Frustration...then Ahhh!

Hmm...Siam. So I'm finally in the steamy metropolis of bangkok. Internet is cheap here...1.10 for an hour, so I'm going to blog. Don't expect me to follow in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau and write anything poetic...or deep or meaningful at all. This blog is mainly for my family (and anyone else) to follow where I'm at, and most importantly know that I'm ok. So for the most part it will probably be "i'm here, I'm safe, no i'm still not addicted to drugs"

So an incredibly long trip finally got me to Thailand. I started off in Estes on Tuesday at 4 in the morning due to a nice snow that required an early departure. The flights all went smoothly and of course due to my incredible amount of flying for work, I was able to live it up in class at all the airport lounges. The ones in denver and san fran are of course nice, but the one in seoul was outstanding...or course all the booze you could want, but showers, massage chairs, and tasty food. I arrived in Bangkok at 1am on thursday morning. Met up with a couple and then another random dude to share a cab. The couple was from "canada"...but really embarassed americans from Bellingham, WA. Bro, they have had the infamous b-town dumplings. The other guy was from UA-Fairbanks. A surprising amount of Americans considering I haven't met one since and every thai I meet shakes my hand vigorously when I say I am american..."glad you are here, we miss you guys, not so many americans any more...etc, etc" They seem to appreciate american generosity and ability to be laid back compared to "nose in the air europeans" (not my words btw), but apparently there has been a huge lack of Americans due to a certain administration putting SE asia on the terrorist watch and also likely a struggling economy. The dollar was worth 55 baht in my 2006 guide book, but is now 31 baht! A funny side note is they all want to offer me free obama buttons. I told them the election is over, but considering recent events here, they believe bush will not relinquish his crown. I figure we'd do more than just peacefully shut down an international airport of he were to stay in!
Got into the hotel around 3am and couldn't really fall asleep out of excitement and who knows what else.
Woke up early to head out for the US embassy as I have run out of passport pages (obviously nothing to complain about) and to the Burma/Mayanmar embassy to get a visa. Decided to stop by a few of the tourist stops on the way and got willingly conned into a "promotional" tuk tuk tour of the city. Typically a tour costs 500 baht, but b/c it was a government holiday (yea right), gas was free for tuk tuks and they would do it for 20. I had read about this scam in lonely planet, but figured I could outdue it and it's hard to pass up such a bargain. The way it works is between each tourist stop they take you to places hoping to get commission...jewerly stores, fashion stores, souvenir, tourist agencies, etc. In my travels I have gotten pretty good at saying no to touts and others, so I did it. It was worth it. cheap, got to see some cool sights and it was easy enough to say no. "no I can't book a trip now b/c my girlfriend is coming in tomorrow, and she controls me so I can't make a decision" "yes your jewerly is beautiful, but I do not have a girlfriend...'are you gay?' "no", 'what is wrong then, your are so good looking and american and strong' "exactly...haha!" 'well what about your mother' "She has several boyfriends, she doesn't need any more jewerly" At the end, I went to some of the biggest sites (wats, buddhist temples) on my own. They were incredible...huge, plastered in gold and jewels with amazing architecture. Also took a ride down the river to look at the city. Touts offered boat rides for 25 bucks, I decided to go on the water taxi for locals at about 10 cents!
So of course it was obvious I had put off going to the embassies. I had originally wanted to leave bangkok today as I generally do not like cities and much prefer the villages and wildlands, but I found bangkok nice, much more interesting than Manila, and the temps are actually pretty nice here right now.
So the frustration issue...I hop onto a Tuk Tuk to take me to the backpackers part of the city to get a room, but he ends up driving me to some place different b/c he couldn't really understand me. I paid him b/c I felt bad. hopped on another tuk tuk to go back. This one was much more expensive, but at least he knew where he was going. He took me to a TAT office so I could discuss visa stuff there. Luckily instead of a Thai person running it as the previous two had been, it was a kiwi, so he was easy to understand and he knew what I wanted. Found out that Laos and Vietnam now require americans to get an advance visas at a hefty price (ok, only 50 bucks, but this is SE asia!). As I'm not going to vietnam until the end I could avoid that for now, but had to do laos. So I have to send in my passport to the embassy and get it all passed which takes about 7 days. Luckily they can send it to chiang mai so I don't have to stay in the city for 7 days, but that leaves me without a passport for at least 15 days (the time it will take me to get to chiang mai), which during that time I will be close to cambodia which I could use as a visa run to renew my thai visa, but of course I won't have the passport. Also, since I need pages in my passport, I still have to go to the us embassy, then back to TAT, before I can leave tomorrow, which is annoying! I really wanted to go into Burma/myanmar as it is the least touristy, most undeveloped and it its pre-westernization state, or so I'm told. But TAT is no longer able to issue visas for American citizens (THANKS BUSH!). Apparently we have listed them as top terrorist threats and have been sending in CIA and other spies into the country in what possibly could lead to war on terror campaign. Any other country is fine, well except for Columbia due to competition with the opium trade, but geeze! But imagine this, they only accept US dollars in the country for trade! This means I have to personally go for an interview to the burma embassy and they will decide if it is true that my main purpose for the visit is tourism. I'm not sure if I should wear my nicest clothes i brought and try and look respectable or come in all sweaty, drity, and backpacker looking. How would CIA dress? Perhaps I'll wear one of those Obama buttons...
At this point I was feeling completely frustrated seemingly wasting time and money on all that visa junk. But then I found Khao San (sp?). The backpacker area...think where leo arrives in bangkok in the movie the beach. HAPPENING! that's what I'd say. Lights everywhere, 80's music blaring out of every club (believe it bro!), drink specials left and right (80 cents for a beer), pad thai and other dishes for a buck, lots of weirdos, and lots of 20-something backpackers. Tons of shopping stuff. Low alpine and northface backpacking packs for 20 bucks...obviously rip offs but the real ones are made in asia too. Similar deals bro to manila, 20 movies for 2 bucks, cd's for 50 cents. awesome clothes for real cheap. someday I figure I need to come to asia with an empty backpack and just cash in on the deals, but I want to keep my pack light, so no shopping for me. Actually no beer or beverages of that sort either tonight...wasn't feeling the drinking alone thing, though you better believe I have had several mango, guava, passion, and starfruit smoothies! hey, when they're 50 cents and actually fresh you can't beat it. puts jamba juice to shame. Also enjoyed an hour thai massage for 3 bucks! I had tried to get my international student ID card (requirment is not school but under 27 years or something) before I left, but the CU-boulder store was closed. Would have cost about 20 bucks there. Here they did a fake one, that looks dang real for 4 bucks. Considered getting my UK drivers licencse, hollywood press pass, or california commercials drivers license, but decided against it =) The clubbing appears to be pretty sweet and I might stay up for it tonight, though i need to be at the us embassy by 6am when they open to get a rush on the extra pages...but wish you were here bro or stringbean b/c the dancing appears to be quite sweet with all the 80's music. It's funny b/c throughout the day at all the temples you had to wear pants, shirts with sleaves, etc. You come down here and every bar and club has like 18 year old thai gals wearing hardly anything trying to get you to come in. I'm avoiding the red-light district until yosh and sherman come down though...kirk gave yosh all the SE asia diseases already, right? I'm staying at a little guesthouse thing right above all the action, so I'll be able to fall asleep to air supply, and if I'm lucky abba =) it too is incredibly cheap. 6 bucks, and it's not trashy at all, nor a dorm, but a private room. They say bangkok is the most expensive city in the country, so I can't imagine what the rest will be like. The night life in the city appears to be quite extensive and fun, but as I'm by myself still, I am excited to get out, to get to the wilderness areas where it should be easier to meat people doing activities etc. But I'd love to have a few nights here with the quads and of course the bro! Heading off next to...hmm..can't remember the name right now, but where the kwai river death bridge was, the one made famous by the bridge over the river kwai movie...can hear dad whistling the tune now. There is some good trekking the area, and one of the worlds best tiger orphanges that I would like to support. After that I will be slowly making my way north to chiang mai heading through places such as potburi, and possibly mae sot for some 3 or 4 day jungle treks.
Time to go get some grub, haven't eaten all day, been too busy...you know the drill lael and jayne! maybe i'll go try the crickets and cockroaches on saw being vended on the street...


Best question of the day: "oh you're from America, wonderful. Do you visit Russia a lot?" I guess I should though since it borders wasilla alaska.

How's the blower pow bro? hopefully balls deep. ski a Granite Canyon run for me!

see you when i see you