BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=28273] | 2005-11-23 03:38:51
 BradyMSU | Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Travel Blog |
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand
Almost a year of planning, our trip to Thailand will be the most exotic and challenging trip Colin (my travel partner) and I have ever taken. Scheduled to occur during the Michigan Legislature's (where I work) Deer Hunting Week and Thanksgiving break, it will also take place over Thailand's Loy Krathong holiday and the November full moon. This will allow us to experience the world's largest and wildest beach party at Hin Rin Beach on an island in the Gulf of Siam. We leave O'Hare on Thursday, November 10 for a 24 hour flight with a short layover in Seoul, Korea. Our first three days will be spent in Bangkok where we've hired a private guide/interpreter. The next seven days we're on our own at the tropical resort island of Ko Samui. We return to Michigan on November 20. Follow along with us on our adventures in Thailand and feel free to e-mail us along the way.
Joined on: November 2nd 2005
Last Login: December 11th 2005
Blog Entries: 22
Photos: 0
Last Login: December 11th 2005
Blog Entries: 22
Photos: 0
Status: BLOGGER
Blogs & Travel Journals
by BradyMSU, order by Date newest first.
My early worries before the trip were baseless. While my usual planning was as helpful as always; Thailand was more than ready to open its arms to Colin and me. Perhaps even more than western Ireland, the Thai people displayed true hospitality and showed us that they were very happy to have us in their country. Thailand is a wonderful place. Before we began planning this trip, Thailand, Bangkok, and Southeast Asia in general seemed like some of the most distant and exotic places on the planet. Movies I had seen (such as “The Beach”) combined with songs like “One Night [View Full Entry]
By BradyMSU
November 21st 2005
November 21st 2005
Home in East Lansing
North America » United States » Michigan » East Lansing
I'm finally back in East Lansing -although I'm only mentally half here. I forced myself to stay up until midnight yesterday, but then woke up at 4 a.m. I've been unpacking, sorting gifts, talking with Joel, and working on the Thailand photos this morning. I think I'm going to take a nap now and then get up again in the afternoon. The jet lag has been severe for me coming home although I hardly had it at all on the way over. Maybe I need to get used to the cold weather again, but my apartment seems really chilly. It'll be [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=28187] | 2005-11-21 15:32:01
We'll we're back in Michigan, although I'm not quite home yet. Things in Chicago went very smoothly and I escaped U.S. Customs without losing anything. I had checked a box saying I was bringing in food (although it was only commercially packaged curry spices) and as soon as the customs officers saw that he sent me over to U.S. Agriculture and decided to pull apart the suitcases of some other victim. This is one of the few times I've escaped inspection at O'Hare. For some reason, they like to pick on me. While I can't list what contraband I brought in [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=28085] | 2005-11-21 00:01:48
Happy Sunday morning to everyone from Korea. Although it looks like an unhappy Sunday afternoon in East Lansing as the Spartans are behind in both their "currently in progess" football game and basketball game. Hopefully we can pull out a win We're back in Seoul Incheon Airport for a 2 1/2 hour layover. Both the flight from Samui to Bangkok and Bangkok to Seoul went very quickly. We still have the longest flight ahead of us which will board in two hours. Bangkok Airport was hellish bureaucracy -at least four different checkpoints we had to wait through. However, I apparently didn't [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27966] | 2005-11-20 00:30:50
Most of Thailand has three seasons. The hot season is in America's spring months. Then the rainy season lasts until the end of October or early November. Finally, from mid-November until March, there is the cool season -although cool means 85F. Ko Samui and the islands in the Gulf of Siam have two seasons. The cool season last from our late summer until early spring and the hot season the rest of the year. The only truly rainy period is the month of November -something we didn't know before we planned this trip. As I've said before, we've been very lucky [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27859] | 2005-11-19 02:17:19
We spent a quiet final day in Thailand. I got my hair cut and an old-fashioned shave in the morning. Then we finished shopping. The hard rain got worse through the day, but has cleared up now in the evening. We went swimming during one of the breaks in the rain, but otherwise stayed in our hotel room packing and reading. Tonight, we went for a final Thai massage -best one yet. Then we went out for a very fancy dinner that was surprisingly poor for the money and have terrible service, especially for Thailand. If you ever visit Ko Samui, [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27926] | 2005-11-19 13:40:37
The trip is winding down now just as the climate is changing here on Koh Samui. It started to rain this evening and likely will rain almost every day for the next month. We lucked out on the weather. The other odd thing, is after a week of not seeing any Americans, they now seem to be poping up all over the place. We even met two guys who graduated from MSU with Colin in 2003. The island is beginning to get a different crowd than those who were here earlier this week. I did a ton of shopping for friends [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27782] | 2005-11-18 11:31:57
I'm feeling a lot better this afternoon. The hangover is gone and I've spent a good hour at the beach followed by a lunch of chicken with cashew, spicy Thai salad with beef, sweet & sour chicken, and basil beef. The dishes are smaller and much cheaper here allowing us to try a number of different things for lunch rather than one huge dish like in the USA. The travel agent refunded our entire cost of the unused Full Moon Party tickets and apologized over and over for the failure of the minibus/speedboat service. We found out that hundreds of people [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27604] | 2005-11-17 07:02:03
Matt, after your e-mail, I was afraid your post would be too dirty to accept for the blog, but it looked tame enough. Opium is very big in northern Thailand's "Golden Triangle" but not down here in the south. The drug here is Yang-Ba and it often puts users in a zombie coma for three days or more where they wander the streets like stray dogs. Sounds like fun, but I would rather stay on the beach and get Thai massages. Also, I can't imagine you with a mustache. I can't picture how your hair would get dark enough for anyone [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27584] | 2005-11-23 03:43:57
Despite November being the rainy monsoon month in Ko Samui, we awoke to another very sunny and beautiful morning on the island. Today is Loy Krathong, one of the most important holidays in the kingdom. This evening at dusk, Colin and I will travel to Big Buddha Beach at the northeast end of the island to watch as Thais and tourists launch krathongs into the ocean. Krathongs are small floating objects built of banana leaves, paper, or even bread and contain offerings, incense and always candles. The idea is to float away your difficulties in life and wish for great times [View Full Entry]
BradyMSU - Brady & Colin's Trip to Thailand | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 2 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=27466] | 2005-11-16 03:47:57