Sa-wat-dee Kah!

I can't believe reading week has gone by and it's Thursday already!!! Attending classes after an amazing 10-day trip of Thailand was tough. It was even worse when the reality that I am in school caught up with me on my first day back to class. I was bombarded with groupmates who wanted to meet to discuss and work on group projects in four out of my five classes. Yikes! Hm, now that we're on the subject of classes I have a burning question... How many pages do local students write to answer 4 straightforward questions? Apparently 20+. For my HR management and strategy class we are divided up into groups and must answer questions for each case we read. My group along with other exchange student groups turned in 3-4 pages of answers. The groups of local students generally turned in THICK reports. Some of them had colorful cover pages while others even had a nice plastic cover. If the questions were open-ended it would make sense why they write so much, but c'mon straightforward questions? I'm baffled. 

Anyhow, back to Thailand. I traveled to the north, central and south of Thailand. My friends and I first flew to Bangkok and then took an overnight train to Chiang Mai. The ride was supposed to be 14 hours long. The train was scheduled to leave Bangkok at 7:30 P.M. and arrive in Chiang Mai at 9:45 AM. It did neither. We didn't arrive in Chiang Mai until 1:30 PM the next day. Ok, so we had a bumpy start but it was smooth sailing from there... well up until Phuket, but more about that later. Chiang Mai is amazing. Eating at the street vendors sets you back $1 USD give or take. You can get pad thai or a bowl of noodles for about $1 USD, a fresh coconut shake for 45 cents, and thai iced tea/coffee for 35 cents. On the second day in Chiang Mai we joined a full day adventure tour that included elephant riding, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, trek to the waterfalls and a visit to a tribal village. 

It was so refreshing to get in this water after a long trek up to the waterfalls. =)

The third day was just as amazing but in a different way-- a full day Thai cooking course!!! My friends and I got picked up from our hostel around 10 AM and we went straight to the markets to learn about veggies, coconut milk, fresh noodles, etc. Afterwards we were driven to the Chiang Mai Cookery school where we made 6 dishes in a mere 3 hours. I basically head to the classroom to watch a pro make a dish, head out to my work station to make the dish in a mere 5 min (the workers walked around to add oil, coconut milk, or milk in our woks while reminding us of the directions), eat the dish, and then head back to the classroom again. I was SO FULL by the end of the course. Haha, it was a really fun experience. The work station was equipped with a pro stove, super powerful burners, and the staff there were like my sous chefs. Hehe. I felt like I was on Iron Chef with a 10 minute time limit for each dish. Seriously, the way we cooked in that course puts Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals to shame. Haha. All the dishes were yummy but my 2 fave are red curry fish and banana cake. 

Our next destination was Bangkok. We caught the Lady Boy Show first night there. The show was surprisingly funny. The lady to the right is hilarious! 
A few of them looked just like women- beautiful women. By the way, guess what we ate before the show? Japanese food. Hahaha, yeah I sold out. The sushi was just ok. The prices are cheap compared to the States, but about 7x more expensive than the food vendors. 

The second day we were in Bangkok we toured the Grand Palace and temples nearby. It was not a pleasant day; it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and I had to wear my jeans all day on the Grand Palace grounds. They enforce strict attire requirements.  I couldn't take the heat anymore so I did it the Asian way- I busted out with my umbrella.

Now on to Phuket. Ok, we didn't have any accomodations planned for Phuket so upon our arrival we searched for a computer to use. There was a place on the 2nd floor of the airport that charged 100 baht (~$3USD) for 15 min. It was a rip but there was no other choice. Anyhow, so we googled online and settled on Seaside Cottages at Mai Khao a.k.a. the Airport Beach. They were having a promotion: stay 2 nights, get 1 free. So for 3 nights each person would only need to pay 600 baht (~$18USD). Sounds like a game plan, or at least it did initially. Ok, so the 6 of us hopped onto 2 taxis and were on our way to Seaside Cottages-- I was excited. We drive on the highway for a bit and then turn onto a dirt path. We haven't even reached the place yet and Ialready thought it was too secluded and far away from everything. Everyone in my taxi agreed that this place was too out of the way and that we should find a place closer to town. We finally arrived and yep, standing there greeting us was a row of huts- huts in every sense. Each hut had a small window, a very small fan (no A/C), a mosquito net, and a thin relatively big mattress padding on the floor. I was not digging the place so I brought up to the others that we should only stay here for a night and move closer to town the next day. They agreed, only one thing though how do we get to town? Ok so here's where our adventure in Phuket begins. The owners of the huts suggested us to walk to the Marriot Resort to catch public transportation, a walk they claimed that would only take 20 min. So we all drop off our stuff and walk along the beach towards Marriot Resort. Since Marriot is even closer to the airport than the huts we were actually walking the opposite direction from town. After more than 30 min of walking on the beach we finally arrive at the beautiful and luxurious Marriot Resort only to discover that we have to walk a bit more to reach the "main road." The main road is really the highway we were driving along earlier. We start walking along the highway and walk and walk meanwhile the cars whizzing by us continuously honk. 

We attempt to wave down 3 buses but each one would motion "no" to us. We walk some more until Shao advised us to walk back to the Marriot while we still have the opportunity to turn back. Just as we turned around made a u-turn and drove up next to us asking us if we needed help. We happily paid him to drive us to Phuket Town, about a 50 min drive from our huts. Can you sense our relief and happiness?

Ok back to our huts. Have you noticed that I didn't take any pics of the interiors of the hut? That's because it's just plain 4 walls, a mattress pad in the middle, and rat droppings littered on my side of the bed. Yep, you read correctly- rat droppings. When we came back from Phuket Town that night and Miranda was showering I decided to get the bed ready. I pulled back the blankets and noticed that my side of the bed (the side next to the window) was lined with these black pellets, I bent down and started blowing them away. A few stubbornly clung on and as I tried to bend down further I slipped a bit and leaned against the wall only to discover that these pellets were scattered along the crack btw the wall and the mattress pad. I was disgusted and moved to Miranda's half of the bed. To rid my mind of the images, I kept thinking about how for the next two nights we'd be staying at a nice, clean hostel in Phuket Town. The hostel did not disappoint me one bit. I'm SO happy that we only stayed there for one night because the Seaside Cottages is actually on a burial ground. YEAH I KNOW! OMG!!! *shiver* We didn't find out until the last day in Phuket, and I am so glad I did not know beforehand! I would not have been able to sleep. Ah, ignorance is bliss. Look at happy and calm I look chilling on that beach that night. Haha. Good times.

So what was my favorite part in Phuket? PHI PHI ISLAND!!! I thoroughly enjoyed the Phi Phi day tour we went on. The tour included 2 rounds of snorkeling, a visit to Maya Beach and Moneky Beach, a surprisingly gourmet lunch buffet (good selection of food that included seafood and a variety of fresh fruits), and a peak at the birds' nest caves (no visitor is allowed to go inside, but boats are allowed to get near the area). Maya Beach is everything I imagined a tropical beach to be: clear waters and almost white sand. 

It was sad to see a few cigarette butts in the water but that's nothing compared to the litter I saw in Patong Beach. I was disappointed in Patong Beach. I know it is a popular beach in Phuket so I expected it to be nice but it wasn't that clean. The water had a greenish tinge to it and there were cigarette butts, an eaten wedge of watermelon, cups etc. in the water. Regardless, it was a very laidback day at Patong Beach. We took a dip in the ocean, lounged on our chairs (we rented them for 100 baht each), took some pics, went back to the water and chilled out on our chairs again. The day at Patong was ultimate chillaxation. 

Khob-kun-Ka for reading! =) Until next time.