Sunday, October 29, 2006

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!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

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.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

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.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

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!

Sunday, October 8, 2006

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.

Saturday, October 7, 2006

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/

Friday, October 6, 2006

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.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

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?

Sunday, October 1, 2006

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.