More Thailand

So after Bangkok I went to Ko Phanghan to a resort called Haad Son to meet up with Jenny, Anna, Chau, Hayley, Ben, Stacy and Teresa. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooo fun and soooooooooooooo relaxing!!!!!!! Every day consisted of eating, swimming, reading, relaxing, and eating some more. It was PERFECT.

We did have one incident in which we made the mistake of renting a Jeep and stuffing six fat gaijin in it….the Jeep was too shitty to handle six Thai people, let alone six gaijin! After getting stuck on a hill, lost for over an hour in the dark, and other adventures, we decided to relax for the rest of the vacation. Continuing in E-Mail form….

Well, after the very eventful Jeep day, we decided that we all needed some more relaxing on the beach, so not much was done by any of us after that, hehe. Lots of eating, reading, and swimming! I finished American Gods, finished Harry Potter 3 (for the 3rd or 4th time), and started a new book, too. It was so nice to be able to read (especially in my hammock!). I don't think I have told you about the RIDICULOUS amount of shopping that took place in Thailand, either! So, any store in Thailand has TONS of fake clothes....mainly Diesel and other brands. I bought TONS of shirts (my number of t-shirts has literally doubled since the trip! Too bad I can't wear them for like six months), as well as a HUGE Indian wall decoration, some comfy Thai pants, bootleg CDs, bootleg DVDs, and who knows what else. I had to buy a big (counterfeit) duffel bag to hold all of my new stuff, and it was literally completely full! Bad news! Hehe. Thank God everything was cheap!

Anyway, what else....I dunno! The last few days at the resort were great, and it was really fun to hang out with everyone. We all got along so well, I was amazed! Sometimes group travel can be hard, but we all had a great time together. On Friday I continued being the king of crappily-timed flights....my flight to Bangkok got there at 11:30 PM, my flight to Samui left at 7:30, and my flight on Friday required me to take the damn 7 AM ghetto ferry to Samui from Phanghan. I took a really really nice ferry to Phanghan, but at 7 AM there is only one option, and as I found out, it is a little piece of crap! It was a true Thai experience....just as I was sketched out by the size of it (like the size of my bloody apartment), a few cops come out of nowhere, which I didn't really think about....until I realized that they had CRIMINALS WITH THEM! Yes, apparently the ferry can act as an unofficial police boat when they need to transport criminals to the bigger islands! There were two foreigners handcuffed to one another, two Thai guys handcuffed together, and one Thai guys handcuffed by himself. The cops were watching them, but they were all left to walk around by themselves! Yes, classy. To make it even classier, some people apparently thought that the plank to the upper deck was unneccessary, and jumped through the lower-level door from the pier! Um, okay?! Fortunately I fell asleep for most of the ferry ride, and was then woken up to find a HORRIBLE '80's action movie translated into Thai....why they bother to translate some of these movies, I have no idea.

Anyway! Eventually on Friday afternoon I met up with Danny and Marta at their apartment in Bangkok. We were going to go to an island called Ko Samet, but weren't sure if we would be able to find a place to stay, so we decided to go to a beach town on the mainland called Cha-am. We took a mini-bus there, which was an adventure in itself. A mini-bus is pretty much a big van, which sounds ghetto, but it was actually pretty nice, except for the fact that they crammed too many people in there. Most Thai people were going somewhere for the holiday, so we had to wait 2 1/2 hours to get a stupid mini-bus! Once we got to Cha-am we found a cheap place to stay, had some dinner, and crashed for the night.

On Saturday morning we got up fairly early and went to the beach (just across the street from our hotel). Let's just say that Cha-am was the COMPLETE opposite of my private resort beach ;) Cha-am isn't much of a tourist place, so it was mainly Thai people there, and PLENTY of them! It was soooo busy and crowded! The three of us pretty much decided to be huge dorks for the entire weekend, and we started off by renting a 3-person bike. Yes, a 3-person bike. I don't think I had ever seen one before, but for 6 dollars we got to rent it for five hours! There were also 4-person bikes, but sadly there were only the three of us, hehe. Anyway, managed to bike down to the other end of the beach where it was a bit quieter (getting many stares along the way) and relax on the beach. After a bit of swimming, we got back on the bike and managed to race foreigners on motorbikes, as well as other Thais on 3-person bikes. It was fun! :)

For some reason Marta suggested that we find the ugliest clothes in Thailand and wear them to ring in the New Year, so we went from booth to booth finding ugly clothes to wear....man, were we in the right place to find them! We found the most awful, brightest clothes in the world and wore them for the night, and got SOOOOO many stares (and very loud laughs) from foreigners and Thai people alike. I know they were just jealous of our sexiness. Oh, might I mention that Marta made a wonderful purchase of an animal (perhaps a mouse?) made of seashells using about ten pounds of superglue and bright, colorful paint. She carried this with her for the evening. It cost a whole 1 baht (or 3 cents), and I really don’t know how that makes them a profit, as it got dropped at least five times and never fell apart. That’s some hardcore superglue! Anyway, we got some beers and rang in the New Year on the beach. It was a ton of fun!

Sunday we left Cha-am and took a bus back to Bangkok, where we had dinner at hung out at their apartment. We stayed up 'til 1 something, then I got two hours of sleep before I had to get up for my (yes, early) flight. I was NOT amused when the captain said that it was 2 degrees in Tokyo! Meh! I enjoyed my 25-30 degree Thai weather. Oh, that's Celsius, obviously.

Getting home from the damn airport was yet ANOTHER adventure, as I decided to take the train instead of the bus, as it is cheaper and faster. The only reason the train isn't fun is because you have to transfer, and hold your luggage. It would have been okay, but for some reason the trains were all messed up and slow, which never happens. I don't know if there was an accident, an earthquake, or what, but it made me get home an hour later than I was supposed to, which was not very amusing. I also ended up transferring about five freaking times with my three heavy bags. Once I got home, I was looking forward to taking a taxi, as I refused to walk home with my bags....only to find that all of the taxi drivers are apparently on New Year's vacation!!!! NOT AMUSING! I also didn't have a coat with me, as they take up too much space to pack. So, I walked 15-20 minutes home in the freezing cold, watching out for ice on the roads, with my heavy bags! Yes, a very nice welcome home ;)

Anyway, the vacation as a whole was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun. Definitely one of my favorite vacations ever, and I am DEFINITELY going back, as I would love to go back to Haad Son, as well as check out Phi Phi and Chiang Mai. Perhaps a family trip is needed ;) It was also SO much fun to see Danny and Marta again. I had forgotten how crazy us Eugene folk are, and it was nice to be dorky with them :) It was also fun to complain about teaching and life in Asia, as it is what ALTs are best at, hehehehe.