A series of blunders has caught up with me, leaving me temporarily stuck in Bangkok waiting for something to arrive from my homeland, from good old US soil.  The item was possibly the worst item to possibly lose besides my passport. I lost my Charles Schwab debit card. The Schwab card is absolutely badass for people who are traveling internationally because Schwab reimburses cardholders for all international ATM fees. I’ll let you all know I’m not getting paid to write this—I’m 100% unemployed right now. Thailand discourages tourism while raping foreigners financially (this is one of just many ways) by charging a 150 baht (approximately $5) fee for every withdrawal from a Thai ATM machine. So…I lost my card…yep…my bad. Apparently I tried to do a few too many things at once and got careless, leaving the card in an ATM at 7-11 in Chiang Mai as I scurried from minivan to tuktuk to train station, with a quick lunch inbetween.

I didn’t find out I lost it until I was in Ayutthaya with my friend Grace. We were there admiring some old buildings, ancient ruins, cultural artifacts, whatever you want to call them and by this time I was already an overnight train ride away from the card. It didn’t matter, as I probably wouldn’t have been able to get it back. Anyway, I was talking to Grace about how awesome the card is and she asked to see it. I pulled out my wallet to show her but there was no card…f-u-c-k.

This was one of the many, many moments on this trip where I felt my eyes close, my head bow slowly, my lips draw outward but remain taut and a sigh of absolute resignation come out. Shortly thereafter I went through all my belongings but the card wasn’t there. I called the bank and asked them to cancel the card and they asked if I’d like to get a new one shipped. I have no permanent address. Thankfully Grace said I could have it shipped to her place. The people on the phone told me to get some information together and fax it to them…. I laughed in my head, thinking that in order to fax something I’d have to first find a fucking time machine to get to a long-forgotten era when fax machines were relevant. Getting to a time machine is a little bit more difficult for me here since I only know a few Thai phrases, none of them having to do with time travel. It turned out to be less of an ordeal than I thought because I found something called an app for my mobile device and this so-called app could be used to emulate a fax machine. Problem solved.

Except for the fact that my Thai visa was good for less than a week and my tentative plans were to pick up Shawna from the airport the following day and then head south to Khao Sok National Park for a few days, then to Malaysia, thus eliminating my visa problem. That wasn’t going to happen now.

Well, as usual, I’m finishing this blog many days after I’ve started it. Right now I’m in Khao Sok National Park. Amazingly, the debit card came in four days, including a Saturday and Sunday—extremely fast shipping. I was so thankful and relieved when it came. I usually try to never carry any significant amount of cash on me, instead opting to take money out as I need it, and $5 withdrawal fees add up really quickly, especially when you have $0 a month coming in. The same day the card came Shawna and I had went to the immigration office in Bangkok, waited four hours and paid 1,900 baht to get a seven day extension.  The 1,900 baht fee (a little over $60) for a seven day visa extension is fucking ridiculous and one of the things about Thailand that I am very disappointed with, which I will elaborate on soon in my mini-review of Thailand. However, at the immigration office, which was so massive it was like a city itself, we met a really interesting guy from South Wales named Walter. He deserves his own post and maybe one day I’ll get to that.

Anyway, in Khao Sok I used the new debit card merely one time before losing it again in a similar manner, at which point I felt so foolish I just wanted to stop existing. It’s somewhat comical now but when I realized I’d lost the card I became so enraged I started yelling, throwing shit and I even punched a door (didn’t really help the situation). I was then frustrated with my struggle and failure to control my own behavior, especially since it’s really been years since I’ve lost my temper that badly. I guess it happens.

Sorry for the abrupt ending; the next blog should be more positive and/or contain some photos.