Exploring Other Cultures...

Well, I know everyone reading this post is asking themselves the question, why am I hearing from Laurel again so soon after the previous post? The answer: because it won't stop raining here. Annie and I have invented every possible way to entertain ourselves when it's raining at the beach, including mimosa mornings, and we are still bored out of our minds. Every activity here is an outdoor activity. Can you ride elephants in the rain? No. Can you go to the beach? Not when the waves are at a dangerous level. Can you even go to the bar past dusk? Not when every other female in there is a prostitute accompanying an overweight European male. Can you even play flip cup in the rain? No Solo cups, no balcony, and only 1 man teams. What are your only options as Annie and Laurel? The spa. We have already been to the spa twice in 3 days, and considering how slick with massage oil my body was yesterday, I think I could become an environmental hazard if I return. Hence, we are here at the internet cafe. It's a lovely venue hidden under the staircase of what is probably a brothel. I have yet to be convinced that not everything in this country is a brothel. Even our hotel is attempting to be respectable by insisting that they do i.d. the guests, both male and female, of their patrons. Based on some of the things I've seen in the lobby, I'm not even sure this is true. Here is a sample of a brief conversation between Annie and I. My cousin is in Thailand at the moment, and this is how it went. Laurel: Annie, I keep thinking I see my cousin everywhere. Annie: Why would you think that? What does he look like? Laurel: He looks like an older, balding European male. Annie: Would he be with anyone? Laurel: Probably a young Thai boy. Annie: No wonder you keep thinking that you see him everywhere. And so it goes. Thus far the most exciting things to happen in the past 2 days have been the showing of 10 Things I Hate About You ( To Things I Hate A Bout You in the Thai to American translation) on the hotel television and our battle with a lizard in the room last night. I think it's probably needless to say that the lizard won and was probably sleeping on our faces during the night. Let's just hope they don't carry diseases in this country or one of us is going to get a goiter. I know that I should end this post as everyone is probably a little too inundated with stories from the East, but we still have at least 8 good hours to kill before we can even think about going to sleep. We go to bed at 10:00 now because most of the bars here are, as previously alluded to, filled only with Thai prostitutes and their European companions. The one closest to our hotel is called The Bunny Bar, it's open air, is only decorated with picture of naked women, and has women that call to you while jiggling about having a drink. At first, I was intrigued only because from far away I saw the all day happy hour sign, and as there is nothing else to do here, I wanted to go in. Upon closer inspection, I realized why it was too good to be true. Well, Annie and I are off in search of either a liquor store or a liquor store.