Finally a trip outside of Thailand with Mel that is not back to ‘Merica.
We hopped a fly fly to Vietnam this last weekend to go to another frisbee tournament. This was a larger one with probably 200-300 people(maybe more I don’t know). This was also a Hat tournament, meaning they draw teams at random for the most part. Of course they have to even the teams a bit so it doesn’t end up super lopsided. The tournament was spread over 2 days starting Saturday at about 9am. Busses picked everybody up around 7am near the motels and took us to the fields.
Last year Mel and I went to Phuket for a one day ultimate frisbee hat tournament(see post here)
This year we stayed at Naithon Beach in a very nice(for 800 baht) hotel.
The tournament was only a one day hat so we spent all of Saturday running through the sand..on the beach…in the nice warm air. That is my way of rubbing it in. Sorry, I have to do it. Some days we pay dearly for these weekends by living in Bangkok, so I take them when I can. You will read soon about how terrible it can be here too, but first, back to how awesome it can be. Read the full post…
3 days of ultimate. Camping on the beach. Dinner. Sun.
Nate picked me up from Mel’s folks on Friday and we drove to the fields. There we met up with Matt and Logan and the rest of the team.
The first day we had 2 really close games and things were looking alright. The 3rd game of the day, however, we lost 2-13 or something close to that.
The second day we started to realize that the other teams have been practicing together a lot more than we had and were in shape. I’ll shorten the scoreboard of those games and just tell you we lost another 3 games.
The last day of the tournament was play until you lose pretty much. We lost the first game to the team that took 2nd place. We then dropped into the losers bracket and won….last place.
We had so much fun playing though it was crazy. The tournament layout was the best I’ve ever had. No more than 3 games in a day. Bye’s to separate games(which meant swimming in the ocean). Great dinner at night…awesome.
After the tournament we stayed at The Edition: Waikiki. Tymer had a discount from being an associate of the Marriot so we got a sweet deal. This hotel was amazing. We walked down around Waikiki a bit and had dinner with everybody that had not left yet.
The next day the few of us that were left went surfing/snorkeling. Afterwards we hit up a local fish taco place that was pretty amazing, similar to how amazing watching Logan and Chris eat 6 of their taco’s!
Wednesday was a chill day and we basically walked around the International Market in Waikiki all day. That night I had dinner with Mel’s parents and some desert at Yogurtland. I learned from last time I was at Yogurtland that you can easily get way too much. I’m proud that I didn’t make myself sick this time. After they dropped me off at the Hotel, I found that Matt, Chris, Tymer and Logan were at the restaurant, Morimoto, in the Hotel so I decided to join. I didn’t realize that they were just getting started, so I ordered some Sake for everybody that was awesome. The meal they ordered was pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a restaurant. Huge plate of sushi, 2 sizzling bowls of something that they ended up preparing on the table for Logan and Matt. Everything was awesome.
For all of you back in Montanamerica, here is the story of how I spent my Thanksgiving.
Mel and I headed down to Phuket, Thailand for this last weekend. We took a flight from AirAsia.com and arrived Thursday morning. We tootled around on the beach and ate lunch at a beach side restaurant as well as dinner. The next morning we hopped on a tour that took us to Koh Phi Phi islands and also to Kai Island. If you have seen the movie The Beach, you might recognize the first pictures(but probably not because of all of the boats and tourists )
We had the lucky experience of having our boat break down about 15 minutes into the trip, thankfully not half way through, so we had to come back and get on another boat.
Then it was an hour ride to the bottom island of Koh Phi Phi where we got off on the beach that they filmed parts of The Beach.
There were so many boats and tourists it was actually quite depressing. So I took pictures to show how overcrowded it is and also of the toilets because they are funny to me.
After spending about 20 minutes on the beach we went directly across the bay and did some snorkeling. Because I have an awesome camera, I took it in the water with me and took some pictures and video.
They only let us snorkel for about 15 minutes before we left. I feel this was probably the highlight of the trip, and it was so short
Off we went to the other side of the island to see Viking Cave. This is where they harvest bird’s nest soup. Literally bird’s nests are taken from there and made into soup. Mel mentioned something about it being bird spit and some other nasty stuff that is a delicacy in China and other parts of Asia. No thank you for me.
We then proceeded about another 10 minutes and visited the highly tourist populated beach where we ate a buffet style lunch that was not that great. You can see all the speed boats here too. Not a fan of the super high traffic tourist areas of Thailand.
After lunch they took us about 40 minutes to Kai island which was basically a long beach on both sides separated by about 50 yards of rocky grass and trees. There really was no shade and they wanted 150 baht for 2 benches and an umbrella. Obviously just a semi-scam to get more money from everybody. We didn’t bring any extra money as the tour said all inclusive, so we opted for sun burnt skin until we found somewhere to hide in the shade where we took pictures of our feet.
The next day was the one day frisbee tournament(One Day Hat) which was the real reason we were there. The day was beautiful and the fields were amazing. The only problem with that day was the top field had no shade at all and a few people got a bit sun sick from all of the heat. Not anybody’s fault, just happened.
My thanks to James for putting on the awesome tournament.
After the tournament we went back to the beach we were staying near(Surin Beach) and all 44 people from the tournament went to the rock bar, which was on the end of the beach on the rocks. It was very nice as everybody jumped into the ocean with their frisbee clothes on and we threw the frisbee around and took a sea shower
Most of the players were slated to leave Sunday(Mel and I included), but mostly later at night, so we all met up on the beach and rented seats + umbrellas. The day was spent talking, swimming, short games of ultimate + volley ball. It was very fun and relaxing.
Here is a picture from both directions of Surin Beach.
Overall the trip was pretty awesome spending the 2 days with all the SoiDawgz and Phuket ultimate players. The day trip I would not recommend to anybody. Instead, try to get a trip to a more secluded island if you can. Our tour company was Gennaro. The guys that ran the trip were very nice, but the package was not worth the 3400/2 baht we paid.
Well I’m back to Thailand and very jet legged apparently. I keep waking up at like 4am and get super tired around 7. Anyways I thought I would write a little about my month long trip back to America.
My Agenda that I had from my last post
So, onto the agenda for my time back
Bucking Horse Sale
Visit Glendive and eat a bunch
Move stuff out of apartment in Bozeman
Visit Glendive more and eat more
Bozofest
Work week @ MSU
Fly back
So after the BHS I drove back to Glendive on that Sunday and stayed there for the better part of two weeks. I’m sure I gained at least 10 pounds thanks to mom(See picture below of her freezer and you will understand slightly how the feeding process works)
I spent some days working at the kitchen table on my laptop for MSU while being constantly reminded that the treats that were on the table were for Wilbur, aka Grunt. Basically he sat on the floor for hours on end just staring at me and grunting until I gave him food. For the times he wasn’t doing that he was doing this
I’m sure glad I’m not a dog so I wouldn’t have to have such a rough life.
The first weekend after BHS we loaded up the van and drove up to Bozeman where we met my brother Greg and sassy sister Nikki. We spent the next few days moving my stuff out of my apartment and into a trailer to haul back to Glendive. The weekend went by so fast I couldn’t believe it. We also celebrated my Dad’s birthday while everybody was together.
Back to Glendive to eat more or less I’m not sure it was basically a blur of eating constantly. It’s too good not to.
That Wednesday Nate drove down from Miles City and picked me up and we headed back to Bozeman for Bozofest. The weather was suppose to be rainy and cold just like every year. Well it was..sorta. Saturday we woke up to snow. Once we got to the fields it had stopped snowing and was fairly decent. About half way through our first game the sun popped out and it started to get very warm. Then a storm rolled in and rained and the wind kicked up. This repeated all day. We ended up only winning 1 game that day, but still had a blast.
Day 2 was windy but very sunny. It wasn’t very warm so I didn’t realize that it was so sunny until I got home and took a shower. Of course then I realized that it was sunny out as the hot water ran over all of my sunburns.
Tue, Wed, Thur I spent working on Campus just like old times and it was really fun. Jade and I haven’t had the chance to work together in a long time so it was a lot of fun. We didn’t exactly get everything done that we wanted to, but we did get a lot done
On Friday William drove me to the airport. The flights all went really well. I had no layovers at all anywhere which was fun. I got off the plane in SLC and walked almost directly onto the next flight to Tokyo. I got off at Tokyo and was escorted by Delta representative all the way to my JAL flight where I basically walked right on that one too. Somehow they gave me a Business class seat on the JAL flight which was awesome.
Now, I’m back and I’ve been working on straightening away my new teaching position which I will post on soon.
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