Rockin Sandwich Eating (featuring Sonny)

It is currently 2:16 in the morning.  I recorded a silly song this week, a 1 minute homage to all the classic rock radio I've been listening to.  My friend Sonny came over just as I finished it and we quickly recorded some vocals before going to the batting cages.  It's ridiculous.  I don't know how to post a song, so I made a movie.  My first one.  I hope you like it.

Impressed by my shredding?  Good, you should be.  I sold my soul to the devil for that guitar lick.

No way, Norway

I was looking up lists of the best bicycling cities in the world and came across this video from Trondheim, Norway.  They also listed Portland as the 2nd best city - Amsterdam was 1st.

Finally...

For the last few weeks Kim has spent hours a day editing and uploading the hundreds of photos she took on our trip.  Here's the link of the compete Thailand flickr set.

Also, check out this.  My friend Jim writes poems and songs.

One Month Back

We returned from Thailand March 17th.  Sara and Charlie picked us up from the airport in San Francisco and we stayed the next two nights at their place in Sacramento.  We were exhausted and within the first 24 hours of being home I took a nice, hot bubble bath and had macaroni and cheese for dinner.  The trip was a success, but unfortunately I was still not healthy.  My stomach problems on the trip continued at home.  After a few more torturous nights I went to a doctor, and a week after having tests done the culprit was revealed: I had both Salmonella and an additional bacterial infection called Clostridium Difficile (c.diff).  Awesome!

But..I've been treated, and I'm excited about what Redding has in store.  Kim and I are staying at my mom's house; She's editing Thailand photos 6 hours a day and I'm obsessing over my fantasy baseball team.  So far I'm doing better than the San Francisco Giants :(

Kim's diligence in the web world is intimidating, but I plan to keep up with this - hopefully twice a week.  I'll make a sincere effort to live the most interesting life possible, so people won't be bored when they read about it.

For now, check out Kim's Flickr stream.  She's updating it everyday.

The Beach

I have neglected this blog for about 2 weeks, while Kim has managed to publish stories of our travels as well as detailed posts about Battlestar Galactica. She puts me to shame. But I offer the following excuses in my defense: the sun burned the hell out of me, making me miserable and lazy; there's an 85% chance I have stomach parasites, making me bloated and lazy.

Suffering aside, the trip has continued to be great. Our friend Ryan has been with us for over a week. We've been saving a little money by sharing rooms with the three of us. With all that extra cash we gorge ourselves nightly at a wonderful vegetarian buffet. Yeah, my stomach parasite hampers the enjoyment a bit, but I've never been one to let something as trivial as illness disrupt my vacations. Every overseas trip I've been on has been plagued by physical discomfort. I spent a summer in East Africa in 2001 and was sick practically the whole time.

For details and more recent pictures of our trip, check out Kim's blog. I'm lazy, remember?

I was excited about posting a video of four Thai boxers fight blindfolded, but I tried uploading it three times and it always failed. Sorry.

We'll be home in less than a week. When we left on this trip, George W. Bush was still the President of the United States. Pretty cool, huh?

Quick Update

It's been a while since I last posted anything. After we left Chiang Mai, we spent several days traveling (both by bus and boat) through Laos. Like a few weeks before, I came down with some type of stomach ailment; therefore my time in Laos was tinged with the side effects of antibiotics.

We stayed in Laos for less than a week. Our main motivation for leaving Thailand was to renew our visa-- which expired February 14th. Unfortunately, we didn't reach immigration until the 15th and got stung with two fines of 500 Baht. Until recently, a quick bus trip to a border country would allow an exit, a re-entry, and 30 fresh days of Thailand travel. Now the re-entry only provides 15 days. Our plan was to take a boat into Laos and then a bus down to Vientiane to apply for a 60 Thailand tourist visa. After we arrived in Luang Prabang we were exhausted from traveling and dreading the additional 20 hours of cramped bus riding back to Bangkok. We decided to bypass the bus riding, immigration offices, and special tourist visa and just bought a plane ticket back into Thailand. Since we came into Bangkok on an international flight we got 30 new days and our immigration problem was taken care of.

We've been in Bangkok for several days now, going to supermalls and watching American movies. Tomorrow we fly (the domestic flights are really cheap) down to Krabi. Our friend Ryan arrives in Thailand this week and will meet us down in the South for cheap bungalows and sun burns.

Chiang Mai Zoo

Kim and I finally broke our daily habit of reading and eating this last week and ventured off to a different part of Chiang Mai. The new landscape included the Chiang Mai Zoo and Chiang Mai University. I uploaded a few videos from our zoo adventures.


Feeding Giraffes


Panda eating wood


Elephant that plays songs, dances, and takes your money


After the zoo, we walked along the University, then found a place to have lunch and rest our feet (the day so far included a hot sun and lots of walking). We grabbed a tuk-tuk to get back into town, and at a red light the tuk-tuk next to ours had a very little passenger. Her backpack was fastened to the drivers seat, and we assumed the driver had to be her father.




The next night we finally attending an evening of Thai boxing. When I get a chance, I'll be sure to get some pictures or video up. For now, Kim and I are nearing the end of our time in Chiang Mai; our 30 day visas expire in less than a week, therefore we have to leave the country...at least for a little while. Our plan right now is to take a slow boat to Laos, which I understand involves several days on a river.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Chris