7:30AM - Wake up call from the hotel, the alarm sounds. Ok, I’m up.
8:00AM - Breakfast next door to the hotel with Rory, Dave, Glenn, Dan and Phil. Fried rice, waffle, scrambled eggs, ham and SQUARE bread.
Rory's protractor proved this is a perfect square
8:30AM – Relax at the hotel with some coffee and gear talk.
9:00AM – Bags are packed because we’re moving to a new hotel today, one next door to the stadium. We’ll leave our bags with the hotel for a few hours because we’re going sightseeing.
9:20AM - A van picks us up to go to the Grand Palace and other tourist attractions. This is the start of a journey.
Getting directions from an "official" outside the Grand Palace
10:30AM - Arrive at the Grand Palace but it’s closed until noon, so we jump in tuk-tuks (taxis).
Off we go!
10:45AM - Tuk-tuk drivers are taking us for a joy ride.
Video evidence:
11:00AM – Checking out the giant standing Buddha and other things.
Connor and Vinnie in front of the standing Buddha
11:30AM – Tuk-Tuk ride to a tailor shop! Tourist trap anyone?
Rory seriously considered pink pinstriped suit for Tahoe
12:15PM – Walking the streets.
Spot the Man Bro's! First person to comment correctly wins a free pair. Serious.
12:30PM - Taking tuk-tuks back to the Grand Palace. All-in-all we spent 3 hours touring with the tuk-tuks (3 people per tuk-tuk). Total cost: 20 bahts each, 60 bahts total. That’s 2 bucks in the States.
12:45-2:30PM – 350 bahts and we’re in. Touring the Grand Palace. The attention to detail in this place is phenomenal. No shortcuts here, just inspiration.
Entrance to the Grand Palace
Connor and me outside the Grand Palace
Typical d-pole
All about the details
Magnificent, right?
Painting the palace
#ART
Looks kinda like Rory
Cleary modeled after Dan Helfrich
2:30-3:30PM - Touring the street markets: food, coconut water, and souvenirs.
Still trying to figure out what this was…
3:30PM – Van picks us up outside the Grand Palace to take us to the new hotel: Novotel at the Impact Complex.
4:00PM – Arrive at hotel. This place is awesome. Incredible entrance and luxury rooms. As we check in, the hostess serves us “Blue Butterfly.”
Some sort of lavendar flavored drink
4:30PM – Meet downstairs to head over to Yamaha Stadium.
4:32PM – Arrive at Stadium. This place is unreal. We take the player entrance through the tunnel to the field. The professional soccer team is just finishing up practice, so we watch for a bit. A couple of the players stop by to check out our gear.
Walking through the tunnel
Watching Muangthong UTD practice
Yamaha Stadium
4:45PM - Tour of the facility begins, and our crew spots a few surprises along the way…
Unreal
The ultimate media backdrop
5:00PM – Stop at the soccer team’s gift shop and pick up a replica jersey. Got to!
5:15PM – We’re on the field throwing around and shooting. Connor shoots one high right and it dings the glass window on the VIP Suite. No big deal, Payu says, those rooms have 10mm glass.
6:00PM – Leaving the field for dinner, but first we have to have our press conference.
Getting grilled by the media
6:05PM - Okay, maybe that wasn’t a real press conference, but could you imagine?
6:20PM – We arrive at a Chinese restaurant for dinner.
Ultimate pregame meal?
Left to right: Whiskey chicken, Jellyfish, Ducka
Shark fin soup
Lacrosse players… can't take them anywhere!
8:30PM – Leaving dinner for the hotel across the street.
8:45-9:15PM – Quick stretch and flex in the hotel gym. They have quite the swimming pool here.
9:30PM – Showering up, then heading down to the lobby bar for drinks. For Ogle and I, that means more happiness in a glass.
One sip will make any man smile
11:30PM – Lights out. Big day tomorrow.
