Friday, July 3, 2009

Come On Ride That Train






















The first part of our journey will begin in Bangkok, when our plane touches down. We will spend a sweaty night in one of the hottest capitals in the world (according to cash cab). After a day or two of sweating water weight, we will hop on a Darjeeling-style train and head north, to Chiang Mai.

We will spend a view days in the mountains, maybe a week, eating their famous delicacies and robbing them of their culture, somehow finding out how to make money off it when we come back to the states (little known fact, slap bracelets were HUGE in Chiang Mai in the 20's, we were late, but someone made some money!). From there we hop back on the train and travel all the way south to Krabi, where we will post up for a month during our TEFL course. 


So there you have it, mom, our mini itinerary.

 

_Brock
Posted by BrockTalkinThai at 3:52 AM

1 comment:

  1. The WoD GodJuly 3, 2009 at 1:09 PM

    Hey Brock,

    It's Brad. I used to live up the street from you when you lived in Germantown. I'm sure you remember.

    It's so random that you just decided to go to Thailand. I'm in Osaka Japan right now. I'll be here until January of next year. I'm finishing up a master's in international business so I'm spending a year in Japan. I've gotta say, I can relate to the blog. If you're experience is anything like mine, you'll feel all those ranges of emotions you mentioned earlier and then some. I think the hardest thing to deal with in Japan is twofold, the language barrier and the ethnocentricity. Having so many people in one country who are so strongly convinced of their preconceived notions of the rest of the world is definitely an interesting experience, and communicating with them is an uphill battle often, but it really makes you cherish the people you meet with open hearts and minds along the way. I have lots of traveller type friends in Japan who've been to thailand, and I've heard nothing but rave reviews. I'm hoping to do a little 2 month world tour on my way back from Japan that includes Thailand or vietnam, Sweden (to visit a few friends), and China (to see the economic development there first hand). If I'm ever in south east asia, I'll give you a ring. If you get the urge to take a detour to the land of the rising sun, I've got a futon for you and your lady friend =P. Anyway, have a great trip man, email me and let me know you got this.

    Brad
    bradleytpope@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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The Beginning

The Beginning

I am a 25 year old, southern Gent. I've been bothered by the fact that I've not traveled the world or even left the country, sans a trip to Cancun when I was in High School, but that was so muddled with tequila and strip clubs (sorry mom), that It doesn't REALLY count- that I have decided to take a adventure across the globe with the love of my life.

All I needed was a motivator, I needed someone to push me to travel and tell me, "Now's the time to do this, and we should totally do it". She came, she said those magic words and now we've got our bags packed, watching the calendar.
 
I had intentions on moving to New York City with my girlfriend. We are both really big into music and both have a spot in our hearts for the city. The opportunity escaped us after having our hopes deflated by the freaky rent prices there. We kind of ditched the New York idea immediately following a trip there and the mention of Thailand. 

We had always tossed around the idea of traveling together. I knew I wanted to travel with her. The first place she mentioned was Thailand, and after 20 minutes on Craigslist, checking out places and prices, we were sold (prob not the best way to chose where you want to spend your life, but that's just how it happened, and this is my story). Thailand it was.

So here we are 6 months later, a ticket for Bangkok dated August 4th in our hands. When people ask us how long we will be in Thailand, we say "Indefinitely". We are ready for a life change, something that might coax us into never coming back.

I have been dreaming of the sand and the crystal beaches since we mentioned the move, I have also had nightmares of being locked up and having to deal with a girlfriend who has been kidnapped by some crazy python handler, but those are just dreams.

The truth is, I have never been so excited and nervous at the same time for anything in my life. Right, now as I sit on my couch in South Knoxville looking out the window at the homemade bird feeders we made, on a hot Sunday afternoon, it blows my mind to think that in a little under two months, I might be laying in the sand with the tide riding up my mini bathing suit, with some concoction of a random Thai's design to sip in one hand, watching long-tailed boats float over the horizon, holding the love of my life in the other.

I expect to be shocked, excited, impressed, disappointed, lost, scared, found, happy, comfortable, uncomfortable, drunk, frightened, enlightened, ready to come home, ready to stay forever- all at different times on this journey.  

But one thing that will never change will be when I am an old man, maybe back in South Knoxville, sitting on my porch in a rocking chair with my old wife, widdling some crazy little thing old men on porches widdle, I will be able to look over to my wife and ask, "Remember that time we went into that local bar in Thailand and we saw that Thai Prostitute perform that "Ping-Pong show?" I am glad we shared that moment together."  

And she will say, "Brock that's disgusting" and then smile a little bit.


_Brock