First week in Thailand

On my way to Bangkok I started to wonder if I should have had plans for my landing. I talked to a few people already that had plans right down to the taxi picking them up at the airport. I decided to leech on to one of the people and follow their plans... and as I say, things always work themselves out.
I went with Lucy, English gal, in her taxi and stayed in a guesthouse near hers. A friend of hers lives in Bangkok so he showed us a good night out.. including buckets and ladyboys.
Bangkok is a big dirty city.
Thats all there really is to say about it. It was exciting to see all the other backpackers, but overwhelming at the same time. After 2 nights we decided to get out of there. We packed out bags and tried to go to the coast nearest to Bangkok, but after taxi drivers quoting outragous prices we decided to go further down south on a bus that left that day.
We arrived to Ko Samui the next day with some girls we had met on the way. 5 girls together got to be too much to me so when some guys at the bar asked if I wanted to get my scub diving certification on Ko Tao I left that next morning.
I spent the next 5 days with these 3 English guys. The 4 day course was a struggle for me with little sleep.. but it was alot of fun too. Ko Tao was paradise. I would have stayed there longer if I didn't have to meet Elissa in dirty Bangkok. We luckily found each other on the streets early this morning. She hates it here too, so we booked a tribal trek up north of Chaing Mai for 2 nights... elephants and all.

On a side note....I was trying to find a shirt that fit me today in the street markets. I tried on 3 shirts, each being too small for me. (I'm not as small as these asian girls in the chest area.) After the last one the Thai woman looked at me and said..
"You have a bad body. You ugly. You have a bad body. You need go to tailor. You friend look at you. You ugly."

huh.....

Istanbul, Turkey

3 nights, 4 days.
I feel as though I got a true turkish experience staying with a turkish girl I had met through couchsurfing. Even after she learned I was American she was very welcoming. She spoke very quickly but our communication was not perfect. After the first day she still had thought I was Spanish.
I did the typical site seeing. I had some tea near the sea front at night. I went to a turkish bath. I didn't do all the things my host wanted me to, but at the end of the day I didn't care. It was too much to do.
One of the days I walked by the sea and took a nap on the bench. When I woke up I there was a group of people gathering not far away from me. I walked over there to find a body face down in the water. Everyone watched as the waves moved it back and forth. I'm assuming they thought the guy was dead already because no one went in or tried to bring the body to shore... just stared. That was morbid fasination at the extreme. I finally walked away after getting the chills from it all.
On a brighter note, the Turks have a good sense of humor and try to be very helpful with directions... in fact many times I was told to go in the wrong direction when people said they were sure. I was told they don't want to look stupid so they will just take a guess to help you. The traffic also does not stop for pedestians. I can see where this country has some things to work on before they become part of the EU.. if ever. In one respect the city is modern and trendy.. and in the other.. it's 3rd world.
Apparently the current government is trying to take rights away from women. Although Turkey is a muslin country, it is not an Arab country. The country says it allows other religions to practice there and it permits the use of alcohol. I feel like it has this internal struggle caught between two worlds. One of the things it needs to change to get considered be apart of the EU is the use of intestines as casing for sausages. Even though they wash it first before eating, the EU believes this is bad practice and could get people sick.
Overall Istanbul was interesting to say the least. One thing I didn't experience was the nightlife.. may have to go back, but not anytime soon.