Wait, you mean I leave today?

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It's really hard to keep track of time out here. I was hanging out with some of my new found Canadian friends yesterday trying to figure out what day it was. Is it Sunday? No, it's Saturday. No, I really think it's Sunday. What about the date? 7th? 8th? Not sure.

Well, as I sit here in front of the computer, it's now Monday morning (that means it's Sunday afternoon in California!).

Yesterday was an eventful day and I have to admit, I'm a bit sad to leave Bangkok. Later this morning I have a flight to Phuket (pronounced Poo Ket), an island off the west coast of Thailand that was moderately impacted by the tsunami. Although heading to the beach is always a good thing, I'll miss some of my new found friends...

Let's rewind to where I left off after my last blog. I think it was the afternoon on Saturday, Jan 7. That evening I went out to a restaurant (Lucky's) on Khao San Road with a table right on the sidewalk with a great view of the street (which also unfortunately means that the street hawkers have a great view of you, and repeatedly come up to you to sell their wares). I tagged along with 3 of the Canadians that are staying at my hotel (Frazer, Shawn, & Hayley). The food was actually better than I expected but it's hard to mess up chicken w/ cashews. Nice spot though to see the activity on the street (Khao San Road is closed to vehicles at night and people & street vendors are everywhere). Afterwards, we were all pretty tired so we just hung out at the hotel & crashed fairly early.

As for yesterday (Sunday), I headed off to MBK (huge mall - 7 stories) in the morning to meet up with Saai, a Thai girl I met through myspace.com (huge worldwide networking site) and her friend Jor. They are university students (math majors) and offered to show me around and help me get my cell phone set up at MBK (they have like over 200 vendors that sell phones, SIM cards, etc). It was nice to connect with some locals. We had lunch and got my cell phone set up. We also checked out the "new pride and joy of Bangkok", the Paragon mall. The place is huge and very, very high end. It's a look, don't touch kind of place. As for my new cell #, I know it starts with 05 and has a bunch of 0's & 7's in it. Umm, yea, I know that's helpful. I'll get it out to a few family & friends though soon for emergency purposes.

In the late afternoon, I headed back to the hotel (guest house is the more appropriate term), and hung out for a bit until some of the other guests showed up. It was dinner time by then and my research paid off with some good restaurant options. Frazer, Shawn, Hayley & I were joined by a new arrival at the guest house, Lynnette (from Toronto, Canada). The 5 of us went off to a cool rooftop restaurant nearby, Phra Nakorn. It's a bit off the beaten path and frequented mostly by locals. The restaurant is on the rooftop (4th floor) and has a great atmosphere. We sampled all kinds of stuff (duck, some unrecognized fish, spicy shrimp salad, etc, etc.) It was a lot of fun.

We got back to the hotel about 10:30 that night and 4 of us decided it was time for a massage! Off we went to the massage spot on our alley (and I mean alley), Yanee. It had a very basic common room with mats for traditional thai, foot, or oil massages. This place didn't seem to be shady in spite of its location, which can't be said for all massage shops in Thailand. We went for the oil massage for an hour at an amazing cost of $5. Yes, welcome to Thailand.

We stayed up until about 12:30 last night, and here I am early Monday morning, getting ready to check out of the Shambara guest house and head to Phuket.

Thanks for reading...there goes Dave!

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Photos

Want some street food?
Frazer, Shawn & Hayley waiting for breakfast - pad thai with egg (20 baht = $.50)

Saai & Jor
Saai & Jor at entrance to Siam Paragon mall.

Siam Paragon
the ultra expensive new mall in Bangkok

Phra Nakorn restaurant
Frazer, me and Lynnette at Phra Nakorn restaurant

Comments

[DeeDee]

Wow, Dave! You are quite a traveller! I am thrilled to see you are doing so well and meeting a lot of new people. Thanks for bringing us along on your trip. It is a whole new world out there. Love you, DeeDee

[Dee]

Well since my kid isn't too good on the communication end of things it was great to read your blog and see my son Frazer a part of it. Not quite sure the round about way of getting this - but it's great. Can you add me to your blog [e-mail]

[Barrett]

WOW!
It sounds like you're having an awesome time in Asia. Its a little bit different that I expected it to be, but looks awesome. Your blog is very entertaining and interesting to read. Your ISI is praying for you. Talk to you later. - Barrett