Final Chapter

So as I sit here at the airport for the next few hours before I check-in to head back home, I thought what better time to look back on my past few weeks here. Before I do that, lets go over what I have been doing for my last few days in Thailand, Bangkok in general. So after my 14 hour journey from Koh Phangan to Bangkok, which to say the least about Thailand, is not meant for people that are taller than about 5'10 let alone 6'2. They should really have a warning label or something. During the bus ride, my knees easily touch the back of the seat in front of me. However to make matter worse, it was an overnight ride, so the bus's seats reclined. You get where I'm heading here? Well no more then five minutes into the bus ride, the seat in front of me decides to recline. It wasn't too bad however because I had the aisle seat. A little trick that every tall person should know, always aisle seat! 

Well during the trip the guy next to me, who was from Sweden, actually lived in Bangkok for a year and was visiting. Always a pleasure to have someone like this around cause after the bus ride my intention was to get a taxi from the bus station to where I was staying at, at all costs. However he told me he was heading to the same area as me and he was going to take the local bus. So i decided to join him and take the local bus, total cost 15 baht (50 cents). 

After getting back to same hostel I stayed in when I last was in Bangkok. I rested up and actually got to meet up with a friend that I use to work with. She is currently teaching two hours north of Bangkok. It was great to finally talk to someone without using broken English or, could only understand you half of the time or the other way around. It was funny to talk about the differences of Thailand and The States. Like all the abnormal things you see here to us Americans, all while its just quite normal here. To list a few: the number of stray dogs, the crazy amounts of traffic, using toilet paper as napkins, having to pay to use the restroom, motorbikes on the sidewalks, the list can go on.  The next day we decided to go to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and if anyone has ever been can tell you it's more like a maze of swap-meet type shops then anything else. This place was huge with what was an infinite number of shops selling anything from dogs (for pets not food), to clothes, to food, to even having a tattoo parlor.  

After shopping, the rest of the day was more or less shot and I ended up resting. This damn heat and humidity takes a toll on you. But the next day which was my last, was more of the same, shopping. However, I spent it at the MBK mall and the Siam Center. I mean unless you want to do more tourist stuff and get swindled to buy stuff there, shopping in a cool mall is a little better. Shopping here is a little different too. It's more negotiating then anything. You really can negotiate at any store to get a better price. Trust me these people are not worried to grab a few extra hundred baht from you. I negotiated on stuff and payed half of what they were trying to sell it for. But hey I'm tourist and you learn how to negotiate quick here or else you become broke.

So since it was my last day, I decided to spoil myself and go to an actual restaurant, rather than just picking something up and eating it on the streets. The price of things here is something I'm definitely going to miss. I had an appetizer of fried rice, red snapper fish for my main course, some coconut mango dessert, and two beers. The price of all that 280 baht (about 8 bucks). It would be insane if I ever thought of getting that back home, the check would easily get up to about $30. 

Now that leads us up to here, currently 2am. A night in the airport! But to look back on this experience, even when backpacking alone, you are never really alone because there are tourist everywhere. No matter what you end up talking to someone from other part of the world enjoying the same things you are. It's great! But its all of what you make of it.

To end this thing, I wanna thank all the people that helped me during this and won't even read this! No matter what almost everyday you had to ask questions of where to go, or how to find this, and those  people were more then happy to help. Jing, my new friend that worked at the hostel that I stayed at in Bangkok, I don't know what would have happened for the first few days let alone the two weeks I was here. She helped me get acclimated here real quick with all of the her knowledge of her home. Also, from only talking to her of Facebook prior to going, she welcomed me as if I met her years ago. I wanna thank the readers as well, thanks for checking in on this. My first intention of this was to have my parents follow it so they could have the security they needed to sleep at night, but it grew so much more. Thanks! As for this I'm ending this now so I can maybe get some sleep in the next few hours before I have to check in at 5am. To enjoy/endure/encounter whatever you wanna call my 19 hour flight back home. 

Peace! 

A little bit of paradise

Hey guys, 

Yes! I am still alive and enjoying my vacation. I know I have not done this in about a week, but hey I had to enjoy the luxuries of paradise. Last time you guys heard I was Chiang Mai. I'm currently back in Bangkok now, enjoying my last days in the unbelievable country of Thailand. So what have been doing this past week? Just enjoying paradise. 

So lets go back a week, and give you a taste of what I have been doing. Last Saturday, I went to a Muay Thai fight, one of the coolest fights I have been to, it seemed like anyone could fight. The fighters ranged from what seemed like 10 year old kids, lady fighters, and of course of Thai heavy weights. The next day got to take a half day Thai cooking class. Which was amazing.  First off, the class takes you to the local market where you get to learn about all the ingredients of the most popular Thai foods. After about a 20 minute lesson on what to get at that market, it was time for us to get to work.  We all got to pick out 3 meals that we wanted to cook. My three were: hot and sour soup, drunken noodles, and jungle curry.  Which of course were one of the hottest meals that we could make.  So first came the hot and sour soup, the cool thing about the cooking class was that the instructor, who had some jokes, went step by step, from how to cut the vegetables to how to not eat Thai food like a "westerner". So after cutting the vegetables, the heat was turned up and the actual cooking was put into play. Which believe it or not most of the dishes are really easy to make and the ingredients can be found in any supermarket. After cooking the soup, we had the pleasure of enjoying the soup. Next came the laughable drunken noodles, it's called drunken noodles because the dish has a number of different noodles and meats all mixed together rather than the other dishes which only have a certain meats and noodles.  After another round of prepping and cooking the ingredients, came another round of eating what we have just made.  Lastly came the jungle curry, being one of the hotter curry dishes that you can make, it made me both cry and cough while cooking it due to the number of chilies that are in the dish.  Then came again another round of eating. I couldn't believe how much food that we had made. Most of the group, including me, had to take the leftovers home. 

After the cooking class, being so full that walking seemed impossible, it was time for me to chill and hang out around the hostel before my flight to Phuket later that night.  Before leaving though, I had to check out Chiang Mai's famous Sunday night market. Which is basically a mile long swap meet lining the road of downtown Chiang Mai, and of course the Thai way, they don't close the road. You had to watch your back even when purchasing stuff cause you always had the risk of getting hit. 

After a short late night flight to the island of Phuket, the next day I had to endure a 6 hour bus ride to the city of Surat Thani where I was going to take a ferry to the island of Koh Phangan. The bus ride was a great experience, I was the only foreigner on the bus. The bus was usually for locals, stopping at random rural towns throughout the trip. The trip wasn't all bad either, we got to drive through the interior rainforest of Khao Sok National Park.  This place was beautiful with gigantic limestone formations and having the rainforest covering the mountains.  At some points it felt like at I was in the valley of a green Grand Canyon.  I mean like I previously said, the pictures just does not do any justice, but here are some from my ride. 

Once getting to Surat Thani, I had a couple of hours to kill until the overnight ferry to Koh Phangan. So why not eat. It's really had to put in full detail how the street vendors really are the best places to eat, and they are on every street and ally way you can find. 

Finally I arrived to my destination of Koh Phangan at the wee hours in the morning, even before the sun decided to show up, 5am. This place is, no joke, paradise, with white sandy beaches and crystal clear baby blue waters. This is where I was going to stay for the next four days.  Not to mention in my water front beach bungalow. The next four days included nothing but laying out, snorkeling, and reading. But not all was perfect, the first bungalow that I had, I wasn't alone...I seemed to make some new roommates with a couple of rats and cockroaches. I will leave it at that. Haha Lets say I won't ever book with that beach bungalow hotel again. After about three different rooms in one night, I found a bungalow that didn't have either mouses in the walls, mouse poop on the tables, and cockroaches in the bathroom. But after that stressful night all was well. 

After a few nights in paradise, my last night ended up being one of Koh Phangan's Half Moon Party. Koh Phangan is known for its world famous crazy Full Moon Party. Basically a party/rave on the beach that lasts all night till 6am. From what I have been told, the number people that attend the Full Moon Party gets up to 30,000 people. The Half Moon Party isn't has big that that, nor is it on the beach. The Half Moon Party is a rave in the middle of the jungle on the island that about 5,000 people attend. So after meeting some people from Austria at dinner, we all decided to go. And it was basically a crazy fun time, after getting all painted in neon colors, we heading to the jungle. At the party, it had two different stages blaring music, with dancers and guys spinning fire balls and fire wands.  It was a great time. The next morning however, one word, rough. But I had the day to lay out and recover before once again enduring on another 14 hour journey that included a late night ferry and bus back to Bangkok. 

The last three days are going to spent back in Bangkok. Which I'm currently at. I will have one more post about some more Bangkok adventures when I leave on Tuesday. It's crazy to think that I'm at my last few days. 

Peace!!

Save the Elephants

Sawadee-krap (hello)!

What's ups guys, I hope everything is going well back in the states. Things are still going well for me over here. I'm currently in Chiang Mai, which is more toned down than Bangkok. I got here yesterday afternoon after a "journey" of a train ride. So lets start off where I left off. I took the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (as you already know), which in the past month has had three, yes three, derailings.  Did not want to scare anyone by stating that in my previous post. Ha! But like all would, I was pretty nervous about trip. The train was scheduled to leave at 730pm, but didn't depart until an hour after, which is only the beginning. The train is considered a special express sleeper coach, which was pretty cool cause my seat was an actually bed, with a light, and power outlets. Let's just say the ride however was pretty rough, I could see why the train has derailed lately. There were a couple times that I was woken up by almost being thrown from my bed, or my head slamming into the wall. Luckily, I had some awesome bed neighbors that were from London and Ireland, or else the ride would have been worse. Other than having a rough ride and having to stop at multiple stations throughout the night, the train ride seemed to get worse. So the train was scheduled to arrive at 10am, but after leaving an hour late and having some technical issues on the way, the train finally arrived in Chiang Mai at 2:30pm. But hey it's all about the backpacking experience and not caring what time you get there, but at least getting there. The train ride was not all negatives though, I got to see the miraculous views of Thailand that consisted of water packed rice fields, the mountains of Doi Khun Tan National Park, that were filled with bamboo and palms trees, and also the little third world towns that we passed by. 

So after the train ride, I got settled into my hostel, which is located next to a street market. I decided that after what I had to endure on the train, I needed a Traditional Thai massage. So I found one a couple blocks away. The cost? A mere 200 baht ($6.50) for an hour.  And like I heard, which is true by the way, they really beat the hell out of you. 

The next morning(today) is when the real excitement begins, I had scheduled a day trip to visit The Elephant Nature Park. All I knew was that we were going to feed and bathe the elephants. But I got so much more. The park provided transportation to where the elephants live, about an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai in the jungle. During the ride, they showed what the Elephant Nature Park was about. The park is a sanctuary for Asian Elephants that have been abused due to the increasing demand having these animals captive, for tourism in Thailand. So basically, a conservation for these neglected elephants. our group got the opportunity to take care of these gentle beasts.  When we ("we" being my group of six people) got there, we got to feed the elephants and learn more about each one and how they ended up here.  For instance, one of them was completely blind because its previous owner shot her eyes because she would not comply. These stories were endless for each elephant that we got to take care off. It was a great one-on-one experience with them. We got to pet them, feed them, bathe them and learn the story behind them. 

After a little grub, we went to the river near by and got to "play" with the elephants. Man are they playful! After washing the elephants in the river and them washing us right back, I got the unique experience to actually talk to the founder of Elephant Nature Park, Sanduen "Lek" Chailert. Lek is an award winning conservationist, but when talking to her is was more of a mother to these elephants. While the elephants played in the middle of the river, she was telling me how this group of three elephants never left each others side and no matter what, always stayed together. She also gave me a play by play of what "her children" were doing. As they continued to play, she would say look at that one over there, pointing to the blind elephant, as it walked to the other side of the river, that elephant doesn't like being in the water too long cause she gets scared. Then she continued by saying and watch the other two elephants help walk her back into the water. And a couple minutes later, the other two elephants walked to the other side of the river and then, as a group, they walked back into the water and continued to play. I was amazed by the way she talked about them and how she knew every elephant personally. It was definitely eye opening. I even had the pleasure to take a picture with her! After that playful adventure, our group watched a very explicit film of how these gentle giants are being abused.  Also, how these wild elephants, which are considered sacred in Thailand, are now endangered species. Then came another round of feeding them, imagine how much these guys eat. That concluded our day with these Animals. 

Like I said before, it was a really eye opening experience, and definitely something I would do again. It was amazing to have such a one-on-one experience with them. Also, to know that these elephants will be under the care of Lek especially after witnessing that film. 

That leads us to the present, right now I'm waiting to go to a Muay Thai fight later tonight and then tomorrow I will endure myself in a Thai cooking class! I can't wait! Later tomorrow night I will fly to the island of Phuket and then putting myself through the troubles of going island hopping until Tuesday! Well thanks again for reading. 

Until next time,

Peace!!

Bangkok

Hey guys,

I would like to start off by saying that I am still safe and sound. It is currently 16:00pm (4:00) Thursday afternoon here. I am in Bangkok right now waiting for my train to Chiang Mai. The train doesn't leave until about 730pm. So I thought this would be the best time to post about my adventures in Bangkok. The number of stories that I can tell are endless even for only being here about 2 and half days. So I will only give you guys the short version. Rather than the long detailed version, I don't want to drag this on and bore myself and the people reading this. Lets just start off from the beginning. 

So I arrived in Bangkok on Monday night at 11:30pm, and headed straight to my hotel to get some rest. Getting a taxi here is very easy because there are taxis everywhere. It seems as if there are more taxis on the street than regular personal cars.  The next morning, I woke up and headed straight for the streets to look for some food. As I read, it is cheaper to get food from street vendors than to sit at a restaurant or any other western style place, not to mention it is fresher. For breakfast, I got a spicy beef soup, 35 baht ($1) . All the food here has some kind of spice or kick to it. Which if you know me well. The spicier the better. After that it was off to see downtown Bangkok. So I got a shuttle to take me to the city train and took that to downtown. The traffic here is insane. It is nothing that I have seen before. And trust me I have seen tons of traffic due to living in Corona and experiencing the parking lot of the 91 freeway. There are cars and bikes everywhere and the chances of you getting hit by a car are high. The people driving here do not care what it in front of them. They will not stop or slow down. 

Once I got into the city I met with one of my buddy's friend Jing. Who is a manager at a hostel here and where I stayed while I was in Bangkok. I dropped off my backpack and set off for a little shopping adventure. I spent a few hours going to the local malls and little boutiques here. It is crazy to see how cheap everything here. The currency rate is 30 Baht to 1 Dollar.  After shopping, jet lag started to set in so I decided to rest because Jing told me earlier in the day that she will show my the "nightlife" of Bangkok and that we will "party like a rockstar". She took me and our other new friend that we met at the hostel, whose name was Yando (probably misspelt). He was from Spain and like I was backpacking alone. Jing took us to Khao San road. This place was insane! It is basically "PB" of Bangkok and I will leave it at that! It had music blaring with all up to date western hits. 

The next day, after a rough morning, I went to go see the majestic Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Tempe.  This place is beyond beautiful. I can go on for days about the Asian architecture and the beauty of it but I will let the pictures do the talking. Just note that pictures do not justice. It's something that you have to see in person. After walking the temples and the streets of Bangkok. It was yet again one of Jing's crazy nights. We went with Jing's friends that live and work here, they are from America and Belgium. This time we went to Patong, known for its hookers and "ladyboys". The night included multiple drinks and games of pick out the ladyboy. All I can say about is that it's very hard to tell the difference from a ladyboy and a real lady.  

This brings us to today. Today is more of a resting and try to shake off the hangover day. Ha Bangkok has so much to offer I can't even explain it.  From its people, traffic, food, and night markets. Now it is a 14 hour train to Chiang Mai. Which I have heard is more traditional Thai rather than the craziness of Bangkok.  So as the rain starts to fall, the first time is has rained since I have been here (it's rainy season), I'm going to conclude this long essay of a blog. Until next time, which I hope will be on Sunday right before I leave for the islander Phuket.

Thanks 

PS I will be safe!