Gavin's visit!

Greetings, All. It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I feel like I'm playing catch-up on here a lot lately. Anyway, two weeks ago my friend Gavin (one of my line-dancing friends from Davis), flew to Thailand to visit me! Only being the second friend to make the long flight out, I was quite excited to have someone from home to hang out with. He arrived late Thursday night, and Friday afternoon we headed off to Kanchanaburi for the weekend.

As you well know from previous posts, Kanchanaburi is one of my favorite places in Thailand. So much history, so much beauty, and such a relaxed little town, not to mention there's lots of stuff to do! Unfortunately, it being rainy season and all, the weather kept us from really doing anything the first evening aside from dinner and a few games of pool. Thais never cease to amaze me - the little bar down the road where we shot pool, Friend Bar, is the same bar I go to every time I visit Kanchanaburi, and the owner always remembers me! The last time I was there was over a year ago, with Efrain, and yet she still knew who I was, and when we went to put a deposit for the pool balls she told us there was no need because I was a friend. <3

We woke up early Saturday morning to more rain, but were determined to go to Erawan, rain or shine. While eating our breakfast at the guesthouse, we met two Italian girls, Martina and Margherita, who were also headed to Erawan. We all talked and laughed on the bus ride to the park and when we arrived, met another friend, Yolanda, from Holland, who completed our waterfall-climbing quintet for the day. Lucky for us, the rain didn't hit Erawan at all, though we did hear some thunder.

We all met up again for dinner and walked to the Floating Restaurant near the River Kwai Bridge. It rained..of course, and between us, we had one umbrella. MY umbrella. So I was dry..and Yolanda for a while, and then Margherita for a while. The food was good, though for some reason they had a really hard time remembering all our orders, and we had to keep reminding them what we were waiting for. Finished pretty late, and bid farewell to Yolanda who was staying at another guesthouse down the road.

Sunday morning was met with more rain, but it let up by 9am, so we decided to go ahead and take a chance on the weather with the long boat tour. Visited the war cemetary, the cave temple (and had adorable little Pai as our guide, who guided Efrain and I last year, AND my parents when they visited back in October of 2010), the JEATH Museum, and finally the River Kwai Bridge. Gavin had a great time, and the weather managed to hold off long enough for us to check out and board the bus back to Bangkok.

Made it back just in time for church that evening, and after service we all went across the street to Ootaya Japanese Restaurant for Lena's 27th birthday!

Monday I had to be back at work, so I sent Gavin off to explore Bangkok. He visited Wat Arun(Temple of the Dawn), Wat Pho(Reclining Buddha), and the Grand Palace before Rachel and I met him for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, which is actually a really nice restaurant in this big hotel. And they promote safe sex (hence the name). They also give you condoms with the check, lol. Hit up Swenson's for ice cream, then out on the town we went! We had one drink at Tilac, moved on to the Australian bar on Sukhumvit for a bit and enjoyed the live band, and then took a tuk-tuk to The Saxophone (I think I need a frequent-customer card, lol) where Koh Mr Saxman was tearin' it up from midnight to 1:30am.

Tuesday I sent Gavin off to Koh Samet for a night, and while he enjoyed beaches, coconuts, fire shows, and floating lanterns, I stayed home and did laundry. lol.

Took him forever to get back from the island on Wednesday, but when he finally did we headed out for dinner at Pinocchio's for Italian food. Enjoyed a bottle of Merlot with our meal, and watched the rain out the window.

Thursday was day number two for Gavin to explore Bangkok, and this time he wandered around Lumphini Park and visited Chinatown.

I had a tutoring session with a parent from 6-8, but when that was finished we sat down and I treated Gavin to a smorgasbord of exotic fruit. And pizza, haha. We had

Dragonfruit

Rangon

Mangosteen

Rambutan

and Sa-laht

Friday was a lazy one (well, I went to work, Gavin slept in), and then we headed back into the city and visited a few friends of mine at the Antique Cafe, then walked around the corner to Coyote's for some delicious Mexican food. Rachel joined us an hour later, and since happy hour had started, we ordered 2 pitchers of margaritas...and then two more. We stayed for 6 hours, and then decided the best way to end our evening was with KARAOKE! Ah..so much fun.

Saturday we were up by 7:30, and on our way to the Chatuchak Market by 8:15. Wandered for a while, helped Gavin bargain for a few things, had some food, then met with Beatrice. She went with us to explore MBK, and we laughed and talked while browsing all the little shops. Had lunch at Chester's, ice cream at Swenson's, then parted ways as she had to meet someone, and Gavin and I went to see a movie - "Ted" - funny, but a bit more vulgar than I was expecting.

Grabbed a quick dinner in Ari, then took the bus back home after the movie, Gavin finished packing up his things, and we headed to the airport. Said our farewells, and he disappeared up the escalator to immigration.

Then sent me a text when he arrived back in Portland, waking me up at 5am. >.<