On The Road (Part 1)

Here are some temples on the way to Chon Buri:







These were not even the most impressive temples we saw.

We decided to head south on the peninsula to Phuket. We were forced to drive through Bangkok again. We got lost for two hours. As we finally got ourselves oriented (or so we thought) the rain started, so we stopped under an expressway on-ramp to wait out the rain. We asked for directions and found ourselves invited as the apparent guests of honor to the birthday party of the daughter of the man "Dome" we were speaking to. Not wanting to be rude we accepted. They fed us some awesome Thai food. Also, not wanting to be rude, Zeb ate pork/anonymous seafood for the first time in 16 years. Also, stubbornly refusing to be rude and against all warnings we drank water with ice. Neither of us have gotten sick yet.

The family was very excited to meet us. Especially the son when he heard we are from Seattle the land of Nirvana. The father of the family, Dome, is the Food and Beverage Manager at an upscale Bangkok hotel called Novatel. He was very excited to hear that Zeb is a "barman" and would love to talk about bar stuff if we come back through Bangkok. We have made a life-long contact in Bangkok. He generously offered to help us in any way he can. Firstly, by saving us from getting totally lost again. His directions got us to Samut Prakhon.

Where we were guided to this hotel:








We are unsure whether this is a porn-star hotel from the past or the future as neither of us have seen it's like. The bed had ground effects. The mirror on the ceiling had ceiling-effects(?) and there were mirrors everywhere. The TV had nothing but porn. However, it was the cheapest hotel we had stayed in yet even though we took the room for more than three hours (the minimum). We gladly showered off the road dirt. Oh, yeah!! The weirdness of the birthday party was heightened by the fact that we were both soooo filthy we thought we had tanned quicker than expected.