South East Asia: Part 1 - Bangkok, Thailand

I arrived in Bangkok on May 19th after the 12-hour journey with one stop over in Copenhagen, Denmark. The flight was really comfortable and I slept most of the time. The first thing I noticed was the extreme humidity. It was at least 45 Celsius with the humidity. Erik, a friend from University, met me at the airport. He was really easy to spot as I believe he was the only 6’2’ white guy amongst many Thais at the gate.


The first thing we did was head to Kao Sarn road which is a very busy tourist spot in Bangkok where there is many bars, hostels, street vendors, shops etc. We then sampled several Thai beers and then tried a bucket of booze, which is basically a huge pale of slushy (in several flavors) with the booze of your choice. When then headed to several bars in the area to finish the night.

The following day we went to the Grand Palace. Before we got there, some crazy lady with pigeons all around her harassed us with popcorn seeds to give to the pigeons. Scared out of our minds, Erik and I took the bags of popcorn seeds that this nutcase was forcing on us and fed the pigeons. Little that we knew, she was charging 5$ for these bags of seeds!!! We got screwed, damn! In retrospect, we should have ran away, but you never know in a foreign country. Lesson of the day: don’t trust crazy pigeon ladies! When we finally got the Grand Palace it was great. There is beautiful royal residences and it is home of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which I didn’t get to see because the temple was closed for repairs unfortunately. After the Grand Palace, we crossed the river to visit another temple, which had more amazing monuments. We then headed to a temple that is host to the Reclining Buddha. I was told that this was the world's largest Buddha. This thing was huge and very beautiful, and pictures don't do it justice. We finished off day 2 by meeting up with Erik’s friends and headed to a karaoke bar. This karaoke was different from what I am used to because each group of friends had their own private room and you could make a play list of the songs you wanted to sing.


On the third day in Bangkok, we went shopping on Kao Sarn, went for a Thai message and went to see some Thai Boxing. Shopping in Thailand is quite the experience. The vendors know that you are tourist and practically drag you into their shops. All the shops sell the same things so if they try to rip you off, you can easily bargain with them to get the lowest price or go to the next shop. After the shopping we went for a Thai message. We went to a very decent place and there was NO happy ending, haha. The message was nice but the girl had hands like vice grips and at times it hurt. Afterward they served us a snack and tea. I felt pretty loose afterwards and then we went to Thai Boxing. There are matches almost every day and I think there are more than 60 000 Thai boxers in Thailand, so it’s a very popular sport. The boxers are actually pretty small (no taller then 5’8’ and not over 140 pounds) and quick, which made for some great fights. During the event we got to see 10 fights and 2 knockouts! It is illegal to gamble on boxing in Thailand but that didn’t stop the few thousands of fans that were there from doing it. I couldn’t figure out their gambling system, as it seemed very random with a lot of yelling at each other. We then went back to Erik’s place and ordered McDonald’s of all things. That’s right, McDonald’s delivers in Bangkok… I couldn’t believe it.

The best way I could explain Bangkok is that it’s organized chaos. If you walk down 10 meters down a street you will get 10 different smells. It is very crowded and hectic and is very different of what I am used to from the other cities I have traveled to. It was great to experience Bangkok and it really took me out of my comfort zone. In my next post I will talk about our next stop in our journey: Singapore.

Take care,

Jason

Liane's visit!

Hi everyone,

This post is loooong over due. May was insanely busy with travel ☺ and work ☹. Things have settled down now and I am awaiting the arrival of Mom and Dad on Canada day.

Last month, my sister Liane came to visit me for a few weeks here in Oslo. It was great to see someone from home and it was great to speak our version of the French language. For those who have not heard us speak, my family and friends back home tend to speak a hybrid language that mixes French and English. We could start a sentence in English and finish it in French or vice versa. It’s quite unique to our part of the world but the most important thing is that we understand each other. Also, she brought some nice presents from home and early birthday gifts. The best gift was the ingredients for poutine that we made for my roommate Eva and my co-workers Anna and Vyoma!!!

While Liane was here we wanted to go on a small road trip and visit Gothenburg, Sweden. That did not work out because there was a city marathon on the weekend we wanted to visit and there was no hotel rooms available ANYWHERE! We visited Kristiansand, Norway instead. We took the train and it took 4 hours to get there. The train ride was quite nice with beautiful scenery. Kristiansand is a nice small town in the south of Norway. The first day we explored the town and went sightseeing. We visited the town square, the fortress and did a little shopping. On the second day we went on a mild hike and saw some old canons hidden in the forest, which were used in the war and the port where we had lunch, and some ice cream. It was a very nice, relaxing trip.

Later in the week we celebrated May 17th – Norway’s National Day. We actually starte May 17th is a very traditional holiday where the women dress in the traditional “bunads”, and most guys wear suits or semi-casual attire. My roommate Eva was having a brunch with some of her friends and all the ladies were wearing very nice trd the party a little early as we went out with a few other trainees and coworkers of mine on May 16th. The next day was a little rough but we managed to wake up in time for the festivities.aditional dresses. Each of the “bunads” were different colors. Eva told me that the color of the dress depends on which region of Norway that the lady comes from. Liane and I then ventured to the downtown area. It was a lot like Canada Day but with A LOT less alcohol and insanity. I think people partied too much the night before. It was a very civil event and a parade was held on Karl Johan’s gate (the main street) with locals waving their Norwegian flags. I was surprised of how people were calm and civil on their National Day. There weren’t any fireworks and the day finished around diner time! WHAAAAAAAA?

I’m glad Liane got a chance to come visit me. This was Liane’s first trip to Europe and I was glad I was able to experience that with her. Next up: Mom and Dad.


The next few posts I will talk about my trip to Asia … WOOO!
Take care,
Jason

Pictures !

Hi everyone !

Sorry I have not posted in a while but May was an incredibly busy month. First Liane, my sister, came to visit me here in Oslo and then I went on a 2 week holiday to visit Erik, a friend of mine from University. Erik was studying in Bangkok for the semester so it was a great opportunity to visit Asia for the first time. We visited Bangkok, Singapore and The Perenthian Islands, the Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

I have posted the pictures of these cities and will be writing about them in the coming week. I have also posted pictures from Kristiansand, Norway which I visited with Liane and I posted pictures of the National Day in Norway which was May 17th.

Enjoy the pictures and I will be posting about all these cities very soon !

Take care, I miss you all!

Jason