Bangkok

Okay soo continuing from my last post…we had our D1 (dinner 1) or rather the guys did, because our nachos were never delivered.  Then Lia, Hussain and I wanted to get Thai massages while Steve and Keith explored the island.  Our masseuses set up blankets and gave us a soft little pillow and we got our massages right on the beach.  It was so nice to hear the waves crashing and the soft voices of our masseuses speaking to each other in Thai.  My masseuse bent my body in all different positions and rubbed my back with this oil that smelled great and gave a kind of tingling sensation.  It was awesome. And it was like $6 USD for an hour.  Sooo nice. 

After our massages, Lia, Hussain, and I decided to run into the ocean one last time before we got ready for the night.  We sprinted in, then we walked out of the water and realized it was too cold to be out of the water without towels so we ran back in again.  These girls, possibly SASers but I didn’t recognize any of them, just nondescript white girls with brown hair, saw us running into the water.  They came over to us and go, “Did you guys just pee? Should I go out further?”  And we were like, “What?! No! We were cold….are you peeing?”  Then we saw Keith and Steve so we ran back out of the water, avoiding the possible encounter with that girl’s…warm spot, if you will.

We all headed back to the bungalow and got ready for the night.  The bathrooms in the bungalow were pretty cool.  The showers had no ceiling and a little garden next to it, so it was kind of like showering outside.  I wore my prom dress that night, I thought that would make you happy to know, Mom.

Once we were all in our nice duds and looking studly, we went and got D2.  We had kebabs, sweet corn, and garlic bread.  The kebabs were quite tasty but it was like three pieces of steak.  The corn was delectable.  The garlic bread was like eating cloves of garlic and bread….so not very good.  After D2 we went to get dessert and a bucket of Thai Redbull, whiskey, and Coke, a Thai specialty.  After a bucket or two, we all went to a hookah bar with some other SASers and watched a fire-spinning show and danced.  I don’t think we went to bed too late, but no one had watches so we didn’t really keep track of time at all.  And we were in Thailand on an island paradise…who needs watches?

The next morning I got breakfast with Steve.  I had a croissant, watermelon and dragon fruit.   Google that.  Very interesting.  Then Hussain, Lia, Steve, and I played in the water for another hour.  It started to rain while we were swimming but it was a warm rain and we didn’t want to get out of the water because we didn’t have our towels again and didn’t want to get cold.  Then it started thundering so we ran back to our bungalow.  It has rained in EVERY country we have been in.  The rain follows us.  But it never puts a damper (no pun intended) on our travels, sometimes it is kind of refreshing, in fact. 

As we were running back to our bungalow, Steve pointed out this giant Buddha that was like three stories high.  Lia and I were astonished and were like, “When did that get there?  What the hell? How did that happen?”  But apparently it had been there yesterday and Lia and I are really unobservant. 

We now have an ongoing joke that Lia vomited up the Buddha, because while in Ko Samet we all came up with excretory super powers. Why, you ask?  Because we are still little kids at heart.  So Lia can vomit objects.  Hussain can poo diamonds.  I pee ice.  Keith farts tornados. And Steve can excrete milk from his fingers.

Back to the story…we bummed a ride back on the SAS bus.  Free transportation hell yes.  On the bus ride back we made up several new sing-along songs.  One is “Let’s go fly Hussein”  to the tune of “Let’s go fly a kite” from Mary Poppins.  And another is “Your face is gonna be in porn” to “Camp Town Races Sing this Song.”  It goes like this:

Your face is gonna be in porn
Doo dah
Doo dah
Your face is gonna be in porn
You’re gonna be in porn

You’re gonna be in porn
You’re gonna be in porn
Thai guy took your picture and you’re gonna be in porn

You will probably hear it on America’s Top 40 in upcoming weeks.

Upon our return to the ship, we showered, unpacked, repacked and got a taxi bus to Bangkok.  I rode with Lia, Keith, Steve, Hussain, Bradee, Stacey, Chaz, Amanda, and Lindsey (I think it was Lindsey).  The ride to Bangkok is supposed to be about two hours, and we were in the van for four hours, because our driver got lost in Bangkok.  He got lost!  We drove around the city looking for our hostel for two hours.  It was insane.

We finally arrived at our hostel, called Lub D Bangkok.  Say that a few times.  It sounds funny…and dirty, but it means sleep in Thai.  This hostel was awesome.  It was $10 a night, had great facilities, comfortable beds, free WiFi, and the interior was really futuristically designed, kind of like a construction site.

After checking in, we went to get dinner because we were starving.  We all got chicken wings and individual Thai dishes.  Mine looked like ground beef…it wasn’t that good.  Steve ordered it for me…he made a bad decision. Then Steve and I shared deep-fried banana and ice cream.  That made up for the ground beef, I love deep-fried bananas.

We finished D1 and went to some night bazaars.  Everywhere we went vendors were offering sex and/or DVDs.  Women were throwing themselves at the guys.

Back at the hostel I took advantage of the free internet.  I was up until 3am.  Doing absolutely nothing.  Finally I went to bed in my women’s dorm.  We woke up early the next morning in order to get in the maximum amount of sightseeing.  First we went to a Hindu temple; next we went to the Grand Palace which is beautiful, everything is gold, and intricately painted and sculpted; then we went to the Reclining Buddha, which is huge and made entirely of gold except for the feet which are made of pearl.  After we saw all the sights we headed back to Laem Chebong port where our mobile home the MV Explorer awaited us.  This time our driver didn’t get lost.  His name was Bing. 

Before boarding the ship we stopped at the Harbor Mall and I had Dairy Queen.  They have DQ in Thailand.  No cookie dough blizzards, though.  I had oreo-coffee blizzard.  It wasn’t that good.  Nothing like Minnesota  DQ cookie dough blizzards. 

This post has taken me forever to write.  I’ve been to Vietnam and now I’m on my way to Hong Kong and I have only just finished my Thailand post.  So much to do, so little time.