hope

hope, originally uploaded by Reeses World.

there are many more pictures and stories from my trip that i didn't have time to report yet. so i'll come back here and then to update more and put up more pictures. below is my trip from bangkok to the island of koh chang by a 5-hour busride and a 1-hour ferry ride to the island. first, i was very lucky to catch the last bus in the morning. there's a bus every hour to the islands, but what they didn't tell me was that the air-conditioned 'vip' bus only traveled a few times a day. luckily i caught the last one not knowing it was the last one until i was there. it was the 9:45am bus. the bus was very comfortable and had a bathroom and everything. i could have flown to the island, but i realy wanted to see some countryside. i couldn't get too many photos of the countryside because we were moving so fast, but it's just so wonderful seeing the real country and not just the city. and this was my first time outside the city since arriving to asia. we stopped along the way at a rest stop, pictures below, for about 30 minutes. it was an official rest stop that we also stopped at on the way back when i returned to bangkok after my island adventure. they served food and had a small market. finally, after the bus trip, we arrived at a ferry station and waited for the next ferry to take off.

these ferries were big, old vessels for cars and bikes and other autos to transport back and forth. and on the top level was room for people to sit. but it was all open-aired and very rusty. i happened to use the restroom on the ferry just as we were waiting to leave and upon washing my hands at the sink, my finger got caught upon a broken section of the sink and a huge gash was created on my middle finger. blood was simply oozing out. while i was, yes, at a sink, it was hardly clean and there was no soap and i had left my bag with another traveler upstairs on the ferry while i used the downstairs restroom. luckily, i had a used bandaid from another small cut from earlier in the day and so i wrapped it around my finger as best as i could, ran upstairs to my bag and got out my medicine pouch which had more bandaids and some alcohol wipes and did my best to take care of the mess. and i just kept thinking to myself that i'm so glad i had that tetanus shot before i left for my trip! if i was ever to have a big cut on my finger like that, this old rusty ferry and its dirty sink was simply not where it would be the healthiest. i wasn't able to properly take care of it all until i finally arrived at my bungalow on the island (after the hour ferry ride and the hour taxi on the island), but then it all got taken care of and over the course of the asian trip my finger of course healed.
below are a mix of pictures of the ferry ride on the way to the island, and on the way back when it was pouring down rain

taxi (which is basically a pickup truck with a sort-of roof on top and seats on the sides for the passengers) on the island

on my return trip, it was pouring down rain outside and the open-aired ferry was simply overwhelmed with the rain even though we were ostensibly under a roof. and of course the taxi ride to the ferry that morning was also drenched because when it rains there the streets just become rivers with no real drainage system of which to speak. so my return trip i was completely soaked before i even began the 5 hour bus trip back to bangkok, but i managed to somehow change clothes in the bus to at least be a little bit dry. and of course, as mentioned before on my blog, my island vacation was bliss and beautiful in my secluded bungalow by the sea.

i'm back in sf. more coming soon

one of the great things about being around the world on your birthday is that it allows for the longest birthday ever. you see, right now, it's the 23rd here in bangkok and my birthday was yesterday. but in the united states, my birthday (the 22nd) lives on! so i get to celebrate for an extra 12-14 hours.

on my birthday, my friend Alan took me to Ayuthaya province, about an hour north of Bangkok, with his friends (from l-r in pic below) Mok, (Alan), Nathan, and Job.

Ayuthaya was the former royal capitol of Thailand, and has a very rich history with the country. lots of old temples and statues and religious significance. including a giant reclining buddha and a buddha head stuck and wrapped around in tree roots. you can see a lot of temples and stuff below, even a strange bug.


at this one temple with a really giant buddha inside, there were these sticks you could pick with numbers on them to get a type of horoscope based on what you picked.

and then, for my birthday, we went to a very special place for dinner



in Thailand


Sizzler!