Now that I feel refreshed after taking that shower here’s a summary of the last leg of my trip into Bangkok Thailand! The long journey from Hawaii to Thailand took about 15 total hours, including the stop over in the Philippines. Once I landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, I was treated to a long wait in the visa check line. I think I spent almost an hour in the line, probably because they have to take a picture of everyone that enters into Thailand for reasons which I have no idea. If anyone knows the reason why they take a picture of people please indulge my curiosity by posting a comment.

After getting through the visa check line I headed straight to the money exchange counter where I exchanged my US dollars to Thai baht with an exchange rate of $1 dollar for 32.82 baht. After exchanging my money I headed toward the meeting place in the airport where I had arranged for a friend of mine who was in Thailand to meet me so we could catch a cab to my hotel. The meeting area was quite a distance from the luggage carosel so I got a little lost since it was my first time in Bangkok’s airport. On the way to the meeting place I stopped by a local wireless carrier kiosk where I purchased a local SIM card for 150 baht, which is really cheap; 150 baht comes out to about $4.50 USD. The SIM card came with 100 free minutes which would be more than enough during my stay in Thailand. I swapped SIM cards at the kiosk just to make sure it would work with my phone; it worked just fine so I headed to meet my friend.

Picture of SIM Card

Once at the meeting place it didn’t take to long to find my friend. We jumped in a taxi and headed for my hotel. The drive from the airport to downtown Bangkok on Sukhumvit 11 took about 30 minutes through the express way. It was exciting to see Bangkok for the first time, and my first impression of Thailand is a positive one. I think I’ll really enjoy my trip here!

It’s confirmed!  I’m heading for Thailand on October 4th for a four day vacation in the beautiful and exotic city of Bangkok!  I’ve never been to Thailand and I’m excited to get a chance to visit there for the first time.  I’ve heard all the wonderful stories from friends who have visited Thailand on a regular basis and I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures of the temples and palaces for all my readers.  At 4am on October 4th I’ll be jumping on Philippine Airlines for a 2 hour stop over in the Philippines, then heading to Thailand for a wonderful experience.

I think gas prices on Guam are the highest in the United States.  The picture of Mobil Gas prices on the island of Guam was taken about 2 weeks ago, and I have a feeling the island is going to see another gas price increase.  Currently for Unleaded gas it costs $4.31 per gallon and for Super Unleaded the price is $4.44 per gallon.  Although Guam isn’t a big island the high gas prices have been hurting the people who try to budget on their gas consumption.  If you know of anywhere else in the United States where the gas prices are higher I’d be interested to hear about it.  Just post in the comments or send me an email.

I had the chance to visit a breathtaking beach on the eastern coast of Guam called Taga’chang Beach. The beach is located in a small cove surrounded by cliffs on all sides and only accessible from a small winding road paved along the cliff line. When I arrived at Taga’chang Beach it was completely empty with no one in sight, giving me the feeling I was stranded on a deserted island. Climbing up the rocks on one side of the beach to the edge of the water I could see fish as big as 2 feet long swimming in the shallow crystal clear water. The water was so shallow inside the reef you couldn’t really swim in the water unless you walked out to the edge of the reef and swam outside of the reef in the ocean.  This of course looked a little dangerous because of the waves beating on the reef and the strong current of the ocean.  Most of the eastern coast of Guam is rugged cliff line and the area around Taga’chang Beach makes for some great hiking along the rocky coastline of Guam for some great views.

Paseo Stadium is where Guam‘s major league baseball teams play during the weekends. Paseo Stadium is located in the village of Hagatna in Paseo Park. Paseo Park is a great place to go during the weekends because there are a lot of things to do around the park. Also located in the park is Chamorro Village, the surf spot in Hagatna Boat Basin, the beach, and playground sets for kids. During the weekends at night you can find locals hanging around the park getting a bite to eat at Chamorro Village, watching the baseball games, fishing, or just getting together with friends.

Just when I was able to get some sleep the island of Guam got hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake at 7:51am this morning! According to the news reports the center of the earthquake was located 125 miles west-southwest of Hagatna and at a depth of 54.4 miles.

The earthquake was fairly strong as I’m pretty hard to wake up once I’m in a deep sleep. The earthquake lasted between 5-10 seconds from what I can remember and it shook everything in my room pretty hard. I was debating whether to run out into the street when it didn’t stop after a few seconds, but being the sleepy head that I am decided to lay in bed and just hope it stopped without getting much stronger.

The buildings on Guam are all made of reinforced concrete and are built to withstand a good beating due to the fact Guam is located in an area on the globe that receives many typhoons. Because of this, and the fact there aren’t many high-rise buildings on the island, there was no reported damage to any buildings. I’m pretty sure if an earthquake of this magnitude hit a major city in some other part of the world there would have been some damage created from the earthquake.

Here’s some links to news reports of the earthquake I found online:

http://www.kcra.com/weather/16219476/detail.html
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=331956
http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080510/NEWS01/80510005/1002/NEWS01

I went to the northern most point on the island of Guam to a beach called Ritidian Beach this past week. The location of this beach was really out of the way from civilization, but the drive to the beach made for some spectacular views of Guam’s untouched northern coast during the last leg of the drive when I descended down from the cliffs to the coastline. I don’t think anyone lived in the surrounding area, and the only reason people would go there was to spend some time at the beach. While walking along the beach I noticed movement in the sand, and upon closer examination there were hundreds of hermit crabs like the one pictured below all along the beach. I’ve been told by the locals that there are huge crabs called coconut crabs on the island that can grow the size of car tires. I doubt I’ll ever get to see a coconut crab but I’ll keep my eyes open for one just in case!