THE BATHROOM!!!

Finally I've gotten my act together enough to finish with the fixtures and accessories for the bathroom enough to post it all. For those of you who don't know, I had my bathroom remodeled while in Thailand last month. It was a project that I'd been toying with doing partially myself, but ended up deciding that it was well worth avoiding the inconvenience to pay the extra to have someone else take care of it. I think I posted this before, but as a refresher, here's what I had done:

Tear down wall and door between shower/toilet and vanity.
Remove Shower
Remove linolium flooring
Remove carpet in the entryway/vanity area
Install Bathtub
Tile the floor
Tile the bathtub walls
Replace toilet
Replace vanity top with granite top
Add wall on the end of the bathtub
Add a French door between bedroom and bathroom

Here is the set of pictures of how the bathroom looked before the renovation:




Here it is after the renovation: woohoo!

a sandwich for a drink. and karaoke

I have finally caught back up with my life since returning from Thailand! I haven't had a chance to finish my hardcopy scrapbook, but my pictures are posted to Facebook Here, Here, and Here.

Meanwhile, since I've been in town, I've been getting back to my normal life of work and dancing and working out. I tried a few new dance things this week - I went west coast swing dancing for the first time, and I took a hip hop class. Both were different than I expected, but both were quite enjoyable, and perhaps I'll do each again. Meanwhile, neither excited me nearly as much as lindy hop.

Saturday night I went to Marcia's going away dinner at South City Kitchen which I'd heard of many times, and had never eaten there, but it was delicious. After dinner I met up with a bunch of people for Jamie's b-day at the kareoke place. It was my first time going to a karaoke bar where you get your own room. Normally it starts out with a bar full of people, and by the time I'm done with the song, I have my own room, but to start that way?? haha no, just kidding. It was awesome though. I helped close out the night with Chicago's "All that Jazz", and it was awesome.

I spent all week at work (and the past 3 weeks) preparing a bid for a project, and I think this is the first bid that I have spent this much time and effort on. Hopefully we'll get the project and I'll get to keep working on it. Finishing it at the last minute, I rushed out of the office to deliver the bid, and then off to the airport. I figured since my flight was a 6:30 flight, I'd pick up some dinner at the airport, but rushing in, I only had time to get a "to go" dinner. I brought my sandwich on the plane, and ate half of it. The middle aged guy sitting next to me sat down, and took one look at my sandwich and says "what can I offer you for the other half of your sandwich?" he was joking, but I was full after half, and so I gave him the other half. In exchange, he bought me a drink when the cart came around. Not a bad deal. He was actually one of the more interesting people I've sat next to on a plane. He is an ex-navy pilot who flew in 'nam and then came back and became a lawyer. He had come from Tulsa to the SE to buy a jet (his second). He showed me pictures, and you could tell he was excited. The conversation was great over the next two hours, and I must say, I am not sure if it was the conversation or the fact that my last flight was 15 hours, but we landed in no time.

When I arrived in Tulsa, my colleague Mike and I were staying in different hotels since each hotel just had one room available when we booked. My hotel however has no workout room. I make a point to work out when I'm on the road because a) I eat a lot worse and a lot more on the road, and b) there's usually nothing else to do. I have seen my share of hotel "fitness centers" which are often a bedroom with no beds, but replaced with a treadmill and a stationary bike. No air circulation, and a 30"TV about a foot in front of the treadmill. blah. But this Holiday Inn gets you a pass to the gym down the road for free. So I headed over to the gym, and I was awed. The gym was huge with brand new equipment, and a nice set up. Maybe I'll work out extra while I'm here. but on the way home from the gym at 10:00, I was hungry since I'd eaten a half sandwich for dinner at 6:00, so I got some ice cream. Not the best idea after working out, but it sure was yummy!

planned to arrive back home in 2 days, but until then, I will be in the plant here doing what I do.

Reflections on Thailand

After spending the last 2 and a half weeks in Thailand, I am going to use this entry to recap my own perspective on my trip and on the country in general. I will write by category and keep in mind, these of course are my personal opinions. This is a bit long, but I wanted to get it all out :-)

Street Food:
80% of the food we ate in Thailand was from a street vendor. Most street vendors own small carts or motorbikes so they wheel onto and off of their corner. Meals from street vendors are usually less than a dollar, but you needn't get a whole meal from a vendor. Here is a list of some of the things we saw regularly being sold by the street vendors:
- Chicken, Whole Fish, beef, or pork on a stick
- mystery meat on a stick
- fishballs on a stick
- corn waffles
- Fried chicken (as in, KFC style)
- omlettes
- Fruit of every possible type, larger fruit sold in a piece on a stick
- Grilled corn or corn cut off the cob mixed with an option of butter or sugar
- mango with sticky rice
- fruit smoothies
- Crepes

I will probably eat Thai food much less often here in the states knowing that they are charging $10 for what we paid $1 for in Thailand :-)

City Transportation:
Buses: Most every city has a bus system, and they're fairly reliable. The larger city's systems however have an option of 1st class (A/C) or 3rd class (no A/C) busses. The price is not much different, but the weather is.

Boats – Because the Chao Phraya River flows from North of Chiang Mai to South of Bangkok, the cities are divided over the river. To get from one side to the other or across the city, there are boats that function similar to subways. They have stops along the river, and people hop on or off quickly as each stop, tie-up, and exit total approximately 30 seconds. Rides on these boats range from 3.5 – 15 baht depending on the distance.

Subway/Metro/Skytrain - Rides on the subway or Metro lines cost a bit more than the boats, my guess is because of the obvious reason of a more complex infrastructure to build and maintain. These systems (in Bangkok in particular) charge different amounts based on the distance you plan on riding, costing 20- 50 baht.

Trains - Used primarily between cities, not within cities, they come in first class (A/C) or Third Class (no A/C) versions. Don't be surprised if your third class train has hard wooden benches rather than chairs.

While a single city may have either boats, Metro, Skytrain, busses or all five, they never seem to work together. No city that we visited had any sort of all encompassing pass that you could get for a flat rate to ride all public transport for the day.

Tuk-Tuks – While not part of the public transport system, Tuk-Tuks are a highly popular form of getting around between shorter distances. Tuk-Tuks are essentially a motorbike front with a small bench seat in the back with a shade cover over the top. Tuk-Tuks are fairly cheap, and can squeeze through traffic. It’s hard to avoid the beckoning call of the drivers who will hound you incessantly no matter where you are – “tuk-tuk?" "Where you go sir?" (everyone, regardless of sex, is 'sir') Beware of the Tuk-Tuks in touristy areas though. Here’s what the drivers will inevitably do. First they will ask you if you need a ride. Without waiting for an answer, they will also mention that the place you’re about to walk into (for example, the Grand Palace) doesn’t open for another 3 hours because of a national holiday, important meeting, construction, insert reason here – but that they can take you a bunch of other places until it’s open. They’ll tell you that they’ll be your personal driver - anywhere you want to go for just 20 Baht. This may interest you. However, the truth is that the museums nearly never close, and they make up the excuse to have you hire them, and during their “unlimited run” around the city, they will stop at multiple stores and factories where you would have to get out and “shop”. They earn the bulk of their money from the commissions they get from this, and if you are in a rush to get places, or don’t want the experience of this process, make sure you ask them to take you DIRECT to your destination. At this time, they’ll probably turn you down for the ride.

Songtaos – These are pickup trucks with the bed decked out with two bench seats along the two sides, and a roof over the top. You can hire a Songtao same as you would a taxi, but along the way, people may hop on if they’re going in your same general direction and pay a minimal price (not to be subtracted from your original cost). The first person on picks the destination and the price to take them there; all secondary passengers have no say since they’re getting a cheap ride. These were more common in the smaller towns than in Bangkok.

Taxis - Same as in any other major city - you can get flat rate or metered to any destination.

Markets/haggling – Every city, no matter the size has at least 2 markets (competition, of course). Most cities have many more. While the larger cities markets are bigger, for the most part, they all sell the same stuff: Souvenirs, Food, random hardware and electronics, and clothes. Markets can be in many forms, the most common being weekend, night, and floating markets. While tourists love going to these markets and getting deals, I didn’t see a single market that was functioning on tourism alone. The regular buyers were all locals, and all participating in the same bargaining that the tourists were. I posted a link earlier in another post on the haggling, and it is right on the money. No matter what the starting price of an item is, you should be able to get it for 2/3 to ½ that price once the haggling is done. We were getting really good at this by the time we left, but it’s embarrassing to finish haggling over something, and then realize you were haggling over 5 cents, and it was probably that person’s dinner money. Oh well, it was fun and we got some great buys for cheap. Probably the best and cheapest things we bought there were silk items, wood carvings, and clothing. Beware though. The minute you begin haggling, if you settle on a price, it's considered a done deal. You can not back out at that point without truly insulting the shopowner.

Manners/ Dress – I think it’s fair to say that Thais are the most mellow-mannered people I’ve met. I didn’t meet a single one who yelled or got mad. That’s probably why they need the Thai massages so often – to get rid of all that pent up anger and stress! It is customary when entering a home, and mandatory when entering a temple to remove your shoes at the door, I guess this is why so many Thais were wearing sandals and not lace up shoes – they were much easier to remove. As for clothing, all Thais were modestly dressed. I had read before our trip that we shouldn’t wear tank tops. I couldn’t believe it since it was about 100 degrees every day, but packed accordingly. As expected, in Bangkok and Chiang Mai (and of course all the temples), I didn’t see a single Thai in a tank top, and very few in anything that showed their knees. However, in Phuket and amongst tourists, I saw many more tank tops. There is a concept in Thailand of losing face, where essentially you embarrass yourself or someone else, and apparently not dressing modestly has you lose face to the Thais.

Toilets and public restrooms: Nearly every public restroom required a fee to enter. It was usually between 1-5 baht. Sometimes they'd hand you some toilet paper upon receipt of your payment, otherwise you'd better have brought your own. There would rarely be soap at the sinks. The toilets were squat toilets about 70-80% of the time, and regardless of the look of the toilet (squat or "western", many toilets were the type that had no flusher, but you poured water from an ajacent sink and bowl into the toilet to wash away whatever you left. This article gives a better description. There was never TP, as apparently they don't use it, and for us westerners that brought our own, there were always signs EVERYWHERE saying to throw paper into the trash lest we clog the toilets. lastly, the line in public bathrooms are PER STALL not like a regular queue. So if you are unlucky, the whole line may go in and out before your predecessor leaves their stall. Don't take a long time in your stall, or you'll get some nasty looks from the people in your line when you leave too.

Temples, or Wats as they're called, are everywhere around Thailand. The country in primarily Buddhist, and the Buddhist temples are beautiful. I honestly do not know too much about Buddhism, but kind of reminiscent of Europe's churches, the Wats are in every city, and no matter how small the town, the Wats are large and beautiful. We would be on a train riding through a town of 5 homes, but there would be a beautiful temple in the middle of nowhere. It seemed that all temples had dragons and/or elephants "guarding" the front steps, which I assume are there for some sort of protection, but I am not 100% sure. Either way, all the temples we visited were beautiful, and filled with Monks. Monks came in all ages, and I believe the youngest they can join is about 13. It's always somewhat funny to see monks doing everyday things - riding buses, buying a drink, smoking a cigarette, or doing manual labor. For some reason it seems out of place. I took this picture at the top of Doi Suthep where a Jack Fruit had fallen from the tree, and he was sweeping up the exploded fruit.

I have a few other topics of things I would've liked to write about, but at this point, I think I've covered the topics at the top of my list. The items on the rest of the list, which I haven't written about are:
- The high number of stray dogs in every city
- The air pollution so bad that city workers, pedestrians, and most drivers wear face masks over their noses and mouths, or even wrap a cloth over their whole face with only their eyes showing in order to block the pollution and sun.
- There are 7-11 convenience stores on every block. Many blocks have multiple 7-11s. We used these to buy water and as an air conditioned haven.
- Many Thais wear some sort of white powder on their faces and necks. It looks like sunscreen that hasn't been rubbed in very well. I think the powder is supposed to show that they are clean. I can't find any more info on it right now.

I hope you enjoyed reading my summary on Thailand and perhaps even read some of the daily posts. I write these for myself, so I can remember what and when I did things, but love that technology allows me to share the experiences with you :-)

Shanghai - Day 16

After flying during the night, we arrived in Shanghai at 6:30 am. We'd hoped to check in to our afternoon flight upon arrival, but as we should;'ve expected, flight check-in wouldn't open until 2 hours before the flight. So we put all our bags in luggage storage, and ventured out to see Shanghai. We took the Maglev bullet train from the airport. We'd heard that the taxis were incredibly cheap, but also that it was a long way between the airport and town, and we didn't have time. We bought round trip tickets on the Maglev, and riding that was amazing. We went 30 km in about 7 minutes. The train went at 430 km/hr. It was incredible. I felt like we probably would've taken off if we weren't attached to the tracks.

We spent the day walking around town, and it was much easier than walking around anywhere in Thailand, since it was about 80 degrees in Shanghai instead of the 95+ in Thailand. We walked around People's square and park, the Bund, and the old street/town. From there we took the metro back to the airport, and waited for our flight to leave. Our whirlwind tour of Shanghai was a nice break between flights, but after not sleeping over the night, I was tired. Our plane to Atlanta boarded on time from Shanghai, and after the grueling 14 hours of flying time, we arrived an hour early in Atlanta. But honestly, on a flight that long, an hour doesn't seem to make a huge difference. When we arrived in Atlanta, Moshe was there to pick us up at the airport, but before we could get out, we had to go through customs. While in Thailand, DZ and Leah purchased pre-packaged seeds to plant themselves some chilis, basil, and eggplants. Being the honest citizens that we are, we declared them, and of course, the customs agents confiscated them. Oh well.

We got home and I traded DZ his stuff that I brought in my bag for his 1000+ pictures from the trip. After trading, he went home, and I stayed awake to attempt to prevent jet-lag. I went to bed at 11:30, but once I woke up a little after 5am, it didn't seem to matter to my body that I hadn't slept in days.

On a good note, my bathroom looks awesome. I will post an entry soon with the pictures of the renovated bathroom!

Thailand Day 15 - Bangkok

Our last day in Bangkok, and we wanted to sleep in. Sleeping in for me meant that after being up in the middle of the night because of the loud people below us, I woke up at 6:00 am and could not go back to sleep. Not a good start for the coming days when I'd surely need the sleep.

I tossed and turned in bed until 8 when I finally got out of bed and ready for the day. DZ and Leah were still sleeping, but they eventually got up by around 9. We packed our bags, and were out at 10:30 - I think the latest we ever left any hotel. We left our bags in their luggage check for the day since our flight was to leave that night at 2 am.

We went to the malls, and looked around at the spectacle that they were. The first mall, Central World was probably 7 stories, and reminded me of Phipps plaza - all pretty fancy stores. The food court had a ton of restaurants. So many in fact, that we didn't even know where to begin for lunch. Eventually though, we each picked something and ate. After lunch, we headed outside the mall to a salon. All three of us got manicures and pedicures. The salon was recommended by Naomi (alana's cousin we met the night before), and they were pretty good. I believe we each paid $8 for the mani/pedi.

From there, we went to the other big mall right down the street, called MBK. This mall was much lower level stores than Central World - aka - we could afford stuff there. But we were trying to save our last few baht to afford the rest of the day's plans, dinner and the taxi ride to the airport, so for the most part, we didn't buy anything - shocking, I know!

We took the skytrain back towards the hostel and decided to stop at an internet cafe to trade pictures. After a half an hour of getting errors, we finally left, and headed out to get a final Thai massage. It was rush hour, and so all the massage places had a wait, but after about 30 minutes, we got in, and got a last massage. It's really incredible how these little Thai women who each probably weigh no more than 100 pounds, can give these amazing massages. Thai massage is thought of as a necessary activity for physical and mental health of Thai people, and so even the poorest people treat themselves to massages.

After getting our massages, we stopped for a second at the market by our house to get a couple last minute souvenirs - as if we didn't have time to do that before. For dinner we ate in a Lebanese restaurant. Before dinner, we each decided what we'd get, and since we knew the cost of the cab ride to the airport, we took out exactly enough money for dinner and the ride. As it turned out though, some of the dishes we'd planned on ordering didn't come with necessary components (like hummus came without pita - silly, I know), and so once we'd paid for dinner, when we combined our cash and all of our coins, we were at about 290 baht. Uh oh.

We went back to our hotel and used the showers (they allow you to use the public showers if you stay the night before, knowing full well that many flights leave in the middle of the night). We caught a metered taxi to the airport, and dumped all of our money into his hands. He seemed a bit upset since we were definitely paying him a little less than it cost, but we didn't want to take out money again and then not be able to change it at the airport.

So by the time we got to the airport, we had zero baht, and 2.5 hours to kill. We survived, and even ran into the girls that took the cooking class with us in Chiang Mai (they had a flight at the same time as us). At 1:20 am we boarded the flight to Shanghai.

Thailand Day 14 - Bangkok

Leah and I split from DZ today and we each did our own things. Leah and I got out by about 9:00, and caught the metro as far as we could take it, and got off at Chinatown. We walked the 3-4 kilometers of Chinatown, and couldn't really believe how HUGE it was! And it wasn't like Chinatown in SF or LA. Almost no one was selling crappy souvenirs or anything. It was genuinely where the Chinese people live in Bangkok. We continued walking to Wat Po, close to the Grand Palace. Wat Po is home of the famous Reclining Buddha. When we arrived there, the swarms of Tuk-Tuk drivers assured us that Wat Po did not open until 1:00 (it was about 10:30), but for 20 baht, they'd be happy to drive us all around town visiting all the other tourist attractions, returning us to Wat Po at 1:00. I had read in my guidebook of similar scams, so we went to see for ourselves. Sure enough, it was open.

After visiting the temple, we were ready to actually hire a taxi or tuk-tuk to take us to the Vinanmek Palace and museums where we were anticipating a dance show. Everyone and their brother wanted to offer us a ride there, and all around town. Again, for only 20 baht. However, they do this by stopping at their friends stores and factories. They'd give the list of destinations so quickly, you'd barely hear that they were taking you to some unwanted stops! We finally found a taxi that would get us there "direct". We were very thankful and got in.

When we got to Vinanmek, we discovered that they had cancelled the traditional Thai Dance demonstration that our book had said would've happened at 2:00. We were pretty disappointed since that was one of the main reasons we'd gone all the way out there. We already had a free ticket to the museum from a few days before. However, once we came to get the guided tour (that was free with the visit), they told us that all purses had to be checked into a locker as you were not allowed to carry them through the mansion. That was understandable. What we thought was not cool was that they charge you to use the lockers! after charging you to go to the museum, they don't tell you not to bring a purse, and then they charge you to store it. Geez. Good thing all the temples didn't charge you to store your shoes when you go in!

After Vinanmek, we figured out which bus would get us to Kho San Road - which is the road that pretty much all backpackers stay on. However, after waiting at the stop for 20 minutes, and the bus did not come in either direction, we had our doubts as to if the bus actually existed (even though it was printed on the sign and the lady at the palace confirmed it). So we decided to catch a metered taxi instead. We decided that since Kho San was close to the National Museum, that we'd see the museum first. We went to the museum that gave Thailand history and was full of all sorts of relics - from old elephant seats for royalty to beautiful mother of pearl inlaid items.

From the museum, we walked to Kho San Road. Just as expected, Kho san was full of hippie backpackers, many of whom have probably been traveling the world for months or years, and all of the required street vendors. After walking through the street, Leah and I headed to the port to catch the boat down the Chao Phraya river. There is a stop where the river boat overlaps with the skytrain, so it would be the easiest way to return to the hostel. We finally got back to the hostel around 6:15. It was certainly a day filled with sightseeing!

For dinner, the plan was to get together with the cousin of a friend of Mine and David's - Alana. Her cousin, Naomi has been living here for the year. Naomi had this grand plan of going to a restaurant for dinner, and then a bar for a couple drinks afterwards. Unfortunately, she'd mentioned that if the weather didn't cooperate, we'd have to change plans. Of course, the weather did not cooperate, and it poured. it poured for a LONG time. She finally made new plans, and we'd have to catch a taxi to get to the restaurant. After two taxis denying us service saying it was "too far" or they didn't understand where we were going, we had one agree to take us there. In order to go the direction we wanted, we had to turn onto a one way street out of our hotel, and later make a u-turn. There was so much traffic though, that by the time we went left, and then u-turned to get to the end of where our street was, took about 30 minutes, so we talked to Naomi and finally got out right where we started. We all finally agreed on a place that the skytrain could take us to. The place was called Skybar, and it was a pretty chill little place on the top floor of a building. It was nice getting to hang out with her and meet her, and we were out until about midnight when we caught the last skytrain of the evening back home.

Thailand Day 13 - Bangkok

Wow. We spent a long time on busses today. We got up early and caught a Songtao to the Kanchanaburi bus station (10 minutes)
Then we took a bus from Kanchanaburi to the Rachaburi region (2 hours)
Then we caught a minibus - AKA songtao to Damnoen Saduak (30 min)
We wanted to get to Damnoen Saduak because there's a floating market there, and Thailand seems famous for these (or perhaps just markets in general haha).

The minibus dropped us at a place where long tail boat tours began, and we were out of walking distance from anywhere to just walk the market, so they "conveniently" forced us to use their boat people. When we arrived, they "graciously" tried to rent us a long tail boat and driver for an hour at a "discounted price" of 800 baht a person. We nearly choked. Long story short, we got the boat for 200 baht a person. He floated us through the market, and slowed at all the booths where we're sure he would've gotten a commission had we bought anything there. We purchased a few little things and snacks, but none of us had any cash so it was sparse.

The boat dropped us at a stop near the bus "station" which was actually just a stand that sold tickets that buses occasionally stopped at. We paid for a ticket to the bus that goes to Bangkok, and spent 2 hours on that bus. At least it had A/C =)

Once arriving in bangkok, we pretty much didn't want to see another bus, but we took another city bus to the opposite side of town back to our hostel (another hour or so)

Phew. By the time we got back, we were wiped, and we felt like all we'd done was ride buses! For dinner, Leah and I went to an Italian restaurant where the food was overpriced and not very good. Oh well. We walked around a bit until the impending thunderstorm finally came and the sky opened and buckets of water came pouring down. Leah and I sprinted back to the room in just enough time to get pretty wet.

Thailand Day 12 - Kanchanaburi

Today was a day filled with firsts.

David went on his own, and Leah and I stuck together for the day. We started off by renting bikes again, and went to the tourist office in town. Neither Leah or I had ridden bikes in years until this week, but like they always say "you never forget how to ride a bike!" or something like that ;-) It was already hot when we left at 9 am. We rode into town and found out that most places we would've considered going in the AM were farther than we could get by walking or bike, and expensive by tuk tuk or Songtao, so we opted to stay in town. We first went to the Jeath WWII museum. It was about the allied POWs who were forced to work to build the tracks from Kanchanaburi to Burma, and the horrible facts that went along with it. The Bridge over river Kwai was where it started, and was bombed multiple times by allied planes during WWII.

From there, we rode into what we thought would be "downtown". Apparently we rode right through it and didn't notice. We did however find a Tesco which was a shopping mall type thing with something like a superwalmart inside. We noticed a hair salon, and decided that maybe we'd come back later for Leah to get her hair cut. We each ordered an overpriced ice cream while we were there, but when they arrived we realized they were not overpriced, we only underestimated the size of the servings. We each left half of our orders to melt (YES, Leah and I DID NOT eat all of our ice cream) We bicycled back to the hostel at midday.

In the afternoon, we hopped a Sontao to the Tiger Temple, famous in this region for rehabilitating and rescuing tigers, and taming them. Onlookers even have a chance to pet them. I really enjoyed this.

When we got back home, we planned to head back out to the salon for Leah's haircut. We knew that the Songtaos didn't go as far as the Tesco, so we were planning on hailing a cab (we didn't want to bike the 6km each way again). As we were walking from the hostel to the main road a random thai guy with a motorbike and a sidecar (similar to the onces we'd seen food or entire families riding in) stopped us trying to give us a ride. well, we were looking for a taxi anyway, so sure! He told us he'd charge us 20 baht each by showing us 2 20 baht bills since he didn't speak a lick of English. He didn't seem to have a clue where he was taking us so we just kept waving him on through town. I think the Tesco was farther than he expected, so we tipped him another 20 baht, and he seemed thrilled.

Upon arriving at the salon at the tesco, Leah and I quickly picked out a hairstyle from a book, as they too did not speak English, and she didn't want them to botch up her hair. The guy took about an hour an a half, and was sweating by the end, but he did a great job. He charged her 180 bahts ($6) for the whole thing (washed, cut, blow dried, styled, and obbsessed to perfection). Leah tipped him an extra 200 and he was beside himself.

We tried to take a Songtao back to the hostel since they were waiting outside, but none of them wanted to take us all the way there (we had to say 'choo choo" to emphasize that we stayed near the train station since again they didn't speak english). But lucky for us, a motorcycle taxi driver offered to take us for 80 baht, so nervously, Leah and I took him up on it and hopped on the back of his motorbike. It was awesome. Pretty scary since I'd never been on a motorbike, but awesome nonetheless.

We met up with DZ for dinner, and I got probably my worst meal since I've been here, but I haven't really had any bad meals until now, so I can't complain.

Thailand Day 11 - Bangkok/ Kanchanaburi

There are 2 trains a day between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi. We'd planned on taking the 6:45 train since it's cooler and would get us here earlier, but when we discovered it'd take over an hour to get to the train station, we opted for the 1:55 train. We still got up early, and each packed an "overnight bag" for the 2 nights we'd be in Kanchanaburi. We left all our other stuff in the luggage storage at Suk 11 in Bangkok. We took a city bus for 13 Baht to the Grand Palace. It was about 100 degrees and sunny, so we tried to do the sightseeing quickly. The place was gorgeous, but after seeing the temple, the emerald Budda, and the outside of the palace, we'd had enough heat and sun, and decided to make our way to the train station. The sophistication of the Bangkok public transport is about as good as Atlanta, as far as I can tell. You can get places, but you must know the intricacies of the system. Well, we didn't know how to get to the train station from the Palace, so we asked someone at the info desk. He was VERY impressed that we were going to go a) to Kanchanaburi, and b) on a 3rd class train (all trains to Kanchanaburi are 3rd class)

We walked about a KM from the Grand Palace to the pier (the train station is on the other side of the river. We took a boat for 3.5 baht a person (10 cents) across the river to the "railway station pier". However, there was no station there, we had to take a Songtao to the train station, and once we arrived, we purchased our three tickets to Kanchanaburi. 100 Bahts each. We had about 2 hours to kill, and we were tired of carrying our bags around (even though they were just overnight bags, we'd been carrying them for 5 hours and our shoulders were still feeling yesterday's shopping purchases). We walked around the train station looking for lunch, but there were only a ton of fruit stands, each with the owners asleep. We passed a few people peeling the tops off of chilies, but no food. We finally found a little stand near the station where they didn't speak English, but we knew the names of our favorite dishes in Thai by now, so we ordered lunch, 2 cokes, and a beer. My meal of Pad See Ew Kai (chicken with fried noodles) and a bottle of coke cost me 40 baht ($1.30). The owners were very nice, and we joked with each other that at home, we would NEVER consider eating in a place like this - a dirty, fly infested outdoor skillet. But we ate it, and 12 hours later, none of us are sick! We killed some more time at the station until the train arrived.

We boarded the train around 1:30, and waited to leave. there were some oscillating fans attached to the ceiling to "cool" the train, but other than that, the open windows provided all the "fresh" air we needed throughout the ride. At every stop, peddlers would get on selling their fares - usually the same food you see at street stands, and drinks. The best was when a woman came around with a huge over heaping tray of fried chicken. We noticed we were the only westerners (read: white people) on the whole train. This was not a normal tourist stop.

After about 2 hours, the thrill was gone, as the sun started shining into the cabin, and the hard wooden seats were making our rear ends hurt. Luckily, the ride only lasted 2.5 hrs, so it ended just as we were about done with it.

We walked to a guest house, and since we'd heard about the raft rooms in Kanchanaburi, we decided to try one out. Kanchanaburi immediately struck us as cheap (at least, even cheaper than the other cities) when our triple room came out to be $5 a person for the night. Because the room really is floating, it's like you're on a boat, so when the wake of a boat comes, the room shakes.

We rented some bikes, and rode out to see the Bridge over River Kwai at sunset. It was beautiful out, and we were glad to get some more fresh air. We ate at a bunch of random stands in the night market, and DZ finally was the first (and only) one of us to try the fish balls on a stick. He said they were actually pretty good.

We headed back to the hostel, and I finally was able to set aside some time to catch up on my posting!

I hope you guys are enjoying reading these 1/10 of how much I am enjoying experiencing all of this. I am sorry there are no pictures, but internet connections are brutally slow here, and I don't have the patience or time for it. I promise though that they will all come once I return!

Thailand Day 10 - Bangkok

I have never shopped so much in my life. The plan for today was to visit Bangkok's famous Chatuchak weekend market (JJ) in the AM, and then go see a floating market in the afternoon. We'd heard all sorts of tales of this market, and all our books said to get there early as it gets too hot and crowded later. So we set the alarm, and once we'd had breakfast, paid for the next night in the hotel, walked the 1/2 mile to the skytrain, gone to the end of the line and walked to the market, it was 8:45. We arrived and went in one entrance and we weren't really sure of what kind of strategy we should use to get through. After all, JJ is the largest market in the world. At first we wanted to do a quick walk-through of it all, but we quickly realized that a) we would never see the whole thing, and b) we should probably buy what we want when we see it since we may not find our way back to that booth again. It started out hot outside, even early, so we opted for the interior stalls covered with makeshift roofs. Some stalls were still setting up when we arrived. We started buying. We searched probably 5 stalls minimum before purchasing any item, and then bargained our way down for less (read that linked article. It is EXACTLY on the money hehe). We visited hundreds upon hundreds of stalls, and walked by many more. At 12:30 we realized there was no chance we were getting out of there any time soon, so we stopped to eat some lunch.

At the table next to us sat some Australians, and next to them, 3 middle aged southern American men who fit all American stereotypes to a T. We all had fun talking and swapping travel stories, and when I got up to go pay, one of them paid for our lunch! (granted, it was only like $5, but it was sweet)

Once we'd regained some energy, we went back for more. I think even David was having a good time, even though all the guys at lunch kept telling him he was an angel for putting up with us shopping! Early afternoon brought more heat and more people, and we eventually felt smothered by the quantity of people and the thick air in the stalls, but that didn't stop us! I really wanted to find where the fruit and flower stalls were since I'd seen and heard it was great for photo ops, but we never did find it. By the time we left the JJ market, we had each purchased a backpack full of stuff, and were holding a couple shopping bags too. Our legs were weak, and our bodies were ready to collapse. Leah and DZ may have bought about $10-$15 less than me, but we certainly all did our fair share of shopping. Here's even a list of a bunch of the stuff and their costs:

A Thai Silk Robe - 400 B
Some souvenir gifts - 200 B
4 Skirts - 600 B
Rose string lights - 300 B
Lamp - 130 B
Wall Decoration - 150 B
A couple hair clips - 80 B
2 Pillow covers - 250B
Total purchased - about 2100 baht = $70.

We came home and showered off the days work and refreshed before dinner. We went to a restaurant called "Cabbages and Condoms" for dinner. The Profits from C&C are all used towards promoting Aids/HIV awareness, and educate about family planning. The person who created it has been a huge proponent of education in Thailand, and has apparently made significant strides. The restaurant was really nice, and the food was surprisingly reasonable. They even had free internet afterwards, so I spent a few minutes to write my day 8 blog.

After dinner, we went to the subway station, and took the subway to one of Bangkok's famous rooftop bars. We went to one called the Moon Bar at Vertigo, and it was on top of the 60th floor of a fancy hotel. The bar was so nice that they had a dress code! Leah and I were wearing skirts, but they made DZ change into loaner pants since he was wearing shorts. The bar was really cool, but the prices were ~$10 for a drink. That is WAY more than one would ever expect to pay here, but it was awesome ambiance. DZ got a beer, and Leah and I just enjoyed the view. I was still stuffed from dinner.

Once we went home, we all crashed pretty fast. We were exhausted. But we had a great day.

Thailand Day 9 - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is known for their abundance of Thai Cooking classes. We opted to take "the best" one, at the Thai Cookery School. We made six dishes over the course of the day, and were able to eat them all. After course 2, everyone was already full! We made:

Thai Hot And Sour Prawn Soup (Leah and I got veggie broth and Tofu instead of the prawns)
(Tom Yam Goong)

Green Curry With Chicken - mine came out kinda grey instead of green.
(Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai)

Thai Thai Style Fish Cakes - a mix somewhere between gefilte fish and bunuelos. Don't ask. They were good though!
(Tord Man Plaa)

Fried Noodles
(Phad Thai)

Spicy Minced Chicken Salad

(Larb Gai)

Water Chestnuts With
Sugar Syrup And Coconut Milk (Tab Tim Grob)

It was actually a ton of fun minus the point where I accidentally touched my eye after slicing and cooking with chili peppers. My eye immediately turned bright red and swelled up, and it was incredibly painful. I washed it out, but it took a good hour or two to feel normal again.

Once we were done, we went back to the hostel and picked up our luggage. We hired a taxi (a pickup with seats in the bed) to drive us the 45 minute drive to the top of Doi suthep - the oldest temple and a major landmark for Chiang Mai. We climbed the 400 or so stairs to get to the top, and got to the city overlook. From there we headed to the airport and flew back to bangkok.

Upon arrival in bangkok around midnight, we took a metered taxi (always do this from the airport as the fixed rate often rip you off) to our hostel - "Suk 11" (check out the website link, the place is pretty awesome)

I will write about day 10 later tonight. We're going out now...until later!

Thailand day 8 - Chiang Mai - Day Trek

Day 8 began early. We set the alarm and got ready and dressed and had breakfast before the shuttle picked us up at 8:30. We were going on a "1-day trek" which consisted of more individual activities than I could've imagined. We started off the day with the first stop at a butterfly and Orchid farm. It was pretty cool, but neither compared to Botanical or Calloway in Atlanta, but still a nice start. From there we visited our first hilltribe, the Long Neck Karen tribe. In this tribe, it is considered beautiful to have a long neck, and so from the age of 5, all the females put brass rings around their neck, and gradually add more rings as they get older. Most of the tribe lives in Burma, but this smaller portion immigrated here about a year ago. We got some amazing pictures, and I'll post those soon. From there we went Elephant riding. We hopped an elephant, and Leah nearly died of fear. She must've said "oh my god" 30 times in a row as we were descending the first steep hill. A local corrected her and said "no! 'oh my Budda!'" Riding the elephant through the hills, trees, and river was pretty cool, and then when we were done, we fed the elephants some bananas, and then had lunch ourselves. It was a quick buffet lunch, but the food was good. After lunch, we visited the second hilltribe, who had immigrated here 5 years ago by foot from southern China. For the rest of the day we were wet. We first went to the waterfall, where it started raining as soon as we started the walk from the car. by the time we got there, though, the rain had lessened to a drizzle, and we took a dive into the water. Leah and I slid down the natural rock slide, and got a "massage" from the quickly running water in the falls. Soaking, we went back to the van for the short drive to white water rafting. We took a 30-40 minute rafting trip down the river, and although there were not too many rapids, it was pretty fun. The one eyed raft captain had a little thing for leah, and kept throwing her out of the boat. We didn't even get out of the water after the rafting, because we then boarded some bamboo rafts. The river isn't exactly the most pristine, clean river, but it was a nice day out, and we enjoyed the ride. Phew. We had a long day of doing stuff! we all piled into the van for the ride back to the hotel when we got a surprise stop at a place where they make paper out of elephant dung. Yummy.
Tonight we'll hit up the night bazaar again, perhaps for a bit longer than before

Thailand Days 6 & 7 - Chiang Mai

Day 6:

we spend the AM at the beach, and enjoyed a summer rain while in the water. We went back to the hotel early afternoon and showered and packed. We had lunch in an outdoor cafe (as usual), and headed to the airport. We took 2 flights - from Phuket to Bangkok, and then changed planes to go Bangkok to Chaing Mai.



We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 10:00 pm. All the AirAsia flights have been on time or early, which has been really nice. They're like the southwest Airlines of Asia. Once we got our taxi to drop us off at the hotel, we were confused because it looked closed. it was only 10:15. We tried calling, ringing the doorbell, and no answer. Finally another couple came by who were staying there, and let us in, but said that the hotel owner closed up around 6pm each day, and that they had the same problem. It took us another 15-20 minutes to aquire and call the right number to wake her up and have her son come let us in. Now, I'm no hotel owner, but that sounds like bad business practice to me. Anyway, we finally got to the room and then headed for Chiang Mai's famous night market. I ended up purchasing a backpack that was "Lowe Alpine" brand (of course a knockoff), but it seems like a pretty good backpack. Original price: 3900 Baht ($130). After haggling price: 1250 Baht ($41). Not bad. We'll need it for all the souvenir's we're transporting back with us! Leah and I just can't help ourselves. Also in the market, I bought some cashews, and asked if they were salted. He said no, but filled a tiny ziplock with salt for me to add it myself. It was pretty funny.

Day 7:

Our 3 days in Chiang Mai are going to be packed. Our first day we spent orienting ourself around the city walking in the 100 degree heat all over the city. We went into a ton of beautiful temples, and couldn't believe the intricacies in the designs. 3 different people told us about a particular suit shop that makes amazing suits for cheap. We decided to check it out, but once we went in, we realized it wasn't for us. They made suits that people would pay $1000 at least in the states for $300 here. But considering none of us need (or want) suits that nice, we politely left. We took our first Tuk-Tuk, and it was definitely an experience, but squeezing the three of us on the little seat in the back of the tuk tuk motorcycle was a feat. At least we can say we did it.



In the afternoon, we went on a "riverboat cruise" which was essentially a long tail boat down the river. There were 5 of us total - the 3 of us, an Aussie, and a fifth that didn't speak a lick of english, but was from Asia somewhere. The destination was a farmer's house and garden down the river, and the boat driver (who is also a farmer) took us around the garden showing us all the things growing. The farmers are self sufficient, so it was incredible to see all the things in this teeny plot of land. We saw:

bananas, papaya, mango, rose apples, starfruit, pineapple, black wine "grapes", coffeebeans, limes, sweet potato-like fruits growing from a vine. They had herbal remedies in the plants for snake bites, stomachaches, headaches, and had aloe, citronella, balm for colds (vick's). There was rice, and ginger, chilis, and countless others I can't remember. I even learned how to grind and sift rice.



Once we got back to the hotel, we had 20 minutes until they picked Leah and I up for the night safari. We grabbed some cheese and crackers from the grocery store next door, and ate fast.



The night safari was more like a zoo, and I am not sure why it had to be at night. They had a lot of animals, and you did the first hour walking, and the second on a tram around the area. It all ended with a laser/water/music show.



While Leah and I were at the safari, DZ went to a temple and chatted with a Monk and learned the basics of meditation. He didn't really seem any calmer when he came back, but he said it was cool.

Thailand Day 5

Written jointly by DZ and Bela

Today was a relaxing day at first - we slept in until almost 11, waking in time for the free breakfast at the hostel. It was raining. We spent some time talking about what to do in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. When we were getting ready to go, Leah got a call from Stephen, eliciting a shreik and a 20 minute delay in the start of the day (normal daily Stephen phone call procedure) Once dressed and ready to go, Leah and Bela went to sit on the beach, while David walked around and had some delicious lemongrass soup with chicken at the food market on the beach. On the way to the beach, we stopped and bought a few postcards and stamps so that if we mail any postcards, they would arrive before us. If you send us 30 baht and your address, we'll send you a postcard. Before more impending rain broke loose, Bela and Leah headed back to the hostel to finish some more trip planning with David.

Once showered and dressed, we headed to a nice dinner at an "Authentic" Thai Italian restaurant where Bela discovered an insect bite, and obsessed that she might have contracted malaria. After being reassured by David that she wouldnt' die for at least 2 weeks after returning to the US, Leah continued dinner by eating the entire bowl of Parmesan Cheese. Our "nice" dinner consisted of eating in an indoor restaurant and ordering an appetizer of garlic bread, and main dishes of gnocci, ravioli, and pizza and drinks along with the meal, and it still cost less than $10 a person.

We looked at a few massage places finally settling on one and trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a package rate for the three of us. Still, cost was 250 baht a person, which was less than $9 for a full hour body massage. David says it was even better than his first massage. Bela couldn't believe the strength of these little Thai ladies. They twist and pull and knead you like they were working out at a gym. During the massage, a shriek of laughter penetrated the calm ambiance of the room. It turns out that Bela thought she overheard David's masseuse say "what size are you? you big man".

Although Bela and Leah tried to hold off shopping until the market next weekend in Bangkok, the window shopping finally got to them, and they ended up buying some place settings.

On the way to the massage, we saw a cart with various crepe pancakes that looked delectable. after the massage, we returned to sample the goods. Bela and David got chocolate & Banana crepes, while Leah got cinnamon and sugar. Thankfully, David was along to finish Bela and Leah's as they each couldn't finish their own. David was concerned that Bela was turning down the rest of a sugary dessert - possibly a symptom of the onset of malaria.

Having been here for a few days, we are almost immune to the hawkers. In fact, when tourists walk by, we find ourselves offering Tuk-tuk, taxi rides, and cheaply made replicas of everything.

Walking down the street tonight, we saw a similar scene of scantily clad, professional Thai "girlfriends" as we'd seen for the past few nights. In fact, it's quite amusing to walk down the street seeing Westerners with their Thai girlfriends. While we first thought that we couldn't tell the difference between the scantily clad Thai women and the "girlfrinds", we soon realized that in fact, they were ALL girlfriends.

Tomorrow if it's nice, we'll spend the morning at the beach before catching an afternoon flight to Chiang Mai.

Thailand day 4

Oh what a day! this is going to be probably my most interesting post yet! It's raining here on the morning of day 5, so I am taking some time to write about yesterday.

Day 4 was the day to head to the Phi Phi (pronounced PeePee) Islands. We'd heard good things, so we decided to go. We were picked up from our hotel at 7 am, and hopped a ferry for the 2 hour ride. It was a beautiful (hot) day out, and we just relaxed on the way there. We stopped to go snorkeling for a while, and it was my first time snorkeling. I thought I knew what to do, but every time I went under water, I kept inhaling water. As it turns out, for once it wasn't me, it was my equipment - I was missing some sort of one way valve, so it forced me to inhale water. Awesome. Once I got good equipment, it was a lot better. DZ says it was not the best snorkeling he'd done, but it was the best I'd ever done haha :-)

We continued to the main island and had lunch and walked around the many overpriced shops for a while before getting back on the boat to return to Phuket. The boat back, someone walked behind me as we were sitting with our legs dangling into the water. For some reason, he looked a little familiar, but I didn't think much of it. As we were still sitting there, he walked back, and I just started laughing. "Holy Sh*t" was what came out of my mouth. It WAS someone I knew. Basil M., who I knew from school and working in housing at GT. He was our our same boat! not just in the same city, but on the same freaking boat. I couldn't believe it. He was also the fist person I'd come across in all our time here so far that was from the states, and even so, he is living in Singapore, so I'm not sure if that even counts! Wow.

We also met and talked to a few people on the boat who were basically taking trips around the world. That is pretty cool. It's a long trip, and I certainly wouldn't be able to do something like that alone, and whoever I'd travel with would probably get sick of me WAY too fast to take a trip that long, so I'll have to continue taking my 3 week trips as often as possible to give friends and family a recuperation time from spending quality time with me :-)

When we got back to the hotel, Leah met a girl, Isabel who was traveling on her own from Sweden, so after dinner, she came out with us. We went to this bar that was called Crocodile I think, but the funny thing about the bar was that all the dancers were "Ladyboys" meaning that they all used to be men, but are now women. These were BY FAR the hottest trannies I'd EVER seen. No offense to any of my friends, but I definitely do not have any friends as hot as these ladyboys. I could not believe it. They all looked like models. I still can barely believe they were all once men. When I get a connection good enough to upload pictures, they will come.

After that, we got some ice cream and then walked the couple KMs back to the hotel and crashed into bed.

Thailand Day 2 & 3 - In Phuket

We decided to stay in this hostel (Stoney Monday) for another 4 nights. DZ negotiated a rate of 800 baht/night including breakfast, so we couldn't pass it up. The hostel also has a free internet connection, so we can take turns using it when others are getting ready. We are staying in Patong Beach, which is the most developed beach of the area. We knew we'd picked the most touristy beach when on Saturday, which we planned to spend relaxing on the beach, we instead spent on the beach telling countless people we did not want to buy what they were selling. We were probably approached by 200-300 people in total over the time we were at the beach. I'd say a person every 2-3 minutes. They were selling everything. From what I can remember, this is what we weer offered: At first, it was typical beach sales - soda, water, ice cream, sunglasses, fruit, scarves, boogie boards, fans, jet ski rides, parasailing, etc. But spotted between these expected sellers were some unexpected peddlers. We were offered watches, suitcases, fried chicken, dresses, wood carvings, jewelery, brooms, umbrellas, henna tattoos, hammocks, massages, table cloths, and wall hanging tapestries. And it wasn't like there was one peddler of each of these. There were scores. In the evening we went into town and walked around and did some more "window" shopping, and stopped for a drink at the end of the night.

Today we got up early to enjoy our free breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of eggs, toast, french toast, (bacon if you wanted it), fruit juice and coffee/tea. It was actually quite good, but definitely a foreigners breakfast in comparison to what most people eat here. We decided to rent a car today to explore the island of Phuket (the largest island in Thailand). This is an experience in itself since they drive on the opposite side of the road here. DZ must've turned the windsheild wipers on instead of the blinkers at least 5 times. But other than that, he did a great job of driving on the opposite side of the road while I navigated the island. We drove first to Phuket town, and quickly realized that there was not anything to do there, so we continued to a smaller island off the east coast called Si Rae. There we stopped at the monkey watch, where we could see a ton of monkeys hanging out and playing. We also drove around curiously, looking at local life. We happenned upon a gypsie camp, and walked all the way in and through, and accidentally saw a dance performance by some of the children. It was very cute, and a nice surprise.

From Si Rae, we went back across the bridge to the Phuket mainland, and headed north to the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park. In there we saw the Bang Bae waterfall and the Gibbon project (a gibbon habitat helping them prepare to be rereleased into the wild). I also got to use my first squat toilet. Quite the experience. From there, we continued northward, and across the island of Phuket to the northern most beach. On a "wrong" turn, we headed to a small town, and got a snack at a deli and ran into a very nice couple from England with whom we spoke for 20 minutes getting and giving recommendations. Next door to the deli was a shop that sold the most beautiful handmade silverware. If we wouldn't have had to carry it on our backs for the next 2 weeks, I think Leah and/or I would have splurged and bought some. We couldn't get over how beautiful it was. Since Patong Beach - where we're staying - is the most developed, we wanted to see the others. We went by Naithon Beach, which was rocky and beautiful, Kamala Beach which was empty and quiet, and finally Karon beach which was nearly as developed as Patong. There are 8-10 other beaches along the west coast of Phuket, but we figured we'd gotten a good smattering of sights, and headed back. We had left early this morning since we just had the car from 8am-8pm and didn't know how long the trip would take, so when we got back at 6ish, we all relaxed and read and napped for a bit before going out to eat dinner.

Tomorrow we're heading for the Phi Phi Islands on a day trip to see the island and go snorkeling. The bus picks us up at 7 am, so I am headed to sleep.

Thailand Arrival and Day 1

Well, here I am. I have been talking about this trip for months, and I am finally here. After a 15 hour flight and another 5 hour flight, all I could think is "what was I thinking!??" The flights really weren't bad actually. The 15 hr flight we had exit row bulkhead seats, so a ton of legroom. I slept for a fair amount, but stayed up long enough to watch 27 dresses and Juno. I even watched Dan in Real life on the 5 hr flight. By the time we landed though, all I wanted was to go to sleep. Leah's plane arrived just about 10 minutes after ours, and we headed to Bangkok.

I'd reserved the Hilton for the first night since I have enough points for a free room there, and we wanted to stay somewhere the first night that the taxi driver would recognize Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to change the reservation for 3 people, and so when we got there, they charged me for the third person. I would've snuck Leah in, except the hotel had 2 single beds in the room. Oh well.

We were all awake this morning by about 8:00, but DZ went to walk around for a few minutes before we got up. Once we were all dressed and ready to go, it was about 8:45 AM. The first thing that hit us when we walked out of the hotel was the heat. The heat here is a humid, exhausting heat. We had all soaked our shirts in sweat by the time 9:30 rolled around, and we were in the shade! I'd guess it was about 95 degrees with about 95% humidity. It was unreal. I've never felt anything like that (and I don't care how much people from Atlanta claim we have).

We spent the day just walking around the city and getting a grasp of the new culture and atmosphere. Bangkok, besides being hot, is VERY polluted. People actually walk around with masks over their noses and mouths to not inhale as much pollution. Well, we weren't privvied to this knowledge, so we just sucked it up. Meanwhile, we were hungry. We passed all sorts of street vendors selling everything you could ever think of except food you'd want for breakfast. I finally found a stand that was selling something resembling waffles, made of corn. They were delicious. I paid 10 Baht (30 cents). Leah and David still wanted food though, so we stopped elsewhere where we watched the street vendor making a curry chicken stir fry. It smelled good as we watched, so we tried pointing and asking for it. She put it away in a pot and we (us and her) all seemed confused as to what we wanted. We started walking away since we figured that she was making it to save for later. What we then learned was that these street vendors, making food in their carts, actually have little tables, and people sit and eat next to the carts. They provide silverware and plates, and there's a little dirty plastic tub with dirty water that they "clean" them with once you're done. So Dave and Leah each ordered some of this chicken. She started recooking it with some rice, and threw in some chili. Immediately, Leah and I started coughing. The smell was so strong, we both had to get up and walk away to get some "fresh" air! Once it was done, she brought the two dishes to the table, and Leah and Dave had breakfast. Cost? 25 Bahts a piece. (85 cents)

In the afternoon it started to downpour, so after catching the skytrain back to our side of town. we headed back to the hotel to pack up and catch our flight to the South - Phuket, where we'd spend the next 4 days. We'll be back to Bangkok on the tail end of the trip to do more sightseeing and shopping.

We arrived in Phuket region around 6:00, and once we got a taxi to the town we wanted to stay in, we went in search of a place to stay. We soon realized that the place we anticipated to stay in was either not existant, or just too hard to find, so we gave up. while Dave was looking for another place, I talked to one of the many street vendor travel agents, who set us up in a hostel up the road for 1000 baht/night for a 3 person private room with A/C and a hot shower ($32 total). They came and picked us up, and gave us a cold glass of apple/orange/pineapple juice when we checked in. We decided we like the place and will probably stay here all 4 nights.

After check in, we went for some dinner. Before and after dinner we walked the length of the main road, stopping to see a few menus voluntarily, but stopped to see many more involuntarily by the waiters trying to woo you into their restaurant. We finally stopped for dinner at a place and ordered. DZ and I ordered a beer, Leah a bottled water. Leah and I ordered stirfry noodles with chicken, and DZ stir fry rice with chicken. Our total for the entire meal: 270 baht ($9)

After some more browsing and Leah and DZ each buying a trinket souvenir, we headed back around 10:30. We have read a lot about Thai Massage, and said we'd each get one while we're here, but DZ wanted to get his tonight. So we trooped into the place, and he got his massage while Leah and I each passed the time by getting pedicures. Total price? 550 baht. $18.50

Are you seeing the trend yet? Everything is so cheap. Unfortunately, it's like going to wal-mart - everything is cheap, but then you want to do more, so it adds up.

So far we're having a great time, and plan to hit the beach tomorrow here in Phuket. Don't worry, we'll wear sunscreen.

...all my love, Bela

Prep work for Thailand/Renovation

I have realized that over the past few months, my blog entries have dwindled significantly in comparison to the last fiver years. I guess I have kept myself so busy, I haven't made time to write. However, with my trip to Thailand next week, there will be a sudden influx of blog entries, so don't you worry :-)

Ever since ATLX, I have spent my time doing two things: Thailand Prep and Bathroom Prep. I am having a contractor redo my bathroom while I'm in Thailand, and hopefully that means there will be very few days where I can not use my bathroom because of construction. It seems like a good idea now. Let's just hope nothing goes horribly wrong. I will take pictures as much as possible and show the progress. Currently my bathroom is divided in half. the entry and vanity are essentially IN my room, and they're seperated by a wall to the shower and toilet. The plan is as follows:
Tear down wall and door between shower/toilet and vanity.
Remove Shower
Remove linolium flooring
Remove carpet in the entryway/vanity area
Install Bathtub
Tile the floor
Tile the bathtub walls
Replace toilet
Replace vanity top with granite top
Add wall on the end of the bathtub
Add a French door between bedroom and bathroom
Enjoy a hot bubble bath in my new bathtub.

While that is happening, I, along with my friend DZ and sister Leah, will be tourists in Thailand. We're spending a total of 18 days away from home, and traveling all over the country. I'll try to post a travel blog as I usually do (Argentina, Europe), although I am not bringing my laptop, so I'll be at the mercy of the internet cafes.

In other news, our wonderful governor, Sonny Perdue has apparently passed some sort of department of revenue regulation that does not allow breweries to serve beer on Sundays anymore. Not only does that pretty much suck in general, it means our monthly drinking dances that we were holding at the Atlanta Brewing Co. now can not happen anymore :-( That's sad because a lot of people really liked that dance for both the venue, atmosphere, and music. Hopefully we can have something else there in the near future.

and lastly, but certainly not least(ly), my lil sister Leah graduates from UGA this weekend! she's the last of us, but she decided to stay in school longer, and go to grad school at GSU. She is a double major in piano and in violin at UGA, and will continue pursuing her violin studies at GSU. Congrats Leah!

ATLX - Dance or Walk the Plank.

Me having not published anything in the past month has been directly reflective of my life. The past month has pretty much taken it all out of me - travling to three different cities, attending 2 Lindy Exchanges, and life getting in the way.

Work has been good, but my focus the past few weeks has been on dancing and dancing only. I've been going into work knowing that once I leave, the rest of my waking hours will be spent on dance prep. I served my second year on the Atlanta Lindy Exchange (ATLX) planning committee. From the day registration opened in December, until it closed in April, we were pushing hard for this to be the best and biggest ATLX ever. And it was. by a LOT. We had an amazing turnout of nearly 350 people with full weekend passes, and maxed out some of our venues where we just COULDN'T fit any more people. The surveys are out right now to get feedback, but I am actually excited to see what they say. From what I could tell, all the background work went well, and it was reflected in the exchange. People arrived and were checked in quickly, directions between events were clear, housing was announced early, 350 handmade bracelets were complete a week before the event. wow. I honestly had an awesome time planning the weekend as well as participating. I love getting to dance with all of the people from out of town, and I love the energy that comes with participating in an exchange. You are essentially dancing for about 25 hours in one weekend- each day until the sun rises the next day, but you still want more. Your body says no, but your heart says YES!!! You dance with awesome dancers from all over the country (and we even had a few international participants), and you get to meet the ladies from all over as well since there is much of a social aspect to these events.

Thursday evening kicked off the event with the ATLX pre-party at Atlanta Brewing Co. We currently hold dances there once a month, but this event was ours only. We filled the tasting room with some AWESOME dances, unlimited beer, and Jesse and Mike kept the music up and inspiring the whole time. When it was time to shut down and no one had left, I knew the weekend was going to be amazing.

Friday I had to work during the day, but Friday night main was at Agnes Scott. The hall is beautiful, and big enough to fit everyone. The band - the Usual Suspects - did a pretty good job. People were flooding in to register during this dance, and every time I looked at the door, there were more people coming. The weather did not cooperate, but of all the dances to rain during, I am glad it was this one. The late night was at Academy Ballroom, and the band was Chicago Joe. Although they are a good band, they may not have "meshed" well with some dancers, and we didn't have a side room for Blues that night, but it didn't keep people off the floor. The floor was packed.

Saturday was another story. I woke up, and with everyone in the house, as people were getting ready we had pancakes for some sustenance before starting the day. The afternoon we danced at the pavilion at Centennial Olympic Park, which is an awesome location -though the concrete (as in any outdoor dance) did a number on my knees. The weather held out, and the DJs kept us dancing hard for the whole time. The theme this year was pirates, and pirates made a strong showing in EVERY dance this weekend. from eyepatches to bandanas, the theme pulled strong all weekend long. I barely made it to the evening dance. This was the one thing I was rather upset about since I think the Bonaventure sextet did an AWESOME job. Dinner took longer than expected, and then i had to leave early to set up the late night dance, so I missed most of their sets. During this dance, Tiny Bunch had a performance we'd been working hard to showcase. It turned out awesome, and we were really happy with it. A ton of people took video, but thanks to Aramis's video and Heidi's video on my camera, There were two pretty decent quality videos, and my friend Antony clipped them together for one solid video performance :-) that day also happened to be the first time the whole group was together for a practice. Thanks to everyone for their patience as we learned the routine, and to the crowd for cheering us on as we performed. What an awesome high!

Saturday late night was Sean Costello at the American Legion Hall. He was a nationally renown blues artist, and we had people fighting via email and phone to get tickets for this event even though it was sold out. I had a chance to spend some time with Sean before the dance since Iw as there for setting up, and Sean mentioned he wasn't feeling 100% and had a sore throat, so he'd be throwing in a few more instrumental songs than normal. Either way, he kept everyone dancing, and there was a side blues room for those with other tastes. Note: Sean Costello, age 28, passed away on Tuesday after ATLX. No news as to the cause of death just yet. ATLX late night was his last performance. This is a terrible loss to not only his family and friends, but to the Blues and jazz community. What terrible news to find out.

Sunday was a lot more relaxed. The afternoon dance at Grant Park was chilly, but wonderful dance weather. My body hurt, but I couldn't stop my self from dancing. We ate at Eats for some filling dinner, and then went on to Knights of Columbus hall for some more dancing. I wasn't going to go to the late night, but I got convinced, so I went until 3 am. I would've stayed longer if I didn't have to work Monday.

SHOUT OUT to Alan and the entire ATLX planning committee for all their hard work. What an amazingly thrown party.

As a side note, I attended DCLX the weekend before ATLX, and had a lovely time even though the weather did not cooperate on Sunday. Unfortunately, the lead/follow ratio was pretty bad, and I think the event sufferred a little bit because of that. The bands were awesome though, and I got to hear the Boilermakers for the first time. The event had a huge turnout of probably 350-400 people. I stayed with Meghan and Terrace from Atlanta, and we stayed at my friend Adam's apartment. He was a great host for us for the weekend. I had a great time, but I must say I had more fun at ATLX (perhaps because it was OUR event, perhaps because there were more leads, or maybe it was actually more awesome, not sure)

Yenta.

It’s interesting. Some people have this inherent desire to make others happy. Others would prefer to just let everyone else do their own thing and make themselves happy. One thing I’ve noticed (particularly in Judaism) is that many people have the common characteristic often classified as being a “yenta”. They want to set people up. Perhaps it’s because we’re such a small percentage of the general population, we figure we need all the help we can get. Or perhaps it’s because in Judaism, there’s a concept that if you successfully set up a certain number of couples, you automatically have a place in Olam Haba. Either way, some people appreciate being on the receiving end of the set-up, and some can not stand it. A story that I’ve told many of you, which is my funniest story, is that of my mom and her friend Nelda. I was backpacking in Europe for the summer, and Nelda’s grandson (smart, Jewish, and handsome – as my mom related) was in Atlanta for the summer. So they trade our cell phone numbers, and that’s it – we’re stuck. Even though we’re only going to overlap in the same city for a couple of weeks, there’s no way that we can pretend we met and lie to our mom/grandmom, so we met and I gained a great friend from the situation. However, there have been plenty of other instances – the most recent being my aunt (in Miami) wanting to introduce me to her Argintinian friend’s son, who is 10+ years my senior, and is currently a resident of Buenos Aires. I mean, sure long distance can be done, but seriously?

Sometimes people make the same mistake with any “minority” dating pool. For example, the same mistake that people make trying to set up gay guys (I have a friend who’s gay, you two should date”) assuming that all gay guys are compatible is the same mistake that people make setting up Jews. There are always certain characteristics one is looking for, and although they must have a particular characteristic requirement for dating (Jewish, Gay, Indian, etc.), it doesn’t mean that everyone is compatible. On the flip side, there’s no harm in trying ;-), it just might work!

I am of the half that loves setting people up (perhaps too much), and likes being set-up. I figure, worst case, I meet someone new, and if it doesn’t work out, then maybe they have friends! I think my friends know me too well and when they’re single are forever asking me to introduce them to someone. Hard thing is that because I love hosting events so much, many of my friends actually have met each other. Convenienty though, there are always new people in and out of town, and luckily I have plenty of single friends.

So the question is – would you rather me try to set you up? Or leave you alone? ;-)

* Sidebar poll: Is it OK for someone you’ve dated in the past to set you up with someone else?