So, so very bored....

Well, the inside odyssey continues and I'm pretty damned bored. Also itchy. Like, very itchy. Got my hands on some anti-histamines today but they sell them from pharmacies that close at like 4pm, not from drug stores that are open much later but only carry very basic stuff like aspirin, etc, and mostly beauty products. Buncha jerks, could really have used that stuff last night as I tossed and turned. The peeling process has begun in earnest today, and combined with a bunch of maturing bug bites from my 2 nights in what I later discovered was literally the cheapest dorm in town, I'm one big raw nerve. Good times.

Tomorrow I set off on a long train ride between Penang and Bangkok, skipping all of the southern islands for now because I simply can't enjoy them until I've healed up. In the end though I think this kind of makes sense, as I can return toward the end of my trip and decide how much diving I want to do in the area with the money I have left. In the mean time, a few more random things:

I'm down 2 shirts (and the rest reeeeeeealllllly need to be washed), left them behind on Pulau Pangkor; clotheslines are my friend and my enemy, as I tend to forget things when they're not right in front of my face. I know, you're thinking to yourself: Mark forgot something? That's unpossible! But it's true. Thankfully Bangkok is the perfect place to do laundry and stock up on cheap fisherman pants and cotton shirts.

The food here is amazing, but there's some really, really weird stuff. One famous dish is called Cendol, and it consists of shaved ice topped with a kind of palm sugar sauce or syrup, then these neon green string bean type things, and candied kidney beans. It's pretty tasty, but it makes for a very heavy and strange snack.

I also broke down and tried the KFC here, which I had heard was much better than back home. It was my first Western food since I left and I'm disappointed to say that it was not worth the loss of my self-respect from breaking my pledge not to eat anything like chain food. It's definitely better, the coating is crispy and the piece of chicken was way bigger than anything you get back home, but it's still fried chicken and it still sat like a lump in my stomach. Lesson learned.

I saw a guy next to me at the internet cafe yesterday watching Twilight videos on youtube. He looked to be about 40, and was really into it, watching them for like 30 minutes. I think this is why so many people object to the US projecting itself around the world culturally; I wouldn't want my kids watching that crap either, let alone 40 year old men.

That's all I've got for now. Episodes of Breaking bad and a 900-page Tom Clancy book that I picked up for the train ride are what's sustaining my brain these days, can't wait until the sun goes down so I can get out and walk around and eat Indian sweats like my life depended on it. Pretty sure my belly is at least enjoying the down time, since it's impossible not to snack like crazy when you're bored and everything is so damned cheap. Hopefully the next update will have lots of good Bangkok stories....