My first bucket!!!

Hello All!

    As i posted my latest update i was relaxing at the lounge of my last hostel in Bangkok and was supposed to go out and check out KSR to get my first bucket and the ping pong tournament but unfortunately that didn't quite happen :(. I went up to my room and took a quick shower then was going to take a quick nap to get rested up for the crazy night to come, but i didn't wake up in time (2am) and as it turns out i was scheduled to leave the next day to Chiang Mai. So i'm still to enjoy my first bucket!

    The following day i checked out with one day left in my reservation for the hostel, love it when plans change, as Tal and I had decided to go up north and check out Chiang Mai and get out of the super muggy, humid heat of Bangkok. The hostel was nice enough to give me some of my money back as i had told them i was leaving with less then 24hrs notice. We left our bags and went out for the day with Elise who is an American girl that had just gotten done teaching English in Myanmar for a year and was traveling around before heading back to the states. We went out for some breakfast and looked around for our bus ticket up north, we ended up finding a place and the ticket ended up being 350 baht which is not super horrible and the guy said we would be taking the super VIP bus, which was not VIP or super at all. After getting all that sorted we decided to get out of the heat and head back to the hostel and lounge around for a while, then it hit me. I had been fine for the past week eating the asian food with out feeling back or any stomach pains, then just a couple of hours before a 12hr bus ride i get this, the shits ha, i was thinking WTF did i do to deserve this as it would have made a already terrible trip even worse!! luckily i got all that shit out, literally, before the bus trip. We managed to take in one last sight in Bangkok by going to this cool temple, can't quite remember the name of it but it was pretty rad. The time had come to head back grab our bags and head to the bus. We said our goodbyes to Elise and went on our way.

Very cool temple

very steep steps!

    The bus ride up to Chiang Mai was kind of terrible, but what made it a little better was that the bus did not fill up all the way so i had my own row of seats to stretch out and make it as comfy as possible. After arriving in Chiang Mai the bus dropped us off outside of town and got a ride into town on the back of these Toyota Hilux's (tacoma) that took us to a hotel and wanted us to stay there, the whole thing was shady as fuck! After getting out of there we made our way to Julie guesthouse where we had some friends (Suzanne and Christina) staying but they were all booked. We managed to get a place right around the corner from there for 100 baht per night which isn't bad at all. Tal and I met another german guy on the bus who was looking for a place to stay at as well, so we managed to all get a room together and split the costs. Christian, Tal and I decided it would be best to take a nap before doing anything as none of us really slept at all. After our nap we woke up, went to Julie's to meet up with Suzanne and Christina and in the process ended up meeting Brad, (aussie) Luke and Jackie (brother and sister, US) and we went off to lunch/breakfast. After getting a bite to eat we all decided to get pissed and started drinking at around 13:00-14:00, luckily i had grabbed my UNO cards and had a couple of games of drinking UNO which made it way more fun. We ended up getting pissed way to early and i was passed out by 21:00, i eventually walked home barefoot leaving my sandals behind not knowing WTF was going on lol.

lounging around playing UNO before we got pissed

    Today we had planned to look around at prices to do some of the treks offered from Chiang Mai. I really want to do the Flight of the Gibbon experience as well as the Elephant reserve, but shits kind of expensive, (2500-3000 baht) and although i could afford it i didn't know how it would affect my finances two months from now so i had to hold up on that. Tal went off to learn thai massage so Christian and I just walked around Chiang Mai with nothing really planned. We found a really cool pyramid type thing in the center of town that was way cool, we then got some grub and he needed to hit up the bank to exchange 400€ that he had, how cheap Thailand is he may not need anymore money for the entire 4 weeks that he is here, he ended up getting over 16,000 baht back from those 400€ he had. After finally getting that taken care of we went back to Julie's to catch up with everyone else and see what was going on, everyone was just lounging around so we decided to do the same, then i got really tired and went back for a nap. The girls had planned on going to a temple up in the mountains to watch the sunset so i had set the alarm to wake up for that, after waking up and getting ready we were off back to Julie's to meet up with them. As we arrived to julie's everyone was running out to the streets with a frantic look on their faces, I had though maybe someone was hurt of something had happened, but as i asked around someone had told me they had just felt an earthquake, not knowing what was going on i just kinda hung out waiting for an aftershock, but it never came. After about 5 minutes of panicking everyone just went back to doing what they were doing before, i went to meet up w/ the rest of the crew and just proceeded to start drinking. We decided to go out to a laid back reggae bar and chill out. We did just that as I finally got to have my first bucket i handed my camera to everyone in the group and told them to take a picture, then pass it on. I'll have to check whats on there, but until then. Thanks for reading and until next time. Enjoy!

very cool dragon statue

very cool temple

my first bucket!!!! rum, coke, and redbull all for $6

chilling on the rooftop at freedom bar

life is rough...

Hello All!

    Just getting updated from my last couple of days, I didn't have internet at our hostel in Hong Kong so I was unable to post as much as i had liked.

    So my last day and night in Hong Kong wasn't as exciting as i had liked, but i did manage to see The Symphony of Light, which is a rad light show that goes on over on the Hong Kong island and involves a lot of the skyscrapers. Yesterday we managed to go for a walk and found it hard to decide on a place to eat, but eventually made it back to the place where Terry had taken us the day before, a food court at the mall that was moderately priced and had good food. After eating we walked across the street and decided to check out the Hong Kong museum of Art which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. After getting some grub and checking out the museum we made it back to our hotel and i finished packing my bags and said goodbye to my amigos, which i'm not gonna lie, it was going to be sad to leave them as this is a trip of a lifetime and it sucks when you're friends aren't there to share the memories with you.

    I made it to the airport (HKG) in time with Bangkok next on the list, after finally getting access to the internet and checking up on FB, the boarding time had came, looking at the giant beast that would take me to the next destination was amazing and scary at the same time, how could that giant get off the ground i thought to myself. I landed in Bangkok at 23:00 and by the time i made it through immigration and customs it was about 23:45ish leaving just the right amount of time to catch the Airport Express into town, which stops running at midnight. I finally made it to my destination around 00:30ish, Kaoh San Road, and by the time i made it to the hostel it was about 1:00am, but it seemed like it was mid day as the street was filled with people and shops open selling goods. I didn't do much that night after unpacking i was beat and managed to go to bed and get caught up on my texts, thanks google voice.

The ride over to Bangkok

    Today i woke up with nothing in mind and not knowing anyone or what to do, i got ready for the day, made it down stairs and before i sat down i had already met Tal, a backpacker from Israel. We chatted it up for a bit and decided to walk around and take in the sights as it was his first day as well. First stop on the agenda was the big temple, but it was a holiday today so that went out the window, we then decided to head to the Golden Mountain, which was a temple on top of a mountain which was way cool. In the process Tal and I  got hungry and decided to get some grub, we found what we thought at the time was a good and reasonable priced restaurant, and although they served good food and were reasonably priced, $4-5 for the meal and a couple of drinks, it turned out to be a scam as there are far cheaper places we can get food, $1-2 per meal, I need to stop comparing prices on the dollar as i'll run out quick thinking i'm getting a good deal if it's only $5-6. We met a british and half greek half spanish girl (Suzanne and Christina) who were on the same path, just find time to kill and sights to see. We agreed to head to the Thailand cultural and art exhibit, how we got there was a bit interesting. Suzanne had read in her lonely planet book that the most cost effective way, i'm on a budget, it's ok with me, was to take a boat down the river as it would drop us off at the stop we needed to be. After being stuck in a crazy rain storm we were off by boat to our next stop. We get to the exhibit and we find out it's closed on mondays, so across the street is a mall and we decide to go in there and Suzanne managed to buy some stickers and I was introduced to Miffy, Hello Kitty's rival. After a while we managed to take a taxi back to Kaoh San Road for 100 baht which is not horrible as we other taxis wanted 200+. We got back to Kaoh San Road and there was a fundraiser/charity event going on for the japanese victims. So here we are in the middle of the road with the Thai red cross around collecting money when out of the corner of my eye i see a huge elephant headed my way. It turns out this group had organized this group of elephants to help with the charity, and it worked as i donated some bahts towards the cause, not that i wouldn't have in the first place, but it influenced the amount that i gave for the cause. After checking out the elephants and a concert  Suzanne got the idea of getting a foot message, so we walk down another street and found a place that offered a foot and back message for 100 baht, a little over $3!! So after that was done, which was amazing, we went to grab a drink before Suzanne and Christina went off to catch their bus to Chang Mai. After exchanging info and saying our goodbyes Tal and I headed back to the hostel to chill out and relax before experiencing Bangkok by night, which i hear they put on good ping pong shows ;)



First day in Bangkok, total spent $12, Success!!!

Until next time, Enjoy

pretty important dude.

one of the many cool temples in Bangkok

on the way up Golden Mountain

boat ride to the art exhibit

thai boxing on the street.

Elephants!! the baby elephant took money from my hand with it's truck, way cool.

Elephant!

Kaoh San Road

getting a foot/back message on the street, not a bad way to spend $3

Hong Kong

Hello All,

    WOW. Hong Kong is amazing! Words can't describe how cool it is, it's like nothing i've ever seen before. Skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, and down by the harbor seeing them lit up at night is truly something everyone should see. It's cool how Hong Kong is setup, all the Skyscraper pictures you see of Hong Kong are of Hong Kong island, just across the harbor is Kowloon Island (where we're staying) and were most of the people live. All the business is done on Hong Kong island and although there are residential areas, it'll cost you upwards of $2,000 us for a studio!!

IFC 2 building. second biggest in Hong Kong

Bubble tea!!!

    Well, we got into Hong Kong at 10:35 thursday night and by the time we got through with getting our bags, customs, and immigration it was around 11:40 before we got the MTR (metro) into Hong Kong island which made it kind of scary because it's about a 25 minute ride into Hong Kong station, and from there we had to transfer to a different line to get to where our hotel was, but the MTR stops running at midnight. It forced us to have to pay for a taxi, which wasn't horrible at all actually. We made it to our Hostel at around 12:30, left our bags and went for a stroll down nathan road. You would think that it being midnight everyone would be at home sleeping, not in Hong Kong. It was like we were out at mid day, people everywhere, shops and food joints still open. We ended up heading back to the hostel around 2:30am and crashing as well as to rest for the next day.

    So it's our first full day and we woke up, got ready and headed out for the day. We walked down nathan road to the harbor, it was quite the walk and took about an hour or so to get down to the harbor. We were supposed to meet up with my friend who studied at BSU but now lived in Hong Kong, Terry Mak for those of you who know him from the car scene, but he ended up getting stuck in a meeting and didn't catch up with him until later. We walked up and down the harbor and took our pictures until i was finally able to get ahold of Terry. Once we got ahold of him we planned to meet up on Hong Kong island, it was great seeing him again after about 5-7 years or so since he had left Boise. He showed us around Hong Kong island and took us to Lan Kwai Fong which is a road lined with pubs and bars and of course where I'd spend my nights in Hong Kong!!! After we got done hanging out with Terry we went back to the Kowloon side and had planned on hanging around until 8pm, it was about 5:30pm, to watch the light show that the city does, which i've heard is way cool, but the weather got bad and we decided to leave it for another night. So what we did is went back to the hostel and took a nap, we ended up waking up at 11pm and decided to get ready to go out, ended up getting to Lan Wai Fon around midnight and it was insane. The street was full of people as they were getting drinks inside the pub then heading out to the street, we ended up getting a beer and it was $55 hong kong dollars which was ridiculous! I then got the bright idea to hit up club 7 (7-11) for some cheep drinks. So what we did is we'd go down the street to club 7 and we'd get two beers at a time then head back up the street to the pubs and hung out and it was anywhere from 30-40 hong kong dollars depending on the beer you got, victory!! It was pretty intense as drunk people were everywhere, we even saw a fight break out and this drunk guy knocked out a girl and then proceeded to get his ass beat by two brothas!! So after a long and drunken night out we had to figure out how to get across the harbor and back to our hotel, the taxi would have ran us about 80-90 hong kong dollars or we could wait for either the MTR or the ferry to open, so of course we decided to wait so we set off and walked around and eventually found a McDonalds and got some late night grub and in the process i tried to jump a fence and ate shit...hard, then went off to the ferry terminal to wait for it to open. It was about 5:30 and it opened at 7am, I remember sitting down at a table but don't remember passing out ha, my friends, being the good friends that they are, started finding shit and eventually had me fenced in, saw the pics, until they eventually decided to wake me up, at that point i was like fuck it, lets take a taxi so we cabbed it back as i was getting tired and didn't want to wait for the ferry any longer…hangs head in shame.

Passed the fuck out

Hooligans up to no good!

ugh wtf is this sign doing here

Lan Kwai Fong

in front of Club 7. don't mind the other sign

    After our drunken good times the first night, we decided to do something a little more productive today. We woke up and decided to head up to the Tian Tan Buddha  and go for a ride on the cable cars, we get ready and head out at around 11:30am. It was raining so we figured it would be a good day to go see as their can be up to a 4 hour wait to go up the cable cars. We get out there and were hungry, there just so happened to be a mall and we headed for the food court which was waaaay good, they had different foods from different countries, i decided on the vietnamese cuisine and it was delicious. We get done eating and head up to the cable car terminal, get our tickets sorted and hop on for the ride, it was foggy and overcast, but on a clear day i hear you can see Hong Kong island on the way up, which would have been amazing. We get up to the little village and walked around eventually making it to the Buddha, which happened to be about 8 flights of stairs up, and started the trek up. Got up to the top and go to see the Buddha up close, it's way cool and is the biggest Buddha statue in the world. After spending most of the day up there we headed back into town and are now just relaxing before another fun night out. Will post more from the night out and possibly Bangkok here soon, so until then. Enjoy!!

cable car ride

taken right as the fog cloud came in

pretty far from everything

Tian Tan Buddha

Hooligans

And so it begins!!

Hello All!

First of all I'd like to thank all of you for following and reading up on the blog!









I've finally landed in Seoul and have a  4 hour layover before catching the connecting flight to Hong Kong. Started off as a rainy day in Boise, had to be up at 3:30 and haven't fallen back asleep other then the 4 hour nap i took on the plane. The flight from Boise to San Fran was boring and didn't have much happen, once we got into SFO we had to wait around for the United lounge to open where they had an open bar, and well you know how that goes.

So here we are at 9:30 8 shots deep on an empty stomach, made for a good start to the trip. Ended up meeting a guy who's going to Hong Kong on our same flight and he gave us some very useful info, might make for a very long day! Ended up getting on the plane and must have pissed off the lady who sat next to me as i went to the bathroom 3 times, before the plane took off lol. Ended up drinking a little more on the plane and finally sobered up a bit after that 4 hour nap. The flight over was good, ended up watching a couple of movies, (127 Hours, Tangled, Flipped) which by the way i'll need to write a letter to United stating it's unacceptable to have a dusty cabin, got some dust in my eyes during Flipped!! shits unreal how dusty it was... i'm currently waiting for my flight to Hong Kong in Seoul, where it's 5pm and only 2am back home. Until next time, Enjoy!