Losing It In Phi Phi (Pee-pee)

Source: Phi Phi Party Crew (The Shangri La)

This past October, I took my first trip to the islands of Thailand. I want to specify that it was my first, and not last trip because it's a place that never really leaves you. It infects your soul like a virus. For some impressionable early 20-somethings, it inhabits them like a gold trimmed wide grinning parasite. And everyone wants a bite of everyone else.

There are two rows of islands along Thailand's long southern strip. One row on the Andaman Sea and one on the Gulf of Thailand. The island where I spent the most time was on the Andaman Sea side, and it was called Ko Phi Phi (correct pronunciation: Pee Pee).

Thailand has a reputation for being a massive country to party in, but I had no idea how common it was for visitors to literally drop their entire reality and stay on the islands indefinitely. Surprisingly the sexy film about big Leo dabbling in a bit of island infidelity and then going absolutely out of his coconut shell brain via SuperNintendo-meets-acid-tripping-with-baboons, was not far from what actually happens.

While there are no secret island camps (not that I saw anyway), Phi Phi and surrounding islands are littered with young adult-lets from all major English-speaking countries who have come to escape the square dullness and yucky sensibility of the Western world. On Phi Phi, life is a hooping hoorah with drug-laced candies and alcohol served in sandcastle buckets, and, by god, you better get on board.

Among the endless personal accounts I heard of lives being abandoned in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, America, South Africa, and Ireland, a few in particular stood out. I probably shouldn't name any names, but I'll make up some for the sake of storytelling. Here are a few selections (I can only put up a picture of one of these people for the sake of privacy):

Narcissus  I hate to say that I really liked Narcissus. He was a spunky kid who's eaten flesh from a living snake and has had intercourse with most people he's met. He spins fire and had to rescue an old sailor from a Viagra overdose. This guy's reason for abandoning The World is that he's what I like to call A Memory Collector. He does everything and says "no" to nothing. He wants to devour life and will succeed in doing so--if it doesn't swallow him first.

Captain  This wonderful character is actually the same old man whom Narcissus rescued from the Viagra overdose. His story is that he bought a ship from England about 30 years ago, set out for Thailand, but had to stop for 20 years in the middle because he found a Croatian wife. Now, after 5 marriages and a 30-year trip from the UK to Thailand, he spends his days getting his picture taken with beautiful half-nude women, having his belly button used for shots, and influencing lovely dirty habits on the impressionable youth.

Blondie  This girl was an absolute riot. She chronically falls in love with obscure foreign men. Blondie only likes guys who scream, light their boxers on fire, have gauges in their ears, and convince her to travel half-way around the world for a date. I accompanied her to a bar where her newest love affair was serving drinks. He was a native Thai with hair like Rufio and a smile like the devil. He gave us a big piece of chocolate that looked like a French truffle, but tasted like mud. It was weed with something else, but I don't remember what the something else was.

(This actually is Big Love. 

Postcards of Phi Phi locals are sold at shops.)

Big Love  I call this lovable lumpy fella Big Love because his favourite song is "Big Love" by Chicken. I know this because at the nightclub/streetside hut that he owns, he really starts to boogie when the live band plays this song. And it's entirely epic as he looks like the sun when he dances. Every cell of his being is in ecstasy to be a part of him.

While there are many other very interesting characters who come and go and stay on Phi Phi, this is just a sample of the most impressionable ones I met. I would encourage anyone to gain their own personal experience on this island of neon lights, spinning fire, and alcohol served in fruit or kids' plastic toys.

In honour of Big Love, and the rest of the nameless Phi Phi lot, let the following song be the soundtrack of your day:

The Human Skin Trade (Part 1)

Source: WunderKammer.com

"That's hardcore," says Ben White as he fawns over a photographed jar containing an embalmed 5 month old human fetus. He giddily studies the picture, examining the spaghetti looped umbilical cord like a boy leaning over a mud pile of worms. The fetus is illegal and its source is unknown. It does, however, exist somewhere in Australia where the laws of human tissue trade are highly regulated.

As the owner of WunderKammer, an occult shop in Melbourne specializing in miraculous treasures, White is very aware of the trade laws of deceased human remains. He lives for things like rare taxidermy, natural specimens, and antique scientific instruments. And like most products that are hard to come by, there’s a thriving black market just below the surface.

WunderKammer is just the first stop on our journey through the laws and illegal biddings of the skin trade market. Our next stops are The Evolution Store in NYC, an occultist shop with an abundance of human remains and skeletons, and Deyrolle in Paris, a 170-year old establishment known to be the oldest of its kind. 

The following interview details BenWhite of WunderKammer’s involvement with aberrant objects, how the laws of the human tissue trade in Australia affect his business, and a little about kangaroos.

 Illegal 5-month old fetus.

Source: Unknown

Ben: My name is Ben. I have a shop called WunderKammer, which is a scientific curiosity store where we do taxidermies as well. We have animal skeletons, and skulls, and fossils, and minerals, and all sorts of stuff.

RH: Would you tell me about doing taxidermy?

Ben: Well, we don’t do it ourselves. We frame a bit, so a bit of entomology and things like that. And the taxidermy that we get comes from local taxidermists.

RH: How did you get started doing this?

Ben: This was my dad’s shop originally. He bought the shop from another couple in 2006. He just recently decided to semi-retire, so I’ve taken over the store.

RH: What got you interested in a store like this?

Ben: Growing up around my dad, it was hard not to be. If you look around the store you can see a lot of him in it. It’s pretty weird and wonderful.

Javan toad skeleton.

RH: Was he the one who began collecting?

Ben: He bought the shop from a couple, so they sort of had the original idea, and my dad used to shop there. It was very small and boutique when they had it. He’s collected a lot, and really helped it grow and expand.

RH: How does he find items to collect?

Ben: That’s just sort of the case of going out and finding it. Adventuring. He’s in Paris at the moment, a lot of travel. We’re fairly well known now, so a lot of it can come to us through schools moving, throwing stuff away, old labs and things like that.

RH: Do you travel as well?

Ben: No, I wish. Maybe one day. My boy can take over, and it will continue on.

RH: You were saying that skin trading laws are different in Australia versus the United States.

Ben: What do you mean, “skin treating?”

RH: Skin trading.

Ben: Skin trading. Ah, yes. Yes. Your accent’s different. Yeah, well, there’s a Human Tissue Act in Australia.

RH: Is that what it’s called?

Ben: Yes, the Human Tissue Act. It prevents the buying and selling of anything that still has human tissue. So, skin, bones, any sort of organs or anything like that in ethanol or formaldehyde that’s been stored or pickled. It’s illegal to buy and trade stuff like that. So that law came in the late 1970s. Stuff that was done prior to that can still be done, so there’re a lot of old skeletons around that can still be traded.

RH: So deceased human parts after 1970 are totally off the market?

Ben: You can get licenses and laws that enable you to trade them. But I suppose they’re just trying to prevent it from getting out of hand. The thing is, all the skeletons used to come from India. It was big business in India. And people were starting to worry about how the skeletons were being obtained. That’s sort of how it got rolling. So, the ones that were done previously, people sort of understood where they were coming from and they were all done for medical situations, for doctors and med schools and things like that. 

They all had the skulls sawn open so you can look inside. When skeletons started to appear and the skulls weren’t sawn open, how they were procured and obtained started to become more of an issue. That’s when things started to change.

RH: Do you have any specific examples of this being a problem?

Ben: No, I don’t. I do have some customers who have come in and they buy a lot of skulls and things like that from overseas. They tell me it’s still very hit and miss as to whether you can get stuff or not, and whether it comes through customs or it doesn’t. It’s luck of the draw, really.

RH: Sounds like a bitch to deal with.

Ben: Yeah, well, it’s funny cause if it’s under 1000 bucks of value, sometimes they just waive it through.

RH: How do customs determine the value?

Ben: Well, it’s just whatever you paid for it. But, you could pay 1500 bucks, and the seller would usually write 900 on it for customs.

RH: What you sell, is it all pre-1970s?

Ben: We don’t have any human skeletons at the moment. My dad did have a couple of real ones. Really nice ones that he actually bought from the old WunderKammer. And they were old. The good thing about bones is they last forever. It doesn’t really matter when they were done if they’re kept in good condition. It doesn’t matter if they were done yesterday or a hundred years ago.

 Snake skeleton.

RH: Do the laws pertain to animals as well?

Ben: Well, they can. Being in Australia, you can’t sell koalas, platypus skulls, or things like that. Kangaroo is an interesting one, because they are a pest. There’re thousands of bloody kangaroos. They ruin crops.

RH: Like fruit flies?

Ben: Yeah, well they have culling season up in the north where the farmers are allowed to go out and legally kill as many as they possibly can. Just because there are so many kangaroos. But you can’t legally taxidermy one, even though they’re a pest, because they’re a native animal. You can get taxidermy licenses that enable you to buy and sell native Australian animals. My dad had one kangaroo in six years, so they’re not very common. But the laws go further again on things like koalas, platypus and things like that that are endangered or protected.

Kangaroos. They’re just a cute little fury animal, but they’re bloody annoying.

RH: I saw a kangaroo for my first time yesterday.

Ben: Did you pet it?

RH: Yeah, one was lying on the floor and I didn’t know if I should touch it, but I did. It was nice. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

Lady tools.

RH: So how are skin trading laws different in the States?

Ben: I do know that laws in America are a lot more lenient. There was a guy in here recently. He’s opening a similar store in San Francisco. He was telling me that taxidermy in America can be really easy for animals and humans that are already in North America. Shops like Evolution [in New York City] have a lot of skeletons and skulls and things like that.

But I don’t know how they obtained them. They’re not new, so I’m sure there are similar laws as to when they were made and things like that.

RH: Do you have a license to buy any sort of human tissue at all?

Ben: We have a second-hand dealer license, so we can buy from other dealers. But again, anything that involves human tissue is a sensitive area here. There’re old medical kits that hold half a human skeleton. So it’s the left side or the right side of the human skeleton which used to be for medical students. They come in this really generic box that has half a skeleton just sort of dumped in there. People buy and sell those all the time. You’re not supposed to, but med students sell them to other med students all the time.

RH: Sounds like trading text books.

Ben: Exactly. And they have like little drawings on the bone, all the vertebrae are numbered, things like that. It’s all just sort of a grey area.

 Siberian Wooly Mammoth Hair.

Ed’s Note: Due to Rogue Hustler’s involvement with articles, travel, and finding titillating topics for your weekly mental stimulation, interviews are not currently on a posting schedule. More are to be expected, but for now they are posted only when relevant and interesting.