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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October 4, 2007
Well this was for sure my shortest trip to Bangkok to date. Thanks to my two-hour flight delay in Malaysia, I didn’t end up making it to Bangkok until 1:30am… just in time to catch Bangkok’s famous nightlife in full swing. It was almost 2am by the time I stepped foot on the famed Khao San Road (The center of the backpacking universe). Khao San Road became famous about 20 years ago as a cheap place that caters to backpackers. The street is lined with travel agencies, Internet shops, massage joints, shops selling everything and anything you could imagine, bars and clubs and an endless array of delicious food. Walking the gauntlet of Khao San road at 2am takes some skill and agility of a ninja to avoid the taxi drivers, street food hawkers, drunk backpackers throwing up on themselves, prostitutes, shady police men and the never ending annoying ladyboys (transsexuals). I made it through pretty much unscathed only a small scratch to the face from a fingernail of a ladyboy trying to get my attention… god only knows where that nail has been! I did fall victim to one of Thailand’s famous street food (Pad Thai) I was starving and pad thai is one of my favorite dishes in the world and here in Bangkok you can get it for 50cent. So after wolfing it down I found the only travel shop that was open and bought a bus/boat ticket to Ko Phan-ngan which is an island 10 hours south where the famous “Full Moon Parties” take place. So before I knew it I was on a bus to Ko Phan-ngan to check out the Full Moon Party (More on that later). I was only in Bangkok for a few hours, but like true Bangkok style you cant leave without a full stomach and a bit of light molesting from ladyboys…. And that my friend is Bangkok!!
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Jimmy under Thailand, Travel Tips, Updates |
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October 2, 2007
I feel its time for me to do a general update rather then a story. So here is the low down, I have spent the last month in Malaysia exploring some new/old places. Borneo was a highlight and a place i will for sure be heading back to soon. I spent a week or so on the beach in the Perhentain Island working on my tan and my Dutch. I met two dutch girls from Amsterdam Inge and Ciska, and we instantly became great friends. But all good things come to an end or at least i make them end (something im working on). I was planning on flying to the Philippines to research a documentary film on modern day pirates… but after doing a little bit of research in Borneo i found this project to be WAY too dangerous. So i have decided not to go to the Philippines and instead I’m heading back up to Thailand to meet up with Inge and Ciska. Its actually a good thing as i need to put myself on video for a presentation for the Travel Channel and i need someone to film me and also i miss them!
Oh and for you guys that have emailed me asking for more pictures… i am working on it. I don’t have any pictures from my recent trips on me (computer crashed!)… so i will start taking new ones! Also I’m now not just taking photos I’m also shooting High Def video… so soon i will not only have just static pictures but live moving video which should be great. So the game plan is the next month or so in Thailand/Laos and then i will be flying to India in December to film a documentary with me and my Indian friend Ravi (more on that later).
So that’s pretty much it… I’m eating great… i have a great tan… meeting great people… and living life!!! What else can i ask for?
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Jimmy under Borneo, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Uncategorized, Updates |
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