Wednesday, February 06, 2008

What's that hose for?

Well I made it and it only took me 31 straight hours of travel to get here. My flight left Dallas at 10AM and chased the sun west for the next 13 hours. After landing in Tokyo, I had enough sun light during the layover to put me at just over 24hours of broad daylight which was pretty awesome. It was 4am in Austin but bright and sunny outside where I was. The next flight was 7 hours to Bangkok which I slept for most of but woke up just in time for the moist towel, whose purpose I still don't understand. Anyways, I eventually got dropped off around 2am in the backpacker's ghetto known has Khoa San Road. I didn't have any places lined up to stay so I just started walking around looking for a guesthouse with a room available. This proved more difficult than I thought it would be and navigating the throngs of drunken foreigners only made it worse. After walking down numerous alleys and side streets, I found a room with a bed and a bathroom and took the best cold shower I've ever had.

I woke up painfully early the next day because of the jet lag (something I'm still doing 3 days later) and decided to go exploring. I just walked aimlessly in any direction that looked interesting. It was surprisingly easy to escape the lunacy of KSR and happen upon Thais going about their daily business. I've spent most of the last few days walking around different areas of town such as Chinatown, Siam Square (which has the biggest mall I've ever seen... 6 stories, 300 yards x 100 yards) and the KSR area. I've taken a few pictures which I uploaded to Flickr with descriptions so I'll spare you the full narrative.

Now onto something completely different...
The "amenities" here are pretty basic. I've been staying in rooms without windows, AC or a bathroom because well they are about $6. I really just need a place to crash for the night and drop my stuff so I'm not really looking for much. Each stall in the shared bathrooms has a shower head and a toilet with a hose next to it. There's no toilet paper because they dont use that here but fortunately I brought some to hold me over until I bit the bullet. That happened pretty quickly... I went to the bathroom early in the morning on my second day and did business. I tragically realized I left my TP in my room and then thought "well this was inevitable I guess," looked at my left hand and said "it's just you and me old friend," grabbed the hose and went to town.



It really was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be! Everything ended up spick and span and I was on my way.

Anyways, I've walked my feet raw in the last couple days and I don't have much energy left to write more so that will be it for now. Be sure to check out my Flickr page for some real pictures (the link is over there on the right) and leave a comment if you feel like it.

Oh and almost forgot... It's loud, dirty, smelly, hot and humid here but the food is good and I'm having a blast. Cant wait for more.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

T-Minus 3 Days

So I'm leaving on Saturday (almost a week late) and I'm only a couple loose ends from being completely packed up. Most of my gear is in order, I've checked off most of the items on my packing list and it's almost time to fill up my pack. So, without further ado here is my packing list for this trip.

3 T shirts
2 pairs of cut off pants
1 pairs of shorts
1 pair of board shorts
4 pairs of boxers
4 pairs of socks
1 fleece jacket
1 waterproof light shell
2 bandanas
1 visor
1 belt (doubles as a strap for tying things down)
1 pair of chacos
1 pair of Salomon trail runners
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1 silk sleeping bag liner
1 knife, 1 leatherman
1 padlock with some cable
1 frisbee/plate
1 squishable bowl and cup
some rope
1 door stop
1 universal sink plug
1 headlamp
1 pack towel
1 sewing kit
1 camping spoon and fork
1 pair of tweezers
1 compass
1 neck pouch (thanks Alyce)
1 nalgene bottle wrapped in duct tape
1 bottle of iodine for water
asst. zip ties and ziplock bags
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Toothbrush and toothpaste
shaving razors and handle
a stick of deodorant
bandaids
travel size shampoo & soap (to start me off)
1 course of Cipro
70 some odd pills of Doxycycline
a bottle of Lomatil
Some Benadryl and EmergenC
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Nikon D40 w/ 15-55mm & 55-200mm lenses
Casio Exilim EX-S600 (not pictured)
3 2Gb SD memory cards
Gorilla pod
Nintendo DS w/ an M3 DS Simply flash cart
4th Gen Ipod (not pictured)
a voltage converter
1 Gb U3 thumb drive to keep all my bookmarks, passwords, etc...
asst. cords and chargers for all this crap
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Books: The Mole People (thanks Erin and Jesse), Nikon D40 manual, Lonely Planet Thailand, journal (thanks Alyce)
1 rubber ducky keychain flash light that also quacks (thanks mom)
a bunch of "Dont Mess With Texas" stickers for trading and gifts
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Gregory Baltoro 70L backpack
a 70L REI duffel bag for the backpack
Mountainsmith Day pack (800 cu in)
Tamrac camera bag for the Nikon

Well I think I have most of the bases covered so that's it for now. I still have quite a bit to do before I'm completely ready to go but this will be my last post from the states.

I'm trying to update this thing on a weekly or at least bi-weekly basis so check back soon and feel free to leave a comment below.