Colin & Stu: We were told there'd be pad thai

Thanks for listening...

2008-10-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Firm Handshakes and firm annihilation of an unsuspecting dance floor

2008-10-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

Evidence of Colin and I parting ways. Colin went on to miss his flight shortly after this photo. (Beacuse we shook hands for so long).

Before we parted ways, however, we had what Tara Reid would dub "Wild on Kho Phi Phi". (Luckily, we didn't see Tara Reid, and thusly didn't have to throw up on ourselves).

The night started with a fine beachside dinner

I think Colin would agree with this: One of the biggest takeaways from this trip is that if you're going on a beautiful beach vacation (and you're not keenly interested in making nice with the chain smoking lushes from other westernized countries), bring a girl.

That aside, I can say that we had a blast and made exceptional due.

Our evening started at the "Reggae Bar", which would insinuate a chill, laid back atmosphere with hot island beats. However, a better description of the bar would be "Fight Club meets the Birdcage meets Saturday Night Fever" directed by Paul Reubens.

The bar had Thai boxing ring, a lady boy (e.g. drag) show, all sorts of table games, and a dance floor that Colin and I forever made our b!tch. (Sadly, I could not find a talking blue chair).

They had some legit Muay Thai Fighting..

They had some underage Muay Thai fighting..

And then they had some amateur Muay Thai Fighting...

(Now would be a good time to mention there are no discernible rules in Thailand or any SE Asian Country. Families of 4 ride on motor scooters (helmets seemingly not invented there), Extended Families of 20 ride in the back of Pick-Up trucks on highways and _____ (insert anything unsafe)).

We befriended some Canadians, and one of them decided to put his drink down and kick some ass. We were his entourage/trainers, and more so, we were ecstatic to not be in the ring.

After ending in a tie, they both exited the ring and presumably kissed their sister.

The boxing segway'd to the dance floor portion of the evening, where we explored the art of the white man's overbite and sweating:

Angkor Wat: A Remarkably Unfunny Title

2008-10-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

Stuart and I parted ways in Bangkok on Friday. While he was going back to the good old US of A, while I decided to postpone reality by just a couple of days and check out the great temples of Angkor Wat. While I was excited to start off on the next, and final, leg of my journey, it was sad to say goodbye to Stu. Aside from the fact that we'd had a terrific time together, his boyish charm and steely good looks had proved invaluable in dealing with the locals, and negotiating my way through Cambodia without him struck me as a daunting task. But I pushed on and came out relatively unscathed.

For detailed information on the history of Angkor Wat click here, otherwise, continue reading for my brief and likely inaccurate description that I picked up while I was there: located in Cambodia (national motto: "Hello sir, you want massage?"), Angkor Wat is an enormous and inspiring cluster of temples and cities built by the Ancient Khmer between the 10th century and 16th century. The flagship of them all is the actual Angkor Wat, which is the pride and joy of Cambodia...it's featured on the flag and is the subject of the (pretty tasty) national beer.

There are many other temples than Angkor Wat in the complex though, which spans about 10 square miles or so. Basically every leader (or living god, as he was proclaimed) kept trying to one up the guy before him in terms of grandiosity and scale. This system was probably a real pain in the ass for the builders at the time, but it makes for some excellent temple-looking. While Cambodia is a largely Buddhist country, the temples were actually built to honor the Hindu gods, as the ancient Khmer were sold on the faith after sampling a particularly tasty chicken tikka masala dish (note: I just made that up, but wouldn't be surprised if it was true).

Okay, history lesson is over.

I had a motorcycle dude drive me around (I was on the back of the bike, which took a little getting used to), and I climbed and explored the temples for about 9 hours and had a blast.

WARNING: Significant Temple footage follows

High Angkor Wattage

Monkey walking across the bridge to Angkor Wat...that's not a lake but a moat, and a pretty serious one if I say so myself.

Drive by one of the temples

Riding through the gate to the ancient city/temples of Angkor Thom

Ta Prohm Wat...I liked this one, the jungle has really overrun the place. Part of Tomb Raider was filmed here...anyone else noticed the trend of us visiting the filming locations for crappy movies?

My main man Jim (probably not his real name) who drove me around. He thought I was the coolest guy around because I'm from California. Had a penchant for talking to me while driving when I would have preferred he kept his eyes on the road.

I didn't run into as many other fans of the Terps 2003 National Champion basketball team as I expected at Angkor Wat

Face of Jayavarman VII at the Bayon temple...there are about 200 or so of these faces carved into the walls of this temple, note the slight smile which was supposedly added to convey a sense of humanity for this powerful king.

Traveling alone can get lonely, but luckily I made a bunch of new friends!

This would have gotten annoying

Report: That total loser from your high school spotted wearing attention grabbing T-shirt

2008-10-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

As a people, we need to host a summit regarding the culture of dumb jock/ho T-shirts in vacation spots.

It's one thing for stupid shirts to be available for sale, however the crime is when people buy these shirts and wear them.

Don't get me wrong, funny t-shirts have a dear place in this world, but the ones Colin and I have seen at the Beaches (ex. below) almost make you wish for a specialized tsunami to come through town picking off only these t-shirt doters.

Note: I do like how there is one "Thailand" t-shirt with an old ship strewn among the examples of what to wear if you don't want to make or have friends.

If you'll note the "Sex Instructor- First Lesson Free" design; this one is experiencing tickle-me-elmo-type sales velocity in the creepy 40+ old man division.

Colin and I were in Kho Phi Phi- pronounced Go Pee Pee (Just like your parents used to request of you). Kho Phi Phi was one of the harder hit areas during the 12/26/04 Tsunami, with nearly all non-concrete buildings being destroyed (Some concrete buildings were brought down too). After several years of rebuilding, the island's popularity has returned to its pre-tsunami levels, however, almost 4 years after the tragedy, there is still considerable re-construction underway.

Areas still being re-developed.

The tsunami hit the shoreline on the left and washed completely over into the bay on the right, taking out many of buildings and people in the lowlands. ps. I was obviously kidding about the specialized tsunami thing... that comment and the t-shirts are all very tasteless.

Other news:
Pics from a beach hopping, snorkeling boat trip..

Bad movie reference warning: This is the beach that "The Beach" was filmed. The beach is certainly no longer a secret.. It actually receives more visitors a day than vpilf.com

Colin, after finding his second(!) treasure chest. Luckily no pirates stole the loot.. (I suppose we developed a good rapport with them, since we were staying at the "Pirates House" hotel in town. Seriously. Sounds corny. And it is.)

I have a very urgent announcement.....! CANNONBALL!!!

This was not our boat, but it followed us the entire time. When we were leaving the dock, Colin and I were jealous that this boat had lots of young people and seemed to be the party boat, while ours contained only a dozen people, mostly old... Apparently, we're losing our edge (read: might need to start wearing raunchy t-shirts to regain edge), because by mid-day we were so happy to be lounging about on our spacious ship, and not having to deal with the drunk youth. (Book clubs/regularity discussions/AARP, here we come).

Our spacious digs. Side note: The girl in pink is a very enthusiastic and loud Chinese girl. One of our fellow boat goers mentioned that she was a tad on the annoying side, and Colin aptly submitted that "She's actually pretty entertaining.. I'm just really happy she's not my girlfriend". (Poor guy in white bending over).

Her reaction to seeing a 3 inch fish was the equivalent of a normal person seeing a 3 ton shark. This proved to almost make me shit myself when I jumped into the water (which sharks reportedly roam), surfaced and she-from the boat-started pointing at the water and yelling frantically in Chinese.

She was pointing at a blue angel fish.

Bend it like Babar

2008-10-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

When Colin was bedridden on his 36 hour hiatus from "the living", Mary and I took a jaunt to the local elephant park to consume elephants in humanitarian research, entertainment, commerce, transport, scent and bodily fluid (not planned).

Due diligence findings are as follows:

Humanitarian Research: All zoos and fee admission animal parks are depressing. This was no different.

Entertainment: Sadness over animal living conditions can be temporarily suspended due to absolutely spectacular animal shows. The video below is pretty awesome.

Other tricks included lots of hat stealing, rolling over like a dog, relay races and an elephant competing against a 16 year old boy in darts, and hitting its first 4, while the boy traumatizingly missed his first 6. If that guy goes postal anytime in the next 50 years, I'm convinced it'll be the elephant's fault. (Elephant stole his hat too).

Elephant Commerce (E-Commerce): The second best purchase by your blog contributors since trip conception is an elephant painting. (#1- obviously shants).

The far right contributing artist is in the special needs program.

E-Transport: More uncomfortable than a Cutco knife salesman knocking on Owen Wilson's door.

E-Scent: Poo cutlet and used band aids.

Bodily Fluid: Not great. Mary and I took a pretty jerky and uncomfortable elephant ride (as alluded to), and halfway through, the guide stopped to take some pictures. Just as he was about to snap the first picture, the elephant lifted his trunk up over his head and snot rocketed whatever occupies his snout directly in my face and on my shirt (Mary was luckily outside emitting trajectory). The following pic gives a decent indication of the aftermath.

A Snout (not during expulsion episode).

The male elephants' credo: Live hard, Walk hard, Hope no one sees us hard.
The male elephants' pet peeve: Thong-like apparati.

Other news:

Went to a shooting range while Colin took an elephant ride in Phuket (I could have gone with him, but was fearful of the E-boner). To shoot a handgun in the U.S. you have to take at least an hour long training session. In Phuket, Thailand: I walked in, shot 10 bullets and was out in 3 minutes.

We had a hard time convincing the waitress of our discount qualifications.

Phuket?! I hardly know it!

2008-10-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings Blogfans,

We've actually already left Phuket, but I thought of that title a week and a half ago and was determined to fit it in somehow. We've moved into the beach phase of our trip, as we flew to Phuket yesterday from Chiang Mai (where we were staying with the aforementioned miracle woman known as Mary...check out her blog to follow her great adventure). Stuart will have a different opinion of Chiang Mai than I did, as I was laid up with a pretty gnarly case of food poisoning while we were there (I'm fine now, thanks for asking). However, before I spent the next 36 hours wishing I was dead, we did all check out Tiger World, which is way cooler than Leech World, which we visited in Laos. Photos of us with tigers below:

Stu, Mary and Me with a big fella (has been declawed)...if we ever start a band, this is the album cover. Note that Stu is a little hesitant to actually touch the tiger.

I shelled out a few extra Baht to play with the one month old cubs. I'm going to use these photos mainly to get chicks.

This one was delicious. Overall, Tiger World was Grrrrrrrrrrrreat!

Stuart has kickass photos and videos from his and Mary's trip to the elephant park, but since I couldn't go I'm pretending it didn't happen.

Phuket is a tropical island in southern Thailand and is geared towards pasty white folks with a penchant for knock-off designer goods (ours aren't knock-offs, though, we've been assured that they're all real). A view of the warm waters of the Indian Ocean from our hotel is below.

This morning we boarded a boat to the island paradise of Ko Phi Phi, about a 90 minute trip from Phuket. This is where the movie The Beach was filmed...while I found the movie to be one of the worst movies of the past 300 years, the scenery was pretty so here we are. We just got in a few minutes ago, but so far it looks spectacular. It kind of has a Jurassic Park kind of feel to it, with lush jungles covering steep cliffs, and I keep expecting a pterodactyl to fly out of the trees at some point. Well, not really expecting it since dinosaurs are extinct, but you know what I mean. We'll follow up with pictures of this beautiful place (sans dinosarus...most likely) in the next couple of days.

Rock on.

It's a short, it's a pant, it's Shants!

2008-10-19T03:34:00.001-07:00

If you look closer, our esteemed hero, Colin wore a lengthy pair of fluorescent white shorts on the Gibbon Experience. The shorts were reportedly an under-understood online purchase of what appeared to be shorts, but upon further investigation, may not be. They are touted as the "Kobe Bryant Basketball" shorts, a fact that has had <0 impact on the foreigners we've talked about the shorts with. As mentioned, these 21st century jams were the pinnacle of white before the gibbon trip. However, if you've ever been outside, you're keenly aware of the resource, dirt. Shant brightness time line:

The Gibbons even made Colin bleed his own blood.

We didn't see any gibbons in the end, so we drank.

On the bus after GibbonX, Colin contemplates Plessy vs. Ferguson verdict.

I've probably been hogging the blog airtime of late, however, Colin is feeling a touch under the weather, and as they say in the industry, "two dudes doing things" doesn't sleep. We've been covering lots of ground in the last few days, traversing from Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand where we're staying with a friend, Mary, who recently moved here to start up an Ice Cream store.

I encourage you to let that marinate for a moment.. And then go to your copy room, load letter paper and put a three hole punch through your Achilles. Mary, fresh out of law school, has quite possibly the most amazing gig I can think of. She is working for a European NGO who hired her to start up a Gelato-style Ice Cream store, and so she is in the process of ex-Pat networking, looking for a Thai business partner, a store location (likely in the New Mandrian Hotel) and once those are in place, building a viable retail operation with suppliers, employees and customers who want to drop it like it's Baht. It has been exceedingly nice staying at her house, and so, Mary, if you read this; Thank you, and we're sorry for hogging your computer.

We're only in Chiang Mai until Monday, but in two days we've managed to paint the town beige. Tigers, Elephants, a rented mini-vanish Toyota and a matadortravel.com meet-up featuring too much Sangsom whiskey. More on that if interested: http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/united+states/stu/travel-blog

All Colin ate at breakfast this morning.

How many gibbons does it take to make an experience?

2008-10-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

Colin mentioned we were off on the "Gibbon Experience" and I suppose it'd be prudent to give a better explanation of what experiencing "the gibbon" means...

While this photograph could explain it all,

a more accurate description of the Gibbon Experience is 2 days of treehouse living in the Bokeo Jungle of Northern Laos, while ziplining, hiking and waterfall swimming. Oh, and you also eat the same gross poo cutlet (with sticky rice!) for every meal.

The food may have tasted like soggy armpits, but everything else was spectacular (with the possible exception of getting molested by leeches on day 2 and not seeing any gibbons).

Here are a few video clips of the ziplining.. It was pretty awesome. The first one is of Colin breaking the sound barrier, and the other two are from my not-so-sturdy hand-cam. Volume recommended.

More to come on Colin being Tarzan and Me Jane, but in the meantime please see some photographic back up of previous posts.

Individually Pocketed Cement Blocks- Wake up feeling like you slept on air-brushed steel plates!

An exceedingly pleasant open air evening in Chiang Rai. Apparatus (stage left) assisted in pleasantness.

Thai Massages: Apathetic Endings

2008-10-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

We did get massages, but not THAT kind of massage, you pervert.

Greetings from Houay Xai, Laos! After a whirlwind few days in Thailand (it's hard to believe we're only on day 3...it seems like a week), we crossed the mighty Mekong River.

We made it across the river safely, and are resting up in a guest house where we're sleeping on a couple of slabs of concrete cleverly disguised as beds. They're comfortable in the same way that sandpaper underwear is comfortable.

A quick recap of the past few days:

- I made a quick trip to the Grand Palace in Bangkok yesterday morning, and the place quite literally knocked my socks off. That palace has more gold than Li'l Jon's grill (not sure if people are still making Li'l Jon jokes, but I thought I'd test the waters).

- We hopped a flight to Chiang Rai in the afternoon (narrowly making our flight due to the slowest taxi in history). Chiang Rai is the "Gateway to the Golden Triangle"...the Golden Triangle is where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet and is infamous for its poppy production. For those of you who saw American Gangster, this is where Denzel came to get his heroin straight from the source. Stuart and I failed to make any such connections...yet. It was nice to get out of Bangkok and into a quieter town where we weren't approached every twenty seconds by a street vendor trying to sell us something. There were definitely fewer farrang in this part of the country ("farrang" is Thai for "gringo").

We had an exceedingly pleasant time in Chiang Rai (picture of me in front of some sort of gold thingy in CR above), highlighted by dinner in an open market where we feasted on grilled squid, crab, friend chicken tendons, spring rolls and a few Leo beers. It was a warm night, a full moon shining down on us, and there was a stage set up where traditional Thai dances and a troubadour sang sad songs about lost love (that was our guess, at least). Stuart and I soaked it all in and talked about life, and it was good.

We then retired to a bar where Mr. Poole proceeded to fleece me in Connect Four, and my warm feelings toward him from our dinner at the market quickly turned cold.

After an interesting/cramped/sweaty bus ride through the countryside to the Thai-Laos border this afternoon (picture of Stuart looking awesome on the bus is below), we'll be heading into the jungle with the Gibbon Experience tomorrow morning, where we'll be ziplining through the jungle, hiking to waterfalls, and sleeping in tree houses for three days...life is so hard.

An update on the official "Perpetual Sweatiness Level" (sponsored by Old Spice), today was:

Spotty

Damp

Soggy

Soaked

Now we're off in search of dinner.

1 Kume, 2 Kups

2008-10-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Bullet Points:

- พี่ ผมชอบเพลงถ้าพรุ่งนี้ฉัน..... The Thai language is officially impossible. The only word Colin and I know how to say is Kup Kume Kup, which means thank you. We think.

- Bangkok wrap up: As intrepid travelers, Colin, our friend Tim, and I decided to visit ground zero of the political riots (The capital building) to view some riot police and breathe in some tear gas. However, 3 blocks from the capital building, we passed a Maui Thai Fighting arena, and since Colin and I had to settle our public opinion poll, we gave up on the coup viewing and went inside to watch skinny 18 year olds kick one another in the face really hard.

-Colin enjoying the fight, and likely visualizing our Maui Tahi bout (Jetlag really works!)

-A sad state of affairs is the fact that locals walk their Elephants through busy streets of Bangkok asking people for money to feed their Elephant, and probably themselves. It's quite cruel.

-In other news: As I'm sitting at the computer terminal typing (staring straight at the monitor), there is a crazy black toothed Australian man standing one foot to my right telling me (in a whisper) how he blew up a call center building last night by sending a text from a phone that he found on the street (which had the phone numbers of VERY important public figures.. So important in fact, that he can't tell me who). He's wearing a cowboy hat, a teal shirt and the phone was was a nokia. He's convinced that it's a conspiracy and that they're listening. Maybe that's why he's whispering..

- I really wish I was kidding.

-He is making me quite uneasy.

-I need to leave.

Family Man Face's Off in 60 Seconds with Conair product

2008-10-12T02:37:00.001-07:00

I haven't seen Bangkok Dangerous-a Nick Cage joint- but if I had to plot guess, I would say it's 90% Nick Cage giving dangerously handsome looks to the adoring public, 9% weaving and bobbing through traffic as a terrified Tuk Tuk passenger (w/ automatic weapon), and the remaining 1% is Nick Cage needing a minute to think things over before acting upon a hunch.

Regardless, people are too nice in Bangkok to have a movie title slander its city like that.. I heard from a reliable source that the political riots are actually based on Nick Cage.

Since Colin and I are already the most popular people on the street markets, we've been targeted as persons who need a wardrobe update. To the street vendors, we are poorly dressed dollar signs, a designation we can't necessarily disagree with. Every third shop is an "armani" custom suit tailor. We will probably end up getting a custom suit for $50USD, however, Colin and I have been VERY stern with our wishes that the finished product not deviate from the below design and color:

Travel (and life) Tip #132- When writing on glossy items, ball point pens are of critical importance, unless you're a lover of all things smudgy. Also, we recommend writing on a flat surface; not your non-writing hand.

Ps. If you know Colin, you're aware he is incredibly modest, and won't unabashedly spread word on a great accomplishment, so I am going to do it for him- Yesterday at the pool, he did a text book pencil dive(!)

Bangkok Not So Dangerous

2008-10-12T02:22:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Thailand today (I think it's Sunday, but it's hard to be certain) after about 24 hours of travel, and I can safely say that both Stu and I have that not-so-fresh feeling. We're fairly zombie-like right now, which may be apparent by the quality of this post.

We've been in country for about 4 hours now and have only been ripped off twice so far, so we're keeping up a pretty good pace. Also, I probably shouldn't have worn my t-shirt that has "Sucker" written across the front. The thing is, when you're getting ripped off, you know it's only for an extra dollar or so, and these people certainly seem like they need the money so I don't feel too bad about it.

All the big ticket tourist attractions are closed for the day, so we just took a tuk tuk ride through town (example of tuk tuk below...ours wasn't full of vegetables, unfortunately). It was a harrowing and exciting ride, but we made three stops: at a mildly impressive Buddha statue, at the tuk tuk owner's travel agency, and at his brother's clothing store. We're satisfied that this gentleman lived up to his end of the bargain and gave us the best tour of Bangkok he could...40 Baht (about $1.10) well spent, if you ask me.

Initial observations:
- it's HOT here
- there are far more 7-11s here than there are in the US
- we get approached every 20 seconds by somebody trying to sell us something. Apparently we're not blending in with the locals as well as I thought we would.
- knowing how to speak one word of Thai would be useful, but we're not there yet
- it's pretty hot

Our "hotel" has a pool, so we're going to spend the rest of the day doing cannonballs.

We're off like the bug spray

2008-10-10T22:22:00.001-07:00

Our parting words as we gear up for a 20 hour flight:

"Given the anemic amenities of U.S. air carriers, we're not altogether unexcited for plane food, and those hot towels"

Pre-Trip Jitters

2008-10-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our bags are packed, the arrangements have been made, and the econo-packs of underpants have been purchased. It looks like we're about ready to shove off into the great unknown that is Thailand.

I have some different feelings going into this trip. Mostly, I'm incredibly psyched to be getting away for two weeks and exploring a new part of the world. I was in Walgreen's today buying bug repellent, and looked at the guy next to me and snidely thought "I bet he's not buying bug repellent for the jungles of Laos" (Note: I'll feel like SUCH a jerk if I see that guy in the jungles of Laos).

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous...I've been lucky enough to do a decent amount of traveling in my day, but I've always pretty much gone to places where the people look more or less like me (except for the Greeks...I don't look anything like the Greeks). There's also been some political turmoil in Bangkok these days, so we packed our riot gear. Sure they'll charge us $25 to check the extra bag, but I've learned from experience that you shouldn't join a Thai protest without your gas mask. Despite the vast cultural differences and impending violent coup, I hear that the Thai love karaoke, so I think we'll get along just fine.

Stu and I had our art department put together a lifelike mock-up photo of what we think our trip will realistically look like. It's important to note that our art department really sucks.

Next stop: Bangkok

Here's hoping we're not sitting near any babies on the 14 hour flight!

Preparatory Level: Mustard Brown

2008-10-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

With less than two days before trip commencement, we'd like to provide a report on our physical and mental well being:

Our hero, C$, has exhausted his home of all Kleenex-type products. This isn't because he's creating a mummy costume for Halloween*, but rather because he's fending off cold-like symptoms. When asked how he was feeling while home from work on Wednesday, Colin added; "Not feeling great, but I'll be alright. The best part is all the construction they're doing outside my window".

There is further evidence that Colin's wisdom teeth are coming in and they're hurting somewhat, which is primarily supported by the fact that he can feel his wisdom teeth coming in and they, in his words, "don't feel great".

As for your other corresp., he's battling an unexpected 0.025 ounce foe. Stu moved into 561 Waller St. approximately one month ago, and the former resident of his room (for sake of keeping her identity confidential, we'll call her Allie Powéll) had one parting wish: "Don't let the long potted vine in my room die.. Seriously, I'll be really pissed".

(switching from third person) Who am I to play plant god and choose which one lives and dies?? So water it, I have. What I couldn't anticipate was the variety and quantity of insects living in the potted vine. I've experienced moths, mosquitoes, no see-ems & what sounded like a hummingbird.

I typically wake up with 2-3 fresh bug bites in the morning. Or I stay awake (obviously eyes wide open huddled in the corner of my bed with the sheets tucked up to my neck) listening for a buzz and then slapping my face/ear/head. A subordinate drawback is that I'm sitting at my desk right now thinking I'm getting bit by bugs. Don't tell Ms. Powéll, but her plant is being demoted to the storage room.

Other than that, our physical and mental states are great and we're at "excited to not work for two weeks level: Orange".

Fondly,

swp

*Yet.

Meticulous Analysis, Planning and Hair- The Rise of Thailand

2008-10-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

By way of background, this is how our trip to Thailand surfaced:

Conversation in Spring 2008-

Colin: "I want to go to Thailand"
Stu: "I want to go to Thailand"

Conversation in Summer 2008-

Colin: "We should probably go to Thailand"
Stu: "I think you're right"

Conversation in Late Summer 2008 while on Expedia-

Stu: "Should I press buy?"
Colin: "The elephants aren't going to ride themselves"

And so, Colin and Stu are off to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia for two weeks, and they're blogging along the way. By our estimates, this is the first blog ever made.

Solemn promise:
Our postings won't be too long.

Some passed over names when choosing a blog title:

1) Colin & Stu Rollerblade the Unpaved Roads of Thailand
2) Thai Coup for the Twenty-somethings Soul
3) A blog that will leave you pregnant with emotion and thirsty for the right to choose.
4) We put the ail in Thailand
(Transitive verb: to give physical or emotional pain, discomfort)
5) How to Lose a Guide in 10 Days
6) When the economy hands you a turd sandwich, make abrupt exit to land of $10 piggyback rides up mountains!
7) Colin & Stu Cure the Thai Coup
8) Colin & Stu's blog: How the East Was Tied
9) Colin & Stu's blog: We're here for the Chiang Bang

Hero 1.

Hero 2.