Wednesday, April 20, 2011

when in Korea...

Well, I survived the first flight! I:m now hanging out in Seoul, Korea... Currently 16 hours ahead of those back home. Weird. I have some time to kill but unfortunately they wont let me out of the airport... Browsing duty free shops gets realllly old after a while and I haven:t found anyone who speaks English yet, besides the crazy guy sitting next to me... I:m pretending I don:t understand him, I:ll be French for now... Also, sorry about the lack of a real hyphen, this Korean keyboard is really throwing me off. The keys aren:t what they say they are.

It was sad leaving Thailand. I:m really going to miss it. Levi was kind enough to take the bus to the airport with me before he jetted back to Phuket Town. I:m gonna miss him!

Well... I think I still have like 9 hours left... off to find something to do...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Don't make me go!

This is the longest we've stayed in any town so far, which is kind of nice but it was totally by default! We actually tried to leave yesterday morning. packed up and caught a minibus at the local market headed for Thaland, north of Phuket Town and closer to the airport. We selected the town for no real reason, other than it was a medium sized dot on the map which made us think there would be some entertainment and places to stay. Got dropped off on the side of the road, the sun blazing overhead and set off with our backpacks... Not much in Thalang it turns out. Walked up one side of the road, back down the other, got picked up by some guy who tried to help but the language barrier was just to hard to communicate, got dropped off on the side of the road again and ended up catching the next minibus that pulled over all the way back to Phuket Town where we checked BACK in to the hotel we'd left that morning! All in all, I suppose it was nice to wander through a different town for the morning... Checked out a new part of town, explored, went on a search for Thai spices at the market and enjoyed the night :)

Today's my last day in Thailand :( SAD! I'm not ready to leave yet... It's going to be so odd being home, everything's different here, and I like it. I hope I don't try and drive on the "wrong side" of the road like I've gotten used to doing over here... If all goes well I'll be in Seattle tomorrow around noon...

Monday, April 18, 2011

Set off to explore the town of Patong today on the west side of Phuket Island (it really doesn't seem like an island at all, just a big peninsula really...) on motorbike. Man, I'm going to miss those things! The roads here are crazy so it makes it that much more fun - super steep hills and really sharp corners. Patong was definitely catered to farangs (tourists) but seemed to have a slightly different vibe than some of the other places we've been... I kind of liked it! The streets are packed with vendors and shops that get up in your face trying to sell you Armani suits, massages, Thai boxing gear, neon clothes, fake watches, sunglasses... you name it, and it's annoying, but the vibe seemed fun. There were bars galore, more than I could count, and the beach was sparkling white and stretched on forever with hundreds of chairs and umbrellas set up for those trying to escape the sun, for a price of course. It almost seemed like Miami but not... Generally I'm not a big fan of the places overrun with tourists and vendors. Anyways, explored there for a while and then headed back to the east side... Not sure of the plan tonight, I need to live it up, my time's coming to an end :( Tomorrow I think we're heading a bit north, I don't know where, so I'm closer to the airport for the next day...

Sunday, April 17, 2011

I want a burger,,,


First things first, I saw a baby elephant! And I held a Golden Thai Python. And we played on motorbikes again :) 3 things that make me happy! I also ate a burger... verrrry disappointing! Note to self- don't order Western food when in Thailand... I was just sick of rice and noodles though! When I get back I want a burger, lots of cheese, a salad and a Widmer Hefewiezen. And my comfy bed.... Ahhh yes. But anyways, good day all in all. Explored more of Phuket Town, interesting place. I really like the architecture... Really different from most of the other towns we've been in. Tried really hard to go souvenir shopping today but really just no luck, sorry guys! You wouldn't want any of the worthless trinkets for sale anyways, they don't even represent Thailand! Umm... yeah, other than that, not much to report at the moment! I think I'll go look for some dessert....

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Left Phang-Nga bound for Phuket Town this morning... arrived about 1pm. Seems like a nice place all in all though I haven't seen much of it so far! I'm hanging out in an internet cafe right now since I don't feel to well but I'm talking to Dave on skype which makes me happy :) Miss everyone back home!!! Be back Thursday...

Friday, April 15, 2011

The name's Bond, James Bond.

Umm... I don't know where to begin! My times coming to an end sadly... I don't want to leave Thailand. If it wasn't for those back home I don't know that I would! At least not quite yet... I think I left off after our most recent kayaking adventure... The next morning, yesterday, we caught a long tail back to Ao Nang to figure out a plan. The New Years festivites were in full swing, it was amazing! Families loaded into the back of pick up trucks and drove up and down the streets armed with super soakers, buckets, water bottles and gallons upon gallons of water soaking anyone and everyone :) We jumped in the back of a sorng tao headed to Krabi but the traffic was so backed up from the festivites, vendors and people running through the streets that we were sitting ducks :) We eventually made it to Krabi soaking from head to toe :) Caught a bus up to Phrang-Nga, a small Thai town (kinda nice to get away from the tourists...). Found a super cheap place to stay and started exploring, after dropping off some laundry- WOOHOO! Ahh, the simple joys in life, clean clothes :) Not terribly much to explore but found a good roadside place to eat, really authentic which I love! Everything shuts down pretty early around here... This morning we got up early in hopes of jumping on a tour to Phrang-Nga National Park. Got on a long tail with a couple from Germany and took off into the bay through huge areas of mangroves. We passed dozens of crazy islands eventually coming to James Bond Island! (We were definitely tourists today! I just had to see it, I love 007!) It really wasn't as impressive as I was hoping I suppose... Kinda small. It's where the movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was filmed, James Bond's nemisis Scaramanga hid out here. Next we checked out a beautiful desereted beach where we explored a cave, similar to the one in Pranburi, went for a swim, ate lunch and relaxed for a bit. Chugged around some more islands and then over to a Muslim sea gypsy village built on stilts off the side of an island... It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere! Then saw some cave paintings and came back to Phrang Nga. Sorry if this just seems like the bear essentials as to what we're doing but this computer sucks and I'm doing a bunch of things at once so I figured I'd just give a quick update :) I've also been trying to do souvenier shopping but that's not looking like a possibility... there's just not stuff like that in Thailand which is actually kinda nice, means it's less touristy!!! so, if there's something that someone really wants, let me know! Otherwise, you get to enjoy my pictures :)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Quick update... Ended up leaving Ao Nang yesterday and caught a long tail boat to Hat Ton Sai in the Railay province, home of the best rock climbing in the world, so I hear :) Limestone karsts jut up in every direction making this truly seem unreal. It's astoundingly beautiful. There's not to many people here but that's almost the beauty of it... Yesterday we explored our beach which didn't take to long and then discovered a trail leading over the rock to Railay East, a more ritzy resort type of place... Neat to explore. Headed back over to Ton Sai to enjoy some delicious food and beer (I do love the Thai beer...) and just chilled for a while.

This morning we woke early, to go kayaking! (I should mention that the place we're staying in is pretty primative, I kinda like it. It's a thatched hut with parts of a metal roof, yes parts, and grass sides. The shower's half open to the outside and we only have electricity from dusk until dawn.) Met a guy at breakfast from Denver and he tagged along with us... Kayaked all along the peninsula to the West side of Railay which was so beautiful the whole way. We discovered uninhabited beached without a soul in sight and amazing rock islands with the top being twice the size as the bottom. Can you say paradise?! Stopped at one beach that had an abundance of long tails and people flocking at one end... had to see what the big deal was. Apparently it was a shrine to the princess and the shrine was made up of hundreds of statues of male genitalia. To funny :) Anyways... I forgot to mention the biggest point of the day...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! It's now 2555!!!

In Thailand they start their years with the Age of Buddha... In celebration they throw water on everyone. Squirt guns are sold EVERYWHERE and you WILL get wet :) It's kinda fun! The kids are so cute running around trying to coyly squirt you.

After returning from kayaking we've honestly just been relaxing for the rest of the day... sitting down on the water at a little restaurant people watching, reading, trying to figure out our next move and running for cover when a monsoon desides to dump :)

Off to dinner soon... I'm a bottomless pit and need fed constantly :) Hope all's well back home! My trips coming to an end soon... be back the 21st... It will be weird, I'll be going back in time... I leave here right after midnight (my time) on the 21st and arrive in Seattle around noon on the 21st but will have been traveling for well over 24 hours... crazy...

Monday, April 11, 2011

Day 20

Well we never actually ended up leaving Ao Nang... Levi did end up finding me finally and we checked into a nice guesthouse right off the beach. Did so wandering around when I decided that I wanted to spend my afternoon at a King Cobra show... Levi wasn't thrilled so he wandered off to check out a mosque and go for a run. Meanwhile I was enjoying the thrill of sitting 3 feet away from deadly snakes while some crazy guy (whos been bit FIVE times by the King Cobras and is somehow still alive!!! Though missing a finger and has some terrible scars...) teased the snakes in the pit (and by pit I mean a foot tall wall...) making them strike at him. He started out with one about 3/4 feet long... then three... then put them away only to replace them with a 7ish foot long one... then a FIFTEEN FOOT LONG one! When that thing lunged it lunged up and over the barrier toward the audience, YIKES. It's funny, this would never happen back home... I love that about traveling... Most of the things we end up doing/seeing would be illegal or just never even thought of in the states. Afterwards I met up with Levi who had flooded our room (the shower smartly points right at the bathroom door) and got some delicious dinner. Then the power went out, go figure! Seems to be a common occurrence around here!

Today was lovely though (I can't believe I just used the word lovely... you pick up a strange assortment of words/languages while traveling...) We went to a geothermal hot springs which was pretty cool. It was like a series of tiered pools all about 42 degrees Celsius (aka hotter than hell) that drained into a river which was sooo refreshing to jump into from the springs! Then we went to a place called the Emerald Pool. After a walk through the jungle it was like a little oasis lagoon of turquoise water with a sandy bottom and a board walk around the edge to hang out on. A small stream lead to it and a small stream lead out keeping the water fresh and clean. There were a lot of Thai families there, the kids are so cute! A nice family that Levi met the day before invited us to go with them which was soo much cheaper than a tour! We came back up to Ao Nang and were debating about whether or not to catch a long tail boat tonight to Railay when we decided to just stay here for the night and THANK GOODNESS we did because MONSOOOOON!!!! It's crazy! In the last hour we've probably gotten about 4 inches of rain and it's so loud you can barely hear the person next to you talking! The nice lady at our guesthouse lent us an umbrella :) And the thunder and lightening is intense... I love storms :) We'll see how the weather is in the morning before really decided on our next move!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Caught an early taxi/bus/truck (think pick-up truck with an open back and canopy with bleacher seats) to the nearby town of Ao Nang. Levi wandered off to a church and I'm hangin' out drinking coffee and hoping he finds me again :) Next, off to Railay so Levi can climb rocks - he can't wait, it's kinda funny :) I don't blame him though, we're in the rock climbing capital of the world nearly and he's been lugging around a bag full of gear!

Krabi

Stuck around Krabi for the day... Think we'll head out of here tomorrow... Maybe Ao Nang or Railay... not sure yet! Did a lot of walking around the city in search of a rock climbing book for Levi... being in the rock climbing capital of the world practically you would think that something like that would be easier to find but nope! I'm going to try and convince Levi to go check out James Bond Island with me... Man with a Golden Gun was filmed there :) It's only 5pm here so I'm not sure what we're up to tonight... I had to escape the heat for a while so I figured I'd write on here... not sure if anyone (desides you Dad! Thanks!) is actually reading this though... tata for now...

Friday, April 8, 2011

Hm...

Speedy update... took a ferry from Ko Phangan to Donsok on the mainland. Then caught a bus to Surat Thani and another bus to Krabi where we currently sit! Long day traveling! Checked out a night market where a fun concert was playing and ate some good food... I ate a silk worm... crunchy...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

I'm melting...

Still on the island... It was so blessed hot today I was forced to spend the better half of the day in the sea, bummer ;) The water here is so wonderful though, you can walk out forever on white sandy beaches and see the bottom forever. Before retiring to the beach we walked around town for a while before realizing that the power EVERYWHERE was out, hence no fans (which are very much needed!) Same thing happened last night actually... we were walking around town late at night and all of a sudden everything went black. So we did what everyone else did, went to the nearest store (which is on every corner) to get a beer before they got warm and then wandered the streets some more! Gotta love Thailand. Not much to report, just a lovely relaxing day... heading back to the mainland tomorrow morning... I can't take to much of the islands, I don't like feeling cooped up!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Party for the moon!

Made it to the land of partying for any reason that has to do with the moon... The birthplace of the full moon party, Ko Phangan - Thailand's 5th largest island. These people like to party when there's a full moon, a half moon, a black moon, a silver moon or really just a moon in general, it's crazy! Everywhere there's neon colors intermixed with tourist shops. Sadly there's not to much of the Thai culture showing through, Westernization and drunk tourists have taken over. We actually won't be here the night of the full moon party (probably a good thing!) but it's a great place for relaxing on white sandy beaches and taking a dip in the serene turquoise waters. The 'people watching' is also at an all time high as far as interesting goes :) Oh, and our ferry didn't break down at sea this time, thankfully! I think we'll stay here tomorrow night too, we're in the main section of the island, a thin peninsula on the southeastern corner called Haad Rin. Maybe some exploring tomorrow... Not much to write for now, just a quick update!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

BEAUTIFUL Ko Tao

Off roading, sunsets and squid.

Who ever said that motorbikes aren't meant for off road adventures was wrong! Good thing they don't take them for a test drive when you bring them back... we pretty much exhausted ours and there may not be brakes or a clutch left! With only a few minor scratches and a pretty bruise on my leg we had quite the adventure. The roads on Ko Tao really suck due to the recent flooding. Most have washed away leaving deep ruts of sand with fallen palms, rubble and the occasional sandbag. Not that the roads would have been that great regardless but at least they would have been in one piece! They're also incredibly narrow - about the width of my car, and I have a tiny car. So, we explored the majority of the island on two wheels today. Discovered the entire island is run on diesel generators which is crazy to think... these people need solar power! You should see the power station, I can't believe it supports the whole island. No wonder the fan and lights in our room seem to have a mind of their own. I'll try and upload some pictures when I have more time and I'm not being charged a ton by the minute. Just finished dinner at a delicious seaside deck and watched the sun set. Stunning. In the distance you can see the squid fisherman with their bright lights on the horizon and a lightening storm over the mainland behind that. The squid fisherman cheat, I think. They use bright green lights at night to shine into the water which makes the phytoplankton come to the surface which then bring the squid because they eat the plankton. Not legal in the U.S. but there don't seem to be many laws here, if any. Anyways, we're off to a nearby island called Ko Phangyan tomorrow... hopefully we don't break down at sea again!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Didn't stick around Chumpon long. Caught a last minute ferry to the island of Ko Tao - paradise. We arrived yesterday, after breaking down at sea, to white sandy beaches, lush jungle, HOT temperatures and a snorkeling/diving paradise. Went snorkeling today which was incredible! I felt like I was in the movie 'Finding Nemo'. They fed the fish pineapple while I was in the middle of them and let me tell you, I'm way to tickelish for that! It was an amazing day on the water all in all. Just relaxing tonight and sticking around tomorrow to explore more of the island I believe. We're staying in Mae Haad and there's another huge beach called Sairee. Oh, and the TV show LOST was filmed here! Look Ko Tao up online, it really is stunning! Internet's to expensive to write more so this is just a quick update :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Goin' south

Got a train south to Chumphon today, about half way down the Gulf of Thailand... it's an interesting town, sort of meant for a transit place to and from the islands. We're hoping tomorrow we can go check out Koh Tao and go snorkling!

Friday, April 1, 2011

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

You haven't really lived until you've been charged by an elephant while on a motorbike. Let me preface this with the fact that Levi and I reallllly like the motorbikes and felt the need to rent one again today. This time we took off for the Koeng Krachen National Park, aka, the jungle. We filled up with petrol and took off full speed. Just as a side note, I DID put on suncreen, SPF 55 to be exact and STILL got burned. Anyways, my goal for the day was to see and elephant in the wild and a waterfall. Pala U waterfall seemed to be pretty well noted and in the park so that seemed a reasonable destination. Flying through fields of pineapples, bananas, papayas, mangos and sugar cane we eventually reached our destination. The waterfall however, not impressive. Should have known, its the "dry" season afterall. We did get in a nice hike through the hotter than hell jungle though! Crusin' back cars kept flashing their lights at us... were ours not on? Stopped to check. They worked... Hm. Kept going. Apparently the flashing lights meant that there were wild elephants in the road! YES! I had to take a picture so we stopped. As I pulled out my camera, it charged! Maybe it doesn't sound to scary but when you're in the open, in the jungle, on a flimsy motorbike and a 2 ton animal with tusks runs toward you, it's a little different. Still way cool :) Again ahead, more elephants. Same deal :) Running out of petrol we stopped to fuel up and I spotted the sign for Hua Hin Hills Vineyard with ELEPHANTS! I made Levi go. Winding through rough roads, poor villages and roadside stands we eventually arrived at the vineyard. SO pretty... and there were elephants :) They actually use the elephants to help with the picking of the grapes and keep the barrels on the backs of them. Headed back to Hua Hin where I currently site in an internet cafe with Levi, stuffed from Singha beer and delicious food :) Tomorrow I believe we're catching the train south to Chumphon, a city made for transit to and from the islands in the gulf. Gotta check the weather and see how the flooding situation's going down there which will determine our plans for the rest of my trip... Hope all's well back home!! xxoo

Thursday, March 31, 2011

See, we're alive and well!


TURBO

Hopped a bus south to Pranburi thinking that'd be a good idea... Not so much but luckily some locals picked us up where the bus ditched us and took us toward the sea to a sleepy little town called Baan Phu Noi in the province of Pranburi. A little pricey but really nice. I imagine it picks up quite a bit in the high season. It's been a little overcast lately which is odd for Thailand, it's actually flooding in the south (where we're supposed to be heading) and the Navy's evacuating the islands. Nothing life threatening by any means, but the roads are unpassable. Spent the last couple of days exploring everything we possibly could :) Rented a motorbike (I want one!!) and zoomed through the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park to go spelunking. For those of you unaware, that's cave exploring :) It's a little odd driving full speed down the "wrong" side of the road but awesome at the same time. Hiked out to Tham Phraya Nakhom, a cave dedicated to a past King of Thailand. Created by two huge sinkholes the cavern is incredibly large. In the center sits a temple thats astounding when the light shines in. The beach below, Hat Laem Sala was over ridden with beautiful shells. I wish I could have kept them all! I contemplated dumping out my first aid kit to fit some in but Levi talked me out of it... bummer. Next, Tham Kaew. Rented torches from a local on the side of the road and dove into the center of the mountain. Crystal stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Insane! Cavern after cavern... bat after bat... and a huge scorpion. Levi, being the monkey he is, climbed everything he could. It was only after I encountered the scorpion were we a little more leary. Today, we hit the sea. Our guesthouse had kayaks and even though the sea was a bit rough we took off. Destionation- Monkey Island. (Levi fit right in haha) The name was totally fitting, monkey awaited us. I would use the term "cute" here but I'm not totally sure it's fitting... They're cute until they pick at each other and eat it. Or, if you're Levi, one poops on you! One tried to steal my camera bag which turned out unsuccessful so it then moved on to trying to undo my shorts! Then it bit me. No longer cute. We hopped back in the kayaks, determined to battle the wind and paddle around the island. Hard work! I'll be sore tomorrow! I must say, I'm pretty proud of us, we only flipped once and it was about 20 ft from shore, those waves are big! Now, we're back in Hua Hin for at least tonight, not sure of the next plan... I've got my fingers crossed that the rain down south clears up so we can head that way soon. Miss you all!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Good food.

So we decided to crash a family reunion in Samut Songkhram. Turned out to be a great idea! We went to a traditional floating market on the Meklong River, lined with vendors and houses on stilts. So pretty... Jumped in a long tail boat for a tour out of the hustle and bustle of the crowd. It looked like Christmas lights in the trees... nope. Fireflies! I love fireflies! Once back at Nan's house her family, who was really friendly, made us a feast. King prawns, steamed mussels, Thai omelet, prawns and noodles, panang curry... oh, and whiskey, can't forget the whiskey! The next morning, her whole family, us included went nearby to a wat (temple) for the reunion of some of her passed family members. The Buddhist monks, lined up in a row, chanted their prayers in unison. Then came the individual memorial. Each family has their own shrine where the ashes are kept and upon each visit they bring gifts for them to use in the afterlife. One by one they burn them... Interesting concept. Then we feasted again. SO delicious! I'm very well fed in this country :) Took off for Cha 'am, a bit further south to meet up with our friend Vid. Finally the sea! The weather turned a bit cloudy and colder (I actually had to wear long sleeves!) but the water was still sooo warm! Five minutes on the beach and a few locals came up asking to take their picture with me... I think I stick out like a sore thumb. More food. Then a four person bike ride. Then more food. The next day, today, we arrived in Hua Hin, also on the coast. The King of Thailand lives here, though I believe he's sick right now so he's in Bangkok at the hospital. Great town though. TONS of markets! Spent most of the day wandering around numerous markets and resisting the urge to buy all the food I couldn't figure out what it was. Lucky for us, Nan was still with us so I learned a lot :) Currently sitting in an internet cafe while Levi says weird words in Erdu next to me... I'm exhausted so off to bed soon :)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Ladyboys...

Last day in Bangkok.... We're catching a ride out of Bangkok down south with a girl who works at the guesthouse we're staying in. She invited us to stay with her family in a town about an hour or so away. There's a really neat floating market there in the morning supposedly. Levi and I spent the day at the Chatachuchak market which is HUGE. There's about 200,000 people there. Tons of vendors selling anything and everything... weird food, yummy looking food, jewelry, clothes of all types... I even saw my EXACT uniform from the Thai restaurant On Rice that I worked at! We relaxed at a nearby park for a while to get of the hustle and bustle. Way to many people. A ladyboy walked by... always entertaining :) For those of you unaware, ladyboys are the guy who wants to be a girl. Pretty flamboyant and funny :) They mostly hang out on Nana Street, the red light district. Thai parks also have the coolest playgrounds... I'm jealous! Just had some delicious Pad Thai and now we await our ride south. Going to be an interesting night!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Bangkok... the City of Angels




Wandered around Bangkok today... Crazy place! It reminds me of South America a bit... Millions of people, slums next to riches, insane drivers, pollution, stray dogs... But it's different in so many ways. Wats (temples) are everywhere, the cars are all new and pretty colors, I can't read a damn thing in Thai and everyone's soo friendly! Instead of riding the sky train or taking a tuk tuk (crazy little car like taxis with open sides that seat two people) we took a boat to another area of town we wanted to explore. Actually, we were going to go to the zoo but decided not to at the last minute. We came across a protest instead. Currently Thailand and Cambodia are fighting over a piece of land that each country thinks should be their own. On the land sits a temple which has been declared a Cambodian UNESCO site but Thailand still wants it. Really interesting to see though, it was peaceful and friendly and people were camped out for days. We even stopped a while next to some guards and reels of razor wire to chat with a guy about the situation. He even invited us to come eat with his family at his tent! OK, I'm hungry now...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

He found me!

About an hour after posting that last blog guess who waltzed into the lobby I was hangin' out in? Yeah, Levi. Thank god. Apparently he actually DID go to meet me at the airport but we ended up missing each other! I ended up at the public taxi area and he was on the floor above. Oh how much easier it would have been had we known that... oh well, it was an adventure! So around 5am this morning we made it into our hostel, got about an hour of sleep, ate some fried rice on the street and now we're about to venture out into Bangkok on foot. This place is humongous and smells like Lima, Peru. To much pollution for me! Maybe tomorrow night we'll catch a bus or something and head south... not sure where to yet. Oh, and it's hot. And humid. And the taxi's are neon pink, purple, green and red!

I made it to Thailand...

Well. I'm here. Just not totally going how I planned but that's ok! All the flights went well until I tried to leave Korea and my plane got delayed do to a snow and ice storm. With no real way to reach Levi I just had to hope for the best. He had reserved a room already at a hostel and if I didn't see him at the airport I was supposed to meet him there. Well, by the time I got to Bangkok it was 3am and the hostel locked up at 2am... I got a taxi there anyways and pounded on the door but no one let me in... Fortunately there's some really nice people next door at a hotel who are letting me hang out on a couch in the lobby and use the internet until 8am when I can get into the hostel next door, I hope. Ugh... I'm so sleep deprived! I missed the whole day of March 24th being in the air. Anyways, I've had some good experiences so far too. On the flight from LAX to Seoul, Korea I sat next to two very interesting monks from Laos wearing the traditional bright orange robes. Had some interesting food too... wish I could tell you what it was! Hope all is well back home, I'm going to go collect my bearings and wait for morning....

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Countdown...

Tomorrow's the day! Bring on the hot weather!

Here's my brief itinerary for the way there....
Depart SeaTac at 7am PDT
Arrive in LAX at 9:35am PDT
Depart LAX at 12:00pm PDT
Arrive at Seoul Incheon, Korea at 5:25pm KST
Depart Seoul at 7:20pm KST
Arrive at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Thailand at 11:10pm ICT

And on the way back, April 21st...
Depart from Phuket, Thailand to Seoul at 12:45am ICT
Arrive in Seoul at 8:55am KST
Depart Seoul at 6:15pm KST
Arrive in SeaTac at 12:10pm PDT

All these time changes are really going to screw me up. I'll have no idea what time, let alone what DAY it is! Good thing I bought a watch... Now I just need to figure out how to use it. I suppose I should go pack... Nothin' like waiting until last minute!

ps- Levi, if you're reading this, you better remember to meet me! If not, YOU'RE the one who's going to be sold to the locals. I could use some extra cash!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Leavin' on a jet plane...


Well, I'm off to Thailand on Wednesday, March 23rd, at the crack of dawn... First stop LA - second stop Seoul, Korea - third stop Bangkok, Thailand! I'll be meeting Levi at the airport (provided he actually shows up!) and the plan is to travel south, more or less, through Thailand toward Malaysia. I will fly out of Phuket, Thailand April 21st and Levi will continue on... lucky. Hopefully I'll be able to update this frequently, I'll miss you all!

Oh, and Levi has a blog as well... but we all know how good he is with keeping in touch :) His site is right here.