Roughing it in Thailand

We ended up spending a week in Phuket. I had a great time and did not want to leave. I got to teach a class of Thai 1st and 4th graders. My friends and teachers back home will never believe me, so I had my dad take a picture to prove it.

We left the main part of Phuket Island and got to spend 2 nights at the nicest 5 star resort in all of Thailand. It was the bomb. It had 3 swimming pools! One was only for adults, they called it the "relaxation pool," but we went into it anyways when it was raining and nobody seemed to care. I don't even know why they call it a relaxation pool, it just seemed like any other swimming pool. Not only did we end up having to leave the Marriott, but the very next night my dad made me stay in a $6 hotel that did not even have air-conditioning. It stunk.

The next day the bus never showed up so my dad came up with this great idea to hitch-hike. Doesn't my dad know that it is not safe to hitch-hike? The worst part was that he made me stand there with a sign that said, "Ranong." I didn't even know what "Ranong" meant. When I asked my dad what it meant all he would say was, "Just hold the sign up so the cars can see it." After 10 minutes, 2 Thai women who hardly spoke any English gave us a ride. They were nice except they shared some wierd food with us that my parents made me try. It was nasty. They dropped us off at a Buddhist Temple after what seemed like 4 hours, but my parents said it was only an hour and a half. We hitched-hiked another ride and got picked up by a Thai man with 7 kids in the cab of his truck. Who were all the kids? Were they all his, or was he a soccer coach taking the team to a game out of town? My questions were never answered because he didn't speak any English and just pointed to the back of the truck. My dad said that meant we could ride in the back of the truck if we wanted to. Heck yeah, I jumped right in. I'm not allowed to ride in the back of a truck at home. It was cool. It started to sprinkle which was o.k. Then it started to rain. I huddled between my mom and dad and tried to stay dry. Then it started to pour. It was like I jumped into a swimming pool with all my clothes on. It was great. I like hitch-hiking. I will never forget the ride from Phuket to the border of Burma.

The next day we went to Burma and it rained even more. It looked the same as Thailand and the people were very nice. We had to take a bus and then a boat in the rain. It was a lot of work to just get a stamp in our passport. I don't know why Thailand makes you leave the country every 30 days. I don't get it. AnywayS, we then took a bus to a town called Surat Thani. It looked like we were going to stay there for the night, and my dad would probably find some cheap hotel room that he claimed was a "real bargain" which really just meant a"dump" room without air-conditioning. I talked my parents into taking the all night cargo ship to Ko Samui Island that left at 11:oo p.m. It was a real adventure that I'll never forget. I got to explore the whole ship and we slept on these thin mats on the ground. It was cool. I don't know why but my parents said they couldn't sleep all night. I slept great. We woke up and were in Ko Samui. It was like being in Hawaii only people don't speak english and the ocean water was clearer. We did some cool things and stayed at a nice resort with a swimming pool, a ping-pong table and a fooseball table. It was awesome. We also hiked up and went swimming in pools at the bottom of waterfalls. We even got to swim behind two waterfalls and stand behind the water. It was the bomb. I hated to leave Ko Samui, but when we did my mom and dad wouldn't let us take the all night cargo ship. I tried to talk them into it, but they said, "No way."

It took us two days to get from our hotel in Ko Samui back to Bangkok. To get back we had to take: an hour ride in the back of a songthaew(pick-up truck with bench seats), a shuttle bus to the boat, a 3 hour boat ride, a 2 hour bus, a 3 hour ride in a minivan, a horrible night sleep in a $6 hotel with a fan, a 5:30 a.m. alarm clock, a 6 hour 3rd class train ride that was nearly 2 hours late leaving, a 3 hour bus ride, a 1/2 hour local bus ride and a 10 minute tuk-tuk(3 wheel taxi) ride. Why couldn't we just take a plane or an overnight bus?

On Monday morning we went to the India and Vietnam embassies. It was very boring. They took our passports and said we had to come back in 5 days. I can't figure out why it takes that long. But at least we could hang out for 5 days in Bangkok crusing around in tuk-tuks and eating banana panckaes all the time. Then my mom and dad said we were leaving and that Bangkok was a "zoo" and that they wanted to go to the beach for a few days. Sounded good to me. We went to a town called Pattaya which is nice, but not as nice as Ko Samui or Phuket. We rented a motorbike and are crusing around having a good time.

The next part of our trip will be back to Bangkok to get our visas and then going to northern Thailand. We will then head across the border and make a circle through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. My dad says the traveling is going to get rougher. I think this means he just doesn't want to pay for air-conditioning. I may not be able to update my blog for awhile, but please sign my guestbook. Click on "sign my guestbook." No excuses, it is very easy. Ask for help from a kid if you can't figure it out.

I am sad to leave paradise here at the beaches in Thailand. However, my parents say it is all part of the adventure. The first night of our trip was in Hong Kong and we were looking for a place to sleep in what my dad said was the backpacker zone of the city. The places we were checking out were a total dump. My mom said it fairly standard for budget travel in thrid world countries. Whatever that means. I turned to my dad and said, "Dad, we are not staying here!" My parents started laughing. I wasn't trying to be funny. Well we did end up staying there, and we survived. I am having a great time and it seems like we have been on the road for 3 months. Talk to you later and please make a posting on my blog.

Island Hopping in Southern Thailand

We liked the pool and waterslide that we snuck into at the Hilton so much that we ended up staying there. It was a blast. We then jumped on a bus that went all night long. When we first got on the bus I was excited because there was a movie playing on the video player. However, it was a terrible movie and not in English and was very loud. It was not easy to falling to sleep, but when I woke up it was 10 hours later and we were in Krabi, in southern Thailand. We hung out at the beach in a town called Ao Nang for 5 days and did some really cool things. My dad rented a motorbike and we cruised all around for a couple days. We visited the Tiger Cave Temple which is a famous place, but kind of boring. We rode to a national park with a waterfall, but we got caught in a rainstorm and they would not let us even see the waterfall because it was too dangerous. We went on a hike to a secluded beach and went swimming. We found a bunch of monkeys that were living in some trees on the beach and fed them bananas. We road in a longtail boat to this place called Railay Bay and rented a kayak. We kayaked to our own beach and also out to an island. After kayaking we sat on a beach and ate banana fritters while we watched a soccer game being played on a beach. We road into the jungle and went to this place where I got to ride an elephant. My elephants name was Honey and it was fun to ride and its hair was prickley when I road on its neck and it was bleading from a wound and the flies were sucking it blood during the entire ride. It was cool. After the ride I got to feed Honey some pinapple.

We left Ao Nang and took a snorkling boat trip the the island of Ko Phi Phi. On the way we stopped and went snorling at a place called Bamboo Island. There were so many fist it was like swimming in a fish tank. We also stopped at Phi Phi Ley where they filmed some movie called, "The Beach," which I have not seen. We went snorlking a bunch of other places and saw like a 100 different kinds of strange fish. We arrived in Ko Phi Phi and it was very hot and boring. We stayed in this dump motel that my dad found called the Gypsy Motel, which was cheap but had no air conditioning. We sweated all night long. I was very happy when I heard we were leaving the next morning.

We jumped on a boat to the island of Phuket.Phuket is way better than Ko Phi Phi. We ended up at this great hotel called the Coco Palace Resort. We were the only guests and it had a great pool that had a waterfall and hot tub. We also had an air conditioner. We stayed there for two days and swam a lot and went boogie boarding in the ocean. The ocean is warm, but very salty. The waves were great. When you get out of the ocean your swim suit is dry in two minutes. We are now kicking back at another part of the island called Patong Beach which is great. They have everything here and I even got to eat pizza for dinner last night. Thai food is good, but pizza is the best.

I get to go to a school and teach a class of 1st through 6th graders here in Phuket. I am a little nervous, but it should be fun and interesting. Thailand is cool. I am having a great time and thinking about everyone back home. Click on "sign my guestbook" and leave me a message.