Thursday, October 22, 2009

Sato Fam

Day 7
    Woke up around 9am with everyone laughing about my night time bed jumping in my sleep. It seems that we all switched beds at one point in the night except Shea. I was a little hungover and ready for some food in my belly. We went down and ordered from our new found Thai friends, Sato and family. Met a English couple and they sat down with us and we chatted about our plan for the day and future travels. We then returned to the hotel and booked a boat tour around the city. The river has been channeled into a moat around the city with all sorts of temples along the river bank.
    Spent the afternoon just hanging out around the hotel and at 4pm us and about 8 other people from the hostel jump in the back of a truck and are taken down to the river where we get on a very long wooden boat with a makeshift motor out of a Isuzu trooper with a long propeller shaft out the back. It looked very hard to steer but the guy was a pro. The river was full of debris and there were many large cargo ships being dragged through the river by tug boats. We stopped at 3 temples along the way.


One stood out the most to me, it looked like something out of Indiana Jones. Not sure on the history but it was very impressive especially with the sun going down behind the ruins.


We made our way back around dark and got dropped off at the night market. There was tons of different kinds of food and trinkets being sold. Zev and I got a little bit of everything including sushi, pork, chicken and some really good shishkabobs. We walked back to the hostel after a while and I went to bed as I was still very tired from the night before while Zev went out on the town.

    I hung out at the front desk area for a while and helped the owner of the hotel fix her website and type English for free iced coffee and free internet the rest of my stay. The rest of the crew was tired and I was not ready to call it a night so I joined some of the other backpackers for some drinks and live music at a bar. The English guy Allen rocked the guitar and we all had a wicked  time singing, dancing and drinking. The bar closed around 12, so we hung outside finished our beers and walked back to the hotel. I stopped by Satos resturaunt and treid to have a conversation with his beautiful daughter for a bit until her older brother came  home and shoved her inside actually hitting her not hard but forcefully making her go upstairs so I said goodnight. 
    The rest of the group decided they were not done drinking and while  I stayed to chat with Phat, they went to the 711 for beer. I returned to the hotel took a shower to wash away the sticky residue that immeadiatly covers your body as soon as you step outside. I hopped into bed typing my days events and not quite tired yet but stoked in the new connections and cool people I had met that day. It seems that like mindedness of backpackers really brings a common euforia and excitmen  to being in a new place and experiencing new things together. Another great day in Thailand, it just gets better every day! Big Z out

Bangkok to Autthaya

DAY 6
The girls got up first and went for coffe and chia to jump start our day. Chris and I packed up our bags and dropped them at the front desk to eat. The girls knew of a resaurant that was pretty cheap and very tastie. We then went to a few travel agents to plan our next destination. We decided on heading north to Chaing Mai instead of south since the girls were just on the islands. We got train tickets to Ayutthaya which is on the way to Chang Mai and has about 50 temples and looks amazing from the pictures. Our train was at 2:30 so we picked up our bags and got a taxi to the train station.


    It was due time to leave Bangkok and riding the train was a very cool experience. We were in second class seating and actually had alot of leg room allowing me to stretch out. It is a very humid day but not so hot due to the overcast that seems to have stayed with us for the past few days with occasional daily showers at noon. Off we went on our way north passing the city streets and entering into more green surroundings.

 Fields of grassy water pools stretch out from each side of the train tracks. Birds dip and dive right on the waters surface up and down and in all directions. I stare off into the distance and let my thoughts drift off like the clouds in the sky and breath this moment in deep. The rain blankets certain spots along the horizon like a patchy quilt and rain drops dance and sparkle as they touch down.
    After about an hour and half we get to our stop in Autthuya and sqeeze off the train with our backpacks. We stop in the center of the train station and look at our map. A man named Mr. Noi a tuk tuk driver and tour guide approaches us and tells us he will show us a cheap guest house to stay at. Jeanie who never takes the first off ignores him and holds her head high and says it is to much and we will find it ourselves. So we walk about a block to where we are shuttled into a hotel by a man on the street to check out a room which we end up not getting. As we leave Mr. Noi is waiting for us in his tuk tuk, we give in and get in the back and off we go into the city.

     We stay at the PU house and get a great clean room for only 200 baht a person. We then take a walk around town, grab some beers, talk to some travelers and then pick up a bottle of rum and bring it to the family restraunt across from our hotel.


We all order the Pad Thai and it was amazing. The family is awesome, Sato the father cooks our meal and performs all sorts of tricks. We end up staying at this families house/restaurant having the time of our lives talking, learning thai, and gamble on a funny bowling game with three pins in the middle of the street. Chris starts dropping bahts like there hot and bowls till his fingers are bleeding, literally. Chris and I decide to get another bottle of rum to share with the men of the family. They play music and we dance and play with the little kids.


A man with a cart showed up later in the night with all sorts of fried bugs for sale. One of the Thai's traded him some rum for a bag of grasshoppers. We ripped off the heads and indulged.


All in all a amazing experience and wonderful time with the most friendly and welcoming Thai people so far on this trip. I stayed later then the rest of our crew and hung out with Sato who was pretty hammered after the 3 or 4 bottles of rum we had shared that night. He gives me a big hug while standing on a chair and tells me he will cook us whatever we want the next day. I agree say goodbye and head back to the room and we all laugh at the pictures and stories until we fall asleep.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Leaving Bangkok to Northern Thailand


With Jeanie changing plans and coming to Bangkok instead, we got a room here and waited for them to arrive. Jeanie and Shea whom we met in Nicaragua last year showed up at our room at 5am bursting with energy after a 15 hour bus ride. We caught up with eachother and made tenative plans to leave the next day to somewhere. We went to bed at about 7am and got a few more hours of rest and then went into town to a great little breakfast place Jeanie had recomended. Our next stop was the travel agency and we booked our train ticket Ieutea (the monkey city) where we will stay for 2 nights and then take the night train on the 23rd to Chaing Mai for some jungle adventures!

Share Babay, Share

DAY 5
So today we decided that we would make our move south to the islands and do what we do best, beach bum it. We got up and again I started laughing like crazy and speaking like Adam Sandler saying all sorts of dirty stuff that the Germans may or may not have understood. Chris and I used the Internet and tried to get ahold of our friend Jeanie who is on one of the islands in Southern Thailand that we are trying to meet up with. We talked to a couple travel agents and booked our overnight bus for 9pm tonight.
We then ventured out in hopes of finding authentic Thai breakfast, but speaking almost no Thai and not really knowing what all the crazy looking pots and stews contained, we ended up going in a full circle through the streets looking for a street vendor to meet our unknown hunger. Finally sat down at a old lady's stand and ordered fried rice with who knows what in it. I loaded up on the hot sauce and burnt myself pleasantly on the spicy peppers. Only 40 baht ($1.15) for both of our plates satisfied our hunger.
We then returned to the hostel, packed our stuff and left our bags at the front desk. We then relaxed by the pool for an hour or two and acted like little kids dunking the German girls and being strait silly. It began to rain so we left the pool just before a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning. With our bus tickets bought we went next door for lunch and shelter from the rain awaiting our 8pm pickup for the overnight bus which takes us to a boat at 7am to the islands.
We took an hour or two to update our blog and then i went to the pool while Chris got a massage. After that we hung around the hotel waiting our night bus! Around 630 we checked our facebook only to find out our friend Jeanie had done the same thing as us and booked a night buss here to Bankok and as it would turn out we would both be arriving opposite places at the same time!! Because we wanted to meet up with our friend we cancled our ticket loosing about 10 bucks and had to get a room for the night . So we stay another night awaiting Jeanies arrival in the morning! z out

Monday, October 19, 2009

Tuk Tuk Mania!

DAY 4
We all woke up around the same time this morning and i proceeded to have my morning hysteria laughing about all the ridiculous stuff we had done the night before. We had some breakfast and used the internet to tell our family and friends we had arrived safe. After that we went back to the pool swam for a while, got dressed and then walked around the area of Khoa San road. For lunch we found a street vendor and had some of the best Pad Thai i had ever had. We walked around a bit more and all of a sudden we were at a main intersection when cops popped up at every corner and stopped all traffic to let the King of Thailand and his entourage of Mercedes Benz and motor cops pass. We then started talking to a man who explained it was the kings birthday and all tuk tuks got free petroleum for the day so it was much cheaper to get a ride. Chris and I in one tuk and the German girls in another tuk, took off to see Bangkok and its temples. We visited A 5 storey high golden Buddha, a few temples and around the outside of the grand palace.After the crazy tuk tuk driving and insane traffic we made our way back to Khoa San road to was off the grime and fumes of the city streets.
One thought, Bangkok is much cleaner than i expected it to be, not that it was immaculate but no where close to as dirty as Central America. I feel great and am so stoked to actually be here doing this trip!!

Airport to Khoa San Road!

DAY 3
So we anticipated a grueling flight and unbearably hot weather and to our surprise the flight was quick because we slept almost the whole 14 hour trip and the patchy overcast kept it a pleasant temperature making our arrival in Bangkok smooth sailing. We got our bags and said goodbye to Katie at customs and got on the number 8 buss to Khoa San Road! Chris and I as outgoing as we are immediately spot two German girls get off the buss with us backpacks and all in the same mission as us to find a hostel. The first one we checked out was a small room and only one bed which was entirely to close for Chris and i after our 20 something hours of traveling. The next hostel we went to had 4 person rooms with two double beds, AC and a rooftop pool! We took the room with the German girls and dropped our stuff in the room and went straight to the pool to cool off.

We then all took a stroll around Bangkok streets for a few hours, ate some food and got a bottle of rum and returned to the room drank and played truth or dare on my itouch leading to some hilarious shenanigans. We were all still tired from traveling and now a little bit tipsy and crashed out calling it a night. Great first day in Thailand!!!

On the Plane!

DAY 2
So we landed in Taipei at 7 am local time Sunday the 18th, meaning we lost a day in the time zone change.




















As we exited the plane we looked up at all of the signs and realized we had no idea how to read Thai and where to go for our next flight!! There was a cute American girl standing next to us with the same puzzled look on her face. Chris and I introduced ourselves to her and we all aimlessly wandered around the airport for a bit until we found our gate! Katie was good company and we all talked and enjoyed the northern Cali vibe we all had. On our second flight Katie was seated two rows ahead of us so Chris and i pelted her with bits of paper for fun and then got the man next to us who spoke no English whatsoever to switch seats with her using hand gestures! We were in the middle row Chris on my left reading the Lonely Planet and Katie on my right studying her Macroeconomics textbook for Cabrillo college in Santa Cruz!!













We have about 4 more hours on the plane then land in Bangkok and head to Khoa San Road the famous tourist ghetto.