I've been back in the States for about a week and a half and am just starting to get settled. It probably doesn't help that after landing in Boston on Wednesday, I flew to Durham on Friday, to New York on Sunday, back to Durham on Tuesday, then to Las Vegas on Wednesday and, finally, back to Durham last night. Needless to say I'm exhausted. But now I get to stay here in Durham for awhile, catch up with friends and finish up my last term of business school. Being back is certainly a bit strange - even though I checked out for a little while, the world definitely kept moving along. Slowly, but surely I'm getting back up to speed.

Before I get too far into this, I should say that I've been amazed at how many people have told me that they've read this site and enjoyed following along with my travels. I just spent the last several minutes flipping back through the pages and I can't believe myself how much I experienced over the past few months. I started by pounding mochi in Hawaii and finished by firing an AK-47 in Saigon. Along the way, I tried my hand at surfing, enjoyed my first loco moco, rode an elephant, chilled with tigers, met the Thai Britney Spears, climbed the ruins of Angkor, ate a snake, danced with fire, motorbiked through Vietnam, and had a million other memories along the way. I truly enjoyed writing about them all - it was nice to sit back and reflect a bit at the end of the day about what I had done. For those who didn't discover this web site, the "how was your trip?" question is often answered with a simple "it was awesome" - I think we can all agree, that it doesn't quite convey the experiences I had. Time will tell if these adventures prove to be "life changing" for me. At this point, I'm willing to concede that they were certainly "life expanding."

In closing, although my travels have ended, I think I am going to keep writing. I really do enjoy it and although I won't be globe trotting, I think I can find some interesting topics and tidbits to write about. In true Thai fashion, it will be "same same, but different"... if you are interested check back soon or enter your email over to the right and I'll be sure to drop a note when I start things up again.

In the meantime, thank you for joining me on my trip!

For our last full day in Vietnam, Eric and I went on a tour to the Caodai Holy See in Tay Ninh and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Tay Ninh was about 2 hours outside of Saigon and although we forced onto another bus, the ride wasn't that bad and it turned out to be a fun way to end the trip.

Although clearly in the "temple" category, I was pretty intrigued with checking out the Caodai Holy See. Caodai was a religion founded in Vietnam in 1926. The founder, Ngo Minh Chieu, was widely read in both Eastern and Western religious works and incorporated elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and native Vietnamese spiritualism in developing the Caodai philosophy. I won't go into too many details, but its actually pretty interesting - leveraging a strong base of Buddhism, peppered with seances with the dead and priests who are celibate AND vegetarian to boot! They believe in Moses, Jesus and Mohammed (as well as Buddha), but believe their messages were corrupted because the messengers were human. To avoid this "human" problem, Caodaism gets all of its mesages directly from the spirit world during seances. Interestingly, Caodai priests contact spirits of many famous Eastern and Western people, including Joan of Arc, Rene Descartes, William Shakespeare, Louis Pasteur and Vladimir Lenin. Pretty exclusive club, but I couldn't stop thinking about that horrible movie, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, that came out a couple years ago.

The temple itself was a bit less interesting than the details of the religion, but there was some strange imagery (lots of eyes inside of pyramids like on the dollar bill) and we watched one of the daily services which involved much chanting and bowing.

After the temple, we headed over to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong to control a large rural area that was only about 30 km from Saigon. The tunnel networks were extremely intricate and included living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, kitchens, hospitals, command centers, etc. All told there were more than 250 km of tunnels. On the tour I learned that the ground was actually perfect for constructing the tunnels because it was 95% clay - no stones or wood of any sort was used, the tunnels were dug directly into the ground. The tunnels were so well hidden that they even existed within the perimeter of the US military base at Dong Du. By all accounts, the Cu Chi Tunnels greatly frustrated the American forces and they were never able to overtake them, despite tremendous amounts of bombing and gassing.

The picture above is one of the actual tunnels. It was incredibly small - I couldn't fit in unless I raised my hands over my head. According to our guide, Americans were fat even back then and couldn't really maneuver inside of the tunnels. Later in our tour we actually went into a series of tunnels that had been created for tourists - they were larger than the real tunnels, but it was still incredibly tight (I could stand, but only hunched over so my hands were on the ground, sort of like how an ape waddles around).

The tour also included examples of the various types of home-made boobie traps the Viet Cong used to trap the Americans. I can't even imagine what it must have been like running through that jungle during the War. Despite their success in maintaining the tunnels and frustrating the Americans, the costs to the Viet Cong and the villagers who fought and lived in the tunnels was extremely high. According to our guide, only 6,000 of the approximately 16,000 Viet Cong troops survived.

On the way out we stopped by a firing range and for $5, I was given 5 bullets to shoot from an AK-47. Although it wasn't the first time I had fired a gun - we had riflery at my summer camp growing up - it was definitely my first (and hopefully last) time firing with live ammunition. And its safe to assume that my summer camp didn't have any AK-47s for us to fire.

Although I knew there would be kick back, I definitely wasn't prepared for the force of it. Right into your arm - if I wasn't at a platform, I imagine I would have dropped the gun. Better my should though, all I could think about was Ralphie and shooting my eye out! The sound was deafening - even with the guards, my ears were ringing for several minutes after I was done. Soldiers must all go deaf for days after firing their guns. There were targets out on the range, but I didn't even bother asking if I hit anything. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one! All in all, another thing I can check of the "things I didn't realize I'd do in my life, but since I'm in Vietnam what the hell" list...

I left Vietnam this morning and am actually writing this from Bangkok. Tomorrow morning I leave for home. I still have a bunch of pictures to post, so I'll be adding some stuff over the next week of so... and I'm hoping to maybe write a little summary once I get a chance to reflect a bit on everything (I'm thinking 20 hours on the plane might do the trick!)

But for now, "mama, I'm coming home!"

For the past four days, Eric and I have been in Saigon (a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh City) and its general vicinity. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and after dumping our bags at the hotel, we journeyed out to see some of the sites. Initial impressions of Saigon centered on the heat and smells - both were barely bearable. It was extremely hot and muggy, which I imagine only intensified the smells from the markets. The streets had the stagnant water with god knows what in it type smell (occasionally present in Bangkok, but everywhere here in Saigon). In fact, Saigon is definitely more similar to Bangkok than the other cities we have been to in Vietnam. It is very much a big city and has a more standard "grid"-like street structure vs. the twisty quaint streets in Hanoi. Of course, the touts are ever present and in addition to the motorbikes, cyclos (essentially rickshaws driven my old men) are everywhere.

In fact, almost as soon as we arrived, Eric and I started to make plans to leave (more below). Before we did, we decided to see the requisite sites and started at Reunification Palace. This was essentially the White House of Southern Vietnam during the war - some of you may remember pictures of tanks crashing through the gates when the communists captured Saigon on April 30, 1975. In order to commemorate this occasion, the palace has actually been kept exactly how it was on that day. It's actually kind of cool to walk around and see how the rooms were designed and set up - it looks like everyone jumped out of their chairs and just took off. The 70's design (color choices, furniture, etc.) is actually kind of funny - it kind of looks like what might happen if the set designers on the Brady Bunch were given the keys to the White House.

After the Palace, we headed over to the War Remnants Museum. According to my trusty guide book it used to be known as the "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes," but for some reason they decided that wasn't very PC and might offend people. Regardless of the name, the museum was very disturbing. The exhibits are very graphic and difficult to view - they show pictures of deformed babies caused by Agent Orange and document many other U.S.-led atrocities and massacres. They also had a remade prison with "tiger cages" and showed all the different ways prisoners were tortured by the South Vietnamese military. As always the claim of "bias" can be made, but regardless the details of the War were horrible to see and regardless of who is responsible it really hit home the tragedy ... for all involved.

After that we were emotionally exhausted and pretty tired of museums, temples, palaces, and everything else. We called it a day and went back to the hotel to plan our escape out of Saigon. There may be charm here somewhere, but it was not rubbing off on us. We decided to head about 3 hours up the coast to a beach called Mui Ne. We left early the next morning and arrived around noontime. While it wasn't the nicest beach I have ever been to, it was definitely what the doctored ordered. We rented a small cabana just off the beach and did absolutely nothing. For the next day and a half we basically vegged out, read and relaxed. It was great!

We returned to Saigon last night and this morning we went to a all you can eat, all you can drink brunch at the Caravelle Hotel. Total cost was $23 per person and they were nice enough to itemize how much we drank so I know that we consumed over $100 of alcohol ... and keep in mind we are in Vietnam! (Although to be fair, prices were pretty high because we were at a nice hotel, so we didn't get completely sloshed.) The food and drinks were great and we had a fun day just hanging out and talking about our adventures (and the impending end of our trip.) I left with that "I've been drinking since 11 AM" heaviness in my head and went to the hotel for a nap.

Tomorrow we are doing a day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels (the underground tunnel system used by the Viet Cong during the War) and then that's it. Back to Bangkok on Tuesday and the States on Wednesday! As much fun as I've been having, I am definitely looking forward to coming home!

"Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space..."

While its true my motorbike was a bit more scooter, than Harley, the ride was still pretty awesome! The bike maxed out at about 60 km/hour (which a quick division by 1.6 will tell you is ~38 miles/hour), but I might as well have been traveling at ludicrous speed when I was bold enough to crack it up that fast. However, my mother can rest assured that we only did that a few times... for the most part we spent our time dodging around traffic and getting to the side of the road when trucks came barrelling through.

The roads in Vietnam are about the size of a standard two way street, but they have 6 lanes of traffic going through: regular bikes on the edge, than motorbikes, than cars and trucks (and repeated on the other side of the road going the opposite direction). Clearly, there is not enough road space for all of these vehicles, so when a car or truck comes through they typically drive down the middle of the road, the motorbikes cruise into the bike lane, and the bikers ... well, they mostly pray I imagine. Every once in awhile cars come from both directions at once and then everybody prays (and there is lots of horn honking!)

The traffic is obviously the worst closest to the cities and on the roadways used by the tourist buses. Luckily the route we took to My Son managed to avoid the buses so for the most part we had open road. My Son was about an hour and a half outside of Hoi An and incredibly, we didn't even get lost. It was a great way to see the countryside - being on the bike is a lot different than seeing things from inside a van or bus. For one, you are traveling a bit slower and you are also in total control so you can stop whenever you want. You also feel more a part of the surroundings, with the wind whipping around you and brushing right past cows on the side of the road, etc. Plus, even on a motorbike you feel kind of bad ass cruising down the road.

My Son itself was okay - another place I probably would have appreciated more if I had seen it prior to Angkor Wat. They are ruins from the ancient Kingdom of Champa and are quite old (4th - 13th century). Some of them were also bombed during the Vietnam War so you can imagine the shape they are in.

After seeing the ruins we still had several hours left so we cruised back through Hoi An for lunch and then continued up to the Marble Mountains. The Marble Mountains are, well, five small mountains made of marble. They overlook China Beach, which was one of the major areas U.S. soldiers went for R&R during the war. (China Beach was also a TV show in the late 80's, which is why the name might ring a bell.) The Mountains were great - once we reached the top we were given flashlights and led to a bunch of caves. We climbed all through the caves and at the bottom of one was a huge carved out temple. The marble was quite slippery and you could hear bats above you... it was all very Indiana Jones!

Tomorrow we leave in the morning for Ho Chi Minh City (a.k.a. Saigon) where I will finish off my trip before heading home a week from today!

The past couple of days in Vietnam have been amazing. I've added pictures from Halong Bay and pictures from a very different type of dinner we had last night (details below).

On Thursday morning, Eric and I woke early and joined an overnight tour to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin and was about a 3 hour drive to the east of Hanoi. When we arrived, we boarded a ship that would be our home for the next two days.

The boat was great (I will admit to be a little nervous ahead of time since the whole trip only cost $35). It had three stories and Eric and I shared a room with hard, but pretty comfortable beds and our own bathroom. There was a large area on the top of the boat with sun chairs and a covered area where we ate all of our meals. The boat had its own kitchen too and the meals were pretty good, considering we where we were.

Speaking of our location - it was beautiful. Halong Bay was about 10-15 degrees warmer than Hanoi (so it was probably mid 70s), but it was very misty and overcast. The whole bay had a very ominous look to it - it was very gray and foggy and the islands that fill the bay appeared as shadows in the distance. For some reason I thought of Pirates of the Caribbean and I was waiting for a ship of cursed pirate ghosts to come out from the horizon. I can't even imagine what it would have been like under the bright sun. Despite the weather, it was all very beautiful - there are over 3,000 islands in the Bay and they are very small and tall with sheer cliffs. I'm not sure my pictures will do them justice...

When we returned from Halong Bay on Friday night, we showered up and embarked on a very strange evening. In my parent's guide book I had read about snake restaurants that exist in a town called Le Mat, which is a few miles outside of Hanoi. Needless to say we were a bit intrigued and decided to check it out (along with a couple we had met in Halong Bay). Since we were going to eat snake, I donned by AC/DC t-shirt - it felt like it would be appropriate attire.

Getting there proved to be part of the adventure. The first few cabbies we asked had no clue what we were talking about. Finally I approached a guy and said "Le Mat? Snake? We want to eat snake." He got a little twinkle in his eye and that wicked smile that told us he knew exactly what we were talking about. We piled into his cab and he called "his friend" on the phone. Pretty soon Eric was using the skills he picked up in the negotiation class he took in Bangkok to get the price of our meal to $5 per head (down from an opening offer of $20).

Le Mat turned out to be a dirty side street about 6 miles outside of Hanoi. As we turned down it, we quickly came upon a motorcycle gang wearing jackets with cobras on the back (it was all very Cobra Kai). When they saw us in the cab, they quickly converged on us and started grabbing on to the cab and shoving business cards through Eric's open window. Our cabbie sped away as Eric rolled up his window - as they ate our dust, our cabbie said "That's marketing" and we all had a good laugh.

We arrived at the restaurant and the owner was soon showing us cages with different snakes. He took a few out and knocked them around with a stick. They were certainly snakes and they were most definitely alive. None of us were very brave, we all stayed well away from the hissing and squirming and let the owner pick out a snake that would meet our needs. They quickly decided on one and then without any warning the owner smacked its head on the ground and they started cutting it open. The drained the blood and bile into glasses and then cut out its heart and liver. The heart kept beating and continued to beat as we took it upstairs while the owner prepared our drinks.

The drinks turned out to be whiskey with bile and then another that mostly consisted of snake blood and a little whiskey. He didn't say anything about it putting hair on our chest, but we knocked it back anyways. It basically tasted like very strong whiskey and we soon had a nice little buzz going. Then over the next 45 minutes or so, the owner brought out a succession of 8 dishes all made from the snake. Definitely check out the pictures to see everything. The snake mostly tasted like slightly rubberly chicken. Most of the dishes were dipped in a mixture of salt, pepper and lime so they also had a very salty taste. It was good, not great and I'm not rushing out to have it again, but it was definitely an adventure and a lot of fun (in that taboo type of way).

Pretty much everything I know about Vietnam is from movies and a couple days of class time thrown in during high school history class. When I was about 9 or 10 I went to summer camp in Maine for the summer and one of the few cassette tapes we had was the soundtrack for Good Morning, Vietnam - it had a bunch of Robin Williams' lines from the movie and we all memorized them ("It's hot! Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest thing is my shorts. I could cook things in it.") And for a long time (longer than I should probably admit) Rambo, First Blood Part II was my second favorite movie (behind only the classic Red Dawn)...

This is all a long-winded way of saying my Vietnam knowledge is probably a bit too Hollywood and I don't have a great base to compare things to - with that said, it definitely won't prevent me from creating some new experiences while I am here, which is exactly what I've been doing for the past couple of days.

Currently, I am in Hanoi, which is the northern capital of Vietnam. Its a vibrant, but dreary city (largely due to the weather I think - its always overcast) and actually seems to be the most European place I've been (which shouldn't be a surprise given the French used to run things over here). I'm staying in the Old Quarter and I love it. The streets are very narrow and they twist and turn all over the place. Motorbikes seem to be the only form of transportation and they are everywhere. Crossing the street is an adventure - if you wait for the traffic to stop you could be there all day, you just need to take a deep breath and go for it. For the most part the bikes cruise around you. For the most part. Cambodia was similarly overrun by the motorbike, but here while they are weaving in and out they are also constantly honking their horns - one of the first things you notice is how loud the city is!

I've also noticed that for the most part the people leave you alone a bit more than they did in Bangkok. There are defintely tourists milling about, but certainly less than in Cambodia and Thailand. Hanoi doesn't seem to be a tourist city, the people go about their lives and for the most part don't take much mind as you walk down the streets.

The food is very different from Thailand, but fantastic. This may seem like a small thing, but they have great bread here! It's been awhile since I've had a nice baguette... Last night I went to a small hole in the wall place, called Cha Ca La Vong, where they served a Hanoi specialty called cha ca. It was the only dish the restaurant served and you sit down and they bring over a small fire and you cook little white fish fillets in a frying pan with peanut oil and greens (including a lot of dill). You eat it over white noodles. It was delicious, greasy, but delicious all the same.

For lunch today I had pho, which is kind of a beef and noodle soup - it warms you up pretty good, which is perfect because IT IS FREEZING HERE! I know I have no business complaining, but going from 100 degrees to 60's has been quite a change. I only have one sweatshirt with me, so you will probably see a lot of pictures with me wearing it! Luckily, as we head south it will warm up again.

Today I went exploring the city - I met a cool motorbike taxi guy in the morning and he stayed with me all day for 100,000 dong (which is about $6 - 15,000 dong = $1). He took me around to all the museums and would just wait outside for me. I'm definitely starting to enjoy the motorbike taxi rides - definitely a bit dangerous, but its a great way to see the city up close and personal.

The Army Museum and Hoa Lo Prison (a.k.a. the Hanoi Hilton) were pretty interesting in their descriptions of the American War (which is what they call the Vietnam War here). I noticed they used the word "puppet" a lot to describe both our administration during the war (i.e. "puppet president") and the American troops (i.e. "puppet soldiers") - I never did figure out who was supposedly the puppeteer. The Hoa Lo Prison was actually used by the French to hold the Vietamese revolutionaries and then later by the Vietamese to hold the Americans (including John McCain). According to the exhibits, the French tortured the Vietamese inmates by the hundreds, but although the Americans "committed untold crimes on our people, ... [they] suffered no revenge once they were captured and detained. Instead they were well treated with adequate food, clothing and shelter." A quick search on the web seems to indicate that there is a <slight> difference of opinion between the official Vietamese version of events and the experiences of the Americans that were held there. As you learn early on, there are two sides to every story...

Tomorrow, Eric and I are heading to Halong Bay for an overnight stay. Halong Bay is just off the Gulf on Tonkin and is supposed to have beautiful islands and caves to explore. I'll tell you all about it when I return!

Once again my dad and I went a bit overboard with pictures in Cambodia and especially at Angkor (I think my dad alone took over 600 or something -- which means I'm pretty sure there are some people in Swampscott that just changed their phone numbers so they don't get the "hey come over and check out my pictures" call ;-)

Lucky for you, I narrowed things down to about 40 that are among the best - or at least give a good overview of the trip. Check out the pictures here...

Where to begin? We've spent the last two days in Siem Reap and Angkor - and they've have been absolutely fascinating. Many of the people I have talked to who have traveled in this part of the world have said that Angkor is one of the most amazing places they have ever been. I can now say that unlike most things (with the notable exception of In N' Out), Angkor has definitely lived up to the hype!

Once again this isn't area typically covered by the history books in the States, so a bit of history is in order. Angkor is an ancient city built by the Khmer civilization between the 9th and 13th centuries. In their hey day, the Khmer ruled a vast territory that extended north all the way to China and included much of Vietnam. The ancient city is enormous and the ruins of the many temples, walls, and buildings are scattered all around the jungle outside of the modern (term used loosely) city of Siem Reap. The city was "lost" for many years, but was rediscovered in the 1860s - ever since the temples have been dug out of the surrounding jungle, preserved and more recently become a huge tourist attraction. Some of the guidebooks call it the Disney World of Asia, and although it was crowded at times, I find the comparison to be pretty unfair - Disney could only dream of creating something this magnificent!

The temples themselves are massive and they cover an enormous expanse of land. At times it seems like every piece of rock is intricately carved detailing some story of either Hinduism or Buddhism (although Cambodia is now predominantly Buddhist, the Khmer civilization was heavily influenced by Hindus from India). When I post my pictures (hopefully tomorrow night), I'll include some of the stone carvings - I can't even imagine how long it must have taken to build these temples. The temples themselves are in pretty decent condition considering how old they are, but a lot has been looted over the years. Walking around you can't help but imagine what they must have been like in their hey day.

We arrived yesterday morning and spent most of the day hiking around the temples with our guide. After a quick introduction to the temples at Preah Khan, we spent most of the day at Angkor Wat, the main temple (and the one you would recognize if you've seen pictures of Angkor). Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious building and we spent our time exploring a good chunk of it. For me, one of the coolest parts of Angkor is you can pretty much climb all over everything - they don't like you to climb on the actual statues, but everything else you are free to explore. I had a blast finding different nooks and crannies and freaking my parents out a bit by getting too close to the edge at times!

Speaking of my parents - I have to say my mom has been a true tomb raider. I know I make fun sometimes, but she hasn't shied away from anything and even conquered a long standing fear of heights by climbing an almost vertical stair case to the very top of Angkor Wat! And this morning, she said "screw it" and jumped on an elephant with my dad (smashing tobits the previously mentioned "two trunk lenghs at all times" rule). All in all an inspring effort put forth!

Angkor is hard to write about - it is definitely one of those "you gotta see it to believe it" type places, but hopefully some of the pictures I upload later will do it some justice. It is a truly remarkable place and for me, an experience that has made me think long and hard about the real differences between "ancient" and "modern" - the people who built these structures were incredibly advanced, uniquely talented and extraordinarily creative.

One random tidbit, according to our guide, Siem Reap means "Siam Lost" and refers to the fact that the Siam (or the Thai) lost a war to Cambodia. It's kind of like having a city in Massachusetts called "YankeesSuck."

In any event, tomorrow is our last day in Cambodia - we fly back to Bangkok tomorrow night. After that my parents head home and I continue on to Vietnam for two more weeks before I head back to the States myself. My time is quickly coming to an end, but I know experiences like the past couple days in Angkor will be with me for quite some time. Hope all is well stateside!

I've added about 20 pictures from our trip to northern Thailand (Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai). There are a ton more, but I didn't have time to write about all of them and I think these are the best of the lot. Plus, for those of you in and around Swampscott, I have a feeling my dad will have a few to show you when he returns (he's already taken over 500 pictures and we haven't even hit Cambodia yet!)

(NOTE: This post is actually from February 16th, but unfortunately I couldn't get the hotel computer to submit it for some reason. I'm back in Bangkok now for the night and tomorrow we are off to Cambodia. I have an early flight so I'm not sure if I'll get any pictures up tonight, but I'll see what I can do.)

Today was definitely one of my top 5 favorite days in Thailand thus far. I'm currently sitting at a computer in the beautiful Anantara Resort & Spa in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is in the north west corner of Thailand, called the Golden Triangle because it borders Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. In fact, tomorrow we will be going over the border to Myanmar to check out some villages and markets.

Before I get to today's events, I have to tell you a bit about this hotel - it is set on a hill overlooking the jungles of Chiang Rai and Myanmar - the view is spectacular. The hotel itelf is only 2 stories tall, but the grounds are enormous and every aspect of the building is exquisitely detailed - lots of beautiful Thai and Burmese (is that what it is called?) art all over the place. My room is definitely one of the nicest I have ever stayed in (although considering that my travels consist mostly of Holiday Inn stays, that might not be saying much!) I have a huge bed, a patio with a crazy view, and an enormous bath tub that could comfortably sit 3 across (although admittedly, any more than two might be a bit weird...) The pool is one of those fancy deals that "falls off" at the edge and they have musicians playing live Thai music all over the place. And while the hotel is certainly expensive by Thai standards, it is all much less than an average hotel in NYC for the nigth ($116 per night!)

So how did we get here? Well, it took awhile, but the trip was well worth it. We woke up this morning in Chiang Mai which is about 8 hours to the east in a more central part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand (and a former capital I believe). We had been there the previous two nights and had a very nice stay. It was a little more "city" than I think my parents and I were expecting, in the sense that its still pretty crowded with a decent amount of traffic and built up (although not really with tall buildings). We checked out some wats (I'll save the descriptions for when I upload the pictures) and did some shopping at some pretty cool shops where they actually make the goods we were buying. For example, we went to a silk shop and first stopped by a factory where we saw them actually producing the silk. We did the same for a wood carving shop, a ceramics shop, an amazing jade shop and a few others. It was nice to see some actual artisans at work vs. the people in the markets that just hawk the things from god knows where! We'll actually I guess I figured it out, they're from the workshops we visited!

But I digress... we started off in Chiang Mai and drove for three hours north. Normally I'm not a fan of 3 hour drives, but this one wasn't bad at all. There was lots of interesting things to see along the way and it was nice to finally get into some of the countryside of Thailand (vs. the cities and islands I've been spending most of my time in). When we reached the Mae Kok River, we boarded a long tail boat. The boat had four seats, one for the driver, one for our guide, one for my parents and one for me. It was kind of like a tuk tuk boat with a large outboard motor on the back. The boat rode very low in the water and went along at a pretty good clip. We rode the boat all the way to Chiang Rai - about 4 hours in total, stopping along the way to visit some hill tribes and an elephant camp. My dad made fast friends with the elephants, but my mom was not very amused. Apparently, her motherly instincts do not extend to enormous elephants!

The ride was a long one and I can't say the long tail boat is the most comfortable form of transportation in the world, but it was an amazing experience to fly down the river. The river was relatively narrow and the tide was low (because we are in the dry season). The driver weaved in and out of the rocks like he had the route memorized... he would come inches away from some of the rocks, but never hit them. The breeze felt wonderful (especially in the heat) and the stops along the way at the remote hill tribes only made the experience seem more remote and special. We saw a few other boats along the way, but for the most part we had the river to ourselves and I fully appreciated it after the hustle and bustle that was daily life in Bangkok. I think today is one of those days I'll remember for quite some time!

Tomorrow we will spend the day in the Golden Triangle (where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet) and at night we head back to Bangkok for a quick layover before heading over to Cambodia for the weekend - I'm hoping that I'll be able to upload some pictures tomorrow night at the hotel. I hope all is well!

I should have posted a message sooner to say that my parents arrived in Thailand safe and sound, but between their arrival and finishing school, its been a busy couple of days. Mom and dad arrived late Friday night - I met them at their hotel, the Peninsula, on Saturday morning for brunch. The Peninsula is a beautiful hotel right on the river (I'm pretty sure it won some awards this year from the travel magazines for being one of the nicest hotels in the world) - definitely a part of Bangkok that I hadn't spent much time in before! Apparently when they arrived they no longer had rooms with king-sized beds, so they upgraded them to a suite for free... the room was ridiculous. My dad was quick to point out the toilet that looked out over the city from the 27th floor.

After breakfast I took my parents over to the Chatuchak Market to give them their first taste of Bangkok. We walked around for a few hours, but it was really hot, so we escaped around lunch time to one of the indoor markets. I guess I hadn't mentioned it before, but the weather has definitely gotten progressively warmer since I've been here. The afternoons are now almost unbearable - high 90s and pretty muggy. Speaking of hot, at lunch my dad went a little overboard on the spice in his soup and definitely paid for it. Welcome to Bangkok!

For dinner, Marc joined us and we went to a restaurant called Baan Khanita, that was recommended by some Thai friends and expats. It is known for having some of the best Thai food around, and it was definitely excellent, but I still think the best stuff is from the random places you find along the streets. After dinner, we took my parents to the State Tower where there is an open air bar, Sirocco, on the 64th floor. For those of you into views, its one of the better ones I've seen, although the drinks are expensive (NYC prices) and actually pretty bad.

On Sunday, my parents traveled around with a tour guide and I spent most of the day packing up my stuff and running some errands. Actually, I really spent most of the day sleeping since Marc and I were out quite late. We had some bottles left over at a few bars we attend regularly, so after dinner and drinks with my parents we went around to polish them off. Needless to say night quickly turned to morning which quickly turned to lunch time... "Fat, drunk and stupid" may be no way to go through life (at least according to Dean Wormer), but the drunk part is a pretty good way to say good-bye to Bangkok!

Sunday night, Marc joined us again and we went to a new restaurant called Mahanaga, which was serving up delicious Thai Fusion. (Marc and I were definitely enjoying eating dinner with the folks!) After dinner we took my dad to check out Bed Supperclub (the futuristic-looking night club I wrote about before). It wasn't very crowded, but we got a few drinks into my dad and he danced around a bit (yes, I have pictures, but you'll have to wait until I upload them.) Seeing my dad dance around, I realized I truly am my father's son. My parents left around 11 PM, but before they left my mom pointed out two girls that were checking Marc and I out. A little while after my mom left, the girls saunter over and one of them points to Marc and I and says "Gay?" and then points to herself and he friend and says "Lesbian." Turns out Bed on Sunday night is gay night. Good times.

Right now I am in Chiang Mai - my parents and I arrived here this morning. We are staying at a beautiful hotel right in the Old Quarter. This afternoon we went to check out some wats and a place where they made jade sculptures. I have a bunch of good pictures, but I don't have time to upload them all now, so you'll have to wait. I need to go get ready for dinner, but for those who were curious: Mike and Jill are safe and sound, staying away from the ice cubes and having a blast!

ihavew

For those who didn't know, my birthday was on February 7th. If you're keeping count at home, that makes 27 years. I don't real feel like 27 is a big milestone or anything, but Christine was kind enough to remind me that I've now graduated from my "mid-20's" to my "late-20's"... so I have that going for me.

No birthday would be complete without a birthday celebration, so on Tuesday night we decided to make our first foray into Pat Pong, one of the most notorious areas of Bangkok. (At this point, I think I should note that the MPAA is still reviewing the contents of this post. We were initially gunning for a PG-13 rating, but then realized we would pretty much have to stop writing here, so instead we're going full bore into R-rated territory. Only the lack of pictures is saving us from NC-17. If you happen to remember any of my birthdays prior to age 5, that probably means you are related to me somehow and you might want to consider reading something else. Might I suggest a book?)

Earlier in the day I received an email from a girl (Shannon) who is friends with some of my Stanford friends. She was traveling through Southeast Asia and was in Bangkok for a few days. I invited her out with us (what better way for her to meet me for the first time than to take her to sketchy sex clubs?). Everyone else was busy for dinner, so Shannon and I headed to this place called "Eat Me Art Restaurant" - while the name sounds pretty in line with the night's activities, it was actually an excellent restaurant that was in a house full of modern Thai art. The food was the same type of Asian fusion you find in the States, we had a risotto and a spicy roast chicken - both were excellent.

After dinner, we headed over to Pat Pong to meet everyone else. The night started innocently enough as we went to a place called Radio City for a few beers (or in my case several, since everyone was buying them for me). Pat Pong is half strip clubs and sex shows and half night market. So if you get tired in one of the clubs, you can go buy $8 jeans or some Thai silk. Genius.

Around 11 PM, a man came up to us holding the following card:

I have to admit we were curious! We started to follow him, but quickly realized that he was probably going to rip us off, so we consulted with one of the older British guys on the street and he pointed us in the right direction for one of the "really good clubs." I know I've spoken poorly about all the sketchy old guys with the young Thai ladies, but in Pat Pong its like consulting a sommelier in Napa - you know they are going to lead you to the good stuff!

So we walk into this place, its sort of like a strip club with one big stage in the middle and 4 or 5 Thai girls dancing in various stages of undress. About 5 minutes after we were there, a white girl (who we later learned was from Seattle), got up on the stage and started dancing. The Thai girls soon managed to take off all of her clothes (including underwear) and she was just dancing on stage butt naked for about 4 songs. She was a much better dancer than the Thai girls and we later found out that she was, in fact, a stripper. Needless to say that was an interesting way to start the evening.

As the night progressed, the girls on the stage would perform "tricks" - much like the ones described on the card above. Since it was my birthday I was asked to catch the ping pong balls in a bucket - I think I caught 5 and dropped 2... I was standing about 10 feet back, so she, um, had some good range. Unfortunately... er FORTUNATELY!... we couldn't really take pictures, but I think its safe to say I saw some things I had never seen before.

We snuck the picture above and I know it isn't great, but it actually captures what I remember from the night quite well -- i.e. everything was a bit blurry! All in all, it was a memorable birthday and another new experience in Bangkok!

My time in Bangkok is quickly coming to a close. I had my last class today and tomorrow I have one final and then that's it! My parents arrive tomorrow (Friday) night and after spending a few days here we leave on Monday for Chiang Mai. I can't wait to introduce them to Bangkok (and especially see their reactions to everything!) - I imagine we'll steer clear of Pat Pong, but you never know!

... the victory tastes SWEET!

I actually have some work to do today, so therefore I procrastinate a bit:

I greased my first palm today in Bangkok. I went to the local travel agent Marc and I have been using to get my visa for Vietnam. The travel agent had previously told me that it would only take a week to get the visa - of course, like most things, weeks are counted differently here in Bangkok. Turns out since next week is the Chinese New Year, the Vietnam Embassy will be closed from February 8th - February 14th. I leave for Chiang Mai on February 14th, so that means I need my visa completed by February 7th - not quite the week that is required for processing. I pouted a bit. "Is there anything I can do?" I inquired. 200 Baht later, I'm good to go!

Taxi drivers in Bangkok are like spam email. There is a whole crew of taxi drivers that sit outside of my hotel and ask me if I want a ride. It's always the same 5-6 guys. They always refuse to use their meter and instead quote me ridiculously high rates to go anywhere. When Marc and I went to the Muay Thai a few weeks back they asked for 400 Baht - the ride ended up costing less than 100 in a cab with a meter. I always refuse to ride with them - if they won't use their meter, I won't go. At first, I thought they would eventually acquiesce, but they don't, they just go back and wait on the curb. Every guide book I read warns you NOT to get in a cab without a meter - so my question is who actually goes in these cabs? Someone must just like someone must be clicking the links in their spam email, otherwise how would either, the cabbies or the spam, stay in existence?

You can shoot a cow with a rocket launcher in Cambodia. Truth. I've now heard this from two separate sources, including an Australian couple we met up in Kanchanaburi this weekend. The Cambodians will provide the rocket launcher and the cow. (You can also shoot chickens with an AK-47...) After some googling around, I've found conflicting reports on cost (ranging from US $10 to US $200). Although I had never considered this particular scenario, I imagine I should be morally opposed to this sort of activity, but it does sound intriguing, no?

If every man walked through the Nana Hotel at midnight, sexual harassment of women would no longer be a problem. Last night, Marc and I met some friends over at the Nana Hotel at around 1 AM. The place is more club, than hotel and it is absolutely packed with working girls. The place is literally swarming, there must be a queen bee of prostitutes, the uber-pimp, in there somewhere (like the mother alien in Aliens). You walk in and techno music is blaring and there are old, sketchy white guys (mostly British and Australian) with 3 girls draped all over them. I could almost smell the disease permeating the air. In any event, you walk through and girls just start grabbing you and pinching your ass and saying "Oooh, sexy, sexy" - completely creepy and bizarre. I used to say that every man should be made to walk through the Castro on a Friday night to understand what it is like to be a girl. Well, the Nana Hotel is the new Castro.

I've added some more pictures that Julio took during our bamboo rafting trip, on the Death Railway, and at the Tiger Temple. Check out those tigers! Crazy!

I'm back in Bangkok again after an incredible weekend in Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is about 2 hours to the west of Bangkok and we (Jed, Eric, Julio and myself -- Marc stayed in Bangkok) headed out here to leave behind some of the debauchery of the city and find a little culture (although some would argue that debauchery is inherent in Thai culture - and to be sure, we found some even here in Kanchanaburi).

Once again, I took a ton of pictures - in fact, so many that my battery ran out and I had to rely on a friend to take pictures from the Tiger Temple and on our bamboo rafting trip down the River Kwai (more on both later). NOTE: I took a lot of pictures at the Thai market, if weird foods don't interest you, skip ahead, because some of the best pictures come afterwards.

Before I go further, I should mention that everything we did this weekend we planned through AS Mixed Travel. While I haven't been on many package tours, they really did an excellent job and it was quite reasonable (850 Baht each day, ~$21). As an added bonus, there is an excellent restaurant run by the guest house that had some of the best Thai food I've had since I've been here.

In fact, on our first day we decided to take a cooking class through the restaurant. The class lasted about half the day and included a tour of a local market where our guide introduced us to all the various Thai vegetables, spices and curries. When we got back to the restaurant, we learned how to make:

• Tom Yum (spicy chicken soup)
• Tom Ka Kai (spicy chicken coconut soup)
• Massaman Curry
• Green Curry
• Pad Thai
• Fried Rice
• Red Curry
• Sweet & Sour Chicken
• Beef w/ Oyster Sauce

Thai food is actually surprisingly easy to make (although I should mention we used all premade curries from the local market). Everything is made using a wok over pretty high heat (in fact, I think the high heat might be the hardest part to reproduce when we get home). The best part about cooking was that we got to eat all day long - every dish we made, we ate, and then we had a huge feast at the end. By 3 PM, when the class ended, we were all exhausted and headed back to the hotel to slip into a food coma.

The next day we signed up for a day long tour that took us to the Erawan waterfalls, elephant back riding, on a bamboo raft down the River Kwai, on a train over the Death Railway Bridge and finally to the Tiger Temple.

Erawan Waterfalls
The falls were beautiful (see picture at the top) and luckily we got their early enough that we missed the crowds (who were arriving as we left). Apparently, it is a big destination for Thai tourists who like to swim in the many fresh water pools. The falls lie along a 2km trail with seven main "levels" - the trail was pretty basic, but rocky and a few areas where you had really climb up some boulders. It was made a little trickier because our guide recommended we wear sandles, but we all managed okay. The whole hike took about two and a half hours and it was nice to get out in nature after being in the concrete jungle that is Bangkok. We even saw some monkeys swinging around on the trees.

Elephant Riding
If you ever get the chance to ride an elephant, you should take it. They are big, hulking animals and it is amazing to be in their presence. Their leathery skin oozes oldness, but they also have all these black spiky hairs all over that I wasn't expecting. We rode them through a small village and then into the river where they cooled off and sprayed us with water.

Bamboo Rafting on the River Kwai
Bamboo is an amazing material - our raft was very simple, just a bunch of bamboo held together with a single board going across it. It lay very low in the water, but it was rock solid, I could stand and jump up and down and it didn't even wobble that much. Unfortunately, my camera had run out at this point, but it was beautiful floating down the river. The river actually moves quite fast and with the raft so low, I felt like I was walking on water!

Train Ride on the Death Railway Bridge
The story behind the bridge is much more interesting than the train ride. According to my Lonely Planet, 16,000 POWs died while building the Death Railway to Myanmar (Burma). The bridge hugs the mountainside and the opposite side of the track is a sheer cliff to the water below - unbelievable that it was built in the 1940s.

Tiger Temple
You will have to wait until tomorrow for pictures from the Tiger Temple, but this was an awesome way to end the day! The Tiger Temple is a Buddhist temple in the middle of the jungle where wild tigers roam in a canyon. The tigers were given to the monks to care for and now they raise them. They bring them to the canyon once a day and visitors pay 150 Baht to see them and take pictures with them (the money is supposedly going to construct a large habitat in an attempt to train future generations of the tigers to readapt to the wild.) Lonely Planet had this to say: "At last count the temple had eight tigers and at least one tourist had been seriously mauled ... More responsible operators confided to us that they didn't think playing with tigers was such a good idea. We agree... we don't recommend you visit."

Of course, we took this anti-recommendation about as seriously as we take Lonely Planet's hotel recommendations and headed on down to the Tiger canyon!

When you walk down into the canyon, it is surreal - there are just tigers lying about with no chains and intermingled with them are some monks and other workers. If you want, the workers will lead you about and you can take pictures with the tigers and pet them - when the tigers get a little frisky, the workers pull you away and hit the tigers or bang a stick near them.

I should mention at this point that I just finished reading Life of Pi - which is in part about an Indian boy stuck on a life raft with a bengal tiger - definitely made my interactions with the tigers more exciting! (BTW - if you haven't read Life of Pi yet, I highly recommend it - one of the best books I have read in quite some time.)

In any event, petting the tigers was intense - they feel like pure, pulsing muscle, but they are also beautiful creatures. I never really felt like I was in danger - the monks seemed to have control and I have a sneaking suspicion that the tigers were actually a bit sedated (i.e. I think Lonely Planet went a bit overboard).

All in all it was a full day of adventure and one that I won't soon forget! This week I'm staying around Bangkok and going to class (yes, I actually do have some studying to do and class to attend!) and I think I'm going to stay close this weekend so I can make sure I can catch the Super Bowl! I'll check in again soon with pictures from the Tiger Temple and anything else that happens...

(Disclaimer: I was talking to my mom the other day and I mentioned that I couldn't wait to upload all my pictures from this crazy trip. She casually mentioned that I should "keep in mind that there are a lot of different people reading the site now." Well, I didn't really do anything that I'm ashamed of and I don't think any of us actually know any of the people I might have captured doing shameful things (well, except maybe Marc ;-), so I'm just going to post the pictures that I have. If you end up offended, I apologize in advance (but I really don't think there is anything all that bad in there.)

I am finally back in the comforts of Bangkok - who would've thought a month ago that this would feel like home. Instead of rehashing my whole trip, I'll just write a bit about the highlights (and lowlights as the case may be)... and I added a decent amount to the captions, so check out all the pictures I have posted.

1. Firestarters -- I could watch these guys (and girls) all night long. I managed to take some good shots by turning my flash off (see above). Next time you have a party, I highly recommend hiring some people to toss fire rings around - it really adds a whole other dimension to the festivities.

2. On Monday morning, I took off by myself and went for a little hike down the end of the beach. There were a bunch of rocks and I ended up climbing them and following them around the edge of the island a bit. I eventually found this pretty secluded rock looking out over the ocean - it reminded me a bit of my favorite spot in Swampscott (HMF for the guys). I hung out there for awhile and just enjoyed the scene. I didn't bring my camera - sometimes memories are best left in the head - but it was definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip.

3. I'd say the average age on the island was 21 - it definitely seemed like a lot of college kids. I can't imagine being at this party when I was in college. I'm pretty sure I would have survived it and everything, but I can think of at least 5 of my friends (without even really trying very hard) who would have never made it back.

4. "Buckets" -- The drink of choice on the islands is a small bucket filled with a ice, a pint of liquour (typically Thai whiskey or Vodka), and then two mixers (i.e. Coke, Red Bull, fruit juice, etc.) They serve it with straws, scorpion bowl-style, and it therefore goes down VERY quickly. All for 200 Baht ($5). Such a bad idea in the best possible way an idea can be bad.

5. We were out on Ko Pha-Ngan for 4 days and 3 nights. We didn't need to be out there for that long - 2 nights of the Full Moon Party is more than enough (one night to get your feet wet, one night to enjoy yourself). I enjoyed my time on Ko Samui much more - there is still a pretty good night life, but the beach is bigger and quieter. Course, I'm also apparently getting old and lame.

6. Marc and I had an amazing last dinner on the islands. All along the beach are restaurants that display their fresh fish and seafood in little rowboats. The seafood is sold by the pound, you pick out what you want, they weigh it, and then barbeque it for you right on the beach. We went to the nicest one we could find to splurge a little (ended up being 800 Baht per person - $20!). They even had two Thai singers serenading us on the beach with country music. About the only thing that sucked about the meal was that I was there with ... well, Marc. (Not that Marc is bad to eat with, he is actually quite pleasant... just I would've preferred a certain lady to have my romantic dinner on the beach with!)

7. On Samui we found this great massage stand on the beach - there were about 6 girls and they were a riot. Really chatty and gave damn good massages - Marc and I went everyday. Thai people can't pronounce R's so when they say Marc's name it sort of sounds like they have a Boston accent: "Maahhc." I'm "Maaht." For some reason these girls loved saying are names - and, of course, like all the Thai ladies they loved Marc's eyelashes.

8. On the beach there are beggar kids that run around and try to get you to buy cheap necklasses from them - though I should note, it is not nearly as oppressive as some places I've been. They also carry around Connect 4 (which is a HUGE game out here) and challenge you to games. I think if you win you only pay them 10 Baht, but if they win you owe them 100 Baht - something like that. In any event, they all have cute little catch phrases to try to get you to smile and open your wallet. My favorite was the kid who slammed the Connect 4 onto our table and said "bring it on byatch!"

9. On Ko Pha-Ngan most of the girls (and they really are "Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" in the Britney Spears-sense) walk around topless on the beaches. I had never really been to a nude beach environment before. Good times, but it makes it a bit harder to read your book.

I'll add more if I think of it, but for now I am going to bed. Tomorrow I think I am going to go to Kanchanaburi (where the River Kwai - yes from the movie - and some other things are) for a couple days. Have a great weekend!

I just ducked into an Internet cafe here in Koh Phangan to check on some email and send out a quick update. I'm here on Koh Phangan (a small island in the Gulf of Thailand) until Wednesday - I'll have to wait to upload my pictuers until I return, but wait until you see them!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Koh Phangan is the home of the infamous full moon parties. The actual full moon is tonight, but that hasn't stopped everybody from partying all weekend. The freaks certainly do come out at night over here. This is the first place I have been in Thailand that is predominantly farang (i.e. white)... it seems like most people are coming here from Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe. I've met very few Americans (other than the ones I've come with). In any event, I really need to wait for my pictures to fully describe the scene, but it is basically the biggest party you can imagine all taking place on the beach. For those of you who have been to spring break in Mexico - it is that times about a 100. Most of the people seem to be a bit younger than me (college-aged) and they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves. I prefer to stick to the booze, but judging from some of the dancing, fire jumping, and craziness I've seen on the beach, most of these kids are doing a bit more than having a few beers...

In any event, in addition to the party, the islands are quite beautiful (although they are a bit built up and touristy). Yesterday, Marc, the other Fuqua guys and myself took a ride up to the northern part of the island to try to do some snorkeling. The ride took about 30 minutes - we were all piled into the back of a pickup truck and the driver was doing about 50 mph on these really narrow roads that twist and turn and climb all over the island. It was a crazy ride, a lot like a roller coaster, except no seat belts... I was basically gripping the side of the truck the whole time like my mom does when I'm driving!

Snorkeling was a bit of a bust, the water was pretty murky and about an hour into we got attacked by some sort of micro jelly fish-type thing. I never actually saw what it was, but all of sudden we felt stingy bites all over - they hurt pretty good, I can only imagine what a larger jelly fish would feel like. Needless to say, that pretty much ended our snorkeling adventure, but the area was beautiful (wait until you see the pictures), so we bought a deck of cards and hung out for the rest of the day. All in all it was a nice escape...

We woke up early this morning to watch the Patriots game (HEADED TO THE SUPER BOWL, BABY!) so today we're just relaxing on the beach and resting up for what is sure to be a big night. I'll write more when I get back to Bangkok - in the meantime, if you're in Boston, stay safe and warm in all the snow, and for everyone else take care!

I know it's been a few days since I last posted anything. I guess I was disheartened when I accidently deleted a whole long post I had written about my weekend. In any event, this past weekend I decided to stay close to Bangkok, but explore some of the surrounding areas a bit more. (Some may think I'm crazy, but one of the reasons I wanted to stay close was so I could catch the Patriots game on Monday morning -- bright and early at 4:30 AM! Unless you are living under a rock, you know that I was definitely rewarded with another solid thrashing of Mr. Manning and the Colts. "Cut that meat!")

Samut Prakan
On Saturday, I headed to Samut Prakan which is a small city about 30 km southeast (?) of Bangkok - for those of you in Boston, it's sort of like Bangkok's Lynn (i.e. "Boston without the good parts."). I took a bus out there and quickly learned that as soon as you leave Bangkok city limits all Roman script is gone and the street signs are only in Thai scrawl. Needless to say, that makes getting around (and especially knowning when to get off your bus a bit of a challenge!). With a little help from the bus driver (due to the fact that I probably looked completely helpless), I managed to end up in central Samut Prakan, an area called Pak Nam. After wandering the streets for a little while, I found a sawngthaew (basically a pickup truck with two rows of seats in the bed) to take me out to Muang Boran, or "The Ancient City."

Muang Boran was the main purpose of my trip. It is a 300 acre museum/park that is roughly in the shape of the country of Thailand. It contains scaled-down copies of most of the kingdom's most famous temples, buldings, statues, etc. I thought it would be an interesting way to introduce myself to everything Thailand had to offer beyond the confines of Bangkok. And it was. I rented a bike and spent most of the day riding all throughout the park. There were no barriers or gates, so you could ride everywhere and walk around and climb all the buildings. The buildings themselves were quite large (in general), although I imagine the originals are even more magnificnet. All in all, it was a nice experience, but one I would probably skip if my time in Thailand was limited. After all, seeing the temples at Muang Boran is a bit like going to Las Vegas and saying that you have seen the Eiffel Tower!

After Muang Boran, I had a couple hours left in the day, so I decided to hit Samut Prakan's other main attraction: the "world's largest" crocodile farm. It was basically a zoo with a strong focus on crocodiles. Overall, crocodiles are pretty boring creatures - they mostly lie around with their mouths open (to regulate their body temperature). However, things get a bit more exciting when someone throws a piece of raw chicken into the pond (and for 20Baht you could do just that!) As with most things here in Thailand, they run their zoos a bit differently. In the States, there are signs all over the place that say "please don't feed the animals" - here, they have booths set up so you can buy food! I got a kick out of the chimps, who have become as good at begging as anyone on the streets of Bangkok. I actually watched one guy throw his plastic water bottle into the cage, the chimp caught it, UNSCREWED THE CAP, drank the water, and tossed the bottle! They also let you get a lot closer to the cages (which themselves seemed a bit flimsy) than I remember at any other zoo I have been too... All in all, its another skippable experience, but not a bad add-on if you are already out checking Muang Boran.

The Chatuchak Market

On Sunday, I headed out to the Weekend or Chatuchak Market. This is the largest market in Thailand (boasting over 15,000 stalls) and it seems to go on for ever. They sell everything here ... and I mean EVERYTHING: from used jeans to fine silks to live snakes to guns to electronics to DVDs to pottery to Bon Jovi t-shirts (yep, I found them!) to various traditional crafts to flowers (both fake and real) to ... It was pretty incredible to see - I basically just got lost in the market for about 4 hours (with a good hour of that time just trying to figure out how to get out!) (I should point out that on Monday, I found an excellent illustrated map of Bangkok created by Nancy Chandler, that actually contains a pretty detailed map of the market and points out where some of the good stuff is. The map is a MUST have if you are coming to Bangkok, but you can definitely pick it up cheap once you are here - 160Baht.)

While most of the stuff is definitely junk, it was clear that there were some areas that had nicer art, pottery and silks. I have no idea how one would know whether or not the stuff is "quality," but it certainly looked nicer. I made a few small purchases, picking up a sarong and 5 DVDs (King Arthur, I, Robot, The Incredibles, Shrek 2, and The Terminal) for 100 Baht (~$2.50) each. Typically, the rule of thumb with the DVDs is that you can expect 1/2 of them to not work or be of poor quality. I was actually amazed at the ones I picked up - not only did all of them work, but the quality was incredible - much higher than the DVDs I had picked up in Beijing last May. No wonder I read an article saying Disney had decided to drop the price of its DVDs in Thailand to under $10.

Tomorrow, I am leaving for Ko Samui and Ko Pha-Ngan, two islands in the Gulf of Thailand (i.e. the Pacific Ocean side). Ko Pha-Ngan is the home of the famous (actually "infamous" is probably more accurate) Full Moon Party and this Monday is the full moon. We will be out on the islands from Friday until Wednesday morning. I'll try to check in while I'm out there - if not, expect some stories and pictures when I return!

Well, I just lost a whole long post I had written about my weekend - so for now, check out my pictures from Days 6 & 7 and Day 8. I'll write some more detail later after I get back from dinner. Stupid computer!

Last night Marc and I went to see Muay Thai (which is Thai Boxing) at the Rajadamnern Stadium. I took a bunch of pictures, some of which can be seen here (they are a bit grainy due to the lighting). I also took some great video, but I haven't figured out how to convert it to something I can add to the web site. (Does anyone know how to do this?)

The boxing was crazy - similar to what you might see on those Ultimate Fighting Championship shows, but definitely more violent than most of the matches I have seen. The boxers are small, but completely ripped (the highest weight class we saw was 142 pounds, but most were between 101 - 118 pounds).

Prior to the match each boxer dances around the ring and prays at each corner (at which point Lefty and I picked our fighter for our per match 20 Baht bet). Once the bell rung it was on and no holds barred: they punched, kicked, elbowed, head-butted, everything. The referee only broke things up when they grabbed on to the ring ropes for leverage or someone fell down. The matches last 5 rounds and then a winner is declared. The most common move seems to be a high knee to the rib cage, followed closely by a high knee to the groin. We didn't see anyone get knocked out (some blood here and there), so I'm not sure how often that happens.

The crowd goes crazy, yelling with each blow and gambling on the matches. Marc and I paid 800 Baht and were in the second level (but we could basically spit on the ring). Most of the locals were in an upper level that was caged in that cost 500 Baht. We saw one fight in the stands that involved about 20 people. When the "police" (and I use that term loosely) went to break it up, they started pushing around the police! Then everyone went outside to _____________ (fill in the blank with god knows what!)

After the fights, we tried to get a taxi home, but none of the cabs wanted to drive us with the meter running. In Bangkok, the cabbies always try to rip you off by telling you the meter is broken and then charging you a lot for your rides. When using the meter most cab rides are really cheap. Since our adrenalin was running anyways, we eventually found a tuk tuk to take us home. A tuk tuk is an open air moped with a caboose-type thing to hold a few passengers. It is called a tuk tuk because that is the sound the engine makes ("tuktuktuktuk"). They get going pretty fast and with all the other cars and motorcycles whipping by, it is definitely a crazy ride!

This weekend I am going to travel around and see some of the sites outside of Bangkok. Depending on where I am, I might not be able to post until I get back. Have a great weekend!

Yesterday was my first day of classes at Sasin. I'm taking a Leadership & Ethics class and a Entrepreneurial Marketing Practicum (which is actually an initiative from Dipak Jain, dean of Kellogg). From what I can tell the entrepreneurial marketing practicum is essentially a business plan writing class (with a slight focus on market research and data collection).

In any event, business school in Bangkok is definitely different from in the States -- yesterday was by far the strangest day of school I think I have ever attended. I have no idea if my descriptions will convey the wonder and hilarity of it all, but rest assured both are what I was feeling as I walked home at the end of the day.

The Leadership & Ethics class is straightforward enough - the teacher is incredibly nice and supportive of the students. We went around and introduced ourselves and talked about what we were doing when we graduated. One of the Thai students announced that he was starting a music and movie production company, called appropriately enough "Dong & Friends." One of the other students was going to be the lead singer of his first project. The guys were cracking up the whole time, so its possible they were messing around, but Dong claimed that he could show a video of some of their work. The teacher consented and Dong walked to the front of the classroom and played a video.

The video told the story of a Thai businessmn who went to Cameroon to sell his new product, an energy drink (i.e. Red Bull). Pretty straightforward and nothing overly complex from a movie-making perspective (i.e. not quite ready for Hollywood), except that he portrayed the Cameroon people in blackface and had them mumble and basically jump around like apes. The video was basically a 10 minute portrayal of every African stereotype you have ever heard about. I (and the rest of the Americans) were blown away. After the video, the teacher started talking and we fully expected him to express some dismay about the portrayals, but nothing of the sort transpired. Instead he congratulated him on the excellent work and told him to keep plugging along. To top it all off, turns out he produced the video for a class about multi-cultural business relationships!!

In the afternoon I attended the marketing practicum. The class started with two guest speakers (including the founder of Silkspan, a Thai startup, who was actually pretty interesting). After the guest speakers several students gave quick presentations about their ideas for their business plan projects. I found it very interesting - one girl wanted talked about an "Image Production Company" that would help politicians, actors/actresses, etc. to project a "good" image. It basically sounded like a PR-type or agent company and I found it interesting that this type of service didn't already exist. In fact, it seems like services that we largely take for granted in America as part of the business landscape don't really exist in Thailand. (Although I should mention, that I doubt this to be true. Or at least find it hard to believe - I'll have to do some more research.) Another student wanted to start a car wash company...

... but by far the best presentation was by a girl who is trying to become a singer/dancer, i.e. the Thai Britney Spears. She is planning on totally revolutionizing the Thai music scene. She talked for a couple minutes about her plan to always be at the bleeding edge of fashion/dancing/music/etc. and that she would constantly change her sound and styles. Then she showed a 10 minute video of her modeling and dancing (with the sound off so we don't really know if she can sing). The video was really high quality and it showed her in a ton of different productions with backup dancers, lighting, smoke, the whole deal. Turns out she has already been performing for a number of years. She designs all her own outfits and has a team of choreographers who she works with to come up with the dances (although to be honest, she is highly "influenced" by American artists - i.e. Madonna, Beyonce, etc.). A couple of the UNC guys went up to her after class with some suggestions on how to "reach out to Hollywood" - "Babe, I'll make you a STAR!"

Last night, Marc and I went out with some of the UNC guys to dinner and drinks. We ended up at this place called Bed Supperclub - apparently, it is one of the nicer clubs in Thailand and it definitely was a lot different from most of the places we have been to so far. It is in this oval-shaped, warehouse-styled building that is really futuristic looking and inside instead of couches there are beds. It was much more like a club in New York or Tokyo and the people seemed to be mostly locals with money. It was still really cheap though - $60 bought us a bottle (in NYC that would be more like $200-300). It was hip hop night and they had this live Thai rap group that was unbelievable - I have to give P. Diddy a call about bringing some Thai rap to the States! It sounds a little like a reggae/rap mix and the mcs rap over each other like the Beastie Boys. After that they played the traditional stuff you hear anywhere else (although they went a little deeper into the catalogue than normal) and rumor has it I may have danced my ass off... including a stint on top of a stage-like thing doing the Hammer dance when they played "You Can't Touch This." Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home so you'll have to use your imagination. Good times...

To say that Bangkok is an eclectic city, though accurate, is probably an understatement. My first 48 hours have taken me from burned out, desserted buildings with roaming bands of orphaned dogs to one of the most amazing, intricate palaces I have ever seen. Bangkok is both a welcoming city and also an intimidating city at the same time - everyone is incredibly friendly with smiling faces everywhere, but trying to find something to eat that seems "safe" on the streets can be a bit scary at first.

Here are links to my pictures from Day 1 and Day 2.

I am staying off of Sukhumvit which is one the main drags. Though I haven't seen too many of the other areas yet, I'm told this is probably a bit seedier than most places. The streets are lined with vendors and there are massage parlors and bars all over the place. I am right near a SkyTrain stop, which is actually incredibly efficient and clean (it reminds me a lot of the DC Metro). I'm about a 15 minute ride to school.

The food has definitely been a highlight so far - everything you have (regardless of where you are on the street or at a restaurant) is delicious, the best Thai food you have ever had (which I guess stands to reason), but Thai food in general is incredibly flavorful with great spices and vegetables that I've never seen before. I think the fact that it is also so cheap only adds to it - you can eat on the street for 20 Baht (~$0.50!). The portions are small, but the food is pretty filling and its everywhere so its never a problem to find something.

Marc and I went out for drinks on Sunday night - drinking is actually relatively expensive (70 Baht for a beer -- ~$1.75). The bars are filled with women and they definitely are not shy. They come up and chat you up. While I imagine you could negotiate "extracurricular activities" my feeling is that in the bars is that they are mostly there to make sure you stay and keep buying drinks. They are nowhere near as forward as the women were in Bejing (over there they basically came up to you, grinded you and said "take me home, give me money.") Here it seems to be more a friendly-type thing - they are very polite, they taught us some Thai words and really liked Marc's eyebrows. They thought he was Italian so I've taken to calling him Tony when we are out.

I bought a cell phone at this enormous mall complex called MBK Center - it consists of both regular stores and also black market stands and you can pretty much buy anything - and I mean ANYTHING. My cell phone # is (66) 7102-4780. If you can figure out how to dial it, feel free to give me a call (just remember the time different - 12 hours from EST!)

That's about it for now, I'm off to my first class -- take care...

I have a lot to say about my first two days in Bangkok, but unfortunately I am completely wiped out so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, I'll leave you with this picture:

Yeah, that's an elephant - on the sidewalk. I ran into him on the way home from the bar last night. I haven't been here long enough to know whether this is weird or normal ... but I'm going with normal for the time being.

I have arrived safe & sound in Bangkok. I got in at about midnight local time after a long day of flying (I <think> I actually skipped most of Friday since I crossed the international date line - hope it was fun for those of you who experienced it!) The flight actually went pretty quick - I watched a couple movies, read, slept and next thing I knew we were landing. I flew on JALways (which I <think> is the same as Japan Airlines, but I'm not entirely sure). In any event, great airline, they have JetBlue-style personal TVs (but no DirecTV). JALways also receives the "Nice Touch Award" for the day - towards the end of the flight they passed out Bingo cards and we played a rousing game of Bingo complete with prizes - after jumping out to a fast start, I ultimately did not win, but the Japanese couple next to me won a little yellow backpack.

In any event, Marc picked me up at the airport and we arrived back at his place at around 1 AM. It was too late to do much (bars close at around 2 AM here), but we went down on the street to get some food. Marc said the street food (while wonderful) can be a little rough on the belly the first week. Since I was staying at his place for the night, we ended up eating at a diner-style counter that was in the grocery store. I got some Phat Thai and it was good - actually easily the best Phat Thai I have ever had, but since I only started eating it a couple years ago that may not be saying much. One thing I noticed was the portion was actually pretty small, Marc said when he first got here he would order two plates of food (not too much of a pain since my Phat Thai cost me a whomping $2.50 -- and Marc said that was actually expensive!)

After getting some eats we walked back to Marc's place. I didn't take any pictures, just tried to soak up what I was seeing - I imagine I looked a bit like a deer in headlights. I'll have to figure out more about the area Marc lives in, but the streets were packed. As busy as a crowded New York street, but with a lot more pushing and bumping going on. The streets are also lined with street vendors selling just about everything - and when I say lined, I mean wall-to-wall. Somehow they also manage to fit some tables on the sidewalks where people (mostly Thai it seemed to me) were eating. As you walk along there are all types of smells (mostly bad, but some good from the food stands). The air hangs pretty heavy in a humid/polluted-type of way. It was hot, but not unbearable (maybe about 85) - I'm sure the unbearable part will be saved for the day time. There are women everywhere - way more women than men, but you need to be careful (among other reasons) because some of those "women" are actually the "girl boys" - as the Rolling Stones once sang "You Can't Always Get What You Want"... (NOTE: I realize the rest of the lyrics might make that song inappropriate to quote from in this particular case). Marc tells me that the "girl boys" come out in droves right around closing time to prey on the unsuspecting and really, really drunk. (And for the guys at home, I think it is entirely appropriate to start a "If we visit Matt in Bangkok, who is the most likely to inadvertently take home a girl boy?" email chain... I already know who my horse is...)

So I guess those are my first impressions. It is now 8 AM and I actually managed to get a decent night's sleep. As I have been writing this, the Rams managed to knock-off Seattle in what looked to be a great game (of course any game with a close score looks great when you are watching by refreshing ESPN.com). Today is my "get settled" day - I'll be finding my own place to stay, possibly getting a cell phone, and looking around a bit more. No pictures for now, but I'm sure I'll have some soon. 'Til then, take care...

I know you were hoping for some action shots of me surfing, but I couldn't bring my camera down to the ocean ... and, to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of action. Turns out surfing is pretty hard and even though I didn't actually surf, both Christine and I had a lot of fun.

(Here are all of my pictures from Day 3 and Day 4 on Oahu.)

Christine's cousin, Matt, took us out and gave us some quick lessons and then we were pretty much thrown to the wolves... or the waves in this case. The waves were very crowded - probably over 50 people paddling around. We paddled out (which is a good work out - my arms and shoulders are pretty sore today), dodging surfers along the way and then practiced balancing on the board and trying to stand up. For those of you who have gone snowboarding, its a lot like the first time you do that (i.e. a lot of time spent on your ass or in this case swallowing salt water).

I also quickly learned why surfers wear body suits. The water isn't cold, but the wax on the board gives you a nice little irritation aided by the salt water and my hairy belly. Good times.

All in all I can understand why people really love surfing and find it spiritual - even with all the people paddling around, it was very peaceful out on the waves. I can only imagine what it would be like it you were out there by yourself. It also requires a great deal of concentration and balance - I had trouble just sitting on the board without falling off. Hopefully, Christine and I will have a chance for another lesson in the future...

After surfing Christine and I ran some errands for my Thailand trip and then we went and passed out on the beach for a couple hours (before surfing we had gone for 2.5 mile run so I was pretty wiped out). Last night for dinner we had chinese food with Christine's aunts (her mother's sisters). Both they and the food were great. After dinner we met a friend of Christine's for a few drinks at Don Ho's over at the Aloha Tower.

Today we woke up pretty sore and decided to take a drive around the southeastern part of Oahu that was recommended by my guidebook (Fodor's by the way, which has been excellent).

It was a beautiful drive and made me happy to see a part of the island that hadn't been completely commercialized (although much to our disappointment Sea Life Park, home of the world's only "wholphin" - offspring of a whale and dolphin - was charging $26 to get in. I struggled with whether this was a huge rip-off or the "wholphin" was the most amazing thing I'd ever see. We decided that it was a rip-off.)

After the drive we hiked up Diamond Head - it wasn't too bad of a hike (about 3/4-mile) capped off with about 150 stairs. From the top we had a great panoramic view of the island - it was a nice activity to end my trip to Hawaii.

Speaking of nice ways to end things - I think picture-wise this will do it:

My next post will be in a few days from Bangkok! I leave tomorrow at 1 PM and arrive in Bangkok at 11:59 PM on Saturday (which is 11:59 AM on the east coast). 'Til then take care and ALOHA!

We woke up with the roosters and the sun was shining and the clouds were gone! (Weather men get it wrong here too...) After watching a little NFL football (starting bright and early at 8 AM) and a quick breakfast, Christine and I hit the road for a ATV tour. We did a 3.5 hour tour of Kauai's south shore - it was very muddy due to the rain, but a lot of fun. We actually road in a "Mud Bug" which is a two-seater dune buggy which was nice because we could ride together and talk. I only "almost" killed us once (our buggy did a 360 after slipping on the mud in a particularly challenging section). Our guides assured us this happens all the time, but Christine believes that they were just trying to make me feel better.

In addition to getting to fly through mud, we got to see a lot of the island that you can't see otherwise and learned a bit along the way from our guides. Turns out that Steve Case actually owns a lot of Kauai (he is the second largest property owner) - including the trails that we were traveling over. According to our guides, he wants to preserve Kauai and prevent it from becoming like Honolulu (not sure what that means for my impending trip there tomorrow), but he is also doing a fair amount of economic revival (yes, Steve gets credit for the Jamba Juice and the Starbucks).

We also got to see where a bunch of movies were filmed (including Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Harrison Ford/Anne Heche thriller/romance 6 Days 7 Nights). I'd have to watch the movies again to see if I recognize the area, I didn't really get the epiphany "I've seen this before" feeling, but it was still cool. In any event, we took a ton of pictures.

After our ride, we went to check out Spouting Horn (a cool Old Faithful-like "natural wonder") and had lunch on Poipu Beach (which had a lot of nice bed-and-breakfasts and homes along it).

Since the sun was still shining we decided to hit the beach (Kalapaki Beach, a mere 2 miles from Christine's house).

The beach itself was a bit of a mess (due to the storm) and there was an exposed drainage pipe (that a bunch of kids were playing in), but the sun still worked so we stole some chairs from the Marriott and I worked on my "base tan."

For dinner Christine's mom made us loco moco - a local Hawaiian "grind" consisting of rice (fried or white), hamburger, fried onions, gravy and a fried egg. Good stuff, hearty, filled the belly nicely.

All in all, a full Hawaiian day! We're off to Honolulu tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds up...

... it rains. Today it poured all day long - not sure you can see it in the picture, but the rain was heading horizontal for awhile. We drove by the ocean on the way to dinner and it looks like Boston Harbor because of all the mud. Christine's mom says that sometimes it takes weeks to clear up. Hopefully, it won't be as bad on Oahu.

The only bonus of the rain was that it made it easier for me to pull off a day of football watching. The Rose Bowl was definitely a heart breaker - I can't imagine what the scene was like at the Zell's house.

For dinner we went to Aunty Amy's - she's not really related (close friends are called "Aunty" and "Uncle" here). Good eats once again - of course, I made a friend:

This dog literally sat and watched me eat the entire meal. They just know somehow.

(NOTE: To the right you will see a subscribe link - if you fill in your email address, you can receive an email whenever I add a new post.)

Welcome to 2005 - I hope everyone had a very happy new year. We are having a happy, but rainy new year. It started raining yesterday (canceling our golf outing, unfortunately) and it hasn't really let up. They are saying it is going to continue to rain for the rest of the weekend, but after that it looks like it is going to clear up. Hopefully, when we go to Oahu on Monday we will get some of that Hawaiian sun!

Here are my photos from yesterday, read on for more details...

Yesterday, Christine and I went to another Kauai staple for lunch - Hamura's Saimin. The place was packed (always a good sign), so we brought the saimin home with us. Saimin is similar to the won ton soup you receive in American chinese food restaurants, but also contains saimin noodles (like ramen), roast pork, fish cakes, hard boiled egg and greens. They say its the best around, and while I've never had anything else like it, I have to agree it was pretty good.

After lunch, Christine and I went to a movie - we saw Flight of the Phoenix. It was pretty bad, not horrible, but bad all the same. Christine claims that she liked it, but I think she might just be messing with me.

We went to Christine's grandmother's (dad's side) for New Year's Eve dinner. There were about 15 people there, mostly Christine's relatives and some of her grandmother's friends. We had a pot luck dinner with a little bit of everything - sweet and sour chicken, sashimi, sushi, seaweed salad, a mango punch with a scoop of sherbet in it (nice touch!), and a lot of other stuff. The food was great and we got to watch the ball drop in New York right as we were eating dinner (a bit anticlimatic).

After dinner we played a rousing game of pokeno - basically bingo with a (very small) hint of poker. Christine and I won a few small pots, but not the big pot (which got up to $20).

I also ran into my friend, mochi, at Christine's grandmother's house. She used the mochi to create Kagami Mochi - which are good luck talismans made with 2 mochi cakes, a tangerine and seaweed. She had them scattered through her house and gave us a couple to bring home too.

We left for home around 9:30 and broke out the fireworks. Fireworks are legal on Hawaii and people light them off up and down the streets. It seems like almost every house on Christine's block were lighting fireworks in their driveway. There was literally billows of smoke floating down the street. It was a fun way to bring in the new year and we all escaped with all our limbs in tact. I should mention that I did almost blow up Nao (Christine's brother's wife) when I burnt my finger lighting a firework and I dropped it right on her feet. Luckily, she's pretty spry and managed to jump away before it exploded. Good times.

This morning, Christine and I woke up early and went to her church where we participated in a annual tradition of mochi making. Mochi is a sweet rice that is cooked and then pounded until it is smooth and sticky. It is then formed into little cakes (about the size of a chocolate chip cookie) and filled with anything from a sweet bean mush to peanut butter. The mochi takes a long time to make and is physically intensive - we were there from 8:30 AM until about 2:30 PM and made close to 20 batches of mochi along with about 30 members of Christine's congregation.

I took a bunch of pictures that walk through the whole process, but basically you cook the rice and then pound it with wooden mallets until it is very sticky and smooth. It is VERY hard work, but definitely a fun activity and the final result is actually pretty good. Mochi is only made once a year (right around New Year's), but people freeze it and eat it throughout the year.

Although very worn out, I enjoyed being a part of the tradition and I think I did a decent job swinging the mallet. I didn't break anything or hit anyone's fingers, so I guess its possible I'll be invited back next year!

We are now back at Christine's house relaxing (but not before hitting up Mark's Place again for some more ono grub!) and later we are headed to dinner at a local Japanese restaurant to celebrate Christine's birthday.

This was me on Monday:

And now, this is me earlier today:

I think its safe to say things have improved drastically! I arrived last night in Kauai around 6:15 PM (local time). Christine picked me up at the airport and we headed to her home in Lihue (about a 5 minute drive). Unfortunately, it was already dark out so I couldn't take in the view, but at least the temperature was an improvement (it was probably high 70s - you know that perfect temperature, not too hot, not cold, not humid... just perfect).

Steve (Christine's brother) and Nao (his wife - married this past summer) cooked us a great dinner (sweet and sour chicken) and then we exchanged Christmas gifts. I now have full Hawaii gear, including board shorts, a Local Motion t-shirt, and a very nice Hawaiian flowered shirt (as Christine said, the real deal, not the "touristy" stuff). Now if I can just figure out a way to tan instead of burn and freckle, I should fit right in.

After dinner, Christine, her dad, and I settled in to watch the Red Sox "Faith Rewarded" DVD which I had brought him from home. Nothing like a little Red Sox talk to kick things off!

We went to bed pretty early (Hawaii is 5 hours behind Boston so I have a little bit of jet lag to work off). Early to bed turned out to be a good thing, because right about 5 AM the roosters decided to wake us up. They do this every morning here - apparently several years back some roosters and chickens got loose and now they are everywhere. Christine's neighbors are nice enough to feed them so they hang around. Interestingly, Old McDonald was wrong, roosters don't really "cock-a-doodle-do" - it sounds more like a muffled scream.

We got going around 9 AM, ran a bunch of errands, and then Christine and I went to Mark's Place for an lunch around noon. For those of you from Swampscott, Mark's Place sort of reminded me of their version of Cindy's. Its a small hole in the wall place, but it was packed and the food was unbelievable. I had Chicken Katsu (a japanese preparation) it was a lightly breaded chicken, served over chinese noodles and with white rice. Basically, the Hawaiian version of a steak and cheese sub.

After lunch, we decided to drive up to Waimea Canyon. It's called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and it actually does look like it - although definitely a lot more color (especially green). It was beautiful, a little bit cloudy, so I'm not sure the pictures really capture the full effect, but it was a nice way to be introduced to Kauai. Let's just say the area surrounding Christine's home is a bit nicer than Lynn and Revere.

After our drive, we came home and cooked dinner for Christine's family. Everyone said it was "ono" (which means delicious) so I guess we did a good job. We'll be relaxing the rest of the evening (it's raining pretty good outside) and preparing for another full day tomorrow - Christine's birthday!

Also, I uploaded my first batch of pictures - you should see a "Photo Albums" section to the right. From now on any new pictures I add will appear in this section.

I haven't even left yet and things are already getting crazy!

First, my mom wakes me up this morning with news of the earthquake and tsunamis in Southeast Asia (more and pictures)- I was expecting some grief, but she was actually very cool about it. Guess the drinking water in Thailand (which I've been hearing about for a couple months) is way scarier than a 9.7 magnitude earthquake and 40 foot waves... In all seriousness, it all sounds pretty horrible and I'm glad Marc was stuck up in Bangkok (not hit at all) working on his b-school essays and no one else I know from Fuqua had arrived yet.

I also woke up to a whole bunch of snow and it didn't really stop all day long.

I got a call about an hour ago from American Airlines saying that all flights out of Boston had been canceled for tomorrow. I'm trying to get everything rescheduled for Tuesday -- so it looks like my trip has been delayed at least a day. C'est la vie.

Since I am about to send out the link to this site, I thought I should post a bit more about what I will be doing over the next couple of months. Next Monday (December 27th) I leave on a 2.5 month trip that will take me to Hawaii, Thailand, Cambodia and <possibly> Vietnam. All places that I have never been before.

I'm hoping that this journal will serve as a means to update my friends and family about my travels. Perhaps not as personal as postcards/letters, but hopefully my writing and photos will be a bit more timely and I can include more than would fit on your normal postcard... ultimately, I'm hoping that will be a good thing.

In any event, for those who want to follow along, here's the schedule as it currently stands:

December 27th: Depart for Hawaii
December 27th - January 3rd: Kauai'i with Christine's family
January 3rd - January 7th: O'ahu with Christine

January 7th: Travel to Bangkok (via Tokyo)
January 8th - February 18th: In and around Thailand (based in Bangkok and taking classes at Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration - i.e. Bangkok Business School)

February 18th - 21st: Angkor Wat (Cambodia) with Mom & Dad

February 18th - March 9th: Further travels in Southeast Asia (most likely Vietnam)

When I arrive in Thailand, I will be with 6 other students from Fuqua (as well as a number of UNC and Kellogg students) and meeting up with Marc Lefkowitz (who is living Bangkok for the next couple of months). My parents will be in Thailand for ten days starting February 11th and I will travel with them to Cambodia once my classes end. If anyone else happens to be cruising through Southeast Asia, be sure to drop me a line!

More soon...

For those who know Marc Lefkowitz, he is already in Thailand, living in Bangkok. He said he will be laying out the red carpet for me when I arrive, though I imagine it will be a bit frayed and dirty by the time I get there in January. In any event, Marc has already started writing a bit about his adventures and posting some pictures - you can check out his site here: Off To The East.