Jimmy Carter Man from Plains

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains,  A documentary, A Chronicle of the former president's tour recent for his book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid " I happen to side with president Carter on the issue of Palestine. We stand together (not literally) in an informed minority against an uninformed majority ignorant of the truth.

 

I watched this documentary a few times for it is that inspirational. It's impossible not to like this documentary. It's impossible to not have tremendous respect for the our former president and all he's accomplished. I think President Jimmy Carter is as close to a true follower of Jesus Christ as there is today. I don't know of another. I'm not saying there are not others, I'm saying I don't know of another. I've never met another.  I believe the true followers of Jesus will have resumes very much like that of president Carter for people of exceptional faith lead exceptional lives, of this there can be no doubt.  

 

President Carter leads by example, his actions speak so loudly they are deafening. I don't know who modern day Christians point to as a leader, a true leader following in the path of Jesus Christ? The Republican party is allegedly the "Christan party" but who do they point to for their example? From all I can tell and from all I can see it is the blind leading the blind within the Republican party and they seem to be lead by blind hatred.

 

I wrote once that I've never met a true christian. I think President Jimmy Carter is a real christian. I also think our paths will never cross. Why should they, I don't think ex presidents associate with ex-felons. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0913958/

My review of the Nasa Vegas Hotel Bangkok

I chose the Nasa Vegas Hotel because of the price and the amenities. The pictures on the website made the hotel look modern and well kept. The amenities I was interested in were, AC in the rooms, Fitness Center, Cable TV with American Movies and Internet.

The pictures of the hotel on their website are completely deceiving and misleading. The hotel and the rooms were old and shabby, rundown and filthy.

There were a number of movie channels but my TV did not work well and I only was able to receive one movie channel on my tv at times. Sometimes all the channels worked. The TV was fucked up. I informed one of the employees at the front desk about my TV issue but nothing was ever done. They just ignore you or claim they don’t understand you and make no effort to find a staff member that speaks English. They just want you to go away and not bother them.

The hotel offered Internet service but charge 150 baht per day extra. I opted to use the Internet Café across the street for my Internet related needs. The Internet cafe charged 100 baht for 5 hours over a 10 day period.

The fitness center was the worst experience of all. First off I was made to wait in line at the front desk for a pass to the fitness center. I had to do this every day, it’s not enough to be a hotel guest and have a hotel key to grant you access. They want you to have a pass. I waited up to thirty minutes for my pass and on a couple occasions I walked off tired and frustrated from standing in line and waiting for my pass to the fitness center. This was beyond rediculous. Guest of the hotel were only allowed to visit the fitness center once a day. When you got to the fitness center the AC was not turned on (Fitness Center was on the fourth floor) and the windows were opened. It was incredibly hot and humid in the fitness center, it was literally in the ninety degree range.

The first day I visited the fitness center I was assaulted, physically pushed, by the manager of the facility and yelled at because of the sweat under the stationary bicycle I was riding. The man pushed me while I was seated on the stationary bike and riding. What kind of place is that? I’m fifty three years old and I have a bad leg, had this not been the case I would have gotten off the bike and punched that mother fucker right in the mouth. I’m not new to fitness centers. When I was done with my workout I wiped the machine down and wiped up the sweat off the floor but this did not stop the man yelling at me every day I worked out.

On another occasion the manager grabbed the towel I brought down to the fitness center and tried to walk off with it. I had to grab it out of his hand in order to take it back. Who does something like that? The towel was sitting atop my backpack directly in front of me while I was on the stationary bike. On another occasion I watched the manager harass a couple other guests while they lifted weights, they were so offended they ended up leaving. What kind of a person does something like that? What kind of a business operates like that? I would not believe these things possible had I not seen it or experienced it.

Why would the manager of the fitness center chase off hotel guest? The reason why these things happened is particularly disturbing. The fitness center is a brothel, a whorehouse for homosexuals. If you were not partaking in the homosexual whores offered up for sale they wanted you out of there. Guests interested in the male prostitutes would go back to one of the five massage rooms and do their “business”. There were always four or five young Caucasian men between the ages of twenty and thirty on display for any gay customer looking to make a purchase. I cannot say for sure if there were any female prostitutes at the hotel. I did see some suspicious activity involving many young women, Caucasian and Asian, but cannot say with any certainty that they were hookers.

There was a sign over the Jacuzzi, “no swimming trunks allowed” along with another sign , “No Cream or Compost allowed in the Jacuzzi”. I could only interpret this to mean “no sex and no shitting in the Jacuzzi”. What else was I to think

Even though I found the fitness center to be aggravating I went every day my leg would allow it. I did it just to piss off the manager. The day before I left the hotel I told one of the male prostitutes I was a writer and planned on writing in great detail about my experiences at the Nasa Vegas Hotel. This information get through the hotel quickly because my last trip to the fitness center the manager was nice to me. ---- What a dick. My checkout time took less than ten minutes. It was common knowledge the checkout time took on average ninety minutes. They were really being nice to me on that last day.

 

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Day 5 in Bangkok - Thursday March 14, 2013

I slept til 12:15pm

I’m told the check out process takes 1.5 hours. That hardly seems possible but doubt the words of so many making the same claim.

I’m sure of it now, the fitness center is a whorehouse for male prostitutes. There are always young men there in the locker room just hanging around. The locker room has lockers, toilets, urinals and showers. No comfortable chairs to sit in so why are there young men just hanging out in the locker room? When I notice them in the gym they are always smiling at me, a little to gleefully I might ad. They don’t just look at you, they look deep into your eyes. They look with wanting eyes, they turn and put their backs to me and stick out their asses. That’s just not normal.

One of the kids I spoke with in the locker room a couple of days ago told me he was a carpenter from Scotland. He was out of work. Ok. So you are out of work and you go on vacation. That’s not what people do. People don’t go on vacation when they’re out of work. This is the incongruity, an out of work twenty two year old Scottish carpenter is in Bangkok Thailand hanging out in the men’s locker room of a cheap resort. How many unemployed laborers find the capital to travel internationally when out of work?

I struck up a conversation with a guest of the hotel today, a guy in his sixties and he’s fucking his way through Asia. This is the cliché I don’t want to be and I’m not. He told me this story about this whore he picked up while in the Philippians. I did not want to hear about it. She was a five dollar hooker. This guy talked about marrying her so she could get an American passport and they could travel the world together.

It seems If it’s broken down, worn out, beat up, lived out its life of usefulness, you can sell it in Thailand. There is a market for everything here.

 

Day 4 in Bangkok - Wednesday March 13, 2013

Another good nights sleep. I have been going to be much earlier than normal or since my arriving to Thailand and I welcome this but as a consequence of going to bed earlier I have been getting up earlier. I prefer this schedule.

This hotel sucks and I feel trapped having searched for a bargin hotel. This place looked great online but it was false advertising.

I’m getting my first exposure to Aljazerra news. It doesn’t seem like a radical new organization. From what I can tell it’s like CNN but better, much much better. Aljazerra seems to give a fair and balanced reporting on a variety of topics. This is more than American news does.

It is the end of a pretty good day. One of the good things about this hotel is the movie channel and the movies they play. Tonight I am watching Sparta, The Last Stand of the 300. It is a great lesson about how the few or the one, can stand against the many. I find this inspirational.

This place (Bangkok) has the feel of a giant ghetto. I spoke with someone about it, the poverty. It was Mike, the gentleman in the train car next to mine when I traveled down from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Mike said the average Thai person is probably happier than the average American. I didn’t want to believe that but I can’t get those words out of my head. After thinking about it for days I agree. I think he was right.

One of the many things the people here have in common with Americans is their worship over their cell phones. I can’t help from noticing they stare at them just like Americans do. Cell phones here in Thailand have the highest priority in peoples life (just like in America). I see people riding down the street on motorcycles and talking on their cell phones. That's not safe.  That’s the kind of reverence the phones have, in America and in Thailand. Even people that look poor have cell phones.

It seems an incongruity to see a Mercedes driving down the street here in Bangkok. Firstly because of the poverty and second, the danger in damaging the car becuase of how crazy people drive. There’s all this poverty and you see a car like that. It just doesn’t make sense.

I think there’s a fair amount of gay action going on in the mens locker room or I am misreading the reason guys are hanging out in the locker room. On two different occasions there have been guys in the locker room just hanging out. Not showering. Not doing anything. When I walked into the gym today I noticed a kid, Caucasian kid between the age of twenty to twenty five. He was wearing an oxford button down shirt with a pair a gym shorts. He was a fat little turd of a kid. He was obviously not working out. He offered me a cup of water while I was working out. When I was done working out he followed me into the mens room. If he wasn’t a cock sucker what was he doing?

Tuesday march 12 2013 - Day 3 Bangkok

Good morning Bangkok,

I slept well but had a dream about spiders. In the dream I came upon a bucket of spiders, three big spiders in the bucket. Then there was another spider, a 4th spider outside the bucket. The 4th spider was bigger than three spiders in the bucket combined. The big spider went into the bucket and the three smaller spiders killed it. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? It was an odd dream and I search for significance of all my dreams but I wonder, should I look for significance in dreams. When is a dream just a dream?

Two nights in a row someone was pounding on my neighbors door in the middle of the night. The pounding was loud enough I woke but thankfully, after the pounding subsided, I soon fell back asleep.

I have no idea what am going to do today. ----- back later.

Later: Today was a nothing day. I did nothing. My leg hurt so I stayed in bed. The hightlight of my day today was buying a bottle of premium vodka for 700 baht. I'm gonna get drunk tonight. I bought some fresh squeezed OJ to mix with the vodka. They make a fantastic drink, freshly squeezed Thai oranges and good vodka. 

Every day I need something sweet. I don’t know why? It seems I have a need for a desert. At some point every day I need desert. It makes my day complete. I should have gotten something when I was fetching dinner but I was more interested in the roasted chicken and vodka. Now I need to go back out into the heat and buy some desert..

And I did. Go back out into the heat. I got my sugar fix then went to the fitness center and got my time in the Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. That steam room is the hottest I’ve ever been in. it will burn the hair right out of your nostrils. While at the fitness center this evening I met two brothers. I think they were gay which plays into the gay gene theory.

I’m hoping tomorrow is a more satisfying day than today was.

First day in Bangkok - Sunday March 10th, 2013

Checking into the hotel was relatively painless.

I decided to walk up to the street market for dinner. It’s only two blocks away and the variety of food is fantastic. I picked up some Thailand oranges, noodles, rice and prawns. Big, fat, giant, juicy delicious prawns cooked over a grill. This was the best meal I’ve eaten since coming to Thailand.

One of the great things about this hotel is the TV. There are three or four movie channels in this hotel and American news. I love it. The first movie I was able to sit and watched was Bourne Identity. What a treat.

I decided to not pay for Internet. I’m going without my connection to the world wide web for a few days. It will do me good. I will write my journal on word documents and post when I get access to the web. Earnest Hemingway did all his writing with a pencil and legal pad.

I’m pooped. It’s been a long day on very little sleep. My belly is full and I’ve had a couple of beers. It was Heineken Sunday and a good Heineken Sunday it was.

The fitness center closes at 9pm so I popped in to have a quick sauna, Jacuzzi and steam. It was a nice end to the day.. Tomorrow I will sit upon the bike and get a good workout.

The traffic lights here give a countdown as to when they will be changing from green to red and back again. There is also a countdown

I bought a kilo of oranges today at the outdoor market and got burned. They are old. Old dried out oranges. The lesson from this is to taste one before I buy from now on. I think this is why the  orange salesman at the organic market in Chiang Mai will cut on orange open and allow people to sample and taste. If you are not confident in your product you will not give out free samples.

I noticed a sign today while in the sauna, it referred to the Jacuzzi use:

No swimsuits, no cream or compost in Jacuzzi. I can only interpret the "cream" reference to mean, no jerking off. It's disturbing to read something like that, not to mention no shitting in the jacuzzi. Only in Thailand

The Great Train Adventure

Saturday March 9^th 2013

My departure from the condo did not go unnoticed and it couldn’t have been timelier. I was handed an electric bill on my way out the door. The bill was for sixteen thousand five hundred baht. Though I don’t speak Thai I got the impression they were going to turn off my power on Wednesday. I heard a heated discussion in the manager’s office on Wednesday and thought it was about me. As it turns out it was about me and my bill. Someone wanted it turned off (the power company) and someone wanted it kept on. Who could it have been arguing in defense of keeping the power on? Who had the power to override the power company? The manager filled me in on my way out the door. He went from speaking no English to being able to convey the situation with the

Some of my neighbors looked to be in a panic over my departure. Panic. Over little old me. It’s flattering but why? Why is that?. I bought my train ticket to Bangkok on March 3^rd. I bought it at the train station and I bought a new suitcase a few days prior to my departure. I wheeled the giant suitcase in to the building in front of all. How could my departure have come as a surprise to anyone? This is the mystery.

The security deposit I left of twenty two thousand baht will see to the outstanding electric bill. It all comes out more or less even Steven, I may have a lost a thousand baht or so but I don’t care.

I hopped in a songthaew and headed to the train station. I got there an hour earl but that didn‘t matter. The train broke down. We were told we needed to board a bus bound for Lompach which is a ninety minute drive.

We wait and wait and wait. First we are told the bus would be arriving at 4:30pm. Then we were told 4:45pm. Then we were told 5:30pm. It would be 5:35pm when the buses arrived, four buses in all.

During the wait I enjoyed a nice conversation with someone named Ben. He is an art dealer or art appraiser. Interesting guy. He was from Germany and he’d s lived and worked in the art world in new York, japan, and Europe. He’s traveled the world. Worldly. The opposite of me. I’m going to become worldly. I am going to see the world and I’m going to write about it.

Four buses showed up. People were overly rude when it came to getting on board. I did not think it mattered if I got on bus one, two three or four. One of my bags made it onto bus one. Another bag made it on to bus two and I made it on to bus three.

The ride to lampach was nothing short of terrifying. I could not sleep. Our driver drove as if we were in the Indy 500. I’d read about bus travel in Thailand. It’s not the safest way to go. I understood why as I road from Chiang Mai to Lampach.

I assumed when we got to Lampach the train would be waiting. That was not the case. We waited for about an hour before the train eased into the station, it was about 7:30pm.

I could not have been more pleased with the accommodations on board the train. I did not have just a seat and a bed, I had a room to myself. I had a nice bed to sleep in with comfortable mattress. I got room service, for a price and the food was not too bad.

The train is definitely a nice way to get from chiang Mai to Bangkok if you are in no rush. First class accommodations cost 1,950 baht (about $65 US dollars). The train ride has it has its own feel, a subtle rocking motion and the sounds. There’s the steady sound of the train on the track and that’s combined with the occasional stopping to unload and load passengers and supplies. It’s a twelve hour train ride and most of the time it was dark so it’s not too scenic and that’s just fine by me. I’m giddy with delight as I lay back on my bunk alone, quiet and secure.