Thailand

 Phuket, Koh Phangnan & Koh Samui

This weekend I spent some time in the gorgeous country of Thailand. We flew to Phuket on Thursday night attempting to get a bus that would allow us to take the night ferry to Koh Samui or Koh Phangnan. Our intention was to save money and stay up, arriving the next morning to enjoy the full day of sunlight. We didn't however, anticipate getting in a slight disagreement and miscommunication with our driver. Leaving the Phuket airport we met three other girls, two from England and one believe it our not from Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto. (She even went to Glenview, my middle school).

 The small budget plan

My first bad traveling experience :
The van we paid to take us to Surat Thani (where the port is to the islands) dropped of us downtown and refused to take us to the port. We had explicitly asked to go to Dunsack the port but I guess the company had made a deal with the hotel, anticipating us as naive travelers and tried to make us stay in a hotel downtown with a company they had clearly made a deal with. Our driver spoke no English and the inn owner  yelled at us saying we were stupid and we'd get hurt staying up all night and tried to rip us off by paying her to stay in her awful inn and miss our ferry. During this time we saw a tuk tuk and managed to get away and driven to the terminal. We ended up sleeping there at catching the 5 am ferry. Sleeping on the ground at the terminal with frogs and mosquitoes reminded me of our solos at my summer camp. It wasn't that bad and we got to know our new friends during the wee morning hours we were awake for.

We ended up becoming good friends with these girls for the rest of our trip and I learned a lot about England, law school and the places they have traveled to. The bad experience is not reflective of every other Thai person we met. Everyone was so kind that our first night's experience was quickly forgotten. We arrived at Koh Phangnan early morning. The island is a busy tourist destination because of its "legendary Full Moon Parties." The party happens once a month and attracts young travelers from all over the world. The beach is not the cleanest and it is touristy, but it was a very interesting experience. I have never been around so many young people that were tanned and just relaxed eating and drinking in my life.

The beach we stayed at was called Haad Rin. Although the island has other beaches, my friends and I figured as the party was on this beach and we were only there for a short time why not be able to walk home. Thailand is incredibly beautiful and if this is considered a not "nice" beach, I cannot wait to see more. There were rolling hills and cliffs in the background that carved between the light blue water and white sand.

 I am guilty of eating Pad Thai at least once every day I was in Thailand
(it was never more than $3 CAN and tasted incredible).

In Thailand I ensured that I had a dose of chocolate and Pad Thai everyday. My other favourite thing was "Thai Pancakes." This delicious dessert, like a crepe is thin and cooked on a hot surface and topped with sweet or savery deliciousness. I choice a variety of dessert pancakes from nutella banana, to mars bar banana, peanut butter...you get the point. It is even better than a crepe because it is fried and made crispy with butter and then chopped up into pieces. 

The hotel we stayed at worked out to be $4 CAN a night. The air-con room right in the town of Haad Rin  was $700 BOT (Thai $) a night. We could walk to the beach easily from our room, as well  we were near all the shops and restaurants. It was supposed to be for 2 people but we snuck in 4...we knew we wouldn't be sleeping much anyways. Reflecting back on our "cosy" sleeps, I have to say I think double beds work just find to sleep 4 girls horizontally.

 The night before the full moon, we stayed out quite late dancing on the beach drinking the famous "thai buckets." You can buy 12 ounces of SamSung, Thai rum, Redbull and Coke in a beach pail with ice for $200 bot which is about $7 Canadian. The beach at night is lined with vendors who try to make you buy their version of a bucket be it vodka, or other juices. Their signs were very entertaining:

The next day we played Frisbee and explored the beach and stores of Haad Rin. We met some aussies and Europeans, everyone only raved about Thailand and the other places they had been to.

 

At night it was the full moon party and we stayed up until sunrise. I took a lot of photos later in the night on a disposable camera but below is just the highlights of the 30 000 people beach party. Each club or restaurant played different music and there were activities all along the beach such as jump rope, limbo, and tarot cards. Everyone is wearing neon or painted in bright paints. It was wild!

We also met up with some exchange students from NUS who are from Canada all from McGill

The oil slide that goes through a ring of fire          The variety of vendor foods was incredible!

 

The next day we left to Koh Samui via ferry with all the people who wanted to leave the party scene and mess behind at Koh Phangan. The ferry was beautiful and let me see all the mountains and surrounding islands. Everyone I met during these travels were amazing people with the most fascinating life stories to tell. I met a couple traveling from Europe on the ferry who had spent the last year traveling the world. Below is a shark outside a restaurant. People sadly eat shark and shark fin soup (despite it being wasteful and furthering the extinction of sharks).

The cute bungalows that line the water

Koh Samui is a near by island that was beautiful. The beach and area we went to, Chawang, was more family and couple oriented. We found a beach bungalow where we yet again snuck 4 into a 2 person room for very inexpensive. Here you can eat pad thai (I actually had green curry) on the beach in beds and watch the sunset. It was breath-taking. During the day and at night it was sad to see children selling jewelery and demanding you play games with them when its later than 11 pm. The boy that I played connect 4 with was 7 years old and won. 

Alex, the Connect 4 genius   

 Corn vendors on the beach

 Our NUS friends

            

I don't have a lot of pictures of Phuket-town but it was a busy, touristy city. We stayed there the last night and enjoyed some great street food. We stayed in the most expensive guest house of our trip because we wanted to stay near the bus terminal that takes you to the airport as our flight was at 9 am. All in all, Thailand was incredible and I cannot wait to go back and experience the culture more in Changmai and Bangkok in June with my friend Regan. Her and I are going to backpack Asia when I am done school. I cannot wait!!!

Some lady-boys to finish the post.

About School......GOING TOTHAILAND

This weekend I am going to Thailand!!! I know I came to Asia on exchange for school but my lectures are manageable and it is all group work or participation. Oh, and our profs love exchange students and encourage us to travel.

As its reading week in Canada, we have some visiting friends that like us wanted to see Thailand. Also, the full moon party only happens once a month and we wanted to visit the beautiful Koh Samui so were going on a specific thai island vacay. Also, we found cheap flights and all the islands look so beautiful.

Did I mention I am going to eat pad thai for every meal! YAY! I cannot wait!

Here is a map, we fly to Phuket then bus and ferry to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for a little getaway.

valentines day

It seems in Singapore that everyone is in a relationship or simply loves any holiday they can celebrate. Around campus people are selling candy, cards, and chocolates. I see girls carrying flowers in between classes and even my faculty building has hanging hearts in the atrium. It is all so cute.

I' m really lucky to have had a perfect valentines day so far, even though my valentine (cheesy,yes..) is on the other side of the world. I just wanted to say, I am so lucky to be so happy and live such a wonderful life.

It isnt just today however that I feel loved, and I know that is the same for a lot of other people. This is just one day of the whole year, but many of us are lucky enough to feel love from our families and friends everyday of the year. I have a wonderful boyfriend who makes me feel like a queen even on the other side of the world.  My other friends and family have been so great with staying in touch, I really do not feel that far away. Skype was probably one of the best inventions that has changed my experience on exchange.

Here's hoping that you have a faboulous day.  

In Singapore it is already the 15th but last night I was lucky enough to go out with three beautiful young woman downtown Singapore.  Here are some pictures of us by the water with the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and on the rooftop of the Fullerton.

Weekend in The Philippines

For Chinese New Years, three Canadians and I decided to explore to a bit further location. We flew to Manila on Thursday night but because we had heard that Manila isn't the safest place to travel to we decided to go straight to one of the world's most famous beaches, White Beach in Boracay.

After a few hours of feeling awful in the airport in Manila, we arrived in Kalibo a small airport on one of the islands. From there we took a small bus to the ferry depot and boated over to Boracay island. The whole time we were there we told different ways to say the name, from bor-a-kai to bor-ak-ka to borkay. To be honest I'm still not sure I think it varies by where you are from.

Spider boat ferry

These little boats are called "spider boats" and they have bamboo legs that help them balance. I m sure if you stayed in a nice resort then you could get a nicer ferry, however, this is the more exciting route (public transit). It didn't really matter anyways, its all of 8 minutes across this little bay.

 
 Our Tricycle

When we got there we were eager to find our first night's hostel which was the only night we had booked. We had to take a tricyle ride to the other part of the island first. The whole island though is only 7 km long. The place we booked we didn't end up staying at as we found a place for the same price with two double beds and a single over just a double with two cots for the same price.

 

There are lots of beaches that edge the whole island of Boracay. We spent almost the whole time though at white beach, which spans the whole west side of the island. It is the longest beach I  have ever been to. One day I walked to the end of the beach and back while my friends slept in. The whole beach has beautiful restaurants, cute inns and little stores. There isn't any litter and I felt really safe the whole time we were there.

Definitly a highlight of my trip was the third day when my friends and I went fishing and snorkelling. At the end of the beach there are lots of boats waiting to take you out on various types of excursions such as parasailing and scuba-diving. There are jet skiis and sail boats, but its really nice as the main section of the beach is blocked off for swimmers and to not disturb the view. The boats were so beautiful but ours had a tarp on top, of course they thought we would want to be in the shadow, but no.. obviously we wanted to work on our tans so we asked for it to be lifted off. They thought this was very funny.

 

 Success

On the boat we first attempted some Filipino fishing. Our tour guide gave us water bottles with fishing line around it for us to begin. We each had to put little shrimps on the hooks then unroll the lien into the water. I've been fishing before but never like this. We felt so unsuccessful because although there were weights on the lines I couldn't tell if mine went down deep or far as you didnt cast the line at all. That being said, I caught the first fish on the boat, and then three more as time went on. I felt badly because they were so pretty.

Dedicated and smart salesmen

During the time fishing I noted all the other boats near by that were in the same area. Some locals were very savy and were selling cocounuts and icecreams in their own personal spider boats. I laughed really hard when some said "hey mammm. icecream for you mam.." when we were on the boat. He actually had a cooler with lots of cold icecream out from land in the middle of the sea. Of course we all bought icecream cones...

looking great!

The other part of our boat excursion was to go snorkelling at the reef at the end of White Beach. They supplied the snorkels and equipment. I am lucky enough to have a great waterproof camera so I got some funny underwater shots. It was my first time however trying to figure out the macro settings of the fish so I didn't get any really stunning shots. The reef was also about 10 feet down so each time I wanted something in the photo I had to dive down to it. The ones of my friends and I underwater turned out great anyways.

Our boat took us to another beach, near the marina we started at for a seafood feast. We splurged and I have no idea what a lot of the dishes were but as a newer lover of seafood I found it very "authentic" but delicious. I had to crack open the crab with a mallet and then be shown what I shouldn't eat. The same applied for how to eat our jumbo prawns (the eyes were still there and little whiskers -yuck) and regarding what the meat type was in the kabobs. Of course no one really understood us, so we just ate it anyways. Drinking St. Miguel the local beer and having seafood on a point looking out at KOOL-AID blue water was something I will never ever forget. It was really incredible.

That evening we met up with some other exchange students from Hong Kong. One goes to UWO but is older. We had a great time with them. I learnt a very interesting game where you have to get an oreo (or imitation brand cookie --in the Philippines the closest thing to an oreo i found was a "Bingo" ) from your eye to your mouth. You say eh-uh and blink until it falls into your mouth without using hands. As seen below I didn't want to waste my cookie, so I kept my hands ready to catch my failed attempts.  Our friends from HK seemed to be much better at it than me, but I am definitely bringing this game back to Canada.

The plaques of the countries

Another night with our new friends we watched them do the  "15 shot challenge" at a bar called Cocomangas. Essentially a smart Canadian came to Boracay and realised how many young people love drinking and how he could make a lot of money and have a famous bar. The bar's main asset is that people can attempt to do the 15 shot challenge of 15 various types of shots in however long you need. The draw is obviously the recognition. The whole bar is covered in gold plaques where if you complete it you can have your name posted. The best part is that they tally where the most successful people have been from {the list above}. Canada was in 5th!!!! Not only do you get this plaque and to help the tallies, but you get a tank top with the shots listed on it and the tag line  "do it for your country."

The 180 shots our friends group completed

Our friends were all successful even some ladies, and were able to spell out Boracay. I have to say however, when we first got there they had begun to spell it wrong. I wonder if consuming that much alcohol made it harder to spell...

Although the nights were fun, the day time in the water and on the beach is definitly the selling point of white beach. I tried to capture how beautiful the corals were but you just need to see it yourself.

My favourite drink

After eating residence food in Singapore it was a great change to eat quality food. Everyday I ate really well and had lots of fresh mangos or other fruit. I had at least one mango shake a day. They were really so good and only cost $1 or so. We ate a lot of western food during this time and even met another group of exchange students from HK as well. It was great talking to exchange students from all over the world about why they went and how much they love Asia. I'm hoping with all these new connections I can swindle my way into getting to HK as well this semester now that we have dorm room floors to sleep on.

Coral

One afternoon I also got a $12 full body massage for an hour on the beach. Although you can get nicer ones with private rooms at any of the nice hotels, I really liked looking out at the water feeling like I was in heaven.

The beach front clubs

Here are just some token beautiful pictures. The water really was that blue and clear.  I can't even describe how nice it was to lay in the salty water and just float on your back and look up at the clouds in the sky. It was a perfect vacation. I felt safe and just had a blast every minute I was there.

 

We spent one day and night in Manilla  of which I have no real photos of. The city is one of the biggest in the world and with a city that size, unfortuantly there is poverty. We therefore didn't bring any cameras to the market we went to because we didn't want anything bad to happen. We were being cautious based on what others had told us and although I am glad we did I felt fine the whole time I was in Manila. 

We stayed at an airport hotel and had a taxi driver take us to a mall I had been recommended to by many other travelers and locals. The mall had real stores as well as a market so we saw were able to browse and of course buy lots of pearls, electronics (like i-pads and cameras),shoes, clothes, and purses. Knockoff or stolen goods were everywhere and we were in heaven. I even felt less hassled then I have on Canal street or equivalent being in this environment. The only thing that I didn't like though was that the security guards were everywhere and had huge shotguns with them. Everyone called out to us, "heyy maam, got special price for you mam" which made us all laugh. I have never been called maam before this trip.

I left Manila with three new purses, two wallets and some candy. My friends did some great shopping as well.  We went back to NTU with some new friends, tans, and even more in love with Asia.