Chris Miller Adventures

Rockin Sandwich Eating (featuring Sonny)

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:23:00 +0000

It is currently 2:16 in the morning. I recorded a silly song this week, a 1 minute homage to all the classic rock radio I've been listening to. My friend Sonny came over just as I finished it and we quickly recorded some vocals before going to the batting cages. It's ridiculous. I don't know how to post a song, so I made a movie. My first one. I hope you like it.

Impressed by my shredding? Good, you should be. I sold my soul to the devil for that guitar lick.

No way, Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:12:00 +0000

I was looking up lists of the best bicycling cities in the world and came across this video from Trondheim, Norway. They also listed Portland as the 2nd best city - Amsterdam was 1st.

Finally...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:33:00 +0000

For the last few weeks Kim has spent hours a day editing and uploading the hundreds of photos she took on our trip. Here's the link of the compete Thailand flickr set.

Also, check out this. My friend Jim writes poems and songs.

One Month Back

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:06:00 +0000

We returned from Thailand March 17th. Sara and Charlie picked us up from the airport in San Francisco and we stayed the next two nights at their place in Sacramento. We were exhausted and within the first 24 hours of being home I took a nice, hot bubble bath and had macaroni and cheese for dinner. The trip was a success, but unfortunately I was still not healthy. My stomach problems on the trip continued at home. After a few more torturous nights I went to a doctor, and a week after having tests done the culprit was revealed: I had both Salmonella and an additional bacterial infection called Clostridium Difficile (c.diff). Awesome!

But..I've been treated, and I'm excited about what Redding has in store. Kim and I are staying at my mom's house; She's editing Thailand photos 6 hours a day and I'm obsessing over my fantasy baseball team. So far I'm doing better than the San Francisco Giants :(

Kim's diligence in the web world is intimidating, but I plan to keep up with this - hopefully twice a week. I'll make a sincere effort to live the most interesting life possible, so people won't be bored when they read about it.

For now, check out Kim's Flickr stream. She's updating it everyday.

The Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:01:00 +0000

I have neglected this blog for about 2 weeks, while Kim has managed to publish stories of our travels as well as detailed posts about Battlestar Galactica. She puts me to shame. But I offer the following excuses in my defense: the sun burned the hell out of me, making me miserable and lazy; there's an 85% chance I have stomach parasites, making me bloated and lazy.

Suffering aside, the trip has continued to be great. Our friend Ryan has been with us for over a week. We've been saving a little money by sharing rooms with the three of us. With all that extra cash we gorge ourselves nightly at a wonderful vegetarian buffet. Yeah, my stomach parasite hampers the enjoyment a bit, but I've never been one to let something as trivial as illness disrupt my vacations. Every overseas trip I've been on has been plagued by physical discomfort. I spent a summer in East Africa in 2001 and was sick practically the whole time.

For details and more recent pictures of our trip, check out Kim's blog. I'm lazy, remember?

I was excited about posting a video of four Thai boxers fight blindfolded, but I tried uploading it three times and it always failed. Sorry.

We'll be home in less than a week. When we left on this trip, George W. Bush was still the President of the United States. Pretty cool, huh?

Quick Update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:43:00 +0000

It's been a while since I last posted anything. After we left Chiang Mai, we spent several days traveling (both by bus and boat) through Laos. Like a few weeks before, I came down with some type of stomach ailment; therefore my time in Laos was tinged with the side effects of antibiotics.

We stayed in Laos for less than a week. Our main motivation for leaving Thailand was to renew our visa-- which expired February 14th. Unfortunately, we didn't reach immigration until the 15th and got stung with two fines of 500 Baht. Until recently, a quick bus trip to a border country would allow an exit, a re-entry, and 30 fresh days of Thailand travel. Now the re-entry only provides 15 days. Our plan was to take a boat into Laos and then a bus down to Vientiane to apply for a 60 Thailand tourist visa. After we arrived in Luang Prabang we were exhausted from traveling and dreading the additional 20 hours of cramped bus riding back to Bangkok. We decided to bypass the bus riding, immigration offices, and special tourist visa and just bought a plane ticket back into Thailand. Since we came into Bangkok on an international flight we got 30 new days and our immigration problem was taken care of.

We've been in Bangkok for several days now, going to supermalls and watching American movies. Tomorrow we fly (the domestic flights are really cheap) down to Krabi. Our friend Ryan arrives in Thailand this week and will meet us down in the South for cheap bungalows and sun burns.

Chiang Mai Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:23:00 +0000

Kim and I finally broke our daily habit of reading and eating this last week and ventured off to a different part of Chiang Mai. The new landscape included the Chiang Mai Zoo and Chiang Mai University. I uploaded a few videos from our zoo adventures.

Feeding Giraffes

Panda eating wood

Elephant that plays songs, dances, and takes your money

After the zoo, we walked along the University, then found a place to have lunch and rest our feet (the day so far included a hot sun and lots of walking). We grabbed a tuk-tuk to get back into town, and at a red light the tuk-tuk next to ours had a very little passenger. Her backpack was fastened to the drivers seat, and we assumed the driver had to be her father.

The next night we finally attending an evening of Thai boxing. When I get a chance, I'll be sure to get some pictures or video up. For now, Kim and I are nearing the end of our time in Chiang Mai; our 30 day visas expire in less than a week, therefore we have to leave the country...at least for a little while. Our plan right now is to take a slow boat to Laos, which I understand involves several days on a river.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Chris

Are you ready for some...yawn... football?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Tonight, it's imperative that I get a good night's sleep; tomorrow at 6:30 in the morning, it's the Superbowl! There are at least three pubs in Chiang Mai that are opening up early for fans interested in American football. Which, I must admit, are a small minority. In case you didn't know, aside from North America, the rest of the world hates our football. The bars here seem to have soccer on the big screens at every minute of the day, and for every minute of those days there are people into it. Five years ago, I was here, watching sports with two guys from the Middle East, and I had to listen to them berate our sport with a combination of confusion and disgust. That being said, I'm rather excited to wake up early, walk to the Chiang Mai Saloon, and enjoy some coffee and toast with my Canadian and American brethren.

Earlier today, we received our first authentic Thai massages. I'm not sure why it took us so long; getting massages was one of the exciting things we talked about doing before we came. Even though we took our sweet time, the experience exceeded my enthusiastic expectations. I've had two hour long massages in my life, both in Arcata. The cost of my massages in Arcata: $40. The cost of my aromatherapy oil massage (which was more expensive than a normal full body) here: less than $6 (180 Baht). It was nice, higher end place too! All I could think about for the entire hour was global economics.

Finally, I thought I'd add another video update. This one is actually from over a week ago, but it shows a little of what Chiang Mai looks like (rather than what the inside of our hotel rooms look like).

...and Kim and I still haven't gone to a boxing match.

Diarrhea, The Dark Tower and the Frakkin' Oceanic Six.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:07:00 +0000

Since the last blog post, Kim and I (her less than me) came down with, what our Lonely Planet guide refers to as, Traveller's Diarrhea. According to the guide: "Traveller's Diarrhea is defined as the passage of more than three watery bowels within 24 hours, plus one other symptom such as vomiting, fever, cramps, nausea or feeling generally unwell." If "three" was the benchmark, I must have had Traveller's Diarrhea times four. For my "one other symptom" I vomited roughly a dozen times in the span of one sleepless night. It was great!

It took several days and some antibiotics, but I think we're finally back to our old selves. My appetite returned yesterday when I gobbled down a veggie pizza.

On our road to recovery, Kim and I have busied ourselves by reading through the books we've been picking up. She blazed though two Nick Hornby novels, and I continued my quest for the Dark Tower. I had finished book two at the very beginning of our trip, and then listened to book three on my ipod during our first week of train and bus riding. Here in Chiang Mai, I found a copy of book four, Wizard and Glass. I seem to remember my friend Jacob saying that Wizard and Glass was his favorite. It took about three days, but now I'm ready for book five and I regrettably haven't seen it at any of the shops. I've only been able to find book 7, but that does me little good. I've been forced to abandon Roland and his ka-tet for a little while and will instead read High Fidelity, which isn't a bad book by any means.

ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!

Kim and I were originally a little upset that the return of Battlestar Galactica and Lost coincided with our leaving of the country. Who is the final Cylon? What happened to planet earth? Why do half the backstory plots in Lost have to revolve around Kate? But two days ago I realized that waiting until we got home with our internet ears plugged was unnecessary. We booked a room with wifi, and although sites like hulu, abc, and scifi.com are blocked by foreign IP addresses, we managed to successfully torrent the first two episodes of each show's new season. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but it made both of us very happy.

That's pretty much our second week-- not as exciting as our first week, but not bad. We still have an undefined amount of days left here in Chiang Mai. I imagine we'll read a few more books, eat at a few more restaurants, and eventually get ourselves to one of the nightly Muy Thai boxing events.

Cheers!

Sunday Walking Street, Chiang Mai

Sunday Walking Street, Chiang Mai

Airport Plaza, Chiang Mai

First Week Pictures and Video

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:38:00 +0000

I've finally managed to get a few pictures and video up from our first week. I've insisted that Kim report in all of the little videos and that she concludes each video by 'signing off' in the manner of Sheldon from Saturday Night Live.

Bathing (surfing) elephants and petting tigers.

Ruins of Ayuthaya

Erawin Falls

Making friends on the train

MBK, Bangkok

Ruins of Ayuthaya

Erawin Falls

Monkeys of LopBuri

One week in...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Kim and I are currently in Chiang Mai, fondly referred to by Thais as the Northern Capital. We had intended to take a sleeper train up from Bangkok, but a somewhat nerdy Canadian expat working as a Thailand travel agent convinced us otherwise. He suggested that we make our way north in a series of trips, stopping along the way to do a variety of interesting activities. Those activities were to include: bathing elephants, sleeping on the river Kwai, petting live tigers, visiting a temple infested with moneys, exploring old ruins and much, much more. Our package included 5 nights of accommodation and almost all travel expenses. Kim and I were also under the impression that our meals would be taken care of as part of this deal, but as it turned out that was only true for the first two days. Of those 5 nights, we are now on the last. Tomorrow we will venture to a different part of town in search of a place to stay with a better location and hopefully good multiple night rates.

Throughout our trip I have been using my small digital camera as a documentary camcorder. After we find a place we like and have some real time to ourselves I imagine a few video highlights will make their way here. Supposedly there's a classy new Starbucks here in Chiang Mai, and if that's the case free wi-fi will expedite the video upload process. Right now I'm blogging at the cost of 30 Baht an hour. Not too bad, but certainly not as good as free :)

In Thailand...finally

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:32:00 +0000

Kim and I are safely in Bangkok.

The flight from Taipei was very rough; many passengers, including Kim, had to use the complimentary barf bags. At one point I could see six people throwing up at the same time, including one of the flight attendants. It was pretty bad. I managed to keep everything down, but I felt sorry for Kim -- she puked three times, including when the plane was landed and not moving.

But...

Everything improved from that point on. We took a bus into downtown around 1 pm and found an inexpensive room with a fan for 200 baht (about $5). We took a 3-hour nap then went out to find some food and see Khao San Road at night. Travelers and food carts filled the streets. We each got a plate of Pad Thai and a bag of fruit from some street vendors, walked around exploring for a little bit, then headed back to our room. I took Tylenol PM and we slept soundly until 5 AM this morning.

Today we had a multi tuk-tuk adventure traveling from the grungy Khao San Road to the posh 7 story megaplex mall known as MBK. Along the way we found ourselves booking the next 5 days of our trip through a Thai travel agency. Our itinerary includes bathing elephants, petting tigers, and riding trains. The travel agent advised Kim not to wear her zebra print T-shirt on the day we pet tigers. Excellent advice, I think.

Last day in Redding

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:47:00 +0000

This is our last day in Redding.

I picked up the rental car this afternoon, which I thought was going to be a small compact car but instead was a bright red Ford Mustang. I've always had fantasies about owning a 1965 mustang so the change in rental cars didn't bother me at all.

The only things left to do before I leave include: finish The Drawing of the Three (the book is too big to take on the trip and I'm almost done with it--and I have the next book in the series primed in audiobook form for the plane), finalize packing, pay remaining credit card bills, and give my mom and felix a big hug goodbye.

Also, last week when driving to Redding from Arcata, Kim ate a sandwich and got mustard all over her face. She posted pictures, and when our friend Meghan Day heard that I filmed her, she wanted to see that wonderful footage.

Here you go, Meghan.

Redding

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Kim and I have been in Redding for almost a week now. I had envisioned myself spending this time reading or sitting outside enjoying clear Redding skies. Instead, I've watched about five movies and exactly four NFL playoff games. The little reading I have done has been from The Elements of Style; I'm committed to improving my knowledge of English and mastering punctuation. Did you notice my semicolon? Kurt Vonnegut would call me an asshole.

I've posted a few pictures from the first half of our time in Redding.

Felix in the back seat

Kim in the front seat

Kim and me having lunch with Ben and Tony

Tony and Ben having lunch with us

Good Bye Arcata

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:14:00 +0000

I worked my last day at Borders on Saturday. For the last few weeks, since Kim stopped working and finished school, my job has been the only obligation we've had. Now that it's over, I feel ready to get excited about our trip. Charlie flew over from Redding last Thursday, and we successfully filled a 10ft U-haul truck with all of our belongings (save a paper bag full of clothes, Kim's computer, and an inflatable mattress). What remains should fit comfortably in the trunk and back seat of the Jetta. Our tentative plan is to leave for Redding tomorrow.

I know that Kim is feeling a mixture of emotions, both excitement about the trip and sadness about leaving friends behind. I suppose I'm in the same boat. I will miss the people I worked with, and I loved living in this house with Kristina, Katie, and Jamie. Six months ago, I was a little nervous about being the only boy in a house with four girls, but I must say it has been pretty great. I only hope I didn't drive them crazy by watching ESPN all the time. Tonight we'll all be going out to eat, for the last time as housemates.

Pictures post Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:03:00 +0000

I wanted to see what happens when blogging photos straight from Picasa, so I picked a few shots from today's trip to the Bayshore Mall. Later, I uploaded a video of Danny playing a game with Lindy.

Christmas Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:27:00 +0000

Today is Christmas.

In a handful of hours, Sue and Charlie will arrive and we'll enjoy warm drinks and conversation. Kim and I have already exchanged gifts. She got me the Final Fantasy IV3D remake for the DS and a USB phone that plugs into my computer - two very nerdy and appreciated gifts. My gift to her was a Battlestar Galacticaboard game - also nerdy and appreciated. Tomorrow my sister and Danny will be here and we'll open the rest of the gifts. It's a bittersweet holiday. As excited as I am about seeing family and enjoying the few days off from work, I find myself expecting a call from my father. The sorrow over his passing seems to arise in unanticipated flashes. And while days like this are bittersweet, I realize that bittersweet will mark every beautiful experience I have for the next few years, maybe forever.

web logging for fun

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:15:00 +0000

This is my first blog entry. I'm not very good at this stuff but I'm excited about updating my friends and family from Thailand. My wife is much better, and for evidence you can check the link in the "about me" section. I hope this blog will include many fun pictures and videos and that friends will be happy to leave comments and questions. This entry is being typed on an ASUS Eee PC and this computer will be traveling with us.

We leave January 15th.

Stay tuned :)