{"id":1035,"date":"2010-08-03T06:55:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T13:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2010-08-03T08:43:34","modified_gmt":"2010-08-03T15:43:34","slug":"tropic-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035","title":{"rendered":"Tropic Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Ao Nang beach before. Happy days are here again. \u00a92010 DHF<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

After. It's go time! \u00a92010 DHF<\/p><\/div>\n

Ao Nang-<\/strong> I had planned to head out to the island Ko Phi Phi Don<\/a> today when a nearly 6ft tall Nordic girl interrupted my conversation with the woman about to vend me a ferry ticket yesterday warning of particularly rough seas from a monsoon bank that would make landfall sometime today. I was doubtful of the severity of her warning until the whipping reality came to fruition exactly as she’d said. Unusually for the past week, it was all blue skies when I woke up today and I was psyched to continue work on my nascent tan, a tan which has been dormant since my last recent summer of glory, 2005. From blue to black, the Euro sun worshippers packed up and scurried off and I was the last man off the beach. I actually like being on the beach when it rains. OK it wasn’t exactly the Saigon embassy evacuation in ’75 but still…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My flight from Ao Nang beach wasn't quite this dramatic but I'm nonetheless proud to say I was the last man off the beach.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dude looks like a ladyboy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thailand has some funny contrasts that are probably healthier than a lot of other countries in terms of societal harmony. I rocked up to a street curry stall after buying my ferry ticket to Phi Phi and it was run by a Malay gal in hijab with a ladyboy waiter\/waitress and they made a mean team. Not really knowing what it was I ordered the “Indian” curry thinking it might be milder than the ub\u00ebr hot Thai curries I’ve been sweating out the past few weeks. Wrong. The Indian curry was not some south asian dish whatsoever, but apparently the hottest of all the curries sold there. Needless to say the hijabi girl and ladyboy were having a few laughs at my expense as I broke into a full sweat with Scandanavian tourists looking at me as if a sidewalk spectacle. I had to sprint to the store for a large, cold Chang\u00ae immediately afterwards. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ao Nang- I had planned to head out to the island Ko Phi Phi Don today when a nearly 6ft tall Nordic girl interrupted my conversation with the woman about to vend me a ferry ticket yesterday warning of particularly…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287,281],"tags":[295,296,297,298],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-southeast-asia","category-thailand","tag-ao-nang","tag-ao-nang-monsoon","tag-thai-monsoon","tag-thailand-monsoon"],"yoast_head":"\nTropic Thunder - The War Diaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tropic Thunder - The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ao Nang- I had planned to head out to the island Ko Phi Phi Don today when a nearly 6ft tall Nordic girl interrupted my conversation with the woman about to vend me a ferry ticket yesterday warning of particularly…Read more →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-03T13:55:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-08-03T15:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/P1010011.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"derekhenryflood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"derekhenryflood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"derekhenryflood\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\"},\"headline\":\"Tropic Thunder\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-03T13:55:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-08-03T15:43:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\"},\"wordCount\":387,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/P1010011.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ao Nang\",\"Ao Nang Monsoon\",\"Thai Monsoon\",\"Thailand Monsoon\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Southeast Asia\",\"Thailand\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=1035\",\"name\":\"Tropic Thunder - 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