Wake up, start sweating

You get used to it. Actually I can't really say that, since we've only been here a day or two. But at least I can SEE us getting used to it, sometime, hopefully, very very soon. No sunscreen for me today. Sorry mom, but suntans are like status symbols here. It's unbelievable. I'm convinced that half the stuff people try with us is because of my total whiteness.

Dustin and I figure that the best way to do this trip is get up early, see all we can see before 1pm(ish), then grab lunch and a beer before taking a siesta. Many of the locals seem to head for cooler climates around then too. When in Rome eh? It was nice though, we covered alot of ground before 10:30 this morning, which was nice. Alot cooler, a bit of rain, and far fewer farangs with cameras like ourselves.

Speaking of covering ground, though I hate to use that expression because it suggests that its our job to take in as many sights as possible, we really did see alot today. Let me tell you man, the Thais REDEFINE ornate. Every corner we round outdoes the last, its pretty off the wall. And totally overkill too, I mean even the stuff you can't see looks like it took some mosaic artist ten years to complete. Its pretty sweet that we can just take off from our guesthouse with no particular direction, and find our way around town via a series of increasingly sketchy alleys. Ah, that's a bit of a lie, alot of them are pretty tame.

We're starting to learn our way our of tight situations with scam artists...yes artists, they're veritable Michaelangelos too...but unfortunately learning for us means learning the hard way. We fell, or more like were pushed, into paying money for bird seed today, at some ridiculous price. We're embarassed to admit it. Some woman with no teeth, and another claiming to be pregnant literally threw bird seed at us and demanded we pay for it. Anyways, to deal with touts and the like we started out saying 'No thank you' and then proceeding to explain why we didn't want their services (ya, we're asking for it) but that's been whittled down in a short two days to 'No', and I'm sure in another few days, to 'Piss off'. I even said 'mai' (no) to a dog that came to beg while we were eating. Almost as bad as the tuk tuk drivers.

We'd like to post a video we took of the traffic around the Democracy monument today, but Youtube is banned in Thailand. I'm sure Dustin will figure a way around it. I figure in the next week or so the novelty of a blog will begin to wear, and posts will become more and more sparse as things that are better tasting take up our time. So don't be offended. But for now I'm cool with sitting here in an air conditioned cafe. Oh and Eve, check your mail silly girl!!

Pictures...soon? Having troubles here.