She arrives

Bangkok has been simply lovely. It's a bit overwhelming; the colors, noises, smog, beautiful people, opportunities, all - it just screams out at me. I'm feeling the urge to depart, and soon; not because I dislike the city - on the contrary, it's just too wonderful. I think I need somewhere smaller, more intimate, to begin my foray into Thailand. Plus, everything's so cheap that it's tempting to spend money on services and products I don't need.

Immediately upon arriving in Thailand, my travel magic began. It's one of the things I love about travel - the "coincidences" that happen, to jerk me from the mundane, the routine, the practical and scientific and explainable, and elevate my life to something that feels intertwined with fate. As if I'm swept into the stream of where I should be, and why, and all I have to do is recognize the opportunties as they come my way.

It happened on my first hour here.

I was on a bus, headed to a guesthouse, when the bus finally stopped at stop #1, after more than an hour weaving through traffic. I saw other travelers, and decided to bail, early. I'd been traveling for more than 24 hours at that point, just to arrive. I check into a gueshouse, go downstairs for food, and by some miracle, I hear a gentleman on a microphone speaking about the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior. The ship I just submitted a volunteer application for. I hop in a taxi, and head to a place I can't even read (it was written in Thai for the taxi driver). I'm deposited at the gate of a port. It's dark. Motorcycles zoom by, often in the wrong lane, weaving between cars and dangerously flipping 180s at whim. Dogs bark at me as I walk by. I reach the security officers, who tell me the GP ship is a long walk down these dark docks at night. I look up the word for dogs in my dictionary, and ask if they're around, punctuating my question with a bark, for emphasis. No, no dogs, they say. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Lots of dogs. But I make it. And Greenpeace folks show me around, I'm drinking beers with the crew, I'm getting solicited by the actions coordinator in Thailand to do actions later this week. Now, do you call that mere coincidence?

What else? Oh, yes. Thankfully, my mock wedding ring combined with an apparent lack of Thai libido (or perhaps I'm simply not their type) has left me largely unmolested by men on the streets. But I can't say the same for the bars - the lesbian bars, that is. I went out last night with three international women, one of them dating a woman I met through my friend Lyndy's old Thai teacher here in Bangkok. I show up to meet them, and they announce that we're going to the Kit Kat club, a lesbian bar. More like a lesbian warehouse - it was just after payday, and there were nearly 1000 crazy, fun women in there! Needless to say, I met quite a few (mostly Thai) women last night, including one I'd already met at the GP event and a woman studying monkeys here, who's read work by my college professor, Katie Milton. Will wonders never cease?

I woke up this morning with a mild hang-over, but a wicked smile. I think I'm gonna like this place.