notable persons 1

in a plaza in singapore, bongo betsy and drummin' dan were playing hand drums for change. they traveled around the world to panhandle to music.

on the train from kuala lumpur, malaysia to hat yai, thailand, we met kung fu kevin and grumpy gwenny. kung fu kevin started performing tai chi type moves in front of the door on the platform while we were waiting to reboard the train after clearing customs and immigration. also, he smelled as if he hadn't bathed in about 2 weeks. later, he had his right arm going through the neckline of his shirt, instead of the sleeve. note to men - the one shoulder look works for women, not so much for guys.
grumpy gwenny was carrying around 60 litre backpack (huge), and was reduced to wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.

there was also a couple wearing matching striped pants that they had probably bought at a tourist market.

at our guest house in ayutthia, thailand, snarky suzy asked lulu if she would buy an elephant souvenir for her at one of the wats we would be visiting, since suzy hadn't had a chance to get it herself, yet. when lulu refused, suzy gave her a heap of attitude.
another guest there was shirtless shawn. at no point did we ever see him in a shirt.

on the "vip bus" from ayutthiya to chiang mai, drunken danny was sitting in front of us. he had been drinking so much, and was so dehydrated, that his feet were swollen, giving him cankles and sausage toes, and he reeked of booze.
his friend, lusty louie, was sitting across from him, and next to slutty svetlana. they were making out and giggling for the greater portion of the bus ride. you could hear them making out.
also, in the back row with us and right next to lulu since she was in the middle seat, were the french hippie couple. it smelled as if they had never bathed, and lulu swore that his feet were black. they kept invading lulu's seat, and she ended the trip smelling like them on her right side.

on our trip on the slow boat from chiang mai, thailand, to luang pra bang, laos, we encountered a few more people. first was friendly freddy and his laos girlfriend pat. the boat was scheduled to leave at about 10am, and he was already a bit toasty that morning, and kept drinking throughout the day. before we even had a chance to leave, he was misunderstanding instructions about customs and information on the trip. and once we were on the boat, there was an issue with one of the passengers and the purchase of her ticket. it turns out that the travel package she had purchased did not include the ticket on the slow boat. however, she did not appear to have realized this. so, while the nice lady and the girl were trying to figure it out, freddy kept butting in, trying to "fix" it', and made matters worse. we were delayed by about half an hour for this. the next day, he slept most of the trip, and we attribute this to pat. we think she made him not drink the second day, so he mostly slept, looking hungover. god bless pat.
stoned stanley, aka douchy mcdoucherson, was wearing a che guevera shirt the first day, and lulu was in fits over this. (mind you, we'd seen a metric crap ton of che guevera stuff, and since lulu is cuban, and che ordered the torture and murder of thousands of cubans during the revolution, she gets to be a tad irritable over this.) it was one of those "arty"type shirts, too. later he took it off, but did not replace it with anything, merely going shirtless. (he was shirtless a good portion of the next day, too. and when we saw him in the market a couple days later.) also, he and a few others were smoking pot on the front of the boat the first day.
room hogging helga was the german girl on our boat, toting around 55 kilos of stuff. she was sitting on the flat decking near our seat, and had her stuff spread all over, and wouldn't move for the 2 spanish girls who were having trouble finding space (there was no assigned seating, and the boat was fairly full) because she "wanted to sleep later on".