Wat Pho

This is the temple of the Gigantic Reclinging Buddha- and they do mean gigantic. It's the full length of this temple and it probably stands a good 20+ feet high and he's laying on his side, so the length is easily 100+feet I would think. The entire thing is coverred in gold and the bottom of his feet are covered in intricate mother of pearl work. The gruonds are quite beautiful as well and have several different buildings. There is also a well known school located on the premises that is famous for thai massage as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho

The Jim Thompson House

If you're not familiar with who Jim Thompson is, you should google him- an interesting guy. He is basically responsible for the bringing to the mainstream market Thai Silk. He built some very beautiful houses from teak and they have been relocated to this site we went to, and they also have a store which sells Jim Thompson silk products. He disappeared mysteriously in 1967 which according to the Chinese Astrology charts was an unlucky year for him in which he should be careful, obviously that didn't work out for him. Here's a couple links with more info...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_(designer)

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/

The Grand Palace

Wow it's hot and humid here. I'm dripping sweat as we speak- and it's the cool part of the day. Today we went to the Grand Palace and then also to Jim Thompson's House- both of which are amazing and you must put on your to do list if you come here. I'm trying to get pics to upload right now, but they are taking awhile, so you may only get to see a few for now.


(Jen and Dean- hope these notes help you out some for your trip :)


Travel Tip #4: If you are on your way to a major tourist site, you will inevitably be stopped by a tuk-tuk driver of some sort and they will ask you where you are going, they will then insist that the place you are going is closed- they are lying. Always walk to the place you are going to and find out for yourself- it's a rare occasion that these places are closed. The drivers are trying to get you to go with them instead.


Travel Tip #5: Carry a handkerchief with you to wipe the sweat off of your face and neck- it helps.


Travel Tip #6: Buy a pass for the Skytrain- you'll use this to get around quite a bit, and use the water taxi's- we seem to be using the one with the orange flag a lot. Cheap and efficient to get around to several places.

Thailand

So the start of this trip was in LA, and when I got in, Jim picked me up along with Taryn who got in that same day so we had lunch together and hung out for a bit. I love seeing friends off the ice- it's so great. Taryn caught a train that day to head to San Diego, and Jim and I spent some time with his parents who had flown in to see him. We ran some errands, mostly hunting down drugs for me since I managed to get sick in the past few days and am fighting off the remnants of it still. We left LA and after 18 hours of flights, made it to Bangkok. Our flights were good- a little behind schedule because of bad weather at the Tokyo airport, but this was more than made up for by the fact that we got to go in to the lounge at the airport for the first flight- which was really nice! Then we got upgraded on our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok to business class- oh my goodness there was so much room to spread out- i just slept the whole way!! I think this has to do with our platinum status with American Airlines, I'm not sure, but I'm not asking either. :) We got to our hotel at 0200 in the morning after getting scammed by the taxi driver- oh well- lesson learned. There is no visa fee right now which I guess balances that out. :) Travel tip #1: for those of you coming here- take the metered taxi- and don't just hop in one that tells you he is metered- they are clearly marked on top of the car if they are metered or not. There are a few different companies- one is green and yellow, another is pink, another is red- we've used a couple and they all seem fine to me as long as they know where you are going. That's the hardest part- the language barrier- it makes me a little mentally exhausted by the end of the day, but we'll get there. Yesterday we just went and picked up a SIM card for my phone to get me a local number and then went and saw a movie- the Watchmen- which was pretty good. Wandered around a shopping center for a bit, and then came back to the hotel to take a nap and have dinner- well we took a nap- we never made it to dinner- and about 13 hours later we emerged to get breakfast and here I am at the computer now. I think we're caught up on some of our sleep now. Off to Chatuchak market today and maybe the Grand Palace. Pics to come as I take some... I may be posting and then uploading pics later.
Travel Tip #2: Stay at the Shanti Lodge in Bangkok- fantastic place- thanks to those who recommended it! Good food, and the staff mostly speak english and are super helpful! They can book most things for you- they took care of our train tickets to Ko Samui for us, and then we got out visa to Vietnam taken care of by them too- plan for 72 hours for the 2 day service since it won't get back to you til the evening of the 2nd day which you might be leaving before it arrives.
Trvel Tip #3: Get a business card with directions from the place you are staying at to give to your taxi driver when you need to get back to where you are staying- this makes it much easier as they rarely speak english.

A Short Visit

I made it to Utah for a few days to see some very close friends of mine. It was a whirlwind visit and my sleep schedule is all sorts of hosed up, but I'm so glad I got some time with all of them. The few days I was here were spent unpacking bags, packing bags, moving Kristin and Enoch in to their new house, running errands, seeing a few other friends, playing some games, laughing a lot, and catching up as much as possible over the 72 hours I had with them all. I'm off to LA for the start of my 12 weeks in Southeast Asia tomorrow morning!! Thanks to everyone who crammed in some quality time with me while I was here!