Benny Bigggs: Asian Invasion ‘06

Dear Benny,
I missed you soooo much, I had to get the symbol of the Asian Invasion permanently tattooed on me! Sorry Mom! Don’t go invading too many more continents or mom is going to be really pissed at you!!!
-Johnny D.

I finally got to an internet cafe in rome. I would have blogged at the hostel but in addition to having a dirty shower that floods, they only had one computer so I couldn’t get on very much. It was however a party hostel which is all that really counts, and Regina and I have been drunk every night in Rome so far (mostly off the cheap wine).

I don’t think I wrote much on Greece so I’ll give you some of the highlights in case you ever want to go there. Athens has some of the coolest ancient ruins I’ve seen and it’s worth a day and a half of your time to see everything, after that it’s pretty boring. If you have anymore time go to the greek islands. I’ve heard there are quiet islands if you’re looking to relax and there are definitely party islands (this is where the bwbg needs to spend spring break). The ferry ride kinda sucks but as long as you don’t mind a 9 hour ride where you sleep on the floor (most people sleep on the outside deck) you’ve found a cheap way to the islands. Thanks to double-H’s tip we stayed on Ios and it was pretty crazy there. The typical Ios day consists of getting up around 11, (because you’re so tired from the partying the night before) going to the beaches till sundown (they actually were prettier than the Thailand beaches), going out to eat awesome greek food, crashing at your tiny hotel room till about midnight and then drinking till 6am. After a long asian invasion we needed the beach, the beer and it was also a nice change to brush your teeth without use of a water bottle.

Despite getting to the airport 35 minutes before our flight we managed to make it to Rome and in case you didn’t know Italians are crazy. They cheer when the plane lands, they wear Saved By the Bell t-shirts that say Zack loves Kelly on the back and they are still celebrating the world cup (yea gold flavored Gatorade). We’ve pretty much spent our days checking out all the sites (except poor Regina missed the Sisten Chapel..how is a chapel closed on sundays??) and our nights drinking wine and checking out the crazy things people are doing on the streets.

And yes it’s said but true, the lovely Regina did leave Rome today, but I still have some cards left so the invasion is going as strong as ever even if it’s down to one person. Now that I’m by myself more tourists than ever come up to me asking for directions and since I’m bored I started a new game where try to give them directions in Italian giberish. I don’t think they like the game as much as I do.

Well back to the invasion, there is good italian wine and a pub crawl that have Benny Biggg’s name written all over it…

BB

p.s. Did the lovely Johnny Dynamite really get ink on his arm???

Just wanted to let everyone know we’ve landed in Rome. I know some people have worried with everything going on but we did make our plane (with a lot of running) and we have landed in Rome. Iàm pretty drunk  right now so iàll blog later about Greece and all but cheers to us landing woo woooo

BB

There hasn’t been a whole lot of time to blog but we’ve arrived in Greece safely and now Regina and I are headed to the Greek Island Ios which is suppose to be the European version of Cancun. So I guess I should start with the half moon party…a crazy time. Everyone at our bungalow went including the staff who gave us a ride. The ride up was crazy, the guy who ran the place plus the staff made some buckets of who knows what and we were all drinking them. We also cheered on the driver to have some and he caved under the pressure. When we were flying to Ko Pha Ngan we got a brochure with a lot of info about Ko Pha Ngan and one of the things it said was please try not to drink and drive. Apparently our driver never got the memo. Once we got to the party there was a lot more drinking of buckets, house dancing, drugs (apparently benny bigggs IS shady because while I was offered them twice no one else was offered drugs) and welcome back 1997 because there were glow sticks a-plenty. The rave was definitely a good time and I don’t remember what time we eventually got home but I do remember someone puking outside the parking lot and forcing us to hitch a ride on the back of a truck because a van would make that person puke some more.

We were suppose to get up early the next day and make the 11 o’clock ferry to Koh Samui and to our credit we were ready to go by 10:30 but the staff was too hung over and hadn’t reported to work yet so we couldn’t check out. We ended up catching the 4pm ferry and eventually got to another bungalow. We did some more cheap shopping in Koh Samui that night and the next day we went elephant trekking. Elephant trekking is awesome. At first we rode the elephant (shout out to my girl Elle) on a mini couch thing but then the guy asked me to sit on the Elle’s neck and ride her that way. Sorry Johnny, I might have to trade in my bigwheel if someone ever starts a elephant riding gang. I was also pretty proud of Regina who rode on Elle even though she was bit nervous at first. If only she showed that kind of bravery while riding on the back of the motorbike with me. Riding a motorbike is the best way to get around on the islands and there aren’t very many traffic laws so it’s kinda a free-for-all. I also have to admit at first I wasn’t so great on the motorbike but once I figured out how to turn I was much better. My only advice is don’t try to learn how to ride a motorbike with a nervous backseat driver and in case you’re wondering while I’m slow as hell on the bigwheel, I’m a speed demon on the motorbike.

Anyways we were very sad to say goodbye to the Thailand Islands but at least we were headed for the Greek Islands and not Delaware (yea Widner). Our plane ride kinda sucked; after our crazy day we had to be at the airport by midnight for a 10 hour flight to Athens. Once we got to Athens at 7am Greek time we were going to figure out how to bus to the Pirease port and then get on the 7 hour ferry ride to Ios. Unfortunately the ferry was completely sold out when we got there and the next ferry we could get on wasn’t till 10:30pm the next day. Regina was not very happy with me that day. Luckily we were able to get a hostel in Athens that night (not an easy thing on a sat night) and talked the Ios hotel guy into letting us change the dates we were staying at the island even though it said the hotel was booked online. AND it turns out lots of backpackers make the ferry mistake because the girls we dormed with last night did the same thing (plus 2 other groups of people at the ferry ticket agency) so while Benny felt like a big idiot for not getting tickets in advance, at least he wasn’t alone. The only potential problem now is that the only ferry we could get coming back docks at 5pm and we have to make a 7:20pm flight to Rome that day, so hopefully we won’t get stuck in Greece (sorry mom I might not be coming home).

Well that’s all for now, I’ll write all about Athens and the islands the next chance I get. We’re now 3/4’s of the way around the world and while the Asian Invasion was a complete success, there is a lot of work left to be done on the Eurasian Invasion….

B

So once again it’s raining and the bar is playing Brokeback Mountain so it seemed like a good time to blog. Assuming the rain goes away, Regina and I are going motorbiking and then off to the half moon party. Twice a month on the Thailand islands they have this crazy half moon party (which is only upstaged by the full moon party which we will unfortunately miss) which is basically a giant rave.

Bangkok is a crazy city. The shoes and clothes are even cheaper here than they were in China. Things are generally very cheap here but that doesn’t stop the locals from trying to overcharge us every chance they get. It’s pretty hard to tell the difference between people trying to help you and people trying to scam you. On one hand we had cab drivers trying to charge us 250 bot for a cab ride home (probably a week’s worth salary for most people here) and on the other hand we found some guy that drove us all around town for 4 hours for 10 bot (about 25 cents). When I gave him a card I think he wanted a job with the bikergang because he asked me if I would take him back to the US with me. Any spots open for my boy Sum-Kit, Johnny??

Then there is the sex disctrict….Women literally walk around with numbers around their neck and you can order anyone you want. It was tough holding back the lovely Regina from ordering one but I did my best to preserve her modesty, however there was no stopping her from dragging us to a pingpong sex show. We met some guy on the street who promised us a good show for 200 bot so he led us down a few shady alleys and into this even shadier building. As soon as we sat down about 10 women came over and started massaging Regina and I (don’t worry I made sure they didn’t pick-pocket us). As soon as that was done some crazy old lady came over asking us for 600 bot for the 2 beers and massage we had “just bought”. Surprisingly enough the guy we met on the street lied to us about the price, so we paid for our beer and massage and watched some of the show and headed out. If you ever get a chance to go to a pingpong show don’t go on a full stomach because you might just lose your lunch. This is a family site so I won’t get into details but lets just say I’ll never look at a birthday cake the same way again.

I won’t even get into all the people that tried to scam us when we got to the island (lucky benny bigggs is an expert at scams) but once we got to our bungalow everyone has treated Benny Bigggs like the celebrity he is. The staff likes to drink with us and they are going to the half moon party with us and they’re even doing our laundry for us.

Well I think the rain is finally letting up…tomorrow we’re off to another island and if the weather is ok we’re going elephant treking…And don’t worry the Asian Invasion cards are going faster than Johnny on his bigwheel.

BB

I’ve got a whole lot to write about Bangkok but that’ll have to wait for another time. I just wanted to check in say we landed on the beaches in Thailand. The airport was basically a hut that looked like it was right out of Weekend At Bernies. The rain has continued to follow us wherever we go and we lose power when it rains really hard. We’ve had about 4 good beach hours and the beaches are amazing.

Tomorrow Benny Bigggs will see if his bigwheel skills translate to a motor bike (hopefully not if you’ve seen the videos) and of course the half moon party is going to be craaaazy.

Oh and Jaime, I’d bring you back shoes but my backpack is pretty full….