thailand.
well, i'm finally back home after nearly two weeks in thailand. overall, it was quite an experience. as with my last trip, i want to record all of my impressions for posterity, but it's hard to get everything into a coherent journal entry. so, i'll just start with a general record of what we did.
we arrived at bangkok airport just before midnight on march 31st. going from the 7 degree weather in japan to the hot and muggy (even in the middle of the night) climate of thailand was quite a shock to our systems. we got a taxi to our hotel, which was decent enough for the price, and went to bed right away. the next day we basically explored around our area of the city, going to some famous shopping malls and wandering around some street stalls. i had read on the internet about a movie theatre which was supposed to be incredibly luxurious, and jeremiah really wanted to see v for vendetta, so we went there in the afternoon. it was a bit pricy for the v.i.p. screen (though still slightly less than a movie ticket in japan), but we got free drinks and snacks in a private lounge before the show and then a reclining chair with pillow and blanket for the movie (and the theatre only had 24 seats, so it was nice and quiet). overall a pretty good experience. the next day we decided to go to the chao phraya river to explore some famous temples. when we got there we were a bit worried about catching boats to the right places, so when a sightseeing service approached us about doing a package tour of the main areas we decided it would be the easiest thing to do. we first cruised around the "floating market," where other boats come up to yours to sell you various goods. we then saw wat arun, e.g. "temple of the dawn," one of the most famous sites in bangkok. the tour finished at the grand palace. these structures were quite impressive, and the boat rides to and from each place were actually pretty fun. because it was so easy and convenient (and relatively cheap) to use the tour company, we also went with them the next day on a trek outside of bangkok to bang pa-in palace and the ancient palace. we had quite a full day of seeing various temples and famous buildings around ayutthaya (the capital of thailand for about 400 years from the middle of the 14th century). the architecture of thai temples is so different from the simplistic design of ones in japan; the modern ones are covered with millions of pieces of porcelain, so that they actually look nicer from far away than up close, and the old-style ones have some intricate stone carving. it was a pretty interesting day, though the heat started really getting to us again and we were glad to finally get home. our overall impression of bangkok was that it's a very dirty and noisy city, so we weren't too unhappy to leave the next day.
the next day we flew to chiang mai in northern thailand. our hotel there was the nicest of our trip - a beautiful guest house with traditional thai architecture and design. it's the only place at which i took photos. on the first day, we wandered around the hot streets for a while trying to find some lunch, and in the afternoon we took a red taxi truck up doi suithep mountain to see the famous temple at the top. it was quite a trip, and the driving was somewhat harrowing, but the view from the top was beautiful. that night we went into the night market district, where tons of shops are set up on the street to buy just about anything imaginable. it was a little tough to get used to the bartering system in thailand - when the shopkeeper tells you a price, it's about twice what they actually expect to get and so you have to work them way down. it can be difficult, but for a while it's actually kind of fun (although i got very tired of it by the end of our trip). i definitely got a few great deals, but i also overpaid greatly a couple of times, so i suppose it all worked out in the end. the second day in chiang mai was quite possibly my favorite day of the entire trip. we took another packaged tour which took us about an hour north of the city. we began the day at a somewhat unimpressive orchid/butterfly farm before moving on to mae sa elephant camp. when we arrived, we were able to buy bananas to feed some of the elephants (including some really cute little babies), and then we watched a show for about an hour which demonstrated how highly trained and talented the animals are. we then took an hour long journey on an elephant through the nearby jungle. it was a little scary, because the seat on our elephant seemed to be a little off and every time we went down a hill we had to hang on for dear life (we almost fell out at least twice, which our elephant driver seemed to get a kick out of). nevertheless, i absolutely loved it and was sad when it had to end. after that, we took a trip on a bamboo raft down a river for about 40 minutes. this area of thailand is still home to many native hill tribes, and although they keep their traditions they still manage to thrive on tourism. while we were rafting several groups of children waded into the river with various goods over their heads to sell us. it was kind of interesting, but even when i bought something from one of them they were still very anxious to have me buy more! when the raft landed, we took a 15-minute ride on an ox cart through the hill tribe's village to a resort hotel where we had a buffet lunch. on the way back, we stopped at another (slightly more impressive) orchid/butterfly farm. it was quite a day, especially considering that we paid about $19 each for everything! that night we went to the night market again and i bought a TON of stuff, and afterwards we met up with my friend james (a fellow teacher who i met in taiwan) which was quite nice. so in all, it was a really wonderful day.
on the following day, we flew from chiang mai to bangkok, and then bangkok to koh samui (an island off the southeast coast of thailand). the journey was quite long, so we were already tired by the time we finally got to our hotel (the cheapest of the lot at $27/night; you get what you pay for, and while it wasn't terrible i wish i had decided to spring for something a bit nicer). but we wanted to start scuba diving the next day, so we went out to various shops to try to plan a trip. all of the prices quoted were WAY more than i had anticipated, and we were getting pretty frustrated with the lack of options that we seemed to have. so instead of taking a 2 or 3 day course which would have ended with us getting a PADI license, like i had originally planned, we ended up signing up for a one-day trip with two separate dives. in the end, it worked out quite well and we were really happy with our experience. we took a ferry very early in the morning to koh tao, an island about 2 hours north of samui. upon arrival, we were transferred by a small motor boat to the dive company's liveaboard (where a few people were already staying). because jeremiah and i were taking a course for people without diving licenses, our class was just the two of us and an instructor, which was very nice. at around 11am we suited up and the teacher, yvonne (a german woman who spoke relatively good english), explained some of the basics to us. we still remembered most of the stuff from our diving experience in okinawa last september, but that was an extremely simple course where everything was done for us. thus, we had to learn some new things so that we could complete the entire dive on our own. it was a bit rocky at first, but once we got the hang of it we had a great experience. it was so much better than our prior experience because we were actually in open water and in control of our equipment, and we really enjoyed the great variety of marine life and beautiful corals. that dive lasted for about 45 minutes, and then we had a quick lunch on the boat before setting of for a different spot. during the second dive we were much more comfortable, and so we got into the swing of things right away. we were getting pretty tired by the end of this one (which lasted for almost an hour), but in all it was an amazing experience and i know that i will do it again whenever i have the opportunity.
other than the day of diving, most of our time in koh samui was spent lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and shopping around the local stalls. i was a bit disappointed in the island overall, because it was expensive and rather crowded. i've always thought that americans make the worst tourists, but i couldn't believe how many highly obnoxious european people were there. if i go to thailand again, i'll definitely choose a less developed island.
so that's about it for our trip in thailand. one more thing worth mentioning is our journey home. we had to check out of our hotel at noon on april 10th, and our flight back to bangkok departed at 10pm. since we knew we were leaving we didn't want to do much, and we basically just spent the day wanting to get back home. the flight that night was fine, and we arrived in bangkok airport around 11:30. since our flight to tokyo was leaving at 6am, we decided just to stay at the airport overnight and try to sleep in the terminal. but even though the airport was still pretty busy even in the wee hours of the morning, the airline ticketing counter didn't open until 3:15am (but there were no signs up - we just had to wait and see), so we had to spend several hours sitting on the hard chairs at the entrance waiting anxiously until we could get inside. when we finally got our tickets and were ready to enter, we discovered that there was an additional airport fee of almost $15 that nobody had told us about. we didn't have any more baht, and we were quite upset that we had to exchange more and waste money unexpectedly (this after an airport fee of $10 when we were leaving koh samui). in a bad mood and very tired, we spent the entire night just waiting for our flight. luckily, we managed to get some sleep on the airplane, but it was only for short periods and not so refreshing. after the 6 hour flight to narita, we had another 5-hour layover, and we slept a bit more on the chairs in the terminal. the weather was getting bad by the time our flight left for nagoya at 6:15, and the plane hit a lot of turbulence on the way. we noticed that it seemed to be taking much longer than expected, and finally the captain announced that there were very high winds at nagoya airport and so we had to circle over it waiting to land. eventually he came on again to announce that our fuel supply was running out, so we had to reroute to kansai airport. the flight was nerve-wracking, and then when we arrived in osaka we weren't given clear directions about what to do. i thought that since we had ended up in a completely different city than expected, the airline would provide accomodations or train tickets back home. on the contrary, they were utterly unhelpful and offered no form of compensation. because it was already getting late, we had to rush around so that we could get into the city in time to make the last train. luckily i had used kix when i went to taiwan; otherwise i wouldn't have known where to go, and we wouldn't have made it in time. we got to the train station literally minutes before the last train departed, and when we finally returned home after midnight we were exhausted and very hungry (having eaten only a few crappy and unfilling airline meals during the course of the trip).
so, quite a bad way to end the vacation. and there were some things i was disappointed with during the trip; nothing is ever what you expect. but overall it was really interesting to experience such a different culture, and i'm very glad we went. and i would go to thailand again, although i would probably choose different cities to visit (i would go to chiang mai again, though, because it's relatively peaceful and full of culture).
now for the pictures. along with the ones i took, our diving instructor filmed us with an underwater camera and sold us a (ridiculously overpriced) cd. you can find everything all together here. there are also some videos of us diving, which you can find at another website: 1 2 3 4 5. i hope you enjoy them all. this has already been quite a long post, but i didn't really get to express my thoughts about thai culture, food, or people very much. so if i get a chance, i'll try to do that in the next few days. if you've managed to make it to the end of this post without getting bored, stay tuned!
we arrived at bangkok airport just before midnight on march 31st. going from the 7 degree weather in japan to the hot and muggy (even in the middle of the night) climate of thailand was quite a shock to our systems. we got a taxi to our hotel, which was decent enough for the price, and went to bed right away. the next day we basically explored around our area of the city, going to some famous shopping malls and wandering around some street stalls. i had read on the internet about a movie theatre which was supposed to be incredibly luxurious, and jeremiah really wanted to see v for vendetta, so we went there in the afternoon. it was a bit pricy for the v.i.p. screen (though still slightly less than a movie ticket in japan), but we got free drinks and snacks in a private lounge before the show and then a reclining chair with pillow and blanket for the movie (and the theatre only had 24 seats, so it was nice and quiet). overall a pretty good experience. the next day we decided to go to the chao phraya river to explore some famous temples. when we got there we were a bit worried about catching boats to the right places, so when a sightseeing service approached us about doing a package tour of the main areas we decided it would be the easiest thing to do. we first cruised around the "floating market," where other boats come up to yours to sell you various goods. we then saw wat arun, e.g. "temple of the dawn," one of the most famous sites in bangkok. the tour finished at the grand palace. these structures were quite impressive, and the boat rides to and from each place were actually pretty fun. because it was so easy and convenient (and relatively cheap) to use the tour company, we also went with them the next day on a trek outside of bangkok to bang pa-in palace and the ancient palace. we had quite a full day of seeing various temples and famous buildings around ayutthaya (the capital of thailand for about 400 years from the middle of the 14th century). the architecture of thai temples is so different from the simplistic design of ones in japan; the modern ones are covered with millions of pieces of porcelain, so that they actually look nicer from far away than up close, and the old-style ones have some intricate stone carving. it was a pretty interesting day, though the heat started really getting to us again and we were glad to finally get home. our overall impression of bangkok was that it's a very dirty and noisy city, so we weren't too unhappy to leave the next day.
the next day we flew to chiang mai in northern thailand. our hotel there was the nicest of our trip - a beautiful guest house with traditional thai architecture and design. it's the only place at which i took photos. on the first day, we wandered around the hot streets for a while trying to find some lunch, and in the afternoon we took a red taxi truck up doi suithep mountain to see the famous temple at the top. it was quite a trip, and the driving was somewhat harrowing, but the view from the top was beautiful. that night we went into the night market district, where tons of shops are set up on the street to buy just about anything imaginable. it was a little tough to get used to the bartering system in thailand - when the shopkeeper tells you a price, it's about twice what they actually expect to get and so you have to work them way down. it can be difficult, but for a while it's actually kind of fun (although i got very tired of it by the end of our trip). i definitely got a few great deals, but i also overpaid greatly a couple of times, so i suppose it all worked out in the end. the second day in chiang mai was quite possibly my favorite day of the entire trip. we took another packaged tour which took us about an hour north of the city. we began the day at a somewhat unimpressive orchid/butterfly farm before moving on to mae sa elephant camp. when we arrived, we were able to buy bananas to feed some of the elephants (including some really cute little babies), and then we watched a show for about an hour which demonstrated how highly trained and talented the animals are. we then took an hour long journey on an elephant through the nearby jungle. it was a little scary, because the seat on our elephant seemed to be a little off and every time we went down a hill we had to hang on for dear life (we almost fell out at least twice, which our elephant driver seemed to get a kick out of). nevertheless, i absolutely loved it and was sad when it had to end. after that, we took a trip on a bamboo raft down a river for about 40 minutes. this area of thailand is still home to many native hill tribes, and although they keep their traditions they still manage to thrive on tourism. while we were rafting several groups of children waded into the river with various goods over their heads to sell us. it was kind of interesting, but even when i bought something from one of them they were still very anxious to have me buy more! when the raft landed, we took a 15-minute ride on an ox cart through the hill tribe's village to a resort hotel where we had a buffet lunch. on the way back, we stopped at another (slightly more impressive) orchid/butterfly farm. it was quite a day, especially considering that we paid about $19 each for everything! that night we went to the night market again and i bought a TON of stuff, and afterwards we met up with my friend james (a fellow teacher who i met in taiwan) which was quite nice. so in all, it was a really wonderful day.
on the following day, we flew from chiang mai to bangkok, and then bangkok to koh samui (an island off the southeast coast of thailand). the journey was quite long, so we were already tired by the time we finally got to our hotel (the cheapest of the lot at $27/night; you get what you pay for, and while it wasn't terrible i wish i had decided to spring for something a bit nicer). but we wanted to start scuba diving the next day, so we went out to various shops to try to plan a trip. all of the prices quoted were WAY more than i had anticipated, and we were getting pretty frustrated with the lack of options that we seemed to have. so instead of taking a 2 or 3 day course which would have ended with us getting a PADI license, like i had originally planned, we ended up signing up for a one-day trip with two separate dives. in the end, it worked out quite well and we were really happy with our experience. we took a ferry very early in the morning to koh tao, an island about 2 hours north of samui. upon arrival, we were transferred by a small motor boat to the dive company's liveaboard (where a few people were already staying). because jeremiah and i were taking a course for people without diving licenses, our class was just the two of us and an instructor, which was very nice. at around 11am we suited up and the teacher, yvonne (a german woman who spoke relatively good english), explained some of the basics to us. we still remembered most of the stuff from our diving experience in okinawa last september, but that was an extremely simple course where everything was done for us. thus, we had to learn some new things so that we could complete the entire dive on our own. it was a bit rocky at first, but once we got the hang of it we had a great experience. it was so much better than our prior experience because we were actually in open water and in control of our equipment, and we really enjoyed the great variety of marine life and beautiful corals. that dive lasted for about 45 minutes, and then we had a quick lunch on the boat before setting of for a different spot. during the second dive we were much more comfortable, and so we got into the swing of things right away. we were getting pretty tired by the end of this one (which lasted for almost an hour), but in all it was an amazing experience and i know that i will do it again whenever i have the opportunity.
other than the day of diving, most of our time in koh samui was spent lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and shopping around the local stalls. i was a bit disappointed in the island overall, because it was expensive and rather crowded. i've always thought that americans make the worst tourists, but i couldn't believe how many highly obnoxious european people were there. if i go to thailand again, i'll definitely choose a less developed island.
so that's about it for our trip in thailand. one more thing worth mentioning is our journey home. we had to check out of our hotel at noon on april 10th, and our flight back to bangkok departed at 10pm. since we knew we were leaving we didn't want to do much, and we basically just spent the day wanting to get back home. the flight that night was fine, and we arrived in bangkok airport around 11:30. since our flight to tokyo was leaving at 6am, we decided just to stay at the airport overnight and try to sleep in the terminal. but even though the airport was still pretty busy even in the wee hours of the morning, the airline ticketing counter didn't open until 3:15am (but there were no signs up - we just had to wait and see), so we had to spend several hours sitting on the hard chairs at the entrance waiting anxiously until we could get inside. when we finally got our tickets and were ready to enter, we discovered that there was an additional airport fee of almost $15 that nobody had told us about. we didn't have any more baht, and we were quite upset that we had to exchange more and waste money unexpectedly (this after an airport fee of $10 when we were leaving koh samui). in a bad mood and very tired, we spent the entire night just waiting for our flight. luckily, we managed to get some sleep on the airplane, but it was only for short periods and not so refreshing. after the 6 hour flight to narita, we had another 5-hour layover, and we slept a bit more on the chairs in the terminal. the weather was getting bad by the time our flight left for nagoya at 6:15, and the plane hit a lot of turbulence on the way. we noticed that it seemed to be taking much longer than expected, and finally the captain announced that there were very high winds at nagoya airport and so we had to circle over it waiting to land. eventually he came on again to announce that our fuel supply was running out, so we had to reroute to kansai airport. the flight was nerve-wracking, and then when we arrived in osaka we weren't given clear directions about what to do. i thought that since we had ended up in a completely different city than expected, the airline would provide accomodations or train tickets back home. on the contrary, they were utterly unhelpful and offered no form of compensation. because it was already getting late, we had to rush around so that we could get into the city in time to make the last train. luckily i had used kix when i went to taiwan; otherwise i wouldn't have known where to go, and we wouldn't have made it in time. we got to the train station literally minutes before the last train departed, and when we finally returned home after midnight we were exhausted and very hungry (having eaten only a few crappy and unfilling airline meals during the course of the trip).
so, quite a bad way to end the vacation. and there were some things i was disappointed with during the trip; nothing is ever what you expect. but overall it was really interesting to experience such a different culture, and i'm very glad we went. and i would go to thailand again, although i would probably choose different cities to visit (i would go to chiang mai again, though, because it's relatively peaceful and full of culture).
now for the pictures. along with the ones i took, our diving instructor filmed us with an underwater camera and sold us a (ridiculously overpriced) cd. you can find everything all together here. there are also some videos of us diving, which you can find at another website: 1 2 3 4 5. i hope you enjoy them all. this has already been quite a long post, but i didn't really get to express my thoughts about thai culture, food, or people very much. so if i get a chance, i'll try to do that in the next few days. if you've managed to make it to the end of this post without getting bored, stay tuned!