Back in 2005, I took a trip to Thailand with my friend Grace. I kept a blog while I was there, but on another site. I decided it was time to move it on over to this one so that everything could be in one spot. Very weird to look back and hear what I had to say about my experience there...
Thailand Adventures Part 1 (written Sunday, November 27, 2005)
Arrival
Our trip began after a delicious turkey dinner when we got the airport at about 10pm Thanksgiving night. Good 'ole dad pulled some strings so we got to chill in the Dynasty Lounge (VIP) while we waited for our flight. 13.5 hours later we arrived in Taipei. I don't recommend spending more than 5 minutes in that airport, but we survived the 3 hour layover before another 3.5 hours to Bangkok. We checked into a cute little hotel and the realization of how cheap Thailand is kicked in...350baht for one night (about $8.50). We even went for the gold and opted to have hot water in our room. The hotel is in a touristy area that is lined with stores, restaurants, and bars.
Bangkok
We start exploring Bangkok by attempting to walk to the Grand Palace. We didn't get too far when we were stopped by the most friendliest person ever #1. He told us about some wats (temples) that are only open once a month and we happened to arrive on one of those days. He drew us the cutest little map with all the stops we had to make, hailed us a tuk-tuk driver, and negotiated a price for us, 60Baht to go to all the places and have him wait while we looked around ($1.50). We saw a lot of really big Buddahs. We feel quite lucky that the really nice man hooked us up with what to check out. The tuk-tuk driver is the nicest person ever #2. Oh and by the way, a tuk-tuk is a little motorized tricycle looking thing with a seating area in the back with a canopy thing. You might have to wait to see the pics to understand. Just know that they are awesome.
The Next Day (today)
We woke up at the crack of dawn...gotta love jet lag. We ate some breakfast and then attempted to head to the floating market. We got sent to the wrong one which was a bit of a disappointment, but what can you do. Next we headed over to the weekend market which was insane. It was huge and you could buy anything you could think of there from animals, to silk, to underware, to household decorations. We made some good cute jewelry purchases and some elephant stuff...I can't give away too much because it might be your souvenier gift. We got lunch for a whopping $3.50 for the two of us.
After a lot of walking around the market we head back to the hotel. When we get back, I turn to Grace and say "wanna go get foot massages?" Yeah, you can say that around here. We got a 1/2 hour one for $3.
Next we decided to check out the Grand Palace and Wat Po. These were failed missions because they were both closed, but we did run into the friendliest person ever #3 and #4. #3 drew us a map of some things he thought we should see. The people here are obsessed with drawing us maps. #4 told us there was a Buddah that was only open once and month and that we needed to see it. Like #1, he hailed us a tuk-tuk and negotiated a fair rate to take us there. Now we are back from our adventures and ready to find some noodles for dinner.
Vog Lee
The only thing people are obsessed with more than drawing maps is Vog Lee. This is a factory where all the Armani suits are made. I have heard more about this place than I ever want to. For one week a year it is open to the public. We also happened to arrive just in time for this week. Talk about timing...first the temples and now Vog Lee. It is a pretty good deal because if you buy a suit they measure you and you get a lifetime membership. With the membership you can call and order a suit anytime you want. We didn't get a suit, which we may regret down the road, but we don't have much need for one right now. I may not hear the end of it from the Thais either.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we are off to Chang Mai...look for another blog soon...
Adventures in Thailand Part Deux (written Friday, December 2, 2005)
Greetings from Thailand. I have had a very exciting and exhausting past few days, but now I am sitting at an internet cafe a block away from the beach. It has been quite hard adjusting from "must see everything" mode to "its ok to do nothing" mode, but I am sure I will be on track in no time. Here is an upadate on the Chaing Mai portion of my trip...
Arrival
We get into Chaing Mai and go to our little guest house. (Nou- we stayed at Baan Kaew and absolutely loved it..Thanks). We took a stroll to see the "old city" that was once walled in. We got a little wat-ed out so decided to grab some dinner. We picked this one place because it said it served Stronbow and I freaked out. They didn't have Strongbow anymore, but they did have Blackthorn Cider. Who ever would have guessed that half way across the world I would find some Blackthorn. Chaing Mai has an awesome night market so we walked around and bought way too much.
Trecking
We left at about 9am on Tuesday morning for our trecking adventure. There we 12 people in our group who were all awesome. 2 german girls, 3 americans, 2 belgians (I was excited), 1 Aussie, 2 English ladies, and then 3 guides. Our guides were awesome and really funny.
We started by stopping at a village and then continuing on to a place for lunch. We kept driving and came to a hill tribe village. We started walking in the early afternoon and hiking along a river for quite a ways. We took on break and then kept going until we came to the hill tribe village where we stayed the night. It was crazy to see how people live there. The houses are all made of bamboo with leaves for roofs and stilted above the ground. They all wanted to sell us bracelets they made. We all ate dinner and then sat around the camp fire drinking some Chang beer and singing to the guitar. We left on mat in one of the houses which was a pretty crazy experience.
The next day was quite strenuous and I thought at times I was going to die. I guess I need to get in better shape. The beginning of the day wasn't too bad as we hiked for about 45 mins before we rode on the elephants, which was awesome. There was even a baby elephant with us (which no one rode...except for the elephant guide who kept trying to hop on his back, but he wasn't having it). Afeter that we started hiking up and down some really steep hills. I wouldn't have minded the steep hills so much if there was something to see at the top, but it seemed we always went all the way up just to go all the way back down. I was hanging in there, but at one point in the middle of the hill, I stopped and said "I just stopped having fun." There was no other choice but to keep going though. We stopped at a waterfall and had some lunch and the rest of the hike from there was much easier. In the end we went bamboo rafting which was quite fun and relaxing. A nice hot shower was definitely in order when we got back.
Overall, the trip has by far been the highlight of my time in Thailand.
Massages
Thai massages are awesome and we have gotten one nearly everyday...you really can't beat the price at about $3.50 for an hour long massage. It was much needed after trecking and I am still so sore.
One Last Day...Wats and Cooking
We ended up staying in Chaing Mai one extra day because the weather down here in the islands in rainy. Yesterday we went to see a hug temple up on the mountain that looked down on the city. While we were there we got a little too excited in one of the Jade jewelry stores...oops.
We heard from a few people along the way that they had been to cooking class. We decided it sounded like a lot of fun and signed up for a course. We learned to make soup, curry chicken, pad thai, banna spring rolls, and stir fry. It was a lot of fun and maybe some day I will try to make some of it again. It was surprisingly easier than it looks. Our teacher was hilarious too.
Unexpected Tour
We went out last night and ran into the English ladies that were on our treck. One of them stayed behind when her friends went home so we decided to ask her to join us. We watched some fake Thai boxing and a little show of women parading around. She really wanted to get wasted and kept buying us double vodkas and lemonade (aka sprite, around here). We are ready to head home and I offer to walk Anita to her hotel because I didn't want to leave to to walk home alone. Little did we know what an adventure this would turn into. We come to find out that she thought she knew how to get to her hotel but really had no idea after we walked around for a good long while while "everything looked familiar and she knew exactly where we were." This wouldn't have turned into such a problem if she would have known the name of her hotel. We got in a tuk tuk and drove to every hotel that started with Chaing Mai...which happened to be a lot of places considering it was the name of the city we were in. Finally one of her friends happened to call and gave her the name of the hotel. Hours later we got back to our hotel. Wow.
Change of Plans...Phuket
So all along we had plans to go to Ko Samui at the end of our trip...The weather has been horrible there...rain and flooding so we ended up catching a flight to Phuket. This is a much more touristy area...I kinda feel like I am in Mexico...should make for some good partying though. We are planning on checking out some of the other islands which I know will be beauiful.
Cultural Note
It has been very interesting and somewhat troubling to see the difference in the way men and women are treated. Women are lined up on the street sitting in chair waiting for a passerby. At the bars all the waitress swarm to any guy that walks by. Today we had to get off our shuttle bus at a tour place and show our ticket. We were about third in line and next to be helped. All the women workers helped all the men behind us in line first and then three of them were helping one man while we stood there waiting. It is a little frustrating to see coming from a different way of life. That is my little rant for the trip.
Ok...enough of my rambling. I promise the next blog will be much more interesting with some funny stories. Miss you all!!! HUGS!!!
Adventures in Thailand Chapter 3 (written Wednesday, December 7, 2005)
Ummm...so I just spent a really long time typing a blog anf then it disappeared :( So Sad. I will try to recreate it.
Greeting from my couch, yes, thats right, I am home. I survied two weeks in Thailand and I had an incredible time. Here is an update on the third leg of my trip and the conclusion and pictures will soon follow...
Phuket
After Chaing Mai, we headed down to Phuket, one of the islands in the south of Thailand. We decided to stay in Patong one of the more touristy beaches on the island. We were thinking it would be great for a little nightlife. It ended up not being as tropical as we had hoped for and the nightlife was out of control...if you are an old white man looking for some action from one of the Thai girls. Don't get me wrong, we made the most of our time there and had an awesome time.
We planned to go out our first night there after a short little nap. We even left the lights on to be sure we didn't sleep too long. Oops, somehow we slept too long and never made it out, except to book our tour for the next day.
Island Hopping
We signed up for a island hopping tour of Krabi. We were hoping for a fun group like we had when we were trecking. We ened up with a group of Russian (?) couples, three Italian guys, and two Thai (?) ladies. Everyone pretty much stuck to themselves, but we had a very nice and relaxing day.
First we went to Hong Island where we saw a beautiful lagoon. It is filled with water when the tide is high and dry when the tide goes down. Next we went to the other side of the island where we did some snorkeling and laid on the beach for a while.
Next stop...Reilay Beach. This was a beautiful beach with some awesome resorts and really good eye candy on the beach. We ate lunch here and then walked to the other side of the island. We saw some cool caves as we walked across. We got to see monkeys when we got to the other side and I took a few too many pictures.
Next we went to Chicken Island (the rocks look like a giant chicken). We snorkeled here and got attacked by all the fishies that wanted our bread. After snorkeling for a while we headed over to Miracle Beach. This is a beach that had a srtip of sand that connects three islands when the tide is low. When we got there it was going down and you could see people trying to walk across bu they could barely touch the bottom. By the time we left there, you could walk across only getting knee deep.
We headed back on the speed boat and decided to grab some dinner from a place right on the beach where we watched the sun set as we ate. It was sooo beautiful. Finally a taste of paradise without having to leave Patong. Oh and dinner was $5 each for a three course meal.
Tailor
You can't go anywhere in Thailand without seeing tailor shops lining the streets. We never considered going in one until after we talked to our friends from the treck and they told us how much stuff they ordred. We walked into a tailor shop on our way back from dinner and came out ordering a suit and two dresses each. We got to look through books to choose the styles, pick out the material, and then had more measurements than I knew existed. A few fittings later, I have some custom made clothes. Pretty awesome.
Irish Pubs Everywhere I Go
After passing out early the night before, we are ready to head out to the bars for the night. We end up starting off at an Irish pub where a live band was playing awesome covers and the blackthorn was flowing. Somehow we got really wasted quite quickly. We never ended up leaving the pub as it seemed like the best haven from the old white men with Thai girls that were running around everywhere. It is comforting to know that when you go to an Irish pub people are really there just to drink. Equally as comforting, it is great to know that no matter what country you are in, you can find some drunk munchies food. We got a couple of pizzas and went to bed.
Fun Games
The next day we bummed around on the beach. After our first of a few fittings we decided to head over to Kata (another beach on Phuket) where our friends from trecking were staying. We weren't sure if we would be able to find them because we only had their hotel info, but just as we were about to give up, we spotted the hotel bar and knew we would find them there. We had dinner and drinks at their resort which made us regret not spurging and staying at a resort while we were there. We had to head back to Patong for another fitting and they decided to come with us for some more drinks.
We started playing an awesome game as we sat at a bar facing the street. We would have to spot couples and then the others would give a percentage rating of if they paid for the girl or not. For example "70-30" would mean that there was a 70 chance he paid for it and a 30 hance they really liked each other. Most of the ratings fell into the 95-5 or 100-0 rating. It made the disgusting population of old white men seem a little more humourous. After that game got a little repetitive we started the discussion of wondering how much these girls charge and if it depends on the man. I am still curious to know if really old men cost more because that is more gross or if they are cheaper with the hope that they will pass out before anything happens. The question remains unanswered.
Although I was generally disgusted by all the old white men parading around with young Thai girls, it was slightly interesting. I noticed that the men would basically rent-a-girlfriend. I am used to the idea of hourly rates at the local motel when it comes to prostitution, but it was quite different than that. I would see the men walking with the girls down the beach holding hands, eating meals together, drinking together. It was quite odd and unexpected.
Last Day in Phuket and Last Day in Bangkok
We spent our last day in Phuket soaking up some last minute rays with our trecking friends. We picked up our clothes from the tailor and headed to the airport to get back to bangkok. We had our first bad experience when our cab driver screwed us over in bangkok trying to get to our hotel. He told us it would be 300 baht, which is about normal. When we got there and handed him the money he immediately started yelling at us saying that he told us 600 baht, which is a ridiculous amount. He was being kinda scarey so we just gave him the money for a lack of better options. We stayed at our same hotel as we did the first few nights and it was nice to be back some place familiar. We spent our last day there doing some last minute shopping and getting one last massage.
Home
I made it home in one piece and look back on my trip with only good memories. Thailand is awesome and I look forward to going back one day. I knew that I had an awesome time when I got home and my parents asked me the best and worst parts of the trip. Both parts of the question were tough. There were so many best parts and no worst parts. I ended up saying that the best part was trecking and the worst part was the mean cab driver. When that is the best you can come up with for the worst part, you have to know it was a good trip.
I am already itching to plan another trip and I haven't even been home 24 hours. Every place is going to seem so expensive compared to Thailand, but I am sure I will come up with something good. You better start saving money so I can have a travel buddy.
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