Back in Boulder

So after 5 different flights and what amounted to I think like 2 and a half days time (I "went back in time" so I'm not really all that sure) I'm back home in Boulder. It only took me about an hour to clear customs and then another hour to clear security in San Francisco (after having no problems in any country up until my own). I guess people just don't believe that you'd travel across to the other side of the world for 11 days. Oh well, sorry them. Slept through all my Tuesday classes on accident too. Being 12 hours off doesn't come in too handy unless you like late night infomercials (who doesn't really) or you're a vampire. Oh well.

Here's some new stuff to keep you interested until I can get over this jet lag...

new Imaginary Foundation shirts at www.imaginaryfoundation.com - that basically says enough right there.

Broken Bells still killin it on the iPod, rocked out to some old school Beck on the way to class today. 60 and sunny, must be Boulder spring time! With the knee injury it is much appreciated. Play Loser, Guero, or Where Its At and kick it around old school.

Change of Plans and the Best Street Food Ever

So turns out we missed the boat on the cheap Kuala Lumpur tickets and I was going to have three days of travel in a row if we went anyways so looks like we'll be doing something else this weekend. Oh well, always keep your options open is what I say.

So yesterday I was sitting downstairs using the internet when an Australian named Rich asked if I wanted to come with him to an FC Phuket football match. My answer was along the lines of hell yes. Rich also speaks Thai and has been here for a year and a half so he made for great conversation too. After a 5 minute motor bike ride to the stadium we discovered that if Rich had learned how to read and write the language we would have been clearly informed that FC Phuket was playing an away game this Wednesday. It was alright though as I got to check out the stadium (awesome) and even saw some alternates practicing with what looked and sounded like a big hacky sack. I got a couple nice action shots but yall are going to have to wait for me to put those on here, I can't be bothered in paradise. After our initial disappointment we did what any two strangers who have just met each other in a strange place do--searched out the closest bar we could find. Now we were in the definitely Thai-local section of Phuket Town and as such we were apparently a sight to see. No problems though because just as we were about to give up hope we discovered a great locals only beer garden with Singha on draught and a great view of the busy intersection next to us. In fact, it almost felt as if our conversation got swept up along with the honking motorists of all shapes and sizes. Once strangers, now friends. We spoke of the power of perceptions and especially misperceptions. We spoke of friends in countries we knew and we spoke of places we have yet to explore. We agreed on one thing, however. The most important thing I have ever learned.

There are good people and there are bad people wherever you go. The adventure lies in painting your own picture of a people and a place. We are all citizens of this world, whether you like it or not.

Last little end note...I have found the perfect Pad Thai. This lady must be in her sixties or seventies and has probably been at the Wok for at least fifty of those years. Believe me, it translates into the taste. I walked and walked...and walked. I asked Thai people who couldn't understand a word I said excepting the words "best" and "Pad Thai." People just kept smiling and pointing. Keep going. Not there yet. Keep going. And right when I was about to give up I asked a young Thai guy at his own street stall, thinking I'd settle for his own version of the famous fare. To my surprise he motioned me closer and pointed to a tiny, barely lit street stall across the road and said, "You're looking for the famous Pad Thai. It is her that you want." With a huge grin I crossed over and peeked my head in to see an old woman and what I can only imagine was a granddaughter. I then stood there with the biggest smile I could muster while she did what she did best. Three minutes later and two dollars poorer I had two individually wrapped huge portions of Pad Thai in my hands with all of the condiments and sprouts and green onions and...I'm getting hungry again. I think I might go find the Pad Thai Lady. I wonder if she even sleeps.

Hookers and Tattoos (don't worry, Mom)

So I thought it was about time for another update. After all, lots of certainly uncertain events have transpired over the last few days.

First of all, Ethan over at Apliiq has me set up with my own page on the website now with only my lines up.

Go to it here: http://www.apliiq.com/site/c.twLZKdN1LvH/b.5880519/k.5F19/apliiq_x_sean_mcneely.htm

Right now there’s just Guys stuff up but I’ve made a girls line to go with it and once I get the pictures together we’ll have that up over there too. Thanks to a chance meeting with my 57 year cab driver, Nop, I’ve also been to his favorite tailor in town and sourced some HOT new VERY LIMITED fabrics. These fabrics will only be available through my section of the website and won’t be customizable, but I think you’ll be more than happy with what I come up with. I’m hittin up a few of the main markets here as well tomorrow or the next day so start getting stoked on some fresh new designs. But that’s just the work side of things, how about some after-hours action. Karissa and her friends here (all lovely people in their own right) have been really busy with the TEFL course, it really is a whole lot of work but I’m really proud of all of them for doing it. They all chose to step not just one, but two steps outside of their comfort zone—and that’s a lot more than one can say about most people in the Land of Cushy Pillows and Warm Blankets. What can I say, we all strive to be comfortable. These people (like most of us afflicted with wanderlust) have simply redefined the idea of comfort. And that doesn’t mean we have magically discovered the antidote to food poisoning or language barriers. It’s a mindset thing, an indispensable tool for anyone On the Road. But I digress.

The whole point of that was to say that they’ve all been very busy with their teaching obligations. This has not, however, stopped us from having a hell of a good time. Two nights ago we headed down to the neon lights of Patong, the racier side of the island to put it kindly. To put it bluntly, most of the time I spent trying to tell tout after tout that I was not interested in either the infamous ping pong show or the shower show, and no, I did not want to pay number 81’s bar fine to take her short time. Be proud mom. I resisted temptation. Well, honestly I was more shell shocked and dismayed by the whole thing, but I don’t judge. Plenty of people looked like they were enjoying themselves, and enjoyment is an important thing to me if you haven’t already put that together. Oh, and the dude in the bathroom at the bar happened to be the best back and neck cracker I have ever found. I shit you not, this guy had skills. And he was tiny. He was so good I brought him out and got everyone a round, just to prove my point. Everyone agreed and large Thai smiles were had by all. I swear I’ve been trying to learn how to say the simple stuff like “hello”, “goodbye” and “thank you” since I got here and the Thais usually smile and laugh at my (I’m sure) disastrous pronunciation of whatever it is I’m trying to say. It’s so good to know that communication is not synonymous with language fluency. People are people, wherever you go.

So after I don’t recall how many games of Connect Four and buckets of Thai whiskey it was time for tattoos. I shit you not, at the go-go bars you actually bet the hookers on games of Connect Four. This, I agreed with Blake, was a hell of a lot better than paying bar fines and going short time. Hell, why don’t we have Obama enact a mandatory Connect Four Law across all of America. On second thought, it might just cause more bar fights. But back to tattoos. Karissa and I each got one. I did not plan on getting a tattoo, but it seems one does only about half the time anyways, if that. We found some awesome guys over at Tattoos by Toi and she got a beautifully done, small Thai lettering of the word for “nirvana” in brown, Henna like ink. The literal translation means “the place above the sky.” Sometimes I feel like I just want to get lost in translation forever. It is both classy as well as gorgeous. I opted for an original design by one of the two artists in the shop. I’m leaving it at that for now, but suffice it to say it is dope. I’ll let yall in on the secret when I get home, but I gotta keep some things a mystery or else you lose all the fun. After all, finding comfort in the uncertain is the armor of the modern vagabond.

P.S. Internet here has been kind of slow with the uploading of pictures but I will try to keep getting more and more of them up as time and space allows.

Oh and I think I’m flying to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a day on Friday? Round trip for 50 bucks from Phuket, on Air Asia. I love cheap flights, they really make my day.

Weekend in Paradise

Damn, this blogging stuff is hard. Here I am sitting in paradise and I feel obligated to tell all of yall about it. Funny thing is, there’s probably no one else reading it besides my mom…and she’s in Honduras so I wouldn’t count on that. Not to mention we just taught her the art of the text message, but that’s a whole different story.

I’ll try my best to include the highlights, but they might not always meet your expectations. After all, Thailand, I have learned, is the Land of Big Smiles and Duplicity. Nothing is exactly how it seems. At least that’s the impression I’ve got so far from the expats and students around Phuket. This weekend our buddy Kai, who works at the Viking Resort in Kho Phi Phi for gin buckets (literally), hooked us up with an incredible tree house bungalow, pictures of which will be updated when I get around to it.

Other points of interest in Kho Phi Phi include the absolutely incredible snorkeling (and I imagine scuba diving) where we got up close and personal with everything from puffer fish to black tip reef sharks. Don’t worry, my camera works underwater so all you people living vicariously through me can see what it looked like underneath the water. From there we ventured over to the steep limestone cliffs where an indigenous tribal people with their own language and customs have been living for centuries. They harvest the incredibly valuable swallow nests from the top of these sheer cliffs (swallow nest soup is a delicacy in the region and especially in China). These people live their entire lives amidst and inside of these incredibly intricate and sometimes completely inaccessible caves. Now how do you feel about reading Hollywood gossip magazines? I hope not well.

We then took our longboat along with Kai and his boss over to a place where monkeys are fed and hydrated by the multiple boats hugging the shore. It struck all of us just how much of an impact we have had as a human race on the inherent beauty of special locations. Here the monkeys took all sorts of fruit, water, and even a beer which it chugged impressively for all to see. Unfortunately the monkeys just drop their trash on the ground because no one decided to give them trash cans (they’re pissed) and now I feel like just another tourist, ruining what will no longer be left by the time our children are able to appreciate them.

Stoked yet? Oh yeah, and this is still all in one day. From there we headed to “the beach” famed for its starring role in Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie of the same name and…damn that place is nice. More than nice. Inspiring. Beautiful. Awesome. Until you turn around and some overweight hairy Portuguese guys’s ass is hanging out of his speedo as he gawks in what I can only imagine is something along the lines of, “Gosh, I really hope this Speedo fits and my ass crack isn’t showing.” He also might have been talking about the beach.

Anyways, after this came the cliff diving (don’ t tell the doc), but I went head first so I think I took at least some precautionary measures (right, Mom?). Incredible way to finish the day and I remember thinking to myself why people don’t just pack up and leave more often. Most of the people I’ve met here have less than I do, yet they’ve seemed to find the joy I sometimes lack. The carefree nature that your pillow provides letting you know that it’ll all be OK in the morning.

We’re now back in Phuket town and one of my taxi drivers named Nop has agreed to take me around to the best tailors in the town to gather up some textiles so we’ll see where my adventures take me next. Until then, listen to good music, read something that makes you think, and live—actually live.

In the meantime, get your hands on a copy of Stephen Leather’s book Private Dancer and Vagabonding by Ralph Potts. The following is a quote from the beginning of Potts’ book on travel:

“Vagabonding is an attitude—a friendly interest in people, places, and things that makes a person an explorer in the truest, most vivid sense of the word…. This is a book about living that choice.” (Potts, 6-7)

Next up look for a post on the fascinating contradictions and dualities of life in Thailand. Look forward to it…

Travel, travel, travel, sleep in airport, travel

Nice. I just slept nine out of ten of the hours on my flight from Seattle to Tokyo. That’s like scoring a nine out of ten on Rotten Tomatoes—it just doesn’t happen. I had to ask one of the stewardesses how long we’d been in the air and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I saw that it wasn’t craziness at all, only jealousy. Oh well, one more hour to go on this flight, and who knows how many more until I actually reach my final destination, Phuket Town, Thailand. Actually scratch that word final. I don’t much care for finalities because they can be the most arbitrary tricksters. How many times have you heard someone proclaim that it was the “last cigarette they were ever gonna smoke”? How many times have they asked you to bum one of yours because “they quit last week”. Yeah well I call bullshit on this whole matter of finalities. I know that Phuket, Thailand, like Salamanca or Malaga in Spain, or like the midnight sun in Stockholm that blinds your exit from the bars until your eyes readjust, will live on . I know that this journey, like all of the rest of them, is simply one more cog in the wheel of my life. Or perhaps to describe it better, it’s like one of those white things stretching across the airplane wing into a world of cloudless oblivion. They are like the mile (kilometer, I’m in the rest of the world)- markers on the journey of my life. Sitting in plane sight, leading me into the unknown.

Gorillaz – entire Plastic Beach album (8/10 stars), but especially Rhinestone Eyes and Plastic Beach (feat Mick Jones & Paul Simonon) and Broken Bells is just awesome (9.5/10)

ALSO

If you can manage to get your hands on a copy of the Gorillaz DVD “Demon Days LIVE @ The Manchester Opera House” I promise you will not be disappointed in the least, kids choir included.

ALSO

I’ve never done this whole blog thing before but I’m just going to use it to blast off whatever I happened to be into at the moment (please give comments, suggestions, likes, dislikes, etc. so I can make this what you want to read). Sometimes you might find a dope hoody, other times some fresh tracks, other times random ramblings, but I will always aim to enlighten and provoke thought. Oh yeah and we’re starting this baby off on my trip to Phuket, Thailand. Its beauty might have haunted you in Leo’s The Beach. I’m including pics in this post of the Tokyo airport and the airport here in Bangkok. Its funny cause they’re really small people but they build the biggest things (Napoleonic complex?). Anyways, I’m waiting out the night in the airport writing this at 2 AM until my 8 AM flight. Traveling for two days rules. I literally missed St. Paddy’s day, but I hope everyone had fun. Oh yeah, and to whoever threw a brick through my car window on St. Paddy's Day...I hope you become paralyzed by your ignorance and insecurities. Also, my name is Sean Kelleher McNeely so your karma just got fucked like a dirty porn star, I'd go see the doc to get that checked out sooner rather than later.

On that note I will try to end each post with a passage from something Eastern, and a little more positive. Right now I’m carrying the Sri Isopanishad translated by the ubiquitous and all-around all star, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. (go to krishnabooks.org for more inspiration)

This is from the back cover of my copy, so I figured the most logical place to start was the end.

“The completeness of human life can only be realized when the human form of life is engaged in the service of the Complete Whole. Any service in this world, whether social, political, communal, international, or even inter-planetary, will remain incomplete unless and until it is dovetailed with the Complete Whole. And when everything is dovetailed with the Complete Whole, the attached parts and parcels also become complete in themselves.” – His Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada

Welcome

I'm talking to two people. We're on three continents. It's roughly ten til four in the AM here in Boulder. Who knows what time it is there. Not that I wasn't told, just didn't stick. I made this blog (finally) for a whole mess of messy reasons. The most immediate of which is my impending trip to see my gorgeous girlfriend Karissa in Phuket, Thailand. You'll hear a lot about her from now on, but that's a good thing so don't worry. If you're going to be my reader and I'm going to be your writer then we've gotta trust each other. You trust that I won't fill your brains with complete and total bullshit and I trust this is a good idea. I live in an incredible house with five other guys in Boulder, CO and I'm finishing up school this summer. Some dope people from a cool company called Apliiq asked me to do some work with them recently, so I said yes cause I liked their clothes. Now I'm on the hunt for Thai textiles while I go see my girl in paradise. Never know whats gonna happen next. Then again, I guess that's the whole point. The only thing we can ever be truly certain of, is uncertainty.

rhinestone eyes - gorillaz
the high road - broken bells
vaporize - broken bells