An attempt at blogging about something other than food (by Dan)

Asian rain is no joke.

Since the only television I've watched over the past week has either been a) a brilliant Korean game show in which various entertainers try to launch themselves through odd shapes in a wall (somebody please find this on YouTube and share it with your friends. I'm currently in negotiations with a producer to bring this show to America and am expecting to make American Idol look like "Joey"); and b) an American television channel that runs a (possibly) illegal feed from Thai-captioned HBO and features a constant stream of Julia Roberts and Hillary Duff movies ("the moment I wake up....before I put on my make-up..."); I haven't had any official Weather Channel caliber education as to why it's raining so hard here. All I know is that every day, at least once a day, it freakin RAINS. And I'm not talking about a little American sun-shower, this rain has no mercy. It floods the streets within the first 30 seconds, it eats umbrellas, and I'm pretty sure I saw it take a guy's wallet.

Other than that, Thailand is pretty incredible.


We moved into a hotel across the city off Khosam Road, which is pretty much the Bourbon Street of Bangkok. Our hotel is located about 30 seconds from a 200-yard strip of bars, restaurants, and banana pancake stands. Our typical day is spent waking up, asking each other why it's so freaking hot in the room, catching a half hour of Chris Noth teaching the secrets of romance to swooning teenage girls in The Perfect Man (or a near equivalent), and then hitting the city in search of culture. So far we've found:


- A group of Thai kids playing a game which involves one kid curling up in a ball and counting to ten while seven other kids hide in a single file line behind a motorbike seven feet away. When the counting kid opens his eyes, he launches himself at the other kids, who scream in enjoyment, and then they all climb to the top of a chain link fence. This action was repeated about three times. I have no idea what this game is but I'm hoping to option it as part of my show. We'll probably run it during Sweeps Week.


- A block-long strip of artist-themed bars called Dali, Monet, Degas, etc., which looked really promising, until our approach at each door was met with a wall of scantily-clad women giving us looks that were at the same time incredibly seductive and insanely threatening. Fight-or-flight kicked in and we chose the latter.

- A back-alley reggae pub with really big beers and a really small pool table, where we chilled with a Brit, an Indian, an Israeli and a New Zealand(er?) and I tried to sell them on the merits of tourism to New Jersey. Gotta support the team.
















The rest of yesterday was wasted away at the hotel bar and on the phone with various airlines tring to book us a flight south to Koh Phagnan in time for the Full Moon Party, which is a scene of epic beach-side debauchery I just hope to get through alive. Apparently we're on a flight tomorrow morning. More to come...