SE Asia posts coming to a blog near you!

Here's the first post of our trip! I'll try to be consistant with all of them but with having to find housing (going to go look at two places tomorrow) and a car here in Portland quick-like, my life is a little bit hectic (being sick isn't helping the situation any either.


I was able to land my old job back at the University though so at least I can check that off the list (they're even going through a loop hole to hire me as a temp and not a student worker so I don't have to take classes this term). 


Anyways, here's the first chapter.
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2/21/11 ~ 2:00am

Saturday night’s live went fabulously well. I didn’t screw up (or if I did I didn’t notice) and I got compliment after compliment (and even requests to come back next month and one offer to open a show for some guitarist chick named Ami Guitarra). I only ended up playing one song (Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin) but that’s all they needed (gotta leave them wanting for more, right?). Originally I had planned to do two songs (the other being Bang Bang by Nacy Sinatra) but I didn’t feel comfortable with the guitar part (need to strengthen these damn hands) so I ditched it. Next time.

Feelin' it.

Since the show started so late at night (11pm) naturally everyone that came had to pull an all-nighter. But that didn't bother me (I was leaving for my trip Monday night so I had all day Sunday to recuperate). I drank more than I’ve drunk in a long time (free tequila shots at the bar? How could I refuse?!) And had to have my good friend Natsuyo escort me back to my home station because I could barely stand straight (and ended up getting off in Harajuku and spilling my guts everywhere; not one of my better moments). Sunday was not a very happening day to say the least, so I planned to just gradually do my laundry and carefully pack everything I needed for tomorrow. At around 3pm I texted my travel buddy (and now good friend) Mikaela to see what time we were supposed to meet up tomorrow night (since we were flying out of the new international port in Haneda and not Narita – an hour train ride as opposed to 2 hours –we weren’t too pressed for time).

Or so I thought.

My text message to Mikaela: “so what time we meeting up tomorrow night”

Mikaela: “…you mean what time tonight right?”

Me “…what??”

Mikaela  “didn’t you get my text???”

*checks phone* 2/20/11, 11pm: Mikaela Corney; “We’re leaving tomorrow night at 12:30am technically making that Monday morning. See you tomorrow!”

“!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

So I ran downstairs and promptly informed my host family in the calmest manner I could muster (voice a slight octave up, eyes wide, smiling nervously) that I was in fact leaving in five hours; not tomorrow. I think my host mom was more stressed out than I was for she immediately started running around trying to help me get my laundry all hung up (god I miss dryers) all the while chastising me for not being more together (if I had not texted Mikaela when I did then she would have had a very lonely three weeks). But I was able to get all my shit together (really I didn’t need any of the clothes I had washed because they were all winter clothes that wouldn’t have been suitable for the climate I was heading to); I got it all down to 10 shirts, 2 shorts, 1 skirt, I dress, socks, underwear and sandals, barely even filling half the bag (although this particular back pack, though a good sturdy back-packing back pack, was so huge and awkward that it felt heavy even without anything in it). In record time I made it to Shinagawa (our meeting point) even before Mikaela!

   

On the express to the airport I decided to start my “No Reservations” project right off the bat (I’m really excited to edit all my footage!) and got shots of us being giggly little school girls. This old grandpa who was sitting next to us got excited with us when we started filming and gave us high-fives when we were done then happily bounced off the train when it came to his stop and waved enthusiastically as we took off again. I don’t know if he knew exactly what we were excited about because we were talking in English the whole time but it was cute none-the-less.

(we ended up having five different currencies in our
wallets by the end of this trip)

At the airport we ran into our first little speed bump. For some strange reason the names on our tickets were different than those in our passports but the attendants got it sorted out. Haneda airport is pretty small in comparison to Narita, but it’s clean and has that “shiny new” look to it (It used to be an airport that only flew domestic and flights throughout Asia but they’ve remolded and now include flights world-wide). Going through immigration was a chuckle for we couldn’t seem to get our departure cards filled out right and the immigration officer who was helping us kept on giving us a hard time. Then we were through, in no man’s land (did you know that the area past customs in airports was considered “no-man’s land”? Explains why all items are duty free…), giddily waiting for boarding. As we were in line to get our currency exchanged we ran into a rather cute Canadian boy who just so happened to be going the same way we were (and just so happened that he was a model in Japan a couple years ago—but we all know that doesn't really count) and he almost had the same flight as us (as well as seats right next to ours!) but it turned out that his flight was with JAL and ours was with ANA, both leaving at the same time, to the same destination. Needless to say we never saw him again. 

Alley to our Guest House
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

Landing in Thailand was one of the most magical moments of my life. As soon as I stepped off the plane  and smacked into the wall of humidity all the sleepiness lifted away (I don't know anyone who can sleep on a plane) and was replaced with awe and excitement. We had no idea where we were going or even how to get there so we just followed all the other white people (worked every time) and snagged a taxi outside the airport. Took about an hour and a phone call to reach our guest house (the only one we booked in advanced) but we made it safe and sound (didn't even have to haggle with the price). The guest house was perfection tucked away in a little corner alley. Rock hard beds, ceiling fan (none of our guest houses had AC), no glass on the windows –just screens, have to self flush the toilet and no hot showers. Perfect. 

 An Australian guy (never caught his name) lives/works there and was a very helpful guide/what  should(n't) we do around the area, etc. He was a very chill guy, curly brown hair down to his chin that was beginning to gray, surfer dude shorts, Hawaiian shirt (although when we arrived at 7am he greeted us in boxers, shirtless --obviously forgot our reservations). He is very much one of those dudes who just goes where his feet takes him and can just be a dude. When I asked him why he left Australia, he just said he came here one day and never went back. Okay; I can respect that. 

Bluefin Guest House
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

There were not very many people staying there from what I could see but the place was very spacious. The kitchen and sitting room area was open; no doors or walls blocking the outside. Stairs led up to the guest rooms. There were a couple buildings in our little closed off area and I couldn't tell if they were all part of Bluefin or not. All except our building were inhabited by Thai people so I don't know (maybe Bluefin included apartment buildings too?). The showers were outside of our building, down a ways. They were like showers one would find at a camp ground. Single stalls lined up, equipped with toilets; the need for flip flops was never so apparent. After we checked in we marched directly up to our beds and passed the fuck out for a good four hours.

retarded face moment
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

More alley outside our GH
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

See that bucket there?
That's where you got the water to
flush the toilet. It was actually kinda fun.
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

Never slept on a bed harder.
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

They had a beautiful garden outside
with a nice sitting area.

This little guy (who is named Meow, but whom I re-named
Francis) was all over us all the time. Very friendly but
crawling with fleas.
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

Mikaela likes Francis, hates his bitting buggies
(seriously, she was covered in bites the first night.
I held out for a little while and I thought she
was going to get all the bad luck, but they caught up
with me).
Photo courtesy of Mikaela Corney

Next chapter -- Bangkok and the Royal Palace. 

PEACE OUTSIDE

Jamie