me and two beautiful Thai girls. Lerm took us to dinner at a restaurant right on the Chao Phraya River across from The Golden Palace. And then we drove to the other side of the river and went up to a bar that had an incredible view of Wat Arun.

This week I'm moving down near Srinakharin. It'll be nice to have a change of pace and get to experience another part of Thailand. Most elders get to serve in like 5 or 6 areas. I only had 3 so I need to get around a little more. Plus, living down there will be closer to downtown Bangkok. Another thing is that it'll be nice to be close to Kami.

My friend Keng has been letting me borrow her laptop which has been a huge help. I just go over to the Amari Airport Hotel here in Don Muang and chill in their nice lobby and use their free wi-fi. I wanna try to get all my Thai music off CDs and loaded onto my iPod too. Speaking of my iPod, the screen broke. So Mom and Dad, if you wanna get me something for Christmas you can buy me a new iPod screen for a 5.5-generation 80-GB iPod Video for about 30 bucks on http://www.kingipod.com.

As for the whole rockstar dream, I've been kind of a lazy bum about really moving forward with it. As of right now, the only thing that would bring me back to Thailand right after Christmas would be a record contract with a major recording label. And as that's looking like it might not happen this time around, I'll more than likely be back in school at BYU this winter. Maybe I'll head back to Thailand again in the spring or summer.

And to save money for a plane ticket, the plan is to live in my van during winter semester. Shower at the gym. Do my laundry at friend's places. Haha I know that sounds like a terrible idea, but if that's what I end up doing it'll be an adventure. And I love adventures.

On Sunday the Don Muang branch president called me into his office because he wanted to get to know me better. We ended up talking for a while and I got to know him pretty well too. He's only been a member for a little over a year. Don Muang's former branch president (President Prasong) who served while I was a missionary there recently moved to Chiang Mai. If not for this new branch president (President Phitsanu) it would probably have to be an elder serving as the branch president in Don Muang.

The interesting thing about his conversion story is that his first introduction to the missionaries and to the Church was the SYS music group from 30 years ago. He only knew them for their music, but when he'd play guitar with his buddies he'd call himself a "Latter-day Saint." Years later, the missionaries that he miraculously became acquainted with and who saw him baptized into the Church were, lo and behold, SYS missionaries from this generation.

On a side note, the SYS group has since been dissolved and I believe this has to do with, in part, the narrow-minded attitudes of missionaries within the mission that SYS couldn't fulfill the calling of missionaries to "invite others to come unto Christ." I experienced the same kind of negative attitude from missionaries within and without the music group while I was serving and it was a real drain on the potential of its success.

What if President Phitsanu had no knowledge of "Latter-day Saints" and therefore no reason to strike up a conversation with the missionaries who saw him baptized when they ran into each other by chance in a stairwell. He may have yet to be a member of the Lord's true church and Don Muang would necessarily have a missionary serving as the leading priesthood holder of the branch. If anything is gonna take away from an elder's potential to invite others to come unto Christ (excluding those who are already members) it is having to take on the time-consuming responsibilities of a branch president.

President Phitsanu's conversion story was just another confirmation to me that SYS was an inspired program and I was called by God to serve there for the majority of my mission for good reason. I saw a lot of success through the combined efforts of the elders and sisters in that group and I know that is much success yet to come, both in terms of proselyting and baptizing as well as public affairs for the Church in Thailand, that I may never become aware of.

The thing that comforts me most is my personal knowledge that the Lord is pleased with my efforts as a full-time missionary. I am confident that having done all I could do, the rest is left in His hands and He will use future generations of hard-working missionaries to continue to work in His vineyard here in Thailand and see that work bear fruits.

Bob Dylan is a Terrible Musician

I can never think of a title for my blog entries, but this kid next to me in the internet cafe is watching a Google video of Bob Dylan and I just want to comment that I think Bob Dylan is a terrible musician and I don't know how he got famous. He should've just written good music and had other more attractive people with actually pleasant voices sing his songs.

Just like at the Beijing Olympics when they had a cute little girl lip-sync to another little girl's voice cause the second girl (the actual singer) had a snaggletooth and wouldn't have represented her country as well. Those Commies.

This lady I know from my mission (not a member, never really an investigator, but more than just an English student) here in Don Muang let me borrow one of her extra motorcycles and that makes life so much more convenient. Except for tonight. I hit a stray dog and wrecked the motorcycle and killed the dog ... I kid.

No, but I parked it at Big C in the motorcycle parking lot. The guard on duty at the time said if I came back in the middle of the night and the gate was locked to get the guard at the other end to unlock it. So I get there at about midnight and run into this other guard who was just a total prick and told me I'd have to come back and get it in the morning.

When he went back to his guard booth I stuck around and pretended like I was on the phone while plotting a way to squeeze the motorcycle through the loosely locked gate, but fortunately I didn't have to go through the trouble cause another guard at my end came back to his booth and totally helped me out. He's a man who knows the meaning of customer service. It was kind of a hassle for him, but eventually he got the bike out for me and I got home on my own. What a nice guy.

The reason I parked there in the first place was cause I hopped a bus down to meet Naam in Asoke and we went to an MTV party together. One of her good friends is the art director for MTV. He just hooked me up with a photo shoot on Saturday at Jatujak Park so I can have a portfolio to start with. He got us into the party too. It was chock-full of celebrities and musicians and good music and free drinks. Thaitanium and Buddha Bless were there hanging out upstairs.

The leader of the hip-hop group Thaitanium, Khan Ngoen (ขันเงิน), was just chilling on his own so I went and chatted him up. We talked for a good 20 minutes back and forth about how things are going with his group and my efforts to become a Thai rockstar here. I ended up getting his number and he saved mine and he told me to give him a call whenever I need any help or info or anything. That was a lot easier than I figured it would be.

Now I just need to do that with a few more celebrities and producers and get my name out there. I also got the number of this girl Honey that was giving out free Hang drinks cause she said she wanted to know more farangs to be able to practice her English ... and plus she was cute.

Let's see ... what else to write about. There's some stuff been going down that it would be so helpful to just vent about, but this probably isn't the best venue to do it in. Looks like a blog isn't exactly the outlet I thought it would be. What a waste of time. Suffice it to say that I'll be moving out of Don Muang because I'm feeling a lot smothered by some of the members here. Plus, I'll be moving closer to downtown Bangkok which will be a lot more convenient.

On Sunday Sister Pu's daughter, Naam, got baptized and she asked me to baptize her cause we've gotten to be pretty good friends. That was special. When I first heard she'd decided to be baptized I honestly wondered if she was really ready or if she was just doing it because she felt like it was a good thing to do, but after listening to her testimony at her baptismal service I know she was more ready than a lot of investigators I've seen get baptized in Thailand and elsewhere. Her testimony is solid.

Last week I went to Siam Ocean World with Kami. That girl is gorgeous. And I like her a lot. Is that giving away too much in an open forum? I don't care. I said it and I'm keeping it there. It was pretty cool, but not very big. I gotta shake hands with a sea turtle ... is that what they're called? I forget some English words sometimes. You would think that those would be replaced by a whole load of new Thai words, but I still feel like my Thai is kind of broken right now. These next couple months should give me some time to heal it and fix it.

I also went down to Pattaya with Kami and a couple of her friends from high school. The beach down there is pretty, but nowhere near as beautiful as Krabi. And plus there are way too many farangs in Pattaya. I hate farangs. They don't belong in Thailand. I don't consider myself one. But I don't consider myself Thai either. I don't know what I am. I guess I'm just the mutated baby that no one can diagnose ... just like SYS was when I was in it.

While we were chilling on the beach this guy came up doing Henna tattoos. He sat down and put the pen to my arm resting on my knee. I thought he was just gonna show me a little sample, but before you know it he's done a whole scorpion and then a sun with a ying-yang in the middle to boot.

Granted, I could've stopped him at any time and been like, "what do you think you're doing?," cause I never really told him he could, but I didn't. And toward the end I realized he was gonna want his money. I used the fact that he didn't even ask to haggle him down from 300 to 150, but I probably still got ripped off. Plus it got smudged soon after anyway and didn't have time to stick. What a waste.

I'm still growing my hair out. It's pretty sexy. I don't know if I'm getting a bit chubbier or if I notice that I am kind of chubby cause I hear it so much from members who mention that I'm fatter (a lot of it is that I'm just bigger in general from going to the gym after my mission ... I was scrawny on my mission), but I gotta start exercising ... even in spite of the heat.

I can't think of anything else to write about right now. Oh yeah, one thing: Ernie Halter sings this song called Allison and the name "Allison" is in the chorus. I wanna change it up to be about Kalasin (my greenie area) and make the lyrics fit my feelings about that little city. That'd be fun. I just wrote that so I won't forget.

Experiencing Thai Racism Firsthand

I'll be completely honest: I hate writing on this thing. It hasn't turned out to be the stress outlet quite like I thought it would be so far.

Last week my friend Andrea flew in from Bali. I say friend, but for all I knew we were only friends through Facebook, even though she's from Colorado. Come to find out that she went to Berthoud High School! ... but only for her senior year and that was the year I was in Norway.

She stopped in Thailand on one of the last legs of her almost yearlong world travels. I put her up at President Wisan's house and spent a couple days taking her around to see the sights in Bangkok.

We went to see the Ancient City which I know all the missionaries love to hit up on P-days. Truth is, it was boring. We just rode bikes around and saw smaller versions of temples and stuff that you can see all over Thailand.

On the way there we stopped by the Erawan Elephant Monument (pictured above) to snap some pictures. What I heard back in my missionary days was that Thailand was given some sort of educational grant and then took all the money and commissioned an outrageously large 3-headed elephant statue. It probably has some religious significance too ... almost every weird statue in Thailand does.

That afternoon we went to the Crocodile Farm and THAT place was definitely worth the money. Speaking of money, Andrea offered to pay my way cause I was broke and she probably would've gotten a tour guide anyway if I hadn't taken her around. So on my end I tried to get the best prices possible.

The ticket prices are about a tenth as cheap for Thais as they are for foreigners so I went up to all the ticket windows and in my best Thai told them I left my citizen ID at home, but that I had my Thai driver's license with me. The were so surprised to hear a farang speaking Thai and claiming to be one of them that they always gave me the Thai price ... EXCEPT for The Grand Palace which I'll get to.

The Crocodile Farm had about a million crocodiles, I swear, including a freakshow of deformed crocs. There was also the cutest little baby chimp. We could play with her all we wanted, but they wouldn't let us take pictures cause that's how they make their money. There were elephants and baby tigers too (including white tigers) to play with and a crocodile show (where the trainers put their heads in croc mouths) and an elephant show (where the elephants walk tightropes and stuff). It blows my mind that elephants can walk on two legs.

Oh yeah, and we went "croc fishing" ... swinging chicken guts from a pole and trying to get the crocs to jump up and snap at it. Plus there was a whole zoo inside the place with only a fence between you and the animals. Keep your fingers to yourselves.

The next day we took a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River to get to The Grand Palace. The farang price is 300 baht, but Thais get in free. I walked up to the gate and flashed my driver's license, but of course they pulled me aside and called their superior over. She was this stingy lady with a stick up her butt who wasn't falling for any of my farang-speaking Thai charm.

I guess I've gotten a little too self-centered since I've been here and assume I can get my way anytime I want because it really put me out that they wouldn't let me through for free. So I started getting a little cheeky with them and accusing them of being racist just because I had white skin, reddish hair, and blue eyes. Of course, that didn't help my case at all, but it let me blow off some steam. In the end, I had to pay to get in, but if I wasn't there to take my friend through, I would've just left. The Grand Palace ain't all that great.

Then we hopped on the train (which I rode for free) and went up to Ayutthaya to see the ancient temples and let Andrea ride an elephant while I walked alongside as the photographer. The mahouts were friendly guys and they told us to go outside the city a ways to the elephant village which is less of a tourist trap. We headed out there on our rented motorcycle and that place was so much cooler. There were tons of elephants there including these playful toddler elephants that kept trying to knock me over.

So I think I helped Andrea get a good sampling of what the Thai culture has to offer before she flew off to Greece. It's been raining a lot lately and the streets always flood. I've been on some more dates. I'm staying healthy, but the spicy food runs right through me. I've made some more contacts for the rockstar dream, but so far nothing solid. Mostly I'm just a procrastinator.

Oh yeah, I shaved my face. It's always weird going clean-shaven after being so hairy. I've been here for a month and my parents haven't called me once. Speaking of phone calls, here's my cell phone number: 082-089-2265 (011-66-82-089-2265 including the international and country codes).

"Teacher Weston"

I'm really tired. Thailand is tiring. It's hot. And all the spicy food gives me "broken stomach" again. I went up to the north of Thailand last weekend. My friend Keng and her friend from New Zealand wanted to go up there.

We went to church up in Chiang Mai and got some massages and did some late-night market strolling and spent a whole day on a tour doing everything from whitewater rafting, to riding elephants, to stopping by a butterfly and orchid farm (lame), to driving to a waterfall which was too dark to see by the time we got there.

It was fun, but not too exciting since I've done all that before and Chiang Mai is old news to me. I think I like the south better. The elephant riding was fun though because I convinced them to let me ride my elephant bareback again. And this time the mahout let me basically just ride it on my own and he had me wash it down and then walk it back to the camp myself.

We saw a couple monkeys too. One of them was tamed and being raised by a local family, but it was still so playful and crazy. It's hands and especially fingernails are so human-like it's almost creepy. The other monkey we saw was more wild. I gave it a bunch of chewing gum and despite the fact that it got stuck all over the fur on its hands, it was actually chewing it like a person.

The major reason I wanted to travel to the north was to see the Modhuang family in Phrae (just outside of Lampang). They are the family I baptized on the last Sunday of my mission when we were in Lampang during our SYS tour. Their conversion story is miraculous and they're still active and are now preparing to go to the temple. It was awesome to see them and just feel the love, although I can barely understand the northern dialect.

Right after I got back I turned right around and left to help with an English camp in Rayong (south of Thailand). Those kids there were so cute! And so good at English too. They were only about 10 or 11 years old, but when I asked one girl what things were associated with global warming she actually said "deforestation."

At midnight one night I went out into the ocean to take a swim. It was completely dark outside, but the water was so clear I could still see my feet through the water. There was a lightning storm going crazy right on the horizon. And when I would move my hand through the water it would glow! I thought it was light reflecting off the bubbles, but it was actually fluorescent plankton that were glowing green (like in The Beach). I chased around some small squid and crabs too.

The English camp was fun, but it was more tiring than I thought it would be. Now I'm back in Bangkok and I thought I'd be done with the whole travel and sightseeing thing for a while, but a friend just flew in from Australia and I'm gonna take her around to see some of the sights in Bangkok over the next few days. At least it will be some stuff I've never been too so it'll be a new experience for me too.

The other day I got these two cold sores in the back of my throat and they still hurt like nuts. Like it's hard to even talk or swallow. I think they're right on my tonsils. What are the point of tonsils anyway? I was thinking about that today. I should just get mine taken out. Never mind ... I just researched it and it sounds painful.

I went to the Asian Hip-Hop Festival at the Impact Arena last night. My friend Naam took me cause she had two free tickets. Hip-hop groups from 6 or 7 Asian countries were there. A lot of them weren't that good and it was kind of ridiculous listening to them try to be all gangster in English when they still had thick Asian accents.

The group from Malaysia (Kartel Records) was awesome though. Thaitanium (Thai hip-hop group) was good too. I like listening to their stuff. And besides the group from Japan (just okay), it was a pain in the butt (literally) sitting through the rest of them. We were there for almost 7 hours. The last rapper to perform was Nas (from America). It was cool to see him perform, but his lyrics are all too political for me.

My facial hair is slowly disappearing. I'll be clean-shaven in no time. The long hair stays though. I finally got my Thai driver's license though. It's good for 5 years and in like 11 Asian countries. จบ.

Too Much of the Thai Police Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Yeah, I know I just wrote a post, but that was about my trip to the South. I drove to the embassy the other day (to get a new license haha). A cop pulled me over cause I wasn't wearing my seatbelt. I pretended I didn't speak Thai and spoke only fast English. He asked for my license so I gave him my Thai one and he pointed out that it was expired. I just kept talking a lot and pointing and pulling things out of my bag, hoping he'd get confused and leave me alone.

He called another cop over so in the meantime I put on my seatbelt and told the second cop that the first one must have bad eyes cause I was wearing my seatbelt the whole time as he could plainly see (all in English). He was smugly trying to tell me (in poor English) that was he was gonna write me a ticket for 1,000 baht ... or I could just pay him 400 baht. I told him I didn't have that much money so he started writing the ticket.

I finally gave in and started speaking Thai to him. That threw him off. He couldn't believe it. He thought it was even more unbelievable when I told him I came to be a Thai singer. So then I told him I'd sing him part of a Thai song as my "fine" if he'd just let me go. So he agreed! Haha, sucker. I can't believe how easy that was. That's why I love Thai people. I got what was coming to me though. Traffic on the way home was so bad and I got lost so many times that I was about to punch a hole through the windshield. I get irritated way too easily.

Today I went down near the ocean in Rayong to check out a school where there's gonna be an English camp next week that I'm helping out with. I rode down with some members. As we were leaving, our car hit a motorcycle ... pretty hard. It was quite a shock to the system considering I've never been in an accident before. It destroyed the front bumper and sent the motorcycle and the mom and preschool-age son on it flying through air.

I jumped out of the car and went to help them considering all the other Thai people around were just standing around staring like they saw it happen every day. The kid just had a cut on his head and some scrapes and was obviously scared, but the mom had a pretty deep gash on her forehead that was bleeding pretty bad. I got a shirt and tied it around her forehead and told her to put pressure on it. I sat there with her for a few minutes while people called the police and then when I could tell she was pretty alert, I picked her up and carried her out of the road.

I didn't mind that I got blood on me, but I also wanted to be careful because AIDS in Thailand is pretty scary. Anyway, we got them to the hospital and took care of everything else with the police and insurance, but it was still quite the experience. I was surprised that I didn't feel even a little panicked.

I met with a few of my former SYS music contacts. Still a long way to go though. I found a recording studio that I'll be able to use for free in a couple weeks once this member gets back from India, but I'm still looking for one in the meantime. And of course I have made time for dates with beautiful Thai girls. I shaved my beard to a handlebar mustache that connects to my sideburns and I look like even more of a hick than before ... but I love it.