Sometimes you just have to keep talking about something that seems far-fetched till it just slowly rises out of the fog to reality. That’s how our little south-east Asia tour came together. John Clayton, Mitch Teed, and Connor Kammerer would get phone calls from myself about every couple of weeks squawking about saving that paper for this trip idea I couldn’t get out of my head. Connor who has lived in Asia before and is a Japanese translator for Delta was the key to help bring this all together. So thanks again Connor.
Connor nose manual around in Thailand — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
John, Connor, Raspa, and Mitch — Janchai Montrelerdrasme
The first stop was Bangkok, which I arrived in a day earlier, before the rest of the crew. Which meant I had a day to explore the scene. The scene for most backpacking tourists is Koasan Road, which is a basic hub for the backpacker traveling in and around Bangkok. You can find a room there for 150 to 200 baht. In American dollars that’s like 5 bucks a night. Beers are the real ticket at just 70 baht for a tall boy of chang and that’s like 2 bucks American. So when you exchange your dough your chilling, feeling rich.
On the second day I met up with the homies John, Mitch, and Connor. We skated everyday from that day forward for about a week and a half. The spots in Bangkok are crispy at times and other times there are spots that are mad dirty. When I say dirty, just imagine if the brooklyn banks had a blower blowing the dirt up off the ground in your face. I now understand why the people in Asia wear a doc’s mask. The heat is rugged also, humidity is twice as bad as Florida, and the food, the street food, is kept raw in the sun till’ you ask for a piece cooked on a grill. This is exactly what I wanted. Fucking raw living and skating.
Raspa and John skating the streets — Janchai Montrelerdrasme
John backside 5-0 the 2 block — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
The Thai skateboarding is at an all time high there. Kids are rolling up to flat bars and boxes doing flip in flip out shit and you’ve never heard of them. I wish I captured more of them on film but when you got four Americans bouncing around on wooden toys themselves it’s kinda hard to shoot everything. The locals are friendly, the girls will love you even if you don’t have money to pay for one. All you have to do is smile and say “sour de cup” which means “hello” to a girl . By the first day all four of us were just using that word to describe a hot chick . “Oh she’s a sour de cup!!!, haah ha.” Now you do have enough ladyboys in Bangkok to have your mind spinning because your going to need a magnifying glass to really tell at times what exact side of the tracks certain girls fall in. This Thai chick that was chilling would point and laugh at a random American tourist who was flirting and I eventually watched the dude go upstairs to a dick taffy surprise. So skate homies, keep ya eyes peeled!!!
John backside 180 nosegrind — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
Connor gets white kicks in Thailand — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
Connor model shot — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
group shot in Thailand — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
Instead of all the nonsense with that we mostly kept skating, had changs, and met up with the homie Jane who showed us some well known spots and took some photos of us. Soda ice bags all around, thanks to his Thai welcome as soon as we met up with him. That’s the thing out there, no vibing, no hating, just kids loving skating like its ninety-nine again. We did dip out of Bangkok and head towards the beaches, some 7 hour trek on a bus. Kicked it out on the beach for 3 days to help the bones and to get our breathing right again. We went to Ko chang, a beach town, which had enough bank spots looking out from the window to drive you crazy. We ended up feeling like everything after that would be downhill and that’s as good as life could get… to be continued…
Raspa contemplating — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
the boys eating goodness — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
the family of four straight chilling — photo Janchai Montrelerdrasme
photography Janchai Montrelerdrasme
Janchai Montrelerdrasme personal blog