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ENTRIES FROM THIS CATEGORY
- One Writes in Bangkok
- All Roads Lead To Bangkok - Thai By Night - Mallkings - Moderation - So An Englishman, A Scotsman and An American Don't Walk Into A Bar... - Kicking Ass - Giving Thanks - Sunshine On A Rainy Day - Recipes - Facing Fears On The Non-Tourist Trek - Pineapples and Four-Legged Friends - Whingeing Down The River - Chiang Mai In The News - The Occidental Tourist - The Power of Geography - The Wrath of Khan - M.M.B.B. (the Many Meetings Back in Bangkok) - Excess Baggage - Blog and Reality - Same Same But Different - Pretty Fly For A White Guy - Supergirls - The Two Backpacks - Staring Out The Window - The Fifth And Final Time - Volunteer Work - A New Homebase - The Cliffs Men - Hit And Miss - Superday - Searching For A Third Nipple - On Tap - Back To The Future |
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October 14, 2004
One Writes in BangkokDAY 355: "Won't you be relieved when you get home and you don't have to move on anymore?" Liz asked me the morning I left Tokyo as we walked to the train platform. "I can't wait 'til I don't have...Read this entry November 23, 2004
All Roads Lead To BangkokDAY 397 (42 days since last Thailand entry): In India, I had a somewhat unique experience unlike the average backpacking Brit on "gap year" between high school and "uni," what with my "press credentials" opening doors for me, and my...Read this entry Thai By NightDAY 398: From what I've gathered, it seems that what the Thai hotel and restaurant managers do to keep out Thai touts and Thai whores away from their legitimate Westerner-catering establishments is to assume that all Thai people off the...Read this entry November 24, 2004
MallkingsDAY 399: "I hate it when [travelers] say you can't get a real [Thai] experience in a big city," I said to Paul as we rode in a souped-up air-conditioned taxi across town. "What, like fake Thai people live here?"...Read this entry November 25, 2004
ModerationDAY 400: Paul and I met in the Sawasdee House's trendy-looking ground floor restaurant that morning, the same way we did every morning in Bangkok thus far. It had become our Central Perk (from Friends), our Monk's Cafe (from Seinfeld)....Read this entry November 27, 2004
So An Englishman, A Scotsman and An American Don't Walk Into A Bar...DAY 401: "Sometimes I have to stop and think of what you're saying," Paul told me as we walked Ratchadamnoen Road, a main thoroughfare in Bangkok with elephant-shaped shrubs, archways that honored the king, and the United Nations building. I...Read this entry November 28, 2004
Kicking AssDAY 402: Muay Thai, also known as Thai Boxing, is a free-for-all martial art invented in the 15th century by the Siamese military as a way to keep the troops fit in hand-to-hand combat. Nowadays the style of fighting is...Read this entry Giving ThanksDAY 403: Thanksgiving Day. The American holiday that celebrates the first harvest produced by the first European settlers (who wore big funny hats so big they needed belt buckles of their own) with the help of the indigenous people (wearing...Read this entry December 01, 2004
Sunshine On A Rainy DayDAY 404: The overnight express from Bangkok to Chiang Mai continued on its way through the northern Thai countryside when I woke up that morning. It was a casual morning of reading, writing and eating the breakfast served to me...Read this entry RecipesDAY 405: I grew up with a love of cooking. I remember using a Sesame Street cookbook and making banana bread one day that pleased the family and since then I've like to cook since, up through my young adulthood...Read this entry December 03, 2004
Facing Fears On The Non-Tourist TrekDAY 406: The standard tour that everyone seems to do out of Chiang Mai is a three-day excursion of trekking, elephant riding and rafting, offered by every tour agency, hotel and guesthouse in town. The funny thing about this three-day...Read this entry December 05, 2004
Pineapples and Four-Legged FriendsDAY 407: I have faint but fond memories of my parents taking me to New York's Bronx Zoo as a kid, about twenty-five years ago. Not only was it one of America's more decent zoological preserves where I got to...Read this entry December 06, 2004
Whingeing Down The RiverDAY 408: Of the many uses of bamboo -- panda food, decoration and crafts, scaffolding for Hong Kong skyscrapers -- one of the most fun is raft making. When I originally heard that Day Three of my northern Thai jungle...Read this entry Chiang Mai In The NewsDAY 409: Everyone in my little Chiang Mai clique decided to "take a day off" to rest and recuperate in the city after being in the jungle for three days. Despite the beautiful weather outside, I spent most of the...Read this entry The Occidental TouristDAY 410: In independent travel culture, some would argue that booking any sort of a tour is a cardinal sin (right next to eating at McDonald's), as it is counter-productive to experiencing the real reality of a foreign culture. Lot,...Read this entry December 07, 2004
The Power of GeographyDAY 411: My family has a history of geography contests. When I was in the seventh grade, I was chosen to represent my middle school in the statewide Geography Bee, proudly run by New York Knick-turned New Jersey senator Bill...Read this entry December 08, 2004
The Wrath of KhanDAY 412: Perhaps the most popular Laotian, at least in American pop culture, is the animated character Khan from the animated series King of the Hill, created by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead and Office Space fame. Khan and...Read this entry December 23, 2004
M.M.B.B. (the Many Meetings Back in Bangkok)DAY 429 (18 days since last Thailand entry): It kind of feels like I'm going to my second home, I thought as I flew over Cambodia on my way back to Bangkok. It was to be my third landing in...Read this entry Excess BaggageDAY 430: To the uninformed, the Philippines may seem like "just another southeast Asian country," with people that look like the people of other nearby countries. This is a complete falsity, of course. As my Let's Go guidebook perfectly puts...Read this entry January 27, 2005
Blog and RealityDAY 461 (31 days since last Thailand entry): This here weBlog has become and integral part of my trip -- more so than I originally thought. Maintaining it not only has given me a sense of purpose in my wanderings...Read this entry Same Same But DifferentDAY 462: There is a phrase on t-shirts that many of the backpackers in southeast Asia wear: "Same same but different." It is a phrase often uttered by tour agents and touts when trying to get a foreigner's business. "Same...Read this entry January 28, 2005
Pretty Fly For A White GuyDAY 463: One of Noelle's first impressions and observations of Bangkok -- specifically in the Khaosan and Patpong districts -- was that, "There are a lot of white people here. I hardly see any Thai people." True, Khaosan and Patpong...Read this entry SupergirlsDAY 464: "We're in Bangkok. We can't not see one," Oklahoman Ellen said to her husband Kevin the night before at dinner. She was of course referring to the famous sex shows of the red-lighted Patpong district, another one of...Read this entry January 31, 2005
The Two BackpacksDAY 465: It was advised by numerous parties to travel overland from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia with a transport service set up by a tour agency, in order to ease the transition at the border crossing. What I...Read this entry February 09, 2005
Staring Out The WindowDAY 472 (one week since last Thailand entry): "I think that one of my favorite things is staring out the window," I said, staring out the window of a bus from Phnom Penh to the Cambodian port town of Sihanoukville....Read this entry The Fifth And Final TimeDAY 473: Twelve days before, just two minutes before my introduction of Noelle as a "character" on the Blog in Bangkok, I ran into a recurring character one last time: Paul from Manchester, who I had met on the Everest...Read this entry Volunteer WorkDAY 474: "I'm in a Toyota pick-up truck in Thailand!" an excited Noelle said in a Toyota pick-up truck in Thailand. We had just arrived in Krabi's bus terminal after a two-hour bus transport from Surat Thani -- the hub...Read this entry February 12, 2005
A New HomebaseDAY 475: "This is one case that Let's Go let me down," Noelle said. She had listened to my anti-Lonely Planet rants and brought over the latest Let's Go guidebooks for Southeast Asia and Thailand, and was quite pleased with...Read this entry The Cliffs MenDAY 476: "Don't you want to get good at [rock climbing]?" Blogreader/friend Cheryl once asked me in a New Jersey rock gym a couple of months before The Global Trip 2004 began. "No. If I got any good at it,...Read this entry Hit And MissDAY 477: "I charred my back and need 1 day to rest it on a moto. :)" Noelle wrote on a note for me to read the day before when she arrived at our room before I did. While I...Read this entry February 13, 2005
SuperdayDAY 478: "The worst day of diving is better than the best day of working," was the saying silk-screened onto a t-shirt that I saw some guy wearing that morning. We were on a boat off the coast of Ao...Read this entry Searching For A Third NippleDAY 479: Every tour office and guesthouse in the Krabi province has posters up for the "James Bond Tour," a tour of Ao Phangnga National Park, filming location for scenes in 1974's The Man With The Golden Gun, starring Roger...Read this entry February 14, 2005
On TapDAY 480: Noelle had been taken in by a group of British divers that were on the ship during her two-day PADI Advanced Open Water certification course. The night before she had gone drinking with them for happy hour at...Read this entry Back To The FutureDAY 481: "So I'll see you in about a month," Noelle said before boarding a shared songthaew that would take her back to Krabi Town so she could get to her morning northbound flight back to Bangkok to continue her...Read this entry |