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 eleph
ant 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment