small in southeast asia

We are here/there. 20 hours of plane-riding and we end up half-way around the world. We got in to Bangkok at 230 in the morning, wandered around the airport with wide red eyes and decided to just dive right in to thick of things. A 45 minute taxi ride brought us to Soi Ram Buttri Road which is just a block away from the famous Khao San road (which you might remember from the movie the Beach). The street actually seemed pretty alive; we weren't the only foreigners arriving at the strangest hours. No rooms were available, but plenty of bar space was, so we anchored ourselves in one and started to fight through our first sips of alcohol. We ended up meeting a few people that first night/morning; in fact, one girl was from victoria and she said she recognized us from 90's night at Lucky Bar (she works at Lucky) ... pretty funny. And again, last night there was a girl from the Sunshine Coast that recognized Jesse. Small world....maybe....
Bangkok is a crazy city...lots of smog, lots of people, a chaotic blend of east/west, ancient/modern. We hiked around the city yesterday with some destinations in mind, and it only took a thousand wrong turns to find what we were looking for: a park, a temple, and some statues. The maps here aren't that reliable, but that's not so much the map makers fault as it is the lack of any real street designations. Even the locals seemed perplexed when forced to use the map as a reference to direct us......fingers pointed us in every possible direction. I had a feeling that would happen so I let Adam and Jesse pick out the destinations and the routes and just went along for the ride. I figured my job would be getting us back. It was a good city trek that took us around 4 or 5 hours of almost constant walking. When we got back, all of us took a good nap from 5 pm until 11pm, which was obviously the smartest thing we could do to combat our jet lag. Some dinner at 1130, some beers, and next thing we know we're awake for another sunrise. Another sleep from 7am to 11, some lunch, some reading, and here we are....1:15pm, Day 2. We leave in 4 hours for Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand on a 12-hour bus ride, should be fun. That is where you'll probably be hearing from us next unless Adam or Jesse decide to post in the next couple of hours. So until then, be happy on the other side of the world.