Pictures

A Snake and I just before I shove off for the Market.

The Floating Market

Crocodile Show: Thai Slip N' Slide

Two of the school girls from the National Museum.

These are the Military Kids I met.

Bangkok, Thailand & Surrounding Areas III

No avoiding it, I am one smelly American. All day, every day whether the sun is out or not, it is hot here. I am always sweating. No matter how much deodorant I wear or water I drink I get hot, sweat, and then stink. Everytime I go to my room, I try and take a shower just because it is always so hot. When I initially got my room and found out that they didnt have hot water I was pretty disappointed, but I have come to realize you dont need it.

The past few days I have been mostly just seeing the sights. Two days, ago I went on my Floating Market day tour. Yesterday, I go to see some cool temples and do some suit shopping. Today, I got to see some more temples and see the Grand Palace. All have been interesting.

The first day, I got to see the Floating Market. They sell everything you never knew you needed. But it was still pretty neat to see some of the boats they had. All of the boats are made of wood, but that doesnt stop some of the woman from putting huge stone cooking pots in the middle and grilling food on them. Its pretty impressive. Later on, I got to see a Monkey show, Crocodile Show and Elephant show. The Monkey show was pretty hokey. If I had twelve monkeys, a miniture motorcycle, and a set of bleechers in my backyard I am pretty sure I could put on the same show. But the Elephant show was really impressive they had about ten elephants play soccer at one point and had a mockey battle where they stormed a fortress. It was pretty cool. The crocodile was pretty interesting too. The show was basically two guys in a concrete pen with 5 crocs in it. The concrete was pretty wet and the guys involved fell unitentionally at least 5 times which added an extra bit of suspense to it. They did the whole putting their head in the crocs mouth thing which is impressive. Because if watching Max-X has taught me anything, its that anything and everything can go wrong in animal shows in the developing world.

That day was all good fun except I had to wake up at 7 am to start the tour but lunch wasnt till 1pm. So there was a period of about 6 hours where I didnt have anything to eat. This would be a problem even if I was in the US, let alone in Thailand where the portions are already too small to begin with (I've already had to add 2 extra meals to my day just to maintain my weight). Anyway, by the time lunch came I was starved. We are taken to a buffet near the elephant show. These poor people didnt see me coming. I went to town on this thing. Double everything. The more meat the better. But this combination of gorging myself and not having had a BM for the first 3 days in Thailand created the perfect storm . . . . . I have no idea what it was or why it was in such a hurry but something comes out of me about the size of a young child's torso. It was awful. Thank goodness they had toilet paper at this place. But I mad one critical mistake I forget to put my toilet paper in the waste basket instead of the toilet. You arent suppose to put the paper in the toilet or else it will clog the toilet. I had no idea how this thing was going to end up. So I just pull the plunger on the toilet like Im pulling the pin on a hand grenade and get the hell out of there.
. . . . .

Everyone in Thailand is very friendly. Yesterday, on the street a random Thai man introduced himself to me and ended up talking with me for about 20 minutes. He lets me know about a cool temple that not a lot of tourists go to, the Temple with the Black Buddha, and a good place to get a suit, Nakhon Sawan Factory. When I got to the temple I met another random Thai man who had learned to speak English by watching American Movies. He was pretty interesting. It was Buddhist Day and he briefly showed me how/where to pray in the temple there. When you enter the temple you have to remove your shoes and are suppose to sit on the ground. The way you are suppose to sit is as if you were kneeling and then feel to one side so your feet are behind you. This is because you aren't suppose to point your feet at the Buddha. Feet are considered the dirtiest part of your body. He was an interesting guy, we shared about where he had been and where I was headed, then we went on our way.

. . . . .

Today, I just do more tourist stuff. I went to the National Museum first. When I went in there must have been a field trip of some kind going on because there were kids in uniform everywhere. As I walk through the museum I can hear the kids coming up behind me and laughing. I see a lot of flashes going off, too. When I turn around the kids that are pointing their cameras at me pretend to be looking at something else. It was pretty funny. Two girls eventually came up to me and asked if they could take a picture with me. I ended up giving an interview to another group for a school projects. Basically, whats my name? Where Im from? Why Im in Thailand? And do I like it here? I ended up doing something similar with a bunch of sixteen year old military school kids. It was fun experience. Later on, I ended up going to the Grand Palace Later too which was very impressive. It is a huge compound in the middle of the city. I also got to see the Golden Mountain too. All in all it was a pretty productive day.

Tonight, I meet up with Laurence again and we will head North tomorrow morning. We are going to be headed to Lampang for a two day Elephant Riding Expedition. Im pretty pumped about it.

Bangkok, Thailand II

Me at the finale of my awesome Tuk Tuk ride. Thats my stunt double in the background.


View of the city from my hotel roof.


Today I woke up late. I saw Laurence off he's going to Phuket for a couple of days but hell be back. We are going to go on some Elephant adventure and some Tiger later on in the week so I am going to just chill here because I am going to Southern Thailand later on for longer. It didnt make sense for me to pay the $100 to go down there for a few days then come back and then go back down. I am slowing down my neck-breaking pace that my trip started on. Though it did help me manage to dodge the full impact of the Euro pretty well. I have a 30-day Visa here and plan to stay here for the entire month. Ill be in Bangkok and northern Thailand for maybe 10 days then Ill head down to Phuket and neighboring beaches for the other three weeks.

My hotel room here, save the fan, has been fairly Spartan. One bed and toilet. But I guess that is fine when you are paying $11 a night to stay on the main drag. The bathroom is BYOT, bring your own toilet paper. And the shower head for the shower sits directly over the toilet so you can crap and bathe without moving your feet.

My tuk tuk ride was pretty interesting. It was one part tour and one part scam. The ride itself cost 5 bhat, 15 cents, but that is the scam just to get you on the cart. Once on you start on seeing sights then you head to suit shops and travel agencies to try and fulfill this weird kickback thing these drivers have going on. All in all it was worth it; it was pretty exciting. I got to seem some temples and ride around in Bangkok for two hours.

I ended up buying a day trip for tomorrow to the Floating Market, Rose Garden, Crocodile Show, and I think there are is a cock fight involved too. I couldn't understand what the guy was saying but I believe that was it.

Overall, everyone has been very friendly and nice, but the city is still overwhelming. I think I'll enjoy the country much more when I get out of the city.

Also, I just found out that this month's Full Moon Party in Southern Thailand just happens to be on August 16th . . . . . . . . just the most important date except for maybe Ground's Hog Day. . .. . . . . . . My Birthday!!!!! I dont know how the planet's managed to line up for this one but needless to say should be interesting.

Bangkok, Thailand

This morning I arrived in Thailand and no doubt it has been an experience. Despite my initial departure, Thailand has made me miss home the most. It is definitely a departure from what I am use to. The streets are crowded, dirty, and polluted and traffic is non stop. It's funny I am staying on the main drag and nearly everyone is a white tourist yet I still feel I stick out like a sour thumb. This first day has definitely been a learning experience and I welcome it. So far I have spent about $12 on a hotel $19 on a good dinner and two large drinks and about $11 on two single-hour massage sessions to help avoid thinking about what I am missing at home. The dollar definitely and finally goes along way here and I welcome it. It is funny how far I seem from home yet everything is in English and is completely catered towards tourist. The more each place seems to mimic home the more I seem to miss it.

Athens, Greece

The Parthenon. Booyyyaaa!!


Greece has been awesome. The city is very big and very pretty. We managed to get a decent hotel for 25 euro night near all of the restaurants and the Acropolis. Trekking around all day in the heat has been tough though. It really takes in out of you, especially when it came to climbing to the top of the Acropolis. The Acropolis was very impressive. I felt the Parthenon definitely lived up to the hype. It is pretty big. The only thing better in Greece has been the food. I think I'm at least 50% gyro by now.

Last night was a good time. Laurence and I ended up hanging out and drinking with a group of 8 rowdy French guys. Good times to be had. I have no idea what liquor those boys had but it was wrecking my shop. It definitely made the bus ride this morning interesting. I almost lost my cookies several times. But the best part about last night when I left to get the hotel to get some more wine. I picked up some wine and out of no where this nice old man came up to me and started talking to me. He said he wants to show me his bar. I was still kind of caught off guard and he seemed nice enough and I figured it would be close so I went with him. So we walk for maybe 5 minutes and we go into the bar which is nice but empty. He gives me a beer and some liquor brought for himself. He took maybe half a sip and then introduces me to some woman in her mid thirties. She introduces herself and immediately asks me if I will buy her a drink. At this point I understand what is happening. Doug got lured by a pimp into some kind of weird Greek sex den. It was actually kind of funny because the girl, whatever her name was, kept trying to subtly finish the sale but I was having none of it. She asked me if I wanted to go sit on one of the couches but I declined. We ended up talking for maybe 5-10 minutes about my trip and what I was doing there. She actually seemed like a nice enough girl. After 10 minutes, she had pounded her drink and asked me if I'd buy her another. I said no thanks and said I should be going. I asked her how much her drink was and she said 35 euros. Ha! I grabbed my wine threw down 30 euros for hers and mine, which still is outrageous and got out of there. It was a funny story but an expensive one. I didnt expect to have to fight off hookers in Athens; at least it will be good preparation for Thailand.

Today we got a chance to go to the beach about half an hour from the city center. That was a good time. The water is very pretty and clear. We had to pay to get on the beach but it was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow at 4, I get to head on a 9 and half hour flight to Bangkok. Should be interesting.