06.28.04 - 3:02 am

hello mr burgess,

i talked to you a few weeks back about thailand. i see that you have plans to actually make it over there. so, i would like to donate some money for your trip to bangkok, but paypal and i broke up a while back, and havent been on speaking terms since. is there another way i could get some funds to you? mail order? eh eh?

heres a long story about $20.

so i was walking alone one night in bangkok. my father had picked up a hooker from a bar we had been out. a real monster of one too. so while he was stumbling up to the steps of the hotel, i snuck behind some cars and took a walk away from him and the hooker and the really expensive hotel in the middle of the poorest looking city ever.

so i walked for about two miles. the air was warm. humid. i was sweating. i had my backpack and my camera, and i just walked and walked down the sidewalks. there was lots of garbage. dozens of little street vendors cooking food. at like 2 in the morning. 3 in the morning. i mean, food is seriously a major priority here. they eat all the time. and its always super good. so i passed several of those, always filled with people gathered around eating and talking, regardless of the hour. every few blocks or so, id come across a sulfur like smell that would intensify, until i would walk past an open sewer. more like, a sewage moat seperating buildings. i could only imagine how many dead things sat at the bottom of that. how many people.

lots of dogs. so many dogs. packs of them. i walked down an alley in between two sky scrapers, and this dog chased and barked and growled me down the entire way. it was scary, it was him, his few friends, and a whole harem of females.

people sleep on the streets too. like in boxes or benches like here. but like, on the sidewalk, inches from the road. covered in a single blanket. or asleep sitting on their bikes.

they just sleep where ever. but lots of people sleeping on the sidewalks at this hour.

i kept walking into a neighborhood. for the first time, i saw a wall topped with shards of glass. i thought it was ingenius, and had never seen anything like it. scary man!

finally, i had walked about 3 or so miles from my hotel. it was pushing 4 am. i was tired. i was too tired to walk back.

so i hailed a tuk tuk.

a tuk tuk is like a motorcycle with a big flat seat on the back. and over this big flat seat is a cover. so its like a motorcycle with a carriage, i guess. a man drove me around, and i told him to just take the long way back to the hotel. so he drove and drove, and worked on his english and myself on my thai.

ma means dog in thai.

he eventually wanted me to try to drive his tuk tuk. i was very excited, it looked super easy, and these things can go fast. but when i sat on his little seat, it was next to impossible for me to figure out. i had to get a peddle in sync with this little hand thing, and stear, and have a stcik to move around or something. basically it was like learning how to drive a stick shift all over again. the tuk would speed up and stop suddenly, fast and stop, fast and stop. eventually, he was like, ok ok ok ok, give that back. i was embarrassed to say the least.

previously, earlier that day, coming back from phi phi don, i had enjoyed the pleasure of the worst sun burn ever recorded.

so as i clambered back in to the rear of the tuk tuk, he started going, and me, being 6'3" trying to worm back into the small seated area, hit my back on the top of this thing. the skin just melted away. rubbed off like goo. i was in the most horrible pain. ugh.

so he finally got me home, tired, hungry, experienced. i felt he had been exceedingly nice and entertaining and pleasant to meet, so i gave him what would equate to a 20 dollar bill in US money. he earned it. i didnt need it. and everyone is poor there.

but he refused. it was too much for him! in his monetary terms, it was like i had handed him a 100 dollar bill for him doing nothing deserving of that high a payment. he gave it back, and patiently waited for smaller amount. i finally got him to accept what i really wanted him to have, he pressed his palms together to thank me, and went on his way, smiling.

basically, this was a long story to tell you, in my experience, the immense amount a mere twenty dollars can get you. so, thats what i want to donate. if you need more, let me know. and if you need a west coast house to stop over in, keep me in mind.

look forward to seeing you out there september 1st!

keep the pictures constant!

sincerely

jordan