Back to a familiar place

Oops, my bad. Here I am off on a jet plane again and forgetting to share updates. For the past month I have been planning another trip, 2 weeks ago the contract was signed and today I hopped aboard my Thailand express. 

That’s right Thailand back to the Thailand of smiles  and the most delicious food known to my taste buds. For the next 90 days, my craft will continue to be practiced in front of the lens, and flashy bulbs. Of course with this trip I am a little wiser and a little more experienced especially with regards to the city of Bangkok.

My previous endeavor I stayed in a model apartment, sharing a bedroom and living a fair distance from everything that is fun. Think Zoolander again, 2 sometimes 3 guys sharing rooms with bunk beds and all. Distance meant that the agency provided at cost a driver to take you to and from castings. Initially a driver sounds great, and for many it stays that way. For me however, I would much rather take a taxi or public transit than sit around waiting for a girl to finish her job, or be piled in a clown car of models. 

At this exact moment I don’t have an apartment on lock down, but there are several solid prospects. Out of the goodness of friends, I will have a place to lay my head while I search for living accommodations.

There is always an advantage to returning to a previous market. In the field of modeling and particularly strong in Thailand is familiarity.  Thai’s are more comfortable working with someone they know (makes sense to me).  Unlike my first trip, the patchwork has been laid, past clients and casting directors will hopefully be more likely to book me.  As with any venture in modeling there are no guarantees though. 

There is yet one more bonus if you will about this trip, it comes down to friends. Each time I have gone to a country; I have entered knowing no one, or if luckily there is friends of friends (which has worked out nicely). This time  however I feel like half the world will be there, friends from university teaching English, past co-workers ready for rowdy holiday and people I have met anywhere along the way exercising their diplomatic duties.

I am eternally wishing that technology advances before my trip home, as these long haul flights are truly wearing on me.  This adventure finds me 3 hours, followed by 11 and finishing with an additional 7, my butt can only handle so much. 

Lastly, what’s the deal United? Living in the past, no seatback television or power? Apparently they are living in the stone ages. 

Relax, Happy Time at The Jimjilbang (D-a-i-y-e Spa)

 Relax Day Spa Scene - Zoolander

After a quick fitting and a casting, Meekus, Rufus and myself headed to a Jimjilbang. (Okay end of the Zoolander references). These are very popular in Korea. For a small sum of 10 000 won you can spend up to 24 hours in the public bathhouse and sauna.  

Not once in my life have I ever had an experience remotely close to this.  The facilities include an arcade, a pc room, a snack bar, a restaurant, amongst the standard spa services (which are extra of course) there are 9 different sauna rooms, and in the private bath part 4 maybe 5 tubs. Ranging from 5 degrees to 90 degrees the rooms can give you a full range of experience.

As if I don’t get enough stares in this country, walking around the Jimjilbang with 2 other tall white dudes; people can’t help but look out of curiosity. The sauna area is littered with mats and little blocks of wood to rest your head. The highly fashionable colour coordinated shorts and t-shirt, let you know your gender if you are ever confused (blue is for guys).  Many people will take a few hours out of their day to just stay there and nap, which is certainly easily enough to do when you don’t have silly ignorant foreigners interrupting the purity of silence. 

                                                 

After a few hours darting between hot and cold and lounging around, I partook in the bathhouse experience. Once you get over the fact that there are dudes walking around naked everywhere, this is easily the best part. Hot tub, cool dip, hot tub, cool dip, 90-degree sauna, hot tub, and shower are the optimal routine I discovered in my random quest to find psychological oasis.  The humidity is great for cleaning up your skin and scrubbing off all the dead dry skin. It’s been almost unbearably dry around lately so this just added to the experience.

Following the showers, I decided to indulge myself further. Each week we receive approximately 106 000 won. When I take out my pocket money I only ever take out 100 000. Slowly building up is that total. I used this additional money as a way to pay for quite possibly the best massage in human existence.  From head to toe, my entire body was relaxed (I actually drooled a bit), the intense pressure to release those stubborn knots in my back was much needed, along with the standing on my back, and crazy cooling face stuff.  

5 hours after I first walked into Central Spa Jimjilbang, I walked out in a state of euphoria. The ultimately relaxed form of myself was now ready to take on the world, or in this case some Korean BBQ. 

Restaurants have become more fun as well lately. I have taken to sharing soju shots with random people around the restaurant and the response has been wonderful. Every time we make new friends. 

Models help people

 

This picture was never published in the ad for the condos but I love it and wanted to share it. 

I think the most quoted movie in the past 4 months by me has been Zoolander. One of my first posts I mentioned it and will continue to. So much of that ridiculously stupid yet incredibly hilarious movie can be applied in a humourous manner. So before I get on sharing what has gone on over the past few days, I wanted to put some props out to one of my buddies in Singapore.  A little bromance if you will, no homo.

When I first met Andrew it was at the small little gym at the condo. I was frustrated that another person was tramping in on my already small gym territory; ironically enough he mentioned the exact same thing. We chat, he was born in Canada, lived in the US and came to Singapore about the same time as me.  He has been an awesome buddy for me since. Naturally he was looking to lose a few lbs., nothing major and he was by no means fat. I introduced him to my circle of friends, including models and that helped motivate him to push harder.

Props for Andrew!

On a number occasions we chatted about nutrition, and even shared some ass kicking workouts in the gym. I wanted to share with you the results.  The credit I take in this is minimal other than maybe additional motivation and the odd little tip. Andrew did most of this on his own. This picture is from Mid January to Mid March; over that period he lost 7 kilos.

  

Ok back on task. Friday was a fun day, despite being trapped in a van for what seemed to be an eternity. We had weigh ins at the agency in the morning. I weighed in down 1 kg from Tuesday, which was no surprise as I was up 1 kilo on Tuesday from what I expected. That my friends, is water weight, for those that don’t know your body is typically composed of 50-70% water and its not uncommon to see a 5% swing.  

From there, Kevin, Jessica, and myself had a shortlisted casting with body glove. This was a super fun casting; we tried on some close and took a few test shots. The clients were great too, which is always something that helps.  From there Jessica and I had to find our way to a fashion show casting to meet our booker and a few other models.  This was my first BTS (or sky train) experience, these trains are packed, not it makes rush hour Singapore MRT feel comfortable.  Fortunately it was only a few stops and the stops are announced in both Thai and engrish. 

I don’t want to even get started about this casting, but overall it was frustrating and terrible. So I will just let you know I was there for almost 3 hours and it wasn’t productive.

Following that recipe for frustration, I had an emergency casting to head to. The van drove me there with a car full of cranky ladies. One was hungry, one was tired and one was bored. Woosa! Deep breathes. This casting was very last minute and for a Russian telephone company. I had fun with the casting agents for the little video we shot and few snaps shots. 

Friday was a relaxing evening for me, this lead me to my Saturday. I had a callback Saturday for the phone job, followed by a TVC audition for Nutrilite. Followed by a couple hour back workout and an incredible dinner. The dinner was about 300 baht ($10) and it included a 6 oz. chicken breast, 1-cup wild rice, and unlimited salad bar. I didn’t have my phone to take a picture but I easily ate 4 cups of veggies at this meal.

Best news of course. I found out today (Sunday) that I booked the phone job and have a fitting tomorrow morning. I am officially pumped to start working!