(me: I made it to Chapter 2 of this post and decided that it should be split into chapters... you may want to ration your enjoyment)
Introduction
Why It Is
Look who finally decided to post on his blog...
Well to my defense, over the past couple months, I have been through a lot. I think over the next few months I am just going to relax so that I don't have so much to say in the next blog post.
There is going to be a lot packed into this one so you may want to split it up. I am continuing from the last post, forwards in time. I left off on Halloween. This one brings you up to last weekend. Lately I have been working on a new album. It will be released on February 29th; the day we wait four years for.
Chapter 1
Mountain and Machine
Way back in November...
I decided, since Fall is a beautiful season and there are mountains in Korea, I should go to the mountains! I didn't get to the crazy ones I wanted to take a trip to, but Renae lives right near Bukansan Park; three mountains on the north side of Seoul have their own park dedicated to them. I am not sure if it still stands but it has the record for the most frequented park in the Guinness Book of World Records. (or something like that.) It is not surprising because of the population here.
I live in a city of 10 million or so. I think it is 44,000 people per square mile. If there were ever a situation where a Zombie Virus started spreading, I am pretty much screwed. I corresponded with my friend Courtney about this and came to the conclusion that my only hope is a human-powered flying machine that can get me the hell out of here... I have not yet begun construction of such a device, but it has been a dream of mine ever since I learned of Red Bull's Fluugtaag: (a human-powered flying machine contest.)
So Renae and I went to the mountains. It was about a 15 minute bus ride from her house and then a free shuttle a little ways up the mountain to a Buddhist Temple there.
Arriving, I saw a cloud over the tree line that reminded me of a wave on the ocean:
There was a very nice Korea gentleman who saw us looking at the map and let us know about the trail up to the peak. It was a hike that I was sort of prepared for and Renae got dragged into: I kinda told her it was going to be a relaxing day in the park... I didn't know what to expect though and as soon as I found out there was a peak, of course, I wanted to make it to it. Renae was awesome and agreed to forge through the path that lie before us.
Before we started up the trail, I saw a pink pigeon:
I read somewhere that Pigeons were supposed to be Seoul's representative bird of peace and calmness (or something like that) but fact checking now I see that its the Magpie? OK. Anyway... I also saw this sign that basically translates to:
"If there is Lightning coming for you, and you are on a cliff, we suggest jumping!"
(It doesn't really say that.) Since Renae is a little scared of lightning, (an understatement,) I told her she could trust the bear, who can apparently dodge lightning and balance on the edge of a cliff, all while keeping his feathered cap neatly upon his head.
We made it just before all of the beautiful colors would be gone for another year:
There were peaks around us that were breathtaking, especially being right in there with Seoul, it seemed impossible that we had escaped the concrete formations and found beautiful rock formations five minutes away.
Some people want to develop the land I am sure, but Korea has been protecting the park. The closest people can get is displayed in the next picture. Click on it to see the enlarged version. People set up a tent on the middle peak. I don't know how it stayed there with the wind, or how they got up there... unless they could jump 16 feet straight up... or were hiking with a ladder... There were people rock climbing up the face of an actually peak across from our mountain. It was fun to see people dangling in the middle of nothingness and rock. I was sort of jealous, but happy I had my feet on the ground.
Almost all the way up the mountain there was a nice lookout. We sat on a rock and I stared at Seoul with such weird feelings. There are 10 million lives I am looking at that weren't there a short while ago. The buildings almost look like a disease, like a calcium growth a lizard gets on the side of its face. It can turn a beautifully streamlined creature into the face of hideous evil. On the other hand, there is something beautiful about it in and of itself... I still don't know what to think.
Renae was awesome and made it that far up the mountain. She definitely conquered some fears on the way. It was kinda treacherous. We were so close to the top and I needed to get there. Renae wasn't going anywhere after what I put her through to get to where we were. She graciously allowed me to continue onward an watched over my pack too. It was pretty important, I found, leaving the bag behind. It was narrow, steep and slippery getting up to the tippy top, and it was just so nice to feel separated from that weight up there. Freedom. I took one picture at the top. It felt weird pulling out the camera up there and I almost didn't do it but everyone I saw up there had a camera or were on cell phones... weird to get yourself away but keep yourself connected. I have been much happier not having a cell phone. I won't get one while I am here. That is a promise I made to myself.
Korea is all about technology, which is nice. They have big flatscreen TVs in the subways and all sorts of advanced shit... (Oh my goodness... did I say advanced shit... hahahaha! That was totally an accident of subconscious flow. I was about to set up this picture and I think that's all I need to say... advanced shit!)
Yes, you are looking at solar powered porta-pots! ...On a mountain!
We went to the temple after we came down. It was beautiful. Again, I felt weird taking pictures in a sacred place and avoided it, although, if i was quick enough, I would have taken a picture of the kid, who instead of rubbing Buddha's tummy, caressed his nipple! I loved it! It made me so happy. That is my sacred prayer. Rub the nip. (I am not sure if that is appropriate... Oh well!)
A friend, Corey, who works with Renae was going to be on the same mountain as us on the same day. He ran into us on our ascent and blasted past us, hiking at incredible speeds. I was surprised because he had a rock climbing competition at his rock gym in Korea called O2. For those of you who don't know I used to climb and Renae and I really wanted to go see the competition. It was a pretty awesome set up they had, with some difficult configurations. In the middle of the competition Corey gave us a peak at the world's largest indoor ice wall!!!!!!!! There were parkas outside of the door:
A couple people climbing inside:
and an igloo just in case the lock froze over or something:
Chapter 2
Thankful in Seoul
During the holiday season, (my holiday season starts with Halloween,) I experienced quite a few wonderful things. I was still sickly on and off, but managed to keep up with the flow of things.
While hanging out with my now departed (from Korea, not dead,) friends from Canada, and Renae, Abby (Renae's roomate) and our friend Amber at a teahouse, I discovered something in the bathroom straight out of a horror movie... I don't know what it was, or why it was there. I dared not touch it... just kinda pondered it for a bit and left. I haven't been the same since...
There was the first snow in Seoul:
followed by a few more. The snow, for the most part, would be gone by morning. It was nice to have a gray city blanketed in white. I didn't go out and play like everyone else though because I was still sick. This is a small shared balcony on my floor.
Then there was Thanksgiving!!!!! Oh thank goodness for Thanksgiving! The teachers at our school organized a dinner and were permitted to use the school's oven and kitchen to cook a turkey. (Ovens are rare in Korea.) Everyone contributed something and we had a great dinner because of it. The turkey was being cooked while we were teaching during the day and wasn't really finished till about 10 p.m or so. We set up a dining room in the gym and before the dinner was ready we used the sound system and the video projector to pump out tunes and Futurama! An awesome time was had by all... except for maybe the principal and director, who stayed downstairs and waited for us to go... weird, a little. Pictured left to right is Renae, a blurry Kurt (who is also from New Jersey,) Alison and Danny from Korea with awesome English skills, and Deanna from California. Danny is the one who translated the Seoul MP3 experiment into Korean. (Did I post about that on this blog? I don't know - that was also in November and probably what drove me to sickness but it was awesome and worth it. Check it out if you haven't already. Click Here!)
Then we went to a Korean wedding! One of the Korean teachers at our school got married. It was a catholic wedding and it made me feel at home. (So many memories...) I even knew most of the songs they sang (even though they were in Korean, I sang them in English. I used to be in the choir.) But, instead of showing you a picture of the actually wedding, I will show you a picture on the way out of the building with the church in it. It is a wall of a church affiliated school. You tell me what is going on in this picture:
This is not the first time I have seen a painting of something passing gas on a wall in Korea... Also I forgot to mention, during Thanksgiving, I was treated to an awesome Korean book! It surpasses 'Everybody Poops' by a mile! IT is a story of a mole that gets pooped on. He goes around with the poop still on his head asking different animals if they did it to him... I don't know why we didn't have this book as required reading.
Also during this time, Korea's presidential election was going on. These are posters of all of the candidates that were around the city.
Pretty sweet I thought. I wished our democracy looked more like this. Also I wish the campaigning was similar. I have videos of people going by on the back of trucks doing karaoke for their candidates! It is sanctioned and thought out campaigning! Just as important as commercials, you better have people in bright colored jackets with your number on it doing a choreographed dance on a street corner somewhere! There were groups of these campaigners tha shouted the numbers and held up there fingers with the corresponding amount of fingers... (My theory to why candidates 6-10 didn't do well is because you had to put up two hands for their numbers... 11 and 12 didn't even have a chance...) I reeeeeeally wanted 3 to win! I still know nothing about the viewpoints of any of them, but based on looks, 3 stole my heart and my support. Number 2 eventually won the election. He kind of looks like a douche bag rodent to me. I get feeling akin to the one when I see George W. Bush's douche bag face and so I am still uneasy about the guy, but since I know nothing about him, I am still willing to give him a chance.
I miss Katamari Damacy! This ad pretty blatantly steals from it:
It was amazing that I happened to be listening to the Katamari soundtrack when I ran into the ad on the subway! Weird huh? - In other news, I got to play a quick demo of Beautiful KAtamari in a department store last night! It made my day!
There is a store near Renae's apartment called 'Dirty Math' The Korean on the door is phonetic. "Daw-Tee Mae-Thuh" - It is hard to write out phonetically back into English... I am doing a pretty good job with reading Korean... but still barely know much vocabulary.
The door of the store says:
..and I love it. I want to start my quest to obtain the wisdom of dirty math immediately!
and because we are on the math theme, as a bonus, i am including a picture of the fabled "Anti-Calculus Toothpaste" that I spoke of in a previous post:
... for those of you who hate math, use this toothpaste!
There are a lot of awesome snacks sold by street vendors, but so far the Wafflisoney kicks all dey asses! It is a freshly made waffle, smeared with honey, with five flavors of ice cream folded inside! The combination of hot and cold, sticky and creamy, rich taste and cheap price, puts this one on the top of my list thus far. You get one of these bad boys for a whopping 500 won! (That's 53.3 cents!) In New York City this thing would cost $10 at least! Life in Korea can definately be sweet sometimes:
Chapter 3
Christmas in Korea
Introduction
Why It Is
Look who finally decided to post on his blog...
Well to my defense, over the past couple months, I have been through a lot. I think over the next few months I am just going to relax so that I don't have so much to say in the next blog post.
There is going to be a lot packed into this one so you may want to split it up. I am continuing from the last post, forwards in time. I left off on Halloween. This one brings you up to last weekend. Lately I have been working on a new album. It will be released on February 29th; the day we wait four years for.
Chapter 1
Mountain and Machine
Way back in November...
I decided, since Fall is a beautiful season and there are mountains in Korea, I should go to the mountains! I didn't get to the crazy ones I wanted to take a trip to, but Renae lives right near Bukansan Park; three mountains on the north side of Seoul have their own park dedicated to them. I am not sure if it still stands but it has the record for the most frequented park in the Guinness Book of World Records. (or something like that.) It is not surprising because of the population here.
I live in a city of 10 million or so. I think it is 44,000 people per square mile. If there were ever a situation where a Zombie Virus started spreading, I am pretty much screwed. I corresponded with my friend Courtney about this and came to the conclusion that my only hope is a human-powered flying machine that can get me the hell out of here... I have not yet begun construction of such a device, but it has been a dream of mine ever since I learned of Red Bull's Fluugtaag: (a human-powered flying machine contest.)
So Renae and I went to the mountains. It was about a 15 minute bus ride from her house and then a free shuttle a little ways up the mountain to a Buddhist Temple there.
Arriving, I saw a cloud over the tree line that reminded me of a wave on the ocean:
There was a very nice Korea gentleman who saw us looking at the map and let us know about the trail up to the peak. It was a hike that I was sort of prepared for and Renae got dragged into: I kinda told her it was going to be a relaxing day in the park... I didn't know what to expect though and as soon as I found out there was a peak, of course, I wanted to make it to it. Renae was awesome and agreed to forge through the path that lie before us.
Before we started up the trail, I saw a pink pigeon:
I read somewhere that Pigeons were supposed to be Seoul's representative bird of peace and calmness (or something like that) but fact checking now I see that its the Magpie? OK. Anyway... I also saw this sign that basically translates to:
"If there is Lightning coming for you, and you are on a cliff, we suggest jumping!"
(It doesn't really say that.) Since Renae is a little scared of lightning, (an understatement,) I told her she could trust the bear, who can apparently dodge lightning and balance on the edge of a cliff, all while keeping his feathered cap neatly upon his head.
We made it just before all of the beautiful colors would be gone for another year:
There were peaks around us that were breathtaking, especially being right in there with Seoul, it seemed impossible that we had escaped the concrete formations and found beautiful rock formations five minutes away.
Some people want to develop the land I am sure, but Korea has been protecting the park. The closest people can get is displayed in the next picture. Click on it to see the enlarged version. People set up a tent on the middle peak. I don't know how it stayed there with the wind, or how they got up there... unless they could jump 16 feet straight up... or were hiking with a ladder... There were people rock climbing up the face of an actually peak across from our mountain. It was fun to see people dangling in the middle of nothingness and rock. I was sort of jealous, but happy I had my feet on the ground.
Almost all the way up the mountain there was a nice lookout. We sat on a rock and I stared at Seoul with such weird feelings. There are 10 million lives I am looking at that weren't there a short while ago. The buildings almost look like a disease, like a calcium growth a lizard gets on the side of its face. It can turn a beautifully streamlined creature into the face of hideous evil. On the other hand, there is something beautiful about it in and of itself... I still don't know what to think.
Renae was awesome and made it that far up the mountain. She definitely conquered some fears on the way. It was kinda treacherous. We were so close to the top and I needed to get there. Renae wasn't going anywhere after what I put her through to get to where we were. She graciously allowed me to continue onward an watched over my pack too. It was pretty important, I found, leaving the bag behind. It was narrow, steep and slippery getting up to the tippy top, and it was just so nice to feel separated from that weight up there. Freedom. I took one picture at the top. It felt weird pulling out the camera up there and I almost didn't do it but everyone I saw up there had a camera or were on cell phones... weird to get yourself away but keep yourself connected. I have been much happier not having a cell phone. I won't get one while I am here. That is a promise I made to myself.
Korea is all about technology, which is nice. They have big flatscreen TVs in the subways and all sorts of advanced shit... (Oh my goodness... did I say advanced shit... hahahaha! That was totally an accident of subconscious flow. I was about to set up this picture and I think that's all I need to say... advanced shit!)
Yes, you are looking at solar powered porta-pots! ...On a mountain!
We went to the temple after we came down. It was beautiful. Again, I felt weird taking pictures in a sacred place and avoided it, although, if i was quick enough, I would have taken a picture of the kid, who instead of rubbing Buddha's tummy, caressed his nipple! I loved it! It made me so happy. That is my sacred prayer. Rub the nip. (I am not sure if that is appropriate... Oh well!)
A friend, Corey, who works with Renae was going to be on the same mountain as us on the same day. He ran into us on our ascent and blasted past us, hiking at incredible speeds. I was surprised because he had a rock climbing competition at his rock gym in Korea called O2. For those of you who don't know I used to climb and Renae and I really wanted to go see the competition. It was a pretty awesome set up they had, with some difficult configurations. In the middle of the competition Corey gave us a peak at the world's largest indoor ice wall!!!!!!!! There were parkas outside of the door:
A couple people climbing inside:
and an igloo just in case the lock froze over or something:
Chapter 2
Thankful in Seoul
During the holiday season, (my holiday season starts with Halloween,) I experienced quite a few wonderful things. I was still sickly on and off, but managed to keep up with the flow of things.
While hanging out with my now departed (from Korea, not dead,) friends from Canada, and Renae, Abby (Renae's roomate) and our friend Amber at a teahouse, I discovered something in the bathroom straight out of a horror movie... I don't know what it was, or why it was there. I dared not touch it... just kinda pondered it for a bit and left. I haven't been the same since...
There was the first snow in Seoul:
followed by a few more. The snow, for the most part, would be gone by morning. It was nice to have a gray city blanketed in white. I didn't go out and play like everyone else though because I was still sick. This is a small shared balcony on my floor.
Then there was Thanksgiving!!!!! Oh thank goodness for Thanksgiving! The teachers at our school organized a dinner and were permitted to use the school's oven and kitchen to cook a turkey. (Ovens are rare in Korea.) Everyone contributed something and we had a great dinner because of it. The turkey was being cooked while we were teaching during the day and wasn't really finished till about 10 p.m or so. We set up a dining room in the gym and before the dinner was ready we used the sound system and the video projector to pump out tunes and Futurama! An awesome time was had by all... except for maybe the principal and director, who stayed downstairs and waited for us to go... weird, a little. Pictured left to right is Renae, a blurry Kurt (who is also from New Jersey,) Alison and Danny from Korea with awesome English skills, and Deanna from California. Danny is the one who translated the Seoul MP3 experiment into Korean. (Did I post about that on this blog? I don't know - that was also in November and probably what drove me to sickness but it was awesome and worth it. Check it out if you haven't already. Click Here!)
Then we went to a Korean wedding! One of the Korean teachers at our school got married. It was a catholic wedding and it made me feel at home. (So many memories...) I even knew most of the songs they sang (even though they were in Korean, I sang them in English. I used to be in the choir.) But, instead of showing you a picture of the actually wedding, I will show you a picture on the way out of the building with the church in it. It is a wall of a church affiliated school. You tell me what is going on in this picture:
This is not the first time I have seen a painting of something passing gas on a wall in Korea... Also I forgot to mention, during Thanksgiving, I was treated to an awesome Korean book! It surpasses 'Everybody Poops' by a mile! IT is a story of a mole that gets pooped on. He goes around with the poop still on his head asking different animals if they did it to him... I don't know why we didn't have this book as required reading.
Also during this time, Korea's presidential election was going on. These are posters of all of the candidates that were around the city.
Pretty sweet I thought. I wished our democracy looked more like this. Also I wish the campaigning was similar. I have videos of people going by on the back of trucks doing karaoke for their candidates! It is sanctioned and thought out campaigning! Just as important as commercials, you better have people in bright colored jackets with your number on it doing a choreographed dance on a street corner somewhere! There were groups of these campaigners tha shouted the numbers and held up there fingers with the corresponding amount of fingers... (My theory to why candidates 6-10 didn't do well is because you had to put up two hands for their numbers... 11 and 12 didn't even have a chance...) I reeeeeeally wanted 3 to win! I still know nothing about the viewpoints of any of them, but based on looks, 3 stole my heart and my support. Number 2 eventually won the election. He kind of looks like a douche bag rodent to me. I get feeling akin to the one when I see George W. Bush's douche bag face and so I am still uneasy about the guy, but since I know nothing about him, I am still willing to give him a chance.
I miss Katamari Damacy! This ad pretty blatantly steals from it:
It was amazing that I happened to be listening to the Katamari soundtrack when I ran into the ad on the subway! Weird huh? - In other news, I got to play a quick demo of Beautiful KAtamari in a department store last night! It made my day!
There is a store near Renae's apartment called 'Dirty Math' The Korean on the door is phonetic. "Daw-Tee Mae-Thuh" - It is hard to write out phonetically back into English... I am doing a pretty good job with reading Korean... but still barely know much vocabulary.
The door of the store says:
..and I love it. I want to start my quest to obtain the wisdom of dirty math immediately!
and because we are on the math theme, as a bonus, i am including a picture of the fabled "Anti-Calculus Toothpaste" that I spoke of in a previous post:
... for those of you who hate math, use this toothpaste!
There are a lot of awesome snacks sold by street vendors, but so far the Wafflisoney kicks all dey asses! It is a freshly made waffle, smeared with honey, with five flavors of ice cream folded inside! The combination of hot and cold, sticky and creamy, rich taste and cheap price, puts this one on the top of my list thus far. You get one of these bad boys for a whopping 500 won! (That's 53.3 cents!) In New York City this thing would cost $10 at least! Life in Korea can definately be sweet sometimes:
Chapter 3
Christmas in Korea
Christmas time is very pretty in Seoul. There are corporations that own entire blocks decked out in lights and ads and consumerism... you take the good with the bad. What is really cool is the area near city hall. When we were leaving the subway, some of the campaigners for my boy, # 3 were chanting and parading out of the subway. We joined them and chanted and held up our three fingers. It was fun. They had posterboards with his face on it, pasted on a stick. I was jealous, but knew I couldn't obtain one. The we is Renae, Lauren, Deanna and me. We are on our way to an outdoor ice skating rink we heard was nice. It was awesome. Surrounded by lights. The only downside, they were sold out of tickets. It is really inexpensive and quite popular. It is still open. I will try to go back. We had a lot of fun anyway:
The ice rink is in the middle of this huge light display.
When we couldn't go skating we walked around the city hall area. It was nicely decorated all around...
We all took pictures of our group at the same time from different cameras. We are all looking at different ones.
This is the America and France display... Although that is definitely the Eiffel Tower, the guard looks Russian to me?
Korean traditional snowmen.
I thought this was a sign for the company that owned the building at first. I completely overlooked it. As you can see the message is 'STOP CO2.' Maybe they tried to camoflauge it on purpose...
The next building is a two-faced monster that eats the light of the world:
...It is a bank.
While looking for a place eat in the area, we stopped at a TGIF's. It was a Tuesday, but we had off on Wenesday for the national election (except for Renae, whose school is a little evil.) so it felt like a Friday. There, we discovered the greatest thing known to man or beast. Apparently, some people are already familiar with the concept but laying my eyes on it for the first time, I temporarily went blind with joy. Be careful when looking at the next picture:
Fried balls of Macaroni and Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just drooled on myself a little...
Chapter 4
Trekking to Thailand
Chapter 4
Trekking to Thailand
Getting ready to go for Thailand was a mad rush on Friday night. I had to get up to Renae and Abby's apartment and get ready to powersleep until 4 something a.m. We all stayed awake too late but Renae go to bed before me and Abby. Renae still wins for the best morning face pictured below.
I am sure you are all familiar with the Waking-up-at-4-something-a-m-face, displayed here on an adult female subject:
Also on the way to the bus, "You need Gun?"
Well not that it took very long, but if I had taken any longer to take this picture, we probably wouldn't have caught the earlier bus to the airport. This was crucial because we had about 2 extra hours to sit around at the airport... (why did we wake up at 4 something again?)
Chapter 5
Bangkok: Like a Virgin
Bangkok is a monster to someone who doesn't know what's going on, and we didn't really know what was going on, save the info we gathered from a travel book and the web. As soon as we walked out of the airport people were trying to rip us off. Any price anyone offers you in thialand is about three times what it should be. We managed to make it to our hostel without forking over too much Baht.
The guy working there was about to start a 32 hour shift and ready to show us what to do. We wanted to make it to the famous temples there but they were closed for the evening so we walked around and took a commuter boat around the city...
Saw some street art in various places.
Took a boat ride down this canal:
We were pretty much the only foreigners on the boat. It was a beast; huge steel gas tank, long and thin, but not fragile in the least. During the ride you pretty much see into the back of people's homes. Life in Bangkok seems to be more relaxed on the edge of the canal. We had to get out for some tranfers into different boats and ended up staying at one of the stops. We found a really cool park/monument area at sunset:
Trying to find out where we were wasnt too hard with the map I had but we needed to find a bathroom. 7-11's are everywhere in Bangkok. 1-2 per block. Luckily they told us that there was a gas station a half a block down. When we got there, both bathrooms were occupied. A man and woman walked out of the men's room and a guy was showering in the woman's room?!? OK. While I waited outside, three people came around, saw the bathrooms occupied, and peed on the side of the building.
It was dark and we had to leave early the next day but we knew we had to do one thing while we were in Bangkok, Thailand: Go to Chinatown!
The streets were pretty hoppin' everywhere in Bangkok. We came from 20 degree weather into 80 degree weather and the nights were alive with people. The sidewalks were rivers of people. The sides of the streets, where food carts met passerbys and came in close proximity with cars, bikes, motorbikes, took-tooks, and other various transport vehicles.
This boy carried flowers on his head... The edible flower from Intermezzo (a short lived Rutgers fine dining experience) is all over Thailand. It is the purple and white one.
There are vespa-like motorbikes all over Thailand. I am not sure why there aren't more that are tricked out, but can you imagine rollin' up in this Bad Boy?
...Pimp.
Chapter 6
Christmas in Khao Sok
At the hostile, there were people staying mad long there. Underwear and other unmentionables all over the room; a shared co-ed dorm full of bunks. Luckily they were out till the wee hours drinking so it was easy to fall asleep and easy to wake up early enough when they all came in.
We had a flight from the old airport in Bangkok. The new airport was as pimpin' as that sleek tank bike; a sundae with all the toppings. The old airport was an ice cream cone that was manufactured in the 70's and left on a shelf till present; stale and tasteless. We made it there with enough time to get breakfast in the only restaurant, where I proceeded to spill a massive blob of Ketchup on my pants...
The ketchup top was not sealed and I shook it. Now, Ketchup NEVER, EVER, comes out on the first try but somehow, on the first shake of this particular bottle, the cap flew off along with a heaping helping of Catsup. Right onto my shorts! I hate stains and I hate the smell of old ketchup... I rubbed with ice, water, a lime, and finally soap and more water. The result, the stain would not stay, but I would smell heavily of ketchup, lime and soap (in that order) for the duration of our flight.
(note: Although I personally do not agree with the spelling of "Catsup," I still wanted to represent it here for reasons unknown. Also Ketchup and Catsup have been capitalized. The reason being, Ketchup is special enough to me that it deserves it.)
So we got to the place we were going, just outside of Surat Thani, and there was a bus to bring us there so we were set.
Except for the scary bug in the bus, I wasn't worried about anything in particular at this point:
WTF is that?? Google needs to get an image search... you can find out what something is by taking a picture of it... I am sure it is in the works somewhere... I mean... Copyright Colin Challender January 13, 2008. - I will add that one to my million dollar idea list. (The other ideas are top secret, though a few people do know- I am a genius!)
Well after getting ripped of for a crappy bus ride by a 'travel company' I was a little downtrodden. I knew that they knew that I would never see them again. They took me for a ride, Abby and Renae facing the decision I made to go along with their scheme. Well we got to where we need to go for only a little more than we should have paid so I wasn't too upset... but I will not forget the face of the guy who took the money from me... revenge shall be mine!
We went to the rainforest... Khoa Sok, part of one of the oldest rain forest systems in the world!
After seeing some of the most beautiful scenery past the sleepy heads of Renae and Abby, or the cute, playful heads of two Thai baby girls, we arrived in Khoa Sok. Stepping off the bus we were attacked by representatives from various places to stay in the area. We told them we were already booked and paid at the place we were going. (half true) Then they offered to drive us there for too much money. We told them we would walk but one guy said 10 Baht (34 cents) so we agreed. It was hot and the ride was nice. The driver asked us where we were coming from and we told him Korea but at some point he heard us say USA and said "Why did you tell me Korea, I don't work with Americans." He gave us a guilt trip about being rich and then refused to take any money from us after dropping us off at our place... It was really weird. I tried to tell him I was not rich, but looking back on it, try to tell someone who will drive you somewhere for 30 cents, when you are traveling internationally, that you are not rich...
Pheww, we are here and people are nice. Our room is great and the view from our porch is a reflection of the mountains and vegetation behind us, only distant and separated by a small stream. We arrive again, later in the day, to our destination, and missed the action, so we made our own... Walking around the area we had a lot of fun and saw some pretty sights...
Flowers...
Huts using fire...
A couple of nuts...
and coconuts.
There was a huge scary spider.
This is one of my favorite flowers.
There are pictures missing from this section that I will post in a sequel to this post. You can look forward to them when I get them from Renae and Abby...
We went back and made it an early night. We had an early start the next day, but I still was able to enjoy a Thai beer. Chang Beer is probably the second most popular beer in Thailand. I liked it a lot because of its two elephants. IT was also slightly cheaper than the more popular beer and its taste pleased my buds:
A blurry Chang Beer. (probably what it look like for reals at the time... sk)
That night we met out fearless leader, Bee. Bee was an awesome dude, who was famous in the logs of the guest books we examined. He was down to Earth and had a lot of stories. We asked him about the caves we were going to the next day and he told us about a friend of his who died in a different set of caves due to rising water levels... I think it scared Renae a little but we would not be going to those caves. He also presented me with a puzzle. I was able to unlock two pieces of wood from each other in less than 3 minutes... with 3 seconds left... Whoa! he said it was a fluke... "Do it in 1 minute." I failed. He showed me the solution out of courtesy. That night we were already talking with another family from Colorado. The young daughter tried it, also getting it by chance, and the younger son was frustrated at his failure. We would be going on our trek with them and ze Germans.
This is Bee. I thought he was just being quiet and meditative at first, then I realized he was spotting animals for us. I was being quiet and meditative. I miss green things and blue sky. Also, some of it, I had never seen before. I wondered if it will last long enough for others to see too.
A tree lizard like whoa!
The monkeys were too quick to pic and I wasn't there for the animals really.
I tried not to take to many pictures.
but it was so beautiful.
After some hiking, chasing chameleons, and playing Peter Pan, (pictures of that when I get a hold of Renae's pics...) we made it to these cool little bamboo boats that took us to Coral Cave, named so because of the way it looks like coral. Pictures can't show its awesomeness. Some of it was really something else.
Cricket in the Cave
Elephant-looking things...
and the awesome boats:
The next picture is of a German woman named Ursula, with whom I spent a lot of time talking. She was a good friend for a couple of days and told me about Germany, Africa, and discussed cultural differences in holidays/vacation time with us. The expression on her face captures the awesome thrill I felt most of that day.
Among all of the sunsets I have seen, this one will not be forgotten. Cameras (at least in my hands) can't begin to touch upon the magnificent beauty that I experienced at sundown.
We went to a typical Thai market. There weren't any foreigners around the area we were at. We were on our way home. It was nice to be somewhere we weren't expected. It was the one time I didn't feel hassled while I was shopping in Thailand. They had beautifully prepared squid:
It looks so much more appetizing than the squid in Korea. But I still wouldn't eat it.
At this point I will touch upon the food in Thailand; omg so bangin'. I had nothing but delicious curries and other traditional Thai dishes. It was enough to make you want to move there. All vegetarian options (a miracle after being in Korea,) and great drinks... all for cheap cheap.
The two loves of my life (jk):
Singha is the original Thai beer. Me no likey as much as Chang.
When we got back, it was already dark (well, sorta, it was a full moon that night...) and there was a whole new decor about the place:
It turned out to be Christmas decorations! I was Christmas Eve!
That night there was a big party going on at the place we were headed to the next day. A huge full moon party. If we had gone there first, I probably would have slept through Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas!
but, Christmas morning, we:
I was saddled up with Ursula. It was lovely to talk with her. Our Elephant was a little frisky... She thinks it is a teenager and wants to do its own thing. It stopped a bunch of times to let out a crazy elephant cry! It was awesome, of course, then I started thinking what would happen if this guy didn't want me on his back anymore, or if it started running at 30 miles per hour, as elephants do.
Ursula told me about safaris in Africa and a documentary she saw while she was there about how elephants have a strange sense. The had tracking devices on elephants and one died... a years and hundreds of miles later, all the elephants came back to the same exact spot, on the dot, that the elephant died, and did something that looked like paying respects. She described it as "going inside themselves with the memories of that elephant" I think. That was extrmely touching and the best I could do was say "elephants never forget..." lame.
Renae and Abby psychically communitcate with their animal about girl stuff...
I tried to psychically communicate with someone else's elephant:
This picture was taken about 5 seconds before I accidentally, psychically told it to breath on my face via its trunk! It was wet steamy and strong, but surprisingly odorless. I psychically thanked it afterwards to avoid further confusion and we went our separate ways.
It was time to haul out. I took one more picture of that cool flower, at a different location:
And a picture of a superhero:
...too cool for me to know what it is. I wouldn't search for it even if I could.
We left Khao Sok in the dust on Christmas morning:
(note the pretty flowers in the background) - Also, that morning, we stopped by Bee's house so he could bring his wife and little boy to see the elephants. His house was so beautifully landscaped with all sorts of wild flowers and bushes. He did it all himself. His family was too cute, coupled with the cuteness of his 6 puppy dogs... oh man.
And a caterpillar:
We waited for a minivan to talk us back to Sarat Thani, in order to catch a bus and ferry from there to the island. It was cheaper, more comfortable, and quicker than the huge bus we took to get to Khoa Sok. When we got in the town we told the driver we were going to Khoa Sok and needed to go to the bus depot... Wouldn't you know... he drops us of with the same guys the ripped us off on the ride the other way... The shock on the one guys face was priceless. I am sure it is a comfort that you know you will never see these people again, but when you do... hahaha! Your face was good enough revenge for me. I tried to get them to come down on the price that they gave me out of spite but it was a good deal this time so we got in a minivan this time (they were trying to put us in a big bus again - yeah right) That took us straight to the port, (instead of stopping all over the place; even once long enough for someone to come on with food and a seperate time with drinks to sell!) The port was nothing special... A parking lot and a huge dock.
By this point in the trip we had just past the shortest day of the year. We spent most of Christmas Day commuting. It was not a big deal but not something I'd ever imagine I'd be doing on X-mas. Departing is such sweet sweetness! Goodbye Sarat Thani! I hate your guts! A whole hub city and all we did was wait in the same damned place both times! (You would agree with the damned part if you saw the bathroom... It looked like the thrown Satan would assume shortly after his fall.)
Anyway, we made it to the ferry. I got a map and a ferry schedule/fare sheet and we set sail into the Gulf of Thailand on our way to an island paradise.
Chapter 7
Oh Boy, Koh Samui!
On the way to Koh Samui, I fell in love with you...
It was still daylight when we boarded the ferry. A huge Buddha could be seen on the receding shore:
The ferry took a little over an hour to get to Koh Samui. In between, the sun decided it was time to give some other part of the world our shine:
It was another spectacular sunset.
When we got to the island, it was dark. A guy on the boat had offered us a ride in a minivan while we were waiting on the boat. With everything we experienced so far, we knew that it was too expensive and decided to take a cab to the group of bungalows at which we hoped to stay. All of the cab drivers waiting at the pier we in cahoots with each other. They all claimed that they could not turn on their meters (the only thing that would stop us from getting ripped off.) "No one uses them... The meters are from four years ago... Gas prices are too high now..." and so on. I sympathized a little but the guys in Bangkok were obviously still running theirs. Well we got them down to a reasonable price after walking toward the pick-up trucks full of people and arrived on the north shore at our expected destination in no time.
As we walked up to the beach-side front desk, we saw Christmas lights and people hanging out on the beach. We were so excited... Then we were informed there was no room at the inn...
Ok let's try the next one. A short walk later, we were received in the same manner; accommodating, but not rooms.
We found one room at the next one. Only one room... with one bed. They said it was small. We knew we could find better... we couldn't find better. The bed was actually big enough to fit all of us and it was much cheaper, so we decided to go for it. We didn't rfind any reason to leave so we stayed in that one, cigarbox of a room, for three nights.
Chapter 5
Bangkok: Like a Virgin
Bangkok is a monster to someone who doesn't know what's going on, and we didn't really know what was going on, save the info we gathered from a travel book and the web. As soon as we walked out of the airport people were trying to rip us off. Any price anyone offers you in thialand is about three times what it should be. We managed to make it to our hostel without forking over too much Baht.
The guy working there was about to start a 32 hour shift and ready to show us what to do. We wanted to make it to the famous temples there but they were closed for the evening so we walked around and took a commuter boat around the city...
Saw some street art in various places.
Took a boat ride down this canal:
We were pretty much the only foreigners on the boat. It was a beast; huge steel gas tank, long and thin, but not fragile in the least. During the ride you pretty much see into the back of people's homes. Life in Bangkok seems to be more relaxed on the edge of the canal. We had to get out for some tranfers into different boats and ended up staying at one of the stops. We found a really cool park/monument area at sunset:
Trying to find out where we were wasnt too hard with the map I had but we needed to find a bathroom. 7-11's are everywhere in Bangkok. 1-2 per block. Luckily they told us that there was a gas station a half a block down. When we got there, both bathrooms were occupied. A man and woman walked out of the men's room and a guy was showering in the woman's room?!? OK. While I waited outside, three people came around, saw the bathrooms occupied, and peed on the side of the building.
It was dark and we had to leave early the next day but we knew we had to do one thing while we were in Bangkok, Thailand: Go to Chinatown!
The streets were pretty hoppin' everywhere in Bangkok. We came from 20 degree weather into 80 degree weather and the nights were alive with people. The sidewalks were rivers of people. The sides of the streets, where food carts met passerbys and came in close proximity with cars, bikes, motorbikes, took-tooks, and other various transport vehicles.
This boy carried flowers on his head... The edible flower from Intermezzo (a short lived Rutgers fine dining experience) is all over Thailand. It is the purple and white one.
There are vespa-like motorbikes all over Thailand. I am not sure why there aren't more that are tricked out, but can you imagine rollin' up in this Bad Boy?
...Pimp.
Chapter 6
Christmas in Khao Sok
At the hostile, there were people staying mad long there. Underwear and other unmentionables all over the room; a shared co-ed dorm full of bunks. Luckily they were out till the wee hours drinking so it was easy to fall asleep and easy to wake up early enough when they all came in.
We had a flight from the old airport in Bangkok. The new airport was as pimpin' as that sleek tank bike; a sundae with all the toppings. The old airport was an ice cream cone that was manufactured in the 70's and left on a shelf till present; stale and tasteless. We made it there with enough time to get breakfast in the only restaurant, where I proceeded to spill a massive blob of Ketchup on my pants...
The ketchup top was not sealed and I shook it. Now, Ketchup NEVER, EVER, comes out on the first try but somehow, on the first shake of this particular bottle, the cap flew off along with a heaping helping of Catsup. Right onto my shorts! I hate stains and I hate the smell of old ketchup... I rubbed with ice, water, a lime, and finally soap and more water. The result, the stain would not stay, but I would smell heavily of ketchup, lime and soap (in that order) for the duration of our flight.
(note: Although I personally do not agree with the spelling of "Catsup," I still wanted to represent it here for reasons unknown. Also Ketchup and Catsup have been capitalized. The reason being, Ketchup is special enough to me that it deserves it.)
So we got to the place we were going, just outside of Surat Thani, and there was a bus to bring us there so we were set.
Except for the scary bug in the bus, I wasn't worried about anything in particular at this point:
WTF is that?? Google needs to get an image search... you can find out what something is by taking a picture of it... I am sure it is in the works somewhere... I mean... Copyright Colin Challender January 13, 2008. - I will add that one to my million dollar idea list. (The other ideas are top secret, though a few people do know- I am a genius!)
Well after getting ripped of for a crappy bus ride by a 'travel company' I was a little downtrodden. I knew that they knew that I would never see them again. They took me for a ride, Abby and Renae facing the decision I made to go along with their scheme. Well we got to where we need to go for only a little more than we should have paid so I wasn't too upset... but I will not forget the face of the guy who took the money from me... revenge shall be mine!
We went to the rainforest... Khoa Sok, part of one of the oldest rain forest systems in the world!
After seeing some of the most beautiful scenery past the sleepy heads of Renae and Abby, or the cute, playful heads of two Thai baby girls, we arrived in Khoa Sok. Stepping off the bus we were attacked by representatives from various places to stay in the area. We told them we were already booked and paid at the place we were going. (half true) Then they offered to drive us there for too much money. We told them we would walk but one guy said 10 Baht (34 cents) so we agreed. It was hot and the ride was nice. The driver asked us where we were coming from and we told him Korea but at some point he heard us say USA and said "Why did you tell me Korea, I don't work with Americans." He gave us a guilt trip about being rich and then refused to take any money from us after dropping us off at our place... It was really weird. I tried to tell him I was not rich, but looking back on it, try to tell someone who will drive you somewhere for 30 cents, when you are traveling internationally, that you are not rich...
Pheww, we are here and people are nice. Our room is great and the view from our porch is a reflection of the mountains and vegetation behind us, only distant and separated by a small stream. We arrive again, later in the day, to our destination, and missed the action, so we made our own... Walking around the area we had a lot of fun and saw some pretty sights...
Flowers...
Huts using fire...
A couple of nuts...
and coconuts.
There was a huge scary spider.
This is one of my favorite flowers.
There are pictures missing from this section that I will post in a sequel to this post. You can look forward to them when I get them from Renae and Abby...
We went back and made it an early night. We had an early start the next day, but I still was able to enjoy a Thai beer. Chang Beer is probably the second most popular beer in Thailand. I liked it a lot because of its two elephants. IT was also slightly cheaper than the more popular beer and its taste pleased my buds:
A blurry Chang Beer. (probably what it look like for reals at the time... sk)
That night we met out fearless leader, Bee. Bee was an awesome dude, who was famous in the logs of the guest books we examined. He was down to Earth and had a lot of stories. We asked him about the caves we were going to the next day and he told us about a friend of his who died in a different set of caves due to rising water levels... I think it scared Renae a little but we would not be going to those caves. He also presented me with a puzzle. I was able to unlock two pieces of wood from each other in less than 3 minutes... with 3 seconds left... Whoa! he said it was a fluke... "Do it in 1 minute." I failed. He showed me the solution out of courtesy. That night we were already talking with another family from Colorado. The young daughter tried it, also getting it by chance, and the younger son was frustrated at his failure. We would be going on our trek with them and ze Germans.
This is Bee. I thought he was just being quiet and meditative at first, then I realized he was spotting animals for us. I was being quiet and meditative. I miss green things and blue sky. Also, some of it, I had never seen before. I wondered if it will last long enough for others to see too.
A tree lizard like whoa!
The monkeys were too quick to pic and I wasn't there for the animals really.
I tried not to take to many pictures.
but it was so beautiful.
After some hiking, chasing chameleons, and playing Peter Pan, (pictures of that when I get a hold of Renae's pics...) we made it to these cool little bamboo boats that took us to Coral Cave, named so because of the way it looks like coral. Pictures can't show its awesomeness. Some of it was really something else.
Cricket in the Cave
Elephant-looking things...
and the awesome boats:
The next picture is of a German woman named Ursula, with whom I spent a lot of time talking. She was a good friend for a couple of days and told me about Germany, Africa, and discussed cultural differences in holidays/vacation time with us. The expression on her face captures the awesome thrill I felt most of that day.
Among all of the sunsets I have seen, this one will not be forgotten. Cameras (at least in my hands) can't begin to touch upon the magnificent beauty that I experienced at sundown.
We went to a typical Thai market. There weren't any foreigners around the area we were at. We were on our way home. It was nice to be somewhere we weren't expected. It was the one time I didn't feel hassled while I was shopping in Thailand. They had beautifully prepared squid:
It looks so much more appetizing than the squid in Korea. But I still wouldn't eat it.
At this point I will touch upon the food in Thailand; omg so bangin'. I had nothing but delicious curries and other traditional Thai dishes. It was enough to make you want to move there. All vegetarian options (a miracle after being in Korea,) and great drinks... all for cheap cheap.
The two loves of my life (jk):
Singha is the original Thai beer. Me no likey as much as Chang.
When we got back, it was already dark (well, sorta, it was a full moon that night...) and there was a whole new decor about the place:
It turned out to be Christmas decorations! I was Christmas Eve!
That night there was a big party going on at the place we were headed to the next day. A huge full moon party. If we had gone there first, I probably would have slept through Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas!
but, Christmas morning, we:
I was saddled up with Ursula. It was lovely to talk with her. Our Elephant was a little frisky... She thinks it is a teenager and wants to do its own thing. It stopped a bunch of times to let out a crazy elephant cry! It was awesome, of course, then I started thinking what would happen if this guy didn't want me on his back anymore, or if it started running at 30 miles per hour, as elephants do.
Ursula told me about safaris in Africa and a documentary she saw while she was there about how elephants have a strange sense. The had tracking devices on elephants and one died... a years and hundreds of miles later, all the elephants came back to the same exact spot, on the dot, that the elephant died, and did something that looked like paying respects. She described it as "going inside themselves with the memories of that elephant" I think. That was extrmely touching and the best I could do was say "elephants never forget..." lame.
Renae and Abby psychically communitcate with their animal about girl stuff...
I tried to psychically communicate with someone else's elephant:
This picture was taken about 5 seconds before I accidentally, psychically told it to breath on my face via its trunk! It was wet steamy and strong, but surprisingly odorless. I psychically thanked it afterwards to avoid further confusion and we went our separate ways.
It was time to haul out. I took one more picture of that cool flower, at a different location:
And a picture of a superhero:
...too cool for me to know what it is. I wouldn't search for it even if I could.
We left Khao Sok in the dust on Christmas morning:
(note the pretty flowers in the background) - Also, that morning, we stopped by Bee's house so he could bring his wife and little boy to see the elephants. His house was so beautifully landscaped with all sorts of wild flowers and bushes. He did it all himself. His family was too cute, coupled with the cuteness of his 6 puppy dogs... oh man.
And a caterpillar:
We waited for a minivan to talk us back to Sarat Thani, in order to catch a bus and ferry from there to the island. It was cheaper, more comfortable, and quicker than the huge bus we took to get to Khoa Sok. When we got in the town we told the driver we were going to Khoa Sok and needed to go to the bus depot... Wouldn't you know... he drops us of with the same guys the ripped us off on the ride the other way... The shock on the one guys face was priceless. I am sure it is a comfort that you know you will never see these people again, but when you do... hahaha! Your face was good enough revenge for me. I tried to get them to come down on the price that they gave me out of spite but it was a good deal this time so we got in a minivan this time (they were trying to put us in a big bus again - yeah right) That took us straight to the port, (instead of stopping all over the place; even once long enough for someone to come on with food and a seperate time with drinks to sell!) The port was nothing special... A parking lot and a huge dock.
By this point in the trip we had just past the shortest day of the year. We spent most of Christmas Day commuting. It was not a big deal but not something I'd ever imagine I'd be doing on X-mas. Departing is such sweet sweetness! Goodbye Sarat Thani! I hate your guts! A whole hub city and all we did was wait in the same damned place both times! (You would agree with the damned part if you saw the bathroom... It looked like the thrown Satan would assume shortly after his fall.)
Anyway, we made it to the ferry. I got a map and a ferry schedule/fare sheet and we set sail into the Gulf of Thailand on our way to an island paradise.
Chapter 7
Oh Boy, Koh Samui!
On the way to Koh Samui, I fell in love with you...
It was still daylight when we boarded the ferry. A huge Buddha could be seen on the receding shore:
The ferry took a little over an hour to get to Koh Samui. In between, the sun decided it was time to give some other part of the world our shine:
It was another spectacular sunset.
When we got to the island, it was dark. A guy on the boat had offered us a ride in a minivan while we were waiting on the boat. With everything we experienced so far, we knew that it was too expensive and decided to take a cab to the group of bungalows at which we hoped to stay. All of the cab drivers waiting at the pier we in cahoots with each other. They all claimed that they could not turn on their meters (the only thing that would stop us from getting ripped off.) "No one uses them... The meters are from four years ago... Gas prices are too high now..." and so on. I sympathized a little but the guys in Bangkok were obviously still running theirs. Well we got them down to a reasonable price after walking toward the pick-up trucks full of people and arrived on the north shore at our expected destination in no time.
As we walked up to the beach-side front desk, we saw Christmas lights and people hanging out on the beach. We were so excited... Then we were informed there was no room at the inn...
Ok let's try the next one. A short walk later, we were received in the same manner; accommodating, but not rooms.
We found one room at the next one. Only one room... with one bed. They said it was small. We knew we could find better... we couldn't find better. The bed was actually big enough to fit all of us and it was much cheaper, so we decided to go for it. We didn't rfind any reason to leave so we stayed in that one, cigarbox of a room, for three nights.
We stayed on the beach that Christmas night, sipping on tropical cocktails, relieved to finally be settled. It was not a full moon, but in the distance the famous full moon party beach was surely hoppin' with people who had probably not even slept yet. You can see the light trail of a plain just over the horizon of this overexposed picture of the moon and the beach:
Suddenly, to our right on the same beach we were lounging on, we noticed a stream of lights going into the sky; the souls of the world's largest candles burning straight up to the sky.
It turned out to be something that looked like a paper lantern with a big disc to burn in the middle. Renae and Abby lit one later but I accidentally deleted the picture... oops! It was beautiful. A make shift hot air balloon for G.I Joe's and their Barbie girlfriends (or Ken boyfriends...)
The first time we saw it it was magical. So many all at once! The rest of our stay there would be random candle hot air balloons floating up toward the sky... meanwhile, sea turtles are being strangled by their remains?.
Just as curious, of course, were the palm trees with Christmas lights:
We had to walk underneath of the scary spider of doom every time we travelled to and from our room:
and I saw a fat little frog outside of our door:
There was another bug... It reminded me of the caterpillar in the movie Labyrinth. It has wisdom antennae and fuzzy, unfunctional wing-type things sprouting out of its shoulders. Because it was crawling on a light, there was no way for me to capture properly that it has strange, neon green bumps on its back. I didn't try to get it on my finger because of the "Cute but Deadly" principle. I assume it is a bug that bites the fingers off of its prey and injects the most venomous toxins known to man straight into the vein. I call it Q Beedee:
My dream finally came true. I was obsessing over renting a motorbike in Khoa Sok, but alas, time did not permit it and there was no where to go. Due to the expense of the cabs on Koh Samui, we decided to rent a motorbike! It costs less than one cab ride and we got to go all over the island. Abby and I went out in the afternoon on the second day there and saw some really cool things. The croweded beach in Koh Samui was very busy and tourist oriented. We walked there for a while, checking out shops and resorts. The sand was so soft on that beach. (The beach we were at had hearty sand that was fun to walk on, terrible to run on, and grating when between your foot and your sandle.) On the way to the Grandfather and Grandmoter rocks, (two rocks, across from each other, that resemble the reproductive organs of the male and female specimens of the human species,) it started raining like a moaf!
We pulled over and tried to wait it out, but Renae was still waiting at home and we had another stop. Luckily, we were stopped next to a store that had rain slickers. I didn't mind the wetness, but got some sunglasses for eye protection. There are some awesome pictures of that trip that I have to acquire from Abby. Coming Soon! We had to go through a bit of a treacherous trek to get to the rocks. There was a sort of Rasta bar in the cove where they were located. When we were leaving, The guy at the bar pointed us in a different direction, a paved road leading right to the street.... Duh, I don't know how we missed that one. After that we rode back up toward the northern beaches. The rain came to a stop and we were doing awesome on the bike. We went to the beach adjacent to ours, that boasted the Big Buddha, a towering wonder of awe and... wonder. Before the day rental ran out on the bike, I took Renae the next morning to the Big Buddha. I do have pictures from that day:
A cool pond. (note the statues coming out of the water)
Big Buddha
It was a little humbling to be there, but it was also empowering, being on the coast and looking out from this huge sacred monument. There were such cool handrails that were serpents, or rather, a 7-headed serpent!:
Also, someone at the bottom of the monument, where a few shops were set up, has this amazing metal statue shop. It has all sorts of characters; Darth Vader, Predator, (vs.) Aliens, (2) Gremlins, Yoda... the whole deal.
(In order to finish this blog post sometime this year, I am going to be as flavorless and a school lunch in Korea from now on. Please accept my apologies.)
Last night, beautiful sunset.
We had to wake up at 4 something a.m. that morning - there were barely any cabs- got way way overcharged but didn't want to miss the early ferry. Got there in time to find out that we could take a cheap bus/ferry combo to the airport if we waited another hour (of sleep lost)... Well it was worth not having to stay in Sarat Thani again, although we had to pass through it and traffic was miserable... I was scared we were going to miss the plane anyway.
While we were waiting, I took a picture specifically for Reid:
A Milk Crate Truck!
And it was a beautiful morning so it wasn't too bad waiting. We had some for of breakfast. (Did I already mention there are 7-11's everywhere?)
We made our flight. Security let us on the flight with a huge thing of water and a razor blade we didn't realize we had in out bags till later... I watched the Nancy Drew movie on one of the flights, which was totally kick ass! (she performs an emergency tracheotomy during a high school party!) Well that was a different flight but definitely worth mentioning.
Chapter 8
Bangkok: Nice Knowin' You
Oh man! I felt so much better in Bangkok the second time around! I was prepared after the week of extra things on bills (one of my bills was even doubled!!!!! I went back to check the check and they brought me away from all of the other customers and apologized and gave me my money back... I dont think these things were accidents.) Someone told me that it it usually more busy and people who are dependent on tourist money are feeling it. Sucks, but I've been ripped off enough thanks.
At the main train station in Bangkok, we stored our bags and there was a demonstration against drunk driving. I don't know if the military was there for a separate reason or not but I loved the people who were bringing drunk driving to everyones attention.
We got to make it to some of the famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok. We used our time well and got to appreciate a lot, but I was happy we weren't doing something like this all day. I followed around a tour for a while so I could hear some of the significance of the structures we were passing. It made me feel sneaking; 'stealing' someone else's tour information.
We went to one last market place and had dinner on the river, there were a lot of cool longboats, sadly i waited to take a picture until i was done eating, and got one sponsored by pepsi...
Walking around a little more before we left:
This is the king: I am pretty sure I told you his picture is everywhere. This is a montage of his awesomeness:
And a lot of people were wearing yellow shirts, partly to show support for the king. Renae really wanted one and we were already at the train station. I went for a little adventure to find one. First, I found these:
Then, I found a million yellow shirts that were not the right size or style. Finally, I found the awesomest one in the world.
The new airport was awesome as well. We didn't spend anytime there when we arrived but leaving we had lots of time:
More awesomeness...
There were sweet restaurants set up in the middle of all the stores. Renae and I had sushi because we had a bad experience trying to get some in Korea. Airport Sushi in Thailand: Bangin'!
I was tired on my way home. The bus is super easy from the airport. I was happy to be somewhere semi-familiar again...
Chapter 9
A New Year in Seoul
Ah, the last holiday of the holiday season; New Years!
Renae and I got gussied up:
We went to City Hall. Deanna thought there would be fireworks... oops. The Ice Skating rink there is pretty and there were a bunch of people. (Renae and I finally got to go skating this past weekend... we got there around 7 and had to wait for the last shift, 10-11, because all the others were sold out already...) There were awesome Koreans making a fuss, a crappy band, some guys from Iraq, and a few random Americans, all of who were fun to get excited and make a fuss with!
Making a fuss with Koreans:
Epilogue:
Heavy Metal Knights
You really want an epilogue? Well, here it is:
Screw that. I'm going to bed it is passed my bedtime and I am tired and did all of this for you and you still want more!>><
SK, SK (slightly kidding - something i am trying to spread instead of jk - when you are actually a little serious about something say SK, [slightly kidding] - and then the person will know you really do have a little contempt in there somewhere.) again, I am SKing. hahahahahaha!
Speaking of SK, it is a huge corporation here that owns cell phone stuff and oil stuff, and apparently, a basket ball team! I have been to two games so far! I got a jersey and then everyone copied me... hahahaha... and The second game, I caught a frisbee a cheerleader through in to the crowd and thought 'this is a sucky present' It looks mad old. Well, it was mad old... one of the koreans around me managed to tell me I had to go down to the court after the game. I shot and missed a few 3 pointers for some stupid prize (free film developing) but got to stay and get autographs from pretty much the whole team! now that is what I call awesome! Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome (I didn't reach my 'awesome' quota for this post...)
Lauren, Amber, Yours (Truly), and Deanna.
basketball.
Appendix A:
I just wanted to explain that I posted all the pictures (and chapter titles shortly after) before I really began writing, so you see why i couldn't have posted the blog, without giving away some pictures without proper explanations, a little bit at a time. i am a jackass but it is done and I am happy. I hope you enjoyed!
Appendix B:
awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome!
Awesome quota reached: 72!!!!!!
Thats really great!
Index
It is all on this page...
(In order to finish this blog post sometime this year, I am going to be as flavorless and a school lunch in Korea from now on. Please accept my apologies.)
Last night, beautiful sunset.
We had to wake up at 4 something a.m. that morning - there were barely any cabs- got way way overcharged but didn't want to miss the early ferry. Got there in time to find out that we could take a cheap bus/ferry combo to the airport if we waited another hour (of sleep lost)... Well it was worth not having to stay in Sarat Thani again, although we had to pass through it and traffic was miserable... I was scared we were going to miss the plane anyway.
While we were waiting, I took a picture specifically for Reid:
A Milk Crate Truck!
And it was a beautiful morning so it wasn't too bad waiting. We had some for of breakfast. (Did I already mention there are 7-11's everywhere?)
We made our flight. Security let us on the flight with a huge thing of water and a razor blade we didn't realize we had in out bags till later... I watched the Nancy Drew movie on one of the flights, which was totally kick ass! (she performs an emergency tracheotomy during a high school party!) Well that was a different flight but definitely worth mentioning.
Chapter 8
Bangkok: Nice Knowin' You
Oh man! I felt so much better in Bangkok the second time around! I was prepared after the week of extra things on bills (one of my bills was even doubled!!!!! I went back to check the check and they brought me away from all of the other customers and apologized and gave me my money back... I dont think these things were accidents.) Someone told me that it it usually more busy and people who are dependent on tourist money are feeling it. Sucks, but I've been ripped off enough thanks.
At the main train station in Bangkok, we stored our bags and there was a demonstration against drunk driving. I don't know if the military was there for a separate reason or not but I loved the people who were bringing drunk driving to everyones attention.
We got to make it to some of the famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok. We used our time well and got to appreciate a lot, but I was happy we weren't doing something like this all day. I followed around a tour for a while so I could hear some of the significance of the structures we were passing. It made me feel sneaking; 'stealing' someone else's tour information.
We went to one last market place and had dinner on the river, there were a lot of cool longboats, sadly i waited to take a picture until i was done eating, and got one sponsored by pepsi...
Walking around a little more before we left:
This is the king: I am pretty sure I told you his picture is everywhere. This is a montage of his awesomeness:
And a lot of people were wearing yellow shirts, partly to show support for the king. Renae really wanted one and we were already at the train station. I went for a little adventure to find one. First, I found these:
Then, I found a million yellow shirts that were not the right size or style. Finally, I found the awesomest one in the world.
The new airport was awesome as well. We didn't spend anytime there when we arrived but leaving we had lots of time:
More awesomeness...
There were sweet restaurants set up in the middle of all the stores. Renae and I had sushi because we had a bad experience trying to get some in Korea. Airport Sushi in Thailand: Bangin'!
I was tired on my way home. The bus is super easy from the airport. I was happy to be somewhere semi-familiar again...
Chapter 9
A New Year in Seoul
Ah, the last holiday of the holiday season; New Years!
Renae and I got gussied up:
We went to City Hall. Deanna thought there would be fireworks... oops. The Ice Skating rink there is pretty and there were a bunch of people. (Renae and I finally got to go skating this past weekend... we got there around 7 and had to wait for the last shift, 10-11, because all the others were sold out already...) There were awesome Koreans making a fuss, a crappy band, some guys from Iraq, and a few random Americans, all of who were fun to get excited and make a fuss with!
Making a fuss with Koreans:
Epilogue:
Heavy Metal Knights
You really want an epilogue? Well, here it is:
Screw that. I'm going to bed it is passed my bedtime and I am tired and did all of this for you and you still want more!>><
SK, SK (slightly kidding - something i am trying to spread instead of jk - when you are actually a little serious about something say SK, [slightly kidding] - and then the person will know you really do have a little contempt in there somewhere.) again, I am SKing. hahahahahaha!
Speaking of SK, it is a huge corporation here that owns cell phone stuff and oil stuff, and apparently, a basket ball team! I have been to two games so far! I got a jersey and then everyone copied me... hahahaha... and The second game, I caught a frisbee a cheerleader through in to the crowd and thought 'this is a sucky present' It looks mad old. Well, it was mad old... one of the koreans around me managed to tell me I had to go down to the court after the game. I shot and missed a few 3 pointers for some stupid prize (free film developing) but got to stay and get autographs from pretty much the whole team! now that is what I call awesome! Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome (I didn't reach my 'awesome' quota for this post...)
Lauren, Amber, Yours (Truly), and Deanna.
basketball.
Appendix A:
I just wanted to explain that I posted all the pictures (and chapter titles shortly after) before I really began writing, so you see why i couldn't have posted the blog, without giving away some pictures without proper explanations, a little bit at a time. i am a jackass but it is done and I am happy. I hope you enjoyed!
Appendix B:
awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome!
Awesome quota reached: 72!!!!!!
Thats really great!
Index
It is all on this page...
