Thailand

Hi! So I wrote this whole long entry about Thailand so far, but I literally had my hand on the button to post it, and there was a power surge in the hotel and I lost it. I'm so angry right now. So you get the short version.

Bangkok: hated it at first. lots of scam artists who like to tell you big attractions are closed so they can pretend like they will take you somewhere else but really take you to fake gem places. we knew about it, so didn't get scammed, but it's funny to always hear "no, wat po is closed, i will take you to the big buddha" or "you can't go to the grand palace today, i will arrange for you to go to the big buddha." always the big buddha, not sure if it's real or not. the sites are really cool, wat po has a reclining buddha that is like 150 meters long and gold (not solid). the grand palace is beautiful, still used for ceremonial occasions, so it's in good shape-- not ruins like angkor wat or the forbidden city where you wonder what it would have looked like when it was in use-- this is actually in use and very impressive. went to patpong, the red light district-- avoided the infamous "ping pong shows," still interesting. stayed close to khao san, the "backpacker ghetto" which had cheap food, cheap drinks, and cheap internet. not too bad, fun to go out. went to a tiny vegetarian restaurant where there was no menu and the lady didn't speak english- fun to just point at things and hope for the best-- not something i get to do very often as a vegetarian. went to a gorgeous high tea at one of the really nice old hotels in town, felt very old-fashioned. went antique shopping with absolutely no intention of buying. went to some fun markets and tried some food (and lots of drinks!) from street vendors. in general, bangkok ended up being pretty fun.

left bangkok for koh tao-- got to the airport and couldn't find our flight or even our airline-- bangkok has two airports and we were at the wrong one. luckily, as my mother's daughter, when the taxi guy said to leave at eight, i said great, see you at seven thirty, so we got a new cab, rushed across town, and made our flight.

koh tao is small and hard to get to, but not very developed. all the taxis are pickup trucks with benches in the back, and our guidebook said the roads were better used for water drainage than driving, which is definitely true. our resort was rustic at best, but we had a private bungalow with airconditioning (jon accidentally stole the AC remote, not sure what we're going to do about that one), and was definitely all we needed. only one restaurant, but it was pretty good and to get to town was a 5km drive that took half an hour because it is so mountainous and bumpy. did three dives, lots of fish but almost no coral, went on a little wreck which was kind of fun. beautiful little island.

spent a day in koh samui because the ferry and flight schedules are not very well timed- had about six hours between the two. randomly found a restaurant on the beach, had a table on the sand, lots of drinks and food, i had a really cheap massage right next door.

got to phuket, beautiful hotel, since it's the off-season, room was pretty cheap and is amazing. we literally have the closest room to the beach in the entire hotel, a private patio with chaises that opens up to some grass, then 20 feet away is sand. really beautiful and lots of amenities-- a much nicer room than we should be in, but it is thailand, and the rainy season makes everything very cheap. weather has been good so far.

today we spent most of the day on the patio, forgot i was in thailand then looked up and saw an elephant walking down the beach. tomorrow we go diving, thursday we go to the phi phi islands which are supposed to be unreal (where they filmed "the beach"). friday is my birthday! no plans, jon has a surprise for me on the thirteenth, but we will probably spend the 11th on the beach and maybe get a good dinner somewhere. i can't believe we have less than a week left in asia. glad we're spending the rest of our time here-- the hotel really is amazing, in spite of the power surge.

i promise to use proper grammar again soon! sorry about the short entry, like i said, i tried!