i was not even in thailand and i loved it already! though the plane flight was 17 hours long from california to bangkok, they fed us 3 excellent meals, free movies, and had seats that reclined enough to get some fair sleep. i think that the united states needs to step up to the plate here! i have come to find that the thais are really accomodating and helpful.
Saturday: dusit, bangkok.
Laurie and I stayed in a hostel and spent the day one of Bangkok’s famous temples, the Grand Palace.
also, let me just mention that the roads and traffic here are a total free-for-all--drivers drive on the opposite side of traffic all the time. i witnessed a group of pubescent teenagers lead cars through a red light and there are barely any cross-walk signs or sidewalks free of vendors, etc. its really every pedestrian for themselves out there! also, it seems as though at every street you turn, someone is selling either food or trinkets outside their home or on the sidewalk. the air is toxic with car fumes, the heat is greenhouse-like, and the thai people never even seem to break a sweat. although this was all a surprise to me, i had yet to feel 'culture shock.' being in bangkok just felt like i was walking the streets of Chinatown in NY.
monday- long beach, ko chang.
woke up at 6 am this morning and found myself in a beautiful bungalow on a hill over looking the thai gulf. i walked down the hill past a family of small hummingbirds feeding on some yellow flowers and saw that the tide has receded a couple hundred feet! i watched two packs of beach dogs from opposing resorts give each other territorial growls on the sandy beach.
the lodge laurie and i are staying at is called the Treehouse, a very fitting name. there were about 20 "bungalows" (chickie huts with walls) that lined the beach and hill. our stay was very much like camping in a cabin like we used to do in girl scouts--no electricity, one mattress with mosquito netting, 3 windows, and a sweet hammock on the porch overlooking the water...all for 100 bht/night ($3/night). the restaurant served excellent food and had coolers stocked with chang and singha beer all day long. Indigenous paradise!
this next part is a really long story, but i'll try to make it short. Laurie, our new friends Faruk (Turkey) and the two Dutch girls and I decided to kayak about 45 minutes out to the nearest island...though i admit laurie was doing most of the paddling. When we rowed back to the Treehouse, the two Dutch girls flipped their kayak and we tried to find a motor boat on the mainland to go and get them. This whole process was really dramatic and long— Faruk thought the girls were going to drown at sea, and no one on Long beach seemed to have a motorboat. Finally, I hopped on Charlie’s (Norway) motorbike with him, one of the guests from the neighboring resort, to go try and rent a boat from a nearby fishing village. Five minutes into the ride we spot the two Dutch girls walking up the road with half of a paddle. Apparently they had just swum about 45 minutes to shore with the kayak. Phew! Talk about life and death situations.
Anyway, the next day we went to another beach on Ko Chang, Ao Khlong Prao, and stayed on at more luxurious resort. Ally met up with us and the next two days consisted of thai massage, all you can eat bomb-breakfast, and lounging in beach chairs all day. Perfect way to end our busy summers and begin our thailand adventure!
ps- i'll be posting photos as soon as i can figure out how to do it!
