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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 8:56:05 GMT -6
Actually we won't fly out of Dallas until Christmas Day. If I can get a decent internet connection, I will try to report in a couple of times. We fly from Dallas to Saigon via Tokyo.
Four days in Saigon, fly to Bankok and spend New Years with friends in Jomptien, then to Phuket and back to Bangkok for a few days before flying back to Dallas.
The flight back is a first for me. We depart Tokyo at 1:15 PM and arrive at Dallas 9:35 AM the same day. Hello jet lag.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Dec 21, 2006 9:17:28 GMT -6
Tex
Enjoy your trip. I dont envy you the actual flight, but these things must be endured. I look forward to any trip report you manage.
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 21, 2006 9:21:12 GMT -6
Please try to keep the tsunamis to a minimum this time.
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Post by edie2u on Dec 21, 2006 9:27:17 GMT -6
Have fun and stay safe. When you get back I want to hear about Phuket as I have always wanted to visit there!
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Post by Hank on Dec 21, 2006 9:30:07 GMT -6
Tex,
Made a similar flight in the early 90's. Okinawa to LAX, traveling with the wife, two kids and a dog (ch-ch-change of station orders from Okinawa to San Diego.) It was a military charter stopping in Tokyo, Guam and Anchorage before ending at LAX. Twenty-three hours and landed an hour before we took off. If I remember right the jet lag lasted about three days.
Not a fun trip!
Hank
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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 9:54:02 GMT -6
BTW Hank, is the Perkins and Son Chandlery still open (on Fleming St. in Key West)? When I used to sail down Hawk Channel years ago, I enjoyed browsing through their store when ashore in KW.
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Post by Hank on Dec 21, 2006 10:16:10 GMT -6
I'm not sure if it's still there or not but, since I'm meting my wife for lunch in about half an hour, I'll look.
Hank
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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 10:23:15 GMT -6
I found their card - 901 Fleming - sort of back in a corner.
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Post by Chicago Jake on Dec 21, 2006 11:02:49 GMT -6
Have fun, Tex. Don't forget the camera.......Jake
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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 11:04:42 GMT -6
Have fun, Tex. Don't forget the camera.......Jake Lots of pictures. |
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Post by Irish Stu on Dec 21, 2006 11:27:30 GMT -6
What an exotic way to spend Christmas and New Year!! I hope you both have an awesome trip and I'm looking forward to your posts from your travels and your pictures on your return.
Simon
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Post by Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III on Dec 21, 2006 13:44:12 GMT -6
Stay out of trouble, Tex!!  |
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Post by Merlot Joe on Dec 21, 2006 13:50:42 GMT -6
Have a good trip Tex. Waiting for the report when you get back.
Joe.
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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 13:55:05 GMT -6
Stay out of trouble, Tex!! Go to Bangkok, Saigon, Pattaya, and Phuket and stay out of trouble? Right! |
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Post by innit Geezer on Dec 21, 2006 18:56:35 GMT -6
Post a picture if can, enjoy!
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Post by Tex on Dec 21, 2006 23:34:29 GMT -6
I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but the girl in Pattaya who breaks the balloons by shooting darts from her pussy would make for a good action shot.
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Post by innit Geezer on Dec 22, 2006 6:42:50 GMT -6
Ahh, the versatility of the woman's privates. It's nice to see dedication to Kegel exercises has turned into careerer opportunity.
The most I could do is be a sundial and even that is temporary.
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Post by justheidi on Dec 22, 2006 7:16:30 GMT -6
Tex have a great trip...can't wait to read your trip report!!!!!
Happy Holidays!
Heidi
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Post by Tex on Dec 22, 2006 8:33:37 GMT -6
Ahh, the versatility of the woman's privates. It's nice to see dedication to Kegel exercises has turned into careerer opportunity. The most I could do is be a sundial and even that is temporary. That sundial can at least tell you when it's party time. |
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 22, 2006 9:14:44 GMT -6
And when the party's over.
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Post by edie2u on Dec 22, 2006 13:08:55 GMT -6
I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but the girl in Pattaya who breaks the balloons by shooting darts from her pussy would make for a good action shot. That's one scary chick! |
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 22, 2006 14:02:27 GMT -6
Not as scary as a woman I know who breaks my balls with her mouth.
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Post by Tex on Dec 22, 2006 14:25:43 GMT -6
I don't know if they will let me take pictures, but the girl in Pattaya who breaks the balloons by shooting darts from her pussy would make for a good action shot. That's one scary chick! She got me to hold one of the balloons. I was afraid I would need a rabies shot if she missed. Not to mention she wrote "I love you" and "Happy New Years 2005" with a ball point pen using no hands with good penmanship. |
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 22, 2006 14:38:06 GMT -6
I would tell you that I don't think she meant it when she wrote "I love you", but I don't want to burst your balloon.
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Post by Hank on Dec 22, 2006 15:09:05 GMT -6
Tex, I looked yesterday when I was down town and couldn't find Perkin and Son. Since you posted the address it was a good excuse for me to go back down town today and the building is now a sign company, but the beer was still good and could on Duval St.
Also I haven't to Pattaya since 79 and never saw any "dart shooters" but did have a heck of a time with the monkeys that kept stealing my beer.
Hank
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Post by Tex on Dec 22, 2006 16:02:05 GMT -6
It has been a dozen years since I visited Perkin & Son. It was an antique in itself, it looked like it had been there for a hundred years. They sold caulking irons, oakum, and other things you don't see in West Marine (not that West Marine is bad).
Pattaya is a piece of work. Walking Street is the biggest concentration of whorehouses that I have ever seen and I grew up in an old oilfield boomtown. Soi Cowboy in Bangkok is pretty wild too. Saigon is Catholic so they keep the red light business on the back street but they have a fun nightclub that we like called Apocolypse Now. Saigon has 6 or 7 million and is a happening place. However, downtown Saigon is a time machine to the 1940's French colony that it was.
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Post by Tex on Dec 24, 2006 18:24:31 GMT -6
We are off to DFW airport on a cold, grey, nasty rainy Texas winter evening. Adieu & Merry Christmas all.
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Post by Tex on Dec 26, 2006 21:26:33 GMT -6
Greetings from the Continental Hotel in the center of Saigon. We arrived an hour late at midnight last night from Dallas via Tokyo. Even with the late hour, there were about 16-17 friends and relatives waiting for us at the airport.
Saigon has a certain smell to it that is not disagreeable but distinctive. You could anesthetize me and wake me up here blindfolded and I would know where I was right away. The smell is of humidity, tropical plants, slight cigarette, sweat, motorbike, and some unknowns. It is unlike the other cities of Asia.
We had breakfast this morning in the courtyard. Lots of French, a few Americans, Brits, Aussies, and New Zealanders. The hotel is my home when in Saigon. Its history is as rich as the rest of the city. Graham Greene's Quiet American is largely set in the hotel. It is in the center of town across from the old opera house.
My wife's aunts and cousins will be here in a little bit to take us via motorbike to their beauty salon for a shampoo, shave, and massage, then off in the afternoon to see one of my godsons Binh (seven years old) who bounces off the walls whenever we arrive.
The internet connection is slow and I don't have long to write so I don't know what the current snit is on the board but whatever it is isn't worth it. Life is too short and if someone is ugly, sidestep, ignore, and move on. JMHO. The board is a hundred good people and an occasional bad apple and it would be a shame to let the few set the tone. The board represents a variety of opinions and generally they are expressed in a civil tone. One good thing about having friends with different viewpoints is that you can see that "they" are good people too and have different life references and have come about their opinions honestly.
Will chime in with a few trip reports.
Later, Tex
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Post by Chicago Jake on Dec 26, 2006 21:32:27 GMT -6
Thanks for checking in, Tex! We can always use your voice of reason, along with your travelogue comments......Jake
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Post by Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III on Dec 26, 2006 21:39:57 GMT -6
Great to hear you, Tex!! I see you are in good shape in order to get into trouble the rest of the trip.  Man I wish I was there with you!!!!! .........Bob |
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