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Published: August 12th 2008
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Well I'm back.
I've spent the last few days slowly uploading pictures and videos to all the post. If you've been following along my journey please take a few moments to check out the previous posts as now relevant pictures are scattered about each posting. Click on the picture if you want to see it enlarged. Any videos are at displayed at the top of the entry. Most videos were taken in the second half of my trip though.
Actually, I do have a final story about my trip too. The last afternoon in Bangkok I walked around looking for possible presents to give to family and friends. At one shop I found some shirts I thought would be nice gifts then bartered for a somewhat decent price for them. Between finding the right shirts and the bartering process, I was in the shop for over a half hour. While walking out I decided this would be a crappy way to spend my last night night in Asia, arguing over prices for dumb knick-knacks and stuff. I walked back to my guesthouse after making this decision while quickly stopping at two or three other stores.
By the time
I showered and changed it was around eight. I had my last dinner at a nice seafood restaurant. Oddly, there was fight outside it when a westerner left without paying his bill (I think, didn't get the full story) making my trip bookended with fights on the first and last night in Asia. Everything goes full circle, I guess. After dinner I walked to an Irish bar on the Khao San and quickly met some fun travellers. We formed a little group comprised of me, an Aussie, an Englishman and two brothers from Muskegan, Michigan. Across the street from the bar a Thai movie was being shot for about an hour. We were on a balcony so were able to get a good view of it. In the movie an actress was arguing with the actor as part of the plot. People from the bar were siding with the beautiful actress's character and would occasionally verbally make it known that she should leave him and join them at the bar. This was not the best area to shoot.
As the place was closing we decided to go into town to a bar that was known to stay open till
later. This actually was part of my original plan. I figured since North Carolina was 13 hours behind and I was about to spend the 23 hours on airplanes starting at eight in the morning, it would actually be beneficial to stay up all night. My sleep schedule would then be closer to Raleigh's, a good portion of the long plane ride would be slept through and I'd be leaving SE Asia in style.
We worked out deals with two tuk-tuk drivers and all went downtown. We stayed at the bar (named "Spicey's" somehow despite not being a strip club) for a maybe an hour and a half till two of the guys met a couple girls that wanted to go to a karaoke bar across the street. Our considerably large group now walked across the street to karaoke. We arrived at entry which was in the back of a restaurant and were led upstairs three flights. The floor had probably six smaller rooms, each with two rows of couches and giant big screen tv. There were two groups already in the room we were assigned. A man was signing into a karaoke mike as we entered. One thing I did notice right away, karaoke is huge in Asia and taken seriously. The Aussie in our group, Rob, thought he was sober enough to give it a try after about a half hour. He sang a Thai song he never heard before and had difficulty pronouncing the words. I couldn't believe it but I got to admit he was entertaining and won over the crowd.
The group decided after about an hour to an hour and a half that they were going to head out to another bar with the two local girls they met. Seeing as it was close to four in the morning and being as I was staying sober thoughout the night, I thought it was best to part now with the group to get back to my guesthouse in time to shower, change and pack. The English guy hadn't been drinking for awhile either by this point so the two of us shared a tuk-tuk back to Khao San.
By the time I was back and ready to leave my guesthouse I had missed my five A.M. minibus to the airport that left from Khao San. I grabbed a taxi though outside my guesthouse and fortunately an Israeli traveler was at my guesthouse looking to get to the airport as well. We split the fare and I made it to the airport well over two hours before my flight.
A couple flights and airports later, I was home.
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