day 2: Buddhas and Temples

The respect paid to the Buddha is something of legend. Shoes off the temples. No pointing your toes directly at the Buddha. Stay quiet inside the temple.

Today I was fortunate ough to go to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. The GP was extraordinaly expensive coming in at 500 baht. However, it houses the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha is not the biggest or most extravagantly decorated of the Buddhas I saw today, but its perfectly carved shape out of Jade, adorned with garments made of gold was spectacular. On top of that, the king himself changes the wear of the Buddha with the change of each season, sacred.

I'm still too stubborn to negotiate with tuk tuk drivers for rides, so I walked every today, probably 8-10 miles in all. I slept through dinnertime and instead went for cart food, pad thai w/ chicken and egg, plus a beer for 90 baht ($3).

Tomorrow im going to the Dusit Zoo in North Bangkok. Until then.

BTW, struggling to load photos on here

Day one in the books

The first day was interesting to say the least. culture shock is in full bloom. I didn't write down the address of my hostel, only the name, so it took a grand 2 hours to find once I got to khao San road.

food is just a little bit more expensive then I had thought. I walked around for about 30 minutes before settling on a place to eat. yellow curry with chicken (my favorite) for 110 baht. 1 us dollar equals 30ish baht with the exchange fees so about 4$ for something that would be about 7-8$ in the US. (I also got a beer for 70 baht, a Heineken) I am hesitant to indulge myself with food cart meals, but today I will challenge myself with the idea

my day started with sleeping in the airport for 5 hours. I then took the train into banglamphu, the main tourist hub. from the train I was driven around in a 'tuk-tuk' for 2 hours. a tuk tuk is basically a trike with a seat in the back. my tuk tuk driver was helpful in getting me a cellphone from the mall. 495 baht for a cheap cheap text and call only phone. it costs 1 baht per minute to call back to the united states. incredibly cheap. but I made the mistake in letting him take me to a travel agency. they overcharged me for my bus ride to krabi on Friday, 1100 baht instead of the competive rate of 700-800. I guess you live and learn and a ten dollar mistake is nothing for what I learned from it. anyways, two hours of tuk tuk riding with Mao cost 340 baht, think of what a two hour taxi in Seattle would cost.

I also think most of these tuk tuk drivers only know a couple phrases, 'where are you going my friend, I take you'. I've learned rather quickly to not even give a response. Ignoring feels more natural every time I pass by a local, sad but true.

I'll also have to get used to 9 other people coming into the room at night. Eventually I'll sleep better once I up with Thai time.

Today i am going to go to the grand palace complex. time to explore some 18th century temples. Its a day for your exploration in my family, my sister just arrived in Texas and will be arriving to her new home of San Antonio tonight! Trust me, we didn't plan both leaving home within 24 hours of the other. 

Heading out tomorrow for San Francisco. I will be sailing with Manfred Schmeidl and crew (Alison, Kerry and Brennan) in the Melges 24 World Championship, as well as Big Boat Series, aboard the boat Brio 620. I am also pretty pumped about Oracle Team USA's resurgence in the America's Cup. I figured it would be long over by now, but tomorrow they will sail Race 17!!!! Tomorrow, the Brio team will be out on the water practicing during what could be a historic victory by Team ETNZ, or the continual dominance of Oracle. I am hoping for the latter to occur if that wasn't obvious.

With the first leg of my "early retirement" starting tomorrow, I figured I would post a photo of all the things I am packing for my SEA adventure. I am sure the pile will have last minute additions and subtractions by the time I go from SFO in two weeks, but this is what I am starting with. Nothing special. 

Over and out. 

Just a real quick note to get started... I am traveling throughout South East Asia for 2.5 months starting Oct 6th. I am using this blog mainly as a way to let family know where I am at and what not. It's my intention to update it fairly frequently, but I am not sure how much access I will have over there.

Anyhow, feel free to read. If no one ends up reading it, I'll post anyway as a record of my trip.

Later!