You can call me Abhishek

Aiight, so I'm in lovely humid, cloudy Bangkok, Why the hell does the bad weather always have to follow me? huh?

anyhoo, got me bags, the airport wasn't very busy thank goodness, it kinda reminded me of the airport in Nairobi... same signs and all (of course in Thai and not Swahili)... hopped on the Airport bus to Khaosan Road which is near the Hotel (yes, HOTEL) that I am staying at... get off the bus at the stop, I have no freakin clue where the hotel is, everybody is doin their own thing, it smells, it's humid, I'm slippin in an out of conciousness (as I am now, so pardon the spelling) I have tuk tuk drivers offering to take me to the hotel, tours of the city, people selling food on the street, I ask a few people where the hotel is, they point down strange alleys... a little freaked out much... but it's ok, I finally wander down one of the alleys and after a while, I find the hotel, man is it ever nice... thanks to hostelworld.com I got a good rate, about 1000 baht for the nite, I check in and tell the guy I'll stay another nite as well seeing as how I 'm not feeling well, I ain't gonna go to another hotel tomorrow, and they charge me 1400 baht for the second nite... I guess I should have booked it in advance... oh its about 30 baht to 1 Canadian dollar... I can't do math.. so whatever...

my room is nice, got a tv in it, my own bathroom :) YAY, aircon, a window that opens... room... its amazing what you take for granted until you have to stay in Hostels... not saying that I don't miss travelling in luxury and staying in Fairmonts and Deltas and Sheratons and Crowe Plaza's etc...etc...

as soon as I get to the room, it's some water, a tylenol and my bed, ... slept for a good few hours... not all at once, had to get up and use the toilet quite a few times... but it's ok, we're on a first name basis now...

finally drag my ass out of bed, watch a bit of TV (ok I was still in bed doing this) but I cannot remember the last time I was able to lie on my stomach, on a bed (or floor) and watch tv... what a great feeling.... :) I ordered room service :) :) you can tell I'm milking the luxury here. Soup and fruit.. mmm.. about all I could put into my stomach before it started going gurgle gurgle gurgle...

got the hell out of the hotel, again..hotel... :) and made my way to the STA travel office to do my ticket changes... have to change the moscow ticket ... again... this time they were nice... they said, cancel it and leave it open... no charge...woohooo...., but on the way there the "taxi" driver took me to a place for tour and ticket prices in Thailand... the dude I spoke to was a bit of a greaseball, but I told him to give me the price and I'll come back and see him sometime... now the "taxi" I took had a price of 260 Baht... I thought for the 40 minute drive to the STA office was not bad... anyways, more on that later... we get to STA, I do my stuff, use the toilet there, and then wander around the streets, not even 2 minutes after leaving the offices, some guy says hi, asks where I'm from, and then proceeds to take me to a suit shop (which I was looking for) and then a few travel agencies... now there was a deal in the airline magazine for 3 suits 3 shirts and a plethora of other clothing for $199 US, but apparently you'll never be able to get out of the store with that deal.. it's all about the options and upgrades, so I settle on a place for 2 suits, 2 shirts, 2 ties for (after really bargaining) 13,500 Baht so not a bad price, especially considering the suits are custom tailored, no off the rack lets alter it, full on custom... I picked the material, the style, the button placement etc... and the didn't try to upsell me... I think it had to do with the fact that they were indian, and as far as I go now, so am I, I mean my grandfather is from there and seeing as nobody beleives that I am Canadian... Indian works if it gets me a discount ;) I'm such a discount whore... lol

one of the dudes that works there, says I look like Abhishek Bachchan, the son of a very famous indian actor, Amitabh.



I don't see the resemblance, but it's the second time I've heard the same comment... personally I think I'm much better looking... but oh well, they'll hire ANYBODY in Bollywood these days ... ;)

aiight, so my handy dandy tour guide takes me from the tailor (after they took da measurements and all) across mad traffic [did you know McDonalds delivers here?]

wow, I just asked the guy if he closes at 10, he says they only close when there are no people... they are so nice here, in some ways, the customer service kicks ass

the drivers and motorcycles and buses are mad crazy here.... we hit a couple of travel places, but they all to expensive... but you gotta love the service, everywhere I went I got free water (it's 5baht for a bottle of water, that's real cheap) and at one place they gave me Mangosteens and Lychees.. mmm... but I didn't buy anything from them... lol... by now it was pouring rain,... like madness... I managed to find another travel place (my tour guide had vanished) and didn't get a good deal out of that guy either, but it wasn't bad... so I waited for the 5 Baht bus to Khaosan road... get on the bus that I was supposed to take (as per everyones advice) and they have no clue, they tell me to take another bus, which doesn't run on this road... ummm. ok then... so I take a real taxi... and guess what.. it cost me 61 baht... bloody hell ripoff hotel taxi cabs... grr.... whatever, it's all good I guess....

get back to the hotel and one of the taxi guys marches me down the hall, hands me a phone... it's the creepy guy from the travel agency... eewww... like fuck off... I tell him I'll come see him tomorrow... dude, leave me alone..
grabbed some grub, had some soupy stuff that was nice and spicy and flavorful, onion rings, and mushed potatoes with gravy... I barely ate any of it, but forced myself to eat the onion rings b/c it was the most pleasing to my stomach at the time... checked out the pool, it was closed... and I think then I jumped on the net, and went back to my room, and went to bed after watching the telly... :)

at least it was nice and warm... but I kept waking up in the middle of the night to go to the loo again.... thanks to some pepto and immodium I was doing much better... but I'd run out of Tylenol... :(

by morning I got up, around 9 ish I think it was, had an extremely long shower after watching some news... BBC rocks, and George W. Bush is a moron... gotta love the "We will stay in Iraq until the job is done" umm. don't you mean until the oil pipeline is completed? it would have been so much easier to give the billions you spent on war to the petroleum companies, R&D'ed alternative fuels, and subsidized the new equipment for the american public, instead of killing lots of people and basically pissing everybody off (I saw a shirt at the market here, with a pic of the Prez, with a hitler 'stash and the slogan 'War Criminal') lemme get this straight Mr. Bush... you will no longer sit by and wait for your enemies to attack you,, so you will bring the fight to them? riight, and detaining people without reason in Cuba and denying them their freedom so that you can be free.. wait, isn't that a form of opression in itself? oh and so when say, Iran or North Korea decides to launch a Pre-Emptive strike against the US... oh no.. wait, they wouldn't do that, I mean, that would be considered an act of Terrorism... wouldn't it... or if they decided to detain American citizens for any random reason and 'classify' such reason in the interests of national security? gimme a bloody break, you would be down their ass so fast, it would put MJ to shame... /end rant

anyways, I wandered the streets, checked out the markets, lots of cool stuff, found a travel agency, booked most of my stuff, Overnight Train to Chiang Mai, Cooking class in Thai food, 1 Day trek through the jungle (on an Elephant.. now I dont ride animals anymore.. but I am making an exception on this one), bamboo rafting, flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Koh Samui, accomodation, Advanced Padi Dive course, etc.. etc... should be good times, and I'll be able to make the Black moon party in Koh Pan ngan !!! Partay!!!

I thought after all the shopping around I had gotten a good deal, and then I checked online... man... I suck at this,.. the online flights were sooo much cheaper :( oh well, live and learn... but I did manage to snag quite a few peterpan gold cards... he he... oh and they make great fake Id's here... any suggestions on what I should get? someone gimme a funny name or something... the only thing I can think of is to be born on June 6th 1966 and have my name be Your Daddy only because Lucifer the dammed might be a little to creepy...

anyways, got all the travel sorted, told the taxi guys to call their Don and advise him that I found a cheaper deal... went back to my room, oh ya, get this, 2 rolls of toilet paper in 36 hours... isn't that gross??

Me eat, had soup (again) and spring rolls...mmm... was able to eat more at this point... went back to the room, and then it was off to the tailors... got a meter taxi... the first taxi had no clue where the hell to take me, but it's a good thing the second one knew how to read the map on the back of the receipt... make sure not to lose receipt...

got fitted, added some details, changed some stuff, felt pretty alright... one 3 button and one 2 button, looks pretty sharp, getting coin pockets installed and special deep pockets for the jacket... they asked if I wanted the special gun pocket in the sleeve that one american cop had put it his... I'm like.. ummm... umm... no...

Guess who I saw when I left the tailor? it was my buddy from yesterday.. walked a bit with him, gave him a tip for his help (he'll get a commision from the dudes at the tailors as well) and then I decided to take a Tuk Tuk for the ride back to the hotel area... what a mad ride... these things are nimble, you are so close to everything that may hit you, kill you or run you down... and the smog and pollution... yech... no bloody wonder people wear those face mask things that surgeons wear.

wandered the streets again, this is fun, exploring the smelly, dirty, cheap world of Bangkok... bought myself a pair of speakers, a travel adaptor, and get this... a Ninja Star... I've always wanted a Ninja star, ever since like 6th grade... and now I have one.. :) don't know what I'll do with it, but I have one... I guess it's good that I didn't buy the Taser that they had on sale, or the butterfly knife... dunno how I'd explain that one to customs..

now as if I didn't have enough fun already... he he... I now have Blue Hair. My entire head, all of it, is blue... it actually looks kinda hot if I do say so myself... in a freakish green day, punk rock, what the hell have you been smoking/inhaling/shooting/snorting/freebasing kind of way -- Blue.

Ate at this really interesing lounge / bar, basically the food was from the place I had lunch at (it's next door) but the music was awesome, the DJ was using these Pioneer CDJ-800 units that did a really good job of scratching and stuff.. I was very impressed. so after getting one of the bar girls to translate for me, I bought his entire collection, 14 CD's worth of MP3's that he will deliver tomorrow (I hope). should be some good tunes... I can load them all up on my handy dandy 20GB Mp3 Player that now works and has decent battery life, and that I have speakers for... woohooo!

anyways, now I am all caught up, I am at the internet shop writing this and so far bangkok is up to date... I probably have missed quite a bit, like the freakish mutant dogs that roam the streets, or the store that had like 5-8 Bichon Shit-Dogs in the showroom, or the roasted ducks on trolley carts, the persistent drivers that are willing to take you anywhere you need to go... or the fact that the term Ladyboy is very common (eew)... wait, I'm closing my eyes, and scanning my recent documents folder of my brain to see if I missed anything else.... oh ya, the hair color... 500 baht...

I'm spent