Thailand

In my contract with TLG it states that upon signing for a full year, the employee is granted a round trip plane ticket to and from his own country or a location that would be of equal or lesser value to his own country, to be paid in full. I decided that since I was already abroad, I should use this opportunity to go somewhere that I might not be able to go otherwise. After being inspired in a non-western architecture class my senior year to visit the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, I decided that a trip to Southeast Asia was in order.

To be perfectly honest, I knew absolutely nothing about SE Asia, other than what I had learned in my architecture class. I assumed that the whole trip would take place driving on dirt roads through jungles. To my surprise, Thailand turned out to be extremely touristy. In fact, it was overwhelmingly touristy compared to anything I had experienced in Georgia. To give an idea, the tourism is similar to Americans going to Cabo San Lucas or Cancun in Mexico. I was OK with all of this, and looked forward to an easy trip.

I got off the plane and shared a cab with a French guy to Kao San Road, the main backpacker area. There are tons of hostels and hotels in this area that cost between five and ten dollars a night. I decided to look for Bamboo Guesthouse, which was recommended by a friend back home, and was about a ten minute walk from Kao San. After asking around I found it and checked in. It was in a quiet neighborhood but still close to the touristy areas so I decided it would be good. After checking in I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the area and trying to acquaint myself with everything. I was amazing to find out that in the Kao San area Thai people were probably outnumbered 20 to 1 by westerners.

Over the next few days I met some people in the hostel and they gave me information on different things I could do while in Thailand. The first thing I did was to buy a copy of Lonely Planet Thailand: Living on a Shoestring. This was a great find because I was on a budget (I had budgeted for four weeks only to find out from TLG that they had booked my flight for a six week vacation) and that was what this book was written for. I also did a lot of walking around Bangkok. Although many people expressed their dislike for the city, I was delighted to be there and found it to be extremely clean and free of litter. This was a nice change from Georgia.

In the few days I spent in Bangkok I met a few people at the guest house I was at. One was James, an outspoken black guy from Compton, who had been in Bangkok for nine months teaching and was heading back to America in August. I also met a few Europeans who were in Thailand for all of the tourist attractions and pointed me in the direction of the beaches to the south and learning to scuba dive. I decided to go with a guy from Belgium, but the busses were all sold out, so I left for Koa Tao the next day, intending to meet up with the Belgium guy.

From the small amount of research I did, an overnight bus and ferry ticket seemed like the best way to go. There are about a million travel agents to choose from on Kao San Road, so I went to one that I head had good prices. The bus wasn’t the most comfortable, but on the way there they showed the movie Superbad, which made everything go by a bit faster. At about four in the morning we arrived at a port, where we had to wait for a few hours before finally getting on the ferry to Koa Toa. We arrived at the island at about 10AM.

The Belgian guy had decided on Ban’s Diving School, which is the biggest diving school in the world, and we had planned to meet there. I ended up not finding him, and decided myself on a smaller and slightly less expensive school, Sunshine Divers. For a bit less than 300 dollars, I got four nights in a private bungalow, all of my scuba diving lessons, and the open water level certification for scuba diving. My diving class consisted of myself, another girl, and our instructor. The first day our class was in the pool, learning to use the equipment. The second and third days we were in the ocean. I saw some beautiful fish and a huge sea turtle. Going to Thailand I had no idea that learning to dive was even an option, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip.

The girl in my class was from Australia and on vacation with her boyfriend. They were both very nice, in convinced me to head to Koa Phangang with them for the infamous “Full Moon” party. The party is on one of the beaches of the island, takes place every month at the full moon, and has about 15000 people in attendance. Because there are so many people at the party, getting to and from the island within a few days of the full moon is very difficult. We got a last minute ticket onto a boat to Koa Phangang a few days before the party. The guesthouse we stayed at only had rooms for the night we got there. The Australian’s ended up going to another hotel, but I opted to stay where I was, sleep outside, and keep my bags in a room with a group of Irish guys. They were nice enough to invite me in and let me sleep on their floor. This was perfect for me since I didn’t want to move and was on a budget. The next few days were spent lounging on the beach. On the night of the full moon, everyone prefunked and put on body paint (don’t ask, it’s just what everyone does). After that, we headed for the party. It was insane. If there is one place where you can’t get enough people watching in it might be here. I spent the next day in recovery and the day after headed back to Bangkok.

Once back in Bangkok, I intended to leave immediately for Cambodia, and if there was time, to also see Laos or Vietnam. Unfortunately, on my second day back in Bangkok, I got a bad ear infection. I went to the doctor to see if the problem was serious. He said that it was a minor infection, and after hearing of my allergies to antibiotics, he thought it would be best for me to just take some pain meds and let my body take care of it. I figured it might take a day or two, and put off my plans to travel on until I felt better. The problem didn’t get better, and two days later there was blood coming out of my ear. I felt horrible. The whole side of my face was in pain. I could barely open my mouth to eat and every time I rolled over on that side of my head while sleeping I would wake up from the pain. At that point I decided to go to a hospital to have my ear looked at. I had a pretty big infection and was given antibiotics to take care of it. The doctor said I’d be better in a few days and I decided to wait to travel until that time. I now have to say that Bangkok medicine is amazing. I was in and out of the hospital within forty five minutes. The visit, plus the meds, cost me about 35 dollars.

Over the next few days I spent most of my time at one of the cinemas in Bangkok. Unless you live in the capitol in Georgia, it’s pretty much impossible to see a movie in English. In Bangkok a few movies that are out in America come out every few weeks. The cinemas are really nice and also very cheap. A normal movie ticket cost about three dollars. For seven or eight dollars, you could go to the VIP theatre, where you got a blanket, a huge chair, and food service without having to leave your seat.

When my ear infection was mostly better I decided to head for Cambodia. As mentioned earlier, Angkor Wat was the reason that I decided to go to SE Asia. I decided to take the 3^rd class train to the border. From the border I shared a cab to Siam Riep with two Germans. They already had a place to stay, and I decided to stay with them. We also decided to share a tuk-tuk for getting around the temples the next day. The next few days were exploring temple ruins. It was very interesting and I was happy to have fulfilled my desire to see the temples in Siam Riep. Since recovering from my ear took longer than expected I didn’t have time to travel any more around Cambodia. I had to get back to Bangkok to meet up with Camille, a friend from Seattle who works in northern Thailand, Rachel, another friend from Seattle, and Camille’s two friends, Erin and Emily.

My time with the four girls was very enjoyable. It was refreshing to see some people from home, and Erin and Emily were both great. After meeting them in Bangkok, we traveled north to Chaing Mai, which was an experience. We boarded the wrong second class train, were kicked off, and had to get on another that wasn’t nearly as nice, and was about fifteen minutes behind us. Chaing Mai was very relaxing. We stayed at Camille’s house and spent our days walking around the city. I also enjoyed some western cafes. One day, Emily, Rachel, and I went on an excursion that included an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. We also got a mini tour of the region we were in.

My last stop on the trip was at a town on the border with Myanmar. Camille worked here in the past and wanted to show it to us. It was a beautiful town in the mountains, and I could instantly see why she loved it. My time here was cut short because I was leaving from Bangkok back to Georgia the Monday after Mothers Day weekend. It turns out that Mothers Day is huge in Thailand, and all of the train and bus tickets back to Bangkok were booked until Tuesday. This wasn’t going to work, so I bussed back to Chaing Mai, hung out with Camille’s roommates for a day, and flew back to Bangkok a few hours before my flight left for Georgia.

Overall I had a wonderful vacation to Thailand. If I go back in the future I’ll make sure and budget for the number of weeks I’m going, not two less. Other than that I had a great trip. I got to see some friends from Seattle, eat some delicious food (both Thai and Western), and just relax after my first Semester of teaching in Georgia.