Category: Uncategorized

Well, I'm writing this more to serve as a record of our trip then an
interesting read, but here goes.

I don't know what I types last, but after Suk 11 in Bangkok Lindsay
and I took a night train from BKK to Chiang Mai. That involved
spending anentire day in the BKK train station (lots of cards, lots of
reading, etc) which wasnt all bad. I had gotten into my book "Bone
Mountain" which was about Tibet and Buddhism and the Chinese making
life difficult. Anyway, very good book and it gives some picture of
Tibet and its religion, somewhat accuratly. Plus it gives some idea of
what the whole "free Tibet" thing is all about.

Anyway, I digress, I think. We ate some dinner in the train station
with a fellow north American (quebec actually, however you spell that.
Lindsay says this is correct but the iPod doesnt like it), then jumped
on the train Around 7:30. This time around we had a second class air
conditioned car, the only train available on that particular night (we
had a reservation the next day in Chiang Mai) which was actually very
nice. It was a bit pricey at 611 baht a person (~18 USD) but again it
was the only option and Lindsay and I both much prefer taking the
train to the bus, which is generally filled with tourists, not to
mention making more stops. I should point out that I realize we are
probably no better than other tourists, but its still nice to not see
them.

The train itself was nice, we were surprised and pleased to find out
that we were provided with dinner (similar to airplane food, a bit
less in quality, but similar and actually served in the same manner)
as well as breakfast of sorts in the morning (a bun filled with berry
jelly stuff). We read until 11 or so then watched "Hitch" on my ipod
before *trying* to sleep. Neither Lindsay or I slept very well, and
when we arrived in Chiang Mai at 7:20ish (12 hours on the train for
those of you who don't have access to a calculator) we were both tired.

Enter Chiang Mai, a very popular place for tourists with a bit more
time and perhaps interested in getting out of the touristy tourist
(note the extra tourist) areas of Thailand. While there are still Many
tourists here there are also a lot of ex-pats and it doesnt feel at
all "made for tourists," at least not in general. Just as an example,
the popular night markets are popular to lacal Thais as well as
tourists. Anyway Lindsay and I needed to get to our guest house so we
hailed a tuk-tuk (our first! We have a video we'll post sometime) and
paid 100 baht to get to our place the Hollanda Montri. The rooms were
500 baht per night, not particularly cheap bit doable – plus there was
AC and a TV (only channel in English was the Russian news station
which turned out to be interesting as the big Russian/Georgia conflict
started the day we arrived) and hot showers, etc. Hollanda Montri was
heavily recomended by the people of the Internet and we were quite
happy with it, though as you'll read we decided later it was not the
place for us.

We slept for a while that day until later in the afternoon when we
walked around the city to get our barrings. I find that while it is
exciting to first arrive to a totally unknown and new city, it can be
difficult to get oriented and it is nice after s few ssys of wxploring
to get a sense of direction/space/layout of a city. The first day (and
in fact the first 4 days) we used our legs as our sole means of
transportation. There are no metered taxis here (almost) so tuk-tuks
and songathews (red/yellow trucks that sort of travel in routes around
the city) are the only means of public transportation, and seeing as
they require bartering to figure on a price and even still can be
quite expensive they are not the best for exploring a city. We walked
a long way our first day, and in each successive day as well.

The city is sort of broken into two parts, an old city and new city.
The old city is basically a square bordered by a moat (a real moat at
one point I might add) with 8 gates at various points around the moat.
At this point in time the gates are not really gates but a bridge (the
moat isn't exactly a flowing river) although there is one actual gate
still around. To be honest I can tell a HUGE difference between the
old and new city, until you her a ways out of the city center things
are fairly similar (street markets, restorants, etc). Anyway I'm not
sure why I'm typing all of this if you really care about the cities
layout check out wikipedia or wikitravel.

The "first part" of our Chiang Mai stay was a mixture of three or four
things:
1) me getting a bit sick (not too bad)
2) going to Burma for a "visa run"
3) a cooking class at Baan Thai
4) walking
5) eating

I'm typing all of this on an iPod so I'm not sure how much I'll
actually write about each, but Lindsay (who is sitting across from me
reading) just informed me she wouldn't write much about this stuff so
I'll try.

1) I was a bit sick, which sucked, but it was just a day and we had AC
and a TV so it wasnt too terrible. I watched a lot of the same war
footage from Georgia (S. Ossetia) and heard a LOT of the same Russian
war corospondants say a lot of the same things.

2) I seem to remember already typing something about this but to be
honest I don't remember and at the moment I don't have Internet access
to check so hear goes. Our 30 day tourist visa expired on the 11th of
August and everyday after that we stayed cost us 15$ USD so we had to
do a visa run -basically leave Thailand and then come back in (I feel
deja-vu writing this). The closest country being Burma/Myanmmar we
took a bus to the border, crossed over, and came back (ok not I'm sure
I've written this before). Sort of silly I suppose. The bus ride cost
us 600 each and the visa to Burma was 500. We met a wonderful woman
named Susan and talked all day. We also had good fried food in Burma.
It was sort of a long day and expensive, 11 hours or so in a bus.
Actually a van. That night we went to mikes which didn't help with the
budget (more on that later). Anyway now we can stay until September
something.

3) Baan Thai cooking class was quite wonderful. I wish Lindsay would
write something about it as I'm sure I will not do it justice here.
The class was all day(ish) from 9 am to 4 pm. It was exactly what we
wanted (pretty much) and really well run. One of the best parts about
the class was the people we met. We had a couple from France, a couple
from Isreal, a woman from New York, and a brother/sister from
Singapore/London. Those were just the people we sat with.

You sit on the floor on matts around a table and are provided with tea/
coffee when you first arrive, plus water pitchersa. Basically it was
just very warm and hospitable. First thing we chose which dishes we
wanted to make, there were six to choose from on total. I won't list
them all but I chose a red curry paste, kohsoi, sticky rice and mango,
spring rolls (just because they sounded good), and a prawn and coconut
soup. Lindsays dishes were different though generally similar.
Basicaly we each had one of each "type" of food (1 curry paste, one
stir fry, one desert, etc).

After choosing our dishes we went on a market tour which was quite
spectacular. We walked around a "wet market" and purchased all of our
ingredients, as we went t
he girl who led the tour explained
everything. You could tell they went there daily as they picked up raw
ingredients (for instance shaved coconut used in the process of making
coconut milk) to show us. That is not to say that this was a tourist
market, it was very much a "real" street market which made the
experience all the better. After buying the required ingredients we
were happily surprised to be given 15 minutes to walk around the
market finding things to ask questions about. Bonus: the guide would
buy things we were currious about, out of Baan Thais pocket, so we
could try them. Once the tour was over we headed back to the cooking
school where they put together a rather nice looking spread for each
of us with all of the foods that we picked out at the market,
including fresh mangosteen and dragon fruit. It was a nice way to
start the cooking class.

The actual cooking was very fun. It was slightly less "intensive" then
I would have liked, but that isn't really a complaint, just a personal
preference. For each dish we moved to specific stations depending on
what we were cooking. For the most part the ingredients were mostly
prepared and cut, except for say, an onion and a tomato and perhaps
some lemon grass. Then you basically put everything into a wok in the
prescribed order and ta da! Food! There was luckily a little more to
it then that, you learned little things like about Thai ginger, how
you dont take the skin off of Thai garlic, etc.

In the end it was lots of fun. We had fun making the dishes and were
very full all day, plus we met lots of great people, including the
brother sister combo Kai Wing and Wei Yee that we ended up going out
to dinner with that evening (which was wonderful and amazing – thanks
again!!).

It was 900 baht per person (yikes!) well spent!

4) not much to say about walking. In the interest of saving money
Lindsay and I walked a good 10-20 kilometers a day. It's nice to walk
as it gives you a better feeling for the city I think but at the same
time when the city is somewhat large walking can be somewhat limiting.

5) food. I love food, as some of you may know. Here we've had some
spectacular food.

To start with what was certainly the most extravagant meals of our
trip so far (certainly on par with lindsays birthday sushi) was the
meal that Kai Wing and Wei Yee treated us to at a resturant called The
Whole Earth. There have been very few meals in my life that I have
been treated to that have such a spread – fish, curries, palek paneer,
an egg dish, naan, dimpling "things", normally I remember exactly what
was served at any given meal but this meal was too big. Even better
than the food was the company. Kai Wing worked and lived in Singapore
and Wei Yee worked and lived in London. Wonderful people, very well
traveled and interesting to talk with. To top it all off they payed
the bill (which was substantial I'm sure), which while making us feel
a bit guilty, was a very nice treat. Thanks again guy!

Edit – OOPS! This should be in the next post as we are not at darets
yet in this post!!****** All of our meals at our guest house, Darets,
have been great. I especially apreciate the scrambled eggs on weat
toast that are a welcomed break from Thai food. Plus the 20 baht mango
shakes. Lindsay has been eating cashew nuts and chicken (for
breakfast, which drives me crazy by the way) and "Lassi shakes" which
are homemade yogurt and ice blended together. I normally love a good
lassi but I'm not a huge fan of these. She loves them though, even at
25 baht! 😉

Near the public park in the south west corner of the old city (which
in itself deserves a post – let the record reflect that I just nicely
asked Lindsay if she would be willing to write something small about
the park, she replied, "no, do it yourself!" – though to be honest she
was [partially] kidding and she has been a most perfect traveling
companion and I think we are both really happy to be traveling
together) is a street that is covered with street food vendors. This
is not at all special or unique as most streets are lined with street
food vendors at one time or another, but these food stalls were top
notch and a few of them were unique to this area. For instance, sushi
stalls with decent maki sushi (rolls) for 5 – 10 baht a piece. Fried
home made dumplings, fresh iced coffee, roasted nuts, buns shaped like
fish with custard in them, and so on. Street food in general is great
but Lindsay and I liked this place enough to come back twice. The
environment at night makes it all the better, the park across the
street is sort of like a city park combined with a carnival combined
with a state fair, only much smaller and more condensed and with less
crap. But still enough crap that people like me can play the games
where you shoot darts out of a gun at stuffed animals to win prizes. I
won a stuffed mouse-thing for Lindsay. There are also beatiful orchid
displays all over for orchid judging competitions, kids painting
statues (10 baht! I wish izzy was here!), and even a somewhat run down
and miniature ferris wheel. Not to mention people all over serving ice
cream for 10 baht (30 cents). Oh, and a small stage where we watched
several local boy/rock bands perform. A wonderful place.

Last but not least (as far as food is concerned) is Mikes Burger. This
is a great place that is very very popular for good reason. They serve
American style hamburgers, French fries, shakes, etc. It great not
only because the food is very US American but also because it looks
and is run in avery American way. People wear gloves when handling
your food, your given "real" napkins, a bill, etc. Plus you sit on
bright red stools at the counter, facing in, while behind you is the
traffic of Chiang Mai whipping by your back. The food is really good
and would satisfy anybody missing a real cheeseburger.

Well thats about it for part 1. It has taken me two days and several
hours to type this all out on my iPod. In reality this post only
covers up to four days ago, we've been at our new guest house for over
4 days but I wanted to split the blog post into two parts to keep
things somewhat focused.

Miss you all!
Kev

————————
asia.shoelessone.com
(from iPod Touch)

Quick post: lindz and I made a visa run today, which basically involved driving 5 hours to the border of Burma, crossing into Burma aka Myanmar, then crossing back into Thailand. It felt a bit pointless but at least I can say I’ve been to Myanmar -it’s amazing how different it felt, even just order the border. Anyway, it was another 5 hours back to Chiang Mai. We met a wonderful woman named Susan and had a great chat.

Tomorrow in the AM we have a cooking class at 9 until 4 in the afternoon, which we are both very excited about. 6 different things to cook, plus a tour of the markets.

Oh, tonight we gave into temptation and went to “Mikes Burger” and had hamburgers and a shake.

That’s about it!!!

Not we ourselves, but rather when we were boarding, our train got hit by an oncoming train stopping at the same station. Not hard enough to knock us off the tracks or anything. But hard enough that all of the luggage in the overhead racks fell down, some of which hit me in the head, which in turn, knocked me off my seat, which unhinged and broke, leaving me flung over the seat in front of me with, no doubt, sheer panic on my face. It happened so fast I didn’t even know it was coming. I just remember Kev saying, “what is that noise? Is that a truck?” and me saying, “I doubt they have trucks on a train track, Kev…” and BAM. It was just that quick. Everyone returned to normal so quick it blew my mind. No one even seemed fazed.

A common occurrence? Guess we’ll have to ride 3rd class more often to find out! Besides almost dying (just kidding:)) The train ride was awesome. We met some amazing people who spoke a bit of English, and invited us to come to their house in Chumpon for a while. Kev made origami for the little girl while we ate delicious cow lahm (sticky rice and coconut, grilled in bamboo), and saw some of the beautiful countryside we missed on the dark bus ride down.

7 hours later, we made it to Bangkok and headed straight for Khaosan Road looking for cheap lodging, which thankfully, we found. The next day, we decided to head to “The Best Market in Bangkok” which apparently (according to our guidebook) sold everything from “Dalmatians to Thai Silk,” which I found funny. By the way, I have yet to see a Dalmatian in Thailand. We jumped a cab (Kev is getting to be quite the taxi hailer these days:)) and drove as far as we could reasonably justify before we planned on walking. **I should note that the day before we walked over 18 km in flop flops exploring the city, so we felt a taxi was somewhat deserved** No sooner had we jumped out of the cab, I felt a little gurgle in my stomach. You guessed it! I was sick again. So, we jumped back in the cab, this time not worrying about the cost–I just had to get home fast!! In the cab, while trying to keep my mind off “things,” I couldn’t help being reminded of my freshman year at Alma, where I swear to God I got every virus that went through the dorms. Luckily though, I cannot remember being sick in the 4 years after that year. My body had built up such stellar antibodies that I was unable to get sick. That is, until this trip. All I know is the individual who invented Cipro should be given saint-status as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, yesterday amounted to me huddled in a ball on my bed all day, with no purses or tacky souvenirs to show for myself. Sunday was supposed to be the best day to go too. I really wanted to see those flying squirrels.

Today though, I feel remarkably better. Just in time for my special day! For starters, we somehow got into one of the best guest houses in Bangkok, which normally has a 3 month waiting list. It has the most amazing ambiance, and is living up to my every expectation. Also high on the list (and ignoring my sickness yesterday), we indulged in some AMAZING food (I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me!!!:)). This morning for breakfast, Kev took me to get crepes at this really cute French joint (Cor, I wonder how similar they were to the ones you had in France? They were delicious, but unlike any I had ever had before.). After that we jumped on our old friend the Skytrain, and headed down to the bookstore where I lost myself for a few hours. I finally resurfaced from my state of rapture (with my books) with 3 new ones I couldn’t live without (who does that sound like?!:)) which Kev bought me for a special gift. I was on cloud 9. Still in my euphoric state, we headed down to get, quite possibly the best sushi I have ever had. We ordered so much food, nigiri was practically coming out of my ears. I was so full I felt like I was back in the States, with my glutinous side (that I know and love) risen from its 2 month dormant slumber. I was so full I couldn’t breathe properly. I was so full, I didn’t think I could walk…that is until Kev INSISTED we take a gander around the gorgeous bakeries and pick out a birthday cake. Naturally, I rolled myself right on out of Fuji Sushi, and right into this unbelievable pastry shop. After much deliberation, I chose a Triple Chocolate Mousse Delight. Just a slice. I couldn’t stand being THAT glutinous all in one day. While I recognize it’s not a Funfetti, it’s the closest thing a girl could get to a birthday cake, without being home and having her mom make one for her, am I right?! Trust me, I’m right. Jennifer Rose Hoornstra would have probably keeled over dead in that gem of a cake shop. That’s all I gotta say.

After my long day of pure indulgence, we headed back to the guest house and snuck up to my room to eat the cake because I was too embarrassed to blow out my candles in front of everyone downstairs. As it turns out, we seriously did have to sneak it, because the guest house has some pretty strict No Eating in Rooms policies. So after the quickest rendition of “Happy Birthday” ever, and the ceremonious blowing out of the candles, we quickly swatted away all of the smoke in the hopes of disguising our cake-eating, rule-breaking selves from the fire alarms (there’s a No Smoking in Rooms policy too).

And thank God we did. I’m just sitting here thinking about the evacuation of the building, and the “rescue” of the trusty Thai Fire Depot, which happens to be right down the street… HA! Now THAT would have been embarrassing!!

And now, after all of that, I am left sitting here. Trying to savor my books (I’ve already finished one:() and recount a wonderful birthday memories. It was a good one. Kev did a really good job of making it special. Even still, I wish I were home, scrap that, I wish my family was here :)because no matter how great the birthday, it’s always better with your family.

I love you guys. It’s getting late, and I might be getting a bit sappy (swwwen!!!)

Indulge today for me,
Lgt

Def.def,def,def,def,def,def,def.
Wave-a-licious definition, make those farangs vomit……

So a few days late to post, but kev and I are on the trusty Songserm ferry from Ko Tao, to Chumpon! From there we’ll hop a train to Prachaup Khiri Khan, a small fishing village known for drying squid and cheap seafood (which is naturally why we’re going:)).

Our time on Ko Tao (Little Turtle) has been great. We had a couple of amazing, once-in-a-lifetime dives, where we saw the most beautiful coral, anemones (I’m going to have to spell check that word, there’s no way that’s right!) and of course marine life ever….but the anemones were for sure my favorite. The entire time I kept thinking about my dad, and how much he would have loved it. The weather hasn’t been great–but still a welcomed change from the seemingly constant heat.

That being said, I just have to tell you about the Ferry Boat Ride From Hell we took getting to Ko Tao. Around 11am, our taxi took us to the loading dock where about 200 college aged farangs, still hungover from the Half Moon Party, were all huddled under this holey, makeshift tarp about 30 feet long waiting for the boat. While walking over, I felt a couple raindrops, but by the time we made it to the tarp it started to DOWNPOUR. Remember when I said “when it rains, it pours?” well, this was no exception. Out of nowhere rain comes hailing down and everyone is trying that much harder to secure a dry spot under the tarp for themselves and their packs. No one succeeded. While we’re all standing there, huddling in the arm pits of strangers, the ridiculous wind whips a giant part of the gutter on this tarp around, and turns the spout directly on our heads. We are, SOPPING wet. There is 0 chance one single thing I have with me is even remotely dry. At this point, our ferry has made it to the dock, but the waves are so enormous, they cant tie the boat off to let the passengers coming from Surat Thani off. So we wait…and wait….and wait, for another hour until the boat crew has muscled their way into tying off the boat. Thrilled that our 2+ hour wait for the ferry is finally over, everyone is wet, but smiling and ready to board. The cheering and excitement stops, however, when we see the passengers get off the boat: white- faced, sickly people wearily lugging their packs, and, carrying multiple bags of their vomit. I tried to conceal my laughter, and sort of rolled my eyes at kev, who also found the scene to be somewhat humorous. We were just so wet, and so tired of carrying our now extra- heavy packs that we were ready to get on that boat no matter what. Well, let me just say, karma came to bite me in the ass for laughing at my fellow farang’s misfortune. We sat down at our seats, and a crewman came around to give us each clear plastic bags, “just in case.” ha. While I thankfully did not puke, I was holding on for dear life as our tiny boat was ENGULFED in the giant waves, and rocking us around like a pinball. The waves had earned a “highscore” after that ride, to say the least! All around EVERYONE (I seriously bet more than 1/2 the boat) was puking into their CLEAR PLASTIC bags, which after looking at (which you couldn’t avoid) would be enough to make anyone sick. It was unreal. Between the disgusting noises, smells, tears and rocking, it was, without question the longest 1.5 hours of my life.

Things I’ve learned:
1) Don’t laugh at other’s misfortune. We are in the land if Buddha, and that guy knows how to instill some serious karma on the deserving.
2) Always keep raincoat and waterproofed bags close by during the rainy season.
3) Stay away from Sangsum rum buckets before ferry rides… Especially if the weather is less than ideal.
——————————–
Also: I had my first 1 hour long Thai Massage. Best $4 I’ve ever spent. Also, also: I just found out my family (Sean) bought 3 pigs which are now residing in our back yard. If you see my parents, be sure to call them “Maw” and “Paw” for me.
Also, also, also: Kevin got really drunk last night after drinking less than a full 40oz Chang beer. Apparently those Chinese know how to make a strong beer!
Also, also, also, also: I had French Fries with mayo last night, and they were a delicious reminder of home. ’tis all.

Keep the ketchup off your shirts, Lgt

For the dive logs,

Japanses gardens, green rock -dive 2
15 meters of vis

Chumpun pinnacle -dive 1
20-25 meters vis-very good, perhaps next best next to Cozumel
Jellyfish on long swim, Lindsay almost ran into them. Dive was great,
some great beautiful anenamies (sp?) and coral, large schools of
smaller fish. Also saw a decent sized black tipped reef shark.

Lindsay was a pro diver, perfect decents, etc. Plus perfect safety
stops. A real pro.

Hopefully my battery doesnt die before I finish this.

As I type this the tide is high, I'm sitting on a sodden step that
faces the ocean, which is maybe 10 feet in front of me. Behind me is
the main office of the Big Blue dive operation that Lindsay and I dove
with. It's 7:30 pm here and dark already. In front but to the left a
bit is a Thai cooking fresh fish and other seafood to order, his BBQ
"grill" has two legs in the water. It is a very nice atmosphere, to
the right if me and again only a few feet away is a palm tree with
lanterns hanging from it and surrounding it is a bunch of tables and
mats where people sit on the ground eating their freshly cooked
seafood. There seems to be a lot of large prawns, red snapper, and
baracuda. It's a very "tropical island" atmosphere. Lindsay is running
on the beach, which is lit up all along the coast with similar
establishments. Music of course is playing.

This will be night three on Koh Tao, and there us much to share. A
terrible boat ride here, very good diving, and a so so experience with
the "resort" we're staying at. I don't think I'll have time to post
about all of this right now, so the details will have to wait until
later. I just wanted to give a ganeral update on our progress and plans.

Tomorrow we are taking a four hour boat ride to chumpan (spelling?)
which is north of Surat thani which is where we first departed from.
Then we take a 4 hour train to a small fishing village along the coast
to the north, where we plan to stay for 1 or 2 nights, before we head
back to bangkok to regroup before Chiang Mai, in the very north.

Hope all is well for everybody, good luck Andrew!!!
-kev

this just in: i LOVE PINEAPPLE SHAKES.

love. love. LOVE them.

in other, less exciting news (just kidding:)) kev and i have been livin’ it up on little ko phang. two days ago, after tooling around the island all day on our scooter, we headed down to haad rin, the main party beach, to grab a little sushi. it was this awesome restaurant, right next to the beach and while it may have been a BIT expensive, i had promised myself a good sushi dinner once we were here, and i was bound and determined to get it. so we waited for close to an hour for the place to open (most restaurant here don’t open until 7 at least) and got. the worst. sushi. ever. it was pretty depressing, but it was still a really fun, worthwhile experience…UNTIL! we walked out the doors and saw that it was raining. annnnd about to rain harder. ugh. for those of you that have heard the expression “when it rains, it pours…” i have no doubt that whomever came up with that lived on THIS ISLAND when they thought it up.

now, normally i consider myself up for most things and if not a daredevil, at least willing to try things once. but i seriously did not even want to get on the bike. not at all. after a bit of convincing, we drove home, in the rain, on our scooter, with the crazy winds, rain, traffic and then…NO ELECTRICITY, for seriously probably close to 40 minutes. oh, and did i mention the hills?! the 20% decline hills?! i thought driving out west with nick when we saw the signs for 6% were bad, but no. i was scared shitless. during the day is bad enough, but seriousssssly. thankfully, we made it back, soaked to the bone, and were without electricity for about 1.5 days. yesterday, since there were no cold drinks to be had, or internet joints to chill out in, we headed up north to mae haad, where we partook in some of the best snorkling (or so we’ve heard) that the island offers. it was AMAZING. we saw some of the most beautiful coral i have ever seen, sea slugs were EVERWHERE, as well as crabs, parrot fish, and huge schools of fish i dont know the name of (ky, you guys want tropical fish!? get a parrot fish, very cool). we stopped a few times to get pineapple shakes (they really are the best here) and went back to our place so i could run. beach running here is awesome, but not at night (the tide) and i ended up stepping on a huge piece of coral in my attempt for an all-out sprint (yes sean, i know i can’t sprint :)) and ended up bruising my foot kinda bad. all in all though, it was an awesome day. and i got to finish WHITE TEETH, which was a really entertaining, fun read.

i think we’re going to be here for another day or so, maybe finally get to go to the halfmoon party (as my previous sickness coupled with the terrible weather were not condusive to us going the first time), which is on the 25th. after which, i think the plan is to head up to ko tao for some diving, and then back to the mainland to see chiang mai. we shall see. we might just decide that beach life is something we want to extend our visas for.

pineapples and love,
lgt

Today is (I’m not sure the day of the week actually), the 17th of July. Lindsay may very well already be typing a similar post as I type this (she’s across the room) but I wanted to post anyway, just in case.

Today we are catching a bus at 7 PM which will take us down to southern thailand, in particular (i forget the name of the town, Samui I believe) where we’ll catch a ferry to bring us to Kho Phangan, which is a smallish Island best known for the “full moon party”, which happens to be taking place the evening of the 19th. Lindsay really wanted to go to this “full moon party” and I’m sure it will be a good/fun experience, so here we go! (fake edit: here is a link to one of many tourist centered webpages about the full moon party. frankly I’m not a huge drinker/partier these days (some would claim I never was) so we’ll see what the full moon party is actually like – I’m just hoping to find a beach with some water. I can’t wait to go swimming in the ocean.

The bus ride is 11 hours, but I believe it’s air conditioned so it shouldn’t be too bad. Well, in theory it shouldn’t be too bad, but it’s a night bus and frankly I’m not great at sleeping in anything but a hard flat surface. I’m not picky, I can sleep on the hard ground with rocks sticking into my back without too much problem, but sleeping while sitting I’m not great at. I am looking forward to the trip on a whole though, being able to see more of Thailand than just the limited view of the city. It’s our first real mini-adventure of many.

miss you all,
kev

I have yet to find a SINGLE open wifi network that actually works. If
this message is ever posted to the blog it will basically be a miracle.

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asia.shoelessone.com
(from iPod Touch)

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!

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