Mt. Fuji – November 14, 2007

We knew that we would be leaving Japan soon. It seemed that the smart thing to do would be to travel more and see as much as we could before we left. Paola suggested that we head to Mt. Fuji and see what there was to see there.

We woke up early, so that we could catch the first bus. We woke up at 5, and then took the train to Shinjuku, which took about an hour. We didn’t know where the bus stop was, so we walked around for a while looking for it. The bus fare was less expensive than we expected, so that was good. The bus took about 2 hours, and we were able to see the mountain pretty much the whole way from the window of the bus.

When we got there, we felt like we were basically at the foot of the mountain. However, we were actually about another hour from the base of the mountain from where people might begin hiking up the mountain. We were able to get a great view of the mountain from the bus station, but there were the ever-present power lines that blocked what would otherwise be a perfect view.

To get the perfect view, we walked to a hill that had an observation deck. At the bottom of the hill, we paid to take a cable car up to the top of the hill where the observation area was. It was a great view, and there weren’t that many people to contend with.

Once we were finished with that viewing, I wasn’t quite sure what else there was to do. Paola suggested that we go see another temple. The guide book led her to believe that it was a mere fifteen minute walk. It took us at least an hour to walk there. She was not in a good mood at all, and even though the temple was neat to see within the forest at the base of the mountain, it was rather uneventful.

Paola next wanted to see a cave that was nearby because she is fascinated with caves. We ended up having to take a taxi for about twenty minutes to the cave. The price of the taxi ride was very high, and this made Paola that much more upset. It made sense, though, if one were to look at the map, that this place was far away, and the taxi ride would be expensive.

The cave was an ice cave that was formed in prehistoric times by the lava flow of Mt. Fuji. Within the cave, ice occurred naturally, and so it was called the ice cave. Walking through the cave was fun. The floor was slippery, and the ceiling low. I didn’t slip, but I did hit my head a couple of times. At one point, we had to crawl through a short tunnel. As fun as it was, walking through the cave took less than fifteen minutes. Because we paid so much for the cab ride, it didn’t seem worth it.

After we left, we decided to wait for the bus rather than pay more for a taxi. When we got to the bus stop, the schedule said that we would have to wait an hour and a half for the next bus. It was worth it to wait. We waited. And waited. After two hours, the bus never came. Perhaps we misread the bus schedule (it was in Japanese, after all). We walked back up to the office of the ice cave, and called a taxi from there, so we had to wait for two hours to pay for the taxi. It seemed like a huge waste of time. To make matters worse, when we got to the bus station, we tried to buy a bus ticket home, but the next available bus was a two hour wait. So, although seeing the mountain, temple, and the ice cave was neat, we wasted a lot of time and money, and that took away from the joy of the whole experience.

Grand Palace

From there we walked through a south gate into the grounds of the Grand Palace. This is supposedly where the king lives. Indeed it is grand. We saw the big building, and then walked by into the concession stand, where I had something to drink, and put my head down. I couldn’t believe that I was still sick from the morning.

From there, we walked back up to Khaosan Road to get a few last minute souvenirs. Paola was hungry, so she got something to eat, but I couldn’t eat. I just had some lime soda. While I was there, I went to the toilet, used it, and then threw up. I felt a little bit better, now at the end of the day. Paola and I bought a few last minute things and then went to the airport. We were finally leaving Thailand.

Wat Phra Kaew

We walked down to the Grand Palace, which was in the same area as we had been earlier in the week. However, this time we came early, so it was open, and we got to go in the grounds. To be sure, we didn’t go inside the actual palace, but the grounds are very large. In fact, in addition to the Grand Palace, which is further south, there is a temple called Wat Phra Kaew, north of the palace, but on the same grounds.

We walked around the wat, and looked around. It was more of the same, which was basically Thai-styled temples. They were interesting enough, but I felt that by now I had gotten my fill. And since I was still feeling sick, I decided to find a nice place to sit down, and Paola ran around and saw most of it, and took pictures. When she was done, she came and got me, and we did a quick run through so I could see what I might have missed.

Bangkok – November 6, 2007

I woke up this morning fine. We went down to the hotel restaurant and had the complementary breakfast. After the breakfast, I did not feel good. My stomach got upset and, I felt nauseous. Once again, I got sick in Thailand. I could not figure out if it was the microwave dinner we got at 7-11 last night, or if it was the breakfast, but it was certainly something that I ate. Paola was fine. I guessed that it was actually the dinner from last night, since Paola stopped eating it, and I ate all of mine, and what was left of hers. Too much Thai curry, I suppose. In any case, I got sick, and sat over the toilet in the hotel room until I threw up… twice. I felt bad because I had told Paola that we would go out and see the sights that we had missed earlier in the week because I was sick then. After resting for a long time, I forced myself to go out.

This time we went out earlier, so we were able to see a few more things.

Back in Bangkok

By now I hated being in Thailand. This was in spite of the decent time we had in Koh Samui, laying out on the beach. Arriving back in Bangkok for one more day was not pleasing to me. We got a taxi back to the same hotel that we stayed at before, and checked in. I convinced Paola to just stay in for the night, and that we would go catch the last sights tomorrow. We got some prepared food at the 7-11 that was next door, and called it a night.

To the airport

When we finally got to the bottom of the hill again, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the zoo. However, I asked one more time how much this would cost. He finally gave an outrageous price. His excuse was that he had waited for over two hours for us while we were hiking. I felt cheated, and it seemed to me like all the mistrust that I had for the taxi drivers and vendors finally had concrete reason. In all fairness, he did wait for a long time, and since there were no other taxis, we needed him to do that. What bothered me, though, was that when I had asked him before, he didn’t tell me, and so I felt like he was dishonest. Rather than go to the zoo, I told him to just take us straight to the airport, since we didn’t want to spend more money for him to wait at the zoo for us. After arguing about the fare, I just accepted that we would have to pay it, since I didn’t trust that, if we had just left without paying, the police would be on our side in this seemingly corrupt country.

However, before taking us to the airport, he took us back to our resort that we had already checked out of. I had suspected that he didn’t understand before we set out, and now here we were. When we arrived at the hotel, I redirected him to the airport. We finally got there, and stayed at the airport for a few hours rather than get swindled out of more money.

Hin Lad Waterfall

We got a taxi from the street, which I expected to be ok because it wasn’t a tuk-tuk, and the taxis are metered and regulated. We told him that we wanted to go to Hin Lad waterfall. He told us that he would take us there, and wait for us to take us somewhere else after, maybe the zoo, and then take us to the airport. I asked him how much it would cost, and he told me that I could pay him later. His English wasn’t too good, and I felt that there was something lost in translation. Oh well. When we got to the waterfall, I again asked about the cost of the trip, and he didn’t give a clear answer. In any case, since there were no other taxis around, we had to have him wait for us while we hiked up the trail.

The trail to the waterfall was not that grueling, as there was a narrow dirt path. We felt like it was a fun thing to do, and that we were doing something adventurous. Paola was reminded about her trip to the Amazon, where they had to trek through similar jungle, except without a laid out path. Because the path was not well defined, Paola kept asking if we were going the right way. I tried to assure her that we were, since we kept walking up hill, along the river that the waterfall must empty into.

Before getting to the top, we came across a retired couple who were walking down. They told us that we had about twenty more minutes to go. We really thought that we were doing a challenging hike, but when we saw this older couple going, and the lady wearing flip-flops, it no longer seemed like it was that hard. The whole way up, and then back down, which took about two hours, we only saw that older couple, and one other couple when we walked back down, so although I am sure lots of people have been here before, the isolation made it seem like we were on an adventure all alone.

When we got to the end of the path, there was a man who set up a shack to sell water and other drinks. There were a lot of big rocks in the river that helped us walk out and even across the river. From there we could look up and see the waterfall, passing through the path it has carved through the rocks. It was neat to see the waterfall, and turn around to see the river flowing down the hill. Taking the hike was a fun adventure that helped us see a different, more natural side of Thailand, and that was pleasant.

Koh Samui – November 5, 2007

We are leaving Koh Samui today. Our plane left late in the afternoon, so we felt like we should do something a little more than just sitting on the beach. Paola read in the guidebook that there were neat waterfalls in the area, so we packed our stuff, and headed out to a waterfall.

Koh Samui – November 3-4, 2007

Paola really adjusted to the charm of our little bungalow. We are not too far from the beach, maybe about 100 meters. Our door opens to a path that is lined with a nice garden that has different tropical plants, and even some fish ponds. We could go up into the small town, but we just stay here in the bungalow, or on the beach. There really isn’t much more to do here, and this is why I have never really wanted to take a vacation like this. However, being here now, I can see the value of just resting and relaxing on the beach. There is some value in forgetting about your worries, and laying on the beach with nothing to do and getting a tan. The only negative thing is that there are more than a few mosquitoes. They sold a natural bug repellant at the counter of the resort, and I have been spraying it on myself a lot. It smells a bit, but I have not been getting any more mosquito bites, unlike Paola.

Dinner

Later on, we took a little walk down the beach. Paola wanted to compare the other resorts and bungalows with ours. After seeing the other ones, she did finally come around to liking what we got. Ours was less crowded, with fewer people that looked like snobs (according to Paola’s standards), and she actually liked the shabby look of ours; other bungalows were too overdone, and that seemed to take away from the charm of a small tropical island.

Just before we got to our bungalow, the resort next to ours was setting up for dinner. They were setting up tables right on the sand. This appealed to Paola, so she made a reservation for an hour later. Like I said before, we came during the off season, so there was no need to make the reservation, but we wanted to be sure.

We had a nice little tropical dinner with seafood and drinks. The server was very nice and friendly. He served us a drink in a pineapple made like Mr. Potatohead. It was very charming, and enjoyable, so we came back here for dinner every night that we were in Koh Samui.

Lamai

Our resort was on a beach called Lamai on Koh Samui. There is a more popular beach, but Paola did not want to go somewhere that was too crowded with tourists, so she booked our room at a place that was a bit further out of the way. However, this was the second most popular beach on Lamai, so it wasn’t completely free of tourists.

Having the taxi drive us from the airport to our resort, we passed a lot of other resorts. Paola has a bad habit of always doubting herself, and so she was thinking that she should have booked our room at this place rather than that. I tried to assure her that everything would be ok, and that the place that we booked would be fine.

When we finally got to our resort, called U___, it looked much more shabby than some of the other places that we passed. Paola was immediately disappointed, but I tried to convince her that she should give this place a chance.

The man who welcomed us remembered speaking to Paola on the phone. He was nice, and guessed that her name was Italian. Although he was German, when he does not live in Lamai, he lives in the north of Italy. He was very friendly, and showed us to our bungalow. Paola still felt a little disappointed, especially when we did not get the beach front bungalow. I really didn’t care, and I was happy with what we got. It was very quiet, and had a very tropical feel to it (all the way down to the mosquitoes that were constantly biting). I felt like I could get a lot of reading done while we were here.

After settling in, we walked out to the beach. Paola found something else to be disappointed about when she saw the beach chairs. Other resorts had lounge chairs that were made of wood, and had cushioned mats to lay on, with umbrellas covering people from the sun (or in our case, since we came during the off season, the rain). Our hotel had white plastic beach chairs with no umbrellas or cushions. With a towel on top, I was fine, and I sat and began to read my book. (Being that we live in Japan, I am trying to read as many books about Japan, or by Japanese writers as I can.)

It seemed that everything that Paola had expected was not there. Our bungalow was shabby, the sky was overcast, and the sea was not a crystal blue that had been advertised. I knew that this is how Paola always gets with new places, and that she would soon come around to accept and even like this place. The same thing happened when we first arrived in Japan, and when we first arrived in Bangkok. All she needed was time.

Lamai

Our resort was on a beach called Lamai on Koh Samui. There is a more popular beach, but Paola did not want to go somewhere that was too crowded with tourists, so she booked our room at a place that was a bit further out of the way. However, this was the second most popular beach on Lamai, so it wasn’t completely free of tourists.

Having the taxi drive us from the airport to our resort, we passed a lot of other resorts. Paola has a bad habit of always doubting herself, and so she was thinking that she should have booked our room at this place rather than that. I tried to assure her that everything would be ok, and that the place that we booked would be fine.

When we finally got to our resort, called U___, it looked much more shabby than some of the other places that we passed. Paola was immediately disappointed, but I tried to convince her that she should give this place a chance.

The man who welcomed us remembered speaking to Paola on the phone. He was nice, and guessed that her name was Italian. Although he was German, when he does not live in Lamai, he lives in the north of Italy. He was very friendly, and showed us to our bungalow. Paola still felt a little disappointed, especially when we did not get the beach front bungalow. I really didn’t care, and I was happy with what we got. It was very quiet, and had a very tropical feel to it (all the way down to the mosquitoes that were constantly biting). I felt like I could get a lot of reading done while we were here.

After settling in, we walked out to the beach. Paola found something else to be disappointed about when she saw the beach chairs. Other resorts had lounge chairs that were made of wood, and had cushioned mats to lay on, with umbrellas covering people from the sun (or in our case, since we came during the off season, the rain). Our hotel had white plastic beach chairs with no umbrellas or cushions. With a towel on top, I was fine, and I sat and began to read my book. (Being that we live in Japan, I am trying to read as many books about Japan, or by Japanese writers as I can.)

It seemed that everything that Paola had expected was not there. Our bungalow was shabby, the sky was overcast, and the sea was not a crystal blue that had been advertised. I knew that this is how Paola always gets with new places, and that she would soon come around to accept and even like this place. The same thing happened when we first arrived in Japan, and when we first arrived in Bangkok. All she needed was time.

Koh Samui – November 2, 2007

I was happy to get out of Bangkok today. It was especially pleasing since I felt a lot better than the previous day. Today we went to the airport, and took a plane to an island of Bangkok called Koh Samui. It is one of the only (if not the only) island to have an airport. If we would have had more time on the schedule, then I would have been for traveling to some of the other islands by ferry. However, since our time was limited, I thought that it was best to just fly to this one island, and try to enjoy what we could there.

I think that the thing that Paola wanted to see most about Thailand was her tropical islands. When we lived in New York and talked about going on vacations, Paola would always suggest that we go to the Caribbean. She likes the idea of laying out on a pretty, tropical beach with blue water and yellow sand. This appeals to me only very slightly, and for that reason, I had to use my veto power to stop us from vacationing so, since I would rather spend travel money on places that are of cultural value, rather than recreational value. However, since this trip was planned on the fly, and the places that I wanted to visit were too expensive, I had to give in and accept that we would take a nice tropical vacation.

Wat Phra/ Wat Pho

It seemed to us that all of the main cultural sights of Bangkok were located right adjacent to each other. The Grand Palace was closed, so we walked past it to Wat Pho. It is one of the large temples in Bangkok. (Just to be clear, I am not sure, but it seems to me that the same complex is alternately called either Wat Pho, or Wat Phra. If this is not the case, then we saw one, but not the other, and I am not sure abou the name of the one that we saw (although I am confident that the two names are used for the same place).)

The main attraction at Wat Pho is the Reclining Buddha. It is a large sculpture of the Buddha lying down, as he is dying. Like the other Buddha that we saw yesterday, it is covered in gold, and has the distinct Thai style. Again, other than the face and the size, the sculpture does not appeal to me much because of the lack of detail. The feet were mere blocks with lines in them for toes, and the hands were globs with long cylinders coming from them for fingers. Before we came to Thailand, when I finally got excited about coming, one of the reasons for being excited was to see this sculpture. In any case, it was rather underwhelming, and I just went outside to a fountain and sat down, trying to recover from drinking too much. I let Paola walk around a lot while I sat, which suited me fine. Even though these temples in Thailand were stylistically different from the ones in Japan, I still felt like I saw too many temples, and I wasn’t too excited about seeing another one.

Because we started late, and it took a while to walk to the temple, it got late in the day quickly, and we called it a day. I promised Paola that when we came back to Bangkok at the end of the week, we would see more, and I would not get sick from drinking too much.

Bangkok – November 1, 2007

I woke up completely sick from last night. I didn’t want to go anywhere, especially sightseeing in this filthy city. I felt bad, though, because I knew that my own behavior was stopping Paola from seeing some things that she wanted to see. I knew that it was a bit inconsiderate of me to make Paola stay in, so I asked her if she wanted to go out on her own. She didn’t feel comfortable doing that, so I knew that I would have to get my self together, and go out. I kept asking her to wait a little longer, and longer still, but finally I had to give in, and we went out the some temples around 3 o’clock.

Walking on the filthy streets that smelled so bad only made it more difficult for me to recover. Every few steps I took I had to stop because I thought I was going to gag on the stench in the air. Even if I tried to ignore it, I still walked very slowly. In any case, after walking past lots of filthy people sleeping on the benches at three in the afternoon, and tuk-tuk drivers trying to convince us to let them guide us, we got to Wat Phra.

Going out on Halloween

It didn’t occur to me that we came to Bangkok on Halloween. Paola suggested that we go out to get something to eat, and maybe enjoy a little nightlife that Bangkok is famous for. Basically, everybody who was out looked like a hippy that wanted to take advantage of the cheap party atmosphere. We knew that since this was the type of person that came to Thailand, the tourists would generally be cool to party with. We returned to Khaosan Road, picked a little restaurant, and drank a lot of beer after eating phad-thai. While sitting there, we met a couple of Dutch guys, and they invited us to this bar/ club where they were going. When we got there, one of them bought a bottle of vodka, and I drank a lot of it. After drinking a lot of beer, and then mixing it with a lot of vodka, I threw up on the floor of the club, and couldn’t get up from where I found a seat. I couldn’t open my eyes either, especially since my head was in my hands. Soon enough, some workers from the club came up to me, saw the throw-up, threw some sawdust on top of it and cleaned it up. Then they walked away.

Apparently I was gone for a while, so Paola came and looked for me. When she found me, she started to cry because she thought that I was going to die. While I didn’t have the motor functions to walk or even talk properly, my brain and mental functions were working just fine, so I tried to motion to her that I was ok, and that everything would be fine. This didn’t convince her. Soon enough she found some big African who carried me outside and loaded me onto a tuk-tuk to get home. I do not exaggerate when I say that my motor functions were completely dead; I couldn’t move at all, and when I tried to walk, my legs wouldn’t hold me up, nor would my eyes stay open. This seemed so odd to me since I felt that my brain was working perfectly, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do; I just couldn’t do it. It was a good thing that the African was strong.

When we got the hotel, a hotel worker helped carry me to the room and I fell asleep. While in transit from the door of the hotel to the door of our room, I threw up again, this time on the hotel floor. It surprised me that the people in all these different places where I threw up were so nice; I am sure that if the same thing happened in Los Angeles or New York, they would have simply thrown me out on the street (I know from experience). Paola was still worried, but I am sure that when I woke up the next morning she was confident that I wouldn’t die; since my brain was working the whole time, I knew that I was ok.

The Marble Temple

By the time we got to the Marble Temple, it was dark. I would have been very upset if we did not get to see it because it was closed. However, as luck would have it, the gates surrounding the temple were open, and we could walk into the grounds. Sure enough, the name says it all, as the exterior walls of the temple were made of white marble. The roof was red, and the doors to the temple were all decorated with gold trim. There were some Thai people inside the grounds who seemed to be sightseeing along with us. I was scared that they might come up to us and try to sell us something, but that didn’t happen.

When we left, we decided to take up an offer from one of the tuk-tuk drivers outside since our hotel was quite a ways away. He told us that it would cost about 20 baht to get us to our hotel. That is less than a dollar. Having read horror stories in our travel guide book, I wanted to make sure that we would go straight to the hotel, and not take any detours. He told us that he would take us to a jewelry shop because his sponsor pays him to take people there. All that we would have to do is look around for about 15 or 20 minutes, and then he could take us to our hotel. I told him that we had shopped enough today, and that we were tired and just wanted to go to our hotel. I asked him how much it would cost for us to get a direct trip straight to the hotel, without any stops for shopping. He hesitated, and laughed with the other tuk-tuk driver while mumbling between themselves in Thai. This did not make me comfortable, but then he finally said that he would take us straight to the hotel, without any shopping for 150 baht (about five dollars). I took him up on his offer, and let him take us to our hotel.

Because I didn’t know the layout of Thailand too well, I wasn’t sure that we were going the right way, but I did finally recognize some of the landmarks that we had passed while walking earlier, so I felt better. I suppose that the reason that these tuk-tuks are so popular are because with their small size and three wheels, they are able to make cuts and sharp turns in the heavy traffic of Bangkok. Because there weren’t any doors or windows, we got all the stink of the gas, fuel, and exhaust of the traffic. It was gross, but we got to our hotel. Before we got out, the driver offered to take us sightseeing the next day. We hesitantly accepted, but nothing was in stone, and we didn’t give him any money, so we weren’t too worried.

Walking through Bangkok

From the 40 meter Buddha, we walked to the Marble Temple. We walked through the streets in the early evening, and the sun had already set. Walking through the streets in Thailand seemed more dangerous than I was used to. The main road was very wide, and it was not clear to me when it was safe to cross, since right turns on red lights were common. When I thought that it was safe enough, we simply ran across, and luckily, we didn’t get hit by any cars.

Another interesting feature of the cityscape was the ever present image of the king. There were large posters at every intersection (even at the smaller streets), of the king of Thailand in various activities. Apparently, he likes photography, playing saxaphone, and talking to the locals. In addition to pictures of his activities, there were also several official looking portraits with him posing next to his wife. It astonished me that any one man should be so revered in a country. I cannot imagine what this might look like in the United States. I also could not imagine how someone so rich puts on such a display in a nation where there are so many poor people.

40 Meter Buddha

We saw this tall sitting Buddha that looked like it was made with gold. I can’t imagine that it was solid gold, but rather that it was covered with gold leaf. Apparently the people of Thailand are very religious Buddhists, and this can be seen everywhere. Lining the sidewalks were posts with the flags of Thailand, their international flag (red, white, and blue stripes), and a yellow flag with a temple on it.

Having seen the sculpture at sunset, it seemed a bit underwhelming. Perhaps it is merely my own preferences in art, but that being as it is, I was not impressed by the quality of the sculpture. Being a fan of contemporary art, I had somehow assumed that there was some underwritten law that bigger was better, and that size helped make something of low quality look better. Seeing this sculpture seemed to fly in the face of my theory; bigger is not necessarily better.

There were other temples within the grounds, and they all gave some concept of what Thai religious art looks like.

Khaosan Road

We finally figured out how the city was oriented, and we set our way towards some of the local sites. It so happens that the hotel that Paola picked was right in the middle of most of the traditional sites like temples and such.

The first place that we went to was Khaosan Road. It is basically a short pedestrian street with shops, restaurants, bars, and vendors completely covering the sidewalks. Again, the vendors, and waitresses at the restaurants were constantly hassling us to buy their stuff, or to sit at their restaurant.

At the end of Khaosan Road, another tuk-tuk driver came up to us, trying to convince us to take a tour that he was offering. This is typical of these tuk-tuk drivers, and I suppose that they make a lot of their money this way. Because we said that we didn’t know where to go, and that we were just walking around, he suggested that we go to a wat (temple) where there was a Buddha sculpture that was 40 meters tall. I told him that we wanted to walk and not interested in a driver. So we walked a little while to that wat.

The walk took about an hour, and we got to see a lot of normal life in Bangkok. Like before, I thought it was mostly filth and poverty. The stray dogs walking around looked diseased, and the vendors on the side of the street sold food that, mixed with the gas exhaust from the cars, buses, and tuk-tuks, contributed to the overall stink of the city. We had a little trouble finding the wat, as the map showed it at a certain cross street, but in fact it was further within the block.

Arriving in Bangkok

Having been at JFK airport in New York, I understand that there are illegal taxi drivers that hassle you right when you walk outside. However, this was taken to a different level in Bangkok. One right after the other, cab drivers came up to us, and asked if we wanted a ride. I looked around and tried to find where the line for the regulated taxis were, saw it, and tried to head straight there. We told the dispatcher where we wanted to go by the name of our hotel. The dispatcher seemed to know where we wanted to go, but when we got into the cab, the driver had no idea where to go, nor did he speak English. Luckily, we had a phone number, so he called the hotel, and straightened everything out.

Driving into the center of Bangkok, I saw a lot of shacks that were made with corrugated metal. I doubted that people lived there, but then there were clothes hanging outside, probably drying after being washed. There was even more poverty once we drove through the center of Bangkok. We could see little camps of people who lived in little groups on the side of the streets. We could see clothes hanging on the sides of crates and carts that were offering to sell little trinkets and food. This actually got me a little excited to go out and see more of the city, since this type of third world poverty was not anything I had experienced before.

However, after we checked in, and walked outside, I could smell a stink that permeated through the air. The whole city seemed more like a swamp, as there were waterways, rivers, and canals everywhere. When we walked past these canals, the smell coming from them told me that they were contaminated with raw sewage.

Walking around outside, there were a lot of people coming up to us, telling us that they could give us a ride to wherever we wanted to go. These guys usually drive tuk-tuks. These are little more than go carts with three wheels and a canopy to protect us if it happens to rain. It so happens, so it says in our guidebooks, that these tuk-tuk drivers offer people rides wherever they want, but then take them to stores that offer the drivers kickbacks for bringing tourists to buy their stuff. Since I didn’t want to get in the middle of any of this, I didn’t accept any cab rides from anyone, and didn’t talk with any locals who came up to start a conversation with me, and there were many.

Bangkok, Thailand – October 31, 2007

Paola told me that she has always wanted to go to Thailand. Since all of my choices, like China, were too expensive, I decided to give in and head to Thailand. She wanted to see as much as we could in a week, and so she wanted to head into Cambodia via land crossing, and she also wanted to see as many islands as we could. The way that I saw it, one week was only enough time to see Bangkok and one island. Paola gave in, and we decided on Koh Samui. The itinerary planning was therefore a great example of cooperation and compromise.

The reason that I did not want to go to Thailand is because my feeble mind has been too influenced by movies that I have watched. I have not seen any movies set in Thailand that makes it seem like a good place to go, but rather, the opposite. So, before we left, I was a bit negative about going, but then after thinking about it more, I came around to looking forward to going to Thailand, and saw it as an opportunity to go somewhere new and interesting.