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!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
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.
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Kanchanaburi
Beautiful View from atop Bridge
RCA
Posh club district on Suhkumvit Rd
Kanchanaburi
Erawan Waterfall
