Oi, leaving has been one big emotional wreck. I now write to you from Haifa, Israel, but I'll start from the beginning.
Exams went... smoothly. Remember how in my last entry all the libraries were closed during finals? Well, as it turns out, to give Thammasat credit that was a national holiday. That didn't end the strangeness of finals week for me, though. The day I took my three-hour long accounting final (which was, by the way, absurdly difficult) a marching band held practice outside the classroom... the whole time. I think it was orientation week for at least the BE program, and the school was more packed than I had ever seen it. All I have to say is thank goodness I'm not taking these classes for a grade.
For the last week everyone was really good about hanging out as a group, the way things started in the beginning. Wednesday night we had a "Christmas in Thailand" party (which I can't wait to add photos for you to see) as one last official goodbye before people started trickling off. The theme was inspired by Brian, Bruno and Dylan's apartment, which came with a fake Christmas tree. We've joked about it all semester, and for the party we brought it up to the penthouse (more space there) to decorate it with rambuttan fruits and other Thai ornaments. Jake even bought lights to make the tree really look right. We played Christmas music and beer pong (although I didn't because the event was unfortunately scheduled the night before I had a 9 a.m. final) and in all reality the night felt like a very warm Christmas.
The best part of the event was white elephant gift-giving. For those who don't know what white elephant is, it's a game kind of like Secret Santa, in which each person buys a gag gift, usually with a price limit (ours was 200 baht, or $6), and then draws numbers. The lowest number gets to choose a wrapped gift, and the second person gets to choose whether he or she wants to steal that gift or grab a new one. If #2 steals #1's gift then #1 is allowed to draw again, and the whole process continues with the rule that one gift can only be stolen twice. Gifts included:
- a wooden Khao San frog in psychedelic colors (mine)
- a scale
- an ab toner
- a Same Same But Different shirt
- a yellow Rama IX shirt
- a bucket kit
- a stolen Rattanakosin poster
- a Vietnamese boat hat
- fisherman pants
- a back scratcher
...and best of all... a picture of the king!!! I've been telling my friends that this is the one item I had left to buy, and I drew it! It was really the best surprise. I even kind of held it out of sight hoping that no one would steal it.
The night illustrated how cohesive our group of friends is. Though we are a hodge podge of Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Australians and Thais, we get along so well, especially that night when we were all so merry.
After that the goodbyes just got hard. I said goodbye to Jake first, since even though he's staying the summer, he and Brian left for Laos and Cambodia Friday afternoon. I felt like a mess when he left, and was so thankful to get back to my apartment only to immediately receive a call from Brad, who wanted to know if I was okay. He and Jon came up to comfort me and we just hung out, all bummed and unable to think about anything except leaving.
I left last night, and had a really touching goodbye. I spent the day consuming all the street food I knew I would miss, then topping everything off by going to Chote Chitr for dinner. Eleven of us went, and everyone kept calling it the last supper, as we gorged on family-style curries, soups, and fish, then ended our meal in the street with the famous buttered-bread-with-bananas-and-chocolate dessert I love so much.
Everyone came over to the apartment while I finished packing, since I was the first of the night to go, and we watched Charity's wonderful dvd. She's been taking short movies on her camera all semester, and put a ton of time into making a 20-minute long compilation of the videos mixed in with pictures of us, all edited in iMovie. It's an awesome video, because it captures so much of what I've already forgotten. It's also amazing what video can do to capture our interactions that still film just can't. My plan is to show it to everyone back at home to brag to them about the friends I made in Thailand.
Just before I left I gave everyone printed pictures I've taken with them or of them all semester, and tried to decorate the frames according to each person's personality. I'm going to miss everyone so much. :)
Then off to the airport, everyone walked me downstairs. Jon and Brad gave me a gag gift just before the cab came, which of course made me start crying. This made Meris, Charity, Sophie, even Bee and Brad cry, too. We're all messes! Brad, in his loyal fashion, drove with me to the airport, which is no small feat since it's a 45-minute drive. I was really thankful that he offered to do that, because it would have been a lonely drive otherwise. He's been such a good friend to me this semester.
Once I was off to Israel I started sobbing, which made the man sitting next to me pretty uncomfortable. Soon enough, though, I fell asleep, only to wake up every so often to a meal placed on the tray in front of me.
Even though my flight was 45 minutes late, Elana was waiting for me at the Tel Aviv airport, and I found her with no trouble. What a comforting face to see! I missed her so much. I've had no trouble with luggage or customs thus far, and I'm now in Haifa, in the northern region of the country. The only thing that has popped out at me has been the hoards of soldiers, the most conspicuous of which to me are the females. Elana pointed out their giant guns (which I was somehow oblivious to) but told me they're not loaded. (Then why...?) Now I'm just settling in and eating falafel and a wonderful chocolate with Pop Rocks in it, and we're going to visit the Ba'hai Gardens this afternoon. Her boyfriend came over to meet me and brought along with him olives and cheese for snacks. He's a very bubbly person, and tomorrow he's going to spend the day with me and Elana (he's in the army and only gets one day off a week). He tells me he's going to lecture me with all sorts of information about the country.
I already miss Thailand, and more than that I miss the people I became friends with there. It's cool to have friends all over the country and the world now, and I'm looking forward to Andy's birthday, four weeks from now in Las Vegas. This won't be the end of my blog, but Seewatdeeka Thailand!
Love,
Abby
p.s. I got my hair cut really short. Think Carrie from Season five of Sex and the City.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Finals in Thailand
I love Thailand, and more than that, I love Thammasat. We have finals this week. Back at home this means cramped libraries, 24-hour coffee houses, and a sense of panic erupting from every bleary-eyed student who discovers the school printers are malfunctioning.
I didn't expect the same from Thammasat. That's fair to say. But when Jon and I headed to school today to photocopy our accounting course packs, what I really did not expect was for the campus to be empty. Cafeteria closed. Libraries locked. Lights off. It was a ghost town.
We were in such disbelief we just roamed the dark hallways, laughing to ourselves at the absurdity, and appreciating possibly the greatest cultural difference - at least the most surprising - we've encountered in this country.
I'm close to being done with school. I've finished with two classes and have two more to go. The last one will be the worst - three hours of grueling management essays - but it's the one class I have a very good shot at getting an A in. I got an 82 on the midterm, not great by UT standards, but that was the highest grade in the class! Must be some massive curving going on. In my other classes, since we don't get grades back, I honestly have no idea how I'm doing. That took me a long time to get used to, it really did. Thailand is no place for someone who likes to calculate grades.
With the wrap-up of school also comes the wrap-up of everyone's time here. Alex already left, and Lilly is effectively leaving tonight. (She's actually staying the summer, but tonight was the last time most of us will get to see her, since she's visiting Cambodia in the morning.) I, like Meris and most of us, am getting pretty depressed about leaving. It doesn't help to count down our time, either, which I can't seem to stop myself from doing. "But we only have x amount of days left," seems to be the phrase of the week. I wake up sad and don't know why, and then I think about going back and I remember. It just sucks.
Mai pben rai, I know I'll be back, and hopefully soon enough to experience the same Thailand I did while I was here. In the meantime I should get excited about fusion sushi, Tex-mex, and finally getting to hug my little brother.
I didn't expect the same from Thammasat. That's fair to say. But when Jon and I headed to school today to photocopy our accounting course packs, what I really did not expect was for the campus to be empty. Cafeteria closed. Libraries locked. Lights off. It was a ghost town.
We were in such disbelief we just roamed the dark hallways, laughing to ourselves at the absurdity, and appreciating possibly the greatest cultural difference - at least the most surprising - we've encountered in this country.
I'm close to being done with school. I've finished with two classes and have two more to go. The last one will be the worst - three hours of grueling management essays - but it's the one class I have a very good shot at getting an A in. I got an 82 on the midterm, not great by UT standards, but that was the highest grade in the class! Must be some massive curving going on. In my other classes, since we don't get grades back, I honestly have no idea how I'm doing. That took me a long time to get used to, it really did. Thailand is no place for someone who likes to calculate grades.
With the wrap-up of school also comes the wrap-up of everyone's time here. Alex already left, and Lilly is effectively leaving tonight. (She's actually staying the summer, but tonight was the last time most of us will get to see her, since she's visiting Cambodia in the morning.) I, like Meris and most of us, am getting pretty depressed about leaving. It doesn't help to count down our time, either, which I can't seem to stop myself from doing. "But we only have x amount of days left," seems to be the phrase of the week. I wake up sad and don't know why, and then I think about going back and I remember. It just sucks.
Mai pben rai, I know I'll be back, and hopefully soon enough to experience the same Thailand I did while I was here. In the meantime I should get excited about fusion sushi, Tex-mex, and finally getting to hug my little brother.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Out of Country
I've spent the most amazingly idle two days, and I feel wonderful for it. After almost three weeks away from Bangkok, I was aching for the city and its smells of Thai food.
Now, after a lazy day of computer-ing myself to death, I'm wide awake because Daddy is coming! He's never been to Asia before, and I hope he likes it. My landlord Justin said Daddy could stay in an unused condo and pay by the night, that way he'll be just a few floors away from me and have an entire apartment to himself for 700 baht a night. I had a lot of fun shopping for it today and preparing the condo with fruit, water, cereal, milk, and most importantly instant coffee... I'm determined that he stay awake tomorrow. I at least want him to make it through dinner at Chotr Chitl. Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about the eggplant salad, beef and pumpkin curry, and crispy noodles we'll eat. Not to mention my favorite dessert stand of thick, buttered bread topped with chocolate and coconut cream.
Friday we're registered for a cooking class at Mai Kaidee, a famous vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok. I've been waiting for Daddy to come to take the class with me, that way he can make me all the recipes when I'm in Houston. :) Saturday we're off to Phi Phi Island, sight of Leonardo Dicaprio's The Beach. We don't have return tickets so we'll stay however long we want before heading back to Bangkok, where I may make him do the floating market and tiger temple one day. We were supposed to go to Chiang Mai as well, but I was there twice in the past three weeks and went on one of the famous treks, but am too unimpressed to subject my dad to another flight and hotel.
Speaking of trekking, I'll move backwards through time. I just got back from Chiang Mai to celebrate Songkran, or the new year. (By the way, happy 2551!) I stayed for three days, one of which I did an all-day trek in the countryside packed with activities:
1. We visited a butterfly museum and orchid farm. I really like the orchid farm, but all the butterflies had torn wings. I wondered what little kids had been grabbing at them.
2. I finally rode an elephant. That part was fun, because Jake (who I went with) and I got the biggest elephant, and he kept venturing off the trail to grab huge piles of bushes to eat. A highlight of my whole time in Thailand was when I dropped my lens cap. I figured it was a lost cause trying to get it, seeing as I was about 10 feet up on this giant animal, but the elephant at my back actually stopped, picked the lens cap up, and handed it over.
For that I will always have respect for Thailand's national animal.
As good and fun as that was, though, I was uncomfortable on the elephants. Our guide used a tool shaped like a curved pick to get the elephant to cooperate, and though I admit I'm not elephant expert, none of them looked very healthy. (Big has got to be good, though, and my elephant was big.)
3. My least favorite part of being a tourist in Thailand was visiting the Karen tribes. They're famous for their long necks, which you may have seen in National Geographic-esque pictures. I almost felt sick while walking through the "village" set up for us. Yes, the Karen tribe may actually live there, but our guide explained to us that these are not Thai people, and they are given almost no status by the Thai government. The Karen tribe is native to Burma, where they were persecuted and forced to leave. They are refugees in Thailand, and the only reason the Thai government lets them stay is to attract tourists like me, willing to pay 1,000 baht to see them as part of a day's adventure. It's gross.
The worst part was that, as tourists, we were expected to take pictures of them and with them, like a zoo. I couldn't do that, but I did buy some of the beautiful scarves they made, with two in mind to give Stephanie and Elana. The first (and possibly only) souvenirs I've bought or will buy here.
When I bought them, the Karen tribe members and I spoke broken Thai to each other. (Most rural villagers, even native Thais, speak dialects of Thai.) They didn't seem particularly unhappy, but as I was in contact with them for less than an hour, I'm in no position to assess their happiness. (Or their misery, for that matter.)
4. The best part of the day was white-water rafting, if you can call it that. Thailand is now in its dry season, and because of that we spent most of the time bouncing around in the raft, throwing all our weight to one side or another, and with the help of our guide making it over the rocks. When we came to white-water actually deep enough for us to get over easily, though, what a trip! I loved that part, and it inspired me to try to make a rafting trip when I get home.
The Songkran holiday turned the banks of the river into a celebration reminiscent of the 4th of July, complete with picnics on the bank, Thai barbecuing, and plenty of Thais in and around the water. The original tradition during Songkran was to sprinkle water on people as a blessing. This tradition has now developed into a crazy mass of people pouring, dumping, splashing and squirting water - often cooled with ice - on anyone and everyone. Chiang Mai was a positive war zone, and the river was no different. As we made it down, our comical raft and the fact that we were a bunch of farang in it (the Thais must have been thinking how silly the things are that farang pay for) made us the targets of plenty of splashing, and even the subject of pictures. I swear, more Thais have pictures of me from that day than I do.
5. We ended the day with a slow bamboo raft down the smooth part of the river. Nondescript.
Like I said, Chiang Mai was a war zone for the entire holiday, which lasted from Saturday, when we got there, to today, Wednesday. No one was really sure when the actual change of year took place. Like I said, I stayed for three days, one of which was spent trekking, and by the end of the third day I was more than ready to leave. Splashing people and getting soaked in your clothes (inappropriate to wear just a bathing suit around town) is fun for while the sun is at its height, but around 4 p.m. the sun loses its strength and I begin to feel like I'm coming down with pneumonia. I'm also pretty sure everyone got diarrhea from swimming, splashing and peeing in the canal surrounding the "old city" of Chiang Mai, where most of the action took place. I definitely drank more water than I cared to.
View of Songkran at the end of the day (when it had died down a lot) from inside a car:
Backing up a little more, I had exactly one night between Chiang Mai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was... intense. To preface my impression of it, I'll say that I lost my passport on the first night and got a bad stomach bug (that lasted) by the second night. I know. I've dealt with it.
The two things that stand out to me the most about Hong Kong are the subways, which I feel like I spent most of my trip riding, and which I actually really liked for ease of use, and the go! go! go! atmosphere. I really didn't like that. I'm sure it was because of my stomach bug, and also my life in Thailand, which is so opposite of go-go-go (Thai people are infamous for walking very... slowly...), I just wasn't used to it at all. I was literally pushed around every day, and told to stand up when I sat down on the steps of my hostel. The security guards where I was staying liked it better if I at least looked like I was going somewhere soon.
Marney on the subway:
It is beautiful, though, in a very different way than Thailand. The buildings go on forever, and they're all tall. They're also set against the harbor, very reminiscent of Vancouver.
Victoria Peak overlooking the city:
Still atop Victoria Peak. This picture reminds me of paintings of Mt. Fuji:
It's embarrassing how little I remember from my trip. When I talked to Mommy on Skype the other day she asked me about it, and all I could say was that I shopped a lot and threw up at Ocean Park, one of HK's theme parks. (I threw up because of my stomach virus right off one of the roller coasters. I turned around to see the stricken faces of the impending ride-goers.) I'll have to consult Meris's blog to figure out exactly what we did. And for the record, HK police found my passport. Phew!
To back up one last time, I had a day in Bangkok between the Gibbons Experience and Hong Kong. Now, the Gibbons Experience was just that, a true experience. I started my trip with a solo journey to Chiang Mai (which scared the pants off my mother). There I visited Wat Doi Suthep, a temple that overlooks the city. It was fine, and I got blessed by a monk, so all was well:
I also had a very solitary dinner:
I was thankful when Andy joined me. I think traveling alone is very emotionally rocky, and I was only alone for a day.
Laos is possibly the only country in the world slower and happier than Thailand. Everyone I met there was very friendly, and spoke so quietly I had to resign to pretending to be able to hear them. (Damn American ears, only attuned to loudness.)
The Bokeo National Reserve, where we spent three days hiking through the jungle, was breathtaking. (I should have trekked through Chiang Mai first, because going through Bokeo dwarfs the natural beauty of most other places.) We spent most of the time hiking the steep ups and downs of the forest, and about every 45 minutes we would get to zip line 200 meters high, and sometimes for as long as 700 meters, from treetop to treetop. I didn't take any pictures that could capture how amazing it was.
The best part was getting to know the other members of our group. We were eight in total, a melting pot of travelers from all over the world. Four of us were venturing solo, and as usual I enjoyed hearing those stories the most, fantasizing that I, too, would be in their shoes soon. (I need to get some money and some guts first.)
On the last morning we woke up early and zipped out of our treehouse into the darkness. It was 5 a.m.; the sounds were the best. We hiked through the reserve to where we could hear the gibbons sing, and as we went I noticed that the forest was much more alive in the early morning. In the heat of the day nothing stirs, but before 6 a.m. there's a general rustling and singing throughout. We made it just in time to hear the gibbons, and no more than 10 minutes after we arrived (around 6 a.m.), they stopped singing.
We didn't make it unscathed, either. Garth, Amanda and Rotem all got leeches. I'm very happy to say that I didn't, although on the first night I awoke to a rat crawling on me. Who knew that rats could climb so high?
So sigh, I'm back in Bangkok now, and very happy for it. I'm settled in with my air-con (gee whiz, the Europeans are rubbing off on me) and my wireless, and at 4:30 a.m., it's time to sleep.
Now, after a lazy day of computer-ing myself to death, I'm wide awake because Daddy is coming! He's never been to Asia before, and I hope he likes it. My landlord Justin said Daddy could stay in an unused condo and pay by the night, that way he'll be just a few floors away from me and have an entire apartment to himself for 700 baht a night. I had a lot of fun shopping for it today and preparing the condo with fruit, water, cereal, milk, and most importantly instant coffee... I'm determined that he stay awake tomorrow. I at least want him to make it through dinner at Chotr Chitl. Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about the eggplant salad, beef and pumpkin curry, and crispy noodles we'll eat. Not to mention my favorite dessert stand of thick, buttered bread topped with chocolate and coconut cream.
Friday we're registered for a cooking class at Mai Kaidee, a famous vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok. I've been waiting for Daddy to come to take the class with me, that way he can make me all the recipes when I'm in Houston. :) Saturday we're off to Phi Phi Island, sight of Leonardo Dicaprio's The Beach. We don't have return tickets so we'll stay however long we want before heading back to Bangkok, where I may make him do the floating market and tiger temple one day. We were supposed to go to Chiang Mai as well, but I was there twice in the past three weeks and went on one of the famous treks, but am too unimpressed to subject my dad to another flight and hotel.
Speaking of trekking, I'll move backwards through time. I just got back from Chiang Mai to celebrate Songkran, or the new year. (By the way, happy 2551!) I stayed for three days, one of which I did an all-day trek in the countryside packed with activities:
1. We visited a butterfly museum and orchid farm. I really like the orchid farm, but all the butterflies had torn wings. I wondered what little kids had been grabbing at them.
2. I finally rode an elephant. That part was fun, because Jake (who I went with) and I got the biggest elephant, and he kept venturing off the trail to grab huge piles of bushes to eat. A highlight of my whole time in Thailand was when I dropped my lens cap. I figured it was a lost cause trying to get it, seeing as I was about 10 feet up on this giant animal, but the elephant at my back actually stopped, picked the lens cap up, and handed it over.
For that I will always have respect for Thailand's national animal.
As good and fun as that was, though, I was uncomfortable on the elephants. Our guide used a tool shaped like a curved pick to get the elephant to cooperate, and though I admit I'm not elephant expert, none of them looked very healthy. (Big has got to be good, though, and my elephant was big.)
3. My least favorite part of being a tourist in Thailand was visiting the Karen tribes. They're famous for their long necks, which you may have seen in National Geographic-esque pictures. I almost felt sick while walking through the "village" set up for us. Yes, the Karen tribe may actually live there, but our guide explained to us that these are not Thai people, and they are given almost no status by the Thai government. The Karen tribe is native to Burma, where they were persecuted and forced to leave. They are refugees in Thailand, and the only reason the Thai government lets them stay is to attract tourists like me, willing to pay 1,000 baht to see them as part of a day's adventure. It's gross.
The worst part was that, as tourists, we were expected to take pictures of them and with them, like a zoo. I couldn't do that, but I did buy some of the beautiful scarves they made, with two in mind to give Stephanie and Elana. The first (and possibly only) souvenirs I've bought or will buy here.
When I bought them, the Karen tribe members and I spoke broken Thai to each other. (Most rural villagers, even native Thais, speak dialects of Thai.) They didn't seem particularly unhappy, but as I was in contact with them for less than an hour, I'm in no position to assess their happiness. (Or their misery, for that matter.)
4. The best part of the day was white-water rafting, if you can call it that. Thailand is now in its dry season, and because of that we spent most of the time bouncing around in the raft, throwing all our weight to one side or another, and with the help of our guide making it over the rocks. When we came to white-water actually deep enough for us to get over easily, though, what a trip! I loved that part, and it inspired me to try to make a rafting trip when I get home.
The Songkran holiday turned the banks of the river into a celebration reminiscent of the 4th of July, complete with picnics on the bank, Thai barbecuing, and plenty of Thais in and around the water. The original tradition during Songkran was to sprinkle water on people as a blessing. This tradition has now developed into a crazy mass of people pouring, dumping, splashing and squirting water - often cooled with ice - on anyone and everyone. Chiang Mai was a positive war zone, and the river was no different. As we made it down, our comical raft and the fact that we were a bunch of farang in it (the Thais must have been thinking how silly the things are that farang pay for) made us the targets of plenty of splashing, and even the subject of pictures. I swear, more Thais have pictures of me from that day than I do.
5. We ended the day with a slow bamboo raft down the smooth part of the river. Nondescript.
Like I said, Chiang Mai was a war zone for the entire holiday, which lasted from Saturday, when we got there, to today, Wednesday. No one was really sure when the actual change of year took place. Like I said, I stayed for three days, one of which was spent trekking, and by the end of the third day I was more than ready to leave. Splashing people and getting soaked in your clothes (inappropriate to wear just a bathing suit around town) is fun for while the sun is at its height, but around 4 p.m. the sun loses its strength and I begin to feel like I'm coming down with pneumonia. I'm also pretty sure everyone got diarrhea from swimming, splashing and peeing in the canal surrounding the "old city" of Chiang Mai, where most of the action took place. I definitely drank more water than I cared to.
View of Songkran at the end of the day (when it had died down a lot) from inside a car:
Backing up a little more, I had exactly one night between Chiang Mai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was... intense. To preface my impression of it, I'll say that I lost my passport on the first night and got a bad stomach bug (that lasted) by the second night. I know. I've dealt with it.
The two things that stand out to me the most about Hong Kong are the subways, which I feel like I spent most of my trip riding, and which I actually really liked for ease of use, and the go! go! go! atmosphere. I really didn't like that. I'm sure it was because of my stomach bug, and also my life in Thailand, which is so opposite of go-go-go (Thai people are infamous for walking very... slowly...), I just wasn't used to it at all. I was literally pushed around every day, and told to stand up when I sat down on the steps of my hostel. The security guards where I was staying liked it better if I at least looked like I was going somewhere soon.
Marney on the subway:
It is beautiful, though, in a very different way than Thailand. The buildings go on forever, and they're all tall. They're also set against the harbor, very reminiscent of Vancouver.
Victoria Peak overlooking the city:
Still atop Victoria Peak. This picture reminds me of paintings of Mt. Fuji:
It's embarrassing how little I remember from my trip. When I talked to Mommy on Skype the other day she asked me about it, and all I could say was that I shopped a lot and threw up at Ocean Park, one of HK's theme parks. (I threw up because of my stomach virus right off one of the roller coasters. I turned around to see the stricken faces of the impending ride-goers.) I'll have to consult Meris's blog to figure out exactly what we did. And for the record, HK police found my passport. Phew!
To back up one last time, I had a day in Bangkok between the Gibbons Experience and Hong Kong. Now, the Gibbons Experience was just that, a true experience. I started my trip with a solo journey to Chiang Mai (which scared the pants off my mother). There I visited Wat Doi Suthep, a temple that overlooks the city. It was fine, and I got blessed by a monk, so all was well:
I also had a very solitary dinner:
I was thankful when Andy joined me. I think traveling alone is very emotionally rocky, and I was only alone for a day.
Laos is possibly the only country in the world slower and happier than Thailand. Everyone I met there was very friendly, and spoke so quietly I had to resign to pretending to be able to hear them. (Damn American ears, only attuned to loudness.)
The Bokeo National Reserve, where we spent three days hiking through the jungle, was breathtaking. (I should have trekked through Chiang Mai first, because going through Bokeo dwarfs the natural beauty of most other places.) We spent most of the time hiking the steep ups and downs of the forest, and about every 45 minutes we would get to zip line 200 meters high, and sometimes for as long as 700 meters, from treetop to treetop. I didn't take any pictures that could capture how amazing it was.
The best part was getting to know the other members of our group. We were eight in total, a melting pot of travelers from all over the world. Four of us were venturing solo, and as usual I enjoyed hearing those stories the most, fantasizing that I, too, would be in their shoes soon. (I need to get some money and some guts first.)
On the last morning we woke up early and zipped out of our treehouse into the darkness. It was 5 a.m.; the sounds were the best. We hiked through the reserve to where we could hear the gibbons sing, and as we went I noticed that the forest was much more alive in the early morning. In the heat of the day nothing stirs, but before 6 a.m. there's a general rustling and singing throughout. We made it just in time to hear the gibbons, and no more than 10 minutes after we arrived (around 6 a.m.), they stopped singing.
We didn't make it unscathed, either. Garth, Amanda and Rotem all got leeches. I'm very happy to say that I didn't, although on the first night I awoke to a rat crawling on me. Who knew that rats could climb so high?
So sigh, I'm back in Bangkok now, and very happy for it. I'm settled in with my air-con (gee whiz, the Europeans are rubbing off on me) and my wireless, and at 4:30 a.m., it's time to sleep.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Full Moon, Ayutthaya Stories
I have one Thai friend named Warren (his English nickname) who took me and a few others to his house in Ayutthaya a few weeks ago, and it was one of my best experiences here. We got to see what his house was really like, which is VERY different from American homes. All the "stuff," like tons of clothes and just the general knickknacks and everything that accumulates in a house is on the bottom floor, which is separated into a large dining/living room, a family room, and a kitchen. Even though they're separate rooms, the doorways to the other rooms are large and do not have doors, so the whole thing is pretty open. There's also a bathroom downstairs that we used to wash our feet (not hands) before dinner.
Upstairs is more remarkable. When you land at the top you land in a small, completely wooden room off of the main room. The main room is an exact square with no furniture in it. Instead, there are glass cases displaying family heirlooms, the same way a US house might display nice dishes or something. Hard wood floors and hard wood paneled walls, in which there are doors, but because they're the same panels as the rest of the walls, the doors are only distinguishable by very small handles. Usually the doors are all kept shut, too, so by just standing in the room and looking around, you can't tell where to go. Off of that room are the bedrooms, which have a little more to them than the main room, but are still very spare.
When we stayed there we got to eat Warren's mom's cooking, by far the best Thai food I've had so far, and in the morning we woke up early to feed, or pay alms, to the monks in the town. The least touristy thing I've done yet and it was amazing.
Lilly giving breakfast to the monks at around 7 a.m.:
This afternoon I'm heading out of Bangkok to do my "Visa run," which means I have to leave and come back before I've been here for 90 days. (I can't believe I've been here that long.) I'm traveling alone by train to Chiang Mai, where I'll spend a day exploring the city before I'll meet my friend Andy. From there we'll travel together to Laos to do the "Gibbons Experience," this program in which we're going to have a guided, three-day tour of the Laos jungle, zip-lining through it and sleeping in tree houses, then hiking during the day. It sounds amazing! I'm so excited.
Now, about last weekend.
I finally made it to a full moon party, this time with Ray, who visited me over spring break. WELL, the night before the full moon party we were all down on Haad Rin, the beach where the action takes place, and my friend Jake and I got separated from everyone. That really sucked, because our hostel was way up in the jungle, and the least the song teow drivers would charge us was 200 baht each to drive us there. By this time, though, it was 3 a.m. anyway and we were tired, so we sucked it up. Unfortunately, however, our driver only told us he knew where our hostel was; he actually didn't. We didn't know this, though, until we were driving in circles deep in the jungle. After 45 minutes of trying to figure out with the driver where we were, and having no resources except baht (I didn't have my phone with me, Jake's was dead, and the driver had no baht on his) we decided we weren't getting anywhere and we just wanted to go back to Haad Rin. But he wouldn't take us there. He wanted to find J. Seaview, even if it took all night.
We had seen a 7/11 about a half a mile back on the rode we were driving on, so we hopped out the back while the song teow was going slowly and started walking. The driver drove off not having noticed, but turned around and headed back when he did. He started yelling at us, demanding that we pay him 400 baht. It was a terrible situation for all of us. He had wasted his gas trying to get us to the hostel (but had lied about knowing where it was), and we were stuck in the jungle. He kept yelling, "You pay! You pay! 400 baht! 400 baht!" And we kept saying, "No, no, we're in the jungle, we don't know where we are." We tried giving him 100 baht but he kept demanding all of it. The problem was, we didn't have that much cash on us, and if we were going to have to pay another driver and/or for a guesthouse (provided we could find one), we couldn't pay him 400 baht. But he just kept yelling, which terrified me, because it's so uncharacteristic of Thais to yell.
At one point he got out of the truck. When he did that, even though he was a little guy, I was scared. I thought he might have a weapon, like a knife. I frantically pulled another 100 baht out of Jake's pockets and walked up to him. This time I was the one yelling, "Here! Here's another 100 baht, because you're scaring us! You get this money because you dropped us off in the middle of the jungle and you're frightening me!!" I was furious, and grabbed Jake's hand to walk away. We walked kind of quickly and the driver got back into his car to drive away. When he did that, though, he had to pass us, and I was genuinely afraid he would hit us, so Jake and I stepped off the road and into the jungle a bit.
He didn't hit us, though, and we walked slowly through the darkness back to the always trusty 7/11. There we tried to ask the workers where we were, but it was obvious they both didn't know and couldn't speak English to tell us. By this time is was at least 4 a.m., and I was desperately tired. There were two Brazilians in the 7/11 who could speak English and knew where we were, but it turned out to still be very far from J. Seaview. They were very nice, though, grabbing munchies from the 7/11, and in my desperate state I asked them where they were staying and whether there were any bungalows left. They drove us on their motorbikes to their bungalows on the beach, (the whole time me telling my driver to go slowly, 34 people died on this island during full moon two months ago), and Jake and I grabbed a bungalow and finally got the sleep we each needed so badly. We paid in the morning and it was only 200 baht!
Don't let this story scare you, although I'm sure if you're my parents it will. I want to relate my real experiences here. The Thailand I've seen is a very safe place, but it gets a little rough when all the tourists gather together like at the full moon party. And I'm not going back to Koh Phangan.
Upstairs is more remarkable. When you land at the top you land in a small, completely wooden room off of the main room. The main room is an exact square with no furniture in it. Instead, there are glass cases displaying family heirlooms, the same way a US house might display nice dishes or something. Hard wood floors and hard wood paneled walls, in which there are doors, but because they're the same panels as the rest of the walls, the doors are only distinguishable by very small handles. Usually the doors are all kept shut, too, so by just standing in the room and looking around, you can't tell where to go. Off of that room are the bedrooms, which have a little more to them than the main room, but are still very spare.
When we stayed there we got to eat Warren's mom's cooking, by far the best Thai food I've had so far, and in the morning we woke up early to feed, or pay alms, to the monks in the town. The least touristy thing I've done yet and it was amazing.
Lilly giving breakfast to the monks at around 7 a.m.:
This afternoon I'm heading out of Bangkok to do my "Visa run," which means I have to leave and come back before I've been here for 90 days. (I can't believe I've been here that long.) I'm traveling alone by train to Chiang Mai, where I'll spend a day exploring the city before I'll meet my friend Andy. From there we'll travel together to Laos to do the "Gibbons Experience," this program in which we're going to have a guided, three-day tour of the Laos jungle, zip-lining through it and sleeping in tree houses, then hiking during the day. It sounds amazing! I'm so excited.
Now, about last weekend.
I finally made it to a full moon party, this time with Ray, who visited me over spring break. WELL, the night before the full moon party we were all down on Haad Rin, the beach where the action takes place, and my friend Jake and I got separated from everyone. That really sucked, because our hostel was way up in the jungle, and the least the song teow drivers would charge us was 200 baht each to drive us there. By this time, though, it was 3 a.m. anyway and we were tired, so we sucked it up. Unfortunately, however, our driver only told us he knew where our hostel was; he actually didn't. We didn't know this, though, until we were driving in circles deep in the jungle. After 45 minutes of trying to figure out with the driver where we were, and having no resources except baht (I didn't have my phone with me, Jake's was dead, and the driver had no baht on his) we decided we weren't getting anywhere and we just wanted to go back to Haad Rin. But he wouldn't take us there. He wanted to find J. Seaview, even if it took all night.
We had seen a 7/11 about a half a mile back on the rode we were driving on, so we hopped out the back while the song teow was going slowly and started walking. The driver drove off not having noticed, but turned around and headed back when he did. He started yelling at us, demanding that we pay him 400 baht. It was a terrible situation for all of us. He had wasted his gas trying to get us to the hostel (but had lied about knowing where it was), and we were stuck in the jungle. He kept yelling, "You pay! You pay! 400 baht! 400 baht!" And we kept saying, "No, no, we're in the jungle, we don't know where we are." We tried giving him 100 baht but he kept demanding all of it. The problem was, we didn't have that much cash on us, and if we were going to have to pay another driver and/or for a guesthouse (provided we could find one), we couldn't pay him 400 baht. But he just kept yelling, which terrified me, because it's so uncharacteristic of Thais to yell.
At one point he got out of the truck. When he did that, even though he was a little guy, I was scared. I thought he might have a weapon, like a knife. I frantically pulled another 100 baht out of Jake's pockets and walked up to him. This time I was the one yelling, "Here! Here's another 100 baht, because you're scaring us! You get this money because you dropped us off in the middle of the jungle and you're frightening me!!" I was furious, and grabbed Jake's hand to walk away. We walked kind of quickly and the driver got back into his car to drive away. When he did that, though, he had to pass us, and I was genuinely afraid he would hit us, so Jake and I stepped off the road and into the jungle a bit.
He didn't hit us, though, and we walked slowly through the darkness back to the always trusty 7/11. There we tried to ask the workers where we were, but it was obvious they both didn't know and couldn't speak English to tell us. By this time is was at least 4 a.m., and I was desperately tired. There were two Brazilians in the 7/11 who could speak English and knew where we were, but it turned out to still be very far from J. Seaview. They were very nice, though, grabbing munchies from the 7/11, and in my desperate state I asked them where they were staying and whether there were any bungalows left. They drove us on their motorbikes to their bungalows on the beach, (the whole time me telling my driver to go slowly, 34 people died on this island during full moon two months ago), and Jake and I grabbed a bungalow and finally got the sleep we each needed so badly. We paid in the morning and it was only 200 baht!
Don't let this story scare you, although I'm sure if you're my parents it will. I want to relate my real experiences here. The Thailand I've seen is a very safe place, but it gets a little rough when all the tourists gather together like at the full moon party. And I'm not going back to Koh Phangan.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Trip Planning
All right! Plans are in place!
- I get back from the full moon party Saturday night, when I'm going to take Ray to a ping pong show.
-I'm going to school the whole week next week (!) and then Thursday leaving for Chiang Mai. Andy are going to hang out there for a day before we head to Laos for the "Gibbons Experience." I'm soooooooooooooo excited. For $180 we're going on a two-night three-day guided tour deep into the Laos jungle, where we'll literally ZIP LINE from tree house to tree house, take hikes to Laos waterfalls, and sleep in the tree houses at night.
- When I get back I'll spend a day in Bangkok and then head to Hong Kong for 7 days, two or three of which Meris, Marney, Dylan and I are going to try to spend in Beijing. I can't believe I'm actually visiting China. This is the one country in Asia they actually bother to teach you about in the public school system. Yikes! I'm excited.
- Get back from China on the 10th and I already have my train ticket booked for Chiang Mai for the 11th. Almost everyone in the entire exchange program is going for Songkran, the Thai new year. Want to know what Thais do to celebrate? Water fight! Water balloons and water guns everywhere in the street. About 20 of us have divided up into teams already, and we're going to spend the whole trip soaking each other.
- Should get back from Songkran and have a few days in Bangkok before Mommy and Daddy come. THEN we're flying to Phi Phi Island, where Leonardo DiCaprio's "The Beach" was filmed. From what I hear and picture's I've seen it's the landscape you think of when you think of Thailand - clear water and giant rocks jutting up from the ocean.
After all of that I actually might have to go back to school for finals. (Ugh.)
- I get back from the full moon party Saturday night, when I'm going to take Ray to a ping pong show.
-I'm going to school the whole week next week (!) and then Thursday leaving for Chiang Mai. Andy are going to hang out there for a day before we head to Laos for the "Gibbons Experience." I'm soooooooooooooo excited. For $180 we're going on a two-night three-day guided tour deep into the Laos jungle, where we'll literally ZIP LINE from tree house to tree house, take hikes to Laos waterfalls, and sleep in the tree houses at night.
- When I get back I'll spend a day in Bangkok and then head to Hong Kong for 7 days, two or three of which Meris, Marney, Dylan and I are going to try to spend in Beijing. I can't believe I'm actually visiting China. This is the one country in Asia they actually bother to teach you about in the public school system. Yikes! I'm excited.
- Get back from China on the 10th and I already have my train ticket booked for Chiang Mai for the 11th. Almost everyone in the entire exchange program is going for Songkran, the Thai new year. Want to know what Thais do to celebrate? Water fight! Water balloons and water guns everywhere in the street. About 20 of us have divided up into teams already, and we're going to spend the whole trip soaking each other.
- Should get back from Songkran and have a few days in Bangkok before Mommy and Daddy come. THEN we're flying to Phi Phi Island, where Leonardo DiCaprio's "The Beach" was filmed. From what I hear and picture's I've seen it's the landscape you think of when you think of Thailand - clear water and giant rocks jutting up from the ocean.
After all of that I actually might have to go back to school for finals. (Ugh.)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
La Princessa
Yes, still alive although I haven't posted in a while. Casey Zhang came to visit last week and Ray is here now, which means that I've spent and will spend quite some time doing the very most touristy things around Bangkok. That's okay, though, since I saved certain activities like the Grand Palace for these visits.
The Grand Palace, only a block away from Thammasat, is made up of the most beautifully ornate buildings I've ever seen (or will probably see). Each building is covered top to bottom with tiny pieces of glass, and each is smeared with gold leaf so that on both of the sunny, hot Thailand days I visited I was nearly blinded:
When Casey and I went she borrowed my school uniform and Meris' i.d. so that she could get in for free. Since the only thing Casey and Meris have in common is that they're Chinese, we weren't sure the palace guards would be fooled. We know that in the UNITED STATES if an Asian girl looks similar to another Asian girl an American probably wouldn't see the difference with a quick glance, but... we're in Asia. Fortunately, the Grand Palace guards scrutinized me much more than her anyway (although I tried to sooth them my speaking what little I know of Thai) and we got in just fine. The COOLEST part was that because we were in uniform and looked like "legit" students, we got to see where the princess is being kept.
I'm not sure if that's the word for it, actually. You see, she died on my fourth day here, January 2, but in accordance with Thai tradition the country will be in mourning at least until May. Her body is in what I think of as a beautiful stupa, although it's smaller than the kind I think of as "normal" and it's indoors. Every day, because Thammasat is so close to the Grand Palace, I see Thais walking around wearing all black, which means they are traveling to the Grand Palace to pay their respects to the princess. I've watched them come and go for so long I wanted to go, too.
Before I went to the Grand Palace (and probably because I took so long to get there, I got a lot of advice on what to do) I heard that if we - even as farang - wear our uniforms, we're allowed to pay our respects, too; as it turns out, that's true! Casey and I were a little perturbed by a sign that read "NO ENTRY" before the area of the palace we wanted to be in, but we walked in anyway, as I was informed was the correct thing to do. Even though I was in uniform and am technically not a tourist, I felt weird and a bit sneaky about the whole thing, and was glad I had Casey by my side. Even though it was her first time in Thailand, I felt like she made them question us less.
We made it through all the guards (although I nearly had a heart attack when they stopped us to tell us we needed to tuck in our shirts) and into the area where we were to be taken into see the princess. We took off our shoes in accordance with Thai respect customs and were shuttled in with about 20 other Thais, all dressed head to exposed toe in black. It was amazing. We were trying to be as stealth as possible at the back of the pack (almost impossible with my blond, curly hair) because we really didn't know what to do. When we got in a man was speaking in Thai and every now and then the Thais would bow. We were always about a second and a half late on that one. (I felt like I used to when I would go to church with a friend or a member of my extended family, and everyone in the congregation would know when to say "Amen," or "Thanks be to God," or whatever. Because I didn't grow up going to church, I was always a second late saying that sort of thing, but at least those sermons were in English. Since we were being spoken to in Thai, I had no hope.)
Eventually we all knelt toward the stupa (casket, I guess), and while we were hearing more about the princess, a guard came over to tell me I was sitting the wrong way. My feet were point back and to the left, when they needed to be pointed back and to the right. He tried to tell Casey in Thai, and when she didn't speak it back to him I was so afraid we had been caught. Instead, though, the guard was happy we were from America! As we were escorted out with the rest of the pack he asked us all about what we were doing here, and he was thrilled "we" (because Casey pretended) had chosen to study in Thailand. That's just what I love about Thais; instead of being put off that there are foreigners in their country they love it.
Even though I couldn't understand what was going on in the ceremony, and even though the casket was closed, paying my respects to the princess was one of the best experiences I've had so far in Thailand. Being with all Thais and experiencing something foreign tourists are actually restricted from seeing - especially such a solemn ceremony as it was - was pretty indescribable.
Since Ray has been here we've shopped and done the Grand Palace bit, too. We went to Bed Supperclub tonight, which is supposed to be the best club in Thailand, and I was only a little impressed. One of the rooms was very cool and was just what it sounded like - beds - but the club was smaller than any of the clubs on RCA (which are so nice they have actual live bands in the bathrooms, and in the men's bathrooms they have attendants to dish out massages... not fair). It was nice, but it wasn't the Bed Supperclub I had imagined. Tomorrow we're heading to Koh Samui, where I plan to take him to a ladyboy show, and then we'll ferry out to Koh Phangan for the full moon party the next day.
Please dear god don't let there be another election!!
The Grand Palace, only a block away from Thammasat, is made up of the most beautifully ornate buildings I've ever seen (or will probably see). Each building is covered top to bottom with tiny pieces of glass, and each is smeared with gold leaf so that on both of the sunny, hot Thailand days I visited I was nearly blinded:
When Casey and I went she borrowed my school uniform and Meris' i.d. so that she could get in for free. Since the only thing Casey and Meris have in common is that they're Chinese, we weren't sure the palace guards would be fooled. We know that in the UNITED STATES if an Asian girl looks similar to another Asian girl an American probably wouldn't see the difference with a quick glance, but... we're in Asia. Fortunately, the Grand Palace guards scrutinized me much more than her anyway (although I tried to sooth them my speaking what little I know of Thai) and we got in just fine. The COOLEST part was that because we were in uniform and looked like "legit" students, we got to see where the princess is being kept.
I'm not sure if that's the word for it, actually. You see, she died on my fourth day here, January 2, but in accordance with Thai tradition the country will be in mourning at least until May. Her body is in what I think of as a beautiful stupa, although it's smaller than the kind I think of as "normal" and it's indoors. Every day, because Thammasat is so close to the Grand Palace, I see Thais walking around wearing all black, which means they are traveling to the Grand Palace to pay their respects to the princess. I've watched them come and go for so long I wanted to go, too.
Before I went to the Grand Palace (and probably because I took so long to get there, I got a lot of advice on what to do) I heard that if we - even as farang - wear our uniforms, we're allowed to pay our respects, too; as it turns out, that's true! Casey and I were a little perturbed by a sign that read "NO ENTRY" before the area of the palace we wanted to be in, but we walked in anyway, as I was informed was the correct thing to do. Even though I was in uniform and am technically not a tourist, I felt weird and a bit sneaky about the whole thing, and was glad I had Casey by my side. Even though it was her first time in Thailand, I felt like she made them question us less.
We made it through all the guards (although I nearly had a heart attack when they stopped us to tell us we needed to tuck in our shirts) and into the area where we were to be taken into see the princess. We took off our shoes in accordance with Thai respect customs and were shuttled in with about 20 other Thais, all dressed head to exposed toe in black. It was amazing. We were trying to be as stealth as possible at the back of the pack (almost impossible with my blond, curly hair) because we really didn't know what to do. When we got in a man was speaking in Thai and every now and then the Thais would bow. We were always about a second and a half late on that one. (I felt like I used to when I would go to church with a friend or a member of my extended family, and everyone in the congregation would know when to say "Amen," or "Thanks be to God," or whatever. Because I didn't grow up going to church, I was always a second late saying that sort of thing, but at least those sermons were in English. Since we were being spoken to in Thai, I had no hope.)
Eventually we all knelt toward the stupa (casket, I guess), and while we were hearing more about the princess, a guard came over to tell me I was sitting the wrong way. My feet were point back and to the left, when they needed to be pointed back and to the right. He tried to tell Casey in Thai, and when she didn't speak it back to him I was so afraid we had been caught. Instead, though, the guard was happy we were from America! As we were escorted out with the rest of the pack he asked us all about what we were doing here, and he was thrilled "we" (because Casey pretended) had chosen to study in Thailand. That's just what I love about Thais; instead of being put off that there are foreigners in their country they love it.
Even though I couldn't understand what was going on in the ceremony, and even though the casket was closed, paying my respects to the princess was one of the best experiences I've had so far in Thailand. Being with all Thais and experiencing something foreign tourists are actually restricted from seeing - especially such a solemn ceremony as it was - was pretty indescribable.
Since Ray has been here we've shopped and done the Grand Palace bit, too. We went to Bed Supperclub tonight, which is supposed to be the best club in Thailand, and I was only a little impressed. One of the rooms was very cool and was just what it sounded like - beds - but the club was smaller than any of the clubs on RCA (which are so nice they have actual live bands in the bathrooms, and in the men's bathrooms they have attendants to dish out massages... not fair). It was nice, but it wasn't the Bed Supperclub I had imagined. Tomorrow we're heading to Koh Samui, where I plan to take him to a ladyboy show, and then we'll ferry out to Koh Phangan for the full moon party the next day.
Please dear god don't let there be another election!!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Koh Phangan and After-Thailand Plans
Sewatdeeka! Sorry it's been so long, I've had a long two weeks.
First, I went to Koh Phangan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for a week to go to a full moon party. Wikipedia it if you must. From what I hear, it's one of the biggest parties in the world, and 15,000 people pile onto this beach called Haad Rin on the south of the island to drink buckets of booze and dance all night to djs who fly in from all over the world. Should have been awesome, but I didn't get to go.
The actual full moon was on Friday so I left Tuesday night on an overnight train to arrive in Koh Phangan by Wednesday at noon. I left a little bit earlier than a lot of my friends because I had to be back a bit early, too, for a midterm Monday. The train was amazing. I went with my friends Jake, Katie, Shelley and Sophie on a sleeper, which meant that instead of the grueling bus seats I couldn't tolerate before, I got an actual bed. It was 400 percent better than the bus, especially since it was only about 200 baht, or $6, more. What a deal.
When we got to Koh Phangan we got one piece of bad news after the other. Fortunately, in the spirit of Thailand and mai pben rai and the fact that things always seem to work out, they did. First, we found out that our bungalow, which we had felt so lucky to be able to book for 12 people, was on such a secluded beach that once we got there we wouldn't be able to travel to Haad Rin... the whole point of our trip. Although beautiful, the beach our bungalow is on, Bottle Beach, is only accessible by ferry or an hour-long hike. If we had wanted to travel into Haad Rin for the night we wouldn't have been able to get back until the next day.
Once we found out about the inaccessibility of our bungalow, we followed another group of Thammasat kids to "J. Seaview," a bungalow buried deep in the jungle:
Our second piece of bad news was the that full moon party was postponed until Sunday night. Friday was an election day in Thailand, and not just on elections days, but on entire elections weekends, the king orders that it's illegal to sell alcohol. The island kept that fact mum I'm assuming so as not to dissuade any tourists from coming to the island. In fact, they probably made more money than usual because most people who came for the party on Friday stayed through Sunday.
No matter, we did as best we could and went out every night we were there. In preparation for the full moon party, the beaches were humming with people from everywhere. Neon lights lined the beach, and buckets in hand, everyone crowded in circles to watch the most talented fire spinners I've ever seen. This one guy was tossing his cord of fire probably 50 feet in the air and then catching it by the unlit tail. I told my friend Brad I felt like I was at home, but really I don't know anyone who can do that.
My favorite night was the night of the full moon, Friday night. We all hoped that something would be happening, so we painted ourselves with body paint our house-mom (the owner of the bungalow) happened to have. Kyle, one of the guys on the trip, played guitar and sang while we painted. It was really wonderful.
Meris painting me:
Other than those nights out, we spent our days lazing around the beach. Twice in a row we tried to ferry to Bottle Beach - the secluded beach on the north side of the island we had thought we would stay at - and twice we were told that the waves were too choppy for a longboat to make it. Imagine if we had stayed there! We wouldn't have been able to leave.
This is the beach we stayed at instead. Shelley catching a frisbee Jake so wisely invested in:
One of the beaches on Koh Phangan, which means "long shore" or something:
From left: Jake, Andy, Sophie, Katie, Shelley
At the risk of sounding absolutely like an ignorant American (I still am), Thailand is BIG! I never thought it was until I got here, and realized that even though a lot of countries are smaller than the US, that doesn't mean that traveling through them doesn't take a while. Traveling to the southern island in Thailand by bus or train usually takes around 17 hours, which was longer than my flight from Seattle to Taipei. And yet, I'm willing to do it every weekend, just to see all of what I won't have an opportunity to see again for a very long time.
Being here has made me realize how small the world really is. Not in terms of people (although I did meet a Thai girl, Foil, who lived in my Houston neighborhood for a year when she did an exchange in high school) but in terms of actual distance. What seemed so exotic to me before now seems possible, and I want to see them. It's got me thinking more and more about seriously doing the Peace Corps, or at the very least traveling until I go absolutely broke.
I met a girl named Shelley (in a picture above) who doesn't go to Thammasat but is staying with us here in my condo through an indirect connection. Her story (and I could get this a bit wrong) is that she was in school, not really caring about it, when she heard about couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com - check it out - is this nonprofit that links people up with other people around the world who want to travel. Basically, if you sign up for the sight I think you're obligated to offer your couch at some point (although you get to meet the person online beforehand and say if you want them to stay or not), and in exchange you're linked to thousands of people offering you their couches. So she found out about this, made an appointment with a travel agent who got her somewhere around 8 flights for close to $1200, dropped out of school and left three weeks later. She's racking up some debt, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be worth it. She just spent 4 months in Europe and will spend another four in Asia before she heads back.
The point is, this kind of travel is entirely possible. Europeans seem to understand that, and I see them goddamn everywhere. But I NEVER see Americans - how strange! I really want to break free of that cultural norm of only ever getting to see our North-American counterparts and Europe.
Thailand is incredible, for more reasons than just its full moon parties and 33 baht to the dollar exchange rate.
First, I went to Koh Phangan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for a week to go to a full moon party. Wikipedia it if you must. From what I hear, it's one of the biggest parties in the world, and 15,000 people pile onto this beach called Haad Rin on the south of the island to drink buckets of booze and dance all night to djs who fly in from all over the world. Should have been awesome, but I didn't get to go.
The actual full moon was on Friday so I left Tuesday night on an overnight train to arrive in Koh Phangan by Wednesday at noon. I left a little bit earlier than a lot of my friends because I had to be back a bit early, too, for a midterm Monday. The train was amazing. I went with my friends Jake, Katie, Shelley and Sophie on a sleeper, which meant that instead of the grueling bus seats I couldn't tolerate before, I got an actual bed. It was 400 percent better than the bus, especially since it was only about 200 baht, or $6, more. What a deal.
When we got to Koh Phangan we got one piece of bad news after the other. Fortunately, in the spirit of Thailand and mai pben rai and the fact that things always seem to work out, they did. First, we found out that our bungalow, which we had felt so lucky to be able to book for 12 people, was on such a secluded beach that once we got there we wouldn't be able to travel to Haad Rin... the whole point of our trip. Although beautiful, the beach our bungalow is on, Bottle Beach, is only accessible by ferry or an hour-long hike. If we had wanted to travel into Haad Rin for the night we wouldn't have been able to get back until the next day.
Once we found out about the inaccessibility of our bungalow, we followed another group of Thammasat kids to "J. Seaview," a bungalow buried deep in the jungle:
Our second piece of bad news was the that full moon party was postponed until Sunday night. Friday was an election day in Thailand, and not just on elections days, but on entire elections weekends, the king orders that it's illegal to sell alcohol. The island kept that fact mum I'm assuming so as not to dissuade any tourists from coming to the island. In fact, they probably made more money than usual because most people who came for the party on Friday stayed through Sunday.
No matter, we did as best we could and went out every night we were there. In preparation for the full moon party, the beaches were humming with people from everywhere. Neon lights lined the beach, and buckets in hand, everyone crowded in circles to watch the most talented fire spinners I've ever seen. This one guy was tossing his cord of fire probably 50 feet in the air and then catching it by the unlit tail. I told my friend Brad I felt like I was at home, but really I don't know anyone who can do that.
My favorite night was the night of the full moon, Friday night. We all hoped that something would be happening, so we painted ourselves with body paint our house-mom (the owner of the bungalow) happened to have. Kyle, one of the guys on the trip, played guitar and sang while we painted. It was really wonderful.
Meris painting me:
Other than those nights out, we spent our days lazing around the beach. Twice in a row we tried to ferry to Bottle Beach - the secluded beach on the north side of the island we had thought we would stay at - and twice we were told that the waves were too choppy for a longboat to make it. Imagine if we had stayed there! We wouldn't have been able to leave.
This is the beach we stayed at instead. Shelley catching a frisbee Jake so wisely invested in:
One of the beaches on Koh Phangan, which means "long shore" or something:
From left: Jake, Andy, Sophie, Katie, Shelley
At the risk of sounding absolutely like an ignorant American (I still am), Thailand is BIG! I never thought it was until I got here, and realized that even though a lot of countries are smaller than the US, that doesn't mean that traveling through them doesn't take a while. Traveling to the southern island in Thailand by bus or train usually takes around 17 hours, which was longer than my flight from Seattle to Taipei. And yet, I'm willing to do it every weekend, just to see all of what I won't have an opportunity to see again for a very long time.
Being here has made me realize how small the world really is. Not in terms of people (although I did meet a Thai girl, Foil, who lived in my Houston neighborhood for a year when she did an exchange in high school) but in terms of actual distance. What seemed so exotic to me before now seems possible, and I want to see them. It's got me thinking more and more about seriously doing the Peace Corps, or at the very least traveling until I go absolutely broke.
I met a girl named Shelley (in a picture above) who doesn't go to Thammasat but is staying with us here in my condo through an indirect connection. Her story (and I could get this a bit wrong) is that she was in school, not really caring about it, when she heard about couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com - check it out - is this nonprofit that links people up with other people around the world who want to travel. Basically, if you sign up for the sight I think you're obligated to offer your couch at some point (although you get to meet the person online beforehand and say if you want them to stay or not), and in exchange you're linked to thousands of people offering you their couches. So she found out about this, made an appointment with a travel agent who got her somewhere around 8 flights for close to $1200, dropped out of school and left three weeks later. She's racking up some debt, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be worth it. She just spent 4 months in Europe and will spend another four in Asia before she heads back.
The point is, this kind of travel is entirely possible. Europeans seem to understand that, and I see them goddamn everywhere. But I NEVER see Americans - how strange! I really want to break free of that cultural norm of only ever getting to see our North-American counterparts and Europe.
Thailand is incredible, for more reasons than just its full moon parties and 33 baht to the dollar exchange rate.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Nung, Sang, Saam, See, Ha, Hok, Jet, Pbet, Cow, Sip...
I learned my Thai numbers today! This is a big step, because now I'll be better able to bargain... I can at least pretend I know a little more Thai than I do. I can't believe I went this long without learning them.
Spending another weekend in Bangkok, but this time just because I'm heading out to Koh Phangan Tuesday for the full moon party Friday night. This time I'm traveling by train in a sleeper, thank god... it's twice as much, but I think it's be four times as worth it. Meris also got me a backpacker's backpack for 200 baht ($6), so I don't have to travel quite as lightly as usual! Today is an optimistic day.
Spending another weekend in Bangkok, but this time just because I'm heading out to Koh Phangan Tuesday for the full moon party Friday night. This time I'm traveling by train in a sleeper, thank god... it's twice as much, but I think it's be four times as worth it. Meris also got me a backpacker's backpack for 200 baht ($6), so I don't have to travel quite as lightly as usual! Today is an optimistic day.
Monday, February 11, 2008
First Bangkok Weekend
I finally stayed in Bangkok for a weekend. Thursday was Chinese New Year (happy year of the rat!) and, in a twisted coincidence, I saw my first Thai rats. Meris, her friend Fernando, Charity and I all walked around Chinatown for a while before holing up in a Chinese restaurant. We were all exhausted - made more so by our many courses of dim sum - so we didn't ask for the check for nearly three hours. (In Thailand, I've found, you have to be the one to take that initiative. It's not like in America, where the server practically pushes you out the door once you've taken your last bite.) When we got out we realized it had been raining. I have no idea for how long or how hard, because by then the rain had stopped, but the streets were positively flooded. I'm really surprised, because Thailand has a monsoon season (that I fortunately get to miss), and I would think the drainage system would be more adequate than this:
As we walked along what little was left of the sidewalk, we soon discovered that the flooding had driven thousands of cockroaches and rats out of their homes, and they were now walking right alongside us. They were almost impossible to avoid because the sidewalks were so crowded, and Fernando even had a roach crawl up the back of his leg. Ew! I kept thinking they would slide off the awnings and into my hair. Needless to say, the crowds were dissipating, and we left.
Meris, before the rain with Chinese New Year noisemaker:
Friday I finally did my first touristy Bangkok thing and went to Wat Pho, a temple that's so close it's pathetic that it took me six weeks to get there. It was absolutely stunning. In one of the rooms is a golden statue of a reclining Buddha who is actually so big he's impossible to view all at once:
To give some perspective:
To be honest, that part was a little touristy, even though we went at practically closing time, but it was so beautiful I don't even care.
The other parts of the temple were my favorite. One room had a much smaller Buddha, but was actually being used by monks to worship. They were all sitting before the Buddha, chanting in unison. It was so relaxing. This might sound silly, but when I was in there, just kneeling and listening to the monks chant, I felt really at ease. I think I'm going to go back and let sitting there be a stress aid for me. (Not that I think Thailand, land of smiles, will ever get stressful.)
That night we found out about a modern dance show performed in a park near Thammasat, so we headed that way. We put bets on when the show would actually start (supposed to start at 7 p.m., but taking Thai time into account). I think it actually started about 45 minutes late. It was a perfect, breezy night. Afterwards I took a break from going out and got a Thai massage instead. I have been really scared of getting them. Thai massages are supposed to really work your joints and muscles, and can really hurt, but after the awful 11-hour bus rides to and from Koh Samui, my muscles had never fully recovered, so I was ready to be pulled and prodded. As it turns out, it was nothing except a bit more vigorous normal massage, and I think that's the sort of massage I'm going to get all the time now. (Muahaha, that's right, all the time; they only cost $10.)
Modern dance show:
The next day, Saturday, everyone left for the Tiger Temple. Since I had already gone I opted out and went to the JJ market, aka the Chatachuk Weekend Market, that has the cheapest and largest selection of clothes. I had a ton of fun, and met up with two Thai friends who bargained for me (made things a lot easier). I ended up spending about $25 for three dresses and a shirt. What a cheap way to get my shopping fix! I looooove Thai prices.
That night we went to a club on Thong Lor, Santika. We got there a bit late, of course, (it's really hard to move eight people anywhere quickly), and because of that we couldn't find a spot on the floor. We headed upstairs, and spent the whole night overlooking the rest of the club. I really liked it, because we had a fantastic view of the band, and it gave us tons of room to dance. I think dancing is my favorite thing to do here, and too often I find myself stepping out of my heels to make it easier. (It's really gross the next day, when my feet are black.)
Sunday we tried so hard to get a lot done. First, dressed in our school uniforms (so that we could get in for free), we tried to get into the Grand Palace. Again, it's really lame that it took me six weeks to get there. From what I can tell, the place is beyond magnificent. When we got there, though, our Thammasat i.d.s weren't good enough because they weren't laminated, so we were turned away and told to by tickets. We opted to go another time with a Thai student, since everyone else who has done that has had no problems.
Us after we were shunned from the palace; from left we have Andy, Mat, Meris, Jake, me and Fernando:
Our next stop was this amazing Thai restaurant within walking distance from the palace. We had been there once before and really wanted to take Fernando. We walked... and walked... and walked. And when we finally found the place, in congruence with our luck of the day, it was closed.
Finally, we decided to cut our losses and check out Wat Arun, another temple down the river. We split up into two taxis. When my taxi was getting close, however, I got a call from Andy saying the temple was closed. Of course it was. We headed home, tired and really much less cranky than we should have been from all of that traveling for no reason. My taxi had a lot of trouble explaining to the driver that we were no longer going to Wat Arun, and could we please go to Pata Pinklao. He didn't understand, but in the fashion of most Thais was much too nice about it. When we finally got home he actually tried to charge us less for the taxi than it was. He thought the mistake was his. The best part is, when we later Google imaged Wat Arun, Fernando (from the taxi that said the temple was closed) told us that's not where they had been. In all likelihood, Wat Arun had been open the whole time, and Andy and Fernando had just been at the wrong place. Mai pben rai.
Lastly - and I don't know why I've failed to mention this - I've now eaten both a bug (I think it was a cricket) and dried squid. There's a video of me eating the bug, but I'm having trouble uploading it, so I'll leave you with this:
Look appetizing? It tastes like squid jerky.
As we walked along what little was left of the sidewalk, we soon discovered that the flooding had driven thousands of cockroaches and rats out of their homes, and they were now walking right alongside us. They were almost impossible to avoid because the sidewalks were so crowded, and Fernando even had a roach crawl up the back of his leg. Ew! I kept thinking they would slide off the awnings and into my hair. Needless to say, the crowds were dissipating, and we left.
Meris, before the rain with Chinese New Year noisemaker:
Friday I finally did my first touristy Bangkok thing and went to Wat Pho, a temple that's so close it's pathetic that it took me six weeks to get there. It was absolutely stunning. In one of the rooms is a golden statue of a reclining Buddha who is actually so big he's impossible to view all at once:
To give some perspective:
To be honest, that part was a little touristy, even though we went at practically closing time, but it was so beautiful I don't even care.
The other parts of the temple were my favorite. One room had a much smaller Buddha, but was actually being used by monks to worship. They were all sitting before the Buddha, chanting in unison. It was so relaxing. This might sound silly, but when I was in there, just kneeling and listening to the monks chant, I felt really at ease. I think I'm going to go back and let sitting there be a stress aid for me. (Not that I think Thailand, land of smiles, will ever get stressful.)
That night we found out about a modern dance show performed in a park near Thammasat, so we headed that way. We put bets on when the show would actually start (supposed to start at 7 p.m., but taking Thai time into account). I think it actually started about 45 minutes late. It was a perfect, breezy night. Afterwards I took a break from going out and got a Thai massage instead. I have been really scared of getting them. Thai massages are supposed to really work your joints and muscles, and can really hurt, but after the awful 11-hour bus rides to and from Koh Samui, my muscles had never fully recovered, so I was ready to be pulled and prodded. As it turns out, it was nothing except a bit more vigorous normal massage, and I think that's the sort of massage I'm going to get all the time now. (Muahaha, that's right, all the time; they only cost $10.)
Modern dance show:
The next day, Saturday, everyone left for the Tiger Temple. Since I had already gone I opted out and went to the JJ market, aka the Chatachuk Weekend Market, that has the cheapest and largest selection of clothes. I had a ton of fun, and met up with two Thai friends who bargained for me (made things a lot easier). I ended up spending about $25 for three dresses and a shirt. What a cheap way to get my shopping fix! I looooove Thai prices.
That night we went to a club on Thong Lor, Santika. We got there a bit late, of course, (it's really hard to move eight people anywhere quickly), and because of that we couldn't find a spot on the floor. We headed upstairs, and spent the whole night overlooking the rest of the club. I really liked it, because we had a fantastic view of the band, and it gave us tons of room to dance. I think dancing is my favorite thing to do here, and too often I find myself stepping out of my heels to make it easier. (It's really gross the next day, when my feet are black.)
Sunday we tried so hard to get a lot done. First, dressed in our school uniforms (so that we could get in for free), we tried to get into the Grand Palace. Again, it's really lame that it took me six weeks to get there. From what I can tell, the place is beyond magnificent. When we got there, though, our Thammasat i.d.s weren't good enough because they weren't laminated, so we were turned away and told to by tickets. We opted to go another time with a Thai student, since everyone else who has done that has had no problems.
Us after we were shunned from the palace; from left we have Andy, Mat, Meris, Jake, me and Fernando:
Our next stop was this amazing Thai restaurant within walking distance from the palace. We had been there once before and really wanted to take Fernando. We walked... and walked... and walked. And when we finally found the place, in congruence with our luck of the day, it was closed.
Finally, we decided to cut our losses and check out Wat Arun, another temple down the river. We split up into two taxis. When my taxi was getting close, however, I got a call from Andy saying the temple was closed. Of course it was. We headed home, tired and really much less cranky than we should have been from all of that traveling for no reason. My taxi had a lot of trouble explaining to the driver that we were no longer going to Wat Arun, and could we please go to Pata Pinklao. He didn't understand, but in the fashion of most Thais was much too nice about it. When we finally got home he actually tried to charge us less for the taxi than it was. He thought the mistake was his. The best part is, when we later Google imaged Wat Arun, Fernando (from the taxi that said the temple was closed) told us that's not where they had been. In all likelihood, Wat Arun had been open the whole time, and Andy and Fernando had just been at the wrong place. Mai pben rai.
Lastly - and I don't know why I've failed to mention this - I've now eaten both a bug (I think it was a cricket) and dried squid. There's a video of me eating the bug, but I'm having trouble uploading it, so I'll leave you with this:
Look appetizing? It tastes like squid jerky.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Shoutout
Thank you, Jean, for my Softly Scented Natural Choice Flushable Moist Wipes! Best present I could ask for.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Past Three Weekends
I've finally gotten enough sleep to write about the last three weeks here.
Well, they've been eventful. Three weekends ago 12 of us exchangers headed south to Pattaya. I saw a very different side of Pattaya than when I first landed in Thailand, though, because instead of staying with the Cummins in their condo I stayed in a motel. At $9 a night it was the most expensive motel I've stayed in thus far, with the exception of the very first one I stayed in when I landed in Bangkok. (But hey, you expect to get ripped off for your first few weeks in another country.) We spent the first entire night on Walking Street, Pattaya's version of Austin's 6th Street, and I didn't drink at all because everything was so expensive. I think the town is really touristy, and in all of my experiences so far, when I leave Bangkok, the prices for everything double. But I danced until 5 a.m. and had one of the best nights I've had in Thailand. The boys of our group made it even longer than I did, and I learned the next morning, when I had an incredibly hard time getting them moving, that they watched the sunrise on the beach and - how classically American - had eaten McDonald's for breakfast.
Side note: Ronald McDonald looks like this:
The next day we ferried to an island off the coast of Pattaya and spent the day in the clearest water I've seen since I went on a cruise to Mexico. It was a little crowded, but that's expected in such a touristy city so close to Bangkok. That night I introduced all 12 of my friends to the Cummins who, forever gracious, treated us to an incredible meal of lobster, jumbo prawns, fried rice, and crab at a seafood restaurant set on the water. Since we're all used to eating street food that costs a dollar or less, this was the best meal most of us have had in Thailand. I love my Thailand family so much!
Ferry to the island; from left we have Marney, Brad, Jon, Brian, Annelise, and Natalia:
The Cummins at dinner with all of us:
The weekend after I left with just three other boys for Kanchanaburi, my first trek north. North has no significance in terms of weather, though, and it was just as sweltering hot as anywhere else I've been. We spent the first night hanging out in the small town, and Brian and Jon successfully found two Danish girls to mack on. Thank goodness for Brad, who has a girlfriend, because without him, I would have been that girl who makes all her guy friends look a little more legitimate while they spend the weekend trying to hit on other girls. No thank you. Brad and I, at least, stuck together in that sense, and I actually ended up becoming friends with Christine and Julia, the two Danes. When they stop by Bangkok in March they're going to stay with me.
We had planned to go to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the river Kwai, to see the Tiger Temple, and to see a famed waterfalls nearby. We ended up accomplishing one of those tasks, because we also ended up meeting one of the most hospitable people I've ever met, a Thai biker named Saen (pronounced San). When he told us that his biker gang, Tanousri, was going to a biker gang reggae festival, we ditched our plans and spent the day with him. It was out of this world. We rented a car (that Saen drove) to drive about half an hour outside of Kanchanaburi to this festival. We were the only farang by far, which I thought was the coolest part of the experience. It truly was not a tourist event. Bikers look a little bit like I would expect them to in the United States. They wear black leather and bandanas, but they also combined their clothing with Western wear. A lot of them wore cowboy hats and boots. If that's traditional biker wear, I guess I'm out of it. We ended up staying at this concert/festival for more than seven hours, which was too long for me, but probably worth it to get to experience the weirdest part of Thailand I've seen yet.
We did, however, make it to the Tiger Temple. Here is a photo to prove it:
This past weekend we went to Koh Samui, Thailand's second largest island way the hell down south. To get there we took an 11-hour overnight bus ride (in which I slept barely a wink), another hour bus ride, and an hour ferry ride. With wait time our one-way travel took about 17 hours. Oh boy the bus ride was miserable. There was something wrong with the bathroom, and almost the entire night it emitted such a rank stench of urine that my breath was actually shortened. After about five hours of this one of the bus staff sprayed the toilet. I tried to convince him to just let me hold the spray, since I was sitting just above the bathroom, but what got translated was that I just wanted him to spray more. I laughed when he sprayed even the stairs, but I didn't stop him.
James got 10,000 baht (or $300) stolen from him because he left his bag unattended. He borrowed 8,000 more from Meris and I guess spent it, because he had to borrow 2,000 again the next day. She also had to cover his 14,000 baht medical bill when he jumped on a taxi and the taxi cab driver beat him up. James thought he had internal bleeding and checked himself into the hospital. We think he was kept in there for a bad hangover.
Prior to that, though, the beach was great!
Well, they've been eventful. Three weekends ago 12 of us exchangers headed south to Pattaya. I saw a very different side of Pattaya than when I first landed in Thailand, though, because instead of staying with the Cummins in their condo I stayed in a motel. At $9 a night it was the most expensive motel I've stayed in thus far, with the exception of the very first one I stayed in when I landed in Bangkok. (But hey, you expect to get ripped off for your first few weeks in another country.) We spent the first entire night on Walking Street, Pattaya's version of Austin's 6th Street, and I didn't drink at all because everything was so expensive. I think the town is really touristy, and in all of my experiences so far, when I leave Bangkok, the prices for everything double. But I danced until 5 a.m. and had one of the best nights I've had in Thailand. The boys of our group made it even longer than I did, and I learned the next morning, when I had an incredibly hard time getting them moving, that they watched the sunrise on the beach and - how classically American - had eaten McDonald's for breakfast.
Side note: Ronald McDonald looks like this:
The next day we ferried to an island off the coast of Pattaya and spent the day in the clearest water I've seen since I went on a cruise to Mexico. It was a little crowded, but that's expected in such a touristy city so close to Bangkok. That night I introduced all 12 of my friends to the Cummins who, forever gracious, treated us to an incredible meal of lobster, jumbo prawns, fried rice, and crab at a seafood restaurant set on the water. Since we're all used to eating street food that costs a dollar or less, this was the best meal most of us have had in Thailand. I love my Thailand family so much!
Ferry to the island; from left we have Marney, Brad, Jon, Brian, Annelise, and Natalia:
The Cummins at dinner with all of us:
The weekend after I left with just three other boys for Kanchanaburi, my first trek north. North has no significance in terms of weather, though, and it was just as sweltering hot as anywhere else I've been. We spent the first night hanging out in the small town, and Brian and Jon successfully found two Danish girls to mack on. Thank goodness for Brad, who has a girlfriend, because without him, I would have been that girl who makes all her guy friends look a little more legitimate while they spend the weekend trying to hit on other girls. No thank you. Brad and I, at least, stuck together in that sense, and I actually ended up becoming friends with Christine and Julia, the two Danes. When they stop by Bangkok in March they're going to stay with me.
We had planned to go to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the river Kwai, to see the Tiger Temple, and to see a famed waterfalls nearby. We ended up accomplishing one of those tasks, because we also ended up meeting one of the most hospitable people I've ever met, a Thai biker named Saen (pronounced San). When he told us that his biker gang, Tanousri, was going to a biker gang reggae festival, we ditched our plans and spent the day with him. It was out of this world. We rented a car (that Saen drove) to drive about half an hour outside of Kanchanaburi to this festival. We were the only farang by far, which I thought was the coolest part of the experience. It truly was not a tourist event. Bikers look a little bit like I would expect them to in the United States. They wear black leather and bandanas, but they also combined their clothing with Western wear. A lot of them wore cowboy hats and boots. If that's traditional biker wear, I guess I'm out of it. We ended up staying at this concert/festival for more than seven hours, which was too long for me, but probably worth it to get to experience the weirdest part of Thailand I've seen yet.
We did, however, make it to the Tiger Temple. Here is a photo to prove it:
This past weekend we went to Koh Samui, Thailand's second largest island way the hell down south. To get there we took an 11-hour overnight bus ride (in which I slept barely a wink), another hour bus ride, and an hour ferry ride. With wait time our one-way travel took about 17 hours. Oh boy the bus ride was miserable. There was something wrong with the bathroom, and almost the entire night it emitted such a rank stench of urine that my breath was actually shortened. After about five hours of this one of the bus staff sprayed the toilet. I tried to convince him to just let me hold the spray, since I was sitting just above the bathroom, but what got translated was that I just wanted him to spray more. I laughed when he sprayed even the stairs, but I didn't stop him.
James got 10,000 baht (or $300) stolen from him because he left his bag unattended. He borrowed 8,000 more from Meris and I guess spent it, because he had to borrow 2,000 again the next day. She also had to cover his 14,000 baht medical bill when he jumped on a taxi and the taxi cab driver beat him up. James thought he had internal bleeding and checked himself into the hospital. We think he was kept in there for a bad hangover.
Prior to that, though, the beach was great!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Foooood
Thai girls are so freaking cute! They're all very feminine, and wear heels and dangly earrings to school every day. They're also, however, really weight-obsessed. My Thammasat-assigned buddy, Yeepoon, told me that she very much wants to study in the US but is afraid it will make her fat. I laughed until I realized how serious she was. Fortunately, I don't think that's going to stop her, and I told her to live in a coop so that there are always plenty of vegetables around (which Thailand seems to lack anyway). Thai girls are also right about their skin. They like to be pale here, and they use whitening cream in lieu of tanning oil. They're so beautiful pale, though. Unlike Americans (or Western Europeans, I guess), their "pale" skin is a beautiful shade of ivory. (They don't look sick or on the verge of death like I do in the winter.)
It's bloody hot here, and it's only going to get worse during the "summer" in March and April. There was a nice wind yesterday which made me think I could wear jeans out. Wrong. I was okay until we all decided to walk off our dinners instead of taking a cab home. After 45 minutes in the Bangkok night heat, I had to positively peel my pants off when I got home.
But the meal was fantastic, and on the street I had the best dessert I've had in Thailand yet. It was a piece of thick, heavily-buttered toast with sliced banana, chocolate syrup, and - if we asked for it - a green coconut cream to top it off. Deeelicious. In fact, Meris and I liked it to much we tried to imitate the dish for ourselves last night. Mommy Meris made some for all of us.
Charity with the legendary dessert:
But let's continue to talk about food, since it's my favorite part of Thailand. Other than the banana dish, my favorite dessert is mango and sticky rice, which has coconut milk dribbled on top. Yummy. All of the fruit, but especially the pineapple, which I don't even like in the United States. I eat it every day to and from school. Mm, and the fruit juices, because they're just that: the juice of a fruit. No added sugar, no preservatives. Oh yeah! And this is something I never thought I would say. I had sushi... from KFC. That's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken makes damn good sushi. For 29 baht you can get a whole roll, unsliced and fried. It's not quite a tempura fry, but nothing else here is either, and it's not a chicken fry either. It's filled with yummy crabstick and avocado, like a california roll, and is handed to you in stick form, so you end up biting off chunks and eating with your hands.
Some of the other funny uses of food:
- Corn is always used as a dessert
- Ice cream sandwiches are literally made with bread, a la:
- I miss potatoes, bread (served on anything but ice cream), and cheese
- When I ordered "queso" at a Mexican restaurant, I was served some weird salsa with a tiny blob of mozzarella
When I originally wrote this post I was sitting in class, listening to an i-banker use his supposed excellent "communication skills" to relate fundamental analysis to us. The class is half exchange students and half Thai students, and as Brad put it, we sit on opposite sides of the room like we're players in a warped version of West Side Story. For the record, that isn't our mentality.
Next post: tigers and how I wound up at a Thai biker gang's reggae festival
It's bloody hot here, and it's only going to get worse during the "summer" in March and April. There was a nice wind yesterday which made me think I could wear jeans out. Wrong. I was okay until we all decided to walk off our dinners instead of taking a cab home. After 45 minutes in the Bangkok night heat, I had to positively peel my pants off when I got home.
But the meal was fantastic, and on the street I had the best dessert I've had in Thailand yet. It was a piece of thick, heavily-buttered toast with sliced banana, chocolate syrup, and - if we asked for it - a green coconut cream to top it off. Deeelicious. In fact, Meris and I liked it to much we tried to imitate the dish for ourselves last night. Mommy Meris made some for all of us.
Charity with the legendary dessert:
But let's continue to talk about food, since it's my favorite part of Thailand. Other than the banana dish, my favorite dessert is mango and sticky rice, which has coconut milk dribbled on top. Yummy. All of the fruit, but especially the pineapple, which I don't even like in the United States. I eat it every day to and from school. Mm, and the fruit juices, because they're just that: the juice of a fruit. No added sugar, no preservatives. Oh yeah! And this is something I never thought I would say. I had sushi... from KFC. That's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken makes damn good sushi. For 29 baht you can get a whole roll, unsliced and fried. It's not quite a tempura fry, but nothing else here is either, and it's not a chicken fry either. It's filled with yummy crabstick and avocado, like a california roll, and is handed to you in stick form, so you end up biting off chunks and eating with your hands.
Some of the other funny uses of food:
- Corn is always used as a dessert
- Ice cream sandwiches are literally made with bread, a la:
- I miss potatoes, bread (served on anything but ice cream), and cheese
- When I ordered "queso" at a Mexican restaurant, I was served some weird salsa with a tiny blob of mozzarella
When I originally wrote this post I was sitting in class, listening to an i-banker use his supposed excellent "communication skills" to relate fundamental analysis to us. The class is half exchange students and half Thai students, and as Brad put it, we sit on opposite sides of the room like we're players in a warped version of West Side Story. For the record, that isn't our mentality.
Next post: tigers and how I wound up at a Thai biker gang's reggae festival
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Movies in Thailand
Even movies are on "Thai time" here. I went to see Cloverfield yesterday (which, by the way, was the best movie I've seen in a very long time). It was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. but didn't start until 5:30. Furthermore, movie patrons weren't let in if they got there after five. This is presumably so they have to sit through a half hour of trailers and commercials? Oh yeah, and the Thai national anthem. That's played right before the movie starts, and everyone has to stand up. Throughout the entire song the video is a montage of the king's pictures, and at the very end it says, "We love the king. Long live the king." Even I'm getting brainwashed by all this king business.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Hua Hin and Prachuap Kiri Kan
Time to write again. Let me pick up where I last left off.
On four hours of sleep the BBA kids set off to Hua Hin, a beach about two and a half hours south of Bangkok. Courtesy of Thammasat and the BBA program, we were treated ridiculously well. We stayed in a five-star hotel, the Dusit, and enjoyed its gourmet buffet and private beach before we started “team-building” activities. A lot of them I had done before at LeaderShape, (yes, it’s spelled correctly), but I eat that sort of stuff up. The human spiderweb, the wooden islands, I love it all. When we were divided into teams and told to come up with a name for ourselves, how appropriate that each team came up with something alcohol-related. My team was “Singha,” which is the cheapest Thai beer, and our slogan was “smooth and fizzy.” Another one of the groups was “Happy Hour.” Beer is the major Thai cultural element that I guess we all readily identify with.
The resort we stayed at in Hua Hin:
After the games and get-to-know-yous were over we all spent the night on the beach, listening to music and truly getting to know each other this time. With the privacy of the beach we truly weren’t bothering anyone, which was nice. Something that made me laugh was that some of the other students who are not familiar with beaches panicked because the tide was low. I understand everyone’s tsunami fears, but come on. High and low tide!
The next day we visited the king’s summer home, which was my dream house. It’s technically a palace, but not ornate in the least. It’s a maze of highly polished, outdoor wooden walkways that connect small rooms (small, at least, for a palace). It’s all painted pale yellow and light aqua. Because the whole thing is on stilts, I felt like I was walking through a beautiful treehouse. It’s set on the water so it gets a nice breeze, and every room is open, so even while I was in them I felt like I was outside.
The palace:
After the palace visit the rest of the BBA group went back to Bangkok, and I stayed behind with about 10 others. We took a taxi to the city and got the first hostel that could fit all of us. It was… not nice. “Dark and gloomy” was how Lonely Planet described the hostel, and dark and gloomy it was. It also didn’t have enough rooms for us, so Marney, Meris, Charity and I decided to all share a room (one queen sized bed) for 100 baht ($3) each, but Charity got sick and threw up, so the rest of us ended up sleeping with two more people. Five to a bed was sort of fun, but every time anyone rolled over, we would all wake up and have to roll over, too.
All the girls in our 400 baht room:
The rooms locked with a padlock:
Not on the private beach anymore, Hua Hin was gross. It’s choc full of ugly Europeans who have been in the sun for too long, and when I got out of the water, a brown film was clinging to each of the hairs on my arms. Blech.
We stayed for one insect-bitten night and then did the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done before. We rented motorbikes (for $6 a day!) and left for Prachuap Kiri Kan, which according to all our travel books has a decent beach and a mountain in the middle of the town swarming with monkeys. The motorbikes were amazing. Amazing amazing amazing. I had been feeling homesick before we got on them, but once we got going that was no more. We went about 100 km/hr, which felt fast, for about 90 kilometers. And yes, I was wearing my helmet. We all were. I wish I could write more about it but I really can’t describe how I felt. Exhilerated, yes, but better than exhilarated. After the ride was over I felt a lot closer to the 6 other people on the bikes. We just kept saying to each other, “Eek! We’re alive! We’re so happy!” One of the guys I did it with (I was one of only two girls actually driving) was terrible. He weaved in and out of the road (for the most part, we stayed on the left shoulder) and would slam on his breaks at everything. If I was ever attracted to him before (not very much), I’m not at all now, haha. Oh yeah, and driving on the left side of the road was a trip. It’s actually not that bad, and I think I’m used to it now. At one point I found myself trying to remember which lane was the passing lane in the United States, and I got myself all confused.
Our newly formed biker group, from left: Bruno, Dylan, Brian, Jon, me, Meris, Brad, Natalia
The monkeys ended up being nothing special. They were really aggressive and all had a humungous tumor growing beneath their chins, which grossed me out. The town, however, was what I think of when I think of Thai beaches. Not clear water, but nicer than the water in Hua Hin, and a lot of green bluffs sit on the horizon. We motorbiked to one of them, and it was pretty incredible. Prachuap Kiri Kan is not a big tourist destination, and at both of the restaurants we went to when we were there, we ordered things that they didn’t have. (Basics, like chicken.) We should have just told them to make whatever they have, because I think we all ended up eating squid anyway. Prachuap is abundant in squid.
Marney at Prachuap Kiri Khan:
Still haven’t eaten bugs, but am now determined to tackle jellyfish. They dry it out here, which looks positively gross. I’m excited!
Last night was one of the best nights in Bangkok yet. We stayed in and made friends with a girl, Katy, who lives in the penthouse of the Rattanakosin. We spent the entire night on the roof of the whole building (38 stories high), just talking and looking at nighttime Bangkok. My friend Jake pointed out all the major buildings and temples that were lit up. I invited Justin but he couldn’t come because he’s getting over a cold. I can’t wait to hang out with him.
As I type this I’m sitting on a bench facing the river outside Thammasat’s cafeteria. It’s a nice day in Bangkok, and at 5:15 p.m. the sun is already beginning to set behind the water.
On four hours of sleep the BBA kids set off to Hua Hin, a beach about two and a half hours south of Bangkok. Courtesy of Thammasat and the BBA program, we were treated ridiculously well. We stayed in a five-star hotel, the Dusit, and enjoyed its gourmet buffet and private beach before we started “team-building” activities. A lot of them I had done before at LeaderShape, (yes, it’s spelled correctly), but I eat that sort of stuff up. The human spiderweb, the wooden islands, I love it all. When we were divided into teams and told to come up with a name for ourselves, how appropriate that each team came up with something alcohol-related. My team was “Singha,” which is the cheapest Thai beer, and our slogan was “smooth and fizzy.” Another one of the groups was “Happy Hour.” Beer is the major Thai cultural element that I guess we all readily identify with.
The resort we stayed at in Hua Hin:
After the games and get-to-know-yous were over we all spent the night on the beach, listening to music and truly getting to know each other this time. With the privacy of the beach we truly weren’t bothering anyone, which was nice. Something that made me laugh was that some of the other students who are not familiar with beaches panicked because the tide was low. I understand everyone’s tsunami fears, but come on. High and low tide!
The next day we visited the king’s summer home, which was my dream house. It’s technically a palace, but not ornate in the least. It’s a maze of highly polished, outdoor wooden walkways that connect small rooms (small, at least, for a palace). It’s all painted pale yellow and light aqua. Because the whole thing is on stilts, I felt like I was walking through a beautiful treehouse. It’s set on the water so it gets a nice breeze, and every room is open, so even while I was in them I felt like I was outside.
The palace:
After the palace visit the rest of the BBA group went back to Bangkok, and I stayed behind with about 10 others. We took a taxi to the city and got the first hostel that could fit all of us. It was… not nice. “Dark and gloomy” was how Lonely Planet described the hostel, and dark and gloomy it was. It also didn’t have enough rooms for us, so Marney, Meris, Charity and I decided to all share a room (one queen sized bed) for 100 baht ($3) each, but Charity got sick and threw up, so the rest of us ended up sleeping with two more people. Five to a bed was sort of fun, but every time anyone rolled over, we would all wake up and have to roll over, too.
All the girls in our 400 baht room:
The rooms locked with a padlock:
Not on the private beach anymore, Hua Hin was gross. It’s choc full of ugly Europeans who have been in the sun for too long, and when I got out of the water, a brown film was clinging to each of the hairs on my arms. Blech.
We stayed for one insect-bitten night and then did the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done before. We rented motorbikes (for $6 a day!) and left for Prachuap Kiri Kan, which according to all our travel books has a decent beach and a mountain in the middle of the town swarming with monkeys. The motorbikes were amazing. Amazing amazing amazing. I had been feeling homesick before we got on them, but once we got going that was no more. We went about 100 km/hr, which felt fast, for about 90 kilometers. And yes, I was wearing my helmet. We all were. I wish I could write more about it but I really can’t describe how I felt. Exhilerated, yes, but better than exhilarated. After the ride was over I felt a lot closer to the 6 other people on the bikes. We just kept saying to each other, “Eek! We’re alive! We’re so happy!” One of the guys I did it with (I was one of only two girls actually driving) was terrible. He weaved in and out of the road (for the most part, we stayed on the left shoulder) and would slam on his breaks at everything. If I was ever attracted to him before (not very much), I’m not at all now, haha. Oh yeah, and driving on the left side of the road was a trip. It’s actually not that bad, and I think I’m used to it now. At one point I found myself trying to remember which lane was the passing lane in the United States, and I got myself all confused.
Our newly formed biker group, from left: Bruno, Dylan, Brian, Jon, me, Meris, Brad, Natalia
The monkeys ended up being nothing special. They were really aggressive and all had a humungous tumor growing beneath their chins, which grossed me out. The town, however, was what I think of when I think of Thai beaches. Not clear water, but nicer than the water in Hua Hin, and a lot of green bluffs sit on the horizon. We motorbiked to one of them, and it was pretty incredible. Prachuap Kiri Kan is not a big tourist destination, and at both of the restaurants we went to when we were there, we ordered things that they didn’t have. (Basics, like chicken.) We should have just told them to make whatever they have, because I think we all ended up eating squid anyway. Prachuap is abundant in squid.
Marney at Prachuap Kiri Khan:
Still haven’t eaten bugs, but am now determined to tackle jellyfish. They dry it out here, which looks positively gross. I’m excited!
Last night was one of the best nights in Bangkok yet. We stayed in and made friends with a girl, Katy, who lives in the penthouse of the Rattanakosin. We spent the entire night on the roof of the whole building (38 stories high), just talking and looking at nighttime Bangkok. My friend Jake pointed out all the major buildings and temples that were lit up. I invited Justin but he couldn’t come because he’s getting over a cold. I can’t wait to hang out with him.
As I type this I’m sitting on a bench facing the river outside Thammasat’s cafeteria. It’s a nice day in Bangkok, and at 5:15 p.m. the sun is already beginning to set behind the water.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
This entry is a bit scattered, because there's too much to write about.
Bangkok is DIRTY. Like, the most polluted city I've ever been in. Even though every day is cloudless, by 2:30 the sun goes behind the pollution, and the city becomes hot and muggy, but not what anyone would call "sunny." It's as if a light cloud were covering the entire sky. That means that I have to utilize my AMAZING condo's pool between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (or 14:30, which is how they tell time here).
The people are incredible. First, they're all extremely friendly and helpful. Instead of being put off that Westerners are visiting their country, they're delighted, and do most of what they can to help us in any way. I read that this is because Thailand was one of the few Southeast Asian countries not to be colonized, so they never got a bad perception of Westerners. I had a man approach me on the street and direct me and my new friend, Andy, to the most inexpensive canal ride in town. He went out of his way to draw Andy and me a map. And the students at Thammasat are just as nice. In my accounting class we have a homework due on Monday. Since it's about a Thai company, my teacher suggested that each exchange student pair up with a Thai student. When I first heard that I assumed I would have to ask a Thai student to help me out and be my partner; instead, two girls approached me and asked if they could be my buddy. They were excited to help me out. Really! I love it.
On the other hand, because they're poor and we're not, we get exploited. I've already learned to bargain a bit. At first I felt really shy and peculiar, even rude bargaining, but now that I've done it, there's no going back. It doesn't matter that 500 baht is only $15 and I would pay that much or more normally, it matters that they charge everyone else 200 baht.
A few things that drive me nuts:
- Very few garbage bins anywhere, so you have to hold your trash for miles. Absolutely no recycling bins.
- No sauce on sushi
- Every shampoo and conditioner sold is made for "straight and weighty" hair
- No toilet paper anywhere, and for the most part just sprayers
- No napkins to speak of
- Only ob tampons
The food is fantastic, and I've become a very adventurous eater.
I try to eat at least one very spicy dish per day, so that my taste buds get used to it. This is for my own personal satisfaction. I also love to try new things. I've eaten anything set in front of me, but a few goals of mine include eating jellyfish and insects. The other exchange students are worried about the street food, but I've gone as far as to have sushi from the street and I've been fine. If we're going to get sick, we're going to get sick.
Sample street food I'll eventually eat: (This is a chicken claw)
Tonight we went for Korean barbecue, which was delicious until I scalded my knee. The grill is set in the middle of the table, but it's plenty hot underneath. Afterward we set out for a club called "Bed," in which the seating is entirely beds, but we somehow wound up in the Red Light district. No worries (mai pben rai), Thammasat warned us all about it.
Everyone else seems pretty great so far. I'm rooming with a beautiful Hawaiian girl named Meris, who goes to USC. We live in a completely furnished (and when I say completely, I mean we even get wine glasses) condo on the 34th floor with two balconies overlooking Bangkok. It's beautiful and spacious and just $255 a month. Beat that, Austin. The other two girls from our group live directly one floor above us, and the eight other guys are scattered throughout the complex. We hang out every night, which I love. In fact, last night I can tell that no one did anything because three separate facebook albums went up.
We're going to Hua Hin, a beach down south, tomorrow on a field trip. Instead of coming back with the rest of the group, though, we're all staying through Sunday. I'm excited! My first real beachy Thailand experience.
The other exchange students have asked me, in complete sincerity, whether I have a gun or not. And have been similarly sincerely surprised when I've told them that there are many gay clubs in Texas. I've become accustomed to adding the phrase, "But I hate George Bush," after I get introduced to people. It's my personal mission to dispel all their preconceived notions about Texas.
Similarly, Thai people stare. I don't understand why, because I see caucasian backpackers everywhere, but it's true. Especially children. It's a humbling experience to be the minority in terms of race for the first time in my life, but I like it. The little kids and babies, especially, don't know what to think when they see me and the other exchange students. Some get really happy when we wave and smile, and others are too shocked to respond. What I didn't expect at all, though, was that Meris, who is Chinese by descent, would be the most conspicuous. She gets stranger looks than any of us, because Thais wonder what she's doing in Thailand. They can't figure out whether she's a funny looking Thai, or a Thai of Chinese descent, or what. And most of the time they try to talk to her in Thai. When she doesn't speak it back, they're even more bewildered that she's an American.
Lastly, (and since I'm technically here to study), I'm going to say that classes are the biggest culture shock of all. I feel more like I'm in high school than college, because the teacher spends most of the time trying to control the class. Thai students go so far as to talk on their cell phones while teachers are lecturing, which blows my mind. It's also to my disadvantage. I feel like I'm being more lectured at than anyone else since I'm the only one not talking.
Four hours until Hua Hin! I need some sleep. Pictures when I get back, I promise.
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