Ah Crap

Posted by landoman - 13/02/09 at 06:02:30 pm

Yesterday Alex, Marisa and I all went horseback riding down through Rawai Beach.  For all intents and purposes everything started off quite nicely.  And by that I mean nobody got injured within the first hour.  But then I had to go and ruin everything.

So there we were letting the horses graze when one of the handlers asked anyone if they wanted to ride full gallop.  Of course, this wasn’t something I could resist so I happily volunteered.  I set off down the beach and the horse quickly burst into a gallop; but unfortunately my feet were too small for the stirrups so within the first few seconds I was left holding on for my life.  A few hundred meters down the beach I managed to get the horse slowed and turned around but as soon as I did that he took off back the way we came.

By this point I was literally hanging on by a thread and realized there was no way I would be able to hold on much longer.  We were on the beach so I wasn’t worried too much about leaping off.  As I finally started sliding off I looked down towards where I would be falling and saw a concrete pillar sticking out of the sand.  My last memory before I hit the ground was looking down and thinking “I’m dead.”

The impact knocked me out for just a second but when I came to I could taste blood in my mouth and could feel pain shooting through my arm and leg.  To my relief I realized that my face was in one piece, my teeth were all still intact, and nothing was broke.  Except my nose.  Faceplanting into wet sand has a few downsides.  So a broken nose, a few cuts in my mouth, and scrapes on my chin, arm, and leg were all the injuries I incurred.  I’ll live to ride again one day (but not for a really long time I don’t think).

Interesting Week

Posted by landoman - 10/02/09 at 04:02:24 pm

Last week, two interesting new people showed up at Coco.  A half-brother and sister, Alex was born in Belgium and his sister Marisa was born here in Bangkok.  They met for the first time a little over two weeks ago when they first found out they were related.  So Alex is here training at TMT and having a little miniature family reunion.  Like I said: interesting!

But I’ve been hanging out with them for the past few days.  We went out to eat one night last week and I found out that Marisa is a model and actress in Bangkok.  She’s been in Thai soap operas and other t.v. shows/commercials since she was a teenager.  I thought she was just pulling my leg at first but then I started looking around and noticed every Thai in the restaurant hiding behind things, slack-jawed and staring at us.  It was hilarious and totally awesome.  We went out to Patong a couple times this weekend and it was the same scenario everywhere we went.  People stopping, doing double-takes, and giggling in delight when they realize who they’re looking at.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  It’s amazing!

Speaking of Patong, I’m starting to dislike that place now.  Friday night we went out for a bit and Alex got sick.  Saturday we went out again to make up for the previous night and I got sick.  Also on Friday, Ryan was visiting his parents at Kata Beach and he, too, got sick; blaming Patong for that one anyways.

Long Day…

Posted by landoman - 30/01/09 at 09:01:59 pm

Today was, uh, interesting.  It all started off fairly normally.  Get up, sit around and try to wake up, breakfast, and then weights.  Me and Jazz were gonna hit up BJJ but he decided to go and get sick; inconsiderate tosser!  Anyway, I rented a moped and hit Naiharn beach. Listening to music and fading in and out of consciousness as I basked under a pristine, cloudless sky with the sun directly overhead…

The fun began when I ventured into the ocean.  I floated around for a bit before I realized that I still had money in my pocket.  Arrrrgh!  Wet, sandy money.  I decided to hop out of the water and go grab some lunch.  It was during this process that I got tackled by a massive wave (massive in the sense that this one wave was merely twice the size of the usual tiny waves that were rolling in throughout the day).  But I gathered myself and grabbed lunch: a chicken sandwich!  I headed back towards the beach still clearing sand out of my pockets.  That’s when I realized the key to my moped was gone.

I immediately dropped my bag and rummaged through every pocket making sure I hadn’t stashed it like I had originally intended.  No dice.  So I backtracked, checking the area I had been lounging around earlier and as much of the water that I had been in earlier as I could.  No cigar.  Then I gave up and started trying to find someone that spoke enough English to help me find the phone number to Flora Villas (whom I rented the moped from).  People could talk to me at length about every single item they were selling but nobody understood that I needed a phone number.

Finally I found a hotel that staffed English-speaking employees.  Now here’s where the real fun began.  After a short bit we ended up finding Flora’s number and contacting the owner.  The guy that helped me at the All Seasons Hotel was exceptionally helpful, I might add.  One confusing phone call later they were looking for a spare key.  So I took a tuk-tuk back to Flora.  Upon arriving the owner started exciting yelling about having just sent someone to Naiharn to get me.  She called that person to have them come back and pick me up.  Ten minutes later I was on my way back to Naiharn.

Twenty minutes later…we arrive.  Only to realize we still had no key.  Apparently Flora had sent the spare key to Coco, the place I’m actually staying (it’s right beside Flora).  I’m not sure why they did this.  So we turn around and take another twenty-minute ride to Coco, then immediately take the same twenty-minute ride back to Naiharn.  All in all, I made the trip from Flora to Naiharn three times.  All because the original key was on a giant plastic keychain that made the entire key neutrally bouyant (that means it floated).

Long story short: a wizard did it.

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