…My left knee jams under the accelerator grip, and the next thing I know, I’ve lost power, lost my balance and I’m toppling, slowly and gracelessly toward the ground. A group of monks are laughing at me uproariously. I pick myself up with Buddhist humility, and ride slowly and carefully out the temple gate… Flashback:…
It’s Loi Krathong all over Thailand right now. Central to the festival ritual is the making and floating of Krathong: little floral rafts that you place into the river or sea. Focus Gallery Cafe , here in Chiang Mai, ran a Krathong making workshop yesterday. Anna and I went along and made us a couple…
…There is welding equipment all over the place, and the artists are all clad in protective overalls and home made masks that protect their faces from sparks. Noi shows us around proudly. There are steel horses, elephants, monsters and mutants… My original Thai tourist visa has expired. To get a new visa, I need…
Tuk-tuk drivers make me feel inadequate. Here is a guy who, despite being a chronic alcoholic womaniser with five children, manages to operate a small business…
…We know, straight, this is not ordinary taxi. He has some loud music on the stereo, like, gangster rap, and he wear very special clothes, some american cap, gold chains, some things like this… ‘Where will you like to go?’ he asks us. We tell him the place. ‘OK’ he say. Get in… I met…
Great name for a venue. Doqaholic. Lookmo would feel right at home here. Anna is a cat-aholic, but she comes along to jam with me anyway. No seriously, she is. Anna has three official felines as well as countless strays and randoms she pets every night when we are walking around Chiang Mai.…
“…you will get a hundred Baht per hour.” “Really? Nice. I’ll do anything for three hundred Baht. Do they want me to get nude?” “No! No, no, no. It is a portrait class. They will only be painting your face.” “Oh. OK… I don’t mind getting nude…” “Everywhere I go in Thailand people stare at…
“…Now this is good art. You can see what the fuck the picture is about” he huffs. “The political themes in the abstract work are interesting though” I venture. “Sure. Politics. Well that’s another thing. I almost got shut down twice in the last few months. I hung some work that someone didn’t like, and…
…I don’t know what happened, OK? I got up, and took the mic, and after about a dozen notes I realised I was… just a tad… off-key. Maybe I was too sober..? There is nothing quite as traumatic as being given a pitying glance by good musicians when you are a tad off-key… In one…
…The driver still has the joint in his hand! He is holding it just below the edge of the window, so the cop can’t see it, but the smoke is curling up around his face, and the cab stinks like bong water in carpet. ‘I am going to prison’ I think to myself… …