Bangkok Narita Chicago, a trip

[dirtydog]

So lets have a quick look at some of the other really big buildings.



This is the one opposite Sears, looks a lot nicer.



Venice?

[buad hai]

ponced around in the airport trying to get an internet connection and then trying to find whereto pay for the connection, then saying "fok It"

Perhaps you missed my Narita Layover page....

Narita Layover Page - Internet

[Texpat]

I always thought the portions were way too large in the US too. They do that so they can charge a higher price for the same amount of labor. My guess is they'd rather have you come in, buy a huge sandwich and take half of it home, than have you come in twice and buy two smaller sandwiches. Fewer customer-contact minutes relate to lower costs. On the other hand, they usually make their big money on inflated drink prices. In any case, the portions are too large. Don't be shy about splitting an entree.

More pics of real cars, please.

[buad hai]

^Interesting thoughts, Texpat. My Mom's fridge is always full of stuff she's taken away from restaurants. At her age her appetite is not huge, but she figures she gets three meals out of every one she orders at a restaurant.

[Thetyim]

DD, Have you eaten any babies yet ?

[Fabian]

That sounds really like a bargain. We should travel there as long as the exchange rate is like that.

How difficult is it for a thai to get a visa?

[chitown]

Ed Debevics - Please go here for sure!!

Downtown Chicago
640 N. Wells St.
Chicago, Il 60620
Restaurant Phone (312)-664-1707

Gino's East Pizza.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Ruth's Chris Steak House : Welcome to Prime Steak

Harry Carry's Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse | Harry Caray | Chicago Landmark | Chicken Vesuvio | Steak | Chicago Steakhouse | Harry Caray’s Chicago | Harry Caray’s Rosemont | Harry Caray’s Lombard

The Billy Goat Tavern World Famous Billy Goat Tavern & Grill - Enter At Your Own Risk

White Castle. 69 cent Cheeseburger White Castle Home Page

[chitown]

World Famous Billy Goat Tavern & Grill - Enter At Your Own Risk


Saturday Night Live

Ordering at the Billy Goat may go something like this: "Cheezborger! Cheezborger! You want doublecheez?!? Who's next!?! WHO'S NEXT!?!" If you take more than one second to answer: "Don't look at the menu, look at ME! I order for you - DOUBLECHEEZ!" If you only feel like a single: "No. DOUBLECHEEZ!!!" If it's the end of the week: "It's Friday, doublecheez for everybody! It's payday! Triplecheez for the big guy!" Want French fries with that? "No fries - CHEEPS!" Thirsty? "No Pepsi - COKE!" To drink: "Coke or Diet?!"

Such rantings by the Billy Goat staff have gone on for almost 40 years and originated when Billy Goat Sianis and another Greek immigrant by the name of Bill Charuchas would entertain patrons by yelling out: "Try the double cheese! It's the best! No fries, cheeps!" In the 1978, Sam Sianis and Charuchas were immortalized by Saturday Night Live's John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Loraine Newman. The sketch was originally written by Don Novello (of Father Guido Sarducci fame) when he was an advertising copywriter in Chicago. John Belushi and Bill Murray knew the Billy Goat from their Second City days, and the rest is history. As a result, the Billy Goat Tavern achieved national infamy. When in Chicago, Don Novello and Bill Murray still come by and visit Sam and the Billy Goat staff and have their "Doublecheezborger"!

[chitown]

Who would have thought? A guy named Dirty Dog has made me homesick.

[Gerbil]

How are the boxers dealing with the wind chill?

Uh, you did buy more than one pair I hope....

[dirtydog]

Ok, just take a look at the size of these strawberries, these are about the size of a new born babies head, now we know what Americans practise on before becoming adult cannibles.



Lets have a look at what tonights snack will be, doritos, jalapeno peppers, and black bean and corn salsa

[dirtydog]

Time to sort out the first thing for why we are here, yep burial time, got to admit I really try to avoid funerals, I don't find these to be fun events, and going to a funeral of a religion you have no knowledge of is even worse, anyway the hearse was pretty smart.



Our stretch limo was a bit over the top, nice walnut interior with loads of leather though.



The view from his grave.



And here he is in his final resting place, he had a good turn out and there was quite a few speeches, the Rabbi was really good and there was no fighting.



Then it was back to his daughters house for some food and the daytime wake.



This evening we have to go back for some more wake and some blessing or something which I think involves a suitcase of candles, got to admit it is all quite confusing.

[dirtydog]

We were going to move to Chicago for a couple of days but have decided to commute daily, the Mariott Penthouse suite is just too damn nice, did I mention we even have 2 tvs no idea if they work as I haven't turned them on.

[astasinim]

Isn't this thread a foregone conclusion?

I could probably write it today and not be far off the mark.

Bet your surprised eh Tex.

[dirtydog]

Got to admit I don't believe in ghosts, but some strange shite happened this morning, first thing was about 30 minutes before the limo arrived, she was sitting on the sofa, I was standing about 2 meters in front of her, now remember this place is a bit nippy, suddenly the fan above us turned on, I assumed the remote must be on the sofa and she was sitting on it, then I saw it on a side table a couple of meters away from both of us, spooky or what? It gets worse though I turned it off with the remote, 5 minutes later it turned itself back on whilst we were talking, quite amazing don't you think, yeah it could have been picking up signals from another room or suite so it is easily explained, but it gets worse the light in the kitchen turned itself off, now I got to admit I just assumed the bulb had blown, so we carried on talking, I then went over and thought I might aswell turn the light switch off as the bulb was blown, flicked the switch and on came the light, now this is getting foking spooky, luckily our limo turned up then.

[dirtydog]

Life in the suburbs of Chicago I should imagine is quite tame and boring, but nice and safe, different folks want different things I suppose, anyway a wrangler jeep for texpat.



A few of the houses coming up next,none of these have walls or fences, no security grills on the windows, no great big guard dogs, nice size plots of land with loads of dead plants cos it is so poxy cold, reckon next month though it will look great.









Anyway we still got a lot to do but it has to be done real quick as she is cold and homesick, I am tempted to turn up the heating in the suite but then the cold will affect her even more, also if it is too warm in here she won't even go outside, she wont go out for the free breakfast buffet each morning as that early it is way too cold, we also get free evening meals here, but haven't tried them yet, seems we go to a restaurant for lunch and bring back a kilo of food in a doggie bag, damn it is good though.

[sabang]

Do my eyes deceive me?
Ham, at a Jewish funeral.

[kingwilly]

I happened to check my online CC acount and notice that they have made 7 separate withdrawls for the 1 ticket. So instead of $1,300 (35,000 baht) it has cost me $9,100 (245,000 baht).

MeMock, so your credit card statement is proving you wrong. Actually it seems like the online booking worked every of the six times you obviously tried.

I was thinking the same thing too, like a kid repeatedly pushing the same button!

You should try booking on the Lufthansa website then. Afterwards you will think the Thai Airways website is really convenient.

and their hostess are completely obese old and ugly, and they also refuse to serve beer in economy between Jakarta and Singapore, why? cos its a domestic flight??

WTF? two different countries!

The food is fantastic here, I keep going to the local supermarket here at the shopping mall and keep buying stuff that we can snack on or eat, we aint gonna be able to finish it and it will probably be too much to take back to Thailand, should mention I haven't even started looking at the cheeses yet, got a few spare kilos I am allowed

So could you find any smelly dried squid?

[johnbkk]

Did you have the US flight attendants on your plane from Bangkok? What day did you fly out?

[dirtydog]

So today it was back down to downtown Chicago by train, so first up a couple of pictures of Union Street Train Station, this place is so big and has enough restaurants that you could live there for a couple of months and not get bored, no smoking rooms though





Obviously not all Americans drive Porshes, only the rich ones, to get rich in America you have to supply something that is in demand, not sure if he was a drug dealer or BBQued baby salesman.



Downtown Chicago has millions of taxis, you just flag them down, most of them have English as a second language and are scared of the local evil natives, so they block them off from them selves.
This is Mr Mohhomed Sing taxi, well his name was something like that anyway.



So first stop we need a Thai speaking lawyer, seems Chicago only has the one and he deals in immigration issues, he's gonna have to do as she needs a presence here.

Here is the Thai consulate on North Rush Street.

[jizzybloke]

Any more spooky happenings?

[dirtydog]

Just across the Road from The Thai Consulate is St James Cathedral, it does look a bit odd surrounded by massive tower blocks or skyscrapers.

Taken from their website;

St. James Cathedral, founded in 1834, is the oldest Episcopal congregation in Chicago. Located at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Huron Street, in the bustling North Michigan Avenue neighborhood, we are a 400-member parish representing a broad cross section of people.

St. James has been the Cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago since 1955. The diocese encompasses 41,000 members in 127 congregations reaching across the northern part of Illinois, from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.

Who was St. James? James, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee and Salome, was a fisherman by trade, who left everything when Jesus called him to become his disciple. After Jesus' death and resurrection, he preached in Samaria, Judea, and Spain. He was the first Apostle to be martyred when, in Jerusalem at age 44, he was stabbed by King Herod Agrippa. A scallop shell is his symbol.

The colors and patterns that frame the pages of our web site are taken from the interior of St. James Cathedral, which is one of the finest examples of Victorian-Gothic stenciling in the world.

St. James Cathedral
Wabash at Huron

Mailing Address & Office:
65 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312-787-7360

[dirtydog]

Any more spooky happenings?

Yeah, she keeps getting foking Thai idiots phoning her up between 2am and 6am cos the dumb foks don't know nothing about world time differences, this suite is California style so the second floor bedroom is like open, I will post the pics later, but the cnuts keep waking me up as well....

[sunderlandstephen]

Come on m8,airports and food pics

[dirtydog]

Did you have the US flight attendants on your plane from Bangkok? What day did you fly out?

Do you think I would notice? I have no idea who the fok was serving me or what foking day it was, I mean that is pretty irrelevent shite aint it, anyway they were fat, old and spoke English, I speak Thai, that don't make me a Thai and most cnuts I meet seem to like to insult me and ask what part of Aussie land I come from, I have never ever had sexual relations with a sheep, so why they think I am an Aussie I have no idea.