You don't get this in Dear Old Blighty

Krabi town isn't too bad at all really; i'd have to say i could stay here for until Full Moon party easily if they had a beach but they don't so it's a mute point and onwards to Railay in a few days next. No rock climbing for me though, i know my limits when it comes to upper body strength.
Wednesday i managed to get up at quite a reasonable time for a recent change (well compared to Phi Phi, I was doing pretty great prior) and went for the usual wander. I'd not emailed home for over a week, blogged or put any photos up yet so I stopped by an internet cafe as i thought it was about time to rectify that. All i can is that judging from its proprietors, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are the most prominent social commentators of our time, they at least have the world of warcraft brigade down if nothing else. I initially thought it was just one guy working there so was releaved to find out it was actually two identical people splitting the long days and only came to this conclusion when i saw them together. They're both grossly overweight, have terrible skin, completely immobile, lethargic, sweaty and carbon copies of the guy depicted in the South Park warcraft episode, apart from that thoroughly nice chaps i must say. I can only tell them apart by the fact one of them offers you a banana on leaving. All they do for what must be at least 16 hour shifts is play warcraft constantly and record the time someone enters and then leaves. They clearly must be living their dream jobs though so fair play and i've just realized the hypocrisy of saying this coming from a man who's probably spent literally years of his life on Football Manager since 92. I've not even missed Football Manager actually, now that is high praise for this traveling lark i must say.

Anyhow i was in the cafe for a bit when i heard someone say "Alright Mate" in a slight Mancunian twang, turned about to be Mark from Phi Phi which was good to see and he was fresh off the boat with backpack and on the look out for the guest house i personally couldn't find (not that i looked). We managed to find it soon enough and as he went to sort his stuff out i went to get a bite to eat. I could've only walked five metres when i stumbled across a parade that turned out to be the Vegetarian festival, i'd read about this as it wasn't a parade of fruit and veg but just people sticking bars and the like through their faces. Yeah, i didn't catch the link either. The ages of the participants were shockingly varying and both genders took part, the only real constant was that everyone was dressed in white. The first bit of insanity was a guy lit about 2 metres worth of powerful firecrackers under the feet of two Thais who were carrying what i assumed to be some kind of Buddhist thing. They then preceded to do a combination of jumping in fear, dancing and feigning a fit as the firecrackers went off under their feet. This was actually incredibly tame for what was to come next. Streams and streams of people lined the street with various objects impaled through their faces. I saw swords, knives, bars, chains and even a guy with a gun through his face. What also appeared from the distance to look like someone cleaning their teeth was actually them just sticking a razor blade inside and attacking the gums and tongue, sending blood all over himself. England this was not. I went for dinner and returned to sit with Mark and a girl who was traveling  too. The three of us sat stupified as the parade got more extreme and torsos more crimson blood ridden. The most disturbing ones were probably just those storming up the street eyes wide and shaking their head in some form of trance, madness. Between the threes of us not even a suggestion could be raised to link vegetarianism to self mutilation so if anyone does know then please e mail me.

 

 

We went to the Night Market on the evening and i must say i've missed street stall food, it's clearly the way to go. So much cheaper, tastier and well; that all that matters round here. I intended to go to Railay on Thursday but going to stick around here a bit longer, it's so cheap, i've found a really nice hostel and there's no rush to get anywhere really. Thursday I went exploring all day and must've covered some ground, I found a really nice Temple and it was a beautiful day so walking with George Carlin and The Beatles on the iPod, cooking in the sun is a fine way to spend anyday. I especially agree with Carlin on the people who run the country, the major corporations and employers etc. These days they don't want people who are critically thinking, well educated and informed showing initiative but people who are "hard working" as they say. This to them means keep your mouth shut, be smart enough to fill a shelf or work a machine, but dumb enough to passively  accept lower rates of pay, more unsociable hours, no overtime and then they'll come after pensions and stuff like inheritance tax which is a disgrace already. Tax on money already taxed. Ah another rant over then. I think i'll stay here one or two more days then move on to Railay then come back via here to get the bus to Phagnan for full moon festivities. I must also add as a footnote i saw a huge fat man walking down the sreet bollock naked yesterday in an incredibly casual manner, the Thais were shocked by this so it's not a culture thing but he didn't "look" crazy. Obviously he had to be though? He did have a rugby player build so was maybe just after his socially acceptable homoeroticism fix but got lost from the group.