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First Birthday Abroad
I have officially experienced my first of, I hope many, birthdays on the road! Needless to say, I rang in my 27th year with style.
I started the night off eating dinner on a rooftop bar/restaurant, Orbit Bar, in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Joining me for the evening was one of my best childhood friends, Mark, and my girlfriend Brittany. This alone was a pretty awesome experience to be sharing with two awesome people, and the view wasn’t half bad either. A few large Heinekens and a few overpriced steak dinners and we headed out of there.
Views from Rooftop Restaurant in Khon Kaen
Come to find out, when Brittany jumped on the back of my motorbike, riding side-saddle for the first time, I discovered we had another flat tire. The flat tire was likely due to escaping a dog chasing us down the road, which lead to hitting speed bumps at 45-50 kilo an hour prior to eating dinner. We switched her over to Mark’s motorbike, and I limped along the side of the lake-side road in search of a motorbike repair shop. It was about four kilos or so before we found one. These shops seem to be just about everywhere in Thailand, unless of course, you really need one.
100 baht ($3 USD) and 15 minutes later, we were on our way. Mark headed home, being the responsible one, that we should have been…
Post repair, Brittany convinced me to go the Pullman, the biggest hotel in Khon Kaen, with a spectacular bakery, to get a piece of birthday cake. We scored one piece of American cheesecake draped in strawberry sauce and a super chocolatey piece of cake. Instead of eating in the bakery, why of course, we head to the “Underground,” for an Oktoberfest beer, and enjoy our cake.
Oktoberfest at the Pullman Hotel Khon Kaen
There was a fantastic band, that actually sang in English (but spoke zero English, strange I know) while we enjoyed our cake and beer.
We decided to leave the Pullman and head to the Restaurant, and I think this is where it went downhill for me fast. 100 beers later, another cake, and I was feeling fuzzy. It was all in good fun, until I woke up the next day…. at 4 p.m. a world record for myself to sleep-in past 8 a.m.
All in all, this was an awesome birthday celebrating in Thailand. Who knows where I will be for the next one. Here is a little video footage I got of the tire repair and Pullman Hotel.
About the Author Charlie and Brittany
We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.
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