My Trip!!!

I went to Bangkok, Thailand for business, to shoot(video tape) a pediatricians symposium on the difference between breastfeeding and formula feeding! I thought it was gonna be boring, but to be honest, it was very interesting. I figured the best way to share my Bangkok experience without repeating it 1,000 times was to blog it. This way, you can get the visual as well as the stories. Before I get started, I just want to say THANK YOU to the gracious people at the Wyeth Company, and P-31 Consulting, for selecting B-Roll Media Productions, LLC to record and edit their event. I had a great time!!

My Favorite Bangkok Moment:
So, i'm in Bangkok with my partner/technical advisor/homie/boss/co-worker Nathaniel aka Nate Dogg:

and his sister-in-law Meagan aka (who came over from China to hang with big bro):
The first night we hung out, we caught a cab back to our room. The cab driver was cool, even knew a little English. So we kicked it on the way back to the room. The drivers side of the cab is on the right side of the car in Bangkok, and the driving lane are opposite as well.

So the driver starts to ask us our names. Nathaniel and I are in the back, and Meagan is in the front. So he turns to Meagan and says in his native accent, " What is your name?"
Meagan said, " Meagan." The driver repeated slowly, " May-Gon!" She nodded in approval. The cab driver smiled, then turned to Nathaniel, " What is your name Sir?" Nathaniel replied, " Nathaniel." The cab driver repeated," Nat-An-New." Nathaniel smiled, and nodded in agreement. Then the cab driver turned to me and said, "Obama! You are Obama!" We all busted out laughing!!!!! I am laughing just thinking about it! LOL Needless to say, my name was Obama for the rest of the trip!

On my way to Bangkok:
I saw a lot of very interesting things in Bangkok...even before I got to Bangkok. The plane was HUGE! it was one of those Air Buses, the double-decker planes that we see in the movies a lot.

I got the opprotunity to fly first class on my way there, and it was very niiiiiice! Let me just say, I had my own tv monitor with video and music on demand, and they were showing The Dark Knight!(batman), which I believe, is the greatest movie ever made. So I was extremely happy. I saw The Dark Knight and Wanted in between sleeping, reading, and eating.

I had a connecting flight in Tokyo, where I met up with Nate Dogg!

While I was in Tokyo for that brief time, I saw some intersting things:

Oxygen Lounge

The "SQUATTER'S" toilet

Magazine Stand-WHAT! - No EBONY?????

Waiting Lounge

Massage Therapy!

Men urinals-check out the handicap urinal

& to my surprise!!!!! I must add, the Tokyo Airport was the cleanest airport i've ever been to!


In Bangkok:
Ok, so I finally get to Bangkok, and all is good. Nate and I caught a cab to our room/apartment. We rented a two bedroom apartment to save a lil extra cash. The apartment was cool too:

The Kitchen

The Entertainment Room

The Lounge Area

The Master Suite
But then, I got to check out my girl Wendy's room in the Four Seasons, where we were originally supposed to stay:

Glass Shower

Marble Tub

His & Hers Granite Sink

King Size Bed

REAL Fruit-replenished daily

Dragon Fruit -DELICIOUS!

The Grand Staircase at The Four Seasons

Lobby at The Four Seasons

Gold Ceiling

Huge Koi Pond

The Fountain at the entrance

NUFF SAID!

Once we got settled in, Nate and I decided to walk around and get a feel for the city:

They had a great mixture of "Old" & " New" Bangkok

Taxi anyone?

Even Brittany was there...

There were people selling mix tapes...

There was graffitti.....

and the nicest street hustlers!

Oh..and the traffic was CRAZY!

The architecture was incredible.

Meagan, Nates sister-in-law came over to the Four Seasons to meet up with us later that evening. She had a friend that was from Bangkok, and she would be our translator and tour guide. She was mad cool. Her name was Tan:

Before we left, we took a few more pics at the Four Seasons...

The we hit the streets!



We went to a part of the city called Soladenge. It was like 125 st. meets The Village in NY or Little 5 Points in Atlanta. A bunch of shops/stands in the market place, where you could get everything mad cheap. It was enlightening to say the least:

After the shops, we went to eat. Looking for a restaurant wasn't hard at all, they were all over the place...any kind of food you wanted to my surprise:

We decided to go here...

because the food looked immaculate!

Even the bottled water looked pretty!

After dinner, we decided to call it a night. So Meagan, Nate, and I walked back to our room/apartment. I just took these shots of the things we saw along the way:

On Saturday, we had the most fun. Bangkok has a walkway like an elevated train, and then the actual train runs on another level above the walkway:

So we walked on the walkway and took the "Sky Train" around the city:

We ended up at a huge mall, the Maboon Krong Mall. Tokyu is the equivalent to our Macy's.

That part of the mall was wack! It was too stuffy, and the people in their were not friendly at all. But then we went to another side, the market place side.....where everything was on sale or negotiable! LOL That was fun! The people in therewere real cool...and there were a lot of cute kids there too:

-I gotta pause right now and say that in this next section, you are not gonna believe what I am about to show you! I was so PROUD!

Ok....here we go:

In the MBK center, there were hundreds of stores and small shops. But one shop in particualr stood out to me. It was a sneaker store called Genesis. It had most of their inventory in fiber glass cases, so you couldn't touch the merchandise. But the hottest things I think I saw all weekend were these:

Big shout to MC Shan

Dougie Fresh

Big Daddy Kane

Yo MTV Raps

I know................I know!

--NUFF SAID--

So, now its Saturday night in Bangkok. I am leaving in the morning, so we gotta go party. LOL
We make our way to the rain station, and BAM! Check this out:
These cats were truly break dancing with NO CARDBOARD or LINOLEUM! They were spinning on their head and the hole 9!:

You know I had to represent for all my BRONX CATS....and all my NEW YORK PEOPLES

Yep - I gets busy!!!!!


After I busted my fresh moves from '88, we went to this spot called Central World, which by day is like a normal mall....almost like Rockerfeller Center in NY around Christmas time:

Then, behind all of that, they had 3 stages set up, like three separate concerts back to back to back. Each concert was sponsored by a beer maker(brewer), and this is how they got down on Saturday night at Central World:

Right next to the concerts, other people were getting their worship on! I know it sounds different, but...

After we left the Central World area, we met up with Tan and her boyfriend....I stopped taking pics at this pont, cause it was Saturday Night in Bangkok!!!! We all went to a club in the hood.

(Sorry, no pics of that stuff)

After the club, I had to bounce, because my flight was leaving at 6am.

I was knocked out about 80% of the way back!

When I got to Tokyo, I did get to sample that McDonalds though:

Then I met a couple of locals in Tokyo who were going to the US for the first time:

Once we got up in the air, and got close to the US, it started getting cold:

We all stared out of the window...

eagerly anticipating the most beautiful sunrise we might ever see!

Now, it wouldn't be fair for me to share all of the good, and not some of the not-so-good with you, so please bare with me.

Right before we were landing in the US, I got really thirsty, so I asked a flight attendant for something to drink. I raised my left hand and index finger to get the passing flight attendants attention. When she saw me, she said, " WHAT!" I paused for a second, shocked.....How rude was she, I thought. So I gave her a blank stair for a few seconds, then I asked if it were possible for me to ge something to drink. She then said that she would see, because we were close to landing...they might have put the food and beverages up. She did come right back with a cup of water, and I thanked her. I then sat there, heated for a few more minutes. "Why the heck was she so rude?" I thought to myself. Immediately I thought about the " BLACK CARD". she was rude cause I was black, and she was white. So I decided to confront her about it. I tossed a number of different ways to approach her in my head, " Yo....we got a problem?" and, " Excuse me, but why the hell were you so rude?" As the plane landed, I actually thought about just letting it go...just because of the inconvenience. But then I thought about what would happen if I DIDN't say something. If it WS because I was black, then she'd feel free to treat the next black person she came into contact with, with the same disrespect. so I knew I needed to nip this in the butt right away.....intellegently, articualtely, and respectfully. I had to literally pray for the right words to say and the right way to say them as the plane emptied. I knew that " Sweet Lips" was definately the best way to approach her.

(The bible says that sweet lips turneth away wrath)

So I approached her as she was getting her bags, " Excuse me." I said. She replied, " What baby?!" I paused for a split second like, No she is not trying to belittle me AGAIN! I gathered my thoughts and proceeded. "I just wanted to say thank you again for getting me that cup of water just before landing. I do have a question for you though; did I offend you in any wya when I asked you to get me something to drink at that time?" She thought for a moment and said, " No. Why do you ask?" I told her it was because she said, " WHAT?!" when I had gotten her attention earlier. Now in my head at this moment, I wanted to tell her how freakin rude I thought she was, but I held my tounge. I wanted her to figure it out on her own...and she did rather quickly. She apologized and said that she might have been playing with me. She said that she had a sarcastic way of joking with passengers. Then she said a few more things, can't remember them exactly, but after those few attempts at an excuse, I interupted her, " I just want to make sure that I was not offensive to you, in any way." She replied, " No! Not at all! My mind was just probably ina different place.....I apologize for being rude to YOU." I told her, " No problem...I just wanted to make sure I wasn't rude, once again." Then I asked her, if I could take a pic of the business class seats, because I didn't get a chance to take any on the way over to Bangkok( had to fly coach on my return flight-DAG). She then took full advantage of this opportunity to be extra nice, " Why don't you take picture of the cockpit too!" she said. I didn't get the pics of the cockpit, because the pilot had already left the plane. She ended up taking my pic of me, and then taking a pic for me:

There was a message in that story...I hope you got it!

Peace!