Bangkok: Sept 28 - Oct 23 / Sept 22 - Sept 27 / Sept 11 - Sept 21 /
September 21 2009 - Eric: On the 18th we went to the 88th floor rotating observation deck of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok and made a video. This video is cool but might be a bit long for our less patient viewers. In other news I still don't feel well! This is getting old!
September 20 2009 - kyde: The last two days have been lazy days. Yesterday, we spent some time relaxing. Eric took a nap and I got some interneting done. Around 1PM we headed out into the world and did a few errands. We got some needed groceries and hit up the laundromat to get our clothes. Let me just say that for $4.50 you get your clothes washed, dried and folded! We headed back to the apartment to drop off our stuff when we were met with a huge DOWN POUR! Our clothes got soaked and this kept us in the apartment for a bit!
After the rain ended, we headed out to find some food and fun. We walked for a bit and found a place called "Sunrise Tacos Mexican Grille." The menu was pretty authentic American-Mexican and we could get a Chipolte-like burrito. The prices were expensive, but Eric has been dreaming about Chipolte for a while so we went for it anyway. As many of you know, Eric is keen to spicy things. So, he decided to go crazy and get the spiciest salsa they offer. I enjoyed a few laughs! I, on the other hand, got a pretty bland burrito, but was still happy to have some food that reminded me of home.
We left the burrito joint and just walked. Then the food we just ate hit me! Needless to say, I found the comfort of a mall bathroom quickly. Body satisfied, for the moment, we decided to find out about the sex district in Bangkok, Patpong! A short sky train ride led us to a lit up street which we had heard much about. We were approached my guys with a laminated card in their hand advertising "Sex DVD," many men came up to both Eric and I offer "Ping Pong Show," and we saw a few scantly cland ladies. In all honesty, this was not the sex extravagonza we were expecting. I was disappointed. I certainly expected to see one boob! You could count the boob that both Eric and I saw on the main drag earlier in the night on a ladyboy with a new boob job. So, I guess Thailand delivered! I assume you have to pass through the doors of the bars and "brothels" to find out more about Patpong, but we weren't going to risk the STDs!
On the way home, the burrito decided to say hello again! It is amazing that we have had so many meals from street vendors, and we get (Eric later) sick from the place which doesn't have any Thai writing on any menu or sign in their entire establishment! I'm pretty jaw dropped and I plan on sticking to street vendors, their food is so much better anyways! Today, we are still recovering from our trist with American quisine. Eric has had a pretty bad go of things, and I've been taking it easy. We have caught up on the Daily Show and I read an entire book! We don't have anymore bowls to mess up, so tonight we will have to venture out and get us some street vendor deliciousness!
September 20 2009 - Eric: Three more videos:
September 19 2009 - Eric: More videos!
Did some exploring at a few of the many many many malls in Bangkok.
Went into this huge 5 story electronics swap meet thing. I knew places like this existed but the amount of pirated things was just crazy to see in person.
September 18 2009 - kyde: Yea, I haven't been putting up an update, but let me explain. The day begins and I manage to get a shower and head out. We are out for hours and we don't take the laptop with us, because getting robbed is not cool (not likely here, but we don't want to entice anyone). We get home and I'm usually out within a half an hour. We are working on getting our awake schedule a little later. We've seen Bangkok at 8AM and I think it might be more entertaining at 8PM!
The plane ride over here was LONG! I find it hard to sleep in vehicles, so I got to feel every minute of our time in the air. Eric is a pretty big guy, so we had to put my bag under the seat in front of him and he crossed his legs over to the seat in front of me! He managed to get a little shut eye on the flight from NY to Alaska. I managed to get really good at the game Scribblenauts! We landed and decided it was time to reserve a place to sleep in Bangkok (proactive, but lazy!). We called a hotel and got a private room. The 9 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan consisted of more Scribblenauts, a movie and some food! During the layover in Taipei, I made a very shy friend. A little boy who starred at me for a few minutes and I said "Hi!" And he moved away and slowly came back. As time passed the kid got closer and closer to me, checking out what I was doing on the computer. By the time his parents and him left, he was basically sitting 3 inches away from me. He would never talk to me, but he was pretty awesome. On the last flight, I watched the Hangover and it was good! We landed and I was happy to be on the ground. I'm not a big fan of flying and I had actually had to do some breathing excercises to get through the turbulence. Holding Eric's hand was very comforting, even if he was asleep. From sitting on the planes for so long, my feet were very swollen.
We landed, went through customs and got our bearings (bahts!). We found our way to a cab and the guy tried to hussle us! We managed to find a middle ground after telling the guy that we could read the meter (duh!). The hotel, Refill Now, was wonderful to see and sleep in.
The next morning, we woke up at 6 AM and manged to confuse a guy outside into calling and waking up his boss so he could give us a tuk tuk ride to the closest sky train. The sky train was pretty cool! We took it as far as we could go and caught a ferry which took us to the tourist district. We got to see tons of buddahs, a gigantic murial of epic proportions and some guy licked his lips and winked at Eric. I thought about pimpin' Eric out, but it really would have changed our relationship. So, I couldn't do it! The buildings surrounding the Grand Palace were amazingly glittery and detailed (Mom would love this!). Every square inch was covered with colored bits of mirror.
One thing you might ask is "How is the language barrier?" From what we have seen so far, you don't have to speak Thai at all. It would help if you knew a few phrases, but you can get to and from where you're going and find food along the way without needing the native language at all. We actually had a girl approach us while we were walking around who wanted to interview us in english, because she was studying it in University. You can decipher the necessary information from the signs.
Walking out of the Grand Palace, we noticed a lot of people taking pictures of the sky. We looked up and saw one of the most awesome things we've ever seen, a rainbow around the sun!
I made a pretty cool friend, his name is Chile!
We saw the reclining buddah at Wat Pho. It spans almost a block! Totally massive!
We hung out with some monks on our ferry ride back!
We realized the hotel we were staying at kinda sucked. Refill Now was nice for the two days we were staying, but we managed to rack up a more than $70 bill for the two days we had stayed. They almost include nothing with what you get other than the bed and a towel. The shared bathrooms were pretty crappy with bad water pressure and pretty unprivate bathrooms. Anyways, the next morning, with our bags packed and on our backs, we headed out to find a better place to stay. We went to one hostel that wanted to charge us for even more things! Eric brought up the idea of a long term place to stay and we kinda... rented an apartment! The video of it is on here already, check it out! Let me tell you a little bit about the place.
We are located about a 20 minute walk from the skytrain, which is slightly long, but I'm gonna have thighs and calves of steel after our lease is up! We also live on the 4th floor, so that will help with my toning as well. Being on the 4th floor gives us a pretty nice view! We can see a few office building and if the sky clears up a sunset!
The bathroom is oddly spacious! The water pressure is OUTSTANDING! You will just have to commit to either extremely hot or pretty cold. Most of the time, you've been outside sweating to death, so cold showers are preferred! Our apartment complex has a maid service which cleans our place and replaces our towels with fresh ones everyday (but sunday)!
The bedroom is small, but we've got a queen sized bed which the maid makes up everyday! The mattress and my pillow are hard as a log, but amazingly the neck problem that I've had for some time now is gone! So, I'm loving it!
We spent the next day getting to know our neighborhood. I had been feeling nauseous a lot lately, but having a place that I can get a descent nights sleep helped that problem. We got to have some more great street side food! We went to an express grocery store which we thought was the real grocery store! We later found out the bigger grovery store is further down the street. We got our stuff home and I immediately had some cereal! A lot of people have said they miss cereal the most and I thought that was crazy, but it completely hit me too! The cereal was delicious! While wandering around later, we found a "Medical Mall". We knew that people come here to get medical stuff done on the cheap and comfortable, but it was crazy to really see it!
Yesterday, we dropped off our clothes at with a lady who will clean them for a little under $5. I'm interested to find out if they will be folded and ironed. We stood across the street from a place that looked and didn't look like a place to eat. The window was tinted and we decided "fuck it." We walked in and were right, we could get food there! HOORAY! We got two meals and two sodas. Both meals had too much greenery to them. The guy kinda jipped us on our way out, but we won't be going there anymore. It's hard to figure out the bathroom situation at street restuarants, so we stopped at the house on the way back. Eric had the idea to go to a Limphini Park. We headed up there in the "feels like 102" weather. We got there and immediately found water, popsicles and shade! While walking around, we happened across a gigantic, six foot lizard hanging out in the lake.
We had plans to make our way to the tallest building in Bangkok. The building has a revolving top floor! The video kinda speaks for itself. We got to watch the sunset and see the city during the day and at night in about an hour! It was very cool! Once the sun had gone down, the building lit up with a million light bulbs, that was intense!
September 17 2009 - Eric:
September 16 2009 - Eric: Shot this yesterday, dude working on some power lines. Yes, he's standing on them.
Went walking around the neighborhood today, ended up at this snotty mall. We ate at the worlds cleanest Burger King because it was crazy cheap but wished we had seen this stand first.
September 15 2009 - Eric: Here's another video! We got an awesome place to stay for the month! If you're curious, here's a map link to it: Our place. Come and see us! Round trip tickets can be had for $1200, check http://www.kayak.com, Bangkok's airport code is BKK.
September 15 2009 - Eric: Ok, we have secured some good internet so here's a couple of videos. The first one was made on our flight here, the second video was from the 14th when we went around and did touristy things.
September 12 2009 - Kyde: We got on our plane last night a little before midnight. I had started my stop watch and am tracking how long this trip takes from the moment we had to be at the airport. So, far we are at 11 hours and 24 minutes, and I'm still in the sky over the Pacific. The ride is having a little bit of bumps right now, nothing scary, but I can still feel my pulse increasing and my fight or flight response getting ready for action. Speaking of flights, we got to see a few companies...
Jet Blue - Great service, complimentary snacks, LOTS of leg more and cheap fares
China Airlines - Good food if you are taking a long trip
U.S. Airways - Can take you just about anywhere and the fares are reasonable
I talked with Audrey today, and I actually had to ask what day it was, because the last few days have been a little disorrienting, espcially since We been in a skytube most of it! So, with this flight, Saturday will pretty much not exist to us, because we will in the air the whole time. Our flights today were pretty uneventful. Eric did some sleeping and I found it really hard to get comfortable. So, I'm running on 24 hours with no sleep! To ease some parental minds, we have booked a place in Bangkok! It's call RefillNow, if you want to check it out go to www.refillnow.co.th ! It looks like a pretty cool place and we're excited. I have to say that traveling to the other side of the world has worried me today, but I think it's the anticipation and the fact that I won't know how to communicate. Currently, we are on our way to Taiwan to await another plane to take us to Bangkok, but before that we've got another 5-6 hours on this plane. Quality time with Vegetable Lasanga!
September 11 2009 - Kyde: Our Days Inn stay was pretty good. We had internet and not 2 pillows to lounge around with, but FIVE. Oh yea!! To be honest, the Days Inn is actually the best place we have stayed thus far, aside from Eric's parents house. The shower in the Days Inn was incredible. It been a while since Eric and I have felt good water pressure and my hair is pretty happy about it! And Debbie, I haven't cut my hair... yet. It was imperative that we find a laundramat before leaving NY, because we were down to our last sets underwear. Using google and a little help from the front staff, we managed to trek the mile long walk in the rain to JFK Laundramat. Keep in mind that we are in queens, and I honestly expected a lot of attitude, it's freakin' New York. That was not the case though, everyone was very nice. It only cost us 4.50, and an hour and half, to clean all of our clothes and watch some Classic NBA games. There's nothing like packing up clean clothes. The walk back was wet, but fun!
We hitched a ride to the airport on the hotel shuttle, because staying out the rain would suck and sitting in the hotel lobby would suck even more; although we did get to see a couple crazies while we were there. One of them was in a frantic conversation with the Clerk. While the clerk was checking on something for her, the lady called someone and said "I need to get the hell outta New York." Never did figure out what was happening there. So, we arrived at JFK with 6 hours to kill. Ever sat in an airport for 6 hours? It gets BORING!!! There was no free internet there, so we couldn't chat at people and doing stuff on the computer. We ended up wondering around not being able to find our flight company. Turns out that we had the wrong name in mind, it was China Airlines, not Air China. We should be ashamed of ourselves for getting those two completely different names mixed up! We went to our terminal and just hung out on the floor playing games. The plane arrived and dished out a tremendous amount of people. Seriously 200 or so. We noticed an odd trend though. I counted 20 people who had medical masks on over their mouthes. I haven't had a chance to figure that one, but I'm gonna look into it. I have to say that I was surprised that there wasn't more of a hubbub about 9/11, I mean we were in NY. I guess it's been 8 years and we were on the outskirts of the city. So, we got on a plane on 9/11 at New York City! Spoiler: We survived!
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