Bangsean

Sawadee ka!

Wow, Finance is so unbelievably hard here, I want to tear my hair out.... midterm exams are coming up, and I am not too happy about that. Grrr! But okay, enough on that. On to more important things!

MJ, Robert, and I went to the Bangkok zoo on Friday. So fun! We saw lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! It wasn't anything too amazing, but a nice chance to get out of the city. We also rented paddle boats for 30 minutes and water-biked in the zoo's little lake! There were kymoto dragons everywhere, which was pretty cool to see.

Saturday afternoon, MJ and I took a bus out to Bangsean, a small beachy town near Pattaya, to visit Uh-Oh, a Thai girl who recently graduated from Thammasat and moved back to Bangsean to teach English and work at a local church. When we got to Bangsean, MJ made the most wise investment of her career by buying an enormous floatie which she proceeded to lug around for the remainder of the weekend, and get strange looks from the locals (a 22 year old white person with a missle shaped floatie...what's so weird about that???). We sat on the beach and watched the sunset (so beautiful) until Uh-Oh was finished with her seminar, then we went to her apartment. Well, first we walked in the wrong direction for 1 hour:
After 45 minutes, MJ: "hmmm, I think we've been walking for longer than 15 minutes" (how long Uh-Oh said it should take to get to her house)
Me: Well, maybe we took a wrong turn.
MJ: Want to just keep walking and see what happens?
Me: Sure
So, we did that for about 15 more minutes and then gave in and got Uh-Oh on the phone and had her talk to a taxi driver.
Then, Mj and I asked Uh-Oh if she had any movies, and when she showed us a Thai movie, I insisted we watch that one. 10 minutes later, I was fast asleep. Typical.
The next morning, we all went to The Tide, a really nice restaurant, for breakfast, to celebrate Kyla's 17th birthday. Kyla is a Canadian girl from Uh-Oh's church group who has been in Thailand for missionary work since she was 9. Really cool. Anyway, I got a smoked salmon sandwhich and chocolate mousse, which was pretty amazing, especially because none of it involved rice :)
After brunch, Mj, myself, Uh-Oh, and Uh-Oh's sister, Annie, went to the beach. While Uh-Oh and Annie relaxed under the shade (Thai people don't like to get tanned, as "white" is the in look for them), Mj and myself rented a bananna boat for 30 minutes and got slung all around by the crazy Thai man on the jetski. SO much fun! The best part was watching Mj get thrown off when she tried to ride the bananna boat backwards and attempted to right herself midway through the ride. Priceless.
Then, Uh-Oh and Annie left to make it to church services, and Mj and I made our way to Monkey Hill. Wow. Those monkeys sure had it out for Mj. One of them literally stripped her of her towel as she was trying to feed it, leaving her in front of countless people, only in her small bikini. Ha, I think Mj was as much as a show as the monkeys were. ALL the Thais were staring and laughing as these monkeys surrounded her. It was so funny. Love it. I was of course documenting this whole spectacle, and pictures can now be seen on facebook.
We then made our back to Uh-Oh, said our goodbyes, and hopped on a motorbike (yikkkes, my first since the accident) to get to the bus station. Once there, it was smooth sailing back to BKK, with MJ toting her gigantic floatie the entire way.

Miss everyone in the States....can't believe I've been living in Thailand for 2 months now. I've been picking up the language, and I can already feel myself settling in to the area. I could definitely see myself living here for a longer period of time, but no matter what happens in my life, where my travels take me, or how much I fall in love with another country, Texas will always be my home.

ps. shout out to my family: all the Thai girls in my classes say "Oy" when they make a mistake, or have a moment of exasperation. Thought you'd enjoy that!

Till next time!

Longhorn Lovin' & Koh Chang

Sorry it's been a while since I've written, school has been killing me....grrr Thammasat University.

Since I've last written, Kyle, Alex & Eric, all friends from my home university, UT, who are studying abroad in Singapore and Hong Kong, visited. They all 3 arrived on Thursday night, and we proceeded to get the night started with a trip to RCA, the club strip on Sukhumvit Street. After a fun night out, we wake up early to begin our travels to Koh Chang for the weekend. Once we arrive in Koh Chang, we found a bungalow right on the beach, and head into the town to grab dinner. After dinner, we spent the next few hours hanging out at the hotel's gazeebo on the beach, and then headed to a bar, where I met some Brits and kicked their butt in a round of Connect Four games. Then I got my butt kicked by the Thai bartender... I think she has had some practice.

As we're walking home from the bar, I start to not feel very well. Next thing I know I'm vomitting as MJ, my totally drunk roommate for the weekend, is holding back my hair (the sober one). How ironic. Anyway, I sleep for a few hours and then proceed to go back outside and continue vomitting until all the food from my stomach is officially gone. When Eric comes to wake me up the next morning for elephant trekking, I can barely sit up straight, let alone get up, shower, and walk somewhere. Not happening. So I spend the entire day in the bungalow, watching CNN, while the rest of the group goes on a trek through the jungle. The bad side: I thought I might have contracted malaria. The good side: I now know the life story of Sarah Palin. So, I literally eat 3 crackers and a cookie all day and finally by around 7pm, I feel strong enough to get dressed (this takes about 25 minutes) and make the trek to 7/11 about .5 miles away (with about 4 breaks along the way). I finally make it, and find the rest of the crew about to rent motorbikes. Noooo!!! I try to stop them, but as I walk into 7/11 for a yogurt, MJ gets on her motorbike. Mistake # 1. Then MJ starts the motorbike. Mistake # 2. Next thing we all know, MJ and her bike are now halfway in a store, after crashing into a clothing stand. Ha! Good thing she was going about 5 mph. At this point, I really don't understand what is happening, but the Thai lady who rented them the motorbikes sees me and immediately offers to take me to the pharmacy (ya, I looked that bad). The pharmacy was closed, so she just took me back to the bungalow, where I promptly passed out. Until 2:30 am, when I am kindly awoken by my friends and told to put on my bathing suit, we're going for a night swim. Well, more like a night waddle through the water, as the tide is low and we can walk straight into the ocean for 20 minutes and still be only up to our knees in water. Nonetheless, it was a pretty amazing midnight ocean stroll, and also the cause of us missing our 8am snorkeling appointment. Instead, we spend a long time at breakfast and then splash around in the ocean for a few hours before heading back to BKK. Pretty exciting weekend, right? Okay, maybe not my best. As for my 24-hour illness, 1,000 baht to the first of you who can guess what I contracted.

This is it for now, enjoy my shortest post yet!

Cheers!

Pat Pong+ Khao Yai National Park

On Friday night, a group of about 10 of us exchange students decided to head down to Pat Pong, which is Bangkok’s red-light district. It was quite the experience and one of the most fun nights I’ve had in Bangkok, but the activities of the night are perhaps not entirely blog appropriate. E-mail me and I will tell you all about the night; it was great fun and very “Bangkok”.

After arriving home from Pat Pong at 6am, I wake up at 7:30 a.m. to head to Khao Yai National Park with Sofia, my Swedish friend. Khao Yai National Park is about 2.5 hours north of Bangkok and it was quite the journey to get there. First thing I had to do was wake up Jin at his apartment to get my camera from last night (sorry Jin!!), then I grabbed a cab and headed to the skytrain, about 20km away. I took the skytrain to Mo Chit, and met up with Sofia. From there, we walked through the weekend market and grabbed another taxi to get to the northeastern Bangkok bus terminal. From there, we get on a bus to Pak Chong, and after 2.5 hours, the bus driver starts yelling at us in Thai to get off the bus, and we get dropped off in the middle of the street, with no idea where we are. Luckily, a Thai helps us and takes us across the street, where we wait for about 30 minutes for a truck taxi, which takes us to the entrance of Khao Yai National Park. Once at the park, Sofia and I try to sneak in to avoid paying the 400 baht foreigner entrance fee. After about 20 minutes of walking, the park ranger picks us up and takes us back to the entrance and makes us pay. Darn good try though! Then, I flash my Thammasat ID and get a student discount, yay! Okay, next thing we have to do is hitchhike (which is completely safe and normal at Khao Yai) to the top of the park, which is about 14 km from the entrance. This is where things get interesting. We are able to catch a ride with Katchaloyaman (?), a 60 year old man who immediately takes a liking to Sofia, as he has spent some time in Sweden. He takes us to the visitor center and tells them we want to rent a tent and camp. Apparently the ranger tells him we cannot camp, as the campgrounds are much too wet. Um duh, who goes camping during monsoon season?? Me. Without any hesitation, Katchaloyaman (I think I made this name up, but it could be almost correct) states that he is going to take us to his lodge, where we can stay free of charge. So, he takes us to this beautiful, clean room with a queen size bed, blankets, pillows, a hot shower, and even toilet paper in the bathroom (this is fancy stuff!). At this point, Sofia and I are really confused and don’t really understand what is happening (really, we can stay here for free?? Really? REALLY? But, why?), as we are not used to Thai hospitality. In Bangkok, there isn’t much true Thai hospitality, as they are very used to foreigners and instead of being genuinely friendly and kind, they fake it to rip farang off.

So, this incredibly kind man not only lets us stay in a clean, safe place for the night (thank god we didn’t end up in a tent, we would have died), but he also invited us to his 60th birthday/retirement party in the main lodge. So, we clean up and head down to the party, where we see a huge table set up with tons of food. Everything from an entire fish cut open, to pig fillets, to beef, peanuts, rice, noodles, chicken, and many other things I am not sure what they are. It was incredible, there were probably 100 people at this party, and Sofia and I spent the night hanging out, trying new food, and trying to talk to some of the Thai people there. After a couple hours, we head back to our lodge, take a hot shower (phenomenal), and walk around the area for a few minutes. That didn’t last too long though, as it was about 55 degrees outside, which actually felt amazing, compared to the hot, humidity of Bangkok we have been experiencing for the last 6 weeks. We go to bed, and wake up a little late for breakfast, thereby missing Katchaloyaman, as he has already headed home. Although, when I initially woke up, I saw him sitting outside our lodge, waiting for us, probably to say goodbye and offer us a ride home to Bangkok. What a sweet man. So, Sofia and I go to the main lodge and enjoy a breakfast of sweet rice, cake, and coffee with some of last night’s partiers. After breakfast, we begin the 5km hike back down to the visitor’s center, where some hiking trails are. After finally arriving, Sofia and I head into the jungle! This is Sofia’s first hiking/camping experience, and she certainly had an interesting one. Since it was so rainy and muddy, there were leeches EVERYWHERE. I reassured Sofia that they wouldn’t jump on us, so long as we kept moving. Well, I was wrong. They jumped on us. Sofia spent a good portion of the hike screaming, and swatting at her legs and feet, as the leeches were all over her (and I). They are harmless but freakishly annoying. They just latch on to you, and its quite difficult to get them all off. By the end of the hike, Sofia and I had some bloody feet. But, were we deterred from other hiking trails? Not yet. Soon, though. We take a break, grab some food, and head into another hiking trail. This one was exceptionally muddy and therefore, very slow going. After about 25 minutes of hiking through this trail, we come to a point where there is a stream, with only a single branch going from one end to another. Sofia and I stare at it for a few minutes, and I hand her my backpack and begin to try and “tight-rope” it. Doesn’t quite work, as I can’t balance enough to make it across without some kind of stabilization. So, I grab a branch, use it to stabilize myself and slowly make it across the stream. As I’m walking, I hear some branches breaking and leaves rustling and my first thought is “Oh goodness, tiger. Oh, my, god.” So, I get to the other end, look at Sofia (who looks as scared as I feel), and say “so shall we head back?” and she positively replies. Okay, I go right back across the stream I just traversed, and Sofia and I begin walking very quickly out of the jungle, as we are not feeling entirely comfortable at this point. We finally make it out of the jungle, and look down at our feet and legs. A bloody mess indeed. Not too bad, but we definitely need to clean ourselves up. We head to the cafeteria, find a water hose, and spend the next 30 minutes cleaning our feet and eating. Then, we visit the visitor’s center, take some pictures with the animals (which are thankfully not alive), and begin to head down to the entrance of the park. We stick our thumbs out to hitchhike back down and immediately get picked up by the sweetest couple I’ve ever met. And so we experience our 2nd dose of true Thai hospitality. They pick us up, and begin talking to us about where we’re from, who we are, etc. We learn that the woman’s name is Red Bull (at least that is what I heard), and they have a beautiful golden retriever named Gordon. When we reach the entrance, they ask us how long we are in Thailand and we reply 5 months, as we are studying at Thammasat. Once I drop the name Thammasat, the couple gets all excited and asks “Ooooh, Thammasat! Where you go, were you go?” We tell them we are going to Bangkok, and they ask us how we are getting there. We reply we are trying to get to the Pak Chong bus station, but don’t quite know where that is. They very kindly offer to take us, and off we go, after picking up Gordon at their house. They take us all the way to the bus station (which Sofia and I would have spent 5 hours trying to find without them), and wish us luck in the future, and we bid our farewells. They were probably some of the sweetest people I have ever met, and Sofia and I realize how lucky we got this weekend. It had the potential to be a terrible, rainy weekend full of leeches, but instead we had an incredible experience due to the good nature, and generosity of Thai people. This really is the Land of Smiles.

Ranksit + Another Peeing Catastrophe

Remember my posting about finding the swimming pool where people swim all over the place and bump into each other? Well, I decided to venture out on my own and find a better pool. So, after class Tuesday morning, I grab lunch and hop on an bus to Ranskit, the other Thammasat campus, about 45-1.5 hours away (depending on traffic). That's right, I spent almost 3 hours in a bus just to swim and workout. But, anyway, the pool was incredible. I dare say it was possibly even better than Gregory gym (the pools at UT campus, which are beautiful)....but it wasn't necessarily better, just different, with more laps. Anyway, so I hop in the water, which is SO cold and it was just incredibly refreshing. So, I swim all by myself, in my own lane, with no fear of running into anyone, and no one swimming horizontally across my lane. It was beautiful. Then, I lifted some weights (for the 2nd time in almost 6 weeks now!), and walked around the Ranksit (aka, I will now refer to it as Ratskin, because I think that is a more fun name) campus for a little while, trying to find food. After about 30 minutes, I find the canteen (cafeteria) and every single thing on the menu is written in Thai. All I know is how much everything costs (numbers are the same in every language!) I'm a bit nervous to randomly get something, for fear that I will get pork, or worse, chicken blood. So, I ask a student for help, and then I proceed to present myself as a really annoying, hard to please American. Here is how our conversation goes:
Me: Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but do you know what that is (I point at some container of food)?
Him: Can I help you? Oh, yes, that is pork.
Me: Oh, okay. Is there any chicken?
Him: Yes, that is chicken (points at a chicken leg)
Me: Oh, no, how about chicken breast?
Him: Oh yes, there is some fried chicken over there
Me: Oh, no I don't really do fried food.
Him: Oh.
Me: Hmm, maybe tofu?
Him: Yes, that is tofu (points at fried tofu)
Me: Oh, no, I dont really do fried tofu either. Um, is there maybe anything healthy?
Him: Noodles and soup?
Me: Yes, that could work! Can she put chicken in there?
Him: Yes (points at chicken leg)
Me: Oh, no, just the soup and noodles will be fine.
Him: Which soup do you want?
Me: (I point at the first one) How about this one?
Him: Okay, the spicy soup.
Me: Oh no! I don't really do spicy.
Him: How about that one? It has mushrooms.
Me: Okay. Oh wait, right there is chicken breast!
Him: Oh ya. Do you want to try it?
Me: Yes. ( I put it in my mouth, and then make a gross face)
Him: Do you want to spit it out?
Me: Yes (and I do). Hey, what is that? Liver? (I point at something I always thought was liver, which I see at most canteens, and is put in most meals)
Him: No, that is chicken blood.
Me: WHAT?!? (It's really gross, trust me, it's hardened chicken blood in block form)
Him: Yes, it is really healthy
Me: WHAT?!? You guys EAT chicken blood?!? Okay, I'll have the soup and noodles. Thank you so much for your help.
Him: Yes, sure sure. I will leave now.
Me: Okay, thank you!! Bye.

So, that is about the most difficult I have ever been with food. I usually just eat whatever, but for some reason, I was not having it that day. Oh by the way, I ate my noodles and soup and it was not very good. 20 minutes later, I walk by a big sign that says "Main Canteen", where there is about 30 different food stands to choose meals from, and I bet some of those signs were even in English. Sigh.

Then, I try to find a shuttle bus going back to Prachin campus (the Thammasat campus I attend, and live by). I walk around lost for a while, but its actually really nice because the Ratskin campus is beautiful, with trees, a stream flowing throughout the campus and a pretty cool dualing dragon structure. Next time I go back, I'll be sure to take some pictures. Anyway, I eventually find the bus and spend the next 2 hours of my life in Bangkok traffic, having to pee. Grrr, BKK traffic has to be some of the worst in the world. Some of the boys from LA say it is at times worse than LA traffic.

Alright, we finally arrive at Prachin TU campus, and I run to the nearest bathroom to pee. I walk into the bathroom, which are only squatter toilets, and at this point, I don't even care. So, I pee, and then realize there is of course no toilet paper, and I have too many things in my bag to bother looking for some tissue. So, the bathrooms also have these water hoses (I can't remember the name of them) that the Thais use to spray their bottoms after using the restroom, and then they wait for themselves to dry before putting their pants back on (thereby eliminating the need for toilet paper). I decide to try this. I pick up the hose-type device and pull the trigger, expecting a nice, small stream of water to flow out. Um, no. A powerful gush of water comes out, and I of course panic and fumble with the house, and the water just goes shooting everywhere. All over myself, the toilet, the walls, the door, just everywhere. A couple seconds go by before I get everything under control, and by that time, the entire bathroom stall is just dripping in water. Oops. I feel kind of bad. But not too bad, because they really should have just had toilet paper.

Ahhh, gotta run, have a squash match! More later....

Pictures!!

Okay, wow so I didn't know people were leaving comments on my blog! Thanks for telling me, Mom!

Now that I have figured that out, I have started posting picture online so you all can experience Thailand, through my eyes. Here is the link:

http://photobucket.com/TraceinThailand

It's messy right now, but I'll try to get lots of pictures online and clean it up soon!

Enjoy!

Thamassat Law Club Weekend Trip

To begin, this past week marked the beginning of the political demonstrations in Bangkok and the Prime Minister’s declaration of a state of emergency in Thailand. Due to the proximity of the political riots to TU campus, classes were canceled Tuesday and Wednesday. I used those 2 days off to catch up on reading for my classes and go grocery shopping. I finally starting cooking—chicken and brown rice, fancy! To go back to the state of emergency, the political protests are coming from the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who are upset with the current Prime Minister, because they feel like he is a puppet for the last prime minister, who was forced to resign in 2006. Currently, PAD are refusing to step down until Samak, the current PM, resigns, which he is also refusing to do. So, there is a deadlock right now, and no one knows when it will end, but in the meantime, I don’t feel like the political situation has affected my life here or has put me in any danger.

So, we left Friday morning at 9am, Thai time, ie, we actually left at 10am to head to Panchaburi (?), a beautiful and quiet beach by Hua Hin. We took a 5 hour bus ride, complete with no A/C and 3 people to every 2 seats. Oh boy, not a fun bus ride at all. Once we arrived, we checked into out bungalow resort and realized the sleeping situation was about the same as the bus situation. 4-7 people per room. One bed per room. Haha, I felt so bad for the people who had 7 people in a room with one bed! My room was only 4 people, so it worked out fine. After dropping our things off in our rooms, we head to the beach and splash around, play a game of volleyball with our Spongebob Squarepants beach ball, and of course, tag. Wheww, I was tired after about 10 minutes; I really need to hit up a gym! After playing at the beach for a while, we shower up and all gather for a buffet-style dinner, in a candle-lit setting right on the beach. The ambience was beautiful; I only wish I could say the same about the food. We had a squid and octopus dinner that was so spicy, none of the international students could eat it! So, we basically just ate rice and fruit for dinner. Mai ben rai.

After dinner, we grab some drinks and party all night on the beach. The next morning, we wake up to a breakfast of squid and octopus porridge (yum!). Perfect for a hangover ☺ Then, a group of about 35 of us hop back on the bus and drive an hour away to a national park on the beach which involves a 1 hour hike that leads into an enormous cave. It was quite a hike getting to the cave, but once we got inside, it was so worth it. It was beautiful inside, and reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park. I wanted to stay there all day, but unfortunately we got ushered out after a few minutes. Then, we took a longtail boat back to shore, to avoid the 1-hour hike back. Funny thing about the boat ride back was that we got dropped off about 100 meters from shore. So, we all had to get out, hike up our shorts and walk through the water the rest of the way back. In that 100-meter walk, I spotted 4 jellyfish. Eeeee, glad they didn’t get too close to me. A few days before, a group of exchange students were swimming a few miles from the beach we were staying at, and got stung by a school of jellyfish. Ouch. At least it wasn’t a school of sharks.

After arriving back from our 5 hour hiking journey, we shower and gather up for dinner. Guess what it was? Squid and octopus, what a surprise!! Haha, we also had barbequed fish and crab, so it was a much better meal than the others. After dinner, we grab some drinks and start playing some ridiculous games. We must have played these games for a long time, because next thing I know it is 4 am! Time for bed, as Simon, a German exchange student, and I agreed to go for a run on the beach at 8am. So, my alarm rings at 7:45 am, and up I go to wake up Simon and head to the beach. Another German exchange student joins us, and we go on a fantastic 2-3 mile run along the beach. At the end of the beach, we find a rock mountain, which we decide to hike up, shoeless. Those were some jagged rocks, but it was worth it! The view was spectacular and hiking up it was fun as well. After hiking back down, we run back to our hotel, rest for another hour, grab lunch, and begin the oh-so-fun bus journey back home. This journey was especially fun, as most of the people on the bus were decently hung-over. After about an hour on the bus, we stop at a big rest area/sweets market. Me, at a food market full of Thai sweets? Dangerous!! Oh my gosh, I went nuts. First, I had ice cream with sticky rice in it (there was also the option to put corn in the ice cream. Hmmm….maybe next time), then I had something which I can’t even begin to explain. Think a sweeter version of cornbread in some type of banana leaf. Then, I went to the actual market of sweets and I saw about 5 open containers…time to sample! I had no idea what I was sampling, but I definitely swung around and had about 3 rounds of samples. So delish! Oh man, no need for lunch today! After getting back on the bus and finally arriving home, a group of about 6 of us exchange students decided to go home, get cleaned up and then head to a pizza place on Rambuttri Street, right next to Kao San Road. The pizza was so good—thin crust, old-fashioned wood-oven pizza! After dinner, we walked around Kao San Road for a few minutes to buy some souvenirs and then head home and get to sleep.

Overall, not the most adventurous and exciting weekend, but it was great fun, and I got to meet some new exchange students and some Thai students as well. I have a Finance quiz tomorrow, so most of today will be spent studying for that. Oh joy.

Ciao!

Leo & Muay Thai Pain

I was walking home yesterday and I ran into an elephant on the street. His name was Leo. Leo was BIG and so cute. Leo ate food out of my hand and his trunk scared me. I petted Leo and he was coarse and hairy. I liked Leo. Maybe I will run into him on the streets of Bangkok again??

On a separate note, I went to Muay Thai training today and the instructor told me to lie down on the ground, with my legs bent very uncomfortably behind me. Since I always do as I am told (!), I obediently lie down with my legs bent in a way they probably aren't meant to bend. Then, he proceeds to step all over me! Ughhh, that man is so much stronger than he looks. And, as hes doing it, he tells me "Thai massage, thai massage". Haha!! That is so not a thai massage. Then, I flip over, and he steps ALL over my back. This actually felt amazing.... I am pretty sure he cracked every bone in my body by the time he was done with me. Wow, way to start off training; I hadn't even thrown a punch yet and already I was sweating (both literally and figuratively)

That's it for today. This has to be a record for my shortest blog yet.

oh ps. this if for the family. *Disclaimer*- Contrary to popular belief, I do attend classes and I actually have textbooks which I read, highlight and takes notes on. I even (attempt) Finance problems. In fact, I studied all day yesterday. It was the most depressing day I've had since I've been here.... I almost jumped off my 35th floor balcony. Um, just kidding. I don't blog about my classes because they will put you to sleep! Has this paragraph put you to sleep yet?? Case in point!

Off to the Faculty of Law's organized trip to a resort/beach (I think... I really couldn't understand what they were saying when they were explaining this) this weekend! I'll bring my Finance problems to study :)

Adventures on Phi Phi Island

Monica, my friend from UT, arrived in Thailand Wednesday evening to stay for 6 days before heading to Vienna, Austria for her own study abroad…yay! It was SO good to see a familiar face. After she arrived, we went out to Kao San Rd with 10 of the other exchange students to have dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant. Well, we thought it was nice until we got our food (which by the way, took as little as 15 minutes for one person to get their food and 1.5 hours for the last person to get her food), which was not so nice. Bad sushi, yuck. After braving sushi on Kao San Rd, we met up with a group of 10 other exchange students at an Indian restaurant & hookah bar. Well, after braving sushi and walking around for an hour in circles, we found the hookah restaurant. I am really awful at navigation, but as soon as Monica grabbed the phone from me and got directions, we found the place in about 10 minutes. Maybe she should study abroad in Bangkok. Damn confusing place. Okay, we go home around midnight and I quickly pack for Phuket, sleep for a few hours and head to Finance in the morning. Right after Finance, I run home, grab my bag, and Monica and I take off for the airport. I was nervous we weren’t going to make our flight on time, since the airport is a bit far away, but we ended up getting there almost 2 hours early, and just kickin it in the airport. Then when we went through security, they took away Monica’s sunscreen and we ended up using this little sunstick I happened to have in my bag for the entire trip since we didn’t want to buy a $15 bottle of sunscreen on the island. Haha, that was pretty good. They also tried to take away my bath soap (after I initially tried to hide it from them), since it was over 100 mL, but I refused. I asked them if they wanted me to be dirty and they said no, and eventually let me keep it. I’ve realized that if someone says no to you here, they will typically succumb if you keep pressing them to change their mind. Remember how I almost missed the Attuyaha cultural tour because I woke up late and the coordinator tried to tell me about 5 times I couldn’t come? That’s a big difference between Westerners and people in SE Asia. SE Asians, and probably Asians in a whole, are typically not confrontational and will back down when confronted. Whereas in the States, when someone tells you no, they mean no.

Okay, so we get on the 1-hour plane and arrive in Phuket. Once we arrive, we book a hotel and are immediately hounded by people trying to get us to take their fixed-rate taxi into town. I had a horrible experience with a taxi when I first arrived in Bangkok… I was lost and confused and they ripped me off with a fixed-rate taxi, as opposed to a meter. Grr. So, I am really sensitive to non-metered taxis and I refused to get in one and I made Monica walk with me for about 45 minutes into town before we finally realized we weren’t going to get a taxi outside the airport, since that is where all the taxis were going. So, back to the airport we go. Sorry Monica!

Once we arrive at the hotel, we venture out to get some food and it begins pouring rain. Yes, we went to an island during monsoon season. We stop by a convenience store, and buy an umbrella, which we continuously leave in our hotel room and get caught in pouring rain on at least 4 more occasions. How useless.

Okay, we spend the night at a couple bars in Phuket, as I watch Monica drink. Once again, sorry Monica. I am a terrible drinking buddy, but a great DD! Too bad I don’t drive in Thailand…now I am just a terrible drinking buddy. Okay, we go home, and pass out, and Monica pulls a Kasha on me. Kasha was my dog in El Paso and whenever I was with her at night, I would let her sleep on my bed with me. Well, by the end of the night, Kasha was sprawled diagonally across the bed and I was sleeping in a tight ball on the corner of the bed. I suppose that is what I get for being a non-drinking, drinking buddy and making us walk around the airport for 45 minutes.

The next morning, we take a taxi shuttle + ferry to Phi Phi island. Funny story, the night before, Monica and I called the taxi +ferry company and I spent at least 10 minutes on the phone with them, trying to tell them my phone number. Went something like this: Me: “0-800-58-2439” Lady on phone: “0281-28-94-1?” “Noooo….” (repeat 10 times) I then tried to repeat my phone number in Thai and the lady on the phone told me to tell her again, in English. Wow, my Thai must be really terrible if a Thai woman is asking me to speak to her in English.

Once we arrive in Phi Phi, we find a guesthouse to stay at, leave our umbrella there (mistake #1), and rent a kayak (mistake # 2). Just kidding, the kayaking was actually really great, we were all alone in the beautiful, vast sea and we paddled out to a big rock for a couple hours. But at the end, I got seasick and almost puked. I didn’t know I was a seasick type of person. And then, once we got back, the people we rented the kayaks from asked if we went to Monkey island, which as the name implies, is an island full of monkeys hopping around. No, we went to a rock instead. A rock. Not a special rock, just a rock I made us paddle out to. I need to not be allowed to make decisions while traveling. By the way, the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining the entire time. We get back, and as soon as we return our kayaks, it begins pouring. Literally 2 minutes before the sun was out, and everything was clear and just peachy keen. Now it is monsooning, crazy. So, we go to an Indian restaurant to seek solace from the rain and end up having some really good and expensive (7 USD for dinner, outrageous!!!) Indian meal. Then, we leave to take showers and get caught in the pouring rain, sans umbrella (which is safely stowed away in the room. Brilliant).

Next, Monica and I go get massages. Afterwards, I persuade Monica that we should go to bed at about 11 pm on a Friday night. I am such a party animal.

The next morning, we get up early and change guest houses (word of wisdom, if going to Phi Phi, do not stay at Uphill Cottages. They should be named Downhill Cottages), and then arrange our bus ticket home (all airports and trains have been closed due to political demonstrations in Bangkok). Before all this, we eat breakfast and after ordering I leave to find an osmosis tank to fill up our water bottles (I remembered seeing one on the way back from the club last night). I literally am gone for over 30 minutes, b/c I walked to the other side of the island to find the damn osmosis water tank. After finally getting back to breakfast and eating, we leave and 10 feet later, I see another osmosis water tank. Of course. Okay, so next we sign up for rock climbing and after a couple hours on the beach, off we go to climb! While climbing, we met some really cool Aussies and an English girl. After climbing from about 1pm-7pm, we shower and meet up with the Aussies for dinner at Ciao Bella, an Italian restaurant right on the beach. We have a nice, long meal and then head back to the rock climbing store to meet up with the English girl and her friend and then we head to the clubs for the Black Moon party. At one of the clubs, there are some Thai guys performing fire dances, which we watch for a while, and afterwards, the performance area turns into a dance club. Oooh, and at one point I walked off to find Monica, and I run into these two Irish girls who ask me to take a picture for them. After I take a picture, one of them starts telling me how its a bad idea to get your lip pierced while drunk (bad idea, really?), and then next thing I know I find myself in a tattoo/piercing parlor. Don't worry, I wasn't in there for myself. I was in there to watch this inebriated German guy get his nipple pierced....ouch!!!

Shortly afterwards, I go home and Monica follows suit about 7 hours later, lol.... she gets home as I wake up. Then we both sleep for a few more hours, go to the beach for a little while in the afternoon and head to Kruabi island to catch our bus back to Bangkok. 12 hour bus back to Bangkok, actually not as bad as I thought it would be. We arrive at 4:30 a.m., go home for a few hours to catch up on emails, and then head to school at 9am.

After class, Monica and I do some Muay Thai and then take a journey to find a good massage parlor my friend recommended. We finally find it and have a great massage, which was much needed after that bus ride. Then, we grab dinner, shower and head to a Ladyboy cabaret show. Ladyboys are male to female transvestites, who are really big in Thailand and the cabaret show was full of some of the most gorgeous women (genetically male or female) I have ever seen. It was quite amazing--they were hott!!

*Just found out school was canceled today for safety concerns due to the political protests and possible coup happening in Bangkok. Hip Hip Hooray, back to bed!*