Thailand Trekking

Hey everyone we’re back from Thailand! We just got back on Sunday night, and we’ve been having a busy week so far, so I'm sorry for the delay in posting. I hope everyone has been doing well!!

We left for Thailand on Friday (6/17). Our flight wasn’t until four, but we showed up at two since it was an international flight- even though the Phnom Penh airport generally has an average of about one plane at a time. We started off our vacation week strong with Dairy Queen in the airport while we killed time.

We had no plan once we got to Thailand. We landed in Bangkok and a random guy in the airport told us that most tourists head to Khao San, one of the main sections in Bangkok with lots of restaurants and guesthouses. He also informed us that we couldn’t use US dollars in Bangkok- which wouldn’t normally seem surprising except that everywhere in Cambodia accepts US dollars, so for some reason we just assumed that Thailand would be the same way. So thankfully we knew to exchange some money at the airport before venturing out. We walked outside and found a taxi driver who automatically assumed that we were heading to Khao San, so we knew we were getting ourselves in to the majorly touristy area.

The entire street was filled with foreigners when we arrived. We finally found out where Southeast Asia has been hiding them all, because it’s definitely not in Phnom Penh. We fit in immediately- it was both good and bad. I think we had become accustomed to standing out during our time spent in Phnom Penh, especially since we’re the only foreigners who live in our section of town, or at least if we aren’t, the others don’t ever come out. So it was both nice to fit in and a little sad that people didn’t shout hello at us from every side as we walked down the street.

Still, it was nice to be in a vacation spot for once. We checked in to a guesthouse pretty easily, unpacked our stuff, I won rock paper scissors for not having to sleep on the cot (I happen to be pretty skilled at rock paper scissors and haven’t had to sleep on a cot yet), and then we went exploring. We got dinner in a place right down the street with every kind of food you could ever want- pizza, breakfast, thai food, dessert, sandwiches, everything. It was kind of awesome. We all ordered Thai food, eager to celebrate our first night in Thailand, and complemented it with wine. After that, we explored our street. Vendors took over the sidewalks at night, and brightly colored sundresses, jewelry, and shoes flashed out at us as we walked through the crowded streets and dodged hundreds of other tourists also out for a late night stroll.

We packed it in pretty early that night- for us, anyway. After the flight that day, we all wanted a little rest before facing a full day in Bangkok on Saturday. As we were getting ready for bed, we had a deep discussion, as usually happens between girls right before bed, about the fact that it isn’t fair that I always win rock paper scissors. I agreed and offered to take the cot, but this just wasn’t enough fun for us. So Jessi and I bet on the weather the next day- if it thunderstormed, I would get the bed, but if it didn’t, we would rock paper scissors for it again. On that enlightening note, we went to bed.

The next day we saw the sights of Bangkok- as many of them as we could cram in to daylight hours. We grabbed breakfast at the same place we had eaten dinner- which had a specific breakfast called American breakfast that we all proceeded to get, even though we knew how stereotypical that made us. We went to three different wats, or temples, and took tons of pictures- I’ll try to post some of them. We’re experts at visiting temples at this point. We know all of the unspoken rules about when to take off your shoes and when to be quiet and when to stop taking pictures so we don’t look like ridiculous tourists. We perused the temples for awhile, found a place to get a late lunch (ok I can’t hide it, that place was Subway), and then attempted to visit the Royal Palace. It was closed. Apparently one of the king’s relatives died in the tsunami a few years ago so the royal family was there to commemorate his death. The temple was scheduled to reopen later that afternoon, so we went back to our guesthouse. There was a pool on the roof so we went swimming for awhile, then showered and headed back to the Royal Palace. Still closed- this time we had apparently missed its visiting hours by about half an hour.

We gave up on the Royal Palace and headed a bit early to the night market. We have a history of showing up way too early for night markets. But we hung out and got dinner and waited for the stalls to open. The place was hopping later that night. Lots of tourists, but tons of locals too, came to wander the long aisles of temporary shops and explore. The theme was firmly focused on clothes- I’ve never seen so many dresses in my life. We held off on shopping- we had to live out of backpacks for the next week and none of us had room to carry around purchases yet.
After the night market, we headed back to Khao San and sat at a café for awhile, watching the diverse crowds wandering by and trying to guess at their accents while we sipped at smoothies with exotic fruits. It didn’t storm. Jessi and I played rock paper scissors again for the bed. I won. They complained about the fact that I always win for about twenty minutes, I offered to take the cot yet again and Jessi refused, and then we wandered back to our little rented room and fell asleep.

The next morning we checked out promptly at 9:30 and caught a cab back to the airport. We boarded our flight right on time (which we would later learn does not usually happen with Air Asia). We were on our way to the islands. We caught a tempting glimpse of the jade waters below us as the plane cruised in to Surat Thani, the in between stop for buses, trains, and generally everyone attempting to travel to the islands who can’t afford the abominable prices of direct flights.

A one hour bus ride, two hour ferry ride, and half hour cab ride later, we understood why people suck it up and pay for a direct flight. But we didn’t care. We were finally in Koh Samui.
We decided on Koh Samui the week before we left. Mostly because Jessi wanted to go to Koh Samui and Alisa wanted to go to Phuket, and Jessi won the coin toss. I didn’t care where we went- I just wanted to see a beach somewhere in Thailand. We checked in to a small bungalow, one of several belonging to the business Lucky Mother, changed clothes, and went exploring. By that point, night had fallen and it was too late to go swimming, but we made our way to the beach up the narrow sandy path from our bungalow. At night, the beaches on Koh Samui become restaurants, and all of the beachfront places had tables and lounge chairs set up for guests to wait for their food. We chose one of the closest ones and ordered food. Then we stretched out and listened to the sound of the surf, and let ourselves unwind after traveling all day. I wish I could always unwind that way.

After dinner, we explored the small town a little more. Koh Samui is a big honeymoon destination, and there were couples everywhere holding hands, and even more with kids running ahead of them. Shops stay open nearly all night, and street vendors sell the best pancakes on the planet- crepe style with bananas and nutella.

We crashed early that night and the next day we hit the beach only a few hours after sunrise- we were on vacation and thus did not have children waking us up at five a.m. every morning, so we’d been sleeping later. A few hours after sunrise was pretty good for us. We stayed on the beach until early afternoon- long enough for me to get bright red. Before you lecture (Mom), I did wear sunscreen and lots of it. But apparently the sun in Thailand is a bit hotter than the sun at home. And we actually hadn’t been getting much sun at Palm Tree because we’d been staying out of direct sunlight as much as possible due to the heat.

We grabbed lunch and wandered around the beach a little more, taking long walks and exploring stretches of white sand. The water was like bathwater- we could have swam at night and not been cold. We took that first day at the beach to just relax and not worry about taking trips and sightseeing and the stress of travel. That evening, we found another restaurant on the beach and got seafood. We got to pick out our crabs, and I got the biggest oyster I’ve ever seen in my life. They brought out a plate with this oyster and five different sauces to dip it in- it was quite the production. The seafood was probably some of the best I've ever had. It really doesn’t get fresher.

After dinner, we walked around a bit, found a bar that was showing Angels and Demons and watched that for awhile, and talked to some Australians who happened to be traveling through Southeast Asia on vacation. During our stay in the islands, we had also noticed that a lot of people walk around with monkeys through restaurants and bars, and try to get tourists to hold them for money. We usually just decline. I was sitting there, minding my own business and talking to Jessi, and this guy came up and put a monkey in my lap. I just stared at it, like "What the heck am I supposed to do with this thing?" It reached up and put its arms around me. I think the guy could tell that I wasn’t into it because he picked the monkey back up after ten seconds. Jessi and Alisa thought it was hilarious of course. I have to admit that the monkey was pretty cute.

That night we went to bed at a fairly decent hour and rolled out of bed the next morning in time to check out of our bungalow at Lucky Mother and catch the 10:00 ferry to Koh Pha Ngan. We ended up there at about eleven after a rainstorm that seriously threatened to unseat us the entire way. The reason we wanted to go to Koh Pha Ngan was because of the Black Moon Party. Koh Pha Ngan is famous for its parties. Every month, the island holds a Full Moon party, and several thousand people show up for it. But apparently this wasn’t enough because the island also holds a Half Moon party and a Black Moon party. Since the Black Moon party was the one we could catch, we were eager to go and check it out. Upon landing in Koh Pha Ngan, we headed straight for the area where the Black Moon party was going to be held- then realized that there is literally nothing else there but the Black Moon party. We high-tailed it out of there pretty quickly and headed for Haad Rin.

I loved the little street of Haad Rin. We stayed in the tourist section of town (as we have a habit of doing), found a nice yet cheap guesthouse on the beach, and proceeded to explore. The street seemed isolated, tucked away along the side of the island, surrounded on both sides by shops and open restaurants with televisions that played Friends almost twenty-four seven. No wonder I loved this place.

Again we went straight to the beach after checking in. We hung out in the warm tropical waters until dusk began to fall and we had to force ourselves to trudge back to our hotel and shower and get ready for dinner. We found one of the best sushi places ever and had amazing sushi. We also saw some of the cutest puppies I’ve seen this whole trip- and believe me I have seen a lot of dogs. Dogs run all over Southeast Asia, and we’ve learned to steer clear of them because most of them don’t have their shots or even people looking after them. But these puppies were so cute it was almost too hard to resist petting them.

After dinner, we met up with the Belgians we had met in Siam Reap. Jessi and Jeff (can’t spell his real name sorry) had been talking on Facebook for awhile, so we knew where they would be. We all met up at a restaurant on the beach and talked for awhile. Then we wandered over to another restaurant on the beach where they were doing flame throwing tricks. We watched the guys tossing fire in the air like it was nothing, like it wasn’t hot at all and they were invincible. The problem is, I think after we watched them do it long enough we started to believe that it was easy.

They got out a huge rope, covered it with whatever the Thailand equivalent of gasoline is (probably still gasoline), and set it on fire. Two men on platforms ten feet in the air started to turn the rope like a jump rope. A few of the other men started jumping. Some of them made it. Some of them fell. But everyone seemed okay when they got up. Then the crowd of tourists that had formed started getting involved.

I think you know where this is leading. One of the Belgians we were with dared me to jump. I said I would if he would- my standard response to dares. I never thought he would do it. Five minutes later he stumbles over fresh from the flaming jump rope and wants to know when I’m going to do it. So I got up and stood at the edge, preparing to run in. I probably would have prepared for awhile, a flaming jump rope is a bit daunting, but Alisa grabbed me and pulled me in with her. We both jumped… for about five seconds, and then we fell. It’s really hard to jump rope on sand. We both got up and ran away, even though the men stopped turning the jump rope whenever anyone fell anyway. I’m not going to lie- when I was jumping over it, it was hot. It definitely wasn’t fake fire. But the whole experience was exhilarating- a week later and we’re still talking about it.

After the whole jump rope event, we all hung out on the beach and talked for awhile longer, then made our way back to our respective bungalows. The Belgians had rented a motorbike and took off on that, and the three of us collapsed on our beds and fell instantly asleep.

The next morning, we opened the curtains to pouring rain. It was bound to happen, we reminded ourselves as we groaned and tugged on clothes instead of bathing suits. It was the rainy season in Thailand after all, and the weather in the islands was supposed to be terrible all week. We were lucky we had two sunny days in there.

Unfortunately it poured all day. It was hard to be optimistic at ten at night when it was still pouring.

We got breakfast (the American breakfast of course, what else?) in a café down the street. And watched Friends. For an hour. It was glorious. After that, Jessi met up with the Belgians again and Alisa and I opted to go to the tip of the island and try out kayaking. It was drizzling a bit, but the weather was much better for kayaking than snorkeling, so we dragged our kayak in to the ocean and paddled around for awhile. Neither of us being seasoned kayakers, we paddled a little too far away from the lodge. We went around a smaller island and ended up on a beach that was connected to the beach we had started out at- basically we did a big loop and landed on the wrong side. By that time, we were exhausted and our kayak rental time was up. We made a feeble effort to carry the kayak. We couldn’t even get it off the ground, but we gave some other tourists a good laugh.

With our heads pretty low, we dragged ourselves back to the lodge and informed them that our kayak was on the other side of the beach. It took them awhile to understand, and I’m not sure if it’s because no one has ever done that before or because of the language barrier. Eventually they burst out laughing and then someone ran and got the kayak, and pushed it back to the lodge.
We grabbed a taxi back to Haad Rin. The rain had momentarily subsided, so we showered and, along with Jessi, found a restaurant on the beach and ordered seafood again. The crabs all over the islands are amazing- I can vouch for it. After that Jessi decided to stay in Haad Rin and Alisa and I took off for the Black Moon party.

The party was about as hopping as an island party during the rainy season can get. There were probably five or six hundred people there, loud techno music blasted in the background, and everything was under blacklights. We got flowers painted on our legs so that they glowed under the blacklights and made our way on to the beach. We ended up meeting some interesting people, but we mostly kept out of the way and watched the festivities. More flame throwers. We stayed away this time. Our flight back was early the next morning, so we had to call it a night early on. We grabbed a cab back to Haad Rin and packed up for the next day.

Thursday was worse than any of us probably imagined. We were up at 5:30 a.m. With the sun. Literally. We took a half hour cab ride down to the docks. We took a four hour ferry ride to Surat Thani. We took an hour bus ride to a random bus station in the middle of nowhere that had the best ham sandwiches I think I’ve ever tasted. Then we took another hour bus ride to the actual airport in Surat Thani. By the time we got there, we threw our stuff on a few chairs and collapsed outside of check in for a few hours till it opened.

Our flight was delayed an hour and a half, so we had plenty of time to kill as we hung out in the tiny airport. I read half a book. We all slept a little bit. Air Asia finally let us check in a half hour before our flight was supposed to leave, and then hustled us through security. We waited another hour, and our flight finally left. We landed in Bangkok a few hours behind schedule and all but dragging our luggage behind us, exhausted. Our hearts were not in the haggle for taxi prices and we just took the first one who said "Five hundred baht" (that’s about fifteen dollars). For the half hour ride into the city, five dollars apiece was the best deal we would get.

Once we checked in to a guesthouse in Khao San (not the same guesthouse as before), we all showered and threw on clean clothes. Not fancy, going out clothes because none of us were prepared for a crazy night, but clothes that all the same felt just as good because they didn’t smell like other people’s sweat and airplanes.

That night I got to meet up with Jen Ryder, one of my friends from Pitt, which was awesome. She’s volunteering at APCA, one of the farm sites that’s distantly related to Palm Tree (we aren’t really sure how because there haven’t been a whole lot of details provided on that front). She flew into Bangkok and was staying with friends for a few days, but when we found out that we would be in Bangkok at the same time, we decided to meet up and she stayed with us at the guesthouse Thursday and Friday nights. We had an adventure finding each other. "I’m at the 7-11!" she yelled in to the phone. "No you aren’t because I’m at the 7-11!" I yelled back. Later we found out that there are approximately 30,000 7-11s in Bangkok.

Eventually we met up and the four of us went out in search of food. We ate on Khao San street (a mixture of Thai and American food that we all sort of shared with each other), and then we found the jazz club down the street. The jazz club was ritzy and classy, and the music was beautiful- and we lasted about five minutes there before realizing that the place was way out of our price range even for a bottle of water. We made our way upstairs to Gazebo, the hip hop club set up on the roof. That was more our speed. They played tons of songs that we knew from the States, and everyone sang along.

We turned in early (I promise we didn’t do that every night, I feel like it sounds as if we did), exhausted from traveling all day. Jen and I stayed up late and talked for awhile, catching up since we hadn’t seen each other since graduation, which was way too long ago.

The next day (Friday) we spent the full day exploring Bangkok. Recovered from our flight, we grabbed breakfast at the oh so early hour of ten a.m. After breakfast, we headed up the street a little ways and found a massage place. We all got one hour oil massages (for five dollars might I add), and they were amazing. My first professional massage. Though I have to say it was a little uncomfortable at times and I’m pretty sure my masseuse was somewhere between first and second base with me. I know, my life is clearly so difficult.

After our massages, we showered and then headed to Platinum, one of the biggest markets I have seen in my time in Southeast Asia. We spent three or four hours there and I still don’t think I saw even a fraction of the place. And they had everything you could haggle over. Anything you could think of. It was a bargainer’s paradise. We tried to stay away from spending too much (one carry on limit with Air Asia) and we just explored and enjoyed the different fashion trends we observed. So far we had stayed in mostly tourist areas- at Platinum, we only saw one or two other foreigners, and everyone else was locals. And haggled with a vengeance. It was a nice contrast.

After Platinum, we indulged in ice cream sundaes. I have gained so much weight from this trip. I thought I was losing weight in Cambodia, and then I went to Thailand. Anyway, the sundaes were amazing. We got back to Khao San a little later, changed, and headed to the night market for dinner and last minute purchases. Dinner was a mixture of pad thai, spring rolls, fried rice, and a few other dishes that looked good at the time. The four of us split everything and then wandered over to the night market. It was just as chaotic as I remembered- we walked around for awhile, got a few last minute Thailand purchases, and then made our way back to our guesthouse.

By this point it was about ten and we had planned to go out, but Jessi and Jen weren’t feeling well, so we decided to stay in and make it an early and relaxing night. Alisa and I ordered a pizza- yes you can do that in Bangkok, it was sweet- and then we went to bed.

Saturday was our last full day in Bangkok and we wanted to make it the best we could. Jessi hung out with Jeff most of the day- the Belgians had traveled to Bangkok the night before. Alisa, Jen, and I hit up the floating market in Bangkok. Apparently there is a floating market an hour and a half outside of Bangkok that is much better, and our cab driver didn’t even want to take us to the one in Bangkok, but we insisted. We decided that an hour and a half one way trip was too long to spend driving on our last day. The market in Bangkok was cool enough- we got seafood that had been caught in the river and took a three hour boat tour. There were a lot of people living along the river- at one point, we saw kids bathing in it. I’m not sure I would go that far. I was a little leery even eating things that were caught in it because it wasn’t the cleanest river I’ve ever seen. But it was entertaining to see how much life revolved around the water nonetheless.

After the market and the boat ride, we headed back to our guesthouse to freshen up. We thought about our options- we had had a late lunch and we still had some time to kill before dinner. And what’s the best way to kill time in Thailand? We went and got another massage. Oil again. This one was more interesting because my masseuse talked to me the whole time about teaching English and what she liked about living in Thailand. I’ve been not so secretly looking in to teaching jobs in Thailand so it was interesting to hear her thoughts on living in Bangkok. And the massage felt pretty good too.

I had to say goodbye to Jen afterwards. She had to take the bus early the next morning in to Cambodia, and since the ride was so long, she needed to get back to the friends she was staying with and make it an early night. It was sad to say goodbye so quickly, but I’m going to try to visit her later this week at APCA.

Alisa and I grabbed dinner at a sushi restaurant- we went all out on our last night in Bangkok. It was awesome because all out in Bangkok is half the price of a casual night out in the States. We hung out at the sushi place and ate leisurely and just talked about future plans. It was starting to dawn on me at the end of the Thailand trip that I would be going back to the States soon, and it had been awhile since I seriously thought about future job plans. I needed to get back in the swing of it and start thinking about my options again, and it was interesting to talk to somebody else who doesn’t have a set life plan. It’s always reassuring to find those people in life, and to realize that there are other people who have no idea what they want to do.

After that enlightening conversation, we walked along the busy, bumping streets of Khao San and joined in the nightlife. We did a little last minute shopping and roamed different stores and dance clubs. We went back to the hip hop club Gazebo and stayed for an hour or two, singing along to the songs we knew and enjoying the ones we didn’t. I met a guy from Dubai who talked to me for awhile about how to find teaching jobs in Thailand, which was interesting. It’s always interesting to meet foreigners who have settled in Bangkok because I feel like I would go through the same experience if I decided to teach there. Sometime in the hopefully not so distant future.
We made it back to our guesthouse at the terribly late hour of two a.m.

The next morning we rolled out of bed at about nine, grabbed breakfast and packed up, did a last tour around Khao San and the surrounding area to say farewell, and then got a cab to the airport. Our flight was delayed three hours (big shock there), so we hung out for way too long before finally returning to Phnom Penh.

The kids were so happy to see us when we walked through the gates. It had been forever, all but a lifetime for all of us, and we kind of all rushed in to each others’ arms. It was one of those movie moments where everything comes together at the end. The travelers returned. And it really has become a home to me, living at the orphanage. I didn’t realize how much until the moment we returned after having been away for over a week. I am really going to miss this place.

So that was our Thailand adventure- to sum it up in oh about seven pages. I'm going to post again before I leave next week, so I'll give you the update on my last week at the orphanage! Right now they're keeping us busy- we have exams this weekend, so we're scrambling to meet with the teachers and put the test questions together. It's been a chaotic week, more so because I know that I'm leaving soon, but I've enjoyed every second of being with the kids again.

I'm excited to see you all soon! I hope everyone is doing well at home and I miss you!

Love from Cambodia,

Monica