More Thailand pics

More Thailand pics for your enjoyment. Also, notice the off-kiltered stupa with the golden shroud; it really is leaning!


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Thailand pics

Below are a selection of the pictures I took while in Thailand. I'll try to post another batch soon. Until then enjoy!


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Jeremy's Patpong story

According to Jeremy's version, I encouraged him to go to Patpong. According to my unwritten account, Jeremy did. I should also note that he went back to the Patpong two weeks later after we did. Anyway, he asked me to post his here because he believes my retelling of my Thailand experience is a bit dry, formal, and plain DULL. You decide.

Before I continue, I am reiterating that this is Jeremy's account. If you'd like to know my dry, formal version, email me. Also, remember Patpong, as I define it, means Redlight district, therefore if you think all things found in the Redlight districts distasteful, then consider yourself warned...

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Okay, well I promise this’ll be spicier than my pal Korea Peter’s account, which painted me out as a nice guy. (Good Old Pete!) Oh hell, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” just came on the radio….PERFECT! (No Mom, I didn’t!)

“Hey wanna go to the Patpong” Peter says.
“I’ve never been there and NO let’s NOT!!” I answered VERY defiantly.

Then we start drinking and y’all KNOW it only takes one beer to get me happy and two to make me ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN MENTALLY CHALLENGED! So I end up at the damn place anyways! The first time I’d been there, I was with boring English girls and Tall (English) James and that was okay with me. “You want Tuk Tuk?” a guy had said. We’d said no. “You want Ping Pong Show” he’d almost whispered. “ExCUSE me?” I’d said and scampered off. The Brits bought some USELESS touristy crap. I saw a family with a little girl there too. Man did THEY look WAY lost! They REALLY didn’t belong there! I think they found the McDonalds (Yes, even in the Patpong) and hid until they got their bearing then RAN OUTTA THERE!
Now we get the same bit with the Tuk Tuk guys on the night of question. Except this time my dumb ass said to the second part extremely bravely “LET’S GO PETE!” and I charged up the steps. The girls are all on their own poles do a LAME try at pole dancing FULLY CLOTHED! They couldn’t have looked more bored and didn’t even move much. The audience was bored. The place was loaded with people and it couldn’t be more DEAD! Two girls (one REALLY ugly) came up to me and Pete (Pete’s the soft touch in this story, I guess they supposed) and ask us to buy them drinks (double price of our drinks I bet) but we just ignore them until they get their hands off us. We pay something like 185 baht for beer (Usually 30 at 7-11 and 45 at a bar).

OUCH!

So we DIE there for about an hour. We’re both REALLY disappointed (getting pissed) at the Zombie pole dancers. Maybe this is what turns the ordinary Thai crank? I did my best and cracked a smile. Suddenly I get a spark from one of the girls and she smiles and comes over. Same stupid pole dance but they call me up and I dance with them. I think they called me down after 60 seconds or so because I think I got my groove on. (It was too lively?)

YOU CAN STOP READING RIGHT HERE MOM, SHAY, and others! Pick this up later when I tell you! I will NOT get any angry emails on this one, got it?

Girl comes on stage (stretch marks and a bit fat). The lights go out and she proceeds to do a bored (and unimpressive) dance with candles, dripping it all over her body and the Winnie the Pooh plastic mat. (Perfectly cheesy, no?). She then drips it ON HER TONGUE then puts all six candles out with her mouth. OUCH!

NOW TO THE PING PONG SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just picture ALL the shows being used by the SAME female part. YEP! Three ping-pong balls popped out one at a time into the water glass (She needed her knee to roll it in on the third one). Didn’t we see something more funny in the South Park Movie? That one was better. One girl can blow a whistle using an attachment to the whistle, one girl blows out all the candles of a cake (to the Happy Birthday song), one smokes two cigarettes and burns her butt accidentally the second time around leaving a scar I bet….(I wonder if smoking a total of probably a pack a night if she gets the nicotine rush?) AND FINALLY FOR THE SHOW STOPPER (And show LEAVER for me and Pete) she pops the corks off two bottles with a bottle opener. A real big pop with the first and only smile on her face (probably because it’s over, thank god). Thank you Pete, I’m taking a taxi home.

Now I can say (like all the other backpackers, tourists, and “lifers”) that I’ve seen the stupid thing and NO I will NOT see it again if one of you visits.

OKAY MOM! YOU CAN COME BACK IN THE ROOM NOW!

(Incidentally, there are LOTS of better things to do here! Everythings SUPER cheap! Boat rides, motorcycle rides, tuk tuks, elephants, temples, Buddha’s, cool little holes in the wall like the Saxophone bar, shopping, wacky food, beaches, foreigners, tattoos, piercings, hair weaves, delicious heat, green green GREEN neighboring countries, Phuket Island, lost palaces, smiling Thai’s, the famous Thai message (which I liked but I guess Peter didn’t), and MORE here! So come! How could you not now? I’d love to have a brave adventurer out here! Don’t put me one like when I was in Korea. GET OVER HERE! You owe it to yourself! (What a salesman!)

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Thailand part 2

Jeremy and I went to the Patpong district after the jazz club. He has written a detailed mass email about that night , and I will post it later. It lacks my thoughts about that evening. I'll move on to the next day, the day I left for Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.

I arrived at the train station, Hualamphur (sp?) in the morning and bought a very cheap train ticket. I had sometime before my train left, so I walked around the station and found a Coffeebucks. Getting a big kick out of seeing Coffeebucks, I took a picture, and thought Matt and Tim would enjoy seeing it. (Mental note: send that pic to Matt and Tim). Time passed, and I left for the train.

Jumped on the train, and didn't know where to sit. I asked the conductor, and he sat me in a group of backpackers. I sat down next a backpacker who was traveling alone. I struck up a conversation with her, and we talked for the entire time of the train trip (1.5 hours). Gillian is her name, and she and I became traveling buddies for the day. We stayed at the same hostel, one recommended in the Lonely Planet, and traveled the sites on a motorbike. The weather was perfect for traveling by bike, even though it was hot. First we went to the ancient palace grounds. There we saw the remains of the palace and a huge golden Buddha statue. I'll post the pics when I get the chance. After the palace, we traveled a little out of the way to another Buddhist shrine, one in which all of the Buddhist statues were wrapped in orange linen robes. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to find out why they the statues had clothing, so we enjoyed for the aesthetic purposes. After working up a thirst, we found a woman selling large, green coconuts lying in a ice-filled chest. The woman chopped the coconuts open and stuck a straw in them. They were fantastic! After drinking them, we had the coconut meat!

We called it a day, and took a rest at the hostel. The next day, Gillian and I parted. She has a lot more traveling to do (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, China, etc.). I myself did not, and had to get back to Bangkok to catch a bus to Trat, a small city that is close to Lgem Ngop, a launching point to Ko Chang. I spent the night in Trat, and got an early start in the morning to Lgem Ngop. Once I arrived there, I booked a bungalow on the western side of the island. It was a good thing I did... I had a place to go to once I arrived on the island, and there was virtually no other tourists at the place I stayed at. It was deserted and peaceful. I got a bungalow with private bath and within a 20 second walk to the beach. I also had access to a hammock overlooking the beach and ocean. It was very quiet and peaceful. I relaxed once I put my stuff in the bungalow. I went for a swim, walked along the sand, and read my book in the hammock.

The second day, I decided to rent a motorbike and venture around the island, but that was probably not the best idea. Ko Chang's paved roads, like most of Thailand's islands have steep hills and sharp corners. Considering that I am a beginner the semi-automatic motorbike, I only had enough information as to how to ride the motorbike on flat surfaces. When I was climbing a sharp hill in 4th gear, I began to realize that I was doing something wrong. I was slowing down, coming to a stop, and then rolling backwards a little. Workers on the side of the road indicated that I needed to put the bike into a lower gear, and silly me did that quickly, causing the bike to pop up onto its back wheel. I slid off the seat, and still held onto the bike's accelerator and was able to swing the bike back down onto its front tire to minimize damage. The only damage was a back piece of the bike's frame broke off while its front tire was airborne. Fortunately, I had the help of the Thai workers to get the bike under control. I got back on the bike, and was on my way again. I was still shaking from the experience and decided to stop at the nearest shopping strip to rest my nerves. That was the only accident I got into that day. Soon after, I decided to call it a day with my adventure with the bike... I came to the island to relax, not injure myself.

Its getting late again... I'll post again soon.

Mongolia and pics

Its been another busy week at work. The extra time put in at work is beginning to wear on me... only two more weeks. Other than work, Stephen, my old roommate from my first Korean teaching job, and I have made plans to travel to Mongolia at the end of September. The decision was made as we found out that we were to late to book plane tickets to Kyoto Japan. It would seem that since the entire country goes on vacation at the end of September, many have planned trips well in advance. Anyhow, we found a touring package for the capital and smaller towns outside of the capital, for a somewhat decent price. If anything, it would be interesting to travel to Mongolia for 4-5 days, and experience it with my own senses.

If you are wondering why the country goes on vacation at the end of September, then I can tell you its because of a holiday that is comparable to the American Thanksgiving holiday. Similar to Thanksgiving, Chuseok is a time for many Koreans to commemorate the time of the beginning of Korean roots and ancestry. Many Koreans come together to perform various rituals and partake of family meals. Follow this link to learn more.

Other than my planning for Mongolia, I've tried posting pictures to the server that hosts my pictures. Unfortunately, the system is down temporarily and I have to wait for my brother to return from his vacation in Scotland to go to his job and fix it. If you'd like the pictures to be sent to you, then send me an email.

I'll write a follow-up post for more on my trip to Thailand.

Thailand and work.

I left Thailand a little over a week ago, and I haven't had much time nor energy to write. Its summer holiday for elementary and middle school students, and private institutes are taking advantage of this fact by offering summer intensive courses in the morning. I was asked to teach a couple of these courses in the morning, and have accepted. By doing so, I am now working eleven-hour workdays. Fortunately, the intensive courses will only last for the August session, after which, I can continue with my normal 1pm-9pm schedule.

Thailand was a nice change of pace and scenery. I still haven't processed through the entire week in Thailand, but what little I have processed indicates that I need to spend at least a good month or so to fully appreciate what the country has to offer. With the little time that I had in Bangkok, I spent with Jeremy, a good friend from my previous school, and we toured around Khao (pronounced "cow") San road, the Royal Palace, and the Patpong district, which is loosely translated as the Red Light district.

Seeing Jeremy again reminded me of how much I missed being around him. He's a good guy, and extrovert to the core, and in a lot of ways, reminds me of Matt McCaleb. After picking me and Kelsey, a teacher who recently finished her contract at POLY and was spending a night in Bangkok, and I from the airport, Jeremy took us to Khao San Rd. Khao San is a strip littered with hostels, guesthouses, cafes, and street vendors. You will mainly see foreigners with backpacks on this road, usually in transit from one point to another. The vendors are usually selling touristy type items up and down the street, in carts or in alleyways. If you are not bumping into a foreigner or vendor, then you are bumping into a tuk-tuk driver. A tuk-tuk is a tree-wheeled motorbike, one wheel in front, two in the back. On the back is a covered bench which could reasonably fit three people. The tuk-tuk drivers are notorious for luring tourists and backpackers into backseats and taking them to shops to spend their money. They are a wily bunch, and the Lonely Planet does a good job at mentioning them in detail.

Jeremy, Jeremy's friend whose name I've forgotten, Kelsey, and I check into a hostel and spent the first night in Bangkok on Khao San road. We walked down the street and ran into another of Jeremy's friend New James (so named because Jeremy already had a friend in Bangkok named James). New James decided to tag along with us and we continued walking through Khao San. Khao San road is not very long, it could take a person about five minutes to walk from one end to the other. We got to one end and eventually found a vendor making banana pancakes. We stopped and had one. A banana pancake is merely a fried pancake with sliced bananas in its center. After its cooled, you can cover the pancake with either chocolate or sweetened, condensed milk. We went with the milk. The price for this tasty snack is probably 25 cents. They were very delicious! After the pancakes, we decided to go looking for Jeremy's other friend called Tall James. We went to a bar called Gulliver's to look for him, and eventually found him. We stayed at Gulliver's the rest of the night. I pics that I will try to post soon.

The next day, Kelsey left for the airport. She was flying to London where she would meet her father. Later the two of them would travel to Africa for a month-long safari, which they should be on right at this moment. Jeremy, New James, and I headed off to Ricky's, which is a foreigner friendly cafe with fantastic vegetarian fare and brilliant coffee (In fact, most of the coffee that I had in Thailand was very tasty, the roast being dark, and the beans being local). After Ricky's, New James left to tend to his laundry, and Jeremy and I went to the Royal Palace. We spent two hours exploring the complex, after which we had to leave because it was closing time. We went to a cafe on Khao San and had good chat. He told me about his experiences he had had in Thailand, and I told him about my new school. From the cafe, we got on a tuk-tuk (we bargained for a better price than what the guy originally quoted) and we were off to a jazz club.

Its getting late on my end, I'll try to write more about that night, the day in the ancient capital of Thailand, Ayuthaya, and the two days I spent on Ko Chang, where I got into an accident while riding a motorbike.