October 19, 2007
After spending the last few months in Malaysia and Thailand it was time for me to get back to one of my most favorite countries in the world. When I first visited Nepal 2 years ago I only planned on using Nepal as a way to get from Tibet (China) to India. From the first minute I stepped foot into the Kingdom on Nepal I instantly fell in love with this place. Nepal has some of the most beautiful landscapes that I have ever seen… raging rivers slice through lush green mountains dotted with huts connected by vine rope bridges. Nepal is home to the world’s tallest mountain (Mt. Everest) well actually Nepal shares Mt. Everest with its friendly neighbor China. Nepal also has some of the best white rafting in the world (which I cant wait to do!) and for the most part Nepal is just an amazing place to visit and take part in all the colorful yet bazaar traditional Nepalese festivals. I am arriving at the prefect time, as this is the main season for festivals in Nepal. When I was here 2 years ago I met a young girl on a bus, she was just finishing up high school and was telling me that she had dreams to become a doctor. When I left she asked when I would come back to visit her… I told her get into medical school and I will come visit. Well she has now finished her first year of medical school… so I guess this is me keeping my promise. So it will be nice to meet up with her and see how she is doing. Also I will be meeting up with Brian, he was one of the guys that was part of the driving around the world expedition I was on. So that’s it for now… I hope your all doing well.
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Jimmy under Nepal, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
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October 16, 2007
Wow where to begin? Well I have been back in Bangkok for about 6 days now and I have been pretty busy taking care of all sorts of things, from shopping, dental work, massages, working on my tan and the other things that go on here in Bangkok. About 3 years ago I had two root canals done back in Los Angeles but before I could finish the final step of putting on the crown, I left to go overseas (which seems to be the story of my life.) So now after 3 years of neglect my teeth are in need of an overhaul. Thailand and a few other countries are becoming hot spots for all types of medical work, people come from all over the world to get medical procedures done here. The main reason is the cost, an average open heart surgery in the United States cost around a hundred and fifty thousands dollars if not more and here in Thailand the same procedure cost around forty thousand… so a lot of people are finding it hard to resist the cost savings… but I wont go into details here but if your in need of medical care I would recommend you doing some research online and see for yourself. Anyway enough about open heart surgery I am only getting my teeth fixed. I just got two crowns put on and 3 cavities filled and my teeth cleaned. This work in the US would cost around $3000 dollars but here in Thailand it only cost me $400…. a pretty sweet deal. So now that my teeth are pearly white its time for me to say goodbye to Bangkok, I leave for Nepal on Friday. Its time for me to get off the tourist route and get back into the unknown.
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Jimmy under Thailand, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
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October 13, 2007
One thing you can count on in life (at least for a little longer) is that everyday the sun will rise and then eventually set. But the funny thing is most of us hardly ever see the sun actually rise and set. Sunrise happens so early that most of us are still sound sleep in bed, and sunsets…. well they just get lost in the shuffle of life. With people working 50 hours a week now and the normal challenges of life, taking 15 minutes to watch the sunset is something we can’t seem to fit in to our busy schedules. While living in Los Angeles for 7 years I look back and can only remember watching 2 sunsets… yes that’s right only 2. I guess what I am getting at is the next time you see the sun going down… pull the car over or walk outside and sit and watch the one thing in life that is still absolutely beautiful. Here are some photos of sunrises and sunsets from around the world.
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Jimmy under Malaysia, Photos, Thailand, Travel Tips, Updates |
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October 11, 2007
This is my second visit to the island of Ko Tao in Thailand and for sure not my last. There is something about this island that is so relaxing, at times I find myself so relaxed that I feel my heartbeat could stop at any moment. I have spent most of my time laying around the beach, eating, sleeping, listing to music, reading and pretty much everything else one would do on a tropical island paradise. Yesterday I ventured out and rented a cheap motorbike (moped) and explored the island. Ko Tao isn’t a very big island, but with the roads looking more like goat tracks it took a little while to get around. After a day of rough riding I made it back to my beach bungalow just in time for dinner. Most of the restaurants here show movies at night, our movie was Spider Man 3 (which wasn’t that bad.) I finished the off night with a few friends and a few beers under stormy skies. Here are a few photos from Ko Tao….
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Jimmy under Photos, Thailand, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
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October 7, 2007
Over the last 4 years of traveling I have been to Thailand 10 times, Thailand is becoming one of my favorite places on the planet. Millions of backpackers from all over the world come here each year with their sights set on Ko Phan-ngan and its famous Full Moon Parties. Every time I’m here I avoid them like the plague, I guess I have always felt that the sight of 20 thousand drunken backpackers wasted on a beach was not a place for me. I thought I was Mr. Worldly and was above all that… but the truth is I’m not and those people are no different then me… their just out to have a good time. I just finished reading the book called Power of Now (which I highly recommend for people as screwed up as me.) one of the things the book talks about is not JUDGING people and not letting your ego (mind) run your life. So me not judging these people as losers or whatever was a start and not letting my ego tell me that I’m too cool for this etc… So with that I decided that this would be a great test for me to see if I could relax and have a good time no matter how much I thought it was lame. Coming to Thailand has become somewhat of right of passage for most of the world’s youth other then the United States (all though I have been meeting more people from the US which is a good thing) so you tend to get a nice mixture of people from all over the world. Unfortunately for me I didn’t make it here for the Full Moon party… but instead the Half Moon Party. Back some 20 years ago it was only the Full Moon party… but since its popularity and Thai’s quick thinking they now have a party ever week…. Black moon, Half Moon, some other kind of moon… and so on. These parties are known to last until the following night, but like the true idiot I am we got there around 10pm and it was just starting, but it didn’t get really busy until about 2am and at that point I couldn’t even see straight. We started out the night with the traditional black light face painting, I opted for the kiss prints on my cheeks. One thing that I didn’t realize was the Half Moon Party was in the jungle and not that beach… I wish someone would have told me that so I could have brought the bug spray! So after getting our faces and bodies painted we head straight to the bar for the famous “Buckets” not sure who started this drink but here in Thailand and a few other places in South East Asia they serve you a drink in a bucket with a bunch of straws. One of the common and cheapest buckets is the Thai whiskey/Red Bull/Coke. It didn’t take long for a few of these buckets to kick in, I was clearly light years drunker then everyone else… and now “I” was becoming that drunken backpacker I hated soo much. In the end I had a great time, met a bunch of nice people and learned a lesson or two in life. 1) Don’t judge people, cause in the end your more alike then you ever would think. 2) Pace yourself with those buckets… there’s no race… the parties last forever! And finally 3) after a night of partying in Ko Phan-ngan…. don’t board a boat the following day bound for the open ocean!
And that was my experience of the parties on Ko Phan-ngan Thailand!
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Jimmy under Photos, Thailand, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
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