San Francisco to Bangkok

The flight between SFO and Taipei, Taiwan is 13:25hrs but luckily Chris and I took an ambien, which knocked us out for 10hrs. Out of about 500 people on the completely full flight, there were about 10 other caucasians. We're definitely hitting SE Asia in the low season, which is a big plus if you ask me. Then there's Chris Marsh. If being 6 feet tall doesn't make you stick out among Asians, a cowboy hat sure will.
We finally made it to Bangkok around 11am and got a taxi into the city. We dropped off our winter gear at a storage facility and headed to the train station. We've decided to head to Chiang Mai and the North of the country for the week or so before Matt Martin gets into Bangkok. It's about $25 for an overnight train ride (9hrs) to the North. After 24hrs of traveling to get to Asia, it was a bit of a tough decision. The 91* temps here and 90% humidity may have had something to do with it. The North of the country is mountainous, so it's cooler.

With train tickets purchased, we wandered the streets for 4hrs before our 6pm departure. You can't walk more than 50 feet before bumping into a street food vender. The grilled frog was tempting, but we've decided to wait 'til our stomachs adjust before taking that one on. We chose a quiet shop serving fish ball soup. It was pretty tasty and scalding hot, so hopefully our stomachs will hold up. 2 big bowls of soup and 2 pepsi's was $2.
I decided a short tour of the area was in order, so we hopped on a tuk tuk, which is a small 2-person taxi. Basically, it's a motorcylce front end with a small cab in the back. It was a wild 30 minutes cruising around China Town and local areas. Our driver drove like he had a deathwish, crossing into oncoming traffic. It reminds me of driving with my brother. After that, we decided to cheat death again with some mystery meat off a hibachi grill by the train station. I had I think I just ate 4 or 5 chewy, pieces of meat on a stick that was likely the anus of some furry critter. That's the last time I trade my chicken skewer for Chris's mystery meat.

Chris's cowboy hat is attracting a lot of attention. He's known in these parts as the rhinestone cowboy. Think Johnny Carson show with the Beatles performing. That's how the lady boys are gonna react.