Livin' in America (for now)

Well we are back in the states. Wow is it nice here for this time of year. I heard my house in CO is getting another few feet of snow this week. To bad i am missing that!

Plane day

Flying back home. Nothing to exciting.

Amsterdam for the Day

So the day before we flew out of the Netherlands we decided to go up to Amsterdam for the day. We did tons of walking around-but forgot the camera. LOL. We had been there before so we just revisited some places but AGAIN we miss the Ann Frank house being open. Looks like we will have to come back!

Christmas in Paris

We decided to take a long weekend trip to Paris for our first married Christmas. Since we drove down we got there in the afternoon evening. Troy did not go with me to the Moulin Rouge Show last time I was in Paris so we decided to catch the evening show. There are two shows a night. The first one is dinner and the show. The second one is the show but this one is topless (think showgirls in Las Vegas). No pictures are allowed IN the moulin Rouge.The next day (Christmas Eve) we decided to walk around town. There was not any snow on the ground but it sure was cold. We decided not to walk through the Louve again but we did go see the famous pyramid at the Louve.Then we walked over to the Eiffel tower. We have seen in once before in 2001 when we were friends and backpacking. This time in honor of the holidays they had a lights in the shape of a Christmas tree hanging up side down in side the tower. Also this time it was open and we were able to go up it! (Last time it was a national holiday and it was closed). So we WALKED up the Eiffel tower, and back down...that is one heck of a climb. 674 steps to the second level!!!
I know everyone says this thing is suppose to be beautiful, but we disagree! It looks like a big oversized power tower during the day. At night however it is beautifull when the lights are on. Hows this for our Christmas Light show!?

Here is a video of what the lights do--sorry its sideways LOL...



So here is what we didn't plan for. Christmas day EVERYTHING is closed. HAHAHA This include resturants. So we manage to find a couple gas stations with snacks and a liquor store open and had a little junkfood and champagne party in our hotel room...it was actually wonderful!

Roadtrip

Troy got off of work early today so we took a road-trip down to Paris! On the way down we got to talking...
As most of you know this is our first Christmas together as husband/wife. So we were discussing some of the things we loved/hated about how our families do Christmas. So i would like a little discussion. What is your favorite holiday tradition and what is the one that drives you crazy? Have you been an adult for many years but "Santa" still comes? Does that crazy aunt still feel like she needs to squeeze your checks even at your age? Or any stories of a Christmas you remember the best. I would love to hear everything you got!

Spijkenisse Again

Troy and I got back into the Netherlands last night. So we are back to driving on the right side of the road, which is a big switch for us after Thailand/England were its left. They speak Dutch here however about 90% of the people also speak English so its easy to communicate here. We are staying at the same hotel as last time the Carlton Oasis but we did get a suite this time. Its like a little apartment. We are tenativly here until Dec. 26th so we will not be at anyone's Christmas celebrations this year. Sorry. Once he find out when he is officially done we will decided if we will go back to the states or do some traveling around here. Maybe some New Years Eve in Paris. I will keep you posted. Otherwise nothing interesting happening here. Spijkenisse is a small town so not alot of activity. We are hoping to get some time up in Amsterdam before we leave, i guess we will see.

London Town

Troy and I headed to London this weekend. We had been there before so it was much more calm that the last trip. We got into town on Friday after troy got off work. Friday night we went walking around the Piccadilly area, the Parliament building, and the London Eye. Which is one of the most ugly things I have seen. There is the beautiful architecture around it then WHAM here is a HUGE Bicycle wheel with lights on it. It should be called eye sore not London Eye. The there is Big Ben for all of you who think that's the name of the clock your wrong. It's actually the Bell's name in the clock. We found a carousel so of course had to ride on that! Plus we found the phone booth we toke our tourist pictures at the first time there so we got updated one! Saturday daytime we redid the Westminster Abby. But this time we took our time and did a tour. Since seeing the movie The Davinci Code I wanted to revisit Sir Isaac Newton's tomb it's in the Nave if you follow the Westminster Abby interactive map. You are not allowed to take photos of the inside so I could only do the outside. Then we went to the London Tower, which we got there to late so we didn't go inside but toured the outside instead. We also had to do our tourist pictures of the Tower Bridge (people know it as the London Bridge but its not-there is a London bridge next to it). Funny thing is the people we asked to take our picture happen to be from Minneapolis, MN (USA) small world huh? And we bought tickets for The Lion King play that night. London is supposed to be the second best place to see plays. New York being number one! That was Saturday night and was fun. The costumes were amazing and it had a couple good singers. After the play we went to a restaurant that was like a TGIFs but with fine dinning and the decorations were all old plays stuff. Troy drank a whole bottle of red wine on his own-and I did a fine job of getting us home without a map. We found out the hard way the train stations stop at midnight so we had to walk. Sunday we were going to go tour the Tower of London but troy wasn't feeling so good (shocker huh!). So we slept in then flew home to the Netherlands. So next England trip we agreed to start at the London Tower, we haven't seen it yet from the inside! It holds the royal family jewels.

UK Killer

For all of those you watch the news, that's is the international news or whom check the news of the area we are at...Yes I am aware there is a serial killer (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16171063/) on the loose in my area murdering women 19-29 yrs old, so far I think 5 girls this week were found. The police don't want woman on the street alone. So I promise I am not acting tough and that I am indeed always with someone I know when I am out and about. Thanks for keeping close tabs on me! And as of now they think they are all prostitutes so since I am only a working girl by marriage so I think I am fine. But I will be careful anyway. I promise. And for those who emailed me about this. I am very honored that you are really following us that close-I think your great!

Leeds, UK

Today Troy and I drove up to Leeds to visit our friend Ceri and her boyfriend Eric. Now in that picture you think what a cute couple. However what you can't tell is how tall they are. Ceri is 6ft and Eric is 6'8'' tall so here is one of Eric and me. Eric is a Rugby player for the Earth Titans. So Troy and I went to our first Rugby game. Its not quit what I was expecting. I thought it was much more brutal then it really was. The game has very strict rules for the players/coaches on and off the field. An example of that would be...since the Titans coach said a referee was stupid on a website he was kicked out of two games! Anyway the Titans won the game so everyone was happy. Afterwards we went downtown and hit the bars. Those rugby boys sure can drink. And I am proud to say I can keep up! Troy well that's a different story...he isn't so good at keeping up. It was funny though he was the runt of the packed the next shorted guy was 4 inches taller. We drank and danced and slept well once we got back to Ceri's. The next day we hung out with them again and ate and watched Eric's brother's Rugby game which was on TV! It was funny hanging out with two people who could tell you stories of every one of the professional rugby guys, because they knew them all. It made watching it much more enjoyable. Then we had to drive home because Troy had to work on Monday morning at the Guildford Office (this is one of UOP's many Hub offices around the world).
But on a bad note-the US Dollar hit an ALL TIME LOW for our trip, which made it very expensive. $2 (US) equaled 1 Pound (UK).
And random info fact-did you know that the UK is the only country in the world that actually has enough gold stored to cover every piece of money in the country! Pretty impressive.
And in England tradition I must spread gossip so...did you hear that Prince William had his 5yr long term girlfriend Katie hanging out with the Royal Family during his officer's parade. I wonder if that means wedding bells soon! (This was the only topic on TV!)

Spijkenisse, Netherlands

We are in Rotterdam, Netherlands now. We are staying at the Carlton Oasis. right now but it may change. We are a lot closer to Amsterdam than we thought. So we may move to there and then troy would commute 45min to Rotterdam. I will keep you all updated of course. It rained all day yesterday so we didn't see much. The weather here seems to be about 50-60 degrees. And its cloudy and raining but after my snow storm in Chicago this is wonderful!

Plane Day

Flying out of Chicago to Amsterdam, Netherlands today.

Flying back to the states

Troy's work computer is having issues. First he can't connect to his jobs internet program so his email is shot. The secondly he can only get his computer to turn on 1/10 times. And when it does turn on he get the "blue screen of death" as we nicknamed it. Well due to this stupid computer we have to come home and leave our beautiful weather. We will be flying out today and most likely be in Chicago on Saturday late night.

Things to do when I get home. First and for most I need to get my hair highlighted. It's been awhile and I don't trust Thailand hairdressers to do that since they don't ever work with blonde hair-it would probably look green or orange when they were done. How ever I have learned something about myself. I still am a natural blonde! It's a little darker than what I have now but still blonde so that's good. Plus many other things,,, eating Mexican food is high on my list. And stocking up on crystal light individual packets, single ranch packets, jar of peanut butter, and as many Cheetos as I can get into our luggage!

Montezuma's Revenge

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Readers. I haven't written in awhile because I was ill. We are not really sure why I got sick and my husband did not. Anyway this blog will focus more on the local health care than of any fun travel trips.
So on Saturday I came down with a good case of Montezuma's Revenge. Being the nurse that I am, and how we make bad patients I decided I could just fix it or wait it out. Well I learned my lesson and learned it hard. I thought i was doing everything right, drinking Gatorade and Electrolyte packets so not to get to dehydrated. Taking Tylenol for my fever (which I knew I had but no thermometer). So after knowing my hotel bathroom intimately for about four days i decided it was time to go to the hospital. First let me say I have found one thing that is not good about living in hotels all the time. My husband and I have to share one bathroom, which under normal circumstances would be fine...at this time was one of the not so glorious times of being a newlywed :) But in sickness and in health---i just was testing that!

Troy drove me to Bangkok Pattaya Hospital (its in Pattaya not Bangkok). We got to the ER and within 5 min was being seen by an actual doctor who spoke English. I had lost about 20lbs in four days, had a 103 degree temp and was so dehydrated that i couldn't stand on my own. And then with in 30 min after arriving i was in my own, private, room. Now i love my hospital that i worked at back home in Colorado, but man we don't even touch on the efficiency these people do. Turns out I had a bacterial infection. And I had it bad. It took 6 Liters of IV fluids before I had to go #1. Yep thats dehydrated.
The room was amazing. It had a kitchen, couch, dinner table, flat screen TV and what a view of my balcony! I know what your thinking...i got some suit. Nope! This was just a normal room. Apparently when in the hospital Thai people's families stay with them and help take care of them. They even do the cooking. That would be nice in the states-more help from families. Since my husband can't cook they had a local hotel bring in food for me! Once i was eating again i realized it was really good food to. The nurses there were always on top of what ever i needed. However those poor women are still wearing the all white nurse dresses with the hat and all. Most of them wore white heeled shoes also...i really felt bad for them. I did realize how great it is to know who everyone one was though. In the states everyone (nurses, aides, dietary, housekeeping) all wear scrubs. You usually can't tell who is who. Not here though. Everyone had a uniform, and I hate to say it, but i preferred that. Especially if you don't know the language you at least know who you are dealing with. Which is good since I dealt with so many people. I had a person come in from the hotel to find out what i wanted to eat, I had someone from billing come in and get all the information for my insurance company so that HE could call them and get everything arranged for me-wow was that great. I had turn down service and everything there. It rivaled my hotel The equipment and technology was the same as if i was in the States also. I felt i got better care than i would have back home.
I was able to leave the hospital the next day (they let me out early since i was a nurse and could do the follow up on my own!). That was nice since it is thanksgiving. They had a couple other little things i liked that i think we should maybe adapt in the States. When I was getting checked out I had to go to the billing department. I had to pay my bill or have a letter from my insurance company saying they would pay. Since the billing department already called and took care of it all i was done. But we have all been or known someone who has had their hospital bill messed up so i asked what happens if the bill has errors on it or there is a problem with it, how can i get that fixed. Well the billing person i was talking with said that if she made a mistake in processing my bill then it come out of her paycheck-WOW! This did slow down my leaving by about 10 min, but totally worth it to me. Overall I was very impressed with this hospital.
So what did we do for Thanksgiving...well we found a local pub that had a buffet of turkey and normal Thanksgiving food. We ate and went back to the hotel.

Loy Krathong (festival of floating bowls)

Tonight people all over Thailand headed to the rivers, canals, ponds, and even swimming pools to celebrate Loy Krathong. People brought ornate handmade "Krathong" along and send them adrift. A Krathong is a bowl made of banana leaves (which contain flowers) candles and 3 inch incense sticks, and a small coin and float them in the water. This visually spectacular event marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the main rice harvest and happens every year on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month. The tide in the rivers is highest and the moon is at its brightest. People light the candles and incense, make a wish, and send their Krathong gently out into the water. As they launch their krathong, individuals take a moment to say a prayer and make a wish. Everyone hopes that their candles keep burning into the night, symbolizing longevity and that their wishes will come true. Lovers hope that their krathongs float together. And ours did!!!
A commonly held belief is that as these vessels float away they take the owner's misfortunes and sins from the last year along with it making Thais feel free from worry and ready to start afresh. People sit and enjoy the spectacular sight of hundreds of Krathong on the water.
Firecrackers and balloon-like lanterns released into the sky add to the spectacle. The launching of Lanna-style hot air balloons also is considered by locals to rid them of their trouble. If all of the above wasn't enough. They throw parties for people to get together and do this all eveining with tons of food and dancing.

Chaing Rai

A day trip to Chiang Rai.
A chance to visit the famous Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos meet! An early morning drive through beautiful scenery, with a stop at the Hot Springs at Maekajan, culminates in the chance to explore this world -famous spot, notorious for its opium trade!

From a viewpoint set high on the hillside, there are magnificent views over the Mae Khong River to the physical triangle made by Burma, Laos and Thailand at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong River. For a small fee, you can also enjoy the boat ride to view the splendor of mighty Mae Khong River.

Continue on to Mae Sai, the farther-most northern trading border between Thailand and Burma, where local lunch is provided. On the return journey stops are made at Akha and Yao hilltribe villages.

Royal Flora Ratchaphruek festival, Doi Suthep

Today while we were in Chiang Mai we saw their most famous site. The Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. Every Temple with a name starting with Wat Prathat contains Buddha relics and therefore is Holy to Buddhists. Its just a little out of town but definitely worth the trip. So we hired a personal driver for the day. It costs about $25/day and he took us everywhere we wanted to go. It's cheaper then renting a car. Our driver brought us up to the temple which was half way up a mountain. How was the spot for this Temple chosen? When the Temple was being planned, about 600 years ago, the Buddha relics were put on the back of an elephant. At the spot where this elephant would stop, the Temple was going to be built. The elephant stopped at the spot where the Temple has been built, which is not the top of the mountain, but roughly just halfway the mountain. When you get there, there were tons of little vendors all around will to sell you lots of stuff (as always). Once you get to the Temple you have to walk up about 300+steps to get to it. The staircase has two huge Nagas, one going up each side. These are closer to cobras than dragons per legend (but they look more like dragons to me). The temple itself is walled in. Once you walk through the walls you will see a few outside buildings. One of the things you will notice, still in the outside area, are the many Temple bells (rakhang in Thai). Ring them if you like, they symbolises a call of the faithful. When entering the holy area you will need to fist take off your shoes. There will be a huge pile indicating when/where you should do this. Once your in the holy area the main thing you will notice is the huge Chedi covered in gold, this contains the Buddhist relics. This generally bell-shaped tower (Chedi) will usually contain a relic of the Buddha, but may also be built to contain the ashes of a king or important monk The Chedi is surrounded by four golden umbrella looking things. They seem to have a function, similar to the "corner stones" that you find around ever Buddhist Temple (Wat) in Thailand. The Wiharn of Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep can be seen in my pictures. Every temple must have a Wiharn. They are a room in which to pray. You see the Buddha Images in there. The large one at the back is especially impressive.
Before you leave the Temple, and before you go back down the stairs make sure to look at the city of Chiang Mai first. There is a wonderful scenic view from up there.

Here is some Temple Etiquette-dress appropriately (no bare shoulders, shorts and skirts should cover your knees), no pointing (especially with your feet-the head is sacred because it is closest to heaven, so likewise the feet are therefore the most unclean. When siting or kneeling in a temple building, make sure the soles of your fee are not facing the alter), stay off the Buddhas, no shoes, no tempting monks (women can not ever hand anything to a monk, if you need to give a monk something place it on the table so they can pick it up).

We took quit a few pictures of this place so make sure you check out the snapfish site to see them all (http://worldtravler.snapfish.com)

Then we went to the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2549 festival. A one-of-a-kind event, a total of 2,500,000 plants, including over 2,200 species of tropical plants and flowers were on display. Why 2549- it is the year here. Its been hard to adjust to. They wright their dates as 4/11/49 (day/month/Buddhist year). Any way this festival is HUGE. We got there late (2pm) and only got to walk through have of it before it ended at 8pm. It's a festival to honor the king (the name is a famous king). This year is was even bigger than normal because it was the current king's 80th birthday. The first section is corporate sponsors who host a there own section to show the people how they are helping the environment. PTT Chemical is the company troy is here working with, and they had a section. The next big part was landscaping demonstrations from around the world. America didn't have one. But there was at least 14 countries there. My favorite section was the Orchid Pavilion. It was the size of a school gym (each section was about a basketball court size). It had every type of orchid I have ever seen and many more. The purple orchid is the Thailand flower. We also went to Bug World so while you are looking at pictures you will notice a few bugs. Most of them were huge. I had to have troy put his hand in one of the pictures, because otherwise you may think I was just zoomed in. But we had butterflies as large as our heads. Other icky bugs also. It finished with a water laser show.

Chaing Mai

Troy got a three-day weekend off and we decided we should probably see more of Thailand. So we hopped on a plane and flew to Chiang Mai. We picked that area because it's suppose to be more of authentic Thailand unlike the more tourist area are we are in now. We got there in the afternoon. And after a long flight...ok not long-1 hr, we decided we needed a massage. I love that about Thailand there is a massage parlor about every 3 blocks. So we started our trip of with an $8 Thai massage. If you have never had a Thai massage before I would highly recommend it. They sound scary when you read about them but it very relaxing. The do more of a pressure point massage with intense stretching with it. My legs have never felt to great in my life. It's also like a chiropractor the stretch you so well that many times you can hear my back crack-but in a nice way.

After we got our massage we found a street vendor for dinner. Here in Thailand there are carts that have grills on them and you pick what you would like to eat and they cook it up fresh for you. Its very trusting that the meat you are eating is actually what they say it is. So far it all tasted right. They also have carts with fresh fruits and my favorite cart is yellow corn on the cob! It tastes like mid-west corn and they cook it just like at the state fair! You can be stuffed for the price of $1. (30-40 Baht). We have never gotten sick from eating like this and that's how everyone eats here.

After supper was over we went to the famous Night Bazaar. This is about a mile by a mile of little stores/street carts/shop to shop in. Bargaining is key here. You can walk away feeling guilty for the little amount of money you just paid for something. Several times I knew I could pay less but I felt bad. I would give examples but we bought a lot of gifts so I don't want to ruin any surprise. The foot massages are even cheaper here. It normal costs $6/hr for a massage (foot/Thai/oil). But at the Bazaar you could find them for about $2,,,$2 for an hour massage!!!!!!!!! Again you almost feel guilty. Well not me I have nice soft feet. Troy with his icky boy feet I felt more bad for the girl who massaged his!

After an long evening of shopping and bargaining (and weirdly enough it was tiring) we headed back to the hotel. Since we left our car in Pattaya we had to go with the public transportation. So we got introduced to tuk-tuks. This thing is like a golf cart with three wheels. Its about $1-2 for a ride. But we still also had our Baht bus (Baht is the Thailand curancy 36 Baht=$1) Not a lot of pictures on this day just a lot of shopping.

Interview to drive the Baht bus

Thailand Baht Bus license interview.

This is how I envision it, anyway. Translated to English:

Interviewer: Have you ever driven a taxi/bus before?

Potential Driver: No, will that be a problem?

I: Oh not at all. You'd be over-qualified if you had. Ok, let's see, have you ever ridden a bike?

PD: Twice. But my cousin owns one, and I ride on the back of it with him all the time.

I: Ok we're really looking for some raw talent here to develop. You may have too much experience. But I've got a few more questions here. You ever drive in video games?

PD: I played Mario Kart a few times. I like it when I spin all over the place. Oh, and some other more realistic racing games, but I usually destroy my car before the first checkpoint. Is that a problem? I probably should have thought about my answer before blurting it out like that...

I: No no, that's just fine. I'm liking what I hear. Let's see...the taxis/busses are manual transmission. Do you know about how to shift gears?

PD: Well, I've heard it's good to be in 3rd or 4th by the time I'm through an intersection, even though I'm only going 30 mph at the time. And I'll coast in neutral down all hills, and any distances after a hill until I have to turn again.

I: Ooh...excellent. Now would you turn into oncoming traffic and hope everyone in the lane your turning into move to accommodate your vehicle?

PD: Why would I do...

I: [Interrupting, muttering while writing with a frown] ...hmm, not good, not good...

PD: I mean of course I would!

I: Oh! Good, good. All right. Are you comfortable with horns?

PD: Like to make noise with?

I: Yes, exactly. Would you use one if we let you?

PD: Wait - you mean to tell me I can use a horn?

I: We'd prefer it. If anyone is within a block radius of you, you should blast it at least 3 times. You know, just to make sure they're aware of your presence. Even if they're behind you, walking or driving in the opposite direction. And keep in mind, 3 is a minimum.

PD: I'm going to enjoy this job.

I: Great! I've heard all I need to hear, when can you start?

Fishing Trip

We went on a fishing and snorkeling trip so some of the small islands near Pattaya. It was a big boat and a very nice crew. I caught my very first and second fish! Well first outside of a trout pond that is. It was a huge 4-6 inch white fish, nope i don't know the name because the man helping me didn't speak English. Nothing record breaking but oh so special for the kid in me! I got a picture and it should be getting to me soon. Troy did a little snorkeling but it was really windy and lots of waves so he didn't see much. It was too wavy for me to even go. He did some fishing also and of course got fish bigger than mine. But remember it's not the size of your fish that counts. I got my first fish with my first bait on my first throw! Fishing was great. I see why so many like to do it. I sit, drink, and catch fish. Brilliant!

Hello to my little friend!

We started the evening in the hotel business center where we get free alcohol, for some reason it was tasting oh so good to me. (this is always a direct indication of how wild my night is!) Well after 4ish drinks we decide to go out on the town, troy felt i may need a little food in my stomach also (this is about 8pm). So we went to Hoff brewery down the road so troy could get a few of his wheat beers. Then off to my new favorite bar, the Angel Witch. Its wonderful that even on a Tuesday night that every place is still very busy. Well after a couple drinks in troy he loosened up very well, almost as much as me. So we bought a few hand fulls of ping pong balls (these are like $.70 tips if the girls catch them) to throw. Then me and the waitress talked troy into buying a whole basket of them and going to the top of the stage so he could drop them on the girls dancing. Once the balls were are gone he got to slide down the pole. Its funny to see a guy try it. But he landed softly, and didn't hit any of the girls. Well by this time we were very popular with the ladies. I even got a shirt from the place to show off later (actually it comes into my story later). We also ran into a lady friend of one of the UOP guys who left already. Her name is Koi (like the fish). Anyway she was working. She and about 5 other girls had been escorting this gentleman around and brought him here. So i bought her a drink, well a shot of tequila that is. That is what started off the real party! Well after a few more drinks and a few more shots, and for all of those who have drank tequila shots with me you know how my nights go. After some chit chat with one of the waitresses troy got "selected" to go on stage during one of the performances. When it was his time they took him on the stage and put him in a chair and tied him to it. I know what you are think "oh wow they do that here" but people we are in Thailand! So the girl got bare naked and all up on my man. Wow the look on his face, priceless. But then again the look on the guys face next to us when he realized it don't get mad about that, even funnier i think. After he got done we drank some more! (see a trend here) We joined up with Koi and her group and threw ping pong balls. there was another gentlemen that got picked to got on stage. During his show it was 6 girls they tied him down onto a bed and all "rode" him, they also showed us his little friend, so he was just out for the place to see, but you couldn't see it all that well because the amount of girls dry humping him. Yes i was looking, I'm married not dead. The time flew by and next thing i remember was that we went to a go-go bar called Happy's. I have to be honest i don't remember much there. Except that i was glad i got a new shirt because the one i was wearing got spilled on and i took it off. I had a bra on so calm down. Troy graciously reminded me that i had another shirt i could put on, what a great husband. I think we left there around 2-3 am (things close after 4am here). We stopped by our 24 hr McDonald's and off to bed we went. Drunken fun had by all. One of the things that surprised me about going out and about in this type of an area, was how little men harassed me. Normally when i go to a bar in the States and get drunk i have man coming out of the wood work! It was nice to have a good time without having to be on guard all night.

Raffle's, Merlion, Esplande, Fountain, etc.

We have been very busy these last few days. We had to come to Singapore to get our Visas for Thailand. You have to get your visa out of the country because it starts the day you enter. You don't need a visa if you stay in a country for under 30 days, just went you go over that amount of time. So oh darn we had to go to Singapore for a few days.

While we were there we of course saw more than just the Thailand Embassy! The street that our hotel was on is Orchard Road. This is like the magnificent mile (Michigan Ave in Chicago). Only a couple differences. In Chicago the street is lined with top end stores, restaurants, museums, and bars. In Singapore its mainly just stores. Hermes, Coach, D&G, Prada, Tiffany & CO, etc. If you love to shop this is the place to spend a lot of money fast. Singapore is also known for its electronics, so troy and I got new digital camera. So my pictures will greatly improve after this entry! The subway system is very very clean here, most of the time you are walking from one subway station to the next you are in a mall. So it is hard to find the actual subway system because they are usually in the malls. I was told this is the nicest subway system in the world! I can believe that.

Raffle's Hotel- is a beautiful hotel. It's been even prettier after I left their famous Long Bar-Home of the Singapore Sling drink. If you never have had one before I would recommend them. It's like a sex on the beach but with a different type of alcohol. They are very good.

Merlion statue-is a statue that is 1⁄2 lion and 1⁄2 fish. The island of Singapore was found because a man in a boat thought he saw a white lion on the beach (they are sacred here). Then it became a major fishing town. This island itself is not large; we to a taxi from one end to the other (long way) and it took about 30 min.

The Fountain of Wealth-this is the world's largest fountain. We went there to partake in its ritual, which is the walk round the middle bottom of the fountain. It is said that walking round the fountain and touching its water brings good luck to the person carrying out the ritual. Sir Richard Branson did it so it must work!

We also saw a couple temples. I didn't take many pictures of the second one because a service was going on while we were there and I felt that would be rude. The first was the Thian Hock Keng Temple. And then the Sri temple.

Esplande is the name of their new convention center. We didn't go to an event but did see it from the outside.
Night Safari. The zoo there is suppose to be pretty good but since we have both see a lot of zoos we wanted to do something a little different. So we took a Night Safari tour. This tour takes you on a trolley through an area of land where the animals roam around. Obviously the very dangerous ones like the leopards and lion have some glass between them and us. But most animals just wandered a round. You are not allowed to take photos with a flash since these are night creatures and would hurt their eyes and startled them. Since my camera can't do that you don't have pictures of this sorry. However we got to walk along with hyenas, elephants, giraffes, hippos (they were huge). One tourist last weekend wasn't following the rules (like oh so many stupid people) and took a flash picture of the hippo, well just like they warn you the hippo got scared and trampled the lady and her family-I bet she doesn't do that again! This happened the week before I got there, I figured that would scare people a little, but sadly enough many people still had there cameras out with the flash on.

I know you have all heard me say it before. But why do some people think they need special treatment just because of who they think they are. One day's examples.

While at the Zoo people were told in 6 different languages NOT to take pictures with flashes. Is that really that hard to understand? Why do they think they are so high and mighty that they can ruin an animal's vision for their mere one picture? Or startled and animal that's 10-20 times their size to the point it greatly injuries themselves, family, and staff. Even when the staff came up to them and told them to turn their flash off they continued to do it. I think their asses should have just been thrown out of the zoo without a refund!
Then there are the parents who think that just because they are there with their child that they have the right to not listen to staff members. The people behind us in line at the train (for the safari) were instructed to move to the end of the train line so that it could be filled in correctly. They had to sit in the front! So they stood there until staff "made" them move to the back to fill in the open areas. Then while we went to the FREE show at the end of the zoo night this boy (probably 30plus years old) decided that he needed to sit as close to the stage as possible so the A-hole actually removed the RESERVED sign on the chair so he could sit. The staff told him to move and he got in their face about how he paid for is admission just like everyone else so no one should be special and get reserved seating. The idiot later found out why that seat was reserved-it was reserved for a cast member and an 8-foot snake! Which showed up almost on his lap-I hope he shat himself!

Other examples that bug me lately. And I would just like to say..yes I realize I don't have children but come on...

When at the airport they announce overhead that they are now seating people with disabilities and SMALL children. Small children to me is probably under 5years old. Not teenagers (and they looked pretty healthy to me)! They also announce the flight is full so please put one item under your seat and one in an overhead bin. I have had this happen many times. If I have one item I will put it under my seat so there is more room. But I have seen so many people that still put their two items up in the bins. And most of the time one article is very small anyway-like a coat. Stupid. I have actually had one of these type of people tell me (after hearing me bitch) that someday I would understand why people do that on plans and that's why he wants to be seated right away so he can do that. Well would now consider myself somewhat of a traveler now and I still don't get it. I don't get how anyone can think of themselves as greater than someone else.
We are done here, so back to Thailand we go.

Visa Run

Today we headed out to Singapore. We flew out of the brand new Bangkok airport. It was much nicer than the old airport, of course since it is new it had its bugs-so we left an hour past schedule. We flew on Thai Airlines, which as of right now is my favorite airline. There is about one flight attendant to every 25 people. They wore beautiful silk uniforms and everything was decorated beautifully. But by having so many staff on board- I had a hot washcloth to wash my hands and face with in the first 10min after take off. Then we were feed with in the first 30 min, all you wanted to drink (alcohol, sodas, tea, etc), and there was a pillow for everyone, and blankets for all who wanted one. They also made sure you had enough to drink the whole time. We got a movie with headphones for free. Now if you have been flying lately you will know that they nickel and dime you for everything these days so it was refreshing to just get what you needed or wanted. And no this flight we did not fly business class this was the wonderful service in economy seating. Ok enough with the free advertisement for Thai Airlines.

Once we got into Singapore we got a taxi to our new hotel called the Meritus Mandarin Hotel http://www.mandarin-singapore.com/accommodation/premier_room .htm and it is amazing. It is about $400 dollars a night for just the premier room. It has a lot nicer rooms than that. I loved our room because it came with those really nicer leather reclining massage chairs. Which is good since I am not getting my Thai massage every night here.

The city its self is so clean. It does have few strict rules- (the below are 1st offenses!)

1. No chewing non-prescription gum ($500/fine)
2. Not flushing a public toilet ($750/fine)
3. Swearing ($1000/fine)
4. Vandalism (fine to fix damage and public caning)
5. Homosexual acts (life in prison-doesn't this seem a little strange that all the men who like men get put in small cells together!)-Only men as of now Singapore doesn't acknowledge girl on girl action as being a bad thing.
6. Owning/taking/selling drugs (death)
7. Murder (death)

They do one execution a week! So we were on our best behavior. It was a nice change not having to worry about carrying a purse or walking late at night. There are no bad areas of town. We were thinking this would be a good place to move once kids are almost teens some day!

AngelWitch

There are no pictures on this blog due to the fact that cameras are not allowed where we were at!

Tonight was one of the UOP guys last nights so we had to go out on the town! Finally we got to see a "show". They have a wide variety of shows here. Some are called "tiger shows" from what i have been told its a show where the women in this show see what dangerous items they can "hide" from your view. For example a string of razor blades! Another show is a "talent" competition. Who can catch the most ping pong balls (not using any extremities or mouth--you do they math). And who can shoot the balls better. We decided to go to Angel Witch. Its a place that's set up like a theater slash strip club. We all sat in these rows that circled the stage. The stage had about 10 dancer poles that circled it, the poles reached the 50ft ceiling. Then it was more of a variety show (completely naked most of the time or with leather bondage outfits). Some of the girls danced a traditional Thai dance-but naked. Other girls did a S&M show with whips and lots of chains. Another girl did an amazing pole show! One girl did the "cutie girl" thing with pig tails and about 10 g-strings on, which she took off one by one and placed on audience members until she was naked to. Let see then there was your typical seductive girl on girl action. And then the one i thought was new and eventful was a lady came out wearing only black tape, during the song she ripped it off, until she was naked. Sounds weird but was actually entertaining-looked painful also. We plan on seeing a tiger show and a ping pong ball act before we leave, and any other show that you can only see here. So keep your eye out for those tidbits.

After the show we all went to this disco bar called Lucifer's, you entered into a room and then in the back room it was a huge room that was made like a big cave, so you felt kind of in hell. They did have a cover band playing, which was good. There we all practiced our bump and grind moves! The bands here are all very good. They know the latest and greatest songs out. Example: i hear tons of "Bringing Sexy Back", "London bridge" and "Buttons" all very good songs! After some time there we then headed home because the dude that was leaving needed to catch his flight.

Would you kiss a king cobra?

Today after laying by the pool for a few hours we heard about the Ripley's Believe it or Not doing a show, so we went to check it out. I didn't have my camera on me at the time (I still in a suit and cover up). There was this guy who was kissing King Cobras. Not the key words for this record is "Deadly-King-Cobras" Deadly-they had to be venomous. To prove they were after he kissed them they were forced to bite a jar to milk the venom. King-they had to be over 8 ft long.
They also had to be mad! So they had to have their hood spread and up in a fighting stance when he kissed them. There was no gate/glass or anything between the crowd and him. Just 3 guys with snake hooks standing by in case the snakes decided to attack the audience. Needless to say we watched this from the second level looking down!
The info:
Shahimi Abdul Hamid, a 33-year-old Malaysian man, set a new world record by kissing a cobra 51 times in the head in 3 minutes. Overtaking a previous record set in 1999 when an American kissed eleven venomous snakes.
http://www.shvoong.com/books/mystery/413545-man-kisses-cobra/

The Sanctury of Truth, Buddha Mountain

This building is completely hand carved wood. The details and craftsmanship is amazing. The idea is that every major religion on Eastern philosophy is represented in this building. There is a section that you can even help do some of the carving. I didn't get a tour so may facts are sparse, for more info go to http://www.sanctuaryoftruth.com/

The second thing we did today was to go see the Buddha Mountain. This is a cliff inlaid with gold leaf in the outline of a sitting Buddha. This is the largest Buddha image in the world. It is 130 meters tall, 70 meters wide, and can be seen from miles away. The image and mountain are alternately referred to as "Buddha Mountain", Khao Chee Chan, or "Phra Phuttha Maha Vachira Utta Mopas Sasada". During the Vietnam Conflict the Thai navy was mining the mountain for stone to be used at an American base. After the war the mountain was illegally mined for stone to be sold to construction companies. When his Majesty put a stop to the mining, he suggested that they create a Buddha image in gold to commemorate the King's Golden Jubilee. American lasers to two days to do the carving itself. But it took months to fill in the carving with gold. The cost of this project was over $3 million. In the park surrounding the cliff there are many areas to meditate and rest. And there are signs there to point you in the most scenic viewpoint. Directly in front of the cliff face are shrines, elaborate gardens, and a number of terraced pools stocked with lotus flowers. Pains have been taken to make Buddha Mountain a quiet, contemplative place.

Profession _____________

Homemaker?

I had to put my profession down on my travel sheet today. And I picked homemaker? Well I no longer work as a nurse. And I don't have a job of any type now. But what is a homemaker?

Homemaker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A homemaker is a person whose prime occupation is to care for their family and/or home; the term is originally an American feminist phrase, but it has entered mainstream English. Finding a term to describe the modern man or woman who has left the paid workforce to care for their family is problematic. The term homemaker is used in preference to either housewife or househusband because it is inclusive, defines the role in terms of activities, rather than relation to another, and is independent of marital status. The terms (informal) stay-at-home mom and stay-at-home dad are also used, particularly if the person views their central role as caring for children. The euphemistic term "domestic engineeer" has gone out of favor, being seen by some as patronizing or degrading. Likewise, the term "housekeeper" has come to describe hired cleaning help, and is no longer used -- other than in a derogatory way -- to describe homemaking. None of these terms adequately convey the diversity of activities an individual homemaker might choose to pursue, such as volunteer work, small-scale farming, education, religious ministry, political involvement, home schooling, etc.



Call girl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A call girl or escort is a prostitute who (unlike a street walker) is not visible to the general public. Nor does she usually belong to an institution like a brothel. One must summon her, usually by calling a telephone number-hence the name call girl. Often, call girls advertise their services in small ads in magazines, although an intermediary such as an escort agency, pimp or a pander may be involved. Call girls can work either incall, where the client comes to them, or outcall, where they come to the client. Call girls are commonly perceived to be elite amongst prostitutes, far more skilled, able to pick and choose amongst their potential clients and therefore demand higher prices for their services, and are more attractive, educated, well groomed and youthful than street prostitutes. An escort service will not take on any woman that is unattractive, has a visible drug problem (such as needle marks from injecting drugs), or has an overly negative persona. Unless they specialize in tattooed women, escort services will usually not take on any women that have anything larger than a small tattoo. Escort services seek to establish a reputation for offering desirable women and know that their customers only give them one chance. If an escort service sends an undesirable woman to a client, the client will very likely not use that service again. Also, many escort agencies do criminal background checks on applicants to weed out those that have been arrested for street prostitution or other types of crimes. This weeding out is done to reduce the chances of being accused of being sellers of prostitution, trying not to draw the attention of law enforcement agencies. For these reasons, there is rarely any crossover between call girls and street prostitutes. Not all clients hire call girls for sex. Some simply do so to chat. This is most common in elderly rich men that simply enjoy the company of an attractive beautiful woman. Escort agencies try to determine if this is what a client wants and if it is, the agency will try to send their most educated and polite women to this type of customer. It is not unusual for these "chat" call girls to receive big tips or even bequests from clients.

Another client who does not ask for sex may want to impress others by having an attractive woman as his date, if not as pretend girlfriend or wife. Such a client may be attending a high school or college class reunion or an office social event. Clients seeking this service will tell the escort service what their intention is. They may specify what kind of woman they seek to play this role. The client may meet with the woman beforehand to evaluate her level of intelligence, education, manners, speech, and ability to execute the pretense, as well as to judge her appearance. They would go over his past, her (pretend) past and their feigned relationship, in order to successfully carry out the pretense.

So lets compare;
Homemaker Call Girl Me
cleans house nope nope
Cooks nope nope
does laundry nope nope
Raises children nope nope
Handles finances yes yes
Sex with partner Yes yes

But does that make me a homemaker or a one expensive call girl!

Next time we travel what do you think I should put down for profession?

Elephant Village

Sunday we decide we had enough of tigers but wanted to see more elephants. We went on a trekking tour on an elephant. It took us trough a river and all around the countryside. The tour guide actually let me "drive" the elephant for over half of the trip! Troy didn't get to at all; he says the tour guide had a crush on me (he also picked me flowers). We asked around and it sounds like it was defiantly a special treat for me because no one else got to do it. BLONDES ROCK! It was fairly easy to drive one. If you wanted it to go straight you kick both ears at the same time, if you want it to go right or left you kick that ear. I never did find out how to stop! After the ride we got to see a little presentation on the silk worm. Thailand I known for its wonderful silks. Random fact: the worm lives for only 24 days, then is a butterfly for 48hrs then it dies. The cocoon is yellow and fuzzy and the fuzz is actually what they make the silk from. Real silk burns into ash, fake silk or non-pure silk melts and becomes sticky. CHILDREN DON"T TRY THIS AT HOME. Tell me if it really works if you happen to try it.

Finally we had lunch and then watched a Thai Fighting show. I got picked to be in a fight with a sword (BLONDES ROCK!).

Once we got home we joined up with the rest of the UOP clan and headed out on the town. It was Greg (#2) last night. We went to this club which had a live band that played American rock music. They played everything I wanted to hear. They need to work on their Creed a little but Metallica and others they did awesome. The twist of this place was that the waitress staff were drag queens, there is always a twist on Walking Street.

Sriracha Zoo

Saturday after troy got to sleep in a little bit we were off to the Sriracha Zoo. This was the first time I "got" to use the Thailand map (which is not in English). I have to say I think I did pretty well. We got there without one wrong turn! Mark that down in the record books. Once we got to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo we were on a dead run to see all of the shows. First we saw the Elephant show. The elephants played basketball, walked on tightropes, used a hula hoop, did some dancing, walked like humans, and gave a girl audience member a massage, and a boy audience member a "massage". It was really entertaining. We also feed the elephants. If you wanted to tip the elephant for doing a good job they would take the money with their trunk and hand it to the trainer then bow. The cool thing was that they could actually tell between the bananas and the money so they never ate any cash! We tested this! Next we were off to the Crocodile Show. Here they put their heads into the crocs mouth, which was neat. Otherwise the crocodiles don't do many tricks besides opening and closing their mouth. Next we were off to the Circus show which is like every other tiger circus shows you will ever see. The tigers jumped through hopes, over each other and then the always nail biting jumping at the trainer "oh my he must be scared!" Then for the finally of shows we saw some pigs doing math calculations and then the finally of a pig race. The math part made you think some because the audience got to pick whatever we wanted to the pig to answer in +, -. /. No multiplication though. They always got the correct answer, I never could figure that trick out. Oh yeah there was this scorpion queen there. She just stands there but with hundreds of scorpions on here body, it was a little freaky- didn't take a picture of her because i didn't want to startle the scorpions!

After we saw all the shows we walked around to see all the animals. We got to see some newborn baby cubs, iguanas, camels, snakes (not Troy's favorite part), elephants, while spotted dear, crocodiles, the "happy family" and of course many tigers. They had two educational centers there that taught about how they breed the crocodiles. Here is a useful fact for all you nerds, did you know that you could produce girl or boy crocs merely but the set room temperature! So the egg is neutral until you pick a temperature. So if the temp is less than 20 or greater than 32 degree (Celsius here) it's a boy and if its 21-31 degrees in the room it's a girl. Strange huh! Then there was my favorite part the tiger education center. Here is another random fact for you. They let pigs do the nursing to the tiger cubs because that makes the tigers tamer and it increases the size of the cub faster. They also have the cubs play with pigs and golden retrievers to increase their tameness. You can actually play with the baby tigers. So now I can say I actually have been bitten by a tiger (it was maybe a 40lb one though). They paws were as big as my hand; we obviously took a couple pictures with the little guy. And then there was the orangutans! They were so cute, both could ride tricycles. One even gave me a ride; it probably was a future scam, notice how it's "accidentally chewing" on my ring! LOL

The first week

This week has been very rejuvenating! My life consisted of waking up for my free breakfast, which is wonderful. I have tried more fruits this week than ever in my life. I am still trying to figure out what they all are and how to eat them! I usually got on to the computer by 8:30am so that I could IM on MSN Messenger with anyone wanting to talk. Then I had many options- I could shop, read, explore, lay by the pool, watch movies or go to the spa. Those are some of the things I did this week at least. Troy gets home between 6-10pm. So I have lots of time to myself. David, Greg, Troy and I all went and got foot massages after work. I have learned that there are two types of massages really. There is a regular massage and then there is one with a "happy ending" as they call it. The regular ones are incredible cheap here, I spent $6/hr and that includes a tip. And these women are good at massages!
For lunch the hotel has free lite meals with fruit, sandwiches and deserts. For dinner they have a free "dinners from around the world", which means they pick a country the serve food from there. So meals are pretty easy for me to find! If troy gets home late we all go out to eat. We are about three blocks from "walking street". It's a street made famous by the Vietnam Conflict. All the soldiers would come to Pattaya for their R&R. That's really how this city got started. They have an amazingly high amount of "working girls" here. The go-go bar is where you can pick and choice the one you want. So for all those who want to know how it works here you go...

So you go into one of these Go-Go bars and it has tables that all the girls are standing on. I would like to say they are dancing but its more a swaying or jiggle that they do. Since in Thailand nudity is forbidden (and that is a very unenforced law!) the girls where clothes. Imagine a 6 year old's skirt and shirt on a 100lb Asian person. They do not wear bras or underwear with the clothing, now remember they are up on tables so you can see everything anyway. The shirts are usually a button down shirt with one button actually working. Now that you have a mental picture this is how it works. The girls come up to talk to you and its polite to offer them a drink. Now its never one girl but usually 5-10 girls. A drink is about $1.50 each so it's not really expensive to buy one for each girl. If you find one you are interested in you can take them home (or whereever) for the price of a bar fine (600 baht=$15/per girl). Now that's just the price to get them to leave with you. You and the girl determine a price for the activities you would like preformed. Now since I haven't actually went so far to see what activity costs how much you are free to imagine, but I can tell you it's a lot less that you would ever think (that's what I am told). Now I personally would never partake in these prostitution events but part of me was thinking....for $15/night I could have them clean/laundry/etc. and I guess i could have her do it topless so my husband would pay for it!
They have a variety of bars. This explanation is just the Go-Go bars. I was told about a BJ bar, where the men just sit down at a table with this curtain around the table and they get a BJ while sitting there. This is weirder to me because you don't get to see who did the BJ when its time to pay them, my thought is how do you know if its not an 80 woman without teeth or a woman at all? They also have these "shows" which have a variety of acts that include girls "hiding" objects, or shooting objects, or even catching objects with their nether regions. I haven't seen one yet, but I am sure I will have a more detailed story of one of these shows before I leave.
Everyone here is Khun _____. So if you name is paul. You would be addresses as Khun Paul. This goes for boys and girls.

Driving in Thailand

Driving in Thailand... Besides the steering wheels being on the wrong side of the car, and you should be driving on the left of the road, there are some other tricks to driving in Thailand. For anyone who may be thinking of visiting, here are some simple "rules" of the road.

1.) Roads are for pedestrians/animals, and anything with wheels.

-Expect to find cars, trucks, buses, taxis, dogs, bicycles, wheelchairs, vendors, elephants, and worst of all, motor scooters on the road. These can be in either lane (see rule #2), going in any direction (see rule #3). Pedestrians are allowed to enter traffic at any time as long as they put their arm out and signal that you are supposed to stop. Dogs they just go and hope the other people on the street stop or only lightly graze them.

2.) Lanes, signs, and signals, are only there as mere suggestions not rules.

-Red lights, stop signs, one way signs, yield signs, no U-turn signs, and lane lines are all optional. While some people think that two lanes means two cars sit next to each other in traffic. Here, people feel there is enough room for two cars, a taxi or Baht Bus (See rule #4), 12 motor scooters, 2 bikes, and a lady driving her flaming grill and selling squid. And if traffic is actually stopped then there are also the random dogs that try to make a run for it and the people walking kindly to your car to sell you stuff so you don't have to get out of the car to shop. What a life saver! If you have a car, those side-view mirrors will be pressed against the car, as they take up room that could be used for another motor scooter.

3.) Any vehicle with wheels will go any direction at any time.

-Most common occurrences involve one way streets. There is an unwritten rule that you are allowed to go backwards on a "one way" if you are only going a little ways (less than 10 km), or it would be more convenient than going around the block. Buses can take up four lanes if they need to turn, and vehicles will turn any direction, from either lane, and so will anyone who realizes they may miss their turn.

4.) Baht buses will take the right of way.

- A Baht bus is a nickname for a taxi consisting of a pickup truck with two benches in the back end. The bus will circle the downtown, and it is 10 baht (about 25 cents) to ride on the bench for as long as you need to get where you are going. If you want them to stop you hit their buzzer and they stop no matter where they are at in the street and you jump off the back.

If pedestrians are in sight, the bus will speed up to them, then slow down and travel next to them, honking to make sure the person on foot knows that they could get ride if they desired. If the person shakes the bus off, they will speed up to the next set of pedestrians or, if a rider wants off, they will stop to collect their money. They do not have mirrors, and will run anything over to get to the next pedestrian.

5.) Parking is allowed anywhere, at any time, as long as you turn on your hazards.

-This includes the fast lane, slow lane, sidewalk, other driveways, facing backwards, or behind other cars in the parking lots. In parking garages, triple or quadruple parking is fine, but you must leave your car in neutral so when the trapped car needs to get out, they can push you someplace else. Also, do not expect your car to be where you left it. Since you need to leave your car in neutral, it will be pushed to whichever corner is most convenient. Imagine Tetrus with cars!

With no speed limits enforced, the traffic can go from 150 km/hr to stopped because someone is buying a flower from the vendor in the middle of the road. Apparently flower vendors have little to live for here. In short, I recommend driving in Thailand, as it will make you appreciate that boring commute to work a little more.

And so it begins

My new life...At
least that's what it seems like. Today I officially became a world traveler. Troy
and I left on a flight from Chicago to Bangkok on Friday afternoon. The
ride was very long; we spent 20hrs in the plane. Luckily for us that
UOP puts us in business class for all flights over 12hrs. Business class
was awesome! I felt like I just laid around in bed all day. The seats
were so big I could sit cross-legged in them. It was a big recliner; I
couldn't even kick the seat in front of me. Since the recliner part
included my legs to go up it really was like being in bed all day. I
watched three movies and my first 6 episodes of House (thanks Mandy!).
It really made the time fly by. Plus we got meals every 3-4hrs and all
the snacks and drinks we wanted. They provide all the business class
with these little gift bags that have an eye pillow, booties,
toothbrush, toothpaste, Kleenex, lotion and ear plugs in them. So we
had pretty much everything we could have needed. I also brought my
computer and movies to watch, play station portable, magnetic chess,
and cards. So we just played and watched movies all day. My best bring
was my new iGO which I would recommend to anyone wanting to fly long
distances. An iGO is an adapter for all of your electronic stuff. It
has AC/DC/Empower adapters; our flight was Empower so I was able to run
my computer off of that the entire time. No worries about batteries. We
landed in Bangkok, Thailand at 12am on Sunday morning. Then we met up
with Mike, another UOP person. We all loaded up in a van and drove to
Rayong. Our hotel was very nice. It has some odd things in it. You have
to push a button in the bathroom and then wait 45 minutes for the hot
water. You can't drink water out of the faucets so we have bottled
water. And all of the door entryways are either elevated or dropped,
this prevents you from stepping on the entry way- it's a sacred thing
here. I hope to find out why sometime.