THAILAND WOOHOO
สวัสดี
Thai for hello.
(Pronounced Swah-dee-cah for females and Swah-dee-cob for males)
Part 2 of my trip
Day 5: Welcome to Thailand
This day we flew from Singapore to Phuket, Thailand. Checked into our hotel and immediately changed into our swimsuits. First of all, immediately when we landed I got that amazing "I am in a different country" feel. Our hotel was beautiful, right along the beach, and all in all Phuket is BEAUTIFUL. So are the people. Thailand is known for the land of smiles which is accurate because everyone there is SO NICE. We also discovered that at 6pm every night you can help the bartender mix drinks and you get the drinks for free plus a little appetizer. I love Thailand.
Day 6: Massages and Old Phuket town
For our first full day in Thailand we took things easy. Phuket is very spead out and our hotel was far from the center of Phuket, so to get anywhere it at least took an hour by car so we kept things simple and just stayed and relaxed at the hotel during the day and then ventured out to Old Phuket town for dinner. There were little massage hut places set up right on the beach at our hotel. One hour massages for only $15? Yes please. I went for the oil massage as opposed to the more physically agressive Thai massage and oh my was that relaxing. I wish I could get one every single day of my life. For dinner we went to Old Phuket town. We walked and shopped around for a little while before hand and it was not really what we expected. We thought it was going to be more like a giant flee market like the one in Bangkok but it wasn't as extravagant as we thought. But experiences are experieces right? Dinner however was amazing. We went to this restaurant called Raya and ate super authentic thai food. Yum.
Day 7: Phi Phi Island
FYI: Phi Phi is pronounce like pee pee not fee fee. Our first excursion! This day we woke up super early and headed out to the marina. My fam, our tour guide and our tour group took a speed boat out to the islands. As our tour guide Andy said we went to "Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Leh, then back to Phi Phi Don." Love you Andy, you are a true homie. The speed boat was actually really cool and I sucessfully did not get sea sick! Again, shoutout to Andy for having everyone on our boat that motion sickness pills before going on the boat. At our first stop we got to snorkel. I suck at snorkeling. I was doing perfectly fine but then I took off my mask to breathe out of my nose and then my mask started to leak after that. Dumb Sam. Also the swim back to boat against the current was such a struggle. Workout of the year right there. Then we headed to another island WHERE THEY HAD MONKEYS. The monkeys just chilled on the beach but be careful because my sister Monica got scratched/attacked by two of them. Typical Monica. Then after that we had lunch, shopped around the island and then headed to another island where we could just chill on the beach. Never in my life have I ever seen such beautifully clear blue waters. Bliss. Paradise. Perfect. And oh so beautiful.
Day 8: Elephants and Ziplining
More excursions! In the morning we went on an Elephant trek which was so much fun. Life goals accomplished. Me and my cousin Stefanie rode together and our elephant rider guy was so funny. Also our elephant was a little rebel and always had to take the off roads. Then in the afternoon me, Monica, my mom and Stef all went ziplining. Yes, that's right. I went ziplining folks. #WhenInThailand, am I right? Ziplining was actually fun except for the vertical rope dropping part and the part where our crazy ziplining guide people always picked on me. But I am really proud of myself that I went because I am not much of a thrill seeker aka thrill scares the shizz out of me. BUT I DID IT. My dad would be so proud of me and I didn't have a meltdown or cry or anything. Success. The only failed part were the photos of me ziplining. Truly the ugliest, most unattractive photos of me ever. So I don't have any photo proof that I went but trust me, I did. YOLO.
Day 9: James Bond Island
Excursions galore! This time only me, Monica and Stefanie went on the excursion. The parents needed to rest. This ecursion was with the same people as Phi Phi islands and we even saw Andy! But sadly, he was with another boat. James Bond Islands are all about the water caves, which are probaly one of the coolest things I have seen. We got to go on these little canoe raft things and get kayaked around and though all of these water caves. We even went in a bat cave and let me tell you, there were A LOT of bats in there just hanging. Kinda cool, kinda creepy. We also got to walk around actual James Bond Island and got to just chill on another beach.
Day 10: Patong Bay
Since we were all exhausted from the heat and our many excursions, we took the day off and relaxed and then headed out to Patong Bay for dinner time. Again, we got massages and just hung out at the pool, except for in the morning when me and Stefanie had to venture out to the doctors to get her plugged ear fixed. Turns out it wasn't water trapped in her ear but a ton of ear wax that was impacted from the water. Poor Steffy. Then later in the day we went out to Patong Bay which is where all the nightlife is. We ate thai food one last time (probably won't be craving Thailand for about a month) and walked around. Oh we also got tricked into taking photos with the dressed up ladyboys who forced us to tip them after the photo. BEWARE OF THE LADYBOYS. Sneaky.
The next day we got up super early and headed to the airport to fly back to San Francisco. Well actually fly to Singapore, then Hong Kong and then SF. Longest Monday of my life right there. Seriously with the time change that Monday lasted for like 40 hours.
I miss you Thailand. I miss your fresh coconut water, your mangoes and ripe watermelon. I miss all the friendly people, the beaches, the massages. I even miss the frogs and coconut bugs that look like cockroaches. Stay awesome and beautiful Thailand.
Until next time,
☾ SAM ✧
