Adjusting to Chaos

Well its about midnight on friday, our last night in Bangkok...I think... We had one of the craziest days I've experienced ending with dinner at the top of the tallest building in Bangkok. I was going to do some late night shopping (i've been holding back all week) but everything was just closing up when I came out. So I'll do this before I head up to bed.

It took a couple days to adjust to being here, the hotel Ajay booked made all the difference. My new rule is when staying in a nice, peaceful place accommidation doesn't matter so much. But when chaos is everywhere I need a place to relax. The hotel has been fantastic, it makes the street actually seem charming. The music blasting all day and night is a faint background noise from our room and the rooftop pool is a great bonus.

That isn't to say Bangkok isn't the most insane city I've ever been to. I thought I'd be prepared because I've been to Mexico City, not even close! Everything about this town is absolutely insane. I can see why some people are fascinated with it, it's pretty mindblowing. There is stuff for sale on every square inch of this town, it's almost if selling junk is the only business going on. EVERYWHERE you look there is something for sale...I've never seen anything like it. I've enjoyed the experience of being here but I really don't care to spend more time here. It is positively the dirtiest place I have ever seen. Lauren and I were out all day riding around in Tuk-Tuks, breathing exhaust and sweating. A visit to Chinatown really topped it off. OH, and the 3 hours in 2 cabs trying to get downtown to go to the fabulous bar/restaurant. I have never felt more disgusting in my life. Whe you ride in a tuk tuk you breath in everything and its so fowl. On the other hand, we saw some amazing temples today and had 2 fantastic views of the city. I had a couple of adorable young monks let me take their picture. They were so excited to do it. We have gotten to see whole groups of monks praying to budda and sit there right with them. We always have to take off our shoes and cover up our arms and legs. There are amazing gold temples all over the city and must have seen 100 buddas. We even saw the reclining budda which was at least 50 feet long. I'll try and post some photos soon.

Last night we went to a night market after almost pooping out after another late dinner. It was really strange...so much crap...and in a pretty seedy area which was interesting. It felt perfectly safe since there were so many people around, just more craziness. The view from the top of the building tonight felt really special, all the noise and pollution and grime was gone. Just lights going on forever...

We learned today that the typhoon that hit the phillipines is going to cause a lot of rain in the north where we were headed tomorrow. So instead we're going to head down the the gulf and do a couple weeks on the beach, maybe go scubadiving or something. Then we'll just head back north. That's all for now!

Culture Shock!

Well, we arrived safely in Bangkok yesterday after a somewhat luxurious flight on All Nippon, the Japanese Airline. They had like 10 movies to choose from that you could stop and start whenever you wanted. And the flight attendants were of coarse adorible in their pink and black uniform with little neckbows...all the uniformed workers in japan look fantastic. Actually, the perfection of Japan made coming here that much more shocking. I think going from grimy baltimore to super-duper grimy bangkok would be a lot easier than a place where people carry around ashtrays in their purses (yes, we saw this) so they don't ash in the street. I'm realizing that Japan is expensive because of its convenience. You don't have to watch your back, nothing really requires any effort because if you can't figure something out anyone would be overjoyed to help you. We were actually on the train to the airport and it stopped...seeme like just another stop but this guy came up to us and asked if we were going to the airport. He said we needed to change trains and then continued to give up airport advice, he was a pilot....the nicest pilot ever! Anyway, it would have been bad if he hadn't done that.

So, anyway, lauren and I are in some serious culture shock. Yesterday when we got here we didn't know what do to with ourselves. First off, we are staying on this street where all the hostels are and backpackers are. Lauren keeps comparing it to Bourbon street in New Orleans (she used to live there). It's insane!!! I think I actually hate this street, it kind of makes me sick to my stomach. If Alex's friend Ajay wasn't meeting up with us tomorrow I would be so outta here, but I'm hoping he'll show us the cool stuff. This place is so insane, they sell stuff, junk, whatever, EVERYWHERE. I thought I'd be prepared cause I've been to Mexico City and liked it but it's NOTHING like that. You cant go anywhere without people harassing you to buy something. And finally when we accept we realize we are getting ripped off...fortunately getting ripped off here is a matter of a few dollars. Today was interesting...weird, fun, scary, and strange. We wanted to go to one place, Wat Pho to get a Thai massage and check out the ruins. Well when you walk down Khao San Road people just follow you telling you prices for taxis, and tuk tuks. We were warned not to take tuk tuks here because of the exhaust from the vehicles and cause they might take you places you don't want to go to get you to buy stuff. Well, we stupidly took one and ended up going ALL over town meanwhile it started pouring. It was actually pretty funny. We were taken to 2 different sights, a taylor, and travel tour package place and never actually our destination. We had to humor the places he took us to just to get where we wanted to go...he ended up dropping us off at the grand palace. The upside is that the ride cost us about 75 cents. The grand palace was really amazing though. It reminded me of versailles only more compact and cooler. I'll try and post pictures if it ever works. We walked over to Wat Pho and got the most amazing massages ever. We got Thai herbal massages where they use these big hot tea-bag kinda things as well as serious pressure point work. I really needed it after all this bed changing and airplane/bus sleeping. My neck and back were soooo stiff. It also helped me relax mentally, I was on edge big time. It's going to take some time to get used to this culture, but I'm sure we will. I don't know if I'll ever get used to bargoning though, I've done it all over the world and I always hate it. Its just such a waste of time and energy...not relaxing at all.

Anyway, I could go on about this place forever, how you can get diesel jeans for $5 and Alpine Backpacks for $30 or so. Consumerism at it's finest...yuk. I'm not really even tempted to buy stuff here, I'll wait till chang mai. The weirdest thing about this town is that it's totally sin city, anything goes. That is shocking too, I'm just not used to it. It also kinda turns us off to a lot of the other travellers, a lot of them have questionable intentions. Enough said.

So I'll try and post some photos of japan and stuff today or tomorrow, it's proving to be difficult. I already tried before writing this and it wouldn't work. That's all for now! bye.

From what i understand up north is much more relaxed, so we'll head out this weekend. This city is really

I really wish I could read what this page says!

Alex told me to title my pages but I can hardly tell if Im posting this or not! Anyway, we are in our super-nice hostel in Tokyo about ready for bed. We have to wake up at 6 am to catch our flight to bangkok.

We had a great time in Kyoto, saw so many beautiful temples and shines. This one called Kinkaka-gi had this amazing zen garden like out of a painting. We explored Gion and saw a bunch of geisha...we even spyed on a geisha party in a restaurant from the street. It was really amazing. They are so mystical, youll be keeping an eye out for them and suddenly one will walk right past you and you totally miss it. It really is like theyre floating. We realized once we got to tokyo how different kyoto is from here, friendlier, more tasteful, more romantic. Tokyo really is just like new york, only less diverse. We werent super into it but we did stuff ourselves with some great conveyer belt sushi tonight for like $5. Its crazy, we are staying in the historic district called asakusa with an amazing temple and 5 story pagoda. But its completely overshadowed by tourist shops and a weird amusement park surrounding it. Its so strange. anyway, i would like to write more but my minutes are running out. more from bangkok!

Hi everyone.

Man this is more difficult than i thought it would be. Everything on this computer is in Japanese so i had to get the girl at the hostel to help me. Anyway, we are having a great time here in Kyoto. It is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. I was going to post some pictures I took yesterday but that seems to hard right now. Maybe in Tokyo there will be an internet cafe with english computers.

So our trip began with a canceled flight to Chicago and then a bump to united airlines to chicago. Then when we got on the plane we were told that the pilots were stuck in DC traffic. Thankfully we caught our flight to Tokyo but it required a brisk walk across the entire Chicago airport with our giant packs on...fun. So we flew our painful 12 hour flight, i forgot how much it sucks to fly thatlong, but its very worth it. Figuring out the trains to Kyoto was soooo easy, mostly because the people here have got to be the friendliest and most helpful of anyone Ive met. Its really amazing. You ask someone for directions and they are so happy to help, they acutally walk you to where youre going. this has happened to us several times but its still so shocking.

Japan is beyond what I thought it would be. Its so clean you could eat from the streets, yet there are NO trash cans anywhere. Its the strangest thing. EVERYONEs got great style, everyone. I have never seem more attractive people in my entire life. And everything is well thought out here and is so tasteful. Aestheticly everything is perfect.

So yesterday we went to the Toji pagoda which is surrounded by a bunch of temples and on the 21 of each month (we were lucky) a giant antique market. Itwas truely amazing. We walked for hours yesterday so we justtook it easy last night and went out for sushi. Today we are planning on getting a lot in, including a visit to Gion (where the geisha are).

As for the current situation in thailand, weve been doing our research, reading traveller forums and spoke with the american embassy in bangkok this morning. Everything and one says the same thing, its totally fine. The embassy said everything is back to normal. We are still going to keep up to date with the situation between now and monday and are going to register with the us embassy in thailand today. The thais are such peaceful people everything seems okay. So noone worry, if things got bad you know me, im not stickin around!

Thats all for now, ill try and post pictures soon. And and ill be making more calls in thailand, its REALLY expensive here. Email me if you want to know anything...i cant seem to break the computer addiction yet...

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who came to my going away party last night, it was a good ole time! I'd post a picture but I forgot to take some....opps!

St. Louis and Phoenix

I just got back from my pretrip-trip. 9 days in St. Louis and Phoenix visiting virtually everyone in my family. It was good to see everyone but it feels even better to be home. It's hard to believe I only have 2 weeks here before I leave! 2 weeks of nothin but getting ready and hangin out though...gotta get lots of quality time in before I leave. Here's some picts of my adorable nieces and nephews I got to spend so much quality time with before I head off across the earth.