Jimbo Meets an Evil Taxi Driver

as all my blogs go, you will understand the title if and only if you read till the very end :)

lets start from the beginning. on wednesday afternoon, we decided that we wanted to go to koh samui (an island in the south of thailand) for the weekend, so as soon as class finished, we booked it to kao san road and went to a few different "travel agencies" to see how much it was going to cost to get there. we ended up going back to the first place we went to and booked 8 tickets to koh samui for 450 baht each...about $14.00 per person, including a "VIP A/C bus, and ferry ticket" we were very pleased with ourselves and the cheap ticket, not knowing how bad a 12 hour bus ride really is...even if it is on a so called "VIP" bus.

Andy and I on the
"VIP" Bus...it's so funny how the call it "VIP"

the bus was scheduled to leave bangkok at 6:00 pm on thursday afternoon, so we packed our backpacks (and, my $6 Jack Wolfskin backpack survived its' first trip) and rushed to kao san road so that we wouldn't miss our bus. we picked up our fav pad thai on the way because we thought they might not feed us the entire time...we should have know better...there is ALWAYS food everywhere and anywhere in thailand! then, of course, another thing we should have know better was that even VIP buses leave on "thai time" so our bus didn't leave until 7:15. we took our sweet time boarding the bus (yet another lesson we learned the hard way), and abby thought she got SUPER good seats because it was right above the stairwell so no one was behind her, hence, she would be able to recline her seat as much as she wanted without disturbing other people. what she didn't know when getting those superb seats was that they were also right above the malfunctioning bathroom and right below the AC vent. needless to say, she did not sleep much on the overnight bus. it was freezing cold, the windows were all covered in condensation because it is so hot in thailand, even at night time, and lucky for me, i didn't smell the bathroom, but abby and david, and basically everyone else on the bus was borderline throwing up from the gross smell. also, the bus driver must have liked mark whalberg movies, because he played two of them right in a row, and REALLY loud. they must think that since us foreigners are so loud and obnoxious that we like to listen to movies extremely loudly too. oh well, i can't blame them.

at the first rest stop, we all got off the bus, ate at an overpriced tourist stop and deliriously climbed back onto the bus from hell. however, it wasn't so bad for the second half of the ride because abby got the bus driver to spray almost a whole bottle of lysol (or something of that nature) in the bathroom, on the stairs, on the walls surrounding the bathroom, then she proceeded to beg for the bus driver to let her hold the bottle for the rest of the trip. he wouldn't let her. abby was sad. :( lol.

at around 6am, we got dropped off at some random place in the middle of nowhere (we all came to the concensus that if a thai transportation person wanted to take us all somewhere and kidnap us, they could because we never know where we are going, just get onto a million different buses, vans, tuk tuks, etc, and miraculously end up where we are supposed to end up...again, VERY inefficient!), and then had to wait for another van to take us to the ferry dock. we were all grouchy faces and sat around waiting for our van to come, and when it finally did, we got herded like livestock into a tuk-tuk much to small for the number of people there were, and went to a ferry stop. it was here that Jimbo (james) began one of the worst trips of his life (well, at least i think it was probably one of the worst, and if it were me, i would probably be back in LA right now, hehehe...kidding). when he opened his bag to get money out to buy food, he realized that he had been robbed 10,000 baht by the first bus that was loooong gone. i told him i'd lend him money for the trip, and he got over his loss fairly quickly by telling himself that whoever stole his money kid's would get cancer. yes, that is exactly what he said. then, we had to get on another bus because the ferry dock we were at was under construction. so we boarded another bus, drove for over an hour to the next ferry dock and got onto a "fast" ferry to koh samui. we got to the island and it was gorgeous. we found the "chavin condotel" easily by telling the taxi driver that it was across the street from pizza hut, which seems to be a landmark on koh samui's chaweng beach. we checked in and were extremely happy to find that our rooms each had a bathroom with a flushing western toilet and hot water. what more could a girl ask for???? we spent the rest of the day at the beach, ate dinner on the beach, and then slept early because we wanted to explore a new side of the island the next day. plus, i was almost comatose from the dramamine i took to prevent sea sickness...so sleeping was on the top of my list of things to do that night.

day two: we woke up at 830, ate breakfast at kao san bakery, struggled to get taxis to take us to the north side of the island, then spent the whole day (until mid-afternoon) at the beach. they had jet skis, kayaks, massages, waxing, hair braiding, everything you could imagine, on one beach. it was pretty funny. jimbo bought so much crap from vendors on the beach, including a sheet set and a tiger's tooth. at around 15:00 (hehe, i like military time now), it started to pour so we quickly packed up and went back to chaweng to shower and eat. we were sooo starving by the time we all got ready to go eat that we ended up a pizza hut, and i think it might have been the most satisfying meal so far (not the best, but the most satisfying). then marney and i walked around, some people took naps, jimbo and david got drunk, and we all rendezvoused around 8:00 to go out. that night, we went to a lady-boy show and it was fabulous. they lip-sang to a bunch of show tunes, and there were some really pretty ones and then there was one super fat ugly one that was probably 10% lady, 10% unknown, and 80% boy. she was our favorite though. then we went to a famous bar called green mango and danced our little booties off. finally, we checked out at 2ish and all passed out.

<-- The SUPER fat lady-boy...in case you couldn't tell.

now the story gets really good........at about 3:30, we get a call from jimbo "help help! i need help" and of course, we are all passed out and didn't take him seriously because we thought he was just drunk and being dramatic. so we went back to sleep. then, he comes banging on our door and tells us that he got beat up by a taxi driver. apparently, the taxi was coming at him so he jumped on the hood of the car, then the taxi driver got out, punched him in the face, kneed him in the ribs and stomach, and then took all of the money out of his wallet. again, when he told us this, we thought he was kidding. he told us that he was going to check himself into the hospital, and that he had internal bleeding. marney told him to sit down, so he did, then the next thing i know, i woke up to a text message saying that he was in the hospital. it was 9:00 am. i sat up in bed, realized what i just read, and got charity, found a map, found the hospital he was in, and since it was only 1km away, we walked to get him. the nurses said that he wasn't allowed to leave until they checked his blood at noon, but our bus was scheduled to leave at noon, so i went on "mission: break jimbo out of thai hospital". we got to the hospital, found jimbo in room 105, and he was in the bathroom when we got there. when he came out, he was in an over-sized hospital gown, no shoes, crooked glasses, holding himself up with an IV stand. me and charity broke out into laughter. it was not funny, but at the same time, it was hilarious. you had to see him. also, the hospitals are REALLY nice, they have pools and each room has a nice patio overlooking the pool/garden area. we decided that next time we are going to feign an illness and all just crash in a hospital room. so, we were successful in getting the nurses to let jimbo go early, but as soon as he stood up to get ready, he started to throw up. i hid under the pillows. then, i decided it might not be a good idea for him to embark on an 18 hour journey back to bangkok. luckily, there are a million travel agencies, practically as many as there are 7-11's so i was able to get him a plane ticket back to bangkok for later that night. we said our goodbyes and then i left him with his plane ticket, barf bag, backpack, david (another guy that came with us...the only one with a passport who could fly back with him) and in the care of the wonderful thai nurses!

the trip home was better than the one there because we learned all of our lessons the first time. this time, we rode on a huge ferry that the bus and some cars drove onto as well. it was not too bad, and i only got sea sick a itsy bitsy bit. then, when we landed, we got back on the bus, stopped at another random place for a few hours, got on a tuk-tuk, stopped at another place for about 20-30 minutes, then finally we saw our big "VIP bus" pull up to the stop. we all jumped up so that we could get good seats, and the lady at the bus stop kept yelling "NO NO, NOT YET, NOT YET!" but, we knew it was our bus so we sat on the sidewalk and waited for the go-ahead! finally, someone said "ok, you go" and abby ran, or, rather, sprinted to the bus, got us front row seats far away from the bathroom and snagged enough blankets for us all. marney took a picture of the license plate (in case we got robbed again), andy put the bags below, and charity, natalia and i followed abby. it was fabulous. we had a game plan this time, and it worked. the rest of the bus ride was uneventful. thank goodness.

we arrived back in bangkok, all in one piece, alive & well, but sleepy, at 5am. got home, showered, ate and then we all hung out, drank instant coffee and waited painfully to go to class at 9 am. i even studied for a little bit for my quiz!!! we figured it was better to stay awake because if we went to sleep we would probably miss class that we worked so hard to get back in time for. now, time to do laundry, nap, gym, do accounting homework. poop. but fernando comes tomorrow, can't wait!!!!

Black and White Party

Last Wednesday the BBA students (senior class) organized a "Black and White" party at a night club called Jet. we all had so much fun partying with the Thai students. it was the first time that we hung out with so many of them all at once. also, our friend Noon came over to our apartment before the party and got ready with us. to pre-game, we rocked out to a spice girls "wannabe" cassette tape that came with our apartment...it was soooo much fun! Noon was so shocked and said we have "such a different lifestyle" than she does ;)....she probably thinks we are insane. haha.... but, she is the cutest thing ever...so so tiny, and she has naturally super curly hair, so i straightened it for the party that night and she could barely look at herself in the mirror without giggling because it was the first time in her life that she has had straight hair. if i could describe the party in three words, they would be: 1) FUN 2) sweaty 3) smoky...thats the only thing that grosses me out here...we always come home smelling like ash trays because EVERYONE smokes, and they do it indoors. just a random funny sidenote, the tickets to get into the party were 10 time nicer than our school IDs, and our school IDs get us into clubs here....go figure.

Me, Char, Abby, Marney, Natalia, Noon before the party








The Thai student band that played at the club

I think i may have just eaten the best meal of my life!

we just came home from dinner, and i am finding it necessary to blog for the second time in two days because the meal i just had was TOO amazing. we went to a restaurant called Chotechitr, and it has been written up in many bangkok and travel magazines...and, since it is a whole in the wall, it's guaranteed to be delicious! it was honestly by far the best meal i've had here.

here's what we ate:
crispy fried rice noodles (3 plates)
whole white fish with green mango salad on top
yellow prawn curry
red duck curry
banana flower salad with shrimp (my favorite)
eggplant salad
cashew chicken (andy's choice ;) )
veggie dish of some sort
rice

and....for dessert, we walked out onto the street and saw people toasting thick slices of bread covered in bananas and loads of chocolate....we almost didn't get any of it, but we decided to try it, and it was probably the best decision of the night ;) at first we started off with one order...i ate one bite, turned around and it was gone. so we ordered another....and another....and another...and finally, one last one that we tried with coconut custard (that is green in color; we can't figure out why all of the coconut flavored things are green here) and it was even better than the ones with just chocolate and banana...of course...the more sugar the better! (don't worry, there were 7 of us total, so we didn't eat THAT much..........oh, and it cost about $45 for all of that food....i know, i'm obsessed with reporting prices, but it still amazes me to this day; i wonder if i'll ever get over how cheap things are here?)

i remembered my fun fact of the day from yesterday:
-i accidentally ate chips that were made of "lean pork - 86%", so i am officially not a pescatarian anymore.....gross....what a way to get off the "lifestyle" of being a pescatarian ;) lol


going to watch a movie and digest now. xoxo

We went to the snake farm three times...and never touched a snake

so, i guess the snake farm isn't going to happen. we have tried to go every day this weekend, and the first time we were 2 minutes too late, the second time we only had half an hour to see the snakes (i gave up after the second time) and the third time (andy and marney went to conquer their fear of snakes) they were not "milking" the snake venom....we give up!!! (SNAKE AT THE SNAKE FARM)

other than this small mishap, i had a fabulous weekend in bangkok! on thursday, i was only out of bed for 8 hours, so i vowed to make the best out of the rest of my weekend, and i definitely did on friday AND saturday! :)

on friday, marney and i woke up early (9:30) and wanted to be adventurous, so we found the word for "sky train" in our lonely planet phrase book (which is the funniest phrase book ever!) and told the taxi driver to take us to the sky train. 80 baht and 35 minutes later, we arrived at the sky train, only to find out that our stop for Jim Thompson's house was only 2 away....and it probably would have been faster and cheaper just to catch the taxi all the way.....it was going to be a weekend full of "cultural events" for us! the sky train reminded me so much of san francisco bart. i loved it! and it is so nice to be in air conditioner....we stay in whatever AC we can find for however long we can....sometimes we even go into stores just for the AC! i don't know what we are going to do when winter ends....anyway, we got on the sky train, had a nice view of some part of bangkok for 5 minutes, then got off at the National Stadium stop to see Jim Thompson's house. it was so beautiful there. the house was built in a traditional thai-style with six different houses on stilts connected together. however, even though the house was built in a traditional thai style, it was decorated with the most wonderful furniture, buddah sculptures, silk paintings, porcelain, and plants from all over south east asia--china, india, malaysia, indonesia....you name the country, and there was something in that house from there! but, even though he collected his art from so many different places, it all strangely matched, and fit together very nicely. the living room reminded me of my living room at home because there was an opium bed in the middle of it that looks just like ours! and my mom would have loved the dining room because the table was made of two mah-jong tables pushed together and the chairs were beautiful teak wood with cushions hand painted to look like blue and white chinese porcelain. mom--you need to see this place if you come to thailand...i thought of you the whole time! (ORCHIDS...FOR MOM; JIM THOMPSON'S HOUSE IN BACKGROUND)

after the jim thompson house, marney and i met andy at siam square for lunch...we figured we could reward ourselves with a little shopping after our cultural experience (we are trying to stay away from the shopping and do more bangkok-ish things....whatever that means!!! so, we ate at a japanese restaurant and then shopped for about an hour or so, then caught a taxi back home....the taxi ride took so long though because of bangkok traffic that we ended up getting to kaosan road, getting street pad thai and then turning around and going back to where we started to meet billy and his friend justin. billy was supposed to come in around 2, but with a combination between "thai-time" and bangkok traffic, he did not get to the hostel until around 630. it was alright though, because the hostel he stayed at was about 1km away from the boxing stadium where they have muay thai fights on friday nights!!! once they settled in, we walked to the stadium and watched the muay thai fights. i think that this was the first thing in bangkok that is exactly how i imagined it would be. the stadium was really old and it was made of wood boards, so every time you step, you are afraid your foot is going to go right through and you are going to fall through the floor! also, there were mostly men at the fight, the only women that were there were the girlfriends, but mostly men go there to bet and drink. it is a mess inside, but it was very cool! in total, there are 8 fights for the night, and the main fight is the 5th fight. it was a good night to go because the underdog won the main fight, so everyone in his corner was ecstatic! then, after that fight, there was a fight between a K1 champion (whatever that menas) from korea (who marney fell in love with!) and some other guy from thailand i think. the last fight was between some boys who were SO little...they were only 14 years old!!! after the fight ended, we got food at the night bazaar and went home to get a good nights rest for the floating market on saturday morning! (MUAY THAI FIGHT--MAIN EVENT)

went to bed at 130 on friday night, and on saturday when my alarm went off at 445 i second-guessed my plan to go to the floating market at 5am. but, since i organized it, i dragged my butt out of bed, brushed my teeth, found the biggest sunglasses i own, and went to meet everyone else in the lobby. marney and andy were already waiting...and of course, charity was the last one down ;) ;) hahahaha...she is on hawaii time PLUS thai time so we always make fun of her for being late!!! our friend JJ helped to hire a taxi driver to take us around all day for 800 baht, so the driver came at 5 am to pick us up, then drove us 2 hours to the floating market. it was quite the experience. we got there, and it has become a tourist trap, so we had to pay 400 baht to get on a boat that would take us through the market. even though it was very touristy, i loved it, and it is definitely something everyone needs to do when they come here. at first, there was a food canal where we got mango and sticky rice (off of a boat, of course) and some coconut pancakes that were both "simply delicioso"!!! here, they also sold every kind of fruit, thai dishes, pancakes of every sort, fresh veggies and tons of coconuts. there are also vendors along the side of the canals, but we made a deal as soon as we stepped foot into the boat that we were only going to buy things if they were floating...like us. after the food canal we went to some other canals that sold a bunch of crap that you see all over thailand. its really funny though because all of the ladies selling the stuff have these sticks with hooks on the end, so they reach out with their stick and hook your boat and drag your boat to their side of the canal...we kepteven when we go home to go to bed early, we somehow don't end up sleeping early. i think i saying NO NO NO, MAI CHAI (it means no) MAI CHAI! we were pretty obnoxious (mostly andy, as usual) by the end, but they don't listen. none of us bought any durable goods...only food...and we thought there would be food during the whole tour, but it's only at the beginning so we were sad :( then, we stopped at a tourist shop in some other canal, were forced to get out of the boat, looked around for 4 minutes and then got back into our boat to go on the rest of the tour. we were probably the worst tourists they have ever seen...thats because we are NOT tourists!!!!! yayyyyy! we are locals...thammasat students! hahahahha....i keep going between feeling like a tourist because i want to do everything in the 5 months that i am here, and feeling like a "local" because we are indeed living here....it will probably be this way the whole time! lol. finally, when we were on our way back to the pier we stopped at some place where they tried to make us buy fish food to feed the fish but I HATED IT. the fish were SO gross and they spray dirty dirty water all over you. and we were all screaming and saying GO but the boat driver and the other men who were selling the food thought it was hilarious so they poured two whole bags into the river and we got so much water all over us. i even got some in my mouth because i was screaming while the fish were flapping. it was disgusting. i purelled myself afterwards to protect against pregnancy, rabies, hepatitis, etc. you would too if you saw the water!!! hahahaha...not even being dramatic ;) then, something else even more scary happened! we saw komodo dragons in the water!!!! well, one komodo dragon swimming, and one dead one floating upside down in the river. andy saw it and i have never heard someone scream so badly, or look like he was going to die as much as he did. i think he was literally shaking, and holding his knees to his chest and, yeah, dying. and the boat driver thought this was funny too so he slowed down....just what we wanted to do. finally, we got back to the pier, and even though this story makes it sound like i didn't like it, i really really did! my favorite part was the food part, of course. and i would recommend this to anyone visiting bangkok too! just be sure to tell them you don't want to feed the fish or slow the boat down in open water ever. thats all :) (PICTURE OF THE FLOATING MARKET)

after the floating market, we wanted to ride elephants so we went to an elephant riding place that was sort of near by, and got out and realized it was another tourist trap for 600 baht for 30 minutes only, so we just took pictures of the elephants and left...we are so cheap......its bad. so we got back into our car and went to King Rama 2's palace (we don't know if it was his summer palace or his regular palace), but it was stunning. the buildings were all painted red and the landscaping looked just like kaneohe...everything was lush and green and the grass was perfect, rolling hills, palm trees, flowers, plumeria trees, the whole shabang. i took lots of pictures, so they will be on facebook soon! our last stop of the day was the snake farm, which leads to the beginning of this blog. (KING RAMA II PALACE)

we got there 2 minutes too late, but it was ok. marney and andy had enough scaring for the day anyway. but, since the snake farm was near jim thompson's house, charity and andy went there to see it, and marney and i took the skytrain (for more than 2 stops this time) to the JJ weekend market. the size of the market and array of things to buy still shocked me the second time, and this time we found the animals! they were selling baby hoku's for only 4000 baht, which is $120 US...they were the cutest things ever...we stood there and thought of ways we could hide them in our apartments, but decided against it. they also had golden retriever puppies and husky puppies (i felt so sorry for the dogs...they looked so so so hot...esp the siberian husky ). i also bought a BIG hiking/weekend backpack for $6!!! it is nice, except it says "jack wolfskin" on it and i don't know what that means. i was very pleased when i got home and all of the zippers worked. we'll see the true test during our next trip this weekend to koh samui. (i just planned it...we are leaving on thursday on a bus and staying until sunday in beach bungalows). (PICTURES OF THE PUPPIES AT THE JJ WEEKEND MARKET)

after the weekend market, we went home in NO TRAFFIC :) and then ate dinner at the green restaurant and got ready to go to RCA. this was the first time i went out since wednesday, and i didn't even drink! i needed to detox my body, and i did a good job of it this weekend....i was wondering how long i could go without my body hating me! for the record, i lasted 2.5-3 weeks...pretty good! but this past week has been pretty chill, and i plan on the next few weeks to be too...horray! i think i have a permanent stomach weirdness...its not upset, not sore most of the time, but sometimes has weird cramps or other issues. probably just getting used to everything :) not bad. (MARNEY, ANDY, AND ME AT RCA ROUTE 66)

Best things to bring to Thailand/things i'm thankful i brought (in lieu of my "Thailand Fun Facts"):
-z bars
-bug spray
-gold bond
-sun screen
-napkins
-shorts
Things I should have brought:
-going out tops
-more comfy shoes
-strapless bra....i forgot it....sad
Things i shouldn't have brought:
-six pairs of jeans. yes mom, you were right....it was the dumbest six things i could have packed ;)
-towel/sheets.....don't ask.....

i also had a good observation that i wanted to write about, but it is escaping me at the moment...i'll probably blog about it when i remember! i still love it here....still so super duper happy! fernando is coming on feb 6-12 and I CANT WAIT!!!! sweet deal.

hugs and love from bangkok. -mer

finally...

after much anxious waiting and delicious street food, i finally got my first bout of laduzi...or food poisoning... it wasn't bad at all, knock on wood. and i am perfectly fine after just one day of a little un-comfort...i even went to school :) hahahhaa...i'm a good student. whatever i ate was definitely worth it. lol.

on sunday, i had my first thai massage experience. we walked down the street to health land (a famous massage place) and got one hour foot massages. it was the best thing in the world, but i felt bad for the massage therapists because my feet are perpetually dirty from walking around in the bangkok filth...oh well....i just kept telling myself that they have probably seen worse. gross, i know. (ABBY AND MARNEY GETTING READY FOR FOOT MASSAGES)

after the massages, abby and i ate at a cute restaurant (the green restaurant) very close to our house...we scarfed our food down not only because we were starving, but because we were excited to go home and get ready to go out for jon's birthday..... (PICTURES AT THE GREEN RESTAURANT, AKA, MOMO'S)

which leads me to the final part of my blog....jon's 21st birthday...needless to say, jon had an amazing time, and we know it was amazing because the tuk-tuk driver had to help jon get into and out of the tuk-tuk at the end of the night. we did not really have any plans besides to get jon wasted (and we think he came very close to 21 shots), so we ended up just going to kao san road, which turned out to be sooooo much fun! we went to 2 clubs (lava and gazebo) had 2 rounds of pad-thai. simply delicious! then, i thought that i lost my camera and my phone, but it turned out that the security guard found my camera, and when i went to school this morning my phone was in my school bag...i guess i didn't bring it out with me in the first place. thank goodness. (BRIAN BOUGHT JON A CRICKET FOR HIS BIRTHDAY)

luckily brad and brian were good sports and carried jon INTO the club (yes, they still let inebriated people into clubs here, gotta get that 250 baht!!!)...OUT OF the club (20 minutes later), INTO the tuk-tuk, DOWN kaosan road, INTO the elevator, and INTO bed....that is a lot of carrying. it was their workout for the week! hehe... this morning there was everything you could find in an apartment on jon's bed and all over his floor (including "top soil" from the planters) and the sharpie that was all over his body managed to tattoo their leather couch........so if anyone has any tips for removing sharpie from leather, please let us know! (OUR BIRTHDAY GIFT TO JON...TAKE TIME TO READ WHAT THE SHIRT SAYS!)

my (very brief) thailand observations:
-the dogs are CRAZY here...they are barking so loudly right now, i hope they are not having dog fights down stairs or anything
-suzy reminded me of this one: all of the taxis are NEON!!! the hot pink are my favorite
-we've decided that lines on the road are just recommendations/guidelines, not anything to be followed to seriously, 90% of the time, the taxi's are not in lanes
-we don't have enough weekends to do everything that we want to do here :( but i think our next big trip will be either to chang-mai/laos, or to india!!!! how stoked are we???!!!??!

6 hours of class tomorrow....wish me luck. sweet dreams to all of you here, and good morning to everyone else! love you

The Trojan Network Spans Continents!

So....where did i last leave off...bat poop and corrupt thai police :)

On thursday i got hair extensions...at a mall...it was very random. marney got eyelash extensions at the same place and when they were finished, she sat up and said "god, i'm so glad i can still see!" i guess we didn't really think about it before we did it...what's new with me ;) that same night, we kept it low-key and stayed in and watched a movie.

I woke up on friday morning at 11:00 remembering i had a homework assignment due at 12...so i did my first homework assignment, and went to school to turn it in. it was such a nice day! not too hot, and not too much pollution. then i ate at school with charity (my favorite school food is some sort of thai kabocha pumpkin with egg on rice!). then, we ran some errands, bought more "baht points" for our phones, went to the supermarket and got street pad thai for dinner. most of our friends went to pattaya for the weekend. it is another beach city about 2.5 hours south of bangkok. i decided to stay and explore the city for the weekend, catch up on my sleep and i was too lazy to pack...plus, i have to mentally prepare myself to stay in another hostel and it was a very last-minute decision, so i didn't have time to do so :)

instead, charity, andy, filipo, max, ben, bruno, jj, noon (our thai friends) and i went to a club called "escudo." it was jj's birthday, so she got bottle service all night...but bottle service is different here than it is at home. basically everyone gets bottle service, and it is cheaper than buying drinks at the bar...and it is nothing special/vip-ish like at LA clubs. this club was kind of a diamond in the rough because there were both locals and tourists at the same place. they played good music, and jj knew the dj & crew, so we decided she is a good friend to have here in thailand! and now, for the reason for the title of my blog...we were outside the club eating "ghetto dogs" (YES, ghetto dogs!!! with chili, and no, i did not succumb to meat yet, my friends were eating them), and we met a USC alum. he was born in bangkok, then moved to the states when he was 4 years old, went to USC, and is now working in bangkok. andy was so stoked because he had met another USC alum the night before, we have met a few at the londoner, and even stranger, he also met one the next night! so, they weren't lying when they talk about the "trojan family"

oh, i forgot to mention that i blew out the electricity (or elec-trix-ity, as they say here) trying to straighten my hair...so i called our landlord, and he sent an electrician to our apartment immediately...but since i wasn't there, he wasn't able to get in. our landlord, justin, is amazing though....i think we might stress him out. he does everything for us, memorized all of our names within the first 24 hours of meeting us, and always calls us to make sure we are ok. he lets himself into our apartment to clean, he does our laundry and always gives us helpful tid-bits on what to do and what not to do in bangkok. oh, and he is gay. and got dimple surgery. sooooo cute! we love him! soooo, since i didn't have electricity, i slept at charity's place for the night...benefits of living in the same building as all of my friends.

on saturday morning, we woke up early-ish to go to the grand palace. we got ready quickly and dressed up in long pants, sleeved shirts, and close toed shoes...i was dreading leaving the apartment, but decided it would be worth it....and it SO was! the grand palace is amazing...AMAZING. it was beautiful. everything was sparkling (because there were hand-cut mirrored glass mosaic covering everything), the colors were all vibrant, the buildings were enormous, the emerald buddah was fantastic, and there was a hand-painted mural on all the walls surrounding the grand palace! i will put up an album of my pictures from the grand palace because i took so many! there were just as many locals here as there were tourists because they all want to visit the princess's body, which is at the grand palace for 100 days until her burial. we were not able to see her body, however, because we were not dressed properly. we were told that we needed to wear long pants, sleeved shirt, and shoes, but in order to see the princess's body, we needed to be wearing a long black skirt and white top...sort of like my thammasat uniform, but with close-toed shoes. so, i think i'll be going back to the grand palace because i want to see the princess's body.

after the grand palace, we went to the JJ weekend market. this place was overwhelming. there were over 8000 stalls filled to the brim of clothes, flying squirrels, army apparel, shoes, purses, baskets, flowers, food, jewelry, etc. i was going to buy a dress at a store, but then i looked around and there were HUGE trash bags full of the same thing, so i decided against it. i was so overwhelmed that i barely bought anything....just two tanktops for $3...probably the last thing i need, but they were cheap and nice colors, so i did it anyway. we were supposed to go to a party on the helicopter pad on the top of a hotel last night, but we accidentally shopped for too long, so we didn't make it. the boys left our place at 5:00, and we didn't get back until 7, so we decided to get dinner on the street (yes, i am getting very brave....hopefully i don't push my luck!)--sushi, corn and donuts. we took our food home, i took a cold shower (which felt so good after a day of sweating in my jeans and shirt), then charity and i ate dinner, had some cheap thai beer, and got ready to go out with some other friends who are exchange students at thammasat, but not in the business program.

we went to a place called RCA, which was an entire area of bars. they close down the streets and cover them in carpet, put tables and chairs outside and people just hang out on the street. all the bars are connected so once you go in through security, you can just walk from bar to bar. my favorite place was Route 66...there was awesome music and all of the other clubs were too crowded to move. literally. people are SO packed into these places, probably because there are no capacity limit laws, and if there are, they are not followed. speaking of laws, we had another funny taxi ride to the bars last night. this time, one of the girls brought an OPEN beer bottle with her into the cab, and we came upon a police check point and we all sort of freaked out. however, it turned out to be ok after all because, well, she was wearing her seatbelt. we looked at the taxi driver and held up the beer, and pointed to the seatbelt. he understood what we were asking, and replied "beer, ok. no seatbelt, no ok.!" hahahahhahah...it was so funny! the laws here are so weird. there are not even seat belts available in the back seat!!!

now, more thailand fun facts and observations:
-everything is served in a plastic bag: salad, drinks, soup, water bottles, everything
-they sell canvas bags everywhere that say "i am not a plastic bag" (trying to be eco-friendly, huh. go figure)
-people drink everything through a straw
-there are NO trash cans here...which probably explains why the city smells the way it does ;) kidding.
-inefficiency is prevalent here: for example, in the bathrooms at clubs, people wait in individual lines to use the bathroom (per stall), instead of just one line at the door. (and for those of you that took BUAD-311, you know this is not the most efficient type of waiting line, hehe. nerdy comment of the day)
-washing your hands after using the bathroom is unheard of...putting on makeup is MUCH more important
-bottle service is cheap
-whiskey is a favorite here...gross.
-yesterday i ate RAW lettuce, sushi from the street, and ICE...and i am still alive! YAY!
-i love thailand.
-even though it is supposedly bad to touch people on the head, my thai friend was doing it all night when we went clubbing....maybe she was drunk....
-it's REALLY REALLY funny when our thai friends sing to the music at clubs (which is all in english). i can't stop laughing when i think about it because they make up their own words and sing the entire time! (kinda like me ;) )
-i learned how to say foreigner: "farang"
-the sunsets here are so pretty because of the pollution...i guess it serves one good purpose

more to come. this week should be fun. it's jon's birthday tomorrow, and billy is coming on friday!!!!! i'm excited and happy, as usual!

love, mer

Back in Bangkok

I love this city more and more every day I am here.....

This week has been pretty relaxing so far, I went to school on monday, tuesday, and wednesday, and now my weekend has begun. classes here are interesting. i am taking an information systems class, international business, marketing planning, social and environmental marketing, and an accounting class. the thai students talk throughout the entire class period (to each other, and on their phones) and the professors seem to say the same thing over and over for 3 hours straight...i guess it is ok, and i am getting used to the other students talking all the time. also, there is something called "thai time" here, which is pretty cool! it's sort of like being on "hawaiian time" where people are ALWAYS late. regardless of where they are going or what they are doing, they are always late....even we are on thai time now. its sort of nice because we are never in a rush to go anywhere and the locals are the same way. the city is always awake and there is traffic at all times of the day, like in LA, but the people here are not usually in a rush. so, we can be up to 30 minutes late for class and still be counted as present, and classes that are scheduled for 9:30 don't actually start until 9:45, and our 15 minute breaks turn into 30 minute breaks...its easy to get used to ;) something else that is different here is that the presentations are very elaborate...the profs like the students to dress up and have props for their presentations. its like being in an acting class.

on tuesday night, we went to a HUGE shopping center called MBK to buy uniforms and look around. it was so cool...there were tons of places to eat and you could buy anything from a camera to underwear. it is like the outdoor markets here (and in china), but it was indoors. we are trying to get good at bargaining, but we haven't mastered the technique yet. after we went shopping, we went to an ice cream place that seems like the "pink berry" of thailand...it is supposedly super popular, and it is hard to get a seat in the store. it is called "monster ice" and it is shaved ice with tons of fruit or cookies or brownies, and some sort of syrup on top. then they put a scoop of ice cream on the very top. it was delicious :) :) when we got back from MBK we went to hang out with the boys and we discovered that we could go to the roof of our building and have a 360* view of Bangkok. it is the most beautiful sight and it is so surreal being in another country, on one of the highest buildings in miles, and being able to see everything below you. brad actually thought it was so wonderful that he passed out on the roof for a few hours!!!

Although we were all really tired from our trip this past weekend and from tuesday night, we somehow managed to go out to Wacky Wednesday at the Londoner last night. it was the most eventful taxi ride that i have had in bangkok so far because we got pulled over by thai police!!!! at first i wasn't scared, but then i started thinking about it and got scared! hahaha...marney was not wearing her seatbelt in the front seat, which is apparently illegal here, even though no one wears their seatbelt in the front seat, not even taxi drivers....but anyway, we got pulled over and ended up having to pay the taxi driver 500 baht..which is $3 each, but the worst part is that we think the taxi drivers conspire with the police because after we paid the police officer the 500 baht, he gave 100 of it back to the taxi driver! OH, and the taxi ride before this one was weird too because we had a lady driver! back to the londoner: it is going to become our wednesday night tradition here in Bangkok....an amazing way to start off the weekend (since most of us only go to school mon-wed, our weekend starts at 5pm on wed.) it is like a pub you might find in LA or anywhere in America, but better! since drinks are 2 for 1 all night it is the cheapest alcohol we can find (but we definitely spend the majority of our money on drinks...it is the only thing here that is relatively pricey...it really isn't that expensive, but when we pay $0.66 for lunch at school, a $4 beer seems like a lot!), and there is the most amazing thai cover band that plays on wednesdays....they are SO SO SO good! and we can request songs and they usually know them! there is one girl singer and the rest are guys...one has a really high voice, and one looks like a rasta (but thai style!) before wacky wednesday, we went to dinner at a mexican restaurant...it was a very interesting experience. before we even got to the restaurant, i looked up and there were thousands of small bats flying around and there were people catching the bats...then i felt something wet on my foot and i looked down and a bat pooped on my foot!!!!!!! it was soooooooo gross....i immediately went to the bathroom at the restaurant and washed and purelled my foot. yuck. yuck....yuckie. oh well. somehow, everytime we want to go to a restaurant on wednesday night, we can't find it, and we end up somewhere else....last week we wanted sushi but ended up at korean bbq....and this week we couldn't find our restaurant, then when we got to the londoner, it was literally right across the street. the only bad thing about last night was trying to get a taxi from dinner to the londoner...it is one of the most frustrating things in thailand because many of the taxi drivers do not let you ride with the meter because they can make a lot more money by trying to bargain. and since we were in a tourist district last night, they get away with it all the time. instead of a 70baht cab ride, they try to charge us 200 or 300 baht...so we ended up walking a few blocks and catching a cab outside of the tourist district...

Now, for my random thailand observations/fun facts:
-they sell things that definitely need a prescription on the street: dentures, contacts, birth control, medicine, reading glasses, etc.
-i might start eating chicken
-people fish in the EXTREMELY dirty river, so i am not going to eat any kind of street seafood near the river
-street corn on the cob is AMAZING
-shorts are ok to wear, but tank-tops are not as ok...i had to re-take my passport photos because i was wearing a tank top in it
-locals think it is funny when we try to speak thai, but they like it
-washing machines are bad...i'm going to send my wash out from now on
-lady boys are the prettiest of all
-they only have OB tampons
-all chips are rather taste-less
-the only cereal they have are: corn flakes, honey stars, cookie crisp, muesli, frosted flakes, and coco krispies....i definitely miss my puffins and kashi!
-the stray dog problem is outrageous
-i'm getting used to the smell of the city :)
-my favorite things to eat here are pad thai and ice cream sandwiches. yum-O!!!!
-speaking of "yum-o", definitely no food network here, go figure

here are the links to my facebook albums if you want to see pictures!
http://usc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2203642&l=679f8&id=3406342
http://usc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2203629&l=e67bc&id=3406342
http://usc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2201637&l=07401&id=3406342

love love you all! xox