Thailand travels...

March 20, 2009

I had the most amazing time in Thailand!!!! After India, Thailand was a really good break. I didn’t know what to expect from Thailand. All I knew about it was what we talked about in class. First off, the people in Thailand are incredibly friendly!! On the SAS trips that I did, the tour company guides we’re some of the nicest people I met. They would do everything for us and they worked so hard to make sure everything ran smoothly and the everyone was happy. They really enjoyed what they we’re doing and had such a love for their country which I thought was great to see!

The first day I did the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo with a bunch of others on an SAS trip and it was really good, I got to hold a baby tiger! I also got picked up by the trunk of an elephant, which was a first for me but a lot of fun. We went to a tiger show, which was not that great because it was really obvious to the audience and everyone else, that the tigers we’re not happy to be there and it was clear that they we’re mistreated and not taken care of very well. We also went to an elephant show which was a lot of fun. They seemed to be better treated there and happier. I fell in love with Asian elephants in Thailand, they we’re so precious and I learned a lot about elephants because I ended up going on three different elephant trips. It was a fun day and Courtney was on that trip with me along with some of my other friends so we all had a great time!

After the day trip Courtney and I got dropped off at the Harbor mall with some other girls and our trip leader. We had all wanted to go walk around and see the place, grab some Thai dinner and hang out. Anything but go back to the ship when we really didn’t have to. Courtney and I walked around but shopping wise at this mall, things weren’t so great. We did find a DVD stand of recent movies in the U.S. and I bought 6 for fifteen American dollars, good deal. They all worked well, you just had to change the settings from Thai to American. They even had made a sticker for the DVD and a case so it looked really nice! There really wasn’t a Thai place in the mall to eat so we ended up going to a pizza place that tasted just like Pizza Hut even though it wasn’t called that. Trying to communicate what we wanted to order and stuff, brought us back to that time in Spain when we tried to get breakfast somewhere. It’s definitely a challenge communication with someone who doesn’t speak your language. But if there is ever a game of charades going on, I know that I’ll do really well! The food was actually really good. We ordered an appetizer of French fries, a pizza and dessert. It was amazing and we we’re starving so we enjoyed it very much!


We met up with the rest of the small group later and got a “cab” back to the ship. When we got back Courtney and I went to hang out in our friend Sylvia’s room, who was also on the trip and lived across from Courtney. We hung out in there for awhile, talking, writing blogs, listening to music and making signs for the countries but then we had to get back to packing for our overnight trips that we we’re doing. I was up early the next morning because I was on an SAS trip called, Bangkok Overnight. We we’re going to visit all the sites in Bangkok and sail down the river. I was excited! It was a two hour bus ride so I tried to sleep a little bit, Holly was also on this trip with me and we sat next to each other and it was really nice to catch up again because I hadn’t talked to her in awhile nor seen her much. We first got into Bangkok and got on a boat to sail down the canals and river tributaries around the city. It was really cool to see, and we really got a sense of homelife, atleast along this area on the river. We passed rustic home built on stilts above the water. They we’re all clustered along the river’s edge. Funny, it kinda reminded me of being home a little big this past summer, when our city got flooded really bad, people got around by boat downtown. We stopped at the “Temple of Dawn” (Wat Arun) whose 79-meter spire silhouette is often recognized as the symbol of Thailand. There were many Thai temples and things and they we’re all really neat, and so very ornate and painted with lots of colors and lots of real gold! For dinner we went to a local restaurant and had some tradition Thai dishes. We had to take our shoes off for this place too. Taking off your shoes to walk in certain places is a huge thing here. I might as well have not worn shoes. The dinner was great and we we’re entertained with some traditional Thai music and a dance performance as well. It was amazing! What a great night! After dinner a group of us walked to the night market. The place was the place to be. We had a lot of fun hanging out on the town, doing shopping and having a good time.

Holly and I had a good heart-to-heart that night. Turns out that we we’re kinda going through some similar things with people back home. She was really home sick and missed home a lot and I missed my friends, especially because I felt like I didn’t hear from them much anymore, especially my best friends. She brought up some good points as we reflected on things saying its interesting how you have a significant other or best friend back home that you always talked to 24/7 and hung out with all the time, they we’re always your go-to person and we’re always there for you and vice-versa. But it’s funny how you’re so important in someone’s life for a long time, but then when you leave and come here its like everyone is moving on without you, and you wonder…we’re you really that important to them in the beginning if they can so easily brush you aside now.

It’s hard to make people back home understand how much an email means out here. When I was at school, it was no big deal at all hearing about things and whatnot, I enjoyed it but I didn’t thrive on it. Out here, everyone comes back from port wishing and hoping that they have a letter posted on their door from their family or a friend that was sent to that country for them. We check our email all the time, just hoping that there will be an email from back home. Things out here are amazing but we all still miss home a lot, and miss hearing from people, especially our favorite people. I really understood what she was saying because I felt the same way. It sounds really dumb but I get really sad every time I come back to my cabin after a country and it seems everyone else had a letter on their door except me. I did get a package in Mauritius that I asked my parents to send me a couple things that I forgot, and I was so excited. Even though I knew what was in the box, I was still so excited and hoped there would even be a surprise letter inside. I had the biggest smile, and I wanted to capture the moment so Val took a picture of me holding my box before I opened it. We talked more about our best friends back home, and how they said they would email us everyday, yet both of us hadn’t heard from them in about a month and it made us really sad because we missed them alot. I felt like I was forgotten, that they we’re moving on without me. It’s wrong to want someone to wait for you and not do anything, that’s not right. But if your really that close and really best friends, then you’d think they’d write more. And when they don’t seem to take interest anymore by not emailing, that’s when you start to wonder about it. It was just making me really sad to think about and it sucked because I felt like I couldn’t enjoy my trip because of it. I was so concerned about what was going on back home, my friends, worried that things wouldn’t be the same when I got home, that others had taken my place. It was so dumb that it was hurting me that bad, that I felt distracted and sad on my trip. It was insane, how could I be sad. I was mad about it, that it was distracting me, that things would happen to make me question, because they shouldn’t be. I was in Thailand! I tried to make Holly feel better by telling her that as well. She was in Thailand and traveling around the world, there is nothing to feel sad about. That you shouldn’t let people back home make you feel bad and sad about being away. We’re are having such a great time out here, but its still hard to be away and away from home so long, especially when you know that your friends are moving on without you. It just makes you feel really left-out and uncared for the same way anymore. I don’t know, now I seem to just be rambling. But it was a good conversation anyway and I guess it made me feel a little bit better that I was able to talk to someone about how I was sad and how I felt, and I knew that she really understood me because she was going through the same thing as well. It’s tough to swallow, knowing your best friends back home are having fun without you, and making new best friends. Because to us out here, nothing can replace them. But back home, its like they are trying to fill in the hole that left. So we ask ourselves, do we have a place anymore when we get back?...or must we share it now?

Idk, I guess it could also be turned around because we are making such good friends out here also. We’ve only been here two months but living in such close quarters, with no phones, or way of contacting home regularly and traveling together and sharing these good and hard times with people, its amazing how close you can get and become such good friends with someone in a short amount of time. Traveling with someone you get to know them a lot better and being in bad situations together and working through it and having such great times and bonding. I’m happy I’ve made such good friends here and hope it will continue even after we all leave the ship. People are already making plans to visit each other over the summer and vacations and such. Anyways….I’m talking on a tangent again…

The next morning we got up early, packed up our bags and headed down to the buses for a full day of touring. We visited the Wat Rachabophit that was built in 1870 by King Rama V, to be in line with the tradition that each monarch constructed a temple to mark his reign. The temple is a mixture of local and western styles, showing an awakening interest in new construction design. It was beautiful and so intricate and ornate! After staying at this temple for awhile we next went to Wat Po to see the giant “Reclining Buddha”, a 46-meter long, intricately embellished statue with mother-of-pearl (from itinerary). It was made entirely of gold. I tried to take good pictures, but it was so huge it was impossible to get the whole thing in a shot, even a small portion of it in one shot. It was really neat to see. After that we visited the Grand Palace, which I guess since 1872 has been the main attraction and focal point in Bangkok. This place was huge and had so many buildings and structures made entirely of mosaic creations. It was fascinating! There we’re an extensive amount of murals, gilded spires, and lots of colors! The architecture was incredible! We had to take off our shoes to go into every temple. We went into the “Wat Phra Kaew” which is the temple of the emerald Buddha. It was so beautiful! I’ve never seen so many jewels and gold ever. After the palace we went to see some really old Thai ships. They we’re really cool to see. They we’re all decorated with jewels and had figures built on the bow of the ship with a canon in front also incase of attack. After touring, we went to a really nice hotel an had some traditional food for lunch. I really enjoyed the food and thought it was really good, not something I expected. After lunch we got back on the boat and headed across the river to get on our bus again.

We then visited one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. We stopped and toured a private property, the privately owned Prasart Museum. The collector, Prasart Vongskul, began to acquire Thai antiques in 1965 when he was only 12 years old. The buidings in which they housed are also of interest, designed by the collector himself as either direct replicas or playful combinations of his favorite palaces and pavilions from around the country. It was really neat! There we’re so many collections and different little houses to display everything. Turns out he built buildings and a home for himself, created a large garden for everything to be stored in. It was amazing, I thought of my Dad because I think he would have really enjoyed seeing all of the antiques and random beautiful things this guy collected. Also, what was really neat was at the end of our tour we we’re able to meet Prasart Vongskul! He was really nice, and it was great to hear from him personally, when talking about his life and his collections, where he got them. After getting a picture with him, the group said goodbye and we all got back on the bus and headed back to the ship in Laem Chabang. The next day, I had a day trip for the Elephant village in Pattaya. I fell in love with elephants after this trip. We got to ride elephants and learned a lot about them in general. They are incredibly smart animals and they seemed so happy. They loved playing games and liked to dance a lot. I really enjoyed my trip to visit elephants. After that, the buses we’re heading back to the ship, but we’re dropping people off who wanted to stay in Pattaya, Holly and I, Emma, Amy, Katie all got off together in Pattaya and stayed there for awhile. We got a cab to the main mall in the area. I think it was called Central? Anyways, it was a huge mall with a lot of really neat things. We stopped at a restaurant in the mall, that was amazing. It was basically buffet styled. They give you a card and it get swiped every time you eat. The had food from all over the world there in their own little section. I had Chinese food, the others we’re eating Thai. But they also had Japanese, Italian, American, French etc. A lot of different choices. It was really good. We ate outside on their patio and the waiters we’re very nice to us. It was a really nice place. After dinner, we all walked around the mall together and then split off to do our own thing. We all met back up later that evening and walked together down the street to the markets which a busy at night but really neat. We all had a fun night just hanging out together. When it started to get late we got a cab back to the ship.


My last day in Thailand, I had a day trip to the Nong Nooch Cultural Village; it was probably my favorite trip I did in Thailand. It was a really nice place, we got to see a lot more elephants and animals, and there was also a show that we went to. It was basically a broadway/vegas show but Thai style. It was really neat, I recorded some of it and took a lot of pictures. There was singing and dancing so that was really neat to see. We also saw a sword fight show and some Thai boxing matches. I had a great time at this place. I got my picture taken with a leopard and a monkey! I was really excited. I also got pictures with the elephants, they we’re so cute. I loved them. I had a great time at that village and would recommend others to do that trip as well. In that trip you basically get a little taste of everything Thailand. I loved it. After we left the buses we’re dropping people off at the mall and then letting them find their own way back to the ship. Holly and I and some others got off at the mall stop. We each had some things to get and also wanted to use the Internet in their coffee shop. I basically spent my time trying to get some memory cards, blank DVD’s and USB jump drives. I had found out the night before that my computer hard drive was basically full from all the pictures I’ve taken. I think I have about 14.000 pictures on my computer right now 7,000 of which are just from SAS. I needed to back up all my pictures, so I wouldn’t lose them in case something bad really happened to my computer. I took it to the computer center and they said I needed to get an external hard drive so I could take everything off my computer and put it on there. If I can, I’m going to get one in China, they are supposed to be the best for electronics and things. It should be pretty reliable. The whole word after all seems like it was “made in China”.


CREW TALENT SHOW

That night after we got back was the crew talent show. I’ve never been so entertained in my life. All of them are so talented, everyone really enjoyed their performances. They can sing and dance really well, and even did bar tricks with bottles and things, it was really cool! Some even wrote songs to us, changed lyrics from a popular song and directed it towards us, and our time here and they would miss us. I started to cry during one of the songs because if was so bittersweet. I had a lot of fun that night and took some pictures and videos. All of them we’re really good, it blew me away! What a great night and great end to our time in Thailand. I would love to come back someday and bring my family along too, cause I know they would enjoy it. Off to Vietnam!!