An American in Asia: His Quest for Cosmic Truth (or at least a Decent Espresso)

 

Dead Laptop, Backpacker Island and the Second Richest Man in the World

The Big Buddha at Koh Samui.

This time I have an excuse.

For the long delay in putting up a new page on the Cosmic Drifter site, that is. It's a great excuse because it also covers the fact that I haven't been sending emails off to those who deserve them for the past couple weeks.

Unfortunately, achieving this lily-white level of blamelessness involved a lot of personal suffering. To whit, a dead laptop. After taking it in for what would seem to be a routine bit of maintenance, it was returned to me an expensive piece of garbage. No apologies were offered, but a replacement laptop was. Offered for sale that is, at no discount.

Next time I scoff about how wonderful it is to be a Macintosh user, feel free to remind me that there is only one Mac technician on my island, that he's a bonehead and I'm stuck with him.

Anyway, I'm back in business with a brand new Apple MacBook. Kind of a cool-looking black thing. Like Darth Vader's Laptop of Ultimate Evil (ever noticed how evil guys always look cooler than good guys in movies?). Among other cool bits, it's got a remote for playing music and movies while my ass grows to fit my sofa, and a camera mounted on it and I can do video conferencing. That is, if I can figure it out, and then convince someone they want to look at my face while they conference with me. Please form an orderly line.

Breakin' on Samui

Boozin' on the beach.

Prior to my Mac disaster, I had an enjoyable week's break on the island of Koh Samui with the divine Mrs Studebaker.

Thailand's third-largest island is a nice counterbalance to Phuket, in a few significant ways. Due to the chaotic machinations of climate, Koh Samui always has the opposite weather of Phuket's. So we left Phuket in the pouring rain for a week in the blistering sun.

Also, while Koh Samui is by no means cheap, it is still more of a backpacker haven than upmarket Phuket. Bars, restaurants and resorts cater more towards a younger, thriftier crowd who demand a bit of style and originality. You won't find mod-looking brushed concrete cocktail bars hanging with colored silks and giant Buddha icons around stodgy old Phuket, but Samui has scads of them.

Development on the island has proceeded with little control, beyond the decrees of island mafia. For now this has given a free-and-easy, Wild West sort of atmosphere to the place, but paradise won't be around much longer. I give it less than five years.

We stayed at the supposedly four-star Central Samui Village resort on the southern side of the island, away from the busy beaches of Chaweng and Lamai. The resort looks just as nice as it does on its website, but service falls a bit flat. Nobody did anything for us that warranted more than two stars, yet they expect a hundred and fifty bucks a night. Of course I didn't pay that much, taking advantage of a $50/night special for Thailand residents.

My wife had a nice spa experience (though she said her usual $5 masseuse in Phuket was better). Meanwhile I, not a fan of massage, paddled around a big butterfly-shaped pool and goaded the staff into feeding me a steady stream of margaritas.

After a few days of this it was back to Phuket. Riding the car ferry back from Samui we sailed right into a storm. It was big and ominous but I managed not to cry like a little girl. It rained for almost the entire drive through the hills across to the western side of the Isthmus of Kra. This might not sound like fun, but I loved it. Largely because I was in the process of testing the limits of my new Honda Jazz. It handled the task admirably. Hella fun. I haven't loved a car this much since my dad's old 1961 VW Beetle.

Back in Phuket now, having dealt with my computer troubles and gotten back online, I'm buckling down to my book again. It was good to take a bit of a break and do some reading. I discovered another book with a similar plot idea (rock 'n' roll band in Japan) but for various reasons my novel won't be competing on the same turf.

Another storm is whipping up to hit us this evening, which means another drive through the rain to pick up my wife from her resort job. Today she's taking care of Warren Buffett, second richest guy in the world. I kid thee not. Someday I'll have to write some about my wife, who in her short life has seen everything from the rice paddies to Burmese generals and the prince of Bhutan. Someday when I'm a much better writer.

Thai news quote of the month

From a Chiang Mai Mail story about a caterpillar infestation:

"The only good thing was the worms did not appear to cause injury or eat human beings."