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.
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