4 posts from July 2008

Back to BKK.... this time staying a while

Jul 25, 2008
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Ok, due to numerous factors including but not limited to

1) Fuel prices
2) Bill's need to get home early from eastern europe
3) My love for Thai food
4) my need to return to the US and A in September (will elaborate at a later date)

.......... and yes the girl as well

I am now back in Thailand and looking for work. Got hear about a week ago and started going on interviews for English teaching jobs. Yea yea, i know i cant spell but they dont know that. Havent done too much since being back since I have been looking for work and all.

So today I get a call from one of my English teaching recruiters. Does he have an English teaching job for me? No.... better. A friend of his is looking for extras to be in a John Cusack movie that is being filmed here in Thailand. Thats right ladys and gentleman...... NEDS GOING TO THE BIG SCREEN! Nothing certain yet but I will keep you posted.

Hong Kong

Jul 16, 2008
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Hong Kong is chaos and organized at the same time. At least where I am staying, there are people all over the place at all times but the city runs with great efficiency. Now when I think Hong Kong I think infrastructure. The entire city is covered with subway stations that all seem to have 15 exits and go everywhere. It is not uncommon to see a subway station, walk 4 blocks and see another entrance to the same subway station. They are everywhere so it is almost impossible to get lost even in a city this size. If thats not enough, there is a great network of busses and a trolly that goes around the island. One other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the walkways. You can almost cross the entire city without ever walking down to ground level. After learning an area it makes it extremely quick to get around because you never have to worry about traffic lights.

If you ever find yourself in Hong Kong I must highly recommend that you go to The Peak. It is the highest point in HK and you can see the whole city from there. The Peak Tram is very reasonably priced and it seems they make most of there money from all the restaurants and shops up there. The view is amazing and my camera just doesn't do it justice (no i am not complaining about the camera Allianz, thank you very much).

They are defiantly gearing up for the olympics here. The other day I saw thousands of people lined up for "special" olympic money. Not sure if its worth more or something, but people are camped out on lawn chairs waiting for days for this stuff.

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Like most other Asian countries I have been, there are plenty of markets selling anything people will buy. The difference here is they are more honest. People pop out of nowhere and say "want to buy a fake rolex?" I appreciate the honesty since most other places neglect to mention the watch is a fake.

Finally, after months of searching I have found it! The holy grail! Thats right, it is possible, I finally found a decent cheeseburger in Asia. The Hong Kong Brew-house will make you a all beef medium cooked burger that is the best in asia. I have been craving it for many months now and it was well worth the wait. O yea, the other food here is pretty damn good as well.

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Here are some misc shots.

Ko Phang Nga

Jul 13, 2008
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Ko Phang Nga has it all. White sand beaches, clear water, waterfalls, and a not too overbearing nightlife scene. Of course there are a few over populated beaches but if you look around the island you will also find some nice quite spots to enjoy yourself. The island is building more bungalows by the day so there is a good selection to find what your looking for. An added bonus is that you can find very cheap places right on the beach for a very reasonable price in the off season. I spent $15 a night for a bungalow just off the beach with air conditioning. On the inter island the forest is outstanding and untouched with the exception of the occasional house.

Ko Phang Nga is home to the full moon party which has expanded to also include the half moon party and the Sheva moon party. Basically there is 4-5 large parties each month. Full moon is on the beach, the other two are in the mountains. While there we caught a half moon party which starts at 11pm and goes until the sun rises. The best way to describe it is a rave with lots of drinking and tecno music blasting.

The beach in which the full moon party is held is always a night spot. The top of the beach is lined with small make shift bars selling "buckets" of whiskey, vodka etc and there are more traditional bars as far as the eye can see as well. Some of the more prominent places have fire shows, drinking games and other activities going all night long. Its funny how much people will drink and then play with fire.... LITERALLY! (see pics below). Dont worry mom, I neither drank any buckets nor did I jump through any fire. I wanted to, but I figured with the way my hospital run has been going the bandage on my foot would be up in flames in no time. We did see some people get really hurt doing these things. One guy jumped face first into the hoop and not through it, got a nice burn across his eye. Another genius got his leg caught in the jump rope.

Well that brings this Thailand experience to a close. With the two weeks in the hospital it certainly didnt last long but nothing beats the craziness and the beauty.

Took a van back down to Malaysia (KL) to catch my flight to Hong Kong. My camera battery was dead so I dont have pics for this next little segment. So when they sell me the ticket they tell me I am going to be on a actual bus. WRONG, they put me in a damn van with no shocks and a driver that really didnt have a clue how to drive. He must have been the last resort because the travel agency sent me all over the place to find a seat even though I booked the ticket several days in advance. Left Ko Phang Nga at 7am and didnt reach Penang Malaysia until about midnight. You read that right, I booked a ticket to KL (the capital) and they put me on a van to Penang. Ok ok, thats sort of on the way but when I get to Penang the guy there tells me there are no seats left on the bus (which I repeat, I already payed for) and if i wanted to continue that night me and my new aussie friend would need to sit on the floor the rest of the way (4hr drive). So we decided to just crash in Penang for the night and take his offer of an actual seat tomorrow. He takes us to a "guest house" so we can get some sleep without offering to compensate us any and on top of that the place he takes us to I wouldnt let my pet snake stay in for the night. I am not a picky person when it comes to a place to sleep, I am used to traveling but this place was awful. I wish my camera had batteries because words cannot describe how much of a shit hole this was. I didnt want to step foot in the bath room let alone hunker down in there, and there were roaches EVERYWHERE! Now realize that I had no sleep the night before and had been on a bus for the last 17hrs and really had no options at this point. The next day we get a decent bus but the usual 4 hour journey takes more than 6 because our bus driver "speedy" didnt know how to drive a bus either. This puts me in KL around 6pm having not slept for about 60hrs and a flight leaving the next day at 7am. At this point there is no use getting a hotel or hostel as I need to be on my way to the airport by 4am and by the time i shower and eat I will never wake up on time. so I throw down my 5th and 6th redbull and tough it out. By the time I get to HK I am soo tired that I cant sleep, so here I am sitting in my "private" hostel room typing this blog. At least its clean and I have a shower but this place makes a room in Manhattan look like a ranch in Texas. Sorry if that was a bit of a rant, but its been an interesting couple of days and that damn redbull refuses to wear off.

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Stay tuned for the Hong Kong experience....

Phuket Thailand

Jul 4, 2008
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Ok, so Phuket is one of the busiest tourist spots in all of Thailand. It has beautiful beaches, lots of entertainment and you can find rooms under any budget ($15 a night gets you a nice guest house). There are soo many beaches to choose from and they all carry different amounts of nightlife and quietness. Phuket town is very low key with not much going on but its right in the middle of everything as long as you can drive a motorbike. Taxis here are very expensive by Thai standards and for the price of one ride you can rent a motorbike. Be careful though, as many people dont know how to drive or have too much to drink so I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie.

If your looking for nightlife then Patong Beach is where you want to be. The whole area is littered with every type of bar you could think. The people on the street are crazy (see pic below) and there are "massage parlors", gogo clubs, and ladyboys

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everywhere and they will not leave you alone. Several times I have been walking down the street holding my lady friends hand (I dont need the emails) wearing a shirt that says "No I do not want a F*#King Tuk Tuk, Suit or Massage thank you very much" WRITTEN IN THAI and people are still grabbing my arm asking "Massage mister???"

Although if you are in the area, I recommend "FantaSea" which is a great performance. It is culturally accurate, has many amazing acrobatics, comedy, and lots of wild animals (elephants, buffalo, birds to name a few) running around on stage. The dancing alone is worth the ticket in my opinion. The place is a bit disney redone with people in costume walking around but its a very nice area to walk through.