Adventures in Amsterdam

So as my plane touched down in Amsterdam Friday evening, I was a little anxious about what to do with myself over the next few days... While I had originally intended to meet a few of my friends who work for Delta for the long 4th of July weekend, flights to Amsterdam had become difficult and so each of my friends had decided to either stay in Atlanta or go somewhere else for the weekend instead. Thus this would be the first leg of my journey where I would truly be traveling solo... Thankfully I had booked myself in hostels for the next three nights, and thus hoped I'd be able to meet some other travelers and find myself some sightseeing and drinking companions for the next few days...

After landing at AMS I hopped the train to Amsterdam Centraal, and spent the next 30 minutes joking with two Brits who had just flown down from Sheffield for a weekend Stag Party. Fun guys, and though we didn't meet up the rest of the weekend, they managed to catch me up on the Russian spy scandal that's been rocking the U.S... I really had no idea what they were talking about, and it finally hit me how out of the loop I've been for the past month... I also learned from them that Holland had apparently just beaten Brazil, and as I walked out of the train station, the electricity in the air was palpable... The entire CITY was out in the streets, with everyone decked in orange from head to toe, while the sounds of vuvuzelas reverbrated incessantly in the air... I was exhausted though, and while I did wander the city for a couple hours to get my bearings and enjoy the excitement, I finally called it a night and climbed into bed amidst the light snoring of some roommates and the distant blaring of the horns.

The next morning I changed hostels (to one that had come recommended but hadn't had any vacancies Friday night), before heading to Amsterdam Centraal... You see, Friday night I had talked with one of my Delta friends on g-chat, and although he confirmed that none of the Delta guys were going to make it to Amsterdam for the weekend, he did have a co-worker who had managed to make the overnight flight and would be getting in Saturday morning... She was a tourist like me, had never been to Amsterdam either, and he suggested we meet up. Thus it was at around 1pm that Anning and I met at the airport... She, as it turns out, was even less prepared for the weekend than I was, but luckily my hostel had ONE bed left for Saturday night and she snatched it up on the spot.

Glad to have a wingwoman to explore the town, Anning and I set off on a long walk to the south side of the city and stumbled across the Heinekin Factory... Although Anning doesn't drink, she agreed the tour would be fun, so we spent the next few hours learning the history of Heinekin, tasting wort, and I at least enjoyed a few frosty Heinekins. ;)

When we got back to the hostel, Anning and I went to our respective rooms, and I spent the next couple hours getting to know my roommates: a Canadian guy who was starting a two month tour of Europe, three French girls starting a two week holiday, two Australian girls doing a busabout, and a British guy who was spending several weeks in Amsterdam getting stoned out of his mind. ;) To my enjoyment, everyone was quite friendly and we spent a few hours telling stories and drinking in our room, after which Anning and I decided to join Eric (the Canadian) as well as Evelyn, Charlotte and Emma (the three French girls) for a night out on the town. For the most part it was a very fun night: we went to Leidesplein, which is a square in Amsterdam with dozens of bars, and enjoyed some cold drinks and live music... unfortunately we soon learned that Evelyn had a very poor tolerance for liquor, as she lost her stomach two or three times at the bar (each time stating she was feeling much better, before making another mad dash for the restroom 15-20 minutes later). Ultimately, we all decided it was best to get her back to the hostel, so the six of us caught the tram back home and called it a night.

The next day Anning and I decided to go on a FREE three hour walking tour of the city that we'd learned about from some fliers, and it was awesome... Our tourguide was an Aussie ex-pat who had been living in Amsterdam for a year and a half and his love of the city and the Dutch people was evident in his stories...Over the next three hours we learned the history of Amsterdam all the way from its founding, to its rise as a shipping super-power after defeating Spain in the 17th century, to life under first Napoleonic France and then Nazi Germany. We toured the red-light district, tasted some of Amsterdam's famous cheeses and basically spent three hours being thouroughly entertained... Sidenote, if you're ever in Europe or Israel, check to see if Sandemans New Europe operates there... this Company gives free tours in about a dozen cities, with the tourguides working for tips, and I really, truly enjoyed this one... thanks Ryan from Australia. =)

That night Anning and I were both pretty beat from being on our feet all day, and since it was Sunday night we decided to take it relatively easy... One of Anning's roommates was an Israeli named Oren, who's spending a few months wandering the world, and the three of us just went out for a couple drinks and lots of good conversation before calling it a night. The next morning Anning flew home, and I decided to get some culture while I could, so I caught a tram up to the Museum District and spent the whole day wandering both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, where I was able to see Rembrandt's Night Watch and Van Gogh's Sunflowers with my own eyes.

That night I caught my flight to Copenhagen, where I would begin the last week of my trip, in which I would be visiting my old roommate Michael in Denmark and my friend from studying abroad Pal who lives in Oslo... I'm afraid however that the stories of my Scandinavian misadventures will have to wait until next time... At which point I'll most likely be blogging from back home in the ATL.

It's been an absolutely amazing five weeks thusfar, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to my homecoming. =)

Until them,
-Tom

Stranded in Santorini and 48 hours in Prague

So it's been over a week since my last post, and I've seen lots since then, so I'll try to catch y'all up.

That first night in Santorini was fun: Dustin, Charles and I grabbed dinner on the Caldera (including the WORST fried calamari I've ever had, but some surprisingly good salmon), before heading out on the town... All in all it was a pretty uneventful night, though we did hit up two great bars called Murphy's and The Highlander before heading back to our hotel... Charles woke up the next morning and departed for the airport, leaving Dustin and I as the last two standing.

That day we decided to take a boat tour from Fira's main port out to the Volcanic Island of Nea Kameni. We hiked to the top of the dorment volcano for some great photo ops and then took the boat over to Palea Kameni to swim in the hot springs (which were very anticlimatic, and is really just an ocean cove where the water becomes lukewarm)... Then we took the boat over to Thirasia for lunch, where I got some shrimp and lobster souvlaki which was REALLy good, and all for 7 Euros. =) We finished the day by taking the boat back to the main island, hiking up the cliff to the town of Oia, and watching the sunset before taking the bus back to Fira.

All in all, it was a great day, and we were just getting ready to sit down to a nice dinner around 11PM, when we heard the news that Greece was going on strike... That's right, sure enough the next day (Tuesday the 29th) the fire fighters, police men, metro drivers and domestic airline employees of Greece decided to go on strike(thankfully fires and criminals took the day off too)... Dustin was told that his international flight out of Athens the next day should be unaffected... but that his flight from Santorini to Athens was cancelled... his only course of action was to hop on the 12:40 AM overnight hydrofoil from Santorini to Athens, in a desperate attempt to catch his flight home... This of course resulted in a hurried packing job, and an early goodbye, as Dustin took off for the port... I on the otherhand, was flying from Santorini to London, and thus had no course but to wait for morning and hope my flight took off as scheduled...

Thus the next morning I woke up, grabbed breakfast, finished packing and took a taxi to the airport at 11AM when I learned I had no such luck... As it turns out, all of the firemen in Santorini were on strike, and with no fire support, the airport was officially closed... I was thus told that all international flights would be queued for takeoff beginning at midnight... And I suddenly had an extra day in Santorini to kill... Unfortunately the airport had no luggage lockers and I'd already checked out of my hotel, but I had no intention of lugging my big backpack around all day, and thus I talked to one of the cafe owners and arranged to have him store my pack behind his couch for the day... Trusting that my judgement of his character wasn't off, I took off and began walking from the airport to see what I could see (stubbornly determined not to pay the 12-18 Euros to take a taxi back to one of the islands towns)... after about ten minutes of walking however I was firmly in the middle of nowhere... or at least as close to nowhere as one can get on an island the size of Santorini, when I heard a car slow down beside me, and someone say in a decidely Canadian accent "Hey man, you need a lift?"

Thank God for that guy... He was a Canadian by birth, but had been living in Greece for five years as a construction worker / bartender / good Samaritan... He said he knew I was lost because there was NOTHING the way I was going... When he asked where I was going, I told him I didn't really know, but was just wandering to see what I could see, since I was stranded for the next 12 hours... He, as it turns out, was on his way to the town of Kamari to take a mid-day dip in the ocean, and that sounded like a great idea to me.

We parted ways when we got to town, but I thanked him a ton for the ride, and he was good enough to point me to the main bookstore in town since I'd run out of English books to read... Thus it was that I made my way down to the black sand beach of Kamari to spend the day laying out, reading and enjoying the good weather... Unfortunately I didn't have a towel, and the black sand was understandably hot, so I resigned myself to paying the 6 Euros necessary to rent one of the lounge chair / umbrella sets for the day... I'd read somewhere however that when the guys comes to collect, you should ask for a receipt since sometimes unscrupulous individuals collect your money and then flee long before the REAL money collector shows up, and you're shit out of luck. So I was laying on the chair reading when this guy with a fannypack walks up and indicates I need to pay him. I look at him and say "receipt?" simply making sure he would give me one, but as I reached for my pocket, he looks at me quizzically and then says "Oh yeah, ok, ok," before walking away... I had no idea what to make of it at first, but then I realized he thought that my question was asking him if he wanted to see the receipt I'd already received, and then before I could pull out my money, he assumed I'd already paid and walked off! Suddenly I was in a much better mood... Sure I was stranded for the day, but it WAS a day at the beach, and though the delay could be costing me a good amount, I'd thusfar scrounged together a free place to store my luggage, a free ride to the beach, and free usage of a lounge chair... Life was looking good. =)

I spent the rest of the day doing a lot of nothing, before grabbing some dinner at a beachside restaurant, watching some World Cup and hailing a taxi back to the airport... I collected my luggage after thanking the owner of the cafe profusely, and went to check in... Unfortunately the extremely unhelpful woman at the EasyJet counter said she couldn't check my bag through to Prague... she could only check it to Gatwick, where I'd have to collect it and re-check in to get a connection... I begged and cajoled, but she remained extremely unhelpful... A fact that would come back to bite me as my flight ultimately didn't take off until after 3AM...

As it turns out, there are only two flights a day from London to Prague on EasyJet... One leaves at 6:25 AM, the other at 6:30 PM... Thus when I managed to collect my luggage, make it through customs and run from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, I was extremely happy to make it to the Prague check-in counter at 5:50 AM... THAT'S when I was told by the Extremely Unhelpful Woman #2 that check-in closes 40 minutes prior to take-off... and that I'd missed the window by 5 minutes... At this point I was frantic... I begged, I cajoled, I even tried to turn on the Rittle charm... the woman was inflexible however, and even after I explained that I'd been stranded for a day in Santorini, and that I'd had to go through customs because of her colleague, which was why I was late, and that I NEEDED to make this flight or I'd lose a whole nother day of vacation stranded in Gatwick... No dice... Thus began my 12 hour layover in the U.K.

Oh well... I finally DID make it to Prague at around 10pm on Wednesday, and Mike Taylor, who had been exploring the town solo since he'd arrived on Monday, was nice enough to meet me at the airport... And so the two of us headed to the bus stop where we realized the machines only took Czech Crown coins, while Mike only had bills and I only had Euros... Thankfully Mike explained that the whole mass transit system was on the honor code, and that he had yet to be checked for a ticket in his two days there (even though he'd purchase a 3-day pass on his first day in town)... Thus we took the bus into town, hopped off and took the metro into the city center where our hotel was located... It was thus as we were climbing up off the metro train's platform that I saw them: 4 ticket inspectors, trying to check as many tickets as possible, as dozens of people streamed past them! Not knowing what to do, I kept my eyes on the ground and avoided eye contact as the crowd pushed me up the stairs... Thankfully, Mike was right in front of me, and when the ticket inspector asked for his ticket, Mike didn't realize what was going on and tried to brush by him as he would a panhandler on the street... Instantly, two of the other guys jumped on him too, yelling that they were inspectors and demanding to see a ticket... This gave me just the window I needed as I slipped by unnoticed, backpack and all, as Mike finally realized what was going on and sheepishly produced his ticket... Thank you Taylse for being oblivious! That's how I narrowly evaded having to pay a huge fine on the spot. =) ... That's the way this whole trip seems to be going: Good Luck, Bad Luck, Good Luck. ,)

That night we just walked down the street and grabbed one beer to catch up a little before we crashed for the night, as I was exhausted from two days of trying to travel... The next day was spent exploring Prague by foot: from Wenceslas Square to Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle to Old Town Square, Mike and I walked a TON, so that by night time both of us felt like our feet were bruised and battered. All in all it was a great day though... the city itself is gorgeous, with medieval architecture and cobblestone streets making you feel like you really are in a real-life Disney World. We even had a traditional Czech lunch when we met with my friend Karolina and her 3-month old baby for lunch, and we finished off the day by hitting up a packed out Biergarten in one of the cities largest parks.

All in all it was a short trip because of the delay, but a good one, and it was good catching up with Taylor. He left the next morning, and I spent the day exploring the old Jewish quarter with all of its synagogues before catching my own flight to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was NUTS, not the least of which because I landed at AMS just as Holland beat Brazil, sending the city into an all night party! =) I'll have to save that for next time though, since this blog is already far too long...

Happy Belated 4th America!
-Tom

I've died and gone to Ios =)

So when I first signed on for the Athens-Mykonos-Ios-Santorini itinerary that Dustin and Chaz had mapped out, Ios was the one spot that I wasn't familiar with, at least in passing... It's unsurprising really, though one of the bigger Cyclades islands in terms of geographic area, it's also fairly undeveloped, with a year round population of only ~900 people (though that swells to 10-20,000 each summer), and little development other than smallish family run hotels and similarly owned restaurants... What I didn't know however, is that Ios, though maybe not a household name in the States, is considered something of a party destination throughout most of Europe, with hundreds of Scandinavian college kids and backpackers descending on the island each May-July for extended working vacations, and hordes of Italians and Greeks setting up on the island for the high season of July-August.

Thus for the past five days the four of us have enjoyed relatively cheap food, ridiculously cheap drinks, great beachfront vistas and a college-town atmosphere, all on a relatively rustic-feeling island and with everything in walking distance along one main strip stretching from the port to the village to the main beach. =)

Basically we spent the days laying out at the pool or throwing the pigskin on the beach and the night bouncing through the village, which is a warren of pedestrian alleys connecting bars, clubs, coffee shops and gyro stands... Late nights and late mornings were the norm for the week, but the highlight of the trip was definitely Midsummer Festival which kicked off at 11am this past Friday...

For those of you that have never heard of it, Midsummer Festival is basically a Swedish holiday / all-day drink fest celebrating all things Swedish... think St. Patty's Day and Cinco de Mayo, but celebrated by thousands of young Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, and also Brits, Aussies, Kiwis and Yanks, all of whom wear yellow and blue and pretend to be Swedish for the day... the party was ridiculous. It started in town at a bar called Flames, where everyone showed up early and ready to drink... particularly Bacardi Breezers and Smirnoff Ices... You could buy 5 for 15 Euro and they'd throw in a free Midsummer Festival t-shirt... cue 15 Smirnoff Ices and lot of double-icing. ;) ...BTW, did I mention some Boston girls Iced Dustin totally unprovoked when we were watching the USA-Algeria match-up? This shit is SPREADING!

Anyways, Midsummer Festival was one of the longest days of my life, and thus last night (Saturday night) was an early one by Ios standards, as us guys came home at 2AM to drink some beers on our patio before calling it a night. All in all it was a great trip, and definitely an island I'd go back to some day... It's one of those places where everyone seems to know everyone else... not just the locals, but also the tourists, since many of them are visiting for months at a time and return every summer to their jobs as bartenders, waitresses and doormen... We met a lot of cool tourists, from Dan the Norwegian who comes to Ios for Midsummer every year, to Isabelle and Angie the crazy Swedes that never stopped partying, to a score of fun Aussies, Canadians and Europeans. We also met a lot of great locals, from Big Niko and his Mother who ran our hotel, to Ruth, the saucy but matronly, British woman running our poolside restaurant and catering to a constant influx of hungover and hungry travelers, to Sinead, the Irish-Zambian-Norwegian bar-owner that hosted us every night, to Terry (or Curry as Chaz kept calling him), the 60+ year old British ex-pat who drove us all over the island on our last day giving us the insiders tour of Ios (and regailing us with stories of what the island was like in the 60s and 70s), all told with loving reverence for "the Rock," as he called it, which has been his home for 37 years.

Today however is Sunday... And this morning at 11AM I set sail from Ios with mixed emotions: sad that the Greek portion of my trip is about to be over, but glad that I escaped with my liver in one piece. ;) I now find myself on the mythical island of Santorini, or Thira as the Greeks call it, and having watched the cliffs of Santorini rise up to surround me as we sailed into port this morning, I can understand why some people consider this most beautiful place in the world... The view, not only from the water but also from atop the caldera is truly awe inspiring, and although we've already experienced a bit of price shock after transitioning from the undeveloped Ios to the very commercialized Santorini, I'm nonetheless looking forward to exploring "Honeymoon Island" over the next 48 hours.

Unfortunately Alex left this morning and Charles departs tomorrow, meaning my last day and night will be spent in the every-so-romantic company of Dustin... lucky me. ;)

Tuesday afternoon I fly from Santorini to Prague (via London, of course... courtesy of Easy Jet), where I'll be meeting Mike Taylor for three nights in the Paris of Eastern Europe... Can't wait as I've heard nothing but amazing things of the capital of the Czech Republic.

Till next time, =)
-Tom

Mykonos!

So Friday morning came early as Alex, Dustin, Chaz and I woke up at 4AM to pack up our things and check out of Athens Studios in order to start making our way to Piraeus where we would begin our journey through the Cyclades Islands... And although anyone that knows me can attest that I absolutely detest mornings, this particular morning was redeemed by the fact that the clerk at the hostel was actually watching Game 7 of the NBA finals at the sports bar downstairs, allowing us four Yanks to watch the Lakers win the title just before setting off (shout out to all you Celtic fans out there... I was rooting for you).

Thus at around 6:30 AM our taxi rolled up to the port of Piraeus, which is absolutely enormous (fun fact, apparently Greece controls one third of the world's ships), we found the ticket window and boarded the nicest passenger boat I've ever been on (two stories, plush seats, several bars and hardwood floors). The journey to Mykonos took about three hours, and since I had booked Alex and I's tickets, and Dustin had booked for him and Charles, we were sitting at separate tables, with Alex and I sitting across from two Greek girls, which would have been more than fine except for the fact that the two of them spoke not a lick of English and we spoke not a lick of Greek, resulting in 3 hours of awkward staring across the table at each other. Sweet. ;)

At Mykonos we found the shuttle to our hotel and checked in the to K-hotel, before promptly making our way to the nearest bar called Blu-Blu to watch the USA-Slovenia game... with me rocking my Union Jack bathing suit and Alex carrying a real American Flag. =) That day we quickly learned that eating out on Mykonos was going to be very expensive if we didn't find cheaper alternatives, and thus began our four day love affair with pitas (aka gyro wraps)... You see, although almost any item on the menu at the restaurants on Mykonos would cost 8-20 Euro, almost every restaurant also sold Chicken, Pork or Lamb Pitas a la carte for 2-3 Euro... So basically we could get full on a big wrap with chicken, onions, tomato and taziki for a handful of change or drop 20 bones to eat anything else. I think I've since eaten about a dozen pitas, and I'm pretty sure that's not going to change on Ios or Santorini. ;)

That first night we went bar-hopping in Mykonos Town before catching a taxi to Club Paradise where Ministry of Sound was playing all night long... Good times aside from the 10 Euro drinks, and we finally cabbed it back to the hotel around 4 or 5 AM...

The next day we woke up bright and early at 2PM ;) before heading to Paradise Beach for some afternoon sun... and Paradise beach is just ridiculous. It's like Spring Break central, with young people everywhere, clubs blaring techno music, go-go dancers and even a dude wearing nothing but an elephant... yeah, basically an elephant-shaped puppet on his schlong, gyrating on stage and taking pictures with anyone that wants to... Have I mentioned that Mykonos has a pretty prevalent gay scene yet? ;)

We stayed clear of Elephant dude, but did enjoy some frosty beverages, good beats and a nice dip in the crystal clear ocean, which felt ice cold and glorious after roasting in the Mediterranean sun. That night we expected big things since it was Saturday, but what we found when we walked into Mykonos Town was that the whole city was PACKED with groups of Greek guys... Literally, there were roving packs of gay dudes out in force... not that there's anything wrong with that, but not really our scene. ;)

Thus we decided to leave the center of town and go to a club again that night, this time to Cavo Paradiso, which we'd heard was a great cliff-top, after-hours bar, known as a place to drink until dawn and watch the sunrise. So we rolled in around 4AM, but by 5AM Dustin and Chaz were both non-plussed with the scene (aka, striking out with the ladies and wanting to go home). Alex and I were both of the mindset that we should at least stay to watch the sun rise over the Aegean (we'd paid 20 Euro each to get in after all), so Dustin and Chaz left, and Alex and I grabbed some Coronas and cigars and settled back to watch the sun come up... while listening to blaring techno and watching some gogo dancer gyrate in the club's swimming pool. ;) All in all it was one of the coolest experiences ever... Gorgeous sunrise, good beats, and we even ended up making friends with a big group of Californians and some French girls... Sorry D and C, you missed out.

Sunday however was a different matter. After going to bed at 7AM, and several nights of heavy drinking I could feel a cold coming on and was in need of a night off, so I took advantage of the Sabbath to relax, take care of some business online and go to bed early... Monday was then our last day in Mykonos as were were catching the ferry to Ios on Tuesday morning, so we spent the day drinking at the pool and then spent all night barhopping in Mykonos Town. All in all it was a great night, especially when I got a UGA girl we met to tell Charles she had a present for him and then had her Ice him right there on the waterfront... For those of you that don't know what Icing is, you can learn more here: http://www.newser.com/story/89862/oddest-new-drinking-game-icing.html Yeah, I'm taking this shit international. ;)

Tuesday was a day in transit, as we caught the 40 minute super-fast hydrofoil to Paros (a harrowingly bouncy ride for four hungover schmucks) where we had a three hour layover before taking the 4 hour slow-boat to Ios. We thus got to Ios at around 6pm in the evening, where we checked into the amazingly situated Hermes Hotel (gorgeous panoramic views), and then heading into town for a night out... All in all, the verdict thusfar is that Ios is going to be my favorite place yet... Imagine a picturesque Mediterranean island, population ~2000, except in summer when it's invaded by thousands of young Scandinavians and Aussies on Holiday... at 29 (wow, I almost said 28) I'm definitely an old man for this island, but the people are super friendly and everything is about half the price it would be on Mykonos.

It's now Wednesday night and we just watched USA beat Algeria at a place called Fun Pub (prompting a USA! USA! chant much to the chagrin of the predominantly British clientelle). All in all it's been a great trip thus far, though I do miss home and am sad to know I'm missing yet another Wednesday Night at Pub 71. ;)

Cheers from Ios!
-Tom

Welcome to the Mile High Club ;)

So on Monday night after elephant trekking and checking out of the Amari Palm Reef, Danny, Brett and I caught the 6pm flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok for one last night of debauchery... Thankfully, we knew going in that we had a reliable guide to help us navigate this city of 10 million people... our guide being a man named Maxi Boy. =)

For those of you that don't know, Danny's father Barry is a pilot, and as it turns out, one of his old co-pilots from his British Airways days has since retired and moved to Bangkok, where he's opened up an 8-room guesthouse known as the Mile High Club... In a nutshell it's a clean, safe place to stay in the middle of the Sukhumvit section of Bangkok that typically caters to pilots... Thankfully Barry had reached out to Maxi Boy to arrange 3 rooms for us for our last night in Thailand and I couldn't have been happier.

In a nutshell, Maxi Boy is a legend... imagine a 60+ year old, ethnic Quagmire... you know, the shady but kind-hearted, sex-crazed pilot from Family Guy? From the moment we got there, Max was availing us of stories of his exploits and the life of an ex-pat in Thailand... To say this guy was a dirty old man would be the understatement of the century, but he was also incredibly helpful in keeping 3 naive guys from the States out of trouble, and the Mile High Club was a very clean and respectable home base as we explored Thai's capital.

After a fairly antagonistic taxi ride (I'll spare you the details) we finally made it to the MHC, where we introduced ourselves to Maxi Boy. He was a riot out of the gates, and after settling in he gave us the run down of Bangkok... where to go and how to get there... One thing he advised against was visiting Pat Pong, which is generally considered Bangkok's chief Red Light District, but we all agreed that no trip to Bangkok would be complete without at least seeing a Ping Pong show, and thus the three of us set out on the Skytrain to see what we could see...

Man should we have listened to Maxi Boy... In a nutshell we got off the Skytrain in Pat Pong and were walking towards the heart of the district when some lady approached us and asked if we were looking for a Ping Pong show (apparently 3 white guys in shorts and t-shirts was a dead give away)... Long story short we followed her to an unmarked door and up a dirty flight of stairs (first sign we were making a huge mistake), and on the way up, some poor old guy came down the stairs and told us it was a huge rip off (second sign we were making a huge mistake, but the guy looked drugged out of his mind so we ignored him and proceeded anyway)... Long story short, the Ping Pong show was what we thought it was... a perverse combination of freak show and strip show, but it wasn't until after one round of Singha and about 20 minutes that the real red flags started waving.

Long story short, we go to the counter to pay our bill, and the old women running the place shows us a bill for 3,500 baht... about $115... When we'd explicitly asked when we arrived how much for the beers and how much for the show and had been told 100 baht each on each count... Reasonable Thai prices, which should have ammounted to $6-7 each... This bill however, while it did have the beers at 100 baht each, it actually had the show at 500 baht each and tried to charge us 425 baht each for some drinks we supposedly bought for the girls... It was essentially a shake down... For one thing, we HADN'T bought a SINGLE drink for any of the girls working there... despite being implored by the sketchy Thai girls several times... And when we stated that we had been told the show was 100 baht each and not 500, she asked who had told us that (sure enough, the lady who showed us in was nowhere to be seen)... We of course reacted with righteous indignation... Lots of yelling on both sides. At one point I slammed 200 baht on the counter and told this woman that was all she was getting from me... That's when she picked up the phone and said in broken English, "Fine then, I call Mafia."

At that point Danny, Brett and I started talking amongst ourselves pretty hurriedly, wondering whether or not to call her bluff or try and reach a compromise in the off chance she really did have some Mafia thugs that could be there in a moments notice... I still think she was bluffing and wanted to storm out of there in righteous indignation, but cooler heads prevailed and we ended up negotiating the thieving woman down to 1,500 baht, or about $17 each... Lesson learned: 1) Trust Maxi-Boy when he says something is a rip-off, and 2) Never go to an establishment that has no signage and that feels sketchy from the get-go (even for a Ping Pong show).

After that we did some bar hopping, and eventually gained our good spirits back... It's hard not to in a place like Bangkok... While there's no doubt about it that the city can be a very shady place, it's also a tonic for the senses: lights, smells, and a cacaphony of sounds are everywhere... from the hawkers selling fried fish at 3am to the blaring music (one remix combined Metallica and Beyonce was amazing)... It was an experience I'll never forget... Nor will I forget the late night Tuk Tuk ride back home to the MHC, which consisted of Danny, Brett and I jammed into a box set on the back of a three-wheeled motorbike roaring down the road at 50+ miles per hour. =)

All in all it was a roller coaster of a night, but definitely a great experience.

The next day we decided to trust Maxi-Boy's advice and we took the commuter riverboat from the Southern part of Bangkok to the Northern-most stop... a great, leisurely way to see the city while enjoying the breeze on the river. It cost 14 baht per person each way (about 50 cents), and when we stopped at the northern-most stop we got off for a decidely un-touristy lunch and market tour...

First we found a restaraunt (more like a hole in the wall) that had the most locals in it and motioned that we wanted to eat. Nobody spoke english, there was no menu, and it was basically rolling the dice when we ordered... One waitress finally managed to ask "fish or meat?" and "big, medium or small?" and what came was three bowls of a brown broth with noodles in it, what appeared to be 1 meat ball, some strips of meat, bean sprouts, and some weird tentacle looking thing... Thus it was with some trepidation that we tried it, but all in all it was actually pretty good... The best part was that at the end of the meal we found out that our three bowls of soup and 3 Pepsis cost 116 baht total... That's about $4 for a three person lunch... Amazing.

We then spent the next 2 hours walking around this awesome outdoor marketplace... it was HUGE... all live fish and chickens and stuff, with the freshest meats, fruits, vegetables, seafood.... including live eels, turtles and frogs for sale... and did I mention grilled cockroaches?

Afterwards we took the river boat back... did a little more shopping at the MBK, which is a very American-style mall, very different from the aforementioned market, before heading back to the Mile High Club and pack our bags to depart.

Thus it was that I found myself at the airport on 6/15, getting ready to board my flight to Ahman when I first began this tale. It's now two days later, on 6/17, and my birthday-in-transit from Thailand to Jordan to Greece was everything I could have hoped for (except for the fact that the Ahman airport has NO internet cafe anywhere in the airport, resulting in a VERY boring 8-hour layover).

Regardless, I landed in Athens without a hitch, and was able to meet up with Alex, Dustin and Chaz with no problems (other than the fact that the Metro was on strike, precipitating the need to take a taxi to our hostel... go figure). ;)

Today we toured the Acropolis and got a lot of really great photos of the Parthenon. We then watched a lot of World Cup Soccer, and now I'm about to go to bed, as we're catching the 7:15 AM Ferry to Mykonos...

I guess that means good night. Next time I post, I'll be doing so from the Cyclades Islands... and tomorrow night, my USA flag bathing suit will be making its debut as we watch the World Cup here in Greece... Wish us luck!

-Tom

Thailand Part Deux

So Saturday morning, after a night eating King Prawn Thermidor and Pad Thai while reclining on wicker beds on the beach, and 10 solid hours of sleep, Danny and I were awoken refreshed to a 7am call from the front desk saying Brett Dawg had officially arrived. =)

In no time we were devouring another amazing breakfast buffet of omelets and guava juice, before heading right out for more fun in the sun. Since it was Brett's first day, we figured another low-key day was in order, and though be began bartering for beers on the beach around noon, we spent most of it pool hopping from infinity pool to infinity pool up and down Chaweng Beach... Apparently as long as you're white and act like you belong, every hotel assumes you're one of theirs. ;)

Later in the afternoon we decided to splurge and accept an offer from some beach side masseuses, and the three of us laid down for an hour long massage right there on the beach... Danny got the oil massage, although Brett and I both got the Aloe massage as I had already started to fry despite my best sunscreen efforts... An hour and $10 lighter I was totally relaxed, and we decided to walk through Town for some evening shopping... World Tour Lesson #1 by the way... If you're ever backpacking through Southeast Asia, pack LIGHT, as in, don't even pack any clothes... you can buy them when you get there... That was Danny's strategy, and every night we'd leave the hotel with him clad in nothing but shorts and sandals... Then we'd browse some of the street markets on the way to dinner, and each night he'd buy a new shirt. =)

Saturday night was also pretty tame as Brett was incredibly jetlagged and we'd decided to book a snorkeling trip which was leaving the hotel at 7:30 AM the next day, and thus it was that the next morning we found ourselves with about 10 other tourists on a speedboat to Koh Tau for what was undoubtedly the best snorkeling I've ever done... The coral reefs are vibrant, with elk horn, and brain coral and fire coral and every imaginable shape and color dotting the seafloor while vibrant tropical fish in blues, greens reds and yellows swim about EVERYWHERE... We then had lunch on Koh Tau before heading over to a tiny beach island called Koh Nangyuan for some more snorkeling (and lounging in the shade).

The whole day the three of us had been joking around with one of the funniest Aussie guys I've ever met, as he and his wife were on their honeymoon after having just been married in Las Vegas... This guy was hysterical, and his wife was a lot of fun too, so once we got back to Koh Samui we made plans to meet them for dinner which included an enourmous whole fried fish in tamarind sauce, some curry crab and lots of king prawn and grilled squid... Amazing meal. That night, the three of us went out and partied like rock stars, including drinking some 99 baht ($3) buckets... but not buckets of beers, literally buckets of vodka redbull, which are plastic toy buckets filled with vodka, redbull and ice... about a liter of it... again for $3... ridiculous. ;) All in all it was a great night: We hit up lots of bars, met some cool people, evaded the ever-present lady boys... which is a scary, scary phenomenon (Thai boys dressed like girls looking for company... shudder) before stumbling home to much welcome beds.

The next day's adventure highlight was elephant trekking.... yep, that's right. We rode elephants. Through the jungle. ;) We left the hotel at 10:30 and drove about 45 minutes down the island to an elephant reserve where Dannny and I rode one while Brett rode the other... We've got some great pictures to share ajnd I'll try to upload them soon, but those beasts are HUGE and although trying to get them to do what you want them to do is an endeavor for the brave, they're also REALLY smart... At one point Brett's sandle fell off his foot, and the elephant he was riding automatically picked it up with his trunk and handed it back to Brett... How COOL is that!!!

That night we set out for Bangkok, and we were stoked! That said, I think I'm going to wrap this up here and save Bangkok for another day. ;)

Everyone loves a cliff hanger, and my hour on this comp is about to end!

Till then!
-Tom

Last night in Bangkok...

So the last time I posted I had just landed in Bangkok and was beginning my adventure in Thailand... And now here we are six days later and my whirlwind tour of this amazing country is at an end... Now I'm back at Suvarnabhumi Airport getting ready to board a flight to Ahman, Jordan, and I have no doubt that my Thai trip will take more than one post, but before too much time elapses, here is my Thai trip, Part 1. =)

I met Danny Yunes without a hitch at BKK on Thursday morning and after an hour catching up over coffee we boarded our flight for Koh Samui, aka Island Paradise. ;) For starters when you land on Koh Samui, you start realizing that this is an open air island... glorified golf carts take you from planeside to baggage claim, which is a conveyer belt under an open air pavilion. The heat is palpable everywhere, made even worse by the humidity, but at the same time it feels great because the sky is light blue, the ocean's deep blue and smiling people are everywhere... When people call Thailand the Land of a Thousand Smiling Faces, it's aptly named... They may occasionally be liars and cheats, but generally everyone here has been pleasant, friendly and seemingly happy. ;)

Our hotel on Koh Samui was amazing. We stayed at the Amari Palm Reef, a beachside resort on Chaweng Beach, the main tourist strip on the island, and in addition to the open air lobby, the phenomenal breakfast buffet, the two swimming pools and the great location, the entire staff was accomodating to our every request, and we basically felt like rockstars on holiday in paradise... That first day Danny and I just bummed at the pool and on the beach before grabbing a dirt cheap Thai dinner at a local hole in the wall, and then barhopping at some decidely un-Thai establishments. ;) First we met two Aussie girls at a bar called Bondi, then we met two Brittish guys at a club called Mint... We finished the night at an Open Air Club called Green Mango before stumbling home to our amazingly air conditioned hotel room. =)

The next day was more relaxing on the beach, although we did rent sea kayaks for an hour to explore some coral reefs... which were amazing, but only the beginning of our aquatic exploration. That night we had dinner reclining on cushions on the beach. It was amazing and we felt like royalty, but we were so tired that we went home and crashed at 9pm... even kings need to sleep.

Saturday morning Brett joined us, but now my flight is boarding. Stay tuned for Thailand Part Deux. ;)