Chickens and Irony

So I'm finally here. I landed on Samui at about 1 pm on Thursday...i think. I'm not actually sure when i got here due to the fact that i had one of the most hellacious layovers in the Bangkok airport. The hellishness was due mostly to the fact that it was a 10 hour layover that started at 1 am. Seven hours later i felt like calling quits and throwing in the towel to this entire experience and going home. Thankfully i did not listen to my freaked out, overemotional, tired, drugged up inner self and instead got on yet another plane to fly to my final destination.

Samui is just how i remembered it. Balmy, lush, full of white people with bad sunburns. I got picked up at the Samui airport and driven to my guesthouse in Lamai which is not a part of the island i have ever stayed in. I had decided on the plane and on the taxi ride to the guesthouse that i was not going to have any weird expectations of my accommodations. I expected it to have a bed and a bathroom and for it to be clean. Thankfully these expectations were met but another realm of interesting issues have arisen in the last 24 hours that i did not expect.

Issue #1: My guesthouse is in between the street and the beach which means a tiring 30 second walk to the beach if i can get my lazy ass up. The path to my place winds around an old scooter repair shop, the back of a laundry and some tiny houses that have seen better days. If one was to look only to their right while navigating themselves to my front door, they would see only interesting buildings and potted plants lining the path. I have a funny little courtyard that is attached to mine and 2 other rooms (which are vacant at this point). Pretty little place to stay. But unless you walk like a crab (how they kind of scuttle sideways) and i don't, you cannot miss how the left hand side of the path is totally different than the right. There is a tiny house and next to it a pile of random trash (empty water bottles, dead leaves, branches, what looks to be half of a tiny pink sandal, coconuts, an old discarded suitcase, broken baskets, pieces of blue tarp, rotting fruit, and other random junk. you get the idea). There are some gigantic trees that have some extremely loud birds sitting in them that sound kinda like a steroided version of pretty bird from home. One of them sounds like he has a bullhorn up to his beak when he makes the wolf whistle sound. The difference between the right and left side of the path is somewhat confusing but i have somehow come to enjoy the weirdness of it in the small amount of time I've been here.

Issue #2: Roosters are freakin loud. The house on the left hand side of the path has chickens. I'm not sure yet how many because i keep noticing more of them every time i walk the path. There is no chicken coop or fence or anything so the chickens wander about eating things, picking through the trash and making noise. Although there is one chicken that is stuck underneath a big overturned basket type cage. I have to wonder why that chicken is in the slammer and not frolicking about as the others are. What crime can a chicken commit that requires such solitary confinement? He seems pretty pissed about it too, hes always making grumbling clucking noises to himself when i walk by. And what chicken farm would be complete without a rooster? The rooster is huge. Not huge like an elephant (though that would scare the crap out of me) but huge like up to my knee. Maybe all roosters are that size but being that I've never had the joy of raising chickens, its huge to me. We kind of had a showdown on the path my first day here. He just stood in the middle of the path in front of the gate to my room and gave me what i think was a glare. Can chickens glare? I remember when i was in elementary school at Judson, the Wicks (founders/owners of the school) had their family house on campus and the kids had a somewhat open invite to visit their place. They also had a big white rooster that might have been the reincarnated soul of Hitler. Evil bird would chase anyone who came near the front door. Anyway, having had this experience in my childhood, i was a little reluctant to start a confrontation with the mutantly large rooster that was standing guard outside my room. He glared at me for a minute or 2 while i decided if i should go find somebody to shoo him away (yes i am a sissy) and then he wandered off to do whatever roosters do. Fast forward to 5:30ish the next morning. The bird in the tree that makes the wolf whistles has given his bullhorn to the rooster who sounds like hes standing right in front of my door crowing. I never thought id wake up to that but i guess i will for the next couple months.

Things are OK so far. Its hot and humid and i have and interesting place to stay. There is an Internet cafe next door to my guesthouse and a good restaurant on the beach a couple of houses down. I haven't accomplished much as of yet other than starting my 'who gives the best Thai massage' survey, shooing a cockroach out of my room, and beginning my new vegetarian diet. We'll see how long the veggie thing lasts but for now its something I'm working on integrating into my life...though the thought of eating chicken seems oddly gratifying right now.