Goodbye Thailand

it has all come to an end so soon. the only way to describe coming back to LA is bittersweet. i am so so happy to see my friends and to be able to cook and watch tv, but at the same time, i still wake up in the morning so happy because i'm thinking i'll be walking to thammasat or going down to the alley to go to "poppy's" (fav pad thai place) or "the spot" (crepe place) to get a bite to eat. but, before i knew it, jimbo was on the plane, marney was in a taxi with her friends headed to the full moon party, and abby was on her way to israel. then it was our time to leave....warren, charity, brad and i were all scheduled to go on the same flight to japan, but it ended up just brad and me on the plane because warren needed a visa he didn't have and standby was full. anyway, long story short, warren made it to my apartment and is currently taking a nap in my extra bed, and charity made it to oregon after an 11-hour layover in SF.

the past few weeks have been surreal...we had so much fun just hanging out and cherishing every last minute as "locals" (as local as we could get), and trying not to think about leaving. we spent almost a month in bangkok after the trip to krabi and railay beach. we did the bangkok thing...went out at night to RCA or kao san road, hung out and watched a lot of "how i met your mother," had some home cooked dinners that consisted of pancakes and eggs, and we actually did some school work and studying. there is no such thing as a "stop week" for studying, so school ended, and the next week we were taking finals....this is the first semester that i have ever had 5 finals!!! some of them were harder than others, all i hope is that i passed all my classes ;)

other than school work and typical bangkok outings, we had an awesome christmas party in the penthouse, and even did a "white elephant" grab bag with the limitation that the gift must be purchased on kao san road and be less than 200 baht. we also sort of had a new year's celebration and i finally made it out to an after-hours club!!! andy, jimbo and i went to koi for dinner to give us luck for our IS exam, and it was definitely one of the most delicious meals i had in thailand, but i don't really think it gave me luck on the exam....go figure.

for my last blog, i thought i would make a long list of tips i discovered in the past five months...for anyone who might travel to thailand in the near future:
uniforms: don't bring anything, just go buy them at MBK. i got two skirts and two tops for like $20 US and that's all you really need for the semester
cord converters: don't need them. girls, just buy hair dryers there...they are super cheap and work fine, and since this is the only thing that would need a converter, you can eliminate bringing both the dryer and the converter!
suits: get suits tailored in bangkok....total time with all fittings is about 1-2 weeks. go to barrons on sukumvit between soi 6 & 7, or cotton house in the oriental hotel...a whole suit will be about $200 US
towels, sheets: i brought them, but you don't need to...easy and cheap to find there
medicine/pharmacy/hospital: it is really easy to get any type of medicine you might need. all of the pharmacies and hospitals have employees that speak english to get you whatever you need, and actually, you can even have dental work done that is good quality and inexpensive.
classes/review of classes: i took ACC-422 (hardest final i took, but the class wasn't that bad, kind of an intense final project, but if you have a good group it's not bad), MK 312 (lots of presentations and sort of a lot of work), MK 421 (pretty easy, prof is really nice, learned a lot about CSR and being "green"), IS 201 (great class, learned a lot of stuff that will be very useful in the future on MS excel and access) and IB 311 (not hard, had some interesting lectures because we could totally relate to what the prof was talking about, sometimes repetitive). in general, we did not need to study, except a little for midterms and finals. they take attendance, but you can miss up to 5 days of each class (or, 15 hours); they meet once a week for 3 hours, but you get a long break in the middle, and they don't usually start on time
shopping: my favorite places to go shopping were MBK (indoor market type mall), Siam square (outdoor market with a TON of clothes and purses and good shopping for girls) and siam paragon. there is a gourmet import market in siam paragon where you can find almost anything you might be craving from home. out of all the "markets" i think the best one is suan lum night market (there is also muay thai there on friday nights), which stays open until about midnight...go here at the end of your trip because you'll know what you want and how much you should pay for everything, as opposed to going in the beginning where you think EVERYTHING is cool and you'll end up paying way too much and buying a lot of dumb things. plus, if you go at the end, your bargaining abilities will be much improved ;)
where to live: we lived at the ratanakosin island condo, across the street from "pata pinklao". Justin is the most awesome landlord ever! contact me if you want his number or email address. supposedly, it is the not-so-nice part of town, but i thought it was just fantastic and saw nothing wrong with it! there is a TON of street food, grocery store across the street, good restaurants. it is only about a 20-30 minute walk away from school, or a 10-minute 50 baht taxi ride. we walked to school until april when it got too hot to walk. also, it is so near to kao san road where you can buy anything you want, a very convenient place to go out at night, and fun too! we went there so often it was kind of scary. oh, it is also walking distance from "central pinklao" where there is a gym and movie theater and bowling alley and mall and night market. so, pretty much, it was a great place to live. the only bad thing about it is that it is far from sukumvit or thong lor or silom where most of the nice clubs are so it was hard to get a taxi home at night after the clubs, but not that bad. and it's not near the sky train, but that was ok too.
trips: this was probably the best part about studying in thailand. we were able to travel whenever we wanted because our living expenses were so low that we had extra money to travel, and on top of that, it is very cheap to travel if you want it to be. for example, you can catch overnight buses anywhere, but these are sort of hard on your body and i would only recommend doing them if you have at least 3 days at your destination before you have to go back. and, if you do go on overnight buses, make sure you hold your money on you (like, in your pockets or in a money belt or something like that). however, an alternative to overnight buses is air asia. we got pretty cheap tickets on air asia and it is much more pleasant. overnight buses are usually $15-$20 depending on where you are going and tickets are around $60-$100 round trip. also, you can catch buses to koh samet, or other places that only take 4 hours or less. over the months, i went to: chiang mai (2 times), hong kong, malaysia (kuala lumpur), koh samui, koh phangan (full moon party), krabi/railay beach, hua hin, prachuap khirikhan, and kanchanaburi (tiger temple). i think my favorites in thailand were krabi/railay beach, chiang mai and koh phangan for the full moon party.
phone: easy to get a cheap nokia cell phone...costs about $30 and just buy refillable sim cards at 7-11 or basically any convenience store. i went through about 300 baht every 2-3 weeks, if you call home with it, 300 baht lasts about one week.
skype: i used skype to call home because it got expensive to call home on my cell phone. it's good to set it up and have credit on it before you leave because some people had trouble adding skype credit for some reason or another, so set it up before you go to thailand. it comes in handy just in case you have to call your bank or whatever.
internet: our condos had wireless internet that was fast. it's kind of on and off, but all you have to do is restart your computer and it fixes itself.
street food: all i can say is try everything. street food is the best and cheapest, and everyone thinks you get sick from it, but i think it is the best because everything is always fresh and you can see them making it and what they put into it. noodles on the street are awesome and so is corn on the cob and even sushi! i didn't get sick from street food the whole time, and i at a ton of it. i was afraid to eat street food, especially like fruit and raw veggies, but the fruit is the best thing ever-eat as much of it as you can get, and i was still a little careful with raw veggies, but cucumbers are ok for sure.
water: sounds obvious, but drink bottled or boiled water only. the water they serve at restaurants with ice in it is ok too, i'd wait a few weeks before you drink a lot of it so that your tummy has time to adjust. one guy thought he would drink tap water and ended up with some bad problem in the hospital. however, you can brush your teeth and wash dishes with it and you'll be fine. we even made ice cubes out of tap water and that was ok too. just drink your drink fast before it all melts ;) i used bottled water to brush my teeth for the first month, and i think that was good but not necessary...everyone is going to get irregular poops, just accept it and you'll be fine
exchanging money: the best thing to do is bring some cash to exchange at the airport to get you to your destination, then exchange the rest at an exchange booth, and then when you run out of the cash you brought, just use your debit card to get money out. you get the best exchange rate, and the banks at home charge about $2.50-$5 per transaction. try to avoid bank of america because they charge a ton of different random fees that add up to quite a lot, and the very best thing is to have a credit union because some of them don't even charge a fee for ATM transactions and if they do, its the smallest one of them all. all but one of the ATM machines in thailand don't charge a fee (use the green one with a K on it or the purple siam one, i know for sure these don't charge a fee)

that's all i can think of for now...kind of a lot to take in, but those are the things i would have wanted to know before going to thailand....random helpful hints!

i already miss thailand, it was the most amazing 5 months of my life :) so sad it's over, and now back to the real world with responsibilities and things of that sort!!! now, it's officially the beginning of a whole new journey!

to all of you who made my experience the wonderful experience it was, i love you and i'll miss you dearly. keep in touch and call me if you are ever in san francisco!! xoxo, meris

"the lagoon"

now, the best way to travel in thailand is on air asia. no more buses for me.....although, i think i have sworn this to myself at least 3 times, i now will not travel on a bus for the remaining month in thailand. speaking of which...i have (sadly) officially entered my last month in this glorious country....and will be cherishing every last minute i am here...but at the same time, i've decided i'll be ready to go back to LA (and real life) come may 18th.




back to my kraby/rai lay beach story. so, we got back to bangkok at 6am on thursday morning and did some errands and interneting and then got onto a plane at 5pm headed for krabi. we arrived in the nick of time, a short 1 hour and 5 minute flight all the way down south. then, we got onto a bus that would take us to ao nang which is like a port to get to rai lay beach....and for clarification, it is NOT an island, but rather a part of krabi that is unreachable by land transportation. we sat at ao nang for a long long time waiting for 6 other people to come (because each boat takes 10 people and it is a flat 1000 baht fee for the boat, so the more people, the merrier...) but 3 beers and a bag of pretzels later, we decided we had waited long enough and decided to suck up the cost and each pay 250 baht. once we got to rai lay we found a place to stay (it met neither of my two requirements, but i was so happy to be there because i hadn't slept in over 36 hours) and then ate dinner, chilled at "the last bar" and called it a night.

the second day, we spent the entire day at the beach. i hid in the shade for most of it, but ended up catching some rays towards the end of the day. we walked around a bit when the tide went out because it goes out so far it feels like you could walk forever! we watched the sunset and decided to go home and have another relaxing night. the beaches on rai lay are so much more peaceful than any of the other beaches i've been to and it was perfect to just lie around, read, listen to music, swim a little and eat ice cream all day. we rested that night to prepare for the intense activities the next day promised to bring!

and so it did....we woke up earlyish...about 800 and then met our rock climbing teacher named "guy" (who we later found out was only 18!) and headed for the cliffs. guy wasted no time. we arrived at some random cliff/rock/thing coming out of the ocean, to tie a "8 knot" and then said with sharp rocks at the base and guy plopped his mat down, set the rope on top of it and showed us how "climb." jon went first because he's the expert ;), and andy and i watched in awe and debated over who would be the next one up. it turns out that guy was actually a really awesome teacher, and helped us out a lot...i was able to get to the anchor (top) of every climb and he was able to tell me where to put my feet and how to stand up and not to use my knees at all and not to use my arms too much!! plus, he was SO awesome, and chill...just like all of the other people we met on rai lay. i swear, they were all thai rastas...it reminded me a bit of hawaii and thailand mixed up together...best of both worlds! (and, this is off topic, but i think that my favorite part of rai lay, and the perfect way to describe the culture of the place, is that there is absolutely no law enforcement there, and none is needed. its a small little village where everyone knows everyone, and they all take care of each other's kids, and hang out like a big happy family). back to rock climbing....so, we did 3 different climbs in the morning, and every time, i didn't think i could do much more because my arms and legs ached, but it was so so so much fun. it's like a huge game/puzzle where you have to figure out where to go next and where you can jam your fingers into and how long you can hang on with your toes before falling ;) i'll definitely rock climb when i got back to the states. in the afternoon, guy took us to a super duper cool cave that overlooked a beautiful beach. we had to hike up the pitch black cave, and then suddenly, there was a ton of light and we could see out over the whole coastline. then, we got to repel a pretty good distance down the mountain to a new climbing spot. i was only able to manage one climb in the afternoon and then i got too tired and it was windy and actually a little cold...plus, it looked like it was going to rain and i didn't want to get stuck mid-climb in the rain ;) then, we hiked back to the east beach (from the west beach) to where we were staying.

on the third day, we were planning to relax at another beach on rai lay (the prettier of the two beaches) and let our muscles recover from the strenuous activities of the day before. but, no no. along came a grand idea to hike to the "hidden lagoon" against all warning that it was a pretty long hike, and we probably shouldn't do it in slippers, we went... and, i swear. it was one of the hardest hikes i have ever done. harder than the koko head hike at home. at first, we had to climb up a red dirt hill (and we should have known it was going to be hard because there were ropes along the trail to help people get up there). this hill went on forever, and once we reached the top we had to go down a bit and ended up in a jungle like area that was sort of in a lagoon shape and position. andy and i looked at each other and were like "wtf. is this supposed to be the LAGOON??? don't tell me we hiked all this way just to see a huge tree in a dried up swamp looking area....we should have known better than to hike to a LAGOON in dry season." but little did we know, we were not even half way there....so we went around the huge tree and found another small path leading up and down and all around and finally got to an cliff. it was a big cliff...with more ropes hanging down. i think it was vertical from what i remember. and there were three of them...it was like never ending and praying that we would reach some sort of lagoon at the end of all of this....so, we scaled three cliffs (and i am NOT exaggerating) with our bags and towels (all of which ended up in my bag that jon carried....) and finally, after the third and final cliff we saw it. and it was beautiful. nothing like that dumb tree in a ditch that we thought was the lagoon....it is too amazing to describe in words....suddenly a huge blue body of water appears and there are plants and big rock and caves encompassing the water. and there were fish and swimming lizards living in it. i think it took us over an hour to get there. but oh boy was it worth every single minute of hiking. it truly was a secret lagoon and we hung out there for as long as we could before it started drizzling....the whole time, we felt like we were in jurassic park or something...and according to andy, he saw more animals than during his whole time at gibbons!!! the hike was harder than rock climbing, i think. but it was so much fun. also, when we were exploring, we found a cave that had a hammock and sleeping mats and jars and lanterns in it...it was so eerie and creepy because we were joking the whole time that our adventure could be like some scary movie (or like the movie "the beach") where some dumb tourists hike so far into the jungle and come upon people living there and they get stuck and have to survive on lagoon food...etc. you know...the typical scary/adventure movie ;) charity had a whole scene and plot in her head and narrated it to us all the while. hiking up was a lot easier than hiking down into the lagoon, and we were glad to be on paved land again. finally, after the crazy hike to the lagoon, we were off to the beach. the thai guys from the bar were at the beach that day and we hung out with them for a while....so nice....can't get over it. (look at our facebook albums to see the pictures in normal size. mine is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232317&l=3de04&id=3406342 and jon's is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232315&l=fc61b&id=3422511...charity's and andy's to follow)

today, we woke up and checked out of our hotel and then caught a long tail boat back to ao nang. we were quite lucky and did not have to wait very long for the boat to fill up and ended up at ao nang around 1pm. we hung out at mc donalds and starbucks until 5 playing cards and reading. then, got on our plane back to bangkok. it was so so funny though because when we arrived at the airport, they were like, good thing you are early, the flight is leaving early tonight. and we all looked at each other, and were like, "can a flight really leave EARLY???" and there was no warning of any sort, so i guess if you came right on time, you would have missed the flight....so strange. it was scheduled for 650pm and we were literally pushing back from the gate at 630pm. i had no sooner sat down before we were moving. oh, you gotta love air asia!

now, i think i will be in bangkok for the rest of my time in thailand. i might try to squeeze a trip to cambodia or laos in between the end of finals and may 18, but i might just hang out here and enjoy bangkok :) we actually have to do some work and study for finals so that we don't fail our classes....i think i have two presentations tomorrow...but i'm not really sure! hopefully they go well if i do! and, i think it has officially gotten too hot to walk to school, so i will be catching taxis from now on...lazy girl will have to hit the gym upon arrival to la.

night night, xoxo, mer

Happy 2551!

my third new year celebration was by far the most unique experience one will ever have on new year...

"Songkran," or, Thai new year was craaaaaaazyyy!!!!! on april 10, i got back from hong kong at about 11pm. and on april 11 at 6pm, about 20 of us were on a bus headed for chiang mai. needless to say, the other passengers on the bus were not the happiest of campers when we all got off in chiang mai 10 hours later......from the minute we got on the bus we were trouble ;) first of all, we had a few thai friends come with us and they are not technically allowed on the bus because the buses only have licenses for foreigners, so we had to argue with the bus drivers for about an hour before they would move the bus even one inch. finally, after we got them to start the journey to chiang mai we busted out our party supplies...hehe....and then before i knew it, we were there. so, we arrived at 6am, went straight to our hostel, "the green tulip" and slept until noonish. i woke up to lots of screaming, went downstairs, and got smashed by a bucket of water. not just a small bucket. a very large bucket. thank you to whoever graced me with that ice cold water! ;) anyway, after the nice fresh wake-up, we played water fight for almost the rest of the day....or at least until i was freezing (even in the 100 degree weather). after songkraning for 5 hours, we had a nap and then went to the night market.

the next few days were a blur and whirlwind full of ice water. buckets. water guns. canal water. and some food (as usual...meg, i know you always tease me because half of my blog is always about food!!) the best part about song kran is that everyone is totally into it. i was definitely the "deloris downer" (not a "debbie downer" on account of my mom ;)!!! )of the trip because i didn't want canal water on me, and i didn't want ice water on me either....so i basically did not have any option of water that could be poured on me. hahha...plus, everyone thought it was super funny to pour water on me....the thai guys love to target girls, and once they got me one time, i would scream and then they thought it was hilarious and then i got about 10x more water poured on me. meanwhile, jon and andrew would walk right behind me and be dry. so, basically, everyone is TOTALLY obsessed with water fighting and they do it from morning until dusk from friday through wednesday. crazy. the whole town shuts down and they pile into tuk tuks and pick up trucks and drive along the canals and throw water at each other. the traffic gets so bad that it is like a parking lot and people just run back and forth from the vehicles to the canal to fill up their water buckets. another good thing about songkran is that everyone is so so so happy! all the thai people are happy because it is new year, we were all happy because we felt like we were 5 years old again, and even when people get soaking wet in nice clothes, they smile and say "sawasdee bi mai" (or something of the sort), meaning "happy new year!" OH, and, they are so polite too! whenever someone is eating or says they do not want water on them, they do not throw water on that person! this kind of festival would never happen in america....so we enjoyed it while it lasted here! it is truly amazing, and so hard to describe...and i truly loved it for a little while, but, by the third day of songkran, i was over it. ;) everyone else thought it was the BEST thing EVER, but i hung out at our hostel and read magazines, books, and did crosswords. i was a big loser. but that's ok! i managed to stay dry for almost 24 hours! i definitely caught up on my sleep and did a lot of shopping in chiang mai.

I ALMOST FORGOT my favorite part of the trip!!!!! COOKING CLASS!!!!! on tuesday, jon, andrew and i went to a thai cooking class and learned to cook all my favorite foods!!!! but, we first went to a market in the morning to look at all of the fresh fruits and veggies, etc. and when we were standing there learning about chili paste and the stuff that goes into it, i felt something brush over both of my feet. then, from behind me, i hear andrew say "holy shit. that was a rat." then, i flipped out because it totally went over my feet and was soooooooooo gross. sooooooooo disgusting. eeeeewwwww. i got over it when i realized i would get to eat 6 meals in the duration of the cooking class ;) we made pad thai, papaya salad, curry paste, curry, stir fry, spicy soup, and mango with sticky rice!!!!! and i ate all of it. well...everything except some of my curry and rice and stir fry. but we ate a lot. it was yummmmyyyy!!! btw. thai curry paste is super tedious and hard to make....we had to pound it for so long, and jon's hand burned from the chili's for about two days afterwards....i will never take my curry for granted again ;)

then, on wednesday, we were forced to catch a bus back home because all the trains and planes were full.....back to bangkok. this time i stayed in the city for about 12 hours....and then off to krabi for some hard core adventuring!!!! (see next blog ;) )

Visiting Lisers and Nundies in HK!

we just got back from a very fun. very stressful. very yummy. very expensive. trip to hong kong. marney, abby, natalia, jake, and i went to hong kong last week and thanks to lisa and fernando, had an amazing HK experience. we got to see ALL of the night life (thanks nundies!), shop till we dropped, eat dim sum until it was coming out of our ears and ride the MTA like it was our job!




on thursday night, we arrived in HK at around 9pm and took a bus to meet fernando and lisa at Sha Tin shopping mall/metro station. we were hurried back to campus (which involved walking up A LOT of hills!!!) and before i knew it we were in cabs to a club called tribeca. apparently, i had an amazing time dancing the night away.....and we ended up going home around 3ish...which was too early for lisa...the party girl side that i haven't seen of her during the past two years of knowing each other came out this past week!!! i loves it! unfortunately, marney and abby lost their passports in the taxi that night. it was really crappy...........but, long story short, we are all back in thailand now. safe and sound ;) and, if anyone ever loses their passport in HK again, we know exactly what to do!!! (provided they are canadian citizens!!!) OH, it turns out that this bad luck happened on 4/4, which is a Chinese holiday to celebrate the ancestors because the way you say "4" in chinese is almost like the word "death" so everything was closed and all the students got school off and everything. it was a cool holiday, but bad because all of the consulates were closed so we would have to wait until monday to go figure things out.

anyway, after the passport fiasco, we hung out on friday and got to eat dim sum at the campus restaurant, and then rested and went to dinner, and then got ready to go out again. that night, we went to LKF, which is the clubbing/bar district of hong kong. it sort of reminded me of kao san road, or a smaller hollywood blvd, with tons of different kinds of clubs...loud music...small food stands...tons of people...buckets of alcohol.......and the rest is history. it was SO much fun, and i stayed out so late and didn't even get tired! after LKF, i stayed in a hostel in kowloon...and if you ever thought you stayed in a shady place, just look at this picture (it's the view as soon as you get out of the escalator)!!!! however, as i like to say, as long as there is hot water and a flushing toilet, i am fine. and i had both. so i survived.

we shopped ALL saturday at a mall called harbour city mall and then met fernando and lisa for korean bbq. i loved it. OH, and now i eat pork. and beef....i guess i am not anything near to a vegetarian anymore. go me. hahha....dinner tasted great, except it made abby sick for almost the rest of the trip, until she threw it all up three days later at the theme park and "felt 20 pounds lighter, and SO much better" -abby t.

sunday we rested again and went to a few malls and markets with brandon (nundies and lisa's friend from CUHK). the malls in HK are truly asian super malls. they are HUGE and have everything you could possibly want. the outdoor markets are about the same as thailand's markets, but i still like thai markets better: 1. because they are cheaper, 2. because they are bigger (more stuff to buy/selection) and 3. because they always have food at them ;) ;) don't get me wrong, i still love the markets in HK!!! anytime i get to shop, i am a happy girl!

monday morning we woke up early and went to the canadian embassy to try to figure marney's passport situation out. the only funny thing about losing the passport was when we first went to the embassy we had to check in with a security guard who filtered people into different rooms depending on their situation. so, we walk in and marney looks at the guard and says "i lost my passport." period. and he looks at his computer screen which has a few different options (all in the form of animated pictures) and in the middle, there was a big picture of a triangle with an exclamation point in the middle of it....and after a few seconds of thought, he proceeded to press that button (with authority!!!) and marney got to go first before all the other people waiting!!!! hahhaha...it was so funny. but i think that was the ONLY funny thing about the lost passport. after getting things sort of settled, we decided to go to ocean park and ride some sweet roller coasters! i finally conquered my fear of the ones that drop straight down and rode on it TWO times!!! it is SO much fun!!! it was the scariest thing ever though because it starts to go up really slowly, and then it shoots up and seems to go up FOREVER and EVER and then once you get to the top you just sit there for what seems like eternity, and then you just fall. straight down. the first time i closed my eyes and the second time i forced myself to keep them open and it was 10 times scarier!!!

tuesday was another embassy morning, followed by a trip to victoria peak and a little more shopping. i remember the peak from my last trip to hong kong, but this time it was pretty foggy so we were not able to see too much from the top. it was still beautiful though and nice and cool up there. after the peak we went to ladies market and then ate traditional hong kong hot pot! we had live craw fish and fish balls of every shape and color imaginable, noodles galore, and veggies i have never seen before!

so, we had all moved to the hostels on monday night and these places were a dump. there were absolutely no windows and five of us were squished into a room that would have comfortably fit 2. but, we are hard core now, so we dealt with it! look at the pictures below or on my facebook to get the full picture. the elevators were so slow and often times they could not hold all of us so it took almost 10 minutes to go down 5 stories, and we couldn't figure out how to go down using the stairwells because they never took you all the way down. but, really, it wasn't that bad. anyway, the point of telling you about the hostels was that we slept in until 2 or 3 on wednesday because we thought it was 9am....due to the lack of windows and exhausting walking around HK. we were so much more active there than we are here, mostly because it is bearable to walk outside without sweating every ounce of water out of you. i liked being active though. and now, we are hermits again staying inside all day because of the AC and doing everything possible to avoid the 100+ weather outside! it is nice, however, to be back home again!!! oh, i love my thailand! wednesday night, we went to the horse races!!! it is so much fun with lots of gambling and betting and weird chinese food! and after the races, they took us to a favorite college hangout called skitz. it is open bar for girls (free open bar!) and guys pay 180 HKD and according to fernando and lisa, there has not been a night where someone doesn't have to get taken home. but that night, none of us had to get taken home!! SUCCESS! it was a ton of fun, and we got to meet some of their local hong kong friends. it was a great way to finish a great trip!

on our last day, we decided to detox our bodies from the week of partying.....so we walked around the nathan road area for a while trying to find a place to get suctioned and ear waxed!!! our friends from bangkok came to HK also and they did this detox thing the first day they were there and they told us about it so we just blindly went in and told them we wanted to be suctioned....little did we know that we would come out looking like a GIGANTIC octopus slapped us on the back and left huge black circles all over us. it is disgusting. but kinda cool at the same time. supposedly it cleans out your body and makes your blood circulate better or something...it is supposed to realign you chi and if you have internal organ problems, it is supposed to help with that too. i had a lot of energy last night and i was warm in the AC when i am usually cold, so i think it actually might have done something...but there is a good possibility that i am imagining all of this too ;) ;)

in a rush now because we are leaving for chiang mai and the songkran festival in a few hours and i still have to get my laundry, pack and upload pics!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!!!! miss you guys so much...xoxo, mer

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.