White Guy in Asia (Part Duex)

I apologize for not making any posts since the end of last weekend. Nothing very interesting happens during the work week.

Adam and John arrived last Thursday at about 6:00 PM. I met up with them at my apartment, Bally's, where they were planning on staying a few days while they get situated. Bangkok baptized them quickly with a short but intense monsoon of a storm. That evening we went out for some traditional Thai food and fun. We met up with my boss from Puumsoft, BJ, and showed Adam and John a glimpse of the 'real' Bangkok.

The next morning we all woke up early and headed out to Bangkok International for our flight to Phuket. Adam and John had already secured that Friday off from work and wanted to take advantage of their three day weekend. So, having only been in Bangkok 12 hours, the three of us flew down to beautiful Phuket for the weekend.

As everyone knows, the December 26 Tsunami disaster hit many areas, including the Thai island of Phuket. As a whole, Thailand did not get hit very bad by the Tsunami. They lost about 5K of the over 300K who died. On a positive note, things of Phuket appear to have recovered nicely. The infrastructure is still intact and business is proceeding as normal. The Tsunami caused the greatest damage to the tourism industry. Normally a packed, crowded and stressful vacation spot, Phuket's beaches were empty during our three days in the area.

Once we arrived on the island, we took a taxi to the Kata Beach Resort. Although we had yet to make a reservation, we were optimistic that the rates would be good during the low season. We began talking with the front desk and quickly realized we could get a better rate online. In a cunning last minute move, the three of us proceeded to book our highly discounted internet rate using the hotel lobby's own internet access. It was perhaps one of the more entrepreneurial moments of the trip.

The rest of the weekend included lots of sand, pools and sun. We relaxed on Saturday and took a speedboat tour of the region on Sunday. The speedboat tour took us to many interesting spots, including two beaches made famous by Hollywood. 'The Beach' was a Leonardo DiCaprio movie set on the beach of one of the islands we visited. And I am not sure which one, but some James Bond movie was filmed in the region as well (Perhaps the Man with the Golden Gun?). We snorkeled and chased clown fish and got way too much sun. The tour was excellent but my stomach thanked me when the boat ride ended.

After the bus ride down to Ban Phe, ferrys carry people to the island of Koh Samet. On my ferry I met three beautiful Norwegians that I spent my the next two days with. Linda, Linn, Torill & I boarded a sketch island truck/taxi right after the sun set to find out beach, Wong Dueng. The truck driver took us through what looked like Vietnam for about 10 minutes and then dropped us off at in the middle of nowhere. He just said, walk around the corner down the beach. That we did and arrived at a quaint village of no more than 100 people. There were a few hotel rooms and bars run by expatriates who had settled on this remote island. The Angels and I ate dinner and then tied one on at a bar on the tropical beach. The bar provided bamboo platforms over the edge of the water with little bamboo tables and triangular thai pillows. The waves crashed right before and then the surf washed up under the tables. Extremely picturesque. Good times.

The next morning I slung myself out of bed and rolled down to the beach where I spend the next 12 hours doing nothing. I read my book, I went swimming, I got some sun and I paid ~$6 for an hour and a half massage (On the beach mind you). The Norwegian Angels and I then grabbed a speed boat taxi to the next beach over. We settled into our bungalows and then met up later for another night of drinks. "Weekend" really has a whole new meaning when you worked 40 hours the week before.


Doing nothing.

In light of the international situation in Siem Reap, I am indeed postponing my trip. I am leaving at noon on a bus to the island of Ko Samet, a national park in Thailand. The island has many beaches and small bungalows to relax in. I will just be taking it easy before my wild trip to Phuket next weekend with Adam and John.

Hopefully I can convince Adam and John to go with me to Angkor Wat the following weekend. Probably because I am a Political Science major, there is some bent appeal in traveling to one of the least developed, land mind ridden, political disaster areas in our world.

I had already planned to take tomorrow off and head out to Siem Reep, Cambodia to view the famed 8th wonder of the world, the Angkor Temple complex. However, six men with shot-guns have siezed a foriegn kindergarden school and have murdered at least one student. It's the #1 story on Google News at the moment. See articles:

BBC

Times Online

Not only is this occuring in Cambodia, it is occuring in the very village I was planning visiting TOMORROW. Looks like I will be making other arrangements -

Well I woke up early and caught a train to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya, this morning. When I arrived I engaged the services of a tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon to show me the sights. We drove around and visited all of the most important wats in the city. Many of which were over 750 years old. We visited a temple with the largest Buddha in Thailand, built in 1350. The tuk-tuk driver also provided me with the opportunity, finally, to ride an elephant. After getting price gouged by the opportunistic (and entrepreneurial) Thais with elephants I was able to ride one around the park. Good times for sure. When my four hour tour of the city ended, I caught the train back and recharged in the hotel pool with a friend from slovenia for this coming week -






Can't put the phone down.

A few weeks ago, I met some British lads at a local watering hole. I was grabbing some quick dinner and they were mingling around the pool table. The blokes informed me they were members of the Pool In Bangkok (www.poolinbangkok.com) nine ball pool league and were warming up for their weekly Wednesday night match. A few Chang/Tiger/Singha beers later, and I agreed to pinch hit for them the coming wednesday when one of their mates would be back in London.

The next week I caught up with the team at the home bar, Larry's Dive. We then "travelled" two blocks down the road for our "away" match at bar Happiness. I was admittedly the worst player on the team. Fortunately, I was trusted to turn the meet around with Larry's Dive down three matches to two. In game one, my Thai opponent afforded me an easy opportunity to pocket the nine by scratching. Game two came and went with me quickly tapping in the nine. The match then abruptly ended with my stellar break that pocketed the match's third nine ball.

That and 40 hour weeks at Puumsoft are the latest from Thailand. Sunday I am travelling to Ayutthaya which is the old capital of Thailand. Lots of wats. More soon,

Tay Za and his wife, Mimi, picked me up at the crack of dawn on Saturday for our trip to Kanchanaburi province. We planned the trip around playing a some golf at this country club Tay Za knows well. We teed off at 1:00 and played like trash. Oh well, good times. I played the 19th hole the best. After our round we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner at the River Kwai. Not only at the river, but on the river via floating restaurant. The boat/restuarant was adjacent to "the bridge" over the River Kwai. Tay Za and Mimi are both Burmese and refreshed my WWII history of the Asian theater. This morning we stopped by the WWII cemetary and paid our respects to the fallen soldiers from the UK and Australia. The experience was very sobering, giving real meaning to the scope and the price that was paid by the greatest generation.

Today, on the way back, we stopped by a Buddhist temple famous for protecting endagered tigers. It was amazing. Although the monastery acts as a sort of zoo, there are no cages and no containment. Once you are within the walls, there is nothing seperating you from 20 or so fully grown tigers. I made friends with this tiger (See picture). We talked about how bad my Thai was. Then he took a nap ;).

Oh, and just to give everyone an idea about how bad Thai / Bangkok traffic is, it took us just shy of 7 hours to make it less than 135 kilometers (~90 miles).

Well after a fascinating week on the 17th floor, me and Tay Za decided there is only one thing to do. Play golf. So he is picking me up bright and early tomorrow morning to drive 3 hours to a country club on the River Kwai. We are going to play a round tomorrow and then another on Sunday. On the way back to Bangkok on Sunday we have planned a stop at a Buddhist Monastery where the monks keep tigers. Apparently the tigers and monks co-exist in this odd intertwined relationship.

Trip review coming Sunday.