Yes, I am alive!

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i arrived in bangkok @ 2AM local time to find out that my bag didn't make it from LAX because "there wasn't enough time". oddly enough, i did have enough time to get a drink with a fellow passenger, walk all the way from the LAX commuter terminal to their international terminal and go through security. go figure.

so, what do you do in bangkok with no clothes, weaing flip flops and only a little bit of cash? that's right, you go to a late night massage parlor! my book mentioned that massage places that are open after 9pm are fronts for something else, but i took my chances. it was only 3am. and as advertised, it was just a massage.

after a couple hours of sleeping on airport chairs (a good thing to do after a massage loosens your back muscles) and getting sushi for breakfast, i ventured out to the riot/strike-ridden city of bangkok.
with a few hours to kill before my bag arrived, i ventured out to the "grand palace". i was too cheap to pay for a tour, so i can't tell you anything about what i saw. i could cheat and look it up on wikipedia, but sarah palin seems to have found the internets these days and i no longer trust that site...

you might be getting bored of "freeman took another picture with a foreign country's military", but it's only one picture. check out the pants they lent me to get in the palace! (they don't let you in with shorts and my pants were on a plane somewhere.)


by 3pm, i had visited a few bangkok sites and was back on an airplane with all my stuff to chiang mai where i basically slept until the next day in preparation for a mountain biking tour. i did an intermediate option thinking, "i know how to ride a freakin' bike!" alas, i apparently do not. i'd like to blame my performance on the jet lag, but in reality, it was just hard.... i don't mean hard to pedal, i mean hard to stay on the damn bike! and i totally recommend it! i was literally riding through the jungle w/ branches slapping my face not being able to see more than 5 feet in front of me at speeds that were totally unsafe. good times!

after biking, i grabbed some drinks and wandered around town w/ a korean women i met at the airport. check out the t-shirts they sell here:


here's me screwing around on a zip line. i know it's super touristy and cheesy, but it really was fun and i met some super fun peeps.


look at us rebels going well beyond that "do not cross line"....

later tonight, i'm going to see a thai boxing match. then gawd knows what i'll do tomorrow... hope everyone is doing well! i'm sure nick's dodgeball team has won at least won match by now...