TravelStream™ news feed for member rcys on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/rcys en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:56:32 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235558820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235558820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235558820/tpod.html Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:56:32 -0400 Missing... Presumed Having a Good Time. An online journal for your entertainment.

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Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

The title sounds sort of like a review of the latest boy band doesn't it?  Well no, it's just about the blog of my latest walkabout.  I've written over 200 stories here and at bootsnall.com that have been viewed over 30,000 times.  I can hardly believe that it's been 3 years since I left Miami.  The world seems to have changed so much since I left it behind to walk the Earth and find my own way and my own adventures.  I heard a funny pseudo quote the other day, "It was the best of times.... If only someone had told me..."  I think it was from Mulder or whatever his character is called these days.  I'm not sure if I've found wisdom in the light or if I've just been wandering around in the darkness on a foolish journey . But to quote from one of my favorite bands, "I may be going to Hell in a bucket, babe.  But at least I'm enjoying the ride".  Regardless of all that, I think it's time to bring my blog to a close.  Like the email joke list that I ran back in 1995-1997, "Humor for People That Don't Suck", it was time to close shop when I ran out of quality material to send out and the same stuff that I sent out years before were coming back to me.  I'm running out of different stories to write and I believe the quality may be starting to suffer.  I don't want to be like the X-files or ER (whew finally they ended it) trying to go on for years after they ran out of material.  What were they thinking?Although I knew I would be gone a long time when I decided it was time to leave Miami after a 3 1/2 year pit stop in Clubland, I didn't realize I was going to be gone quite this long.  I remember when I was getting ready to leave in Oct. 2005, my sister in law asked me if I'd be back for Christmas.  I said, "Sure. I'm just not sure which year".  I don't think she had any idea that I'd be gone for more than a couple weeks.  I think she was thinking more like a 2 week vacation at the Phuket Marriott sipping umbrella drinks by the pool.  It was great to see my nephew's first steps, but it's also hard to fathom that he's now 3 times older now than he was when I left. Unfortunately, my bro is not very adept at posting photos online so I rarely get to see pictures of him.  A few years ago when he learned how to talk, I was able to talk to him online via messenger, but I haven't seen him for months.  I wonder some times if he remembers Uncle Ray.  Being in Asia for 3 years now has been great, but I'm starting to miss western life at times.  I think I miss the food the most.  I would love to have a Chicago style pizza or a real Mexican burrito.  A Philly Cheese steak or some Poutine would be awesome!  I think about going back for a visit some time, but it's half way around the world.  I wonder if I'm outside Ranalli's Pizza delivery area.  Maybe I'll have to wait for Air Asia to fly to Miami or San Francisco before I go back.  I'll have to write Tony Fernandez to see if he'll add a hub in SFO OR MIA for me. He's got an airport in London, why not Miami?After 3 years on the road, I still have not found what I'm looking for or at least I didn't recognize it if I did.  I've lived, I've loved and explored all the places that I missed on my first trip to Asia.  Several things have come up along the way, but nothing has panned out as of yet.  I keep digging around my favorite islands, but the  motherlode seems to keep eluding me.  I guess half the problem is I'm not sure what it is that I'm looking for or maybe I've set my sights for the things I want so high that the "bar'' is unattainable. I think maybe I have lost the path and strayed from the Way.  I find myself 3 years older, richer only in experience, none the wiser and cracking into the next decade of my life.  I recently looked into my retirement savings that I thought I had gotten a good start on back in 1993 and they are all drowning under water.  Even though I took most of my liquid funds out of the stock market in 2007 because I thought the market was over bought, I didn't listen to myself and left my retirement accounts fully invested.  In one year, they have lost all the gains of the past 16 years.  Ouch!  Forget about AIG, Citigroup, Goldman, GM and Chrysler!  Where's my bailout!!??  Too bad I didn't take my severance package and stuff it all in to IBM or Apple instead of diversifying.  I came so close to doing it after IBM hit a 30 year low in Sept of 1993 just before I left on my first trip to Asia.  Half of my severance package if invested in IBM back in 1993 would be worth about 300K today. I could almost retire in Thailand with that.  It's true, youth is really wasted on the young.  If I only knew then what I know now, I'd have my beach bar on a tropical island.So this is it.  I don't know if I will end this journey any time soon, but I will leave you here in China as I decide what to do next.  Thank you all very much for reading my ramblings with travel tips infused into my musings.  And a special thank you for the generous donations from my friends, dad and loyal readers to help fund this most excellent adventure.  It's been great fun writing my stories although some posts have gotten me into trouble along the way.  Hence the disclaimer in my profile which I'm sure you have all read.  I hope you have all enjoyed them half as much as I enjoyed writing them.  I didn't send out updates very often because I know some of you on my mailing list don't really care and I know I hate getting blast emails from people.  So if I haven't heard from you in a long time, drop thechineseguyumet an email and let me know what you are up to these days.  I know I haven't posted as often or as regularly as I had originally intended, but over 200 posts in 156 weeks is pretty darn good if I say so myself.  If something strikes my fancy, I may add another story or two, but nothing like I have over the past 3 years.  Cheers! as I boldly go into the 4th year of my journey.  I wonder if this is going to be a 5 year mission?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1221241140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1221241140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1221241140/tpod.html Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:13:32 -0500 Missing... Presumed Having a Good Time. An online journal for your entertainment.

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Additional Disclaimer:  I was going to upload some personal videos from this entry, but for the sake of my younger readers, crazy stalking Ex girlfriend (why are you still reading my blog?), ex girlfriends and current readers we'll leave the rest of the evening up to your imagination.  If you are a friend and want to view the videos, please go to my facebook page and check out my videos.  I will include one video here where I am behind the camera.You only turn a Quarter Century Old once in your life so you might as well make the most of it. I seem to remember jumping out of a perfectly good airplane after 8 hours of skydiving school somewhere over Pasa Robles for mine just before embarking on my first extended journey around SE Asia. Even though Sheena had to leave town for work, it didn't stop me from helping one of the girls that she works with turn 25 in fine fashionable form. A bunch of us met at Miguel's Mexican Restaurant for dinner and cocktails. After Miguels, we kept with the Mexican theme when we went to their friend's local bar and brought out a bottle of I don't even know what kind of ToKillya. It certainly wasn't 1800 or even Jose, but it surprisingly didn't taste like mierda either. Gracias Dio por eso. Seeing as I was in a country far from Mexico in a group of about 7 girls and a couple guys, I figured it was only my duty to introduce a fun way to drink tequila. Fortunately in Thailand, there is no shortage of limes, salt or bodies. As I was introducing the concept of a body shot to the group, Keely, the birthday girl, asked a fine question. "What is a body shot?" I felt obliged to demonstrate the process instead of any kind of lengthy boring description. There is one small problem about performing such risque behavior in a new group as you really don't know the players. Unfortunately, I found out a bit later after slowly licking, applying and sucking salt off Keely's neck that she was one of the Thai guys, Robert's, girlfriend. I promptly apologized for not asking permission first and set them up with shots before finishing the reciprocating shot with her. I can't even imagine what he was thinking as he watched me sucking the salt off her neck and taking the lime out of her mouth. Before I knew it, we were almost out of tequila and we hadn't nearly run out of bodies to do shots off. The bar didn't stock tequila, but in the land of smiles Buddha somehow always seems to provide. Before I poured the last drop, another bottle showed up to keep the fiesta going. I'm not sure who went out to get it or where it came from, but it was a great call. By the end of the night just about everyone including one of the Thai girls got into the spirit and a marvelous time was had by all. The next morning wasn't so much fun. I felt like Krap and I'm not being polite. But I could tell that it was more than just a bad tequila hangover. I was really sick. The kind of sick where your scalp to the tip of your hair hurts and your joints feel like they are on fire. Something was clearly not quite right... Thank you all for a very fun evening. Everyone Tip: If you know me and you feel some kind of strange compulsion to go see Bangkok Dangerous just because it has Bangkok in the title, DON'T! I only say this because that's why I went. I do not want to be responsible for the torture you will have to endure for the next two hours. Even if you are a huge Nicholas Cage fan, you'll come out hating him afterwards for taking this movie. If you need more info, I actually felt so strongly that I registered and posted a comment on IMDB. The only thing that made the price of entry almost worth it was in the beginning when Cage starts describing how dirty and scandalous Bangkok is and I turned to my friend and said, "slimy? Mudhole? My home, this is!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235282700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235282700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1235282700/tpod.html Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:58:56 -0500 Missing... Presumed Having a Good Time. An online journal for your entertainment.

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Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

I could hardly believe it myself when I heard it, but it's true. Why would anyone make a fake egg? Sites like Snopes have been saying that an email you may have gotten years ago about fake eggs are a hoax, but it's true. I'm here in China now and fake eggs have been found over the years as it's easy to make and cheaper than dirt. The latest finding was just a few days ago even in Macau. Apparently, they are made with some food stabilizers and aluminum. The stabilizers are not harmful, but it's the aluminum that I'm worried about. There's no nutritional value in eating them so at least you won't have to worry about cholesterol, but Alzheimer's disease has been linked to long term consumption of aluminum. I'm boiling a couple eggs that I bought to see if they are real or not. Apparently, the shells are shinier than real eggs, but since I have nothing to compare them to, the only way to tell is boil them and try to bounce the yolks. Fake eggs yolks bounce almost like super balls. I saw a video on ATV news to demonstrate how to spot a fake egg. I'm hoping that I'll have breakfast in a few minutes instead of a dozen new toys.Here's a link to The Standard news articleI'd include an article from the main English newspaper, South China Morning Post, but you have to be an online subscriber to read their stories.Update: Well I just had a real egg white breakfast as the yolks were sacrificed to test if the eggs came from a chicken or a lab. The video isn't all that great, but it was funny to make.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1234119420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1234119420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1234119420/tpod.html Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:19:08 -0500 Missing... Presumed Having a Good Time. An online journal for your entertainment.

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Bangkok, Thailand

The visa rules in Thailand have changed twice in the past 2 years and both times I am sure that Thai immigration has changed the rules just to mess with my life. Here comes that Chinese guy again. I really don't understand why though. I certainly am not taking any job opportunities away from the locals. I only want to spend some money and help bolster their failing economy and diminishing tourism income by spending my money in the locally owned businesses. I've spent about a half million Baht in the past 2.5 years here. You'd think the country would be happy to see me come. From their welcoming smiles and friendship, I know the businesses that I frequent enjoy my repeat patronage, but the government doesn't seem to want me or people like me here. Maybe they prefer the sexpats and pedophiles that they give 1 year visas. I arrived in Thailand for the first time in 12 years in Aug of 2006. They promptly changed the immigration laws that have been in effect since King Rama IV in Sept. 2006 to limit visa exemptions to 90 days out of any 180 day period. People had been doing visa runs every 30 days since before the first time I came to Thailand in 1991, but no they changed the law a month after I arrived and decided to live in Bangkok. With the hassles of the new rules, I decided to only live there part time much to the chagrin of the girl I was going to live with. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise since I always had an excuse to leave Bangkok and go traveling. I think actually living in Bangkok would have been akin to purgatory if not Hell itself. It's certainly hot enough to qualify.I arrived this time in Dec 2008 for a planned 2 month visit to see friends and spend some time on my favorite islands. Unbeknownst to me, they once again changed the laws on Nov 25, 2008 to give only 15 days for visa exemptions when you cross a land border. Not only did that screw up my plans for doing a single visa run on my hop from island to island, but also it makes me have to get out of my hammock 2 more times if I want to do it legally. More importantly, it means that instead of giving only $10 to the Burmese Military Dictatorship, I now have to give them $30. There is absolutely no benefit to Thailand in this transaction except that maybe the boat man gets an extra 200B from me on my runs into Burma. Although I really would prefer not to give any money to the Burmese Dictatorship, my principles do have a time and price limit. It's just not feasible to go to Malaysia every 2 weeks so I resigned to giving them $20 and skipped the last visa run to give $45 to the bastard Thai immigration department in overstay fines instead. Even though I hate the bastards at Thai immigration, I prefer to give my sworn enemy the money instead of an evil military junta that is killing it's own people by the hundreds of thousands. Only after the regime is ousted will history tell if the Khmer Rouge or this group was more devastating to it's people. I was hoping that the lame duck president would do one final invasion before Obama took office and rid the world of one more dictator and salvage a horrible 8 year reign. I guess Cheney was too ill to hatch another dastardly plan. At least in the history books, Bush could have had another footnote besides *worst president ever, by toppling the military in Burma. I mean really, what's another couple hundred million in debt when credit default swaps are already costing us trillions? What the hell is with the name Myanmar anyway? Burmese people tell me they are from Burma.I almost was able to get out of paying the 1500B fine, but instead of using the Jedi Mind Trick, I tried to just be nice and humble to the immigration officer. She stamped my immigration card, but noticed just before stamping my passport and threw me to the wolves to pay my fine. Oh well, I guess it just made my $30 flight to Macau a $75 flight. Still pretty cheap for a 3 hour flight.
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Koh Deutschland, Thailand

Once a year I make the trek across the island to visit the island bakery run by a Thai and Australian couple. The Aussie is more Thai than Australian and the Thai woman is more Aussie than Thai. He does most of the baking and she handles what might be considered customer service. I love the baked goods there! Especially the chocolate brownies and the foccacia bread, but I can never really get myself motivated enough to make the trek across the island just to see if they are open and if they are open, if they have not already sold out of said treats. As I am closing in on my last week here on the island, I decided that today was going to be the day that I would make the journey. It's really not that bad, it's about a 30-40 minute walk if you don't get lost. But last year I walked there 3 times in a row and they either weren't open or didn't have any foccacia bread. The scars run deep. I set out just before 10am and when I got there was a queue 4 people deep and I could see the goodies quickly vanishing. I could see a couple pieces of chocolate brownies and a single foccacia bread being purchased by "No Chance", but there was nothing I could do. I was going to be disappointed yet again. But as luck would have it, the foccacia Gods were on my side. Here's where my story got it's name. The Thai-ish woman (IFN) was explaining that the foccacia was a day old so it was half price. The Large American woman then made a fatal error and started questioning if it was still edible or not. After a couple more negative inquiries, Il Foccacia Nazi said that if there was any question, she'd rather not sell it and put it in the back. "No Chance" then started quickly backtracking, but it was far too late. NO FOCCACIA FOR YOU! COME BACK ONE YEAR! As she walked away dejected, I was smiling and laughing on the inside as we Shi Fus are apt to do. Although I had not been banned, it had been just over 1 year since my last trip to the bakery. I slowly approached IFN, but not too slowly, placed my money on the counter and very politely asked for 1 scone, 1 focaccia bread, and a filtered coffee (the best on the island). After said bullion was in hand, I felt it was safe to inquire if there might possibly be any more chocolate brownies later in the afternoon. I could see her eying my baked goods to see if she could snatch them away from me, but I held them tightly out of her reach. No chocolate brownies this year, but at least I got a day old foccacia and didn't leave empty handed.They have a sign posted on the wall on their menu that says, "Where are your Manners?" No discount for long termers No sex tourists No narrow minded people and about 10 more rules ... and if you don't like it, please feel free to LEAVE.
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Koh Deutschland, Thailand

On my return to Koh Deutschland, I found it is still living up to it's name in full force. I've also found that the little German that I've learned over the past year is not really very useful in understanding full speed conversations. As with many other nationalities, when you get lots of them together, they tend to stick together. It's OK when they are on their own, but when they group together it's a bit too much. Even though I was only joking with Stephan Loesse last year for infesting my island with German and German speakers, it really is not good to have so many of a single language spoken anywhere. When you couple that with the lack of Q and her mom running my bungalows this year, it's just not the same. I longed for last year when there was a small point in time when we, Anglophiles, took over in numbers when a sudden influx of Canadians hit the beach. It was good to be in the majority again. I considering leaving after 2 weeks since the visa rules had changed once again in Thailand and they are only giving "15" days for land border crossings. Unfortunately, I had already booked a flight to Macau on Airasia and you can't change flights on Airasia unless you want to essentially book a whole new flight.NicknamesScissor Sisters - 2 Canadian girls that spent most of their time sitting together in their 1 hammockDrunk Girl - English girl that was drunk and on Valium for the first 3 or 4 days straight making a nuisance of herself and blowing smoke at meThe Russian - Naked girl of unknown origin that walked around in underwear, naked or in flip flops with black socks and a trench coat (on the island) I'm not sure why they called her the Russian because she said very strange things with a French accentNo Chance - LARGE American Woman that even though there are very few un-scissored single women on the island, had...Hugger Couple AKA Hans Hookabine - German Uber friendly couple that would talk to anyone and everyone whether or not you wanted them to and hugged you to death when you leftMr. Bong - Chinese guy that carried a glass bong with him most everywhereCrotchety Old Man - German really old guy that walked around with his already tiny Speedo tucked way up his ass marking his territory around his bungalowIn India AKA This is shit - Old German guy that thinks everything can be solved by going to IndiaMoney Bags - Canadian manic guy that said he spent ~$100/day in Cambodia as a budding philanthropist and played cards with the Thais for money even though he didn't know the rulesRasta Romeo - German Rastaman who liked to steal girl friends and shopping in townOne night as I am sitting around a big table full of German and German speakers. I am 1 of only 2 English speaking people at the table so when Drunk Girl is trying to explain the word gullible to zie Germans, she turns to me to help explain it. "How would you explain gullible?" Without missing a beat, I say very matter of factly, "Well, I don't know, it's not in the dictionary." "Oh, Really?"One of the Germans says, you must mean a small dictionary and I said, no not in any dictionary. Drunk Girl is nodding her head in agreement as Rasta Romeo and I are laughing our heads off. Then I explain to them that Drunk Girl is a perfect example of what gullible means in believing that a word is not in the dictionary. He says, Oh,ja... dumkopf.
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Ko Phangan, Thailand

It's been a fine last few days here on Bottle Beach. The sun has finally come out after almost a month straight of cloudy and rainy days on Ko Phangan. From the picture, you can see the monsoon passing over the island and only clear skies ahead. The waves have calmed down and I can swim in the sea again. Unfortunately, the calm seas bring the ever dreaded Day Trippers in their throngs of loud long tail boats. It's bad enough when a day trip boat is full of young Swedish girls sunbathing on the beach topless in front of my bungalow like last year, but when it's a speedboat full of Ex Israeli military storming the beach and taking over the volleyball court right in front of my hammock, it's a whole different experience. If you can picture that, it should fully describe how much day trippers detract from our calm paradisaic cove. So it's bittersweet to see the bay with beautiful turquoise calm water and sunshine when I know that it will also bring the moronic masses as well. The beach as I've said is changing far too rapidly for my liking. A fairly wealthy English guy has been financing development projects including a dive shop and turning Bottle Beach 1 into a full blown resort. Although, I'm not sure that what he has built for himself isn't what I would call a piece of paradise if I were in his shoes, I still don't like the direction things are heading. He has built 2 nice houses on the hillside above a beautiful beach and has carved out a nice life for himself here. On my last full day, I was chilling out on the beach in Ruby's hammock when a magic spliff appeared with Chris. A few beers later and the tone for the afternoon was set. I sat down with a Swedish family for a few drinks and a late lunch. The father is an ERP consultant like I was in my past life so we had a lot to talk about. Our lives took very different turns somewhere along the way. He started working with ERPs the year I retired and somehow he had the time to have a beautiful family that he travels with 3 weeks a year. I on the other hand have been mostly a bum wandering around the world for the past 10 years as of March 25th this year. I had met him the previous night when he came up while I was talking with his 16 year old daughter. I knew they didn't smoke, but when I passed a bowl around to the others, they got up and went to bed. He said something to me the following night that I wasn't really able to interpret immediately. We were all sitting at the bar which his daughters had taken over as bartenders and DJs. This time before I pulled out my bowl again, I asked him if it was OK to partake in the herbal delicacies of Thailand in front of his daughters and if that was why he had left so abruptly the previous night. He told me that it would be fine if I acted like a crazy irresponsible drug addict. I was puzzled by that statement until he later clarified by telling me that he is having trouble telling his daughters to stay away from herbs on the pretense that only crazy people use, but it's difficult to stick to that story when someone that behaves more like an intelligent role model is sitting right in front of them using. After some soul searching, I think he has had to rework his entire mindset on the subject and that there can be different life choices that are neither right nor wrong, but just different. I'll let you know how his daughters turn out in a couple years when they are traveling on their own. I've seen pictures of Annie partying pretty hard on her Facebook profile so I'm probably not going to Hell. For this.Travelers TipIf you are going anywhere from Ko Phangan, it is very likely that you will pass through Surat "Cheat You" Thani. I thought it was only the touts and the "tourist information" / "service centers" that will outright lie to you and try to rip you off for as much as they think you will pay, but this time I even got lied to by a local restaurant stall operator in Thai. She was in cahoots with an "agency" and told me that there are no buses and pointed me to a cheat to buy a minivan ticket. The only way to get a straight answer is from a local that is also at the bus station and possibly going your way.If you are doing a visa run to Ranong, don't take the night ferry over unless you book a visa run "tour" and they have a van pick you up and directly take you to Ranong. If you like sitting around a shitty little town for 3 or 4 hours, it's not easy, but not hard to find the bus station by yourself. It's about a 10-15 minute walk from the pier. Go straight off the boat to the 2nd main street, turn left and walk about 10 blocks to Talad Mai 33 and take a right just past the Thaithani Hotel, walk past the corner information center that will try to rip you off and go to the market. The first bus to Ranong is at 8am. Ignore anyone that speaks English to you and is trying to sell you something. I can pretty much guarantee you that they will lie to you at least once.
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Ko Phangan, Thailand

I had been getting a bad Spidey sense feeling about my glasses over the past few weeks. I could sense something wasn't quite right in the universe. On one of the rare days I got out of my hammock, I decided to play some Frisbee on the beach. I thought about putting on my contacts and going for a swim or wearing my sunglasses instead of my regular glasses, but I couldn't be bothered as it wasn't all that sunny in this prolonged monsoon season. We were playing just at the end of high tide so the surf was going out, but still high on the beach. Ricky made a bad throw too far into the water, but I decided to go for it anyway. As I dove to catch the disk, I could feel a wave coming up all around me. I caught the disk, but the wave took my glasses right off my head. I quickly chucked the disk on to the beach and tried in vain to find my glasses. Nothing like searching for a tiny pair of glasses in the ocean when you can't see a thing. Todd and Ricky both dove in quickly when they realized what had happened, but after about 10 minutes of searching I had to admit that they had been sacrificed to Poseidon. I was going to be blind until I could get a new pair of glasses. It was time anyway. I had gotten this pair about 7 years ago when my previous pair got stolen out of my brother's car along with several thousand dollars worth of my sh*t while I was playing volleyball in Miami. I guess it's just natures way of telling me that I need a new look.The next day I hopped into Ricky's truck and went into Thong Sala to buy a new pair of glasses. I picked out a new pair in about 20 minutes. It's probably the fastest I've ever chosen anything in my life. It probably helped that they were only about 5,600B (~$170) Unfortunately, the ride back in the back of his pickup truck was a bit rough as it started pissing down rain and at 80Kph rain hurts. It took 3 days for them to cut the lenses for me so I was blind for a few days wearing my sunglasses day and night. All in all not too bad considering I was on an island and it was just before New Year's Eve.
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Ko Phangan, Thailand

This is my 4th Christmas over the past 17+ years and my 3rd year in a row here in Thailand. The last three have been great especially when you compare them to my first Christmas in Thailand. I remember when I had this brilliant idea after I got a huge severance package from the company I was working for. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be a great idea to travel around the world by myself and seek adventure where I may find it. I was so new back then that I didn't even know what backpacking was or even that it was possible. To give you an idea how new, I had packed 2 duffel bags with about 20Kilos of stuff in them before I set off for the great unknown. A couple months later, I found myself on Christmas day in Bangkok sick as a dog with food poisoning from an evil gaeng kiew wan kai, green chicken curry. I didn't realize that the green referred to how I would look and feel after I ate it. I had checked into a hotel somewhere in the middle of Bangkok away from any other travelers with 2 bottles of water and a bag of peanuts. I didn't realize how ILL I was going to become and that I would be spending the next 7 days including New Year's Eve in Bangkok without enough energy or will to leave my room. I still remember lifting my head off the pillow after hearing some fireworks and setting it back down again after realizing I couldn't be bothered to go outside. I hadn't had anything to eat or drink besides the aforementioned trifles for a whole week as I was busy purging the green curry from both exits often simultaneously. The next day I had a revelation that if I didn't venture out to find some sustenance I would never muster enough energy to leave the room again. So I went out got some electrolyte drinks from a pharmacist and got some food from the market and nursed my way back to health. At at least one point, I didn't think I was going to make it. "I thought to myself, oh this was a great idea, let's just travel around the world by myself. So this is it, I'm going to die." Fortunately, I lived through this experience and it has only made me stronger in the end. In fact, traveling around the world on my own has become my preferred method of discovering the planet.Christmas 06 was great when a few of my friends decided to come out to Thailand and spend the holidays out here with me. Unfortunately, they wanted to go to Phuket and Phi Phi. I can't really blame them, as those were the first two islands that I went on my first trip to Thailand in 91. But at least I was able to minimize the damage to 2 nights on Phuket and 1 on Phi Phi. I thought that maybe Phi Phi wouldn't be too bad and maybe the Tsunami had fixed all the over development that I had heard about over the years. Unfortunately, although the tsunami did just about level everything on the island, in the 2 years since, they have rebuilt it worse than it was before, one place on top of the next.Christmas 07 was filled with mixed feelings. I had found one of my favorite islands in Thailand, the one that time forgot in last year's entry, and it transported me back to the Thailand that I fell in love with back in 91. Unfortunately, I had brought about 50 Kilos of excess baggage with me. She started literally as soon as we set foot on the island. I knew right then it wouldn't end well. After a tense week, she got really jealous that I was talking to a well endowed Dutch girl and we got into a huge fight on Christmas Eve. After spending Christmas morning picking my stuff up from around the bungalow and out of the sea, I decided that I really didn't want to start a new year with a negative influence on my life so I left her behind to start 2008 anew.Christmas 08, I find myself back in Thailand on Phangan with a couple friends that I met here a couple years ago. On Christmas Eve we went to Cafe Del Mar and had some excellent roast pig cooked up by a large Chef-looking Dutchman. After making the rounds around Chaloklum's fine establishments, I had a craving for Turkey. The Lost Dog Cafe is run by a retired USMC who makes a mean burger that the Marines would be proud to call their own. I made my way back to the Dog knowing that they had to have some left-over Turkey for a sandwich to top off the night. "Colonel" Dave was all too happy to oblige even though he was at least 2 sheets to the wind if not 3. On Christmas Day, we had a huge traditional English feast at Wakeup Bar with turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sausages, brussel sprouts and Yorkshire pudding. Life is good...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1230383160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1230383160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rcys/missing.../1230383160/tpod.html Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:49:42 -0500 Missing... Presumed Having a Good Time. An online journal for your entertainment.

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Ko Phangan, Thailand

This is the 3rd time I've been back to BB in the past 2 years. We thought it would be deserted because the waves were really high and no long tail boats were making the trip around the bend. Joeran had told me that last year's resident Thai version of 50 cent had left the beach and the original chilled out vibe had returned. To my horror when we arrived, Fiddy was there to greet us and the bungalows were almost full. Also, they had started to take bookings so I couldn't even get a bungalow on the front row of the ocean even though there were 3 "available" when we arrived. It's a shame when they can't take care of regulars that come back over and over again staying for weeks or even months at a time over some random bookings for 3 nights before a full moon party. They're there to tick off Bottle Beach and a Full Moon Party on their checklist never to return. I wish BB2, especially Ta who apologized profusely well, but I can tell that progress has caught up with this beach and it's time for me to move on. I thought about leaving the next day, but decided to just move to the Other side of the beach and after a couple days Lilia and Joeran came down too when they got booted from their bungalow. This story sort of reminds me of when I was in Rome and I stayed a whole week so that I wouldn't have to return. Forget coins in the Trevi Fountain. Since this will be my last time here, I figure I might as well enjoy the beautiful beach one more time in it's current state so I won't have to return when the resorts and hotels fully take over. The beach itself is still as nice as ever with incredible starry nights and a cool ocean breeze bringing clean fresh air to rejuvenate my poor lungs from China and Joeran's cigarettes. I don't think I've ever spent as much time with anyone that smokes nearly as much as he does, but it's been a fun few weeks nonetheless. I'm glad to have my own bungalow again. It's not exactly on the beach, but at least I can see the ocean from my hammock. I'm awaiting my visa run on Jan 9th so I can get back to an Old School Thai island. Unfortunately when I called Q, she told me that she and her mom are no longer running the bungalows on my 2nd favorite island. I'm not sure what to do when I get back. It just won't be the same without home cooked meals.Traveler's Tip: If you are not a young naïve whiter than rice English Backpacker that likes to have sex with smelly gangster Thais, skip Bottle Beach 2 and go to Smile where things are still pretty chill and they don't take reservations except from regulars...Yet.If you still want to go to Bottle Beach, before you follow the LP blindly and go to Chaloklum to catch a long tail boat make sure they are running so you won't have to take a taxi all the way back around the island. The road is much better now and can be accessed even by motorbike although I don't suggest it especially if it's been raining. You won't be able to get up the long steep hill in the wet. They are planning to tear down BB2 and put up a resort in April 2009.
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