Day 4: Bangkok

this was a busy day. started out with a boat ride down Chao Phraya to visit the Grand Palace with jeff, this guy who was staying at the same house as us. personally i thought it was amazing but jeff seemed underwhelmed. made me realize that i am mildly geeky for ancient artisanry.

took a tuk-tuk to thanon khao san, which is homebase for every dreadlocked european in asia. jeff loved the pad thai which personally i thought was the worst i've ever had. he asked me as we were getting ice cream, "is this authentic?" and in my head i'm all, "dude, look around what do you think?" but it was cool. can't beat 4 beers for $3.

later on we went and saw some traditional thai puppetry. it was cool and all, but actually no... it was pretty boring.

then we went to this noodle joint that ted's cousin said was "the best in bangkok, and therefore the best in thailand, and therefore the best in the world." right on the money. blew my mind. can't remember the name or the street but apparantly the cook is known as, "mistress of the wok." believe it.

Day 3: Bangkok

took an early morning flight to bangkok, settled in at ted's uncle's house, then went straight to jatujak market for... YAY, more shopping!

"JJ" is one giant teeming mass of sweaty humanity. it's like ashby flea market times 10,000, and you can get everything from silk ties to newborn puppies. i'm not sure how people manage to shop here all day without passing out from claustrophobia, but ted and angie seemed to manage. i mostly sat on the curb, taking candids and sucking on 1 cent popsicles.

Day 2: Hong Kong

by day 2 i was already over hong kong--the place is like one big shopping mall. ted took us to lamma island which had a more quaint, albeit euro-hippy vibe, but it was a welcome pause from the chaos of the main island. while we were walking around we saw this one horndog butterfly trying to get at at another, chasing it all over the place in what i assume was some type of courting ritual. the whole thing lasted all of about 20 seconds and was the coolest thing i saw the whole time i was in HK.

addendum: apparantly some folks (i.e. 1 person) think my blog is too whiny so i will say that we ended our HK excursion with a great seafood meal at one of the outdoor stalls at temple street market. so good that someone had a seizure right across the way from us.

Day 1: Hong Kong

this was barely three weeks ago and already it seems like an lifetime away. all i remember is we walked for what seemed like an eternity with all our bags and crap trying to find our hotel.

spent the rest of the day wandering around kowloon street markets, trying to find record stores that didn't exist (apparently some due named 'paul' has all the dope unscooped vinyl but fuck, if he exists, i sure as hell couldn't find him) and looking at handprints of hk movie stars.

lately i have been hanging out mostly with cats, babies and grandmas. not intentionally, but that's how it's been working out. it's okay because they're cooler than everybody else.