Day 2 - Monday, February 14th - Bangkok

Hello and welcome to a new day. For now, I am able to write daily. Not sure what the next city / town / province / etc will hold as far as internet accessibility.

I also will update the prior day so make sure to look back to make sure you didn't miss anything.

HAPPY VALENTINES TO ALL......there are no cards and no flowers on the way to anyone.....just a simple Happy Valentines Blog.

I woke up this AM at about 5:30. I think I'm done with this Jet Lag shit. Today will be my first "normal" day. I went to the "lobby" and met this guy from Vancouver who was leaving to go back home after 5 months in Thailand, China, and Russia. He gave me some good tips on some of the islands. I read a little more of "The Beach" and showered. Started thinking about my next stop. Decided to stay in Bangkok until Wednesday AM. At that point, I'm going to some place that I can't spell right now. It is the old capitol of Thailand and it's just something to see off the baten path rather than going right to Chang Mai. It's a bit north of Bangkok and on the way to Chang Mai.

This new plan has me blowing off the Full Moon Party on Ko Phang Ngan but I can't do everything I want to here and up north and still make it down South for the party on the 21st of February. If I rush down South to get to the party, I then miss out on things I want to do before heading to the islands and I'm on the islands for over a month. Oh well.

I had some breakfast at the lodge and it was pretty much my first real meal here. How can a simple florentine omlette with toast be soo good. Not sure what they put in it, but it was certainly better than my favorite Florentine Omlette at Bread and Porridge on Wilshire. Also had some fresh apple juice and although, not as good as the Jack La Lanne Juicer, it was pretty damn good.

The tour people picked me up at about 8:30A to take me to see some temples. WHOA, these aren't like the temples I've ever seen (i.e. Temple Israel, HERJC, and Emanuel) These are gold, and mirrored, and mosaic looking and they all have giant Buddah's in them. Some buddah's are standing, some buddah's are sitting, some buddah's are laying down, and they all do have one thing in common - mangy looking dogs and cats looking like they haven't eaten in years sauntering around hoping some tourist or a friendly monk will drop a crumb. These temples are insane.

This next little paragraph is for the fans of The Amazing Race.....remember in Season 5 when the Guido's did the fast forward in Bangkok where they had to take a small dish of coins and drop one coin in each of the 108 pots next to the reclining buddah - some dishes of coins had more than 108, some had less, and they had to keep doing it over and over until they found a dish with the exact 108 coins. Well for the fans who really do remember, I did that task today today and I think it's the closest I'm going to get to getting on the race! Now I just need to find the island where they filmed Survivor Thailand and my trip will be complete!

From there, we went to the GRAND PALACE. Once again, more gold, more mosaic, more glitz, and more buddah's. I was in and out of there in not much more time than it took me to see the Sistine Chapel back in 1989. At this point, the sun was UP. The sun was HOT. The humidity had risen past the 4000% mark and Mahco was sweating his ass off. I was walking and came across what seemed to be a nice restaurant on the river and decided to treat myself to a good lunch. I had a great apple freeze drink, a bottle of water and a hot and spicy lemongrass soup with prawns. I could have opted for the chicken but I splurged and had the prawns. I was slightly pissed at myself but did it anyway. The bill came out to 198 Baht which if you all take out your calculators can figure out that it's about $5.20. If I had the chicken in the soup, it would have been $3.60. I'm now over my food budget for the day.

I decided to walk around a bit and find my way to Koh San Road (sp?). For those who don't know, it's hard to explain. They call it "Backpackers Row". Some call it sleeze row. Some call it the place to be. It's riddled with shops on the sidewalks, in the alleys, and there is more crap to buy than I have ever seen before. I have decided not to buy ANYTHING until I return to Bangkok at the end of March before I come home. Not really sure at this point I will EVER come home and once I see the islands, that may be confirmed. Back to Ko San Road....there are banners flying from every building with advertisements. Mostly, it's all Western stuff so the hoards of tourists feel at home there. Every 3 steps, there's another restaurant, shop, or Guesthouse. Guesthouses here are what some may call Bed and Breakfasts but are really more like Hostels. The Shanti Lodge is a guesthouse. I'm in a room with my own shower but I need to use a public toilet. There is also an option of staying in a DORM type room which has about 10 bunkbeds in it.

I walked around Ko San ROad for a while. I stopped at a Juice Stand and met Tammy from Minneapolis. She's a flight attendant on United and has a goal to see 100 countries so this trip is Thailand and Cambodia. She may pop into Burma for a day so she can add that one to her list. We talked over our juice and made a plan to meet in Chang Mai on Saturday. We walked around some more and then parted ways. I walked back to the Shanti Lodge (about 40 minutes) and am sitting in the Air Conditioned Internet Cafe updating my blog. Not sure what tonight holds in store yet. I may head over to Ko San ROad for some cheap food and beer. I'll keep you posted.........

P.S. When I landed on Saturday night, I changed $200 US DOLLARS to Thai Baht. With all I've done so far, including hotels and food, and my 2 tours, bottled water every few minutes to keep me hydrated I still have about $84 left.