Once Upon A December...

Current music: Turn Out the Light by The Music


Thailand. Thailand was extraordinary. I will admit that I was a little worried that I had built it up too much in my head for a very long time, but it was an unreal experience, and I am so happy that I got the chance to go.


I left immediately following my Christmas show, which my kids performed wonderfully. They looked adorable and remembered all of their lines. The big boss from Taipei came down to watch the show, and she told Peet and I that it was very well done. The whole English play was also very well done, although I'm pretty sure that it is impossible to put on a bad play with adorable Asian children in costumes.

After some celebratory drinks with my coworkers, I met Jane and Maureen at the bus station to take the four hour bus to Taipei. We got to the Taipei airport way too early, and ended up sleeping for several hours before checking in and going through security.

Current music: Our Bipolar Friends by Johnny and the Foreigners

We then hopped on a Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok, which took about 3 1/2 hours. We then waited for a few hours until our next flight to Phuket island. We stayed there for the first night in Thailand.

A few random facts about Thailand:
Their currency is called the baht, which is comparable to Taiwanese NT, yet we still lost a bit of money doing currency exchange.
You have to barter for everything. Taxis, taxi boats, anything material you want to purchase. I actually like bartering, it's like a battle of wills.
Thai people are the happiest people in the world, it's very inspiring to see their attitudes toward life in general.
Many of their taxis are called tuk-tuks, which are essentially open-air wagons attached to motorcycles.
A good percentage of the tourists that I saw were Swedish.
They drive on the wrong side of the road there, like England.
The food is amazing. I got more pad thais than I can remember, but we all shared our meals, and got the best curries, spring rolls, chicken satays and rice and vegetables everywhere.

Once on Phuket, we took a taxi across the island to Patong beach, which is a very touristy area, but it was still a lot of fun. It took about 45 minutes to get there from the airport. We stayed in a very friendly hostel, which was up a very vertical hill. Not fun after a party night. We went to get dinner pretty much immediately. I was told before going that I would probably be drinking Chang beer more than anything else, which was totally true. Thai beer is surprisingly good. I got my first of many pad thais in Thailand. We then went out to explore a bit of Patong, which is a very interesting place. One thing that stands out in Thailand is how aggressive people are to get foreigners to come into their shops. They never physically touch you, but they yell at you until you are either out of earshot or you go look at something.

Current music: Happens To Us All Otherwise by The Bound Stems

After shopping for a few hours, we decided to look around for a place to drink. Patong has a lot of random bar huts that are all set up in a row right by the market shops. We picked one that had the cheapest drinks, and all of the bartenders passed the time by playing brainteaser games like Connect 4. We ended up playing a massive and intense game of Jenga, that was much more complicated than regular Jenga. Later that night, we went out to party with some people we met at the hostel. All in all, it was a very good first night.



The next morning, we got up early to board the ferry that woulod take us to Phi Phi island. The ferry took about an hour or so. Phi Phi is one of the more touristy areas in Thailand, but the beach we were staying on, called Long beach, was relatively quiet. The town was chock full of tourists from all over the place. The hostel that we stayed at was unfortunately located at the top of the scariest staircase imaginable, with 88 stone and wooden stairs that were slanted and usually covered in sand. Climbing up those stairs the first time was not something I ever want to repeat. We stayed in a wooden bungalow, that was always filled with sand. It wasn't the best accomodation, but suited us just fine for the amount of time that we were there.

And so ends part 1 of Jess's Thailand saga. Tune in next time, whenever I have time to write again. I'll put up pics too, once I have the means to do it.
Preview: the story of going to Leonardo DiCaprio's beach, getting really super tan, and playing witrh monkeys.

Thing I miss of the day: Laura Szymczuk. Gonna be a world traveler like me very soon.

Peace out.