After the rush of India, the relaxing atmosphere of all of Thailand was a welcome relief. The people of this country are calm in a way I have never experienced before, which I think has something to do with the prevalence of Buddhism. Even the hagglers in the market, who in every other country were avoided at all costs, were calm and encouraging as opposed to loud and pushy.
We headed to Bangkok after getting into port, but since it took a while getting cleared by border patrol the only thing we had time to do in the city was grab a delicious buffet lunch (with crazy shaped deserts in every single color) and head to the airport. With 93 other people (including my friends Kristin, Cara, Chandler, Brian, Andrew, Caitlin and Theresa) we walked through the beautiful brand new airport and boarded our flight to Phuket. We landed over a beautiful island paradise and arrived in a bustling tourist area full of restaurants, bars, spas and more strip clubs than I’ve ever seen in one place. Even someone from Vegas would blush. Our hotel was a sprawling piece of land in Patong beach with a few pools, nice rooms and a 2 minute walk to the beach. The first night we were all pretty tired from traveling so we went out to a late dinner where there was live 90’s music sung by a Thai cover band (a trend we noticed was pretty prevalent all over the place) and ate some pretty decent Thai food along with our drinks that came in pineapples. We spent the rest of the night at an open air bar playing pool and foosball and just relaxing.
In the morning, we woke up early to start our busy day. The hotel breakfast was delicious. I’ve never liked pineapple, but in Phuket it was incredible and I ate it with every meal. We left the hotel and broke up into 2 groups. Our group went first to a remote jungle area about 2 hours into the mainland where we hopped into rived kayaks and were paddled downstream. The scenery on the river was wonderful. Giant rock formations, beautiful butterflies and a sense of peace in nature surrounded us during our ride. In the middle of the river, they let us jump out of our kayaks and swing from a tree vine into the water. None of us trusted the vine at first, and I was the first girl to climb up and try it out, but once a few of us tried it everyone got into it and it was great. After we got back to the point in the river where we started, we drove to a nearby bungalow for lunch and a little time out of the hot weather. After that, we went into the jungle where we rode elephants. We named ours “Snuffy” and I got to ride right on his shoulders without a chair or a seatbelt! One of the funniest parts about the elephant ride was that I realized it was my third time on an elephant in a little over a week! Yeah, life is pretty sweet…And it kept getting sweeter. We got dropped off at a spa on our way back to the hotel and got 2 hours aromatherapy massages for about $25 US. I’ve never been so relaxed in my life. For dinner that night, we went to a place called the Tiger Inn, which looks like a giant tree house on the inside. Since it was so late and we were really the only ones in the restaurant, they let us come up and sing with the live band. We sang some old school songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” and it was pretty hilarious seeing the words that they had written out, some of which were really wrong. I had amazing pad thai that came wrapped in an egg like an omelet, it was so delicious! I loved all of the thai food although some of my friends definitely ordered dishes that were way too spicy for me. We wandered around the bar scene for a while after dinner, but after a few accidental encounters with some clubs that were not strictly for dancing, we decided instead to head to the beach and jump into the Indian Ocean, which is so warm its like bathwater.
The next day we were taken on a great tour of some of the neighboring islands. We went to James Bond Island which is where “The Man with the Golden Gun” was filmed. It was really pretty but there were WAY too many tourists there and we could barely get around. After that we got into sea kayaks and spent the rest of the morning exploring sea caves called “hongs”. Some of the caves we so low that you had to completely lay flat in your kayak just to get through! The water was so clear and it was a perfect day for swimming and boating. We also went into a cave that was pitch black and absolutely full of bats! I’ve never seen some many in one place. I guess that explains why they refer to it as the “Batcave”. Then we were given a wonderful lunch on our larger boat, which was really impressive considering they made it on the beat up old barge. We had all kinds of meats and fish and noodles, and we even had soup! We spent the afternoon doing flips off of the boat into the ocean and hanging out on the beach at Lawa Island. It was a great day full of activities, and luckily I wasn’t one of the people who got stung by one of the jellyfish the size of basketballs or bit by a venomous sea snake (others on my trip weren’t so lucky, but everyone is fine now). After this we went to a shopping venue and then back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner. We went out to dinner that night with about 20 people which was a lot of fun, and then we went to one of the surprisingly large number of Irish bars in Phuket to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! It was fun to see a familiar tradition, and for the second night in a row we ended the evening in the ocean, it was too much fun to pass up! The next day we got on a plane and headed back for “One Night in Bangkok”!
When we arrived in the city, we checked in to our hotel and met up with some other friends who had been in Bangkok the entire time. We went out to dinner and the spent the night wandering around the night market which is open until 3am. Unfortunately in the area I was in, the only bars that they had were not ones that we really wanted to go into, especially the girls! On our last morning in Thailand, we took a canal tour of Bangkok, since it’s set up on a canal system just like Venice. It was really cool to see how a city runs like that on a waterway. After that we went to the Grand Palace. It certainly lived up to its name. Gold statues decorated in bright colors and temples covered the expansive areas. It was truly magnificent, but there were just so many people there at once that it was a little overwhelming. After a quick bite to eat, we made our last stop at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. Not only were there tigers, but also pigs, dogs, crocodiles, elephants, camels, monkeys, rabbits, deer and donkeys. It was a very interesting mix. As great as it was to see all the animals close up (we got to hold and feed a baby tiger!) it was sad to see all those animals in captivity. I think that zoos in general just make me uncomfortable and sad. The day started off really great and we took a group picture holding the tiger (which we then had made into family t-shirts that we all sported getting back on the boat) but by the end of our time there we were all ready to leave.
It’s funny that Wisconsin’s spring break fell at the same time as my time in Thailand, because all of the time adventuring around the beautiful beaches definitely felt like spring break. It wasn’t the same cultural experience I’ve had in other countries, but it was a great time for all of us to get in a little relaxation that we all definitely needed after India. We get to Viet Nam tomorrow, and I’m flying up north to Hanoi with four people I hardly know and going backpacking through the jungles and doing village home stays. I’m really excited to meet some new people and really get to see a part of this culture that has a history so tied up in our own.
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