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!

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 :)

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!

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...

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....

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!

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.