Hanoi, Vietnam (4/9 - 4/13)

As we had planned, Monday thru Wednesday (6^th - 8^th) was very uneventful and gave us some time to catch up on sleep and prepare for our 4 day trip to Vietnam.  So, on Thursday, we caught a flight to Hanoi, the former capital of North Vietnam (and present day capital), a place that has been the scene of many things most of us wouldn’t care to see.  It is also the site of the Hoa Lo Prison, which later became more famously known as the Hanoi Hilton, an American POW camp during the Vietnam War that was made famous by John McCain, a place he spent 5 ½ years of his life.  We had debated on which Vietnam city we would visit, and based on the recommendation of my Uncle Bert, we thought Hanoi would be a more fulfilling experience than the more westernized Ho Chi Minh City in the south (formley known as Saigon).

After the hour long taxi ride, which ran us 300,000 Dong ($18), we pulled into Hanoi.  Some may describe the city as “full of character”, while other may say it is chaos in its purest form….I found it to be somewhere right in the middle.  About 90 percent of the traffic is motor cycles, there isn’t one stop light, no car lanes are labeled, most streets are no more than 2 cars in width, and sidewalks are a rare thing to find.  We had been warned about how to conduct yourself when crossing a street…”Walk at a decent pace, not too fast or too slow, and DON’T BREAK STRIDE”.  After a couple of attempts in which I was sure I was going to get run over, I found this advice to be absolutely correct.  You don’t really look both ways before you cross because there is always going to be traffic coming, you just simply start walking across the street at a consistent pace, and the motorcycles will fly by you on both sides.

We had booked the first night at the Hanoi Backpacker Hostel, but when we pulled up, a guy came up to the taxi and asked us if we were staying at the hostel.  We told him yes, and he then informed us that they had run out of room for the night, but that their “sister” hostel had room.  We said ok, he jumped in the cab with us, and we went a few blocks to the other location.  I immediately became a little suspicious that something didn’t make sense because the guy was riding with us, but went with it anyways.  He took us to an actually hotel, only charged us $10 each, and we even had AC.  But, after checking my email the next day, I had a message from the hostel asking if everything was alright because we hadn’t showed up….and as I had suspected, that guy was just staking out the hostel, waiting for a couple of dumb asses to roll up in a cab and take their business to his hotel.  It didn’t end up being a big deal (we had AC), but definitely learned from the experience. 

On Friday, we booked a trip up to HaLong Bay for a two day, one night cruise around the bay that is located on the South China Sea.  The scenery turned out to be quite extraordinary, with huge mountain cliffs surging out of the sea.  Both days were not ideal visibility conditions, but we still saw enough to realize how neat the place is.  We booked the cruise through our con artist friend, who had assured us there would be ten ladies and we would be the only two guys….and despite the fact that I had already figured out how he had lied to us about the hostel, I still believed this promise of a boat load of girls….and as you probably guessed, he once again was completely full of sh*t.  The actual group on the boat consisted of Trey, myself, a Malaysian couple in their 60’s, and a couple from Belgium in their 50’s.  We still ended up having a great time, and got a lot of reading, lounging and sleeping in.  I definitely recommend Halong to anyone who makes a trip to Hanoi.

We decided that despite the perk of having AC, we still wanted to go stay at the Backpacker Hostel to see how the crowd was…..and just as we walk in to book a room, I turn around and see a buddy of mine I went to school with named Sean.  “Hey Sean, funny running into you here”…small world, and I immediately knew we had made a good decision to go to the hostel because I had just run into an old friend, and the place was packed with travelers.  This confirmed all of my previous thoughts about hostels….if you find one that is bearable in condition, you will always find tons of fellow travelers who can give their recommendations on other places to see, and you may even run into people you know.  We stayed at the hostel both Saturday and Sunday night, bar hopped with a huge group from the hostel, and visited a couple museums (I didn’t make it to the Hanoi Hilton, and although I am not happy about it, I suspect I will make it back to Hanoi at some point).  Hanoi turned out to be an absolute blast, while also giving us et another perspective of a large Asian City.  In comparison to the other cities we have visited, I would characterize Hanoi as possibly being the least westernized city (only saw one McDonalds), but still offering all the accommodations a traveler needs and a whole lot of character to go with it. 

Monday morning marked when Trey and I had to go our separate ways.  Trey is planning on continuing his travels through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, while Monday would be my last day in Asia.  Trey has an adventure ahead of him, an adventure he will do on his own….I am jealous and wish I could continue, but I have to get back for a school activity, so good luck Trey, god speed.  

I got back to Bert and Merrie’s place at noon, packed up all my belongings, and then Merrie and I had planned on participating in the celebration of the Thai New Year called Songkran, which is best described as Mardi Gras meets the biggest water gun fight you have ever seen.  We were both becoming quite worried as to if it was safe to go out on the streets however because of all the political protests that were going on that were becoming violent, and also the possibly of another coup occurring (3 have already occurred in the last year).  The news indicated none of the protests were in the area we were at, so we decided to it was safe to join the festivities.  With my gun loaded with water, we walked to where everyone was celebrating, posted up at an Irish pub, and shot water at every passer by all afternoon long.  By the end of it, I was completely soaked and covered with a flour paste they use as a sign of welcoming the New Year.  The party was great, and it was especially neat to see that everyone was trying to ignore all the political uprising that was going on by simply having a good time. 

That night, with my fingers crossed that the airport would not shut down (the last coup forced the airport to close for a day), I said good bye to Aunt Merrie, and began my 27 hour journey back to the states.  I am happy to say I made it back with not hitches in the process, and although I definitely still had plenty of energy to continue traveling, it is nice to be home. 

I am planning on writing a few final thoughts about my time in Asia, so keep an eye out for my last post.

Cheers,

sbt

South Thailand and Kuala Lumpur (March 23rd - April 5th)

Well, it has been two weeks since my last entry, and I apologize for keeping you all in such suspense this whole time (I am being slightly sarcastic here).  Anyways, I elected to not bring my computer on this past leg because I didn’t want to worry about the security issues of carrying it around, and I am glad I didn’t bring it for that reason, but I also have a WHOLE lot of stuff to talk about.  So, I’ll start from the top and will hopefully give an entertaining recap of the events.

After we got back in town from Hong Kong on the 22^nd, we had a few days to kill in Bangkok before our flight for Phuket left on Thursday (26^th).  Since my time in Bangkok is coming to an end, we figured it would be good to hit up a few more sites in the area and based on the recommendation of Merrie, we elected to go see a crocodile farm one day and go to the ancient capital of Thailand (Ayutthaya).

Tuesday (24^th) we took a cab to the crocodile farm, which about an hour long drive outside of the city.  The park consisted of several crocodile water pens where they are divided up according to their age (one pen had some that were 70 years old), a whole herd of elephants that you can feed sugar cane to and pet, and they also had 4 tigers.  And, for only 200 baht ($6), you can sit next to the tigers and get a picture with them.  The picture we took is a little deceiving because we look really happy and excited to be in the picture, but in actuality we were scared sh*tless.  You have no idea how big a tiger is until you sit right next to one.  We also saw a crocodile show that involved three crazy Thai men wrestling crocs and sticking their arms/heads/etc inside the croc’s mouth.  Very entertaining, but I still just don’t understand how someone decides it’s a good idea to stick their head inside the mouth of a crocodile….they are stupid lizards that only know one thing, close your mouth when something is inside it and eat!

The following day, we took a tour bus up to Ayutthaya.  In all, we saw 4 temples and the old Royal Family Palace.  Some of these temples are centuries old and have sustained numerous attacks from invaders attempting to take over Thailand.  Probably the most bizarre thing we saw was one of the temples has hundreds of headless Buddha statues, which was the result of a Burmese attack on the Kingdom….the odd thing here is that the Burmese are strong Buddhists themselves.   The entire tour and boat ride back to Bangkok was a full day activity, and one that I would definitely recommend.

Thursday was the beginning of an eight day tour of South Thailand.  We flew into Phuket, which is the largest city in the area, and took a cab down to the city center.  The cab driver told us it would be 400 Baht, and like any other situation in Thailand, we began to negotiate the rate down.  After little success of the guy to at least drop it to 350, I began to get a little angry…..and then I realized I was arguing over $1, and gave in to his request.  I have found myself arguing over relatively small amounts of money in US standards, but for some reason I continue to find myself in the same argument.  We arrived to our first stop, the Phuket Backpacker, checked in, an then got a look at our room….the place didn’t seem that bad, but there was obviously no air conditioning, and we had one double bed to share between both of us.  We both looked at each other, laughed, and said this was going to be an interesting week.  After we got settled (put our backpacks on the floor), we went out to the courtyard area and began chatting with the other travels staying at the hostel.  I have done the hostel thing before when I went through Europe, but I really forgot how much fun they can be because you get to interact with so many different people from all walks of life.  This particular group consisted of English, Australian, Swedish, French and Canadian travelers.  The conversation centered around where everyone had been, where they were going, how long, etc.  Most of the guys were traveling for months on end, and one Swedish guy named Frankie has not been home for over a year…basically, they made my six week stint feel like a joke.  After we all became acquainted, we decided to head down to Patong Beach to check out a few different bars.  Patong is about a 20 minute drive from Phuket, so instead of cabing it, we decided we would hitch a ride from a local with a truck because as our new British friend Jay put it, “It’s more fun to hitch a ride then take a taxi.”  So, we all stuck our hands out at every passing truck, and the third truck that passed us pulled over and said he would take us to Patong for 400 baht.  DEAL!  Little did we know that this guy had a lead foot and so the ride was not as long as expected, but much more intense (or fun as Jay had promised).  When we got to Patong, I realized this was the main area to be at because the streets were packed with foreigners going from bar to bar, guys carrying around iguanas to take pictures with, and more Ladyboys than you would ever want to see.  The place turned out to be a good time, but it definitely encompasses the “seedy” side Thailand that gets a little old and disturbing after a while.  I’m glad I saw it, but if I were to come back, I would probably avoid Patong altogether. 

Friday’s activities involved waking up, finding a good breakfast place (a very tough thing to do in Thailand), and then hitting the beach.  We went back to Patong, and I was actually quite impressed by the quality of the beach.  Clean white sand, lots of people, and LOTS of sun.  Since this was the first day since last summer for my beautiful, dead sexy body to see the sun, I made sure I put plenty of sun block on…..I guess I needed something a lot stronger than spf 30 because I got absolutely fried (terrific, first day on the beach and I’ve already managed to sideline myself for a few days).  That night, after an aloe vera shower, we ended up repeating the previous nights festivities of going to Patong.  I can now say with a high degree of certainty that I have no desire to return…..and we also made a mistake.  On our way back from Patong, we decided that it was time to see what McDonalds tastes like, and so we officially ended our streak of not eating Mcee D’s, but it was damn good (and I am not a McDonalds fan, except for their breakfast of course).

With two days of Phuket/Patong being more than enough, we decided to take the ferry over to Phi Phi Island.  About the only thing I knew about the place was that it supposedly has some gorgeous views and that the movie “The Beach” was filmed on it.  After arriving and checking into our guest house (again, no AC, but otherwise pretty nice), we walked around the small town, and made a few observations:  There is not a single car/motorcycle on the whole island (finally, don’t have to worry about being run over!) and you couldn’t paint a better scene of a traveler’s destination than this(nothing but guest houses, restaurants and bars).  It only takes about 30 minutes to walk around the whole town, and while we were taking everything in, we bumped into a couple of our English buddies Jay, Anthony and Ash that we hung out with in Phuket.  They got to Phi a day before us, so we decided to have them show us around.  The night started at the Reggae Bar, which has a Muay Thai Ring in it that you can volunteer to fight in for a free bucket drink.  The crowd was lively, cheering for their respective favorites in the ring….Ash and Anthony actually ended up fighting the second night.  I am very glad I decided to not fight because they looked like they had just ran a marathon after they were done (and I am not in what most call “good” shape right now).  We spent all day on Sunday at the beach again, but this time I was wise and sat in the shade for a good portion of it.  Great beach, tons of Swedish travelers (I would guess 70 percent of the island was made up of Swedish people), and given the fact that almost all the tourists there are European, many girls at the beach don’t seem to like to wear tops…..not something that bothered me too much.

On Monday, we decided we would do a campout Jay had told us about which consisted of going over to the smaller island called Phi Phi Lay and camp on the same beach as you see in the movie The Beach.  So, at around 4 pm we jumped on a boat with about 10 other people and rode over to the island.  The scenery as we pulled up to the island was absolutely unbelievable…..I honestly think Phi Phi Ley has to be one of the prettiest places on Earth.  It is really tough to come up with a good description other than unreal, so I’ll just leave it at that…..Anyways, we did a little snorkeling and canoeing in the bay, then we pulled up to the beach we were going to call home for the night.  The sun was just starting to set, and we were the only people there (about 15 people in all).  The group split up to wonder the beach and try to take in what we were doing.  We began to get acquainted, and the group turned out to be remarkably diverse.  There was 2 Swiss, 2 French, 2 Canadians, 2 Italians, Trey, myself, and about 5 locals who were our guides.  Just as the sun set we were served dinner, and it was actually a great meal (chicken curry, vegetables and rice).  We all began to chat and learn what everyones story was…..we were all under 30, and had the common goal of trying to find some adventure.  As the night progressed, laughter began to echo in the canyon as we began to find things in common, laugh at each other’s accents, and even try to tell a few jokes.  Greg (Switzerland) found my accent to be especially entertaining and would often repeat everything I would say and try to overcome his heavy French accent…he especially enjoyed saying “Scottsdale, Arizona”.  The guy was absolutely hilarious every time he did it and I hope to cross paths with Greg again someday.  After a few hours of sitting our the candle lit table in camp, a few started to turn in for the night, so the remaining 5 who were still up walked down to the other end of the beach, brought the ipod stereo we had started dancing to, and continued to laugh for hours.  One of the coolest things we discovered while being on the beach with only the stars to serve as light was the plankton in the water would glow like fire flies when you ran you hand through the water, and a person swimming under water appeared to be a glowing ball of green fire….this entertained us for hours.  The night turned out to be truly magical in some ways….we had a wonderful group of engaging people and we were on an island in southern Thailand….and it was just us.  I am hopeful to have another experience to rival this one, but I will be honest when I say I am not optimistic.

After having a couple great days at the beach, we decided our next stop would be Krabi, which we had heard was a great place to learn how to rock climb.  So, we took the ferry over to Krabi, and ended up at Railay Beach.  Because of the massive mountains surrounding Railay, the only way to get there is by boat, so we once again found ourselves at an isolated but lively beach with no cars or motorcycles.  We decided to stay at the Ya Ya Resort because the price was only 700 Baht/night ($20), and once we saw our room, we figured out why it was so cheap and that maybe they should consider dropping the “resort” from there name.  Obviously, no AC, but we were getting use to that at this point, but the problem was the bathroom stunk and there was no way to flush the toilet.  After some careful thought, we figured out the way to flush was to shoot the shower hose down the toilet until everything disappeared, which we found to be quite comical.  That night, after we found a decent place to have dinner, we went to the bar at the end of the beach, appropriately called “The Last Bar”, watched the live band they had playing, and met a few other travelers (of course, Swedish).  The band was actually pretty good, playing everything from CCR to No Doubt…the funny thing about the band was they were always on key, but they had a few different interpretations of the lyrics (probably because they had never actually researched what was being said).

On Wednesday, we signed up to go rock climbing for a half day, and our guide named Teak was awesome.  He has been climbing now for 11 years and has picked up English quite well considering he has never been formally taught, and actually has an Australian accent even though he has probably never left Thailand (I assume he has worked with a lot of Aussies over the years).  Anyways, he explained everything to us, showed us how to tie knots, and after about 20 minutes of instruction, I was attempting to climb my first face….this was of course after Teak climbed the entire face in about a minute and set all the ropes for us.  After climbing for about 10 minutes and only finding myself about 10 feet up, I was once again reminded that I need to get in better shape!  I did end up making it to about 40 feet after 5 attempts, but when my hands just wouldn’t close because they were so tired, I called it quits.  Trey, on the other hand, made it to the top every time (about 70 feet)….we both really enjoyed it, and both swore that this would not be the last time we would attempt to rock climb.  That evening, we met a couple of girls from California named Rana and Sherrie who are currently traveling around the world together.  It was really neat to here about their trip, which started in Australia, with plans to travel Asia, India, Africa and then South America.  They are also doing different philanthropic activities on their journey.  We wish them well and encourage you to check out their blog.  http://www.theworldawaitsus.com/

Just as we were really starting to enjoy Railay, it was time to move on again, this time back to Phuket because we had an early flight to catch on Friday morning.  So, we caught the 3 hour ferry back to Phuket, and this time chose another area to stay in called Kata Beach.  Upon arrival, we realized Kata was really just a toned down version of Patong, so we just grabbed dinner and called it a night.  We were pretty exhausted at that point anyways, and we also wanted to rest up for our big weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Formula 1 car race with my Uncle Bert.

The next day (Friday April 3^rd), we made it to our hotel in downtown KL, and FINALLY, SOME AC and comfortable beds!  Trey decided he was going to take a nap (I wasn’t feeling 100 percent either…signs of mild food poisoning were starting to set in), but I still wanted to walk around the city for a while.  After taking a stroll to the Petronas Towers, I noticed KL was remarkably different from Bangkok, despite the fact that Malaysia and Thailand border each other.  The city reminded me a little of Hong Kong, and after some discussion with Bert, the thing all of these countries in SE Asia have in common (with Thailand being the only exception) is they have all been colonized, and as a result, have many western influences that Thailand has not been exposed to until more recently. 

The next day, with both Trey and I feeling much better after a wonderful Italian dinner, the three of us (Bert, Trey and I), made our way to the race track.  The  crowd was big, and the makeup seemed to be more foreigners than locals.  I was not familiar with F1 racing prior to KL, but was blown away at how many people from around the world were there to take in the race, and after I studied the program some, I began to notice there were some key differences between F1 and Nascar that really make it an entertaining sport to watch. 

The rest of the weekend, the three of us spent going to race, battling crowds, drinking Carlsberg, and dealing with tropical storm like rains that eventually cut the race short.  All in all, I had a great time hanging out with Bert, learning about F1 and touring KL.  I definitely recommend attending a race if the opportunity presents itself.

WELL, I have just written way to much, and I apologize.  The next couple of days, Trey and I are going to be back in Bangkok, and do as little as possible before we head to Hanoi, Vietnam on Thursday.  What’s crazy is that after my Vietnam trip, I only have one more day before this whole journey is over!  It has flown by…but stay tuned!

Ciao,

sbt

Hong Kong 3/19-3/22

After last weekend’s heavy partying in Bangkok, it was nice to take a couple days to prepare for Hong Kong.  I spent Monday thru Wednesday in Asia Cement’s corporate office, and despite not knowing much about the business, I found it very informative and interesting.  Once again, everyone was very accommodating and set aside a lot of their own time to show me the details of their business.  What was also very interesting is that less than half of the people I met with were Thai, and I found myself sitting in a staff meeting that consisted of 2 Italians, I Bulgarian, I Greek, 3 locals and myself….I guess Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” actually has a lot of truth to it!.....and I can’t thank everyone at Asia Cement enough for the great experience they provided me.

Although we were in “recharging” mode last week, we met up with Andrew and some of his friends to get in touch with our Irish roots for St. Patty’s day at a local pub called the Dubliner.  The bar was packed with young expats, a band was jamming some 80’s and 90’s tunes, and everyone had on green.  The only thing I was mad about was they didn’t have green beer, but we still had a great time and also made a few new friends.  We are also beginning to realize how crucial pubs are when traveling…..a great time can always be had at a pub, and they are also lifesavers with what I’ll call “normal foods” when you just can’t take the local cuisine anymore.

After work on Wednesday, Trey and I decided to go catch a movie at the IMAX theater, which is located in one of the nicest shopping malls I have ever been in called Siam Center.  The place is packed with all the shops you would expect to see in a mall, is 5 stories tall, has a nice grocery store attached to it, and even has a gym called “California Wow”.  We showed up early to buy the tickets, so we had some time to kill and decided to check out the food court.  Again, very nice, lots of familiar places like McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Duncan Donuts, etc….but we decided to try the Thai section of the food court.  After a few minutes of browsing, I decided to get some sort of soup…..not really sure why I went with this option, but I did, and after one bite, I realized I had made an awful choice.  Once again, the majority of the soup consisted of unidentifiable pieces of meat, and it just tasted like hell.  Thankfully, I was not concerned with offending anyone if I didn’t continue to eat the soup, so I put it down and settled on a few sushi rolls.  I am beginning to lose my “adventurous” spirit towards foods….but, I still have not pulled the McDonalds card yet.  This is something that I am proud of, but am not confident that it will last much longer.  The movie itself was good….we decided to see Watchmen, and we both thought it was definitely worth seeing.  The highlight though had to be before the movie started and after the previews ended when everyone in the audience stood for the King’s Anthem.  It is about a 3 minute song, with many favorable images of Thailand, the Royal Family, and King Rama IX himself are displayed on the screen.  I have to say, I found the anthem to be very emotionally charging and persuading towards the King.  It shows the countries unwavering support of the King, but it can also be argued that all of this is just propaganda…..either way, interesting to see.

On Thursday, we took the 2 and a half hour flight to Hong Kong.  Both Trey and I are beginning to notice that most of the non-US airlines do a much better job of taking care of their passengers, because we were both pretty excited when we learned we were getting an in-flight meal and free alcohol….its the little things I guess.  Anyways, we got into Hong Kong around 7 pm, jumped on the train to the city, and were in our hotel room in Wan Chai by 8.  We learned that Hong Kong’s airport was voted #1 in the world for the second straight year, and couldn’t argue with that considering how easy it was to get from the airport to the center of Hong Kong.  That night, we checked out a couple of bars in the area, but decided to turn in early so we could have a full day on Friday.

Friday started off with a trip to the central station where we grabbed some breakfast and then elected to take the 45 minute bus ride to the other side of the island (Hong Kong is on an island) to see Stanley’s Market.  By the time we made it to the market, the sun had burned through the clouds and the weather resembled a sunny San Diego day.  We wondered through the market, found a few t-shirts, but unlike the markets we have been to in Thailand, this one did not offer the same level of “wow” factor that we were getting use too (no dogs, monkeys, etc).  For the most part, it was upscale, factory reject items at a reasonable price.   Since it was such a nice day, and we had been told that in the event of a nice clear day in Hong Kong (apparently not all the common), you must go to the top of Victoria Peak (highest point on the island) to get a view of the city.  So, we took the tram up to the top, and were blown away by the views….it really put into perspective of how many huge buildings are in Hong Kong.  After taking in the views from the peak, we headed back to the hotel, put on our Sunday’s best and headed down to Lan Kai Fong, the bar district of Hong Kong.  When we walked up to th

e first bar (yet another pub), the scene consisted of mostly white men in the work attire.  We grabbed dinner and noticed that as the crowd got bigger, the makeup of the people really did

n’t change much, except a few older business men were rotated out for younger Brits and Aussies.  

We began bouncing around from bar to bar, with all the bars located on one big block (similar to 6ht street in Austin), and as the crowds got bigger, people just began to pour into the street with their drinks.  Trey and I both agreed that this was bad ass, and so followed the crowds into the street.  By the end of the night, the street was just as packed as the most crowded bar, beer was beginning to run down the streets like rain water, and there wasn’t a sober person to be found…..I decided the place wasn’t too bad.

Saturday didn’t start off quite as early as Friday, but we did make a huge find right after leaving our hotel room and in desperate search of a good breakfast when we found a place called the Flying Pan.  They offer a huge list of breakfast dishes neither of us had eaten for weeks…and in our condition, it definitely started the day off right.  After breakfast, we decided to wonder around the central area of the city and also ride a set of escalators that take you from the city center to a residential condo area half way up the side of a mountain.  Hong Kong is very impressive in the sense that it is built on the base of a mountain, has hundreds of enormous buildings, and is also a very clean and efficient city.  It has many similarities to New York City, but is much cleaner and is not as spread out due to the topography of the area.  It also has a very strong international feel to it, and would definitely be a good city to start in if you wanted to “ease” your way into Asia.

Saturday night, we threw on some slacks and headed over to the Peninsula Hotel in the Kowloon area, which we were told is home to one of the coolest bathrooms ever…they also serve $12 Heinekens, so we had 2 and then took pictures of the facilities.  I must say they were quite impressive, with a very modern architecture feel and it also provides a full view of the entire city while you use the urinal (I’ve got action shots, but I’ll refrain from posting them here).  After the Peninsula, we raced to catch the ferry to Macau (the Vegas of Asia), and got to the ticket line just in time….Scott:”One ticket to Macau please”…Agent:”alright, that will be $160 HKD and I need to see your passport”….Scott:”SH*T!!”.  We had basically run a couple blocks, were sweating to the point that our shirts were wet, and then we realized we didn’t have our passports.  So, we jumped into a cab, went back to the hotel to get our passports, and made it back to the ferry terminal in time to catch the 8:45 ferry.

After the hour long ferry ride, we made it to Macau and took the bus over to the MGM.  We had made plans to meet up with our buddy Ton from Bangkok, but hadn’t heard from him yet, so we sat down at a blackjack table and each started off with $1000 HKD ($130 US).  20 minutes later, Ton gave us a call, I was up to $4000 and Trey was up to $2000.  Perfect.  We 

both walked away from the table way ahead (something I don’t always do), and met up with Ton.  We walked to several other casinos, watched Ton’s buddy play in a poker tournament, grabbed a late night dinner, played one more quick round of blackjack at the Wynn (I lost $1000, Trey won $200), and before we knew it, it was already 3 am.  Deciding that it was best we walk away from the town altogether with more money than we started with, we headed back to the ferry terminal and caught the 4 am back to Hong Kong.  My overall experience in Macau was definitely a 

go

od one (I more than doubled my money), but the city does not have the same energy that you would expect from a big gambling mecca….most of the casinos are packed with serious gamblers, and not the hoards bachelor party groups we have all become accustomed to in Vegas.

I highly recommend Hong Kong to any traveler…..very easy to get around, incredible views and very foreigner friendly.  I would say it is a must see, but realize it is not exactly around the corner from the states.  You should make the trip if you can. Anyways, We made it safely back to Bangkok on Sunday, and plan to see a few more sites in the city before we head down to the southern part of Thailand this coming Thursday.  Our plans are to fly into Phuket on Thursday, stay there for at least 2 nights, and then hopefully wonder to some more remote parts of the region.  This trip will contrast our “big city” trip in Hong Kong nicely, and we will be down there for 8 nights…..should be an adventure.

Cheers,

sbt

Bangkok 3/12-3/15

After spending Thursday morning taking one last walk around the plant and saying my goodbyes to everyone, I headed back to Bangkok.  My one request from my Aunt and Trey was that we have dinner at a spot not quite so authentic as the other places I had been at up in Lop Buri, so we decided that it was already time to make our second round visit to Coyote for some much needed Mexican food.  The dinner was great, and we even had a little surprise appear outside the restaurant when Trey noticed a baby elephant walking in front of the restaurant.  There is a saying that many of the foreigners use around here….”This is Thailand”.  In short, you will see many odd things happen around here, and the only explanation many can come up is “This is Thailand”….so, that is why we have now seen 4 elephants in some of the most urban areas of Bangkok.

Friday gave me some time to catch up on a few things because everyone else (Bert, Merrie and Trey) were all out of the house working.  I also spent a few hours walking around the city to do some shopping, and also made it to Lumphini Park again and got some excellent footage of a monitor lizard (see facebook)…..I am beginning to see them a lot.

Over the course of the week that I was out of town, Trey became acquainted with couple of guys who work under Bert named Andrew and Ton.  Both have spent the majority of their lives in the US, but also have Thai roots and are currently living abroad.  So, Friday’s plans were to meet up with Andrew, Ton and a group of their friends at the local pub for happy hour.  Following our pub stop, we were going to go use some of Andrews gift passes at Pence, and then when Pence closes (2 am), go check out a local hole-in-the-wall bar called Wongs……all was thinking was I better pace myself.  We also were going to meet up with a friend that we haven’t seen since college, May Chen, who was flying in from Taipei for the weekend, but wasn’t scheduled to land until 1:30 am. 

Things started off great when we met several of Andrew and Ton’s friends…all of which were from the US.  Did the usual “where are you from….oh really, I know so and so from there” and it turned out we had a few friends in common.  Small world….Our next stop was Pence, which is more like a club in that you have your own waitress, as well as hosts who basically make you buy drinks.  It was a lot of fun, and I could tell the drinks were really getting to Trey….guy was a dancin fool.

After Pence was winding down, then it was time to check out Wongs.  When we walked up to it, I didn’t even realize we were about to go into a bar because there are no signs.....

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a door.  We 

walk in and there seems to be a decent crowd considering it is 2 am (and also because the bar is only about 15’ X 30’).  Wong himself is the bartender, but he only serves you shots and mixed drinks.  If you want a beer, you just help yourself to the beer fridge and use the honor system to pay.  We headed to the Marriott to meet up with May and immediately head back to Wongs.  Oh yeah, the other policy Wong has is he stays open until the last customer leaves….apparently the record right now is 5 pm the following day….I learn about this and then claim this is the best bar in Bangkok.  We ended up staying at Wongs until about 4, which gave me just enough time to have a few more drinks, and also lose about 1000 baht ($28 US) to Wong in a series of arm wrestling matches.  Don’t let his small stature deceive you…..the guy is strong and well disciplined in his technique.

We headed out the next morning (a little later than expected) to go do a Klong tour and visit a floating market.  Bangkok was once called the “Venice of Asia” because of the many klongs (canals, rivers) that are interwoven throughout the city.  It was an unseasonably cool day, so the tour was very nice.  Saw many historic Temples and sites of the city from the water, and also walked around the “floating market” (not quite sure why it is called that, because not one part of it was on the water).  It was similar to most of the markets we had been too (clothes, food, etc)….May talked me into trying something that looked like a little chip with some unknown white substance on top….not nearly as bad as that meal I had last week, but you aren’t missing anything if you never try one.

By the end of the tour, it was already early afternoon and we all really wanted to catch a Muay Thai fight, so we went down to Lumphini stadium and bought tickets for a 3 hour block of fights.  I guess Saturday’s are not there busiest day, so the only tickets they will sell you are they pricey front row seats (about $50 US).  We ended up seeing about 8 matches, including one knock out.  I am not much of a big boxing fan, but found the sport to be very exciting with their level of technique.  The action in the ring seemed to escalate as the fights went on, either because the level of experience increased or because I filled up on Singha Beer between each fight….not sure.  You could also go under the stadium and attempt to talk with the fighters before they entered the ring…so I got someone to catch a quick action shot of my pre-fight pump up speech for one of the fighters.

We all seemed to hit a wall not too long after the fights, as it had been a long night and day.  I did insist on going back to Wongs again, which we did for a little while….but called it a night much earlier than the previous.

The weekend was awesome, it was good to get acquainted with a few peers, and also it was great to catch up with May again.  I am a little tired from the weekend, so I look forward to taking a few days to continue working with Asia Cement and rest up…..Because next on our agenda is we are headed to Hong Kong this Thursday for the weekend!

Peace,

sbt

Lop Buri - Days 2, 3 and 4 (3/10-3/12)

Monday night’s dinner really started things off with a bang, but things have simmered down considerably since.  Before I go into all the details, I want to start off by saying how awesome the plant employees have been.  Despite the fact that we have a very tough time understanding each other, they still continue to make this experience a rewarding one.  I have especially enjoyed going around with the Quarry Manager Tiitunmick (total guess on spelling).  He was one of the managers that went to the big dinner on Monday, and has now taken me around twice to show how his operation runs.  It is neat to see how much passion he has for his job as a mining engineer….he takes great pride in running a safe practice and being environmentally conscious.  He also likes to joke around a lot, so when we do understand each other, we usually have a pretty good laugh.  I could go on and on about how nice these people are….I can’t thank them enough.

Now, onto the other aspects of the week……the first two lunches (Monday and Tuesday) were at an outdoor place that I would guess to be the nicest spot within 30 minutes of the plant (lunch was still only 500 baut, or $15, for three people).  The managers made sure none of us foreigners (myself and the insurance consultants) had ice in our drinks (water issues here), and ordered fairly conservatively (none of us could order because the whole menu is in Thai).  Overall, not bad….I mainly stuck to the chicken and white rice, but also had some of the deep fried fish (whole fish with eyes and all). 

Wednesday’s lunch was a whole new experience all together.   I had been told by everyone at the plant that I needed to bring my own lunch from the hotel because their cafeteria probably wouldn’t serve things I could handle.  So, I just brought the 3 cans of Pringles, granola bars and dried fruit that I had bought back in Bangkok as a reserve (I have been eating these snacks now for two days, because despite the fact that the hotel does have a restaurant, I am beginning to lose faith in its quality…..I haven’t had a real meal since Monday).  I assumed I would just eat my snacks for lunch, but then the environmental quality manager said I should join him for lunch at a local Chinese place with a “Thai” flare.  I agreed, so we jumped in the company bus and made the 15 minute drive to the restaurant.  Once again, an outdoor restaurant…but this time it didn’t look so nice.  The first thing I noticed was that about 5 soi dogs (street dogs…imagine a diseased ridden, rabid looking dog) were scattered throughout the restaurant (Thailand seems to have a huge problem with their dog population).  My attention was drawn from the dogs when I noticed that our waitress was a ladyboy (transvestite)….and then there were the flies.  This place rivals a dairy farm in terms of their fly population.  Oh, I also saw a rat scurry across the floor in the back, and the sugar at the table had a small ant farm in it.   Anyways, I instantly lost my appetite (and all I had eaten that day was a granola bar).  I did not want to seem rude, so I still let the guys order for me (menus were in Thai), and he said he ordered some type of soup…..so Im like “great, another bowl of mystery meat soup”.  It came out, and sure enough, I had no idea what was in it.  If I were to guess, it looked like pork, chicken, and some sort of fish or squid….but not really sure.  I tried a bite of the meat and almost lost it right then.  I then asked for a Pepsi because I could tell I was going to need a chaser if I was going to get through this meal.  I did not touch anymore of the meat, and just stuck to the noodles that tasted like lawn grass, and chased each bite with some Pepsi.  What was so funny was the engineer across from me seemed to be in heaven with the exact same dish.  Anyways, as soon as he was finished slurping down the last of his soup, I said I was done as well….using the “I had a large breakfast” as the excuse for my small appetite.  The check came, and the two engineers insisted on paying the tab of 110 Baut ($3 US)….I still think we over paid, but it didn’t cost me anything, so whatever.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get sick, but that still remains to be seen.  My only regret of the experience was that I didn’t get pictures of the whole ordeal…I guess I was too overwhelmed by the ambiance to remember.  It was a truly awful meal, possibly the most disgusting lunch I have ever had.  Enough said though….I start to get nauseated just thinking about it.

I want to thank my Aunt Merrie for insisting that I bring some snacks with me in case things got a little dicey in the food department….because THEY DID.  If it weren’t for the Pringles, Natural Valley Granola Bars, dried fruit snacks and Singha Beer, I am really not sure I would have made it through these past couple of days.

Tuesday night was low key….I spent most of the evening hanging out in my hotel room, watching TV, etc.  I did end up walking to the 711 to buy some water and a couple Singhas, and on the way back, a couple of soi dogs starting running towards me and barking…..so I very gingerly made my way across the street and back to the hotel.  Not a huge scare, but I really can’t say enough about how bad some of these dogs look.  If you are an animal lover, you would probably be very disturbed by the condition most of these dogs are in.  With the exception of these two that chased me, most seem very tame and not aggressive…..I also went to the hotel restaurant and took in the crowd of people singing Karaoke. 

Wednesday night was on pace to be about the same as Tuesday night….most of the evening I was lounging in my hotel room, eating a few Pringles and watching Thai TV shows.  I decided I wanted to give the restaurant another chance, so I went down there with the idea that I might order dinner, but for some reason, the smell of the restaurant seemed to instantly kill my appetite (might have been the lingering affects of that lunch).  So,  I ordered a Singha and took in the Karaoke crowd once again.  I have to say, after 3 nights of seeing these people sing Karaoke, I just don’t get it…..not only the words, but the music itself seems like a broken record….they seemed to be singing the same song over and over and over again….still very entertaining to watch.  I noticed another guy sitting by himself, and he appeared to be an American, so I went over to introduce myself and hoped I could strike up some sort 

conversation.  He introduced himself as Carter from Chicago, is 44, works for the US military and it turns out he lives in Bangkok and is married to a Thai girl.  We had a great conversation (I was just excited to talk with someone that could understand me clearly).  After a couple beers, Carter proposed that we go into town and check out a bar.  He also said he speaks a little Thai, so I was comfortable with the plan.  We asked our waitress where to go and to also get us a taxi.  About 5 minutes later, a guy pulled up in a truck and indicated he was the taxi.  If I were to guess, he was probably just a friend of the waitress and just wanted to make some extra money.  He took us through the town of Lop Buri, and dropped us off at some bar the seemed to be a very popular local hang out.  We went in side, and the bar was packed….but we were the only two white guys there.  Everyone one was dancing to the music of some Thai Rock band, which actually sounded decent (at least compared to the Karaoke I had heard the past 3 days).  We had a beer and tried conversing with a couple of different people, but had little success.  After one beer, we decided to head back to the hotel, and on the way, we tried to talk our driver into showing us the monkeys of the town (apparently, the main park in Lop Buri is home to hundreds of Monkeys, which helps explain why my hotel had a monkey theme).  He said they were all sleeping in the trees….damn, could have gotten some pretty good footage.  We made it back to the hotel safely and called it a night.

I am going to head back to Bangkok on Thursday, and can’t wait to have a familiar meal.  Also, this weekend should be fun because a friend of ours from Texas, May Chen, is going to fly in from Taipei to tour the city with us.  I also understand that Trey has made a few friends in the Deloitte office, and said we would probably be meeting up with them as well…..so, should be a good time. 

sbt