Yeah, I've been putting off posting because I still don't want to believe that the trip is over. I had so much fun and I didn't want it to end. AHHHHHH.
I do need to mention something wonderful about Japan other than the beautiful women, not that they are in the same category but....the toilet seats. Did you see that one coming? I'm betting not. Some of the places have heated toilet seats. This is pretty crazy awesome, and to make it even better some of them have these little spray things built in that clean your bum when your done. I probably would have never ventured to try the spray thing if Japan was first our first destination but after using all the other bathrooms I had no choice to use the spray thing seemed like a good idea. It was too, there is a thing that warms the water before it hits ya and it is delightful. I'm hoping to maybe find a place that sells them out here. Hahahah.
So yeah, it's 430 in the morning and I can't sleep. I lay in bed for a while trying but I've now decided it's useless so I might as well get up and do stuff. It's also snowing here right now. This has been the craziest winter I can remember in Vancouver. I was going to bike to work on Monday but it felt so cold and I couldn't find my rain jacket (it was raining) so I didn't. I guess I won't be for a week or two longer now.
I'm going to post some more pics from the trip soon. I now have all of them together I just need to buy a little do-dad to hook my computers together as the roommate who moved out took his back from me. Maybe tomorrow (which is actually today I guess).
So thats that for now.
mark.
ps. I've now changed the settings so comments can be posted annonymously. Enjoy.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The land of all u can eat and drink
Thats right, weve reached Japan. We actually got here a couple of days ago but I have not really felt like spending much time in front of the computer because I will be doing enough of that when I get home.
Our first day here we went for all u can eat food and drink for 30 bucks, and we did. Ohhhh did we ever. We then came back to Aaron and Megumis place (if you have not noticed yet I cannot find the apostrophe key) and had some more drinks and danced up a storm. We talked too, it was Aaron, Megumi, Yoshi and his wife Uko, Mizue (that is probably spelled wrong but you say her name mee-zoo-eh, Dustin, a guy named Joe, and Megumis sister Hiromi.
After being loud at A & Ms for too long Aaron, Dustin and Mizue went out to soul-sonic for a beer because Megumi had to work the next day. We did not last too long there and on the way home we had some night lunch, ramen, which Kurume is supposed to be known for. It was noodles in a pork broth with some pieces of pork added. After a long night it was delicious. So that was monday night.
Wednesday is Megumis day off so last night we were out late. Pretty much the same people came out to A & Ms (minus Joe and Hiromi) and we had hotpot, I guess maybe its Japans version of it? I do not know but it was good, miso soup base with cabbbage and sprouts and green onion (sort of, it is not but it looks like it) and chicken and bacon and little sausages. It was really good. Everyone was tired after eating so much so we lounged around for a while, people got even more tired and soon it was just the 4 of us. So we went out for karaoke, all you can drink karaoke. We actually had a blast, on the way home we were going to stop at Jolly Pasta for some pizza/pasta but it was closed. Oh well, so we came back to the apartment for some soup and giyoza, I think I ate 15/20 of them, they were sooo good.
So now it is today, Wednesday. We slept in, went for a short hike up a mountain/hill to a temple. It was good, we have not done a heck of a lot of sightseeing on this trip, it was good to get out. For lunch we went to Yoshinoya, which is kinda like a fast food joint here, we had beef strips with some sauce on a bed of rice. It was good. Tonight? Who knows, we have a coupon for half off take out sushi but we just realized it expired on the 15th. Hahaha, Aarons going to be annoyed. He is teaching until 630 so he should be home at any minute.
So thats an update. I will post all about what we did in Korea soon (which was mostly visiting people and pretty much no visiting sites, which I am actually totally ok with), until then I am going to try and figure out which one of these buttons means *post*.
Our first day here we went for all u can eat food and drink for 30 bucks, and we did. Ohhhh did we ever. We then came back to Aaron and Megumis place (if you have not noticed yet I cannot find the apostrophe key) and had some more drinks and danced up a storm. We talked too, it was Aaron, Megumi, Yoshi and his wife Uko, Mizue (that is probably spelled wrong but you say her name mee-zoo-eh, Dustin, a guy named Joe, and Megumis sister Hiromi.
After being loud at A & Ms for too long Aaron, Dustin and Mizue went out to soul-sonic for a beer because Megumi had to work the next day. We did not last too long there and on the way home we had some night lunch, ramen, which Kurume is supposed to be known for. It was noodles in a pork broth with some pieces of pork added. After a long night it was delicious. So that was monday night.
Wednesday is Megumis day off so last night we were out late. Pretty much the same people came out to A & Ms (minus Joe and Hiromi) and we had hotpot, I guess maybe its Japans version of it? I do not know but it was good, miso soup base with cabbbage and sprouts and green onion (sort of, it is not but it looks like it) and chicken and bacon and little sausages. It was really good. Everyone was tired after eating so much so we lounged around for a while, people got even more tired and soon it was just the 4 of us. So we went out for karaoke, all you can drink karaoke. We actually had a blast, on the way home we were going to stop at Jolly Pasta for some pizza/pasta but it was closed. Oh well, so we came back to the apartment for some soup and giyoza, I think I ate 15/20 of them, they were sooo good.
So now it is today, Wednesday. We slept in, went for a short hike up a mountain/hill to a temple. It was good, we have not done a heck of a lot of sightseeing on this trip, it was good to get out. For lunch we went to Yoshinoya, which is kinda like a fast food joint here, we had beef strips with some sauce on a bed of rice. It was good. Tonight? Who knows, we have a coupon for half off take out sushi but we just realized it expired on the 15th. Hahaha, Aarons going to be annoyed. He is teaching until 630 so he should be home at any minute.
So thats an update. I will post all about what we did in Korea soon (which was mostly visiting people and pretty much no visiting sites, which I am actually totally ok with), until then I am going to try and figure out which one of these buttons means *post*.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
One Good Book
Hey all. I just finished reading this great book so I figured I'd recommend it to anyone who reads this. Catfish and Mandala. Read it if you want. It was really good. Thats pretty much all I've got to say about that. Actually I've got a lot more to say about it but I'm not going to at this time.
Dustin and I arrived in Pusan, Korea yesterday morning around 9. After several phone calls we got on a taxi to a bus station. We got us a bus ticket, sat in a cold waiting area for 30 minutes and were on our way to DongGwangYang. Somewhere between one and two Matt found us wondering around looking for a place to check our email. So thats about 5:30 am on the 13th to 1:30pm on the 14th that we were in trasit. Long day.
Just so you know, if your in the airport in Bangkok, you have to declare all firearms to the check-in counter before you can take them on the plane.
Word to the wise.
more later, we're off to tour this "town"
mark.
Dustin and I arrived in Pusan, Korea yesterday morning around 9. After several phone calls we got on a taxi to a bus station. We got us a bus ticket, sat in a cold waiting area for 30 minutes and were on our way to DongGwangYang. Somewhere between one and two Matt found us wondering around looking for a place to check our email. So thats about 5:30 am on the 13th to 1:30pm on the 14th that we were in trasit. Long day.
Just so you know, if your in the airport in Bangkok, you have to declare all firearms to the check-in counter before you can take them on the plane.
Word to the wise.
more later, we're off to tour this "town"
mark.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Is it a half moon already?
It seems that the moon is important to the people in Thailand (maybe not necessarily the Thai people) and it is reason to celebrate.
Since we've last been in contact....I don't know whats all happened.
We were on Lanta for a little over a week. In that time Aaron had to head home, we hung out there a couple more days, 3 I think, and then Dustin and I parted ways with Matt (that was yesterday) as we headed for ko phangan. Now we're there, it's nice but we're now seeing the first clouds in probably 2 or 3 weeks. It's kinda nice.
Good times seem to be happening all the time. We've rented bikes almost everyday as the islands are much easier and cheaper to just drive around yourself than to rent tuk-tuks to go everywhere. One tuk-tuk ride is usually around 300 baht, renting a bike is like 150....doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
We finally managed to get all our flights figured out so we've now paid for every part of the trip that will get us home (except the ferry ride from Pusan to Fukuoka) which is nice. I wasn't really worried but it's nice to have it all taken care of.
Our travels to ko phangan yesterday were long and there were a lot of people doing the exact same trip as us. So that meant we met some nice people, this couple from spain/france Rauel sp? and Melody, and two friends from Sydney, Naomi and Lisa. We wound up talking for quite a while as we travelled for > 12 hours (although not with them for the whole time). We picked ko phangan because we hadn't been to the east coast at all and we hadn't been in any sort of "happening" place at all either and figured we'd like to see a little. This means no time in bangkok at all but I think I'd like to see all the north around here and thats a whole other trip on it's own. Thems the breaks I guess.
I wish I had a funny story to tell. Our place in ko phangan is called "munchies" which is pretty funny. Funnier still is that the toilet in our "bungalo" (which it really is, on stilts and all) has a full on squatter with no TP and no ... hose thing either. Makes things pretty darn interesting. We managed to steal some TP from the eating area last night and this morning we found a public style place with a real toilet, TP and a spray hose thing. It was like finding a lost temple or something, dustin and both hit it up, battleshits stlye. hahahaha.
So I guess thats all for now. We stayed at the Sunset Bungaloes on Lanta, the people there were awesome, the room rates were not too bad, the food was great and the beach was the best on the island. If your ever there just go and order the musamin (think thats what it's called) every night and they'll know that we're related somehow. I wish we would've taken a picture of the people who ran the place.
Oh well.
Party on,
mark.
Since we've last been in contact....I don't know whats all happened.
We were on Lanta for a little over a week. In that time Aaron had to head home, we hung out there a couple more days, 3 I think, and then Dustin and I parted ways with Matt (that was yesterday) as we headed for ko phangan. Now we're there, it's nice but we're now seeing the first clouds in probably 2 or 3 weeks. It's kinda nice.
Good times seem to be happening all the time. We've rented bikes almost everyday as the islands are much easier and cheaper to just drive around yourself than to rent tuk-tuks to go everywhere. One tuk-tuk ride is usually around 300 baht, renting a bike is like 150....doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
We finally managed to get all our flights figured out so we've now paid for every part of the trip that will get us home (except the ferry ride from Pusan to Fukuoka) which is nice. I wasn't really worried but it's nice to have it all taken care of.
Our travels to ko phangan yesterday were long and there were a lot of people doing the exact same trip as us. So that meant we met some nice people, this couple from spain/france Rauel sp? and Melody, and two friends from Sydney, Naomi and Lisa. We wound up talking for quite a while as we travelled for > 12 hours (although not with them for the whole time). We picked ko phangan because we hadn't been to the east coast at all and we hadn't been in any sort of "happening" place at all either and figured we'd like to see a little. This means no time in bangkok at all but I think I'd like to see all the north around here and thats a whole other trip on it's own. Thems the breaks I guess.
I wish I had a funny story to tell. Our place in ko phangan is called "munchies" which is pretty funny. Funnier still is that the toilet in our "bungalo" (which it really is, on stilts and all) has a full on squatter with no TP and no ... hose thing either. Makes things pretty darn interesting. We managed to steal some TP from the eating area last night and this morning we found a public style place with a real toilet, TP and a spray hose thing. It was like finding a lost temple or something, dustin and both hit it up, battleshits stlye. hahahaha.
So I guess thats all for now. We stayed at the Sunset Bungaloes on Lanta, the people there were awesome, the room rates were not too bad, the food was great and the beach was the best on the island. If your ever there just go and order the musamin (think thats what it's called) every night and they'll know that we're related somehow. I wish we would've taken a picture of the people who ran the place.
Oh well.
Party on,
mark.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Thai'm Lovin it.
Thats a really bad title but everything else I'm doing right now is spectacular so somethings gotta give right?
So I said I was going to think of things to write about and as soon as I stood up and walked away from the internet place I thougth of a bunch. I've now forgotten most of those but here's a couple things.
http://rose-colouredglasses.blogspot.com/
Dustin has posted more pictures than I and explained a bit about where we've been / are. I want to first and foremost mention the food. We are so in love with the food out here we almost regularily eat 4 times a day. not only that we often order 2 dishes each when we do. I normal meal with 4 dishes, 4 things of rice and 4 beers comes out to about 500-600 baht. So...thats like...what 15-17 dollars? It's just crazy. Not only that everything we eat is amazing. I just finished devouring a pinapple I bought for like 25 cents before I came out here. The most famous of things to eat is of course the coconut curry, pad thai, cashew everything and the stuff with chili sauce. That is in fact exactly how they are listed in the menu. Take my word for it. And Chaing, which is often mis-spoken as "Chang", we do it several times a meal usually. Fact.
Hrm. It seems that food is the most important part of my day these days. I got a little redder that I thought I would today but nothing harmful so hopefully we turn the A/C on tonight and I should be fine, other than the snoring.
Oh yeah. Thailand has these drinks called "Buckets". These are in fact the equivalent to the craziest hangover you've ever had. That is preceeded by staying up most of the night learning swedish with you new swedish friends who you wished were girls but are not in fact (I'm trying to say we can't manage to meet any single women on this island and it seems to me get hit on by men all day, I could be wrong). So, back to buckets. They are, in this order, a mickey of thai whiskey, a bottle of the craziest strongest red bull you've ever had, and coke that fills the rest of the bucket (usually a can and a half). When you taste it you taste coke and redbull, when you feel it you don't feel coke and redbull. Well, you do feel the redbull, all the way until the next afternoon when it's finally managed to wear off and you can sleep reasonably again. There really is no crazier feeling that falling asleep with the jitters. It reminds me of the nights when Brian and I went to Dennys following a night of hanging out/partying, eating a whole lumberjack slam and having 2 cups of coffee. The next morning you wake up full and feeling like you just had 2 cups of coffee when all you want to do is fall asleep and have something that resembles relaxation.
Oh well. Enough about that. I guess it's been an hour, I'm outta here.
mark.
So I said I was going to think of things to write about and as soon as I stood up and walked away from the internet place I thougth of a bunch. I've now forgotten most of those but here's a couple things.
http://rose-colouredglasses.blogspot.com/
Dustin has posted more pictures than I and explained a bit about where we've been / are. I want to first and foremost mention the food. We are so in love with the food out here we almost regularily eat 4 times a day. not only that we often order 2 dishes each when we do. I normal meal with 4 dishes, 4 things of rice and 4 beers comes out to about 500-600 baht. So...thats like...what 15-17 dollars? It's just crazy. Not only that everything we eat is amazing. I just finished devouring a pinapple I bought for like 25 cents before I came out here. The most famous of things to eat is of course the coconut curry, pad thai, cashew everything and the stuff with chili sauce. That is in fact exactly how they are listed in the menu. Take my word for it. And Chaing, which is often mis-spoken as "Chang", we do it several times a meal usually. Fact.
Hrm. It seems that food is the most important part of my day these days. I got a little redder that I thought I would today but nothing harmful so hopefully we turn the A/C on tonight and I should be fine, other than the snoring.
Oh yeah. Thailand has these drinks called "Buckets". These are in fact the equivalent to the craziest hangover you've ever had. That is preceeded by staying up most of the night learning swedish with you new swedish friends who you wished were girls but are not in fact (I'm trying to say we can't manage to meet any single women on this island and it seems to me get hit on by men all day, I could be wrong). So, back to buckets. They are, in this order, a mickey of thai whiskey, a bottle of the craziest strongest red bull you've ever had, and coke that fills the rest of the bucket (usually a can and a half). When you taste it you taste coke and redbull, when you feel it you don't feel coke and redbull. Well, you do feel the redbull, all the way until the next afternoon when it's finally managed to wear off and you can sleep reasonably again. There really is no crazier feeling that falling asleep with the jitters. It reminds me of the nights when Brian and I went to Dennys following a night of hanging out/partying, eating a whole lumberjack slam and having 2 cups of coffee. The next morning you wake up full and feeling like you just had 2 cups of coffee when all you want to do is fall asleep and have something that resembles relaxation.
Oh well. Enough about that. I guess it's been an hour, I'm outta here.
mark.
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