Happy New Year from Bangkok

    Hey everybody! We had an amazing trip, the worst part about it was Chicago's O'hare airport. What a joke. The entire international concourse is closed from like 9:00PM till 6:00AM. No shops, a food court with one vendor who bothered to be open and I think the employee(s) were on some kind of work-release program. They were no more happy to be there than we were.
    We Landed in Bangkok at around 9:00PM (7:00AM Saturday in Colorado) and have already had some great realizations. First, big cities smell a little different and big cities in SE Asia smell really different. Not bad just different. Okay, sometimes it just pain stinks, but it is not overbearing. Our Taxi ride from the airport took about 30 minutes and cost less than $6.00. Shortly after arriving at the apartment, I realized that Skype has a kind of Dr. Who effect. It can make tiny spaces look MUCH larger than they are in reality. Picture a dorm room with really nice amenities, like marble floors and a nice sized walk-in showers, but still just over 450 Sq Ft. Tiny, but very affordable at just over $300.00 a month.

   After changing and freshening up a little, Colleen took me out for beers and dinner at new night market that is located just 3 blocks from her place and opened while she was stateside. A huge open market with food and beverage vendors, a full size concert stage and scantly dressed beer girls (at least they looked like girls). We had a half pitcher of beer and an order of Shrimp Pad Thai(heads and legs included) for less than $11.00. How much does a pitcher cost at the Grandview? Oh, and a carton, not a pack, of Marlboro Lights, under $20.00. It seems that there is a 7-11 every 50 yards, and oddly enough the door chimes sound exactly the same over here as they do in the states.

I can not wait to see the city in the daylight. hope you all do not get tired of photos and stories. Just remember I'm not trying rub it in, I'm trying motivate you to get you asses over here. Cheap, friendly and exotic, what else are you looking for in a vacation destinantion? And thats the city, wait till you hear about the beaches.