bangkok

Tuesday ... we are in Bangkok

Had a GREAT morning in Pattaya and then headed out to Bangkok.
We had a driver take us up there (about 90 minute drive)... it is still bizarre to see drivers on the right.

We arrived the Courtyard all safe and sound and got settled. We headed out to wonder around and well - why wouldn't there be an elephant walking down the busy city street with us?? You can't make this stuff up people!

We grabbed a tuk-tuk to a Gem store, but did not buy anything as it was too expensive and I think a scam... the Frommers guide warned us...but just an hour or two too late.

We attempted to find a tuk tuk back and soon we were shown first hand about how they try and take you to other stores that they get a kick back on. We fought with 3 and then gave up.
We walked and walked and ended up turned around...finally a tuk-tuk we could deal with got us home. Whew....

We got cleaned up and headed out to a nice Italian place with in a few blocks (of that) of the Courtyard. H got a homemade ravioli...it was YUMMY! I ordered us up a bottle of Chianti DOCG (just cant let go of my Italian experience) and we had a really nice quiet dinner. My pasta was not worth reporting on :)

I am exhausted and looking forward to a good nights sleep.
We are getting out Bangkok on tomorrow and I will be sure to report in as it is our last day i Thailand. We fly out at 6am Thursday... which is really 6pm Wednesday in MN and I get back at Noon Thursday MN time.

Good night from Bangkok! kk

Monday in Pattaya

Heather and I headed out to the BIG gold Buddha at the top of the hill today.
We grabbed a tuk-tuk and he offered to wait while we walked up to release our birds (yes you read that right - for 50bat you get 4 small birds in a cage to release).

There was a number of Buddhas up there to pray too. The saddest part for me was that a dog was up near one of them dying.... sigh... horrible to see. In Thailand cats and dogs are left to roam as they believe in the after life... so no one was going to put this dog out of its misery. Very sad to see. I prayed for it.

We left there and the tuk-tuk driver brought us to the Hard Rock Cafe/Hotel so H and I could do a little shopping. We got a couple of things and hung out. Then walked back to our hotel....for of course, pool time :)

I managed a nap by the pool, then got a scooter ride with M.E and Big E around Pattaya till they dropped me off at the massage place (um, there is one every 50 feet) to get a foot massage that Chuck had told me was a "must do". It was a whopping $6 and amazing!

I walked back to the hotel and quickly got ready as we were all gathering at the ICE bar again before heading to the Beer Garden near Walking Street for dinner. It was AMAZING food. It has been great as Chantana or Big E order all of our food family style and it is all traditional Thai and YUMMY!

After Dinner we headed to Walking Street. The photo below goes out to my Phatty Cousins!

Walking Street is an "interesting" place. I don't know how to describe the night - you will need to ask me about it :)

Catch up on Trip

Hey there,
Sorry I dropped off for about 36 hours. The Reception was a BLAST :)
They had a huge Thai buffet and it was outside in the courtyard. There was a band, and the music was not all that - so Big E took over and soon the dance floor was hoping.
Lets just say M.E. kept getting me LARGE glassses of Champagne...and when I say large, I mean it was a beer glass people....but why not?

The party eventually moved to Henry J Beans bar, where we sang to Living on a Prayer and danced. Then from there to Suzies bar...where the "girls" are. We drank, played Connect 4, Dice game and Annie got her snake on...I mean a LARGE snake wrapped around her. The photos are on my camera and not phone- so I cant share...yet. (Facebook alert here - they will be posted next Thursday night - the 29th).

M.E. and I walked the ocean down to Walking Street. How to describe this place... think of it as a circus freak show meets Hustler Magazine?

Oh my - it was CRAZY! This is the Pattaya I have been hearing about. Yes we have watched the girls all over the old men at the bars (and some not so old men) ... but this street took it up a notch. Oh My!

Headed back to hotel and was in bed by oh I don't know.... 6am? Yikes.

So Sunday was R&R by the pool for everyone. The friends Chris and Chantana have here are so fun. I feel like i have known them forever. We all get along very well and manage to have a LOT of fun!

Last night we went shopping. Ryko (sp?), JPs girlfriend took JP, H, Big E, M.E. and Luke shopping. She is the shopper and can speak the language and can negotiate.

I got a dice game - which I am very excited about and M.E. bought me a purse I was looking at as he negotiated a price that was a killer deal and so he thought he should buy it for me... yes people, another purse. It is quite cute, I will take a photo and upload next entry :) It is a "going out" purse, not an every day purse.


After shopping we went back to hotel to meet up with the rest of the group and then to dinner... yep you guessed it - traditional Thai food again :)

Have to get to the pool, my Pina Colada is waiting.
till later :)
KK

getting set for the reception

Chris and Chantana's Wedding Day - January 24, 2009

Well the day started with a "parade" of all of Chris's family and friends. We all were given gifts to bring to the ceremony, some of which included 2 pig heads (whole damn head!), 2 chickens, bananas, and us girls had fruit and veggies in bowls with tool (see Heather above).

There was drums being played and Thai people dancing. We walked in and the ceremonial Thai wedding began. Chris had his feet washed by Chantana (represented he can come in to her life clean), and then all sorts of other ceremonial things. It was about 3.5 hours in all...including a 15minute break :)

Thai culture is a lot of bowing, kneeling in front of elders and they also had a group of Monks come and chant and pray for them.....and this is where the gifts we brought in come in - they get the food and gifts....I think. (insert language barrier here)

Chris and Chantana with Chantana's Grandmother - who is a Buddhist Nun. 95 years old and lives in a shack. She is pretty amazing, (she is hard to see in his photo)

Chris and Chantana before the Holy Water blessing ceremony.
We each walked up and blessed them with the water - again, so much tradition and rich in culture.

After the water blessing - we went to Chantana and Chris's room - for the bedding ceremony.
We all prayed and there were flowers , seeds and money spread on their bed by the parents and prayers for a good "union". It was "different" - yet so amazing!! I love the tradition and culture of the Thai. Very sweet and loving. So much good being wished for the couple and so much ancient tradition and wisdom passed down from elders.

After the ceremony there was a luncheon, then we headed to the pool!Love the pool and sun :)
Below is Luke and Dan. We are now getting ready for the Western Reception out by the pool, happy hour, dinner, dancing. After that H and I hope to finally get to the bars with all the boys.

Not sure i will be in shape to type... so I sign off for now with "what a day, it was beautiful, educational, loving, fun and something I am so glad I was part of."

Peace and love to all of you :)
KK

Friday in Pattaya

Friday in Pattaya.

We got up and headed out to the Elephant Sanctuary with Bill, Helena, Mark and Annie to ride Elephants! They had Thai dancing then elephant battles and then we went for a ride on an elephant.

This was one of the decorated elephants that was part of the performance.
They literally just walk these elephants around the open areas, and you better just get out of the way.... I thought it was funny, as in the US there would be security up all over keeping people away...but not here - you were up close and "look out" came out of my mouth a few times to H so she didn't get run over :)

For 50bat (not even $2) I got to hug a tiger (scary!! but cool) and hang out with this monkey.
The Monkey put his hand down my tank and do I had to hold it - he made me laugh hard!
I am pretty sure both the tiger and the monkey were drugged - as really, it is not in their nature to hang out with humans... so that made me sad, but at the same time, how could I pass up this opportunity? I loved the whole experience!

Below is the elephant H and I rode. It was bumpy and fun.
Much better photos on our cameras! We saw a baby elephant too - so very cute, I called it Dumbo :)

Below is our view from the ride.

Friday night was the Grooms dinner...which was Chantanas Family meeting everyone from the USA for the first time. It was at Cabbages and Condoms. The place is set in the trees and overlooking the ocean, we go there just as the sun was setting and had some fabulous sunset photos...on my camera, not on my phone - drat! (I use my phone to upload photos to the blog).
The restaurant is owned by the man who owns the condom factory. The profits go to educating locals in rural areas on STDs, and to build schools. They believe that sex education and protection should be as easily and readily available as cabbage and vegetable gardens. They give away condoms to all patrons... so yes we all have condoms...woohoo!

It was a great night of more traditional Thai food. Yummy! And good drinks and good fun people. H and I are getting used to greeting people in Thai and bowing instead of shaking hands. I actually like it :)

We took a tuk-tuk home. Basically we are all in the back of a pick up truck and hanging out - it was a lot of fun!

Pattaya Thursday

Today was a relaxing day. We got up after a whopping 3 hours sleep (for me) and headed to the yummy bfast buffet at the hotel. Then we ventured out to the streets of Pattaya.
WOW. It is an interesting city. We ended up on the main street where all the bars are, and thought "I can only imagine this place at night" as the day time was very interesting people watching.

For those of you not familiar with Pattaya, it is known for its prostitution and STDs. Nice place to get married ;) It is VERY common to have young Thai women all over men here and they are commissioned to how much the men drink, and hopefully go home with them. The stories have been interesting, and due to jet lag we are in the hotel instead of back to that street tonight. BUT tomorrow - we will be there. H and I decided that while all the guys get the attention from the young girls, we compete to see who can spot the he/she's the best...as they are very common too.

We stopped in and got a Thai Massage (in my 1000 things you must do before you die book, it says this is a must). So for $6us ($199 bat), we got 60minutes of amazing Thai massage. Yes, you read that right - $6! I will be going back, it was wonderful! :)

Tonight we went to a place on the beach for dinner. Chantana (Maks fiance, who is Thai), ordered for us... which made me put my "when in Rome" hat on and try new things. I was doing my best to get some good food porn, but it was pretty dark, and as I use my phone to upload photos here ... they are not great.

I tried crab, liked it.
I tried Prawns, and I liked those too!! Who knew...especially with the super spicy Thai peppers on them. I felt a little bad ripping their tails off - but once I did it - look out - I had about 4 of them :)

FB cleaned up the places (see below). He was on a role, I wish I had his stomach lining :)

Heading to bed now. Tomorrow morning we are meeting up with Maks siblings and some other guests to go to the Elephant Sanctuary at 9am. I am hoping a good nights sleep will kick jet lags as*

Good night!
KK

Good Morning Pattaya

These are the views from our balcony....good way to wake up.
We got a call at 8:30am...MY PHONE WAS FOUND and I have it back already! :)
Woohoo!!
Good start to our first day here.
We are off to explore, then nap by pool. I am tired.

What a day, Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wow - what a day! I woke up excited for the Inauguration of Obama to be out 44th President. I don't care how you voted...you cant not be excited about the fire he has lit under this country. I am emotional thinking about this historic day... that and it is 5:30am in Thailand and i am awake and have been since I landed here at 12:30am.

I got to the airport in plenty of time so I could watch all of Obamas swearing in and his speech.
I ran to Ikes and asked to be seated in front of the TV...I was not alone in this. It was so cool to see all the people working there gather around the TV and the silence, complete silence, from everyone inside Ikes as this moment took place....of course that was ended when we all applauded after the swearing in. It was a moment I will never forget.

After that I ran to G4 to get on board a 747 to Tokyo...I was in Biz Class and on the upper deck! Very fun. 12 hours in a plane, business class or not, I can say isn't that fun. I watched a couple of movies and slept as much as I could. We landed in Tokyo and I found my way around while looking for my friend Heather...and no kidding, looking for blond hair worked, as I found her and other wedding goers at a bar. So I joined them for a drink before we all departed for our separate flights to Bangkok.

So here we are finally in Thailand... 7.5hours after landing in Tokyo...yes that is about 20 hours of flying and a while day lost. Heather found me at BKK and we found our car service and had a 1.5hour ride to Pattaya (said like Patti-ya).

We met up with Mak in his suite for a drink and to get caught up. It was great to chat with him and hear all about the traditional wedding we will be part of Saturday.

So at 4:30am we came back to our room...H crashed, I am wired. Really??
I decided to blog and then realized - WTF, I think my phone, the only one that works here in Thailand, was left in the limo. Fu*k! I just talked to the front desk and in broken English they are going to call the driver. I know Mak has the drivers cell, so I will touchbase with him in the morning - oh wait, it is morning - okay later today? Cross your fingers we will get it back.

I am going to try and sleep now. Hope you are all well...it is funny to think there are 4 guys I know coming here for the wedding, that are on the same flights I took "today" right now... just starting the journey I just finished. WOW that is a long journey....why am I awake??

Oh and we just saw on TV Hillary was approved...who were the 2 that voted no...really???
Woohoo!
Think she can help me get my phone back?