Bangkok Dangerous

I have this love/hate relationship with Bangkok. I won't go into details so as usual I'll just let the photos do most of the talking for me.

Everyone finds these McDonalds statues creepy but I kinda like them.
This popular shrine I thought was kind of ironic since I sincerely doubt many people at it could afford anything in the Burberry store behind it.

Our new friend Rossawon's Mom who was not only nice enough to let us stay at her place a couple of nights but also got her neighbor to get some fresh coconut drinks.

The Grand Palace...

...which also features the emerald buddah.

Finally, the infamous Khaosan Road. Ahh the things I can't tell you about that place haha.

Kanchanaburi...a name I can't pronounce but still love

As Tim mentioned this is a great place to go. Not too many tourists which means not too many prostitutes...which means barely any hassle.

Seeing the bridge over the river Kwai was a nice to piece of history to experience...
Also sitting out on the floating pier behind our hotel (which cost about $15/night total) having a drink wasn't bad either.

Backdating is a beach

Ok, so I'm not in Asia anymore but I thought I'd throw some additional pictures up in case anyone is interested. These ones were our days on the beach after the Muay Thai fighting. To be honest we did a lot so there were many pictures so I've tried to narrow it down to just a select few...

The first day at krabi we went to Railay beach...beautiful.

The next day we head off on a tour to James Bond Island (where parts of "The Man With the Golden Gun" were filmed).

Our final two days were spent around Koh Pi Pi. We had a hillarious guide "Nicky" that toured us around on a jet boat for 8 hours. This is what he had to say:

"This where the movie "The Beach" was filmed...just don't go looking for any marijuana...there isn't any...trust me."

We went snorkling at a beautiful ocean spot...

Saw a Bollywood music video being shot...

"We're #1". He literally made the boat driver go faster so that we could pass 2 other boats to get there first haha.

I stubbed my toe on the bridge over the river kwai

Dammit. I walked across that crazy bridge I've heard about for some time. As I walked, I jammed my little toe on a steel bolt. My toe immediately bled. It was odd thinking about how the bridge just took my blood, just as it took the blood and lives of thousands of P.O.W.'s in its contruction. My grandfather was there as a POW as well. He was one of the lucky ones to survive. But maybe it wasn't lucky...for the first time I learned of the horrific conditions faced by the POWs in detail, lots of drawings by the POW's themselves and some photos. I believe my granfather was haunted by these memories for the rest of his life. I barely knew him, as he died when i was very young. But I heard he resisted any talk about those times.

I'll put up pics a little later. Another emotional day. This town is very nice though, great night market and no one really hassles you since its much less touristy than the rest of the places in Thailand. We'll head back to Bangkok for our final days tomorrow.

Tim

Thai Boxing - Tonight Tonight! Main Event

We took in some Thai Boxing last night. Very cool, and just like Sumo wrestling, there's alot of ceremony and tradition before the fight starts. They do some really cool dances and what looks like praying at each corner. It lasts for about what seems like 5-10 minutes, each fighters dance is slightly different and all done to crazy thai music that sounds like a drum and an off tune clarinet. Similar music plays while they are fighting, which they bob and weave to. I've uploaded one movie and pasted below, it was the first bout of the night between 2 six year olds..very entertaining, but it also felt a bit wrong.

I have a couple more movies of the big guys fighting, which got pretty bloody, but very entertaining. The internet here is a bit slow for uploads, so I'll have to get it on some other time. Very entertaining night though. Off to Krabi tomorrow.

T

Life is beachy

We shot around the island on our scooters today and checked out the northwest corner. At this point there is a smaller island connected to Ko Paneng by a narrow sandspit..it was pretty cool..except for the trash that washed up along the spit..lots of empty red bull bottles likely from the full moon/half moon/moon set parties that keep going on here.

We jumped in the water and did a little snorkelling as well. Not too bad. Saw some bright colourful fish, even a "nemo" clown fish. A local told us we missed the best part that was over by the point. Maybe we'll hit it again sometime.

Off to a moon set party..maybe a lil Thai Boxing.

Full Moon Party - and I didn't show my ass once.

Here's some Full Moon Party pics - we made it all night until the sun came up due to our lengthy training sessions back in Vancouver. With our special "layering" technique we suvived the night without becoming one of the fodder and carnage you see in one the pics below!

Here's the official Full Moon lights at one end of the beach.

From that end, it was jammed with people all the way to the other end of the beach.

This is just one of the clubs..one of probably 10 lined along the beach all blasting thier own music.

They lit this up at around 2:30 am. They like thier Kerosene, seems like they lit whatever they could on fire.

Here's the fodder i was talking about...they littered the beach along with missing flip flops...one pair was eric's... i wonder where they are now.

Here's the sunshine, we made it.

Back to the other carmera

Unfortunately we're going to have to live a little overlap on days with my two cameras but you'll get the gist.

The reason I decided not to feed the tame deer in Nara (near Kyoto) and take pictures instead was for shots like this. Priceless...notice the deer barf on her shirt. They are actually quite harmless, you can pet them right on the head!


The Inari gates in Kyoto...I love long exposures like this from the ground.

I also like long exposures from above...looking over Kyoto at night.

A watch that was found in Hiroshima. Stopped at the same time the bomb was dropped. I was thinking it was one of the saddest things I had seen...

...until I saw this...

As a side note, apparently after the blast the most common thing to hear was people asking for water because of how burned everyone was. It is also the reason why most of the memorials have to do with fountains etc.

Less sad and more kinda funny is this teenage soldier guarding a brand new train station that will never be used to go to North Korea.

Our first proper day in Thailand. Waiting for the ferry to Koh Panang from Koh Sumui.

It's complicated...

So I've got two cameras just to make things complicated. The smaller guy has started to acquire some usage so I thought I'd post some stuff from it since we're waiting out a bit of rain on Koh Phanang. Again I will be writing in my barely coherent point form due to lack of sleep.

Here's our favourite pub in Roponggi, Tokyo. It's modelled after a London tube station (turnstyle and all).

The most expensive game of Mario Brothers ever played in Hiroshima.

The best synchronized karoke ever. I believe this was Bohemian Rhapsody at 4:30am. Done with my friend Bob from High School who we were staying with in Seoul...ain't Facebook reconnections great?!?

One of these things definately doesn't belong...my bald white head in the forground of a club in Seoul on our final night/morning.

Korean Taxi Cabs can hit 170Km/hr

I'm sitting in Narita Airport in Tokyo on a layover. Eyes droopy. Booze buzz fading into a hang over. We hit up the clubs in Seoul one last time with Bob and his friends with full intention of staying up all night, returning for our packs, then heading to the airport. Mission accomplished. Fantastic night with lots of table dancing, norwegians and an insane taxi cab ride where the driver buried the needle drifting through traffic.

We haven't posted much because we've been so busy, but after Osaka, we hit up Kyoto for 4 nights then Hiroshima for one night. After a moving and emotional day at the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial and some prime super mario bros at a Japanese arcade we travelled by train, Beetle Hydrofoil, then KTX train to Seoul. Bob was gracious enough to lend us his second bedroom for 4 crazy nights and showed us his home town . We checked out the DMZ and tried to spy Kim Jong Il. No luck..i think he's rather short. Kumiko even flew to Seoul to visit some friends and join us for sight seeing.

Will try and put up pics at some point...i think we may have a bit more time on our hands in Thailand. Still alive. So exhaused though. Will chug prime Thai Red Bull when we land.

Osaka me

A few pics of Osaka.

Jaws
Christopher Walken...oh yeah
Wierd shit.
Lights.

Here's a vid of those lights so you can see them in action:



This was actually in Kyoto, but it was some tasty Spicy Miso Ramen.
And this is the notorious T.A.K. He showed us how to party in Kyoto with his friend Taro. I think Tak has a form of alcoholic Bulemia, this guy could drink.

WTF? SRSLY?

One last picture tonite. I work with this guy Gabriel Wong. Turns out he's in Kyoto vacationing as well and I didn't know it...small world.

Less Texty More Imagy

Tim has written at length of what we've done recently so I'll just post some quick shots of the last few days.

Tokyo Tower as seen from Ropponggi Hills Skydeck

Diaper wrestling at its finest

The famous girls of Harajuku

Capsule livin in Osaka

A traditional Japanese gun show in Kyoto. As opposed to a non-traditional gun show which I believe is called a "drive-by"

I know I shouldn't...but I had to.

Came across this in Kyoto today. For the few of you who get this, you're probably laughing. I know Tim and I sure did.

Spreading the VC

So its been a while since the last post...here's a rundown of what we've done since that Sumo night:

We explored more of Tokyo including Shibuya, Shinjuku(?) and Eric took some great shots of Harijuku girls all dressed up. Maybe Eric can upload some. We met up with Kumiko's work friends Rose and Mei, and hit up what Rose swears was the best Thai food in Japan, even better that Thailand itself. We believe her because she's from Thailand, and she didn't disappoint. Also, another plus, the Thai restaurant had a Kareoke machine, so we busted out some Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline, Guns n' Roses - Knockin on Heaven's Door, Bryan Adams - Summer of 69, and Eric did an unforgettable rendition of Limp Bizkit - Nookie. I think there's a few pics loose on Facebook via Kumiko. And if you're lucky, she will upload a sweet vid of me doing my best Axl Rose dance.


The Thai restaurant was in an area called Roppungi, which is the entertainment district for frequented by foreigners, i.e. us. On our mission to discover somewhere to drink, I scouted out a 5th floor establishment called Club Pascha...the elevator door opened and I heard music, but saw nothing. As I moved forward to step out of the elevator, that extra moment I took to listen, caused me to be in perfect position to have my shoulders crushed by the closing elevator doors. The ensuing crash caused everyone to turn and stare at this t-shirt and jeaned white dude stumble into the lounge nursing his shoulder. I saw some quick glances and signalling of someone to come over and deal with me. An old man waddled up to me mentioned "Japanese Only" and promptly pushed the down button on the elevator. Since the elevator was already on its way down, I stood there...waiting awkwardly, as more and more patrons took turns staring me down. I took the time to explain that there was no indication on any signs that the club was Japanese Only...but i think it fell on deaf ears...people just like to stare. So I made it down and explained the story to Eric and our Aussie friends who accompanied us. They suggested we return to an Aussie pub just around the corner...a safe harbour, for a last beer before heading back to the hostel....not a very successful night...but at least Kareoke is checked off the list.

The next night Eric and I tried again...this time we found a little pub called Picadilly, designed in the shape of a London Tube Station..where we could get Beer and Gin and Tonics for 500 Yen. We were also happy to teach the bartender how to make Vitamin C shots and coined it Tokyo Vitamin C - TVC for short. We shall spread the VC to as many bars as possible in tribute to Zaheen.


On Wednesday morning we woke at 5AM to meet up with Kumiko and Mika and explore the famous Fish Market. This place was chaotic, and we were almost run over multiple times by little flatbeds running off of scooter motors. We had missed the actuall auction, but were able to check out rows upon rows of fresh seafood. Afterwards we headed to a nearby famous sushi house, for probably the most expensive, but freshest and most tastiest sushi I've ever had. I also had a beer for breakfast. This stuff melted in your mouth. I'll probably never have anything like it again unless i return to Tokyo.
The food:
The Feeding:
The happiness:

We returned to the hostel to get some much needed rest. Which, by the way, I only had 1 hour sleep because Eric locked me out of the room by accident..no idea where my key went. I slept on the couch in the common room. Anyways, after sleeping off the rest of the day we met up again with Kumiko and her friends to check out the view from Roppongi Tower, where Kumiko works at Lehman Brothers (not for long apparently). We had some spectacular night views.



Once again we hit up a restaurant with the crew. This time a famous Udon Noodle restaurant with bowls the size of Rambo's massive cranium, hair included. That was some tasty noodle. We had one more drink with Kumiko at Agave, a Mexican themed tequila bar. Then bid her goodbye. We were off to Osaka and the Capsule Hotel Experience.