What do you think?

I’ll see you out there…!

What started as a small mistake quickly became a signature characteristic of Ultimate Thailand Explorers Ben and Brian. In our application video we mispronounced the city we were applying too. It was made clear to us on several occasions. And each time we tried to correct ourselves, it got worse.

It’s tough trying to guess how to pronounce something you’ve never heard before. Where does the accent do? Are the vowels hard or soft? Eventually we got it and when we did, I put it out on twitter. That’s what today’s post is all about.

Don’t forget to become a fan of adventureswithben.com on Facebook here.

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Hey Explorers,

We are taking a road trip this weekend to South Florida for a softball tournament that Brian is playing in. Thanks to technology, we’re blogging on the road from our phones!

We have about a 3-hour drive to the city of Ft. Lauderdale, so to pass the time we’ve been learning to speak Thai. We’ll share a YouTube video with our progress later this weekend as soon as we can upload our camera and laptop to the Internet.

Speaking of learning to speak Thai…

There’s no denying it, Ben has lots of trouble speaking new languages. And for some reason, he just can’t get a handle on the pronounciation of the city he’s visiting.

Thank you to all of you who have written in with the correct phoenetic pronounciation of Pattaya, but reading something and hearing it are two very different learning methods.

Well earlier this week some of you on Twitter may have received word that Ben thinks he’s figured out. Follow the link below to hear for yourself.

http://tmic.fm/ox968pbzzrc

What do you think, did he get it correct once and for all? By the way, how many different ways has he pronounced Pattaya? Review all our YouTube videos on our YouTube Channel and comment below with your answers to both questions!

YouTube.com/user/benandbrianthai

We’ll see you out there!

It’s tough to imagine that it’s been one full year of blogging about travel. Time flies when you’re having fun. And what a fun year it was. It all began with The Stories of my Shoes; a metaphor for capturing and recanting stories. Now, 252 posts later, the stories keep on growing.

My Favorite Adventures

Since June of 2009, the travel destination roster included: Chicago, IL, St. Louis, MO,  Eugene, OR, Park City, UT, Omaha, NE, Johannesburg, South Africa (twice), Pattaya, Thailand, New Orleans, LA, Canada (St. John’s, Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto), Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Of course there were excursions all throughout Orlando, FL. So what were some of my favorite moments?

• Chilling out while listening to Jazz at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois
• Winning the Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition to Pattaya, Thailand
• Spotting the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tropy in Polokwane, South Africa
• Smashing People with Pillows at International Pillow Fight Day in Orlando
• Getting drenched by Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia

Top Adventures by Category

Here’s some adventures you may enjoy by category

• Most Sexy Post: Fun with Air New Zealand’s In-Flight Safety Video: It’s Naked!
• Biggest Bust Out: Spook Hill, Lake Wales Florida
• Worst Sickness: Lakeridge Winery Grape Stomp
• Most Dangerous Adventure: Walking with Lions
• Most Touching Post: The Importance of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa
• Most Helpful Travel Tip: Pack Clean Underwear
• Messiest Food: Cafe Du Monde
• Most Controversial Post: Why I Support the Vuvuzela

Top 10 Posts by Page Views

Here are the top 10 posts according to page views at adventureswithben.com for 2009-2010.

1. How to play a vuvuzela
2. America’s Got Talent Auditions Orlando
3. Watching the Ellen Show Tape
4. St. Louis Union Station Whispering Arch
5. Watching Space Shuttle Discovery Launch from Jetty Park
6. Where Does Orange Juice Come From?
7. The Art of Sand Opens this weekend
8. Colorful Houses in the Bo-Kaap Quarter
9. Walking on the Willis Tower Skydeck Ledge
10. Calgary White Hat Award

What was your favorite adventure this year? Comment with your answer.

By the Numbers

• 14,603 Page Views
• 7,035 YouTube Video Views
• 517 Twitter Followers
• 265 Comments & Replies
• 252 Published Posts
• 111 YouTube Videos
• 71 Facebook Fans
• 3 Countries visited in 2009 – 2010

Thank You to My Sponsors

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the help from my sponsors that have supported adventureswithben.com.

• Good Tugo – and you can read my post about the tugo cup holder
• The City Scramble – here’s my first post about The City Scramble
• 12 Apostles Hotel, Cape Town
• Chanters Lodge, Livingstone – here’s my interview with Richard Chanter of Chanters Lodge

What’s Next?

So what’s next on the horizon? Well, I’ve been busy promoting my latest adventure, “Where Would You Go in Central Florida if You Called in Sick From Work?” There’s also a lot to do for my Australia 2011 trip. Flights need to be booked, accommodations arranged and most importantly of all, adventures need to be planned!

Thank You to You

Most importantly of all, thank you to each and every one of you for reading, commenting and following my adventures. In a small way, I hope I’ve inspired you to get off the couch, grab your passport, get it stamped and have an adventure. More adventures in 2010-2011 are just around the corner. Become a fan on Facebook to keep in touch!

I’ll see you out there…!

Today’s post was another avenue to involve our readers in our travels to Thailand. The goal was to show them what they wanted to see. With the hectic schedule we had, we weren’t able to create a singular post that answered our readers comments – but we did try to incorporate them into other posts.

This was a big experiment that worked to some extent. But that was the point. To use this platform to try new things. Blogging is fantastic!

Anyway, I’m still out of the country. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on my adventures in South Africa, follow me on Facebook here.

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Hey Explorers,

Before we elaborate on today’s post, watch this YouTube video for the details…

Simple enough right? Any questions?

International travel is wonderful because there are so many great sights to explore. But sometimes the little things are just as magical. A colleague of mine, whenever she travels, likes to discover the different flavors of Potato Chips (Crisps) found in the grocery store. Some like to eat new pizza toppings, while others like myself (as you saw in the video*) find the ordinary to be interesting. So what do you want to see?

While we are actually going to Pattaya, we haven’t forgotten that you voted to send us there. We want to bring you as close to the excitement as possible. So as you heard in the video, tell us what you want to uncover. We’ll debunk myths, seek out the weird and wonderful and investigate the secrets underneath. Some thought starters might be…

• I’ve always wondered…
• Is it true that…
• I once heard…
• Show me what…
• Or create your own…

You can ask your questions up until the last day we are in Pattaya (December 15th). Submit those questions by commenting below or send them to us via Twitter and add #benbrian to your tweet. We are curious as to what you’re curious about!

Voting starts December 1st. More on that tomorrow.

We’ll see you out there!

*Update 30/11/09 – while I wasn’t clear in the video, I stated my interest in seeing the toilet water swirl in the opposite direction – but after countless trips to toilet stalls the country-over it doesn’t always. Thank you to a reader for sending a note clarifying that point. And that’s the kind of stuff we’d be interested in discovering in Thailand for you!

In today’s post, we offered our readers the opportunity to decide which “optional attractions” we would visit by hosting a TwitPoll. Whatever interested them the most would be what we would do. While the poll is now closed the winner was Walking Street. As it turned out, we did everything on the list but the Stone Park, Bottle Museum and Go Kart Park.

On having readers select our optional activities, one reader said, “Very clever gentlemen. This is a nice way to involve people in your journey.” And that’s what it was all about. Involving our fans in our experience.

If you’d like to read about what we did at those optional activities, stay tuned for a future post. In the meantime, Don’t forget to become a fan of adventureswithben.com on Facebook here.

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Hey Explorers,

In addition to the “must-see” attractions, we’ve been provided with a list of optional attractions we should visit while in Pattaya. We need to decide very soon which of these, we’ll be able to squeeze into our itinerary and visit. Realistically, we can’t visit all of them. Can you help us?

We’d like your opinion. Where would you like to see us go? We’ve listed the sites down below, in no particular order. All but one are hyperlinked for you to learn more about them. After browsing, cast your vote on our poll below.

After hearing your vote we’ll work to include your #1 pick in our itinerary. If for some reason we can’t make it to #1, we’ll visit #2 and so on. Here is your opportunity to choose our adventure. Start practicing those voting skills for Tuesday!

The Attractions Are…

• Pattaya Floating Market
• Million Years Stone Park
• The Bottle Art Museum (From Tourism Thailand)
• Yannasangwarar am Temple/ Khao Chi Chan Buddha image (From Tourism Thailand)
• Pattaya Park Go Kart (From Tourism Thailand)
• Walking Street
• Phratamnak view point/ Big Buddha (no site available)

Now Cast Your Vote!

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Have you connected with us on our social networks yet? The links are below on the right! You can also chat with us live too! Find out how by clicking here.

We’ll see you out there!

While we were preparing for our trip to Pattaya, we wanted to continue focusing on connecting with our readers. Since we were spending every waking hour on the internet, we thought of creating a Skype account to chat with our followers. Several people added us to their contact list, but we never actually ended up chatting with anyone. Maybe it was the time difference in Thailand, or maybe we were just ships passing in the night. Whatever the reason, we received positive feedback on our use of technology.

I may not log on to the Thailand Skype account today, but I do have a Skype username for this site. It’s adventureswithben. If you’d ever like to connect with me, add me to your contact list! There’s another way you can connect too: Facebook. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on my adventures in South Africa, become a fan of adventureswithben.com on Facebook here.

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Hey Explorers,

Our last post may have been a few days ago, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been hard at work preparing to take you to Pattaya. After the excitement of our selection came the reality of the amount of work we need to prepare for in order to successfully promote Pattaya. We are really excited to announce our most recent initiative right here, right now!

Throughout the application and semi-finalist portions of the competition we have loved reading your comments and hearing your feedback. We think that, more than anything, has been the most touching piece of this competition – meeting fans of Thailand and travel.

We asked ourselves, what else could we do to “kick it up a notch”? Watch this video to find out!

So, what do you think? Cool stuff ‘eh?

As you heard, we’ll be blogging before, during and after the Ultimate Thailand Explorers competition. In fact, chances are, when we aren’t working, sleeping or eating, we’re probably at our computers. And each time we’re on the computer we’ll have our chat software up and running – ready for you to share a travel tip, suggest a local attraction in Pattaya or make a recommendation on a favorite Thai dish we should try. Don’t know what to talk about, a little shy? That’s okay, just simply say hello and we’ll start from there. We’d love to meet you!

Our Screen Names are as follows:

Skype: benandbrianthai

AOL IM: benandbrianthai

Our mission throughout this competition is to bring you as close to Pattaya as possible, and this is just another way we are bringing that vision to life.

Don’t forget, you can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter using the links on the bottom-right hand corner of your screen.

We’ll see you out there!

I enjoyed today’s post because it was our first experiment in involving the reader in our trip. We asked them to submit what our team name should be. Based on their input, we selected the one we liked best. Our response was small, but it started the gears in my mind thinking about how else we could involve people in our trip. More on that in a future post.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date on my adventures in South Africa, become a fan of adventureswithben.com on Facebook here.

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Today we received a request from our hosts to select a team name. So we offered the opportunity up to you – our followers on Twitter and fans on Facebook.

Some of the responses we received in this brief opportunity were…

• The Divine Travels of the Pattaya-ya Brotherhood…
• Thailand’s Bn’B
• B Squared

After careful consideration, we chose Ultimate Thailand Explorers Facebook Fan Louise’s suggestion “B Squared”. So, if you happen to see two guys wearing t-shirts in Pattaya that say “B Squared” come on over and say hello! We’d love to meet some of you.

And if you missed out on the chance to add your suggestion have no fear, we’ll have more opportunities in the future. But…you have to connect with us to find out. Our Twitter and Facebook links are on the bottom-right corner of this page. Why not connect now?

Until next time, what do you think of our chosen name? Comment below.

It’s Hip to be Square!

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