11-30-14: Wat Pho, Tuk Tuks, and the River Boat

Today I met up with a fellow Redditor named Mike from San Francisco. Meeting via a facebook page for redditors traveling SE Asia from November-May, we quickly became friends as we toured some famous sights of Bangkok. First we toured Wat Pho, an area with lots of temples with hundreds of golden Buddhas inside. We rode around in Bangkok's famous tuk tuk, a three-wheeled open air taxi that can be ridden anywhere for very cheap prices. We then bought a few beers and took an hour long boat ride through the canals along the Chao Phraya river. 

Here's today's  video:

Chatchuchak Market

Today, my two new friends from the hostel, JB of South Korea and Caspar of the Netherlands, went to Chatchuchak weekend market. Said to be the largest market in the world, it was packed with stalls and people selling all sorts of food, clothing, and collectibles for extremely cheap prices.

At 4:35 of the video is near where the COW Hostel is and the last images are of the inside of the hostel. Awesome place!

Here is the video of us walking around:

Arrival in Bangkok

After 33 hours of airline travel and waiting, waiting, and more waiting, I finally arrived in the humid furnace that is Bangkok. Immediately after leaving the airport, I was assaulted by an array of stimuli. Smells, both pleasant and down right rank, flashing billboards, and motorbikes, cars, and trucks wizzing by at alarming speeds, all greeted me on my taxi ride to my hostel. And the heat. It is strikingly similar to the 105 degree/40% humidity yoga sessions I've labored through back home. The only difference here is that one cannot escape the stickiness, whereas back home, you only have to deal with that for an hour. This is the farthest thing possible from the quiet and uneventful Wheaton. And I love it so far.

My SE Asian journey begins at C.O.W. Hostel (Citizens of the World), where I will be volunteering for 2 weeks in return for a free stay. Having been here not even 24 hours, I have met some really cool people from all over the world. At O'Hare, I met a fellow 23 year old Ohioan headed to Bangkok
 as well. We split a taxi to the hostel and after dropping our bags at the hostel, went out to explore the city. We found out quickly that the hostel is only a short walk away from Bangkok's infamous (or famous. Whatever you see it as) Soi Cowboy strip, known for its "Adult Entertainment". Groups of girls in scantily clad clothing call out to any male walking past their establishment, something that differs greatly from the U.S. where the gender roles are reversed in those situations. After being cat-called by dozens of Thai girls, we hopped in a cab to the famous backpacker destination in Bangkok, Khao San Road. Packed with thousands of other greasy faced hippies like myself, it is a people watchers heaven. Here we met four girls from the UK, ate cooked scorpion, were pestered by local Thais to pay them to take us to a nude ping pong show (which we did not see), saw by far the biggest rat (looked more like a small dog), and finally met more people from various other continents.

Already, I can tell that my stay here in Bangkok will be an intensely interesting, but also draining from all of the constant motion happening. Today, after sweating out a slow run through a small park by the hostel, I slowly meandered around the busy area, eating delicious pad thai from one of the hundreds of street vendors. After being on my feet all day, I took up some of the women wooing and calling at me from across the street for a foot massage, which cost $5 for an hour, which needless to say, felt amazing.

More updates to follow.

Jerry

 INTRO: Summer and Planning my Trip

After graduating from Loras College in May of 2014, I, along with many other new college grads, struggled to find a job/activity that A) financially supports the basic needs/wants that I desire and B) I am deeply passionate about. Having graduated with an accounting degree, I wanted to do anything BUT that after graduation. Being an Eagle Scout and having gone on dozens of camping and backpacking trips throughout my life, I happily found a 2-month AmeriCorps program with Northwest Youth Corps, based out of Eugene, OR. Camping and being generally filthy for 9 weeks in the beautiful William O' Douglas Wilderness in Washington and the lush Willamette National Forest of Oregon, my four crew members and I build and repaired trail and conducted forest thinning projects via chainsaw.

Returning home in mid-August, I returned to my job at the stunningly beautiful Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, IL, which I have been a caddie for a decade. When I started caddying again, I reluctantly told myself that I would look for jobs while making fast cash on the golf course. I quickly found out that I would not settle for an entry-level accounting job, rather looking for opportunities to teach English abroad and other travel opportunities. I eventually began narrowing my sights to two websites; workaway.info and helpx.net, for these websites allow one to travel cheaply long term by volunteering for weeks/months at different places all over the world, while also giving the traveler the freedom to meander from volunteer opportunity to opportunity. (Shout out to my good friend and fellow workaway participant Anna Farber for showing me workaway.info!)

With the money I made this summer being a mountain man in OR and WA, as well as caddying, I decided to take a "Gap Year" to try and figure out what the hell I want to do with my life. Keeping in tradition with my extremist personality (just check out my hair and running history), I decided that I wanted to travel to Southeast Asia. And I did not want to take a typical 2-week vacation, but rather a slow 6+ month vagabonding journey through the many amazing countries Southeast Asia has to offer.

Many people ask WHY I picked Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to travel to. Here are some reasons:

1. SE Asia is EXTREMELY cheap. (You can find hostels throughout the region for $2-$7 a night and food for usually $1 a meal.)
2. The weather will be HOT. Looking forward to taking an Off-year from Chicago winters.(Bangkok's weather is 90+ this week.)
3. Throughout most of SE Asia, English is spoken pretty regularly, making it at least manageable to make it through the area without too much of a language barrier.
4. SE Asia is a very well traveled area, with lots of people from Australia and Europe visiting. This made it easy for me to research everything, as there is a lot of info on the area.
5. As I mentioned before, I tend to take the things I am passionate about to the extreme. Traveling to SE Asia for 6+ months seemed to satisfy my extremist urges.

As my November 24th flight to Bangkok draws nearer, my excitement and nervousness grows more intense. Leaving Chicago with nothing more than one backpack, I hope to write text and post both video and pictures from my GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition.

Thanks for reading!


Jerry

                                       

Chainsaw crew in Willamette NF   




                                                                     
On a 17-mile hike to work on the Pacific Crest Trail in WA














 







Some video of Chicago Golf Club I took