So I havn't updated for a while, but this is due to the fact that the internet cafe ate my blog about 4 days ago. So now, I will have to summarize our last week or so.
After the last blog, we took a 20 hour train ride to Guilin from Kunming, for which Anna and I were food poisoned the whole time. Fol.
From Guilin, we went to Yangshuo for 2 days, which is most famous for its karsts - these beautiful rock formations, which Anna described "God's terds from the heavens." We took a bamboo boat down the nearby river to look at them all, and at one point, we even saw the exact scene drawn on the 5 yuan bill. We also took a bike ride through the country side, which was also very pretty. However the biking through the city required before and after left me in a near heart attack (as you know my feelings about Chinese drivers from the prior post).
After Yangshuo, we went back to Guilin for a night, where we met 1 guy and 2 girls from Oregon (very conservative) and 2 Brazilians. After dinner, we came back to the hostel to pregame with a game of kings. The two girls played with soda, and the rest played correctly, but all claimed they'd never had more than a drink before, and had never gotten drunk. Obviously, that did not last for long. Once through the vodka bottle, we went for a stroll, and next thing we know, one of the Brazilians is negotiating massages for the 8 of us, trying to get the price down from 200 to 15. He was unfortunately unsuccessful. So we settled on the club down the street instead. It was a crazy club with flashing lights, wall sized screens with music videos playing, and even a VIP area (according to them: Very Improtant People - and yes, we are very improtant). We get in, it's fun. Then Bryant gets a free drink... from a group of guys. We look around, and realize, it is gay night. Anna and I were amused - what's more fun to dance at?? But I dont think the guys were very impressed... And that was our last night in China - very mild for what was to come -
Bangkok! Bangkok is simply amazing. For the first 2 days, we didnt ever get out of Khao San Road, which is a road of outdoor shopping, bars, restaurants and cheap crappy hotels, all with classiness level of shooters. Basically its a pit. But a pit with buckets. Let me explain to you buckets. Well I guess there isnt much to explain... every bar sells buckets of alcohol. And the good ones even let you make them yourselves - for the classic one, the bar gives you 1 bucket, 1 eighth of rum, 1 red bull (the kind that's illegal in the states), and 1 coke (obviously replaced with DC). Mix and enjoy. They are so wonderful, Anna and I even made up a song over lunch and bucket one day. Alpha phis will appreciate:
Glorious Glorious
One bucket of rum for the 2 of us.
We didnt come to bangkok to get more culture
We came through to get more booze
More booze!
Anna and I are at a count of 9 (and are rarely helped by bryant for his disliking of redbull). It's been a good week. We also get drinks at this bar which has no builing but consists solely of stools placed on the road, and a movable table of alcohol. Besides being rushed away once when the cops came, it is one of the best bars for its people watching opportunities. Once fully bucketed and barred out, we roam the streets for its endless opportunities. Cheap dresses. Cheap jewelry. Cheap pad thai and spring rolls. And cheap lady men. Lady men - one of the most entertaining providers of people watching. These he-she prostitutes are probably the most convincing he-shes I have ever seen. Most of them just walk around the street, and step out in front of Bryant occasionally. Others, more amusingly, are having dinner or drinks with fifty year old American men, whom we wonder realize their sex or not. Other lady men are chased by Anna down the streets after a few too many buckets. Look out for some wonderful pictures of the two of them.
Other than boozing our way down Khao San, we also had a quick trip to Cambodia. The travel part wasnt that quick though, as we had to take about 6 methods of transport to actually get to Siem Reap. After 10 hours of travel though, we arrived at the Siem Reap hostel, which was amazing, and completely unexpected. The building was half outside and had a pool, restaurant, and bar. We woke up our first day there at 4:30 to get to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. Yes, I got up at 4:30. And it was pointless too, because you couldnt even seen the sun! But Angkok Wat was beautiful as well as Angkor Thom and two other temples (I forgot the names). We actually finished our sightseeing by noon, which was crazy - it felt like 6 pm. That night the hostel played "Tomb Raider" which was crazy because we had just been to the exact same ruins as in the movie 6 hours previously! Afterwards, we went to pub quiz at the Funky Munky with a couple of people from the hostel. We got fifth place... out of 8. But it was fun! We went to bed early for the long trip back to Bangkok yesterday, but one of our dorm room mates did not. And came back, WITH A GUY, at like 3 am. And proceeded to... I dont know what - but I had to put my headphones on! Traumatizing.
We arrived back in Bangkok yesterday and had some more bucket fun. Today we did something semicultural and went to this huge weekend market which had over 6000 stalls. Anna and I basically ate our way through it - and now we're going for dinner. Up next is an overnight train tomorrow and ferry to Koh Phangan for the HALF MOON PARTY. June 15. Yipee! Will let you know about the craziness afterwards. Miss you all!
