Day 1... getting there.
Holy moly it's a long journey to get to Thailand, but so worth it. We flew for 11 hours from Seattle to Seoul, Korea (actually about an hour away from the city). Then had a 4 hr layover, then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok. We flew on Asiana airlines, which by the way is super nice, great service, individual movie screens, hot washcloths... made it much more bearable. I watched 3 movies each way. We lost a day here somewhere, so day 1 was thursday and friday. We arrived in Bangkok around 1 am, then took a taxi to our fancy hotel in Siam Square (big shopping area). We got "taken for a ride" if you know what i mean, by the taxi drivers when we first arrived. They charged us double the regular price for our first taxi cuz we had white skin and a sign that said "sucker" written on our foreheads. At least we got some good sleep.
Day 2... Bangkok way overwhelming.
So we stepped outside the hotel room and went on an immediate quest for a plan for our week. Big mistake. We had heard to just make plans when you arrive, so we looked for a travel agent. Once again, sucker was written on our foreheads. This guy on the street claimed he was with the tourist bureau of Thailand, and that the best place was TAT travel, and he immediately hired a Tuk Tuk for us to get there. We obliged. You can see where this is going... we got way overcharged for our flight to the Southern Beach area, this lady talked us into flying in and out of different airports, and we ended up getting on a plane that afternoon to Krabi (which is where we wanted to go at least). So this day was pretty
much a bust. We wandered around Siam Square, this giant mall, and ate some weird food (for lack of experience). We were able to get a suit and dress ordered from a tailor in the area before we left Bangkok (there was a tailor on every street corner at least). We arrived in Krabi and had to take another Taxi to our bungalow at the beach. We got to the Lakeside Bungalow and met our savior, Joey. Stupid travel agent lady had booked this place without checking if they had vacancy and they didn't. But Joey took care of us, took us to another place down the road and came and got us in the morning to sta
y at the Lakeside Bungalow for 4 more nights. He was the best. The beach area we ended up in is called Ao Nang, and its pretty bustling, but we were staying off the main area and had to walk or take a tuk tuk to get th
ere or to the local beach called Nopparatthara. These are some pics of our cute bamboo bungalow and our porch.Day 3... getting to know Krabi.
We took this day to sort of get our feet under us and get acquainted with the area. We went to the beach, had a drink (i had a watermelon 'shakey') at this cute little beach bar ca
lled "happybeach" (my mom thought they might be serving up 'happy endings' there as well). We had our first Thai mass
ages, and just wandered around the area and decided what we wanted to do with our week. Thai massages are different than your everyday massage. They walk on your legs, stretch your body in weird ways, pound on you. It was great. There are so many massage places just waiting for your business, asking you to come in, and they treat you so well. For $6 US you get an 
hour massage, and then they served us ginger tea and pineapple. For dinner, we had fresh red snapper and tiger prawns, and chose our fish from an ice box on the street and had it barbecued right there.Day 4... 5 Island Tour.
Our first excursion was
recommended to us by many people before we went over there and just sounded like a cool idea. We went by Longtail boat with a group of about 15 people. This boat does not move fast and is pretty loud, but the experience is worth it. I got a lot of sun that day (had to get more powerful sunscreen from that point forward). Our first top was Tup Island which had the most beautiful clear blue water that we saw anywhere. We did some snorkeling there and my mom snorkeled for the first time (though hesitantly). There were some cool fish, but we weren't by any big colorful reefs or anything, so it was only so so snorkeling. But the water was so amazing. This pic on the left of me in the water is what i like to call my "Pee Pee Island" pic, because i had to pee so b
ad on the way here i couldn't help but pollute this pristine water. The only reason that's funny is that there is an island nearby called Phi Phi island which is supposed to be beautiful and everyone kept talking about it. Next we rode to Hong Island (it took an hour to get there... good sun and scenery opportunity (but some people slept!). This island is a National Park, and had some ev
idence of Tsunami, including a 
newly placed Tsunami horn and evacuation routes. We had a great lunch here of green curry chicken, veggies, rice and of course, pineapple for dessert. This pic is our view from our sunbathing spot on the lagoon there. Next we went to this really pretty lagoon and just cruised into and out of it. It had a mangrove forest on one edge and big cliffs all around. 
Not really much to say about that except that i got a pretty pic of the entrance to it looking out at the sea. The next stop was Poda island, which was not that cool. Pretty rough and shelly and these little fish or bugs kept biting me in the water. My mom calls them "Noseeums", get it? Our last stop was Paradise island, and i'm not sure how it got that name. There are people that live there that sell soda and beer to tourists. Its teeny tiny, and the people just sit there all day. I'm not sure why. On the way out of that island, we saw a bald eagle soaring, sweeping the sky. I didn't even know they had those t
here. It's not such a big world after all. Then we made the journey back. We spent that evening doing some shopping and eating of course in Ao Nang. Here is a pic of the sunset from there. Oh and we also got foot massages and a pedi for dirt cheap. I almost fell asleep it was so relaxing.Day 5... Sea Kayaking and Elephant Trekking.
So I bet you're all wondering about the elephant
s. Well we rode elephants. It was pretty cool and unreal, but i'll start off by talking about the first half of that day which was surprisingly AWESOME! We went Sea Kayaking with our guide King (say Keen, not King of the Jungle, 
although he is), and a couple from England in this area called Ao Thalene. We started off in this muddy , dirty little place, and we were all thinking what is this gonna be like. We had no idea. We paddle across this bay and enter this area that really feels like the jungle. There are mangroves everywhere (they are these trees that grow from water and look like tangled roots), big cliffs and animals. King starts pounding a stick on these trees and making some calling sounds, and out come the MONKEYS. Tons of them. They are Longt
ail monkeys, and pretty small (about the size of a shitzu or cat or something. They wanted some pineapple and to hang out for a bit, so they started jumping on our kayaks and eating the pineapple. I was pretty scared of them at first, because we weren't supposed to touch them, so i didn't want to make any weird movements and freak them out. But it ended up being cool, they just chilled with us for a while, ate some pineapple then went on their way. This 
one is walking under my mom's arm towards me. One of them hung out on King's boat for a while, and he actually has a name, he is Bond, like James Bond. They are friends. So we kept going through this jungle area and learned about a lot of different creatures, including spider crabs (crabs that lo
ok like tarantulas), Marsh skippers (look like slugs with eyes popping out of their head and they skip along the water), and we saw a 4 foot Monitor Lizard. There is a crazy sound you hear throughout that sounds like rattlesnakes. Its Cicadas which are a kind of insect, and they make this sound when they fly. This eco tour carried on for a couple of hours, we're traversing through these mangroves and lagoons, and then it starts raining. Not just raining, monsoon style downpouring. We ducked out into an overhang/ cave type thing and thought we'd wait it out, but it wouldn't let up. This is the view from the cave.
Eventually we decided to go for it, we stripped down to our bikinis, put all of our stuff in the water bag and just started to paddle like hell. It was so amazing, because this is the part of the kayaking where the canyons open up and you're almost paddling through a bi
g river. I said to my mom "Take a picture of this in your mind, it is so amazing" and that's what we did, because it was too wet to take a picture and you can't replicate the feeling of being pounded on by rain while paddling your kayak so fast, through a canyon in Thailand, where the water feels like a bath and the views are like something out of a movie. It was intense. We ended up stopping for a swim at this little area that was semi covered, where there used to be a pier that was destroyed by the Tsunami. Literally it was like taking a hot bath after being pelted by the cold rain.So that was the end pretty much of the first part of our day. We headed back, ate some lunch, then headed to th
e elephant camp, which was in the jungle also. All of this is taking place about 40 minutes away from where we were staying. I think everyone's probably wondering about how they treat the elephants, and i must say that it wasn't bad. It wasn't as sweet as a zookeeper in the U.S. might treat an animal, but you could tell each elephant had it's own keeper, and I want to think they are treated fair. These are a couple of people who live there and i just thought that little girl was so beautiful. They eat so much, it's unreal. Our elephant's name was Bunschway, say Boon-Sh-wai. She was very nice, and had a mind of her own. She is 42 years old, and elephants can live until they are 100 we learned.
She was a great poser for pics, and she gave us a gentle ride. We got on her from a platform, and she had a little bench for us to sit on. We crossed over a little river at first, then walked through a rubber forest (a big part of the agricultural economy in this area). We traveled around for about 45 minutes, taking pictures and letting her dig around in the dirt and eat things. Then after we were done we got to feed her cucumbers out of our
hands. Pretty freaking neat. She was very sweet, but she definitely had a sad look in her eyes. So that was it for most of our da
y... we came back and then went back into town again for dinner, had some good seafood, bad service , and got eaten up by mosquitoes that night , as the rain mad e them come out like crazy. Another beautiful sunset.
Day 6... chill and Cook
We pretty much just chilled the first half of this day, I went for a run, we laid on the beach, and then went to take a cooking class from our friend Ya. Krabi Thai Cookery School is the place we went, which is out in the country. They pick you up and take you to your little trips, its kind of cool (and creates jobs). It's this big place, with lots of tables and equipment and usually the classes are kind of big (15 people), but it was just us and one other guy. We learned all kinds of dishes and made them so fast. The food was absolutely amazing, some of the best we had. I've already made some of the dishes at home including green and red curries and pad thai (although some of the ingredients are just not available). I learned that my favorite Thai dishes are green curry and stir fried morning glory, but pad thai still hits the spot. The soups were a little overwhelming with lemongrass, and the panang curry was too sweet. Ya kept calling the British guy who was in the class "Mr. Panang" cuz that was the curry he was making. It was pretty funny. After that, my mom got a hair cut, her hair was drivin' her nuts. It actually turned out pretty good. That night we got some Singha beer, took it back to the bungalows and just chilled with our buddy Joey and learned a little
more about each o
thers culture and the life they live. It was our last night there, sad.Day 7... Railay
beach and bye bye Krabi.We had breakfast at our normal spot, the bungalows, and had to take pics of our new friends there that were so nice and took such good care of us. Sao (waits tables in the morning, laughs at herself all the time, and wears that little monkey around her neck), Juke Lee (birdkeeper and assistant to Joey, always smiling, looks stoned all the time, but he's not), and the man himself. We went by Longtail boat to Railay beach, which was nice, but super crowded and there were so many vendors everywhere trying to sell you stuff,
from jewelry, to clothing, to massages to food... but super pretty.I love this pic of the boats all lined up.
We then went back for our final farewell to Lakeside Bungalows, showered up, then Joey took us to the ferry to start our journey to Phuket. It was about a 2 hr ferry ride across the Andaman Sea. We arrived in Phuket without much of a plan, but we faked it so we wouldn't get harassed by the people at the dock trying to swindle us into spending a bunch of money. We ended up at this cute little boutique hotel (guest house?) in Karon beach, which is a decent area, away from the nonsense of Patong Beach, which is where all the partying is. The first night we just got acquainted with the area and got my mom some aloe as she burned up pretty bad at Railay. We had dinner at a Scandinavian owned Thai restaurant called Vitaporn. I'm not sure if
there's a good explanation for that or not. Everyone around us was from Europe it seemed, and mostly Swiss or Swedes i think. So far not too impressed with Phuket. Opposed to Krabi, it had more of a city atmosphere, and almost reminded me of being in California or Mexico or somet
hing. A far cry from the bungalow. We were sad we left Krabi but tried to make the best of it.Day 8... Karon Beach, more fun in the sun
So we did a whole lot of nothing this day, just sunned ourselves and spent some time in the water. The water is much more ocean like here,
with real waves, which was nice, and there are umbrellas and chairs everywhere so you can stay out of the sun and chill, which is what Deb did cuz she was so burned from the day before. Lots of vendors here as well, i bought some new sunglasses, headband scarf things, a little broom to get the sand off our chairs.... what a life. That night we went to dinner at this cute 
little resort restaurant where these cute girls were doing cover songs and dancing in sync the whole time. It was pretty funny andhad our attention for a couple of hours at least. We had pizza with Thai toppings, super yummy green curry pizza and To
m Yum (shrimp and lemongrassy). Delicious.Day 9... Back to Bangkok
So we took a cab to the Phuket airport, which took over an hour to get to... then made it to our hotel in Bangkok by 1 or 2 pm. Then begins our shopping
extravaganza which did not stop until 7 pm the next day pretty much. First we went back to
Siam Square so I could try on my dress and they could make final touches, then we went to the mall so my mom could buy her cute little Thailand Starbucks bear and get coffee. We figured our way around the Sky Train pretty well, which is such a good deal compared to the other ways of traveling around town, and fast too. Then we went out to the weekend market. Oh lord. The biggest market ever. Like a square mile of rows and rows of vendors. And not just your typical cheapy swap meet crap. Beautiful artwork, silk, furniture, clothes, animals, you name it you can buy it here. Unfortunately they start shutting things down around 6 pm, so we only had a couple hours 
here, but wait, the night markets! We headed back to Siam Square so my mom could try her dress on (I talked her into it, and my dress looked so hot she couldn't resist). We had the
best meal ever, then we went to the night market. It was a little more aggressive, the vendors a little more desperate for sales, and the goods were not very unique, but we had fun anyways. That was a marathon of a day, we got back to the hotel pretty late, showered off the days grime, and passed out. Oh and there's the fanny pack, pretty useful when you're wheelin and dealin.
Day 10... Last Day :(So we spent our last day frantically shopping mostly, but first we took a boat down the Chao Phraya River and went to see the Grand Palace. It was so pretty, and that is where the King currently lives, but they won't let you tour that part, only the palace part. We weren't too hip on Buddhist tradition or religion, so some of it was over our head, but the artistry of this place was amazing, and the rituals so beautiful. We had to borrow clothes to wear, as we were pulled aside along with many others because our pants weren't long enough and we were wearing sleeveless shirts. That was understandable, but it was the hottest day that day, like over 100 F, and i was sweating bullets.
There ar
e just too many great pics, so if you want to see more check out the link at the end to Shutterfly, where i've chosen the best 250 to share. These flowers are lotuses that are not yet ready to bloom, and this lady pulls the petals down and tucks them under, and then people use them as part of their praying/ offering (not sure how, i just think they're really cool looking).So the rest of this day we spent at the weekend market. We were so frantic thr
oughout this day that i didn't take many pictures of the market, and it's hard to describe. Here's a couple of some of the artwork and the most beautiful puppies. We stayed there in the sweltering heat until it closed once again, with money to spare (good thing, cuz we still had a long ride home and needed to eat and what not)! I carried this bag around until it was so heavy with great finds that i had to carry it in front of me like a baby. So then we raced back to the hotel, repacked our stuff, ate dinner, jumped in the pool, showered, and took a cab to the airport. The lines to get through customs were so long we had to be escorted through or we would have missed our plane. Bye bye Thailand. We were sad to go, it was a really interesting, fun, beautiful learning experience that we will always share.Here we are, mom is Sans-fanny pack, as she got too cool for it, but even though you can't see it, i've got mine on, ready to board our plane back to Seattle from Korea after a layover.
On our way back home... amazing journey.Check out this link: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcuWTlq3csnEg
No comments:
Post a Comment