A Blog About Things We Do

(places and topics list)

Author: kevin

  • Another quick update

    Quick update:

    Lindsay told me that my post earlier didn’t sound particularly positive, which after reading it I’d have to agree.

    Let the record reflect that it’s been an incredibly awesome, exciting, amazing, beautiful, and all around good day (now two days). I can’t REALLY complain about much, other than:

    Today I was actually sick. I always thought I was supposed to get typhoid or diahrea or something similar, but I actually hve a pretty bad sore throught. Not exactly a deabilitating sore through, but not particularly pleasant. Lindz and I still had a great day, today we headed to Siam Square, which is sort of the huge shopping mall/shopping district – or so I’m assuming. The malls we went to were incdibly awesome, and the stuff in the malls was expensive – too expensive for us. There was even a lambergeni dealership (crazy). We had pad thai for the first time today.

    It’s around 8:30 as I type this and I think Lindsay may have already headed to bed, I’m very tired but just got off the phone with my mom. I’ve gotta say with my sore through (in addition to my first “Singha” beer I had tonight in a little street square with two dudes singing/playing guitar on a stage – awesome) bed is going to feel really good. I’m trying to push back my bed time as much as possible so I don’t end up waking pu at 3 AM as I did today.


    bar on the right. music up front. markets all around.

    We are hoping to head on to a new hostel tomorrow, Suk 11 (suk11.com) but I haven’t heard back about our reservation yet.

    Tomorrow Lindz and I are probably going to spend a few hours and figure out where we should go next after Bangkok.

    For now, good night (actually, morning) to all of you in the US. To Anthea, good afternoon/evening/whtaever it is in Germany. To Brittany, same to you, except at the hospital.

    <3
    Kev

  • Day 1 down

    Quick post, as I’m running out of internets: We made it through day one. We started out walking around our guesthouse which frankly didn’t do a lot for the spirit. I felt pretty out of place, not because we were the only farangs around but because every thing felt pretty depressing. We’ll get used to this type of thing probably. We then hopped on the “sky train” and went to the centerish of bangkok (40 baht for the 1 way ticket, roughly 1.25 US) which was awesome. Lots of street vendors with awesome looking food, fresh fruit, etc. We didn’t eat much from the street vendors and we avoided the fresh fruit and things as we weren’t sure what was safe to eat yet and didn’t want to get sick the first day. I worried a lot about where to find bathrooms, which I don’t think will be too difficult. Neither Lindsay or I know basically any Thai yet, which sort of sucks. I’d like to say “Thank you” in Thai, and I know how, but I don’t know when you actually say it. I haven’t taken many pictures, frankly I just don’t feel like it. I took a few just to have something to put up, but I’m seriously considering sending my digital camera back to the states as apposed to lugging it around for the next 5 months. We’ll see. Lots of stuff to look at, but I just don’t really feel like whipping out my camera.


    here’s me eating breakfast our first day. we ordered “english tea, thai rice porridge, and boiled eggs.” it actually was, “english tea, salted rice soup and a ridiculously salted/preserved egg.” interesting.

    I have terrible breath, I’m not sure why but it is. I just brushed my teeth, but it’s still here. I bought a yellow shirt yesterday for 6 bucks US as I guess Monday’s are the days everybody wears yellow in honor of the King. Money will stretch pretty good here, if we are somewhat careful. We had lunch/dinner for 33 cents yesterday, internet is 2.50 for an hour, sandals are 2 bucks, etc, etc. Our room is around 12.50 each (25 bucks total) for air conditioning, etc. Tonight Lindz and I are going to see a movie, hopefully the new batman movie. She wants to see the Will Smith movie though, even though she has no idea what it’s called, what it’s about (she said it might be about Will Smith being a super hero, or in a war, or something). We’ll see what happens I guess! Last night we went to bed around 7 PM. Well, Lindz went to bed around 6 PM, I went to bed around 7 PM. I think this may have been a bit mistake, as we woke up at around 4 AM this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. It could be a somewhat tiring/tired/etc day today. Miss you all! Here are a few pictures I took just to post here: Here is my room: Here is the city sort of:

    Love and miss you all!!! Kev

  • Lindsay fliest business

    Not sure the order these will get posted as we have no WiFi so they may or may not be sent in order – but we’ve made it to our connecting flight at Narita, and Lindsay and I are both going to make it on the flight (thanks again Jan!) but only she will be flying business this leg of the trip. So she is lucky. I’m lucky because it’s a shorter flight, only 5ish hours, so coach isn’t bad.

    Edit: Actually I think I almost got an equal seating situation. Not quite, but I got a isle seat and of the 5 seats in my row, only one other was occupied. So I had three empty seats next to me. I think Lindsay’s dinner was a bit better though!

  • Truth about flight 891

    I read what Lindsay wrote, for the most part, and business class really is awesome – Jan, thank you so much. I feel very lucky. Really.

    Dinner was gerat, I honestly can’t imagine what could be the advantage of sitting in first class, business is just so awesome. I’m sure there is an advantage, but really this is great.

    We decided to check our luggage – well, actually I had to and Lindsay figures she might as well also. I’m a bit nervous about loosing our luggage but I have all of my impotant/expensive stuff anyway, including clothes, so worst case I’ll need to buy a new pack or something (EDIT: we have our bags!)

    As I type this I’m south of the tip of Alaska, it’s around 9 PM in Michigan, 6 in Cali, and 10 AM in Tokyo. We expect to be to Tokyo by 4:34 PM. I’m listening to XM satalite, in particular dance technoish music.

    I’m wondering if I should try to sleep for a few hours now or something. I want to minimize the effect of “jet lag” but I also want to be awake/not miserable when we get to Thailand as it’ll be 11 PM there and could e a bit stressful (EDIT: it was a bit stressful, but not too bad).

    Only negative thing I can say is taht while my dinner was awesome, the guy next to me had sashimi, crab, and fish for dinner, but I guess you had to order it ahead of time.

    I’ve seen 2 movies so far on the flight, I forget the names. One was “Flawless” and another was about a smart english teacher who was jaded. I think it had Dennis Quade or something in it. Now I’m gonna watch some moving about treasure hunting, which frankly looks terrible but it’s a 10 hour flight and the movie has scuba diving in it so why not.

    We seem to be losing altitude fairly quickly and the fasten seatbelt sign is on. Either we’re avoiding turbulence or I might be the next Sawyer+Jack. (EDIT: We didn’t crash).

    <3
    -kev

  • Wow. Wow. Wow!!!!

    Wow. Wow. Wow!!!! We’re just getting settled in our Business Class seas, same row, just a few seats down. I snagged a window seat next to a Taiwanese man named Yi. He speaks no English, but tells me I spelt his name correctly. Step one: check. Good to know I can put my English degree to work and spell the man’s 2 letter name correctly. Go me. I just put on my complimentary slippers and blanket, went thru my “goodie bag” of Japansese soaps, lotions, sleeping mask, and ear plugs, all while looking out at the gorgeous LA sky, reclined back with my feet up AND sipping champagne (seriously)! Ahhhhhh!!!!I feel like the luckiest girl alive. Oh, and while I type this, I just got handed the menu… And since I have nothing better to do besides brag about my good fortune (THANK YOU JAN!!!:)) I just have to tell you what we’re oging to eat (because as we all know, there isn’t much that gets me more excited then food!!!):

    To bring: orange and Ginger duck confit and soba noodle salad, fresh seasonal greens with sesame Ginger vinaigrette…

    Main course: morel mushroom risotto and herb rubbed chicken breast

    crabmeat in layered eggs, salmon temari, budock wrapped in gla
    zed beef, shrimp with fish eggs, seared tuna with wasabi dressing and somen noodles…

    Served with green tea.

    Dessert: international cheeses and apple cobbler…

    Midnight snack: sandwiches, Ghiradelli chocolate and hot noodles…

    So I realize I’m getting all excited about airplane food, but seriously!!! I feel like an LA celeb… Fine, more like a Midwest celeb (I don’t fit in this crowd…I’m too lame:)) but I truly cannot believe I’ve been so lucky.

    On a different note, my dad is having knee surgery today. Hopefully it’s going well for him. Oh, and it’s nick’s first day at Boeing. Too bad with a 16 hour time difference in Tokyo I won’t find out how either went until tomorrow.

    I think this is enough iPod touching for me today. My finger is cramping up. I also think I’m weirding out my new friend Yi…. I haven’t stopped smiling and he keeps looking over, probably to see what’s so funny.

    From the Pacific skies with love,
    LGT

  • 450 miles from LA

    By the time this is posted we’ll be close, if not in, LA – our final driving destination.

    My neck is sore and I’m looking forward to swimming tonight. Hopefully.

    I also hope that my moneybelt made it to the hotel alright.

  • Yellowstone and Glacier National Park – check

    Yellowstone and Glacier National Park – check

    It’s Monday, july 7, and as I type this I’m driving with nick and Lindsay (who’s sleeping in the back of course) through Montana, almost Idaho, on our way to Seattle Washington. It’s around 1:15 pm local time as I type this though it may not be posted until later this evening (no wifi in the middle of Montana, and this is no iPhone).

    We just finished up our adventures in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. We all had a great time, Yellowstone was beautiful though our camp ground was less than great (it was not bad, just not the wilderness experience we might have hoped for). Glacier was amazing and the camping was awesome.

    (more…)
  • Badass in the badlands.

    Badass in the badlands.

    The Michigan BA’s made it. Doin’ what we do best.

    Being awesome. In the BADLANDS.
    (more…)
  • Sexy Internet Access

    Sexy Internet Access

    Well it’s been a few days since the last blog post but here is an update. I must warn you that I’m typing this on the iPod Touch in the car so my punctuation and grammar and spelling and wording may be less that OK.

    Anyway, we left yesterday morning around 11 AM for our trip out west. Goodbyes were sad as always but once we got on the road I think we were all pretty excited to be heading. Our plan is to extend the ~2300 mile trip to a wopping ~4000 mile trip, which we’ll be driving in a 7
    day 6 night period. The reason for the extension is that we wanted to hit up a few of the more awesome national parks/memorial: Mount Rushmoore, Yellowstone, Glacier, Olympic, and Redwood. We’re not sure if we’ll make it to Olympic but we’ll see. Another huge highlight is that we’ll be stopping in Portland to see aunt Kim and Justin. I’m personally very excited to see the fam in Portland.

    (more…)

  • Leaving today

    Today, in about 9 and a half hours, we’re leaving on our trip. Nick is going to pick us up at 10:30 and we’re heading out. The plan is to take an ridiculously long road trip, traveling 4000 miles instead of the ~2300 miles we should be traveling. The route should look something like this HERE but we’ll see what actually happens. I’m planning on keeping pretty good track of our progress via GPS. We’ll see.

    We’ll miss our families!

    It’s strange to be without a phone now, and I know that once I submit this post I will basically be without a laptop for quite a while.
    <3>

    Update: Pictures of day one….2 hours into the trip…and Lindz is already sleeping…

  • Packing

    I’ve been spending a fair amount of time packing and buying stuff to pack as of late, and it’s been a bit annoying. I say annoying because I’m a nerd and want to be prepared, but don’t really have a great idea of what I’ll really need/want. Adding to the annoyance of the whole thing is the fact that I know from personal experience then bring little is better to bringing lots and so my desire to be prepared in a nerdy sort of ways normally conflicts with what I know to be best.

    I’ve spent around 200$ bucks on stuff that I’m bringing, around $120 of that I’ve spent on clothes that, sadly, people who’ve actually traveled extensively think are not great to bring. 100% Nylon long sleeve shirts in particular, which perhaps are gimmicky. For instance I bought one of these. I wore the shirt around for a while and it feels great, but they tell me that a 100% cotton shirt is better for the weather. We’ll see.

    I’ve also bought a $20 film camera (Rebel X), a $30 8GB flash drive, a $15 dollar USB to USB transfer gadget, some $1.50 foam to protect my stuff, and a bunch of other stuff like travel shampoo, a tooth brush for $1.79, a waterproof bag for $7 bucks or something, a towel meant to dry cars but that will dry me, and that’s about all I can think of at the moment. Wait, no I also purchased a Let’s Go! guide to Thailand, and a spare 20D camera battery that has yet to come in yet. I’m a bit worried that it won’t come in.

    I have a lot more to say on this subject, so look forward to a thrilling “Packing – 2” post coming soon! Maybe if we get lucky Lindsay will chime in with some thoughts as well!

  • 9 days

    Well it’s the 24th of June (note to self: I think I left my watch outside on the hot tub) which means that there are 9 days until my dear friend Nick will pull up in his significantly underpowered car to pick Lindsay and I up. From there we’ll be heading across the United States of America (one nation under god) to sunny California. Along the way we’ll most likely stop at ________, ________, and _________ which I’m really excited about. I don’t actually know where we’ll be stopping. According to google maps the best route for us to follow would take us across Idaho, Colorado, the top of Texas, Nevada, and into Cali. This could be fun, though to be honest those aren’t the most exciting states. We’ll see.

    Of course once we get to California we’ll be heading to Bangkok Thailand for the first leg of our five month (FIVE MONTHS!!) backpacking trip around SE Asia. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are our destinations.

    Anyway, I’m personally starting to feel a bit nervous and a bit sad about leaving the ol’ family. It always is a bit sad to leave, though it’s nice to know that when I come back I’ll be living with them (or at least near to them) again. It feels better than going to college, because when I go to college I knew that I might only be home again for a very short period of time, with this trip it’s indefinite family time when I get home!

    ta ta for now.