Banned in Bangkok

Greetings everyone. For the first time, I am blogging from the road. I am currently sitting in an internet cafe just off Kao San Road in Bangkok. Today was my third day here. I arrived Thursday night late and was lucky to find a room. I made sure the room had a fan--more of a jet propellar. I was defintely cool but mostly slept in the fetal position in case it worked its way loose off the cieling.

These 3 days I have mostly spent walking, strolling and working my way around the little free city map I picked up at the airport. I must say, I've covered a good portion of it already. I made a few purchases--a medium sized backpack for shorter excursions, a pair of sandals to avoid doing sock laundry and a pair of pants in order to properly enter the buddhist temples(all fakes, of course). Yesterday, after a long day of walking in the heat, I rewarded myself with a movie in a cavernous, frigid theater. I watched "The Island". It was classic Michael Bay/Armageddon type stuff (Joey, you love it) but the action was pretty good and it served its purpose for about $3.75. After that, my adrenaline was pumping, so I hopped on a TukTuk, a 3 wheel taxi vehicle. The driver was whipping in and out of traffic and I couldn't help but laugh as I held on for my life.

I also moved to a different guest house yesterday, slightly cheaper and a cool place to relax and watch some pirated movies on the first floor. I've arranged for a bus ride to Siem Reap in Cambodia--I will leave Tuesday morning. I plan on working my way through Cambodia, then north to Laos, the back to northern Thailand. Bangkok is most defenitely interesting, but I'm ready to get out. As far as food goes, mostly been eating Thai or Indian, but tonight I had to have some pizza at this one place. I kept walking by and the smell brought me in. I had some amazing Dragonfruit today. Just a few interesting things I've noticed the past few days: tattoo parlors in the back of vans, an abundance of white people but a noticeable lack of American accents, a family of 4 on a scooter on a busy street--no helmets, standing for the Thai national anthem before a movie, old dogs laying and chilling anywhere even in traffic.

This is just a start, but hopefully the next time you hear from me will be in the heart of Cambodia. I'll see if I can't get to a beach while I'm there. Out.

PS - I was in a scavenger hunt in Tokyo a while back. My friend Brooke just sent me the link for some of our pictures. Check 'em out. You'll notice, I'm the guy whose feet are off the ground in each of our team's 3 pictures. Classic.