Thailand...
For spring break this year we had two weeks off of school. I decided that I was going to travel to Thailand for the holiday (no one over here says they are going on vacation- you are going on 'holiday'). We got out of school on Thursday and had a 5:40am flight out of Abu Dhabi. After packing my backpack and trying to jam as much as it possibly could into a backpack & after a sleepless night we were dropped off at the airport. For those of you that read my blog about Germany and Austria we knew a tad more about our plans in Thailand seeing we wanted to see so much of the country in such a short amount of time. We flew out of Abu Dhabi and had a couple hour layover in Oman..there were two other girls we work with in Oman so we decided to all sit just together and try to stay awake so we could sleep on the flight (thank goodness for diary queen!) we finally made it to Bangkok around 5pm- went through passport control and found our luggage (everything made it!). Then Thailand has a super cool travels sim that we all got since our phones are unlocked and meant we were able to have data on our phone and some credit to call and text for less then $15 for the whole two weeks! As we were standing in the line to get our sims another girl walked up to us and asked if we were going to Khaosan Road (there is a very populated road in Thailand for travelers)- we told her yes and decided to all share a taxi. During the taxi ride Belinda and I found out this girls name is Zoe and she is from the UK. After our taxi ride we decided we would meet up after we checked in and got settled a bit. That night we explored Khaosan Road a bit- got dinner- tried our first Changs and took our first ride on a tuk tuk (these are the taxi-ish things all over Thailand). Bangkok is truly a city that doesn't sleep the first night we were up until after 4am! The next day we met up with another girl from our school and got our first Thai massages (hour and a half massages for about $10!), then had dinner with two others girls from school. We had a great day just taking it easy and exploring with friends from the UAE. Later that night we met back up with Zoe and a group of people from Canada who had been living in Australia (it is amazing how some people truly just pick their lives up and travel for 6 months no questions asked!). Our next day in Bangkok we decided to go explore the floating markets and more of Bangkok with Zoe- basically we were in our own boat and we got a water tour of Bangkok and stopped by people in tinnnnnyyyyy canoe looking boats and they are filled with things they are selling. After that we made a deal with a tuk tuk driver and he took us to the big Buddha, the grand palace, a suit store (huge in Thailand), a market area and then a jewelry-ish store where you can watch them make things- all of this was 60 baht for the three of us which is like $3 so pretty good deal for us! That night we decided to go and watch a cabaret show (lady boys...) which was a fun change of scenery! After that we rode what was the equivalent to the Bangkok eye and got to take a higher look at Bangkok. We then found a local area called RCA and hung out there for a bit before heading back to Khaosan being full of people! The next morning we had to journey around to find our train tickets and then just had a relaxing day before taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai which is in Northern Thailand. The overnight train there was about a 13 hour ride. We got two bunks on the train. When we got onto the train we had fairly comfortable seats and lots of room. Around 8pm the train attendants start coming around to lay beds down. As we are watching them lay the beds down the top one is looking rather scary. We made it through the night on the train however not so well rested! But we were lucky enough that our hotel let us check in early for a little nap! In Chiang Mai we stayed rather busy! We went ziplining, to an elephant farm, tiger kingdom, explored the city (we had our own tour guide to all the temples!), and even had a fish foot massage (they eat at your feet...grosssss)! Chiang Mai was a beautiful place! After we stayed here for a couple of days we flew back to Bangkok for a quick night at the airport hotel and off to ko samui we went! We stayed at a resort right on the beach here! In ko samui we finally got to just lay around and enjoy the beach. Our resort overlooked mountains and some beautiful Thailand water! In ko samui I even went to my first ice bar...however it was more like a food freezer decorated! Seeing the beaches and just relaxing was a great part of the vacation! However, our next stop was even more amazing- koh phangan! This is a veryyyy small island about an hour ferry ride from ko samui- here we stayed in our very own beach front bungalow! Our friend from the UK that we met in Bangkok also decided to join us here which made it even better! We also met two boys from Minnesota and so the 5 of us went exploring together! We layed by the pool and beach all day! Very quiet resort and we had a hammock on our balcony and all! Also on this island is where they do the big moon festivals- they are kinda like a techno rave- they go throughout the whole night! All five of us went to the half moon festival and w even ran into people we met at the ice bar! It was an awesome festival and you get body neon paint there! It was nice to then go back to our quiet area and just enjoy the last few days of vacation! After that we had one last night on Khaosan road before ending back to Abu Dhabi! Thailand was an amazing place and somewhere I would loveeeee to go back to! I will update my next entry with an overview of term 3! :)))
Pictures to come!!
No comments:
Post a Comment