In Bangkok its about getting around

Today it is thursaday morning around 9 am, nothing fantastic is planned today other than catching up with my email, FB and writing about what I did the last two days. I have two and half more weeks, so why rush anything. Tomorrow we will wake up really early (430am), drive to Samut (4 hrs) and hit the gulf of Thailand's beaches until Sunday. We are also supposed to go to the floating market where all the trade is done on small boats.

Tuesday we woke up really late and drove around downtown, visited the MBK shopping center. MBK is this 6 or 7 story mall that is like a huge flea market. They don't have a Gap or Dillards, nothing like that at all, it looks like a big flea market where there are booths of vendors set up selling photo equipment, glasses, clothing, jewerly and a slew of other merchandise. It is a mad house to say the least. After that we picked up his wife Oil and headed to Joe's parents house where his kids stay frequently. Here we eat dinner cooked by his mom and watch Thia soap opera drama on the Tele.

Wednesday was another story, it was my big day to get my feet wet in traveling around Bangkok alone. I woke up super early and headed out in a taxi with Oil (joe wife) to a Sky Train station not to far from his house. The Sky Train is a above ground rail system that takes you to areas of the city like a any public transport does, although the Sky Train is not like the Tube in London or other more expansive rail systems. The access is limited, there are only so many lines, but when you combine using a taxi it works out really well. I got on the train with Oil and she showed my how to get my tickets, change trains and just basically get around. The sky train is great because it allows you to by pass inner city traffic for the most part. The train does go to the important sections of the city so it is great.

I ventured down to the river where I then caught a boat which took me to the old part of the city of Bangkok where their Grand Palace of the King and several temples. I was really nervous about venturing out alone for my first time, but as the day went on I became more and more confident in finding my way. My biggest accomplishment of the day was making my way back to Joe's house all by lonesome which I did with much ease. I know feel like I can get around Bangkok with out needing Joe or Oil to hiold my hand.

PICTURES are up here but because of limited bandwidth I am only uploading a few pictures, so I have more that will come sometime soon.

Now I feel the buz in Bangkok

In front of Joes house

So this is really my second day here in Bangkok, the first night I got here did not count since it was 12am here and I did nothing. So yesterday I got the experience in.

Lunch Stop 1

The start of the day was not entirely crazy, we woke up, showered and headed out. First we went to get some lunch at this outdoor eatery  just down the street from where Joe lives. We pulled up and before we even parked he had some conversation with a woman, rolled down window, cooking on a flat top searing meat. We parked, found a clean table ( all out side, its better to sit outside because of the heat) and before we barely sat down we were served duck on white rice with some type of hoisin type sauce over the dish.

Picking up Nemo

We left there and picked up two of his kids, Nemo and Yan. Once we had them in tow Joe dropped the three of us off at a mcdonalds located somewhere in the area called Siam while he went to the office for 45 minutes. So I was left with these two adorable 6 year olds to order what ever they wanted at McDonalds, fun stuff. I was nervous a bit since I was in charge of the little guys, can speak no Thai and are white as hell, although I run into Europeans and Westerners all over the place. Joe showed back up and then we went to the shopping mall there in Siam.

After Siam we went to another part of town to pick up Joe's wife, Ion. I have no idea where I was. Trying to figure out where you are based on Thai street signs and land marks is far beyond me at this point, I can't really do it. This place has so many people and is so huge it is over whelming. Then there is the traffic, you think you have seen traffic in the states think again, this traffic is grid lock every where you go about. Some times on the express way you get a mile or two of 100 kilometer an hour driving for short stretches, but that is always side lined by stop and go traffic at some point. Driving is crazy here, very fast, very aggressive.....Then there all the moto-bikes and motocycles that are buzzing between cars, yeah, it just gets more and more intense. We picked up Ion and then headed to Joe's parents house where the third child was being kept at.

Joe's Mom cook for us

At Joe's parents house I ate fried chicken and rice, had brothy soup with water melon chunks with in it, Ginger soup with some other fried vegtable side dishes. We left the Nemo and Yan at his parents and took there youngest child (2 yrs old) to Ion's father's house where we left Ion and the little one. Joe and I went back to his house and then called a cab so we could go down town.

Destination was Khaosan road, the gate way to eastern asia. I will just say we walked around and stuff. I do got stories already and have not been here 24 hours, the story is not here fully, dont have time or energy to write every little thing.

Today we go to palace and stuff, I am waking up and writing while Joe is still sleeping. Later dawgs. O yeah, Joe has a yellow lab.

And no, I have not gotten to skating yet. and for those in the know, I finally lost my toe nail.
PICTURES

In bangkok

I got on a plane in Memphis like two days ago now, I think, my sense of time is screwed up at the moment. I took three planes and 30 hours to arrive in Bangkok Thailand. I found my friend Joe, it was 12 am here, we went and had some refreshments at a local place by his house. Now it is day time, almost 12 pm here now. we have some stuff planned. Today we go downtown and do a little shopping and hanging out. so far I am having a blast.

They took my skateboard from me in japan because it was too long, but I got it back in bangkok since japan made me check it, no worries.

Also. at the airport in Bangkok people park their cars all over the parking garage but they leave their car in nuetral so you can push it out of your was if you are blocked in, we had to push three cars out of the way, bizarre.

So today we are headed out to do some light duty, I feel pretty good considering I have not slept much but hey, no worries. I will try and post more as time allows. Love yall.

Reflecting on John Cardiel

I recently watched Epicly Later'd the other day, a documentary about John Cardiel, one of the most Epic skaters of his time. I think his rein of terror went from the Early nineties until 2003 as one of the gnarliest skaters ever. In 2003 he was shooting Tent City in Australia, while there his spine was injured due to the van he was running beside ran over his back with the trailer it was pulling after John lost his balance and fell in its path. The Doctors told him he would never walk again let alone skate. They were wrong about the walking but he really can't skate anymore. I think he plays golf, rides a fixed gear bike, shoots guns and is heavy into DJ-ing Reggae music.

The Documentary is mostly a interview with John sitting in his living room at home. He talks about the past as film clip after film clip shows John just killing every place he hits. Its great because they show a film clip and then John fills it out with a story. The guy is so chill as well. I know if I saw him out somewhere and said hello he would be really happy to meet me, that kind of guy. Then again, the skating community is full of those kind of guys. Yeah, there are a few cut throat people out there but all in all, the skateboard community stick together. That was one of the ideas that John talked about in the documentary was how skaters from all over the World just get along or see eye to eye, we all speak the same language. Not every single skater can be said to be like that but I will say that as I travel around and meet skaters from other cities I tend to agree that they do exist.

Anyway, I have watched the film several times before the other day but I might watch it again tonight and get something new about yet again.