Thailand
As the title might suggest, I'm in Thailand right now. More specifically I just got back from the best massage of my life (not exaggerating, I remember the top two and this beats them both) from a super nice lady that was only supposed to massage for 30 min but went a good 15 min over. Best of all, it cost around $4. Wait, no, that's not best of all.. the best part is that I'm on a beautiful tropical island with a good friend of mine and enjoying myself immensely.
Today we (Ryan and I) decided to take a kayak out to an island off the coast and do some snorkeling. Unfortunately the sea got really choppy and near the end of our trip I thought we would never make it. There were definitely a few minutes that despite paddling as hard as we could we didn't move at all. But we did make it, only to go snorkeling in turbid water that kept going into my snorkelmagig with the big waves so that I would swallow salt water. No matter though, the trip back was easier. That is until we got near shore and then the current and wind got really bad and we ended up stopping at a rocky beach where the rocks were all slippery. We had to carry the kayak with already tired and sore muscles and I was slipping all over the place. Then a random super strong man came and took my place for a while on the slippery rocks then Ryan and I took it the rest of the way.
Oh, and another not so good thing. Apparently someone has been somehow stealing money from Ryan's bank account. This sucks considerably and he's rather upset about that, who wouldn't be?
This of course should not in the least bit imply that I'm not having an awesome time. Hah, wait, I should start from the beginning of the trip :)
Alex and I left Siem Reap by bus, with around 24 people crammed into a little van thing. There was no space to breath and it was hot. The roads were so bad that it took seven hours to drive 150km. By the end I had a headache from all the bumping but at least we were on good Thailand roads. It was then another 4-5 hours to Bangkok.
We finally arrived and made our way with tuk tuk to the YHA where Ryan would be. After some confusion and missing eachother we met up. Soon after we went to bed.
The next day we all went and explored some temples and the royal palace. Quite pretty. Some of the buildings had a really shiny yellow tile thing going on though and it actually hurt my eyes to look at it. We got to use public Bangkok buses to get there and back and I found that pretty cool. The bus does not come right up to the curb, you just have to walk into the street and hop on and sometimes it starts moving a bit before everyone's on.
We got our train tickets but we still had some time to spare so Alex went looking for shoes and Ryan and I went online. We decided to take a taxi to the train station because we had quite a lot of luggage and we wanted to be on time for sure. But for some random obsurd reason no taxis would take us!! So we had to run to subway (MRT) station with our giant bags. This was probably the most physically challenging and stressful experience of my life. Not only did I have a giant backpack but I was also carrying another big duffel bag that's full of things I've bought as well as two bags that had snacks and bottles of water in them, and of course the bags had to rip so that the bottles fell out and I had to stop to pick them up while holding the bags. Oh, and of course, we can't forget that this was in Bangkok so it was HOT and there were a BILLION people on the sidewalk because it was rush hour and a demonstration with orange head band wearers had just finished there.
I was having great difficulty so Ryan and I traded, he took my duffel bag and I took his travel guitar. I would have died if he hadn't done this. It still wasn't easy though. We ran and ran and ran until what seemed forever. I had never sweat as much as I did then. Carin, do you remember running for the ferry in Wellington? Multiply that stress and difficulty by 5 and you'll understand what this was like.
Anyway, miraculously we made it to the train. We were a couple minutes late (and it turned out the train didn't leave for another 20 minutes) but we made it!
The train ride that took 14 hours was an interesting one. I was separated from the guys because I switched seats with a man who wanted to be with his family. I ended up sitting next to some Aussies and Israelis and across from a weird man from Denmark name Jon or Yon or something. He was drinking beer and whenever he would talk he would sway from side to side in an odd manner. I asked him how many beers he had drunk but he didn't know he said, because he'd been drinking all day. The Aussie's next to me were drinking a bunch of booze as well, they were a guy named Mike and a girl name Talia.
Talia ended up vomiting all night because of drinking too much and having valium so I gave her my bread snack stuff that I had so much trouble carrying. The next morning I didn't even get a thank you from her, just angry hungover glares. It's really nice waking up at all hours of the night to up to someone vomiting next to you. I can't decide if I like the smell or the sound better.
The Israeli dudes were interesting. One of them was name Alone and I can't remember the other's name. Anyway, Alone was playing guitar and singing a lot of songs. That was good times. The music was good such that I crocheted and made great progress on my scarf during tha time.
Later I was talking with Alex and Ryan and Alone came up and at first we were having happy normal discussion. Then he started talking about Muslims and how all the wars that are happening in the world today are against Muslims. I didn't like this. He also said something about France and Alex (being French) went on the offensive and kept saying that the problems in France with North African Muslim people had nothing to do with religion but culture and by the fact that they had been marginalized by society. The argued about this a lot and finally Alone just left.
So after a good two hours of delay we got to ChiangMai and were happy. We checked into a nice hippie little guesthouse named Julie's, ate, freshened up and head out. Chiang Mai (the central city at least) is much less hectic than Bangkok and uber touristy.
We were originally going to go on a treck with Julie's guesthouse but decided instead to go with Pooh's eco-trek, and boy, am I happy we did that! Most trecks offer elephant riding and bamboo rafting down a river, and a visit to a tribal village where people often get really drunk (as often commented in the comments book). The eco-trek was totally different though, no elephant riding or bamboo rides but ahh, it was great.
Before I get talking about the trek though, I should talk about the rest of that night. We had to meet at 6:30 with the other two travellers in our group as well as our guide. I ate some insects (a couple were yummy, but the giant beetle made me gag) and Ryan and I decided to go for dinner but Alex stayed behind and hung out with Tee (our guide) and some other people who worked there.
Ryan and I wondered around a lot before finding a place to eat. I cried at dinner because the food was so spicy, but it was good. We went to a market and when we tried to head back we got a little lost.
Alex had a crazy adventure that night though. He was going to go out with Tee and the others but first he went back to the guesthouse to drop off the key but was told that he had to check out then. It took too long and when he went back to Pooh's, the other had already left. So he got on a tuk tuk in search of the place and instead got dropped off at a couple hooker bars (quite common in Thailand as most people know). He also randomly got dropped off at a karaoke place where a girl was having her birthday and there he was given free food and free drinks.
Ok... this is taking too long, I'll write more later when it's not horribly expensive.
Today we (Ryan and I) decided to take a kayak out to an island off the coast and do some snorkeling. Unfortunately the sea got really choppy and near the end of our trip I thought we would never make it. There were definitely a few minutes that despite paddling as hard as we could we didn't move at all. But we did make it, only to go snorkeling in turbid water that kept going into my snorkelmagig with the big waves so that I would swallow salt water. No matter though, the trip back was easier. That is until we got near shore and then the current and wind got really bad and we ended up stopping at a rocky beach where the rocks were all slippery. We had to carry the kayak with already tired and sore muscles and I was slipping all over the place. Then a random super strong man came and took my place for a while on the slippery rocks then Ryan and I took it the rest of the way.
Oh, and another not so good thing. Apparently someone has been somehow stealing money from Ryan's bank account. This sucks considerably and he's rather upset about that, who wouldn't be?
This of course should not in the least bit imply that I'm not having an awesome time. Hah, wait, I should start from the beginning of the trip :)
Alex and I left Siem Reap by bus, with around 24 people crammed into a little van thing. There was no space to breath and it was hot. The roads were so bad that it took seven hours to drive 150km. By the end I had a headache from all the bumping but at least we were on good Thailand roads. It was then another 4-5 hours to Bangkok.
We finally arrived and made our way with tuk tuk to the YHA where Ryan would be. After some confusion and missing eachother we met up. Soon after we went to bed.
The next day we all went and explored some temples and the royal palace. Quite pretty. Some of the buildings had a really shiny yellow tile thing going on though and it actually hurt my eyes to look at it. We got to use public Bangkok buses to get there and back and I found that pretty cool. The bus does not come right up to the curb, you just have to walk into the street and hop on and sometimes it starts moving a bit before everyone's on.
We got our train tickets but we still had some time to spare so Alex went looking for shoes and Ryan and I went online. We decided to take a taxi to the train station because we had quite a lot of luggage and we wanted to be on time for sure. But for some random obsurd reason no taxis would take us!! So we had to run to subway (MRT) station with our giant bags. This was probably the most physically challenging and stressful experience of my life. Not only did I have a giant backpack but I was also carrying another big duffel bag that's full of things I've bought as well as two bags that had snacks and bottles of water in them, and of course the bags had to rip so that the bottles fell out and I had to stop to pick them up while holding the bags. Oh, and of course, we can't forget that this was in Bangkok so it was HOT and there were a BILLION people on the sidewalk because it was rush hour and a demonstration with orange head band wearers had just finished there.
I was having great difficulty so Ryan and I traded, he took my duffel bag and I took his travel guitar. I would have died if he hadn't done this. It still wasn't easy though. We ran and ran and ran until what seemed forever. I had never sweat as much as I did then. Carin, do you remember running for the ferry in Wellington? Multiply that stress and difficulty by 5 and you'll understand what this was like.
Anyway, miraculously we made it to the train. We were a couple minutes late (and it turned out the train didn't leave for another 20 minutes) but we made it!
The train ride that took 14 hours was an interesting one. I was separated from the guys because I switched seats with a man who wanted to be with his family. I ended up sitting next to some Aussies and Israelis and across from a weird man from Denmark name Jon or Yon or something. He was drinking beer and whenever he would talk he would sway from side to side in an odd manner. I asked him how many beers he had drunk but he didn't know he said, because he'd been drinking all day. The Aussie's next to me were drinking a bunch of booze as well, they were a guy named Mike and a girl name Talia.
Talia ended up vomiting all night because of drinking too much and having valium so I gave her my bread snack stuff that I had so much trouble carrying. The next morning I didn't even get a thank you from her, just angry hungover glares. It's really nice waking up at all hours of the night to up to someone vomiting next to you. I can't decide if I like the smell or the sound better.
The Israeli dudes were interesting. One of them was name Alone and I can't remember the other's name. Anyway, Alone was playing guitar and singing a lot of songs. That was good times. The music was good such that I crocheted and made great progress on my scarf during tha time.
Later I was talking with Alex and Ryan and Alone came up and at first we were having happy normal discussion. Then he started talking about Muslims and how all the wars that are happening in the world today are against Muslims. I didn't like this. He also said something about France and Alex (being French) went on the offensive and kept saying that the problems in France with North African Muslim people had nothing to do with religion but culture and by the fact that they had been marginalized by society. The argued about this a lot and finally Alone just left.
So after a good two hours of delay we got to ChiangMai and were happy. We checked into a nice hippie little guesthouse named Julie's, ate, freshened up and head out. Chiang Mai (the central city at least) is much less hectic than Bangkok and uber touristy.
We were originally going to go on a treck with Julie's guesthouse but decided instead to go with Pooh's eco-trek, and boy, am I happy we did that! Most trecks offer elephant riding and bamboo rafting down a river, and a visit to a tribal village where people often get really drunk (as often commented in the comments book). The eco-trek was totally different though, no elephant riding or bamboo rides but ahh, it was great.
Before I get talking about the trek though, I should talk about the rest of that night. We had to meet at 6:30 with the other two travellers in our group as well as our guide. I ate some insects (a couple were yummy, but the giant beetle made me gag) and Ryan and I decided to go for dinner but Alex stayed behind and hung out with Tee (our guide) and some other people who worked there.
Ryan and I wondered around a lot before finding a place to eat. I cried at dinner because the food was so spicy, but it was good. We went to a market and when we tried to head back we got a little lost.
Alex had a crazy adventure that night though. He was going to go out with Tee and the others but first he went back to the guesthouse to drop off the key but was told that he had to check out then. It took too long and when he went back to Pooh's, the other had already left. So he got on a tuk tuk in search of the place and instead got dropped off at a couple hooker bars (quite common in Thailand as most people know). He also randomly got dropped off at a karaoke place where a girl was having her birthday and there he was given free food and free drinks.
Ok... this is taking too long, I'll write more later when it's not horribly expensive.