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.

Al Town Fund Raiser October 21st!!

Come out the Buccaneer Lounge in Midtown Memphis on Friday October 21st and Support ALTOWN DIY!!!! The shows start at 9pm and there will be raffles going off too! 5$ at the door, and raffle tickets for sale.

Items for Raffle:
75$ gift cards from Underground Art
Goner Records grab bag
25$ for bar bucks at Murphy's
Free BlackLodge Video rentals
And Some Skateboard Products

All proceeds go to DIY! So come on out and support your favorite Memphis Skate Spot!

Buccaneer Lounge is Located at:
1368 Monroe - Memphis TN 38112 901-278-0909

Al Town Pump Bump Pour, Hammond LA and Jackson's Red C Ramp.

AL TOWN:
Saturday morning I was called into duty at 830 am, serving in the regiment of concrete workers that assembled at Al Town on October the 8th. The plan?? To create a pump bump and finish the ledge. We mixed somewhere in the range of 30 bags of quick crete, not sure the ratio of bags used for which project. After you have mixed about 8 bags things start to become a blurr. The Team work was great, we mixed the crete while every one else molded it onto the form. Then we poured the finishing work on the ledge which did not leave us with out its issues. Come skate it, you can see.

The pump bump is great, I skated it yesterday and it really improves the flow of the place. The faster you hit it the better. Photos.

JACKSON MS:
The day after the pour, Sunday,  I drove down to Jackson, MS and stopped by the Red C Skate Park. It was  a little odd to find since it is hidden with in this giant warehouse space somewhere in Jackson's industrial area. They rent space in this old industrial complex to anybody who needs space. So here it is, it was a 3ft mini ramp that has a waterfall into a larger, looked to be maybe 7ft or 6ft half. They are trying to bowl it in on the corners, so it will end up being this rectangular bowl with two sections. I did not skate it, my body was messed up but it looks really fun. I actually have to go back to Jackson in a couple of weeks and I will try and skate it then. Other wise, party on, well, not here. They do not let any drugs, beer, cigs or anything else like that into their park. Also, if you smell like booze when you come in there they will kick you out.

HAMMOND LA:
I was able to break away from my job and drive down to Hammond which was only a 15 minute drive for me since I was working just north in Amite. First thing I did was go to the local skate shop to get the skinny on things and build up my new board. Small Time Skate Shop is owned by Chris Daniels  and today my new friend Jordan was working. Jordan is apparently a sick skater according to SW. Jordan built my board and filled my head of how sick the concrete park was and if it gets to dark to skate there you can then head over to the Chicken Coop, an indoor wood bowl. He also claimed that Hammond's park is one of the best in the States. The park consists of a huge bowl in the center with a flow street area circling around the bowl. There are pump bumps that lead into banks and back into banks then back to the flow bumps. You can get away with never pushing. Then there is the bowl, it is sick. Check the Photos.I did not go to the Chicken Coop, Jordan said things get started late and I had to crash. Then there is Baton Rouge skate park another 45 minutes west. If you hit Jackson, Hammond and Baton Rouge all in one trip it would be off the hook, a screamer. Photos.

I did not do a whole lot of skating but consider it scoped out.

And if you want like our FB fan page for fun.

Back to Memphis after Denver, its all good...why are you sorry?

I tell people that I am back to the Memphis scene after returning from a week and a half long trip in Denver, where I hit sometimes three different skate parks in a day. A general reaction from some people have been , "Sorry you had to come back to Memphis."  Which I understand what they are saying, Denver has a whole lot more to offer than the city of Memphis, I do agree, to a certain extent. For me, at the level of skating that I am currently, Memphis and the surrounding areas are pretty good. Denver did raise the bar for me, I went to Denver with limited transition skating and left Denver with a whole new familiarity for many different varieties of curved concrete and a bit of metal. Seriously, Denver took my tranny skating to the next level, thank Ja. Memphis has what I need at the moment: my mini ramp, the Wood Bowl, Tobey Park, DIY, Little Rock, Oxford, Jackson MS, Louisville, St Louis, I don't know, Kona skate park is a 12 hr drive. Yeah, I know, its not like Denver where you can live in Arvada and have access to 6 kickass parks with in 15+ minutes from your living quarters. No Memphis is not ideal, you can't drive an hour west, catch a ski lift up 2500 feet and bomb down the mountain on your new Never Summer Snowboard, then do it again, true dat. But you can go skate with some cool ass people, drink Busch, listen to music and watch TV. Its just where I am at I guess in life at the moment. Ok, yes, if you gave me a free pass to Denver I would take it for sure but things are good in Memphis.

I returned home from Denver on Tuesday night after dealing with delays from the Airline. Never fly United, I know at least two other people that were delayed by that airline this week alone. Wednesday night I headed to Terry's, dropped in and got to know the bowl all because of skating in Denver. Before that night I had previously  stood over the threshold of skating Terry's and did not do it,  but this Wednesday night I had not problem with the attempt. It took me a while that night but I even got over my Sea-Legs as Jungle Jeff put it. Skating that bowl    makes me crazy. I don't know how may times I finished  several runs back to back and my lungs were burning from breathing so hard. My lungs would be burning, my back soar, my legs weakened but screw it, I am taking another run. Skate until you drop. The next day, as I drove to Little Rock, vivid memories of skating that night kept recurring to me over and over,  giving me as strong a feeling as if I had encountered some beautiful woman's lips, intoxicating.

I decided to stop off at Kanis on my way to Hot Springs that Thursday afternoon, maybe get a run in on the Bowl and hit some wall rides. Yeah, the bowl was flooded so I hit some wall rides and their quarter ramp until it started to rain. So I went to Hot Springs were their is nothing to skate but before  I did Kanis left me with a little present. There are several different variations on wall rides, so I decided to hit a jersey type barrier that went vertical. I get up to the run up thinking that it is a little concave, but it was not, it was convex. I hit the convex and was tossed off the board onto my knee. Any way.... So went to Hot Springs Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday.

I returned back to Little Rock Saturday afternoon,  thought I was going to check out En Joy skate shop and indoor complex. I went to the address listed, even called them on the phone and followed their directions but I could not find it. After  agonizing in my frustrations and yelling vulgarities to my self in the rear view mirror I decided to go back to Memphis and skate Terry's. So Terry's I skated, what a fun and mellow sesh, thanks to all those there. And to top it off, Ron M said they had problems finding En Joy as well, so it all worked out. Hello transitons.

I also visited Tobey Park: Almost done - Photos.

Late