Sabye Sabye

We've finally left Pai after being stranded or abandoned there for the past couple of weeks. I completely enjoyed it, after getting off the bus the first day and thinking, we're not staying here. The first impression is appalling; like a Nimbin on speed with tourists everywhere. But five minutes off the main drag and it's absolutely beautiful. And there are so many characters there if you want to get involved. Some of the hippies are just appalling. There was one character from france with a bald shaved head with a little matt at the back and various tatoos all over who was complaining that he had come all the way to Thailand in search of an "eco-village", apparently a village which is truly at one with nature, but couldn't find it. But he didn't believe in searching too hard for it, because that would be against kharma; so the fact that he couldn't find it because he hadn't stumbled about it was enough to make him decide that he was leaving Thailand.

I saw him in a cafe this morning reading some book called The True Earth. He clearly needs his crystals re-energised. There were others; like old fashioned rastas, with thier matted hair hanging down the back of their necks, filthy, you've got to be filthy. But the wierd thing was they weren't stoned; just high on life man. Sheeeesshhhh. Wouldn't have happened in my day.

But apart from all that it was just fun; sitting with the Thais at 6am drinking coffee for 10 baht; about 30 cents Australian; I'm about the only tourist up at that hour; just working out who's who in the zoo. There's a few very enterprising swedes and dutch blokes with georgeous girlfriends and cute as button children who will tell you cheerfully that they were postmen or whatever in their home country; thought there life was over and then came here. And then of course there was Eddy. It didn't end well. He tried to bite me for another couple of hundred baht last night because he had missed his money transfer from Western Union by ten minutes and I just thought no mate; I'm not funding your drinking habit. There's a reason I don't drink like that, or drink at all, and that's because drinking like that will kill you. And besides, I've got two kids in tow and I work for my money and give it an f'n rest. So it didn't end well; but I must admit I had some very entertaining conversations with him as he did his own Under The Volcano routine. Under the Volcano is regarded as the best description of a drunk in English literature; it was always my favourite book, Malcolm Lowry, who of course died a miserable death as an alcoholic; and while Eddy had never heard of Under the Volcano when I mentioned it to him; his streams of poetry and hysterical stories about spending half his life in jail and the other half as a chronic junkie were enormously amusing. Maybe it wasn't healthy for me to be listening to all that; but it was fun, sitting up late at night listening to blokes from all over the world talking about all sorts of crap. At home I've just been going home alone.

So quick so eager to please, the boys say of the Thai girls; and they laugh and they laugh; and they all say they haven't laughed like this for years. We've begun the long journey back to Sydney; booking into a pretty ordinary guesthouse in Chiang Mai tonight and moving around the corner tomorrow. The kids have gone back to the hotel to watch TV; they're getting homesick now but will no doubt boast about the experience for quite some time to come. It's all been much more expensive than I planned; it'll be a quiet few months while the credit cards get back into shape. But I've enjoyed myself, and I haven't said that for what seems like a very long time.