After spending about a week in Siem Reap, I made the move to finally go to Thailand. The bus came extremely early at six in the morning, then we took a three hour bus ride to the Cambodian border then slowly over two hours made our way through the Thai border and customs into Thailand. After we were all officially in Thailand, we took another bus ride for six more hours to Bangkok.
It was crazy driving through Thailand on the way to Bangkok because of how developed it was and how developed it was in the country side. There were actual roads with street lights, 7-11’s littered everywhere, THERE WERE REST STOPS, actual suburbs and towns instead of just dirt shanty towns and rice fields. It may not sound like much, but after two months of traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia this felt like a metropolis and almost like back home.
Asia Trip: Day 44 - Bangkok (2/27/2019)
Daily Highlights:
Got dropped off near the train station and walked about 1 km to my hostel
Got settled in and went to a nearby night market
Was surprised to find out this night market was also one of Bangkok’s red light districts
There were SO MANY SEX WORKERS AND LADY BOYS
Got a mango smoothie, Burger King and knocked out with early with a happy and settled stomach
Asia Trip: Day 45 - Bangkok (2/2/8/2019)
Daily Highlights:
FINALLY mailed my polo and my dad’s bomber jacket back home
These two things were always taking up so much space in my backpack
It cost my 19 USD to mail them home and they will get there in three months
Took the water taxi all around the city (wild form of transportation)
Went to Wat Arun Temple
Tried to go to the Ghost Tower
Hard to get in and didn’t want to push it
I took a motorcycle ride back to the hostel from the ferry station
The little man was going SO FAST and I wasn’t wearing a helmet. Good thing it was only like a five minute ride
Went to an incredible rooftop bar and spent 18 USD on Monkey Shoulder whiskey (worth it!)
I FOUND A GYM AND LIFTED
It’s hot as shit in Bangkok. Every day is about 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit with 70 percent humidity, so I’m schvitzing so much every day. It’s like a constant sauna. Also I need to get a Visa, so I can stay here longer and work/ volunteer.
These water taxi’s are the cheapest, most efficient and fun way to travel through Bangkok. 10/10 would recommend.
Self portrait.
Below are some snaps from the Wat Arun Temple.
Asia Trip: Day 46 - Bangkok (3/1/19)
Daily Highlights:
Went to Dunkin Donuts!
Severely underwhelmed - they had no coffee, no food, just shitty foreign strange flavored donuts
Moved to Everyday Bangkok @ Khao San
MUCH BETTER LOCATION AND COMMON AREAS
Went to Koah San Road
So grimy
Went to club 7-11 and got some beers
Got a bucket from the street and had a night
Asia Trip: Day 47 - Bangkok (3/2/2019)
Daily Highlights:
Got the worlds largest thing of pad thai
Went to Wat Pho temple - UNDERWHELMING
GOT EAR PLUGS
Slept like a King
Pretty cool mural around the corner from my hostel. Bangkok actually has a vibrant graffiti and mural scene, which I definitely did not know about.
Asia Trip: Day 48 - Bangkok (3/3/2019)
Daily Highlights:
Woke up at 9:00am and felt great
Got a strawberry banana smoothie for brekkie
WORKED OUT (DID LEGS!)
Felt amazing
I miss training
Read all damn day long
Put up four blog posts
Watched Chefs Table
I felt incredible today! I worked out and slept well. I realize I been feeling off lately because I haven’t been sleeping well, eating well or training. I did all three today and feel like DYNAMITE. I’m thinking of training hard three days a week: Upper Body one day, Lower Body another day, and cardio on the third day with abs on my days off. I’m so stoked to be training again.
I was watching Chefs Table today and realized how much I really love cooking and want to do more when I move back to SF. I want to make family dinners, learn more recipes, and just create a sense of home with food around me. I want family dinners in my new home, to have old cookbooks and constantly try to make new recipes. It’ll make me be social, give me a sense of home and I’ll love it. I’ll be more creative and continue to learn.
BUT now I want to really create a routine out of all this chaos. Meditate and training weekly. It’s my medicine. I never really realize how much these things are lacking in my life until I start meditating and training again.
P.S. I love the smell, tactile covers, and nostalgic smell of all the old cookbooks.
Favorite smoothie spot. Go to is always a mango smoothie.
Asia Trip: Day 49 - Bangkok (3/4/2019)
Daily Highlights:
Woke up at 7:00am to get my visa
Took a water taxi for forty mins
Then took a thirty minute moto taxi ride to the government building
Fucking wild! This little bastard had me white knuckling the seat the entire fucking ride and hyperventilating. He was whizzing in and out of traffic, making tight squeezes in between dump trucks going 60 kph and just overall disconcerting moves.
GOT MY VISA
It took four hours because everything shut down for an hour for lunch. Literally the entire complex shuts down for lunch for an hour and no work gets done, a bit frustrating but interesting how different it is from the U.S.
Got another moto taxi to the water taxi station
This guy was worse than the first guy. He also didn’t like me touching his shoulder, I needed to hang onto him otherwise I would have flown off the bike. This ding dong would weave, speed, and check his phone for directions while weaving and speeding. Made the first guy look like a model citizen. Also white knuckling and hyperventilating the whole time.
Had a great night on Khao San Road
The way these water taxi’s stop is they have these skippers, who have whistles and have codes. They whistle to the captain to back up, to stop, and to get moving. It’s a pretty cool thing to see.
Asia Trip: Day 50 - Bangkok => Koh Samui (3/5/2019)
Daily Highlights:
Swiftly checked out of my hostel and booked a last minute bus ticket to the islands
The bus came at 6pm, so I chilled in the common area all day and read
I started to watch Brooklyn 99 and actually loled the entire time
Finally got onto the overnight bus
It was an actual fucking bus and not a sleeper bus. SO UNCOMFORTABLE, GOT NO SLEEP
Didn’t eat dinner because I thought we would stop, but we didn’t
Finally stopped at midnight
I was famished
I got dicked on food
They made it so expensive at this rest stop because it is the only place around for miles, they have a pure monopoly. So they can change however much they want and everyone buys it because they are hungry and have no choice.