Rayong, Thailand II

I will never get accustomed to elephants roaming the streets. We stumbled upon a young elephant down the street from the hotel. I dropped 100 baht and bought some food to feed her.



Fact: Elephants feel weird. Their skin is warm but rough, and they have some hair as you can see from the picture, but definitely not full coverage. Also, their trunk is so strange. The end part of it, like a nose, smells the food and opens up, and then the trunk wraps around like an arm with no bones. It was a big meaty muscle. I put some food on her head, and she was able to smell it and retrieve it. Conclusion: Elephants are awesome.

A few more Rayong Pictures

I hope all of you reading in the midwest US are enjoying these pictures from December 21. 85F and it hasn't rained in a few weeks.



Unfortunately, this job is wrapping up within the next week. I don't know where I will go next, so don't bother asking. I might be lucky enough to come back to the U.S. for a week or so, but that's optimistic.

Anyhow, Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving '08

Well, this Thanksgiving was about the same as last year. I spent Thursday at work, went to KFC with a coworker in the evening, and worked again on Friday. One of the few times during the year I wish I was back in the US. I miss out on delicious food, playing football, and watching even more football.

BUT, this year was different. On the following Sunday, another coworker, Bryan, had the hotel cook us a big chicken-turkey. His wife brought back a few supplies from the US, like cranberry stuffing, pumpkin bread, green bean casserole, summer sausage, etc. Dan even made an apple pie, which was really good. So I didn’t miss out on the food…just the football. Don't worry.

Bangkok, Thailand

On the heels of returning from Cambodia, I stayed in Bangkok to meet up with Novotny who decided to fly in from the Philippines. This was a good decision.



For those of you who are fuzzy on the details, Andrew is one of the 3 guys I lived with in Wrigley before traveling. That is him above with his change purse. Inside his change purse he keeps Thai Baht, Filipino Pesos, and a rather disturbing picture of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard wearing only knee-high socks, baseball cleats, and Phillies hats.

Bangkok Pictures

I arrived late on Friday evening, so it was straight to the go-gos and disco. First stop: Soi Cowboy. Good call. At least they aren’t trying to fool you.



A ridiculous night of bar hopping and clubbing ensued capped off with seeing the sunrise over a massive Santa sleigh. We also did some sight seeing...but not too much. Apparently the Grand Palace 'closes' at 3:30pm, but here is a nice view of one of the nearby temples.