Koh Samui

Kat and I spent 4 days on the beautiful island of Koh Samui, soaking up the sun and relaxing. It was nice to just get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and not worry about anything.

We stayed at The Passage Resort and although it was catered towards couples rather than a couple of college kids, it worked out fine. The Passage had 3 pools (we barely touched them), a beach with chairs and hammocks, a restaurant, spa, mopeds, kayaks, the list goes on.

Wednesday night we had dinner at the restaurant; I got a spicy beef salad with white rice. Boy, was it spicy. Haha. Then we were both craving desert and decided to walk to the nearest 7-11 for ice cream. It ended up being 2.5km away, but we found a little furry friend who followed us for the majority of the walk.

Thursday, we planned on going to a waterfall nearby and instead of paying more than 200 baht for a one-way taxi ride, we decided to rent a moped. Okay, so neither of us actually knew how to drive a moped and the hotel didn’t really offer any lessons, so once I didn’t feel comfortable driving it after a little go-around in the parking lot and Kat rode into a bush, we decided to just lay low and hang around the hotel and beach.  

We did take the hotel’s free shuttle to Nathon, a small town in Koh Samui (actually, where the pier is located) and wandered around there for dinner and shopping. We found a cute little place called The Green Onion and I got this delicious fried rice with pineapple dish along with a milk shake.  We then decided to save money and walked back to the hotel.

Friday was just another beach day. I got owned by the sun and sported a lovely shade of red for the rest of the trip, but it was nice to just chill by the beach with my book. For dinner, we walked back to The Green Onion and enjoyed our last night meandering around Nathon.

Saturday we packed up and said goodbye to The Passage. We were taking a boat back to the mainland at 1:30. After the boat, we took a bus/shuttle to a bus station where we were dropped off around 4pm. We had to wait until 8:30pm for the bus the Bangkok. 4 hours in this deserted bus station where the only food was overpriced and prepackaged and the bugs feasted on us. Thankfully, we had had lunch at the hotel before we left Koh Samui so we weren’t hungry. During the four hours though, I was able to finish the book I was reading, write a blog post about Bangkok, and started studying for a midterm I had this past week.

The bus ride back to Bangkok was an uneventful nine hours; I was able to sleep for a good portion. We were dropped off at 5am on the side of the road (basically) somewhere in Bangkok, where a million and one-taxi drivers offering their services greeted us. We had to bargain for a taxi to the airport, but one finally agreed to meter the ride. We got to the airport at 6am and had to wait until 1pm to check-in for our flight. We grabbed some drinks and food from Starbucks and settled into some chairs; I passed the time doing some reading for classes, writing another blog post and playing Snood.

A little before 1, we decided to move to the check-in area so we could be first to check-in. Well, by 1:30 the Royal Jordanian employees weren’t there yet, so some Thai Airline employees started to check us in. Oh. And they decided to inform us that our flight was delayed until 8pm. Yep. 8pm. Apparently the flight was being delayed in Amman (it was going from Amman to Bangkok to Hong Kong). Kat and I were pissed, as were everybody else who was in line to check in, and we were trying to figure out how we’d get back to school since we’d be landing in Hong Kong after midnight and the MTR wouldn’t be open. After about twenty minutes of panicking, we were kindly informed that our plane was now only delayed about fifteen minutes, so instead of leaving at 4:15, we’d be leaving at 4:30. THANK GOD.

We quickly got out tickets, proceeded through immigration and security with no problem. We were both starving by the time we go to our gate so we grabbed some lunch and used up the last of our baht.

The flight back wasn’t too bad, nice and quick compared to the lovely 15-hour flight from JFK to HK. Though, on every flight since I left JFK, I’ve been given a survey by a flight attendant to fill out about the flight. It’s the same old stuff- how was the food, the friendliness of the flight attendants, etc. I’m just surprised they give it to a young college student rather than an professional looking adult. Haha

Once in Hong Kong, going through customs was easy, especially since we are allowed to go through the ‘Resident’ line and the MTR was still operating so we made it back to Lingnan by 10pm.

This week back was a tough adjustment back to the ‘real’ world. It was nice being forced to study for a midterm otherwise I’m sure I’d still be on island life schedule. 

Thai's Diet Coke

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Thailand is famous for its floating markets, but there are only a few remaining and they’re all about an hour outside of Bangkok. Kat and I signed up for a half-day tour through our hotel; we were picked up just before 7am on Tuesday morning. We had to pick up a few other people for the tour, and then made the hour trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.

When we arrived, our tour guide told us we would be taking a “James Bond” speedboat to the floating market; apparently it’s a similar boat to a scene in a James Bond movie, but since I’ve never seen a James Bond movie I can’t say for sure. The boat reminded me of the boats we use for crew- long and skinny, seats for about 8 or 9 people, but this boat had a motor and rudder instead oars. The fifteen-minute ride over to the market was great. We went through all these different ‘streets’ and got to see what life was like living in this area. The houses are right on the water and have steps that go right into the water. There were a handful of people on their steps doing laundry in the water. 

When we got to Damnoen Saduak, I was rather surprised. I had seen all these pictures of floating markets and well, it wasn’t exactly what I had expected. We were dropped off at what turned out to be a strip of stores and were given an hour and a half to walk around in the stores. On the other side of the water/stream, there were little stores that were reachable by boat, but you had to pay 150 baht to get over there/for a 30-minute ride. Kat and I decided against the boat ride because we figured we could get anything we wanted on this side of the stream. At one point we sat down and just observed the dynamics of the floating market. Another tourist was interested in buying some fruit from a lady who had her little shop set up in her boat on the water. The shop owner maneuvered her boat closer to the land, weighed the fruit on her little scale and gave them to the customer in exchange for money. Afterwards, the shop owner proceeded to move her boat back away from the land so other boats could get through when necessary.

After the floating market, the tour us to an elephant farm where a few people rode elephants, but Kat and I just hung out. Then we went to a wood-carving studio. This studio was amazing. We were able to freely walk around the factory and store. The factor allowed us to see the carvers at work as well as the pieces they were working on. Some of the pieces were so elaborate and intricate. We also met another traveler on our trip; he was from Liverpool and was making his way around the world. He had already been to the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and was still looking to go to Hong Kong. It was great hearing about his travels and experiences abroad.

We were then on our way back to Bangkok; Kat and I were dropped off at a shopping center by our hotel, where we proceeded to waste time before leaving for our overnight bus to Samui. We grabbed some lunch at a food court; I got pad thai- it was delicious! We wandered around the mall, did some window-shopping and spent some time looking around a bookstore before heading back to our hotel to grab our bags and go to the train station where we were meeting the bus.

•   •   •

We purchased tickets through a travel agency our first day in Bangkok for an overnight bus and boat ride to Koh Samui. We met the bus at a train station on Tuesday night; the bus was rather simple, a double decker with the first floor for VIP people, luggage and the driver while the top level was for the rest of us and just like a coach bus. The ride wasn’t too bad, took about nine hours and we stopped 2 or 3 times for a half hour each. We were dropped off somewhere around 6am and then picked up again after 8am. We were then taken to the dock and after an hour boat ride, we made it to Koh Samui. We had to bargin with the taxi drivers on a price for driving us to a hotel; even though the taxis are labeled “Taxi-Metered” they’re not. For a 2.5km ride, the cheapest taxi we got was 200 bhat, which is still less than $10USD, but expensive compared to what we were paying in Bangkok.

Upon checking in at the hotel, we were surrounded by the beautiful resort and beach. J

Thailand: Day 2 Ayutthaya

Monday we planned on spending in Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We woke up early again because we weren’t too sure how to actually get there; all we knew was that there were daily buses/vans to Ayutthaya from Bangkok. The hotel receptionist informed us that we could get a minivan from Victory Monument to Ayutthaya. Having no clue where this monument was, we took a taxi. It was basically a huge statue in the middle of a rotary. We had to wander around for a little while and ask multiple people where to get the van, but we finally found it. We were the last two people in the van, so we got to sit in the front and it was only 60bhat (or about $2USD)!

A tuk tuk (I realized I didn't post a picture in the previous post, so here you go!)

The ride took a little over an hour and once we got closer to Ayutthaya, the driver would randomly stop to let people off. We had no idea where to get off but at one point the driver pulled over and was like “Ayutthaya” and dropped us off on the side of the rode where there were about five or six tuk tuks. Of course they bombarded us at once offering their driving services, but for ridiculous prices, especially compared to our 20bhat ride the day before. After much bargaining we finally agreed with one driver for 200bhat per person for 3 hours. Our driver told us these tuk tuks are more expensive because they don’t bring you to different shops like the ones in Bangkok do, so no tailors for us today. Haha.

Our first stop for the day was an elephant village where we were able to ride an elephant for thirty minutes! When Kat and I were planning this trip, riding an elephant was at the top of our to-do list, but we weren’t too sure how it was going to happen. Thankfully this opportunity basically fell into our laps! The ride was great! We rode around a temple site and through the elephant village and Kat and I were actually allowed to sit on the elephant’s neck while our guide took pictures. It was quite the experience.

Our tuk tuk driver then took us to Wat Maha That; a lot of the actual places he took us to, we had no idea what they were, but they were all very interesting and we were able to see a lot of Ayutthaya. Wat Maha That contains the ruins of an old monastery that was destroyed in a fire in the 18^th century. The ruins are amazing, and rather good condition. Inside Wat Maha That is the head of the Sandstone Buddha Image; the body of the image has disappeared but the head is rather engulfed in the trunk of a tree; quite a site to see.

Once we were finished wandering around Wat Maha That, we moved on to Phra Mongkhon BoPhit, one of the biggest Buggha’s in Thailand. Built as a sitting Buddha, the statue stands at 16.95 meters (about 55.6ft)!

Following Phra Mongkhon BoPhit we went to another area of ruins (at this point, all the sites were beginning to look very similar) but I don’t remember what this was called, sorry! Basically the same thing though, ruins and Buddhas all around.

Our second to last stop was a reclining Buddha. Unlike the one we saw the day before in Bangkok, this Buddha is outside and is not made of/painted in gold; it’s just chilling on the side of the road (most of these sites are just on the side of the road/around the neighborhood. I think it’d be so cool to live in the area and see all these historic ruins everyday). Size wise, this Buddha seemed comparable to the reclining Buddha we saw at Wat Pho.

Our final stop for the day was Wat Ratchaburana. Wat Ratchaburana was built for King Boron Rachathitirat II (1424-1448) as a burial tomb, something similar to the pyramids in Egypt. In the 1950 (or was it the 1970s?) the tomb was robbed so it too is in ruins. Unlike the other ruins we explored, we were actually able to go inside the main buildings and further explore. We were able to climb to the top of the main building and there was a small exhibit explaining what was found in/stolen from the tomb; it was cool to see everything from a higher viewpoint.

We asked our driver to drop us off at the bus/minivan to Bangkok because we had no clue where it was or where we were. We got lunch (fried rice) at a little side street cart and ha a great conversation with the owner. He answered our questions and was so helpful in providing maps of Koh Samui and Ayutthaya (a little late, but that’s okay).  We ended up taking a coach bus back to Bangkok, or rather the outskirts of Bangkok and then transferred to another minivan to take us back to Victory Monument, where we walked around before heading back to the hotel.

We got dinner at a mall just down the street from our hotel. Oh. My. God. What an amazing shopping area! Of course it was all high-end stores, but the bottom floor was basically the food court/grocery store and so many American brands. Haha. It was great walking around and seeing familiar names and smells. For dinner though, we wanted an authentic Thai meal and found a restaurant offering just that. I got chicken with cashew nuts- so good!

Back at our hotel, we planned our trip to the floating markets for Tuesday, and since we had to get up early for that, we hit the sack early. 

Thailand: Day 1

This past week Kat and I took a week vacation to Thailand. Our classes weren’t too busy and neither of us had exams, papers or presentations so it was an okay week to miss classes. We left Hong Kong Saturday (Oct. 2) at 9:30pm. The journey from Lingnan to the airport wasn’t too bad- it took about an hour on the MTR; and there were no lines at security (though they did take my toothpaste because it was over 3oz- I was pissed because I bought not only for this trip but also the rest of the semester) so it was all a breeze.

The flight to Bangkok was just about 3 hours. We flew Air Jordanian and the flight was continuing on to Amman after stopping in Bangkok. During the flight we were served dinner and I watched “Glorious 39,’ which was a movie about a woman in WWII who found out a secret involving the Nazis and how it impacted her life. It was quite interesting even though I had never heard of it before.

Landing in Bangkok was easy. Since we landed at 11:30pm, the airport was pretty empty and we had no problem getting through customs. We then got a taxi and went to our hotel, The Evergreen Place. The hotel was about an hour away from the airport but the taxi ride was filled with excitement, the driver had a radio station with American music so we were jamming in the backseat. There were so many new sites, lights, signs and languages that attracted our eyes- it was great. Our hotel was on a side street/in an alley so there was a point when we were both like ‘what the heck/where are we going?’ But we made it there with no problem.

Sunday, we planned to visit the famous floating markets but when we asked the front desk about getting there we were told it was too late to go (it was only 9:30!) and that the tours usually left around 6:30am. So we decided to visit the temples instead.

We quickly changed (since your legs must be covered to at least your knees before entering the temples and you aren’t allowed to wear sandals) and went on our way. We arrived at the Grand Palace first and walked around. It was gorgeous. Everything here is gorgeous. The buildings are so ornate, elaborate and filled with so much detail and gold. It’s amazing. The Grand Palace is an area of many buildings and used to be home to the King, until he moved his residence to Chitralada Palace. Inside the Grand Palace is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, otherwise known as Wat Phra Kaew, which was built in 1782 as the Monarch’s personal place of worship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace). In order to see the Emerald Buddha, or inside the majority of the buildings you are required to take your shoes off, so there were all these racks and cubbies outside the buildings for you to put your shoes. It was quite interesting.

After the Grand Palace we walked down the street to Wat Pho to see the famous reclining Buddha. It was HUGE. There were so many little buildings and statues around Wat Pho, all decorated in great detail.

Once we left Wat Pho, Kat asked a guy on a street how to get to another place where we had free tickets. The guy told us it was too far to walk but he would get us a ‘tuk tuk’ to drive us there as well as the bus station to get tickets to Ko Samui and a few other places for only $20bhat. So we had our own personal chauffeur for the day for less than $1USD. What an experience this was. Tuk tuks aren’t afraid to drive on the wrong side of the road to pass other cars or drive horizontally (does that make sense) through traffic.

Our tuk tuk drive first took us to a lucky Buddha. It was basically just a statue of Buddha in a room with some other things. The place was empty, we were the only people there. One of the workers (not sure who he really was) started talking to us and explained that people came here asking for luck and such.

Then our tuk tuk driver took us to a tailor. Yep. This is when we realized it was going to be that kind of day; the day where in between the things we want to see, we are dropped off at other places where our driver gets compensation in forms of gas we later found out. We were warmly welcomed in the tailor’s shop and shown all these catalogues with things we could buy and personalize. Um, thanks, but no thanks. We politely turned them down after giving them about ten minutes of our time.

Our next stop was the Marble Buddha. It was very similar to the lucky Buddha; a room with a Buddha and other trinkets and pictures surrounding him (writing this only a week later I am having such a hard time distinguishing one Buddha from another, or at least the Marble Buddha- thank God for pictures).

Then we went to another tailor shop. Yep. Haha.  Once again, warm welcome, walked around, gave them about ten minutes of our time and peaced out.

Our tuk tuk driver took us to the standing Buddha next. On the way in there were all these street carts selling different types of Thai food and souvenirs; we decided we would get food before we left because we were starving. The standing Buddha was impressive, I forget how tall it was, but it was huge. Kat fell into a tourist trap and got these birds in a cage and released them inside the temple for luck. It was great and hysterical. We stopped for food when we left. We have no idea what we got, but it was DELICIOUS. Seriously, so good I wish I knew what it was. We ended up getting two servings; even better, it was cheap- one dish was only 10bhat (1USD=30bhat) so two dishes was 20bhat, so less than $1USD for lunch!

Before dropping us off at the Vimanmek Mansion Museum(what we had the free ticket for) our tuk tuk driver brought us to a diamond factory and encouraged to buy lots of things! He was really like “Buy two- three-four things! Spend lots of money!” When we walked inside, we were once again warmly welcomed and shown around the factory before bringing us to the shopping area filled with diamonds and other stones and gems. Everything was gorgeous but I didn’t want to buy anything. Kat got a great pair of diamond earrings for only $20USD though!

Our tuk tuk driver then dropped us off at a monastery/temple (?) and told us the Vimanmek Mansion Museum as right down the street. We wandered around the temple- it was a shopping day because it was filled with little booths with various souvenirs, trinkets and food.

We finally reached the Vimanmek Mansion Museum about 4 hours after leaving Wat Pho. We weren’t allowed to take our purses or cameras inside so I don’t have any pictures, but it was a museum of royal things, including thrones, silk and smaller replicas of carriages. And everything was in gold. It’s amazing. Everything is in gold, or at least painted gold.

Exhausted after a long day, we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.

[While we were driving around today, as well as during the rest of the week, I realized there are pictures of the King and Queen EVERYWHERE. Literally, on the street corners, highway overpasses, walkways, on the sides of buildings. I am amazed; I’ve never seen a political figure so publicized like that.]

Plans for Monday: Ayutthaya!

The One-Month Mark

It’s been just about one month since I arrived in Hong Kong. It feels like I’ve been here for more than a month but then I remember that I still have three more months here! But as a few of us were discussing last night, we’ve gotten to know Hong Kong. We know the MTR, minibuses, taxi and octopus card systems, as well as how to flag down a waiter/waitress to order, how to use chopsticks, and are starting to get used to the unpredictable but hot weather. I know which way to look when I cross the street (since they drive on the other side of the road here) and to always stand on the right side of the escalator so people can walk on the left side.

But there are still a few things that I am completely lost in and I don’t know if I will ever figure them out. First, I don’t know which side of the street to walk on. I thought since they drove on the opposite side of the road they’d walk on the opposite side of the road. Well, they don’t. But they don’t always walk on the right side either. Sure, in some of the MTR stations the stairs are labeled with and X and an arrow showing you which way to go, but people don’t always follow it.  So when I walk, I am constantly dodging people and getting out of their way, because they’re don’t move either.

Secondly, I have yet to figure out how to eat meat on a bone with chopsticks. Seriously. It’s a disaster whenever I get meat with bones; I’ve learned to try and avoid ordering meat with bones, but sometimes it doesn’t work out so well. The Chinese have it down to a skill- they put the meat and bone in their mouth and somehow get the meat off the bone and then take the bone out of their mouth with their chopstick. It sounds so easy but it really isn’t. But I will say that since I’ve arrived, eating noodles with chopsticks has gotten much easier because I’ve learned the skill of putting the noodles into the spoon and then using the chopsticks to eat off the spoon.

I may have mentioned this in my NSO post, but I’m bringing it up again here. The Chinese students here talk during class/while the professor is talking. I don’t understand it. During NSO, sure, you had to sit through these long talks about nothing too important, but in a class of 30, where we are supposed to be learning, it boggles my mind. The other day I was in a class where the teacher constantly switches between English and Cantonese so the Cantonese students would fully understand, so I was already lost and confused because I would zone out when it was in Cantonese and then zone in when it was in English and she was constantly switching; she was also speaking very softly so it was already hard to hear her. Then the kids behind me started having their own conversation, so it felt like there were a million conversations going on around me.  It happens in all of my classes, the professor teaches and the students have their own little side conversations. I like to think that they’re just further explaining the topics to each other in Cantonese but I can’t be certain.

But I still have 3 more months to get a better understanding of this culture. I created a list of things I want to see or do before I leave. I’ve been able to cross a few things off already but I know I have many more exciting days ahead! And even more exciting news- just yesterday I booked my ticket to Thailand! I’m heading to Bangkok and Ko Samui October 2^nd until the 10^th with my friend Kat! It’ll be a nice little birthday gift to myself. J