Muang Ngoi: Wait, you mean to tell me that maybe I've been somewhere Facebook hasn't?

So as the sketchiest vehicle ride of my life commenced, one of the most beautiful did, as well. You have to understand this fact about Laos though - the infrastructure outside of the few cities that do exist is severely limited. The major highways are sometimes barely paved, and felt through a completely outmoded minibus, was sure to leave us sore all over.

The ride continued on, as we stumbled through "real" Lao villages. It was impossible to avoid noticing the differences between Luang Prabang and the wood huts along the roadside. By far the most poverty I'd ever seen. But that said, and this was something I continued to notice throughout my stay in Laos, is that everybody seemed to be happy. Through all the crap Laos has gone through, and continues to go through, her people seem to be pretty happy, and seem to enjoy the happy parts of life. Pretty inspiring stuff. :)

So we finally stopped to take a pee break at the first even small town we had passed, two hours after leaving LP. Except we couldn't find a bathroom. Even a talk with the locals, in which I had to fake unzip my pants in order to get my point across the language barrier. Eventually one rider, Gabe, and I found a gueshouse, but it seemed deserted, so we walked around the back. Finally, we found a couple rooms open, and seized the moment. Then a guy came out from somewhere else and pointed Gabe, our watchman, in the direction of the actual bathroom, right after I had come out of what I soon found out to be this guy's room, and the girl was still inside the other room.

Bladders relieved, we got back into the car and drove off, but not before a picture of backpacker bb!

We finally saw a sign suggesting that Nong Khiaw was nearby, when all of a sudden the driver stopped by a crowd of school kids. We picked up from the hand motions, that the lady with her infant child was trying to convince the driver that we should pick up all these kids and take them to Nong Khiaw. This propopsition was of course perfectly ludicrous, since our minibus was already just about full. But it became obvious that an unknown amount of kids were going to join our bus...and then the lady and her infant get off the bus in the middle of the street to make room for some kids. Completely bewildered, we drive off, now completely squushed, but fortunately not very far from Nong Khiaw. We later found out that this lady was the driver's wife. I assume he picked her up later.

So now our bus looked like this, for the last few minutes into the small town of Nong Khiaw (yes, there is an empty seat, as one Lao girl had gotten off at her destination:

So we made it to Nong Khiaw with a little time to spare for the 2:00 boat to the small village of Muang Ngoi. After desparately searching for the dock as the minutes counted down, we found out the boat left at 2:30, and we settled down a bit. We tried to eat lunch, but kinda failed on time, and had to jump down to the boat, and Jesse got his rice to go.

I was less than thrilled to have to sit on a cramped wooden boat that looked like it would sink at any moment, especially with a bunch of people piled into it, but we knew the boat ride was in theory only about two hours long, so I figured I could tough it out. I mean seriously, how often do you get to take a boat ride through the Jungle of Laos? Also, Muang Ngoi is ONLY accessible by boat.

Other than the loud motor, though, the trip was fairly comfortable, as the boat wasn't entirely full (so we had some room to stretch out), and we were pretty much enthralled by the scenery. OK, well maybe Jesse had a little nap first:

No but really, check out the scenery:

There's more pictures, but I can't put them all here - look for them on Facebook someday soon, I hope :)

So anyway, after about 90 minutes, we approached the village of Muang Ngoi. But how to describe Muang Ngoi briefly? Muang Ngoi is a Lao village that became an actual tourist destination, and seemed to gain some wealth by in large part switching the village economy to promoting touristry, and becoming somewhat of a tourist town. But despite the obvious touristy-ness, it's still a Lao village two hundred miles from anywhere only accessible by boat.

Oh, and did I mention they only get electricity 3 hours a day? (6-9 PM)

We wanted to stay at a guesthouse overlooking the riverside, but they were all booked, so we ended up choosing some random place in some back alley away from the "main drag". And when I say main drag, I mean this:

And when I say back alley, I mean this:

And when I say some random place, crap, I forgot to take a picture of the room. Basically, it was very rustic, with a mosquito net (which had a hole, oops), and a rather old bed, and a bathroom with some very icy water. But hey, it cost us $7.50 for two rooms for a night. And after a quick walk through town, a short visit to the village wat, and a touristy dinner on the riverside, we got to hang out with two of the guesthouse's owner's family members, who went by J and V. J was quite the entrepreneur, who had picked up an amazing amount of English just from talking to tourists. He was upfront when he said he didn't go to university because his mom couldn't afford it, but did inform us that his younger brother (V), who didn't speak much English, was already accepted to university in Luang Prabang. V was in the same boat as so many of us in the states - when asked what he wanted to study, he sheepishly shrugged and said he had no idea.

So there we were drinking some Beerlao, and then J wanted to know if I had any American music. So in short order, I'd given him about 7 rock/metal songs, and we were blasting Japanese metal in a Laotian village.

J had really been trying to sell us on a trek, as trekking is one of the main activities to do in Northern Laos. As it turned out, our limited amount of time in the country precluded us from any such undertakings, but finally he convinced Jesse that we should wake up at the crack of dawn for a mini trek up to see the view of the village. Gabe and I were less than enthralled about waking up at 6, when the boat left for Nong Khiaw at 8 AM. But J assured us that there was another boat at 9:30. In the end he and Jesse convinced us. But what really clinched it was that it was only now that we learned the power went off at 9 PM. 9 PM bedtime, 6 AM wakeup...well that's plenty of sleep! Gabe and I actually played a game of Scrabble in the moonlight before heading off to bed.

And sleep did come. And fortunately, mosquitos did not. But we didn't count on another epic slayer of sleep. Or like hundreds of them. 3 AM...enter...THE ROOSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The roosters started crowing, and by God, they never shut up. It was a chorus of hundreds of roosters crowing for hours on end. It was almost kind of hilarious. Fortunately, I was tired enough that I managed to fall back asleep for a couple hours, before finally giving up hope at about 5:30 - which was fine, because I'd already gotten almost 8 hours of sleep, and quite frankly felt good.

So we met J outside and started out mini-trek. After weaving our way out of the village, we started up a path. And I use the word path very loosely, as the path seemed to soon go up more vertically than it did horizontally. Soon it was mostly stepping from boulder to boulder, with the occasional bamboo ladder to climb up, with nothing really to support you, except your own will to persevere. I'm actually vaguely surprised that I survived. But then we got to the view of the river, and it was all worth it.

And we journeyed a bit more to see the view of the village. And then it was another one of those moments of pure awesomeness. The whole village was spread out before us, flanked by the river, and surrounded by the mountains. It was a view I suspect few people ever get to see, completely one of a kind. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

But the hour was getting late - we're talking 8 AM here, folks. So we had to somehow get back down this same trail - an equally daunting task. Somehow we all remained intact, and hustled back to the guesthouse. Before we left, we asked J if he had facebook or anything, so we could keep in touch. And wouldn't you know it, he had never heard of Facebook. And his family did have some sort of internet access, as their guesthouse has an email address. No Facebook??? !!! ??? !!! It was sort of a reinforcing fact that we were almost as isolated as you could possible get - so far off the map, so hard to reach, that things are completely different here. We were in a rush, so I didn't have all that much time to think about it, but it sort of summed up the entire experience of visiting this village. And keep in mind, Muang Ngoi is a touristified village, so I can only imagine what other villages are like (unfortunately we had no time to visit any others).

Before running off to catch our boat, we took a picture with J. I bet he's gonna do just fine for himself - the savvy entrepreneur would just strut through town, and you could tell he was well respected around the village.

Back up at the viewpoint, J explained to us that Muang Ngoi would soon be getting a road. As we boarded the boat, we asked each other: what will be the fate of this town? what is it's future? I don't think I'll be back to Muang Ngoi anytime soon, but I will watch from the eyes of wikitravel what happens to this little village. I suspect it will be fascinating. And then, what village will be the next Muang Ngoi?

Anyway, we got back on the boat to head back to Nong Khiaw. This boat was much older, and much more crowded. I was honestly a bit spooked, but we made it back downriver to Nong Khiaw in an hour. I wasn't really looking forward to another minibus ride, but it was better than those damn wood panels. And before I know it, I'm sitting on another boat bound for Luang Prabang. 7 long aching hours away.

It was 7 hours of beautiful scenery, but it was 7 hours of stiffness, awkward positions, and sweat. As I was telling Gabe midway through the boat ride, it was totally painful then, but as soon as we made it back to LP, I knew I'd be glad I did it. And that's exactly how I feel. But I'm getting sore just thinking about it...oh wait no, that's because I just walked all over Hong Kong today, and am about to board my 12 hour flight home to SFO. moar motrin naoooo.

Fortunately we did get one break in the middle of the ride. There were too many rapids, so we all had to get out and walk along the riverbank until we could get back on the boat. And then we finished the remaining hours of soreness. But eventually we met up with the Mekong, and eventually Luang Prabang slowly crept into sight. Getting off that boat was, I won't lie, incredibly satisfying.

I actually don't have many pictures from this boat ride because my camera batteries ran out, but the scenery was much like the prior boat rides - breathtaking and awe inspiring. If you should ever find yourself in that part of the world, please do yourself a favor, and boat up to Muang Ngoi. One final offering of the scenery, for now:

We checked back into the guesthouse, and then ambled over to the main road. We were too tired to explore too much, so we went to a tourist place on the main road...and were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. It was actually really good.

And then we went home. And went right to sleep. We'd though about leaving for Phonsavan the next day, but it was clear we needed to sleep in, and we had one extra day to spare in Laos, so we decided to allocate it to exploring Luang Prabang. And that is where the next entry will pick up.

Luang Prabang Part 1 - What to make of it?

Landing in Laos was the start of the last "main" part of the trip. It became obvious as soon as we landed that this was a very different country from anywhere else I'd been. Yet as we drove into the town, it seemed oddly...wealthy. This was a constant source of confusion for us, despite the knowledge that Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage City. My guess is that a fair amount of money is pumped into this city because of this status, and as a result, the country's widespread poverty is unseen in this tourist town.

We checked into our guesthouse, and went to look for some food. We ended up at a tourist restaurant overlooking the Mekong river. We ordered a bunch of dishes, and they were all solid, but not overwhelmingly awesome. Afterwards, we went back to the guesthouse to plot our next day, in which we hoped to overnight up north. Walking around town, we found out that the 100 Waterfalls tour was not only a ripoff, but took up way too much time, so we quashed that idea quickly. However a new idea surfaced, and you'll hear about that idea in the next entry. After we booked some transportation for the next day, we went to the main wat, in order to watch the sunset over the Mekong. Despite being overrun by tourists, we were treated to a magnificent sunset, and a fantastic view of Luang Prabang town. From here, we could see the "rest of the town"; that is, the part which wasn't all touristy. We vowed to explore it later.

From here, it became dinner time. We were all in agreement that we wanted to stay off the main drag, so we walked. We made a few turns. And then walked a few blocks. And then a few more. And it became less touristy, and more local. But we weren't finding anything. We were about to turn back, when all of a sudden we came across what appeared to be a hot pot restaurant on a swamp. Bingo! We figured this was it, so we sat down and ordered a huge heaping plate of meat. It wasn't traditional hot pot; rather, you put a cube of pork fat on the grill in the center, and then put broth around the side of the grill. You cooked veggies and noodles in the broth, and grilled meat on the grill.

This meal also marked the first liters of the Lao national pastime of drinking Beerlao. And I have to say, it wasn't all that bad. Now once I was made aware that the cmpany actually sanitizes and reuses empty Beerlao bottles, I was a bit sketched out, but beer is beer, and Laos is a communist country, so your options are limited. Jesse and I took down a bunch of Beerlao which led to superior picture taking skills like, and Gabe became the grill master.

So we finish this gigantic plate of food, and then Gabe wondered if we should get some more. Long story short, before an incredulous Jesse's eyes, Gabe and I proceeded to order a second gigantic plate of meats...and we devoured it.

It was definitely one of the besr meals of the trip because it was just one of those moments (er two hours) where everything was just in perfect harmony - at a local joint on a swamp on some random street in Northern Laos.

Afterwards, after inadvertantly getting ripped off by a tuktuk driver due to the launggae barrier for a grand total of like 25 cents, we walked through the market, basking in the glow of our surprising dinner success. I picked up a Beerlao t-shirt, and then we headed back to retire for the night. We were all exhausted (Jesse and I were still recovering from Causeway), and the next morning was to be an early one as we journeyed off still more north into the depths of what we would soon find to be a breathtakingly beautiful country.

I don't like buzzed pictures of myself much, so this mid tuk-tuk ride picture was actually a totally fine effort on my part.

And the next morning, we were picked up by a minibus already full of people going to our transfer point (Nong Khiaw), as well as Phonsavan, our future destination a few days down the road. And then more people got in. And then our baggage was moved to the roof because MORE PEOPLE GOT IN. And we couldn't figure out why we all were in the same minibus if we had different destinations...and then, an hour after getting into the minibus a mere three miles away, we showed up at the bus station. The journey hadn't even begun. Welcome to transportation in a country with almost no infrastructure...to be continued.

Exhaustion

Thanks Blogspot, for thinking that because Vientiane is so close to Thailand, that clearly I must want the website back in Thai again.

Anyway, I'm sorry I've fallen so far behind on blogging. I figured this would happen - when you're super busy having one of the best months of your life, sitting down and writing a lot isn't all that easy. <train ride>

So I've been away now for about a month. And yes, it's been incredible. But as I thought would happen, I'm starting to get exhausted. Sleeping in different beds, with pillows I can't adjust to well, bus rides, boat rides, early mornings, late nights, upset stomachs etc...I'm just running out of steam. I've noticed it in the past week, especially in that I've been going to bed before 11 PM every night. I'm still having just as much fun as when I got to SE Asia (if not more), but I'm just running out of energy.

I'm actually thrilled that I've gotten this far into the trip. I knew 5 weeks would be a large undertaking, but I think I've gotten much more out of this trip by going for a more extended period of time. But all that said, damn am I tired.

As a quick update:

- Afternoon in Vientiane (Hungry Burger!)
- Train(?) to Bangkok overnight - blog a bunch, I hope!
- Fly to Manila tomorrow - 2.5 days there.
- Day in HK
- Fly home

its 10:13 AM, and I want to sleep. But don't get me wrong - I'm still enjoying myself and so thrilled with all I have done in the last month, and will continue to do these last 5 days in Asia. :)

For now, we're just waiting to hear if we got train tickets. If not? Plan B. What is Plan B? probably another mini bus...

Johor Bahru and Singapore – So Close, yet So Far.

So I wrote part of this entry a few days ago too – and yet I’m just finishing it now. Needless to say, we’ve been incredibly busy. But to thank you for dealing with my tardiness in posting, please accept this entry, filled with pictures! :D

I feel so bad for everybody on this flight. I feel worse for myself, since I am closest to who is undoubtedly the loudest, most annoying baby on the face of this planet. Now the dad is PTFO, and the mom must not really give a crap either. Can I smack the parents? Someone smack me if I ever let my kids misbehave so badly someday.

We only got a brief view of Singapore en route to the Zon Regenecy Hotel  By The Sea in Johor Bahru. It was a fairly comfortable bus ride, minus the stops for immigration in both countries. But when we got to the Zon, I was overtaken by the cigarette smoke everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting. We didn’t even make it into our first hotel room, as it was worse than the poison in the main atrium. But of course there were no nonsmoking rooms available, and we ended up in a renovated room which was marginally better, although I found myself having trouble breathing even in that room. Fortunately, Dielle showed up and we went out to dinner nearby at a hawker stall. The food was decent, but not as good as Bangkok.

There wasn’t really much else to do other than try and get some sleep for the tournament. And be amateur acrobats:

Since this isn’t a Scrabble blog, I won’t drone on and on about the tournament, but just touch on the non-Scrabble highlights.

Well first, a picture of Jesse and I playing. I won this game, but I drew very good tiles.

The food overall was quite good, but maybe not quite as good as Bangkok. Actually, my favorite meal in Malaysia was a Chinese dinner, but a simple Nasi Goreng Daging (beef fried rice, Malaysian style) is super tasty. I would liked to thank KL-er Vannitha for taking us to some very tasty street food, and providing some insight and translation (since she speaks Malaysian!)

The main story happened on the last night. We went to dinner at a noodle shop in the mall below the hotel, which tried to close 45 minutes early on us, rather than accept our orders and money. Eventually we convinced them, and despite the fact that they were out of most of the food, it was actually a pretty solid meal. We next went to KTV (Karaoke), also in the mall. After buying one hour of karaoke time, we struggled for a good 15 minutes figuring out how to get the machine to work, which was clearly an old and well-worn system. Jesse was visibly angry. But a pitcher of Tiger later, we were hard at work singing to some very strange covers of pop music (and the occasional actual song). Highlights of the night included Jesse singing Jay Chou, Sandy and Vannitha going all out at “Dancing Queen”, It’s MY Life (Bon Jovi) and of course, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. According to everyone else, I killed on “Bad Romance”. Karaokeing was actually pretty fun – maybe I’ll try again sometime (yes, this was my first time karaokeing.

So what happened after karaoke? Well, we tried to buy another hour, but were told by the workers, who were very tuned into their facebooks, that they couldn’t give us more time because there was a police search. We were rather befuddled, since there were no police inside. After about 10 minutes, we gave up and left. But then, from outside the karaoke place (keep in mind, this is the fifth floor of an incredibly seedy mall, which is below an additional 11 story hotel), we saw down to the floor below, where a bunch of Malay police had surrounded a restaurant. Drunk guys kept staggering out, but finally the cops walked away with what we could only assume were some hookers. It was probably the most boring shakedown ever, but all the locals seemed rather enthused. By this time, I was falling asleep, and headed upstairs, while the others apparently took down a tower, and listened to the “cellophane slappers”. Who are the cellophane slappers? They are the lounge singers who sing every night in the cigarette smoke infested “open air” lounge at the Zon Regency. Apparently in the past they have been downright terrible, but honestly this batch wasn’t too bad. I heard them sing Bad Romance at one point, and didn’t think it was too bad, but it got far less rave reviews than my karaoke performance, so take my words with a grain of salt. *shrug*

As it turned out, in the Scrabble tournament, after lots of upswings and downswings, unending exhaustion, and lots of frustration from the word list difference previously explained in my entry on the Princess Cup, I ended up in 6^th place, and won $700, which paid for a couple more flights, and the tournament itself. Granted, I lost my last 4 games to get 6^th, but this tournament has one of the strongest fields each year, and I already had the huge dictionary handicap, so it was hard to be too upset.

Not the best picture ever, but all we could get of me receiving my prize from a higher-up in Johor:

We hung around for a bit, trying to figure out the best plan of action on how to get to Singapore. Somehow, we convinced Dielle to tag along to Singapore with us for the evening, so eventually the three of us headed off to catch a taxi to the bus station. Before we left, we talked to Pakorn (tournament winner) and Sha-Lyn, and agreed to possibly meet up at a blues club in Singapore later that night, which was supposedly a pretty awesome joint.

We hopped a taxi pretty quickly, and made it to the Causeway without incident. We then got on a bus to cross. Once we tried to go through the Singapore customs, we realized we had not filled out departure cards. So we waited in line a second time, got through, and headed down to find our bus. Apparently our bus was running rather infrequently because we had to wait for close to an hour in the stuffy bus terminal for our bus to some place in the city. Our dinner reservation was for 8:00, and I'd say we showed up at maybe 9:15. Actually we were saved by Jesse's Chinese speaking abilities when hiring a taxi in Singapore itself to get to dinner because the cab driver had no idea where to go otherwise, or so it seemed.

Actually I was pretty impressed with Jesse's fluency in Chinese. I think he took it for a couple years at Yale, and then spent what sounded like a pretty darn awesome year in Beijing learning the language more after undergrad.

So it was finally time for the meetup with Gabe. He was there, with a couple friends, as well as Sandy, who had taken a private car from Johor to Singapore and was actually likely the only person who was actually on time to the dinner.

Lots of food had already been ordered, so we jumped right in. Crab was everywhere, as well as shrimp, noodles, rice, veggies – so much good food. And quite frankly, I’ve never had such big pieces of crab meat. And so tasty, too. And then you take a bunch of the chile sauce and mix it with the fried rice. Oh man. Regretably, I took no pictures since we were so late, but suffice to say it was a delicious meal. A picture with 3 of my 4 main travel buddies this trip (Dion was home by then):

We wanted to drop off our stuff at the hotel, and then Gabe finally clued us in on where we were staying. He booked us a night at the CONRAD HOTEL!!!!!! The hotel was absolutely GORGEOUS. Once we got there, I didn’t really want to leave because it was so nice. And then everything had my name on it! EVERYTHING! I made plans to bring a bunch of things home.

So then we finally got out of the hotel to go to the blues club. We tried to take a “maxi cab” (to fit 5 people), but instead ended up in a pseudo-limo that cost S$45 for like a 10 minute ride. We found the club, which was cool, but no Pakorn or Sha-Lyn. Oops. We walked around for awhile, found no other exciting bars, and then found a building with KTV places. We got off on each floor, heard the super expensive prices for all-night rates in incredibly strange dark, many-colored rooms (only pictures can describe, or just being there), and then walked back to another outside bar, where we took down a tower of Tiger. Eventually, we stumbled back to the hotel and had a nice long sleep – my first full night in quite awhile.

One KTV joint:

When we finally got up at 11 AM, there wasn’t much time to do much of anything except swim. So what did we do? Well we swam, obviously. The pool was gorgeous, up to par with the rest of the hotel, and we got every last minute out of it. I’m not sure the rich tourists were thrilled by our frisbeeing in the pool, but hey, we had a blast.

Jesse in pool-layout mode:

So yeah, staying at a Conrad Hotel, in Singapore no less, was totally awesome. Thanks so much Gabe! That was so incredibly awesome.

And yes, I got plenty of Conrad swag.

I was disappointed we didn’t have more time to see/do stuff in Singapore because it is a pretty unique place, so clean and pretty, but I get the feeling that I will probably layover through there again in the future, and will see more then. But it was a nice little break. Which leads me to the title of the post.

I can’t really speak for all of the city of Johor, but at least the area we were in was just so dingy, smoky, dirty, seedy – I could only spend 5 days at a place like that if there was an awesome Scrabble tournament there. Otherwise…eek. Now Singapore on the other hand, just a complete polar opposite. Yet somehow, these places are just a causeway away. Just a very interesting dichotomy. I’m not saying Johor is like a ghetto or anything, but it just wasn’t for me.

So then we got to the airport and found out our tickets were actually business class! So we got to fly Thai Air business class from Singapore to Bangkok! The food was fabulous, the wine was great (and free flowing), and the reclining seat was just too cool. Not to mention warm towels. And I didn’t even mention the lounge buffet. Thai partners with Singapore Air, so we got to use the Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge. Speechless. Words cannot describe. My attempt: so much food, drink, awesome, everything, I wanna go back. Actually, it turns out our tickets from Bangkok to Manila are business class, too, so that’s something to look forward to! Good surprises rule.

PTFO, yo.

So needless to say I was nice and relaxed going into Bangkok for the overnight stop. It turned out Siam Journey was full, so we stayed near the airport in the Lat Krabang neighborhood. We walked around the nearby night market, Jesse bought an absolutely ridiculous[ly awesome] puffin-like ceramic(?) thing which we named “Sandy-Puff”, and then walked down the alley our hotel was on. It was a trip to be in a suburb of Bangkok because there were no bright city lights – it felt like we were somewhere totally different. It turned out that night was the King’s birthday, but we didn’t really go outside in time to see any celebrations, oops. Still super tired, and we had to get up bright and early to catch our flight to Luang Prabang.

And sure enough, we made it to our flight on time, and I won’t say much else about it, since you undoubtedly know how annoying the screaming baby was and the damn careless parents. Next post will start our journey to Laos. We’re currently in Phonsavan, going to see the Plain of Jars tomorrow. I don’t really think I’ll have the blog finished by the time I get home, but I will finish it – I promise! Hope you’re all well wherever you are.

P.S. Thanks again to Michael Tang for putting on an awesome event. I’m so glad I finally got to attend (and in the nick of time apparently), and I will undoubtedly be back for more international Scrabble. The atmosphere in the tournament room is just so much more enjoyable than in the US.

P.P.S. Especially for you, Mom:

This picture was taken from the room in Singapore, no joke.

Ni Hao Laos!

Bangkok Part 2: Pat Pong, Ping Pong, and Thank Goodness No Ping Pong Show.

Well, I’m sorry I haven’t written more, for those of you who are reading this blog. I’ve actually gotten some comments from completely random people, so I guess more than 5 people are actually reading this blog. I’m writing this at 17,000 feet on an ATR 72 (what?) plane headed to Luang Prabang, Laos, for what it’s worth. Screaming kids whose parents don’t care, a super loud propellor. Solution? Blast death metal. Problem solved. My ears are going to hurt anyway.

Super update: sorry for posting this three more days late, aarrghh!

So when I last left off, we had gone back to Bangkok. We headed back to the Siam Journey Guesthouse where we stayed last week, and got our Monopoly Deal  fix. We still had to figure out what our plans were going to be though. It was becoming increasingly clear that the best idea would be to split up, because Dion’s flight home was out of Kuala Lumpur, and getting there (and then onto Johor Bahru) was far more expensive/inconvenient than just flying directly to Singapore a couple days later. I mulled this idea throughout the afternoon, as we unsuccessfuly attempted to play badminton at Chulalongkorn University. We decided our main plan for the night would be to go to Pat Pong and the Bangkok Red Light District – something we had managed to skip the week before. After some pad thai and noodle soup, it was off. We once again fit 7 people into a taxi, complete with beer – this time uneventfully.

We wandered amongst the stalls, and eventually ended up at some gogo dancing bar, which was pretty unexciting. We stumbled into a couple more, which all reeked of smoke, and then finally we decided that the solution was to go dancing. So Mai suggested we go to his favorite club. And Mai is a total life of the party, so it was bound to be a hopping place.

And wouldn’t you know it, Mai’s favorite club, since Mai is gay, his favorite club just happens to be one of the biggest gay bars in Bangkok (called Cabaret, I think). No getting out of that one. I lasted all of 5 seconds before getting hit on, and yet somehow it took us a good five minutes to squeeze all the way through to the bar. Shots ensued, and we awkwardly huddled into our own group, and tried to dance. It just wasn’t quite working, so we looked for a less crowded spot. And then we found the cages. Yes, Dielle, Dion, Bryce, Leo, the random Polish guy with us, and Mai spent the next 90 minutes taking turns dancing in cages at a gay bar (no strangers were involved). It was actually a ton of fun, and it wasn’t super crowded right there, so we kinda just did our own thing, and got our groove on.

After the club closed at 3, we wanted to head to another club, so we broke our record, and stuffed an additional person into the cab, for a grand total of 8 people (including the driver) in the cab. We had to pass through a checkpoint, and the cop just looked at us and laughed (and waived us through). But then we found out the club had a huge cover, so we stopped for some 4AM fourth meal. By this point, I was literally falling asleep on my spring rolls, but Leo wanted to stay out, so Mai and I called it a night, and from what I understand, the rest went to Khao San Road, shot pool, and hung out at a rooftop bar for two more hours.

And this entire night, we managed not to go to a ping pong show. Way too expensive! *laughs*

The next day was decision time. I had decided that the best course of action was to stay in Bangkok for a couple extra days, and the Saldanhas would head out to KL the next morning. Once we were all finally ready for action, we attempted to play badminton again, at another location this time. This time, the joint was full, so we had to settle for playing ping pong. I actually worked up a sweat sparring with Nate, and also worked up an appetite. But we did make reservations to play badminton the next day.

Next, we grabbed some street food from nearby, and went to Stephanie’s (a German girl living in Bangkok) apartment rooftop in Saphan Khwai. Remember, a little money goes a long long way in Thailand, so a lot of the people we met living in Bangkok were on 28^th floor apartments with panoramic views of the city, with rooftop gardens and pools fit for a king. We in fact ate our dinners up on the rooftop, and shot the breeze for a couple hours. Too much of this time was spent talking about Twilight, but hey, just about any discussion is better than one about Scrabble politics.

See, what I was starting to find pretty cool about my return to Bangkok, and what was making me even more glad that I was staying the extra couple days, is that I was already starting to feel at home. I no longer felt like a tourist, but rather like just another person. I already felt like I’d made some cool friends, and the activities we were doing were far more reminiscent of everyday life, than of being tourists. And I loved that.

When we went back home, we played lots of Monopoly Deal, and I started uploading pictures. And then it was 4 AM. And then, Dielle, Dion, Bryce, Leo, and I started telling life stories. Bedtime = 6 AM again. Oops. Well, no bedtime for Dielle and Dion, whose flight left in two hours.

Holy hell, someone shut this kid up in the row behind me. In more positive news, there is absolutely no civilization below us right now, and there are approximately 94.38 trillion trees. Where was I?

Oh yeah, so when I woke up, Dielle and Dion were long gone, and our badminton reservation was almost up. CRAP. Bryce and I stumbled/ran over to the badminton place by way of BTS, and met up with Nate. Fortunately the place was empty, so we were able to play for an additional hour. I hadn’t played badminton since after-school league in middle school, but there was some muscle memory there, and I had a blast. Definitely something to look up when I get home.

Next, we walked over to the weekend market, which had started up again since the floods. Reenergized by Thai tea and pad Thai, we met up with a few friends and walked around. I’m not much of a shopper, and the only item I wanted (a specific shirt) I was unable to find. But then I decided I’d get a Christmas present for my Mom (who is undoubtedly reading this, so I’m not saying what). After awhile, exhausted and sweaty, Nate and I took the subway to another part of town to go to a weekly dinner at another guesthouse, Thailek’s.

There were lots of random people from all over at this dinner, and we ate on the floor (on mats) which was fun. And wow, was the food amazing. The best [green] curry I have ever had, hands down. I had four bowls, and that doesn’t even count the Tom Kha I finally got to have, and assorted other homemade Thai classics. After dinner, yes, we played Monopoly Deal (the game had migrated from Thailek’s with Bryce to Siam Journey).

I think that kid just made me deaf. And now my deafness is deaf.

The next day, my final one in Bangkok, Nate and I attempted to take a day trip, but it just wasn’t possible, and a lot of the options were unfortunately still flooded. So we met up with Carmen, another German girl, and did some sightseeing. We actually went back to Wat Arun, which was not nearly as cool during the day. We also went to Wat Po, with the sleeping Buddha. The sleeping Buddha was pretty awesome, but I honestly just wasn’t that into sightseeing.

But by the time we were done, Carmen had to catch her flight back to Germany after a quick meal on the rooftop of Nate’s apartment building, and Nate wanted to show me his secret cheap massage place. It was definitely a bargain, and I learned that you’re actually supposed to tip for massages – apparently the only thing you do tip for in Thailand. It was a good place, although my legs were sufficiently burnt by a towel. *shrug*

We tried to get onto some tennis courts, but they were booked. Actually, the lady let us rally for 15 minutes, which was cool. Speaking of old hobbies I should really get back into, hah.

Nate then insisted we take motorcycle taxis to BTS. I reluctantly agreed. Amazingly I still have my legs, as the driver squeezed through too-tight spaces surrounded by busses and SUVs. I was pretty scared for my life, yet somehow it was amazingly exhilarating, even if it was only for 5 minutes.

Back at the guesthouse, a group of us went out for dinner, which may have been a double cheeseburger and fries, and then went back and played more Monopoly Deal. I actually had to wake up for my flight the next day, so I went to bed at a reasonable time.

Tuesday morning, it was up and off to the airport again. I flew Tiger down to Singapore, and got in on time. I finally got in contact with Jesse, who was arriving an hour after me, and we met up in Singapore. From there it was a quick snack (and potable tap water!), and a bus over to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, for the Causeway Scrabble Challenge. And that’s where I will stop for now.

I figured the least I could do was add some pictures for this entry, but there reall aren't any good ones / ones that should be posted here, so I'll save them for the Laos part of the trip, which so far has been unbelievably beautiful.

Life lessons: Traveling, Dancing, and...Harlotry

So for our last day in Chiang Mai, we had a full day booked. We met Mameow at 11 to rent motorbikes. I was totally intimidated not only to try motorbiking for the first time, but doing it in a foreign country where the rules of the road are...looser.

So we finally got the bikes (actually motor scooters, but they still went 80-90 km/h) and dropped our stuff out at the new hostel we'd be spending our last night at, and took off for the countryside. Our destination was the Tiger Kingdom, so that Dielle and Dion could take pictures with tigers.

I wasn't ready to start out biking in the city, so I waited until we were on the outskirts before I took over. When I did finally get on the bike, it was actually a breeze. Speeding down the highway was just such a releasing feeling, and I can't think of a time I've ever felt so free.

When I went on this trip, I definitely had some personal goals I wanted to achieve during the trip. For those of you who know me well, you'll know about my struggle with risk aversion throughout my life. So you can imagine how I felt when I had to be the passenger on a bike. Talk about givimg up control and putting complete trust in someone else. And you know what? That leap of faith was totally worth it. It felt pretty empowering to put myself in one of the exact situations in which I desired to be (that is, give up complete control). Risk aversion is definitely one of the most important things for me to improve in myself in my 20s, and this opportunity was really what I needed.

Not only did I get to work on myself, but I absolutely fell in love with the feeling of motorbiking. Given my predilection for loving driving, road trips, and the open highway, the main issues I had with motorcycles were the safety risks and the noise. Now I didn't get to experience the noise, but now that I have proof for myself that you can get on a motorbike and not die (and feel totally freaking awesome), I think I may give some thought to trying it in the US. Seriously, I may have just found a new love.

So personal gains aside, we got to the Tiger Kingdom. They had an AYCE Thai buffet. It cost 3$. I think its 6$ usually, but we had Mameow, a repeat customer local. But even for $6, wowowowowowowow. I ate so much food. I may have had a plate of french fries.

Then Dielle and Dion took pictures with the tigers. I didn't personally feel the need to spend money doing that, so I hung back with Mameow and we took pictures and watched from the buffet deck. And of course, I had a mini-adventure of my own when they were done. I was going to get to try something I'd always wanted to try.

...
...


...    




...ZORBING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, some New Zealander guy opened an extreme sports thing next to Tiger Kingdom, so Mameow and I jumped at the opportunity to go Zorbing (Xorbing at this place). And it was only $20! Basically we were strapped into a gigantic plastic ball that rolls down a hill into a lake (Mameow and I in the same one, dL and DIon watched as they had zorbed in NZ before). I was underwhelmed by the hill at first, but it turned out to be really fun. Definitely was a little carsick by the time we rolled into the lake and then were given free range to roll like hamsters around the lake. We got out soon after that because we were so dizzy. Then we biked home. At this point, I actually got to bike in Chiang Mai traffic, which was kind of amazing, but eventually, the complicated turns made it more efficient and safe form Mameow to drive again. That said, Dion drove like a pro through the streets. Super mad props.

We stopped for ice cream at iBerry before stopping in at the CMU Scrabble Club. Mameow bragged about my recent defeat of Nigel at Princess Cup, and then everyone was awestruck (lol). Since Jakkrit wasn't there, I was the de facto best player in their eyes, but the other club "teacher" just about beat me in a close game. He also beat Dielle. The club takes place next to a Tae Kwan Do club and a practicing band, so you get some hybrid of gamelan rock jazz music. Kinda a cool setup.

Then it was off for some more street food. We had tom yum (So yummy), rice, fried rice, curry, basil chicken, and spring rolls for like $6 US. SO GOOD.

So we went back to the new hostel, and tried to figure out our plans for the next day. The intent was to go to an island in southwest Thailand, Koh Phi Phi, but the planning for getting there never really happened, so it was becoming pretty clear that it wasn't going to happen. We eventually settled on flying back to Bangkok the next afternoon and just going from there. For me going to an island wasn't really the most important thing ever, and I was pretty excited at the prospect of spending a couple more days in Bangkok since I'm already somewhat comfortable and know people there.

After finally getting everything figured out, we checked out a club near the hostel even though it was closing, and eventually ended up at Club Spicy near Thapae Gate again. It was definitely an entertaining night, being right next to a (shield your eyes if you don't like rated-R stuff) lesbian hooker versus ladyboy hooker fight, and seeing an old guy make out with another one, ewwww. I try not to judge but ewwww.

We ended up getting home some time after 4.

The next morning was a mad dash to get to the airport. We eventually made it AND found a cafe that was actually normally priced. And then we flew Nok Air back to Bangkok.

That was a day and a half ago, and much has happened since then, but I think I am going to leave off here for now since it seems like a natural starting point.

So it's been an amazing trip so far - everything I could've wanted and more. I hope it keeps up, but I'll just ride this wave while I can.

Peace!

Lions, Tigers, and Beers, Chiang Mai!

So after nearly missing our flight due to the constant Saldanhian need to straighten ones hair, we hopped an AirAsia flight up to Chiang Mai. The hostel we had planned to stay at was booked to capacity, so we hopped a songthaew (or as it is called in Chiang Mai, a "bus") to Thapae gate, on the other side of the old city. A songthaew is basically a pickup truck with some open-air seats in the back. We checked into the MD Guesthouse near Thapae Gate, and headed to a recommended French restaurant, Chez Marco, nearby. Although I tried to put on a smile at dinner, the food really was not very good, and for $15US, I was rather disappointed.

We had been planning to go out on the town the last two nights in Bangkok, so we decided to make up for our failure to do so by going out our first night in Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, all the bars seemed to be dead, to our dismay, and we were tired enough that further exploration would be too tedious. We retired for the night.

Tuesday morning, we met up with Chiang Mai native (and Scrabble player) Mameow. She took us to Chiang Mai University to walk around and have lunch at one of the cafterias. Man, if UCSD served food like this place...I would've had a freshman 150. I had noodle soup and a japanese crepe, as well as a thai tea and thai green tea. yum yum yum.

After lunch, we walked through the campus some more, and then headed through town to the Chiang Mai zoo. At the zoo, I got to have 4 birds perch on me (one decided my finger was potentially a delectable morsel), I got to feed elephants, and got to see some lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) Apparently Dion is violently afraid of birds. We also saw an ostrich do its business. You should research how it works in ostriches. Very...weird.

From the zoo, we hopped a songthaew up the mountain to Doisuthep Temple. I got very carsick. We arrived near dusk, and climbed the 300 steps to the temple. From the outside, you get a panoramic view of the city of Chiang Mai (just gorgeous). From the inside, there is a stunning gold pagoda that glistens so brightly. We got blessings from a Buddhist monk (even though all four of us range from agnostic-Christian to Catholic), and walked around the temple for a bit. On the ride back down, my carsickness increased manyfold, and I had to sit down on the street when we got off the bus.

We tried to convince Mameow to come clubbing with us that night, but we finally agreed to meet up to do so on Thursday. Mameow bid farewell from a night market (not the main one - Dielle and Dion are there right now, and I chose not to go because shopping really isn't my thing), and the three of us walked around, trying all sorts of foods - crepes, deep friend corn fritters, shiu mai, fruits, sausages, dumplings, pastries, until we finally made it back to the main street. From there, we songthaewed over to a Burmese restaurant. My beef noodle soup was more like a curry, but it was delicious - always nice to try a new cuisine.

We went home, and vowed to find some nightlife. We started at Cafe Riva, where we had Tigers and played cards. Then we discovered there was a Jenga set, and whilst quite buzzed, managed to have an amazingly epic game of Jenga. Then, the two other bargoers next to us decided to join in for the next round. The game went so long, that Dielle actually lost on a turn where there were no possible moves that could end successfully. There are pictures to show just how epic the game truly was.

Once the bar shut down, we wandered over to a place with our new friends called Spirit. We were informed that it was known for being a frequent stop for hookers, as well as prone to the occasional fight. No matter, it had music and cheap drinks. Well, as soon as I walked in, a hooker tried to grab my leg. Uhhhh...no thanks. But we sat down and ordered drinks anyway. It was probably 1 AM. And then all of a sudden the club was hopping. And then many drinks and dances and songs and stories later...it was 5 AM and the club was closing.

We somehow ended up at McDonald's, and I regretably had fries. Aarrghh, BK and McD in the same week - what have I done?! I ended up falling asleep sometime after 6. What a fun day!

Today we weren't really capable of functioning until about 2. We literally stumbled over to a local restaurant that had all sorts of hangover cures - deep-fried spring rolls, pad thai, basil fried chicken. Delicious. And then we stumbled back to the hotel, really just wanting to sleep more. But we decided to not write off the whole day, and signed up last minute for a khantoke dinner.

Khantoke is a Thai dinner theater where you are served northern Thai dishes accompanied with music/dancing/performances by the hill tribes of the area. There was everything from fire twirling and knife twirling to candlelit dances. The food was great - and they kept refilling it! What's not to like? After the dinner show, we were treated to some more performances from tribespeople outside in a small ampitheater. There were some pretty unique performances, including some kids who would perfectly step through large bamboo sticks being pounded together (i.e., miss a step, and your foot is gonna feel some painnnn.

We picked up our laundry when we got back (a coin laundry place, and the owners had all our clothes folded and ready when we showed up!), and Dion and Dielle headed to the well-known night bazaar after procrastinating for two years, and finally productively booking a night for the 4 of us at the hostel we wanted to stay at on Monday for tomorrow. As for me, I'm turning in for bed now, at about 12:30 AM because tomorrow is going to be a long day. Supposedly the agenda is to meet up with Mameow at 10:30 to rent motorbikes and go to the Tiger Kingdom outside of town. Mameow has made me aware of the fact that I can go xorbing nearby. I may insist that we do this, as I have always wanted to xorb. Later in the day we will go to the CMU Scrabble club, and then we will check out Nimmanhaemin road, and hopefully go dancing. This will be followed by an early morning flight to Bangkok en route to the next stop on my adventure. Where are we headed? You'll just have to wait and find out...

It's becoming clear to me that trying to add photos to these blogs is going to be tough, but I'll still try.

Be the Champion of Crossword Game (I'm finally updating!)

OK, so it turned out that blogging is kinda hard to do. So let's try to get caught up here.

After the wonderful day that was Wednesday, we got a very slow start on Thursday. Somehow, we managed to get our act together and scramble to the bus station in time to take a minibus to Hua Hin, a beach town a couple hours outside of Bangkok. Dielle and Dion got an extreme case of the giggles. We checked into the Fulay Guesthouse around 10 PM, and immediately passed out from exhaustion. It turned out to be my first really good night of sleep in Thailand.

The next morning, Friday, we actually got to see the lay of the land. Our guest house was on a pier over the water, and was just so beautiful. They tried to charge us more for the room because there was a mixup, but Dion's epic arguing skills worked the price down a lot. And then it was time for THE BEACH.

We had lunch literally 5 feet from the water, which included a spicy green curry for me, and the most delicious watermelon/pineapple smoothie. Afterwards, we hit the water. It was clear and warm. Just awesome.

After spending a few hours at the beach, we hopped a bus back to Bangkok. By the time we got back, it was pretty much time for bed since the Princess Cup began the next morning.

Yesterday morning, we woke up bright and early to go play some Scrabble (called Crossword Game in Thailand). It took us awhile to find the right part of the Bangna Central Plaza Mall where the tournament was being held, but once we got there, it was very obvious. Hundreds of kids milling about, anxious for their Scrabble, kumkom (Thai Scrabble), A-Math (think scrabble but with number equations), and Sudoku games to start. A big gigantic stage. A huge Scrabble board 10 feet tall that was actually a Scrabble Transforer (like the movie).

Eventually we started playing. By the time the opening ceremonies began, I was 2-0! The opening ceremony was pretty amazing. The princess of Thailand was actually in attendance, and all of the participating countries were introduced (I was the sole American in attendance). I can't really describe how awesome the opening ceremonies were, but I believe Dielle has videos of it, so maybe those will be available at some point.

I was very excited to finish the day in second place with 7 wins and 1 loss (to Nigel Richards, the Michael Jordan of Scrabble). I even beat two of the top three Thai players - Komol and Panupol (a former World Champion). Keep in mind that this tournament uses the Collins lexicon, which is far larger than the OWL2, which is used in club/tournament play in the US and Canada. I know very little Collins, and this lack of word knowledge is definitely a handicap for playing Scrabble with this word source.

In round 7, I was invited to actually play on the gigantic Scrabble board, complete with live commentators and gigantic versions of the Scrabble setup. If you have to put letters near the top of the board, you had to climb on a ladder! Keep in mind this is in the middle of a functioning mall. A very busy one.

Saturday night the entire guesthouse went out for beer (and more beer) ((and more beer)). We almost went to a club, but decided sleep was probably a good idea. I was in contention, after all. Oh right, and we had KFC for dinner.

Sunday morning, I lost my first two games. Then things started to pick up. I even got to play another game on the gigantic board (won again) and found myself in good shape for second place. And then I find out that the top 2 players at the end of regulation play a best of two finals with the slate wiped clean. So although Nigel had "clinched" first place, he had really only clinched a spot in the finals. So when I beat Komol again, the only other player in contention lost, and all of a sudden I had snagged a spot in the finals against Nigel! Really? Me? I know I'm a good Scrabble player, but this is a new dictionary to me!

Nigel started out quickly in the first game, but I got a HUGE break by getting to play GY(R)ATION for 167 points on two triple word scores (a "nine timer"). This turned into a huge rout in my favor, and all I had to do was not lose the second game by more than 191. It was a slow game, and I ended up losing by only 9 (sacrificing the win in order to ensure I wouldn't lose a rout).

But holy crap, I WON! I got a trophy, and $950! I wasn't even expecting to be in contention, let alone beating the best Scrabble player in the history of the universe in his dictionary, and not mine. Granted, I know I got really lucky, but hey, it was about as good as surprises get. This tournament may actually be my best Scrabble memory...ever.

Tonight Dielle and Dion have finally convinced me to get a massage, and then we will eat dinner. MOAR PAD THAI. MOAR BECAUSE MOAR. Also, pad thai is so delicious. After dinner, I think we're going to hit the town since it is our last night in Bangkok.

Rumor has it we're going to Chiangmai tomorrow. More on that later. I'll try to blog soon, but this is going to be hard. I'm just having so much fun - this has been one of the best weeks ever. And I can't wait for the next few, too!

We have to get going now, so I can't put in pictures right now, but I will try to go back and add them in soon.

Really, Dion and Dielle are pestering me to get going, and clearly they are always ready exactly on time, I should be ashamed of taking a few extra minutes this time (typed as they hover over me, reading this already brief entry). See you guys soon! :)

Seriously. Most amazing weekend ever.

Note to Dielle and Dion and Dion and Dielle: BANGNA! This weekend was my bang-na, my bang-na (to the tune of my moment by rebecca black).

Really leaving now! Bai!

Epic.

Yesterday was one of those days that I'll never forget. I'm not going to rehash it all right now, maybe in the future, but I'll give a brief summary of what happened for now.

It involved:

- seeing my friend Win for the first time in over two years, and him being a superb tour guide, and his awesome girlfriend!
- eating approximately six meals
- taking a private boat through the river and seeing first hand and up close the effects of the floods
- having our boat drivers decide to impromptu-ly race another boat, which was kind awesome.
- visiting a pagoda which had stairs at what seemed like approximately a very unsafe angle that went straight up a bunch of stories.
- piling 6 people into a taxi and getting pulled over by a cop because our driver didn't get out of the way of the emergency vehicles (no real law against piling people into taxis)
- Dielle trying to sell roses to backpackers
- And capped off with a night of drunken debauchery

...and much more (sorry no ladybois or hookers involved)

I also had pad thai 3 times yesterday. And a quart of thai tea.

I also slept 4 hours (6-10AM) and woke up feeling perfectly rested. What a perfect day.

Rumor has it we are headed to Hua Hin and the beach today. I'm happy to report than the three of us are taking hundreds of pictures (and some videos) of our (mis)adventures. I may write about this day in detail in the future, but for now, suffice to say it was one of the best days of all of our lives! Pictures to come soon! Time for foooooooooooood!

11/15/2011: Make Spicy A Frog.

So after a not-so-great night of sleep, I was surprised to actually be hungry at 11 AM. Leo showed us some street food stalls nearby the BTS station. Dielle and I both got a bowl of chicken/pork/wonton noodle soup, and afterwards got a fresh fruit shake. Total price: 60 baht (USD $1.95).

After returning back to the guesthouse, Dielle and I decided we should wander. We ended up heading south about a 15 minute walk to the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. We checked out a lot of nationalistic pieces - although the point of the contest was to praise the King, there were some really incredible pieces. Lots of need perspective changes, too.

After a couple hours, we walked over to the Siam Discovery mall. This area of Bangkok is all mall all the time. We walked through Siam Discovery, and onto Siam Paragon, which has an international food complex half the size of Piedmont. Now when I say international food, I mean international to Thailand. So yes, McDonalds was there. I'm actually hoping to sneak back there at some point to try Mos Burger. But in the end there was SO MUCH mall, that we didn't even make it to the biggest one, NBK. I'm sure we will make it back there before we leave town, though.

On the way back, Dielle successfully haggled for some earrings, and we even shared a coconut!

The coconut is actually still in the fridge...we need to crack it open.

Our sore legs carried us back to the guesthouse, and we rested for awhile, eventually getting our butts kicked in Monopoly Deal again. We also found out that Dion had missed her connection and wouldn't be arriving until 6AM the next morning. While we were waiting to start the dinner tour, we went down to the "corner market" (I use the term loosely) and got big bottles of beer. Dielle got Chang, I got Singha, and Leo got...well...Leo. Also, you can walk down the street drinking beer. take that SBPD.

Once we found out everybody else coming to the food tour had bailed, we set off for Victory Square Plaza with Nate, Elias, and Leo. The first stop was a noodle shop. Bowls cost about 10 baht, but were only about 5 bites. But you could still get 3 bowls for a dollar. The second stop was some other noodles. They may or may not have been in a pink sauce. What is pink sauce? Nate didn't know.

The next stop was a restaurant/bar a block or so south of the square. We shared a bunch of different dishes, including the soon-to-be-infamous "Make Spicy a Frog".

The verdict? Well, the dish was way too spicy, but once you get past the inevitable bones, the meat is pretty tasty. This was the most expensive meal of the day - about $5 USD each. And that was because they way overcharged for water.

It was at this restaurant, though, that I had that realization of, where is this socialization in the US? Seriously, how many places in US/Canada have 5x5 block centers of food and drinks, where people are out enjoying themselves like every day is the weekend? And the place we were at was clearly not the only one. I definitely got my first glimpse of that idea that the US can be kinda...boring...socially.

After our last stop (OK, so maybe it wasn't a complete food "tour", but it involved lots of good tasting food), we went to the Saxophone Bar. It claimed to once host the King with Elvis, and had been open since 1987. Uh...anyway I had a Tiger beer, and got to listen to a Thai Jazz band groove it out. The keyboardist was a sunglass-wearing hipster version of James Leong. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the music.

When we got home, it was more Monopoly Deal. And I finally won a game! Masochism pays off, kids. Before heading off to bed, I talked to Win, and he told me he was going to come take us sightseeing today. This means I'll even get to experience what it is like to be a passenger in a car on the Bangkok streets. The roads probably are far tamer than India, Bangladesh, or Vietnam, but it's still a far cry from what I'm used to.

I actually slept through the night, for about 6 hours, and feel decently rested. Dion showed up at around 7 or so, and is currently upstairs sleeping (it's no problem though - we will make her come sightseeing at 12). And I think we're going to go party at Soi Khao San tonight. We'll see if all plans hold up though.

For now, though, I leave you with this picture (spotted by dL):

Wow, I've actually written two mornings in a row. Not sure how long that will keep up for. :)

The Rest of Day 1

So I found the Aurport Link Train with no problem, and only missed one turn going to the guesthouse, which I quickly corrected. When I got there, I showered immediately, which was accompanied by a clueless rooster, who decided to start crowing at 3...PM?

I met the guys running the guesthouse. One of them just got his degree from CSULB and lived in SF for awhile. The other guest for the night (til Thursday) was also from SF. So I eventually just got too tired, and had to give into jetlag at about 5 PM BKK time (that's 2 AM CA time, which is approximately my bedtime). I told the guys to wake me if they went out for food. Fortunately, they did, at about 8. If they hadn't I'd have not woken up til like 2 AM. Which would've sucked.

As a tangent, the guesthouse we're at right now is in an alley in an alley in an alley. There's air conditioning, which is a lifesaver. I don't think there is hot water, and thank goodness because the two cold showers I have had so far have been great. And at least at this guesthouse, there is internet too!

We're in the neighborhood of Phayathai, which is really close to the train lines, and on the edge of downtown. The great thing about this neighborhood, is that it's not tourist town at ALL, so there is every kind of food you could possibly imagine. So picking up from before, we navigated (OK, I followed amazedly) through assorted walkways, and somehow ended up at another alley. We eventually stopped at a Southern Thai restaurant. Southern Thailand is predominantly Muslim, and ends up with a lot of its own Thai cuisine, that I would guess is somewhat like Malaysian food. We had a quesadillalike# dish that was dough and egg cooked on a searing hot slab of something (think the grill at a restaurant). Then add a lot of beef and some bananas, heavily coated in all sorts of good spice, and then fold over. We also got some southern-Thai style tea, sweetened with condensed milk, much like thai tea. But the type of tea they used made the tea flavor stronger, and the sweet not as cloying. Delicious.

Nate then suggested steak. I was like, well sure, why not, I haven't had steak in a day. It turned out to be a pounded thin ribeye in what was actually a pretty good (mushroom?) sauce. It was served with fries and buttered toast. OK so maybe I will stick to actual Thai food for now, but it was actually kind of an awesome experience, because it was definitely a Thai restaurant hidden in some alley in some alley in some alley.

Then I picked up Dielle from the train station. We coincidently arrived at the same time, so there was no waiting around, and we walked back to the guesthouse. We met another new guy, a friend of the hosts, and we all played the Monopoly card game. Dielle and I kinda failed epicly. Eventually, we went out for more food. This of course involved walking through random alley after random alley all filled with street food. The 6 of us eventually settled on a random street joint. I actually didn't eat, and just mooched a bit of Dielle's pad see ew, since it was after midnight and I didn't want to mess with my sleep (which of course sucked anyway). It's kind of awesome when the stand proprietors just bust out a plastic table and six chairs in the middle of the street with cards driving by you down these tight alleys.

We came home, and I then failed to sleep well. Though I did have dreams, so I must've slept some! I think today the guesthouse hosts are bring some of us on a food tour of Bangkok. We had so much fun here that we're going to stay another night at least. I personally think staying in a random neighborhood with peers our own age who know the way around beats the heck out of staying in tourist town, but we will check out Khaosan Road eventually. Meeting other travelers is cool, too! Dion gets in at midnight tonight!

I hope I eat lots today. It's 10 AM now, and 4/6 people are awake. Hopefully I'll be used to the time change soon. Also blogspot insists on being in Thai, so I just have to navigate it in Thai, remembering what button does what :). Finally, I decided not to take pictures yesterday, but mayyyyybe I will today :)

So glad I am settled in now. Bangkok is awesome so far!

No turning back now!

So to my surprise, I managed to find a free internet connection at Suvarnabhumi Airport. I'm pretty sure I am mooching off of the limo company, so I won't be surprised if they see me and kick me off.

So I last left off after realizing my flight to BKK was boarding 20 minutes earlier than I thought. This flight had the best food (not saying too much), and I managed to have a whole row to myself. The only problem was, I was surrounded by a large group of maybe 20 or so people who were extremely noisy the entire flight. They would even inadvertently mess with my seat, and talk right in my face to their friends. It kinda sucked. I felt bad for the flight attendents who were trying to figure out who had the veggie meals, since all these people were switching seats.

I did get to see the floods, though. I moved over to the window seat, and looked out the window. It doesn't seem like much for awhile, but then you realize that it's actually water, and you're like..whoa crap. I tried to take some pictures from the plane, but I'm not sure if they really paint the full picture.

So I got off the plane and moseyed to customs. I got through, and found a seat. I don't check into the hostel until 2, so now that I have this free connection, I think I am going to just settle in here for a bit (or at least until I get kicked off). I figure it doesn't make any sense to show up before 2 PM. Dielle gets in at 8:25, and I expect to see here by about 9:30. Dion gets in tomorrow afternoon.

I've definitely got a case of the nerves, and I think I'm still trying to process the fact that I just flew 8000 miles away from everything I know for 5 weeks. So I'll relax here at the airport for a bit, and then head over to the hostel soon enough. Fortunately the one I convinced Dielle to stay at tonight (after all, I am the one who is actually IN Bangkok today), is a 5 minute walk from the terminus of the Airport Train.

One interesting observation is that the airport is almost empty. I guess people really are staying out of this area for now. Or maybe the airport is usually like this? Also, the laptop did not fry when I plugged it into a 220V outlet at the airport. The laptop charger said it was good for up to 240V, but I was still nervous!

Anyway, here we go. Part 1: Bangkok. Welcome to being out of my comfort zone.

Hurry up, Saldanha sisters :)