As a warning, this posting is very discombobulated. If I fully organized all events and thoughts, and tried to make quality writing out of it, you would be waiting until 2010 to hear from me. So much happened in 10 days- I can hardly keep it straight myself let alone write it all down!!
This was all written while I was in Thailand, with only some minor changes for the sake of coherence! After sharing what I wrote in the moment I will tell some other stories that I have not yet written :)
Day 1 - Phuket (pronounced boo-GET)
Day 1 - Phuket (pronounced boo-GET)
I can't believe I'm in Thailand at all. The whole time I was in the taxi to phuket town, I just kept saying to myself "WOW I'm in Thailand!" Being here does and doesn't remind me of Vietnam. IT reminds me more of Malaysia I'd say, with the same tropical feel as Singapore but without the organization. While Vietnam was a fishing place from what I saw, Phuket is a beach party place, where the main streets cater to tourists (we really went for hours tonight seeing only farangs [westerners], besides the people selling things to the farangs), and where taxi drivers drive unlabeled sketchy cars and try to overcharge.
A few things struck me today. For one, I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever on Karon beach. I floated in the salt water, with the setting sun warming me on one side, and the moon overlooking me on my other side. I could hear nothing but the sounds of the waves around me and the sound of my own breath. It was so surreal and beautiful that I couldnt believe I was actually experiencing it. Such an expanse of beautiful sky and water.
I faced a moral dilemna as I and my friends haggled for prices at the market and for a taxi. We literally walked around for 30 minutes fighting with taxi drivers to bring down the fixed price of a taxi from 500 baht to 400 baht. Granted, they were majorly overcharging tourists, whose only option for getting home from the beach at night is a taxi, but 100 baht divided between the 3 of us- that's less than $1 USD each. We ended up getting our ride for 400 baht but I had to question myself. I am so lucky that I don't have to worry too much about where I will get my next dollar. These people do, and yet we still had to haggle for the "local price". It just made me really sad when I said thank you to our taxi driver in Thai (kab-kum-kah!), and he gave me a huge genuine smile, after we didn't even trust him to give us correct change for a 500 baht note.
Shadow puppets is a very important and historic art in Nakhon Si Thammarat
Weekend market
Lara, Will and I!
Oh, and another highlight of Nakhon- I had my first ride on a motorbike!! It's the only way of getting around!
And one last picture- This was me with Mika's family and friends on my last night in Bangkok. Mika and her sister and her sister's husband all play vital roles in a string ensemble, whose performance was that night. After their concert, we celebrated until 3:30 am!
This trip was extremely rich for me in so many ways. It forced me to grow up a lot, as I had to handle so many logistics and decisions completely on my own. Once again I got a painful awareness for all the wealth and opportunities that I do have, and that others unfortunately do not (as a side note, I was very happy to see that Bangkok has such a large middle class- it is not only extremely rich people and extremely poor as I had feared) .
Overall, this trip gave me a deep appreciation for human kindness- its definitely NOT the case that everyone I met during my ten days was an angel. Some people were unfriendly, and many wanted to take advantage of the Western traveler in any way possible. However, my friends that took me under their wing, random strangers who gave me small but vital help, the 3 sisters who ran a guesthouse and spent a good part of their night telling me about Thailand, the children who let me take their pictures, the many people who clasped their hands in prayer every time the bus or train passed by a temple (which, in Thailand is ALL the time). These are only a few examples of the beauty I saw, and the spirited energy of Thailand will stay in my mind for a long time.
Oh, and for those of you who were wondering- no, I did not see a single protester in Bangkok! :)
Happy New Year everyone!!
Writing this makes me realize how simple my life is. I feel so lucky that I can go on a holiday and swim on a beach and play with waves without worrying about anything. My phone has been turned off all day and I know that I am free from obligations- there is nobody that needs to reach me right now. I feel almost guilty that I can take a trip like this, so I need to enjoy it as much as I can while I still live a relatively obligation-free life. And as I said before, today has reinforced how lucky I feel that I don't have to worry where my next dollar is coming from. In one hour of teaching I make the same amount that some people here make in one week. It's something to think about..
Sunsets and beaches in Phuket:
My Phuket travel buddies
--------------------------------------------------
Day 6- Second day in Bangkok
Last night I literally passed out- at 10:15 pm on my rock-hard bed, with my duffel bag, travel guide, maps, phone....everything! scattered around me. Still in the clothes I had been wearing all day, with the lights shining brightly on my face. I did not wake up again until 2:30 AM, at which point I confusedly knocked everything off my bed, turned off my lights, and fell fast asleep again till 8:30 AM. It's about time I got sleep like that!
When I woke up today I changed guesthouses. The one around the corner where I am now is much more nice and cozy, but now I'm finding that the main light bulb is burned out so it's dark, and there are no outlets. However, there IS hot water! I took a luxurious shower with the first combination of clean shower AND hot water that I've had so far, and took bus 44 to meet Ice at Wat Phra Kaew, the grand palace. (Ice is my good friend from school in Singapore. His full name is Kittiphan, but most Thai people go by nicknames since their full names are so long). After wandering around Bangkok by myself for 24 hours, it was so nice to see a familiar face. Ice and I went to the palace, and regal doesn't even begin to describe it.
After peeking inside each section and marveling at all the gold and beauty, Ice and I went to cross the river by ferry. We visited another wat on that side of the river, and then Ice bought some very cheap bread for 10 baht. After tricking me into eating it by calling it "special delicious thai bread" (!!), I realized that this stale bread was specifically for feeding the pigeons and huge koi fish at the pier. As I fed fish and birds by an ancient temple, with Buddhist monks, friendly dogs, and locals milling about around me, I felt so relaxed. It reminded me of the scene from Marry Poppins where she was feeding the birds. Later I had a vegetarian version of Papaya salad with Ice for lunch. It was so spicy that there were tears running down my face from eating it!
--
I don't know if I will ever get used to carrying around my own tissues as a replacement for toilet paper. It's just something I never had to worry about before.
---
To continue, Ice and I traveled to Siam Square in the afternoon and looked around there. It's very similar to Singapores' Orchard Road, but much less crowded, better prices, and a more unique variety of shops. Their Christmas decorations were much better than Singapores' and I love that they had one xmas tree constructed of recycled CDs and one of recycled coke cans.
[ I never did finish telling the story of that day! But here are some pictures!]
This is me with, from left to right: Su, Pom, and Mika. Pom is my friend from school's brother. Mika is his girlfriend, and Su is Mika's best friend. They were all so incredibly kind to me, took me for all kinds of food and showed me different places in Bangkok, and I am so grateful to them!
This is how they make milk tea- tossing it from cup to cup adds lots of bubbles!
A christmas tree from recycled CDs
Day 7- Third day in Bangkok
This trip is starting to make me really tired...!
I didn't sleep as well last night for whatever reason- maybe I was less exhausted? But today I feel kind of drained and I am getting a sore throat. Maybe I caught it from Su or Ice. I'm still so full from all of yesterday's food!
Day 8- fourth day in Bangkok
At the end of an eventful day, in which I made my way all over Bangkok completely alone, I have to wonder, why do I feel so safe? Everything went without a hitch today, besides some irritating taxi/tuktuk/motorbike drivers whose creepy voices will give me shivers for a long time. But even they were harmless.
After having a vegetarian late breakfast (I luxuriously slept in my big bed til 10- maybe the massage helped, or I was just that tired. As a sidenote, it's funny what the word "luxurious" means to me at this point. Basically, it means: comfortable and bug free!).
So I had my breakfast and took the bus to the historic area of Bangkok, from where I thought it should be easy enough to find the river and follow it to Chinatown- the way my complimentary yet sparse Bangkok map told me I would. Turns out I REALLY had no clue how to get around. And I could only look at my map for fragmented private moments, because as soon as I started looking at my map, I got harassed by every driver on the block, all of them trying to sell me a taxi ride! So, instead I had to walk confidently and look like I knew EXACTLY where I was going. Ironically, confidently walking in one direction took me a good kilometer out of my way. Finally, I saw a music store and talked to a friendly lady inside who spoke with perfect English,. She saved me by directing me towards the river. So I ran into bus 1, which Ice told me I could take to chinatown. I hopped on (literally- the bus doesn't really stop moving), and the lady in charge on the bus was so kind. She tapped me the second there was a free seat and made me sit down (even though I stand on the buses in Singapore allll the time), told me when to get off for Chinatown, and didn't even charge me for the 30 minute bus ride! The differences between public and private transportation here are amazing.
So, Su had eloquently told me that every Chinatown is the same. This Chinatown was a little more crowded than Chinatowns I'm used to, with less English and less tofu. But, it was still Chinatown for sure. I visited 2 beautiful wats and a hospital that mixes modern and traditional Chinese medicine. I finally built up the courage to smile and nod my head to a monk. I was always (always being...the past few days) nervous to look at them in case I accidentally did something wrong or offensive. Then I walked along the streets, took in the sights, and was very careful not to trip on people who were sitting on the ground selling merchandise laid out on the sidewalk.
I wandered onto a soi that was selling lots of shoes. I turned 1 or 2 corners and all of a sudden I was hit by the most insane outdoor market area I've ever seen! There were tons of shops on each side of a narrow path selling extremely cheap-looking things for extremely cheap prices. Often sellers had food carts set up in front of the other stalls, making the path seem more like an obstacle course. Motorbikes barged through as well as people carting huge boxes of merchandise, so the crowds were squeezed even more to the sides. The crowd consisted of school children, moms with their kids, the local chinese population- And ME! It was too crowded to actually shop, in my opinion, so I just went with the flow of the crowd and looked around.
While walking, an extremely nice lady at a food cart grunted until she had my attention, took my empty plastic drink cup that I was still holding, and threw it in her little trashcan for me. Little gestures like that just made me love the Thai people. I can't imagine any other place where people are so helpful that they want to give you free bus rides and even throw out your trash for you!
I then found Choa Phraya express and took a lovely ferry boat ride to the center of the city, where I could take the sky train to wherever I pleased. I called Su, who was luckily free to hang out, and we went to an area of Bangkok called Nana to have Indian dinner. I had such a great time with Su. She is the perfect person for me to eat with, because she is also vegetarian, likes healthy food, and since she is a pharmacist she knows all the properties of food and what is and is not healthy! We had a long and comfortable dinner- Su was starving because she had not eaten lunch, and I was pretty hungry from my long walk around Chinatown, so we ate a ton of food and relaxed together!
That evening, I roamed around more of the city, and took a long walk in the beautiful Lumphini park. There was a running path along a huge pond (or what the guide I just gave a link for called an artificial lake), and many people of all ages were running after sunset. So for a few hours I walked around, watched families and friends and school children as they went about the park, looked at various monuments and buildings, and even ran into a mother dog and her litter of puppies!
I listened to a free concert for a while, and found the bus I need to take to get back home, and made it back here with no problem.
Now I am back on Khao San Road by my guesthouse, enjoying a green tea latte and writing about my day in a 24-hour coffee shop!
----------------------
Well that was all that I actually wrote while on the trip! But I have to at least describe the other places that I visited!
Krabi a province in Southern Thailand, about 2.5 hours away from Phuket, that is supposed to be home to Thailand's most gorgeous beaches and islands. So, of course I could not pass up the opportunity to see that! I won't say that I was disappointed with Krabi, because it certainly did live up to its reputation of being beautiful. However, I have to say, it was only a little more beautiful than the beaches of Phuket, and a lot more difficult to get to!! Everything in the area was extremely touristy and expensive, but the sights made it worth it!
My personal favorite picture from my trip:
Nakon Si Thammarat
After four days of what felt like a spring break party among the beaches, my next destination was well off of the tourist path. My friend Lara, whom I have known since I was four, is teaching English with her boyfriend Will in this city for a year. Both of them went to my highschool and we graduated together, so I had to visit them!! Nakhon si Thammarat was a nice change. Instead of locals trying to use me for all the money I might have in my pocket, these locals followed us around the street calling us beautiful in English or Thai. I don't know if I was more interested in them, or if they were more interested in us! Any time I smiled or waved at one of the people in the city, they were thrilled! It was like being an instant celebrity, which is a very funny feeling. However, it was nice to feel a mutual fascination with each other.
Sunsets and beaches in Phuket:
My Phuket travel buddies--------------------------------------------------
Day 6- Second day in Bangkok
Last night I literally passed out- at 10:15 pm on my rock-hard bed, with my duffel bag, travel guide, maps, phone....everything! scattered around me. Still in the clothes I had been wearing all day, with the lights shining brightly on my face. I did not wake up again until 2:30 AM, at which point I confusedly knocked everything off my bed, turned off my lights, and fell fast asleep again till 8:30 AM. It's about time I got sleep like that!
When I woke up today I changed guesthouses. The one around the corner where I am now is much more nice and cozy, but now I'm finding that the main light bulb is burned out so it's dark, and there are no outlets. However, there IS hot water! I took a luxurious shower with the first combination of clean shower AND hot water that I've had so far, and took bus 44 to meet Ice at Wat Phra Kaew, the grand palace. (Ice is my good friend from school in Singapore. His full name is Kittiphan, but most Thai people go by nicknames since their full names are so long). After wandering around Bangkok by myself for 24 hours, it was so nice to see a familiar face. Ice and I went to the palace, and regal doesn't even begin to describe it.
After peeking inside each section and marveling at all the gold and beauty, Ice and I went to cross the river by ferry. We visited another wat on that side of the river, and then Ice bought some very cheap bread for 10 baht. After tricking me into eating it by calling it "special delicious thai bread" (!!), I realized that this stale bread was specifically for feeding the pigeons and huge koi fish at the pier. As I fed fish and birds by an ancient temple, with Buddhist monks, friendly dogs, and locals milling about around me, I felt so relaxed. It reminded me of the scene from Marry Poppins where she was feeding the birds. Later I had a vegetarian version of Papaya salad with Ice for lunch. It was so spicy that there were tears running down my face from eating it!
--
I don't know if I will ever get used to carrying around my own tissues as a replacement for toilet paper. It's just something I never had to worry about before.
---
To continue, Ice and I traveled to Siam Square in the afternoon and looked around there. It's very similar to Singapores' Orchard Road, but much less crowded, better prices, and a more unique variety of shops. Their Christmas decorations were much better than Singapores' and I love that they had one xmas tree constructed of recycled CDs and one of recycled coke cans.
[ I never did finish telling the story of that day! But here are some pictures!]
This is me with, from left to right: Su, Pom, and Mika. Pom is my friend from school's brother. Mika is his girlfriend, and Su is Mika's best friend. They were all so incredibly kind to me, took me for all kinds of food and showed me different places in Bangkok, and I am so grateful to them!This is how they make milk tea- tossing it from cup to cup adds lots of bubbles!A christmas tree from recycled CDsDay 7- Third day in Bangkok
This trip is starting to make me really tired...!
I didn't sleep as well last night for whatever reason- maybe I was less exhausted? But today I feel kind of drained and I am getting a sore throat. Maybe I caught it from Su or Ice. I'm still so full from all of yesterday's food!
Day 8- fourth day in Bangkok
At the end of an eventful day, in which I made my way all over Bangkok completely alone, I have to wonder, why do I feel so safe? Everything went without a hitch today, besides some irritating taxi/tuktuk/motorbike drivers whose creepy voices will give me shivers for a long time. But even they were harmless.
After having a vegetarian late breakfast (I luxuriously slept in my big bed til 10- maybe the massage helped, or I was just that tired. As a sidenote, it's funny what the word "luxurious" means to me at this point. Basically, it means: comfortable and bug free!).
So I had my breakfast and took the bus to the historic area of Bangkok, from where I thought it should be easy enough to find the river and follow it to Chinatown- the way my complimentary yet sparse Bangkok map told me I would. Turns out I REALLY had no clue how to get around. And I could only look at my map for fragmented private moments, because as soon as I started looking at my map, I got harassed by every driver on the block, all of them trying to sell me a taxi ride! So, instead I had to walk confidently and look like I knew EXACTLY where I was going. Ironically, confidently walking in one direction took me a good kilometer out of my way. Finally, I saw a music store and talked to a friendly lady inside who spoke with perfect English,. She saved me by directing me towards the river. So I ran into bus 1, which Ice told me I could take to chinatown. I hopped on (literally- the bus doesn't really stop moving), and the lady in charge on the bus was so kind. She tapped me the second there was a free seat and made me sit down (even though I stand on the buses in Singapore allll the time), told me when to get off for Chinatown, and didn't even charge me for the 30 minute bus ride! The differences between public and private transportation here are amazing.
So, Su had eloquently told me that every Chinatown is the same. This Chinatown was a little more crowded than Chinatowns I'm used to, with less English and less tofu. But, it was still Chinatown for sure. I visited 2 beautiful wats and a hospital that mixes modern and traditional Chinese medicine. I finally built up the courage to smile and nod my head to a monk. I was always (always being...the past few days) nervous to look at them in case I accidentally did something wrong or offensive. Then I walked along the streets, took in the sights, and was very careful not to trip on people who were sitting on the ground selling merchandise laid out on the sidewalk.
I wandered onto a soi that was selling lots of shoes. I turned 1 or 2 corners and all of a sudden I was hit by the most insane outdoor market area I've ever seen! There were tons of shops on each side of a narrow path selling extremely cheap-looking things for extremely cheap prices. Often sellers had food carts set up in front of the other stalls, making the path seem more like an obstacle course. Motorbikes barged through as well as people carting huge boxes of merchandise, so the crowds were squeezed even more to the sides. The crowd consisted of school children, moms with their kids, the local chinese population- And ME! It was too crowded to actually shop, in my opinion, so I just went with the flow of the crowd and looked around.
While walking, an extremely nice lady at a food cart grunted until she had my attention, took my empty plastic drink cup that I was still holding, and threw it in her little trashcan for me. Little gestures like that just made me love the Thai people. I can't imagine any other place where people are so helpful that they want to give you free bus rides and even throw out your trash for you!
I then found Choa Phraya express and took a lovely ferry boat ride to the center of the city, where I could take the sky train to wherever I pleased. I called Su, who was luckily free to hang out, and we went to an area of Bangkok called Nana to have Indian dinner. I had such a great time with Su. She is the perfect person for me to eat with, because she is also vegetarian, likes healthy food, and since she is a pharmacist she knows all the properties of food and what is and is not healthy! We had a long and comfortable dinner- Su was starving because she had not eaten lunch, and I was pretty hungry from my long walk around Chinatown, so we ate a ton of food and relaxed together!
That evening, I roamed around more of the city, and took a long walk in the beautiful Lumphini park. There was a running path along a huge pond (or what the guide I just gave a link for called an artificial lake), and many people of all ages were running after sunset. So for a few hours I walked around, watched families and friends and school children as they went about the park, looked at various monuments and buildings, and even ran into a mother dog and her litter of puppies!
I listened to a free concert for a while, and found the bus I need to take to get back home, and made it back here with no problem.
Now I am back on Khao San Road by my guesthouse, enjoying a green tea latte and writing about my day in a 24-hour coffee shop!
----------------------
Well that was all that I actually wrote while on the trip! But I have to at least describe the other places that I visited!
Krabi a province in Southern Thailand, about 2.5 hours away from Phuket, that is supposed to be home to Thailand's most gorgeous beaches and islands. So, of course I could not pass up the opportunity to see that! I won't say that I was disappointed with Krabi, because it certainly did live up to its reputation of being beautiful. However, I have to say, it was only a little more beautiful than the beaches of Phuket, and a lot more difficult to get to!! Everything in the area was extremely touristy and expensive, but the sights made it worth it!
My personal favorite picture from my trip:
Nakon Si Thammarat
After four days of what felt like a spring break party among the beaches, my next destination was well off of the tourist path. My friend Lara, whom I have known since I was four, is teaching English with her boyfriend Will in this city for a year. Both of them went to my highschool and we graduated together, so I had to visit them!! Nakhon si Thammarat was a nice change. Instead of locals trying to use me for all the money I might have in my pocket, these locals followed us around the street calling us beautiful in English or Thai. I don't know if I was more interested in them, or if they were more interested in us! Any time I smiled or waved at one of the people in the city, they were thrilled! It was like being an instant celebrity, which is a very funny feeling. However, it was nice to feel a mutual fascination with each other.
Shadow puppets is a very important and historic art in Nakhon Si ThammaratWeekend marketLara, Will and I!
Oh, and another highlight of Nakhon- I had my first ride on a motorbike!! It's the only way of getting around!
And one last picture- This was me with Mika's family and friends on my last night in Bangkok. Mika and her sister and her sister's husband all play vital roles in a string ensemble, whose performance was that night. After their concert, we celebrated until 3:30 am!
This trip was extremely rich for me in so many ways. It forced me to grow up a lot, as I had to handle so many logistics and decisions completely on my own. Once again I got a painful awareness for all the wealth and opportunities that I do have, and that others unfortunately do not (as a side note, I was very happy to see that Bangkok has such a large middle class- it is not only extremely rich people and extremely poor as I had feared) .
Overall, this trip gave me a deep appreciation for human kindness- its definitely NOT the case that everyone I met during my ten days was an angel. Some people were unfriendly, and many wanted to take advantage of the Western traveler in any way possible. However, my friends that took me under their wing, random strangers who gave me small but vital help, the 3 sisters who ran a guesthouse and spent a good part of their night telling me about Thailand, the children who let me take their pictures, the many people who clasped their hands in prayer every time the bus or train passed by a temple (which, in Thailand is ALL the time). These are only a few examples of the beauty I saw, and the spirited energy of Thailand will stay in my mind for a long time.
Oh, and for those of you who were wondering- no, I did not see a single protester in Bangkok! :)
Happy New Year everyone!!
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