I'm bak in da house and my Kung Fu is stronger than eva'!!!!

Yours truly made it back, in good spirits, and getting spoiled rotten with a great home cooked dinner with my folks.

The day before Dan and I left, we had hit Kyoto. What a great place - an area dotted with historic temples, architecture, forests, and neighborhoods; almost like something out of a novel or fairy tale story (no, no...not Cinderella, more like the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but without the Tigers and Dragons or martial arts flying sequences and some places more modern...well..hmmm...ok, maybe not like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but still something very out of the ordinary). By far, it was, in my mind, one of the best excursions we've made during our short time in Japan.

The temples are centuries old with stone pillars at the gates of entrances, as tall as a man can stand straight, with deeply carved artistic characters (I want to say in Kanji writing) within the stone face. The light plays tricks with the eyes in how the shadows within the character carvings change the stones natural colors..from grayish blue to blueish black.

Each entrance to a temple and even the houses lining the streets have large gates, the width of 3 people standing side by side, all made of stone and gated with old wooden doors that look like they've only been hung within the last few years (even though it's more likely they have been there for centuries..it's funny how the old still looks almost new). The temple buildings are massive in size, at least 5-9 stories high, and sitting within large garden squares that must be a few acres (like 5) in size....neighborhoods themselves can fit in these squares with room to spare.

Speaking of neighborhoods, they are essentially self contained little communities. As much as Japan is known as a high tech development center, there are no huge supermarkets or Walmarts that I can see. In fact, I don't think the big box stores would work here.
As we walked down the streets (at times only one car lane wide), we can see old stone (huge blocks of stone) decorating the middle of the streets with the standard asphalt surrounding. The buildings up and down the street are homes, little shops that sell desserts (I was good and passed by), fish, butcher shops, grocery, convienience, home decor, jewellery, etc.. Perfection in each of these items (except in the raw fish and meats...really, how much perfection can there be other than the general "Is this fresh and will it make me sick??") is apparent and the buildings housing these little businesses are amazing architectural designs in and of themselves.
The coolest part was seeing a few homes fringing a protected Bamboo forest in the middle of where we were exploring. This is the part that looked, to me, like right out of a story. Like Hanzel and Gretel or something but without the evil witch. I think the closet I can describe would be like a few homes that blended in well along the seawall drive around Stanley Park and the buildings nestled in almost perfectly with the old forest and trees behind the drive. I saw it as a very rare opportunity to live in that scenario and if this same opportunity was available in Vancouver, people would kill to get into these homes. Way kewl!! And super quiet too...like the loudest thing you may ever hear, if you could hear it, would be the grass growing...the folks out here I seriously doubt stress in there homes about how loud it may be outside.



We explored quite a bit of this area and once done, took the bullet train back to Tokyo and we eventually made our way back to New Koyo Hotel at Minawa station. The New Koyo hotel is a backpackers hotel and very cheap - $29CDN a night. This was a good find for Dan and I'm sure we could have very easily have found a hotel to stay at that could have been a minimum of $150CDN or more a night. Very good place for the money though the rooms are very tiny. I joked with Dan that the rooms were like jail cells...4ft by 6ft...tiny and yet comfortable for our stay.

I looked forward to coming home. I think I get bored and restless quite easily and I've been eager to get back home, visit with family and friends, play with the dog (more like tease and pester her into a tizzy), and getting back to work. I'll tell ya that the first day back in the office I felt totally shell shocked..."Email what?! Duh...how do I turn on the computer again?".
The best part, which I didn't notice or think that I had improved, was that people mentioned how much thinner I look. I feel great about that; it's motivating and I'm back on the EDGE plan with a restored sense of viger...good/healthy eating and I'm back in the gym (I'm going to be sore tomorrow).

This is where I am now, Vancouver. The more I travel and return back, the more I appreciate home. Thailand was great, beaches were awesome, Japan was interesting, but Vancouver is home. I love B.C!! Of course, I'm going to a stag in Vegas in a few weeks (which will be mayhem) but until then, I'm content to stay put for a bit...well, until I get restless again that is....

This is now officially the final update on the Thailand/Japan trip. There will be one last update within a few days to include a link to pictures (with story content) but beyond that, it's done. Maybe Vegas can go up?!? Well...we'll see...you know what they said in the movie Swingers:
"There are two rules:
Rule #1. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas
Rule #2. Fat chicks are in!!"
(haha...that movie killed me....)

Harvey

Eru Harvey-san kieteiru koko - Tokyo Feb10th, 2006

If there are two extreme ends to hospitality, I've seen them both from both the Thailand and Japan legs of the tour; everyone has been nice, just the delivery is different.

The Thai people have an open, welcoming nature, very friendly, and you know that your presence is welcomed and even wanted there. Almost like being surrounded by family (Chaing Mai was great for this)...you're just showered with attention, what people can get for you in the means of comfort, drink, or food, joking around, and everyone always seems to have a smile on their face.
At times, the gang and I found it to be a bit much when we'd get off a boat and get mobbed by taxi drivers with the standard "Where you going???".

Fast-forward to Japan. People, polite enough, but I have the very real experience of feeling alone here (don't get me wrong, Dan's travelling with me but if there were no people here otherwise, I don't think I'd feel much different). Folks are polite and very helpful with directions (except the suits in downtown Tokyo...they're like suits back home) and that 'happy family feel' doesn't seem to exist...that or I just haven't come across it.

NOTE: This isn't me complaining or whining; just an observation on what I perceive to be real.

Dan and I visited Atami yesterday. It was funny, the travel book I have "Japan by Rail" goes into indepth detail about this place with all the hot springs and geysers and stuff. When Dan and I showed up, we thought for sure we'd be going to a large park as the Oyu Geyser mentioned in the book states that this geyser is one of the 3 largest in the world (my book makes a big deal about it but Dan's book didn't mention a thing).
After a bit of searching, we found the geyser...hidden in the courtyard of a building. HUH? The geyser is now more of a...mmm...rock with a hose hooked up to it. It went dormant in 1929 so the hose adds to the effect when people show up...theres a guy next to a control box that I think hit a button when Dan and I showed up. Ooooooohhh....look at the hose go.......hey, turn it onto the gentle rinse setting....or how about powerwash...your call...
There was a tombstone on the site as well to remember "Poor Toby". This was a dog in the 1800's that some British guy brought to Japan and the little guy got blasted like 150 feet into the air when the geyser was still active... Toby would have made it if they had the hose hooked up back then..."The British guy said RINSE cycle dude...RINSE!!!".
Beyond that, as we weren't doing the hot spring baths, there wasn't much else to do in Atami so we took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. This was the BEST part of the trip!!! This train can move man...holy cow!! If Vancouver had an transportation infrastructure like this, I'm serious man, no more gridlock! I still wouldnd't sell the Bimmer though...I love that car!

Today, we tooled around Minowa (where we are staying) and checked out a huge temple out there. The architecture around it with the little shops and thouroughfares were amazing too; I'm looking forward to Kyoto tomorrow.
We also wandered around Yokohama and checked out a museam. They were displaying works by a Native Japanese artist named Roku. I'm no art buff but it looked kinda like..hmm...what's that French artists name that cut off his own ear? You know, the nut? I can't remember; Roku's paintings kinda looked like that...but cartoonie...

Beyond that, my brain is starting to switch into 'home' mode...I'm starting to think about getting into my own place for May, working on the Mustang (I'm anxious to see where Marty and the gang are on the project), thinking about bills (yikes), and getting back to work. Two more sleeps until this last bit becomes a reality.

Harvey

P.S. I got a fair amount of requests for pics. They will be up sometime after Feb20th or so

It really is the happiest place on Earth....Feb 8th, Tokyo

Dan and I are into day 2 out of 5 full days in Japan...and we're tearing through our schedule of things to see a lot faster than I had anticipated (oops..).

You got the goods from yesterday..we tore around Tokyo on the trains and are now claiming to be experts in figuring out the routes we need to take (good thing the stations have English signage else we'd totally be messed up!). Hmm..maybe I shouldn't speak too soon...we got a long couple trips coming up in the next day or 2 and I shouldn't try jinxing myself.

So, where are we to date...let's see. Oh, last night, Dan and I wandered around Akihabara looking for an internet place to use (this is obviously prior to yesterdays BLOG). Everything was shutting down by 8 and 9pm and we had no clue where or even what the internet cafes looked like here...signage for these places has been a little hard for us to find.
We came across a few ladies and I asked in English "Excuse me, do you speak English? Can you tell me if there is an internet cafe around here?". The girls were all chatting and laughing before I approached and then it turned into dead silence as they looked at me like I was some weirdo and one of the girls started to pull the others away...I felt so selfconscious (hmmm...maybe I should shave and try to look less like a stalker, I thought to myself...I probably shouldn't have finished that sentence with me waving my arms wildly in the air and laughing my meniacle laugh...MMMooooohahahahahaha....kidding...). It took a second for what I said to register but one of the girls started beaming a smile and pointed us in the right direction.

Well, we got to where we wanted to be but took a good 30mins to get to a computer. The Japanese are very efficient, we all know that...thats the rep they have, so when we were given cards to sign up to use the net (you HAVE TO become a member of the internet shop), the girls working the counter had no clue what to make of what we entered. Canada what??
The poor girl only spoke Japanese and we only spoke English (in our case bad english...youse gots da internet eh?) and the only thing she could do was point at some membership options and say 'Japanese only'. We clearly misunderstood each other as when I said 'ok' and started to make the motion to leave, she hurriedly called me back. It took a while to clear up what was missing (via shoulder shrugs and nods) and got to our computers.

Today, we hit Disneyland. We went on as many rides as we could (from Star Tours and Space Mountain to Pirates of the Caribean and some train ride around one part of the park), took tonnes of pics (yes, one with Japanese Goofy..), and bought a few knick-knacks for home. Disney is so clean and the people working here just beam with the biggest smiles on their faces. I say this because I visited 3 parks at the Orlando DisneyWorld and what I remember was that people seemed more miserable than anything else to be there. The people working there were all about the 'exude happiness' and looking around all I saw were happy visitors and gleeful children running around. The funniest parts were seeing the baby buggy parking lots around the attractions...I thought of Vik and Geeta right away with little Eshawn (they went to Disneyland California last summer).
Overall a very good day..and warm too..it went up 10 degrees today to about 15/16 degrees and sunshine.

Tomorrow we're planning to head to Atami to visit a few hot spring baths and see the Oyu Geyser which claims to be obne of the 3 largest geysers in the world and off to Yokohama for a day of touring around and seeing whats what.

Harvey

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

'One night in Bankok and the world's your oyster...' - Feb 5th/2006

Ah Bangkok.....in a city of 10 million people, there's bound to be something going on around town. This weekend, the final weekend for Dan and I (we leave for Tokyo at 3am tonight...ugh), we've been doing a tonne of wandering around, shopping, and seeing what schennanegans we can get up to.

When we got to Bangkok, the funniest thing happened; we ran into Mark and Kendra from Bottle Beach...HHEEEeeeeeeyyyy...what's up?? What are you guys doing here... Just walking along, on our way to Koh San Road, and there they are. We all caught up on our adventures to date and hung out....had a wicked dinner last night too, right across from a guesthouse called New Siam I (we're a block away in a newer guesthouse called New Siam II - really ritzy for $30 a night..pool, tv, internet nearby, etc..). This restaurant was really good; in fact, it was great food. I was glad to have finished my meal when I saw two huge rats (the size of cats) running back and forth along the wall towards the kitchen...ick!! When I think about food preparation all around the world, even in Canada, there's always going to be something that will make people go queasy but I think I'm getting used to things out here.

Point of fact, I'm sure there are places back home that have food/health issues. In my late teens, I used to work at Dominos Pizza. This place was gross. Every night, at least 3 or 4 times a night, the owner making the pizza would pull out one of the stainless steel cabinets (the ones for rolling out the dough) and would start stomping away on an army of these transparent looking bugs that would swarm all around the floor. Though I'm sure all pizza places today probably have the same issue, for the life of me I'm just no longer a fan of ordering from Dominos. Ah well, it is what it is (direct quote from Todd Bertuzzi..according to Dan and Arn....I can't stop saying this phrase).
That said, the boys and are are going to meet up with Kimiko and Sebastian (folks we met on our Chaing Mai trek) at the same restaurant as last night. The rats don't change the fact that the food is still good....as long as they aren't getting into it...

Yesterday, we hit the weekend market in Chatta Chak - easily, 8000+ stalls of clothes, furniture (including rock furniture for gardens...like who is going to carry a 2 tonne boulder home...), CD's (pirated), DVD's (also pirated), swords, knives, ninja stars (who buys this stuff??), food (wet market), live tropical fish, little baby bunny rabbits, mice, live maggots (yup...and BBQed ones too), little puppies, bags, hats, fur pelts, you name it. It was a lot to take in.
I felt a little bad about the animals, especially after seeing the conditions in which some of these animals were kept, but I kept moving on; PETA would have a field day out here.

The hockers all cried out their wares..trying to entice people walking by into their shops. The kept the alley ways between shops very tight and I think it was for pure strategy:
1. Maximize the shop space and
2. Force people to walk single file, making them slow down so that as a vendor, you could try pulling people into your shop.
This works.

Though after hours of walking around in the heat (it was like 35+ degrees with humidity), I was shattered and never did buy a thing. I think Arnie and Dan may have walked away with a bunch of stuff. It was a crazy market.

We did some more shopping today and I was able to find a duffle bag big enough to fit all the suits and jackets that I had bought. There are lockers at the Tokyo airport so I'm hoping to leave them at the airport and not have to lug them all over Japan. Not a bad deal though for the bag...$15CDN.

Last night was funny too (Arnie will mention it in his BLOG) as when we hit Koh San Road, we walked by a Shell gas station. We've all seen them, some of them are closed at night. Well, the pumps were closed but an open air night club popped up in their place. It was weird...I've never seen people milling around fuel stations with drinks on one hand, lit cigarettes in another, and all of it listening to techno....umm, you guys may want to put out that cigarette...just an idea....what do you think??

Starting tomorrow, Dan and I are in Tokyo. The plan is to get settled and get as much of the city in as we can (we only really have 5 full days of looking around). Agenda planned so far:

1. Go to Sega Joyopolis and game it up
2. Check out a virtual brewerie where we can sample a beverage or two after a tour.
3. Hit Ropongo (I spelt this wrong...don't have my book with me) for night life.
4. Hit Akiabra for the tech stuff (I spelt Akiabra wrong too I'm sure)
5. Hit Kyoto for a day...I'll probably do this on my own as Dan is a little 'templed' out.
6. Tokyo Disneyland...ahh...why not....

Most of the planning done is to keep us as warm and dry as possible...the weather is almost identical to Vancouver from all the weather reports we've seen. Beyond that, if there are any suggestions from the Hostel we're staying at, we'll give it a shot.

Harvey

Bangkok returned - Feb 3rd

Well, the boys and I are in Bangkok for the final (at least for Dan and I) leg of the Thailand excursion. Arnie continues on to Chaing Mai for the beginnings of his treks leading him on to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc...

NOTE: Oh...Dan mentioned that a few folks (from emails he got) got the wrong impression from my BLOGs. To clarify, I am not miserable or having a bad time, on the contrary, I'm enjoying myself (I'd rather travel around and have fun than work anyday). I think the best way to describe the past few weeks is that all the beach living we've been doing is turning into a bit of a blur...there's only so much time I can sit on the beach before I start chomping at the bit and want to do something else. That's all...a little 'brain'stimulation...

So Phuket is expensive. It's a total resort island. No doubt about it, it's been one of the most expensive places, from my perspective, that any of us have traveled to in Thailand. Looking around and trying to compare to some of the places we've traveled, supermodel island Phuket is not. It is more like geriatric island. The average adult age must be around 45-50...and you haven't seen topless sunbathing until you've seen a lady in her 50's sunbathing...shudder.
I also think that maybe this is why the locals barter less and prices are higher than Chaing Mai or elsewhere where we traveled - I don't think the geezers haggle with the locals. Buggers!!

On a side note, those scooters were fun to tool around on. I have to admit, I don't know why they paint lines on the roads here...no one follows them!! Remember growing up and coloring in coloring books? Well, I used to color within the lines...not all over the freakin book, within the lines. Driving here is like coloring all over the freakin book...I'm thrown waaaaay off. Everyone drives anywhere...just like in southern Italy. In Italy, people drive the wrong way down one way streets (at least Lazzarino does), are all over the road (at least Lazzarino is), play chicken with oncoming traffic (yup, Lazzarino once again), or they just make up their own bloody rules (like Lazzarino driving in BC...P.S. you're won't be driving the Mustang when it's done...you hear that puto!?!).
Fast forward to Thailand...full of 1 million + 'School of Lazzarino' drivers and you got one nervous Indian thinking if it's wise to drive on the road with them. That said, I was nervous about renting a bike (which I've never ridden before..ever...) and learning to drive that on the roads of the worst coloring book colorers in the world. But I did it and I think I had fun coloring outside the lines with them.

We tooled around here in Phuket for a bit, had great burgers at a place called 'NASA Burger'(home made burgers - great), and stayed at a place called 'The White House Inn' (because the place is painted white...not because they are catering to Americans..well, they are but you know what I mean).
We hit Patong beach at night and found that the rumour that it was sleazy was true. You name the cliche, it was happening. Drag queens, lady boys, women dancing, women cat-calling (and I've never, ever, had a woman cat-call to me much less get mauled by 5 of them....Arnie and Dan just kept walking and never bothered to rescue...I think I know how women feel now when I gawk at them and give them the 'Terminator' stare...come with me if you vant to live...). We walked around for a while, went down the wrong alley when we noticed the definite lack of women (gayville) and turned right around (not as flaming gay as Key West, Florida but pretty close), and after heading back to the main strip and hanging around a pub for a while, we called it a night.

We're in Bangkok now and are going to hit the weekend market to buy a tonne of stuff before we head home - theres something like 8,000+ stalls of all the cheapest clothes and knock-off stuff you can find. I got one of the final fittings done on those suits I bought and will hopefully get them by tomorrow....that and a new suitcase or duffle bag that I need to buy to carry them all home in. It's going to be a fun weekend.

Harvey

Canadian Chopper...well..more like scotter....-Phuket Jan 1st

Phuket, out of all the places that we've travelled to so far, is a bit pricey and it's noticeable by the people (travellers) that walk down the street and by the amount that the locals are willing to barter.

Dan and I, feeling like we're old hands at the bartering, helped Arnie get his first taste of shopping for serious knock-off goods; namely watches and glasses. We walked by one guys shop and Arnie goes "I'd love to have an Omega like the one in James Bond". "No problem Arn", I said as the shop owner approched. "You got Omega, the good ones?", I asked. "Yes, follow me", and we walked to a back room to see the 'merchandice'. Arnie was like "where we going??". We just kept walking and he laughed his ass off when we entered the room. "This is how it goes bro...pick out what you want". He never did buy the watch (costs too much here) but he's in for a treat when we hit Bangkok. The locals won't deal here because they know that at least one of the visitors in Phuket (older crowd that don't haggle; they just hand their money over) will pay what they want. One things for sure, Arnie better not buy a Bulgari exactly like mine 'cause that would just kill me...I bought the real deal years ago and it would bug me to no end if he picked up something similar for $35.

Today was a good day! The first day since we arrived that I rented a bike (really a scooter). It was also my first time, essentially, that I've ridden a motorized 2-wheeler on the road. In no time at all, all three of us we were tearing down the high-ways on our bikes at 60-100km. I always used to ignore Hartzells stories at work about him on his motorbike..."this one time, on my motorbike....". Yeah ok Hartzell, shut up! I now am starting to understand what he meant about driving behind a big truck, pulling around someone, and then driving in front of a big truck. Trucks suck!

It was a fun day though...we tooled around and went to a national park here that has a Gibbons sanctuary. Gibbons, apparently, are the closest apes to humans in the evoluntionary chart. This is according to our resident scientist Dan. It was a funny conversation with him when we talked about going to see them:
Harvey: "Hey Dan, we going to go see the monkies today?"
Dan: "They're not monkeys, they're apes! Do you know why they are apes Harv?"
Harvey: "...no Dan, why are they apes and not monkies??"
Dan: "Because they have vestigial tails. Do you know what a vestigial tail is?"
Harvey: shaking my head..."no Dan, what is a vestigial tail?"
Dan: "It's a genetic holdover...their tails are disappearing...monkies have prehensile tails."
Harvey: "You're a nerd!"
Dan: "You're a Neanderthal!!"
Harvey: "Hey Dan...you know what a genetic holdover is??...it's a vestigial"
Dan: Dan just sat there with his patented shaking of his head and rolling of his eyes....if you know Dan, you know the look....

hahaha...I adlibbed a bit....the conversation didn't really go like that but was pretty darn close....

After all that, I think I'm going to try going for a motorcycles license this summer...it could be fun. I enjoyed tooling around on that bike today so who knows.

We never made it Patong yesterday night though we did drive through it today. Kind of a big area, lots of bikes and shops and stuff. Lots of old guys with the young Thai women too! Kata beach, which we just tried out booking first, turned out to be the nicest area in my book. Just the right amount of 'busy', not as sleezy as or overly crazy as Patong, and way cleaner and more amenities than 3rd beach (can't remember the name for the life of me - I'll update later) where we were thinking of staying.

Well, I better head off. It's 7pm and gotta meet the guys for dinner....tonnes of good eats around here....

Harvey