last night we went to the movie bar. its actually a very cool place. I was with erwin and Im. i put so much pressure on myself to try and reach for what i think i see in "Im", that its a killjoy. she left early. erwin and i had a good chat, though.

i have been coughing before i go to bed each night. last night i coughed most of the night. the cough is getting worse. yet during the day i dont cough at all.

okay so there is this girl with dreadlocks in the guest house that seems young and somewhat bored/disillusioned. i was buzzing around on the moped yesterday, which has been so fun, and i went to "downtown" kanchaniburi. I was looking for a place to develop my film and as i pull out onto the street i see dreadlock girl walking the other way. there is this oh so dim light that goes on in my head. like "hey there is an opportunity here" but my reaction time for such things is very slow due to inactivity. dou! i thought. oh well.

my plan for today (Saturday? ) was to get a scooter and go back to erawan falls. i mentioned to Im that I wanted to go back and I think she wanted to too but didnt want to ride on the back of a scooter. you see, you have to have something of an agenda in this style of life. ive actually been in kanchaniburi too long. im starting to become a regular when really my trip outside of bangkok has yet to begin. this was supposed to be a side trip. and you cant go following around the cool crowd, you have to go your own way once in a while. so i was up early (8am early) and having breakfast. a 25 cent banana shake mmmmm, and a $1 omelet (a very small one). When what do I see but dreadlock girl sitting at the table. I sit down across from here and make some comment about seeing her downtown yesterday. 'what are you doing today' i ask, she says she's going to erawan falls. i say i am planning on that too. she says (in a thick german accent) how are you getting there and i say im taking a scooter. she seemed really interested and ask if she can ride with me there and have her two friends follow in another scooter. sure! i say.

just like that, everything for that day changed. i meet people out here i talk to people out here. i talk more than i used to. i wake up and in a couple hours i am on a motorcycle (okay a moped) blasting down a thailand highway with the jugle on each side, beautiful warm winds, and a 20 year old german girl on the back. bloody hell! i used to wake up to the empty klickitat kitchen eating cheerious enjoying the river valley view and the crappy local paper by myself.

thats the hard thing, to accept joy with out expecting it or anticipating it and being able to endure with compassion the inevitable reduction of joy. also this life style cant be sustainable, i mean it does cost some money and pretty soon you want to accomplish something more than feeding yourself and seeing tourist attractions.

anyways back to the falls trip. it turns out dreadlock girl is a somewhat reclusive (think portland goth girl) 20 year old who is 3 months into her asia trip and is named Sofie. she gets on back of my moped, the other two get on their own scooter. erwin is up and about and decides to tag along for part of the trip. its 1.5 hours and 60 km to the falls. tomorrow he flys back to holland. we all cruze down the highway, with my 100cc scooter being the slowest of the three - with both of us on it tops out at 85km/hr. erwin has a 110cc and 'via' (german girl, traveling since july) and 'gaa' rented a 125cc bike. 'gaa' is a small, thin, but strong and nible thai girl who wears boxer shorts pulled up with baggy long shorts. "hip hop style" she says. she's engaging and friendly, and tomboy-like. she rides the fastest out of the group.

after paying 200 baht to get in, we have to stop and eat for a while. im anxious to get to the falls. 'gaa', being a thailand national, speaks thai. she also speaks good english, and some spanish. she does all the talking to the guard people and pays only 20 baht herself to get in.

the falls really are amazing. in the US i imagine there would be no swimming allowed and signs and rules because someone might get hurt and sue. here its a playground. there are seven 'steps' to the falls. around step 5 the girls get tired. trying to appear gracious, i say i dont need to climb to the top. via and gaa say they want to go back to step 4 where is a place to jump off a mushroom shaped rock and drop 20 feet into the water. i say i want to make it to the top instead. it turns out a) via and gaa are gay lovers and b) sofie wants to go to the top (step 7) too. its amazing up there. its like a dozen 15 foot soap dishes places at different altitudes with a waterfall feeding them all. when we get to the top there are sounds of thunder and lightening. it rained pretty hard for an hour yesterday and it looked like it was about to do the same. i was hoping sofie would swim with me but she was content to people watch. i wanted to swim. especially if it was going to rain. so in i went. with some thai children doing the same. there were rock overhangs with green foliage hanging from the underside. the rains come and im having a BLAST. at one point i was in a pool and had my head above water, watching the rain drops hit the surface of the water and seeing the reaction splash upwards. for some reason the upsplash was black in color. each splash was small and perfect the way you see that effect in photographs. i was surrounded by hundreds of these little splashes and i stayed still, watching and feeling and listening to the warm rain. it was religious. sofie was soaked. my fannypack was soaked. we walked back down the trail to step 4. after 45 minute or so on the trail the sun comes back and about an hour later im pretty much dried out. we have a long, fun ride back down the highway into kanchaniburi.

i was out on the street with my moped, did i tell you how much fun riding the moped is?, to go to 7-11 to buy a roll toilet paper (10 baht). its right next door to the movie bar and they are 30 minutes into "Signs" with mel gibson. i should call it illegal movie bar because every movie is a VCD which you know is pirated. "Im" even said she saw a handicam movie being played at this bar. even so they pick damn cool movies. i sit down by myself, feeling confident. i didnt have to be with anybody and the little realities like the movie volume makes it too hard to hear, became an actual factor in how it was nice to be there alone.

tonight's movies at the illegal VCD movie bar: "Signs" "Sweet Home Alabama" "Armageddon"

when the first VCD of signs ran out, I thought oh great now the bartender has to ask zeroc00l in #vcd-warez to DCC him the next half. Ha Ha Ha.

ive got to ship out of this little berg. less than 3 weeks left.