the mood seems relatively light in Bangkok. pot-head backpackers and pot-bellied chunky foreign chicks stroll idly around khao san road w/o a care in the world. besides a few donation centers (some of dubious intent), there's little sign that any major tragedy happened recently. everyone appears good natured and ready to take in a ping pong ball show or two.

apparently, most of the people here haven't drowned in the recent tsunami but honestly, it's hard to tell sometimes as a few, mostly british travelers, appear braindead.

i'll spend a merry new year's eve here and hopefully move onto Cambodia tho the free wireless internet at this guesthouse does its best to keep me in Bangkok forever.

merry new year's, turkeys and a word of caution: avoid the above-the-groin mistletoe.

Posted by thejerk at 07:51 AM | Permalink

i'm off to bangkok for another round of flying ping pong balls and other lascivious activities. frankly, it was a no brainer to change my course considering my other option was to get cholera or gangreen in indonesia. instead i prefer to get cholera and gangreen in thailand.

after vietnam, i suppose i'll wander over to cambodia and vietnam at which point you can hear all about my grueling time in 'nam. i love the smell of napalm in the early evening!

Posted by thejerk at 06:23 PM | Permalink

so the earthquake hit yesterday but many many miles away from here. there's no need to worry, the yangs and myself are fine and the only looting going on here is from dennis' parents stealing my prescription medication. you can never trust the chinese... and the taiwanese are even worse!

the strange thing is, i was originally planning on being in sumatra for christmas but the draw of the yangs and a free stay at the hyatt on the papa yang's dime, lured me to delay my indonesia entrance. otherwise i'd be riding the killer tubes of the tsunami. instead, i have a pair of chinamen asleep before 5pm.

happy new years you sorry sacks of crap!

Posted by thejerk at 02:45 AM | Permalink

so i'm just lazing away in the southwest area of china called Dali. my guidebook warned that here, days turn into weeks and weeks to months and i believe it. the greatest attraction in this area is the guesthouse i'm staying at where they offer free internet and is so massive and maze-like you can easily get lost... but they had me at free internet. so i sit all day either on the internet or the rooftop and wait until my china visa expires on christmas day. then off to hong kong to see tim, the tayaganator, tayag, and the yang family. happy kwanzaa you fruitcakes!

Posted by thejerk at 10:00 PM | Permalink

can you believe they allow this kinda behavior with an endangered animal!?! (only 1000 or so are believed to exist in the wild) but thank god for me... i got to molest a real live panda!

Posted by thejerk at 04:28 AM | Permalink

pizza hut is considered upscale dining here! meals at pizza hut cost nearly 10 times the average person's meal at some local establishment and the decor is remarkable. it's like comparing a fine dining establishment at home to say, mcdonalds. it's amazing that a place that serves such classy items as "twisty bread" and "onion rings" could possibly be considered fine dining.

(god, i gotta get out of this country!)

Posted by thejerk at 03:45 AM | Permalink

it happened in koh samui, thailand and it happened again here in china. this time i was sober but again, this time, i almost said yes.

Continue reading "attacked by prostitutes... again" »

Posted by thejerk at 12:53 AM | Permalink

i'm at the train station hotel in xining and a girl comes to my door and asks me if i want "anmo." after a bit of arm flailing, i realize it's a massage she's offering.

Continue reading "where's the happy ending?" »

Posted by thejerk at 04:22 AM | Permalink

my tourist visa that is! so i'm legal again in this country. and just when my search for a shipping container on a ship out of the country was going so well. the silly officer didn't even notice i was a day late. (and asians are supposed to be good at math! pshaw!) maybe i'm being a bit too harsh but he shouldn't been so nice to me. niceness is weakness! he should've put me in jail... it would've made a hell of a story! perhaps his way of "sticking it to me" was to charge me nearly 3 times the amount he charged my canadian friend. well, tragedy narrowly averted. now if i can only get a juicy big mac in me, i'll be a happy man.

Posted by thejerk at 04:01 AM | Permalink

i fled the city that was giving me such headaches. now in xining.

Continue reading "sorted sorta" »

Posted by thejerk at 09:10 PM | Permalink

so i planned on extending my tourist visa (expiring tomorrow) today at the border town i'm currently in... with little success.

Continue reading "... and it just got worse" »

Posted by thejerk at 06:12 AM | Permalink

through my many years of travel, i've never been in a worse situation than i'm in now.

Continue reading "it couldn't get any worse" »

Posted by thejerk at 05:30 PM | Permalink

i'm not proud of what i did. i apologize to all dogs out there. it didn't taste good and i'd like to chalk it up as an experiment. frankly, i don't even know what body part it was. i'll never do it again. i swear...

Continue reading "man's best friend" »

Posted by thejerk at 05:04 AM | Permalink