this is what i'm doing right now. IT ROCKS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3xmHC-rI58&feature=related
songkran baby.
13.4.10
11.4.10
i'm too busy
i was gonna write more about my trip with val and crew, but the fbook pictures will have to suffice. just know that this journey to china was one of my favorite asia adventures and i miss the city a lot. maybe we can actually talk sometime and you can ask me questions and i'll tell you stories. actually, i'd really like that. look for me on skype/gmail/aim/ichat in may.
for now i'm stressing about the next month of travels. i've of course put off packing, but luckily i have this backpack that could fit a horse inside of it so i don't have to be a brilliant packer. but right now bangkok's all effed up from the protesters and the government and the soldiers, and supposedly the bts is closed, and if it is i dunno how we're gonna get to the train station to get up to chiang mai tonight. laskdjf oawehfawiuefh social unrest.
for now i'm stressing about the next month of travels. i've of course put off packing, but luckily i have this backpack that could fit a horse inside of it so i don't have to be a brilliant packer. but right now bangkok's all effed up from the protesters and the government and the soldiers, and supposedly the bts is closed, and if it is i dunno how we're gonna get to the train station to get up to chiang mai tonight. laskdjf oawehfawiuefh social unrest.
mom and dad come to asia: part 4
(HINT! scroll down to part 1 and read from there. if you start here you'll be in the middle of the story and all confused and crap. these are really long entries, i'm warning you now, and i hardly even broke'em up with subheads or anything. i'm a cruel writer, i know.)
we got into beijing around 6:30 am, so we were suuuuuper tired. we checked into our hotel—probably the last non-hostel i’d see for six months—and took naps. after we woke up, we suited up appropriately for the cold (i wore my brand new northface jacket every day, and i LOVED it). it was misty, gray, freezing, and i’d missed this weather.
we were walking in front of this big mall when a couple girls came up to us and started talking. they were real sweet. they told us they were college art students, so then we started talking about college, about america, about thailand, blah blah blah. real nice girls. at the end of the conversation, they were like, “hey, we’re having this art show...do you guys wanna come?” well, why not? they took us off the main street into this building, down the elevator, and into a room with lots of paintings. they told us stories about all of’em—what the fish mean, what the tiger means, what the four seasons mean, etc. it was real interesting. finally, we were like “ok, it’s time to go.”
“which one do you like?” the one girl asked.
“ohhhh gosh...maybe the tiger? i don’t know, they’re all really pretty.”
“well, do you want to buy it?”
“oh, no thank you! thanks for this though, it was really fun! bye!”
“but which one do you like? my art has never been abroad! would you like one? which one do you choose?”
this girl would not let up. she was desperately trying to sell us the painting. i smelled something fishy when she wouldn’t let us say no, then on the way out another couple people tried to sell us a tour of the great wall. we came out and we were all like “man, that was kinda weird, wasn’t it?”
later that night, pops wasn’t feeling so well, so mom and i went downstairs to ask the concierge if there was a good soup place around. “just soup?” he asked, paired with a set of pretty fierce confused eyebrows. soup or maybe noodles, we said. “oohhhh, noodles. there’s a place down the street that’s famous.” he pointed it out and off we went.
a guy greeted us outside and on the way in, goes, “where are you from? new york?” no, california. so he led us not to the first dining room, but the second. because we’re from california?
we sat down at a table we couldn’t fit our legs under (the space between the seat of the chair and the table was fit for a baby) and the woman shoved us a menu. we looked at it for maybe three minutes when she came back over and just sort of pointed at what she liked. “no, no, i think we’ll get this noodle soup and this egg soup.” “okay okay okay” she said with no drop of friendliness.
despite the bizarre vibes we were getting from the place, the dinner was delicious—and huge. we didn’t come close to finishing it, so we asked the waitress to bag it up. she wasn’t happy about it—shocking—but hooked us up anyway. on the way out, the same guy who’d asked us where we were from was like “hey, it’s our anniversary, we have a gift for you upstairs, follow me.” we followed him up a set of steps to a ROOM OF PAINTINGS. they looked exactly like the ones the girls had shown us. “uh, no thanks, we’re going to bed, bye.”
never trust anyone who tries to sell you a painting in beijing.
the next day was big: MAO DAY. mao tze dong (i’m completely not spelling that right), former leader of communist china, was embalmed upon death and now lies in a memorial hall at the end of tianamen square. there are rumors that it’s not actually him, but a wax copy, but either way that’s still EFFING COOL so we had to go see it. after a mini fiasco at the entry gate—NO CAMERAS, MOM GO AWAY, the guard said with her actions—dad and i walked through to see mao. then i took all the stuff from mom and she and dad went through together.
i’ve had a lot of time to think about it now, and i think mao is a wax replica. i hope this sentence doesn’t get me in trouble with the government.
ok, i gotta hurry this business up here cuz i’m doting and rambling. we saw tianamen square and the forbidden city after that, both which were beautiful in their sheer vastness. about a thousand more people tried to sell us things—“lady, you been to great wall yet?” “badalingggg!” “mao watch! you want mao watch!” (these watches were actually pretty cool.)
after another hotel nap, we went to our fancy peking duck dinner. actually, we had drinks and played games first, but i don’t think i even need to say that because we did this almost every single night and it was awesome and i miss it. anyway, we were in our jeans and sneakers and t-shirts and were slightly underdressed for this fa-aaaa-ncy place. honestly, i think they just did it up for the tourists and i get really bothered when places like that treat you bad cuz you’re not dressed exactly for their place. my money (lol my parents’ money, whatever) works just as well as that hoity toity guy’s money. aaaanyway, we got the sweetest waitress who helped us figure out how to eat this delicious peking duck and not look like tards. but we were sort of off in the corner, away from other people, and it was getting late and most of the other people had left anyway, so we ended up just eating it however we could (i.e. with fingers).
the next day we headed out to the great wall. we’d arranged for a car to take us cuz it’s real far away from the city, and we went to the maitayu (this is TOTALLY not how you spell it) section. it was spectacular. and steep. very, very steep. awesome day.
we’d read about the red capital club in our guidebook and decided to check it out for some drinks later that night. it was a place owned by an american guy (i think) who decked it out in communist stuff and was a throwback to the red capitals (the guys who were capitalists during the strictly communist regime). they’d done it up perfectly, down to the servers who wore communist outfits. pops and i tied at five crowns that night, but i probably should’ve pwnd him cuz i’m the best.
the next day...gosh...i think that was the day mom and i went to beihai park? yeah, we went for an early morning walk in the park. exploring parks is one of my favorite thing about big cities.
when we came back, we took a rest in the hotel then the three of us headed out to olympic park. HUGE. the bird’s nest looked just like a regular stadium from the inside, but i had a really good time just sitting there and thinking about all the big olympic stuff that had happened there. usain bolt ran really fast RIGHT THERE. pretty awesome. unfortunately the cube was closed (big sadface), so we settled for the souvenir shop next door.
the next morning we went to temple of heaven park, which was my favorite park in the city. tons of people—mostly old, retired-type folks—went there to do their adult hobbies: card games, playing instruments, dancing tai chi, etc. i can’t wait to get old and have adult hobbies.
we went to the airport, played one last game of five crowns (i don’t even remember who won), i cried when mom and dad left, and the trip was over. it was weird to go from hanging out with them all the time to not seeing them at all, and i had a really hard time especially knowing i wouldn’t see them in person again until october/november—six or seven months away. mehhhh i miss home.
but it was a great trip and i was really pumped they got to come and see this crazy little traveling side of my life. i love’em and i miss’em a lot.
oh, you. you think this is the end of my trip, right? FALSE. mom and dad left beijing on april 3 (ipad day), but i stayed until the 7th. this is when i really figured out the city and fell in love with beijing.
we got into beijing around 6:30 am, so we were suuuuuper tired. we checked into our hotel—probably the last non-hostel i’d see for six months—and took naps. after we woke up, we suited up appropriately for the cold (i wore my brand new northface jacket every day, and i LOVED it). it was misty, gray, freezing, and i’d missed this weather.
we were walking in front of this big mall when a couple girls came up to us and started talking. they were real sweet. they told us they were college art students, so then we started talking about college, about america, about thailand, blah blah blah. real nice girls. at the end of the conversation, they were like, “hey, we’re having this art show...do you guys wanna come?” well, why not? they took us off the main street into this building, down the elevator, and into a room with lots of paintings. they told us stories about all of’em—what the fish mean, what the tiger means, what the four seasons mean, etc. it was real interesting. finally, we were like “ok, it’s time to go.”
“which one do you like?” the one girl asked.
“ohhhh gosh...maybe the tiger? i don’t know, they’re all really pretty.”
“well, do you want to buy it?”
“oh, no thank you! thanks for this though, it was really fun! bye!”
“but which one do you like? my art has never been abroad! would you like one? which one do you choose?”
this girl would not let up. she was desperately trying to sell us the painting. i smelled something fishy when she wouldn’t let us say no, then on the way out another couple people tried to sell us a tour of the great wall. we came out and we were all like “man, that was kinda weird, wasn’t it?”
later that night, pops wasn’t feeling so well, so mom and i went downstairs to ask the concierge if there was a good soup place around. “just soup?” he asked, paired with a set of pretty fierce confused eyebrows. soup or maybe noodles, we said. “oohhhh, noodles. there’s a place down the street that’s famous.” he pointed it out and off we went.
a guy greeted us outside and on the way in, goes, “where are you from? new york?” no, california. so he led us not to the first dining room, but the second. because we’re from california?
we sat down at a table we couldn’t fit our legs under (the space between the seat of the chair and the table was fit for a baby) and the woman shoved us a menu. we looked at it for maybe three minutes when she came back over and just sort of pointed at what she liked. “no, no, i think we’ll get this noodle soup and this egg soup.” “okay okay okay” she said with no drop of friendliness.
despite the bizarre vibes we were getting from the place, the dinner was delicious—and huge. we didn’t come close to finishing it, so we asked the waitress to bag it up. she wasn’t happy about it—shocking—but hooked us up anyway. on the way out, the same guy who’d asked us where we were from was like “hey, it’s our anniversary, we have a gift for you upstairs, follow me.” we followed him up a set of steps to a ROOM OF PAINTINGS. they looked exactly like the ones the girls had shown us. “uh, no thanks, we’re going to bed, bye.”
never trust anyone who tries to sell you a painting in beijing.
the next day was big: MAO DAY. mao tze dong (i’m completely not spelling that right), former leader of communist china, was embalmed upon death and now lies in a memorial hall at the end of tianamen square. there are rumors that it’s not actually him, but a wax copy, but either way that’s still EFFING COOL so we had to go see it. after a mini fiasco at the entry gate—NO CAMERAS, MOM GO AWAY, the guard said with her actions—dad and i walked through to see mao. then i took all the stuff from mom and she and dad went through together.
i’ve had a lot of time to think about it now, and i think mao is a wax replica. i hope this sentence doesn’t get me in trouble with the government.
ok, i gotta hurry this business up here cuz i’m doting and rambling. we saw tianamen square and the forbidden city after that, both which were beautiful in their sheer vastness. about a thousand more people tried to sell us things—“lady, you been to great wall yet?” “badalingggg!” “mao watch! you want mao watch!” (these watches were actually pretty cool.)
after another hotel nap, we went to our fancy peking duck dinner. actually, we had drinks and played games first, but i don’t think i even need to say that because we did this almost every single night and it was awesome and i miss it. anyway, we were in our jeans and sneakers and t-shirts and were slightly underdressed for this fa-aaaa-ncy place. honestly, i think they just did it up for the tourists and i get really bothered when places like that treat you bad cuz you’re not dressed exactly for their place. my money (lol my parents’ money, whatever) works just as well as that hoity toity guy’s money. aaaanyway, we got the sweetest waitress who helped us figure out how to eat this delicious peking duck and not look like tards. but we were sort of off in the corner, away from other people, and it was getting late and most of the other people had left anyway, so we ended up just eating it however we could (i.e. with fingers).
the next day we headed out to the great wall. we’d arranged for a car to take us cuz it’s real far away from the city, and we went to the maitayu (this is TOTALLY not how you spell it) section. it was spectacular. and steep. very, very steep. awesome day.
we’d read about the red capital club in our guidebook and decided to check it out for some drinks later that night. it was a place owned by an american guy (i think) who decked it out in communist stuff and was a throwback to the red capitals (the guys who were capitalists during the strictly communist regime). they’d done it up perfectly, down to the servers who wore communist outfits. pops and i tied at five crowns that night, but i probably should’ve pwnd him cuz i’m the best.
the next day...gosh...i think that was the day mom and i went to beihai park? yeah, we went for an early morning walk in the park. exploring parks is one of my favorite thing about big cities.
when we came back, we took a rest in the hotel then the three of us headed out to olympic park. HUGE. the bird’s nest looked just like a regular stadium from the inside, but i had a really good time just sitting there and thinking about all the big olympic stuff that had happened there. usain bolt ran really fast RIGHT THERE. pretty awesome. unfortunately the cube was closed (big sadface), so we settled for the souvenir shop next door.
the next morning we went to temple of heaven park, which was my favorite park in the city. tons of people—mostly old, retired-type folks—went there to do their adult hobbies: card games, playing instruments, dancing tai chi, etc. i can’t wait to get old and have adult hobbies.
we went to the airport, played one last game of five crowns (i don’t even remember who won), i cried when mom and dad left, and the trip was over. it was weird to go from hanging out with them all the time to not seeing them at all, and i had a really hard time especially knowing i wouldn’t see them in person again until october/november—six or seven months away. mehhhh i miss home.
but it was a great trip and i was really pumped they got to come and see this crazy little traveling side of my life. i love’em and i miss’em a lot.
oh, you. you think this is the end of my trip, right? FALSE. mom and dad left beijing on april 3 (ipad day), but i stayed until the 7th. this is when i really figured out the city and fell in love with beijing.
mom and dad come to asia: part 3
but we decided to stick to the original plan and move on to koh yao the next day. so we took a taxi to the pier and, in typical thai travel style, got out of the van and kind of just started saying where we wanted to go. a couple guys had looked at us and asked us where we were going, and when we told them koh yao, they told us to wait for a bit. so we sat down and played some super asian poker.
the guy motioned for us to come over, it’s time to go, and we lugged our stuff over to this long tail boat filled with thai people. a little janky, but i was so used to things looking dangerous but probably not being so that i just sort of figured things would work out. the ride was gorgeous. we could see rock islands jutting up all around us the whole time. about 45 minutes later, we neared the koh yao noi dock (koh yao is actually two islands) and hopped (mehhhh, struggled to...) get off. a taxi guy asked us where we were going (tabaek viewpoint), motioned for us to hop in, and off we went.
this, i knew, would be the most intensely thai place we’d be going to. everywhere else geared toward tourists, but this place was just pretty much a thai area, where people lived, worked, went to school, played soccer, walked around...you know, just lived. i was real nervous it’d be weird, that mom and dad wouldn’t like it, that we’d just wanna go to bed asap and get out early early early in the morning.
i was super wrong. koh yao was the best. tabaek viewpoint (owned by a sweet thai-japanese husband wife duo)100 percent delivered on its name—we could see dozens of little rock islands from our balcony, where we sat for at least an hour just reading, napping, and staring. the bungalow was adorable—all wooden on stilts, so you could see through the floor down to the ground.
i’d read that koh yao was fun to bike around, so we rented bikes. then a really bad thing happened. this will forever be dubbed the Koh Yao Bike Incident (note: none of us have ever called it that—i just chose the name right now).
so mom, dad, and i are pretty confident on our bikes, pretty confident with maps, and pretty confident with directions. when we rented the bikes, the thai owner gave us a hand-drawn map of the island and showed us a loop around the island, which cut through the middle. there was a line jutting off the side of the loop going toward “paradise.”
“don’t go to paradise,” he said. alright, sounds good, man. no paradise. we’re on it.
sooooo we head out on our ride, first to the market to get some water and buy some things, then to the edge of the island and out on a pier. the sun’s going down, so everything’s starting to look real pretty. we ran into some adorable little girls on their bikes who were thrilled to be riding with us and showing us their tricks. we were pretty happy in general to be out on this ride. we continue on the loop and hit a couple forks in the road. we took one road but it was getting to be more of a dirt road than we wanted, so we turned around and headed down the other fork. still unsure, we waved down a couple thai girls on their motorbike. we showed them the map and i asked if we were going the right way (in really, really broken thai). they nodded and headed off. ok, great, we’re going the right way, let’s power down it.
then we started going up a hill. and it was huge. we started getting increasingly worried that we were going the wrong way. the tabaek owner guy had said there would be little hills, but this was a BIG hill—all three of us ended up getting off the bikes. at the top of the hill, there was a group of thai people showering or doing something with water. when they saw us, they sort of giggled. dad was like “ehhhh maybe we should figure out if we’re going the right way,” which was a really good idea, so i walked over to these people, showed them the map, and asked where we were. after a few mumbles and points to various parts of the island, they point the direction we’re headed—which is now down the other side of the mountain—and go “paradie. paradie.”
CRAP WE’RE TOTALLY HEADED TOWARD PARADISE. all i could do was laugh, thank them immensely, and tell mom and dad it was time to turn around. lol. oops. when we got back to a sign, i noticed immediately the error of my ways. the sign did indeed point toward the pier on the island we wanted to go toward, the one that was listed on the map—it was just spelled differently. arnold fail.
so you think this is where it ends, right? we found our way home, happy happy joy joy. FALSE. the ride back to the market was long and the clouds overhead were getting increasingly dark and scary. we’d noticed them before and kinda went, “oooh, i wonder if it’s gonna rain later! wouldn’t that be fun!” but on our bikes, still at least half an hour from our bungalow, it didn’t look so fun. plus we were pretty sure we’d heard a couple thunder claps, and i was pretty sure we couldn’t make it home. we stumbled upon probably the only other white guys on the whole island (luck astounds me sometimes), had them call our bungalow, and the japanese lady called a songtau to pick us up. about three minutes after he called, lighting streaked through the sky, thunder roared at us, and it started pouring.
thank god for this songtau. it pulled up, we loaded our bikes in and held on tight. since these are open air vehicles, we still got soaked. but we were on the songtau and we knew were gonna make it home safely, so it was nbd and we were just laughing. we got back to the bungalow, changed clothes real quick, and headed up to the main dining area to grab some much-deserved beers and a meal. the thai man laughed at us when we walked in. lol...fair enough.
the next morning we woke up, ate some bfast, mom and i walked along the beach, and we headed down to the pier to get to our next stop—railay. we were all bummed to leave koh yao. we all could’ve had at least another day there.
railay
onward. i had only a vague idea of how to get from koh yao to railay, so when the thai bungalow owner guy happened to hop on the same longtail boat as us headed toward mainland krabi, i was quite thankful. we told him we were trying to get to railay, so we hopped on the same open-air bus thingy that he did, then he told the driver where we were going so the driver just took us all the way there, which was about an hour-long drive, i think. SWEET. i told mom and dad in the middle of the drive—after i already knew we were safely on our way—that i pretty much didn’t know how we were gonna get to railay. it’s thai-style travel...you just start literally saying where you wanna go, then somebody helps you get there.
we got to railay on a longtail boat. these boats are really fun to take pictures of and you really appreciate the novelty of them the first time you’re on’em, but after that, they’re kind of just big, not very convenient boats. but they’re the only way to get to and from railay, so there we were, on a long tail boat. we hopped off at railay west, walked across the peninsula to railay east, and found our next resort: anyavee. beautiful pool area, nice room, good tv (nat geo! i think i sort of surprised parents when i told them a very exciting part of my travels is sitting in the room and watching english tv), and a balcony facing up toward a huuuuge rock cliff. railay’s gorgeous. it was like zion of the east—giant rock faces staring at you all the time, with stunning water down below.
we had two night scheduled in railay, so we were debating what to do the next day. i’d gone on fun snorkel trips on islands before, so i suggested we do one of those. it was decidedly not as fun as i thought it would be. we were on a long tail, which was tough to get in and out of, and out of the four spots they took us to, only one was good for snorkeling. BUT that one snorkeling spot was pretty sweet—i made mom touch a sea cucumber and we swam among a school of bright yellow fish.
that night was our last night in thailand, so we celebrated with more fruity island drinks, five crowns, and too much food. mmmmmm thai food.
hooookay, so the next morning, mom and i kayaked around for like an hour—beautiful bay—then we packed up and headed to krabi town, where dad and i played on the internet for a while and mom explored. by the early afternoon we were in the airport, ready to get back to bkk and fly to beijing.
we had like a zillion (okay, six) hours between our krabi flight and our beijing flight, so we had some time to kill. mom and i tried to transfer money but we ended up asking for this exorbitantly huge amount of yuan, which sent the exchange people into a fit of laughter, which just made mom and i bust up. we waited for a really long time for the counter to open so we could check in and get to the magical side of the airport that had burger king. our flight left around 1 am, so we were all super freaking tired by that time (we’d been hitting the sheets before 11 pm). i fell asleep in the waiting area then was out pretty much before the plane even took off. the five-hour flight felt more like 20 minutes. (being a heavy sleeper is one of my favorite qualities.) but at 6:30 am, we’d finally made it. beijing, baby.
the guy motioned for us to come over, it’s time to go, and we lugged our stuff over to this long tail boat filled with thai people. a little janky, but i was so used to things looking dangerous but probably not being so that i just sort of figured things would work out. the ride was gorgeous. we could see rock islands jutting up all around us the whole time. about 45 minutes later, we neared the koh yao noi dock (koh yao is actually two islands) and hopped (mehhhh, struggled to...) get off. a taxi guy asked us where we were going (tabaek viewpoint), motioned for us to hop in, and off we went.
this, i knew, would be the most intensely thai place we’d be going to. everywhere else geared toward tourists, but this place was just pretty much a thai area, where people lived, worked, went to school, played soccer, walked around...you know, just lived. i was real nervous it’d be weird, that mom and dad wouldn’t like it, that we’d just wanna go to bed asap and get out early early early in the morning.
i was super wrong. koh yao was the best. tabaek viewpoint (owned by a sweet thai-japanese husband wife duo)100 percent delivered on its name—we could see dozens of little rock islands from our balcony, where we sat for at least an hour just reading, napping, and staring. the bungalow was adorable—all wooden on stilts, so you could see through the floor down to the ground.
i’d read that koh yao was fun to bike around, so we rented bikes. then a really bad thing happened. this will forever be dubbed the Koh Yao Bike Incident (note: none of us have ever called it that—i just chose the name right now).
so mom, dad, and i are pretty confident on our bikes, pretty confident with maps, and pretty confident with directions. when we rented the bikes, the thai owner gave us a hand-drawn map of the island and showed us a loop around the island, which cut through the middle. there was a line jutting off the side of the loop going toward “paradise.”
“don’t go to paradise,” he said. alright, sounds good, man. no paradise. we’re on it.
sooooo we head out on our ride, first to the market to get some water and buy some things, then to the edge of the island and out on a pier. the sun’s going down, so everything’s starting to look real pretty. we ran into some adorable little girls on their bikes who were thrilled to be riding with us and showing us their tricks. we were pretty happy in general to be out on this ride. we continue on the loop and hit a couple forks in the road. we took one road but it was getting to be more of a dirt road than we wanted, so we turned around and headed down the other fork. still unsure, we waved down a couple thai girls on their motorbike. we showed them the map and i asked if we were going the right way (in really, really broken thai). they nodded and headed off. ok, great, we’re going the right way, let’s power down it.
then we started going up a hill. and it was huge. we started getting increasingly worried that we were going the wrong way. the tabaek owner guy had said there would be little hills, but this was a BIG hill—all three of us ended up getting off the bikes. at the top of the hill, there was a group of thai people showering or doing something with water. when they saw us, they sort of giggled. dad was like “ehhhh maybe we should figure out if we’re going the right way,” which was a really good idea, so i walked over to these people, showed them the map, and asked where we were. after a few mumbles and points to various parts of the island, they point the direction we’re headed—which is now down the other side of the mountain—and go “paradie. paradie.”
CRAP WE’RE TOTALLY HEADED TOWARD PARADISE. all i could do was laugh, thank them immensely, and tell mom and dad it was time to turn around. lol. oops. when we got back to a sign, i noticed immediately the error of my ways. the sign did indeed point toward the pier on the island we wanted to go toward, the one that was listed on the map—it was just spelled differently. arnold fail.
so you think this is where it ends, right? we found our way home, happy happy joy joy. FALSE. the ride back to the market was long and the clouds overhead were getting increasingly dark and scary. we’d noticed them before and kinda went, “oooh, i wonder if it’s gonna rain later! wouldn’t that be fun!” but on our bikes, still at least half an hour from our bungalow, it didn’t look so fun. plus we were pretty sure we’d heard a couple thunder claps, and i was pretty sure we couldn’t make it home. we stumbled upon probably the only other white guys on the whole island (luck astounds me sometimes), had them call our bungalow, and the japanese lady called a songtau to pick us up. about three minutes after he called, lighting streaked through the sky, thunder roared at us, and it started pouring.
thank god for this songtau. it pulled up, we loaded our bikes in and held on tight. since these are open air vehicles, we still got soaked. but we were on the songtau and we knew were gonna make it home safely, so it was nbd and we were just laughing. we got back to the bungalow, changed clothes real quick, and headed up to the main dining area to grab some much-deserved beers and a meal. the thai man laughed at us when we walked in. lol...fair enough.
the next morning we woke up, ate some bfast, mom and i walked along the beach, and we headed down to the pier to get to our next stop—railay. we were all bummed to leave koh yao. we all could’ve had at least another day there.
railay
onward. i had only a vague idea of how to get from koh yao to railay, so when the thai bungalow owner guy happened to hop on the same longtail boat as us headed toward mainland krabi, i was quite thankful. we told him we were trying to get to railay, so we hopped on the same open-air bus thingy that he did, then he told the driver where we were going so the driver just took us all the way there, which was about an hour-long drive, i think. SWEET. i told mom and dad in the middle of the drive—after i already knew we were safely on our way—that i pretty much didn’t know how we were gonna get to railay. it’s thai-style travel...you just start literally saying where you wanna go, then somebody helps you get there.
we got to railay on a longtail boat. these boats are really fun to take pictures of and you really appreciate the novelty of them the first time you’re on’em, but after that, they’re kind of just big, not very convenient boats. but they’re the only way to get to and from railay, so there we were, on a long tail boat. we hopped off at railay west, walked across the peninsula to railay east, and found our next resort: anyavee. beautiful pool area, nice room, good tv (nat geo! i think i sort of surprised parents when i told them a very exciting part of my travels is sitting in the room and watching english tv), and a balcony facing up toward a huuuuge rock cliff. railay’s gorgeous. it was like zion of the east—giant rock faces staring at you all the time, with stunning water down below.
we had two night scheduled in railay, so we were debating what to do the next day. i’d gone on fun snorkel trips on islands before, so i suggested we do one of those. it was decidedly not as fun as i thought it would be. we were on a long tail, which was tough to get in and out of, and out of the four spots they took us to, only one was good for snorkeling. BUT that one snorkeling spot was pretty sweet—i made mom touch a sea cucumber and we swam among a school of bright yellow fish.
that night was our last night in thailand, so we celebrated with more fruity island drinks, five crowns, and too much food. mmmmmm thai food.
hooookay, so the next morning, mom and i kayaked around for like an hour—beautiful bay—then we packed up and headed to krabi town, where dad and i played on the internet for a while and mom explored. by the early afternoon we were in the airport, ready to get back to bkk and fly to beijing.
we had like a zillion (okay, six) hours between our krabi flight and our beijing flight, so we had some time to kill. mom and i tried to transfer money but we ended up asking for this exorbitantly huge amount of yuan, which sent the exchange people into a fit of laughter, which just made mom and i bust up. we waited for a really long time for the counter to open so we could check in and get to the magical side of the airport that had burger king. our flight left around 1 am, so we were all super freaking tired by that time (we’d been hitting the sheets before 11 pm). i fell asleep in the waiting area then was out pretty much before the plane even took off. the five-hour flight felt more like 20 minutes. (being a heavy sleeper is one of my favorite qualities.) but at 6:30 am, we’d finally made it. beijing, baby.
mom and dad come to asia: part 2
the flight to phuket was easy peasy. i’d set up to have pick up from the airport, so when we walked out we saw a sign beckoning for “Mr. THE ARNOLDS.” we hopped in the car and took the long drive down to kata beach. i always forget how big phuket is. calling it an island is really deceiving.
anyway, we walk into the reception area of the cottage part of our phuket lodging. they tell us to sit down, hand us some tang in wine glasses, and we check in. after i paid and we got our keys and everything, there was this awkward air, so we asked if we could go to our room yet.
“umm...after you finish your drink.” lol. so we finished our drinks (mom took a long time) and headed down to our room. the place was actual made up of half cottages, up on the hill, and half bungalows, down the hill and across the street. they had a complimentary driver to take you between the two halves, so we loaded in his car and went down to our bungalow. the driver was the nicest italian guy. actually, we were pretty sure that the whole establishment was run just by him and this other italian guy. the website was in both english and italian, which was bizarre. it’s the little italy of phuket.
after we dropped our stuff off, we still wanted to go in the ocean like we’d planned to do for sunset, so we put on our suits and walked down. actually, in retrospect, i’m pretty sure we all did this cuz we thought someone else really wanted to, because later we talked about how weird it was to go in the ocean at night. but it was warm and the night was clear, so it’s better than a stick in the eye.
we walked down the beach and onto the street in search of a place for drinks. we saw a place called natalie’s, so of course we went. and oooooo that was a good choice. it was just one of those crowded places for tourists, but we ordered some fun, islandy drinks (out of a pineapple and a coconut, no less!) and had a good time people watching and chatting.
we were hungry after our couple drinks, and i’d spotted a few thai pancake/roti places around, so of course we hit one of those up. dad ate his so fast mom and i didn’t even get a bite. but mai pen rai, cuz we all each totally got our own. we still stopped at a noodle farther down to get some real sustenance, then made our way to the bungalow.
actually, i’m making that sound easier than it was. so the front of the bungalow faced a street that was parallel to the beach, but you could go through the back and cut out at least 20 minutes of walking time. except to go through the back, you had to walk down this alleyway with pretty much no restaurants/hostels/indication of any kind that tourists should be walking down it, open a gate, lock said gate, and THEN you were in the bungalow area. funky little place, that phuket hotel. hmm...hotel is the wrong word. sort of a hostel, but like an upgrade hostel. we slept on hard twin-sized beds (mom and dad’s “queen-sized” bed was just two twins pushed together) and the bathroom was a shoilet, but the reception and cleaning was just like a hotel. random.
mom and i decided it’d be neat to ride elephants, so we’d arranged for some elephant rides for the next morning. at 8:30 am, a guy from koh chang (ha, like the island but not) elephant safari came to pick us up, and by 9 am (ish), we were atop some big ol’ elephants, trekking to the top of a hill for some phuket views. i was a little worried this would be cheesy, but it turned out to be nothing but awesome. we were the only people there, so it was just the three of us, our two elephants (mom+dad on one, me on the other), and our crazy thai guides who spoke pretty much no english hiking through a jungle/forest in phuket. mom’s got some really good pictures of this. you should friend her on fbook and look at’em.
we spent the rest of the day on the beach, relaxing, enjoying the sand and the warm water, drinking a couple beers, reading books, and napping. not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
we finally caught the sunset over karon beach that night, paired with some tall singhas. night two was a repeat of night one, which was awesome. i sort of wanted to stay in phuket another day cuz i felt like we’d gotten into a pretty good routine. also, we were all really happy being there and i was worried about the next destination—koh yao—which was supposed to be MUCH less touristy, to the point where it’d be hard to find anyone who speaks much english on the island and you’d have to cover up to respect the muslim populations.
anyway, we walk into the reception area of the cottage part of our phuket lodging. they tell us to sit down, hand us some tang in wine glasses, and we check in. after i paid and we got our keys and everything, there was this awkward air, so we asked if we could go to our room yet.
“umm...after you finish your drink.” lol. so we finished our drinks (mom took a long time) and headed down to our room. the place was actual made up of half cottages, up on the hill, and half bungalows, down the hill and across the street. they had a complimentary driver to take you between the two halves, so we loaded in his car and went down to our bungalow. the driver was the nicest italian guy. actually, we were pretty sure that the whole establishment was run just by him and this other italian guy. the website was in both english and italian, which was bizarre. it’s the little italy of phuket.
after we dropped our stuff off, we still wanted to go in the ocean like we’d planned to do for sunset, so we put on our suits and walked down. actually, in retrospect, i’m pretty sure we all did this cuz we thought someone else really wanted to, because later we talked about how weird it was to go in the ocean at night. but it was warm and the night was clear, so it’s better than a stick in the eye.
we walked down the beach and onto the street in search of a place for drinks. we saw a place called natalie’s, so of course we went. and oooooo that was a good choice. it was just one of those crowded places for tourists, but we ordered some fun, islandy drinks (out of a pineapple and a coconut, no less!) and had a good time people watching and chatting.
we were hungry after our couple drinks, and i’d spotted a few thai pancake/roti places around, so of course we hit one of those up. dad ate his so fast mom and i didn’t even get a bite. but mai pen rai, cuz we all each totally got our own. we still stopped at a noodle farther down to get some real sustenance, then made our way to the bungalow.
actually, i’m making that sound easier than it was. so the front of the bungalow faced a street that was parallel to the beach, but you could go through the back and cut out at least 20 minutes of walking time. except to go through the back, you had to walk down this alleyway with pretty much no restaurants/hostels/indication of any kind that tourists should be walking down it, open a gate, lock said gate, and THEN you were in the bungalow area. funky little place, that phuket hotel. hmm...hotel is the wrong word. sort of a hostel, but like an upgrade hostel. we slept on hard twin-sized beds (mom and dad’s “queen-sized” bed was just two twins pushed together) and the bathroom was a shoilet, but the reception and cleaning was just like a hotel. random.
mom and i decided it’d be neat to ride elephants, so we’d arranged for some elephant rides for the next morning. at 8:30 am, a guy from koh chang (ha, like the island but not) elephant safari came to pick us up, and by 9 am (ish), we were atop some big ol’ elephants, trekking to the top of a hill for some phuket views. i was a little worried this would be cheesy, but it turned out to be nothing but awesome. we were the only people there, so it was just the three of us, our two elephants (mom+dad on one, me on the other), and our crazy thai guides who spoke pretty much no english hiking through a jungle/forest in phuket. mom’s got some really good pictures of this. you should friend her on fbook and look at’em.
we spent the rest of the day on the beach, relaxing, enjoying the sand and the warm water, drinking a couple beers, reading books, and napping. not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
we finally caught the sunset over karon beach that night, paired with some tall singhas. night two was a repeat of night one, which was awesome. i sort of wanted to stay in phuket another day cuz i felt like we’d gotten into a pretty good routine. also, we were all really happy being there and i was worried about the next destination—koh yao—which was supposed to be MUCH less touristy, to the point where it’d be hard to find anyone who speaks much english on the island and you’d have to cover up to respect the muslim populations.
mom and dad come to asia: part 1
alright, friends, you ready for one helluvan entry? i debated for a long time about how i wanted to write this: either give just a couple stories but with intense detail, or give a brief overview of everything that happened. the former would surely be shorter and every sentence would be filled with wit, insight, and brilliance (or something like that), but the latter, though it might have some parts that might be boring, would be super thorough.
instead i apparently decided to talk about what i want to do instead of actually do it. *sigh* how nicki of me. i think i’m gonna just go through the whole entire trip day by day, so you should probably grab a beer or a coffee or a tea or a glass of wine or whatever helps you focus for a long time cuz i have a feeling this is gonna be long.
okay, actually, this is what i’m gonna do. i’m gonna divide the stories into four entires: bangkok, thailands, china w/parents, china w/out parents. you should be reading this one first (if you already are, you are super attractive and smart).
(also, apologies for the awk apostrophes/formatting--i'm posting this from an internet cafe and everything got all weird in the copy/pasting between my flash drive and blogger.)
START!
so mom and dad were due into bkk at 11:45 pm on sunday, march 21. i checked into our hotel around 2 pm and worked out in the gloriously air conditioned gym for like two hours, just cuz i could. i headed to the airport around 9 pm—way too early, but i was getting tired and bored. plus i like airports a lot.
just before midnight, i headed down to the arrivals part. as soon as i saw mom and dad, i started jumping up and down and waving my arms cuz HOLY CRAP, MOM AND DAD ARE HERE!!!!! we were all too excited to see each other and kept talking and not sleeping, despite the fact that it was like 2 am by the time we got back to the hotel and we had a full day ahead of us.
we forced ourselves to go to sleep and woke up the next morning ready to take on bangkok. the red shirt protesters were in the city, but luckily they weren’t really causing much of a ruckus when we were there, so i wasn’t too concerned about wandering the city. OHH we had the best buffet breakfast at our fancy hotel. mmmm buffet breakfast.
mostly, we wanted to see the grand palace, so we asked a taxi guy to take us there. he didn’t wanna take us all the way there—the protesters were making the traffic horrendous, i guess—so he took us to a dock on the river canal. after we got lost then re-found ourselves, we put ourselves on a river boat and it was AWESOME. i’ve never done it before, but it lets you get from sukumvit to the grand palace area on public transportation the whole time and i was thrilled.
anyway, people kept telling us the grand palace wasn’t open until the afternoon so we should wait. first a guy told us it wasn’t open until 1 pm, so we should go see wat pho (which we were right outside at the time). yeah yeah yeah, ok, whatever. for some reason, we believed the guy, so after finding a bathroom for mom (dad spends 80 percent of his life waiting outside bathrooms for mom, btw. dad, we should’ve played that “waiting on a woman” song while we were standing there), we hopped back on the river boat and went to khao san road so i could show mom and dad the real backpacker haven of bkk. there some more people told us the grand palace wouldn’t be open until 3 pm, so for only 20 baht and only for today we could go to X, Y, and Z places right now. hmmm...that’s weird. we eventually decided just to go to the grand palace and if it was closed, we’d figure something out when we were there. we grabbed a tuk tuk and when i asked him how much, he said 100 baht.
“but those guys said 20 baht.”
“only if you go to the government market.”
“ohhhhhhhhh!!!! cow jai, friend.”
it was a scam. rookie mistake, nicki. anyway, we went to the grand palace, and it was grand and sparkly and awesome. i got to point out the spot where i took the picture for the xmas card and we made special memories.
then it was the mid-afternoon and we were tired, so we went back to the hotel. after a hot minute in the room, mom and i decided we’d go shopping. mom and i are the expert shoppers of the family—sorry, dad and kate, for dragging you out on a million zillion shopping trips that lasted too long—and we’d been planning this shopping day for a long time. we went to a little street market first, then hit the mother of all bangkok malls: mbk. six floors of insanity. we only went on one of them, but that was plenty. we got gifts for all sorts of friends and family members and i eyed my northface jacket that i’d need for china, where it was about 20 degrees celsius colder than i’m used to.
we got back and went to have drinks at charlie’s bar along sukhimvit soi 11. great, cheap outdoor bar. we talked with a british (right?) guy for a while before we decided to go have dinner. when we came back, we of course went in the rooftop pool, just cuz we could.
btw, us arnolds don’t normally travel like this. we love our camping trips—we splurged on a pop-up trailer 10 years ago and ever since then, every summer we’ve gone on at least one big camping trip and usually a handful of others. so when mom and dad said they were coming to asia, i wanted at least the first place we stayed to be a fancy type hotel, since it was gonna be a special trip. and it was (true of the hotel and the trip).
annnnyway, the next day, we went to wat pho (cuz dad read about it and it actually sounded kinda cool) and saw a GIGANTIC buddha. ummm i kinda forget what else we did, but then in the early afternoon we caught a cab to suphan. two hours-ish later, we were in my temporary hometown. i think mom and dad were surprised how outside the city the town is. lol...and i think suphan’s a pretty big city, compared to other places i have friends. we had a great time walking around and that night i think we had the best dinner of the trip, down the street at king’s place. (parents, don’t let me forget to take a picture of this!)
the next day, we went to baan ya’s coffee place so parents could meet her (she’s one of the top 3 most awesome people in suphan), then after some shenanigans with flight times and getting to the airport, we were back again in bkk, waiting for our flight to phuket. islands, baby.
instead i apparently decided to talk about what i want to do instead of actually do it. *sigh* how nicki of me. i think i’m gonna just go through the whole entire trip day by day, so you should probably grab a beer or a coffee or a tea or a glass of wine or whatever helps you focus for a long time cuz i have a feeling this is gonna be long.
okay, actually, this is what i’m gonna do. i’m gonna divide the stories into four entires: bangkok, thailands, china w/parents, china w/out parents. you should be reading this one first (if you already are, you are super attractive and smart).
(also, apologies for the awk apostrophes/formatting--i'm posting this from an internet cafe and everything got all weird in the copy/pasting between my flash drive and blogger.)
START!
so mom and dad were due into bkk at 11:45 pm on sunday, march 21. i checked into our hotel around 2 pm and worked out in the gloriously air conditioned gym for like two hours, just cuz i could. i headed to the airport around 9 pm—way too early, but i was getting tired and bored. plus i like airports a lot.
just before midnight, i headed down to the arrivals part. as soon as i saw mom and dad, i started jumping up and down and waving my arms cuz HOLY CRAP, MOM AND DAD ARE HERE!!!!! we were all too excited to see each other and kept talking and not sleeping, despite the fact that it was like 2 am by the time we got back to the hotel and we had a full day ahead of us.
we forced ourselves to go to sleep and woke up the next morning ready to take on bangkok. the red shirt protesters were in the city, but luckily they weren’t really causing much of a ruckus when we were there, so i wasn’t too concerned about wandering the city. OHH we had the best buffet breakfast at our fancy hotel. mmmm buffet breakfast.
mostly, we wanted to see the grand palace, so we asked a taxi guy to take us there. he didn’t wanna take us all the way there—the protesters were making the traffic horrendous, i guess—so he took us to a dock on the river canal. after we got lost then re-found ourselves, we put ourselves on a river boat and it was AWESOME. i’ve never done it before, but it lets you get from sukumvit to the grand palace area on public transportation the whole time and i was thrilled.
anyway, people kept telling us the grand palace wasn’t open until the afternoon so we should wait. first a guy told us it wasn’t open until 1 pm, so we should go see wat pho (which we were right outside at the time). yeah yeah yeah, ok, whatever. for some reason, we believed the guy, so after finding a bathroom for mom (dad spends 80 percent of his life waiting outside bathrooms for mom, btw. dad, we should’ve played that “waiting on a woman” song while we were standing there), we hopped back on the river boat and went to khao san road so i could show mom and dad the real backpacker haven of bkk. there some more people told us the grand palace wouldn’t be open until 3 pm, so for only 20 baht and only for today we could go to X, Y, and Z places right now. hmmm...that’s weird. we eventually decided just to go to the grand palace and if it was closed, we’d figure something out when we were there. we grabbed a tuk tuk and when i asked him how much, he said 100 baht.
“but those guys said 20 baht.”
“only if you go to the government market.”
“ohhhhhhhhh!!!! cow jai, friend.”
it was a scam. rookie mistake, nicki. anyway, we went to the grand palace, and it was grand and sparkly and awesome. i got to point out the spot where i took the picture for the xmas card and we made special memories.
then it was the mid-afternoon and we were tired, so we went back to the hotel. after a hot minute in the room, mom and i decided we’d go shopping. mom and i are the expert shoppers of the family—sorry, dad and kate, for dragging you out on a million zillion shopping trips that lasted too long—and we’d been planning this shopping day for a long time. we went to a little street market first, then hit the mother of all bangkok malls: mbk. six floors of insanity. we only went on one of them, but that was plenty. we got gifts for all sorts of friends and family members and i eyed my northface jacket that i’d need for china, where it was about 20 degrees celsius colder than i’m used to.
we got back and went to have drinks at charlie’s bar along sukhimvit soi 11. great, cheap outdoor bar. we talked with a british (right?) guy for a while before we decided to go have dinner. when we came back, we of course went in the rooftop pool, just cuz we could.
btw, us arnolds don’t normally travel like this. we love our camping trips—we splurged on a pop-up trailer 10 years ago and ever since then, every summer we’ve gone on at least one big camping trip and usually a handful of others. so when mom and dad said they were coming to asia, i wanted at least the first place we stayed to be a fancy type hotel, since it was gonna be a special trip. and it was (true of the hotel and the trip).
annnnyway, the next day, we went to wat pho (cuz dad read about it and it actually sounded kinda cool) and saw a GIGANTIC buddha. ummm i kinda forget what else we did, but then in the early afternoon we caught a cab to suphan. two hours-ish later, we were in my temporary hometown. i think mom and dad were surprised how outside the city the town is. lol...and i think suphan’s a pretty big city, compared to other places i have friends. we had a great time walking around and that night i think we had the best dinner of the trip, down the street at king’s place. (parents, don’t let me forget to take a picture of this!)
the next day, we went to baan ya’s coffee place so parents could meet her (she’s one of the top 3 most awesome people in suphan), then after some shenanigans with flight times and getting to the airport, we were back again in bkk, waiting for our flight to phuket. islands, baby.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)