Bad tourists.

"We paid for a tour, not to be crammed in a van like sheep in a cattle car" she said in her heavy Indian accent after about 5 minutes into loading the different tour groups into the vans. It was 730 am and we were all just getting up and ready to take a country side tour of Thailand. Most were to be returning to Bangkok that afternoon, a couple of us would stay out on River barges in "luxury air conditioned huts". It was cool inside, but pissing and shitting in a hole over a river feels a little less than luxury. The Indian woman continued. "It's muggy in here, it smells. We didn't ask to be a part of a tour with them. Could you move these bags? What's in them? I don't know why I'm complaining, you aren't going to do anything about it. She probably doesn't understand half of what I'm saying."

Some people get mad so easily. Anyway, driving around with them wasn't too distracting. Especially considering how fast our van driver was going. In Thailand people pass on two lane roads by just going around cars regardless of oncoming traffic. Like the car you're passing, and the cars speeding at you at 100km/hr, just move over to create a suicide lane. Mind you, cars traveling the other way are also doing this insane passing technique. It is so common I actually saw a car doing it toward us that had a red light bar they turned on while doing it.

Two night stay on a floating barge is an unforgettable experience. Under north the boat are hundreds of fish. A perch looking species, and they eat the scraps and poop the come off the boat. Discharging waste directly into the river is not cool with me. But it's what everyone is doing, and I'm not about to pack out my shit like I'm at the Grand Canyon on mount Whitney. Oh well.

Part of our stay included a "waterfall" that was bone dry, another series of waterfalls that were gorgeous, a float trip on a bamboo raft, and a visit to the Death Railroad that was built by POWs in WWII. We also had included a visit to the Tiger Temple and rides on elephants. Not too excited about posing for pictures with doped up tigers that are being fed Xanax so they don't maul you, we skipped it. We also skipped the elephant rides. It's one of those tourist things that everyone does when going to Asia. But fuck torturing animals with bull hooks and making them work all day. I'd be thrilled to see them in the wild, hell a fucking tiger in the wild would fucking rule. The countryside has all been deforested so habitat is sparse. Plus poachers. It is nice to know they're still out there though.