So over the course of being here in Thailand I have had the delightful opportunities to try some new things. There is of course the delicious Thai food, which i will miss when the time comes to leave Thailand.
Rice is in everything, and I wouldn't want it any other way. And of course chicken and mushrooms and sauces. Its incredible.
But then again, you do get those rare opportunities to try things that you normally wouldn't get the chance to try. Or want the chance to try. Here's a small list of the few things that i have found myself putting past my lips...
1. Chicken Feet- This is boiled in sauce until the meat falls of the bone. And yes there is meat to chicken feet. If it is boiled long enough it has a fatty texture to it and a chicken taste. Not that it tastes like chicken, but since chicken tastes like everything, then it doesn't really have a taste at all. You eat it whole, so beware the bones! Score: 5/10 It was OK and I'd have it again, but i wouldn't go out of my way to eat another one.
2. Deep-Fried Grubs- A weird sort of thing to eat while out having a beer, but that's what i found myself doing. These little guys are quickly fried so that their outsides are crispy and there insides are nonexistent. Had the taste and the texture of a Cheeto with no cheese. Score: 6/10 I wouldn't ever find myself craving them, but...
3. Fried Crickets- If you can get past the legs and the antennae and the texture of the head and body, you might be able to enjoy them. I could not. I tried swallowing them whole at first, I've only ate a handful or so, but that wasn't possible and i found one stuck in my throat. So you have to crunch them, which was too much for me. Score: 3/10 I will do my best to avoid eating these guys just for the nauseating factor alone.
4. Sauteed Grubs- These little guys aren't deep fried. But mixed with an oily sauce and cooked like you would a mushroom. They are still hard, but soft on the inside, which wasn't my cup of tea. If I'm gonna eat a bug, it had better be a bug that doesn't make me think I'm eating a bug. Score: 3/10 If you eat it, you can swallow it whole, I wouldn't recommend chewing these guys.
So that's that. I'll let you know what else I happen to digest. Purposefully that is. I'm sure since I've been down here I've ate a million and one ants, flies or other bug particles. Reminds me of Taco Cabana. Hahaha.
26.11.06
Impressed?
So I taught myself how to ride a crotch rocket. I'm a biker babe now.
Cross that off my "To-Do list before I die".
Now about that skydiving thing? Haha
Cross that off my "To-Do list before I die".
Now about that skydiving thing? Haha
19.11.06
.........
****flashback****
We'd been in Chiang Mai for about a week. We woke up one morning, I looked at the time on my cell phone, tossed it aside and got up for the day. A few hours later, can't find the cell phone...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for about a month and a half. Wake up one morning, Duan had stolen 7500 baht...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for about 2 months. Wake up get some money out of the bag, take note of how much is in there. 3000 baht comes up missing later on...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for 2 1/2 months. Went to the pawn shop, cashed in a game boy. Came back took inventory: Brian's Ipod and unopened Ipod. Mental note to cash those in later too. Krystal's Ipod, no where to be found...
Motorbike stolen from Spiceys...
****End Flashback****
About 3 days ago, I was rummaging through my bag looking for my perfume and thats when i realized the Ipod we had hidden to cash in later was missing. I tore up my bag and my room. No where in sight. I questioned Brian and he didn't move it. Not in any of his bags. We questioned Danny, and he hadn't seen it. We tore up the house looking for it. And there sat Mook. Playing Pangya (google it) as innocent as the day she was spawned.
I had had enough. I kept my cool as long as I could as we were asking her about it. Keep in mind that, not counting my ipod that vanished, we have Danny's Ipod and Brian's Ipod that are always in a constant state of floating around the house. We asked her if she saw the ipod. Her response, "The one in the box. The white one? No I haven't seen it." Admitting her own guilt there, the interrogation continues. Ironically the wallcharge to the ipods is also missing. So now we know it had to have been her. Any doubt is now gone. No one knew where we kept the ipod or what the heck that white thing was plugged into the wall.
I blew up.
I started telling mook everything that she needed to know to know that she was the scum of the earth. Basically it went like this, "Mook. You know we have no money? right? You know that I make only 4000 baht 2 weeks? Right? You know we cannot live here no more because not have money? And you take from us! You live here for FREE, you eat for FREE and you take from us? You are a bad friend. You are bad." And she proceeded to evolve from innocent spawn to demon spawn and "threatened" to "just go". Of course I wouldn't have cared. At some point Brian jumped in on the attack, and Danny feeling sensible to her feelings stopped the whole affair and said she wasn't going anywhere.
I never had the intention of kicking her out into the street. At some point she was a nice person to me. But I wanted to let her know she was not welcome here anymore. She hasn't talked to me since then, but...
That was a few nights ago. Saturday night, Mook is still around, biding her time. We were waiting for Danny to make a move. He was planning on going to a buddhist temple for a week or so, at which point he would take her with him and then she would have that opportunity to make arrangements to move out. But Danny was having a hard time finding a temple that would allow him to bring in books to read. Anyways, we had our guard still up, but we were still so very stupid...
James Bond. In all his interestingness and his buff glory he is the reason why i have to write such a sad ending. James bond... We'd been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while now. And we finally get the chance Saturday night. We buy are tickets, Mook pays for herself and surprisingly for Danny too. We eat some pizza and we head into the movie. Before the movie starts playing Mook says her stomach hurts and she heads out of the theater. Danny says she didn't come back immediately, but he assumed she had just sat down some where behind us. It was James Bond's interestingness that kept Danny glued to the screen instead of looking for Mook...
The movie ends we look around, no mook. We glance around outside, no mook. I'm not concerned at all. I was hoping she had ran off with some friends into the night and then we'd officially be done with her. We decided instead of taking a taxi home, to walk instead. It was maybe only a mile or so. And then when we got to our neighborhood, a nice stop off at the ol' milk zone was in order. So basically, it took us quite a while to get home.. if it had not taken this long, maybe....
We get home. I say goodnight to the boys and head up to sleep. It was already 2 and I had work early in the afternoon.
I was woken up at 5 a.m. Brian is shaking me gently and informing me that we have a problem...
He makes sure I am awake before he tells me anything. And he informs me that...
****Story****
Mook had taken what was left of my paycheck from working at london house, 3100 baht, and our piggy bank that was full to the max of baht coinage, maybe less than 2000 baht. And she did this while we were at the movie and then went to stay at a guest house. She confessed to taking the money to Danny when he came back home and signed onto MSN. She said she wanted to give him the money back, and so he went to where she said to meet him. They met up, she led him on a goose chase and eventually he ended up waiting for her for an hour and a half. He comes home, sure that he will never see her again...
Maybe an hour passes, and a tuktuk pulls up outside, Mook gets off and comes into the house. Boys are a little surprised, she says she's tired and heads up to bed. Danny of course won't let her sleep, begins interrogating her. At first she says that she had the money, she would give it back. She promised she would give it back. Then of course under pressure she tells a better truth, she gave the money to a friend.
He brings her back downstairs and I am awoken....
****End Story****
As i'm getting up and dressed, I do an inventory count in my head. Cell phone? Check. Grandma's necklace? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Camera? Thats downstairs...
Head downstairs. If you've ever seen A Clockwork Orange, and Alex's P.O. officer sees him in the interrogation room, well thats about how i felt. Like I was glad she put her in this situation, gloating. Well that was until I finished my inventory... she'd taken my digital camera.
I was furious. If you look back, nothing of Danny's has ever come up missing. Nothing! She and Duan have only stolen from me! I haven't done anything wrong!
The end to this story. We were waiting for the sun to come up so we can flag down a taxi and escort Mook to the police. No taxi's run this late/early in the night/morning, so we could only wait. Somewhere along the line, Brian got mook confessing on a recording on his phone. We were set. I headed for a shower and Danny escorted mook upstairs to the 4th story...
Well as all criminals do when penned up, she looked for an escape. She scaled out of the 4th story balcony and escaped into the night/morning...
Lessons learned:
-Thai people cannot be trusted. Their society makes them think lying and stealing is ok. If a thai person steals from another thai person, just lie about it. No one will question your integrity.
-Instincts are all that count. You cannot deny your gut. And if you're wrong, then you're wrong, but your gut wasn't. If you do something to have some one lose faith in you, then you never trusted them in the first place.
-Anything you treasure, never let anyone know. She was deliberately stealing from me because i made her hate me. When she stole the ipod and we knew it, I made her hate me as much as anyone on the earth can hate anyone else because i questioned her about it. So she stole from me to hurt me. But had she taken what I truly cherish, then we'd have a problem.
So in the long run. We're floating dead on the water.... And i'm going to be late for work...
We'd been in Chiang Mai for about a week. We woke up one morning, I looked at the time on my cell phone, tossed it aside and got up for the day. A few hours later, can't find the cell phone...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for about a month and a half. Wake up one morning, Duan had stolen 7500 baht...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for about 2 months. Wake up get some money out of the bag, take note of how much is in there. 3000 baht comes up missing later on...
We'd been living in Chiang Mai for 2 1/2 months. Went to the pawn shop, cashed in a game boy. Came back took inventory: Brian's Ipod and unopened Ipod. Mental note to cash those in later too. Krystal's Ipod, no where to be found...
Motorbike stolen from Spiceys...
****End Flashback****
About 3 days ago, I was rummaging through my bag looking for my perfume and thats when i realized the Ipod we had hidden to cash in later was missing. I tore up my bag and my room. No where in sight. I questioned Brian and he didn't move it. Not in any of his bags. We questioned Danny, and he hadn't seen it. We tore up the house looking for it. And there sat Mook. Playing Pangya (google it) as innocent as the day she was spawned.
I had had enough. I kept my cool as long as I could as we were asking her about it. Keep in mind that, not counting my ipod that vanished, we have Danny's Ipod and Brian's Ipod that are always in a constant state of floating around the house. We asked her if she saw the ipod. Her response, "The one in the box. The white one? No I haven't seen it." Admitting her own guilt there, the interrogation continues. Ironically the wallcharge to the ipods is also missing. So now we know it had to have been her. Any doubt is now gone. No one knew where we kept the ipod or what the heck that white thing was plugged into the wall.
I blew up.
I started telling mook everything that she needed to know to know that she was the scum of the earth. Basically it went like this, "Mook. You know we have no money? right? You know that I make only 4000 baht 2 weeks? Right? You know we cannot live here no more because not have money? And you take from us! You live here for FREE, you eat for FREE and you take from us? You are a bad friend. You are bad." And she proceeded to evolve from innocent spawn to demon spawn and "threatened" to "just go". Of course I wouldn't have cared. At some point Brian jumped in on the attack, and Danny feeling sensible to her feelings stopped the whole affair and said she wasn't going anywhere.
I never had the intention of kicking her out into the street. At some point she was a nice person to me. But I wanted to let her know she was not welcome here anymore. She hasn't talked to me since then, but...
That was a few nights ago. Saturday night, Mook is still around, biding her time. We were waiting for Danny to make a move. He was planning on going to a buddhist temple for a week or so, at which point he would take her with him and then she would have that opportunity to make arrangements to move out. But Danny was having a hard time finding a temple that would allow him to bring in books to read. Anyways, we had our guard still up, but we were still so very stupid...
James Bond. In all his interestingness and his buff glory he is the reason why i have to write such a sad ending. James bond... We'd been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while now. And we finally get the chance Saturday night. We buy are tickets, Mook pays for herself and surprisingly for Danny too. We eat some pizza and we head into the movie. Before the movie starts playing Mook says her stomach hurts and she heads out of the theater. Danny says she didn't come back immediately, but he assumed she had just sat down some where behind us. It was James Bond's interestingness that kept Danny glued to the screen instead of looking for Mook...
The movie ends we look around, no mook. We glance around outside, no mook. I'm not concerned at all. I was hoping she had ran off with some friends into the night and then we'd officially be done with her. We decided instead of taking a taxi home, to walk instead. It was maybe only a mile or so. And then when we got to our neighborhood, a nice stop off at the ol' milk zone was in order. So basically, it took us quite a while to get home.. if it had not taken this long, maybe....
We get home. I say goodnight to the boys and head up to sleep. It was already 2 and I had work early in the afternoon.
I was woken up at 5 a.m. Brian is shaking me gently and informing me that we have a problem...
He makes sure I am awake before he tells me anything. And he informs me that...
****Story****
Mook had taken what was left of my paycheck from working at london house, 3100 baht, and our piggy bank that was full to the max of baht coinage, maybe less than 2000 baht. And she did this while we were at the movie and then went to stay at a guest house. She confessed to taking the money to Danny when he came back home and signed onto MSN. She said she wanted to give him the money back, and so he went to where she said to meet him. They met up, she led him on a goose chase and eventually he ended up waiting for her for an hour and a half. He comes home, sure that he will never see her again...
Maybe an hour passes, and a tuktuk pulls up outside, Mook gets off and comes into the house. Boys are a little surprised, she says she's tired and heads up to bed. Danny of course won't let her sleep, begins interrogating her. At first she says that she had the money, she would give it back. She promised she would give it back. Then of course under pressure she tells a better truth, she gave the money to a friend.
He brings her back downstairs and I am awoken....
****End Story****
As i'm getting up and dressed, I do an inventory count in my head. Cell phone? Check. Grandma's necklace? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Camera? Thats downstairs...
Head downstairs. If you've ever seen A Clockwork Orange, and Alex's P.O. officer sees him in the interrogation room, well thats about how i felt. Like I was glad she put her in this situation, gloating. Well that was until I finished my inventory... she'd taken my digital camera.
I was furious. If you look back, nothing of Danny's has ever come up missing. Nothing! She and Duan have only stolen from me! I haven't done anything wrong!
The end to this story. We were waiting for the sun to come up so we can flag down a taxi and escort Mook to the police. No taxi's run this late/early in the night/morning, so we could only wait. Somewhere along the line, Brian got mook confessing on a recording on his phone. We were set. I headed for a shower and Danny escorted mook upstairs to the 4th story...
Well as all criminals do when penned up, she looked for an escape. She scaled out of the 4th story balcony and escaped into the night/morning...
Lessons learned:
-Thai people cannot be trusted. Their society makes them think lying and stealing is ok. If a thai person steals from another thai person, just lie about it. No one will question your integrity.
-Instincts are all that count. You cannot deny your gut. And if you're wrong, then you're wrong, but your gut wasn't. If you do something to have some one lose faith in you, then you never trusted them in the first place.
-Anything you treasure, never let anyone know. She was deliberately stealing from me because i made her hate me. When she stole the ipod and we knew it, I made her hate me as much as anyone on the earth can hate anyone else because i questioned her about it. So she stole from me to hurt me. But had she taken what I truly cherish, then we'd have a problem.
So in the long run. We're floating dead on the water.... And i'm going to be late for work...
14.11.06
Walk in Chiang Mai...
Well since our rental motorbike was stolen I've been walking to and from work.. Ok more like just from, I have to get up early so I usually make Bj take me, but thats not the point.
The "only in thailand..." blog I posted was a story of my walk home. I have uploaded some pictures to flickr and updated the map to include the walk home today so you can see it in its entirety.
Nothing too strange.. just a motorcycle with a buffalo skull, the return of the purple puppy, a squished snake, my wedding dress (teehee) and the schools I work at.
We didn't go to Royal Flora today, so I thought i'd make it up to you. :) Enjoy.
http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/map/
Will post more soon!
Kisses
Thai-Fly
Krystal
The "only in thailand..." blog I posted was a story of my walk home. I have uploaded some pictures to flickr and updated the map to include the walk home today so you can see it in its entirety.
Nothing too strange.. just a motorcycle with a buffalo skull, the return of the purple puppy, a squished snake, my wedding dress (teehee) and the schools I work at.
We didn't go to Royal Flora today, so I thought i'd make it up to you. :) Enjoy.
http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/map/
Will post more soon!
Kisses
Thai-Fly
Krystal
13.11.06
Relate...
So I've decided to spend an hour or so this morning organizing my photos at my flickr page. I've thrown them on a convenient map that you can zoom in and see where exactly we've been and what exactly we've done.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/map/ <---map
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/ <---photos
The map includes the 3 el paso pictures so you can see where we started our flying journey from. No Dallas pictures though, but i do have bangkok pics posted. It was difficult finding all the places we took pictures at but you can see where everything is. Same thing with Chiang Mai and Mae Sai. You can't zoom in on either of the latter cities because the satellite photos aren't detailed.
No new pictures to upload, but tomorrow I am going with my class to Royal Flora, a huge flower exhibition here in Chiang Mai, and I will be sure to take pictures of the flowers, my students, and the school.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/map/ <---map
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/ <---photos
The map includes the 3 el paso pictures so you can see where we started our flying journey from. No Dallas pictures though, but i do have bangkok pics posted. It was difficult finding all the places we took pictures at but you can see where everything is. Same thing with Chiang Mai and Mae Sai. You can't zoom in on either of the latter cities because the satellite photos aren't detailed.
No new pictures to upload, but tomorrow I am going with my class to Royal Flora, a huge flower exhibition here in Chiang Mai, and I will be sure to take pictures of the flowers, my students, and the school.
12.11.06
Only in Thailand...
Here's a neat spiff about some random things that happen to you in thailand when walking home from work...
On your way home from work, you're walking along and spot a street vendor selling goods. It is two wicker-bowl baskets, draped over a length of bamboo, filled with items for sale. You stop to buy something that intrigues you. You hand over 30 baht and carry away your newly purchased item... a blue elephant piggy bank...
As you continue walking you run into people. Mostly thai people. But also occassional farang. Speaking german, french, spanish or english. Sometimes you might run into a farang thats talking with another one while walking and only catch the phrase, "...but i knew it wasn't serious. It was just a rash..."
You will of course, being a farang as you are, be checked out by guys and girls alike. And that does include a monk in the bed of a pickup truck listening to his ipod...
But if you're really lucky, when you finally reach your street, you'll be approached by the smallest puppy you've ever seen. And it will be excited to see you. And it will be painted purple.
All these things happened to me today. Now excuse me, I have a few baht i need to put into my new piggy bank. My last one is full. :(
On your way home from work, you're walking along and spot a street vendor selling goods. It is two wicker-bowl baskets, draped over a length of bamboo, filled with items for sale. You stop to buy something that intrigues you. You hand over 30 baht and carry away your newly purchased item... a blue elephant piggy bank...
As you continue walking you run into people. Mostly thai people. But also occassional farang. Speaking german, french, spanish or english. Sometimes you might run into a farang thats talking with another one while walking and only catch the phrase, "...but i knew it wasn't serious. It was just a rash..."
You will of course, being a farang as you are, be checked out by guys and girls alike. And that does include a monk in the bed of a pickup truck listening to his ipod...
But if you're really lucky, when you finally reach your street, you'll be approached by the smallest puppy you've ever seen. And it will be excited to see you. And it will be painted purple.
All these things happened to me today. Now excuse me, I have a few baht i need to put into my new piggy bank. My last one is full. :(
10.11.06
Ummm, what now?...
Remember a few blogs back, I let you all know about all the bad things that had gone on? Well then I started working again and had a rocking halloween night, things were ok. I was optimistic, things could only get better.... wrong.
Lets put things in a chronological order of least affective to most affective.
I don't make enough money. haha, i know thats not really a problem, but I had to start with something. I work for an hour and a half twice a week and six hours on the weekend. I have committed myself to doing this for the next 10 weeks at least. I make seventy dollars a week. Oh em gee. I have to dedicate myself to going to sleep early, waking up early, preparing lessons all to work for 9 hours and make 70 bucks.
Ok ok like I said thats not a problem, just annoying. A real problem is the fact that some one in this house is stealing money from us. That some one I can guarantee you is not Brian, Danny nor myself. So that leaves yet another fun loving thai girl that keeps taking advantage of us. In total at least 3000 baht has come up missing. Which isn't that much, but when you're money supply is dwindling away and you only make 3000 a week and your rent is 10,000, you need every "baht ya got".
So money problems, ya ya, everyone has money problems. Lets talk about something else. Oh how about the piece of trash bicycle I bought to get around town on? The one that the chain keeps popping off of, the metal keeps grinding into the tire, with the screws that have fallen out. I will never buy anything already assembled from a thai superstore, again. Doesn't matter if its a bicycle or a lampshade. That bike is junk now. The screw that was holding the chain plate in fell out and the chain having fallen off its track, lost a link connector and wedged itself very firmly on the outer metal rim of the bike. Its hard to describe, just know that its in such a position i would have to break the chain off in order to remove it from its stronghold on the bike.
Also thats not necessarily a problem... not a problem in the least.
What is a problem is the rental bike we had been renting, getting stolen from out in front of a nightclub. Yes that is a definite problem. It would have been better if they had stolen the bike and it was actually ours. But it wasn't.. so now we have to deal with the police and the bike owner. And if the bike is never recovered then we'll have to pay for it. Anywhere from 250 dollars to 1,500 dollars. Who knows, its all up to the bike owners descretion. Which is horribly unfair. But ya, thats the jist of it.
So now I can say optimistically that things will look up from here, they cannot get any worse. I know thats when something bad happens in any dramatic movie, but honestly it just gets to a point where it cannot get any worse...
Lets put things in a chronological order of least affective to most affective.
I don't make enough money. haha, i know thats not really a problem, but I had to start with something. I work for an hour and a half twice a week and six hours on the weekend. I have committed myself to doing this for the next 10 weeks at least. I make seventy dollars a week. Oh em gee. I have to dedicate myself to going to sleep early, waking up early, preparing lessons all to work for 9 hours and make 70 bucks.
Ok ok like I said thats not a problem, just annoying. A real problem is the fact that some one in this house is stealing money from us. That some one I can guarantee you is not Brian, Danny nor myself. So that leaves yet another fun loving thai girl that keeps taking advantage of us. In total at least 3000 baht has come up missing. Which isn't that much, but when you're money supply is dwindling away and you only make 3000 a week and your rent is 10,000, you need every "baht ya got".
So money problems, ya ya, everyone has money problems. Lets talk about something else. Oh how about the piece of trash bicycle I bought to get around town on? The one that the chain keeps popping off of, the metal keeps grinding into the tire, with the screws that have fallen out. I will never buy anything already assembled from a thai superstore, again. Doesn't matter if its a bicycle or a lampshade. That bike is junk now. The screw that was holding the chain plate in fell out and the chain having fallen off its track, lost a link connector and wedged itself very firmly on the outer metal rim of the bike. Its hard to describe, just know that its in such a position i would have to break the chain off in order to remove it from its stronghold on the bike.
Also thats not necessarily a problem... not a problem in the least.
What is a problem is the rental bike we had been renting, getting stolen from out in front of a nightclub. Yes that is a definite problem. It would have been better if they had stolen the bike and it was actually ours. But it wasn't.. so now we have to deal with the police and the bike owner. And if the bike is never recovered then we'll have to pay for it. Anywhere from 250 dollars to 1,500 dollars. Who knows, its all up to the bike owners descretion. Which is horribly unfair. But ya, thats the jist of it.
So now I can say optimistically that things will look up from here, they cannot get any worse. I know thats when something bad happens in any dramatic movie, but honestly it just gets to a point where it cannot get any worse...
7.11.06
Loy Krathong...
Well I've officially experienced a Thai festival. There are numerous holidays laced sporadically throughout the year. These holidays typically don't last just one day, oh no, that wouldn't be Thai. No the holidays officially last roughly between three-five days. But the Thai people enjoy celebrating a few days early and carrying the celebration out a few days late. So what you're left with is a week long celebration.
And Thai holidays are not particularly organized or safe. Loy Krathong initially sounded like a beautiful celebration. Children and Adults alike create sweet little boats made of banana leaves and flowers and send them down the rivers and canals. The boats represent their eagerness to repent for their wrongdoings and to hope that they will be swept away like the water in the river. They even repent for the banana trees and flowers that were destroyed in the process of making their boats. And on top of each one is a single candle. So at night it really is a beautiful thing to see watching all these floating flowers go down the current.
But then after you take away everything beautiful of the festival you are left with the carnage!! Lights and flowers are fine and dandy, but people get impatient. They want to get bigger and better ways to express their joy of the holidays. What better way to do so than with fireworks?! Small quiet sparklers, loud cannons, mortars, roman candles, black cats and the shower of sparkles, it's like the fourth of July! But it lasts for 7 days... and there is no hour time line.
The fireworks started one day last week, and carried on into that night and through the morning and when the main day of the celebration drew nearer it sounded like a war zone. I'm not complaining I just thought it was very funny waking up and going to sleep to the sound of "gunfire" and "bomb blasts".
The idea of the boats with candles floating down the river was an innocent one. If there was a problem and the candle caught fire to the boat it would calmly burn and then go out. It is in water after all. But what if you take the idea of the boat down the river and change it up a bit. Like lets say you attach the candle to a paper lantern and let it fly off into the night sky. Well then you have the beautiful scene of the boats on the river but they're flying above you. Very very beautiful to be driving through the streets of Chiang Mai and every where you look there are hundreds of lanterns slowly weaving their way through the night sky. Some caught fire and fell calmly to the ground, but nothing serious.
But that's not Thai enough. Nope, not by far. So of course they had to attach fireworks to the lanterns and let them streak across the night sky in a shower of sparkles.
It really was fun, and besides the constant barrage of smoke and the hordes of people meandering about, it was very serene. Unfortunately I didn't get any decent pictures, as my camera doesn't take very good night shots. Oh well, there is always Songkran.. the 3 day long water festival, which will most likely last a whole week. Can't wait for that one!!!
And Thai holidays are not particularly organized or safe. Loy Krathong initially sounded like a beautiful celebration. Children and Adults alike create sweet little boats made of banana leaves and flowers and send them down the rivers and canals. The boats represent their eagerness to repent for their wrongdoings and to hope that they will be swept away like the water in the river. They even repent for the banana trees and flowers that were destroyed in the process of making their boats. And on top of each one is a single candle. So at night it really is a beautiful thing to see watching all these floating flowers go down the current.
But then after you take away everything beautiful of the festival you are left with the carnage!! Lights and flowers are fine and dandy, but people get impatient. They want to get bigger and better ways to express their joy of the holidays. What better way to do so than with fireworks?! Small quiet sparklers, loud cannons, mortars, roman candles, black cats and the shower of sparkles, it's like the fourth of July! But it lasts for 7 days... and there is no hour time line.
The fireworks started one day last week, and carried on into that night and through the morning and when the main day of the celebration drew nearer it sounded like a war zone. I'm not complaining I just thought it was very funny waking up and going to sleep to the sound of "gunfire" and "bomb blasts".The idea of the boats with candles floating down the river was an innocent one. If there was a problem and the candle caught fire to the boat it would calmly burn and then go out. It is in water after all. But what if you take the idea of the boat down the river and change it up a bit. Like lets say you attach the candle to a paper lantern and let it fly off into the night sky. Well then you have the beautiful scene of the boats on the river but they're flying above you. Very very beautiful to be driving through the streets of Chiang Mai and every where you look there are hundreds of lanterns slowly weaving their way through the night sky. Some caught fire and fell calmly to the ground, but nothing serious.
But that's not Thai enough. Nope, not by far. So of course they had to attach fireworks to the lanterns and let them streak across the night sky in a shower of sparkles.
It really was fun, and besides the constant barrage of smoke and the hordes of people meandering about, it was very serene. Unfortunately I didn't get any decent pictures, as my camera doesn't take very good night shots. Oh well, there is always Songkran.. the 3 day long water festival, which will most likely last a whole week. Can't wait for that one!!!
1.11.06
Happy Halloween...
New pictures! http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
So should I start off with the small talk or the serious stuff? I guess i can get the serious stuff out of the way and end it all on a happy note.
So London House has once again snagged me into their staff. I work at London House Saturdays and Sundays for 3 hours a day teaching the same range i was before. And thats fine, I enjoyed those classes and the students so I was happy with that. And then I was offered another position... teaching at a school.. not at london house... and teaching... Kindergarten.
Its 2 days a week 1 1/2 hours a day in a small school in the middle of a rice field, very rare to see in chiang mai city, not far from my house. So now i get the luxury of dealing with 20-30 raging terrors and attempt to teach them english. This is going to be fun. And highly illegal as i don't have a TEFL certificate or a Bachelors Degree. But oh well, i won't get in trouble.
So thats the serious stuff. Now lets have some fun!
Yesterday was Halloween, maybe where you are you're still partying as its 5:30 p.m. here, hopefully one of you has what it takes to party for 8 hours straight Halloween night!! Haha.
Well in true farang spirit we did dress up, with what we had. Brian went as a Vampire without teeth, Danny went as a "key" "nok" (a keynok is a type of farang that runs around in hippie clothes that don't quite fit them to well and looking very raggedy) which directly translated means "bird sh*t", and I went as the ever charmingly handsome Todd.
Now apparently there lies dormant inside me a beast. A beast of a man raging to get out and throw around some testosterone goodies! And so when i doned on my halloween costume, the beast awoke. And nothing was the same again.
It started out good we all went up to Milk Zone (the trendy restaurant/maltshop we go to eat at every night) and gave our waiters a good laugh, some not recognizing that i was the same girl before. I caught many a woman's eye last night! haha.
Then we went out and surprised a few more friends and made our way to a bar we'd never been to before to meet some other friends.. and blah blah blah. We ended up drinking and taking a few pictures and then headed out to our final destination.. Hot Shot!
Hot Shot isn't a club and its not a bar. Its a place you go to drink and watch entertainers and impersonators and have a good time. And then when the entertainers are done performing, you dance in between the aisles of tables. Its always fun, even though they all sing the same songs and i can do the dance moves to one, on command by now, how many times i've seen it.
But last night it was dressed up very nicely and all the performers were wearing costumes and it was very spooked out.
Halfway into the usual routine they had a group of bouncers go on stage and start doing drawings for tables to win bottles of whiskey. We waited excitedly to see if our tables numbers would be called, but luck wasn't on our side. That is until they announced the costume contest...
Of course Brian was ushered on stage by Sa and Mook. And I followed afterwards. They helped Brian up but didn't even attempt to help me over the ledge separating the stage from the floor 3 feet below. But I didn't think anything of it and then got on stage. I was the first in the line, but instead of coming to me and asking my name and where i was from first they went to the person beside me, which was Brian.
It was then that I realized they thought i was just some Farang man on stage!!! They didn't even know I was in a costume. So when eventually they got around to asking me where I was from, I said in the best girlie voice i could come up with "America" and I almost thought the announcer was going to faint. He did a double take and then stood there babbling in thai on the mic. All the girls in the audience cheered and it was really hilarious.
Now unfortunate for everyone else on the stage the winner was decided by audience vote. And in order to influence the audience, there was a dance off. Now this is where Todd took over. There are no pictures because the camera was in my pocket but you'll just have to take my word for it that no man had danced as awesome as Todd had danced on that stage. I think I can quote danny on saying later that I-- "..opened a can on them".
And so when it came down to the judging, it was no contest. The prize, a giant bottle of whiskey! We ended up mingling with the girls at the table next to ours and drinking the night away. We would have continued the party onto another club, but we were all pretty worn out.
So that ends the story of Todd and of Halloween and of dance contests that have no pictures...
So should I start off with the small talk or the serious stuff? I guess i can get the serious stuff out of the way and end it all on a happy note.
So London House has once again snagged me into their staff. I work at London House Saturdays and Sundays for 3 hours a day teaching the same range i was before. And thats fine, I enjoyed those classes and the students so I was happy with that. And then I was offered another position... teaching at a school.. not at london house... and teaching... Kindergarten.
Its 2 days a week 1 1/2 hours a day in a small school in the middle of a rice field, very rare to see in chiang mai city, not far from my house. So now i get the luxury of dealing with 20-30 raging terrors and attempt to teach them english. This is going to be fun. And highly illegal as i don't have a TEFL certificate or a Bachelors Degree. But oh well, i won't get in trouble.
So thats the serious stuff. Now lets have some fun!
Yesterday was Halloween, maybe where you are you're still partying as its 5:30 p.m. here, hopefully one of you has what it takes to party for 8 hours straight Halloween night!! Haha.
Well in true farang spirit we did dress up, with what we had. Brian went as a Vampire without teeth, Danny went as a "key" "nok" (a keynok is a type of farang that runs around in hippie clothes that don't quite fit them to well and looking very raggedy) which directly translated means "bird sh*t", and I went as the ever charmingly handsome Todd.
Now apparently there lies dormant inside me a beast. A beast of a man raging to get out and throw around some testosterone goodies! And so when i doned on my halloween costume, the beast awoke. And nothing was the same again.
It started out good we all went up to Milk Zone (the trendy restaurant/maltshop we go to eat at every night) and gave our waiters a good laugh, some not recognizing that i was the same girl before. I caught many a woman's eye last night! haha.
Then we went out and surprised a few more friends and made our way to a bar we'd never been to before to meet some other friends.. and blah blah blah. We ended up drinking and taking a few pictures and then headed out to our final destination.. Hot Shot!
Hot Shot isn't a club and its not a bar. Its a place you go to drink and watch entertainers and impersonators and have a good time. And then when the entertainers are done performing, you dance in between the aisles of tables. Its always fun, even though they all sing the same songs and i can do the dance moves to one, on command by now, how many times i've seen it.
But last night it was dressed up very nicely and all the performers were wearing costumes and it was very spooked out.Halfway into the usual routine they had a group of bouncers go on stage and start doing drawings for tables to win bottles of whiskey. We waited excitedly to see if our tables numbers would be called, but luck wasn't on our side. That is until they announced the costume contest...
Of course Brian was ushered on stage by Sa and Mook. And I followed afterwards. They helped Brian up but didn't even attempt to help me over the ledge separating the stage from the floor 3 feet below. But I didn't think anything of it and then got on stage. I was the first in the line, but instead of coming to me and asking my name and where i was from first they went to the person beside me, which was Brian.
It was then that I realized they thought i was just some Farang man on stage!!! They didn't even know I was in a costume. So when eventually they got around to asking me where I was from, I said in the best girlie voice i could come up with "America" and I almost thought the announcer was going to faint. He did a double take and then stood there babbling in thai on the mic. All the girls in the audience cheered and it was really hilarious.
Now unfortunate for everyone else on the stage the winner was decided by audience vote. And in order to influence the audience, there was a dance off. Now this is where Todd took over. There are no pictures because the camera was in my pocket but you'll just have to take my word for it that no man had danced as awesome as Todd had danced on that stage. I think I can quote danny on saying later that I-- "..opened a can on them".
And so when it came down to the judging, it was no contest. The prize, a giant bottle of whiskey! We ended up mingling with the girls at the table next to ours and drinking the night away. We would have continued the party onto another club, but we were all pretty worn out.So that ends the story of Todd and of Halloween and of dance contests that have no pictures...
23.10.06
Short and Sweet...
Thanks for the encouraging words Matt! :) I miss you guys too.. haha.
Oh and forgot to let you all know, I updated the pics to include pics of the house and the bus trip to Myanmar. Yay!
http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
Let me know what you think, you can post a comment on the pics themselves or here on my blog. Feedback is always a good thing. And let me know if there is anything you want me to take a picture of to show you guys. Like you know the neighborhood i live in, Chiang Mai University, them fine thai girls that wander around! haha. Anything you want.
The international flower festival is coming up next month, that should be pretty awesome! Flowers from 27+ countries from around the world are going to be setup here in chiang mai! Including a replica of mt fiji made entirely of flowers and the blossoming of 2 ancient chinese bulbs! Fascinating! :P
Oh and London House gave me a callback, so i may take on a weekend job there for a 10 week period! Hurray for good karma.
All in all things are looking up. Although the rent was due today and my wallet is starting to feel the pain. haha. Don't worry though, alls well that goes well. :)
Kisses
Thai-fly
Krystal
Oh and forgot to let you all know, I updated the pics to include pics of the house and the bus trip to Myanmar. Yay!
http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
Let me know what you think, you can post a comment on the pics themselves or here on my blog. Feedback is always a good thing. And let me know if there is anything you want me to take a picture of to show you guys. Like you know the neighborhood i live in, Chiang Mai University, them fine thai girls that wander around! haha. Anything you want.
The international flower festival is coming up next month, that should be pretty awesome! Flowers from 27+ countries from around the world are going to be setup here in chiang mai! Including a replica of mt fiji made entirely of flowers and the blossoming of 2 ancient chinese bulbs! Fascinating! :P
Oh and London House gave me a callback, so i may take on a weekend job there for a 10 week period! Hurray for good karma.
All in all things are looking up. Although the rent was due today and my wallet is starting to feel the pain. haha. Don't worry though, alls well that goes well. :)
Kisses
Thai-fly
Krystal
21.10.06
Border Run...
Haha border runs sound funny. But unfortunately for us, the borderrun we took was anything but fun.Let me explain what a borderrun is. Here in Thailand, Farang/foreigners, are required to leave the country every once in a while. I don't know why, but we are. So depending on your visa that you obtain before coming to thailand, you may have to go every month or every three months, to renew your visa (sort of). So you travel to a surrounding country. There are 3 that you can get to by car, bus, bike or if you're insane foot. Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar (formerly Burma). You can of course just fly back to your own country or go to another country, but these are the closests neighboring ones.
So once your visa is up you have to make a run for the border to renew it. The consequences could get pretty severe if you get caught with an out of date passport stamp. So in order to do that you have to get on a bus or take a minibus to the border, unless you're crazy and drive yourself or a stupid hippie backpacker and walk yourself.
Well our experience began when we realized that we didn't look at Danny's passport right and ended up having to leave a few days before. It cost us in all to get to the border and back, 4000 baht. So we get on the bus at 9:30 in the morning. We make it to Mae Sai the border town at 2:30. We walked to the border where we were told we would have to pay another 500 baht per person to get across the border.
Now here is where we learned a very valuable lesson. If you can manage to con a thai girl into going with you to the border on your border run, make sure that you make it clear to them that its not going to be fun, you're not going to be doing any shopping, and its just going to be a waste of their time. Danny forgot to mention all this to mook. So as we stumbled onto the other side of the bridge separating the two countries, we exhaustingly turned to go back to the other side dreading the trip home. Mook, our thai girl friend, was sooooooo disappointed. She thought we would be there for at least a few hours and was in the mood to shop, or eat, or do anything to make the trip there worth while.
But we eventually made it to Chiang Rai and were able to get on the last bus to Chiang Mai. We got back into town at about 10:00 that night. So 12 and a half hours later we had our stupid stamps and we were safe at home, miserable and ready for a shower.
But hopefully when we do our next border run we'll have a more pleasant experience. Not to say this one was bad, but maybe we'll stumble across a couple million dollars and can just take a plane by then. Haha....
16.10.06
A string of bad luck...
Long time since I posted, but things have been stagnant here.
And unfortunate circumstances have come about...
My job at London House is no more. They had an influx of students attend their October camp for the first 2 weeks and then it died off. So they were overstaffed. I hadn't been there as long as everyone else so i was let go. :( Sad news, but I think its for the best. London house had too many rules and it was hard for a teacher to actually get any teaching done. I cherish my experience that i had there and the wealth of knowledge I obtained in the short 2 weeks i was working...
Then there is the Laptop. The alienware laptop that Bj won 2 years ago at a computer tournament... it is also no longer in commission. It has decided that it doesn't want to turn on. And it decided this in the only country in the world that does not have the adequate parts to fix it. So now we have lost a very important piece of equipment that we were going to use when we're doing our private lessons...
Which is another issue. The private lessons have not even started either. We have all the supplies, materials and manpower to do it, but we just haven't seemed to come across the motivation to get the job done. We put up fliers but they immediately get taken down. We're not sure if its from prospective students who will call us eventually. Or if its from the Thai cleaning crew at night...
On top of all that, there is Duan. Duan was a "friend" of ours. Not really a friend, more like some one that hung around. At first I was OK with her, she seemed nice and sincere. And then i started noticing subtle things about her. Her eagerness to constantly be around, and when she was around she had to be near Brian. Or touching Brian... I played it up to just me being a woman. But then she would come over and completely ignore me and everyone else, except for Brian. So i knew what was up. We kind of started to push her away, and i guess we pushed too hard.... She came into the house after I went to work one morning and stole 7500 baht from us. That's a little over 200 dollars.... We hadn't seen her for a week and figured she went back to her village in the north, but then Brian and Danny ran into her at a club and he got a confession out of her. As well as a profession of love and other sexual advances...
She promised to get us the money back, but i didn't believe her when she said it and now a week later and still no money, no one else does either. Needless to say she doesn't want to meet me down a dark alley. Don't get me wrong there are steps we can take to get her into trouble with the Tourist police. But it won't get our money back and it would just make her life hell. I'd rather just let it go....
Like the title says this is just a string of bad luck. I'm looking optimistically to the future and i know things will be better. But I'm not delusional and not taking into consideration that things could get worse, but we'll take those as they come too.
And unfortunate circumstances have come about...
My job at London House is no more. They had an influx of students attend their October camp for the first 2 weeks and then it died off. So they were overstaffed. I hadn't been there as long as everyone else so i was let go. :( Sad news, but I think its for the best. London house had too many rules and it was hard for a teacher to actually get any teaching done. I cherish my experience that i had there and the wealth of knowledge I obtained in the short 2 weeks i was working...
Then there is the Laptop. The alienware laptop that Bj won 2 years ago at a computer tournament... it is also no longer in commission. It has decided that it doesn't want to turn on. And it decided this in the only country in the world that does not have the adequate parts to fix it. So now we have lost a very important piece of equipment that we were going to use when we're doing our private lessons...
Which is another issue. The private lessons have not even started either. We have all the supplies, materials and manpower to do it, but we just haven't seemed to come across the motivation to get the job done. We put up fliers but they immediately get taken down. We're not sure if its from prospective students who will call us eventually. Or if its from the Thai cleaning crew at night...
On top of all that, there is Duan. Duan was a "friend" of ours. Not really a friend, more like some one that hung around. At first I was OK with her, she seemed nice and sincere. And then i started noticing subtle things about her. Her eagerness to constantly be around, and when she was around she had to be near Brian. Or touching Brian... I played it up to just me being a woman. But then she would come over and completely ignore me and everyone else, except for Brian. So i knew what was up. We kind of started to push her away, and i guess we pushed too hard.... She came into the house after I went to work one morning and stole 7500 baht from us. That's a little over 200 dollars.... We hadn't seen her for a week and figured she went back to her village in the north, but then Brian and Danny ran into her at a club and he got a confession out of her. As well as a profession of love and other sexual advances...
She promised to get us the money back, but i didn't believe her when she said it and now a week later and still no money, no one else does either. Needless to say she doesn't want to meet me down a dark alley. Don't get me wrong there are steps we can take to get her into trouble with the Tourist police. But it won't get our money back and it would just make her life hell. I'd rather just let it go....
Like the title says this is just a string of bad luck. I'm looking optimistically to the future and i know things will be better. But I'm not delusional and not taking into consideration that things could get worse, but we'll take those as they come too.
2.10.06
Sustaining...
Hello! Its been a while... We finally got internet installed in our house. They said, on September 20th, they would come install it on the first. So i have been patiently waiting for the time to come, and turns out the first fell on a sunday. So they got it installed today! Yay!
Still no decent pictures of the house, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, but i do have good news. Besides saving a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to geiko, I have been recently employed. I work at a school called London House. It is a privately owned organization and is really nice. The entire school has maybe 30 students. Unfortunately i have a larger class of six year olds-nine year olds and there are nine of them. And they are demons! I am sure teaching children in america would get a little overwhelming, but there was a moment when i was surrounded by rampaging children and i had no idea what to do.
I teach 5 days a week, monday-friday. Tuesdays i teach cooking, HAHAHAHAHAHA, and fridays are Field trip day! This friday we are going to a clay house.. not sure if the house is made out of clay or if the house makes clay things. We will find out. Luckily this gives me something to take pictures of. And my students, as rambunctuous as they are, have very funny names. In thailand it is customary to adopt english or thai nicknames. Not like danny or timmy or anything that has anything remotely to do with their own names. Here is my roster:
JJ
Alice
Smile
Freshy
DoDo
Stang
Peem
Oil
Ailsa
I will take pictures of them. I am glad to have a job, gives me something to do. But now i actually have to come up with lesson plans. It was very sudden that i landed this position. I went and applied on Friday. I received a call on Sunday to come in for an interview and a meet and greet. 10 minutes later i received anotehr call to start working on wednesday. Another 10 minutes and i was asked to come in to work today. Very sudden. And my class went from having 5 students to having 9 and possibly 12 as time progresses. I'm in a whirlwind. Haha.
I make 18,000 baht a month for 3 hours of work a day for 20 days. Thats about 8 dollars an hour. Not bad. Since it is a part time position I am still available to do private lessons in the afternoon or to attend another school on the weekends.
Dinner time! kisses and bugs!
Thai-fly.
Still no decent pictures of the house, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, but i do have good news. Besides saving a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to geiko, I have been recently employed. I work at a school called London House. It is a privately owned organization and is really nice. The entire school has maybe 30 students. Unfortunately i have a larger class of six year olds-nine year olds and there are nine of them. And they are demons! I am sure teaching children in america would get a little overwhelming, but there was a moment when i was surrounded by rampaging children and i had no idea what to do.
I teach 5 days a week, monday-friday. Tuesdays i teach cooking, HAHAHAHAHAHA, and fridays are Field trip day! This friday we are going to a clay house.. not sure if the house is made out of clay or if the house makes clay things. We will find out. Luckily this gives me something to take pictures of. And my students, as rambunctuous as they are, have very funny names. In thailand it is customary to adopt english or thai nicknames. Not like danny or timmy or anything that has anything remotely to do with their own names. Here is my roster:
JJ
Alice
Smile
Freshy
DoDo
Stang
Peem
Oil
Ailsa
I will take pictures of them. I am glad to have a job, gives me something to do. But now i actually have to come up with lesson plans. It was very sudden that i landed this position. I went and applied on Friday. I received a call on Sunday to come in for an interview and a meet and greet. 10 minutes later i received anotehr call to start working on wednesday. Another 10 minutes and i was asked to come in to work today. Very sudden. And my class went from having 5 students to having 9 and possibly 12 as time progresses. I'm in a whirlwind. Haha.
I make 18,000 baht a month for 3 hours of work a day for 20 days. Thats about 8 dollars an hour. Not bad. Since it is a part time position I am still available to do private lessons in the afternoon or to attend another school on the weekends.
Dinner time! kisses and bugs!
Thai-fly.
21.9.06
Anchored...
So yeah we got us a place for rent. I haven't had an opportunity to take pictures yet, but its nice. Its one of the nicest houses i've been in. Its kind of like a townhouse, as its part of a building with other houses, but its humungous. Not sure what the square footage is but, its four stories with 3 official bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a big living room, 2 patios, a great view of Doi Suthep (the mountain), a big kitchen/dining room, and a big second living room we've converted into the game room.
Unfortunately its unfurnished so we are gradually buying pieces of furniture. We already bought the necessities... beds, chairs, computer, computer desks and ping pong table.. haha! Its got hard wood floors and really beautiful stairs. We're paying the outrageous price of 10,000 baht, or 270 US dollars... Eat your heart out.
I'll get pictures once we get everything settled. We're in the process of buying articles of furniture for the first floor to make it look professional so we can begin to give our private english lessons and make some money. I've also began to put my resume and application out there so i can get a j-o-b at an english school. See how that goes. No qualifications or experience to speak of, HIRE ME! haha.
Ok well its been raining for 4 days straight now, so i have to brave the storm back to the crib. Hopefully i won't get too soaked. If i don't post for a few days, assume i'm still drying off.
Thai-fly
Krystal
Unfortunately its unfurnished so we are gradually buying pieces of furniture. We already bought the necessities... beds, chairs, computer, computer desks and ping pong table.. haha! Its got hard wood floors and really beautiful stairs. We're paying the outrageous price of 10,000 baht, or 270 US dollars... Eat your heart out.
I'll get pictures once we get everything settled. We're in the process of buying articles of furniture for the first floor to make it look professional so we can begin to give our private english lessons and make some money. I've also began to put my resume and application out there so i can get a j-o-b at an english school. See how that goes. No qualifications or experience to speak of, HIRE ME! haha.
Ok well its been raining for 4 days straight now, so i have to brave the storm back to the crib. Hopefully i won't get too soaked. If i don't post for a few days, assume i'm still drying off.
Thai-fly
Krystal
13.9.06
Adventure...
Well for the last two days we have been trekking up the mountain here in chiang mai to visit the various temples. When I say trekking I mean riding our bikes. It was so much fun the first day we went, the weather was cool, the sun was setting and it was all so new and exciting. We went almost to the top which took us quite a while on the bikes, shifting gears and downshifting. Eventually we did make it to one of the highest points. We were in the clouds! No lies, they were floating around us.
We thought since we had so much fun the day before, we should try going back there yesterday. Well we probably waited too long and sooner than expected the sun had set. And then... I crashed my bike.. :( I have an owee on my arm.
Luckily I wasn't going very fast so it didn't hurt, but i did mess up the bike a bit. We got to the same point where we were at the day before and took more pictures, but it was much foggier and we couldn't see anything. Oh well, it was still fun. I have to regain my confidence in my own driving abilities though, still a lil woozy and wet behind the ears. :POh well short blog for now, check out my pictures at http://flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/ :) A few of the pictures we took are wallpaper/desktop worthy! :P
Kisses
Krystal
Thai Fly
11.9.06
Google...?
I went to blog and post my happy birthdays to everyone that had a birthday within the last couple of days only to find that for some reason google had stopped working. And since google bought out blogger, that meant that blogger was not working either. :( But here i am never fear all is well...
So to that Happy Birthday Kyle and Happy Birthday Phillip!
This weekend we went to a bowling alley at the mall. I was bowling fairly decently, I was actually quite surprised. But the one thing about bowling is that it does get old quickly. So after 3 games we decided it was time to go. We paid the bill went to get our shoes so we could leave when the problems started.
First the girl that is staying with us, Mook, found out that her shoes had been misplaced. Meaning they probably, upon having their bowling shoes back in their posession, gave her shoes to some one else. They weren't any fancy special shoes or anything, just brown flip flops, but for some reason the person that got the shoes decided they were worth taking. So we were ready to go and couldn't leave because the thai people couldn't work out a deal with her shoes. And then... the power goes out.. to the whole mall. The lights, backup lights, everything. We were thrown into pitch black. Eventually the generators kicked in and there was one or two lights on, but you can imagine that that is not nearly enough light for an entire bowling alley.
The thai worker decided that since we were in the mall he would just go with us to the first dept store and buy mook a pair of shoes. Good deal... unfornuately for us and that idea, the mall was closed... and still out of power. So we were stuck in the front of the mall with this thai guy who didn't know what to do, mook with no shoes and us in the dark, literally. The workers friend ends up showing up and instantly falls head over heels for mook and starts flirting. It would have been alright if it wasn't about to rain. So we were sitting there while they were all having fun and it was drizzingly. Eventually mook comes with us to the motorbikes, and when we look down at her feet, she's wearing the shoes of the workers friend. Romantically sweet that he would give her his shoes. But that was only a fleeting thought, because of mook's flirtations we now had to ride the 3 miles back to the guest house in pouring rain.
It was an eventful night to say the least.
Since then though, not so much has happened. We're desperately trying to find a place to stay and not having much luck. We'll get it straightened out, its just taking a little longer than i would like...
Til we meet again
Thai-fly
Krystal
So to that Happy Birthday Kyle and Happy Birthday Phillip!
This weekend we went to a bowling alley at the mall. I was bowling fairly decently, I was actually quite surprised. But the one thing about bowling is that it does get old quickly. So after 3 games we decided it was time to go. We paid the bill went to get our shoes so we could leave when the problems started.
First the girl that is staying with us, Mook, found out that her shoes had been misplaced. Meaning they probably, upon having their bowling shoes back in their posession, gave her shoes to some one else. They weren't any fancy special shoes or anything, just brown flip flops, but for some reason the person that got the shoes decided they were worth taking. So we were ready to go and couldn't leave because the thai people couldn't work out a deal with her shoes. And then... the power goes out.. to the whole mall. The lights, backup lights, everything. We were thrown into pitch black. Eventually the generators kicked in and there was one or two lights on, but you can imagine that that is not nearly enough light for an entire bowling alley.
The thai worker decided that since we were in the mall he would just go with us to the first dept store and buy mook a pair of shoes. Good deal... unfornuately for us and that idea, the mall was closed... and still out of power. So we were stuck in the front of the mall with this thai guy who didn't know what to do, mook with no shoes and us in the dark, literally. The workers friend ends up showing up and instantly falls head over heels for mook and starts flirting. It would have been alright if it wasn't about to rain. So we were sitting there while they were all having fun and it was drizzingly. Eventually mook comes with us to the motorbikes, and when we look down at her feet, she's wearing the shoes of the workers friend. Romantically sweet that he would give her his shoes. But that was only a fleeting thought, because of mook's flirtations we now had to ride the 3 miles back to the guest house in pouring rain.
It was an eventful night to say the least.
Since then though, not so much has happened. We're desperately trying to find a place to stay and not having much luck. We'll get it straightened out, its just taking a little longer than i would like...
Til we meet again
Thai-fly
Krystal
6.9.06
Ahhhh..
I had a root canal yesterday.. I don't know how it goes in the states, but that thing was wild! A lot of blood and bone extraction, I didn't think my jaw could do a 180 like that. Just kidding, it was painfully long, not very painful because they jabbed me with this 3 foot long needle before hand that had me feel like my face was made of puddy. :) Haha Fun times. It went well and i got pain medicine and antibiotics to treat the infection that was causing the pain.
Its pretty wild the way our day plays out. We get up and eat 3-5 times a day, speeds up the metabolism and whatnot, and spend a couple hundred baht on that, and then we play out the day just doing nothing but walking around, going to the mall or lounging in the hotel room. But at night omg (oh my god/gosh). It gets pretty wilder. We start the party at about 11-12 because thats when the bar scene gets good. We go to a pool hall called sharkys and challenge a few of the locals. Ok we all know I suck at pool, so I don't ever play but they have chang beer for cheap there. Then we go across the moat, yes a moat, and go to a club called spicys. Now in Dallas I wasn't much of a dancer, I danced but i never thought I was any good. Luckily for me none of the thai people, men or women, know how to dance! Haha it makes me look so awesome! haha. So needless to say brian and I are the best dancers on the dancefloor. So swell we are, everyone buys us drinks. Good times. So whenever we do go out we only spend another couple hundred baht. I feel at this rate I will have to get a job sooner than i thought. Haha.
The guesthouse that we are staying at is very nice and we pay 350 baht for the room or $9.50 per day. It is near some really good places to eat. There is actually an outside restaurant attached to the guest house that is very good. When we are in our lounging period I try to brush up on my thai. Here's what I got:
สบำยดีเเต่้่่อาทิตยัที่เเสยวปวดฬนนิดหน่อย
I'm fine. But last week I had a little bit of a toothache.
Ok so maybe I took that straight out of the book, but I did know 4 or 5 of those words. And that easily took me 10 minutes to write that one sentence. This keyboard is soooo confusing. Haha . Ok well I'm gonna go wake everyone up so we can go play! But I will blog tomorrow and maybe post pictures... who knows! Not I!!
Thai-fly
ไทยบิน
Krystal
Its pretty wild the way our day plays out. We get up and eat 3-5 times a day, speeds up the metabolism and whatnot, and spend a couple hundred baht on that, and then we play out the day just doing nothing but walking around, going to the mall or lounging in the hotel room. But at night omg (oh my god/gosh). It gets pretty wilder. We start the party at about 11-12 because thats when the bar scene gets good. We go to a pool hall called sharkys and challenge a few of the locals. Ok we all know I suck at pool, so I don't ever play but they have chang beer for cheap there. Then we go across the moat, yes a moat, and go to a club called spicys. Now in Dallas I wasn't much of a dancer, I danced but i never thought I was any good. Luckily for me none of the thai people, men or women, know how to dance! Haha it makes me look so awesome! haha. So needless to say brian and I are the best dancers on the dancefloor. So swell we are, everyone buys us drinks. Good times. So whenever we do go out we only spend another couple hundred baht. I feel at this rate I will have to get a job sooner than i thought. Haha.
The guesthouse that we are staying at is very nice and we pay 350 baht for the room or $9.50 per day. It is near some really good places to eat. There is actually an outside restaurant attached to the guest house that is very good. When we are in our lounging period I try to brush up on my thai. Here's what I got:
สบำยดีเเต่้่่อาทิตยัที่เเสยวปวดฬนนิดหน่อย
I'm fine. But last week I had a little bit of a toothache.
Ok so maybe I took that straight out of the book, but I did know 4 or 5 of those words. And that easily took me 10 minutes to write that one sentence. This keyboard is soooo confusing. Haha . Ok well I'm gonna go wake everyone up so we can go play! But I will blog tomorrow and maybe post pictures... who knows! Not I!!
Thai-fly
ไทยบิน
Krystal
5.9.06
The downside...
I have tried my hardest to just write my blogs as things occur and I think in doing so I just jot down what stood out in my mind the most. Which unfortunately was all the positive aspects. Now time for the nitty gritty. Thailand is awesome, don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast and truly enjoying myself. But obviously there is something more to the story... and here it is.
The people here are all sooooo nice. They adore farang. But they adore farang money more. I am constantly on my toes because I do not want to be taken, and that makes it a little hard to relax. Of course its not like a constant battle of haggling prices, but i know what the shady one's intentions are. Steer clear... :P
Another drawback is, as we all know, I am not a petite individual. I am big vertically and volumptuous. So unfortunately for me, I have not been able to find any clothes that fit here. Its a very sad situation walking through the mall and seeing the cutest and I mean the cutest clothes on the planet and not being able to buy any of them. My shoe size apparently does not exist, their XL size is equivalent to a US medium. The shirts fit, but barely. So I think I am going to undergo plastic surgery to remove my butt, chest, thighs, toes and one inch of bone from every limb. I will let you know how that goes.
The biggest issue for me right now is my tooth. I am in the worst pain on the planet at the moment because I did not listen to good advice and get my tooth fixed when i was in the states. Now it is just not a filling that I need, but a root canal as well. Plus in the last two nights the wisdom tooth behind the tooth I need fixed, has come out almost entirely. It is a constant gnawing pain that is there every second. I cannot eat very fast or very much.. so this is not necessarily an issue with Thailand, but it sucks so bad.. i had to blog about it.
BUT, I still love it here. Why would I base my opinion of a country based off of a few inconveniences? I wouldn't. So neither should you. That is why I am formally inviting everyone to come and play with me in thailand. It will be worth the 20 hour plane ride and the 12 hour train trip to come to chiang mai in the month of March fo Songkran (google it) the worlds largest water fight!!! Plus you can help ring in the thai new year... of the year 2050! Woohoo! :P
Ok well I am thankfully on my way to the dentist right now to either get som bad-butt drugs, which i can probably just buy at the pharmacy, or to get my tooth taken care of. Either way, I may be out of it for a few days, so do not expect a post from me.
Kisses and Bugs.
Thai-fly
Krystal
P.s. I did the Kick Push Coast dance for you Say-Tay-Rah! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!
The people here are all sooooo nice. They adore farang. But they adore farang money more. I am constantly on my toes because I do not want to be taken, and that makes it a little hard to relax. Of course its not like a constant battle of haggling prices, but i know what the shady one's intentions are. Steer clear... :P
Another drawback is, as we all know, I am not a petite individual. I am big vertically and volumptuous. So unfortunately for me, I have not been able to find any clothes that fit here. Its a very sad situation walking through the mall and seeing the cutest and I mean the cutest clothes on the planet and not being able to buy any of them. My shoe size apparently does not exist, their XL size is equivalent to a US medium. The shirts fit, but barely. So I think I am going to undergo plastic surgery to remove my butt, chest, thighs, toes and one inch of bone from every limb. I will let you know how that goes.
The biggest issue for me right now is my tooth. I am in the worst pain on the planet at the moment because I did not listen to good advice and get my tooth fixed when i was in the states. Now it is just not a filling that I need, but a root canal as well. Plus in the last two nights the wisdom tooth behind the tooth I need fixed, has come out almost entirely. It is a constant gnawing pain that is there every second. I cannot eat very fast or very much.. so this is not necessarily an issue with Thailand, but it sucks so bad.. i had to blog about it.
BUT, I still love it here. Why would I base my opinion of a country based off of a few inconveniences? I wouldn't. So neither should you. That is why I am formally inviting everyone to come and play with me in thailand. It will be worth the 20 hour plane ride and the 12 hour train trip to come to chiang mai in the month of March fo Songkran (google it) the worlds largest water fight!!! Plus you can help ring in the thai new year... of the year 2050! Woohoo! :P
Ok well I am thankfully on my way to the dentist right now to either get som bad-butt drugs, which i can probably just buy at the pharmacy, or to get my tooth taken care of. Either way, I may be out of it for a few days, so do not expect a post from me.
Kisses and Bugs.
Thai-fly
Krystal
P.s. I did the Kick Push Coast dance for you Say-Tay-Rah! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!
2.9.06
Eventful..
Yesterday we woke up fairly early (if there are any typos in this post it is because the keyboard i am using is retarded.) The normal routine of getting up is showering, going to get some breakfast, almost getting abducted by renegade taxi drivers, and then waking everyone else up a few hours later. Well yesterday we did things differently. After we ate breakfast, we skipped the abduction part, and willingly asked a taxi driver to take us to the Bangkok zoo. So we spent the morning meandering about, I got some great pictures and will upload them soon. It was really fun. The animals were still mostly asleep because it was only into the late morning when we went, but it was still really neat. We rented a water boat that is pedal-powered and pedaled throughout the lake and creeks.
We got back and did the norm of eating shopping eating shopping lounging. When it got time to get to the train station, in true hilleman/dinsdale fashion we only had 45 minutes to get there. We assumed it would be enough time, but unforseen to us was the random Japanese Concert and Convention the popped up in front of the mall. It was a desperate struggle to get taxis to take us to the train station but eventually we made it there with little time to spare. Well enough time for the attendant to tell us that we would be taking the train to lampoong instead of chiangmai. This is because of a traincrash that happened earlier this week, that i so carefully failed to mention so nobody would worry. Haha we're fine, besides the point though. So the track between lampoong and chiangmai was still being cleared of the wreckage so as soon as we got to Lampoong we were ushered onto a bus with about 40 other farang(foreigners) and sent on a 2 hour trip to chiangmai.
The train ride was really neat, I'm glad it was at night because i'm not sure i would want to know the condition of some of the rickety bridges we crossed over. I slept peacefully and when i was woken up this morning by a guy selling orange juice (the train food was ridiculously expensive! 130 baht for a big beer... thats insane!!!) I had a hard time realizing where exactly i was.
And here i am, refreshed and showered, wellfed and playing on the internet. The boys just rented scooters and are on their way to abducting me. Til' I write again. Kisses and bugs.
Thai-fly
We got back and did the norm of eating shopping eating shopping lounging. When it got time to get to the train station, in true hilleman/dinsdale fashion we only had 45 minutes to get there. We assumed it would be enough time, but unforseen to us was the random Japanese Concert and Convention the popped up in front of the mall. It was a desperate struggle to get taxis to take us to the train station but eventually we made it there with little time to spare. Well enough time for the attendant to tell us that we would be taking the train to lampoong instead of chiangmai. This is because of a traincrash that happened earlier this week, that i so carefully failed to mention so nobody would worry. Haha we're fine, besides the point though. So the track between lampoong and chiangmai was still being cleared of the wreckage so as soon as we got to Lampoong we were ushered onto a bus with about 40 other farang(foreigners) and sent on a 2 hour trip to chiangmai.
The train ride was really neat, I'm glad it was at night because i'm not sure i would want to know the condition of some of the rickety bridges we crossed over. I slept peacefully and when i was woken up this morning by a guy selling orange juice (the train food was ridiculously expensive! 130 baht for a big beer... thats insane!!!) I had a hard time realizing where exactly i was.
And here i am, refreshed and showered, wellfed and playing on the internet. The boys just rented scooters and are on their way to abducting me. Til' I write again. Kisses and bugs.
Thai-fly
31.8.06
Delayed...
Well we played it safe and went up to the train station without our luggage to buy the tickets initially in case there was any problems, we wouldn't be sitting up there with all of our luggage waiting for the next train. Good thinking. The train was filled for yesterday and sporatically filled for today. So we're going to stay in bangkok for one more day, yucky, and leave for Chiang Mai on Saturday. Hopefully we go do something interesting today. :)
I have uploaded alot of pictures to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
So check them out! Oh and feel free to comment on any blogs I write. Its that little option that says "0 comments" :P
Well gonna head on out for some food! :) The more you eat the better you feel, I think i'll have bugs for every meal! Yucky, jk.
thai-fly
Krystal
I have uploaded alot of pictures to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thai-fly/
So check them out! Oh and feel free to comment on any blogs I write. Its that little option that says "0 comments" :P
Well gonna head on out for some food! :) The more you eat the better you feel, I think i'll have bugs for every meal! Yucky, jk.
thai-fly
Krystal
Overwhelmed..
We did soooo much yesterday it was insane. We got up fairly early and went across the street and had some fried rice and fried noodles. Big plate of food, I took pictures but still can't upload them to the internet, and good drinks.. it cost 125 baht. Not bad. We went back to the mall, which I am very much tired of by now and walked around. We bought a wall charger for the ipod 550 baht and i bought a really cute butterfly belt for 220 baht. We then went to a japanese food restaurant and ate a monstrous meal, i also have pictures, for an insane price of 330 baht, the most we have spent on food to date. We then came back and met up with the boys, went back to the mall and rampaged the arcade. They decided they were hungry so they sat down to eat again.. I couldn't fit anything else in my stomach, haha. We walked around and then decided to stop and get some coffee, 40 baht, i had the mocha glacier. Its chocalate chip ice cream scooped into a cup of iced mocha sweet-heavenly stuff... puts frappucino's to shame.
We then decided we wanted to go back to the room and chill. We did that for a little bit and decided we wanted to go out. We went to a road called nana and played some pool. 460 baht for 5 games of pool and 2 pitchers of beer... way too expensive! (for thailand). From there we were just going to get a little snack and call it a night, already had 12 hours of mall time and eating yikes!, but we got sidetracked by our guide and ended up on khao san road. If you have seen the movie ong bak, thats where we were. We took pictures and walked around. Thats when i met Rotiboy. Rotiboy is a thai pastrie/bread thing that is flat and square and stuffed with either egg or banana. It is topped with a milk topping and it is by far the best thing i have ever eaten. Sweet and delicious and oh sooooooo good. 20 baht.
I feel like I did nothing but eat and eat and eat and eat some more all day yesterday. But we leave for chiangmai tonight by train. I was hoping for some beautiful pictures of the scenery but if it is nighttime, I won't get the opportunity. But i will get to sleep and work on my jetlag. Fun times!
So nothing new to report, nothing exciting happened, just good ol fashioned fun.
Loves
thai-fly
Krystal
p.s. 37 baht=1 dollar. :)
We then decided we wanted to go back to the room and chill. We did that for a little bit and decided we wanted to go out. We went to a road called nana and played some pool. 460 baht for 5 games of pool and 2 pitchers of beer... way too expensive! (for thailand). From there we were just going to get a little snack and call it a night, already had 12 hours of mall time and eating yikes!, but we got sidetracked by our guide and ended up on khao san road. If you have seen the movie ong bak, thats where we were. We took pictures and walked around. Thats when i met Rotiboy. Rotiboy is a thai pastrie/bread thing that is flat and square and stuffed with either egg or banana. It is topped with a milk topping and it is by far the best thing i have ever eaten. Sweet and delicious and oh sooooooo good. 20 baht.
I feel like I did nothing but eat and eat and eat and eat some more all day yesterday. But we leave for chiangmai tonight by train. I was hoping for some beautiful pictures of the scenery but if it is nighttime, I won't get the opportunity. But i will get to sleep and work on my jetlag. Fun times!
So nothing new to report, nothing exciting happened, just good ol fashioned fun.
Loves
thai-fly
Krystal
p.s. 37 baht=1 dollar. :)
29.8.06
Ack yahoo!
Well yahoo is down here so I cannot check my email. :( So I will have to check it some other time, don't know when. We leave for ChiangMai tomorrow by train, so I will take thousands of pictures of the scenery as it passes by. We got batteries for the camera but they are not camera batteries, just regular panasonic so they wear out very fast.
When I get the chance I will upload them to my Flickr account.
Still suffering from jetlag, ran into more rats yesterday because it was raining and the new hotel we are staying at is right next to a construction site. I have found out that the life in bangkok is a constant thing. It never stops. It rained last night, so construction halted for 3 hours, but resumed again at 3 o'clock this morning. Its now 10:30 and it is still going strong. When we got here it was just a few steel beams and four concrete walls.. It is now a two story structure with elaborate twists and turns. I will take a picture to show you what can be accomplished in 4 days of nonstop construction.
Danny has a friend named Mook that is traveling with us to Chiang Mai. She is really really funny and I am looking forward to forcing her to teach me thai for the 10 hours we are on the train. Google a map of Thailand and you will see how far bangkok is from Chiang Mai, just so you can get an idea of how far we are traveling... for 950 baht a person in first class cabins. (27 dollars a person)
Ok well I have 2 minutes and 40 seconds left on my internet card. Missing you all.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDDDDYYYYY!!!! Haha.
Thai-fly
Krystal
When I get the chance I will upload them to my Flickr account.
Still suffering from jetlag, ran into more rats yesterday because it was raining and the new hotel we are staying at is right next to a construction site. I have found out that the life in bangkok is a constant thing. It never stops. It rained last night, so construction halted for 3 hours, but resumed again at 3 o'clock this morning. Its now 10:30 and it is still going strong. When we got here it was just a few steel beams and four concrete walls.. It is now a two story structure with elaborate twists and turns. I will take a picture to show you what can be accomplished in 4 days of nonstop construction.
Danny has a friend named Mook that is traveling with us to Chiang Mai. She is really really funny and I am looking forward to forcing her to teach me thai for the 10 hours we are on the train. Google a map of Thailand and you will see how far bangkok is from Chiang Mai, just so you can get an idea of how far we are traveling... for 950 baht a person in first class cabins. (27 dollars a person)
Ok well I have 2 minutes and 40 seconds left on my internet card. Missing you all.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDDDDYYYYY!!!! Haha.
Thai-fly
Krystal
28.8.06
BANGKOK!
We are going to a new hotel today because we met up with our friends and they told us we were paying too much where we were... we were paying 28 dollars.. haha. So now we are staying at a place paying 16 dollars and it has cheaper internet and better air conditioning. I have decided that I brought to much junk with me after lugging it up and down 3 flights of stairs, and now i am about to take it up another 4 flights. D'oh. Its 65 pounds, so i am definitely getting a work out.
All of our electronic goodies are now dead because the voltage in bangkok is not enough to charge them. Luckily we will not be here very much longer. We decided that it is not worth the risk of going to Rayong, the beach town, where our friends had so much trouble (trusting the wrong people, transportation, and not enough tourist police ((those are the police that help make sure farangs/foreigners don't get into trouble legally and physically)) and the likes) So we are going to go back to our original plan, the one i was voicing for the entire time, and we are going to go to chiangmai. Woohoo.
So since i cannot charge my batteries for the camera i can not take any pictures, but the place we are staying at is directly across the street from MBK mall, google it, and even though it is mostly farangs/foreigners that are here it still feels very foreign to me. We were walking down the street the first night we were here and we saw bigggggg rats. Haha it was insane and then to cats started getting into the loudest cat fight EVER and we went to one of the very abundant 7-11's in the area and was greeted by our first lady boy. Very eventful first night.
Jetlag has gotten the best of us. We took a lot of pills to ease the flight over here, i slept through one of the meals offered on the dallas-seoul flight because i was so drugged up, but other than that it was fine. We slept most of the way from seoul-to-bangkok and when we got here we fell into a nice sleep pattern. That is until last night when we were wide awake at 5 in the morning and trying to force ourselves to sleep. haha it was funny. We woke up at 9 and i am just now starting to feel the drowsiness. D'oh. So hopefully we will be fine by the time we make it to chiangmai.
Whew i have spent the last 7 minutes 20 seconds writing this, so i hope that you don't mind if i just copy and paste it into my blog.. haha i'm feeling lazy. Hopefully we will buy some new batteries for the camera today and i can take some pictures. We are buying thai cellphones today, so we will officially be able to be reached other than by email.
I miss you all so very much. Kisses and hugs to kyle and Jen and don't forget to kiss lolly for me, because i know i did when i left. :(
All in all we are very much alive, safe and having fun in humid and heat... kisses everyone in d'town, should have come with me. :P
Loves
Thai-fly
Krystal
All of our electronic goodies are now dead because the voltage in bangkok is not enough to charge them. Luckily we will not be here very much longer. We decided that it is not worth the risk of going to Rayong, the beach town, where our friends had so much trouble (trusting the wrong people, transportation, and not enough tourist police ((those are the police that help make sure farangs/foreigners don't get into trouble legally and physically)) and the likes) So we are going to go back to our original plan, the one i was voicing for the entire time, and we are going to go to chiangmai. Woohoo.
So since i cannot charge my batteries for the camera i can not take any pictures, but the place we are staying at is directly across the street from MBK mall, google it, and even though it is mostly farangs/foreigners that are here it still feels very foreign to me. We were walking down the street the first night we were here and we saw bigggggg rats. Haha it was insane and then to cats started getting into the loudest cat fight EVER and we went to one of the very abundant 7-11's in the area and was greeted by our first lady boy. Very eventful first night.
Jetlag has gotten the best of us. We took a lot of pills to ease the flight over here, i slept through one of the meals offered on the dallas-seoul flight because i was so drugged up, but other than that it was fine. We slept most of the way from seoul-to-bangkok and when we got here we fell into a nice sleep pattern. That is until last night when we were wide awake at 5 in the morning and trying to force ourselves to sleep. haha it was funny. We woke up at 9 and i am just now starting to feel the drowsiness. D'oh. So hopefully we will be fine by the time we make it to chiangmai.
Whew i have spent the last 7 minutes 20 seconds writing this, so i hope that you don't mind if i just copy and paste it into my blog.. haha i'm feeling lazy. Hopefully we will buy some new batteries for the camera today and i can take some pictures. We are buying thai cellphones today, so we will officially be able to be reached other than by email.
I miss you all so very much. Kisses and hugs to kyle and Jen and don't forget to kiss lolly for me, because i know i did when i left. :(
All in all we are very much alive, safe and having fun in humid and heat... kisses everyone in d'town, should have come with me. :P
Loves
Thai-fly
Krystal
23.8.06
Saying good bye...
Well I've been hiding out in El Paso for the last 5 days and its now time to say goodbye to everyone.
My mom might try to handcuff me to the banister, but I think I'll be able to make it back to Dallas in time for my 
flight to bangkok on saturday.
flight to bangkok on saturday. I got to see just about everyone that I needed to see and wanted to see, and I saw a lot of people that I didn't even think I was going to see. And then I saw too much of other people.. all in good fun though.
Everythings all packed up and we're all ready to go.. next blog post will be from good ol' MBK mall in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sawatdee.
