Island Life

Right now we're on the island of Koh Tao at a really nice resort. The weather has been mostly sunny, occasionally interrupted by rains and warm, strong winds. It's so nice and relaxing to hang out on the beach or by the pool here in any weather, sunny or windy.

We've gone scuba diving four times in the last couple of days. The resort includes a PADI dive shop. Today during the moring dive we saw a couple of grey reef sharks, along with eels, stingrays, etc. The tropical fish here are so interesting and beautiful. I happy to have brushed up on diving again after a two year break. It's a great activity to do while traveling and I'm glad I'm traveling with someone who is also scuba-certified.

Tomorrow we're off to the much bigger island of Phuket to stay at an even fancier resort for a few days. Then it's back to Bangkok for a couple more days before returning home for my Vegas birthday bash! Yay!

They think we're Thai... and other adventures

It's funny... everyone thinks that Kat is Thai so they start speaking to us in Thai first and then switch to English and apologize when we don't respond. It's nice since we don't get bothered as much by people trying to push services, etc. for tourists. Actually when I travel abroad, no one thinks I American either, so I don't get any of the American backlash.

Today we packed up and hired a taxi to take us to Wat Po, one of the large Bhuddist temples in Bangkok. The reclining bhudda statue was really, really big! And the architecture of the temple was pretty interesting too. The taxi drive took us all over the city so we got to see more sights.

It happened to us in Bangkok today, it happened to me in Beijing in 2002, and it happened to me in Florida in 1984. Whenever you hire a driver for a tour or join a tour group, they inevitably take you to some store selling cheap jewelry and a bad restaurant only for tourists. And of course the drivers get commissions for bringing in more people to particular spots. It's amusing to me to see how tourists get manipulated in touristy cities like Bangkok, Barcelona, etc. It's peoples' jobs to steer tourists to particular places or get more money out of them. At the jewelry store today Kat and I resisted buying anything. But the same sales lady was stalking us the whole time. When we were about to leave without having bought anything she said things like, "You're already here so you should buy something." Or, "People come here from all over the world to buy our jewelry." Sorry, no dice. I wonder how much they paid our taxi driver to take us there. At least we got to see more of the city that way.

Thailand!

Last night I arrived in Bangkok. Kat and I will be spending 1.5 weeks in Thailand, first checking out Bangkok for a few days, and then traveling south to the islands for relaxing on the beach and scuba diving. It's pretty warm and humid here and this isn't even the hot season. It's been overcast the whole time I've been here, but it hasn't rained yet.

Yesterday I had a four-hour layover at the Narita airport (closest one to Tokyo). I just had to try some sushi while in Japan, even though it was still airport food. The spicy tuna rolls were pretty good. I was surprised to see that they had California rolls. I've also seen California rolls in Japanese restaurants here in Bangkok. For some reason I thought they didn't exist outside of the US.

This is the second time I've been on my own in a place where I can't understand what anyone is saying. Previously the only time I've experienced this was when I was in Beijing on my own for a few days in 2002. At least in Bangkok (and Beijing previously) many folks know enough English to deal with foreigners. I need to practice a little bit of Thai so I can at least speak some of the basics. I'm not familiar with understanding nor speaking Asian languages, so it isn't easy.

There are far fewer tourists here than I imagined there would be. I guess it's not the height of the touristy season since it's a little bit overcast and rainy. Today I'm checking out downtown Bangkok's shopping areas. I just went to the fanciest shopping center I've ever seen.

As expected there are tons of foot and body massage businesses everywhere. I feel tall here since most of the men and women are shorter than me. The people here remind me of Singapore where everyone is skinny and young looking and not wearing too much since it's warm and humid outside.