Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times

Ahhhhh, another weekend in Bangkok bites the dust.  and what a weekend it was.  now, as much as I hate to associate myself with the tourists of thailand, we decided to have a "Cultural Events Weekend."  But, let me catch up from the last blog post, because there were some hapennin' happenings before before our enriching weekend.

Wednesday, Jimbo somehow convinced me to take another swing at the Mexican food that Bangkok has to offer.  So Jimbo, Alaa and I headed over to Sukhumvit Soi 11 (the SPOT of bangkok - where BED is) to go to a restaurant called Charley Brown's.  When I first walked in, I instantly noticed that one of the walls in the restaurant was covered with license plates all from Kansas.  Then as I looked around, the whole restaurant was decked out in Kansas gear - from Jayhawk lamps to Wichita State Football championship signs.  It was weird - felt like I was back at home.  So I had to ask the waiter what the deal was.  Apparently the original owner was from Kansas and wanted to decorate the restaurant with items from home.  And then - the food was good!  Real good.  They had actual ground beef!  That didn't taste like curry - quite the miracle!  And to go with true Mexican food, Charley Brown's probably had the best Margarita in Bangkok.  So good I had to have two.  After eating, we made our usual trek to Wacky Wednesday's at The Londoner.  And as usual, the cover band was playing.  So I had to go say hi to them, and as I approach them, I hear the lead singer say "hey Andy - how are ya?"  Don't know how in the world she knows my name - but that was pretty cool.  We're regulars now.  So we got our fill of the 2-4-1 at The Londoner, we wanted to try somewhere new in Bangkok - so we head off to RCA.  RCA stands for Royal City Avenue - it's basically a street in Bangkok that is just full of bars and clubs.  It's typically for thais - but there's a sprinkling of white people and English can sometimes be heard over the thumping techno and hip hop music.  We went to Route 66, one of the many clubs on RCA.  Route 66 is cool because it's themed like the Route 66 in USA.  So it has four different rooms - appropriately named NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, and WEST.  Each room plays a different style of music - from hip hop to techno to thai to a live band.  Good time on Wednesday night.

Thursday, the trend of good food continued.  Jimbo, the restaurant finder, found another place for us to go to Thursday night.  After the good Mexican Wednesday night, I was eager to trust him tonight.  We went to this place called "La Buca."  It's supposed to be the best food in Thailand - and it definitely lived up to that.  A little hole in the wall place, it was very difficult to find.  We drove past it once, and would've walked past it again except we spotted the little lighted sign on the road.  When we walked in, we were greeted by the owner and sous chef who was very hospitable the whole time we were in the restaurant.  He checked on us quite frequently throughout our meal.  We ordered an eggplant parmesan appetizer, I had the Salmon Ravioli with a lobster sauce for my entree, two glasses of wine, and the tiramisu for dessert.  And halfway through our meal, the restaurant goes quiet.  All of a sudden, we hear a soundtrack playing and the owner begins singing to our table and the restaurant.  It was hilarious.  I felt like I was in Italy for two hours.  It was a great escape from the Thai food.  And the best part - the Menu at La Buca changes every week - an excellent reason to return!

Now, on Friday, the true Tourist Experience began.  After a late departure from my bed, I met Meris and Marney at Siam Square for Cultural Event #1.  While reading the bible (aka LONELY PLANET), I read about the Snake Farm in Bangkok.  When it was created, it was only one of two in the world.  Sponsored by the Red Cross, the Snake Farm houses hundreds of species of snakes, collecting their venoms daily to create antivenoms.  But the best part of the Snake Farm is that you can watch the venom extracting (what they call "milking") Monday through Friday - something we didn't learn until the third time we went.  So we leisurely stroll from Siam Square to the Snake Farm, about a 30 minute walk.  We arrive at 4:02 p.m. at the Snake Farm - it closes at 4:00 p.m.  Great, so Cultural Event #1 was a bust.  But the Cultural Events Weekend is not over.  We decided to go to a Muay Thai Fight Friday night - Cultural Event #2.  It was very cool - and very expensive.  Costing around 1,000 baht, we got to see 8 fights.  Each fight is 5 rounds of 3 minutes each with a 2 minute break in between each round.  The main fight was round 6.  And the international fight was round 7 - Korea vs. New Zealand.  The girls were quite smitten during this round.  The stadium was typical thai - it looked like it was built 100 years ago and was open for it's last day.  The floors were paneled with wood with enough space in between for a small child or a thai woman to fall through the cracks.  And it was mostly drunk thai men betting their family funds away.  Women were few and far between at the fight - and most of them were probably girlfriends of the fighters.  Most of the crowd near ring was white tourists.  And thais (and us) filled the upper levels.  It was a crazy, crazy time inside.  Loud with everyone yelling and placing their bets.  It was a very cool thing, though - something that seemed definitely Thai.  Most of the fighters are 18 to 20.  The fighters in the main fight were 20 and 24.  We spoke with a Thai man sitting next to us and he told us that it is very different from US Boxing because boxers can fight til their 40 or even later - not muay thai, they usually fight til their 26 then they're done.  And the fighting is very different - it's mostly knees to the kidneys.  Not many punches are thrown.  There were some pretty nice kicks to the head too.  Some of the fighters were very young though.  By the 8th fight, we were Muay Thai'd out - but that was the "children's round."  The boys fighting couldn't have been older than 10.  It was crazy to see that.   After Muay Thai, we headed across the street to the San Luam Night Bazaar to get some food then we headed to rest up for another day of cultural events.

Saturday, we woke up early around 4:45 a.m. to head to the Floating Markets.  By 5 a.m. we were on the road.  JJ, a thai chick that works in the Gym/Spa downstairs planned the trip for us.  (She's quite the resource to have - she loves to party and she's very nice.  She's actually planning our trip this weekend for us too.)  We drove two hours northwest to the floating markets.  By 7:30 a.m., we were in our boat, ready for Cultural Event #3.  Now, I think this is one event we weren't touristy enough for.  Everything they were selling was the same stuff sold everywhere else - which is nothing we want to buy now because it'll be the same stuff we can find in 5 months.  But it was a cool experience.  We were basically only in it for the food.  We had some very good Mango and Sticky Rice (another staple of my diet in Thailand).  For an hour, we made our way through little narrow canals on a boat with women rowing past us selling everything - from food to flowers to tourist crap.  But there's also shops along the canal selling stuff.  They have these long sticks and we would always see a woman with a stick coming towards our boat that they'll use to try and pull your boat over to their shop - we weren't havin it.  We made a pact that it we were going to buy something, it better damn well be floating - since it's a floating market!  After we made it through the canals, we went on a bit of a tour of the rest of the river.  We had a close encounter with some of the marine life the floating markets has to offer.

Close encounter #1:  Giant fish that were jumping out of the water.  This might be a slight exaggeration from my lack of sleep and lack of food - but it sucked.  The driver of the boat kept throwing feed right next to our boat so all the fish were jumping all over each other to get the food - splashing wonderfully clean river water over us.  It was great.  I still hope I don't catch some Thai disease from that water.

Close Encounter #2:  a Kimodo Dragon.  Wait, no, let me correct this.  TWO kimodo dragons.  yes, kimodo dragons - the most poisonous creature on earth - was swimming less than 4 feet away from our boat.  Granted, one was dead and floating - but i'm sure it's still poisonous.  But the second one was still alive and swimming in the river.  Somewhere though, our screams got lost in translation and the driver though that we liked kimodo dragons (?) so he drove closer to the thing.  cool, thanks driver.

After the floating markets, we wanted a nice relaxing tour - on the back of an elephant!  But, alas, we got ahead of ourselves.  When we got to the elephant tours, our wallets did not agree.  It was too expensive for our student bank accounts, so we were cheap - we snapped a picture and bailed.  Haha.  Then we had our driver take us to Cultural Event #4 - King Rama II's summer palace near the floating markets.  This was very cool - and only 20 baht.  It was located on a sprawling and very well manicured estate.  Everything was perfectly trimmed and all of the colors were beautiful.  All of the buildings were painted a red wine color and constructed in the elevated fasion similar to Rama VII's palace that we saw in Hua Hin.  And it was nice to see blue skies, a rarity of Bangkok.

Following Cultural Event #4, we wanted to face our fears again - so we had our drive take us to the Snake Farm for round two.  But we arrived at 1:30 p.m., and it closes at 2.  And there weren't any milkings.  So we left - snakeless, broken hearted and ready for another Cultural Event.  After a wonderful lunch at Hong Kong Noodles in Siam Square, Charity and I headed off for Cultural Event #5, Jim Thompson's House.  Now here's a bit of history for you, Jim Thompson was an American architect from NYC who was sent over to Thailand before WWII to integrate into Thai culture (as a spy, it's rumored).  What made Jim Thompson famous was his love of Thai silks.  He's the man that made Thai silks popular and world renowned.  On one of his trips back to NYC, he brought some silks back with him for the editor at the time of Vogue Magazine.  She loved them and that's history, my friend.  Jim Thompson silks is still in operation in Thailand.  However, it's really overpriced since it's known for it's hand-done screenprinting.  He loved Thai culture so much that he built a house here.  His house was constructed in a blend of thai and western styles.  It's really cool and very well preserved.  But the mystery of Jim Thompson is around his disappearance.  When he was 62, he went on a trip to Malaysia and disappeared.  Nothing has been seen or heard of him since then.  But now his house is a National Museum.  It's really cool and really touristy.  We had a nice 45 minute tour of the property for only 50 baht.  

But after all that culture, we needed to let loose.  So saturday night, we hit the town.  We decided to go back to RCA to a new club, but the Canadians forgot their ID's (yes, they ID in Thailand - yes, even for white people - yes, even for girls) so the only place where we could pay off the doormen was at Route 66.  We all had a good time on Saturday night.

Sunday, we woke up at 10 a.m. to return to the Snake Farm.  I'll just cut to the chase - I still haven't seen any snakes.  When we were there on Saturday, we didn't look at the sign that said "No Milkings on Weekends."  And when we got there on Sunday, we were pretty pissed.  But we cut our losses, had a hamburger and went home.  I don't know what it is about the snake farm.  I don't even like snakes at all, I've failed three times at trying to go, and I STILL want to go back and see the milking.

Last night (monday), we had probably one of the best meals since we've been here.  A free magazine that they have near the pool just made a list of the "100 places to eat in Bangkok before you die."  I don't know if they expect you to die of cholesterol but we want to go to all 100 places.  Last night, we picked this place named Chote Chitr.  This place was tiny - no more than five tables in the place.  And before you walk in the door, you're greeted by the owners dogs - it was a nice change of pace to see clean, well groomed pets, not strays.  They even had to take one of the dogs off our table to seat us!  When you walk in, the walls are covered with local and international magazine reviews - but they were lacking a Food & Wine review.  Maybe I can take care of that one.  As soon as we were seated, the owner came up to our table and basically decided what we were going to eat for us.  As soon as she did that, I knew everything that came out of the kitchen was going to be delicious!  Everything was served family style.  

Here's what we got:

- crispy fried noodles (3 servings)

- crispy white fish with green mango salad on top

- yellow prawn curry

- red duck curry

- banana flower salad with shrimp (very very very very spicy - my mouth is still on fire)

- eggplant salad

- fried chicken with cashew nuts (another staple of my diet in Thailand)

- grilled veggies

- rice (of course)

Everything was great.  And cheap.  The whole bill was 45 dollars - split by seven people, I think we each paid 250 baht, we decided to leave them a nice tip.  One of the table conversations last night was how I miss dessert menus and dessert in Thailand.  Everyone agreed.  But after dinner, we all learned otherwise.  Who needs a dessert menu in Thailand when you've got street food?  Right outside the restaurant, we got this awesome dessert - it was grilled french bread with butter, then grilled bananas, then chocolate and coconut butter on top.  This dessert was soooooo good - and 15 baht.  I think we ordered 4 or 5 of these.  But we were so funny because we would eat one, say how good it was, then decide to get one more.  Nobody wanted to eat a whole one so we would just share one but we probably each ate a whole one.  Awesome.

So, for this weekend we are headed down to Koh Samui.  Meris and JJ (the chick that work downstairs) are planning the trip for us.  We are going to leave Thursday night in a private taxi, make the six hour drive to the port over night, then catch the ferry to Koh Samui.  Then JJ's friend is going to meet us and take us to the guesthouse and sort of be our host for the weekend.  I'm telling you, JJ knows everyone in Thailand - when we went to Escudo we didn't have to pay cover charge because she knew the DJ, she used to date a famous basketball player in Thailand - so naturally she would know someone on a remote island 6 hours away.  We are going to log some beach hours this weekend and relax as much as we can.  Then we are going to head back Sunday night just in time for school on Monday.  I'm dying to get in the water - my first priority is to find some diving in the islands, just so that if it's not on this trip, it can be on the next.

Well I hope all's well where you're reading this from.  Leave me some comments and let me know whats shakin around the rest of the world.  Especially if any of my USC peeps are reading this - what's the deal with the riots??  I feel like i'm only getting 25% of the story.  What's the deal??

(world) peace

Ice Monster and Mister Donut

Well, I have officially been to see a movie in Thailand.  Ever since I saw the trailer for 1-18-08, I knew I wanted to see the movie.  So finally, last Friday Cloverfield came out.  Yesterday, I finally got to see the movie...  and I was really impressed.  It had to viral marketing of Blair Witch Project.  And unlike BW, Cloverfield lived up to the hype - and beyond.  Because the movie was still good, I'm still looking through the viral marketing to try and dive deeper into the characters and their lives before the monster.  I won't reveal anything to you (because it truly will make the movie better) but there IS a monster.  and it is something you don't want to mess with.  that's all i'm going to say.

but about the movies here in bangkok...  First of all, it's only 100 baht (3 bucks!!!!).  And the movie theatres are really nice.  really nice.  definitely on par with LA.  But if you want to pay more, I believe 500 baht, you can get what they call an "opera seat," which is basically just a love seat for one person.  Not worth fifteen dollars, but whatever.  And, of course - to ruin one of my favorite activities - even the movies start on thai time.  When a movie says 5:30 on the listing, you have to buy your ticket for 5:00.  Then sit through 45 minutes of trailers/commercials.  yes, commercials.  Including a five minute commercial about pepsi max featuring thai celebrities.  I now know that Pepsi Max is zero calories - couldn't have guessed that before...  Then, after all the trailers, they show a montage of the king scored by the thai national anthem.  Everyone in the theatre stands during this.  it's pretty cool to see.  something unlike America.

After the movie, we went out for sushi and then I got Ice Monster - the Pinkberry of Thailand.  It's basically shaved ice with condensed milk and sugar.  then they put fresh fruit and a scoop of ice cream on top.  It's almost as good as a street ice cream sandwich.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna bring it back to LA and make my fortune.  Then after I had Ice Monster, my never ending stomach signaled me into Mister Donut, which is a famous donut chain in thailand.  They make donuts that look something like a circle of balls - and they're chewy.  An interesting way to eat donuts - but they're sweet so they're good.

So this week I got my first massage since being in Thailand.  Even though the spa in our condo opens in a week, I couldn't wait.  So I walked about a block down the street to this place called "Health Land" - which is a really nice spa chain throughout Thailand.  Not shady at all.  We decided to get a one hour foot massage for 250 baht (about 7 dollars).  It was so nice that I fell asleep.  It wasn't just a foot massage - they massage up to just above your knee, then do a mini thai massage on your hands, arms, shoulders and head.  Overall, one of the best ways to spend 7 dollars in thailand.

Now, for some more Bangkok observations:

- Stray dogs are everywhere.  Due to the largely buddhist population, they will not kill a living thing (or something like that).  Which leads to huge amounts of stray dogs in the streets.  And every night about 2 am, the dogs start to get wild - barking and howling for hours and hours in the night.  It wakes me up about every night - unless I've had enough chang beer.

- I've learned that the best way to combat food poisoning is spice and beer. worked so far.

- They love their king here.  Everywhere I look I see a picture of him.  

- They have lights that line all their streets for miles around the Grand Palace.  The lights hang from everything lining the street.  Every Sunday, they turn all these lights on.  It's always so cool to see these lights for miles and miles.  

- Nowhere has napkins.  So I usually carry some in my pocket - cuz it drive me nuts to eat without a napkin.

- Bugs can make it to the 23rd floor somehow.

Well that's all for now.  I believe we are leaving Bangkok this weekend.  I don't know where yet, but I'm sure there will be a post about it in the future.

(world) peace

Trojans, Trojans Everywhere!

first of all - i love bangkok

the longer i'm here, the more and more i love this city

there is always something going on and there are always new people to meet.  it's great.

So this weekend was basically like being at USC.  Each night we went out this weekend (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) I ran into an alum of USC.  I can't say how weird it is to be halfway across the world from my university and to run into someone from USC.  Thursday, at bed, i ran into a girl who graduated two years ago and now works for a korean boy band doing some sort of concert management.  Friday, we went out to escudo.  It was a very very cool club.  It was full of young, wealthy, trendy thai kids.  It was nice to get away from tourists for once and be at a nice club.  and let me say - in LA, we party with paris hilton.  whatever.  In bangkok, we party with Miss Universe.  she was at Escudo on Friday night.  I wouldn't have known who she was, but the Thammasat students we were with spotted her instantly and pointed her out to us.  Apparently, after she was crowned Miss Universe (as Miss Japan) she moved to Bangkok and is now married to a Thai tennis player.  So hopefully we'll be running into her again!  Anyways - club was very cool.  And pretty inexpensive.  We only spent 500 baht for a night of fun - which is about the same price as a drink in LA.  But after clubbing, we wander outside.  and what do we see???  GHETTO DOGS!!!!!  Now, even though they were being cooked by a mexican woman saying "hot do hot do hot do" and the smell of grilled onions wasn't radiating through the streets - it was still a glorious sight and taste compared to pad thai.  So as we are standing having our ghetto dogs, a guy walks up to us and asks us how the hot dogs are.  We say good, but nothing like the states.  and he goes where you guys from?  we say LA.  He goes oh me too.  basically, we get to the point that he was born in bangkok, left to attend USC, and is now back in bangkok to work.  he was a really nice guy and it was just weird seeing the trojan network in bangkok.

the next night, we went out to "Culture One."  We had been told about this by some Thammasat Students.  Basically, it was being hailed as an International Music Festival of DJs.  It went from 4:00 pm to around 3:00 am.  And it was awesome!  I am so glad I went.  It was just a lot of music for about twelve hours.  Some very great DJs were there too - David Morales, Toni Varga, Brian Cross.  And of course, what would a night in Bangkok be without a USC Alum?  Of course, I ran into a guy who graduated from USC about 4 years ago and now works in Japan but travels quite frequently throughout SE Asia with his job.  And all three of the USC alum I've met have been Asian, just a side note.

And then in class today, I was talking with my professor and his brother went to USC and my professor used to live on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, very close to where I work with American Express Publishing.

Oh and we were out over the weekend and stumbled into an International Magazine store.  I instantly ran to the shelves to find my magazines.  No Food&Wine but I did find two versions of Travel+Leisure.  I took a picture with my magazines in Thailand.  That was pretty cool.

This weekend was very fun - it was just cool to dive into Bangkok nightlife.  After this weekend, I really feel at home in Bangkok, since we were partying with locals and people who knew people.  Thai people are just so friendly, generous, and they're always down for a good time.

Now - for some Bangkok observations:

-all parking is stacked - they'll park their cars three deep...  And to combat this, when you stack your car, you have to leave it in neutral.  So if you wanna leave, and there's a car behind yours, you just get out and push it out of the way, move your car, then push that car back.  crazy.

-toilet paper and soap in restrooms is a rarity - pretty gross.  instead they have like a shower head next to the toilet to "wash" yourself.

-EVERYONE wears a school uniform - from six year olds to college students.  It's nice to wear ours because the Thammasat one is the most prestigious in Bangkok.

-everything is served in a plastic bag - drinks, soup, fruit, food.  anything.

-trashcans in bangkok do not exist.  you basically have to cart your trash around for a couple blocks before finding somewhere to put it.

- it is hot all the time

- taxi drivers are insane

- thais drink everything through a straw - beer, pop, milk, water

- thammasat students LOVE exchange students

- they do sell bugs on the street.  and people do eat them.  our group can attest to that.  it was like deep fried grasshoppers, maggots, roaches, etc.  I just don't understand how people will freak out and kill one in their apartment, but deep fried with soy sauce they somehow look appetizing???

- i've been eating street food for three weeks and i'm still alive 

NOTE: i may stop eating fish though - I saw people fishing in the swamp outside our apartment last night.  fish consumption in the area around the apartment may cease.  

well that's about all for now.  I've been reading a lot of my Lonely Planet's Guide to Diving in Thailand.  It's making me pretty excited to get in the waters of SE Asia.  Apparently live aboards are really popular in thailand.  I definitely want to look into that  and just eat, sleep and dive for 10 days.

oh and i lost my cell phone. I'm pretty sure it fell out of my pocket getting out of the taxi this morning.  So I have a new number: 0845435030.  I'm about the 4th person out of my group to have lost their phone.  The good thing with Thailand: nothing's a big deal - including losing a cell phone.  I just went today and bought another one for about 30 bucks.  And I'm connected to the world, once again.

Monkeys and Private Beaches

Last weekend was our "field trip" with the Business School exchange program through Thammasat University.  But, this was no field trip to the Natural History Museum.  It was seriously unlike any field trip before.  They drove us about 2 hours southwest to the Dusit Resort in Cha-Am, Thailand (near Hua Hin).  The Dusit Resort is one of the top five resorts in Thailand.  It was so nice.  I shared a room with Jon (from USC as well).  As soon as we checked in, we threw on our board shorts and headed to the pool then walked to the beach.  The pool was great.  The beach was great.  Just everything was perfect at the Dusit.  And Thammasat made sure that we had a good time - they had everything taken care of for us.  We were provided with four meals at the restaurant at the Dusit.  It was a buffet type meal so it was nice to able to try Thai dishes without the obligation to finish it if it wasn't good.  

The next day, we had to check out of the Dusit and Thammasat took us to the king's summer palace in Cha-Am.  It was pretty cool.  right on the beach.  And apparently in that area, they have a problem with the wildlife and bugs, so to combat this problem, the whole palace was raised off the ground.  It looked like all of the living quarters were on the second story of the building with open air below.  pretty interesting architecture.  after the palace, we were supposed to return back home to Bangkok, but our crew decided to go ahead and stay the weekend.  so Thammasat drove us back to the Dusit and we caught taxis into Hua Hin.  we checked into this pretty shady "guesthouse."  (basically guesthouse is a nice word for hostel in Thailand.)

Things I learned from this guesthouse:

-how to flush a toilet without running water - when provided with only a bucket of water

-water front does not mean on the beach; it means on the water

-always read lonely planet before going anywhere (this place was described as dark and gloomy - it lived up to its description)

Hua Hin was an interesting village.  It wasn't quite my cup of tea.  Sex tourism doesn't really bother me - except for when it's in your face.  That's how Hua Hin was.  It was a bunch of European men in their 60s with Thai women probably no more than a day over 18.  It was just a bit much for the time we were there.  But - that being said - the beach was nice and it's always nice to explore around Thailand.

The next day, we packed up from dark and gloomy and caught a taxi down to Prachuap Khiri Khan.  This wasn't an average taxi ride though.  We had karaoke in the taxi.  It was quite fun and made the two hour drive a bit more enjoyable.  After having stayed in dark and gloomy, we couldn't wait to check in to what lonely planet described as slightly charmless.  yes, charmless.  needless to say, we were less than thrilled to check in.  But when we arrived, we discovered that lonely planet is not always right.  This place was great.  Awesome Thai hospitality.  Even though the staff didn't speak English beyond "Good Morning," it was still a very nice place.  But - still no flushing toilets.  I must say, I'm learning so much in Thailand - more than I ever expected.  Who'dve though that I would be forced to flush a toilet without running water??

We arrived near sunset at Prachuap Khiri Khan so we got some cool pictures of the sunset on the beach then headed next door to our hotel.  Again - awesome hospitality (it never gets old saying that).  Our waiter and waitress were Act and Bird.  They were so nice that we invited them out with us that night.  The next day, they were at our guesthouse bright and early to take us out on a fishing boat to explore the local islands.  When we arrived on the fishing pier, they were still cleaning the fish off the boat.  it was a very different experience.  Bird and Act had arranged to have the boat for 2 hours - but (thai time) we had the boat for about 3 1/2 hours.  we drove off to the private island.  it was like something out of a movie - no one else around - no other boats around - we had to jump off the boat and then swim to the island.  it was so cool.  after we were done on the island, bird and act phoned their restaurant and had them cook up some food for us and have it waiting for us when we got back.  so nice of them.

The next morning we woke up and went to Monkey Temple - the main attraction of Prachuap Khiri Khan.  The temple sits at the top of a mountain.  The only way to the temple is to climb 365 stairs - through a sea of monkeys.  This was also like something out of a movie.  Monkeys were everywhere.  And not too nice.  One jumped up and grabbed my bottle of water out of my hands.  Then opened it and drank the whole thing.  But we made it to the temple and it was quite the sight.  An awesome view of the village.  After that, we hopped on the bus for 200 baht (6 bucks) and we were back in Bangkok in a matter of hours.

Last night, we went out to this club called BED.  The club itself has a very cool design.  From the outside, it looks like a spaceship.  The whole interior is white.  It's a two story club with beds lining the dance floor.  It's a two bottle minimum to get a bed.  So there were 6 of us last night - so we got a bed.  We paid 3,000 baht for a bottle.  The club closed around 2 am.  Overall, it was very cool - definitely near par with LA. 

For this weekend, we're gonna try and integrate ourselves with some thai Thammasat students.  They're going to take us out this weekend.  Tonight, a girl named "noon" and her friends are taking us to the top of the intercontinental hotel on the helicopter pad where a DJ is playing.  Apparently  this is a once a month party called "HELI."  Should be cool and have some pretty cool views of Bangkok - since it's one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Welcome to the Land of Smiles

Hey everyone!

So I've been in Bangkok now for almost two weeks and I'm finally starting to get this blog rolling.  I've moved into my apartment and have finally gotten settled.  My flight over on Thai Airways was great.  I took the non-stop flight from LAX to Bangkok.  I left LA at 9:30 pm on January 1st and arrived in Bangkok on January 3rd at 6:30 am.  The flight was about 17 hours long and it really wasn't that bad.  I even ate lobster on the flight!  The food was great.  The service was impeccable.  They really make 17 hours at 40,000 feet easy (so to speak).  

When I arrived in Bangkok, I was met by Momma Pam.  She is our international liaison through Thammasat University.  She is great!  She takes care of so much stuff for us to make our time here as easy as possible.  As we were driving, I was in the zone for about 30 minutes before I realized they were driving on the opposite side of the road and the driver sits on the other side of the car.  

And on a side note, driving here is insane.  Far worse than Los Angeles.  They have lines on the road - but that was just a waste of paint.  No one uses their signalers - and it's basically just a free-for-all with taxis and tuk tuks going everywhere.  But for the traffic being so bad, I haven't seen any accidents on the roads.

She drove me to the hotel where all the international kids were planning on staying until we found our apartment.  When I got to the Rambuttri House, I was met by jet-lagged Abby (from U Texas).  I freshened up and we went off to explore the city.  Bangkok was quite the shock when I first arrived.  It was dirty, polluted, crowded, noisy...  I though "how am I going to live here for five months?"  But after a couple of hours, I had grown to love the city.  The people here are extremely polite and friendly.  The hospitality of Thailand cannot be matched.  And, as it is January here, this is Thailand's winter.  But don't worry - I will never say "brrr."  The temperature is about 85-90 degrees everyday!  And this is winter?!  They think this is cold.  I actually saw a guy wearing a down jacket one day.  While exploring, we took a boat tour down the river for an hour.  But we didn't last long - the jet lag plus the heat of Bangkok took it's toll on us.

Soon everyone else arrived in Thailand and our group was formed.  

The next day we went to try and find apartments.  We wandered around Bangkok for about an hour before stumbling upon the Ratanakosin Island Condominiums.  This place is so nice!  It's a 38 story, two tower condominium.  On the floor level, there is a beautiful pool that stretches around two sides of the building with a jacuzzi at one end.  There's also a gym and a restaurant/bar on the ground floor.  The building has 24 hour security and they'll call a taxi for you from the front desk.  Also, our manager does our laundry for us.  I had him press my uniform shirts for me yesterday.  It only took about a day.  I left and when I came back they were hanging in my closet.  I didn't even have to go pick up my dry cleaning!  All the rooms come fully furnished and they are very comfortable to live in.

This is the second week of classes and it definitely took some time getting used to the Thai style.  One thing that still drives me nuts is this thing called "thai time."  For a punctual person, it's a sin.  The students show up to class about 15 minutes late and don't think anything of it.  Even the professors don't show up on time.  The whole campus, for that matter, runs about 15 minutes late.  All the classes are three hours long.  But, that said, when they start 15 minutes late, that cuts down on some of the class time.  Also, the professor usually takes a 15 minute break halfway through the course.  But, with "thai time," that turns into about a 35-40 minute break.  All the business school students have to wear a uniform - for guys it's a white button shirt, black pants, and a thammasat belt, for girls it's a black skirt, a white button shirt, and a thammasat belt.  It really isn't as bad as I was expecting it to be.  The worst part is the heat.  Wearing black pants in Bangkok can get to be pretty hot.  It's nice, however, to wear the uniforms because we don't look like white tourists.  Because of the prestige of Thammasat, when we are wearing our uniforms, we tend to get more respect around town and it keeps us from getting ripped off.

The food on campus is cheap and good.  However, it's really small portions.  So I usually eat about 4 meals on campus.  And all the meals are the same - breakfast, lunch, or dinner - they eat the same thing.  Rice with everything.  Every meal is spicy.  And everything is fried.  everything.  I don't understand how they can weigh 80 lbs soaking wet and deep fry everything.  On campus, a meal will cost about 20 baht (less than a dollar).  A bottle of water costs 6 baht (pennies).  But, one bad thing about campus - there's no diet coke.  Actually, it's hard to find sugar free anything anywhere.  I usually take a taxi to campus in the morning costing about 45 baht (a little over one dollar) and walk back - taking the ferry across the river (which costs 3 baht - pennies).  

So I think I'm about to the point where I can call Bangkok home.  Having been here and explored other parts of town, I'm really pleased with our location.  Most of the nightlife is in the really touristy areas (Sukhimvit, Silom, etc.).  It's fairly expensive, however.  And it's very easy to rip tourists off because they don't notice it.  We notice though.  But there's nothing we can do but realize our losses.  When we go out, we are never ID'd.  A drink costs about 150 baht (around 4 dollars).  Then we'll usually get street food on the way home costing about 20-30 baht (about a dollar).  

Last wednesday, two of my friends from USC  (Anandita and Saran) that live in Bangkok invited us to come to a bar called the Londoner.  It's a really good time - they have a GREAT cover band and it's 2-4-1 everything all night long.  So last night we decided to go back.  But we wanted to get Mexican food before going to the bar.  BAD DECISION.  On the way there, our taxi had to drive through a checkpoint.  And to our luck, we were hailed over by the Thai Police.  Now here's where the language barrier gets really scary.  We didn't understand why we were pulled over.  But after a couple of minutes we realized that in Thailand, you have to wear a seatbelt when sitting in the front seat of the taxi.  (They don't even have seatbelts in the back - another annoyance with thailand.)  So the police kept asking for our passports - which we don't carry with us.  Eventually he started saying 500 baht, 500 baht.  So the five of us ended up giving 100 baht each to pay off the police.  Later we found out that the actual fine for not wearing your seatbelt is 2,000 baht.  So we figured that the police just pocketed our 500 baht.  Ahhhhh the corruption of Thailand.

So we finally make our way Patty's Fiesta - a Mexican Pub.  I must say, this was the first Mexican Pub I had ever been to.  No, correction, the first Mexican Pub I had EVER HEARD OF!  Our Hostess was a lady-boy.  The food was bad - and expensive.  Our meal cost each of us 620 baht (almost 20 dollars - which is really really expensive for Thailand, considering a meal on campus is 20 baht).  I ordered beef tacos.  But it should have been called curry tacos.  The beef tasted like it was cooked in the same bowl as the curry.  Overall, bad food - but good margaritas.

Then we made our way to The Londoner and forgot about the food we consumed.

Well I hope you all made it through this.  Sorry for the length.  I need to start writing more frequently to cut down on the length.

I'll have a post coming up soon about our trip last weekend to the Dusit Resort in Cha-Am, Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan.