Tigers and Tourists in Kanchanaburi

First and foremost I would like to inform all of you that I have gotten Mexican food, and it hit the spot.  I split quesadillas (not really but close) with another person and had chicken enchiladas with rice and beans.  Everything was very close to how it tastes back home.  I'm guessing this was probably because they actually had hispanic people working and cooking there.  It was very expensive, but so worth it.  I definitely know where to go for my cravings from now on.

Quesadillas.  Interesting, but good.

Chicken Enchiladas.  The meat marinade was different, but the rice and beans were spot on.

The next day a group of us headed out to Kanchanaburi.  It's about 2 hours west of Bangkok, and is home to the Bridge over the River Kwai (pronounced Khwae like hey).  When we arrived in the late morning, we had lunch and headed off to the Tiger Temple where I got to pet real life, grown tigers!!!  I couldn't stop smiling the entire time it was happening.  Two staffers guide you around.  One holds your hand at all times besides when you're petting them, and the other takes your picture at every tiger.  So cool.  So, so, so cool.

A lot of people opt to not go to the Tiger Temple when they go to Kanchanaburi; 1) it's expensive and 2) there are serious rumors that they drug the tigers.  After being there myself and seeing it, there's definitely something up.  The tigers just lay there, not moving.  However, the park opens at 12:30 and they have exercise time at 3:30, so I'm guessing it's like a mild sleeping pill that's supposed to knock them out for a couple of hours.  I don't know though.  They did also seem very hot and were panting a lot.

Anyway, we continue through the reserve and find cubs!  They're so precious.  They fight and play and are everything you want baby tigers to be.

Later that night we walked for forever to the Bridge.  It was cool to just see it and be there.  The other group that came to Kanchanburi this past weekend took the train and the stop is right before the bridge.  However, they stayed on to go over it and the next stop was like two hours away.  Shwoops.

Your welcome, Mom and Dad.

I digress.  Today, everyone wanted to go to Erawan National Park to see this impressive seven layer waterfall.  However, it involved hiking in a forrest so obviously I did not participate.  Instead, I went to a temple that features some limestone caves.  I thoroughly enjoyed that experience; well, except for the stairs at the end.  I've loved caves ever since I went on a field trip when I lived in Minnesota.  They're just so cool looking.  Afterwards, I headed home.

The thing I disliked most about Kanchanaburi is how much the locals try to take advantage of tourists.  Sometimes, I feel like stapling my Thammasat student ID card to my forehead so people know I actually live here and don't have the patience to deal with their scheming.

I think I've narrowed down my list of travel destinations:
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Ko Phangang, Ko Phi-Phi, Phucket, Ko Samui, Chiang Mai, Pai, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

6 countries in 5 months?  Let's do this

This was written yesterday (Sunday) but something so great happened today I had to add it on.  I went to class and one of my group members surprised me with a jar of salsa!  She shares my same passion for food and I had told her how I had gone to this western market and they didn't have any salsa and she brought me some!  So nice!  And then as I was heading home I got on the ferry and the driver offered to let me drive.  Obviously I declined because someone needed to think wisely in that situation, but still, pretty cool.

I got a camera! I got a camera! I got a camera! Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Never fear my wonderful followers: this will be the last blog devoid of pictures.  Yesterday I went to MBK which is the largest shopping complex in Bangkok.  It may not technically be the largest by size, but the range and pure amount of crap they have beats everyone.

I went to every camera store in there and in the last one I found my exact camera!  Apparently it was an older model, but I didn't like the zoom on the newer one and was so happy to find it.  This one is blue instead of black, but I can live with my camera being my favorite color.

Can I also just say, that whoever thought hmmm three hour long classes are a great idea was out of their mind!  The classes here are technically three hours long, but you're never actually there for three hours.  Class doesn't start until 15 after the original start times and my breaks have been up to 45 mins long.  It's just awful being in the same place for    three    hours.  I don't like to go to class a lot back home really (especially when it's unnecessary) and here with mandatory 70% attendance I might die.  However, I do have a four day weekend soooo that's pretty sweet.  My Wednesday is everyone else's Friday.

We tried this AMAZING Italian place Tuesday night.  The owner is from Italy and I went with Marigrazia (Italian exchange student) and I have never seen her that happy.  I now know what real pizza is, and I love it.  One day I am staying in Italy for an extended period of time and gaining at least twenty pounds instead of losing weight like I am here.

I'll bore you only a little longer with my only words post to share with you that yes, the owner of the Italian restaurant did live in Mexico for a few years running an Italian restaurant, and yes he did tell us the place of a restaurant with good Mexican food.  He said it's a little expensive, but at this point I would give my left hand for some rice and beans and two enchiladas.

How I Suffer...

I get back from Koh Chang and what happens?  I get food poisoning.  However, my version of food poisoning is my stomach intensely cramping for two days.  No bueno.  I don't really know what did it, but all I know is the smell of Thai food really makes me nauseous so I'm guessing it was probably that.  Oh well.  It had to happen sometime and it's kind of good it happened sooner rather than later.

Once I could finally crawl out of my bed, I went on an adventure to find a swimsuit in Central Bangkok.  No luck, I'm afraid.  Me being the true genius I am forgot one of my two functional swim suit bottoms at home so I guess the parentals will just have to send me some more (thanks Mom and Dad).

However, I did find THE BEST THING EVER on this journey yesterday...a western market.  Oh yeah.  They had avocados!  $2 USD a pop, but it was so worth it.  I made some mean guacamole and it tasted like home.  I also got nectarines.  But with all the things they had (including Lawry's seasoning salt) they didn't have salsa.  What?!  I have to say I was offended.  The upstairs wine shop almost didn't make up for my intense disappointment.  I did say almost, right?

Imagine this, two MASSIVE rooms filled floor to ceiling with whine.  That is what my heaven looks like.  Include a little bit of the cheese and cracker section we had downstairs and I am good to go for a week.  I honestly think I'll be going there every week.  It was just very nice to, at the least, see things that reminded me of home.  I love Thailand, but it is very foreign, so seeing some Lawry's on a grocery store's shelf was very comforting.

I also watched Harry Potter 6 this past week with one of the exchange students.  She was writing down words she didn't understand, and one of them was whereof.  I know it's a preposition but I can't use it in a sentence for the life of me.  So, if any of you could bust out that old-fashioned diction and help us out, I'd appreciate it.

On a much sadder note, my camera was stolen.  So, if you were hoping for some pictures of the wonderful rooms of wine or of all the exchange students duh duh duh dancing, you're out of luck.  I wasn't the only one who got totally screwed that night.  Another girl got her camera stolen, a third girl got 2000 baht (~$67) stolen, and a guy got his iphone taken.  Sad, sad night for the exchange students.

Since I'm generally a positive thinking person and like things happy here's a list of the perks Bangkok has to offer:
1) 24 hour McDonald's delivery
2) Double Big Mac at McDonald's (instead of two patties you get four)
3) $15 two hour long massage that's not relaxing but still amazing

This list can go on and on, but I wanted to name the things that have occurred at least this week.

I Ree Feek

If you speak Arabic, PLEASE don't be offended by this title.  There's a very good reason for it and I hope you'll stay tuned to enjoy.

Snapped a picture during the near death taxi ride.

I got back from Koh Chang last night and let me just tell you it was AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE, THE BEST THING EVER.  It was a rough journey getting there (taxi-midnight bus-taxi-ferry-taxi) but once we were on that white sandy beach and swimming in the ocean that felt like bath water I was in heaven, and I wasn't the only one.  The only Italian exchange student, Marigrazia, immediately went swimming in the ocean while we all ordered breakfast.  Out of nowhere (when we were all silent and out of it) Mariagrazia exclaimed in her thick Italian accent, "I love this place!"  It immediately became the theme of our trip.

Elephants!

Koh Chang from the ferry.

Lonely Beach @ 7:30 AM 

The beach was so superior to California beaches it's ridiculous.  I cannot wait to visit the southern islands (which are the more photographed) because this was such an amazing weekend trip.  We ate, drank, swam, and tanned for four days all for the price of about $150 USD (including travel expenses).  Yeah, Thailand is unbelievably cheap.

Khlong Phlu waterfall.

I did leave the beach a few times to sleep and visit a waterfall.  The Khlong Phlu waterfall is unbelievably gorgeous and you can swim in the spring it creates.   I stuck my head under both levels and just floated backwards as I left the downpour, looking at the amazing view.  I kept telling people I can't believe my friends are in Europe in the cold while I'm on a tropical island for pennies.  Honestly, the plane ticket to Thailand may be super expensive, but it's so cheap to stay here it's really worth the trip.

The spring.

Bungalow 25.  The best hostel I've ever seen.

This weekend was also an excellent opportunity to get to know the other students better.  Ironically enough, half the people here speak French.  When they get going I have no idea what's going on because I literally don't understand any of it.  Not even simple words, like "oui."  But I like the exposure.  During our first night in Koh Chang, I slept in a room with native speakers of three different languages: Spanish, Italian, and French.  That is the definition of exchange.  I can practice my Spanish with a girl from Barcelona, learn Italian (my favorite language), and improve my pronunciation of wines (which is really still not good).

Despite all the different languages, everyone gets along very well.  We're all adventurous, (relatively) go with the flow kind of people, and the Thai language barrier has caused all of us to become really close.  We all hang out with each other and almost all of us live in the same building which has made the experience even better.  I've fallen in love with Thailand, but I've also fallen in love with all of the people here.

Baby Koh Chang islands. 

In exchange for my language awareness lessons, I like to think I've also been helping the exchange students.  I realized this week how confusing the difference between shade and shadow is.  Almost all of the non-native speakers thought you would say let's go sit in the shadow, but you really say let's sit in the shade.  I explained, yes shade is technically a shadow but in English shadow is mainly used figuratively, like "I live in the shadow of my older sibling" or you use it to describe something cool about Peter Pan.  However, when you're in a thing's shadow you're in the shade.  I know all of you back home understand the difference but it's kind of interesting to realize how complex that vocabulary situation is.  And I've already lost a good portion of my English vocabulary because I have to simplify everything I say so that the other people here will understand me.

In my many language lessons this weekend I also learned swear words in other languages.  I obviously can't say the French ones, but a Canadian of Egyptian heritage taught me THE funniest swear word I've ever heard: I ree feek.  It means "f**k you" in Arabic, but directly translates to "my penis is inside you."  I don't think any swear word in any language can beat that.

Finally, I've learned that my mother went buck wild and gave my blog url to everyone she knows, so here's a nice disclaimer for all of you concerned authority figures back home: the drinking age here is 18 (in case you didn't know).

Cows on the beach! (at sunrise)

Cows on the beach at sunset.

Off to Elephant Island

JJ Market.  Imagine navigating through 100 of these.

Imagine the biggest fleet market you've ever been to and times it by four.  Where I went is even bigger than that.  This past Sunday I went to the JJ Market, which is the largest market in Bangkok.  And when I say large that's an understatement.   It's mammoth - 35 acres of five by five feet stalls.  I walked around it for like two hours and still didn't see everything.

Getting a cab back was not nearly as fun.   In Thailand stationary cabs don't turn their meter on, which will always result in a huge rip off.  After about twenty minutes of searching an angel offered me help and I got a cab back WITH the meter on.  But it wasn't smooth sailing yet.  On the way we ran into a protest.  I wasn't told many things before I came to Thailand but I did remember that when there's a swarming crowd of red shirts, that's a bad thing. My cab driver seemed freaked out too because he kept saying "Red shirts traffic jam!"  After we took a different bridge (it's a yellow suspension bridge and beautiful) I made it home safely and hid in my room for a little while.

Oh and don't worry.  I did embrace Thai culture and tried some street food.  A friend, Hilary, and I got the same soup and it was so gross.  So I went back and got french fries as a reward for being adventurous.

The soups came in plastic bags.

This week I started classes so I've been much busier and have spent most of my time getting used to the school.  I met a Thai student who studied at USC last semester and ended up being in her group for one of my classes.  She introduced me to two other girls and we all got lunch on my first day.  We had this thing called a Japanese pizza which was kind of like a funky, noodle casserole.   It was delicious.  The girl that introduced it to us is also a big lover of food and told me there's a good mexican restaurant outside the city by her house.  I don't care how far it is; I will go to any lengths to get mexican food.  It sounds like Tex Mex, but I'm in no position to be picky.

The dock for the ferry I take to school.

"Research Nuclear Medicine Center"

Tonight I depart for Koh Chang.  Apparently it's an island more towards Cambodia so it's a relatively easy journey for our first trip.  In Thai, Chang means elephant so I've got my hopes up that I'll get to at least pet one.  I think about all of my friends in Europe, or even back home, who will be/are freezing and I picture myself sleeping on the beach on a beautiful island.  It's quite a nice image really.

I'll be without internet and probably without my US phone until Sunday (Saturday American time) so don't count on any updates until then.

Thammasat - The Berkeley of Thailand

My second day in Thailand proved to be quite eventful.  I started the morning by trying to find the ferry that takes students across the river to Thammasat (the University I'm attending) and the market I could buy my uniform at.  After walking in the wrong direction, finding the location of the correct ferry but not the ferry itself, and sketchily walking through some very shady alleyways, I was able to find the store purchase my super sexy uniform.  It consists of a button down, white, short sleeve shirt and a pleated or straight black skirt.  Oh yeah.

I then took the wrong ferry to get to Thammasat, where I proceeded to wander around the wrong university.  Once I figured out it wasn't Thammasat I continued down the road and finally found the Thammasat bookstore which had the pins, buttons, and belt I needed.  Unfortunately, I was so tramatized by walking for an hour and forty minutes and not finding where I was going I only snapped one picture of the street between the two universities that I had to walk through to get to Thammasat.

Uniform all purchased I proceeded to MBK (the major shopping center in Bangkok) for some food and the sky rail station I needed to get to the bank.  On the way I saw so many shops selling big buddhas, mirrors, everything.  I equate it to the fashion district in LA, but not as busy, and probably a little nicer.

I was also not disappointed to find an Auntie Anne's waiting for me at MBK.  My thoughts: there's plenty of time to embrace the Thai culture, and I was hungry and it looked delicious.  The whole area around MBK is full of foreigners, which was really surprising.  When I visited Hong Kong freshman year, there were a lot of ex-patriots that gathered in Lan Kwai Fong, but around the city - it was mainly locals.  Here, there are foreigners almost everywhere in the newer city.  Amarin Mansion is located in the older city (where Bangkok was originally founded) so there aren't many foreigners around here, but if you go almost anywhere in downtown you'll run into western looking people.

I ended the day with orientation and a tour of Thammasat.  Our tour guide was a history teacher and told us about all the protests that Thammasat students had made ever since its founding, among other things.  There was even a massacre of students in 1976 for protesting the Vietnam War.  I realized I was at the Berkeley of Thailand.  They say Thammasat is a school for the people that teaches you to love the people, we are one, yada yada.  I'm not complaining I just think it's kind of ironic how similar the two schools are.

"Golf Bar Cocktails Very Strong - We Do Not Check ID Card"

Think that day was busy and I'm exhausted and need a nap?  Definitely.  Is it over?  Absolutely not.  We got back and I got some chicken nuggets and french fries from the restaurant downstairs.  Once again, plenty of time to embrace the Thai culture.  Victoria, Rick, and I (all USC students) are eating and drinking some beer when a bunch of the other foreign exchange students apparently had the same idea.  After we ate, we all headed to the roof independently.  Now let me diverge for a moment.  The roof on our place is so sick.  It has a view of the entire city and a ping pong table: it's the perfect place to pregame.  Anyway, we all decide to head to Khao San Road, where all the backpackers hang out.  I'll leave you all to your own imaginations to picture what we did, but let's just say it involved a sweet acoustic guitarist who played the best selection of songs and duh-duh-duh-dancing in the street.

Khao San Road

Khao San Road

Finally I'll leave you with this.  (I know this post is long, and if you've made it this far I'm grateful, especially because I'm not a great writer.)  In our orientation the teacher talked about a common Thai phrase that is used to describe the culture.  It translates into English as "Never mind."  Don't worry about it, go with the flow, don't lose your temper.  As all of you should know I love the MBTI and am a very clear P, which means I don't plan or organize.  This culture is like every beach culture I've ever known, but so much more.  They're laid back and care free, which makes it the perfect place for me.

Asia, I've Missed You

Let me first calm your fears and inform you all that I have arrived safely and have a place to stay.  Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about my adventure.


I knew I had made the right decision and that this would be an excellent trip when I walked on the plane and it was entirely purple.  I'm not kidding: the flight attendants, the carpet, the seats, everything.  Purple.  


The plane ride went rather smoothly with an excellent choice of movies.  Thai Airways really knows how to treat their customers.  I got three meals over 17 hours and got to watch Never Let Me Go; Eat, Pray, Love; Troy; and the first scene in The Social Network.  Can I also just say I don't get people who didn't like Eat, Pray, Love.  What's not to like?  It's about a woman falling in love with her food (obviously I can relate) and finding her independence.  


Anyway, back to my international adventure, when the hard parts really start to begin.  I'm not kidding the most terrified I was for this entire trip was getting a taxi to take me to where I'm staying.  I was so paranoid I printed out an address with directions in both languages and a map Amarin Mansion (amarinmansion.com) provides on their website.  All three of these things turned out to be very helpful since the cab driver had to stop twice to figure out where we were going.  


Driving through the city was definitely an adventure.  Road signs and lanes seem to be simply a guideline to pedestrians and drivers.  But the city seems amazing.  From the little I saw from the cab ride I was completely hooked.  I'm not usually a detail oriented person, but the subtle differences and little things fascinated me.


In terms of today I've done pretty much nothing eventful.  I missed the first day of orientation because of my arrival time, so I've had the day to ponder, sleep, and get chicken nuggets and french fries delivered to my room for 2.50 USD.  Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to love this place.


Pictures to come next time, I promise.

The Night Before

Not only is the title of this post the same as one of my favorite Beatles songs, it is also the literal time I'm in.  I leave for Thailand in less than 24 hours, and I can't sleep.  I figure that's typical and probably helpful since I have an 18 hour flight ahead of me (no layover thank goodness).  I've spent a semester preparing for my time in Bangkok and am oh so excited for it to begin.


The fact that I'm writing this blog is almost as big a step as moving across the Pacific for five months.  Normally, I'm against them, but I don't feel like telling the same story 9 times over; so, if you're reading this, I thank you for making my life a little bit easier and I hope I am able to inform and entertain.


I can't say the road has been particularly easy when discussing my preparation for Thailand.  A lot of went into getting ready for this trip, and most of you probably know, preparation and planning are not my forte.  But here I am, ready as I'll ever be for my time abroad, and I cannot wait to share my experiences with you.


The next time I post I'll be on the other side of the globe, so if I don't see any of you before I leave goodbye and I'll miss you.