Hi Ma! Yes I am still OK.. 🙂 Fear not, for this is not a real Tiger.
So a few people have been asking, where are all the people you are meeting. Well I guess I will do a better job of writing about them, but I didn’t want to post a really LONG blog, because well I wasn’t sure people would read it. SO.. This blog post is dedicated to the people I have come across so far in my travels. Some I have made a lasting impression that will stay with me for ever, and others came into my life for different reasons, but they have all changed me in some way. I am grateful for the opportunity both good and decent (not so much bad) to have met these individuals. They are in NO particular order.
I think everyone remembers Mint from one of my first posts. Such an amazing woman. She is a friend of a friend from the US. Not only did Mint talk with me via facebook for a few days before I arrived to give me a little bit of a heads up about Thailand (especially Bangkok), but she agreed to meet with me on the day I arrived and be a tour guide for the day. I gotta tell ya, arriving in a foreign country, not knowing anyone, not speaking the language, and having no clue on how to get around sounds scary (well it is kinda), but Mint saved the day. She not only showed me around, she helped me with ordering food, talking to locals, tell me what and where to eat. I mean she really was a godsend (is that how you do that one? Hyphenate it? Does God need to be capitalized then? I guess I should look this stuff up before posting, but someone will comment on it I am sure).
Meet Sean Morris (you can find him on my facebook if you so choose, along with all the other people in these posts, except Mike, Mike doesn’t do facebook…Don’t be like Mike.. Do facebook).
Sean is one of the goofiest, fun-loving (I did that one right I think), care-free (yes or no?) guys I have met. He’s from Scotland, so I can’t understand a damn word he says (at this point my mother has gotten over me cursing so I don’t feel the need to keep apologizing). He literally speaks in a manner in which it’s not really English at all, but IF you have ever seen the movie Snatch with Brad Pitt, he talks like that, but without being a Gypsy.
He is ALSO, wait for it, an English Teacher in China. I SHIT YOU NOT! (ok sorry mom). He literally teaches adults and children how to speak english. I can’t even understand a word he says sometimes, these poor Chinese people. I don’t know how the hell he got hired, but he loves it and is trying to talk me into moving to China to teach English.. I mean hell, if he can do it I am a LOCK. Sean will be in a lot more pics, cause he’s a pretty awesome guy and funny as hell, without trying to be.
Meet Charlotte (The blonde closest to the picture) and Kelly (the brunette between Sean and I), No I am not giving you their direct last names you stalkers, if you really want to find them you have to stalk MY profile and find, although it will be pretty easy I am sure. Two pretty incredible women that come from the UK. We had a pretty interesting time together TRYING to speak english to each other. ILI-TRALL-LI. could not sometimes understand the slang that they were using. It was pretty funny. Also they MIGHT have had a hard time with my slang as well… I think they are crazy, but in such a good way. I told them my two favorite words that people from Britain use (and it’s totally true) are Literally, which Americans and MOST other people pronounce LIT-ER-ALLY, but THEY pronounce it like LI-TRALL-LI. I just love that one. Also Aluminum.. Americans and other places around the world say AL-UM-INUM. BUT.. THEY (and most of the UK) pronounce it like AL-U-MIN-IUM. Weird I know… Right?!?!
Here’s Kelly and I enjoying some fun in the 3D Museum (most of the pics of all of these gals and I are from there.. SUCH a cool place. I will probably double up pics on this one as I had such a great time there. She makes the most animated faces.. I just love it. I have other pics with her where she is always doing something funny or goofy. Such a cool girl.
This photo is just hysterical. I LOVE Charlotte and Kelly’s faces here. Sean of course is being Sean and we thought up the idea. It’s such a cool Museum. It’s called Art in Paradise and it’s in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s a little pricey (by Thai standards) at $11.50, but totally worth it IMHO (in my humble opinion for those less tech savvy). We had such a good time roaming around the museum. I would def go back.
Some more fun, but this time MIKE! makes an appearance. He doesn’t like photos of himself, and he doesn’t do Facebook (who doesn’t have a facebook?). There are kids in the remote jungles of the world on Facebook and Mike chooses NOT to have it. Crazy right??!?!!
Apparently there is a Grand Canyon in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Who knew? I mean it’s not as big as THE Grand Canyon (the one in the USA for all the people around the world), but it’s still pretty cool. It’s basically a BIG ass watering hole. They have a few places that you can dive off 14 meters and 8 meters (that’s 46.62 ft and 26.64 ft).. Yes I jumped off the higher of the two (and YES I was a little scared but I am trying to get over this fear of heights thing). Sean did go first I must say so after that I wasn’t going to be scaredy cat and wimp out.
The above pic is of Sean, Myself, Bella (a pretty awesome girl from Sydney, well not really Sydney, but 2 hours outside Sydney that no one ever heard of). Charlotte and Bella met at the hostel we are staying and they were in the lobby when Sean, Mike, and I came home (ok not HOME mom, but back to the hostel) one night and we all decided to head to this Grand Canyon). Bella is a travel junkie and has been to a TON of different places, so it was cool to get to talk to her about her travels along the way.
Another pic of Bella and I at the Grand Canyon after some lunch and a really refreshing Coconut ice cream.
Sean and Mike after a few drinks. Btw.. not sure if you can see it, but Sean doesn’t drink beer, so he was constantly have wine coolers, and such. I believe this was a Raspberry Smirnoff Ice… Yep, you read that right. This guy who is roughly 6’4 and weights roughly 260 drinks Smirnoff Ice like a champ, and loves every minute. Also making another RARE appearance is Mike… I met Mike about 4 years ago in Hong Kong while staying at the same hostel. OO this is a good story, so I will tell ya. So.. we exchange email addresses back then and this is before my monthly photo blog and of course he isn’t on Facebook, and we really only ever emailed twice since meeting back then. SOO.. I put Mike on my email list a long time ago with the whole Photo of the Month thing (which I totally have to start up again)… Anyway.. fast forward 4 years. Mike gets an email from me (along with all the other people on my mailing list), and he says “O, and email from my ol’ buddy Ryan, maybe I should read it now… nahhh I will come back to it a little later……….. OO Ok, I will open it now… Blimey, he’s in Bangkok” (now Mike is only 2 hrs away) so he emails me asking if I remember him (duh of course I do, he’s pretty awesome) and we decide to meet up for a few beers as he is going to be in Bangkok in a couple days anyway. To confess he says he has NO idea WHY he opened THAT email when he did, but he just did (probably because he doesn’t have a clock and no agenda and just lives life how he sees fit (where I want to be soon for sure). So a guy I met randomly 4 years ago in a hostel in Hong Kong just happens to read my blog and next thing you know, we are set off on an amazing journey.
Meet Eva.. She is from the US and is traveling for an indefinite period of time (I love that word, because it doesn’t have a set end date). We met briefly in a totally different city than this picture was taken. We actually met because I was stalking her breakfast at a restaurante one morning. We talked briefly (5 mins maybe) and we parted ways.. but not so fast. About 6 days later, we randomly run into her at a night bazaar in a city 3 hours away. I guess I made a quick lasting impression because she remembered me (as the Avocado and Toast guy, totally a story for another day) and we all sat together to get some food. Throughout the night she was telling me about all the places she’s been and wants to go and how she wants to see the world and not go home (sounds pretty familiar actually) and we got on the topic of how people don’t smile enough anymore, well there was the IN to SmileCause.org. If you haven’t gone to the website and liked our Facebook page, well NOW is your chance. GO there now. Here’s the link. Smile Cause.org She said she would post a pic, but I have yet to see it on the page.. So we shall see. She’s a pretty cool gal and I wish her well on her travels.
This is Patsy. You ever have one of those nights that just takes you in a totally different direction because you are open to it. Well that’s how I met Patsy. I was actually across the street from this Skybar in Chiang Mai. I was getting a foot massage (yes they are incredible and only cost $8 for an hr long one, OMG), where I met these 7 girls on vacation from an exchange program in Singapore. Being the outgoing guy I am (and the only guy in the massage place mind you) we all strike up a conversation talking about traveling (there’s a theme here guys, travel more and you WILL meet interesting, fun, women, trust me). They said they are going to the Skybar across the street and I should come by after I am done. Well I actually had a conference call at 9pm my time so I doubted I would be able to come over and meet up with them as they were only staying for a short bit there, but thanks for the offer. After my conference call I decided, Ya know what I am going to go.. I was tired and wanted to go back to the hostel and just sleep since I was on the go for 8 straight days now, but I figure “What the Hell!” . So I went. As I am walking up the girls I met earlier are leaving, but told me it was really cool upstairs so check it out. Reluctantly, I did. It was pretty cool, an open rooftop bar with mats all over the floor and people just everywhere sitting on the ground on these mats drinking, dancing, talking. It was really cool. So this random guy names Shelton (not kidding) comes over to me and says “Hey man you wanna dance over here with us, we got a dance party going on”. Me not one to turn down a good dance party (it turned out it was NOT a good dance party, cause no one knows how to dance that he was with (more on that in a minute), I saunter over. I see everyone LI-TRALL-LI, doing a surfing, gyrating, move that was something out of a B-movie, and then they were doing the Limbo (I kid you not) but instead of an actual stick, they were using their arms. I ain’t judging here (ok I TOTALLY AM) but that’s not dancing in my book.. That being said they WERE a great, fun group of people. Well back to Patsy… we were both kinda making the same remark that this wasn’t dancing at all. She’s from Chile (pronounced properly it’s CHILL – A).
So she making the comment about how in her country they dance a bit closer and there is way more rhythm to the dance. So a song comes on that is a little more salsa / reggae. So her sister (who was also there) stars dancing with Sheldon, who has no clue what in the world to do with her, because well she’s actually dancing and he’s looking like you would imagine Sheldon from Big Bang Theory can dance like. At this point you would think that I would jump in and start dancing with her (and I was going to), but I get pulled aside by another guy to talk about where I am going and for how long, etc.. So anyway.. I missed the actual dancing part of the night, BUT I did have a very long conversation with Patsy that left a last impression of where in the world people should go and see and engulf themselves into different cultures. Yeah I know ALL that for a simple sentence I could have typed in 35 seconds. #SorryNotSorry.
Like I said, Sean is pretty awesome guy.. and LOVES laughing at himself. He came up with this idea actually and I had to go with it. I told ya you would see more of him in this blog.
Above might be the funniest video I have seen in a really long time. The girl is Ting-Ya… she’s from Canada and a total hippie at heart. She is a free-spirit and just loves meeting new and interesting people. Needless to say her and Sean hit it off enormously. Here’s a little clip of them dancing. You def wanna watch the whole thing, and if this doesn’t make you laugh, well then you have no soul.
Here’s a shot that Sean took (selfie mode, he has the longest arms of any human ever) at a Big Buddha. I will get to the other two girls in the next post. Friends Part II. Should be up in a few days.
Last one of Sean and I. I really am so happy to have met this guy. He’s changed my life for the better I will tell ya. Such a great person and I am happy to call him a friend.
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Thanks
Ryan G
