It's been quite a while since I've written in my blog, but I feel like it may be time for an update. Since Thailand, my life has been rather unexciting (which was nice for about 5 minutes).
I had a ROUGH semester back at UT, but thankfully pulled through. I had a quarter -life crisis and decided to switch my major from Finance to Marketing, and take Finance as my minor. Thank goodness! Quarter-life crisis over. New quarter-life crisis coming Fall 2009.
I went to Colorado on a Spring Break skip trip with 4 fabulous friends and had the time of my life. Look for a future blog about my new life in Colorado--the best state outside of Cali! I'll also be heading to Colorado in August for a family get-together and jeep tour in Telluride.
I am now spending my summer interning with Gerson Lehrman Group, located in downtown Austin =easy access to happy hour and lots of bars! ;)
I'm planning a summer weekend trip to Vegas to celebrate being 21 with all the Pookies (my best girl friends from High School)...and I am SO excited (if we can ever pick a hotel and book the actual flight)!!
Spring Break 2010 will be spent with the same 4 fabulous friends from Spring Break 2008 and 2009, and about 8 more fabulous friends--we're going a Carnival Cruise to Cozumel, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica....woot wooot! It's going to be CRAZY ridiculous and I'm going to gain about 10 lbs of food and alcohol (along with Whitney)
For International News:
I miss the beautiful beaches of Thailand, the amazing food, cheap everything, and my Sugggarr and Sofia and Mj.
Next Adventure: Africa- Summer 2010. Tentative Itineriary: Pyramid-climbing in Egypt, Clubbing in Kenya, Getting local in Sudan & Nigeria, Shark-diving in Cape-town, Hissing Cockroaches (OMG ew) in Madagascar, and the journey of a lifetime. The blog will be more intense, more ridiculous, more inspiring, more tear-jerking, and much, much more adventurous.
See you then.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Farewell
I’m currently sitting at the airport in Bangkok, awaiting my flight back to the States. Actually my first flight of 4 today….goodness.
I thought I’d be happy when this day came, excited to see my family and friends and return home after being in Thailand for 5 months. But, things don’t always work out as planned. I’m hopelessly sad and want nothing more than to turn around and go back to my apartment in Bangkok, unpack my bags and forget that I was ever supposed to leave. As I’m writing this, I’m blinking back tears thinking of the goodbyes I’ve said over the last 2 days. Returning to Bangkok after traveling to Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia for 3 weeks was quite odd. As I went up to the penthouse suite in my apartment complex, instead of being greeted by Nina, Courtney, and the random array of people that were continuously at the penthouse, I was greeted by a whole new group of exchange students. Walking down the long driveway of the Rattanakosin, it still took me 15 minutes to make it to the end, as I stopped so many times to talk to the exchange students. But there was no Anne back from a shopping trip at Platinum, no Esben to make a squash date with, no Dave to talk about our next book exchange, no Katy to shout “Kattyyyy Babyyyyy!” at, no Nina and Courtney to stand and talk to for 30 minutes before we realized we actually had to be somewhere 20 minutes ago. The hardest part was saying goodbye to my Thai friends. I would love to come back to Thailand (like next week), but I know it will be a while before that happens, and I have no idea when I will next see my Thai friends. Saying goodbye has never been so difficult for me, and I can only be grateful for this profound and incredible experience I’ve had. I know I’ve changed a lot as a person and I’ve met people who have taught me a lot about the world around me. Although I have had negative experiences while traveling through SE Asia, they are completely overshadowed by the positive experiences I’ve had in Thailand, and the wonderful people I’ve met.
Texas, here I come!
Sawadee Ka
Ps. As I’m writing this, Sheryl Crow’s song, “Home” is playing, which has oh-so naturally aided the flow of tears.
I thought I’d be happy when this day came, excited to see my family and friends and return home after being in Thailand for 5 months. But, things don’t always work out as planned. I’m hopelessly sad and want nothing more than to turn around and go back to my apartment in Bangkok, unpack my bags and forget that I was ever supposed to leave. As I’m writing this, I’m blinking back tears thinking of the goodbyes I’ve said over the last 2 days. Returning to Bangkok after traveling to Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia for 3 weeks was quite odd. As I went up to the penthouse suite in my apartment complex, instead of being greeted by Nina, Courtney, and the random array of people that were continuously at the penthouse, I was greeted by a whole new group of exchange students. Walking down the long driveway of the Rattanakosin, it still took me 15 minutes to make it to the end, as I stopped so many times to talk to the exchange students. But there was no Anne back from a shopping trip at Platinum, no Esben to make a squash date with, no Dave to talk about our next book exchange, no Katy to shout “Kattyyyy Babyyyyy!” at, no Nina and Courtney to stand and talk to for 30 minutes before we realized we actually had to be somewhere 20 minutes ago. The hardest part was saying goodbye to my Thai friends. I would love to come back to Thailand (like next week), but I know it will be a while before that happens, and I have no idea when I will next see my Thai friends. Saying goodbye has never been so difficult for me, and I can only be grateful for this profound and incredible experience I’ve had. I know I’ve changed a lot as a person and I’ve met people who have taught me a lot about the world around me. Although I have had negative experiences while traveling through SE Asia, they are completely overshadowed by the positive experiences I’ve had in Thailand, and the wonderful people I’ve met.
Texas, here I come!
Sawadee Ka
Ps. As I’m writing this, Sheryl Crow’s song, “Home” is playing, which has oh-so naturally aided the flow of tears.
Indonesia
Wow, Indonesia. The craziest 2 weeks of my life, mostly due to the fact that I am traveling without any debit/credit cards and very little cash that I can borrow from a friend. The trip started by nearly missing my flight. Not because I slept to late, was stuck in traffic, or got lost. Oh no, I was sitting in the airport as my plane boarded. I was sitting at my gate as my plane boarded. Actually, I watched my entire plane board and I just sat there. Turns out there is a 1 hour time difference between Vietnam and Malaysia (my transit stop over), and the entire time I thought it was an hour earlier than it really was. To make matters worse, AirAsia’s terribly inefficient manner was in full force that day, and the sign at my gate said Destination: Singapore on it. So as my fellow passengers boarded the plane, I just sat there and listened to my music. Luckily for me, the ear insert on my headphones fell off while I was flying form Vietnam to Malaysia. Because of that, I was able to hear what people were saying around me, even as I was listening to music. Because of that I was able to hear “Will Tracey Kaplan please come to the front counter, your flight is awaiting you”. When I boarded the flight, everyone was already seated and waiting on me. Whoops. On the bright side, I wasn’t the only one. Another person had the same problem and that’s how I came to know Austin. He’s about my age, and he’s teaching university a few hours north of Bangkok. We got to talking and turned out we have a lot in common. He ends up coming with Mj and I back to our hotel and we all grab dinner together at Kuta Beach, Bali. The next day, Mj and I head to Ubud, a quite, artsy town an hour away from Kuta. Austin decides to stay another day in Kuta and we part ways. Ubud is a really nice, serene town and its chock full of culture. Also the town where the lady from “Eat, pray, love” lived while she was in Bali, if you’ve read that book. So, the first day we go to a traditional Balinese dancing show. Afterwards, I devise a brilliant plan to get money without doing an expensive wire transfer. Since my mom has the same bank as I do, I did an online transfer from my account into hers, and then had her deposit cash into Mj’s account, and then she could take my money out of her account with her debit card. Okay, so maybe not so brilliant, but I was pretty proud of it…
The second day we are in Ubud, we wake up late and meet Ellys, the Kiwi/Indonesian who is staying in the guesthouse beside us. She’s super cool and is in Ubud to do research for a book she is writing. After breakfast, Mj and I go rent bikes and head off to explore the windy hills and rice paddies of Ubud. It was a great idea for the first half of the afternoon. Though Bali has been rainy up until this point, we wake up to a bright and sunny day. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, with sprawling rice paddies, palm trees, and green hills dotted with numerous temples and cultural sites. Mj and I stop to have lunch at a random side café we see on the street. We’re not too hungry, so we get one meal and share it. Oh my god. It is the best meal of my life. Seriously, it is AMAZING. Peanut sauce, tofu, tempe, fresh vegetables. SO delicious, and so begins my love affair with Indonesian food. Anyway, we order another dish and eat every last bit, even though we are not in the least bit hungry anymore. As we leave the restaurant, we start cruising down a hill (I’m behind Mj), and I see this motorbike pull out of the street without looking both ways, and Mj just heads straight into the bike from the right side and flips over it, with her bike crashing down on top of her. It looked like something straight out of a movie. As soon as I see it happen, I throw my bike off, and run to Mj, inspecting her for blood and wounds. As soon as I see she only has some scraped and bruises (and a black face from the asphalt), I just burst out laughing. I really should have taken a picture—I obviously wasn’t thinking straight. It was quite the epic fall. Then Mj gets a ride back to town to find the owner of the bike and I’m left to bike back to town by myself. Uh-oh, I think we all know about my sense of direction. Or rather, lack there-of. So, I of course get myself very lost and when I finally turn around, I see a sign that says “Ubud” on it. Haha, I had gone so far in the wrong direction, I wasn’t even in the same town I started from! Anyway, I eventually find my way home and rush to get to Mj, since I have all the money, which means she cant get water or food…she must be in so much pain! I run into our room, scream for Mj, and she’s just having a merry time, singing in the shower, and laughing. Whaaat? Turns out she is fine and laughing about the whole situation. Naturally, I’m the one freakin out.
After Mj cleans up, we head to the market to buy some souvenirs, even though I literally have 80,000 Rupiah on me (about 8 USD). When I get to the market, I begin some hard bargaining (always), and when I tell the girl I only have 40,000 rupiah, she looks at me and replies “But you have more, you can go to bank”. It just made me sad, b/c I realized that whatever they have in their pockets is probably all the money they have at all.
After the market, Mj and I meet up with Elyss (our Kiwi/Indonesian neighbor) and head to dinner. We end up at this really nice restaurant that has been featured in the Londoner, b/c they are having a special Sunday satay night. I get tuna satay with peanut sauce, and it was probably the 2nd best meal I’ve ever had (the first from a few hours before, wow am I a lucky girl!). After dinner, we start chatting to the owners and they give Mj a special birthday cake since we never got to adequately celebrate her birthday in Vietnam. We aso meet Joe, who is the owner’s friend and a very talented painter, who has apparently sold a painting to Mel Gibson. Impressive. We continue chatting throughout the night and agree to meet up the next day for dinner and salsa dancing. Oh, and we randomly run into Austin, from the plane ride to Indonesia.
The next day, Mj and I decide to walk around the rice paddies. After about an hour of walking through the fields, we run into a Balinese man, who is farming. He tells us how to get back to town and then proceeds to lead the way. But not before stripping Mj to help her “shower off” in a waterfall, and all kinds of other crazy stuff that he does. But, he does eventually lead us out through an intricate maze, which we never would have found on our own. However, I still find a way to get lost. After the Balinese man leaves, we come to a fork in the road. I decide to go right and then Mj and I get so lost. We end up falling knee- deep in mud and rice and feeling like we are so far away from town. Turns out there was a guesthouse about 25 meters away and the boy who works there shows us the right way, haha. On the bright side, Mj and I find this amazing pool while we’re lost and we decide to upgrade guesthouses so we can spend a luxurious day lounging by the pool (in the rain). Unfortunately, we aren’t able to find the same pool again, but we do find a nice guesthouse with a different pool, which we deem acceptable.
After checking into the new hotel, we have this amazing lunch that takes about an hour to be made, but SO worth the wait. And there was an adorable puppy to entertain us as we waited for our food. Another funny thing: As we were waiting for our food, some man came up to us and asked if we were the girls who were walking around "lost" in the rice fields, sinking in the mud. Turns out he was watching us for about 15 minutes in his hotel room, laughing. Haha!!
Anyway, after eating, we are so full and content, we decide to skip out on salsa dancing and just visit mini-marts instead. A weird thing I do when I travel is that I absolutely love to visit mini-marts, so we did that and of course, ran into Austin. We went back to our guesthouse and played cards for a few hours, wrote a note to Ellys, apologizing for skipping on dinner + salsa, and crashed out,
The next day is spent traveling to Sengiggi, the beautiful port town en route to the Gili Islands, where we will spend Christmas. When we finally get to Sengigii, after a horrible 5 hour ferry and 3 different van/buses, we are dropped at a tourist center (surprise surprise), where they try to sell us a trekking tour. We haggle for almost 2 hours, before I realize they are ripping us off. We go next door to another tourist center to check prices and the man I was previously talking to begins yelling at the other people in Indonesian, and there was a big panic and a lot of scared people. Everyone was shouting and at this point, I decide to just go have dinner. So, we leave everyone behind, and eat at this restaurant, where we meet these two Indonesian boys and play cards with them. After learning the card games for about 5 minutes, they begin kicking our butts and that’s when I decide its time to go to sleep. We head home, book the trekking tour to Mt. Rinjani (the worst idea ever oh goodness), and get ready for the Gili Islands!
We wake up early, head to another shady port town where we spend 2 hours waiting for our boat to the Gili Islands and have a terrible time with all the sketch people at this border town. We meet Erika and Barry, a Brit couple who are traveling for 2 years, and who we end up hanging out with for most of our trip at the island. The entire time we’ve been in Bali, its been rainy and overcast, but for some reason, the Gili Islands are in their own little bubble. The weather is brilliant and sunny for the 3 days we are at Gili Trawangan (aka Gili Tralala).
December 25, Merry Christmas from Gili Tralala! Is there any better way to spend Christmas day then lying out at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world? I wake up early, find our bathroom “door” (I use the word “door” lightly, its more like a few shingles) torn down by a drunken Mj, lie out by the beach for several hours, and go home to find Mj still in bed, nursing quite a bad Christmas Eve hangover. While Mj is still in bed, I decide to explore the island by walking the entire perimeter (small island, so this shouldn’t take very long). I don’t get to far before I meet Ryan, and end up spending the day hanging out with him, snorkeling and eating dinner. While snorkeling, I see a sea tortoise, so awesome!
Dec 26- Mj and I go snorkeling together and have the greatest time! The snorkeling is fantastic. At one point, I saw this incredibly beautiful water snake. It was bright blue and silver and very majestic looking. My first thought was “Wow, this is so cool”. Then, the snake looked right at me, and my next thought was “Oh my god, get out. Get out. Get out”, and I swam as fast as I could until I was out of the water. Haha!
On our way home, we meet Juliana, a Brazilian businesswoman who invites us to go to the jungle with her in Malaysia. Darn, too bad I will be back home in the States by then! Later, we run into the British couple and enjoy the sunset and our last dinner on the island with them.
Dec 27- We travel to Senaru to begin our Mt. Rinjani trek. At senaru, we visit these 2 enormous waterfalls—the biggest I’ve ever seen! We are taken there by an Indonesian man, but we separate from him on the way back, and of course get very lost. Mj and I are walking for about 10 minutes, when it starts pouring rain. Typical. Then, we run into these 3 very mean looking cows in the middle of the path. I freak out, and start cowering behind Mj. Then, the cow turns to its right, says something to its big cow friends, and suddenly we’re staring at about 8 angry looking cows. I cower behind Mj for a few more minutes, then sprint ahead and run as fast as I can past the cattle. Haha, I’m such a dork, scared of cattle.
Dec 28. First day of the 3 day, 2 night trek up Mt. Rinjani, an active volcano that is one of the largest peaks in Indonesia. We wake up to the rain, and spend a while debating whether we should still do the trek. I convince our hesitant group that we should just do it, and off we go! Little did I know what was in store for us… we spend 3 hard hours trekking with our backpacks before they finally give us lunch, and then we trek for 4 more hours up one of the steepest inclines I’ve ever climbed. We arrive at camp and watch the most beautiful sunset illuminating the surrounding volcanoes and land. End of Day one, the supposedly easiest day of the trek. Yikes.
Day 2- Wake up at 2:30 am to begin the rigorous 4.5 hour trek up the volcano to the summit. We all have flashlights and start climbing at about 3am, before breakfast.. Oh, my god. This is the hardest trek of my life. The last hour is almost straight up volcanic ash; the incline must be at a 60-degree angle. We literally have to stop every 3 or 4 minutes to catch out breath and every 2 steps we take brings us 1 step back, as we keep slipping backwards on the loose volcanic ash. At around 7am, we finally make it to the summit—thank goodness! Although we miss sunrise, we still have a spectacular view of the crater, the lake below us, and Bali in the far distance. The way down the volcano is SO fun, we literally slide down the mountain. By the time I reach the bottom at 9am, I have about 2 lbs of volcano in my shoes and have fallen maybe 8 times. Haha, love it! Finally eat breakfast after that intense hike, relax for about 5 minutes, and hike another 2.5 hours until we reach the lake. So incredible. At one side of the lake is a big volcano, with smoke coming out of it; it looks just like a science fair project. At the other side of the lake is a big forest, full of beautiful trees. At the other side, are hot springs and hot waterfalls. After having lunch, I lead the group through 5 more hours of rock-climbing/hiking. It was so much fun, we were literally climbing hand over foot and some areas felt more like rock climbing then hiking. Although I don’t know what everyone was thinking following me…. Surprisingly, I didn’t get us lost though. We reach camp just as the sun is setting. Total trekking time for day 2= 14 hours. Wow, we are all hurting. Blisters, leg cramps, knee & hip problems, one of the trekkers even broke her toe on a rock, eeek. The next morning, we just want to get the hell out of here. We wake early to a “breakfast in tent” and spend the next 4 hours practically running down the mountain.
After the trek, we race back to Lombok, where we just barely make the last ferry to Bali.
Dec 31- Happy New Year’s Eve! We spend the first half of the day trying to find accommodation, but everything is completely full. Turns out showing up to the biggest tourist destination in Bali on the day of New Year’s Eve was a bad idea. After having lunch, Mj and I decide to just go to the beach and meet someone whose place we can crash at. Within 20 minutes, we meet Sarah, a Brit trying to sell us a surfboard. We get to talking and turns out she has extra room at her hotel….score! Then, she introduces us to Brian, who has an extra bed….yes! She also introduces us to a baby monkey, who pees all over me….sweet! ☺
After showering, we try to find Sarah’s hotel to begin the pre-New Year’s Eve celebrating, but search to no avail. We end up making terrible drinks, as Mj and I have only a few thousand rupiah and can only afford one juice carton. So, we make drinks of 2/3 vodka, and a splash of juice. Ughh, no bueno. After the drinks, we spend 25 minutes walking through elbow-to-elbow traffic to get to the beach, and then celebrate the New Years on the ocean. Do a bit more partying on the beach, and head to bed around 4am.
Naturally, I wake at 8am, ready for a day at the beach! Mj goes to Dreamland with the Indonesian boy she met the night before and I spend the day trying not to think about my growling stomach, as we only have just enough money to get a ride to the airport. When Mj gets back from Dreamland, she says her Indonesian friend can give us a ride to the airport, yay! We have a whole 85,000 rupiah (about 8 USD) to spend, and I go NUTS! I buy 2 sandwiches, soda, Indian food, and a chocolate bar! Woo! I spend everything I have, and get ready to go to the airport, where things get really crazy.
Because Mj’s friend can only take us to the airport one at a time, Mj goes before me. When I get to the airport, I rush in, get my boarding pass, and walk upstairs. There’s a big line at a long desk that blocks the entrance into immigration. What is the line for? To pay a 150,000 rupiah exit fee. Oh my goodness. I have no money, no debit cards, and no credit cards (since wallet was stolen in Vietnam). There’s only one thing to do. Sneak past. I walk to the left of the line, pretend like I’m an airport employee and walk right past the exit fee desk. I get in line for immigration and notice EVERYONE has a sticker on their boarding pass, saying they have paid the exit fee. Oh god. I wait in line, smile at the immigration officer and hold my breath as he looks at my documents. He looks back at me, looks down again, and pauses. 10 seconds pass. Then, stamp, stamp, stamp, and he lets me go through. Phew. At this point, I think it’s all over.
I spend the next 30 minutes looking all over the airport for Mj, who I can’t find. I finally realize she is probably waiting at the exit fee table, because she knows I have no money and she wants to give me money for the fee. So, I go to airport staff and have them page her, saying “Mariane O’ Connor please meet Tracey at Gate 2”. After another 15 minutes, I go to look for Mj at the immigration counter, and see her frantically running past the officers, in tears and looking quite stressed out. When I see her, she exclaims, “Oh my god, the plane plane! Have I missed the plane!?”, to which I reply, “No dude, we still have an hour and a half before it leaves…”
Haha, because she didn’t have a watch, she thought the page meant the plane was leaving, and as it turns out, she had checked her debit card in her baggage underneath the plane, and also had no money to pay the exit fee. She took an alternative route than I did (the criminal way of sneaking onto the plane) and broke down crying, until a British lady felt bad for her, and paid the 150,000 rupiah fee for her.
Okay, we calm ourselves down and wait for our gate to begin boarding. This is where things get tricky. I think I’m in the clear until I notice the man checking boarding passes is not only looking at the exit fee sticker, but he is taking off part of the sticker for collection. Oh no, I’m in trouble. Even if I begged a stranger for money to get the exit fee sticker, I wouldn’t have time to wait through the immigration lines. I look at Mj and she says “You know what you have to do. You have to sneak onto this plane”. Oh goodness. This man is checking people one at a time, just like in the States, and there are 8 other security personnel 10 feet away, checking everyone’s carry ons. How is this going to work? The man before Mj gets his boarding pass checked, and I take 1 step forward. Mj moves forward 2 steps, and I take one step back, then 2 quick steps forward, pass the man, and turn my back away from him. I hold my breath. A few seconds pass. I’m just waiting for him to tap me on the shoulder and ask for my boarding pass. A few more seconds pass. Nothing happens, and I finally breathe a sigh of relief. Until I see the see the secondary boarding pass/passport check. Are you kidding me? Oh god, this check has 2 men and a distance of about 3 feet between the men and a wall. No way to sneak pass. I have to take my chances. I give them my boarding pass; they take a look, separate it out, and let me pass. Finally make it. Wow, the most stressful experience I have ever had at an airport. Of the thousands and thousands of people that left that airport, I would say I am the only person to not pay the exit fee. Way to stick it to the man!
The second day we are in Ubud, we wake up late and meet Ellys, the Kiwi/Indonesian who is staying in the guesthouse beside us. She’s super cool and is in Ubud to do research for a book she is writing. After breakfast, Mj and I go rent bikes and head off to explore the windy hills and rice paddies of Ubud. It was a great idea for the first half of the afternoon. Though Bali has been rainy up until this point, we wake up to a bright and sunny day. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, with sprawling rice paddies, palm trees, and green hills dotted with numerous temples and cultural sites. Mj and I stop to have lunch at a random side café we see on the street. We’re not too hungry, so we get one meal and share it. Oh my god. It is the best meal of my life. Seriously, it is AMAZING. Peanut sauce, tofu, tempe, fresh vegetables. SO delicious, and so begins my love affair with Indonesian food. Anyway, we order another dish and eat every last bit, even though we are not in the least bit hungry anymore. As we leave the restaurant, we start cruising down a hill (I’m behind Mj), and I see this motorbike pull out of the street without looking both ways, and Mj just heads straight into the bike from the right side and flips over it, with her bike crashing down on top of her. It looked like something straight out of a movie. As soon as I see it happen, I throw my bike off, and run to Mj, inspecting her for blood and wounds. As soon as I see she only has some scraped and bruises (and a black face from the asphalt), I just burst out laughing. I really should have taken a picture—I obviously wasn’t thinking straight. It was quite the epic fall. Then Mj gets a ride back to town to find the owner of the bike and I’m left to bike back to town by myself. Uh-oh, I think we all know about my sense of direction. Or rather, lack there-of. So, I of course get myself very lost and when I finally turn around, I see a sign that says “Ubud” on it. Haha, I had gone so far in the wrong direction, I wasn’t even in the same town I started from! Anyway, I eventually find my way home and rush to get to Mj, since I have all the money, which means she cant get water or food…she must be in so much pain! I run into our room, scream for Mj, and she’s just having a merry time, singing in the shower, and laughing. Whaaat? Turns out she is fine and laughing about the whole situation. Naturally, I’m the one freakin out.
After Mj cleans up, we head to the market to buy some souvenirs, even though I literally have 80,000 Rupiah on me (about 8 USD). When I get to the market, I begin some hard bargaining (always), and when I tell the girl I only have 40,000 rupiah, she looks at me and replies “But you have more, you can go to bank”. It just made me sad, b/c I realized that whatever they have in their pockets is probably all the money they have at all.
After the market, Mj and I meet up with Elyss (our Kiwi/Indonesian neighbor) and head to dinner. We end up at this really nice restaurant that has been featured in the Londoner, b/c they are having a special Sunday satay night. I get tuna satay with peanut sauce, and it was probably the 2nd best meal I’ve ever had (the first from a few hours before, wow am I a lucky girl!). After dinner, we start chatting to the owners and they give Mj a special birthday cake since we never got to adequately celebrate her birthday in Vietnam. We aso meet Joe, who is the owner’s friend and a very talented painter, who has apparently sold a painting to Mel Gibson. Impressive. We continue chatting throughout the night and agree to meet up the next day for dinner and salsa dancing. Oh, and we randomly run into Austin, from the plane ride to Indonesia.
The next day, Mj and I decide to walk around the rice paddies. After about an hour of walking through the fields, we run into a Balinese man, who is farming. He tells us how to get back to town and then proceeds to lead the way. But not before stripping Mj to help her “shower off” in a waterfall, and all kinds of other crazy stuff that he does. But, he does eventually lead us out through an intricate maze, which we never would have found on our own. However, I still find a way to get lost. After the Balinese man leaves, we come to a fork in the road. I decide to go right and then Mj and I get so lost. We end up falling knee- deep in mud and rice and feeling like we are so far away from town. Turns out there was a guesthouse about 25 meters away and the boy who works there shows us the right way, haha. On the bright side, Mj and I find this amazing pool while we’re lost and we decide to upgrade guesthouses so we can spend a luxurious day lounging by the pool (in the rain). Unfortunately, we aren’t able to find the same pool again, but we do find a nice guesthouse with a different pool, which we deem acceptable.
After checking into the new hotel, we have this amazing lunch that takes about an hour to be made, but SO worth the wait. And there was an adorable puppy to entertain us as we waited for our food. Another funny thing: As we were waiting for our food, some man came up to us and asked if we were the girls who were walking around "lost" in the rice fields, sinking in the mud. Turns out he was watching us for about 15 minutes in his hotel room, laughing. Haha!!
Anyway, after eating, we are so full and content, we decide to skip out on salsa dancing and just visit mini-marts instead. A weird thing I do when I travel is that I absolutely love to visit mini-marts, so we did that and of course, ran into Austin. We went back to our guesthouse and played cards for a few hours, wrote a note to Ellys, apologizing for skipping on dinner + salsa, and crashed out,
The next day is spent traveling to Sengiggi, the beautiful port town en route to the Gili Islands, where we will spend Christmas. When we finally get to Sengigii, after a horrible 5 hour ferry and 3 different van/buses, we are dropped at a tourist center (surprise surprise), where they try to sell us a trekking tour. We haggle for almost 2 hours, before I realize they are ripping us off. We go next door to another tourist center to check prices and the man I was previously talking to begins yelling at the other people in Indonesian, and there was a big panic and a lot of scared people. Everyone was shouting and at this point, I decide to just go have dinner. So, we leave everyone behind, and eat at this restaurant, where we meet these two Indonesian boys and play cards with them. After learning the card games for about 5 minutes, they begin kicking our butts and that’s when I decide its time to go to sleep. We head home, book the trekking tour to Mt. Rinjani (the worst idea ever oh goodness), and get ready for the Gili Islands!
We wake up early, head to another shady port town where we spend 2 hours waiting for our boat to the Gili Islands and have a terrible time with all the sketch people at this border town. We meet Erika and Barry, a Brit couple who are traveling for 2 years, and who we end up hanging out with for most of our trip at the island. The entire time we’ve been in Bali, its been rainy and overcast, but for some reason, the Gili Islands are in their own little bubble. The weather is brilliant and sunny for the 3 days we are at Gili Trawangan (aka Gili Tralala).
December 25, Merry Christmas from Gili Tralala! Is there any better way to spend Christmas day then lying out at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world? I wake up early, find our bathroom “door” (I use the word “door” lightly, its more like a few shingles) torn down by a drunken Mj, lie out by the beach for several hours, and go home to find Mj still in bed, nursing quite a bad Christmas Eve hangover. While Mj is still in bed, I decide to explore the island by walking the entire perimeter (small island, so this shouldn’t take very long). I don’t get to far before I meet Ryan, and end up spending the day hanging out with him, snorkeling and eating dinner. While snorkeling, I see a sea tortoise, so awesome!
Dec 26- Mj and I go snorkeling together and have the greatest time! The snorkeling is fantastic. At one point, I saw this incredibly beautiful water snake. It was bright blue and silver and very majestic looking. My first thought was “Wow, this is so cool”. Then, the snake looked right at me, and my next thought was “Oh my god, get out. Get out. Get out”, and I swam as fast as I could until I was out of the water. Haha!
On our way home, we meet Juliana, a Brazilian businesswoman who invites us to go to the jungle with her in Malaysia. Darn, too bad I will be back home in the States by then! Later, we run into the British couple and enjoy the sunset and our last dinner on the island with them.
Dec 27- We travel to Senaru to begin our Mt. Rinjani trek. At senaru, we visit these 2 enormous waterfalls—the biggest I’ve ever seen! We are taken there by an Indonesian man, but we separate from him on the way back, and of course get very lost. Mj and I are walking for about 10 minutes, when it starts pouring rain. Typical. Then, we run into these 3 very mean looking cows in the middle of the path. I freak out, and start cowering behind Mj. Then, the cow turns to its right, says something to its big cow friends, and suddenly we’re staring at about 8 angry looking cows. I cower behind Mj for a few more minutes, then sprint ahead and run as fast as I can past the cattle. Haha, I’m such a dork, scared of cattle.
Dec 28. First day of the 3 day, 2 night trek up Mt. Rinjani, an active volcano that is one of the largest peaks in Indonesia. We wake up to the rain, and spend a while debating whether we should still do the trek. I convince our hesitant group that we should just do it, and off we go! Little did I know what was in store for us… we spend 3 hard hours trekking with our backpacks before they finally give us lunch, and then we trek for 4 more hours up one of the steepest inclines I’ve ever climbed. We arrive at camp and watch the most beautiful sunset illuminating the surrounding volcanoes and land. End of Day one, the supposedly easiest day of the trek. Yikes.
Day 2- Wake up at 2:30 am to begin the rigorous 4.5 hour trek up the volcano to the summit. We all have flashlights and start climbing at about 3am, before breakfast.. Oh, my god. This is the hardest trek of my life. The last hour is almost straight up volcanic ash; the incline must be at a 60-degree angle. We literally have to stop every 3 or 4 minutes to catch out breath and every 2 steps we take brings us 1 step back, as we keep slipping backwards on the loose volcanic ash. At around 7am, we finally make it to the summit—thank goodness! Although we miss sunrise, we still have a spectacular view of the crater, the lake below us, and Bali in the far distance. The way down the volcano is SO fun, we literally slide down the mountain. By the time I reach the bottom at 9am, I have about 2 lbs of volcano in my shoes and have fallen maybe 8 times. Haha, love it! Finally eat breakfast after that intense hike, relax for about 5 minutes, and hike another 2.5 hours until we reach the lake. So incredible. At one side of the lake is a big volcano, with smoke coming out of it; it looks just like a science fair project. At the other side of the lake is a big forest, full of beautiful trees. At the other side, are hot springs and hot waterfalls. After having lunch, I lead the group through 5 more hours of rock-climbing/hiking. It was so much fun, we were literally climbing hand over foot and some areas felt more like rock climbing then hiking. Although I don’t know what everyone was thinking following me…. Surprisingly, I didn’t get us lost though. We reach camp just as the sun is setting. Total trekking time for day 2= 14 hours. Wow, we are all hurting. Blisters, leg cramps, knee & hip problems, one of the trekkers even broke her toe on a rock, eeek. The next morning, we just want to get the hell out of here. We wake early to a “breakfast in tent” and spend the next 4 hours practically running down the mountain.
After the trek, we race back to Lombok, where we just barely make the last ferry to Bali.
Dec 31- Happy New Year’s Eve! We spend the first half of the day trying to find accommodation, but everything is completely full. Turns out showing up to the biggest tourist destination in Bali on the day of New Year’s Eve was a bad idea. After having lunch, Mj and I decide to just go to the beach and meet someone whose place we can crash at. Within 20 minutes, we meet Sarah, a Brit trying to sell us a surfboard. We get to talking and turns out she has extra room at her hotel….score! Then, she introduces us to Brian, who has an extra bed….yes! She also introduces us to a baby monkey, who pees all over me….sweet! ☺
After showering, we try to find Sarah’s hotel to begin the pre-New Year’s Eve celebrating, but search to no avail. We end up making terrible drinks, as Mj and I have only a few thousand rupiah and can only afford one juice carton. So, we make drinks of 2/3 vodka, and a splash of juice. Ughh, no bueno. After the drinks, we spend 25 minutes walking through elbow-to-elbow traffic to get to the beach, and then celebrate the New Years on the ocean. Do a bit more partying on the beach, and head to bed around 4am.
Naturally, I wake at 8am, ready for a day at the beach! Mj goes to Dreamland with the Indonesian boy she met the night before and I spend the day trying not to think about my growling stomach, as we only have just enough money to get a ride to the airport. When Mj gets back from Dreamland, she says her Indonesian friend can give us a ride to the airport, yay! We have a whole 85,000 rupiah (about 8 USD) to spend, and I go NUTS! I buy 2 sandwiches, soda, Indian food, and a chocolate bar! Woo! I spend everything I have, and get ready to go to the airport, where things get really crazy.
Because Mj’s friend can only take us to the airport one at a time, Mj goes before me. When I get to the airport, I rush in, get my boarding pass, and walk upstairs. There’s a big line at a long desk that blocks the entrance into immigration. What is the line for? To pay a 150,000 rupiah exit fee. Oh my goodness. I have no money, no debit cards, and no credit cards (since wallet was stolen in Vietnam). There’s only one thing to do. Sneak past. I walk to the left of the line, pretend like I’m an airport employee and walk right past the exit fee desk. I get in line for immigration and notice EVERYONE has a sticker on their boarding pass, saying they have paid the exit fee. Oh god. I wait in line, smile at the immigration officer and hold my breath as he looks at my documents. He looks back at me, looks down again, and pauses. 10 seconds pass. Then, stamp, stamp, stamp, and he lets me go through. Phew. At this point, I think it’s all over.
I spend the next 30 minutes looking all over the airport for Mj, who I can’t find. I finally realize she is probably waiting at the exit fee table, because she knows I have no money and she wants to give me money for the fee. So, I go to airport staff and have them page her, saying “Mariane O’ Connor please meet Tracey at Gate 2”. After another 15 minutes, I go to look for Mj at the immigration counter, and see her frantically running past the officers, in tears and looking quite stressed out. When I see her, she exclaims, “Oh my god, the plane plane! Have I missed the plane!?”, to which I reply, “No dude, we still have an hour and a half before it leaves…”
Haha, because she didn’t have a watch, she thought the page meant the plane was leaving, and as it turns out, she had checked her debit card in her baggage underneath the plane, and also had no money to pay the exit fee. She took an alternative route than I did (the criminal way of sneaking onto the plane) and broke down crying, until a British lady felt bad for her, and paid the 150,000 rupiah fee for her.
Okay, we calm ourselves down and wait for our gate to begin boarding. This is where things get tricky. I think I’m in the clear until I notice the man checking boarding passes is not only looking at the exit fee sticker, but he is taking off part of the sticker for collection. Oh no, I’m in trouble. Even if I begged a stranger for money to get the exit fee sticker, I wouldn’t have time to wait through the immigration lines. I look at Mj and she says “You know what you have to do. You have to sneak onto this plane”. Oh goodness. This man is checking people one at a time, just like in the States, and there are 8 other security personnel 10 feet away, checking everyone’s carry ons. How is this going to work? The man before Mj gets his boarding pass checked, and I take 1 step forward. Mj moves forward 2 steps, and I take one step back, then 2 quick steps forward, pass the man, and turn my back away from him. I hold my breath. A few seconds pass. I’m just waiting for him to tap me on the shoulder and ask for my boarding pass. A few more seconds pass. Nothing happens, and I finally breathe a sigh of relief. Until I see the see the secondary boarding pass/passport check. Are you kidding me? Oh god, this check has 2 men and a distance of about 3 feet between the men and a wall. No way to sneak pass. I have to take my chances. I give them my boarding pass; they take a look, separate it out, and let me pass. Finally make it. Wow, the most stressful experience I have ever had at an airport. Of the thousands and thousands of people that left that airport, I would say I am the only person to not pay the exit fee. Way to stick it to the man!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Vietnam
Good morning Vietnam. Good-bye Vietnam. Good riddance Vietnam. This is a painful blog for me to write, as 3-fold bad luck stuck me while in Vietnam. From a plane ticket gone wrong to losing everything, this trip was doomed from the start.
After finally finishing school and the most anxious and chaotic week of my life (3 finals in 24 hours + move out+ travel plans in arrays + goodbyes), I pick up my rather large rent deposit (sense the ominous foreshadowing), grab my plane ticket (2 plane tickets actually, LONG story) to Hanoi and head off. I say my last goodbyes to my fellow exchange students, and head to the airport, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Whether the sinking feeling was from leaving Thailand, from saying goodbye to my friends, or from the trip to Vietnam, I just had a bad feeling about this trip. I arrive at the airport far too early (me, early to the airport?!? Now that’s weird….) and spend the next few hours aimlessly walking around (in particular, walking past the free sweets sample booth). I eventually get on the plane, make much progress on my new book, and arrive at the Vietnam airport 2 hours later. After breezing through immigration, I’m approached my a Vietnamese man, asking if he can help me. And so it begins. My first instinct is to ignore him, but I decide to entertain the potential taxi driver that most likely is out to rip me off. After exchanging currency to the Vietnamese dong (the most worthless currency on the planet), I start to talk to this guy, who is actually quite nice. He’s not much older than I am and when he offers me a ride to town, I ask how much. He throws out a price and not only is the price reasonable, but it’s dirt cheap. Warning sign #1. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep over the last week has obviously affected me, as I’d just forgotten the cardinal rule when traveling through SE Asia: All taxi drivers will rip you off when given half a chance. Just about everyone in SE Asia will try to rip you off, and with a big smile on their face. So when my taxi driver said 1500 dong, he actually meant 1.5 million dong (about 90USD). Oh shit. Before I get to the drop-off point, and the heated argument that followed, this guy was way cool. On the 45 minute cab ride, we listened to Celine Dion (I didn’t even have to ask for it!), talked about our jobs, and he even taught me some Vietnamese. Then comes the drop-off point and when I hand him the 200,000 dong, thinking I was being generous giving him above the asking price, he laughs at me, and the negotiations begin. He makes up some bogus lie about a 500,000 dong entry fee into Hanoi and when I demand the receipt, he comes up with nothing. Surprise, surprise. We finally settle on a 10 USD cab ride, but I realize I only have 6 USD left over from my trip to Laos. Gahh. We continue arguing and as its getting more heated, I begin formulating an escape plane. Right as I’m about to grab my bags and book it, I hear the locks switch, and both of the men turn towards me. At this point, I decide to just get out of the car. I through the money at them, shoot a dirty look, and peace out. As I’m walking down the street, stewing about how screwed up SE Asia is, I run into Mj and Stephen, my two friends I’m meeting in Hanoi. I drop my backpack off at their hotel, grab a bowl of Pho (popular Vietnamese dish) and past out a few hours later, as Hanoi basically shuts down at 11pm…the hotels even lock the doors at 11 or 12, so you can’t get in past then.
The next day, we have a nice, long breakfast at the Irish pub down the street. Little did I know this would be the last meal I’d be able to pay for alone.
We then book a 3 day, 2 night cruise along Halong Bay, a beautiful area nominated as one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. Good thing we booked the superior tour, because no amount of money I spent would even matter. We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping for Christmas gifts. I wish I had bought more. After shopping, we visit a big cathedral. When we walk in, the place is completely empty. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by 60 people chanting in Vietnamese and swaying back and forth. Time to leave…. We arrive back at our hotel, where the very sweet owner (one of those who rips you off with a smile on your face) has made us dinner. So we all sit down and enjoy an authentic Vietnamese meal with her husband, brothers, sisters, kids, etc, etc. Oh, and I accidentally eat pork. Ugh, at least it wasn’t dog.
After dinner, we head to the night market—the scene of the crime. Stephen, Mj, and I had just bought ice cream cones and we’re walking down the crowded street when I suddenly feel something on my bag. My hand immediately swings up to my back, and I notice my bag is lighter. I feel around and realize my purse is missing. I start running through the streets, bumping into people and pushing them over, to see if they know what just happened, but everyone looks the exact same and I have no idea which one took my purse. I find a cop who pushes me aside and doesn’t do a damn thing to help. At this point, my screams have drawn a crowd and I run into Stephen, who has grabbed my bag and is staring at it with his jaw open. There are 2 perfectly slit gapes in my bag, made only be a surgical scalpel or a very sharp knife. I’m now running down the street, desperately trying to find someone who speaks English. With every passing second, I know my chances of recovering my wallet are rapidly diminishing and there is nothing I can do about it. I finally find the police station and as soon as I walk in, the police officer gives me a bored look and ushers me out of the building, without a second glance my way. I quickly realize the cops here are useless and the only thing left for me to do is find an internet café, call my bank, and cancel all my cards. I spend two hours on the internet and can’t even pay for it. I am literally penniless. Luckily, my passport was back at my hotel.
The next few days are a blur; a suspicious blur. I walk around with no money, yet constantly aware of where everyone is and how close they are to me. Seems paranoid, but to put it into perspective: 1 week before, my friend Abby was in Vietnam and lost everything after someone stole her purse right from under her, while she was asleep on the bus. 3 days after I got my wallet stolen, our new Welsh friend felt someone unzip her bag as they walked behind her…luckily, she swung around just in time to prevent something from getting stolen. It’s really sad, because I have such a bitter taste in my mouth when I think of Vietnam. It’s such a shady country, the lady who did Mj’s laundry even tried to steal her pants. No joke.
After finally finishing school and the most anxious and chaotic week of my life (3 finals in 24 hours + move out+ travel plans in arrays + goodbyes), I pick up my rather large rent deposit (sense the ominous foreshadowing), grab my plane ticket (2 plane tickets actually, LONG story) to Hanoi and head off. I say my last goodbyes to my fellow exchange students, and head to the airport, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Whether the sinking feeling was from leaving Thailand, from saying goodbye to my friends, or from the trip to Vietnam, I just had a bad feeling about this trip. I arrive at the airport far too early (me, early to the airport?!? Now that’s weird….) and spend the next few hours aimlessly walking around (in particular, walking past the free sweets sample booth). I eventually get on the plane, make much progress on my new book, and arrive at the Vietnam airport 2 hours later. After breezing through immigration, I’m approached my a Vietnamese man, asking if he can help me. And so it begins. My first instinct is to ignore him, but I decide to entertain the potential taxi driver that most likely is out to rip me off. After exchanging currency to the Vietnamese dong (the most worthless currency on the planet), I start to talk to this guy, who is actually quite nice. He’s not much older than I am and when he offers me a ride to town, I ask how much. He throws out a price and not only is the price reasonable, but it’s dirt cheap. Warning sign #1. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep over the last week has obviously affected me, as I’d just forgotten the cardinal rule when traveling through SE Asia: All taxi drivers will rip you off when given half a chance. Just about everyone in SE Asia will try to rip you off, and with a big smile on their face. So when my taxi driver said 1500 dong, he actually meant 1.5 million dong (about 90USD). Oh shit. Before I get to the drop-off point, and the heated argument that followed, this guy was way cool. On the 45 minute cab ride, we listened to Celine Dion (I didn’t even have to ask for it!), talked about our jobs, and he even taught me some Vietnamese. Then comes the drop-off point and when I hand him the 200,000 dong, thinking I was being generous giving him above the asking price, he laughs at me, and the negotiations begin. He makes up some bogus lie about a 500,000 dong entry fee into Hanoi and when I demand the receipt, he comes up with nothing. Surprise, surprise. We finally settle on a 10 USD cab ride, but I realize I only have 6 USD left over from my trip to Laos. Gahh. We continue arguing and as its getting more heated, I begin formulating an escape plane. Right as I’m about to grab my bags and book it, I hear the locks switch, and both of the men turn towards me. At this point, I decide to just get out of the car. I through the money at them, shoot a dirty look, and peace out. As I’m walking down the street, stewing about how screwed up SE Asia is, I run into Mj and Stephen, my two friends I’m meeting in Hanoi. I drop my backpack off at their hotel, grab a bowl of Pho (popular Vietnamese dish) and past out a few hours later, as Hanoi basically shuts down at 11pm…the hotels even lock the doors at 11 or 12, so you can’t get in past then.
The next day, we have a nice, long breakfast at the Irish pub down the street. Little did I know this would be the last meal I’d be able to pay for alone.
We then book a 3 day, 2 night cruise along Halong Bay, a beautiful area nominated as one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. Good thing we booked the superior tour, because no amount of money I spent would even matter. We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping for Christmas gifts. I wish I had bought more. After shopping, we visit a big cathedral. When we walk in, the place is completely empty. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by 60 people chanting in Vietnamese and swaying back and forth. Time to leave…. We arrive back at our hotel, where the very sweet owner (one of those who rips you off with a smile on your face) has made us dinner. So we all sit down and enjoy an authentic Vietnamese meal with her husband, brothers, sisters, kids, etc, etc. Oh, and I accidentally eat pork. Ugh, at least it wasn’t dog.
After dinner, we head to the night market—the scene of the crime. Stephen, Mj, and I had just bought ice cream cones and we’re walking down the crowded street when I suddenly feel something on my bag. My hand immediately swings up to my back, and I notice my bag is lighter. I feel around and realize my purse is missing. I start running through the streets, bumping into people and pushing them over, to see if they know what just happened, but everyone looks the exact same and I have no idea which one took my purse. I find a cop who pushes me aside and doesn’t do a damn thing to help. At this point, my screams have drawn a crowd and I run into Stephen, who has grabbed my bag and is staring at it with his jaw open. There are 2 perfectly slit gapes in my bag, made only be a surgical scalpel or a very sharp knife. I’m now running down the street, desperately trying to find someone who speaks English. With every passing second, I know my chances of recovering my wallet are rapidly diminishing and there is nothing I can do about it. I finally find the police station and as soon as I walk in, the police officer gives me a bored look and ushers me out of the building, without a second glance my way. I quickly realize the cops here are useless and the only thing left for me to do is find an internet café, call my bank, and cancel all my cards. I spend two hours on the internet and can’t even pay for it. I am literally penniless. Luckily, my passport was back at my hotel.
The next few days are a blur; a suspicious blur. I walk around with no money, yet constantly aware of where everyone is and how close they are to me. Seems paranoid, but to put it into perspective: 1 week before, my friend Abby was in Vietnam and lost everything after someone stole her purse right from under her, while she was asleep on the bus. 3 days after I got my wallet stolen, our new Welsh friend felt someone unzip her bag as they walked behind her…luckily, she swung around just in time to prevent something from getting stolen. It’s really sad, because I have such a bitter taste in my mouth when I think of Vietnam. It’s such a shady country, the lady who did Mj’s laundry even tried to steal her pants. No joke.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Laos
Classes finally ended on December 2nd (well, actually they ended on Dec 4, but I thought they should end on the 2nd), so off to Laos I went for a much-needed vacation from a ridiculously chaotic semester. My friend Stephen and I hopped on a bus at 8pm, arrived at the Laos/Thailand border at about 6 in the morning and spent the next 2 hours getting our visas. Once everyone on the bus got their visas, we got on another bus to go about 1000 feet and then got on yet another bus (have I mentioned how inefficient SE Asia is??) to take a 3.5 hour, very bumpy ride from Vientene, the capital of Laos, to Vang Vieng, our destination. We arrived at Vang Vieng at about 3 pm—I could have almost traveled to the States in that amount of time! Once we get there, we head to the nearest restaurant, which oddly enough, was not playing the television show “Friends”. Ok, some explaining is needed here. There is a very strange phenomena in Vang Vieng, where 90% of the restaurants are set up so all the tables are pointed at several t.v. screens, all of which play repeat episodes of “Friends” ALL day long. I literally watched between 15-20 episodes of Friends while I was in Laos for 5 days. AMAZING ☺
Okay, so Stephen and I eat at the restaurant and then head to Green Discovery, to book a trekking tour for the next day (after I spend a few minutes convincing Stephen trekking for 6 hours is actually fun). Then, we find a ridiculously cheap guesthouse (for 3 days, I think I paid about 3-5USD, no joke), and Stephen heads to an internet café to write an essay that was due 3 days ago. While he does that, I take a ridiculously cold shower, out of a hose, not even a shower head! It was like dumping a bucket of ice water on my head. After I get out of the shower, I met an Israeli and I exclaim how cold my shower was. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me:“Wow, that was the coldest shower of my life!
Him: “Ya, the water heater doesn’t work too well”
Me: “Water heater….? What water heater?”
Him: “You know, the big box that has a dial on it? You cant miss it!”
Me: “Hmm, I don’t remember seeing any box.
Him: “Let me show you…”
(then he walks into the OTHER bathroom and bam, there’s a water heater and a real shower head. Of course). I thank him for saving me another cold shower and we part ways so I can explore the town and marvel at all the Friends episodes I hear around me. Later, Stephen and I eat dinner at one of the Friends restaurants and then we explore the rest of town, find a massage place and decide to see what a Laos massage is. Turns out great! These adorable Laotian girls, who we seriously think are under 16 years old, give Stephen and I an oil massage and then we all chat (sort of) afterwards over a pot of tea. Turns out the Laos language is very similar to Thai, with a few twists. Then Stephen and I decide to grab a few yummy shakes and before we know it, we’re completely passed out, at 11pm… in true Tracey fashion. Its okay though, we have a big day of trekking ahead of us!
The next morning, Stephen and I grab baguette sandwhiches and banana shakes from the street, meet the Belgian couple we are trekking with, and begin the adventure! On the trek, we literally climbed hand over foot for 75% of the hike, with Stephen exclaiming “Level 2 trekking!? I don’t think so…” It was a really beautiful hike, with a few caves and ridiculously cold (and I deemed unswimmable) water, which only Stephen was brave enough to venture in. After the trek, the Belgian couple invites us for a beer, and we all went to a Friends restaurant and proceeded to watch 2 hours of Friends and literally not say a word to each other. Haha, so much for socializing! Although in our defense, we did look over at each other whenever something funny happened, and laughed together; does that count?
After that, we part ways and agree to meet up with the Belgians at a bar in a few hours. Little do they know my party tendencies and my affect on others. 2 hours later ( at perhaps 8pm), Stephen and I are fast asleep. I wake up at 10pm, ask Stephen if he wants to go meet the Belgians and have some drinks. He groggily mumbles “Yes”, and then we both fall asleep again. At some point in the middle of the night, he wakes up and mumbles that we’re the most boring people in the world. I agree.
We wake up at 9am the next day, after a wonderful 12 hours of sleep, have breakfast and then head to tubing, the highlight of Vang Vieng. Basically, Vang Vieng has turned into a tourist town solely based on the tubing. Within 25 feet of getting into the water, there is a bar with a huge (and frightening) rope swing, and much alcohol to be drunken. This time, I decided not to be boring and Stephen and I share the first of one too many buckets. A word about buckets: they are the greatest alcoholic invention ever. You literally get a bucket of 70% liquor and 30% mixer. They really do you in though, you have to be careful. Once Stephen and I finished the bucket, I get up the courage to get on the rope swing and I can barely convince myself to let go, I was so scared! I hit the water nicely and decide to do it again. Mistake # 1. This time I semi=belly flop into the water and my chest hurts for the next 30 minutes (until I start on bucket # 2!). Stephen and I get back into the water and stop 30 feet later at bar #2. I’m really not kidding, the bars were spaced out by 25 feet. Oh, and each bar has bumping music and people dancing everywhere. Imagine MTV’s Spring Break, in Laos. That’s exactly what it’s like; it is really crazy. So, Stephen and I start on the second bucket and this is where things get fuzzy. I remember Stephen constantly swinging on the ropes, which left me to mingle with strangers. I met tons of people, somehow made it on the rope myself, then on to bar #3. This one had a mud-wrestling pit and Stephen turned into a MONSTER! He was brutal…by the time I got out of the pit (barely with my life), I had bloodly knees, scrapes all over my side and perhaps the mud pit is where I got one of my 2 fist size bruises. Or perhaps not, I’m not entirely sure. We spend another hour (maybe?) at this bar, ride the rope swings, pick up a new German friend, Sven, and move on to the next bar. Apparently this one had a slide which I rode down, and then we went to another bar, and I had a shake. Next thing I know, my arms are absolutely killing me and I’m paddling as fast as I can in my tube, desperately trying to get out of the water. You do NOT want to be in the river when the sun goes down; I was freezing my little Texan butt off. Someone did not design this tubing experience correctly. All the bars are in the first 300 feet of the river, then you have to drunkenly paddle the next 1.5 hours till you finally get into town, freezing and utterly confused (“Why am I wet?? Where am I??), or at least that is the experience I got. Needless to say, SO much fun. It was the BEST thing ever!!
Stephen and I return our tubes and head to a Friends restaurant (surprise surprise), where we randomly run into our 3 friends we were supposed to meet up with earlier (oops). They seemed a little mad, but once they saw the state I was in (I was behind Stephen, shivering and laughing at absolutely nothing funny), I think they understood. We agreed to meet them at 9pm at Bucket Bar. Next thing I know, I’m waking up from a nap at 9:30 pm. Oops again. I grab a sandwich, and Stephen and I go to meet our friends at Bucket Bar. We hang out with them for the next hour and then we go to bed.
The next day, the others (Courtney, Robert, and Nina) want to go tubing, so we repeat the whole process again (minus the drinking for me). After tubing, Robert and I go back to the massage place Stephen and I went to and we get massages. First, I lock myself in the bathroom (the lock got stuck, really!), and my massage girl, Nui, has to rescue me. Then she massages me and I burst out laughing when she gets my ticklish spot. Hehe, it was really funny, she looked so shocked when I burst out laughing and squirmed away from her hands. After that, I think we all head to sleep since we’re all pretty tired from the long day of tubing adventures.
The next day was my favorite—we rented bicycles and rode all over town, exploring caves. In the beginning of the day, we got a map and saw a cave with a grotto (think Playboy mansion style), and I decide that is our destination! Unfortunately, we began riding in the exact opposite direction. I have absolutely no sense of direction, it’s quite sad. Either way, we ride 5 km until we reach a cave with requires about 20 minutes of hand-over foot climbing to reach. Once we get to the cave, we see many stairs that lead into a very dark hole. I stupidly lead us all in, without a flashlight (the flashlight I bought specifically for this trip is stowed away safe and sound in the hotel room. Of course). Once we get to the bottom of the stairs, we immediately turn around and go back up. I mean, what were we planning on doing, hanging out in a pitch-black cave?? Anyway, after the cave, we find an organic farm and we eat the most delicious lunch of fresh pumpkin soup and veggies picked straight from the garden. Yummmm! Afterwards we ride back to town, drop off Stephen and Sven (our new German friend we adopted into our clan), and the rest of us head to another cave south of town. Guess what we find at this new cave? The Grotto!! Yayyyyy….Robert and I jump in (Brrrr), and begin to head into the underwater cave, but freak out after about 5 feet and just swim around the outside of the Grotto for while and have a photo shoot.
After the Grotto, we all go back to town, return our bikes, take showers, and try to find Stephen. He’s no where to be found, so we decide to head to a Friends-less restaurant (we wanted to actually talk to each other, how odd). Once we order food, I leave to find Stephen and I find him wandering around town, shoe-less. Whaaaat?? I ask him where his shoes are, and he says something about how he is looking for them and he thinks someone stole them. Haha, okay, so I help him try to find them for a while and after a few minutes we decide someone did in fact steal them (aka Stephen lost them). After dinner, Stephen buys a new pair of flip-flops and we head to Bucket Bar, to FINALLY have a party night. We meet lots of people, enjoy some buckets and then Robert and I decide to go back to the massage place and steal the massage girls away from the owner, so they can party with us. Robert spend 20 minutes talking to the massage girls in Laos/Thai, and I help the owner finish his English homework (its so cute, he literally has a workbook where he practices using English in the right tense, and with correct grammar). We eventually convince the owner to let the girls come party with us, and then we all split a bucket back at the bar. It was SO cute, I taught the girls how to “Hook ‘em” and we (kinda) talked, although we only understood about ½ of what the other is saying.
Once the girls leave, I somehow split from all my friends, and spend the next few hours hanging out with this super cool Danish girl. Before I know it, its 2 am (not sure how that happened, since the bar closes at midnight) and I’m finally heading to the guesthouse.
Oh, I forgot to mention: when Robert and I gathered the massage girls, we also picked up a German, Yentz. As we’re dancing away at Bucket Bar, somehow the topic of waking up early comes up and Yentz and I agree to have breakfast at 8:30am. Not being one to cancel on someone, I meet Yentz the next morning, 8:30 sharp, and we have our breakfast date. He was actually quite an interesting person; he worked as an entertainment lawyer in Germany and recently quit to travel through SE Asia. Anyway, we have breakfast until 10am, and then I grab my things to check out of the guesthouse. Afterwards, I have breakfast # 2 with my friends and then we hang out and watch Friends for a couple hours until our bus leaves.
The best part: We get on the bus from Vang Vieng to Vientene, which is a 3.5 hour, very bumpy ride. As soon as we sit down, Robert states that he needs to pee. Throughout the journey, I notice him fidgeting and I can tell he is getting very antsy to get out and pee. Only problem is there are no stops in the near future. What does Robert resort to? An empty water bottle—classic. I hold up his backpack to block the view, and he shifts his weight and pulls the perfect “Dumb and Dumber” move. How nice it is to be a boy. 19 hours later, we’re back in Bangkok and crazy, messy, anxious Tracey comes out. 3 finals in 24 hours, move out, farewells, oy vey. Let the fun begin.
Next destinations: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, BKK, and then finally back to good ‘ol Texas! Can’t wait to see everyone soon!
Okay, so Stephen and I eat at the restaurant and then head to Green Discovery, to book a trekking tour for the next day (after I spend a few minutes convincing Stephen trekking for 6 hours is actually fun). Then, we find a ridiculously cheap guesthouse (for 3 days, I think I paid about 3-5USD, no joke), and Stephen heads to an internet café to write an essay that was due 3 days ago. While he does that, I take a ridiculously cold shower, out of a hose, not even a shower head! It was like dumping a bucket of ice water on my head. After I get out of the shower, I met an Israeli and I exclaim how cold my shower was. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me:“Wow, that was the coldest shower of my life!
Him: “Ya, the water heater doesn’t work too well”
Me: “Water heater….? What water heater?”
Him: “You know, the big box that has a dial on it? You cant miss it!”
Me: “Hmm, I don’t remember seeing any box.
Him: “Let me show you…”
(then he walks into the OTHER bathroom and bam, there’s a water heater and a real shower head. Of course). I thank him for saving me another cold shower and we part ways so I can explore the town and marvel at all the Friends episodes I hear around me. Later, Stephen and I eat dinner at one of the Friends restaurants and then we explore the rest of town, find a massage place and decide to see what a Laos massage is. Turns out great! These adorable Laotian girls, who we seriously think are under 16 years old, give Stephen and I an oil massage and then we all chat (sort of) afterwards over a pot of tea. Turns out the Laos language is very similar to Thai, with a few twists. Then Stephen and I decide to grab a few yummy shakes and before we know it, we’re completely passed out, at 11pm… in true Tracey fashion. Its okay though, we have a big day of trekking ahead of us!
The next morning, Stephen and I grab baguette sandwhiches and banana shakes from the street, meet the Belgian couple we are trekking with, and begin the adventure! On the trek, we literally climbed hand over foot for 75% of the hike, with Stephen exclaiming “Level 2 trekking!? I don’t think so…” It was a really beautiful hike, with a few caves and ridiculously cold (and I deemed unswimmable) water, which only Stephen was brave enough to venture in. After the trek, the Belgian couple invites us for a beer, and we all went to a Friends restaurant and proceeded to watch 2 hours of Friends and literally not say a word to each other. Haha, so much for socializing! Although in our defense, we did look over at each other whenever something funny happened, and laughed together; does that count?
After that, we part ways and agree to meet up with the Belgians at a bar in a few hours. Little do they know my party tendencies and my affect on others. 2 hours later ( at perhaps 8pm), Stephen and I are fast asleep. I wake up at 10pm, ask Stephen if he wants to go meet the Belgians and have some drinks. He groggily mumbles “Yes”, and then we both fall asleep again. At some point in the middle of the night, he wakes up and mumbles that we’re the most boring people in the world. I agree.
We wake up at 9am the next day, after a wonderful 12 hours of sleep, have breakfast and then head to tubing, the highlight of Vang Vieng. Basically, Vang Vieng has turned into a tourist town solely based on the tubing. Within 25 feet of getting into the water, there is a bar with a huge (and frightening) rope swing, and much alcohol to be drunken. This time, I decided not to be boring and Stephen and I share the first of one too many buckets. A word about buckets: they are the greatest alcoholic invention ever. You literally get a bucket of 70% liquor and 30% mixer. They really do you in though, you have to be careful. Once Stephen and I finished the bucket, I get up the courage to get on the rope swing and I can barely convince myself to let go, I was so scared! I hit the water nicely and decide to do it again. Mistake # 1. This time I semi=belly flop into the water and my chest hurts for the next 30 minutes (until I start on bucket # 2!). Stephen and I get back into the water and stop 30 feet later at bar #2. I’m really not kidding, the bars were spaced out by 25 feet. Oh, and each bar has bumping music and people dancing everywhere. Imagine MTV’s Spring Break, in Laos. That’s exactly what it’s like; it is really crazy. So, Stephen and I start on the second bucket and this is where things get fuzzy. I remember Stephen constantly swinging on the ropes, which left me to mingle with strangers. I met tons of people, somehow made it on the rope myself, then on to bar #3. This one had a mud-wrestling pit and Stephen turned into a MONSTER! He was brutal…by the time I got out of the pit (barely with my life), I had bloodly knees, scrapes all over my side and perhaps the mud pit is where I got one of my 2 fist size bruises. Or perhaps not, I’m not entirely sure. We spend another hour (maybe?) at this bar, ride the rope swings, pick up a new German friend, Sven, and move on to the next bar. Apparently this one had a slide which I rode down, and then we went to another bar, and I had a shake. Next thing I know, my arms are absolutely killing me and I’m paddling as fast as I can in my tube, desperately trying to get out of the water. You do NOT want to be in the river when the sun goes down; I was freezing my little Texan butt off. Someone did not design this tubing experience correctly. All the bars are in the first 300 feet of the river, then you have to drunkenly paddle the next 1.5 hours till you finally get into town, freezing and utterly confused (“Why am I wet?? Where am I??), or at least that is the experience I got. Needless to say, SO much fun. It was the BEST thing ever!!
Stephen and I return our tubes and head to a Friends restaurant (surprise surprise), where we randomly run into our 3 friends we were supposed to meet up with earlier (oops). They seemed a little mad, but once they saw the state I was in (I was behind Stephen, shivering and laughing at absolutely nothing funny), I think they understood. We agreed to meet them at 9pm at Bucket Bar. Next thing I know, I’m waking up from a nap at 9:30 pm. Oops again. I grab a sandwich, and Stephen and I go to meet our friends at Bucket Bar. We hang out with them for the next hour and then we go to bed.
The next day, the others (Courtney, Robert, and Nina) want to go tubing, so we repeat the whole process again (minus the drinking for me). After tubing, Robert and I go back to the massage place Stephen and I went to and we get massages. First, I lock myself in the bathroom (the lock got stuck, really!), and my massage girl, Nui, has to rescue me. Then she massages me and I burst out laughing when she gets my ticklish spot. Hehe, it was really funny, she looked so shocked when I burst out laughing and squirmed away from her hands. After that, I think we all head to sleep since we’re all pretty tired from the long day of tubing adventures.
The next day was my favorite—we rented bicycles and rode all over town, exploring caves. In the beginning of the day, we got a map and saw a cave with a grotto (think Playboy mansion style), and I decide that is our destination! Unfortunately, we began riding in the exact opposite direction. I have absolutely no sense of direction, it’s quite sad. Either way, we ride 5 km until we reach a cave with requires about 20 minutes of hand-over foot climbing to reach. Once we get to the cave, we see many stairs that lead into a very dark hole. I stupidly lead us all in, without a flashlight (the flashlight I bought specifically for this trip is stowed away safe and sound in the hotel room. Of course). Once we get to the bottom of the stairs, we immediately turn around and go back up. I mean, what were we planning on doing, hanging out in a pitch-black cave?? Anyway, after the cave, we find an organic farm and we eat the most delicious lunch of fresh pumpkin soup and veggies picked straight from the garden. Yummmm! Afterwards we ride back to town, drop off Stephen and Sven (our new German friend we adopted into our clan), and the rest of us head to another cave south of town. Guess what we find at this new cave? The Grotto!! Yayyyyy….Robert and I jump in (Brrrr), and begin to head into the underwater cave, but freak out after about 5 feet and just swim around the outside of the Grotto for while and have a photo shoot.
After the Grotto, we all go back to town, return our bikes, take showers, and try to find Stephen. He’s no where to be found, so we decide to head to a Friends-less restaurant (we wanted to actually talk to each other, how odd). Once we order food, I leave to find Stephen and I find him wandering around town, shoe-less. Whaaaat?? I ask him where his shoes are, and he says something about how he is looking for them and he thinks someone stole them. Haha, okay, so I help him try to find them for a while and after a few minutes we decide someone did in fact steal them (aka Stephen lost them). After dinner, Stephen buys a new pair of flip-flops and we head to Bucket Bar, to FINALLY have a party night. We meet lots of people, enjoy some buckets and then Robert and I decide to go back to the massage place and steal the massage girls away from the owner, so they can party with us. Robert spend 20 minutes talking to the massage girls in Laos/Thai, and I help the owner finish his English homework (its so cute, he literally has a workbook where he practices using English in the right tense, and with correct grammar). We eventually convince the owner to let the girls come party with us, and then we all split a bucket back at the bar. It was SO cute, I taught the girls how to “Hook ‘em” and we (kinda) talked, although we only understood about ½ of what the other is saying.
Once the girls leave, I somehow split from all my friends, and spend the next few hours hanging out with this super cool Danish girl. Before I know it, its 2 am (not sure how that happened, since the bar closes at midnight) and I’m finally heading to the guesthouse.
Oh, I forgot to mention: when Robert and I gathered the massage girls, we also picked up a German, Yentz. As we’re dancing away at Bucket Bar, somehow the topic of waking up early comes up and Yentz and I agree to have breakfast at 8:30am. Not being one to cancel on someone, I meet Yentz the next morning, 8:30 sharp, and we have our breakfast date. He was actually quite an interesting person; he worked as an entertainment lawyer in Germany and recently quit to travel through SE Asia. Anyway, we have breakfast until 10am, and then I grab my things to check out of the guesthouse. Afterwards, I have breakfast # 2 with my friends and then we hang out and watch Friends for a couple hours until our bus leaves.
The best part: We get on the bus from Vang Vieng to Vientene, which is a 3.5 hour, very bumpy ride. As soon as we sit down, Robert states that he needs to pee. Throughout the journey, I notice him fidgeting and I can tell he is getting very antsy to get out and pee. Only problem is there are no stops in the near future. What does Robert resort to? An empty water bottle—classic. I hold up his backpack to block the view, and he shifts his weight and pulls the perfect “Dumb and Dumber” move. How nice it is to be a boy. 19 hours later, we’re back in Bangkok and crazy, messy, anxious Tracey comes out. 3 finals in 24 hours, move out, farewells, oy vey. Let the fun begin.
Next destinations: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, BKK, and then finally back to good ‘ol Texas! Can’t wait to see everyone soon!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Krabi
After 2 weeks of staying in Bangkok to study for Finance, I took a well deserved vacation down to the islands in southern Thailand. I was planning on leaving right after my Finance midterm Tuesday evening so that I would make the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan on Wednesday night. Too bad the last bus left as I was taking my exam. Damn! Not only did I miss the Full Moon Party, but I also missed Loi Krathong, an annual festival held in Thailand to worship the goddess of water, as I was on an overnight bus to Krabi. Finance is ruining my life (I have a feeling I will be saying that for the rest of my career, oh god)!
Okay, my friend Abby and I make it to Krabi at 6am (as I sleep through a cop getting on the bus and forcing 4 Thai men off...hmmm, as long as they weren't after me) and make a beeline for Ao Nang pier, where we wait until 9am to catch a longtail boat to Railay beach. While we are waiting, we meet a really cool Thai guy, Ping, who is from Railay beach, but travels to Bangkok periodically to dj at local clubs. After talking to him for a while, he shows us a place to stay while at Railay and then shows us the bar where he works. We hang out with him and his newfound Australian buddy (who paid for Ping's passage from Bangkok to Railay, as he lost his wallet in BKK) for most of the morning and then head to the beach with the Aussie, to explore the surrounding areas. When we finally find a beach (there's several different beaches on the island: West Railay, East Railay, and Tan So (spelling?) ), we immediately leave to explore the surrounding sea caves. I am in the lead (always a bad idea), and after a few minutes of swimming and climbing over rocks, I run into what looks like a dead-end. While any normal person would turn around and head back, I was determined to find a way around this huge, scary rock. So I begin climbing over it, as I perch my leg on a nearby rock. I continue this odd climb (with each leg on a different rock), until my legs wont go any further and I am still 5 feet above the ground. 5 feet, I can jump, right? Well, not quite, as there were sharp rocks at the bottom and I didn't quite feel like dealing with a bloody foot, again. As I am contemplating what to do next, the Aussie and Abby come around the outer edge and stand right below me. Whattt, there was another way around?!? Ughh, of course. Then, the Australian holds out his arms and I jump into them...saved by the Aussie! After safely getting around the rocks, we are back in the ocean, right around the corner from where we started. As we start to swim back, I feel a stinging sensation in my neck. Then, under my arm. Then, on my legs....what is going on?! I think I'm imagining it, but Simon (the Aussie) shouts out "Are you guys feeling stings?", and then I remember....the jellyfish-like fish. SO annoying, they are these tiny fish that serve the sole purpose of annoying human beings who are trying to relax on the beach (or something like that). After we make it back to the beach, I pass out for a couple hours until we decide to go grab lunch. Indian food, my favorite! While eating, Simon runs into this girl he met in Laos (what a small world), and we all relax and watch a movie together. Towards the end of the movie, I leave to take a shower, and when I'm done, the movie is over and everyone has dispersed. Hmm, what to do next? Ohh, I know, have a banana shake and visit all the mini-marts! Visiting mini-marts is this weird thing I like to do while I'm on my little weekend trips. I just really enjoy going to all the different mini-marts and buying something new (like candy) at each. As for banana shakes, those are just delicious! Thursday night, I have banana shake # 1. Eat dinner, watch the first 15 minutes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spot, and promptly pass out by 10pm.
I wake up bright and early the next day, have breakfast (banana shake # 2) and get ready to explore the island. First stop, a mini-mart. Haha, this was a necessary stop though, as I needed water to get me through the day. Next thing we do is head for the island’s viewpoint lookout. To get to the viewpoint, you have to climb hand over foot for 200 meters up a slippery hill. While at the bottom, we realize it is impossible to climb up the hill with our heavy backpacks. Does that stop us? Of course not. The natural solution is to hide our backpacks in a nearby cave. Once we do that, we go back to the hill and hear some other backpackers remarking about how they want to climb the hill, but don’t want to risk breaking their leg, since they don’t have proper climbing shoes on. Abby and I have flip-flops on. Does that stop us? Of course not. We take off our shoes, and begin the hike. 20 sweaty minutes later, we’re at the top of the hill, looking down at the beautiful view of Railay beach. Naturally, we then have a photoshoot. For 35 minutes. The only thing that stops us is the fear that someone may steal our backpacks from the cave below (ya, right, we hid them so cleverly!). We carefully ease down the hill, grab our dirty and now cobwebby backpacks, and head to West Railay beach, which is very nice, and slightly less crowded than the beach from the day before. As soon as we get to the beach, we set out stuff down and head into the water. Once we start swimming, Abby decides to swim through a sea cave and see where it ends up. I wasn’t about to follow her, as I remembered what happened the day before and didn’t want to get trapped again (the Aussie wasn’t there to save me this time). Shortly after I make my decision not to follow Abby in the cave, she gives a yelp of pain from cutting her foot on the rock and that is all the persuasion I need to change my mind and follow her in (note the sarcasm). Nonetheless, I do go into the cave, scrape my hand up a bit, get stung by more of those jellyfish-like fish, and swim to what we think is Tan Soi beach. Once we get to the new beach, I begin to follow some people who are shimmying their way through 2 big rocks, into what looks like a way through the mountain, back to West Railay beach. As I am dripping wet and climbing the rocks, Abby decides this plan is too stupid and leaves to swim back, under the condition that if I’m not out in 20 minutes, she will come back to search for my body. After I shimmy through the rocks, I come to a semi-clearing and a path that leads up and around the trees. I follow the path for 10 minutes, with some hand over feet climbing action, and end up on West Railay beach, 20 feet away from where we set out backpacks. Success! I spent the next hour awkwardly watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Abby’s i-pod, while trying to keep the sun out of my vision path. After I get halfway through the movie, Abby and I leave to grab lunch (and banana shake # 3). After lunch, we stumble across Diamond Cave and head in to explore the 3rd cave of the trip. While in there, I discover that my camera has a night mode, sweet! What a genius idea ☺ After the cave, Abby and I head to the beach and catch a long-tail boat back to the mainland, to meet up with our friend, Mj. Once we find a guesthouse in Krabi town, Abby and I head to dinner (banana shake # 4), and I finally finish Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as we wait for Mj to arrive from the Full Moon Party on the east side of southern Thailand. Mj arrives, we hear her ridiculous party stories, and head to second dinner (banana shake #5….um, just kidding). Mj eats an entire pizza at midnight and I offer her 200 baht to eat another pizza. She accepts….whaaatt? Damn girl! Head to bed at 1am (way past my bedtime), and I sleep in until almost 9 am. I wake the other 2 girls, who tell me if I ever wake them up at 9am again, they will murder me. Yikes. Someone’s not a morning bird. Once I finally get the troops moving, we head to a travel shop, book a kayaking tour for the next day, and have breakfast (banana shake #5) at this great little restaurant we found. After breakfast, we head to a mangrove forest along the river, relax there for a bit as Mj and Abby discuss politics (I listen to my i-pod and daydream), and then we depart for banana shake # 6 (banana shake # 0 for the other two girls). After my banana shake, I leave the girls to head to the beach for some final sunbathing while they have a nice, long massage. I catch a song taew (truck taxi) to Ao Nang, where the beach is. I fall asleep on the beach for less than an hour and when I wake up I can’t find the water! Low tide came, and I literally had to walk straight into the ocean for 10 minutes before I actually hit water. After washing off, I walk around town for a bit, grab dinner, contemplate another banana shake (but opt for an ice cream cone instead), and then head back to Krabi town to meet up with the girls. When I arrive back at the guesthouse, I ask them how their massages were. They sheepishly told me they skipped the massages for a 400 baht Italian feast instead. Haha, I knew it! Sounded delish though. I shower and then we go to the night market to get fruit and a second dinner. Afterwards, we head to bed, since we have an early day of kayaking ahead of us.
The next day, we get picked up at 8am to begin our kayaking-through-sea-caves-adventure. After about 1 hour of driving to reach the launch point, we get in the kayaks and spend the next couple hours exploring limestone caves and splashing each other with really salty lagoon water. After a rough morning of kayaking, we sit down for a 5 course family style meal. Cashew nut chicken, sweet and sour fish, tom yum soup, shrimp tempura, and grilled vegetables, followed by fresh pineapple and watermelon, yum! Stuffed to contentment, we then head to a natural springs for an afternoon of swimming and swinging off ropes into the chilly water. We are then served tea and biscuits (are we in Britain??) as we dry off in the sun. Wow, what 30 USD will get you in Thailand! After we dry off and change, our tour guide brings us directly to the bus station so we can catch a bus back to Bangkok. The next 12 hours are spent desperately trying to get comfortable and sleep in a hopelessly uncomfortable situation. We arrive back in Bangkok at 4am and I check my email after not checking for 5 days (yikes!), and finish just in time to head to my 9am class. Joy.
This will be my last blog for a while as the next few weeks will unfortunately be spent in Bangkok, making up for 3 months of not studying anything but finance. Yikes, finals here I come!
ps. A note from today: I went for a jog around the campus soccer field and left my bag on a bench an older gentleman was sitting on. After a few minutes of running, the man tries to say something to me in Thai. Naturally, I don't understand him, so I just nod, smile and keep running. After another lap, he makes the same gesture to me and I still don't understand. After the next lap, I notice he is all packed up, as if he is going to leave. Yet he hasn't left. After a few minutes, it dawns on me that he is ready to go somewhere, yet he is watching my bag for me until I am done running! I tell him it is okay, that I am keeping an eye on my bag as I run, and he says okay and leaves. Unbelievable! SO sweet :)
Okay, my friend Abby and I make it to Krabi at 6am (as I sleep through a cop getting on the bus and forcing 4 Thai men off...hmmm, as long as they weren't after me) and make a beeline for Ao Nang pier, where we wait until 9am to catch a longtail boat to Railay beach. While we are waiting, we meet a really cool Thai guy, Ping, who is from Railay beach, but travels to Bangkok periodically to dj at local clubs. After talking to him for a while, he shows us a place to stay while at Railay and then shows us the bar where he works. We hang out with him and his newfound Australian buddy (who paid for Ping's passage from Bangkok to Railay, as he lost his wallet in BKK) for most of the morning and then head to the beach with the Aussie, to explore the surrounding areas. When we finally find a beach (there's several different beaches on the island: West Railay, East Railay, and Tan So (spelling?) ), we immediately leave to explore the surrounding sea caves. I am in the lead (always a bad idea), and after a few minutes of swimming and climbing over rocks, I run into what looks like a dead-end. While any normal person would turn around and head back, I was determined to find a way around this huge, scary rock. So I begin climbing over it, as I perch my leg on a nearby rock. I continue this odd climb (with each leg on a different rock), until my legs wont go any further and I am still 5 feet above the ground. 5 feet, I can jump, right? Well, not quite, as there were sharp rocks at the bottom and I didn't quite feel like dealing with a bloody foot, again. As I am contemplating what to do next, the Aussie and Abby come around the outer edge and stand right below me. Whattt, there was another way around?!? Ughh, of course. Then, the Australian holds out his arms and I jump into them...saved by the Aussie! After safely getting around the rocks, we are back in the ocean, right around the corner from where we started. As we start to swim back, I feel a stinging sensation in my neck. Then, under my arm. Then, on my legs....what is going on?! I think I'm imagining it, but Simon (the Aussie) shouts out "Are you guys feeling stings?", and then I remember....the jellyfish-like fish. SO annoying, they are these tiny fish that serve the sole purpose of annoying human beings who are trying to relax on the beach (or something like that). After we make it back to the beach, I pass out for a couple hours until we decide to go grab lunch. Indian food, my favorite! While eating, Simon runs into this girl he met in Laos (what a small world), and we all relax and watch a movie together. Towards the end of the movie, I leave to take a shower, and when I'm done, the movie is over and everyone has dispersed. Hmm, what to do next? Ohh, I know, have a banana shake and visit all the mini-marts! Visiting mini-marts is this weird thing I like to do while I'm on my little weekend trips. I just really enjoy going to all the different mini-marts and buying something new (like candy) at each. As for banana shakes, those are just delicious! Thursday night, I have banana shake # 1. Eat dinner, watch the first 15 minutes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spot, and promptly pass out by 10pm.
I wake up bright and early the next day, have breakfast (banana shake # 2) and get ready to explore the island. First stop, a mini-mart. Haha, this was a necessary stop though, as I needed water to get me through the day. Next thing we do is head for the island’s viewpoint lookout. To get to the viewpoint, you have to climb hand over foot for 200 meters up a slippery hill. While at the bottom, we realize it is impossible to climb up the hill with our heavy backpacks. Does that stop us? Of course not. The natural solution is to hide our backpacks in a nearby cave. Once we do that, we go back to the hill and hear some other backpackers remarking about how they want to climb the hill, but don’t want to risk breaking their leg, since they don’t have proper climbing shoes on. Abby and I have flip-flops on. Does that stop us? Of course not. We take off our shoes, and begin the hike. 20 sweaty minutes later, we’re at the top of the hill, looking down at the beautiful view of Railay beach. Naturally, we then have a photoshoot. For 35 minutes. The only thing that stops us is the fear that someone may steal our backpacks from the cave below (ya, right, we hid them so cleverly!). We carefully ease down the hill, grab our dirty and now cobwebby backpacks, and head to West Railay beach, which is very nice, and slightly less crowded than the beach from the day before. As soon as we get to the beach, we set out stuff down and head into the water. Once we start swimming, Abby decides to swim through a sea cave and see where it ends up. I wasn’t about to follow her, as I remembered what happened the day before and didn’t want to get trapped again (the Aussie wasn’t there to save me this time). Shortly after I make my decision not to follow Abby in the cave, she gives a yelp of pain from cutting her foot on the rock and that is all the persuasion I need to change my mind and follow her in (note the sarcasm). Nonetheless, I do go into the cave, scrape my hand up a bit, get stung by more of those jellyfish-like fish, and swim to what we think is Tan Soi beach. Once we get to the new beach, I begin to follow some people who are shimmying their way through 2 big rocks, into what looks like a way through the mountain, back to West Railay beach. As I am dripping wet and climbing the rocks, Abby decides this plan is too stupid and leaves to swim back, under the condition that if I’m not out in 20 minutes, she will come back to search for my body. After I shimmy through the rocks, I come to a semi-clearing and a path that leads up and around the trees. I follow the path for 10 minutes, with some hand over feet climbing action, and end up on West Railay beach, 20 feet away from where we set out backpacks. Success! I spent the next hour awkwardly watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Abby’s i-pod, while trying to keep the sun out of my vision path. After I get halfway through the movie, Abby and I leave to grab lunch (and banana shake # 3). After lunch, we stumble across Diamond Cave and head in to explore the 3rd cave of the trip. While in there, I discover that my camera has a night mode, sweet! What a genius idea ☺ After the cave, Abby and I head to the beach and catch a long-tail boat back to the mainland, to meet up with our friend, Mj. Once we find a guesthouse in Krabi town, Abby and I head to dinner (banana shake # 4), and I finally finish Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as we wait for Mj to arrive from the Full Moon Party on the east side of southern Thailand. Mj arrives, we hear her ridiculous party stories, and head to second dinner (banana shake #5….um, just kidding). Mj eats an entire pizza at midnight and I offer her 200 baht to eat another pizza. She accepts….whaaatt? Damn girl! Head to bed at 1am (way past my bedtime), and I sleep in until almost 9 am. I wake the other 2 girls, who tell me if I ever wake them up at 9am again, they will murder me. Yikes. Someone’s not a morning bird. Once I finally get the troops moving, we head to a travel shop, book a kayaking tour for the next day, and have breakfast (banana shake #5) at this great little restaurant we found. After breakfast, we head to a mangrove forest along the river, relax there for a bit as Mj and Abby discuss politics (I listen to my i-pod and daydream), and then we depart for banana shake # 6 (banana shake # 0 for the other two girls). After my banana shake, I leave the girls to head to the beach for some final sunbathing while they have a nice, long massage. I catch a song taew (truck taxi) to Ao Nang, where the beach is. I fall asleep on the beach for less than an hour and when I wake up I can’t find the water! Low tide came, and I literally had to walk straight into the ocean for 10 minutes before I actually hit water. After washing off, I walk around town for a bit, grab dinner, contemplate another banana shake (but opt for an ice cream cone instead), and then head back to Krabi town to meet up with the girls. When I arrive back at the guesthouse, I ask them how their massages were. They sheepishly told me they skipped the massages for a 400 baht Italian feast instead. Haha, I knew it! Sounded delish though. I shower and then we go to the night market to get fruit and a second dinner. Afterwards, we head to bed, since we have an early day of kayaking ahead of us.
The next day, we get picked up at 8am to begin our kayaking-through-sea-caves-adventure. After about 1 hour of driving to reach the launch point, we get in the kayaks and spend the next couple hours exploring limestone caves and splashing each other with really salty lagoon water. After a rough morning of kayaking, we sit down for a 5 course family style meal. Cashew nut chicken, sweet and sour fish, tom yum soup, shrimp tempura, and grilled vegetables, followed by fresh pineapple and watermelon, yum! Stuffed to contentment, we then head to a natural springs for an afternoon of swimming and swinging off ropes into the chilly water. We are then served tea and biscuits (are we in Britain??) as we dry off in the sun. Wow, what 30 USD will get you in Thailand! After we dry off and change, our tour guide brings us directly to the bus station so we can catch a bus back to Bangkok. The next 12 hours are spent desperately trying to get comfortable and sleep in a hopelessly uncomfortable situation. We arrive back in Bangkok at 4am and I check my email after not checking for 5 days (yikes!), and finish just in time to head to my 9am class. Joy.
This will be my last blog for a while as the next few weeks will unfortunately be spent in Bangkok, making up for 3 months of not studying anything but finance. Yikes, finals here I come!
ps. A note from today: I went for a jog around the campus soccer field and left my bag on a bench an older gentleman was sitting on. After a few minutes of running, the man tries to say something to me in Thai. Naturally, I don't understand him, so I just nod, smile and keep running. After another lap, he makes the same gesture to me and I still don't understand. After the next lap, I notice he is all packed up, as if he is going to leave. Yet he hasn't left. After a few minutes, it dawns on me that he is ready to go somewhere, yet he is watching my bag for me until I am done running! I tell him it is okay, that I am keeping an eye on my bag as I run, and he says okay and leaves. Unbelievable! SO sweet :)
Monday, October 27, 2008
Pookies in Malaysia
My good high school friend, Erica (who was part of our "pookie" clan), is doing a semester at sea program where they travel the world in a ship, docking at different ports. This past weekend, she docked in Penang, Malaysia and I flew down there to meet up with her. I flew down Thursday afternoon, after spending about 4 hours in the airport (thank you AirAsia for delaying your flight!)....the good part is there was this one lady in the airport who was giving chocolate samples so I just walked by her every 20 minutes :)
Once I arrived in Penang, Erica and I hopped a bus to Little India, which is pretty much my haven as I LOVE Indian food and am consistenly thrilled and amused by Indian accents. We wandered around Little India for a couple hours, trying all the Indian sweets ever created (yum), and then got a cab to meet her friends from the ship. We went to their hotel and then proceeded to eat a delicious chocolate cake to celebrate one of her friend's 21st birthdays. Afterwards, we headed to Slippery Senioritas, one of the many fun clubs in a posh little club district close to where their ship was docked. When we got to Slipper Senioritas, there wasn't a single person on the dance floor, but we soon changed that! We tore that place up with our crazy dancing, I don't think they know what hit them! They even asked us girls to get on the top balcony to dance in front of their entire club. The music was the best part-- a combination of 80's style (think Michael Jackson's "Beat it") pop and hottest hits of the last 6 months. After a couple hours there, we head to another club, except it doesn't seem to be a club. Rather, there was some kind of beauty contest going on. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out if the beauty contestants were male or female. I came to the conclusion they were male, perhaps Thai ladyboys?? Then, we head to another club, where we once again tear up the dance floor. Perhaps a little too much. One of the boys we came with literally got picked up by the bouncer and thrown out for provacative dancing. Haha, I guess we forgot we were in a muslim country.
Then, we mossey around for a little longer, meet a fellow El Pasoean, reminisce about good 'ol times (we knew the same people from middle school!), and head home to sleep for a few hours.
Wake up the next morning at about 9 am, spend far too long being indecisive about what Erica and I should do for the weekend, and finally decide to go to Lankawi Geopark for some jungle-trekking action. By the time we've figured all this out, its about noon, and Erica and I are hot, hungry and ready to get to a beach! Too bad we missed the 8:30 am ferry to Lankawi. Alternative? Take a ferry to the mainland, get on a bus to Alto Setar, grab a taxi to the ferry, and then take another ferry to Lankawi. Needless to say, the day was spend in transportation and we arrived in Lankawi barely in time for dinner. Oh wait, we first walked around for 3 hours trying to find accommdation we could afford. Naturally, Erica and I picked a national holiday (Deepavali festival) to go to an island, where all the Malaysians were vacationing for the weekend. On the bright side, we eventually found the most amazing place ever, the Rainbow Lodge. It was located pretty far off the beaten path (as evident by our 3 hour journey to find it), but it was SO worth it. Clean, bright, and big (the room even had a vanity!!), Erica and I slept like rocks, even as it was monsooning outside. We wake up to a bright, sunny day (of course, how else would the weather be after 7 hours of monsooning?) and head out to pay for our room and find an activity/tour to do. Oh wait, we can't because you have to book tours a day in advance and Erica has to leave tonight to make it back to her ship in time for a meeting. So, we decide to eat our losses and relax/have a photoshoot on the beach. After less than an hour of this, we randomly bump into her roommate from the ship. Funny story: I asked Erica what her roommate was doing this weekend, and she told me she was going to Lankawi, but had no way to contact her, as neither of them had cell phones. So every white person we passed, I'd ask "Is that your roommate?" Oddly enough, she knew almost all those white people from the ship!
Anyway, one of the times I asked "Is that your roommate?", the answer was yes! So, her roommate tells us about how she went to the 7 wells, which is a hike up to some really nice waterfalls, jungle trekking, nature, etc. As soon as I heard that, I decided we must go! But first, we need to get our ferry tickets back to Penang, as Erica's roommate told us they may be almost sold out. So Erica and I find a travel agency, try to get a ticket, and are told the tickets are 70 ringet! Yikes! So, we go to another travel agency to compare prices, and this one is even more expensive! Okay, we go back to the first travel agency and are told we have to wait 30 minutes (which we cant because we have to go to 7 wells, which is 45 minutes away and come back within 3 hours). So then we go back to the other travel agency to see if we can do it quicker, but are told to come back the next morning. Huh?!? Then, we finally get it all sorted out by calling the ferry, realizing there are plenty of tickets left, and we don't need to buy any. So, we leave to 7 wells, without purchasing any tickets. Effective use of an hour. Lol....one thing I've learned from traveling through SE Asia is to just have patience and not let frustration get in the way of how you communicate with people. This is a big lesson for me. Hooray for learning things :)
Okay, we get to 7 wells, and begin the trek of 380 stairs to the top. Oy! First, we take a side trip to a waterfall and quickly (remember, we only have 90 minutes!) take some photos and jump in the cold, refreshing water. Well, more like fell in for me. Afterwards, we keep hiking up nature's version of a stairmaster until we finally reach the top, where a gorgeous view and very fun waterfall await us. A word about the waterfall: its formed in a way that a natural waterslide has been formed. The rocks have smoothed themselves over in such a way that if you sit at the top, the water will gush over you and carry you down the waterfall until it spits you up into the air for a second, before you fall into a 5 or 6 foot deep area of water. SO much fun. Slightly painful though. Still, SO fun. Just have to be careful to stop yourself before you go over the edge, 380 steps worth straight down. Eeek.
Since we still have 47.8 minute left (haha), Erica and I find a trail and begin to trek through the jungle, my favorite thing ever! Sadly, we reach a crossroads after about 20 minutes, and don't have time to go much further. We head back down (after pulling the leeches off us), get in a taxi back to the ferry and then sit at the ferry for 1.5 hours, because it is delayed. Of course!! Well, at least we got tickets. The ferry ride back is so beautiful, 3 hours of speeding through the water, watching the sunset and just enjoying the moment.
Once we arrive back in Penang, Erica and I see a few of her friends, and we all proceed down to the night market. Oh, about 3 hours prior to this, I really had to pee, but didn't because the ferry restroom was so horrible. I've seen some pretty bad stuff while traveling through SE Asia, but this was just horrible. So, by this point, I have to pee really badly. Nothing really funny happened as a result, just thought you'd like to know I had to pee. Okay, when we get to the market, Erica and I make a beeline for a restaurant and guess what we find? An amazing Indian restaurant, that truly finds us. We're looking for a bathroom, and this random restaurant pops out of nowhere. As we're eating Indian food (yuuuumm), 2 Australian guys walk past us, and we begin talking to them. We end up hanging out with them until midnight, when the night market closes. Then, we part ways with them to make it back to the ferry by 1 am, when the last boat out to Erica's ship leaves. We make it by 1 am, but the ship people won't let me on the ship since I'm not a family member. Therefore, Erica and I are left without a place to sleep for the night and the first bus out to Kuala Lumpur leaves at 6am. That gives us 5 hours. What's our obvious solution? Stay up all night partying, of course. We actually end up overhearing that some of Erica's friends are staying in a hotel close to Slippery Senioritas, so we make our way over there, find out what room they are in, and are about to knock on the door when we hear 2 voices. 2 voices of a couple. Uh-oh, we decide to let them be alone. We head back towards Slippery Senioritas, then devise a plan to go back to the hotel, and ask her friend's if we can leave our backpacks there so we can party and not look like a ragged backpacker. We head back to their room, knock on the door, and Erica's friend answers, after obviously being in bed. We end up talking to them for a little while about our weekends and then instead of changing and going back out, we just crash on the floor for a few hours. In the morning, Erica and I take off; her for her ship, and me to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my friend from Austin, Monica's, family (even though Monica is currently studying abroad in Vienna, Austria).
I get on the bus and 6 hours later, at about 2pm I'm finally in KL! 24 hours later, I'm back in Bangkok. haha, but in those 24 hours, here is what I did:
-Made my way to an internet cafe, where I called Monica's dad and arranged to meet him 20 minutes later at the Petronas Twin Towers
- Got in a cab to the Twin Towers, and wondered around lost, with no idea which brown man was Monica's dad.
- Go to pay phone, call Monica's dad and arrange a new meeting spot
- Meet M. Jam's dad!! Who is seriously one of the nicest people I've ever met. Oh my goodness, I am in love with the Jamaluddin family.
-Monica's dad takes me to his family's apartment and I am immediately created by about 20 people dressed in traditional Muslim attire, having brunch. Woa, culture shock! I head to my room for the night, and take the most amazing shower of my life. First off, Monica's place is BEAUTIFUL. If it was a hotel, it would be 5 star. And I haven't had a warm shower since I left the States. Needless to say, I take a nice, long, hot shower and then get changed. Monica's step sister knocks on my door, asking if I am hungry. Of course! She fixes me a plate of rice, with a pumpkin dish and a stew which I mix together and devour, along with about 6 crumpets. Then I have some coffee, chat with the family, and leave the apartment to take a stroll around the neighborhood before we leave for dinner in 1-2 hours. I end up at this beautiful park behind the Petronas Twin Towers, and am having a great time exploring the park and people-watching. I catch the eye of one man and he immediately comes over and introduces himself. Frank. Frank from South Africa. Oh goodness, Frank. He's very nice, and we walk around the park, playing on the playground, and taking photos ("Let's take a snap", as he says) After about 5 minutes, he declares that he loves me and wants to marry me and "make me very happy". I go with it for a few minutes, until he starts making plans for me to come to South Africa in Decemeber and then he tries to take off his ring and give it to me. The ring which "means the most to him" as he says. Oh no! I quickly persuade him to keep his ring, and he instead gives me his bracelet. A very sweet gesture, but I think Frank went slightly overboard. He probably should've waited 30 minutes before declaring his love. That would have been more appropriate :)
After leaving Frank (barely was able to do that!), I arrive back at M.Jam's house and her step sister and step mom immediately begin dressing me in traditional Bangladeshi attire. So awesome, I even had the tip (the red dot on your forehead), dangling earrings and 20 bracelets on my arm (which I broke about 3 trying to put them on myself, and even made myself bleed...thankfully, M.Jam's stepmom came to my rescue). Then, we all left for dinner, which was about an hour's drive away; we went so far because M.Jam's dad knows the chef, who is from Bangladesh and can therefore make authentic Bangladeshi cuisine. We met up with about 30 other of their friends and had a giant feast! It was SO much fun, plates of food, good conversation with Monica's stepsister's friends and an all around good time. So good we didn't even get home till nearly 1am.
After arriving home, I slept SO well, and woke up at 7 am to take advantage of the amazing full-size olympic pool outside and the park nearby. Or so that was the plan. I ended up getting sidetracked by the gym (oh my gosh, weights, I haven't seen those things in 3 months!), and just working out in there for the next hour. I never even made it for a swim. Guess I'll have to go back to KL!
After the workout, I jump in the shower, have breakfast with Monica's dad (crumpets soaked in sweetened milk and syrup, SO delish!), and then he drops me off at the train station, which will take me to the airport. But not before Monica's stepmom gives me a beautiful traditional Bangladeshi top, which I love and wore all day and will definitely wear a lot in the future.
Monica's dad is so amazing; he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I seriously am going to try to get a ticket back to KL just to hang out with them. They were so gracious and welcoming of me, I couldn't believe it. The Jamaluddin family really takes care of me (Monica with her chocolate cake and salmon and her family with everything else!) I wish Monica could have been there, it would have been even more fun!
Overall, an incredible trip to Malaysia, and I am SO sad its over. I wanted to stay there all week....darn school getting in the way of everything ;)
Back to real life, at least for the next 3 days.
Gnite!
Once I arrived in Penang, Erica and I hopped a bus to Little India, which is pretty much my haven as I LOVE Indian food and am consistenly thrilled and amused by Indian accents. We wandered around Little India for a couple hours, trying all the Indian sweets ever created (yum), and then got a cab to meet her friends from the ship. We went to their hotel and then proceeded to eat a delicious chocolate cake to celebrate one of her friend's 21st birthdays. Afterwards, we headed to Slippery Senioritas, one of the many fun clubs in a posh little club district close to where their ship was docked. When we got to Slipper Senioritas, there wasn't a single person on the dance floor, but we soon changed that! We tore that place up with our crazy dancing, I don't think they know what hit them! They even asked us girls to get on the top balcony to dance in front of their entire club. The music was the best part-- a combination of 80's style (think Michael Jackson's "Beat it") pop and hottest hits of the last 6 months. After a couple hours there, we head to another club, except it doesn't seem to be a club. Rather, there was some kind of beauty contest going on. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out if the beauty contestants were male or female. I came to the conclusion they were male, perhaps Thai ladyboys?? Then, we head to another club, where we once again tear up the dance floor. Perhaps a little too much. One of the boys we came with literally got picked up by the bouncer and thrown out for provacative dancing. Haha, I guess we forgot we were in a muslim country.
Then, we mossey around for a little longer, meet a fellow El Pasoean, reminisce about good 'ol times (we knew the same people from middle school!), and head home to sleep for a few hours.
Wake up the next morning at about 9 am, spend far too long being indecisive about what Erica and I should do for the weekend, and finally decide to go to Lankawi Geopark for some jungle-trekking action. By the time we've figured all this out, its about noon, and Erica and I are hot, hungry and ready to get to a beach! Too bad we missed the 8:30 am ferry to Lankawi. Alternative? Take a ferry to the mainland, get on a bus to Alto Setar, grab a taxi to the ferry, and then take another ferry to Lankawi. Needless to say, the day was spend in transportation and we arrived in Lankawi barely in time for dinner. Oh wait, we first walked around for 3 hours trying to find accommdation we could afford. Naturally, Erica and I picked a national holiday (Deepavali festival) to go to an island, where all the Malaysians were vacationing for the weekend. On the bright side, we eventually found the most amazing place ever, the Rainbow Lodge. It was located pretty far off the beaten path (as evident by our 3 hour journey to find it), but it was SO worth it. Clean, bright, and big (the room even had a vanity!!), Erica and I slept like rocks, even as it was monsooning outside. We wake up to a bright, sunny day (of course, how else would the weather be after 7 hours of monsooning?) and head out to pay for our room and find an activity/tour to do. Oh wait, we can't because you have to book tours a day in advance and Erica has to leave tonight to make it back to her ship in time for a meeting. So, we decide to eat our losses and relax/have a photoshoot on the beach. After less than an hour of this, we randomly bump into her roommate from the ship. Funny story: I asked Erica what her roommate was doing this weekend, and she told me she was going to Lankawi, but had no way to contact her, as neither of them had cell phones. So every white person we passed, I'd ask "Is that your roommate?" Oddly enough, she knew almost all those white people from the ship!
Anyway, one of the times I asked "Is that your roommate?", the answer was yes! So, her roommate tells us about how she went to the 7 wells, which is a hike up to some really nice waterfalls, jungle trekking, nature, etc. As soon as I heard that, I decided we must go! But first, we need to get our ferry tickets back to Penang, as Erica's roommate told us they may be almost sold out. So Erica and I find a travel agency, try to get a ticket, and are told the tickets are 70 ringet! Yikes! So, we go to another travel agency to compare prices, and this one is even more expensive! Okay, we go back to the first travel agency and are told we have to wait 30 minutes (which we cant because we have to go to 7 wells, which is 45 minutes away and come back within 3 hours). So then we go back to the other travel agency to see if we can do it quicker, but are told to come back the next morning. Huh?!? Then, we finally get it all sorted out by calling the ferry, realizing there are plenty of tickets left, and we don't need to buy any. So, we leave to 7 wells, without purchasing any tickets. Effective use of an hour. Lol....one thing I've learned from traveling through SE Asia is to just have patience and not let frustration get in the way of how you communicate with people. This is a big lesson for me. Hooray for learning things :)
Okay, we get to 7 wells, and begin the trek of 380 stairs to the top. Oy! First, we take a side trip to a waterfall and quickly (remember, we only have 90 minutes!) take some photos and jump in the cold, refreshing water. Well, more like fell in for me. Afterwards, we keep hiking up nature's version of a stairmaster until we finally reach the top, where a gorgeous view and very fun waterfall await us. A word about the waterfall: its formed in a way that a natural waterslide has been formed. The rocks have smoothed themselves over in such a way that if you sit at the top, the water will gush over you and carry you down the waterfall until it spits you up into the air for a second, before you fall into a 5 or 6 foot deep area of water. SO much fun. Slightly painful though. Still, SO fun. Just have to be careful to stop yourself before you go over the edge, 380 steps worth straight down. Eeek.
Since we still have 47.8 minute left (haha), Erica and I find a trail and begin to trek through the jungle, my favorite thing ever! Sadly, we reach a crossroads after about 20 minutes, and don't have time to go much further. We head back down (after pulling the leeches off us), get in a taxi back to the ferry and then sit at the ferry for 1.5 hours, because it is delayed. Of course!! Well, at least we got tickets. The ferry ride back is so beautiful, 3 hours of speeding through the water, watching the sunset and just enjoying the moment.
Once we arrive back in Penang, Erica and I see a few of her friends, and we all proceed down to the night market. Oh, about 3 hours prior to this, I really had to pee, but didn't because the ferry restroom was so horrible. I've seen some pretty bad stuff while traveling through SE Asia, but this was just horrible. So, by this point, I have to pee really badly. Nothing really funny happened as a result, just thought you'd like to know I had to pee. Okay, when we get to the market, Erica and I make a beeline for a restaurant and guess what we find? An amazing Indian restaurant, that truly finds us. We're looking for a bathroom, and this random restaurant pops out of nowhere. As we're eating Indian food (yuuuumm), 2 Australian guys walk past us, and we begin talking to them. We end up hanging out with them until midnight, when the night market closes. Then, we part ways with them to make it back to the ferry by 1 am, when the last boat out to Erica's ship leaves. We make it by 1 am, but the ship people won't let me on the ship since I'm not a family member. Therefore, Erica and I are left without a place to sleep for the night and the first bus out to Kuala Lumpur leaves at 6am. That gives us 5 hours. What's our obvious solution? Stay up all night partying, of course. We actually end up overhearing that some of Erica's friends are staying in a hotel close to Slippery Senioritas, so we make our way over there, find out what room they are in, and are about to knock on the door when we hear 2 voices. 2 voices of a couple. Uh-oh, we decide to let them be alone. We head back towards Slippery Senioritas, then devise a plan to go back to the hotel, and ask her friend's if we can leave our backpacks there so we can party and not look like a ragged backpacker. We head back to their room, knock on the door, and Erica's friend answers, after obviously being in bed. We end up talking to them for a little while about our weekends and then instead of changing and going back out, we just crash on the floor for a few hours. In the morning, Erica and I take off; her for her ship, and me to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my friend from Austin, Monica's, family (even though Monica is currently studying abroad in Vienna, Austria).
I get on the bus and 6 hours later, at about 2pm I'm finally in KL! 24 hours later, I'm back in Bangkok. haha, but in those 24 hours, here is what I did:
-Made my way to an internet cafe, where I called Monica's dad and arranged to meet him 20 minutes later at the Petronas Twin Towers
- Got in a cab to the Twin Towers, and wondered around lost, with no idea which brown man was Monica's dad.
- Go to pay phone, call Monica's dad and arrange a new meeting spot
- Meet M. Jam's dad!! Who is seriously one of the nicest people I've ever met. Oh my goodness, I am in love with the Jamaluddin family.
-Monica's dad takes me to his family's apartment and I am immediately created by about 20 people dressed in traditional Muslim attire, having brunch. Woa, culture shock! I head to my room for the night, and take the most amazing shower of my life. First off, Monica's place is BEAUTIFUL. If it was a hotel, it would be 5 star. And I haven't had a warm shower since I left the States. Needless to say, I take a nice, long, hot shower and then get changed. Monica's step sister knocks on my door, asking if I am hungry. Of course! She fixes me a plate of rice, with a pumpkin dish and a stew which I mix together and devour, along with about 6 crumpets. Then I have some coffee, chat with the family, and leave the apartment to take a stroll around the neighborhood before we leave for dinner in 1-2 hours. I end up at this beautiful park behind the Petronas Twin Towers, and am having a great time exploring the park and people-watching. I catch the eye of one man and he immediately comes over and introduces himself. Frank. Frank from South Africa. Oh goodness, Frank. He's very nice, and we walk around the park, playing on the playground, and taking photos ("Let's take a snap", as he says) After about 5 minutes, he declares that he loves me and wants to marry me and "make me very happy". I go with it for a few minutes, until he starts making plans for me to come to South Africa in Decemeber and then he tries to take off his ring and give it to me. The ring which "means the most to him" as he says. Oh no! I quickly persuade him to keep his ring, and he instead gives me his bracelet. A very sweet gesture, but I think Frank went slightly overboard. He probably should've waited 30 minutes before declaring his love. That would have been more appropriate :)
After leaving Frank (barely was able to do that!), I arrive back at M.Jam's house and her step sister and step mom immediately begin dressing me in traditional Bangladeshi attire. So awesome, I even had the tip (the red dot on your forehead), dangling earrings and 20 bracelets on my arm (which I broke about 3 trying to put them on myself, and even made myself bleed...thankfully, M.Jam's stepmom came to my rescue). Then, we all left for dinner, which was about an hour's drive away; we went so far because M.Jam's dad knows the chef, who is from Bangladesh and can therefore make authentic Bangladeshi cuisine. We met up with about 30 other of their friends and had a giant feast! It was SO much fun, plates of food, good conversation with Monica's stepsister's friends and an all around good time. So good we didn't even get home till nearly 1am.
After arriving home, I slept SO well, and woke up at 7 am to take advantage of the amazing full-size olympic pool outside and the park nearby. Or so that was the plan. I ended up getting sidetracked by the gym (oh my gosh, weights, I haven't seen those things in 3 months!), and just working out in there for the next hour. I never even made it for a swim. Guess I'll have to go back to KL!
After the workout, I jump in the shower, have breakfast with Monica's dad (crumpets soaked in sweetened milk and syrup, SO delish!), and then he drops me off at the train station, which will take me to the airport. But not before Monica's stepmom gives me a beautiful traditional Bangladeshi top, which I love and wore all day and will definitely wear a lot in the future.
Monica's dad is so amazing; he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I seriously am going to try to get a ticket back to KL just to hang out with them. They were so gracious and welcoming of me, I couldn't believe it. The Jamaluddin family really takes care of me (Monica with her chocolate cake and salmon and her family with everything else!) I wish Monica could have been there, it would have been even more fun!
Overall, an incredible trip to Malaysia, and I am SO sad its over. I wanted to stay there all week....darn school getting in the way of everything ;)
Back to real life, at least for the next 3 days.
Gnite!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Ko Samet
After a long 3 weeks of midterms, I felt I well deserved a beach vacation. Okay, deserved it or not, I was off to the beach! My friend Aaron and I took off for our sandy getaway Friday morning and arrived at Ko Samet ( a beautiful island only a few hours from Bangkok) Friday evening. We took a truck taxi to Ao Nuan, one of the more secluded beaches farther south on Ko Samet. Then we walked around for about 30 minutes, through jungle and brush, totally off the beaten path. Too bad we didn't find any treasures. All the guesthouses were quite expensive on the secluded beaches, so we ended up walking all the way back to where we started and staying at Ao Phai, where we had both stayed when we previously came to Ko Samet (my first weekend trip after arriving in Thailand). Not only did we stay at the same beach, we also stayed at the same guesthouse! Oh well, we tried.
After we find a place to stay, we go to a restaurant on the beach (the water was literally hitting our feet as we ate) and had a dinner of grilled mussels, pad see yu, and noodles. After eating, we stroll along the beach for a while, catch a Fire show, and head back to our guesthouse to grab some drinks and hit up the beach for a midnight swim. After swaying in the ocean for most of the night, we polish off our drinks and head out to see what kind of nightlife scene is going on. We stroll into a bar in our bathing suits (why bother putting on a shirt when you dont have to?), hang out for a few minutes and then Aaron decides he wants to challenge me in a game of pool (bad idea buddy!). We find a pool table and Aaron and I play for about 5 minutes before he beats me (but I was SO close to hitting a ball in, really). Then we begin the walk home. At one point, we get to a rock obstacle and as we're walking/climbing across it, I feel myself falling. I catch myself. Then I feel myself falling again. Catch myself again. 3rd time is not such a charm though....this time I feel myself falling and I go down. Straight into a tide pool. On the bright side, I saved the bottle in my left hand! Wish I could say the same about my head....
After falling in some nasty tide pool water, I take a shower and pass out for the night (it's maybe 30 minutes past midnight...what a partyer I am).
6:30 am, rise and shine for the sunrise! I drag Aaron along with me and we head to the only restaurant I can find open at the hour. I get a few tastes of egg with my butter (ew) and Aaron gets a few tastes of omelette with his ketchup....what a weird meal. I wonder if the Thais cook this, thinking its an American breakfast we will like, even though they think it is gross? Or, do they think drowning everything in butter/ketchup is good? Either way....weird meal. Afterwards, Aaron and I walk down south to the more secluded beach and proceed to park ourselves in front of the water for the rest of the morning. Read for 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 30 minutes, read for another 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 45 minutes.... hard life, but someone's gotta do it :) Oh, I broke the routine up with a banana shake break and an hour massage. Niiicce. After we've had enough of the sun, we head back to civilization, book a snorkeling tour for the next day and sit down to enjoy a bloody mary and ice cream (separately). Then, some more beach reading/napping, followed by a movie at our guesthouse and dinner, a shower, and some hardcore partying (arriving home, ready for bed by 11pm haha). Highlight of the night: I made 5 pool shots in one pool game! That beats my life time record of 4 pool balls knocked in ;) AND, I beat Aaron at a game of darts. Unprecedented. After the victory, I'm more than ready to call it a night. Quit while I'm ahead, right? So we head to bed, to be woken up a few hours later by a ridiculous monsoon. Insane lightening lighting up the entire bungalow, following by thunder loud enough to scare off the terrential rain. Wake up at 8:30 am to a beautifully sunny day. Brilliant. Get up, have a normal breakfast (NO ketchup, please!), and head to town for our snorkeling tour, which ended up being a snorkelling/ fishing/ visiting a fish farm tour. Not to mention there wasn't a word of english spoken the entire trip; Thai only! Love it. The first snorkeling spot wasn't the greatest,as my mask didn't work and I therefore didn't see a whole lot....but after lunch we hit up another snorkeling spot, where I quickly grabbed a better mask and was able to see a whole lot of colorful fish (sadly, unable to catch any of them). I was however able to stab myself in the foot on a coral reef. Yay. After we get back on the boat, the captain begins handing out water bottles with string on them. At the end of the string is a hook with a piece of squid attached to it. Huh? Is this like, fishing? Yes it is. What you do is unroll the string, and sit on the edge of the boat, yanking on the string every few seconds until you felt a pull. Simple, but it works. Not for me though... I got bored after about 50,000 seconds and peaced out to read my book on the upper deck. Aaron, however, stuck it out for the next hour and caught a good sized fish, which we later grilled up and had for lunch # 2! Delish. No ketchup, please. At the end of the tour, we stop by a fish farm and see enormous fish floating around! One of the tanks even had a shark in it! A shark, with a tortoise, in the same tank. I wonder if they are related?? ANYWAY, after the tour of fun, we get dropped off at the ferry and proceed back to BKK.
Good weekend... I am thoroughly relaxed and ready for Malaysia next weekend!
On a side note, I've been having recurring nightmares about having to return to the States. I can't believe I've already been here for almost 3 months... I just want to freeze time so I can stay for as long as possible. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to all my new friends and the country I've called home for the past few months. Mai ben rai, I'll worry about that when the time comes!
Sawadhee Ka!
After we find a place to stay, we go to a restaurant on the beach (the water was literally hitting our feet as we ate) and had a dinner of grilled mussels, pad see yu, and noodles. After eating, we stroll along the beach for a while, catch a Fire show, and head back to our guesthouse to grab some drinks and hit up the beach for a midnight swim. After swaying in the ocean for most of the night, we polish off our drinks and head out to see what kind of nightlife scene is going on. We stroll into a bar in our bathing suits (why bother putting on a shirt when you dont have to?), hang out for a few minutes and then Aaron decides he wants to challenge me in a game of pool (bad idea buddy!). We find a pool table and Aaron and I play for about 5 minutes before he beats me (but I was SO close to hitting a ball in, really). Then we begin the walk home. At one point, we get to a rock obstacle and as we're walking/climbing across it, I feel myself falling. I catch myself. Then I feel myself falling again. Catch myself again. 3rd time is not such a charm though....this time I feel myself falling and I go down. Straight into a tide pool. On the bright side, I saved the bottle in my left hand! Wish I could say the same about my head....
After falling in some nasty tide pool water, I take a shower and pass out for the night (it's maybe 30 minutes past midnight...what a partyer I am).
6:30 am, rise and shine for the sunrise! I drag Aaron along with me and we head to the only restaurant I can find open at the hour. I get a few tastes of egg with my butter (ew) and Aaron gets a few tastes of omelette with his ketchup....what a weird meal. I wonder if the Thais cook this, thinking its an American breakfast we will like, even though they think it is gross? Or, do they think drowning everything in butter/ketchup is good? Either way....weird meal. Afterwards, Aaron and I walk down south to the more secluded beach and proceed to park ourselves in front of the water for the rest of the morning. Read for 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 30 minutes, read for another 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 45 minutes.... hard life, but someone's gotta do it :) Oh, I broke the routine up with a banana shake break and an hour massage. Niiicce. After we've had enough of the sun, we head back to civilization, book a snorkeling tour for the next day and sit down to enjoy a bloody mary and ice cream (separately). Then, some more beach reading/napping, followed by a movie at our guesthouse and dinner, a shower, and some hardcore partying (arriving home, ready for bed by 11pm haha). Highlight of the night: I made 5 pool shots in one pool game! That beats my life time record of 4 pool balls knocked in ;) AND, I beat Aaron at a game of darts. Unprecedented. After the victory, I'm more than ready to call it a night. Quit while I'm ahead, right? So we head to bed, to be woken up a few hours later by a ridiculous monsoon. Insane lightening lighting up the entire bungalow, following by thunder loud enough to scare off the terrential rain. Wake up at 8:30 am to a beautifully sunny day. Brilliant. Get up, have a normal breakfast (NO ketchup, please!), and head to town for our snorkeling tour, which ended up being a snorkelling/ fishing/ visiting a fish farm tour. Not to mention there wasn't a word of english spoken the entire trip; Thai only! Love it. The first snorkeling spot wasn't the greatest,as my mask didn't work and I therefore didn't see a whole lot....but after lunch we hit up another snorkeling spot, where I quickly grabbed a better mask and was able to see a whole lot of colorful fish (sadly, unable to catch any of them). I was however able to stab myself in the foot on a coral reef. Yay. After we get back on the boat, the captain begins handing out water bottles with string on them. At the end of the string is a hook with a piece of squid attached to it. Huh? Is this like, fishing? Yes it is. What you do is unroll the string, and sit on the edge of the boat, yanking on the string every few seconds until you felt a pull. Simple, but it works. Not for me though... I got bored after about 50,000 seconds and peaced out to read my book on the upper deck. Aaron, however, stuck it out for the next hour and caught a good sized fish, which we later grilled up and had for lunch # 2! Delish. No ketchup, please. At the end of the tour, we stop by a fish farm and see enormous fish floating around! One of the tanks even had a shark in it! A shark, with a tortoise, in the same tank. I wonder if they are related?? ANYWAY, after the tour of fun, we get dropped off at the ferry and proceed back to BKK.
Good weekend... I am thoroughly relaxed and ready for Malaysia next weekend!
On a side note, I've been having recurring nightmares about having to return to the States. I can't believe I've already been here for almost 3 months... I just want to freeze time so I can stay for as long as possible. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to all my new friends and the country I've called home for the past few months. Mai ben rai, I'll worry about that when the time comes!
Sawadhee Ka!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Random Funny Story
I live on the 35 floor of my apartment complex, in a studio (1 bedroom) apartment. Therefore, I tend to walk around without clothes, very often. As in all the time. I pretty much never wear clothes (if you skype with me, you know this as a fact). A few weeks ago, I came out of the shower, had my music blasting, was dancing (sans clothes of course) around my apartment, and then turned around and became face-to-face with 3 Thai men, standing on my balcony. Painters. Oh goodness.
Miss Universe 2007
I met Miss Universe 2007!!
Did I mention this already?? Either way, I met her a few weeks ago when I went to get my hair done at the salon at the bottom of my apartment complex. Turns out she is married to a Thai guy and lives in Bangkok. Pretty exciting things happen in BKK....
Did I mention this already?? Either way, I met her a few weeks ago when I went to get my hair done at the salon at the bottom of my apartment complex. Turns out she is married to a Thai guy and lives in Bangkok. Pretty exciting things happen in BKK....
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
I can't read thai!
A few weeks ago I open my mailbox (for the first time), and see a piece of paper written entirely in Thai, with a number, 187, written on it several times. I look at it for a while, realize I cannot read thai, then stick it on my counter, where it remains for 2 more weeks. After 2 weeks, I clean my apartment and throw away the piece of paper. Today, everything in my apartment suddenly turns off. After an hour of sitting in a blazing hot apartment, with no internet, I finally realize that this wasn't a mistake (occasionally the power will shut off), and that piece of paper I threw away was my electricity bill. Oops. Fun times in a foreign country.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Trekking in Chiang Mai
Sawadhee Ka! Hello,
I'm in Chiang Mai, a province about 12 hours north of Bangkok, for the weekend. What an incredible weekend. So, about 3-4 weeks ago, I went to dinner with my Thai friend, Warren, and some other exchange students, to meet up with Warren's friends from California (he spent the summer in Cali). At dinner, I met this girl Melissa who is studying abroad in Singapore and we started chatting about how we like to travel and have crazy adventures, doing physical things such as rock climbing, hiking, etc. Then she mentioned she wants to got to Chiang Mai to do some trekking and I agreed that I've been wanting to do that as well. So, we talk for an hour or two and then she leaves back to Singapore the next day. About a week later I get an email from her about a Chiang Mai trip, and she actually books her plane ticket to BKK, and we are now in Chiang Mai. SO random, things like this never actually happen...people always say they want to do things but never take action to actually do anything. I'm really glad Melissa emailed me, because this trip was one of the best I've had in Thailand...too bad it's during midterms. Mai ben rai.
So, anyway, Melissa gets in late Tuesday night and we stay up till almost 5 am talking about life... even though I've known this girl for about 4 days I feel like I have known her for years! I wake up a few hours later, play squash, skype my mom and head to school for midterm # 1. That was fun. After the midterm, Melissa, myself and about 6 other students from my midterm class head down the river to the most incredible massage street ever. It's BKK's best kept secret...2 hour massages for 140 baht (less than $5 USD); love it. It's my weekly massage, and the best part is there are no other Westerners there...only locals. After that, Melissa and I head to MBK (huge shopping mall) to get our eyebrows waxed (FINALLY!). For all those that have lived with me, they know how obssessed I am with my eyebrows. I literally am obssessed...the first thing I do when I get back from a camping trip (or something similar) is head to the bathroom to do my eyebrows. That is, if I haven't somehow done them while camping. Anyway, we get our eyebrows done after searching MBK for 30 minutes (that place is HUGE)...and then proceed to Chinatown. But not before we spend 45 minutes in MBK marvelling over how cheap everything is, and doing some sunglass shopping. Once we leave MBK, we get to Chinatown and Melissa and I proceed to eat EVERYTHING there. No joke. This past week was a vegeterian festival in BKK, so Chinatown had hundreds of food stalls, full of delicious veggie meals. Melissa and I literally went to a food stall, ordered food, sat down and ate it, then walked for 10 minutes and did it again. Total meals= 2 dinners and 2 desserts. Niccce! We ate this AMAZING (and I don't typically throw that word around) toasted bun with green goo (coconut syrup??) inside it...seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten....it even rivals sticky rice with mango. Yum.
Wow, I just spend a paragraph talking about the delish Thai foods, but they really are incredible (with potential to be gross...watch out). After Chinatown, Melissa and I finally head home and pass out from the exhausting day.
The next day, I go to Finance, spend way too much time trying to figure out Time Value of Money problems, and then get together with Melissa and MJ (another student who came to Chiang Mai with us) and head to Lumpini Park for a midday picnic at the best park in BKK. It was a great time...we just hung out there and met some buff guys working out at the outdoor gym, who convinced us to work out with them. Ya, me working out in my school uniform= quite a sight to see. I'll post those pics soon. Then, we played on the playground and got kicked off the swings by the security guard (what, Thailand has rules??), but were allowed to play on the rest of the equipment, just not the swings. Okkay, sure. Then, we head to the train station to take our overnight, 12 hour sleeper train to Chiang Mai. Yay, my very first train ride! Overall good experience, very nice and cozy. Once we arrive in Chiang Mai, we consult our Lonely Planet travel guide and head to Julie's guesthouse and then book a 2 day/1 night trekking/water rafting tour that leaves in 1 hour! We have breakfast and soon thereafter are off for trekking!
After a few hours of driving and stopping at local markets for snacks, we finally arrive at a small village, where lunch and elephants are awaiting us. We spend an hour elephant trekking through the jungle (my first elephant riding...but slightly overrated, I must say), and then we begin the intense 2.5 hour trek up the jungle to the Loa Hunla (?) village tribe at the top of the mountain. This was exactly what I came for... 2.5 hours of up hill, at times hand over foot, hiking. Definitely did not feel bad about all those Thai sweets after this trek! When we finally arrive at the village at dusk, we shower (in the dark, with no electricity...thank goodness my phone has a flashlight) and have an incredible dinner of bamboo, pad thai, tofu, squash & chicken curry= YUM! We hang out with the tribal women, admire the beautfiul stars (which you can never see in BKK because of the smog and pollution), look for the Big Dipper but only see the Milky Way, and head to bed for one of the best nights sleep I've had in weeks. Until 5am, when the damn roosters start their roosting (crackling? screaming?). Ughh, not pleasant. So, I wake up, head to the bathroom, eat breakfast and have coffee (a rare treat here!), and get ready for more trekking! We trek for about an hour of slipperly-ness (I think I fell about 3 times), until we get to this fantastic waterfall, where we all strip down and run through the way-cold- but-so-refreshing-water, that literally knocked me off my feet and took off half my bathing suit...that is one powerful waterfall!
After playing in the waterfall, we trek for another hour to the river where we begin white water rafting! Woo, what a great time! We raft for about 30 minutes, and then hop on a bamboo raft, which is just as it sounds. A huge, 8 person raft made of bamboo, where the front person steers with this enormous 10 foot stick. Ting, the Chinese guy in our group, was originially steering, but I soon changed that :) After he "slipped" off the raft, I jumped up ahead and took over the steering. We arrived at our lunch spot, starving, and ate a meal of pad thai and pineapple.
Oh, AND, grasshoppers. Yup, I ate a grasshopper. Me, the person most scared of bugs I've ever met in my life. I wasn't going to do it, but I told one of the Danish girls on our trip I'd do it if she would, thinking she'd decline. She accepted my challenge and then I had to do it. We pulled off the heads, popped the body, complete with legs and wings, in our mouth, and chewed away! It was actually quite good...I probably wouldn't order it at a restuarant, but not so bad. Good protein :)
Then we head home to shower and hit up Chiang Mai nightlife. Well, not quite. More like hit up the walking market, where we spent 2 hours shopping, eating, and walking around, until we were too exhausted to move. While shopping, I hang out with the 2 Danes (I cannot handle Melissa and MJ while shopping...such girls) and we proceed to try every Thai sweet being sold on the street. Haha, it was great. And, they also taught me some Danish (did you know Filt means fat & cool? So, I can say "Tu er Filt" meaning "you are cool/fat". Hmmm.....) which was interesting. After a couple hours of this, the 2 Danes head home, as they had an early morning adventure awaiting them. Then Ting (poor guy spent 2 hours shopping with MJ and Melissa), Mj, Melissa and myself head back to Julie's guesthouse, where we meet some fellow travelers and talk with them for a couple hours. I met a Chilean financial analyst who takes off 1 month every year to travel the world. She's been trekking to the base camp of Mount Everest, trekking in Chiang Mai, and hanging out in India, among other things. What a cool lady!
Oops, gotta run, check out at our guesthouse is in a few minutes! More on the rest of Chiang Mai later.
Ciao!
I'm in Chiang Mai, a province about 12 hours north of Bangkok, for the weekend. What an incredible weekend. So, about 3-4 weeks ago, I went to dinner with my Thai friend, Warren, and some other exchange students, to meet up with Warren's friends from California (he spent the summer in Cali). At dinner, I met this girl Melissa who is studying abroad in Singapore and we started chatting about how we like to travel and have crazy adventures, doing physical things such as rock climbing, hiking, etc. Then she mentioned she wants to got to Chiang Mai to do some trekking and I agreed that I've been wanting to do that as well. So, we talk for an hour or two and then she leaves back to Singapore the next day. About a week later I get an email from her about a Chiang Mai trip, and she actually books her plane ticket to BKK, and we are now in Chiang Mai. SO random, things like this never actually happen...people always say they want to do things but never take action to actually do anything. I'm really glad Melissa emailed me, because this trip was one of the best I've had in Thailand...too bad it's during midterms. Mai ben rai.
So, anyway, Melissa gets in late Tuesday night and we stay up till almost 5 am talking about life... even though I've known this girl for about 4 days I feel like I have known her for years! I wake up a few hours later, play squash, skype my mom and head to school for midterm # 1. That was fun. After the midterm, Melissa, myself and about 6 other students from my midterm class head down the river to the most incredible massage street ever. It's BKK's best kept secret...2 hour massages for 140 baht (less than $5 USD); love it. It's my weekly massage, and the best part is there are no other Westerners there...only locals. After that, Melissa and I head to MBK (huge shopping mall) to get our eyebrows waxed (FINALLY!). For all those that have lived with me, they know how obssessed I am with my eyebrows. I literally am obssessed...the first thing I do when I get back from a camping trip (or something similar) is head to the bathroom to do my eyebrows. That is, if I haven't somehow done them while camping. Anyway, we get our eyebrows done after searching MBK for 30 minutes (that place is HUGE)...and then proceed to Chinatown. But not before we spend 45 minutes in MBK marvelling over how cheap everything is, and doing some sunglass shopping. Once we leave MBK, we get to Chinatown and Melissa and I proceed to eat EVERYTHING there. No joke. This past week was a vegeterian festival in BKK, so Chinatown had hundreds of food stalls, full of delicious veggie meals. Melissa and I literally went to a food stall, ordered food, sat down and ate it, then walked for 10 minutes and did it again. Total meals= 2 dinners and 2 desserts. Niccce! We ate this AMAZING (and I don't typically throw that word around) toasted bun with green goo (coconut syrup??) inside it...seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten....it even rivals sticky rice with mango. Yum.
Wow, I just spend a paragraph talking about the delish Thai foods, but they really are incredible (with potential to be gross...watch out). After Chinatown, Melissa and I finally head home and pass out from the exhausting day.
The next day, I go to Finance, spend way too much time trying to figure out Time Value of Money problems, and then get together with Melissa and MJ (another student who came to Chiang Mai with us) and head to Lumpini Park for a midday picnic at the best park in BKK. It was a great time...we just hung out there and met some buff guys working out at the outdoor gym, who convinced us to work out with them. Ya, me working out in my school uniform= quite a sight to see. I'll post those pics soon. Then, we played on the playground and got kicked off the swings by the security guard (what, Thailand has rules??), but were allowed to play on the rest of the equipment, just not the swings. Okkay, sure. Then, we head to the train station to take our overnight, 12 hour sleeper train to Chiang Mai. Yay, my very first train ride! Overall good experience, very nice and cozy. Once we arrive in Chiang Mai, we consult our Lonely Planet travel guide and head to Julie's guesthouse and then book a 2 day/1 night trekking/water rafting tour that leaves in 1 hour! We have breakfast and soon thereafter are off for trekking!
After a few hours of driving and stopping at local markets for snacks, we finally arrive at a small village, where lunch and elephants are awaiting us. We spend an hour elephant trekking through the jungle (my first elephant riding...but slightly overrated, I must say), and then we begin the intense 2.5 hour trek up the jungle to the Loa Hunla (?) village tribe at the top of the mountain. This was exactly what I came for... 2.5 hours of up hill, at times hand over foot, hiking. Definitely did not feel bad about all those Thai sweets after this trek! When we finally arrive at the village at dusk, we shower (in the dark, with no electricity...thank goodness my phone has a flashlight) and have an incredible dinner of bamboo, pad thai, tofu, squash & chicken curry= YUM! We hang out with the tribal women, admire the beautfiul stars (which you can never see in BKK because of the smog and pollution), look for the Big Dipper but only see the Milky Way, and head to bed for one of the best nights sleep I've had in weeks. Until 5am, when the damn roosters start their roosting (crackling? screaming?). Ughh, not pleasant. So, I wake up, head to the bathroom, eat breakfast and have coffee (a rare treat here!), and get ready for more trekking! We trek for about an hour of slipperly-ness (I think I fell about 3 times), until we get to this fantastic waterfall, where we all strip down and run through the way-cold- but-so-refreshing-water, that literally knocked me off my feet and took off half my bathing suit...that is one powerful waterfall!
After playing in the waterfall, we trek for another hour to the river where we begin white water rafting! Woo, what a great time! We raft for about 30 minutes, and then hop on a bamboo raft, which is just as it sounds. A huge, 8 person raft made of bamboo, where the front person steers with this enormous 10 foot stick. Ting, the Chinese guy in our group, was originially steering, but I soon changed that :) After he "slipped" off the raft, I jumped up ahead and took over the steering. We arrived at our lunch spot, starving, and ate a meal of pad thai and pineapple.
Oh, AND, grasshoppers. Yup, I ate a grasshopper. Me, the person most scared of bugs I've ever met in my life. I wasn't going to do it, but I told one of the Danish girls on our trip I'd do it if she would, thinking she'd decline. She accepted my challenge and then I had to do it. We pulled off the heads, popped the body, complete with legs and wings, in our mouth, and chewed away! It was actually quite good...I probably wouldn't order it at a restuarant, but not so bad. Good protein :)
Then we head home to shower and hit up Chiang Mai nightlife. Well, not quite. More like hit up the walking market, where we spent 2 hours shopping, eating, and walking around, until we were too exhausted to move. While shopping, I hang out with the 2 Danes (I cannot handle Melissa and MJ while shopping...such girls) and we proceed to try every Thai sweet being sold on the street. Haha, it was great. And, they also taught me some Danish (did you know Filt means fat & cool? So, I can say "Tu er Filt" meaning "you are cool/fat". Hmmm.....) which was interesting. After a couple hours of this, the 2 Danes head home, as they had an early morning adventure awaiting them. Then Ting (poor guy spent 2 hours shopping with MJ and Melissa), Mj, Melissa and myself head back to Julie's guesthouse, where we meet some fellow travelers and talk with them for a couple hours. I met a Chilean financial analyst who takes off 1 month every year to travel the world. She's been trekking to the base camp of Mount Everest, trekking in Chiang Mai, and hanging out in India, among other things. What a cool lady!
Oops, gotta run, check out at our guesthouse is in a few minutes! More on the rest of Chiang Mai later.
Ciao!
Monday, September 29, 2008
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, September 15, 2008
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.
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.
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Kanchanaburi
Beautiful View from atop Bridge
RCA
Posh club district on Suhkumvit Rd
Kanchanaburi
Erawan Waterfall
