7-11

One thing that is hard to miss in Thailand are the gazillion 7-11 convenience stores. They're everywhere. Walking inside of one feels just like being home at the 7-11 on Livingston Avenue. There's really only one difference though -- some of these 7-11s have Monkeys climbing on their roofs:

Hannah became a big fan of the random monkeys in Phetchaburi:

Thai Kids Love Me

In this blog entry I'm just gonna state a fact: Thai kids love me. A picture says a thousand words:

Look at the disappointment on their faces when I had to leave:




Okay, the truth is not all Thai kids love me. I'd say it's around 99% though. Here's the 1% that wants nothing to do with me:

Monk Bar Mitzvah

Hannah and I returned to Phetchaburi and had the day to sight see before catching a train to Bangkok. Phetchaburi is a city known for its many Wats (temples) so we started to do a walking tour, on our own, of the city. After living in Southeast Asia for quite some time already, Wats don't really get me that excited. Sure there are some amazing ones but after a while it's like looking at churches in Europe -- they all start to blend.

However, this day turned out to be pretty memorable. At our first stop on the temples tour, we spotted something very strange -- a bloody hand print on a temple wall. There was no explanation for this bloody hand print and nobody seemed to be bothered by it. Hannah and I just stared at it, awkwardly laughed at the oddity of it, and then catalogued it as Mystery #1 in Thailand.

(PICTURE: Mystery #1 on our trip.)

After the temple now known as the "Bloody Hand Print Temple", Hannah and I crossed the street to another temple. I heard some music playing in the distance and followed the noise. I walked into a large room and found about eight people playing various musical instruments. I continued to walk around the inside of the building until I came to a monk barbershop. A couple of teenagers and one young kid were getting their head shaved.

The monks offered to shave my head, and although this would have been a great blog entry, I decided to decline for two reasons: 1. My curly hair is a big hit in Asia. 2. The monks didn't appear to be changing razor blades.

It turned out that one of the teenagers who was getting his head shaved was there for more than just a haircut. I don't know exactly what the ceremony was but it appeared to be some kind of Bar Mitzvah/Communion. The kid's mother invited us to join their family for food and well, the Augusts never turn down free food!
(PICTURE: Hannah with our new friends.)

You might notice in the above picture that the little girl is wearing a Playboy t-shirt. Although this seems highly inappropriate to be wearing a Playboy shirt in a religious place, this is actually kind of normal. Playboy, from my observations, is seen as a symbol of beauty here and not pornography.

After lunch the kids in the picture invited us to come listen to some music with them. We went back into the temple and sat on the periphery of a drum circle. The afternoon ended with me chugging a Red Bull with all the musicians...although weirdly I was the only one who chugged mine.

Jungle Odds And Ends

I promise this is my last post about our jungle trek. Here's a little montage of some videos I took.

Bird Watching Isn't For Dweebs Anymore

(PICTURE: My bird watching outfit.)

Hannah and I had read that Kaeng Krachan National Park was the best spot in Thailand for bird watching. Naturally we immediately thought, "Bird watching is lame." Well, it didn't take us long to get into it. Or should I say, it didn't take me long to get into it:

(PICTURE: These telescopes were awesome. You got so close to the birds it looked like the opens credits to Twin Peaks.)

(PICTURE: Me with my kindred spirits.)

(PICTURE: Identifying birds in the book.)

There were tons of cool birds but by far the coolest was a gigantic bird called the hornbill something. You could hear the bird coming from like a mile away with its gigantic flapping wings. It sounded like a helicopter. I'm pretty sure it is a direct descendant of the terradactyl.

Night Hike

Let's travel back in time together. The last time we heard about the adventures of Ben and Hannah they were in the largest national park in Thailand looking for elephants...

Tom, our tracker/guide who had a large mysterious scar across his face, told us we'd have our best chance of finding elephants at night. There was only one problem -- Tom left all the flashlights except one back in Phetchaburi. So yeah, we were going to hike into the jungle with ONE flashlight. The last time I went on a night hike was back in Camp Airy in Thurmont, Maryland circa 1993. That trip left me with a scar on my arm and left Jeremy Bier with a lifelong fear of hiking. But that's a story for another time.

So we followed Tom down a pitch black road. The first thing that we saw was this sign:

Yeah, not exactly the thing you want to see when hiking at night. Hannah and I started to joke about this ridiculous little adventure we were on and I can only assume our giggles scared away all the big animals. Over the next hour all we saw was more elephant poop and the biggest millipede I've ever seen. The things was like a small snake.

After our fruitless adventure we got back to camp and stared at the spectacular stars for a little while. Hannah and I were the last ones to go to our tent and the waiting paid off. Out of the corner of my eye I saw an animal. PAY DIRT!!!!

It turned out to be a porcupine.

Finally Hannah and I went to our tents where we preceded to freeze our asses off for the next six hours until breakfast.
(PICTURE: Hannah and I in our tent)

Swearing In

Swearing in can have two meanings when it comes to politics:

1. When a politician puts his hand on a religious book and takes an oath.

2. When Vice President Dick Cheney swears at a US Senator while in Congress.

Here's pictures from yesterday of the first kind of swearing in:


Congratulations again, Dad! Thanks for appointing me the Livingston Ambassador to Vietnam!