Koh Chang

After the bustle of Bangkok, where I was finally able to get my act together and take a cooking class, I wanted to go somewhere to lay on the beach and do a whole lot of nothing. I decided to head down to the island of Koh Chang, which is a little off the eastern coast near a town called Trat. With a beach named Lonely Beach and a tiny fishing village where you can stay in a bungalow off the dock in the town, I figured it would be a perfect place to get away from it all. Wrong.

The first night I stayed at a town called White Sands Beach (it seems that all these places here have recently been re-named in a branding effort). Decent beach, more people than I wanted to deal with and sort of a tourist trap. So I decided to mosey along down the coast, looking for a more remote town, with less euro-tourists. Picking Lonely Beach, mainly because of its name and a short writeup in Lonely Planet that said it was pretty remote, I stayed the next day there. It really failed to live up to it's name. Apparently the town has undergone quite a change in the past few years, and was more packed than White Sands. The beach wasn't very good either.

My journey in search of a semi-deserted beach continued to Bang Bao. This fishing village isn't much of a fishing village anymore. It's now more of a diving center/tourist trap. Sick of searching for somewhere semi-deserted, I've stayed here the last two days sleeping in a hut over the water off the main dock. I wandered around in the jungle the other day a bit (forgot my camera though) and spent all day today on the beach a few kilometers out of town. It was pretty crowded, but better than Loney Beach. I'm ready to get off this island, so I'm headed to Siem Reap tommorow, to meet back up with Wendy and Winnie and go see Ankgor Wat. I've heard it is amazing, so am really looking forward to it.

The one saving grace of Bang Bao was last night when I got back to my very rustic bungalo, and the guy who runs it (Dia) was grilling squid off the dock. He invited me to join him and after getting across to me that the sauce was VERY spicy we dug in. We ate nearly a kilo of squid and the chilli sauce. Was the best meal I've had here on Koh Chang. I was quite proud of myself that I was able to handle the spice better than he was.

Pic dump, cntd....

Fire dancers on Koh Tao

Cooking instructore Nusi, boiling and frying noodles

Wendy with beer garden friends. The guy in the no smoking shirt chain-smoked. It was awesome

Me frying rice

Jezzie, Winnie and Jay

Me and the creepy post-plastic surgery guy in Bangkok

Pic Dump.....

Here are a bunch of pictures. As Winnie requested I've uploaded the picture of her and her Thai lover, Bang. This is kinda a random upload and the pics are of, in order:

Me, Cheyenne and Jimmy on Koh Tao
Winnie/Thai Lover
A lazy afternoon on Koh Tao
The Carnivore about to devour some seafood
A fishing boat at 5 a.m., Coming in with its catch

More to be uploaded shortly...

Bangkok, continued....

I'm still in Bangkok and have been exploring the city on my own now that Winnie and Wendy have departed for Chiang Mai. Been having fun despite a few setbacks the last couple of days. I just realized it's been a while since I've posted and have a bunch to write about.

Last week we caught a Muay Thai match at Ratchamandan Stadium, one of the main stadiums in Bangkok. It was pretty awesome watching those little guys go at it, and I realized I know nothing about Muay Thai scoring. With one exception, every guy I though was winning didn't. The first match was between 98 lbs fighters and I realized that together they still don't weigh as much as me, but could both probably kick my ass in about 10 seconds flat. The whole thing is sort of a scam, as foreigners get charged about 10x more for thier tickets. I didin't realize it at the time, but apparently there are separate ticket windows they steer you to. We paid about $50 for our tickets, and the locals pay WAY less.

Went to a beer garden this weekend which was awesome. Apparently the Thai's dedicate the entire month of November and December to getting ready for Christmas. All of the malls are decked out in decorations and are playing Christmas music. I though all the decorations and crap going up after Thanksgiving in the states was bad enough, and then I come here and discover they start it even earlier. And in a 95% Buddhist country no less... I think I would go nuts if I had to endure 2 months of Christmas music, which I despise. But enough about me being the Grinch. All the breweries here, and some foreign ones, set up these huge beer gardens with live music and EPL games on big screens and Thai food and everyone parties the night away. Met a bunch of Thai people and had a pretty wild night as we went to this club after the beer garden and then had a great meal at about 3:30 am in this little side street. I ended up skipping out on a cooking class the next morning, but am going to be taking it tomorrow.

The last few days have been a bit of a bust. My big plan yesterday was to see Chinatown and then check out the National Place and Emerald Buddha. I ended up getting super-lost in Chinatown (though I got a great bowl of noodles) and arrived at the national palace at 3. No big deal I though, I just had a little adventure. Turns out that the palace/Buddah close at 3:30 and admission was not cheap so I said screw it and just started walking around. I walked through a ton of random little neighborhoods that had no tourists in them and ended up having a pretty good time despite missing out on the sights I intended to see.

Today I was supposed to take a cooking class but when I showed up at the planned meeting spot at 9, the guy was nowhere to be found. Apparently he got confused by my email that said I wanted to take it both Tuesday and Wednesday and though I just was coming Wednesday. I guess it serves me right for skipping out on the one on Sunday. Instead, I wandered around the neighborhood of the Skytrain stop and had another delicious meal. That's been a reoccurring theme here - wander around, eat some great food from a random cart on the side of the road. I'm not quite sure how people aren't all obese here with so much great food available every 10 feet.

I did manage to salvage the day by taking a ferry ride up to the National Palace again, this time before closing time. It was pretty cool but I'm kinda templed-out. They all seem to be pretty similar.

I'm meeting up with this girl and her friends that we met at the beer garden tonight for dinner, so hopefully I'll get some more good food. It seems hard not too around here. Anyways, that's a quick update on what I've been up to the last few days. I head out Thursday morning for Koh Chang to get some more beach time then am headed to Ankgor Wat for more temples and to meet back up with Winnie and Wendy.

Above are some pictures from the trip so far...

Koh Tao and Muay Thai and Commerce

I've been back in Bangkok now for two days after heading down to Koh Tao to lay out on the beach and hang out with Winnie during her debit-card related debacle - DO NOT BANK WITH CHASE! Beyond being a government bailout welfare queen of a bank, they apparently don't realize the difficulty of getting access to your funds in a foreign country with no ATM card. Enough about that though.

I really enjoyed Koh Tao. It was a very laid back little island and a good way to relax after how overwhelming Bangkok can be, even for just a day or two. I got a sunburn, got some Muay Thai training in and considered staying on the island for a few weeks (or more) to train at the gym and get a fight. I chickend out at the last minute and am now am back in Bangkok. Also had a great night partying with the trainers from Island Muay Thai and some other new friends we met on the island.The hungover boat ride in the monsoon seas back to the mainland the next day was not quite as great a time.

I'll post more about Bangkok later as I'm getting hungry and need to go get lunch, but I really love this city. The street food is all I've expected, and much, much more. You've gotta admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the vendors setting up shop all over with nothing more than a cart and making a go of it. So far my favorite meals/snacks have been the minced pork/pork dumpling/veggie soup I had the first full day here and the Thai sausage I got outside Wat Pho yesterday.

I'm also really impressed by the amount of construction-related activity and all the huge buildings going up. Coming from a city that required a near act of god to get a house remodel approved, the sheer variety and volume of building is pretty cool.

More to come on Bangkok soon, along with pictures, but hunger calls...

Bangkok Safe

After a long, but fairly pleasant flight and a small run-in with some Korean immigration authorities I've arrived in Thailand. Got in late last night Thai-time and just went straight to my hotel to unpack. Then headed out down my street and found this little alleyway where they had all sorts of stalls for a snack and a coupe of beers. I relaxed there and people-watched. It was quite the busy little alley. My favorite person was this drunken Brit who seemed to know the restaurant owner, and was repeating over and over, "Manny Paquio, pound-for-pound, simply the best." He did this over and over and over, and...

I completely agreed with his estimation of the top pound-for-pound boxer, I just don't know if the stall staff shard his excitement.

Today I've gotta get my ticket for Koh Tao. It's an overnight bus and I have a few hours to kill so I'm about to head out and find the bus company office and then go find the most intresting thing I can to eat.

Poll

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Departure Is Imminent....

Since I'm leaving on Friday and sending the link to this out to all my friends on Thursday I figured I better have a post up otherwise I would look more than a little silly if people decided to check the link. So here goes...

It's begun to sink in that I'm about to leave all my friends and family behind for the next 2+ months. It's somewhat of a sobering though, but at the same time the nervousness I feel about leaving is overwhelmed by the excitement of what I'm about to embark on. I've never done anything like this but feel like I should have done it years ago.

I was reading an article the other day about college admissions counselors who were recommended that high school seniors work for a year, travel, or do something, anything, other than head right into college. It really struck a chord as I never felt like I got much out of school and just generally went through the motions. I had been going through the motions for nearly a year in my last job and knew I needed a change but just couldn't bring myself to do it. A friend finally helped give me the push to get out of there, and the result is a long trip to see a part of the world that I've never visited.

The current itinerary is Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia but Cambodia and Laos are also in play. The trip length looks to be 2-3 months but could be longer. The goals are to eat food I would never otherwise try and meet people from a culture very different from mine but if you find me running an expat bar five years from now don't be surprised. What happens upon my return is anyone's guess. Feel free to follow along here for somewhat infrequent updates on my trip. Food may also be touched on, from time to time. And also visit to answer that age old question - Is Nate Alive?