The Land of Thai!!

Hopefully you are all anxious to hear about my trip to Thailand!! I just need to start off by saying that it was by far the greatest trip of my life thus far. I'm a little bit saddened - actually, a LOT a bit saddened! - that my friend Mehgie and I could only stay for ten days.  All the reason for me to go back!!

A view of Singapore from atop the Flyer

Our adventure started at approximately 8:30 AM the morning of our departure flight as we gathered our belongings from my new flat and drove ourselves to Auckland International Airport.  We then boarded our first flight of the day - Singapore bound!  This was probably one of the worst flights I've ever been on..but it was cheap, so I'll try not too complain too much.  Anyways, it was a twelve hour flight during which we weren't given and food OR drinks! Needless to say, Mehgie and I were struggling.  As soon as we landed, we headed straight to the foodcourt, where we had the best Subway ever! LOL. Since we had a 13 hour layover in Singapore, we decided to take advantage of it and left the airport to go into the city for a little bit.  Singapore was so cool and beautiful!  I would love to go back there someday.  We started off our night by taking the train into town and taking a ride on the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observatory wheel.  After that, we just walked around seeing the city lights and sights - from the helix bridge to the Merlion!  After wandering for a few hours, we made our way back to the airport to take a brief nap before checking into our flight to Bangkok.

Wat Arun

Our first weekend in Thailand was to die for.  We stayed in "Old Bangkok", where a lot of wats (temples) and the Grand Palace are located.  Not going to lie, we pretty much spent our first day napping since neither of us had slept in two days, but once we got our rest in we were nonstop!  We ate breakfast and dinner every day at our hotel (for 5 bucks a meal, why not?) and explored Old Bangkok during the day.  On our first day we attempted to visit the Grand Palace, but we were unaware that Saturdays are religious holidays there, so we couldn't get in.  Instead, we took a tuk tuk tour of the city, seeing the Golden Mount among other Buddhist temples and constantly stopping at suit shops and jewelry store.  Later, we went on a longboat ride through the river and ended at Wat Arun, another really cool temple.  It was ridiculously ornate and beautiful - probably the coolest temple we visited while we were there.  The next day, we went to Bangkok's largest market.  I couldn't believe how huge it was!  Just aisles and aisles and aisles of souvenir, jewelry, and silk stands, all brought together in the middle by endless street food carts and fruit stands.  I could have easily spent a whole weekend in that market - we got so many one of a kind things and for dirt cheap to boot!

Almost at the top of the Golden Mount in Bangkok

Monday morning and off to Phuket we go.  Phuket was so much fun!  We stayed in an area called Patong Beach.  This was probably the nicest hotel we stayed at (for $15/person/night!) and it was jungle themed. YES!  We took it upon ourselves to venture through the main street for the

A VW turned bar

remainder of the day, less of a street and more of a seemingly endless strip of bars.  Since we were there during the off season, we assumed the nightlife would be dead.  Oh boy were we wrong!  What seemed empty and deserted during the daytime turned into a bustling cluster of drunk tourists and party goers at night...I can't even imagine how crowded the streets are when it's tourist season there, because it was packed enough as is!  All in good fun though.  The next day we started early with an elephant trekking tour about 30 minutes outside of Patong.  a "safari jeep" picked us up and drove us to our destination,  where we rode and loved the elephant, dipped our feet into a fish spa, and learned all about Thai culture.  Then we headed back into Patong for our final night in Phuket and decided to get the ultimate Thailand experience and see a ladyboy show!  It was wonderfully entertaining, with the ladyboys dressed up in cabaret outfits and lip syncing to some classics.

fish spa!

We took a ferry out of Phuket to an island called Ko Phi Phi.  This is where I truly fell in love with Thailand - I've decided that when I go back (because I definitely am!) I just want to spend most of my time island hopping.  We stayed on a narrow strip that separated two separate sides of the island and had two completely different bays within a five minute walk of each other.  Since this area was so narrow, there were no roads, just unevenly paved walkways with random tents and kiosks set up every which way between the buildings.  The beaches were absolutely amazing, the bluest of waters surrounded by cliffs of jungles - oh how I need to go back!  We decided to head out for a beer at night.  We didn't know where to go, so we just decided to follow the music once we left our hotel.  The music led us directly to the beach, where bars had laid out home made stages onto the sand to make their own dance floors, there were guys with fire putting on shows down the entire beach, and bars having contests like limbo and jumprope with a string of light! this environment sealed the deal for me in Phi Phi, just total beach bars.  We spent the rest of our time in Phi Phi doing pretty much the same thing - which was amazing so I'm not in the slightest bit complaining!  Basically just got our tan on, walked around perusing the shops, and ate amazing food!

sunset in Ko Phi Phi

To wrap things up:  we had no trouble whatsoever during our entire trip!  We weren't hassled to the point of annoyance and we never ran into any sort of trouble.  We got pretty lucky with the weather considering it was monsoon season - it pretty much only rained on us in Bangkok at night when we weren't really doing anything anyways.  The people were soooo nice and helpful (for the most part), friendly, and always gave us a good laugh.  Our cab drivers to and from the airports tried to teach us some Thai to get by, though we struggled with the language.  Last but not least...the food!  I don't think I can ever eat Thai food again, A) because it will never be as good and B) because it will never be as cheap!  We ate out every meal and never spent more than 5 or 6 dollars (even if we got beers!).  Anyways, the trip was absolutely amazing..if any of you get the exotic travel bug like I have you MUST go to Thailand (yes Mom, Grandma and Katie even YOU can handle it!).