the family comes to town!

mike came and left in the blink of an eye. mom, dad and meg are still here, and currently at the floating market! i am hiding from the heat in my apartment.

so, last friday, mike came in around midnight. we met him at the airport, and waited for a while because he was at the wrong baggage claim. go mike. good thing we found him though, because his plan b was to tell the taxi driver to take him to "Leventhal" (which is my accounting school in LA)...he thought the name sounded foreign, so he diligently wrote it down before leaving oregon, just in case he needed a plan b. gotta love mike...!!! hehe. for future reference, i attend thammasat university here! ;) ;)

upon arrival, i immediately took mike to do my favorite thing in thailand: eat. we took his bags upstairs and went back to the street to eat noodle soup and chicken and rice. he ate like a champ while he was here...i think i made him try all of my favorite things in the span of 2 days. and then he got stomach problems...but we fixed it right up with some charcoal (andy claims he could write on the sidewalk with this medicine) and lots of h2o. on saturday, mike and i dressed up in thammsat uniforms, in hopes to see the princess at the grand palace. when we got there, i was pulled aside because, unfortunately, my skirt was too short. go figure. so, they made me put on a long, very hot, ugly skirt, and then i was allowed to enter the palace. we walked around for a while and eventually found where the princess is resting, but we were too scared to walk in because there were guards and only thai locals were going past the gate. after the grand palace, we walked to wat pho and saw the reclining buddha. then we went to thammasat to meet my friends and for "interdome", a week-long basketball tournament between the different faculties (majors) at the university. it was the final game, and we went to watch one of our friends dance. then it got too hot so we had to leave. a bunch of us hopped in taxis and went to siam paragon to the gourmet market...the boys wanted to have a wine and cheese night, and the gourmet international market is the only place to find either of these things. here, mike had a life-changing discovery: lion bars. it is an awesome candy bar that "has the best elements of all other candy bars in one. there is nothing bad about a lion bar" -according to mike.

then, we were going to take a nap, but decided to join the rest for wine and cheese and then to escudo and another place i can't remember the name of!!! all of the USC kids were here for their spring break, and we found out that they were going to escudo that night, so we made it our mission to get there. it was fun fun, as usual! and i FINALLY saw jess and sean, after them being in bangkok for a whole week!

on sunday, we slept in and then went to the weekend market and saw all of the animals and clothes and crap. mike found some awesome beaver-orange thai pants and got many pairs for all his friends back at home!

monday monday monday...i dread mondays. but i woke up and went to school like a good student. mike slept. and ate. and watched movies. then, mom, dad, and meg came in around 6 so we met them at their hotel and the event of the night was dinner at chotechir. and bread/banana/chocolate/coconut dessert on the street. i think i've been doing a pretty good job of feeding people when the come. probably because eating is my favorite thing to do here. after dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit, and then it was mom's bedtime, so charity and i went home and the family slept because they had an early morning trip to ayuttyah the next day.

the days have been flying by ever since. i went to school on tuesday, and then on wednesday we left for chiang mai. it is so so so nice up there. i'm glad we are going back. it is like going to an outer island from oahu. much quieter, relaxing, and more of a warm family feeling! but i've got to admit, i still really do love bangkok. anyway, we got to chiang mai really early on wednesday because i insisted on leaving on the 645 am flight. so we got in around 8, and found a taxi driver that agreed to take us around all day for 1500 baht! it was awesome. so stress-free. we went ALL OVER chiang mai in just one day. we went to wat doi sutep, the palace, monkey show, snake farm, silk village...and then home at last. mike, meg and i passed out when we got back to the hotel, and then woke up for dinner and the night bazaar. of course, we found a lot of things to buy, and shopped till we dropped.

thursday was the "day mom looked forward to for months". it was the elephant trek and long-neck woman day. we woke up very early again, and drove quite a while to the long neck woman tribe. it was so awesome to see them in real life, and we learned that the coils on their necks were originally meant to prevent them from getting bit on the neck by tigers (or, so our guide told us). and that they are actually made out of a long long piece of metal, rather than individual coils...this whole time, i thought they just added new coils each year, but they redo the whole thing by heating the metal and wrapping it around. after the village, we went to the elephant training camp and watched the elephants play in the water and do a show. then, we had to switch from our comfy van to a pick up truck to drive up a big hill to our elephant trek. we ended up in some rural village with only a dirt road leading to it, and hopped on our elephants and went for a 90 minute trek through the mountains. it was so much fun, but a lot harder to say on than i would ever anticipate! our trainer sang songs the whole time and also talked on his cell phone for a while ;) after the trek, we went to eat at some famous birds nest restaurant and by that time we were starving, so the food was delicious. i think it would have been delicious even if we were not hungry, but it was especially good that day. after lunch, we went to the caves and it was just like the "planet earth: caves" edition; complete with bats and scorpions. then, we drove back to the city, changed, and went to get massages! dad and mike braved the thai massage, and the girls got foot and leg massages. then it was off to the night market again.

for our last day in chiang mai, we got to sleep in, but only until 11ish. then, we woke up and did the wat thing. we visited three wats, saw the crystal buddah and then went to the airport for our flight back to bangkok. after getting back into the city, we went to kao san road to book a tour, find me an outfit for sugar's birthday party, and eat kebabs from the street guys.




saturday, the family did jim thompson's house and the jj weekend market. i elected to sleep all day and meet them for dinner. we ate at a new place called may kurrey or something. it was delicious vegetarian food (for my newly transformed vegetarian sister ;)), but even dad liked the veggie food! now, everyone is at the floating market, and i'm going to meet them in a few hours so i have to take a nap. hopefully the last few days in bangkok will be enjoyable and fun!

Kuala Lumpur, St. Patty's, Bed Supper Club, Mike Comes!!!

last week jon and i went to kuala lumpur. in my mind, i thought malaysia would be exactly like thailand...they are right next to each other after all! but, upon arrival to the kuala lumpur airport, i found out that they are very different places. (let me say here that it is SO MUCH nicer to fly to places than it is to take the bus...about 1,000,000 more pleasant....it only took us two hours to get all the way to KL when it normally takes us over 18 to get to the south of thailand) anyway, the KL airport was smaller than the bangkok airport but it seemed more organized. there were stands to buy tickets to get into the city, so we did not have to deal with getting a taxi and getting ripped off and the first thing i noticed that was very different than thailand is that most everyone in malaysia speaks english. also, it is much cleaner, less pollution, and taxis do not try to rip you of as much. also, we were pretty much one of the only tourists where ever we went. oh, one other thing, there is no such thing as a moderate temperature in KL...we were always either sweating or freezing...you get used to it though! sweater on. sweater off. sweater on.....

so, we had absolutely no idea where we were going or where we were staying, so we got on a bus/taxi that took us into KL from the airport. we read in lonely plant that china town was supposed to be the happening place in KL so we decided to try to get there ;) the bus made one stop, and there was chinese writing on all the buildings, but it didn't look too busy so we stayed on the bus and decided to get off where it looked busier....good logic, huh? luckily, the next stop was in a super cool area with lots of lights, open stores and tons of people walking around. we did not know if it was china town, but we got off anyway and walked around until we found a place to stay: the "budget inn". let me tell you, the name of this place tells all. however, it did have hot water, and a flushing toilet, so i was happy to call it home for the next few days. after we put our stuff down, we went to find food, which is never a problem in thailand, and proved not to be a problem in KL either!

the next morning, we woke up and had starbucks!!! yummm. the only thing we knew about KL was that there were some tall twin towers that we needed to see. so, we looked up, saw them, and started waking towards them...jon told me that since they were so big, they probably looked a lot closer than they were, but of course, stubborn me, i thought they were close to us. mistake. they were pretty far. and it was hot. but, we walked anyway.....then, we decided that we were not going to take a taxi the whole time we were in KL! once we got to the Petronas twin towers, they were closed for the day because they only have a limited number of tickets to give out each day, and they usually sell out pretty early. luckily, there was a HUGE mall at the base of the twin towers, so we went shopping for a bit, and by a bit, a mean a few hours. after shopping, we decided to go to the other tall building ;) (i have about 50 pictures of tall buildings in malaysia...and thats all...haha) this building was the radio tower, and it was on top of a big hill, which we had to hike up. again, it was a little further away than we though because it was so big, but we made it and went to the observation deck at the top. it reminded me a lot of the bayoke tower in bangkok, but it was really cool to see a 360* view of malaysia because there is the city, and in the background there are huge mountains. after this, we walked more to try to find some sort of gardens, but eventually, i almost died of hunger from so much walking so we went to a korean restaurant for lunch. after lunch, we got on the skytrain to go to a bazaar in someplace that i don't remember the name of. we shopped and at more, then got on the skytrain to go to china town. it was super cool here. there were rows of stalls selling everything your heart could desire, and all of the shop owners wanted to be our friends! they are a lot more aggressive here about selling things than anywhere else i've been since i got here. then, it was back to our hostel, which turned out to be in the "golden triangle" area, or business district area and went to a bar/club nearby.

on saturday, we woke up at 7am. yes, 7am, and went back to the petronas towers to get tickets to go to the skybridge. we thought we would be the first ones there, but there are people who are much crazier than us. about 200 of them. the line was so long when we got there! we decided it would probably be something our parents would have made us wake up early to do on a family vacation, and felt very responsible for waking up early ourselves to do it! we got tickets to go up at 9:45, so until then, we went to the coffee bean and tea leaf to have breakfast. going up to the skybridge was basically like a promotion campaign for petronas, which is the largest oil company in malaysia. the tour was about an hour, and we spent less than 10 minutes on the skybridge...the rest of the time we watched a video about how good petronas is and how socially and environmentally responsible they are. super. anyhow, once we did the twin towers thing, we had done everything we went to malaysia to do (take a picture from the famous towers), so the rest of the trip was a free for all! so, we ventured on the skytrain to little india. it was such a cute little area with an outdoor bazaar and rows of restaurants and shops. here we found one of the things on the list of food to eat (courtesy of eugene loh): stingray grilled in banana leaves. it was delicious. probably the best food find in KL. after lunch, we entered food coma, and since we woke up so early, we decided to go home and sleep until it was time to go out that night. when we woke up, we ate dinner at an indian cart on the street and they made our naan bread right in front of us! and then we found all of the farang (foreigners). they were at the bar. there was a cool cover band and sharks in tanks at the club, and it was fun fun fun!

sunday we slept until the guy at budget inn kept banging on our door and telling us to check out. so we packed our bags and left them at the budget inn while we went to eat breakfast and go shopping more. we went to a different super mall and i found 3 pairs of shoes, a new purse, a makeup bag, and other random stuff. then we went back to get our bags and try to find the parks/gardens that we were looking for on the first day and never found. we took the skytrain and got off at the second to last stop and walked around for a while, and then i got hot and tired and grumpy because i was carrying all of my stuff...other than all my liquids and new purchases which (luckily) could only fit in jon's bag ;) ;) (thanks for lugging my stuff all over KL!), and we had NO idea where we were or where we were going and it looked deserted, so we caved and got into a taxi to take us to the islamic art museum. good thing we did...it was much further and in the opposite direction than we thought it was. my favorite thing here was the to-scale models of all the most famous and largest mosques in the world. the detail on these models was excruciating and they were gorgeous pieces. after the museum, we walked around the park and sat and relaxed and then we proceeded to the airport. this was the ONLY non-perfect part of the trip...we ended up at the wrong airport and kept getting sent from desk to desk to find air asia, which apparently has it's own terminal (low-cost terminal)....and finally, with less than an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, we found out that we had to take a taxi to an entirely different airport!!!! it was the most ridiculous and expensive taxi ride in south east asia. it was 38 ringgits (380 baht) just to go from one terminal to another. luckily, malayaisa is on thai time too, and we made it to the gate even before they started boarding. stressful, but not too bad.

on monday, i skipped my first class so far. bad meris. abby and i had stayed up until 6am the night before talking and hanging out with her friend ray who flew in from portland for his spring break, so i literally could not wake up for class at 8am. instead of going to class, we woke up late and went shopping at siam square for our st. patrick's day outfits. then, we ate sushi and came home and sort of cleaned our apartment for the party and i made jello shots which i was so sad about because i was super excited to have green jello shots on st. patty's day, but i bought lemon jello, so needless to say, they were not green. it was a ton of fun, everyone came, and we ended up on kao san road, as usual.

tuesday is lady's night at bed supper club, a very famous club in bangkok, so us ladies got in for free! the club was much smaller than i expected, and there were two sides to it. one plays hip-hop and the other plays house music. we had fun going back and forth between the two, lounging on the beds that line the walls of the club, and dancing in our new shoes (abby got some peeertyyy shoes)!!!

last night, andy and i went with jj to "slim" at rca because her friend was dj that night. it was a pretty exciting night at rca, but scary too. we were all kind of tired, so we were sitting outside and we suddenly saw a big fight break out right at the entrance to the club. it was a group of thai girls fighting with each other, and one of them walked away with her whole dress ripped off and no shoes. it was crazzzyyy! then, i went to the bathroom and during that time i missed round two of the fight (which, according to andy, was crazier than round one). after we stared for long enough, we decided it was time to go home, and as we were walking to get a taxi, we saw a crowd of people and looked down and there was a girl on the road covered in a white cloth. we were not sure if she died from the fight of from getting hit by a car or what, but jj told us that one of the people told her in thai that the girl died. me and andy freaked out. but, in the end, we decided that even though we were so tired, it was worth it to go out to rca last night.

mike is coming today!!!! the rest of the fam is coming on monday, and then we are going to chiang mai for a few days. after they leave, marney, abby and i are going to hong kong to visit nundies and then the day we get back from hong kong, we are all going back up to chiang mai for the songkran festival (one of the biggest holidays in thailand)! the next few weeks are going to be busy busy!!! can't wait!

thank you jean for the much appreciated present ;) also, don't worry, andy shared all of his candy with me and we pigged out and had a movie night on wednesday!!! yummm...the jelly beans and red vines were delicious!

lots of love, mer

so much happened since my last blog!!!

so, as you can see from the title, i've been a busy girl here in thailand! after coming home from the full moon party, we recovered for about a day and then we proceeded to exercise our brains and try to study for our midterms....at thammasat, midterm week is just like finals week - we got the whole week of school off (supposedly to study) and only had to go to school to take the tests. i was really lucky and only ended up having two midterms, both on friday. i got one back so far, and good news, i'm passing!!!!

marney's birthday was on the wednesday of midterms week...blah. it was pretty bad for her because she had a midterm the day after her birthday...but she handled it like a champ and only had one margarita the night of her b-day ;) we went to coyote on sukumvit for dinner and it was very delicious mexican food with real cheese, avocado, and salsa!



after the super stressful day of midterms, it was time to celebrate marney's birthday FOR REAL, so abby and i decorated our apartment in the "hello kitty" theme (the party was hello kitty themed because marney is the crazy cat lady, and because she is becoming more asian by the day, so hello kitty was only fitting) with pink streamers (that were really made out of some sort of cellophane tying rope material...) and a giant hello kitty stuffed animal and we even had a cake! and of course, 4 bottles of gilby's to top off the celebration. most all of the exchange students and some of our thai friends came to our apartment for the party and once it got too loud, we migrated to gazebo on sukumvit. marney made it there successfully, and was not "jon-drunk" (THAI FIVE!) so, again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARNEY!!!!

after midterms and marney's b-day celebration, we sort of went back to "normal life" of school and hanging out. last week i only had 2 days of class, so on monday, andy, charity, marney and i went to lumpini park because we wanted to fly kites since it is national kite flying month in thailand....we didn't fly any kites, and no one in the entire park was flying kites either....perhaps national kite flying month is on Thai Time, and will start in April....... oh, and i actually had some homework and a paper due last week! it was nice to do homework for once in my life! one of the most exciting things about last week was that we discovered a "gourmet import market" which has everything from kraft mac and cheese to napa wine!!!! needless to say, i bought 5 boxes of organic cereal...and i think i have 3 left after one week. i'm rationing. we went to the market 2 times last week...spent a lot of baht....trying not to go back soon.

we shopped on thursday, and on friday i went to ayutthaya with abby, lily, sophie, katie and warren. ayutthaya used to be the capital of laos, cambodia, and siam (thailand), so there is a TON of history and some really awesome temples in the city. warren is from ayutthaya, so he invited us to stay at his house and meet his family. on friday afternoon, we left bangkok on a public bus/van and got to ayutthaya about 1.5 hours later. warren's dad picked us up and drove us around the city so that we could see the temples at night. they were all lit up, and gorgeous...we even got to go inside some of them after warren's father asked permission from the guards for us. his family was extremely kind, as all thai people seem to be, and his mom cooked us a HUGE delicious meal! she made fried fish, veggies, salad, fish curry, tom yam soup, and for dessert she made homemade mango and sticky rice (they even grew the mangoes!!) their house looked like jim thompson's house...complete with a gallery displaying china dishes! it was truly amazing, especially after warren told us that the house was built in traditional thai style without any nails....the wood pieces all fit perfectly together to make the house. on saturday morning, we woke up at 6am so that we could go to the market to feed the monks. we bought them a variety of foods and rice and they wander down the streets with big baskets, and we just "wai" to them (make a prayer motion in front of our face) and then place the food in their baskets. then they say some sort of blessing or thank you, but i couldn't hear or understand what they were saying...it was definitely worth waking up at 6am for-a real "thai" experience! we went back to warren's house and slept a bit, then got back on the van to come back to bangkok.

on sunday, abby, charity, andy and i had a "day of modern marvels" (coined by the one and only andy bishop) where we went to brunch at a famous vegetarian restaurant/art gallery called tamarind cafe. it was the cutest little place, and the menu had so many things that we haven't seen in thailand thus far like breakfast burrito and tabouli salad....we sat in a cozy little plush booth with big pillows...it felt very "sex and the city"!!! after brunch, we went to the bayoke tower, which is the tallest tower in thailand, and around the 20th tallest in the world. we were such tourists here; we took pictures in a fake hot air balloon and fake tuk-tuks! it was pretty high, and we were so lucky because it was a very clear day, so we could see much further than on any normal day. we even saw our condos from the top of the tower! bangkok is HUGE....a lot bigger than i thought it was at least! our final stop for the day was the queen's gallery, which is her private collection of paintings. there were some really cool pieces of art, my favorite being a piece called "from the top of LA hill"...a COMPLETE coincidence....i didn't even see the name until after i'd decided it was my favorite! then, it was home at last!

thailand (sort-of) fun fact of the day:
i keep discovering new favorite fruits! last week it was green mango. this week it is rose apples! next week it'll be something different. i'll keep you updated.