Thailand. . . Really?

Is my life even for real right now??? YUP! This is crazy! I am on a plane to THAILAND and I can’t even believe it. How is my life even possible? Some things I just don’t know the answer to but I will just live life, take opportunities, be adventurous, learn, and HAVE FUN. Thailand is about a 9 hour flight from Australia and I really had no idea it was that far. I mean I have seen it on my map but didn’t think of it as almost as far as the United States. I know a lot of study abroad students went to Bali and Thailand like it was across the street or something. It definitely isn’t.

Here’s how it happened: My friends Mark and Alex planned a trip to Thailand for two months once they were both graduated. They have been talking about this trip for I bet a year now and we nonchalantly talked about meeting up while they were in Thailand. Ya know, we were all going to be on the same half of the globe at the same time so why not meet up for a week or two. So this was ALL unrealistic talk. At the time we took it seriously but I think we all knew in the back of our head that they were not going to come say hi to me in Australia and the chances of me going all the way to Thailand to see them was unrealistic, I never thought I would have the itch to go to Asia.

<-- (Mark and Alex). Anyway, we still talked about it like it would happen even though it was strictly “excitement talk”. That is the kind of talk that you have just to get excited for something even though you know it’s not realistic. So when I came to Australia we still talked about it here and there but again, it wasn’t going to happen. I was running out of time here and I had a lot to do still. Shawna is going to be in Australia to see me for 10 days and we were going to play and travel a little (only in my free time when she can yank me away from the books of course, since we all know I am here to study) and I guess that was my plan for my 3 week study break. The University of the Sunshine Coast kindly give their students a three week “study break” to prepare for exams since there are no exams through the year and then you have all your exams at the end so… most of the students that study abroad try and utilize this time for traveling and any last HOO RAWS we need to get out. So my options were to stay at my apartment and hang out at my pool and maybe go to the beach once or twice or get out of town. Nobody was going to be at home because everybody leaves right after the final projects. A group of 30 went to Bali from my apartments and I was invited to go there and then some of my friends went to Fiji and others went to Sydney and Melbourne so I had many options.

I thought if I was going to do anything during this time I would want to go to Thailand. I have met people who have lived there for a chunk of time and all of the people that visited it during our last break loved it and said it was amazing. That motivated me to want to go and the fact that Alex and Mark were there encouraging me to come made things come together. Nancy asked me if I had any plans for the first week of my study break and I didn’t at the time because my only plans were Shawna coming and we were going to Sydney together. Well… It was my last 25 days in this part of the world so it was important that I do something very special that I would never be able to do again. So I took the opportunity of going to Thailand to the next level and researched more to see if I should finalize it by getting a ticket.

The sad part was everybody already had their plans for study break and I never committed to Bali because of procrastination and possible chance of going to Thailand. The chances of me finding somebody to go to Thailand with me were pretty slim, everybody knew what they were already doing. I don’t think that my parents or Dan and Nancy would have been very open to the fact of me going there by myself unless I spiced it up. “I think it will be safe, I will meet Alex and Mark right when I get there, I will take all precautions to be as safe as I can to not get scammed, blah, etc, etc.” So I gave this idea a little spice and got the okay to go in preference of finding somebody to travel with. I couldn’t tell Alex and Mark that I was probably going to come because they didn’t have internet because they were in the jungle. So I had to wait for them to call me back before I could take anything seriously. I definitely could not go if I didn’t talk to them because there was no way that I could be there alone. So I had to wait and wait before they finally got a hold of me.

In the meantime of waiting, I went to the gym with one of my workout buddies Carly and told her all about my trip that I might be doing that I can’t finalize yet because I haven’t talked to them and she said, “Oh my gosh Vanessa, I have no plans for that time and I was trying to figure something out! I will totally go with you but only if I can get extra money from my parents which might be a little difficult”. The only problem was, she had to have the right conversation with her parents at the right time. So we went along with our workout, did a little boxing and she had the perfect script all planned out to present to the rents. They said she could go and they would give her a little extra money for the ticket since that is the only expensive part! So this made it official! I could book my ticket since I wasn’t going to be traveling by myself. I didn’t need to talk to Alex and Mark anymore because I had a travel buddy! Carly came over with the amazing news and we just screamed and jumped up and down and hugged each other because WE WERE GOING TO THAILAND IN A WEEK!! So we booked our tickets that second.

. Then her friend Jourdan also decided that she wanted to come so she called her parents at 5 in the morning to try to get money for the ticket and they said no but… she knew it was really early in the morning and maybe a bad time to ask for money so she tried again and she got the transfer funnel! It was official, us three girls were going to Thailand! Alex and Mark finally called me when they got out of the jungle and I told them we all got tickets and we were going to be there next week. They were so excited too! They didn’t think I would actually ever come to Thailand like we “gossiped” about for over a half of a year.

This was the most spontaneous thing that I have ever done and I am so excited for this adventure! Carly, Jourdan and I will be staying at a beautiful resort with a pool and a pool bar and a spa and right in the center of Phuket for 30 bucks a night! And a 5 minute walk to the beach, it is ridiculously cheap here and I can get a massage for 6 bucks every morning if I want. A mani and pedi is on the list for sure. That will probably be 800 baht which will equal out to be about 5 bucks Australian.

We are just about to land in Bangkok and then we will catch a flight to Phuket and meet Alex and Mark in the lobby of our resort at midnight! We will say hi, I will introduce everybody and maybe we will go get cheap food and a beer or something, who knows—more to come!! Alex and Mark are staying in a resort that is the beach right next to ours so they are really close. They recommended Patong Beach for us since it was right in the middle of the hot spot street where the markets and stuff are. There resort is just as nice as ours but not as fun. I am sure they will hang out at our flat a lot!

Read on for upcoming stories and adventures in THAILAND!!!

SA WAH DE KAH :)