Fili’s world

I had no idea it will be this difficult. I guess you have no idea that you’re such an addict till you’re been deprived of your addiction. It’s been hard, and I fought it all the way. It was a long battle with many wounded but I think I survived the inner pressure. Yeah, I admit it - I’m an Internet addict. Having only two half-hour internet sessions this week did strange things to my soul. Online… you have to get online. “It’s cheap here”, “You can get a free massage over there”, “You’re already at BeitChabad, so why not login? It has Hebrew…”. The horror, the bad dreams…it hunts you.

Mentioning addictions, there’s a more problematic one I can’t seem to get over. Where the hell is my Lemon Diet Coke?! It’s really sad to see how people here live in ignorance, not being exposed to the drink of infinite life. Third world indeed. True, they have the regular Coca-Cola Light (which actually tastes like RC-Cola with acid)…but I’ve tried all possible combinations, I’ve cried and begged, offered vast sums of money for the one who’ll save me, but no salvation at hand. The massage ladies keep telling me I feel tense. I always reply saying that instead of a deep back-rub what I actually truly need is a 1 liter cup full of Lemon Diet-Coke on very high rocks. That would get me through the following week. Arrr…

“You have Jetlag, it will wear off soon”, they keep trying to explain. They watch me as I go to sleep at 3-4am and wake up at around late-noon. At one time they even had me convinced. But last night, speaking to Noki about the Buddha way of life, it occurred to me that it has nothing to do with Jetlag, it’s just the way I’ve been living the past couple’o months. I guess they’re just not used to that kind of a tourist. “You really don’t want to go out on a trek? Not heading to Laos or Cambodia? Oh, Vietnam, right? You must be headed to Vietnam”. Gosh, I don’t know. I just like it here.

Red-Brick guest house turned out to be a really great place. I like the people over there. There’s Noki, who talked me into coming to her one-day cooking session. She’s a full size energy bomb that just keeps on laughing. Cooking was great and everything, but she was what made it a real event. It was a non-stop 9 hour standup session, starting at the local market and onwards to the big Woks and the spicy-spicy dishes. If it wasn’t for the American-Australian bunch, it might have been perfect. Donno why, but contrary to some predictions I heard back in Israel, I don’t feel comfortable with most of them. I like the Thai folks better.
Anyways, there’s also Katti, a real cool gal about my age that takes care of everything for you. If you need - something checked, something booked, something ordered – then she’s the way to go about it. I trust her completely and she’s one the main reasons why I rented a room at this place. There are also some background characters like the 19 year old identical-twins with their foreign girlfriends and the shy girl at the bar.
Orchestrating this place is a blind guy they all call “Ba-al Ha-bait”. A couple’o nights ago I wasn’t able to sleep so Baal Habait invited me to sit down with his workers and two Norwegian chaps. Alcohol was on the house and he just kept filling up my glass and toasting for Buddha knows what. We spent all night talking as many bottles of a really bad Thai Whiskey emptied. His lordship turned out to be a real story-teller so we heard exotic storied about Thai life. His really young goodlooking wife sat down with us and served us food while she was trying to withstand his long very-direct teasing.
Last is Tom, an Israeli guy that has been staying at the Redbrick for the past 4.5 months. When he got here, he fell in love with some hot Thai chick and he’s been working and living here ever since. He always seems suspicious of me, moving from a total ignore to invitations to “The Bubble” hangout (“man, you gotta check out the hot babes at the Bubble. A night to remember with a gorgeous Thai lady guaranteed. It’s not about money or hosting, they just loooove tourists”).

(Gosh, writing this long isn’t easy… I need a short break)

I found out the perfect way to see ChangMai. It took me about 3 days to realize that I should rent a motor-bike. Riding your bike around town it all becomes clear that all Thai people are subconsciously trying to commit suicide. They were times I was sure I’m dead, but there seems to be an order in all that chaos and although they drive like madmen and despite of my endless driving mistakes (leftright) it all blends together in some weird unexplainable harmony.

I met Doron and his breathtaking Japanese girl friend Eli at Beit Chabad, then later at the cooking class. He was the first Israeli I could relate to, being the snob that I am. He’s 29, working at Japan for some Israeli hi-tech company. He met Eli 4 years ago while she was a flight-attendant on one of his flights and they’ve been together ever since. So, we’ve been hanging around all yesterday, driving around and outside town, eating with the locals, examining Wats (Buddha temples) and just having a good time. The weather stayed the same, but the bike-ride made it all chilly and enjoyable. They are moving on to Pai tomorrow in hope for a meditation seminar, and I might join’em if I don’t feel too much of a third wheel.

Apart from that, the night-market is my (yeah, trivial) favorite place and I go there almost every night. Sunday market’s happening today, and it’s expected to be “bigger, cheaper and better” (like everything else is usually said to be). It’s not that I buy stuff, but walking around with the Anthropologist mode turned on really relaxes me.

So, that was my week. How was yours?