From shorts and t-shirts to hoodies and touques - Feb 7th, Tokyo
Dan and I made it to Japan! The last weekend in Bangkok was full of shopping, haggling, eating, sweating our asses off, and meeting up with people we trekked with earlier.
For our last night in Bangkok, the boys and I had met up with Kimiko and Sebastian to catch up on our travels as well as to get some great eats from that Thai restaurant right across from the New Siam I Guesthouse (yes, the one with the rats we saw the night before).
After dinner, we walked down to Koh San road to do a little people watching, some last minute shopping (I felt a little shopped out by this time but had enough in me to pick up some CD's), and make out way down to Patpong to catch the freakshow.
As we started looking for a cab, our group was approached by 2 tuk-tuk drivers. They started to talk to different folks in our group and that started a bartering was betwen them and us...we went from 150baht for all 5 of us to go to Patpong to 40baht (that's about $1.20CDN). This little exchange turned into a big a row between them and it wasn't long from start of negotiating to end that a scuffle broke out. I just want to state for the record that I had nothing to do with this little tiff and this shit really does happen out of the blue (I'm reffering back to the incident with Death Threat lady).
Let's just say we moved on to another cabbie.
So we finally made our way to Patpong to, well...., satisfy our curiosity. Ok...curiosity satisfied! In fact, it went right from curiosity to downright disturbing in about 1.3 seconds. For the record, I've decided to leave this blog at the PG-13 level; I don't think there's a need for me to go into detail about it...unless someone asks me of course...then I'll blab....
The funniest experience about that entire evening was drinking at the Shell gas station that turns into an open air pub （this is back by Koh San Road). We sat right next to one of the pumps, had candles lit all around us (one right by the pump too), and just chatted the night away.
This, incidently was Dan and mines last night in Thailand. We're in Tokyo now and that meant we went from 35 degree weather with humidity and dropped 20 degrees to a chilly 5 degrees today...brrrrrrr....
The trip to our Hostel was uneventful..took a bit to get through immigration and figuring out the train lines and schedules.
Today was good though chilly! Dan and I went through a Beer Museam tour by the Ebisu train station (remember how I'm a light-weight when it comes to drinking?? I was lit by noon...), saw this part of the city from the top of a 40 story tower...too bad it was foggy, and went and saw the Shinjuku gardens by the Shinjuku staton (these were once royal gardens and now are open to the public..all 58 hectares of it...huge!!).
This evening, we came down to Akihabara (I'm here typing this up now) too look around and see what little goodies were for sale. Dan totally impulse bought a new camera and iPod (this was all him, he can say what he want..like peer pressure, but it was all him!! Gee Dan, did your Mastercard just pop out of the wallet all by itself then?? Huh??). It was a good deal though...got a 7.1 megapixel for $380CDN (with tax)...this a $500CDN (not including taxes) back home. He pressured me into buying one too...and my VISA really did pop out of my wallet!!! Really!!!.....NNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no will power...
Japan is ultra clean too, you can eat off the sidewalks and streets. And everyone in restaurants to Trains are super quiet and polite (no talking on cell phones, no smoking and walking on streets, etc.. because it's considered rude). Totally reminds me of Switzerland. I'll say this much of Tokyo...it's the supermodel capital of Japanese women!! Holy cow man!! Where have these women been? I must have been blind to not have noticed how beautiful these women are before now...I think I should try to help them learn English. Can you understand English? No?! Well, let me just tell you how much trouble you're in and you don't even know it....moooohahahahahahaha!!!!
So...agenda for this week. Tommorrow we hit Disneyland, day after we head of to Kyoto for a day, day after that we tour around Tokyo and possibly Akihabara again, the last day we play by ear.
More to come later.
Harvey
For our last night in Bangkok, the boys and I had met up with Kimiko and Sebastian to catch up on our travels as well as to get some great eats from that Thai restaurant right across from the New Siam I Guesthouse (yes, the one with the rats we saw the night before).
After dinner, we walked down to Koh San road to do a little people watching, some last minute shopping (I felt a little shopped out by this time but had enough in me to pick up some CD's), and make out way down to Patpong to catch the freakshow.
As we started looking for a cab, our group was approached by 2 tuk-tuk drivers. They started to talk to different folks in our group and that started a bartering was betwen them and us...we went from 150baht for all 5 of us to go to Patpong to 40baht (that's about $1.20CDN). This little exchange turned into a big a row between them and it wasn't long from start of negotiating to end that a scuffle broke out. I just want to state for the record that I had nothing to do with this little tiff and this shit really does happen out of the blue (I'm reffering back to the incident with Death Threat lady).
Let's just say we moved on to another cabbie.
So we finally made our way to Patpong to, well...., satisfy our curiosity. Ok...curiosity satisfied! In fact, it went right from curiosity to downright disturbing in about 1.3 seconds. For the record, I've decided to leave this blog at the PG-13 level; I don't think there's a need for me to go into detail about it...unless someone asks me of course...then I'll blab....
The funniest experience about that entire evening was drinking at the Shell gas station that turns into an open air pub （this is back by Koh San Road). We sat right next to one of the pumps, had candles lit all around us (one right by the pump too), and just chatted the night away.
This, incidently was Dan and mines last night in Thailand. We're in Tokyo now and that meant we went from 35 degree weather with humidity and dropped 20 degrees to a chilly 5 degrees today...brrrrrrr....
The trip to our Hostel was uneventful..took a bit to get through immigration and figuring out the train lines and schedules.
Today was good though chilly! Dan and I went through a Beer Museam tour by the Ebisu train station (remember how I'm a light-weight when it comes to drinking?? I was lit by noon...), saw this part of the city from the top of a 40 story tower...too bad it was foggy, and went and saw the Shinjuku gardens by the Shinjuku staton (these were once royal gardens and now are open to the public..all 58 hectares of it...huge!!).
This evening, we came down to Akihabara (I'm here typing this up now) too look around and see what little goodies were for sale. Dan totally impulse bought a new camera and iPod (this was all him, he can say what he want..like peer pressure, but it was all him!! Gee Dan, did your Mastercard just pop out of the wallet all by itself then?? Huh??). It was a good deal though...got a 7.1 megapixel for $380CDN (with tax)...this a $500CDN (not including taxes) back home. He pressured me into buying one too...and my VISA really did pop out of my wallet!!! Really!!!.....NNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no will power...
Japan is ultra clean too, you can eat off the sidewalks and streets. And everyone in restaurants to Trains are super quiet and polite (no talking on cell phones, no smoking and walking on streets, etc.. because it's considered rude). Totally reminds me of Switzerland. I'll say this much of Tokyo...it's the supermodel capital of Japanese women!! Holy cow man!! Where have these women been? I must have been blind to not have noticed how beautiful these women are before now...I think I should try to help them learn English. Can you understand English? No?! Well, let me just tell you how much trouble you're in and you don't even know it....moooohahahahahahaha!!!!
So...agenda for this week. Tommorrow we hit Disneyland, day after we head of to Kyoto for a day, day after that we tour around Tokyo and possibly Akihabara again, the last day we play by ear.
More to come later.
Harvey
posted by Harvey at
5:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home