Dengue Descends

Greg and I were on my motorbike trailing Wendy, Ed and Trisha--- all riding on one --in the true Thai style.
I let him drive because, after all, he's been riding my dream bike (Yamaha Virago) for years in one of my dream cities (Austin, TX) where he's a professor of English. It's neat knowing him and knowing what my future will be like.
Anyway, I met the 4 of them on the bus to pai, where Ed and Wendy had been living for a about 3 months after a year of gallavanting around the world. They met at the wedding of Greg (roomates with Wendy's brother) and Trisha (Ed's sister) and, for two years, have never left each others sides.
Anyway, we were going to rent another motorbike for Trisha and Greg so we could head down to pet and elephant and go to the hot springs when we overheard loud thai blasting from speakers on the rooftop of an official looking truck.
Pai is true thailand. It's a village town where people come down from their tribes to buy the essentials. I stumbled upon a huge monday market on the outside of town where I did not see another Farang (foreigner) face for quite a while. Just alot of thai villagers buying soap and pots and pans and ridiculous shirts with English on them the likes of which read "DREAM complacencies of the peignoir and late coffee and oranges. In a sunny chair and the green freedom of a cockatoo. Upon a rug mingle to dissipate. The holy hush of ancient Sacrifice" with a big white screenprinted bike. It was really excellent and everyone wanted to see my tattoos-- I meet more people through my tattoo-- especially the one on my leg-- than any other means.
The first farang I saw was about 6'8. He might not have actually been that tall, but among 5'2 thai, he looked that tall! The second one I saw was Greg! The only non-nocturnal one of their foursome.
Anyhow, Greg and I were on my motorbike in the afternoon, once the others finally woke up and we heard the official talking over the speaker-- no idea what it meant because this is true thailand (that's where I was going with this)
Later, back at Wendy and Ed's some people came by and gae us a packet of stuff to put in any standing water because all the hubub was about Dengue fever.
It's reached pai. Quite possibly from Burma, which is a little too close for comfort.
So just wear bugspray right?
And put chemicals in all standing water, right?
Problem: it's thailand.
It's monsoon season.
Standing water is everywhere, and I live in this beautiful bungalow next to a creek.
Thankfully Kolyo ran to the chiang mai airport when I was in the monastery and picked up my long lost checked bag with enough DEET inside of it to give the population of pai cancer. And I was able to get the bag from him right before I got on the bus to Pai. Kolyo is my hero. Such a sweet cat who went way out of his way for me when he didn't half to. (But, of all the things to go missing from the bag? my knife is gone. I wonder if that was the hold up....)
Yay!
My skin is so slick with the stuff that the bugs don't dare land on me. But I swear, when they carry nasty diseases, they are even faster and more stealthy than regular mosquitoes. These bugs hardly make any noise. I stayed at the hotsprings a little longer on my own and I raised my hand out of the water to scratch my nose and INSTANTLY I was bitten!
And of course, all the symptoms are the same for Malaria, Dengue, Bird Flu, food poisioning etc. etc.
Well I think I'm off to Ed's and Wendy's again. Last night they taught me this ridiculously complex french card game that is apparently quite the tradition with them. But there's this absurdly fantastic muslim bakery down the road so I think I'll go get some cheesecake to take to them.