I am sure everyone has those "off" days when things just don't seem to work out. Well my "off" day just happened to land on a day when I have an interview:
Picture this, if you can...
It's snowing in Vancouver. And I'm on the number 3 Main street heading to South West Marine drive to my first job interview in 4 years. I have my clipboard binder clutched in my gloved hand and since it's snowing, and no one in Vancouver can drive in the snow, I was late. I called ten minutes before I was supposed to arrive and told Jim, the interviewer, I was going to be late and he said "that's okay". Six blocks from the nearest bus stop I find 173 West 71st street in an alley so broken apart and narrow it was a wonder that large delivery trucks actually got in and out of there, oh yea and it's right next to the dump so even in the middle of the snowy weather I could smell the pungent odour from the pit of refuse across the street.
In the door and up the stairs to an ornatly decorated recption desk where a very helpful girl not only got Jim right away for me but also made small talk to ease my wait. Out walks Jim a 300lb, 65-70 year old man with a huge mustache and and beard and apparently no muscle control over his neck because his jowel like chin has plunged into his chest and I can't tell one from the other. So from my perspective it looks like he was sizing up my thighs for lunch. I couldnt' tell if he was looking at me or thinking about how much he would like to take a nap but I tried to answer his questions while looking him in the eyes, I think...
"HI I'M JIM."
"Hello, Raymond"
We shake hands or at least I shook the meat hook he would call a hand.
"SO WHERE YOU FROM?"
"Well I just came from broadway and commercial."
"NO I MEAN WHERE YOU BORN?"
"Uhhh well I was born in Vancouver."
"WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO DO AFTER ALL THIS?"
*Thinking in my head "After all what? I grow old and truely have the ability to do what I want? What the fuck are you talking about?"*
"Well eventually I would like to do Set Construction"
Wait Wait back up...
Did I just tell him that I want to do something else with my life instead of work here?
ERRRRRRRRR Wrong answer! NEVER tell them in the interview that you want to do something else with your life.
"OH... WELL THEN WHY WOULD I WANT TO HIRE YOU IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING ELSE AFTEWARD?"
".........umm"
"WELL HOW ABOUT I GET PAUL TO SHOW YOU AROUND THEN!"
Jim leads me over to an office where I meet Paul. Paul is almost a foot shorter than me, wearing arctic boots that come almost up to his knees and a fleece vest that I can imagine mountain climbers have in their wardrobe for intense cold situations. Paul appears to be a nice guy except he seems to have no sense of humor or interest in others. First off he wanted to know about what I did between high school and the first job I had listed on my resume. I was thinking "What part of 'RELEVENT EXPERIENCE' is unclear on my resume? If what I did in that time frame was relevent to this job I would have put it on the page!"
Then when he asked what I did between finishing the Joinery program and now and I told him I went to Thailand.......he didn't ask me one question about it.
Didn't want to know how long I was there.
Didn't care about why I went.
Didn't want to know if I saw anyting interesting.
Nothing.
After the awkward review of my resume and telling him that I don't have a drivers license, making me even more unemployable, he starts to show me around the shop. I know I should have done my research on the company before hand but I didn't. It turns out that they do mainly "Architectural Veenering" and kitchen cabinets and doors but for the most part I hadn't really seen this type of work before so I was distractingly interested in the machines and quiet. When he would tell me "We usually load them automatically and unload them manualy, just to ensure that there is no chip out for the end product." I basically know what he is talking about but I've never used one of these machines before. I have no idea how to load the glue and which lever does what so I just stand there and nod. After the whole tour we go back upstairs and he asks me if I have any questions.
Shit... I knew I forgot something
I make up some on the spot questions and he answers them. But it seems that it takes him five minutes for him to answer the simplest thing like "How many apprentices do you have working for you right now?"
"Well ummm let's see *leans back in chair and counts looking at the celing* I think about....including...and....yea six.
No eight!
At this point I am laughing to myself because I know that if he already has eight apprentices working for him I doubt very highly that he wants another one. By this point I had been there for almost an hour and I think Paul is getting tired of my nodding so he says "So I guess I'll send you on your way."
Which translated from interviewese to English is: "Get out of my workshop"
I shake everyones hand, or meathook, and take my leave of one of the most awkward hours in my interview history.
And I used to be so good at convincing people to hire me with no experience.
Tune in next time Same Bat Ray, Same Ray Channel!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Happy New Year!!!
Happy New Year!
2007...wow who would have thought we would last this long. I remember when the year 2000 was to be "the future" where people would zip around in jet cars and hover boards. I don't think we are that far off but it still seems like a far cry from today's technology.
I have no job, so I have some time between looking for jobs to completely reorganizing my place. It's strange when I start cleaning my place and I get into all the little nooks and crannies that I haven't seen for months. A strange sense of nostalgia rolls in mixed with the urge to throw out everything I haven't used or touched for the last fortnight. I get into the cleaning mode and don't feel rested until I have gone through every last thing I own, maybe just to make sure it's still there. I like my stuff but I just have so damn much of it, my parents were pack rats so it's just natural that I do the same I guess. I do this every year or so when I feel the walls of stuff start to shake and shudder around me, I take it down and rebuild it with fewer things. I also feel that by doing this at the beginning of the new year I am helping to move on from the last into a new part of my life.
I am glad that I came home for Christmas, it was fantastic this year and I had a great time New Year's Eve. I wasn't absent from any of the festivities this year however I can't help thinking about what's absent in my life right now. It feels like this large gap has opened up in my life and the only one way to fill it is six months away. I don't think that I have ever been in love before. I have been in love with the idea of something before. I have imagined that I love someone before. However I don't think that I have ever fully realized love for someone before now.
About a year or so ago I had a very bad experience with a girl I was involved with and it made females almost repellent to me. I didn't want to show my feelings anymore so I wasn't myself around anyone of the opposite sex, I was intentionally cold and closed to anyone interested. I didn't want to be appealing to anyone, so I grew a beard or kept rough stubble because I thought that was some what "unkempt", funnily enough girls thought it was cute. I wanted to avoid closeness and intimacy while at the same time missed just touching someone else.
Then I met her and everything changed.
I know it sounds like a regurgitated story that has been told a thousand times but it's true! From the first moment I saw her I knew that I wanted to be with her. The time spent with her was uplifting and made me forget about my past and inspired me to move on. Going to Thailand I didn't know exactly what to expect from her, I didn't know if she felt the same way I did. I knew that we had a mutual strong connection and urge to see each other. However in previous experiences that didn't count for a lot in the end, I didn't want to assume too much. I knew that it would be a fantastic time and it was, it met and exceeded my expectations.
Now it's the new year, I'm in Canada while she still remains in Thailand. It almost seems like I'm being tested, "you finally found love but you can't have it right now, how are you going to deal with that?"
"I'm going to wait you out!"
And I will, when I want something I do everything in my powers to get it. If I have to wait, I can wait. She is more than worth it. She has awoken something within me that will never sleep again, it helps to keep me focused on what is truly important.
Until next time same Bat Ray, same Ray channel.
2007...wow who would have thought we would last this long. I remember when the year 2000 was to be "the future" where people would zip around in jet cars and hover boards. I don't think we are that far off but it still seems like a far cry from today's technology.
I have no job, so I have some time between looking for jobs to completely reorganizing my place. It's strange when I start cleaning my place and I get into all the little nooks and crannies that I haven't seen for months. A strange sense of nostalgia rolls in mixed with the urge to throw out everything I haven't used or touched for the last fortnight. I get into the cleaning mode and don't feel rested until I have gone through every last thing I own, maybe just to make sure it's still there. I like my stuff but I just have so damn much of it, my parents were pack rats so it's just natural that I do the same I guess. I do this every year or so when I feel the walls of stuff start to shake and shudder around me, I take it down and rebuild it with fewer things. I also feel that by doing this at the beginning of the new year I am helping to move on from the last into a new part of my life.
I am glad that I came home for Christmas, it was fantastic this year and I had a great time New Year's Eve. I wasn't absent from any of the festivities this year however I can't help thinking about what's absent in my life right now. It feels like this large gap has opened up in my life and the only one way to fill it is six months away. I don't think that I have ever been in love before. I have been in love with the idea of something before. I have imagined that I love someone before. However I don't think that I have ever fully realized love for someone before now.
About a year or so ago I had a very bad experience with a girl I was involved with and it made females almost repellent to me. I didn't want to show my feelings anymore so I wasn't myself around anyone of the opposite sex, I was intentionally cold and closed to anyone interested. I didn't want to be appealing to anyone, so I grew a beard or kept rough stubble because I thought that was some what "unkempt", funnily enough girls thought it was cute. I wanted to avoid closeness and intimacy while at the same time missed just touching someone else.
Then I met her and everything changed.
I know it sounds like a regurgitated story that has been told a thousand times but it's true! From the first moment I saw her I knew that I wanted to be with her. The time spent with her was uplifting and made me forget about my past and inspired me to move on. Going to Thailand I didn't know exactly what to expect from her, I didn't know if she felt the same way I did. I knew that we had a mutual strong connection and urge to see each other. However in previous experiences that didn't count for a lot in the end, I didn't want to assume too much. I knew that it would be a fantastic time and it was, it met and exceeded my expectations.
Now it's the new year, I'm in Canada while she still remains in Thailand. It almost seems like I'm being tested, "you finally found love but you can't have it right now, how are you going to deal with that?"
"I'm going to wait you out!"
And I will, when I want something I do everything in my powers to get it. If I have to wait, I can wait. She is more than worth it. She has awoken something within me that will never sleep again, it helps to keep me focused on what is truly important.
Until next time same Bat Ray, same Ray channel.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Back into the city
Well anyone still reading this, I am back from Thailand!
I know that I cheaped out on the posts close to the end but I have all the pictures on my laptop so if you want to see some just ask. I would be happy to email some if you like. (I have some favorites) Christmas was awesome, my sister and I went to the parents apartment in Oak Bay and basically sat on their incredibly comfy couches for four days and drank and ate until we went to bed. We went out on Christmas Eve because there was this fantastic wind storm happening and since my parents live right close to the water we saw some awesome sites, in the truest sense of the word. Dad took some pics so I just have to wait until he can send them to me. I was so relieved when everyone opened their gifts from me and loved them. I didn't know if it would all fly together but thankfully they were well received, my parents got my sister and I iPods with 30 GB of space. That's like 7000+ songs, I added 107 different Cd's and loaded 1391 songs and I'm still only at 8.4GB but I can listen to music for 4 days straight if I were so inclined.
Being back in Vancouver is very strange because everything here is basically all the same. I am currently gutting my apartment because when I returned I found that my level of acceptability had changed so with a new storage closet to use I am tidying and opening up my place. It feels good to take control of my space again, not that I didn't enjoy staying in Heather's place on the contrary I find my place lacking in so many aspects compared to hers. Except I have a stove and kitchen. My place seems so empty because it is just me, even tho it's a small space and two people could not cohabitate here I feel this great swell of longing for her presence. I am going to have to keep busy for the next six months and try to have a plethora of activities at my disposal.
As you may or may not know the house I live in was recently sold and the woman who used to own it for fourteen years moved out just before I left for Thailand. The house now feels different because of the new tenant upstairs. She is a friend of the previous owner but I don't know her so it's a little strange for me, she's in MY house now! Also my sister's house was sold in the last month and the new land lords are bleepity bleep bleeps and want to move right into the place... They are evicting two of the nicest people I have ever met and it sucks because this whole culmination of events and the time it takes place around is THE END OF AN ERA. After New Years I will be searching for a job that will hopefully get me an apprenticeship and that also is somewhat daunting because if I am successful I will have a contractual job for the next four years... Which isn't so bad I just need to work for a good company. Also there have been a couple of things that I have been wanting to do for a number of years and this is my year so I am going to make the most of it. I have decided that they will both be accomplished within six months...or as close as I can get.
For those still tuned in I am planning on keeping this blog going as more of an outlet for my brain now instead of a documentation of my adventures, however I am sure there will be some adventures along the way. However for now the only adventure I want is to go have a shower and go to bed. I think I deserve an early sleep because I haven't been sleeping much lately.
Next time same Ray time, same Ray Channel.
I know that I cheaped out on the posts close to the end but I have all the pictures on my laptop so if you want to see some just ask. I would be happy to email some if you like. (I have some favorites) Christmas was awesome, my sister and I went to the parents apartment in Oak Bay and basically sat on their incredibly comfy couches for four days and drank and ate until we went to bed. We went out on Christmas Eve because there was this fantastic wind storm happening and since my parents live right close to the water we saw some awesome sites, in the truest sense of the word. Dad took some pics so I just have to wait until he can send them to me. I was so relieved when everyone opened their gifts from me and loved them. I didn't know if it would all fly together but thankfully they were well received, my parents got my sister and I iPods with 30 GB of space. That's like 7000+ songs, I added 107 different Cd's and loaded 1391 songs and I'm still only at 8.4GB but I can listen to music for 4 days straight if I were so inclined.
Being back in Vancouver is very strange because everything here is basically all the same. I am currently gutting my apartment because when I returned I found that my level of acceptability had changed so with a new storage closet to use I am tidying and opening up my place. It feels good to take control of my space again, not that I didn't enjoy staying in Heather's place on the contrary I find my place lacking in so many aspects compared to hers. Except I have a stove and kitchen. My place seems so empty because it is just me, even tho it's a small space and two people could not cohabitate here I feel this great swell of longing for her presence. I am going to have to keep busy for the next six months and try to have a plethora of activities at my disposal.
As you may or may not know the house I live in was recently sold and the woman who used to own it for fourteen years moved out just before I left for Thailand. The house now feels different because of the new tenant upstairs. She is a friend of the previous owner but I don't know her so it's a little strange for me, she's in MY house now! Also my sister's house was sold in the last month and the new land lords are bleepity bleep bleeps and want to move right into the place... They are evicting two of the nicest people I have ever met and it sucks because this whole culmination of events and the time it takes place around is THE END OF AN ERA. After New Years I will be searching for a job that will hopefully get me an apprenticeship and that also is somewhat daunting because if I am successful I will have a contractual job for the next four years... Which isn't so bad I just need to work for a good company. Also there have been a couple of things that I have been wanting to do for a number of years and this is my year so I am going to make the most of it. I have decided that they will both be accomplished within six months...or as close as I can get.
For those still tuned in I am planning on keeping this blog going as more of an outlet for my brain now instead of a documentation of my adventures, however I am sure there will be some adventures along the way. However for now the only adventure I want is to go have a shower and go to bed. I think I deserve an early sleep because I haven't been sleeping much lately.
Next time same Ray time, same Ray Channel.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
A Taste for the Road
I finally have gotten a taste for motorbikes...And I love them! This past weekend about nine of us took six bikes out on the road from Kanshanabri for a two day tour of the highway and mountain ranges. 
After arriving in Kanshanabri on friday we set about getting oriented on the bikes for the 500+ km trip. Ryan and Alisa were the most experienced riders in the group and gave a few lessons to thoes less experienced, okay to thoes who had never been on a motorbike in their lives. Now I've been on a motorcycle before but only as a passenger and driving it was a compleatly different thing. I was told the basics of the controls and what to do when so taking off initially was pretty easy, however turning around and not crashing the bike within the first five minutes wasn't. As I was attempting my first U-turn I some how reved the throttle with the brake on and then released the brake wich resulted in the bike wheeling up on it's back wheel with me standing behind it wondering what the hell to do. The bike toppled over on it's side with the throttle locked and began to spin harmlessly as I cam down hard on my left knee scraping up my shin and, for a short time, bruising my knee. As I got up I killed the engine and then restarted it to return down the street to tell everyone, who at that point was capable of riding the automatic bikes no problem, that I wasn't going to be driving. Heather then attempted driving the bike and took to it like a duck to water.
Following all the driving lessons and no more injuries we all set out for a long ride up to see what we could see on the other side of the mountain.
We passed by some wonderful sights including the river Kwai.
After we reached our first rest stop I took another lesson on driving the bike and it was much better! I had Alisa on the back giving me little hints and tips as I rounded corners and crossed traffic. Soon after lunch we were doing 80 km/h down the highway, I can't describe how good it felt to be in control of a bike, I am sure that my four year plan to get my motorcycle lincence will be shortened to as little as possible.
The remainder of the trip out was nice except just before sunset when it started to rain a little sending a slick onto the whole road that we traveled on. As we were rounding a corner Stephenie slipped on her bike and was sent sliding on her side across the road. Luckely there was no oncoming traffic and we were all going slow enough to see this happen so we all immeditaly stopped and pulled her off the road. Even luckeier still Steph sustained only minor road rash to her leg, foot and shoulder. The bike she road was still in working order and since no one else was available to drive I took it and followed along as Heather took our original bike with another passenger so that we could all get to where we were going before dark.
We finally arrived at some small town that I forget the name for and settled down for the night. Everyone was tired so it was an early night after dinner and again an early morning the next day. The trip back was much more relaxed and we arrived back in Kanshanabri about an hour or so ahead of schedual. This trip has to be not only one of the most enjoyable things I have done in Thailand but it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done.
Untill Next time.
Talk to you soon
Ray
After arriving in Kanshanabri on friday we set about getting oriented on the bikes for the 500+ km trip. Ryan and Alisa were the most experienced riders in the group and gave a few lessons to thoes less experienced, okay to thoes who had never been on a motorbike in their lives. Now I've been on a motorcycle before but only as a passenger and driving it was a compleatly different thing. I was told the basics of the controls and what to do when so taking off initially was pretty easy, however turning around and not crashing the bike within the first five minutes wasn't. As I was attempting my first U-turn I some how reved the throttle with the brake on and then released the brake wich resulted in the bike wheeling up on it's back wheel with me standing behind it wondering what the hell to do. The bike toppled over on it's side with the throttle locked and began to spin harmlessly as I cam down hard on my left knee scraping up my shin and, for a short time, bruising my knee. As I got up I killed the engine and then restarted it to return down the street to tell everyone, who at that point was capable of riding the automatic bikes no problem, that I wasn't going to be driving. Heather then attempted driving the bike and took to it like a duck to water.
Following all the driving lessons and no more injuries we all set out for a long ride up to see what we could see on the other side of the mountain.
We passed by some wonderful sights including the river Kwai.
After we reached our first rest stop I took another lesson on driving the bike and it was much better! I had Alisa on the back giving me little hints and tips as I rounded corners and crossed traffic. Soon after lunch we were doing 80 km/h down the highway, I can't describe how good it felt to be in control of a bike, I am sure that my four year plan to get my motorcycle lincence will be shortened to as little as possible.
The remainder of the trip out was nice except just before sunset when it started to rain a little sending a slick onto the whole road that we traveled on. As we were rounding a corner Stephenie slipped on her bike and was sent sliding on her side across the road. Luckely there was no oncoming traffic and we were all going slow enough to see this happen so we all immeditaly stopped and pulled her off the road. Even luckeier still Steph sustained only minor road rash to her leg, foot and shoulder. The bike she road was still in working order and since no one else was available to drive I took it and followed along as Heather took our original bike with another passenger so that we could all get to where we were going before dark.
We finally arrived at some small town that I forget the name for and settled down for the night. Everyone was tired so it was an early night after dinner and again an early morning the next day. The trip back was much more relaxed and we arrived back in Kanshanabri about an hour or so ahead of schedual. This trip has to be not only one of the most enjoyable things I have done in Thailand but it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done.
Untill Next time.
Talk to you soon
Ray
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Midnight in Bangkok
Back from Kanchanabri retivly unscathed. Pictures of our motorbike adventure to come.
Today we returned from the two day tour of the courtry side and tommrow I am leaving to go to Ko Samet for a little R & R. I'm a little nervous about going somewhere on my own but I am going to get over that tommrow when I get up and leave the apartment for another few days of adventure. During the day I am usually spending time alone so I might as well spend some alone time on a beach. I wish I had someone to go with me even if they had never been to Ko Samet either, I think then it would be a bit more silly and fun. I need to remember that I have the ability to be fun with myself too.
Wish me luck, I will be back on Thursday for Kareoke and Friday I will try and post some pics from Kanchanabri.
Talk to you soon.
Ray
Today we returned from the two day tour of the courtry side and tommrow I am leaving to go to Ko Samet for a little R & R. I'm a little nervous about going somewhere on my own but I am going to get over that tommrow when I get up and leave the apartment for another few days of adventure. During the day I am usually spending time alone so I might as well spend some alone time on a beach. I wish I had someone to go with me even if they had never been to Ko Samet either, I think then it would be a bit more silly and fun. I need to remember that I have the ability to be fun with myself too.
Wish me luck, I will be back on Thursday for Kareoke and Friday I will try and post some pics from Kanchanabri.
Talk to you soon.
Ray
Monday, November 13, 2006
Krabi!
Friday evening 5pm and we are off to Krabi!
It's a beautifal evening and the sun has just set, casting Bangkok into it's magical street lit night. Heather and I flag down a cab to get us to the airport, we each have our back pack suffed full of clothes and cameras, I brought along my guitar so I could play for Heather on her birthday.
The cab driver seems fine as we drive through Bangkok even tho he is a little jerky in his driving however we notice something is wrong when approching the airport the cabbie misses the "Passenger Terminal" exit and starts taking us to "Air Cargo". Now I know I'm a fat guy but I don't need to fly Air Cargo! We think that maybe this is a back route so we don't say anything untill he pulls up to the bus terminal and askes for directions, we drove past five different signs that said where to go! With new directions in his head the cab driver turns down a few back alleys and gets us on to some type of major road and almost gets hit by a truck and we almost run into another cab, needless to say Heather and I are not impressed at this point. Heather knows that we need to turn left at the next road and tells the driver and he almost doesn't turn down the street, she said it almost a half a dozen times. Finally approaching the Passenger Terminal the cab driver almost drives into a flag person who is directing traffic.
After paying the cab driver we arrive with about twenty minutes before take off so we check in and start to run to our departure gate which just happens to be the farthest terminal away from us. We started by standing on the moving walkways and eventually we were jogging on them just to make the flight. We eventually arrive at our gate and board the plane with minutes to spare.
The flight over was nice and short, they gave us a Meal in a box that was comprised of juice, water, and salad with some kind of chicken product that I couldn't really identify. Once we landed and went down to the baggage claim I had to sift through the Euro trash to get to my guitar that they made me check even though some of the noisey kids they allowed on the flight were bigger than my guitar. After leaving the airport building and buying shuttle tickets to Ao Nang, which was the closest beach that we could get to that night, we spent about half an hour sitting around on the concrete being told one thing then five minutes later another. Finally we were escorted to a shuttle van that transported Heather and myself and a flight attendant to Ao Nang which was pretty busy for a small beach town on a Friday night.
Walking up and down the main street we were asked every few steps if we wanted a room. "Cheap! Cheap! Come now!" All the cheap cheap rooms were Groooooooss! A few of them were run by white people and Heather and I both felt sketchy about taking a room in Thailand from a white person, call me paranoid but I didn't want some Thai girl to knock on our door at midnight telling us that the front counter had sent her. We soon found "The Ao Nang Palace Hotel" and at 800 baht a night it was a steal! Nice clean room with a private balconey, mini fridge, TV, full bathroon with a nice shower, and a big bed. For $24 a night I would recomend it to anyone staying in Ao Nang.
This was the view from our room. 
The next day we discouvered that Ao Nang did not have a very nice beach at all and Raillay beach seemed more and more apealing by the second.
Boarding a long tail boat for 60 baht we were sped over to Ton Sai beach then Raillay East then Raillay West, had we stayed on the boat we would have discouvered Pranang Beach the first day which is the nicest beach in that area. However because we didn't know what was where we spent most of the day walking around the mud flat type beaches of Raillay East, having a couple drinks at this small resturant where all the wait staff seemed to be moonlighting ladyboys, later we took a boat back to Ton Sai Beach and booked into one of the cheapest places we could find and promptly fell asleep because the heat had taken it's toll on us.
Later that day we sat and watched the sunset and took and early night.
Sunday was Heather's Birthday and we had planned on going over to another of the beaches and going for a walk up to a look out point that we had seen on one of the maps. First we needed to change accomidations so before breakfast we packed up our stuff and treked up to another "Resort" which was much nicer than our first choice. We walked around a bit but then I noticed that the heat was really getting to me because I started to see spots in my vision, so we went back to the room and I realized that I haden't drank any water so I was starting to show the first signs of dehydration. We got some "oral rehydration salts" and they definatly helped but they had the strangest picture on the package. It looked like a little bear kicking the other in the head.
We spent the evening first at a bar where there was a pool table, that I beat Heather at twice, and then we went to a nice resturant that had amazing Bar-b-q chicken, potatoes, and corn.
Monday we finally got out to Pranang beach and saw some of the most amazing rock formations that I have ever seen.
If ever at Raillay beach check out Pranang because it has the best sand, the best view and it is the most secluded.
We didn't spend a lot of time on Pranang because we had to catch our flight later in the day so we took a boat over to Ao Nang and as we were eating lunch it started to rain again, really hard. We spent a couple hours at the resturant and then took a taxi down to to the air port for a short flight home and great ending to a great weekend.
Talk to you soon
Ray
Thursday, November 02, 2006
To the Grand Palace
On Wednesday I went out on my first big excursion alone to the Grand Palace and I was stunned at all the detail that went into creating these buildings. When I first got there my taxi driver dropped me off infront of the gates and I got harranged by a Thai who told me that the Grand Palace was closed untill 1:30 for the Thai people only, it was 12:00 at this point, so instead of standing around waiting I could take a Tuk Tuk tour and see a huge 45m tall Buddha then go to some shops around Bangkok. Heather had warned me that this would happen and to not listen to people like this because it is just a waste of time, however I was kinda curious about the standing Buddha so I climbed aboard the Tuk Tuk and took off on a journey of amazment and annoyance. The frist stop was the standing Buddha which was stunning I have never seen anything like that before, it was huge!
This little scupture caught my eye because of all the fine detailing on the sides. On each level was an intricate design of figures resembling demons or people.
After the Buddha my Tuk Tuk driver took me to a bunch of different shops that I probably wouldn't have gone into on my own. He took me to six different shops: two tailors, two jewelery shops, a travel and tourisim shop and some handi craft store. The idea was that I spend at least five minutes in each one and he gets a kick back on free gas or something. So if ever at the Grand Palace and someone tells you it's closed, go check for yourself. After an hour and a half on a Tuk Tuk I was about ready to lose my lunch but luckly the trip was over and I could now explore the Grand Palace.
I was amazed at all the fine detail that the Grand Palace held from the figurines to the buildings there was care and effort put into every inch of the place. I didn't get a tour guide to show me around because I was kind of sick of going around with someone that I didn't know and didn't want to be around so I explored the site on my own.
After about an hour I was sun baked and tired of walking around so I hopped into a cab and went to meet Heather at her school. The cabbie wanted 700 baht for the cab ride, I paid about 200 on the way over, and I was about ready to get out and get another cab but then I bartered down to 400 and was so tired from the day that I just wanted to go so I paid the extra baht and we were
on our way.Today we are going to Wat Hin for the weekend, it is a little place in the North east of Thailand just south of Laos. I'm pretty excited to go out of Bangkok and get some much needed beach action.
Untill Next time
Ray
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