Thailand & Myanmar
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Asian Adventures: Thailand & Myanmar
(AKA Taiwan Diaries Volume 7)
(09.15.03)
Well, I think I should rename this one the Thailand
Diaries because there is absolutely nothing about
Taiwan in this. All I have to say is, save your money,
buy a plane ticket and go to Thailand. You'll never
want to come back. So here is a play by play of my
incredible 12 days in Thailand. Sorry, it's really
long.
The People
I met the most incredible people on my trip. I also
discovered that Americans don't travel and that
everyone hates us...mainly the Germans. I can't even
tell you how many German people started yelling at me
because I was an American and therefore I must be a
terrible, pro-war, pro-blowing-up-the-whole-world,
yes-America-rules-the-world, elitist snob. Which
clearly isn't true! So I had to suffer through many
"George Bush is the worst thing to happen to the
world" talks on trains, buses and basically anything
that moved where I couldn't get away. But when I could
escape, I got to meet some pretty cool people. I met 3
Israeli guys who came to Thailand because they'd just
finished their three years obligatory service in the
military and were about to start college. They
informed that yes, it really is as bad as we see on
the news. I also met two Swedes who were lifeguards on
the island Cyprus (Candice--you should look into
that!) and a Muslim couple from Iran who were shocked
to learn that all American women aren't loose and
actually do have manners. However my personal
favorite was a 63-year-old woman named Dorothea. She
was born during the war in Eastern Germany and lived
there her whole life. When the wall came down she
moved to Italy and learned Italian. She decided to
visit Russia before she forgot all her Russian and has
been traveling ever since. Sometimes her daughter
accompanies her but she mostly travels alone. She's
says it's to make up for all the years she lost.
The Trek
Let me start by introducing the key players in my
trip. There is Chantelle my South African co-worker
who was my main travel buddy. There are also two
Canadians, Jen and Gina, also co-workers, who we met
up with later. So after arriving in Thailand,
Chantelle and I headed straight for the hills,
literally. We signed up for a trek to visit the hill
tribes in Northern Thailand. It started out with a
stop at a POW cemetery. We stopped at the River Kwai
museum and saw the Bridge on the River Kwai. It was
pretty cool. I learned a lot about the history of
Thailand. It was fascinating. The trek itself was
incredible. I ate on a river boat, slept on a
houseboat and hung out with the Thai people. I rode an
elephant, swam in waterfalls and went bamboo rafting.
It was great. I think one of my favorite nights was on
the houseboat with two Thai guys, the three Israelis,
Chantelle and myself. We were drinking beer and
playing Jenga when one of the Israelis asked to see
what CDs I had. He found my country mix CD and said
that when he lived in San Diego he fell in love with
enchiladas and country music. He said he left though,
before he could find a girl to teach him to dance. Did
I know how? So for the rest of the evening on the
houseboat on the River Kwai in the middle of
Thailand's sticks, "My Maria" was floating through the
air as I taught the three Israelis, the two Thai guys
and of course Chantelle too, how to two step.
The Trip South
So after the trek we were supposed to go back to
Bangkok but Chantelle and I didn't want to. We were
supposed to meet Jen and Gina on the beach in 3 days
and didn't want to waste time in Bangkok. So we told
our guide and after much ado we got him to take us to
the train station and put us on the train south. We
didn't really know where we were going other than
that. So at about 2 am we got off the train in what
seemed to be a large town and found a hostel. The next
morning we discovered we were about 12 miles from the
beach. We rented a motorcycle (I'm so glad Mike taught
me how to drive one!) and drove to the beach. It was
wonderful. It was a local beach and there were no
tourists. We both got a Thai massage with the sound of
waves crashing in the background. I ate some
incredible food that was dirt cheap. Then we drove
back to the town and sat in front of a map of Thailand
deciding where to go next.
Myanmar (Burma)
We decided to go to Burma. That is the country next to
Thailand for those of you who don't know. We took a
bus to a little town about 5 hours away from the town
where we were and bought boat tickets. We had to take
a long boat for about 45 minutes to get across the
channel to Burma. Amazingly enough Burma was much much
hotter than Thailand. I don't really know how though.
Burma was great. We had two guides who dropped out of
school because it was too expensive, but they were
fluent in English. They took us around their city and
showed us monasteries and Buddhas and mosques. We ate
incredible food and all in all it was a great day.
That night we caught the bus to Phuket so we could
meet Jen and Gina.
Phuket
Before we met Jen and Gina we spent a day at a
resort--for free. I went swimming with an elephant and
laid by the beach with a little man bringing me Mai
Tais and fresh fruit. It was incredible. Then we found
Jen and Gina. That night Chantelle and Gina wanted
another massage but Jen and I opted for facials. Ahhh.
I was in heaven. The next day we spent on the beach
and it was great. The water temperature was just right
and the sand didn't stick to you. The only problem was
the topless women. Some of you guys might be perking
up right now but really there is no need. It was the
Europeans, mostly Germans. Let me just say that most
of these women weighed more than 150 pounds and were
over 60 and were leathery tan. Think about the woman
from There's Something about Mary and add about 70-80
pounds. Eww, I know!
The Boat Ride
We signed up to take a snorkeling tour of the Phi Phi
Islands (pronounced pee pee). They picked us up at our
hotel at 7am and took us to the boat. I think this was
my favorite day of the whole trip. Here we were
zooming along the crystal blue water in an incredible
boat. I felt like I was James Bond or one of Charlie's
Angels or something. It was surreal. We saw where they
filmed the movie "The Beach" and also "Tomorrow Never
Dies". I went snorkeling and felt like I was in an
aquarium. They gave us bananas to feed the fish and
the fish would swarm us to eat them. There were so
many I could grab the fish in my hands. I ate lunch in
a restaurant on top of a cliff with the waves crashing
against the rocks hundreds of feet below. They took us
back to Phuket at dusk. There aren't even words to
describe the wonder that was this day. I think it was
one of the best days I've ever had in my whole life.
Krabi
Chantelle and I decided that we were tired of Phuket
and we wanted to get away from all the people, namely
the topless women. So we went to the bus station but
the only bus that wasn't sold out was a bus to Krabi
which is even farther south. We bought the ticket even
though we had to be in Bangkok to meet Jen and Gina
and catch our flights in two days. We had a good time
in Krabi though. We took a long boat to Railey beach
which is a remote inlet you can only get to by boat.
There were bunches of fancy resorts there. We
pretended we were patrons of one and lazed by the pool
and occasionally ventured over to the beach. We took a
long boat back and went to the bus station where we
caught an all night (16 hours) bus back to Bangkok.
Bangkok
The big city was crowded and polluted and very modern.
I saw the Grand Palace where the king lives and went
shopping. I saw a traditional Thai dancing show. It
was fun but we were a little sad because we knew we
had to go home. I think the highlight of Bangkok for
me, sadly, was the day we found the Dairy Queen. Gina
and I ran across 8 lanes of traffic so we could get
M&M blizzards. We were so sad when we finished them
that we each ordered another. Hopefully that can tide
me over until my next road trip in Texas.
Well, that's about all of my trip. Before you get too
jealous, it wasn't all wonderful. I slept on beds that
were really boards and some of the bathrooms were
pretty awful. There were the topless women and the
worst of all...One of our buses dropped us off in a
roach infested area. There were about 30 or 40 huge
flying roaches. I'm not exaggerating. It was awful. At
the time I was really proud of myself for not crying
but in retrospect I think I was just too scared. I
just froze. I don't think I breathed for the whole 10
minutes we were there. Anyway, roaches and bed/boards
aside I would do it all again in a heartbeat. So my
words to you: Save your money and go to Thailand. You
won't regret it. Until next time...
Shellie
p.s. So making a webpage is a pretty complicated thing
when you are adding bunches of pictures. I have run
into some snags. Really, I'm trying to get it done
quickly but you are going to have to wait longer.
Sorry! Mike is coming over this week to see why it
isn't working. So if he can work his usual magic, I
should be able to send out the link next week.
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