Day 1 in the can

Wednesday was the first proper day of filming. The dossier is proving to be indispensible and is filling up quickly with notes and phone numbers. Aut the Intern was supposed to show up at 10am but after a courtesy text, he strolled into the lobby around 10:30. We went on a raging tear the night before and if it wasn't for the jetlag, 10am would've seemed entirely absurd anyway. The night before Aut bought us some Thai brandy called Regency. We cut it with water and slammed it. Mostly it was me and Aut, Morgan had tapped out after the highballs we had at the hotel just prior. We split the flask about halfway down the middle which is notable only because I outweight Aut by 100 pounds or so. We ordered frog legs and squid but they must've been out of frog legs at the time so they just brought us a plate of deep fried rodent bones instead. Delicious all the same.
We humped through the Bangkok humidity for a few hours with Morgan keeping the red light vigil with his Sony DV. We got some great footage which will help add some texture to this thing. There are about 10 distended bug bites on my legs that itch ferociously.
We applied for visas at the Vietnam embassy. You have to leave your passport there which naturally grates the instincts, but I guess this is how these things are managed. That may pose something of a problem, as I just found out today that I need my passport to rent the wireless lav mics. The date we need the mics and the date I get my passport are fairly close together but for the time being I will remain optimistic. We need them by November 4, which is the first day of the Asian Human Resource Development Conference, which Gary will be attending. The passports are also scheduled to be ready on the 4th. I'll keep you posted.
After the embassy Aut took us up to the National Palace via boat ride. Morgan hung the unit out over the side of the rig. It took some minor storm surge, which was promptly wiped off. Hopefully it won't cause any problems.
We wandered over to Kohsan Road, the notorious big tent freak show of through hikers, whores, lepers, scammers, lovers and saints. We sat and ordered a pitcher of Singha and watched the evening fade to night. The beer tastes good when you earn it. When you earn it in Thailand making movies, just how any honest man should. It was a nice place to sit and watch the people pass and that's what we did.
Then Aut led us to a thai restaurant that was cheap and good. I got some type of penut pork hot plate. Best goddam Thai food I ever had. Hell, best food I ever had. I thought a hooka might be a nice thing then, so we wandered over to a back alley mafia hooka joint that Aut knew. It was down a long hall lit with naked flouresent bulbs and up 3 flights of stairs. The place opened up to a huge rooftop bar, open to the sky around the edges. We sat in the corner and ordered an apple hooka and 3 gins for the table. It was 8pm on a Wednesday so the place was quiet. A couple white guys were setting up to play a set later in the evening. In the meantime, odd music pumped through the bar and into the humid night. Mostly American music from the last 15 years. Stuff like Maroon 5 and Sixpence None The Richer. Everything was alright and we had an ok time. A few sex tourists wandered in with their hires. Pasty looking white dudes from Australia or Europe. One ordered a blended drink, deep tourquoise in color. Maybe that doesn't tell his life story but it probably comes pretty close.

The sweet smokey apple shisha burned and drifted like a friendly ghost. The lights were colored and the gin was cold. The breeze cut the Bangkok humidity and we all sang along with deep passion and true belief as the band played Hallelujah.