Thailand reflection

So my Thailand experience was one that I will never forget. It was a pretty amazing experience and I couldn't be more thankful for it. It was a spur of the moment adventure and probably one of the coolest, most spontaneous things that I have ever done. I learned so much and it was crazy to see such a different place: Asia. Its a pretty crazy thing to grow up in one place for so long and be so clueless about the world around you and then get an experience like this. The culture, the people, the scenery, the poverty the language and so many other things are just so different. We tend to think that our way is the only way and the right way (it's part of being an American) but... when you get the opportunity to go somewhere that is completely different and things don't work the same way as they do in America you just really get your eyes opened and adapt and accept that things are different. Its a good thing and for me, I was happy to learn a lot, I was happy to see so many things, do so many things, eat so many different things, and although its completely different and the people there have absolutely nothing, they are so happy and know the true meaning of "the little things that matter". This experience has taught me a lot and I learned how to see life through different RESPECT-icals. Who are we to judge? Striving to look the best on the outside isn't what's important, this concept sounds so simple. I think that if everybody got the amazing opportunity that I was so blessed to experience, so many people would learn that life is really not a competition to see who can have the nicest car, the most expensive purse, and the biggest house (although these things are also blessings). In other cultures, the meaning of true happiness is so much more simple. Try your hardest to go day by day not judging other individuals and learning everyday that there are other ways that things work out. Your way or our way is not the only way or even the right way, its just the way we know. My abroad experience is teaching me that the world we live in is a lot bigger than Missoula, MT and Green Bay WI and things work out differently everywhere you go. When you catch yourself judging others remember to ask yourself, "Who am I to judge?". Work on improving your own life before comparing and judging others. Always try and remember that there are other right ways besides the one you know.

---
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
-Gandhi

Full (long) day in Bangkok

Like I mentioned we woke up around 11 because the town didn't shut down till 5 in the morning and we still needed our sleep. Checkout wasn't until noon and our plane didn't leave until midnight so we had a whole day to explore. This was just enough time. A little over 24 hours in Bangkok is just enough because it is pretty crazy and there are so many people there that hassle you to buy their things and after awhile enough is enough. I had no interest in leaving Thailand yet because our trip was nothing less than amazing but being in Bangkok for too long gets to be too much. We woke up and Carly and I just walked around the streets for about an hour checking everything out.

Then we went upstairs of the restaurant we stayed at and packed up our stuff and asked the front desk lady if we could keep our stuff there until later in the evening so we didn't have to walk around with it all day. She said that was fine and I had a lock on my bag so I wasn't too worried about it. After walking around for awhile this 'tuk tuk' driver came up to me and wanted to give us a tour in his 'tuk tuk'. I said no but he was really persistent and gave us the great deal of 5 baht. He said he would take us to the standing Buddha, sitting Buddha and laying down Buddha for only 5 baht. For those of you who are still confused with the Thai baht conversion 5 baht is only 15 cents. So he wanted to take all three of us on this tour for a total of 15 cents. We were going to make all of these stops, see all these Buddha's and it was a two hour tour for only 15 cents. I told him no but he was just the cutest Thai guy ever and so I asked the girls if we wanted to go and told them it was only going to be 5 baht for all three of us to go for two hours. We checked out his license plate of the Tuk Tuk and it was yellow so that meant that he worked for the government and it was safe. Alex and Mark warned us of tuk tuk tours before and told us the yellow license plate trick so we were sure to pay attention that we got a yellow one because if they are other colors then they are fake and could be dangerous. Saan's tuk tuk had a yellow plate so we were safe. Alex also warned us about the tuk tuk tours and told us that they will want to bring you to suit stores and other stores owned by the government because if they do then they get a $5 gas card and he told us to make sure that we only stop at the Buddhas and nowhere else but I guess we got caught up with our driver Saan and forgot what Alex told us. Plus, cute little old Saan tricked us a little but he was only doing his job.

Here is how the Tuk Tuk tours work: First they get you into their tuk tuk by offering you a unbelievable cheap price. Once they reel you in and convince you to get into their tuk tuk you are on your way to go to some really cool Buddha's. Some are sacred, some are special, some are even lucky. Our Tuk Tuk driver (Saan) told us we will see all of these Buddha's first and then, "after that we will make a quick stop because this week they have gas specials for the drivers if we stop at a government shop".

This was our first stop. This was, "standing Buddha", it was really cool to get a good taste of a culture that is so different from my own. These Buddha's in Thailand are a very special place and the Thai people worship them because they represent peace, and they are a place for people to pray and meditate. There were a few Thai people at the feet of this Buddha and they laid flowers and different things at the feet of it. It was a lot bigger in real life than this pictures show. Just its toes were pretty much the size of my leg, (I hope I don't offend anybody by calling the Buddha's "it", I don't really know what else to call it for now. . . him? err?) Here is a picture of some Thai's who are praying to the Buddha.

. The Buddha to their culture is like our God. So after we go see the tourist spot of the Buddah's we get to go to the "government gas special" location. This means we have to go to a suit/ wedding store. In this store, in order for our Tuk Tuk driver to get his gas card from the government then he had to bring us into the store and we have to pretend that we are interested in buying a male's suit or a dress. They are cheep but ... we aren't really interested, none of us were planning a wedding and none of us needed to buy a suit for men. BUT, we had to pretend that we were totally going to get one in order for Mr. Saan to get his gas card. IF we wanted one then we would be able to get it fitted right then and then and there, their factory makers would make it and have it ready for us in a few hours. This would be a good option for somebody who is getting married because you could get bridesmaid dresses and everything made for super cheap. HOWEVER, we were just not interested. I felt really bad for doing this but it was a good benefit because then Saan got a gas card for his Tuk Tuk. I ended up gaving in and buying something cheap at each place. The first place I think I got earrings for maybe what is equivalent to $3.00 US. The next place had scarves and I felt so bad for these guys because every time somebody walks in they get super excited that they are going to have a sale.

So I bought a scarf and at the time I didn't like it but now it is my favorite scarf so it worked out great. Probably part of the reason I didn't like it was because when we were there it was like 100 degrees and 100% humidity so I thought it was silly to be buying a scarf. Carly or Jourdan just laughed at me and they were strong and made it obvious that they were not interested, I actually worked hard and pretended that I was so interested in buying stuff so Saan got his gas cards. We drove around to a few different suit stores and played this game. One time we walked in and the people in the store wouldn't even help us with anything because they are pretty educated at this game and they know when some people walk in just because the Tuk Tuk drivers get a card so they know better then to give in and play along with the game. During the drive to the different suit stores we always made a stop to go see a Buddah. This one place we went into was really sacred (we didn't know) and you had to take of your shoes at the front door and we met a guy who had traveled a lot in America so he kinda gave us the update on the place and the different Buddah and showed us how they do it and told us a little bit about the Thai culture and he was really nice and had good English so it was easy to communicate with him.

After telling Saan that we were not going to go to anymore suit stores (like 100 times) he finally got it and we told him LAST ONE, LAST ONE, so many times but the real LAST ONE we said we were not going to do it again and to take us back to our neck of the woods. He finally did and he was really happy and it was a great experience. As annoying as it was to just keep going and going to these places I feel that doing a TukTuk tour in Bangkok is pretty much a must! It was mostly awesome but the suit stores sucked. Buuut, I am glad we did it. The FUNNIEST part was that Alex and Mark had already visited Bangkok and were never told about the TukTuk tours so they had the same experience and they warned us anb told us exactly how to handle it and to make sure before we got in that we would only stop at 1 suit store and we wanted to see 5 Buddahs or something like that but since we didn't really know what they were talking about we just kinda brushed it off and then we remembered right away when we went to our first suit store. But we didn't think it was a trick because Saan told us that it was just for 1 day he had to stop around to get gas cards. So anyway, if you ever go to Bangkok then dont say I never warned you! However, it is an experience that everybody should have if they go to Bangkok.

After our Tuk Tuk tour we walked up and down Khaosan Road (the famous road I told you about where all the action is at) and we got our last $5.00 massage and that was really nice and we tried this fish thing that all of us hated because it was too weird and ticklish. It was hard to let them just eat off all your dead skin.

And we just kept walking around a lot and we ate at a few different places until we had to catch a cab to the airport at 11pm. We walked a lot that day and the guy that brought us to the airport was really nice. His English was fairly good and he told us a lot about the school systems in Thailand and it was really sad to hear about. If you want your kids to get a good education it costs a lot of money and it is too hard for him and his wife to afford. All they do is work all day everyday and they live in a small flat and share a room and he told us a lot of other things but since I decided to wait 7 months to finish my blog I forgot :(.

So then he just drove us to the airport, we flew back home (to Aussie) and got there around 11am and took a shuttle back to our apartments and then I had a little surprise waiting for me so I was ready to start a new adventure with my guest that came all the way from AMERICA to visit me, SHAWNAAA!!!! So I got back from Thailand at 11am (flew all night) then came home to Shawna and then the next morning we were off to Sydney.

So I have one week left to write about and then I am done! The last part of it should be good so... sorry for the hold but stay tuned ... :0)

Bye Bye Phuket

Now was our time we had to say goodbye to Phuket, Alex and Mark and welcome ourselves into Bangkok. We woke up fairly early so we can get some chores done. Alex and Mark went to go rent the Bean

for one more day while Jourdan, Carley and I packed up our stuff and did whatever other miscellaneous things we could do to throw under category "productivity". We all did make sure that we hit up the continental breakfast at our new hotel. We compared this breakfast at Karon Beach to the breakfast we had at Patong beach and of course the Patong beach won, not saying that Karon beach had a bad breakfast, theirs was still a 4 star in my book but Patong hotel breakfast was pretty much just unbelievable (like this whole trip).
We made sure that we got our plane tickets at an appropriate time so we would get to experience Bangkok and enjoy our last day in Phuket together. I think we left Phuket around 4:30 to make it to the airport for our departure at 6pm or something like that. Once we got done with all of our important things we spent some of our last couple hours at Patong beach because Alex and Mark needed to scope out some cheaper hotels for some of their last days in Phuket. They did talk about just sleeping in the Bean but I really don't think that happened : ). While we were in Patong we walked down the "hip strip" one last time with the beach being our final destination. We decided to spend a few hours here before we had to get on the plane and since we were going to be here for awhile we just rented some chairs that were in a row all together. They were 100 Baht each (ish) which means that they were a little more than 2 bucks each. Also, included in the $2 you pay for the beach chair you get an umbrella and unlimited speed service of anything you want. Pretty much you can put up your arm to snap your fingers and before you even snap you will have any service brought right to you, at your convenience. You will not even have to get up from your seat to get anything. When I say speed service of any kind I mean it. You can get a hot dog, popsicle, drink of choice, manicure, pedicure, facial, massage, jewelry, clothes of any sort, a degree from any college of your choice and if you need a fake id- you got it! This did make me consider dropping out of college and just paying this dude 500 baht ($15 Australian dollars) to get any degree of my choice. I mean. . . Why spend hours upon hours studying and learning when you can just go to Thailand and get a degree for 15 dollars? If only I would have known this 4 years ago! Anyways I decided to pass up that "opportunity" and go with a 150 Baht ($4.50 Australian dollars) Pedicure instead. This was way more worth it because I got a Pedicure, on the beach, in Thailand, while soaking up the sun, with a free flower included, all for under 5 bucks!

The flower alone in America would have been 5 bucks! So unfortunately, that was enough of a screaming deal for me that I had to go with it and skip the diploma from Harvard University. I think this choice was to my best interest.
After we spent a few hours at the beach we had to pack up our things and leave to the airport. Our personal GPS (Alex) brought us all the way there without getting lost. His brain really is a GPS, I am not even kidding you! So we made it to the airport safe and sound and caught our flight to BANGKOK (yikeess)!
Our plane ride was really short so pretty much we got up in the air, got the thumbs up to unbuckle your seat belt, and turn on your electronics, and go to the bathroom if you wish and then by the time the electronics were turned on and ready to go you could use them for. . . maybe 10 minutes before we heard the "DING" to return to seats and fasten your seat belts. Since we were flying with Thai air we got a snack box but we were too full to eat them. I just read my book during this flight since it would have been a waste of time to do anything else.
Once we landed in Bangkok I would guess it was around 7:00pm and our only goal was to try and figure out where exactly we were going to sleep for the one night we were there. We stopped at the desk and spoke with a lady that gave us some instructions. For some reason we thought it would be appropriate to just make our own plans and not listen to the strict instructions that we got from Alex and Mark. . . This was a bad idea. When they gave us the strict instructions on where to stay we didn't listen to them because we thought we would just write it down before we left, but then we never ended up writing it down so we thought we would figure it out on our own. The lady at the desk recommended we stay at this hotel in the certain area. She said it was an alright area and we wouldn't be bored so that sold us. She showed us pictures of our nice hotel that we would all share in this little booklet thing and so we said, "alright, we'll do it". I asked her if she would let her child stay at this hotel and she said that the only way she would let them stay here is if she was really poor. Her english was not the best so we just decided to go with it since it was for one night only. Split between the 3 of us we each ended up paying $12 each.

The thought of that scared us all but we still went with it. When we were loading the cab I suggested that we actually don't stay here and we call Alex and Mark right away and figure out what we really should do. So we called them at the perfect time because they were waiting for us to call and I told them what happened and Alex pretty much said we were dumb for not listening and making plans before we called them but it was too late. We paid for the hotel already and it was a done deal. So we went on with our lives and I kept saying that we needed to listen to Alex and Mark and just change our plans last minute and call the 12 bucks a loss. We decided nope, we will have the cab driver take us to our hotel and we will enjoy our night in Bangkok.
Once we got to our hotel and saw our room we FINALLY all came to an agreement that we will not stay there and we will go to where Alex and Mark told us to and just deal with the fact that we paid for the room and didn't get it. We didn't even try to get a refund because we knew the answer to that was going to be a big fat NO. Our first sign was that a real man, dressed up just like a woman led us to our room. He could have tricked you if you just glanced but once you heard the vocals it was the real deal. So we got a cab and drove for about 20 minutes until we got dropped off at Khao San road where we now needed to find a different accommodation for the night. Once we got here it was like a whole new world and we found a room for four bucks each! We thought the 12 dollar room was a steal but we found a whole new level. We thought we were going to splurge for our new place and spend more and get nicer but we found an alright place for 4 bucks each so we went with it. Plus we didn't want to waste much time looking for a place because we wanted to explore. We just pushed the two twin size beds together and made it a big king and all shared that. The only problem here was that the town doesn't shut down until around 5am and so we got the luxury of loud music and people all night long. It was right above a restaurant and above one of the busiest streets, Khao San.

We went to this nice bar when we got there and got a few drinks. It was a really cool bar and it was up these stairs and when you got up there you were inside a bar but if you walked to the end where the "wall" was then you could just peak outside and stick your head out and see the street below you. We spotted this bar from the street and we thought we would go check it out. It was a great idea because they had live music and cheap drinks and that's pretty much what we were looking for.

(I had absolutely nothing to do with that bucket drink on the table, just for an FYI, lol).
We stayed here for a while because it was such an awesome bar but then we had to leave because Jourdan was too ancy to stay and she wanted to go to a dancing bar which I could have cared less but it was cool to see I suppose. I could have just stayed at the other bar and walked around the streets for awhile and been fine but we had fun and saw a lot. No ping pong shows though, don't worry. We just looked at all the crazyness going on around us which was the most fun thing for me. I watched some break dancers in the streets and got to practice my Thai language, mostly just "mai ka, mai ka, MAI KA" though.
When we were done exploring we just went to 711 and got a some water bottles since you cant drink the sink water there and then went upstairs to our hotel and went to bed. It was really hard to fall asleep because the street we stayed on was so loud but eventually we did it and slept in till around 11 or something. Since the town doesn't close until so early in the morning things don't open till around 11 or noon again. Some places like 711 just stay open all night I think though. I don't think it got quite until 5 in the morning.
This was our little night adventure in Bangkok but we still have one more day and night to talk about in Bangkok and then I will move on to "Adventures with Shawna".
Read on :)

Thailand- What's Next?

We only booked our hotel until the 7th because we were not really sure what we wanted to do after that and the boys only rented their hotel for 10 days in Phuket and their last day was the 7th. After this we all had to get together and discuss where we wanted to go after next; if we wanted to stay together and do something or plan things separate and go our separate ways. The boys still have a few more weeks in Thailand and we only had 2 more days so it was kind of tough to make a decision.

All we knew was we all had to be out of our hotel by noon on June 7th. We got all of our stuff packed and decided that we would go on an adventure to track down the TAT travel agency in Thailand. This is the only travel agency in Thailand that is owned by the government so we assume that they are pretty trust worthy. We were going to book our plane tickets back to Bangkok through them and then see what other options we had for the next two days because none of us wanted to separate so if we could do something together than that was going to be our best option.
So us girls spent the morning packing up our whole room and showering and getting ready and all that fun stuff and then the boys came and picked us up in our rental car (the bean) so we can begin our trek. We needed to find this place and in order to find it we just had to ask around and figure it out. I think Alex (our very own, special edition GPS- with a brain) had somewhat of an idea but. . . . the rest was a surprise. Alex got us in the right part of town (a sketchy part) and then from there on out we were on our own.

We had the address in the Ipad and followed that to some extent but I don’t think that all of the addresses in Thailand are as reliable as when you put an address in there in America. So after asking about 40 NON English native speakers and 2 hours later we finally found the place we needed to be. Once we got there it was air conditioned and very nice, most importantly it had a bathroom. We all had to take off our shoes before walking into this building and once we got there we pretty much didn’t even know why it was so important that we got there. Our plan was to get plane tickets from them because it was cheaper that way but once we got there we learned that we could not do it through them so the whole adventure to find this place was pretty much just to use their bathroom. It was actually really funny once we got there because we really didn’t have an urgent reason to be there because by the time we got there we kinda already knew where the next few days was going to take us.

Since it took so long to find this place we figured out what we wanted to do while we were trying to track down this place. We were all just decided not to waste our time on traveling and just utilize the little amount of time we had left and fly to Bangkok to give us a night in Bangkok to experience that and the rest of the time just stay together and have fun in Phuket while we could. Alex and Mark thought about going to Bangkok with us again so they could show us the ropes but then they had to meet some other friends in Phuket so it didn’t work out. So we all just stayed together as long as we could.
After our adventure to find TAT travel agency we were all hungry and tired so we went to eat (of course we ate amazing thai food again) and then went back to Karon Beach which is where the boys hotel was at. We got a room at their hotel for the night and they extended their stay there another night also. There beach was a lot nicer than ours because it was a lot more quite. Ours was still really nice but there was so much going on that it was just crazy. We hung out on their beach for a little bit after we ate and just had a pretty relaxing rest of the day.

I know we played some cards and I also know that we took shots of vodka because we had a bottle to make drinks but we never drank it and we didn’t want to travel around with it and we didn’t want to waste it so we just drank some of it. We hung out in our room for a while since it was bigger and better than theirs and there was more room and a better view since it was up stairs. After sitting around and talking for a while we just went on a walk around the beach until it was dinner and then we found somewhere to eat and then ate and then did our evening swim in the ocean and then looked at some night markets and went home and went to bed. This day pretty much just revolved around planning the rest of the time there and getting lost. Getting lost is the most time consuming thing and it is a waste of time but it was actually pretty fun because we got to see parts of Thailand that we would have never got to see if we didn’t get lost.

There are absolutely no driving laws here. I guess the police are more focused on other things then the speed limit or passing any cars at any time. There are a lot of crazy things that I saw in Thailand, some of which involve their driving rules. No kids are ever buckled up, there are motorcycles passing through cars in the smallest spaces, cars passing you when there is a blind spot around the corner, elephants hanging out on the side of the road, and every once in a while you will be honoured to see a family of four all piled on a motorcycle to get from point A to B, for example; we have the mom, dad, young school child maybe around the age of 5 and then the mom holding the 2 month old baby in her arm. None of the members of the family will have helmets on or have any protection. This is 100% appropriate in Thailand. . . . So are a lot of other things that we would maybe question but no room for questioning anything in Thailand.

Even though this day was a little stressful dealing with getting the car for a couple more days and with hotel stuff, it was just fun because we were all in Thailand together and even though this part wasn’t as much fun, it was stuff we had to do in order to be there. So besides all of the busy work we still got to do our evening swimming, look at more night markets and explore this crazy country with no driving laws at all. And even though we did all of this we still got to experience trying to tell the Thai people in a nice way that we don’t want a tuk tuk, massage, DVD, sunglasses, shirt, shoes and anything else they reem you to buy.

MAI KAH, MAI KAH, MAI KAH!

Island hopping in Asia :)

We got up early and went to our awesome magical breakfast before our shuttle picked us up for the tour. We waited outside for a while before they finally came and got us. This tour was really awesome and we all had a great time but it did not compare to the tour we did on our own the day before. We went had a full bus by the time everybody got on and the guide took us to this little park where our boats picked us up. They gave us a sticker for lunch and the sticker also said the number of our boat. We could not forget this information because so many boats go to the same location and since we got on and off the boat all day and all of the boats look alike we had to remember to get on our boat. We all took sea sickness medicine before we drove off which was a very good idea even though Alex would argue this one with me but he still ended up taking it finally. The people who didn’t take the tablet got sick and we didn’t! But if Alex didn't take it he strongly believes that he would not have got sick, he is pretty much all wrong though.

We were on the boat for about 20 minutes before we saw our first stop- Koh Phi Phi. While we were on the boat to get here, there was a huge tornado in the distance that looked like it was making its way over to us.

It never got that close to us but I thought it looked like it was getting closer to us. Nobody else seemed to care but me so I just got over it and hopped for the best. It was really cool to see but it was a little adrenalin rush because we could see it so clear and it was really strong. At the bottom of the tornado where it was touching the water, the water was splashing up so high. You can’t tell in the pictures but the water was just spraying so high up into the air. And I can tell I am not explaining this good enough so I will leave it there.

Even though there was a tornado, it was a beautiful day. Our first stop was a beach with two big, tall islands on each side of us, this is called Koh Phi Phi. The beach water was amazing and a beautiful green colour (my aussie spell check is making me put a U in colour even though it doesn’t have one in the English dictionary). This stop was awesome and the sand was so nice.

The tour guide told us to leave our shoes on the boat because we didn’t need them. We only had about 45 minutes here so we wanted to see as much as we could. We went on this trail walk where we saw some other beautiful islands from here and did a little circle walk that brought us back to the beach.

. I played with my camera again and took some pretty cool pictures where the colour of the water stood out really well and everything else was black and white. At the end of our “bush walk” we swam in water for a little bit. Just enough time to pee and get out.

From inside this little cove we could not see the tornado anymore because it was behind these little island mountains.

After walking around this island for a while, our next stop was on this coral. We got to feed the fish here and go snorkelling. This was so amazing except the fact that the mask we got really sucked and leaked so we had to come up above the water every 1 to 2 minutes to empty our masks out.

We saw a ton of these yellow and blue stripped fish and we also saw some colourful clown fish. We got to snorkel for a while here. It was cool when you fed the fish under water they would just come gather around you every way until all the food was gone.

. It was a cool slimy feeling because there were so many fish touching you and racing to get the food. This is my favourite picture of Alex because it looks like this clown fish is posing for this picture also. He is looking straight into the camera with Alex, hahaha!

It was so cool because when we were under water we got to see the underwater life with the coral and the fish and when we came up to rinse out our masks we got to see the most beautiful land scenery ever so either way you couldn’t lose. My underwater camera was a great investment for my study abroad experience and I am glad I get to share the photos with all my readers!

Once we were done swimming with the fish we went to the monkey island. Here there were so many wild monkeys everywhere and we fed them bananas and one of the employees gave a monkey a cup of juice to drink.

It was really cute to see all of the monkeys and baby monkeys eat and drink like humans. They peeled the bananas open faster than a machine could ever even open a banana. One of the fat grandpa monkeys ate like 5 bananas and his cheeks were so full of bananas he didn’t give himself any time to swallow. He was soo funny! It was cool to see the baby monkeys latched on to their moms.

The parent monkeys were so greedy though and when they were getting fed bananas they didn’t even share the food with their babies that were holding onto the mom’s stomachs. They were latched on so tight, it was cute.

Once we left here we stayed on this other beach for about two hours. People were coming up to you every 2 minutes selling ice-cream, jewellery, soda and whatever else you can think of. Swimming here was awesome also because the colourful fish were not even scared of you at all. They swam around you like you were just another fish.

We could snorkel here if we wanted to but none of us wanted to. I just wanted to lay on the beach and take a nap. I think I fell asleep for maybe 20 minutes and then Jourdan, Carly and I went to the different shops and walked around for a while. None of us got anything here but it was just something to do to get out of the sun for a while.

The water here was the same green as the other two places we were before and was so beautiful. Again, this was just another experience that I can’t waste my time to explain because it will not be worth it.

I am trying to give it all I got though. Not sure how it’s going but I hope you are kind of getting the gist. The pictures should help a little bit at least.

At some point during the day we also stopped off at this beautiful island and had lunch. The lunch was just okay, nothing too spectacular but at least we got fed. It was like a buffet but… not a magical buffet like our hotel breakfast. Once this tour was over we drove on the boat for about a half hour until we got back to Phuket.

When we got back we were all tired and hungry again because it had been awhile since we ate. We ate somewhere that I don’t know where but it was probably some delicious, amazing, $3 Thai meal that made me full. And then after that I am sure we went swimming again at our special spot at Phuket beach.

We all had a great day out at Koh Phi Phi and exploring the different islands around Phuket. This was our last full day together in Phuket. After this day it was time to arrange our plans to head North again to catch our flight to Bangkok.

Also we went swimming this night also! We did really good at keeping up on our tradition because it was always so hot and humid, even at night time so the swimming was a great way to cool off and wash off all of our sweat :)
Sa-wat-dee Kah (just for now)
:):)

24 hours in Thailand- CHECK!

We finally met up with Alex and Mark and hit the road around 1pm. Our plan now was to go to the James Bond Island. This was the most amazing day we had and the views were jaw dropping! The whole tour was perfect and it was such a great Thai experience. We went with some locals and it was just our group; Carly, Me, Jourdan, Alex and Mark.

Usually there are a lot more people but since we didn’t sign up in advanced and the tours usually go in the morning and it was already 3pm the guys took us anyway. Our boat was awesome, our tour guide was the nicest guy-his name was Son and the boat driver’s child came with us also and he was the cutest little guy.

He was really shy and didn’t speak English so we just hung out with him and he loved Alex. I wanted to be his favourite but he loved Alex more than me, boy power I guess, haha- oh well.

Our tour guide Son loved us and took us places that the big groups don’t get to go to. Our first stop was this island that is owned by the government and is controlled by park rangers. Usually they don’t get off here but since we had our own little personal tour we stopped off at this island and had to keep quite so they wouldn’t find us and take our money.

We just whispered the whole time while hiking and got to see some of the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life! This tall Island with the small bottom is the James Bond Island and was in the movie. We just hiked around here for a little bit and then left so we didn’t get caught by the park rangers and have to pay.

We loaded the boat again and stopped at two different caves and went caving. This was the coolest thing- we felt pretty lucky to get to do all of this and that they took us out even though it was so late.

The caving was really awesome and I didn’t get many pictures because it was so dark but it was amazing. We walked through some water that was almost up to our waists. The little guy came caving with us also and he was so good the whole time. His dad was the driver who didn’t go inside the caves with us, he just stayed with the boat. He didn’t know English either but our tour guide Son had great English. He didn’t think it was that good but he was really good. Both caves were like a tunnel and had another side that we went to. Once we got to the other side of the caves the views were so awesome, I am not even going to try and explain them to you because it’s impossible but they were amazing and something I will never forget. I couldn’t stop thinking that I was in Thailand, with some of my good friends, and nothing could possible get better!

Anyway we looked we were surrounded with amazing views. It was so much better because we were all together and it wasn’t a big touristy event with 20 other people and we had our own little Thai adventure. Son gave us the best tour and we all were speechless almost throughout the whole tour. He was such a great person and never stopped smiling.

Once we got back we said goodbye and walked on the dock toward the car. None of us had eaten since noon so we were all staving since it was like 6 or 7 or something. We got to see the sunset from the boat which was awesome. My camera didn’t take good sunset pictures but Alex had some great ones that I will try and steal to put on my blog. We drove back to Phuket and automatically were on the search for a place to eat. We ended up eating at this place where they grabbed us off the street and into their restaurant.

All the workers from the restaurants stand outside and try and get you to eat at their place. They are also all outside but still have roof. Since it is so hot and humid there, there is no need for walls. The food there was only good because we had not eaten anything all day long but that’s the only credit they are getting from me. Oh yeah, and we got our food fast which was important by that time.

Since I am writing this blog so late I don’t really remember what we did that night so I am just going to say that we went swimming and then went to bed. I think that Alex and Mark just dropped us off at our hotel because we were so tired from the long day we had. We had to go to bed early anyway because the next day we signed up for an all day tour and we were going island hopping.

Our shuttle picked us girls up from our hotel at 7:45am and then we drove to the boys hotel and picked them up around 8:15am so I remember not wanting to stay up too late.

Our shuttle picked us girls up from our hotel at 7:45am and then we drove to the boys hotel and picked them up around 8:15am so I remember not wanting to stay up too late.

^ ^ At this rock we saw a huge lizard on the top enjoying the sunset and also we saw many monkeys in the wild checking us out.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures from this trip and sadly I can't show you all of them because there is not enough room. It is really hard to choose because they are all so awesome. These pictures just give a small taste of the experience, but actually cannot even come close to showing the real deal! Hope you like them and sorry I can't put more because this was truly one of the most amazing things that I have ever experienced.

Hope you enjoyed and still more to come : )