Forgive me father for I have sinned. It's been two weeks since my last blog post.
It has been difficult to keep up with my initial plan of posting on a weekly basis. Mainly due to a lack of wifi at the places we have been staying but also mainly I have just put it off and am lazy. I'm hoping to keep it up as regularly as possible.
Previously on Jim's blog: Jen and I arrived in Thailand on January 7th. spent four days enjoying the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, took a train to the much less busy northern city of Chiang Mai and spent eight relaxing days in a little bit cooler climate. That about wraps up what's already been posted.
Here goes for what's new.
PART ONE:
We sadly departed our relaxation zone that was Chiang Mai on an overnight train, under the full moon and on January 19th arrived at the small river town of Ayutthaya outside of Bangkok.
The city is built on an island at the confluence of two rivers. We had planned on staying here a few nights because of a vast array of ancient ruins and derilect temples to see but the place had had some recent flooding, it smelled of dead hookers and was horribly filthy even by Thai standards. It was decided to just make it a day trip and head back to Bangkok the same day.
 |
| Ayutthaya's bathroom, kitchen sink and shower. |
 |
| The gloved one returns |
 |
| Jen says "This place smells of dead hookers". |
 |
| Trees grown around Buddha |
We did check out some of the more noteable ruins and found a tree that had grown around the head of one of these big stone Buddha statue heads which was a highlight. Another highlight was soft serve cones at KFC Thailand. That's right folks I said it. Kentucky Fried Chicken is everywhere in Thailand and they have ice cream cones.
So we went back to Bangkok and found the post office where my little brother mailed me a package poste restante style. That contained two very valuable things my Rx sunglasses that I forgot in Minneapolis and a huge tube of Banana Boat sunscreen. A small tube of SPF30 in Thailand unexpectedly costs more than ten dollars which gets expensive when you have a body with the girth of Jim Sommerfeld and you're on a tight budget. Thanks Mike. I have a lot of skin to cover.
Where was I? Oh yeah. So Bangkok. Got the package, then went back to the guesthouse we had stayed in before. The New Merry V Guesthouse which has rooms for 200 Baht per night (about $6.89). We went out that night in Bangkok to live it up at the Siam Paragon, this huge mall that has super awesome VIP movie theater and an entire floor of eateries. Not many English language movies to choose from so we settled on Burlesque starring Christina Aguillera and Cher which was aweful as far as the dialogue, acting and story but the hooker dancing featuring Veronica Mars was alright and some of the music wasn't bad. Seeing a movie was a nice break from the busy streets of the city.
PART TWO:
So my great Aunt Jean has a friend that lived in the U.S. for almost forty years and retired in her home town in Thailand, her name is Tip Rainbow and is a feisty and hilarious 71 year old Woman. It turns out that Tip heard from Auntie Jean we were coming to Thailand so she offered to have us come stay with her and show us around her home town.
 |
| Pattaya go-go bar sign |
 |
| Beach at Pattaya |
 |
| Me keeping "cooly fresh" |
 |
| old school transportation |
 |
| Tip's jackfruit tree |
 |
| Tip's kitchen |
 |
| banana tree |
I got in touch with her and she arranged for a friend of hers to send us on a mini bus to her town. This involved a taxi to Don Muang Airport where Jen and I were picked up by Tip's friend Joom who bought us a ticket and put us on a mini bus for three hours to the oceanside town of Sattahip, which was a huge U.S Air Force base during the Vietnam war that housed squadrons of B-52s. Tip took us in for four nights and brought us out to eat, to the beach and for Thai massage. Her brother in law drove us to Pattaya for a day at the beach there. Pattaya is a whorehouse posing as a beach resort town. Every other tourist you see there is a middle aged gentleman with a pot belly and a young Thai woman at his hip. Gross. The history of Pattaya's prostitution or as Tip puts it "Suzy Wong or Mamason" goes back to the war when it was a big R&R spot for G.I.s to get there noodle wet before going off to fight the Viet Cong and the NVA and the tradition is still going strong. Not with G.I.s but with various western men with fluctuating levels of creepiness.
Tip was a very nice host and gave us a welcomed perspective on Thailand not seen by the average tourist.
 |
| Jim, Tip, Jen |
 |
| Tip's house in Sattahip, complete with star "for America" |
PART THREE SOON TO COME
