Only in Bangkok...

so today I got in a taxi at my apartment.  I was already running late.  I got in the taxi at 2 pm and my class started at 2 pm.  I've really caught onto this Thai Time thing.  Fortunately, you can be 15 minutes late to class and still be considered "on time."  And, ya know, I like to optimize my Class-to-Leisure ratio.  Anyways, back to the point - I get in the taxi and I'm stressing because even with Thai Time, I don't like to be late.  We make it about halfway down the driveway and the driver starts saying something in Thai.  I didn't realize what he was saying until after the fact.  He threw the car into park and hopped out.  You can imagine I was not very pleased.  I start looking around for some clue as to what was going on.  And I found my clue...

In broad daylight, up against one lonely tree in a concrete jungle...  my driving was peeing.  Yes, peeing.  I guess when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Twenty seconds later, I was on my way to school.  And yes, I was "on time."

Only in Bangkok...

A Pirate's Life for Me

well I have returned from yet another trip to the south of Thailand.  This time it was for a totally spur of the moment diving trip.  Alaa and I decided to go diving about 24 hours before we left.  We planned the trip about 6 hours before we left and bought our tickets at the airport.  We flew on Air Asia to Phuket.  Air Asia was really nice - it's supposed to be the budget airlines of Asia, but it was really nice.  The plane was an Airbus, every seat was leather, all of the controls on the plane were touch controlled.  It was a really nice experience - didn't feel "budget" at all.  When we arrived in Phuket, we were taken to a guesthouse.  It was fine because all we did was sleep there.  We were being picked up at 6:30 the next morning so we were in no mood to go out and explore Phuket.  The next morning, we got our gear and headed to the pier.  

Now a note about the diving in Phuket - most of the places that everyone wants to go to, which we were fortunate enough to dive, can only be accessed by a liveaboard.  A liveaboard is a boat that you live on.  Most liveaboard trips are anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks or longer.  Our trip was 3 days/2 nights.  I think this was the perfect length for my first trip.  It was long enough to get in ten dives, but I didn't feel overly exhausted after it.  Anyways, when we left in the morning, we had about a four hour boat ride to our first dive site.  During this time we were briefed about the boat, checked into our rooms and set up our gear.  Our rooms on the boat were quite small - to get a picture of my room, I had to stand outside and on the other side of the hallway to get a picture of the whole room.  I'd say the room was probably 7' x 4' - pretty small.  But it was fine.  We were only in the room to sleep and when we went to sleep, we were usually so tired we passed out before our heads hit the pillow.  

Here's the divesites we did:

Thursday

Ko Tachai - Southeast Reef

Ko Tachai - Northeast Rocks

Ko Surin Tai - South Reef (Night Dive)

Friday

Hin Genesis (Dive Excursion)

Ko Chi - White House Rock

Richelieu Rock 

Richelieu Rock (Night Dive)

Saturday

The Dome at Ko Tachai Pinnacle

Ko Bon - West Ridge

Boonsung Wreck

We were in the water every morning at 7:30 am and usually out of the water from out last dive by 9pm - which made for quite long days.  Also, a side note about Richelieu Rock - this is known to be one of the best dive sites in the world.  When Jacques Cousteau dove Richelieu Rock, he named it one of his top ten dive sites in the world.  Pretty cool to dive the same site as Jacques Cousteau.  He actually named the dive site - which is why it has a French name in the middle of Thailand.  Most dives were around 60 minutes and we went anywhere from 60 feet to 120 feet.  Most of the dives in the Andaman Sea are really deep and for experienced divers.  Some dives had pretty strong current.  Also, the visibility is not the best.  In the waters here, there are a lot of small organisms that are eaten by the "big stuff" us divers like to see, like manta rays and the allusive whale shark.  So the visibility never really gets that good - but that's a fair trade off to make.  Also, the waters here have massive thermoclines.  A thermocline is where cold and warm water converge.  So you'll be swimming along is nice warm water and all of a sudden the water temp will drop 10 to 15 degrees.  And it's strange too because you can see them coming in the water.  At the point where the warm and cold water meets, the water makes rays.  It looks like the rays that come off the road on a hot day.  But these thermoclines also attract the "big stuff."

Some of the stuff I saw includes two manta rays, a turtle, a leopard shark, a nurse shark and tons of cool fish.  I saw schools of lion fish, several scorpion fish and stone fish.  Tons of eel - blue ribbon eel, painted morays, brown spotted eels and white eye eels.  Sea cucumbers.  Lots of trigger fish and hog fish.  Lots of stingrays - cowtail and blue spotted.  Moorish idol.  Mantis shrimp.  Octopus.  Lobster.  Nudibranches.  The waters here are just full of stuff that is so different from anything I've seen before.  Everything seems so much more vibrant here.  I feel like the fish all come in different colors here.

Enjoy the pics (below) and the videos (I added them to the side bar and they're on YouTube):

the view out my window - this is what I woke up to every morning

my life for three days

the sunrise on the second day

the dining area on the boat

bedroom

the dive gear area

blue ribbon eels

angel fish

(well apparently i've reached my picture quota - so be sure to visit my pictures website on the sidebar to see more pictures)

Everything about the boat was great.  There were four divemasters and five thai crew (cook, captain, and three boat mates).  The food on the boat was amazing.  Food was served after every dive and the cook did a nice job of creating the perfect blend between western food and Thai food.  It really hit the spot after diving.  There were two sundecks that I took full advantage of, as I'm now black as night.  And after ten dives, I have salt water so far up my sinuses everything tastes salted.  But it was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again.

Anyways, after three days on the liveaboard, we were more than ready to go home, so we didn't really do much in Phuket.  We went to the beach and waited to return home.

In other news, a while back I planned a "Day of Modern Marvels", as I coined it.  We were going to visit some galleries throughout Bangkok and go to the tallest building in the city.  We ended up making it to the tallest building - the Baiyoke Sky Hotel - and the Queen's Gallery.  It was a really cool day and everyone had fun - thanks to Lonely Planet.  That book sure comes in handy sometimes.  Some pics are below.

the sunsetting on another day in the city

 the view from the top - the 84th floor

As for this weekend, my boss, Marion Lowry with DEPARTURES magazine and Black Ink Magazine, is in Asia on business.  So I am going to spend the weekend in and out of the Four Seasons shadowing her while she is working in Bangkok.  So it will be a nice change of pace.  And next week I am going to the Gibbons Experience to leave the country within my 90-day period.

That's all for now.

Full Moon Madness

boy o boy, long time no blog... i can't believe i haven't gotten a chance to blog about the full moon party yet. it was probably the best trip ever. i was away from bangkok for a week and every minute was great. tuesday night mat and I took a flight on Bangkok Airways from Bangkok to Ko Samui. And I must say, the Ko Samui airport was one of the nicest airports I've ever been to. It just recently opened and everything is very nice with fountains and palm trees everywhere. The next day we caught an early ferry from Ko Samui to Ko PhaNgan (home of the Full Moon party - i'd be willing to bet this is the only thing the island is known for...).

on the island, we stayed at this place called the "J. Seaview Resort" - and they use the term "resort" lightly... imagine the swiss family robinson in Thailand and that's how we were living for a week. it was great. it was on the side of a mountain on the island. there were about 15 to 20 bungalows - and we probably rented out 13 of those. i think at the peak there were well over 20 of us from Thammasat at J Seaview. Each bungalow had a double bed and plenty of cold water to shower with. in the middle of the bungalows was a big bungalow with a TV, dvd player, and a large collection of pirated dvd's. this place was great - they cooked us dinner every night. but it was quite the trek to get to the "resort." the roads on this island are notorious for being at a 90 degree angle and, how can i put this, a "work in progress." the combination of these two made for quite the adventure to get home at night. but we made it. the bungalows cost us 300 baht a night (around 9 dollars - split by three people). the most expensive part of the island was transportation - it would cost us about 100 baht per person to take a taxi into town and back. so that was about 6 dollars round trip. but we've been in thailand long enough to where that is EXPENSIVE!!

HOME SWEET HOME - SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON STYLE

THE VIEW FROM MY BUNGALOW

A LITTLE TASTE OF THE DEATH ROADS OF KO PHANGAN

BY FAR MY FAVORITE PART OF J. SEAVIEW - THE HAMMOCK

on Friday, I got to go diving with Mat. he'd been getting certified for PADI Open Water on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday was his open water dives, So i decided to tag along. It was technically my "refresher course" - but that didn't entail much more than actually diving. It was great to be back in the water after well over two years. Phangan Divers picked us up from J Seaview around 8 in the AM and we didn't get back home until 7 PM i think. It was about a 2 hour boat ride to the dive sites - we did two dive sites in Ko Tao (the island just north of Ko Phangan - there basically three islands in the gulf of Thailand: Ko samui, Ko Phangan, and Ko Tao). Ko Tao is supposed to be known for the diving - but from what I saw, it's nothing to shake a stick at. There was some really cool stuff to see - but it was mostly just fish and marine life. no sharks or turtles or mantas and no whale shark. The christmas trees here are so vividly colored and the clams are huge - probably 3 feet big. We did see a blue spotted stingray which was cool. The visibility was only about 20 feet - and the worst part of the day.... there are two dive sites in the gulf: Ko Tao and Sail Rock. Our dive operation, Phangan Divers took us to Ko Tao on Friday... the other dive operation on Ko Phangan went to sail rock. and what creature of the sea did they see at Sail Rock - a WHALE SHARK. yes, a whale shark - the largest fish in the ocean and one of the most reclusive. These creatures are known to inhabit the waters around thailand but only come out every three to four months. and i was in the water with one. but not close enough to see it. I can't tell you how mad I was when the captain told us that....

Anyways - the full moon party was supposed to be that Friday night. But there was some Thai election - or at least that's what we were told. And because of this, Thailand couldn't sell alcohol for 24 hours before and after the election, meaning the full moon party was rescheduled until Sunday night. But nobody seemed to know what was going on - even the three thai girls that came with us from Thammasat didn't even know you couldn't sell alcohol on election days. But whatever. Fortunately, I was planning on staying until Tuesday night so this didn't affect my plans. But it sucked because some people were planning on leaving on Saturday or Sunday because we had midterms at Thammasat that following week. So they made the whole trek down to the island for some beaches - oh well, there's always march. Oh...and the best part about the island (and any island in thailand for that matter) is that they serve their drinks in buckets. yes, BUCKETS. for about 120 baht (4 dollars) you can get a bucket. they make the partying in thailand.

OUR BUCKET DAMAGE THE FIRST NIGHT

The rest of the time on the island was spent on the beach. On Ko Phangan, there's beach for everything: if you want to relax, they've got it. if you want to party, they've got it. if you want it, they've got it on the beach.

LONELY BEACH

SUNSET AT THE BEACH

Sunday was the day of the full moon party. The weather was a bit crappy all day - it rained on and off. but we were getting pretty excited once the sun went down. of the 20 + people that made the trek to Ko Phangan, there were six of us left for the full moon party - Bruno, Natalia, Jon, Meris, Marney and myself. and we made up for the lack of others... haha. we stocked up on neon glow paint, painted ourselves up and headed down to Haad Rin Beach - home of the world famous full moon party. This party occurs every month and attracts anywhere from 10 to 15,000 partiers from around the world. The party goes literally from sun up to sun down and from then on. We stayed until about 9 am and I would say there were still thousands

of people partying on the beach. It was quite the sight to see.

ME, MARNEY, MERIS AND JON AT THE FULL MOON PARTY - PLENTY OF PAINT

THE PARTY WAS STILL GOING AT 9 AM

THE FINAL SIX AT THE FULL MOON ROCK

After Ko Phangan, I caught a return flight on Bangkok Airways and headed back for Midterms. I only had two midterms out of my five classes. They went well.

Well, I think my blog is pretty much caught up now. The next thing on the agenda is leaving the country. With our visas, we HAVE to leave the country every five months, it's mandatory. Honestly, if we didn't have to leave the country, I don't think I would. Thailand is truly the gem of southeast asia. It has the largest collection and array of things to do of anywhere. I don't think there's any other country where you can see and do the things you can in thailand. But since we have to leave the country, I think I'm going to go to Laos to the Gibbons Experience (check out the link). It's a pretty cool thing where you go up into a Rainforest near the Laos border and spend three days, two nights in tree houses that are connected by ziplines. Food comes when you're hungry. Tour guides are around 24/7 to take you on adventures. And it gives you an upclose experience with the animals of the rainforest. Since I have to leave the country, this should be well worth the time spent traveling.

later guys

andy