Party Down

Having just left Australia and Thailand, two of the most hellacious party countries you could ever visit, you'd think I'd be on the verge of death from alcohol poisoning. Or at the very least in some sort of multi week hangover state.

But here is a surprise for those who know me - I've pretty much cut out drinking on my trip.

Even in Koh Samui, the supreme party beach island I've just departed where beers are rarely above 2 dollars and most one, I managed to have just one beer in 3 full days time. This is with a contingent of British emissaries staying where I was at who were visiting for, near as I can tell, the explicit purpose of drinking until their moral convictions are worn down to the point partaking in local...professionals feels A-OK. Then they go to bed around 6 am, wake up around 2 or 3 pm, and start it over again.

I'm not coming down on them, but constant heavy drinking and prostitutes didn't fit into my itinerary it seems (say it with me now: "but why not?!" INTERROBANG!).

I have partied a few times. In Chiang Mai once, in Noosa a couple times, one night in Sydney. But really, in a month and a half, 4 times being drunk is pretty light for a vacationer I feel (or near as I can tell based off my compatriots I meet).

I think a few things dictate this decision.

1) I had a conversation in Brisbane with a British girl about the different types of travelers. She suggested one type was those who come to get drunk in a foreign country. I NEVER want to be classified as that type. If I wanted to get drunk every night, I could have stayed in Alaska (where, for some reason, that concept feels more palatable).

2) When you have just a short time to experience the world, why would you want to waste half of it being hungover? Hangovers SUCK at 27 - enter hemming and hawing from readers who are older than me.

3) To do a lot of the really cool, grandiose things I would like to do, you have to get up wicked early. Have you gotten up at 6 am recently after drinking heavily until 4 am?

4) I do not want to go to jail in a foreign country. Especially Thailand.

5) Most of the people in hostels are much younger than me. Regardless of recent swan related posts, I have no problem with those younger than me. Besides the fact that most of them are needy, dumb, and terrible drinkers. Plus, drinking with 18 year olds just feels sad and weird. Maybe they'd impress me if I was raised on a farm and I was retarded. But I didn't, so they don't. (name that paraphrased movie quote!)

6) I'm not vacationing - I'm living abroad. To use a blatant cliche, it's not a race, it's a marathon (which is also a race, yes? Stupid cliche!).

That's not to say I don't enjoy the occasional beer. The other night in Chiang Mai, I went out with some people, had 4 or 5 beers over a few hours. Ate dinner. Went to an absurdly cool reggae bar on a roof and met some borderline retarded people. Went home for rest so I could go check out some pandas at the zoo the next day. Bed at midnight.

Not a bad formula. It is just being an occasional social drinker. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Who knows, maybe when I get to Europe and have a lot of time on my hands I might fall back into the throes of the party world. Or maybe not. We'll play it by ear, but I'm sure that occasion will be celebrated with a poorly written and long blog post about how much I love you all.

Especially you Matt Keortge. You sly devil, you.

Music of the day: Sufjan Stevens' excellent album The Age of Adz (seeing him at Primavera Sound!)