Thailand

Just got back from Thailand this afternoon. It was the most spontaneous vacation I've ever taken. But it was also one of the best. All I knew when I boarded the plane was my flight, and my hotel name. Didn't know location of the hotel or what we would be doing. Marika and I were in one hotel, Alyse and Laci went on Wednesday not Thursday and stayed near us but we didnt know that at the time, and Kellye and Terrell went with us but stayed somewhere else.

When we got to Phuket we found a random taxi service, and ended up in a mini bus with about 7 other people. Did I mention it was 9:30 at night so it was dark outside? They brought us to a little travel agency so they could try to get us to buy crap from them, but we said no, which pissed the lady off but whatever. Eventually we got to our hotel, which I thought was a Best Western, but it wasn't. It was only 100x better. It was an awesome hotel, and only S$45 a night. The pool was on the top and had an awesome view of the beach, the restaurant was good, we ate there a lot. The only thing that sucked was that it was off the main street a little, and up a hill.

On Friday we woke up around 10 and had free breakfast. Then we went and found the 7-eleven, they are very popular in SE Asia, so we could buy razors and liquids as we didn't check any bags and couldn't bring that on the plane. After we went back to the hotel with our goods Marika and I headed for Karon Beach, which is about a 10-15 minute walk. The beach was beautiful. The water super clear and it was a nice sunny day. Despite me putting on suntan lotion 50 times I still got a little burnt, so that was no bueno. When we were walking around we randomly found Alyse and Laci sitting on the beach. This is when we found out they were so close. After the beach Marika and me went back to the hotel to eat, then we went to this thing called FantaSea with Alyse and Laci. It's basically this Vegas-type show with acrobats, dancers, and elephants. It was really cool. On the way there we saw an elephant kind of just hanging out in the trees, that was pretty cool too. after the show we went back to the hotel for the night.

On Saturday we did a half day tour on Phuket. We did it in the morning which was smart as the afternoon ended up being quite warm. Our tour group included asian lesbians and an anorexic russian and her mother. and a nice little tour guide man. We went to several good scenic places in between all our other activities. We rode elephants, which was so fun! A bumpy ride to say the least though. We got to see a monkey show too, which was cool but I felt bad for the monkies the entire time. Then after the elephant ride we went and rode ATVs around. We went on the street and Thai people drive like loons so that was a little scary at first, but luckily we were in the middle of nowhere so there were not many cars. After that we went and saw Big Buddha, which is exactly what is sounds like. You can see it from our beach so that was cool and then we went to see a buddist temple. We went to this jewlrey store where marika and i got pearl rings for super cheap, and then had a coffee break. We were telling the tour guide that we were leaving the next day so he offered to bring us to the airport, more on this in a minute.

After the tour we just back to the hotel and swam for a little bit. then we took a taxi to another beach area, Patong, which is also where night life takes place but we did not have a part in that. no night life in thailand for me. On the way there we saw a really cute baby elephant, and our driver told us that she was only 2 months old. I wish i could have gotten a picture. Anyways, we walked around for a while, randomly saw a dance competition for 10 minutes or so. Then we went to where a bunch of stands are. I got my keychain and some other stuff and Marika bought some shirts. While walking I got asked many times if I wanted to buy a wedding dress and Marika got asked if she wanted a honeymoon dress. very odd. We also got offered to watch a show where ladies shot ping pong balls out of...well figure it out, it's Thailand. Alyse and Laci had told us about that from their Patong adventures, so we just walked away quickly. We ate at a restaurant called Savoey, which I'm pretty sure was meant to be Savory, but whatevs. It was really good. Then we took a little red bus thing back. It's open in the back and has no windows, and they are popular there. It was actually pretty fun.

Then this morning we got up super early and flew home. But we had told the tour guide to get us at 7, but it was 7:05 and no one was there yet, and the airport is pretty far. So since we had paid him yesterday we were worried he wouldn't show up, despite how nice he was and how nice everyone on the island had been. Well then this other guy showed up so we got in and he turned the opposite way of the airport. I asked him if we were going to the airport and he didn't even act like he had heard me. So after freaking out the entire way there about being kidnapped, it ended up he just went a different way so he could go on the expressway, drive 10000000 mph, and drive like a complete loon, which is what everyone does. I've never almost hit so many cars in my life.

Anyway, we had an awesome weekend and I'm so glad we went. Now I need to backlog this thing and write about the zoo and other stuff. I'll get to it eventually.

Sentosa

still need to write about this past week but since i'm a procrastinator that will come later.

today we went to sentosa, which is the little island south of singapore. we can take a tram over there that takes about 5 minutes. me, janet, & marika got this package thing to do 4 of the activities on the island, and everyone else just went and sat on the beach. we did a observation tower that was fun, a museum that goes over the singapore history, went to the top of a giant stone merlion (the symbol of singapore) and this thing called a luge. i dont know if you know what that is but its like these little carts and you pull up on the handle a little to go and pull back a lot to stop and you get to drive down a hill on a track. it was really fun. then after we did that we met up with lauren and ate lunch. after lunch lauren and marika went to do this thing called fish reflexology where little fish basically bite dead skin off your foot. um gross. me and janet decided to find the others at the beach. the first beach we went to was really big and crowded, but we could go across this bridge and go to this tiny little island, so we went. turns out that island was the southern most tip of continental asia! i thought that was cool. well then we decided this beach was too crowded so we went to the next one, also still in seach kind of for others in our group. we went there and it was a lot less crowded because its kind of farther away from the center. so we did find a few people there, but most had left to go to another beach. anyways, janet and i decided to finally get in the water. it felt nice but unfortunatly it was kind of overcast today so not much sun. but the water was still a perfect temperature. the only weird thing is that its the same water about 100 oil tankers and ships were sitting in probably a mile away. not a very scenic view but sentosa is really pretty. i had a strawberry margarita on the beach which was quite tasty i might say. then lauren and marika came and got us and we decided to head back to singapore to eat.

tomorrow is the zoo. its me, marika, and janet for sure, a few others might join along. it should be fun. then i have to come home and write a second paper to turn in monday. luckily dr. choi is letting us do class from 12-3 instead of 9-12 on monday and then at 3 we are all going to go eat at this sushi place on campus.

anyways, that is it for now.

First week in Asia!

Asia's sucky internet [surprised? so was I] made me not wish to update this all week, so here is the quick run down. The flight was a full 24 hours, with a 2 hour stop in Moscow. It wasn't terrible--the food was descent although I felt we ate a lot, and they had lots of good movies on the plane. I never even touched my computer or the books I brought. Russia was beautiful, at least what I saw flying over. Moscow had a lot of cement block looking apartment buildings, very communist looking. The airport was odd, only one runway and planes sitting around everywhere like it was a parking lot. The airport was descent though, we got to get off the plane and go through security again, be patted down, and go back on the plane. Strange. Anyways, back on the plane for another 10 hours. Flew over lots of places including Afghanistan and Pakistan. Got into Singapore at 5:30 in the morning and we actually were able to stay up until 9 pm. The hotel I got us at Changi Airport was beautiful. One of the nicest hotels I've stayed in probably and it was only $40 USD per person. It was odd because the wall to the bathroom was glass, but thank goodness there was a curtain. I was freaking out. We just walked around the city a little during the day. Marika and I found these necklaces we wanted and pretty much haggled her down to less than half price, it was sweet. Then we went back to the hotel and took what was probably the best shower of my life. Next day we moved to the group hotel and met up with everyone, didn't do anything too exciting. This hotel was a complete crap hole. It smelled terrible Like a bad asian food restaurant. The towels were shit, the toilet barely flushed, and the shower was pretty questionable. Then on the next day [as you can tell I had no idea what day any of this was happening] we did a duck tour and got to see a little more of the city. It was fun. So everything in Singapore is a mall. And when I say everything I mean everything. It's insane. So I've been to A LOT of malls in the past week. I've never been so tired of shopping. So that is pretty much it up until Malaysia/KL. I'll post that later as I'm lazy and don't want to write about it right now. In all so far Singapore is awesome. It's beautiful and has so much to do, I'm excited for the next few weeks.

However, Houston humidity level is looking pretty good right now compared to what it is here.

finally something to write about!

I have finally decided what to do with this! I'm going to make a travel blog to record my study abroad in Singapore this summer.

Look for updates beginning May 31!