First off.. Hi Ma!! I am, as you can see, OK!. 🙂 This is one of the hostels I am staying in. Pretty basic with a bunch of bunk beds. I am afraid of heights so I took a bottom bunk. They give you these little lockers to put your valuables while you are gone, but basically everyone trusts each other with clothes, because well, who wants someone else’s dirty, smelly clothes. That being said.. a pair of my trail running shoes did get taken from in front of the hostel, so now I have to go buy another pair eventually. Good news.. I have more room in my bag so it’s not all jam packed.
So I have to apologize (AGAIN). A few people were asking what the BEST Thai food was and it’s the place below. Krua Apsorn (apparently it has a Michelin Award, which is a big deal in the food world). They have a ton of awards from the New York Times, The New Yorker, and too many others to mention.. I can’t even count that high with the awards they have won. It’s right in Bangkok near the Giant Swing, located here: Krua Apsorn.
Below is their signature dish. Lump crabmeat in a yellow curry. I cannot even begin to explain the flavors in this dish. I mean the yellow curry was not spicy (I can’t handle spicy food) but had a zest and kick to it, which I can handle and loved. The crabmeat was succulent and fresh and just melted in your mouth. The red peppers were again not spicy but yet filled with flavor. The texture just added to the dish as well. Overall I would say probably a 94 out of a 100. It was that good. It was a bit pricey at 450 baht ($12.85) and pretty much blew my budget on this meal for the day, but it was certainly worth it. Side note: I would go back here for lunch and dinner 2 more days of my stay in Bangkok that’s how good ALL the food was. Second Side Note: The Pad Thai is incredible here and it’s relatively cheap for a restaurante with a Michelin award, so try that if you want to save some money. I literally blew my daily budget on food eating at this place daily, but so worth it.
This is a small appetizer at Krua Apsorn. You take the mint leave and then you add in the mini shrimp, peanuts, tofu, and a few other ingredients. It was pretty cheap for what you get at 120 baht ($3.42). Yes everything is pretty inexpensive here, and again everything just has more flavor.
So Below you will see a picture of some Scorpions. Why do you ask am I posting a picture of this? Well.. in Bangkok apparently it’s a big deal to eat one. So of course I ate one.. Ask my mom.. I once drank a cup of bleach as a kid cause I thought it was Ice-T. What did I know as a 5 year old? I was willing try anything back then. #DareDevil. YES they are REAL scorpions, and yes they are Fried, so they are dead, do you really think I would eat a LIVE scorpion? I have no idea if there is still poison in the tail, but I am guessing it’s gone because I haven’t seen anyone else die yet. People passing out drunk on the streets, absolutely, die.. not yet, but give it some time.
So if you want to see a video of me EATING A SCORPION click the link. 🙂
This is Pattaya. I know I posted a little about this in the last post, but I really enjoyed my time here so there are some more photos for you guys to look through. This is right by walking street where there is a VERY small beach. It’s not the nicest of beaches, but the water is pretty incredible. That being said.. This entire strip, night AND day, is lined with prostitutes.. yep.. prostitutes… They are just there calling out “Hey Pretty man”, “Hey big boy”, “Hey Handsome man, you want good time”. Seriously.. My mother is booking her flight currently to take me out of here I bet.
FOOD time. So these little guys.. Let me tell you what.. These might be the most savory little waffle ever. For 15 baht (basically $.40, yep not even 4 bits) They have filling in the middle of them. Delectable, amazing, delicious (yes I know delectable means delicious, but I had to reiterate) filling. I chose to get the Nutella and the chocolate ones. The Nutella (if you like Nutella that is) one is down right amaze-balls. The chocolate isn’t far behind, and it’s not any of that crappy (Ma, you just have to deal with my foul mouth) Hershey’s chocolate you find in other places, this is melted chocolate bars in there (I don’t know what kind, but certainly not Hershey’s). They have all sorts of fillings as well, but for now just Nutella and chocolate for this guy.
Closeup picture of the waffle above. They are coated with what I can only figure to be sugar (and you know I LOVE sugar). I think there might be a little bit of cinnamon in there as well. Then they heat it up in a waffle iron to make it nice and warm. I can only say I wish I bought more. A LOT more. I have to find these again and try all the other kinds.. there just isn’t enough time in a day for all this food. What am I going to do when I get to Vietnam?
This is the beach in Samae Beach Thailand. This is a real beach, with lots of Blue, Blue water, as you can see. I mean I know we have some incredible beaches in Florida and all, but these are pretty damn (I have to stop cursing I know and YES Damn is a curse word, well it was when I was a kid) nice too. I did actually go IN this water, up to my waist cause that’s about as far as I care to go. I am slowly getting over this fear. This trip is making me push the boundaries for sure.
A little cool creative panorama. What do you think? I saw it in an article a while back and figured I would try it out.
Some more pics from Samae Beach, Thailand. They have these incredible cliffs right off the beach and so of course I had to go take a look.
Me on a boat that doesn’t say Carnival, or Royal Caribbean. Not sure I thought I would see the day, but here it is. 🙂 Yes that is everyone else wearing a life vest and I am just a rule breaker. Ever since I was a kid, I pushed the envelope. Ask my mom about the times I would hide under the clothing racks in department stores. Yea my butt STILL remembers those times. Ha!
Giant Buddha.. If only they were made of real gold. Now that would be cool. Ok, Ok, it’s still really cool. As you can see from the little guy on the left closest to the Buddha it’s REALLY tall, probably somewhere close to 60 feet tall actually. I am just pretty close to the camera so it doesn’t look as tall. While I was standing here for this picture I noticed some butterflies flying in sync. They were so amazing to watch, so well I took a little video so you guys can all see as well. Here is the video of the butterflies for your enjoyment.
So THIS is the same big buddha as seen from about 300 steps away. Maybe this will give you a better perspective on how tall it is. It was rather impressive.
I can’t remember who asked for sunset pictures wherever I was going to be, but here is quite possibly the best sunset I have ever seen. For me, there is a story behind this one. I am on a boat, headed back to Pattaya from Samae Beach, one of just a handful of boat rides NOT on a cruise, and I had the most incredible, relaxing, calm day in years. I also had one helluva pineapple smoothie on that island and then it was capped off by this sunset. So yes to me this might have been the best sunset I have ever seen (EXCEPT for MAYBE a sunset I saw in Morocco once, but that’s for another time).
Another sunset in Pattaya. This time from the beach on Pattaya. I just love the little boat out there all by itself. I have another shot of this without people, but I thought the people enhanced this shot a little. People just enjoying life, not a care in the world for a little while. This was taken 4 blocks from the hostel I was staying in. Considering I was walking roughly 10,000 – 20,000 steps a day 4 blocks was nothing. So I went back there a few different times.
This too was in Pattaya on a separate day. So many different and beautiful sunsets in one place on different days. As I mentioned I would come back here to see these sunsets time and time again. I really love all the different colors on different days. I mean I used to live in Tampa, FL where we get the sunset everyday and I guess I never took the time to go see it much because it was always going to be there, and now I treasure the moments where I can see a sunset. Similar to when I lived in NJ.. NYC was just right there. I could go and see the Statue of Liberty or the Twin Towers, or the Empire State Building anytime I wanted, until one day.. I couldn’t. It’s a little sad that we only really cherish things once they are gone. Maybe this is a little deep, but I now realize you need to cherish those things in the moments and hold on to them and do whatever you can to make them part of your life daily. Don’t waste those moments. I won’t be able to see another Tampa sunset for a long while and it’s kinda sad, but on a positive note I have this entire world to explore and that’s exciting.
This was again in Pattaya on the final day I was there. I really enjoyed Pattaya. What I will say is there are a few cool things to do in Pattaya, but mostly it’s for drinking and debauchery. I am drinking less and less these days, so Pattaya isn’t really a place to spend a lot of time. That being said it I have a few great memories from here. I really enjoyed the people I met and I really loved the sunsets. They reminded me of home just a little bit. Something I didn’t think I needed until now.
A lot of people are asking me about the people I have been meeting on my trips. My next blog post will be covering some of the people I have met along the way.
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Thanks
Ryan G
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