Relaxing in Chang Mai...

Hey guys, I think this is the fourth day I've been here lol the days all blend together for me. I'm just getting over some pretty rough food poisoning. I woke up a couple says ago and ran to the toilet to throw up. That happened about 7 or 8 times during the day. It hurt so bad. My buddy Alec and the girls helped me out a lot and went to the drug store for me to pick up some antibiotics. I'm feeling better now. Woke up and got some push ups in and then had some scrambled eggs and an egg sandwich for breakfast. Everyone looks at me funny when I order so much food. They don't eat much here especially not two servings. I'm excited for the day though. We're about to go check out a couple temples and maybe a Muay Thai fight! There's a big street market tonight with all kinds of food and goodies we're going to check out. I've got a couple interesting pictures to show including my dinner one night, our favorite waiters, the tuk tuk we rode, and one from our 11 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Chang Mai. Ps...I've been having the wildest dreams every night...I think there's something in the water. I usually never dream at home. Kind of a short blog but I'll make up for it. I've been in recovery mode the past couple days. I love and miss everyone. Pss...I snuck a little surprise picture in there. Can you find it? Until next time...love

Heading North to Chang Mai...

Hey guys I haven't had wi-fi the past few days but I finally took a moment to sit down in an internet cafe and check emails, facebook, and blog a little. Alec and I were supposed to leave for Chang Mai 3 days ago but we kept staying out too late with the girls from Norway...I said they were from Sweden in my last post. Late like 5 and 6 am late lol. Bangkok really never sleeps. Most of the restaurants and bars where we are staying are open 24 hours. I hear Chang Mai is a little calmer and not so hectic. I got a full body herbal thai massage 2 days ago that was heaven and a foot and leg massage yesterday that was a bit of heaven as well. A lot of the workers remember us from the restaurants and are happy too see us when we come back. I was talking with one of the waiters from the restaurant we like to eat at and he told me the employees work 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 300 baht a day (about $.75 per hour). A lot of them come over to work as waiters in Bangkok from Cambodia and Laos because the pay is better...wow humbling. Yesterday, Alec and I took a tuk tuk with the girls down to a huge mall in the city called the Siem Center and watched the Dark Knight Rises at an IMAX theater. It was a bunch of fun. A couple days ago the street we were staying on flooded because of heavy rain we had for a couple hours. I can't put any pictures up because I'm on desktop at an internet cafe but the next time I can use wi-fi on my iphone I'll put some up. Oh ya remember when I said at the end of my last blog I had a funny story for you...here it is...the second day we were here we went to the Vietnam Embassy to get our visas and left our passports with them because they need it to put the visa sticker in it. So the next morning after we woke up pretty hungover lol we left to pick up our visas and we couldn't find our passports hahaha. We both thought we had lost them and it was only the third day. We were freaking out so we took a taxi to the US Embassy to get an emergency visa...lucky they were closed on that Friday so we didn't pay the $150 for a new one. When we walked down to the Vietnam Embassy the guy handed us our passports and we both looked at each other like wow how dumb are we hahaha. Alrighty tighty I'm about to take one more stroll down Kao San Road (look it up) before we have to get on the bus to Chang Mai. I miss you all and love you all. Hey Mike...no ping pong show for me hahaha. It's crazy out here. Until next time...Love

Beers and Buckets?

Where do I start? Yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. Woke up and took the bus to downtown Bangkok to apply for a visa at the Embassy of Vietnam. Walked around for a little bit and had some of the tastiest street food yet. I had pad Thai with chicken (pic). I'm falling in love with the food...so cheap and flavorful. I've been eating for about $4 a day. Btw McDonalds is expensive here. After walking through some side streets and alley ways (pic) we took the bus back to our room and napped for a little bit. We woke up around 8:30 showered up and went out for the night. The night got started in a hurry. Had a couple drinks with dinner and walked around for a bit. We met a couple girls from Sweden and hung out with them for the night. We all had drinks at a bar and then moved onto the next bar and then the next and so on. The 2 most popular beers in Thailand are called Chang and Leo (too much Chang causes a changover lol). I had a changover this morning. We partied with the girls all night and shared a couple buckets. Mixed drinks (vodka red bull...) come in a bucket with straws so everyone can drink. We partied all night and danced in the street to everyone from bieber to jay-z. It was a Bangkok night. We didn't get out of bed until noon. Thanks Mom for the Tylenol haha. It's 7:27 here and I'm about to take a nap before we go out tonight. We're supposed to meet up with those girls again tonight. Anyways, I'd tell you what happened today but I gotta save that for tomorrow...let's just say you'll want to read it. I put a pic up of where we stayed the first 2 days (Rikka Inn). Until next time...love

First day in Bangkok...

Hey guys! It's 7:40 am here. Just woke up from an incredible first day in Bangkok. The humidity is like no other here. We walked out of the airport and it hit us directly in the face. I didn't really mind it after a few minutes. Anyways, we needed to get to the area we were looking for "Kao San." We took a shuttle from the airport to the public transportation center and then to Kao San (I'll put a pic up) . We walked down the street and found a place to stay for the first night and got settled in. Now it was time to explore! We walked out of our rooms into chaos lol. The street was just how I Imagined it (picture). We walked further around Bangkok and after a couple hours it started to down pour on us. We walked around a central park area and a heavily armed military head quarters before we got out of the rain. After sitting down for a while we met a man inside a small building working with a printing press. He invited us inside and showed us his craft. I'll never forget this man. So genuinely nice. He took two soaked white Americans inside for 30 minutes while we watched him go to work (picture). Saved us from the rain. Upon leaving we thanked him and went on our way...hungry! We walked in a small 7 eleven and grabbed a couple local Thai beers and a water and sat down at a table on the side of the street to have a drink (lol even though we were hungry). What happens next was perfect timing. Mind you it's dark out and began raining again. A man and lady were cooking food outside on the street to sell (pic). They made us a hit meal that I'll never forget. It was a soup type meal with some type of cooked fish in it. We told them not too spicy but I still almost died. We finished eating, thanked them and walked through an outdoors market on our walk home. Got home around 9 pm and were both passes out by 9:30. It was an incredible first day to say the least. Its time to get up and shower to see what today brings. Until next time...love

Waiting for my flight...

It's 11:34 pm and my mom and dad dropped Alec and I off at SFO about an hour ago. We made if through customs and are hanging out until we can board. I had a great time with my mom and dad in SF the last 2 days. I am overly excited to land in Thailand. I think my mom and dad are nervous for me...shit I'm nervous myself. My bag weighs about 20 lbs...not too bad. I packed pretty light. Alec and I are about to go find a bar too sit down and chill out for a while before we board. Maybe grab a drink and watch some SportsCenter for a little bit. I brought a book with me called "the tipping point" by Malcolm Gladwell. I'll try to read some on the plane before I fall asleep. It's a 14 hour flight to Taipei with a 4 hour layover then a 3 hour flight to Bangkok. Before I go I want to say I love my family and friends so much. You guys mean a lot to me. Until next time...love

The Adventure of a Lifetime...!

Before I get into my travel plans through Southeast Asia let me introduce myself...My name is Brett Landon Poncia. Born and raised in Redding, California (Far Northern California) by my parents Leo and Julie Poncia. I have an older sister Alisha and a younger brother Leo Jr. I graduated from a private university in the Bay Area called Dominican University of California with a B.A. in Business. I played basketball for 4 years and met many life long friends there. After my parents, I give credit to the university for developing myself as a well rounded person. I also have great passion and interest for sports and fitness. Now let me tell you about what is going on in my interesting/entertaining life...

A few months ago I was on the phone with my Mom talking about how I felt like I was "floating" and had not found what I was looking for yet as far as jobs or careers...it was scary and discouraging. Granted I am only 23 years young but I felt some sort of pressure to find some crazy awesome $70K job with the degree I had just earned. No, not by my parents but by society! She threw out the idea of traveling somewhere. I pondered it for a moment and ideas started flowing in my mind. I said YES! I wanted to go somewhere so badly I could taste it. Let me note, I have never traveled overseas. The first thought I had was Europe!! No, no, no everyone goes there...I'll wait until I'm old and rich to go there. We continued talking and I mentioned something about Thailand. She said do it! That's how it started. We talked for a bit longer that night. I was so excited I started crying on the phone with her because of the excitement running through my body. This was an opportunity of a lifetime. I began researching for hours a day at home and work about Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia. I learned as much as I could about the region from the weather, cultures, people, and what kind of things there is to do there. I looked at Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I quickly became fascinated with these countries.

A few days later I talked about it with my roommate and close friend Alec. We subsequently have decided to go on the adventure of a lifetime together. We knew we wanted to go but for how long?? We both had jobs to quit and neither of us had strings attached in our current location. The length of the trip was...well we didn't know. We searched for the cheapest one way ticket from San Francisco to Bangkok and found one leaving early early morning on Monday September 17th. I'm going to begin packing my backpack today bringing only the essentials: 2 shorts, 1 pants, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, flip flops, swim trunks, 6 underwear, 4 pairs of socks, some cosmetics, a book, headphones, and of course my iPhone...can't forget that.

A full itinerary does not exist. We wanted it this way. We do know at some point we will venture through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. On our journey we will be staying in hostels and the occasional hotel. From what I've read there will be other backpackers we'll meet and hangout with along the way. There are so many things I want to experience. I want to deep sea dive, zip line through the jungles of Laos, eat all kinds of street food, learn a bit of the languages, meet and get to know people of the land, hangout on the beach, ride an elephant, go down the Mekong River, take a motorcycle through Northern Vietnam, possibly meet up with family in Chang Mai (my aunt and her family are from Chang Mai), and hopefully go on the Gibbon Experience in Laos (look it up). I have a bunch of feelings/emotions about the trip. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm going to miss my family most of all. They mean everything to me. This will be time to grow as a person and find out what the rest of the world is like outside the U.S. I just checked the weather in Bangkok...a humid 89 degrees with showers. Now that this post is longer than expected, I think it's time for me to start packing. I plan on blogging throughout my journey as long as I can get wi-fi somewhere. I hope you enjoy my blog! Until next time...Love