Thailand

Hey everyone!

We just got back from Thailand and are on our way to Vietnam. Thailand was so much fun! It was completely different from India, and neither of us felt as much of a connection with Thailand, but it was still a great port. One of the things that we noticed almost as soon as stepping off the ship was that it was very westernized. India was full of shacks and animals, whereas Thailand had high-rise buildings, sports cars, and a pretty good transportation system. Actually, at times, it reminded us of Chicago, Michigan, and especially Cleveland (there was even a huge sign that said "Lakewood" on it). It made us very homesick, but we'll get to that later.

We docked in Laem Chabang, which is about two hours south of Bangkok, and the first day we went to an orphanage in Pattaya- about a half hour south. It was not what we expected at all, especially coming straight from India. The kids here did not really want to play with us, and we almost felt like intruders. I love kids, and I was looking forward to bringing them stickers, playing soccer with them, and getting to know them. But when we got there, they just took the stickers and went to play with their friends. It ended up being us and another few girls from SAS standing around watching the kids play, and it wasn't for lack of trying. They just weren't interested. And I heard that was how it was with all the groups that went during our stay. We were talking about it and said that it's probably a good thing that they don't want to play with us because that means they're content and not desperate for attention. In both India and South Africa, the kids literally latched onto us and would not let go. They wanted us to sing and dance for them and show them how to play "duck, duck, goose". But they just played with their friends at this orphanage, which was good, and at the end of the day, I was thankful that they were happy...even if we didn't benefit from it. We did get to see the babies/small children, though, which was adorable, but I didn't feel anything at all, which made me sad. I usually have some sort of connection to all the kids I run into, and there was nothing. To be honest, we all just wanted to leave. I'm glad we went, but I feel like we could've seen a lot more of something else instead of wasting the day doing that.

Well, after we got back to the ship, we just hung out with Kevin, Amy, and Ellie and had dinner. We also talked to Heidi, our favorite person in the crew, for about an hour and a half. She is super nice, and she told us all about her crazy stories, including the time when she lived in a car for a week to win it! It was great just to relax without a lot of people on the ship. We couldn't really leave the ship because the port we were at was not like any of the other ones we've been to. There was nothing within 15 minutes, and even then, they told us it wasn't safe to go out in the town at night, so we just stayed in and got some homework done before going to bed early.

The next day, we were able to get tickets for the Bangkok day trip, which left at 7:30 am. Guess who was on it! Yep...Kevin, Amy, and Ellie (aka our adopted family). There were 3 busses of us going, so there were a lot of other people, too, and we all drove the 2 hours to Bangkok. We spent the entire time playing with Ellie and reading her books, and talking to a girl we met named Emma. It went by pretty fast, and then we got into the city. It was huge! There was so much going on at once- so much traffic, people everywhere, high-rise buildings, music playing, and the skytrain zooming overhead. We drove through town to the riverfront (Bangkok is called the Venice of the East because it still uses its rivers and canals for transportation), hopped on a boat, and headed down the river. It smelled so much like Cleveland and reminded us of the Flats- all the resturants and boardwalks lining the river! We took a tour down the river, took way too many pictures of the beautiful Asian architecture, and stopped at the Sleeping Buddha. It was inside a building surrounded by vendors and other, smaller buildings and temples. I had heard that it was huge, and it is the 3rd largest in the world, but I was not prepared for how big it was! The feet alone were probably twenty feet high, and it spanned about the length of half a football field. It was gigantic!! We walked around and put coins into little dishes (Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and to make sure you have a good next life, you pay homage to the Gods. One way to do this is by giving money, and if you drop coins into these steel buckets, the Gods are supposed to be able to hear you and you will then have something good happen to you in your next life). It was SO hot. I can't even tell you how it felt to be outside at around noon. The temperature was about 100 degrees, and they told us that the humidity was between 95 and 100%! Can you imagine? We all were just unbelievably hot and feeling gross. Not to mention the heat made us so tired! It was crazy and we are NEVER going to complain about summers in the midwest again! So, anyway, after finishing at the sleeping Buddha, we got back on the boat and took another tour of the canals, past houses and small businesses. We also got to feed the fish that swarmed and jumped around the boat. They were very odd looking, but they ate every single speck of bread that we threw at them, and Ellie had the greatest time trying to feed them! Our next stop was Wat Pho, or the Temple of Dawn. Wat means temple in Thai. This temple was gorgeous and had a tall tower that we all climbed to the top of. It looked like something they would have in the Asian section of Epcot, but it was in fact real Asian architecture, and it was really cool!

We were getting really hungry after this, so we took the boat to a restaurant (with air conditioning!!) that served us plate after plate of delicious Thai food- most spicy, some not. It was so good, and our first encounter with real Thai food. Let me tell you- we LOVED it! We will definitely be needing to find good Thai resturants back home because this is now one of our new favorites. Get ready to cook, Kathy! haha. We spent about an hour there, just eating and eating, and for dessert we had all kinds of fruit. I swear I ate about an entire watermelon. Needless to say, we were all very stuffed! We got back onto the boat and went back to the busses to go to the Grand Palace. The whole complex covers about 60 acres, and we walked most of it for the next 3 hours. I'll have to show you pictures because the architecture of all the buildings was so beautiful, and the gardens were even better! They had guards in front of one of the palaces, like they do in Great Britain, and we took a picture with one. haha. They must've thought we were really annoying, but it's a funny picture! As soon as we were done there, they took us to what they called a "souvenir shop" aka a jewelry factory/showroom. Of course, we did not buy anything, but just hung out for a while. Our plan was to stay in Bangkok after the group left, so our tour guide helped us book a nice hotel for about $75 US and even arranged a car to take us there! So we said goodbye to everyone and headed to the Asia Hotel in downtown Bangkok. Quick story: we were really rushed when we left so we didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Ellie or Amy, and apparently on the way back, Ellie kept saying "Ara!.....Ate!....Where are you?" Students came up to us the next day and were like, "Yeah, she was really sad that you weren't there!". I felt so bad. That child is so attached to us, and I gotta say, we are just as much! I have no idea what we're gonna do when this is over. But anyway....... So, Kate and I got into the car and it took us about 35 minutes to get there because of traffic. So I pulled out the video camera and we just started talking.....about nothing. It was really hilarious at the time, and we were really hyper, so we were basically laughing the whole time. It'll be really fun to watch it later! We finally got to our hotel and went inside, and we already had a room booked and paid for, so we checked in and went up. We were so excited because this was the first time we had stayed in a hotel just the two of us. We've travelled independently on this trip, and stayed in rooms by ourselves, but we always have someone telling us what to do and when to do it. This time, it was just us, with no real plan, so we knew we were going to have a lot of fun! We put our stuff down and went down to the restaurant, had dinner and the best chocolate cake ever, and then went up to the health spa for our massages! We've never had massages before and they were really cheap (about $15 US), so we decided to do it. We both got oil massages, and they were an hour of pure heaven! It was awesome! And afterwards, they let us take bubble baths because there were bathtubs in the room! We were REALLY happy afterwards, and we are definitely looking forward to getting another one in Vietnam (to compare the two for class, of course....not for enjoyment or anything...) teehee. So, yeah. We had a great time. And then we went out and walked around bangkok for a while, just the two of us. It was such a good time. We can definitely entertain each other, and we were laughing the whole time. We called it a night at about midnight, and we didn't set an alarm or anything. And, for the first time on this entire trip, we slept in! We didn't get up until 10, and it was just what we needed! We took a relaxing morning, since we didn't have to check out until noon, got some internet in the lobby, and had the best continental breakfast we've ever had! It was free, so we expected toast and some runny eggs. But they had delicious cereal, pancakes, fruit, milk, tea, eggs, omelets, and so much more. It was great!

So after breakfast, we walked around for a while, and then decided to go to the Sky Tower downtown so we could see the whole city from the 80th floor observation deck. So we got in a cab and asked him to take us there. After 40 minutes, we noticed we were not in downtown anymore, and we had no idea where we were going. Obviously, he had not understood us and was not taking us to the sky tower. After another 10 minutes, he dropped us off on the outskirts of Bangkok. We did not pay him the full amount, obviously, since he had not taken us where we wanted to go, and we planned to just jump in another cab and head back near the hotel. As we were standing there, this woman struck up a conversation with us about where we were from, what we were doing, etc., and we talked for a while. She asked us if we were hungry and told us she had a restaurant down the road, so we went with her to get something to eat. Before we ordered, she also told us she taught cooking classes during the week, and asked if we wanted to learn how to cook, and we were like, "Duh!". Okay, so we didn't say that, but we were pretty pumped about it, and she took us upstairs where we sat down on the ground, next to a table with all these good-smelling ingredients on it. We then spent the next 3 hours cooking 10 delicious Thai dishes and eating them all! It was such a random experience, but it turned out to be amazing! We talked to this woman, named May, for over three hours, and she told us about her family, and her love of cooking, and basically everything! She even turned on a Thai soap opera and explained everything that was happening. It was kind of addicting, and we were all on the edge of our seats by the end of the show. haha. We definitely had a great time! And now we know how to cook authentic Thai dishes (she gave us all the recipes), and we even know a traditional Thai cooking song :-)

After leaving May, we decided that we wanted to ride the Sky Train (Bangkok's version of the "El"), so we spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to pay for the tokens and where we wanted to go, and we just hopped on and went. We rode it for about a half an hour, to the end and back, and just watched the city from up high and all the people. It was gorgeous because it was about sunset, and we took a few pictures and just stared out the window. Chicago has a thing or two to learn from Thailand regarding the El- they had TV's and it was huge and smooth and fast! Definitely a good way to spend time! On our way back, we saw a night market going on near Victory Monument, so we got off and went shopping! Let me tell you- we bought waaayyy too much stuff! But we never paid more than $6 US for one item. We bought a couple skirts, dresses, shirts, and two pairs of shoes. They are so cute, and we were really excited to get it all for so cheap! After this little shopping spree, we headed back to the hotel where we had a car waiting to take us back to the ship at about 2100.

The next day, we got up for a trip to the Pattaya Elephant Village, which turned out to be awesome! We drove for about 45 minutes to this park in the middle of nowhere, where there was a pavilion with bleachers and we got to watch elephants perform certain tasks and we got to feed them. Then some people in the group got to get on the elephants and ride with them into the water to take a bath with them! It was really funny! Especially because one of the kid's grandmothers was with him, and she went in the water and almost fell off. Quite entertaining. Then we all got to ride them- on their backs! We just grabbed onto their ear, stepped on their legs and sat on their necks for a ride around the complex. It was so much fun! I love elephants!!! They are so cute! After hanging out with the elephants for a little while longer, we headed back to the ship. Before getting to Thailand, we decided to meet up with the twins and Pat in Bangkok for dinner and shopping, so the first time, when we went to Bangkok, we arranged a car to pick us up at the ship at 1800 and drive us to Bangkok, and then take us back at about 1 am. We invited Amy to come with us, so we all got dressed up and left, talking the entire ride to the city. When we got there, we took the Sky Train to the Blue Elephant restaurant, a very upscale place for really good Thai food. We had a couple drinks in an upstairs bar (very sex and the city. haha) before being seated, and then we had delicious food and talked for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a great time! We of course didn't stop talking the entire time, and it was so much fun! It was so nice to hang out and talk to just Amy, and she is the sweetest person ever! I'm glad she came with us. Victoria, Stephanie, and Pat never ended up showing up because there was a lack of communication, but we had a great time just the three of us! After dinner, we took the Sky Train and then the subway to the night bazaar which was crazy! There were stalls in every direction selling everything you could possibly imagine- clothes, shoes, paintings, spices, candles, furniture, fabrics, purses, food, etc. We only had about a half hour before the bazaar ended, so we went straight to the clothes stalls and bought more. I know, I know...you're thinking, "shopping...again?". But everything was so cheap and really, really cute, so we just had to. We ended up getting a couple nice dresses, more skirts, and I even got a shirt that's red and it has an owl sewn on it with yellow button eyes!! I was so excited when I saw it!! And it was handmade and only $4 US! Amy got a couple skirts and dresses that we talked her into buying, and they were so pretty! We started to head back to the hotel where the car was going to pick us up, only to find that the subway and Sky Train were both closed because it was after midnight. So we ended up walking for a really long way and finally took a cab the rest of the way. Our cab driver went about 110 km/hr on the main roads, and he kept talking about Obama, so it was a fun ride! We were exhausted when we got back to the hotel, but we took out our clothes bags and went over what we bought again. We basically had a fashion show in the lobby at about 12:45 am. It was fun. The car came at about 1, and instead of sleeping, we again talked the whole way back, and finally went to sleep at about 3 am.

The last day, we had to wake up at 6:45 for a trip to the Nong Nooch Cultural Village, which turned out to be really fun. We saw a cultural dancing show, where they had different "scenes" with all kinds of traditional Thai dances as well as Thai boxing. Then we saw an elephant show where elephants did everything from playing basketball to bowling, and painting pictures to riding bicycles. It was hilarious and a lot of fun! On the way back, we had the bus drop us off at the Harbor Mall, right by the pier, so we could go to the grocery store there. I don't know if we told you or not, but the peanut butter on the ship is NOT normal. I'm not even sure it's really peanut butter, and it's really gross to try and eat PB and honey or PB & J for Kate. Especially with the monotony of the food here, making sandwiches is kind of a staple. So, anyway, WE GOT PEANUT BUTTER! Real, honest-to-God, JIF creamy peanut butter. We were so excited, we got 2 jars! We also got fruit loops and frosted flakes (well actually, Fruit Circles and Frosties), cookies, and some crackers. We were basically in heaven! Then we kept the American-food trend going, and we got some pizza. But when we tried to order, it turned into a language-barrier fiasco. There was a special where if you bought one medium, you got one free. But we can't take food back on the ship, and we weren't going to finish two, so we told our waitress we didn't want the free one. She did NOT understand. She kept saying "free...it's free", and we tried to explain with hand gestures why we couldn't take it. She brought over 3 different waitresses and her manager to make sure we understood that we get a FREE pizza, and we kept saying, "No, that's okay. Thank you. We'll jut take the one pizza". And eventually they said they'd bring us one. And they did, and about halfway through, they brought us the second pizza in a bag all ready to go. We just laughed and said thank you, and ended up giving it to a couple other SASers who hadn't ordered yet. And both pizzas were delicious, so we were all happy. We headed back to the ship and hung out with the twins and Pat, everyone sharing stories and pictures from their time in Thailand.

So now we are on our way to Vietnam- we'll be in Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow morning, and Kate and I leave for Cambodia a couple hours after we port. We are so excited! We'll try to keep up with the blog after Vietnam, although we only have 2 days before we get to Hong Kong, so we'll see how it goes. Other news: Kate got accepted to the College of Education at Michigan State recently!! She's really excited and now can become a teacher like she's always wanted! So yay! Also, the crew talent show was last night. It was HILARIOUS!!! There were members of the crew from every department on the ship doing different acts. The dining room staff did a dance, Alan juggled bottles while dancing (awesome!), Mandi (a guy) dressed up as a girl and danced around while the "Barbie Boys" (a 3 guy singing group from the dining staff) sang in the background, Heidi and Sandra did a skit that ended with them covered in baby powder and lipstick, a guy dressed up as a nun and finger painted a picture of Jesus while dancing, Davon (our favorite waiter) sang a song from his home country of Jamaica, and our steward, Kenton, even came out at the end to sing "We Are the World" with the rest of the crew! The saddest thing was when Sparky (head of A/V and Kate's boss) played the keyboard and sang a song that he wrote about SAS. He kept saying, "in May we'll all leave and we love you all" and stuff like that and it was so sad! Vicky and I almost started crying! It was a really good time, and it went on from 2100 to almost midnight! I got the whole thing on tape and tons of pictures that I can't wait to show everyone!! We love the crew so much....they are pretty amazing and I'm definitely going to miss them when this trip is over!

Okay, well, that's all for now. Amy's birthday is today, so we're having a kind-of surprise party for her tonight, so that should be fun. Then we have logistical pre-port, and Kate and I have to pack for Cambodia. We miss you all and love you!! Talk to you after Vietnam!

-K & S