leaving thailand and heading on a long journey back to hawaii. stop over in japan again, grab my luggage stored at the airport, then jump back on a plane to home sweet home. total of 18 hours including stopover. long, but can’t wait. this past month, i surfed like 4 times and i feel like a kid wanting it. i might have to surf with my nephews all day to get back into it. hassle with them for waves, drop in, and just have fun. give me a week and i’ll be back to normal. but for right now, i feel out of shape. eating too much food, with little exercise. but at least my teeth is clean and my body feels great from thai massages every day. sometimes twice a day. haha. i thought cozy in bali was the best in the world but i was wrong. can’t beat a good thai massage. itai but good. anyway, just checked the surf forecast and looking like north, east, and south swells on the way. see you in the water really soon…
*when booking a hotel on the internet, be careful. do your homework. i stayed in a couple of hotels and the photos you see on the website aren’t the same as the real thing. the first hotel i stayed at was awesome. the hotel i stayed at last night was more expensive, but was half the quality. far from the station, shitty service, and worst of all, bed bugs. shit, i got bites all over. i’m going to move to another hotel tonight. all 4 star hotels but some are better than others. when i get back to hawaii, i’ll give you the scoops on hotels and stuff in thailand. after 50 hours on the internet doing searches, i learned a lot about thailand. maybe too much.. haha…

this is a where i stayed the first night. at $60/night, it was worth every penny… it’s called the key bangkok hotel and if i come back here, i’m staying there again. clean, good location, and quiet.
*it was in july 2006 when an unexpected north/west swell hit the north shores of oahu. during that time, we were doing a photo shoot with kondo-san for surf1st in town. but when we heard the waves were up, shuji and i went straight to the north shore. i pulled up with my 6’4 and when i seen pipe, way too short… it was 6-8′ and barreling. so ended up surfing 4-5′ perfect rocky point… hope this summer is the same. can’t wait…. check it out….

it’s pretty fascinating to watch people in other countries go on with their daily lives. to me, it’s just pure and simple. no BMW’s, no gameboy’s, and no designer clothes. just the necessities they need in life. and yet, they seem much happier than the some people in the world that have everything. it really makes me realize that i don’t need a nice house, or a nice car to be happy. i should be happy that i even have a roof over my head and a car to get me around. these kind of experiences wake me up. that’s what i love about traveling. makes you appreciate every little thing you have… even if it’s little…

the food here is pretty fascinating. cheap and good. why go to an expensive yakitori restaurant when you can just sit on the side of the road and order anything you want. and you don’t need a photo menu or have to speak thai to order. just point. gosh, i must have eaten 15 sticks…. so good…

they say not to eat food from the street vendors because it’s not safe. well, that’s all i’ve been eating. how the heck can you pass up a thai noodle soup like this for a dollar? i went to a restaurant the first night here and ordered some food. lamb curry and a salad cost me $12. i could have eaten the same thing on the street for $3. never go to a restaurant again. you know the saying, WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO. that’s what i told myself i was going to do on this trip. eat local, travel local, and think local… Korb Khun

hello, on the 2nd day of my vacation here in thailand. gosh, this place is amazing. kind of a mix bag of indonesia and the philippines. except, no waves. i came here to explore deep inside and that’s what i did today. got on a train this morning, caught a taxi, got on another train, and rode it to the end. 3 hours later, i was at this local fishing village that was freaking awesome. nobody spoke english, no english writing anywhere to be seen, and absolutely no foreigners. i was lost… it reminded me of the first time i went to japan and got lost in shikoku. felt pretty helpless but managed to communicate somehow. had my camera so took some stills and some video clips. got back to my hotel late this afternoon and took a nap. a 5 hour nap. it’s 11pm and i just got up. going downstairs to grab a bite to eat and try to go back to sleep. i didn’t want to do any internet shit here but just thought i’d post a blog. anyway, going to the dentist tomorrow to have my teeth cleaned, then go deep into the country to an open market. once you get out of bangkok, the people are so friendly and nice. i had a fun day trying to talk to the locals and seeing the real thailand… check out some of the photos i took today….

this lady was really kind to me. even thought i couldn’t understand one single thing she said, she just kept on giving the thumbs up. gosh, i should have taught her the shaka….

the watermelons we have in hawaii are green. the ones here are yellow. and oh so sweet….

the local diesel train runs once every hour. when i got the the station, i seen it driving away. at first i was bummed out but then i thought about something. i have all freakin day…. haha… what’s the rush? i was saying to myself “slow down kirby”….

the village i went to has one of the biggest markets in thailand. imagine the whole ala moana shopping center all filled with little stands. this is one of the hundreds of the chicken stands. not one part of the chicken goes to waist here…

when i seen these eggs, i was wondering what the heck was it. is it from a dinosaur? it was actually curry powder….

then i found my favorite part. the fish market. this is how they do it here in thailand….
**oh, i got to go and get something to eat before everywhere closes. took a lot more photos. check um out later…. goodnight…