Thailand for a week

Thailand

From the Hanoi airport in Vietnam Heather, Sebastian and I boarded the plane for Bangkok, Thailand. About 30 minutes into the flight though, the captain came on the loud speaker saying that because of 'technical difficulty'  we were going to turn around and go back to Hanoi. We were confused, but waited the flight out. When we landed they said we could stay in the plane while they fixed the problem and then we would leave again. After we had taken off for the second time we learned that there was a problem with one of the wheels and they also needed to re-fuel. So it wasn't anything too bad after all and we only landed in Bangkok about an hour late.

After landing in Bangkok Heather and I parted ways from Sebastian. Sebastian was headed into Bangkok while Heather and I headed to the bus station. There we hopped a bus to a place called Trat, east of Bangkok. The bus bounced along various roads, playing horribly loud Thai music for about 6 hours. Finally we were in Trat, thank goodness! From there, we talked to some other travelers and figured out a good place to stay. They showed us the way and then we parted. Heather and I grabbed some dinner and found out what time the taxi left for the ferry in the morning. After killing about 50 mosquitos in our room we turned off the light and went to bed.

I awoke very early in the morning to blasting Thai music. It wasn't bad music though. It was bells and chimes and other calming sounds, just very loud. While I was in the frigidly cold shower, Heather went wandering and learned that the music was playing for monks during their morning service. She said monks dressed in bright orange were everywhere. Unfortunately by the time I went looking for them they were gone.

After an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and toast, Heather and I boarded the taxi to the ferry. The taxi was the back of a truck that also held about eight other travelers. After enjoying the wind blowing through my hair for 40 minutes we pulled up to our ferry. The ferry was another enjoyable 40 minutes of sea air and people watching. Finally we got to our destination, the island of Koh Chang. Once again we quickly shuffled onto a cram packed taxi truck and were off on the windy and hilly roads of Koh Chang. The view was wonderful! Turquoise water, white sand, green frilly palm trees, and the smell of vacation. :)

We got off the taxi in an area called Lonely Beach. After checking out many bungalows we finally found our home in a cute bungalow next to the sea at a place called Siam Huts. We noticed that many of the bungalows around us had hammocks, so after dropping our bags we set out to find our own hammock. We bartered with a Thai woman for a lovely green hammock that hung on our bungalow all week. From it, I saw many beautiful sunsets and read some good books.

Heather's and my original plan was to stay only for a few days before moving on to a different part of Thailand. But, unfortunately after day one I became sick. Bed-ridden sick in fact, ugh! Any smell or look or thought of food for two days would drive me into the bathroom hugging the toilet. I don't know if it was something I ate, or just the stress of working a lot and then traveling, but it killed me for those two days. After that, I didn't feel quite the same so Heather and I decided to stay in Koh Chang for our whole vacation (one week). It was a great week though! We swam in the warm blue water, had Thai massages on the beach, drank too many fresh fruit smoothies, rode motorbikes, rowed a kayak out to a deserted island, visited a fishing village, read good books, and brought in the new year on the beach with fireworks and fire dancers.

We didn't end up seeing lots of Thailand, but what we did see was amazing. The people were also really nice. Now I know that I want to go back there, and hopefully live there in the future. :)

Vietnam on Christmas day

Vietnam

After two long hard days of work, Heather, Sebastian and I headed to the Incheon Airport outside of Seoul. We had a 5 1/2 hour flight and landed in Hanoi, Vietnam around 2pm. After getting our bags we headed outside to find a taxi and were immediately approached by a guy who spoke some english offering us his taxi. We knew about all the taxi scams so we were immediately skeptical. After more talking and debating we decided to take the taxi. The guy said he'd drive us into Hanoi for $12 US. (Vietnam uses both US dollars and Vietnam baht) So we double and triple checked with the guy that he meant US dollars and he assured us yes. 

So we hopped into the taxi and headed towards Hanoi. We saw many motorbikes, bicycles, triangle shaped hats, people working in rice fields, cows, potholes, power lines...etc. One thing we were not expecting to see though, was the back of a motorbike piled high with slaughtered dogs! The guy in the front of the taxi pointed it out to us all excitedly. He was smiling and pointing saying, "Vietnam people love dog, so delicious!" We were horrified, it was quite the site. I think we were all too stunned to even take out our cameras for a picture.

So once we got into 'old town' Hanoi the taxi driver said, "ok here you go, now pay." Since we didn't have $12 US on us we were trying to figure out the conversion into baht. The taxi driver said, "Oh no, not dollars. I said 12,000 baht!" Then he got very angry and started yelling at us. Sebastian spoke very calmly to the man explaining that we had confirmed with him that the price would be $12 US, but the man would not listen. He was obviously trying to scam us and when he realized that we weren't going to deal with it, he became very very angry. He started grabbing our money and throwing it in our faces. We kept trying to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen, he just kept yelling. We didn't know what to do because our luggage was in the trunk and he wouldn't open it for us until we paid. So after what seemed forever we finally worked out that we would pay him 5,000 baht (about $50) which was still a huge rip off, but lower than what he was originally wanting. Then he let us out and gave us our bags.

After that we were all a bit shook up and pissed off. Welcome to Vietnam, ha! So we started walking around looking for a cheap place to stay. Motorbikes were everywhere and it was hard to dodge them and not get hit. In fact I'm surprised that we got through a day in Hanoi with no motorbike encounters. After walking and talking with some other foreigners we found a good and cheap hostel. The people who worked there were very nice, but after the taxi incident we were reluctant to trust anyone. The room they gave us was huge with three beds, a bathroom, a balcony overlooking the noisy street filled with motorbikes, and a mini tv that had no sound.

We left our stuff and headed out to explore the streets. After not walking too far, we had yet another encounter with an angry person trying to scam us. Sebastian, Heather and I were standing to the side of a street trying to figure out where to go when a lady fruit vendor put her balancy-fruit basket thing on heather's shoulder, grabbed her camera and started taking pictures. Then she did the same thing to me. It all happened so fast that we didn't know what was going on. After she finished she demanded us to pay her or buy some fruit. So we thought, ok thats only fair. We tried to buy some pineapple pieces but she kept charging way to much and then yelling at us. I think in the end we just shoved some money into her hand and took off. Phew! By this time we were tired, untrusting of anyone, had horrible headaches from the honking of motorbikes, and hungry since we hadn't eaten all day. So we found a great little street restaurant and paid maybe 50 cents US each for huge bowls of Pho Bo soup. Ahh, Christmas dinner! :) The soup did the trick! We felt awesome afterwards so we walked around some more, bought some things and headed back to our hostel. 

The next morning we woke up early, had the hostel call us a taxi with a pre-arranged price (thank goodness!) and headed to the airport for our flight into Bangkok, Thailand. Vietnam was a whirl wind of a stop before Thailand, and I can't say that it was too enjoyable. I would like to go back one day though so see the rest of the country and hopefully have a better experience.

2008-2009

I was going to write about Thailand here, but I figured my first post for the year 2009 should be a recap of 2008. 2008 was a big and eventful year for me. I went many places and did many things. Last new years though, I didn't make any resolutions so I can't evaluate myself on how well I did...oh well. I guess I'll have to do that this year.

So last year, 2008, this is what I did:
-brought in new years in Southern Cali
-drove across the country from Cali, to New Mexico, to Denver, to Chicago, to Virginia
-had my heart broken
-worked on a farm and in a greenhouse
-sold my car just as quickily as I bought it
-spontaneously moved to Korea to teach English with my best friend Heather
-became an English teacher
-moved 6 times through out the whole year
-vacationed on Jeju Island
-made a new group of friends
-had an Australian roomate and a Brittish roomate
-got very sick 4 times
-lived for the first time in my life in my own apartment
-traveled to Vietnam and Thailand
-drove a motorbike
-And...brought in 2009 on the beach in Thailand.

It's been a good year. I am happy to be young and free doing exactly what I want to be doing with my life. I would have it no other way, and for that I have no regrets for the year 2008. :) I am excited to see what 2009 holds in store for me and where I will be this time next year. I hope the adventures continue!

My resolutions, or rather goals (because I don't like the word resolutions) for 2009 are as follows. To be healthy and to be more creative. I have spent a lot of this year being sick so I hope to be more healthy this year. I will adapt more healthy ways which will help me. Such as going to bed early, eating well rounded meals, and hopefully picking up a yoga class. I will also be more creative this year. Last year I was more concerned with trying to figure out what to do with myself. Now that I've figured that out for the time being I can focus more on creativity. I hope to start writing a book as well as write a piece in a friend's book. I would also like to make some small films, do more with photography, and color, draw or paint regularly.

So that is my 2008 and 2009. I am excited for this year!