thailand update
here's the thailand update. will post pics later. also thinkin' bout doin' a year in review w/pics. we'll see if that pans out.
the flight to bangkok via narita was fully booked. we couldn't even get seats together. we got into bangkok around 2330ish. took a cab to our hotel, fortuna hotel (caters to japanese) in sikumvit, soi 5. we unloaded our gear and just walked around for a bit, checkin' out all the street food and shoppin'. since we were tired, we went to sleep.
the next day, we headed to the grand palace. but before that, we got a 2 hr thai massage. man, that was one of the most relaxin' massages i've had. first of all, the ride there was an adventure. we hired this tuk tuk driver to take us there. it was a good price so we did it. about 5 min into the ride, he pulls over and tells us that there's too much traffic and that we should take this boat ride instead. this was all bullshiet, so we hopped out. while we were waitin' to decide what to do, we were standin' under this telephone pole and eugene got poo'd on by some pigeons. what luck, huh? we finally hailed a cab to take us to the grand palace. upon arrivin', we saw a sign in front that said if tuk tuk driver wants to take u somewhere and/or go on a boat trip, say no! i found that pretty ironic...
when we entered the grand palace; sandals, shorts and tank tops weren't allowed, so we had to rent them from the place. we took tons of pics there. we took a break from and had some drinks just outside. we then headed to the sleepin' buddha w/taxi guys all tellin' us that it was closed, which was bullshiet of course. when we got to the place, there was this elementary school field trip, so i took some pics of da kids. i think i was a little jaded from the sleepin' buddha cuz i was expectin' the one from sagat's street fighter stage which was in da wide open. this sleepin' buddh a was enclosed in a shrine. :( they had some bowls which u donated about 20 baht ($.75) and you get this bowl full of these coins. the goal is to be able to have some coins left after puttin' in a little in each of the 100 or so bowls. eugene, jt and i fell short. we then walked to the station and took the train to the mall in bangkok. looked around a bit and then got some lunch. from there, we took a nap and @ night, we headed to pappong. on our way there, we took a little detour to hard rock cafe. it ended up bein' a shiet break for all of us. we didn't even order a drink!? as we got to pappong (it's a shoppin'/go-go district) it was funny how all the sellers were speakin' japanese to us. we went to one of those crazy shows and must say, it was quite amazin'. afterwards we headed back to da hotel and crashed.
woke up, had some breakfast and then headed out to pattaya. we agreed on a set price for him to take us there however, on da way, we got pulled over and he got a ticket for not usin' da meter. it came out to 1000 baht ($37) which is a lot in thailand. when we finally got to pattaya, we decided to get out and hop onto a local cab. the local cabs in pattaya aren't your normal cabs. they're pickup trucks with a roof. since we didn't reserve a hotel, we were turned down @ the first 3 hotels we went to. finally we found one that had vacancy. after we checked in, we rented some scooters from the same guy eugene got them from in april. we then headed to the beach, but on our way there, we stopped off and got some rotisserie chicken. in the back of the food stand, we saw this whitish animal on a table. when we asked what it was and da guy said dog!?! he was preparin' for some party!?! wtf!!! we got to beach and it was so relaxin'. the water was nice too. we got full service there, ppl bringin' us drinks and all these ppl sellin' food, henna tatoos, etc. the craziest thing i saw was this old man (60's) walkin' on da beach with this young thai guy (20's), both were listenin' to their discmans while holdin' hands!?! wtf!!! after chillin' on da beach we headed back, took a little nap, and then went to this go kart place. man, these go karts were quick! probably the fastest ones that i've been in. this one girl drove straight into the grass on the first turn. by the end of the race, i had about 5 dead bugs on my glasses!?
after that, we went back to the hotel, got ready and headed out to eat dinner. we had this phat seafood dinner. i ordered the rock lobster in a chili sauce which was da bomb. we also had some irish coffee which was made right in front of us. we enjoyed the fireworks show and then just walked around downtown. can't believe how many bars are in this town. saw this band called lam morrison play. he was good. played all sorts of songs. we met this one girl, em, chatted for a bit and then met up with her again about 30 min later. she invited us to go drinkin' with her friends on the beach. we went to the same beach that we went to earlier in the day but a little bit further down. there we met nana & noi and we just chilled & chatted on da beach for a few hours.
the next day, we had to pack up and head back to bangkok. we got back to our hotel and they welcomed us back in japanese which was kinda interestin'. we then headed to pantip plaza; the mecca of bootleg/electronics. jt picked up some movies and music. afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and chilled. we went to eat .... we then went to watch some muy thai. we started off watchin' with all the locals who were bettin', but after a while it got a bit too loud, so we went to sit where all the tourists were.
the next day, eug and i headed to koh samui while jt went back to nihon. we went on this propeller plane and the airport @ koh samui was just a bunch of huts. kinda trippy. we caught a cab and headed to our bungalow on da beach. that night, we headed to koh pagnan for the full moon party. while in the shuttle over there, met some australian and scandanavian peeps who told us that there was this big huge earthquake and tsunami. me & eug were like...uh...what?? we had no idea that this happened. anyhow, the full moon party was crazy. think around 8k ppl, all drinkin' out of little buckets, dancin', eatin' and just havin' a good time. couple that with fire shows, crazy visuals and it kinda turns out to be like a huge beach rave. headed back on the 5am speedboat back to koh samui. we met these 2 koo girls, kate & janice, who were from australia in the shuttle goin' home.
the next mornin', we just had breakfast on the beach and watchin' the devastation from the tsunami. headed over to the internet cafe to check and send some email. got a massage on the beach and ordered some som tam (freshly made, spicy papaya salad) and finished readin' the phil jackson book i got from rick. man, the lakers went thru a lot of stuff last year and my hate for kobe has been justified thanks to phil. we then hopped on our scooters and went lookin' for another bungalow/hotel to crash at. we went to about 5 with no luck. one of them wanted 12,000 baht (around $330) for one night!?! we finally found one and it just so happens that it's the same one kate and janice are stayin' at.
that night, i wanted to eat some shrimp so we headed down the strip to see what was out there. the seafood restaurants in thailand, usually have the seafood out in front, on ice, and you get to pick which one you want. i chose like 4 tiger prawns, 2 bbq'd, 2 fried. man...it was grubbin'! especially in the chili/garlic sauce. later that evenin', we headed over to where the clubs were. it was kinda early, so they weren't really jumpin'.
then we decided to go the reggae house where eug has been before. this club/bar was pretty big. they had a live band who did cover songs (the band was good but the vocals were pretty sad). they did like 3 bep songs which was koo. on our way out, i noticed kate and janice comin', so we went back in the club and had some drinks with them.
next day, we chilled on the beach, ate some more som tam and grilled corn. in the afternoon, we headed to the big buddha. for dinner, we went to one of the restaurants on the beach. i had this grilled filet of sole which i devoured. after dinner, went to check out the blues festival that's goin' on at all these venues on da island for about a week. headed downtown afterwards for a drink. there were these guys with a hawk and iguana that you can take a picture of with. eug took one with the hawk.
the next day, breakfast on the beach and i also got some shoppin' done. i love bargainin' in thailand. later, we took the scooters and headed south. we stopped off and got some rotisserie chicken and ate it on this one secluded beach. we then kept goin' to check out this one waterfall. the 15 min hike in was pretty tough in flip flops and to make things worse, the waterfall was kinda weak. after that, we headed up further on the mtn and stopped off at this one viewpoint. there were these 3 asians there whose language sounded familiar but not quite so familiar. it ended up bein' that they were japanese but were from osaka (the peeps from osaka have a different dialect). the view from up there was so peaceful. just overlookin' all the trees with the sunset in the background.
for dinner, we decided to hit up the north beach area cuz i wanted to see leena perform. we went to this one bar & grill which is owned by this american guy. we killed a whole bottle of shiraz and then walked to the venue. we got there just before she started performin'. great voice and definitely easy on the eyes ;)
headed back to bangkok the next day and got a lot of shoppin' done. went back to pantip plaza and eug & i picked up tons of movies, xbox games, gba games, pc games and pc software. first u look @ a catalogue, pick the movies/games, then they write down a number, u pay a deposit, then come back in 15-20 min. the xbox game girl was totally slick. she brought the catalogue to me as i sat with her in the food court while she was eatin' some noodles. tho i had to come back like 3 times cuz they weren't ready yet, the next time, she was just sittin' there readin' a newspaper and when she saw me, she closed the newspaper to reveal my bag of games. i'm still wonderin' how they can get away with all of this stuff...
we came back to the hotel and i then went shoppin' for some more omiyage while eug took a nap. got to do some more hagglin' and picked up tons of stuff for so cheap! that night, we had dinner and then headed to this one club called bed. the design of this club was pretty sick. from the outside, it looks like a big gas tank on its side. so you walk in, and can go either left or right. the room on the right was playin' hip hop, had a dj & hype man (they were american!), with a big bar on the left, couches on the right with what looked to be a second floor that overlooked the dancefloor. we checked upstairs and there was another bar with more of those couches lined up against the wall. when we went to the other side, it was like goin' into a lounge. they had a big kitchen and bar with even more chilled out couches. the kicker was that they had about 15 waitresses, dressed to impress and ready to accept drink/food orders. the service at this club reminded me of japan. i swear, it wasn't more than 2 min with your drink on the table before a waitress came by and put a coaster under it. eug and i decided to chill upstairs. not only did this club have some of the fluffiest pillows, even the walls were cushioned! the drinks there were good but a little bit expensive given the fact that we didn't really have that much money left cuz of the lousy exchange rate that we'll get to trade back into yen. didn't realize it was so close to our hotel, that we payed a tuk tuk guy 60 baht to take us like 2 blocks! anyhow, packed up went to bed.
had to quickly eat our breakfast and then head out to the airport. and then it was bye bye paradise and back to the hussle and bussle of work and life in japan. not to mention that it snowed the day we came back!!
here's the thailand update. will post pics later. also thinkin' bout doin' a year in review w/pics. we'll see if that pans out.
the flight to bangkok via narita was fully booked. we couldn't even get seats together. we got into bangkok around 2330ish. took a cab to our hotel, fortuna hotel (caters to japanese) in sikumvit, soi 5. we unloaded our gear and just walked around for a bit, checkin' out all the street food and shoppin'. since we were tired, we went to sleep.
the next day, we headed to the grand palace. but before that, we got a 2 hr thai massage. man, that was one of the most relaxin' massages i've had. first of all, the ride there was an adventure. we hired this tuk tuk driver to take us there. it was a good price so we did it. about 5 min into the ride, he pulls over and tells us that there's too much traffic and that we should take this boat ride instead. this was all bullshiet, so we hopped out. while we were waitin' to decide what to do, we were standin' under this telephone pole and eugene got poo'd on by some pigeons. what luck, huh? we finally hailed a cab to take us to the grand palace. upon arrivin', we saw a sign in front that said if tuk tuk driver wants to take u somewhere and/or go on a boat trip, say no! i found that pretty ironic...
when we entered the grand palace; sandals, shorts and tank tops weren't allowed, so we had to rent them from the place. we took tons of pics there. we took a break from and had some drinks just outside. we then headed to the sleepin' buddha w/taxi guys all tellin' us that it was closed, which was bullshiet of course. when we got to the place, there was this elementary school field trip, so i took some pics of da kids. i think i was a little jaded from the sleepin' buddha cuz i was expectin' the one from sagat's street fighter stage which was in da wide open. this sleepin' buddh a was enclosed in a shrine. :( they had some bowls which u donated about 20 baht ($.75) and you get this bowl full of these coins. the goal is to be able to have some coins left after puttin' in a little in each of the 100 or so bowls. eugene, jt and i fell short. we then walked to the station and took the train to the mall in bangkok. looked around a bit and then got some lunch. from there, we took a nap and @ night, we headed to pappong. on our way there, we took a little detour to hard rock cafe. it ended up bein' a shiet break for all of us. we didn't even order a drink!? as we got to pappong (it's a shoppin'/go-go district) it was funny how all the sellers were speakin' japanese to us. we went to one of those crazy shows and must say, it was quite amazin'. afterwards we headed back to da hotel and crashed.
woke up, had some breakfast and then headed out to pattaya. we agreed on a set price for him to take us there however, on da way, we got pulled over and he got a ticket for not usin' da meter. it came out to 1000 baht ($37) which is a lot in thailand. when we finally got to pattaya, we decided to get out and hop onto a local cab. the local cabs in pattaya aren't your normal cabs. they're pickup trucks with a roof. since we didn't reserve a hotel, we were turned down @ the first 3 hotels we went to. finally we found one that had vacancy. after we checked in, we rented some scooters from the same guy eugene got them from in april. we then headed to the beach, but on our way there, we stopped off and got some rotisserie chicken. in the back of the food stand, we saw this whitish animal on a table. when we asked what it was and da guy said dog!?! he was preparin' for some party!?! wtf!!! we got to beach and it was so relaxin'. the water was nice too. we got full service there, ppl bringin' us drinks and all these ppl sellin' food, henna tatoos, etc. the craziest thing i saw was this old man (60's) walkin' on da beach with this young thai guy (20's), both were listenin' to their discmans while holdin' hands!?! wtf!!! after chillin' on da beach we headed back, took a little nap, and then went to this go kart place. man, these go karts were quick! probably the fastest ones that i've been in. this one girl drove straight into the grass on the first turn. by the end of the race, i had about 5 dead bugs on my glasses!?
after that, we went back to the hotel, got ready and headed out to eat dinner. we had this phat seafood dinner. i ordered the rock lobster in a chili sauce which was da bomb. we also had some irish coffee which was made right in front of us. we enjoyed the fireworks show and then just walked around downtown. can't believe how many bars are in this town. saw this band called lam morrison play. he was good. played all sorts of songs. we met this one girl, em, chatted for a bit and then met up with her again about 30 min later. she invited us to go drinkin' with her friends on the beach. we went to the same beach that we went to earlier in the day but a little bit further down. there we met nana & noi and we just chilled & chatted on da beach for a few hours.
the next day, we had to pack up and head back to bangkok. we got back to our hotel and they welcomed us back in japanese which was kinda interestin'. we then headed to pantip plaza; the mecca of bootleg/electronics. jt picked up some movies and music. afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and chilled. we went to eat .... we then went to watch some muy thai. we started off watchin' with all the locals who were bettin', but after a while it got a bit too loud, so we went to sit where all the tourists were.
the next day, eug and i headed to koh samui while jt went back to nihon. we went on this propeller plane and the airport @ koh samui was just a bunch of huts. kinda trippy. we caught a cab and headed to our bungalow on da beach. that night, we headed to koh pagnan for the full moon party. while in the shuttle over there, met some australian and scandanavian peeps who told us that there was this big huge earthquake and tsunami. me & eug were like...uh...what?? we had no idea that this happened. anyhow, the full moon party was crazy. think around 8k ppl, all drinkin' out of little buckets, dancin', eatin' and just havin' a good time. couple that with fire shows, crazy visuals and it kinda turns out to be like a huge beach rave. headed back on the 5am speedboat back to koh samui. we met these 2 koo girls, kate & janice, who were from australia in the shuttle goin' home.
the next mornin', we just had breakfast on the beach and watchin' the devastation from the tsunami. headed over to the internet cafe to check and send some email. got a massage on the beach and ordered some som tam (freshly made, spicy papaya salad) and finished readin' the phil jackson book i got from rick. man, the lakers went thru a lot of stuff last year and my hate for kobe has been justified thanks to phil. we then hopped on our scooters and went lookin' for another bungalow/hotel to crash at. we went to about 5 with no luck. one of them wanted 12,000 baht (around $330) for one night!?! we finally found one and it just so happens that it's the same one kate and janice are stayin' at.
that night, i wanted to eat some shrimp so we headed down the strip to see what was out there. the seafood restaurants in thailand, usually have the seafood out in front, on ice, and you get to pick which one you want. i chose like 4 tiger prawns, 2 bbq'd, 2 fried. man...it was grubbin'! especially in the chili/garlic sauce. later that evenin', we headed over to where the clubs were. it was kinda early, so they weren't really jumpin'.
then we decided to go the reggae house where eug has been before. this club/bar was pretty big. they had a live band who did cover songs (the band was good but the vocals were pretty sad). they did like 3 bep songs which was koo. on our way out, i noticed kate and janice comin', so we went back in the club and had some drinks with them.
next day, we chilled on the beach, ate some more som tam and grilled corn. in the afternoon, we headed to the big buddha. for dinner, we went to one of the restaurants on the beach. i had this grilled filet of sole which i devoured. after dinner, went to check out the blues festival that's goin' on at all these venues on da island for about a week. headed downtown afterwards for a drink. there were these guys with a hawk and iguana that you can take a picture of with. eug took one with the hawk.
the next day, breakfast on the beach and i also got some shoppin' done. i love bargainin' in thailand. later, we took the scooters and headed south. we stopped off and got some rotisserie chicken and ate it on this one secluded beach. we then kept goin' to check out this one waterfall. the 15 min hike in was pretty tough in flip flops and to make things worse, the waterfall was kinda weak. after that, we headed up further on the mtn and stopped off at this one viewpoint. there were these 3 asians there whose language sounded familiar but not quite so familiar. it ended up bein' that they were japanese but were from osaka (the peeps from osaka have a different dialect). the view from up there was so peaceful. just overlookin' all the trees with the sunset in the background.
for dinner, we decided to hit up the north beach area cuz i wanted to see leena perform. we went to this one bar & grill which is owned by this american guy. we killed a whole bottle of shiraz and then walked to the venue. we got there just before she started performin'. great voice and definitely easy on the eyes ;)
headed back to bangkok the next day and got a lot of shoppin' done. went back to pantip plaza and eug & i picked up tons of movies, xbox games, gba games, pc games and pc software. first u look @ a catalogue, pick the movies/games, then they write down a number, u pay a deposit, then come back in 15-20 min. the xbox game girl was totally slick. she brought the catalogue to me as i sat with her in the food court while she was eatin' some noodles. tho i had to come back like 3 times cuz they weren't ready yet, the next time, she was just sittin' there readin' a newspaper and when she saw me, she closed the newspaper to reveal my bag of games. i'm still wonderin' how they can get away with all of this stuff...
we came back to the hotel and i then went shoppin' for some more omiyage while eug took a nap. got to do some more hagglin' and picked up tons of stuff for so cheap! that night, we had dinner and then headed to this one club called bed. the design of this club was pretty sick. from the outside, it looks like a big gas tank on its side. so you walk in, and can go either left or right. the room on the right was playin' hip hop, had a dj & hype man (they were american!), with a big bar on the left, couches on the right with what looked to be a second floor that overlooked the dancefloor. we checked upstairs and there was another bar with more of those couches lined up against the wall. when we went to the other side, it was like goin' into a lounge. they had a big kitchen and bar with even more chilled out couches. the kicker was that they had about 15 waitresses, dressed to impress and ready to accept drink/food orders. the service at this club reminded me of japan. i swear, it wasn't more than 2 min with your drink on the table before a waitress came by and put a coaster under it. eug and i decided to chill upstairs. not only did this club have some of the fluffiest pillows, even the walls were cushioned! the drinks there were good but a little bit expensive given the fact that we didn't really have that much money left cuz of the lousy exchange rate that we'll get to trade back into yen. didn't realize it was so close to our hotel, that we payed a tuk tuk guy 60 baht to take us like 2 blocks! anyhow, packed up went to bed.
had to quickly eat our breakfast and then head out to the airport. and then it was bye bye paradise and back to the hussle and bussle of work and life in japan. not to mention that it snowed the day we came back!!
This entry was posted by kaz, on
木曜日, 1月 06, 2005.
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