Universal Traveler

Just a dude with a backpack, a plane ticket, and a nasty case of intercontinental wanderlust.

Name:
Location: Minnesota, United States

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Waaaaaah! My name is David and I want to see photos! Waaaaaah!

Man, you know a blog is on its last legs when you start seeing sophomoric post titles like that. But, in my defense, David (over at Your Thoughts Exactly) has been consistently critical about my inability to provide a constant flow of eye candy. AND he dropped an unprovoked low blow asserting that I only visit "white" countries. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Whitey is definitely in the minority in places like, say, Morocco and Turkey and Thailand and Cambodia. In fact, I am noticing a distinct shortage of cracker-ass crackers here in Bangkok.

So here are your precious photos, Dave. Now would you please kindly go to hell?

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HA! Just kidding about all that. You didn't really think I was an axe-grinding sociopath, did you? DID YOU?!?!?

On to the pictures!

The first set is from a canal cruise I took during my first few days in Bangkok. A local CouchSurfer chartered a longtail boat and invited Nammon (the guy I was CouchSurfing with) and myself along. Who were we to refuse?

This sight greeted us upon reaching the ferry pier. Did you know that Thailand has one of the highest rates of canine lung cancer worldwide?


This is the type of boat we rode in:

This monk was sweeping up outside a monestery we passed along the way. I'm not sure what he was burning...his own abandoned desire, perhaps? That would be a pretty cool Buddhist parlor trick:

Apparently there's something about canal cruises at sunset that cause me to grin like an idiot:

Hauling ass back to the pier:

The next two shots are from the ruins at Ayutthaya, which used to be the capitol of Thailand. I think they're pretty much self-explanatory:

I took the next several photos during a motorbike ride through the mountains around Pai and Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Said motorbike. These Honda Dream 100cc bikes are ubiquitous all over Thailand. Despite being underpowered, they are pretty fun to ride. This particular one was quite good to me during the few days I rented it. In fact, I believe it to be the latest reincarnation of the spirit of Blue Steel. I think I shall call him...Black Steel:

Rice fields near Pai:

The road to Soppong:

The last three shots are just garden variety tropical paradise shots I took on Koh Tao. No additional explanation is needed: