Thailand

Bangkok-
We flew in and found a cheap place to stay that we had looked at on the internet. It was 700 Baht a night ($17.50) and we thought we were getting a great deal. That evening we told a tuk-tuk driver to take us to a pier so we could walk around and get dinner somewhere. Ok the tuk-tuk is a modified scooter with a covered bench in the back for a maximum of 3 passengers and that is squished. The tuk-tuk was our main mode of transportation when we were in Bangkok and up north in Chiang Mai. They were fun because we could bargain with them and they could get through traffic faster than taxi's because they don't obey lines on the road or any traffic laws. Back to the first one we took, we had a map and everything we pointed and there was English and Thai on the map so he could read where we pointed. He said yes I know when we pointed to where we wanted to go. When we got there it was a seafood restaurant and I didn’t see the pier anywhere. We ate there and when we were trying to plan what we were going to do the rest of the night we asked the server where we were on the map. We went the opposite way that we asked the driver to take us. After that we were suspicious of the tuk-tuk drivers. We decided that they must make a commission on bringing tourists to specific overpriced “Thai seafood restaurants” because they were always asking if we were hungry and if we wanted Thai food or seafood. That was the last time we ate at one of those places. Oh and I almost forgot our server, he/she was a transvestite.

So in Bangkok there was a lot to see but we didn't really make it a priority to see it all. It was temples, temples and more temples. Above is the picture of our favorite temple it was called the marble temple. If you look at the picture, all of the white is marble, it was interesting to see. Enough with the temples, the second night we met up with some more exchange students from our university in Hong Kong who were also enjoying their break in Thailand. Our first stop was a Thai-boxing match. There were like 7 or 8 matches and we missed the first 3 or so. It was like kick boxing a lot different than regular boxing. It wasn’t bloody or out of control, the boxers all seemed to be good sports and respectful when they won or lost.

We joined the group of four other exchange students for the next few days to take a trip north to Chiang Mai and the surrounding area. This was a beautiful place to go. Right when we got to Chiang Mai we stopped at a tour agency that was recommended by the lonely planet. We booked a tour that included hiking through the countryside/jungle, sleeping in a village, elephant riding, and bamboo rafting. It was two days and one night and we left 3 hours after we booked it. We had English speaking guide who grew up in the Chang Mai area, he was full of information. On our hike he pointed out different plants, insects, and other interesting things that we would never have seen if he wasn’t there. Below is a picture of us on the hike through the country side. One of the plants that he showed us closed when you touched it, it was pretty interesting.

We learned that the people farming the land where we were walking were an immigrant tribe from Burma (Myanmar). They kept loosing wars with other tribes in their homeland so they came to Thailand. The Thai government hasn’t given them citizenship yet but they are on the way. They receive a lot of help from the government in learning how to farm and they are educating the younger generation in schools. It was really interesting to interact with the people in the village. When we got to the village we walked around and there were kids running everywhere playing so we played too. That night we stayed in a bamboo hut like all of the other houses in the village. It wasn’t so comfortable but it was easy to fall asleep after hiking all day. The next day we woke up and were eating breakfast and elephants showed up at our doorstep. The plan was to hike for about an hour and then meet with the elephants, but the elephants were busy later shooting a movie, so we got to ride them after we were done with breakfast.

We rode the elephants through the countryside and jungle crossing little streams and mud pits. Below is a picture of the other 4 exchange students that we were on the trip with. The elephants came fully equipped with a driver and everything, but about half way the drivers asked us if we wanted to switch seats and we could sit on the elephant’s neck. I tried it, Dora didn’t really want to. It was a really weird feeling sitting on such a big animal. For a while I was sitting too far back so I was on it’s shoulders which was a bad place to be since they moved a lot with each step. I thought I was going to fall off a few times. The elephants were a lot of fun one of the highlights of the trip.

We did the elephants, more hiking, bamboo rafting, stopped at a cave and an elephant dung paper factory. Well not really a factory but just a place that goes out and collects elephant dung and makes paper out of it. Everyone else bought some dung paper and was surprised when Dora and I didn’t have any. Not a souvenir we really wanted. Well we got back to Chiang Mai city just in time for the Sunday market. We went shopping and when we were done we all got half hour Thai foot massages. They were 60 Baht each, that is a dollar fifty US!!! I don’t think Dora really liked it.

After that night we were back to Bangkok. The other four were going back 5 days earlier than me and Dora, and were flying out of Bangkok. There is a fancy hotel in Bangkok called the Oriental; the cheapest room is $350 US. We didn’t stay there but we heard that they have a great buffet. We all put our nicest clothes that we brought on and ate all night long. There was all kinds of food from sushi to steak and lobster, and of course tons of desert.

Here is a picture of one of the tuk-tuk’s, it only has three wheels, and the power of a mopeds. We were a group of six so to get around all together we “took two tuk-tuk’s”, also one of out favorite phrases. The drivers would usually end up racing and one of the drivers we had did wheelies when we would go from being stopped at the lights. That was always unexpected fun when traveling from one place to another. Well it was scary, but fun at the same time when we actually made it to where we wanted to go.

Here is a good enough representation of Khao San road in Bangkok. It is the “backpacker’s haven”. It is tons of westerners backpacking, traveling, and staying in dirty cheap rooms. The picture was from Monday, which is kind of like Sunday for us where most things are closed, so the vendors usually on the street aren’t there. The sides of the street are usually packed with knock off t-shirts, sunglasses, clothes, jewelry…all kinds of really cheap stuff.

The rest of the group went back to Hong Kong but Dora and I went south to the beaches of Thailand. We flew into Phuket and stayed in probably the nicest place out of all of the trip and it was the cheapest too. The city of Phuket suffered a lot of damage from the tsunami last year and I think they were still feeling the hit from the drop in tourism. The shopping and the hotel were really cheap there. They tried pretty hard to over price things. Dora was trying to buy a pair of sunglasses, some fake CK ones and they first offered 1200 Baht, which is about $30, but ended up getting them for 250 Baht ($6.25). We only stayed one night and we got on a boat to the Phi Phi islands. Here is a picture of us on the beach across the path from our bungalow. We stayed on Long Beach, on Phi Phi Don. There are two Phi Phi islands Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley. There are is no development on Phi Phi Ley it is the smaller of the two and I think it is preserved as a national park or something. We took a full day boat tour that went around both of the islands and made 7-8 stops for swimming, snorkeling, and eating. It was a really good way to see all of the beaches.

This is on the tour we stopped at Maya bay which has been made famous by the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DeCaprio. It was really nice, the water everywhere was so clear and the beach was white sand. The cliffs are all limestone everywhere on the islands.

One of our stops was on monkey bay. Yes of course there were plenty of monkeys just waiting for the tours to come by and feed them bananas. In this picture I was a little surprised when I got a little too close for a photo opportunity and the monkey wanted something in return. It grabbed my leg and scared me so I jumped up and got away from them.

Here is a picture to show how clear the water was. The snorkeling was awesome. I have never seen so many fish and living sea creatures, it was really fun.

We only stayed two nights at the Phi Phi islands, then we got on another boat to go to Krabi; A city on the mainland in the gulf of Thailand. We heard good things about it and went off of that. When we got there we did half a day of rock climbing on the limestone wall near our bungalow. Here is a picture of Dora at the top of the tallest rout we did.

I convinced our guide that I had climbed before so he let me lead climb a rout. Right after I got on the wall it started to rain. I scrambled to the top and got down before it started coming down really hard.

Here is a great shot of the sunset from Krabi.

The second day in Krabi we went on a full day sea kayaking tour. We went through some caves and mangrove forests, again a lot of nice scenery. Some of the passageways we had to duck to get under, it was fun to navigate through the rocks and the trees.

Here is the bungalow we stayed in when we were in Krabi, it was the last one on the path and there were monkeys sitting on our porch when we went to see the room.

Here is the view looking back as we were leaving the port where we stayed in Krabi. The only way to get to and from the place we stayed was by boat. There were no roads no cars and no tuk-tuk’s.