Journey Home

Day 1-Kuala Lumpur

We landed and exited the airport into a pot of steaming veggies. Kuala Lumpur is hot. Kuala Lumpur is humid. First thing we noticed was the diversity of all types of Asian people from Indian to Japanese. As someone who was only used to seeing Korean people on every street, seeing dark asians, light asians, big-eyed asians, small-eyed asians ... it was an explosion of asians. It rained, and we walked and walked all over that city.

Days 2 and 3- Phuket Airport to Patong Beach

The airport is full of taxi drivers who are fighting with all their might to give you a ride to your destination. Not knowing what to do, we decided that a minibus ride to the beach was a decent enough price for us to say "yes, we will wait an hour for you to bargain with more foreigners to ride your minibus and then let you drive me to some shady travel agency in the middle of nowhere and then finally take us to our guest house." We were dropped off at Jinny, which was a quaint and semi-charming guesthouse in Patong, and we immediately made our way to the beach. The beach was pristine. It was there that I saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. Patong Beach reminded me of Jaco, Costa Rica. Many tourists, many bars, okay shopping, awesome beach. We must have brought a plague to the jelly fish because, after a day in a half, they started to float to the shore asking to be skewerd by the Thai beach chair managers/servers. One of the jelly fish brushed Kalan's leg. Nedless to say, we left looking for an even more pristine beach the next day.

Days 5 and 6-Kata Beach

Drink coconuts and beer on the beach-check

Follow crazy Europeans to explore an abandoned kayak where you can't touch the floor anymore-check

Drive a motorbike in another country-check

Scare Kalan on his first jet ski expirience- check

It was here where we spent the best time of our trip. Unforgettable.

Day 7- Bus from Phuket town to Bangkok

13 hours of shitty uncomfortable bus and the most disgusting bathrooms I've ever expirienced.

Day 8- Bangkok

We arrived at 4 in the morning and took a taxi to Khaosan Street where, we were told, had a lot of guesthouses. At dawn, Khaosan Street consists of drunk Europeans who drank away the night and are waiting for the sun to rise, Rhasta guys saying "hey, my friend" to other Rhasta guys, ladyboys, and prostitutes. 6am hit and we checked in at the nearest guesthouse and slept. When we woke up and decided to look around, Khaosan Street turned into a colorful array of street venders, taxi drivers, tuk tuk drivers, and people from all over the world and all walks of life. It was information overload. We took a tuk tuk ride all over the city and saw all kinds of buddhas (Standing, big, lucky, lying down, gold, stone, hiding, black, flakey, but surprisingly no fat buddha with a fat rubbable belly), suit shops and gem stores.

Day 9- Kachanaburi

The day before Kuchanburi we decided that we should go on an organized day trip and then head home. Our trip to Kuchanburi was long and fun. We were with 5 Koreans, which was ironic, and 3 Taiwanese people. Together we went to a cemetary (nothing like a cemetary in the morning), a war museum, the Bridge Over the River Kwai, the WWII Death Railway. Then we rode a bamboo raft down a river, went elephant trekking, and visited a waterfall. It was a busy day and it was incredibly fun. The next day we left Bangkok (first class woo woo), with our new tans, our massaged bodies, and our dreams for the future. And now, here in Barstow, Ca, operation find a job begins ...