THIGHLAND

Thighs! Everywhere I look! Such a drastic change from conservative India. As soon as I arrived in the big city of Bangkok, I noticed teeny skirts, trains and technology! Everybody with fancy phones, cool clothes and haircuts. I showed my legs for the first time in a while and it felt a bit bizarre. My experiences in Thailand were really varied cause I was bouncing around a lot. The first night was chilled, I rested at the hostel then walked around the neighborhood and had my first doses of Pad Thai. Delicious!

First of many Pad Thais in Thailand

I usually do research before heading to a new destination, but this time I didn't at all. It just didn't cross my mind, I guess I was so eager to see Amanda and I knew she had everything planned out. I didn't even think of finding out the location of my hostel, all I knew was it was in a good location thanks to Booking.com reviews! Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok has a very convenient train that takes you directly into the city. I hopped on, knew I was heading in the right direction and luckily the Hostel had sent me an email telling me the nearest train stop, so I felt fine.On the train I met a Hungarian guy named Hugo, he told me about his love for Bangkok and how he leaves Budapest once a year to visit the Land of Smiles. I asked him for some tips and he graciously let me use his map so I could identify what area of the city I would be staying in! Thank goodness for new friends and maps!

My first look at a map of Bangkok,thanks to Hugo!

Cool, fashionable and technologically advanced people waiting on the metro 

I was really looking forward to seeing Amanda's lovely smile! My first memory of Amanda is at the Delta Zeta Roseball in 2006, tipsily speaking in French about our adoration for the French culture, the world, languages and cultures!  Little did I know that we would be meeting up halfway around the globe almost a decade later! 

The following morning I met Amanda at the Ekkaami Bus station. It was not an easy feat! Neither of us had mobile phones or wifi so we just had to trust in destiny; that we would cross paths at the established meeting point. I arrived at the station first and after about 30 minutes I started doubting what Amanda and I had agreed upon. I thought surely she wouldn't be lost, she's a bigger world traveler than me! I kept re-reading our messages and realized that maybe she wasn't meeting me at the bus station, maybe she meant at the ferry? So the next bus was about to leave in 20 minutes, should I hop on? Was she already at the ferry? The bus ride was going to be about 4 hours, so what if she was already halfway there? I decided to run across the street to the cafe and get wifi just to see if she had messaged me anything else! Turns out her last message said the meeting point was indeed Ekkamai! Relief! I went back to the bus station and she showed up 10 minutes later with a huge smile and tiny backpack! Such a nice feeling to see a familiar face again  An old time friend that I have had so much in common with since the beginning! 

 It makes sense that our friendship would flourish! I've done a bit of world cruising with her in the past. First, THE epic cruise in 2007. Eight sorority sisters crammed on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We all faced some fears, had our fair share of fun and games, drinks and disagreements. We went zip lining in Belize, drank homemade cashew "wine" (for which we were later grateful didn't actually poison us!)  Caught rays in Honduras. In Cozumel, we shopped then wrapped up the day at the Senor Frogs. We were celebrities of the ship, after choregraphing dances and leading all ship dance parties each day, gracing cruisers with our voice in karaoke and stuffing our faces with pizza every night. Ah college life!! 

Fresh off the ship, before Sr Frogs happened! 

8 sorority sisters in Cozumel..

how many people did we fit into this hot tub?

Then, in 2008 we had the joy of roadtripping down to South Padre Island for another Spring Break adventure. Wahoo! 9 hours in the car was nothin! Our beach house was walking distance from the massive beach party. We tug o' war'd, rode mechanical bulls, got in hot tubs and made more fun memories!

With the host of the Coca Cola Beach party in Padre

S Padre Island 2008

yes, tug-o-war happened

After 6 years of doing some "growing up", this 2014 Spring Break was bound to be a bit different, and that it was! 

We took the 11am bus, which gave us enough time to roam around the streets of Bangkok and find some fresh fruit.. A few of them were mysteries to us but the vendor was generous enough to give us bites of the things we weren't familiar with! They were all delicious and we were ready for our roadtrip now! We realized that we almost missed the 2nd bus too, we were waiting patiently when a lady yelled at us in Thai..guess it was obvious we were going to the Ban Phe ferry. We ran up to her and caught our seats just in time!

Some serious interior design going on in the Ferry to Koh Samet

From Ban Phe, we waited a few more minutes and hopped on the ferry. Amanda's skin was finally seeing sun again and we were both just really in disbelief that we were actually there, and heading to an ISLAND! The dream life! Upon disembarking the ferry, we hopped on a truck taxi with a couple of other people to get to the other side of the island. About 8 of us sat in the bed of the truck, backpacks stacked up high and bodies snuggled up closely, dirt in our eyes and teeth but smiling anyway! 

cruisin, on the search for our resort!

On the back of our truck taxi, only have the road was paved for a portion of the journey. Otherwise, all dirt!

First view of our hotel

We dropped our bags at the resort, quickly changed into our swimmerz and ran to the beach as fast as we could. Caught the last bit of sun rays and look forward to our first dinner together! For dinner we had green curry, and Amanda had her go at the famous Mai Thai.. not as good as advertised! 

Such contrast in skin tones is not usual- Amanda spent last 6 months in Arctic Boston VS me 2 months in Indian beach

had to pose with the mai thai, despite tasting unpleasant, the drink was photogenic

As we ate dinner on the beach we could hear some horrible sounding karaoke coming from afar. We kept waiting to hear english singing, but it never came! Only the sound of drunken Thai people shouting into the mic at the top of their lungs. We knew it was a sight we'd have to see, so we finished dinner up with a honey crepe and crept up on the singing group. As soon as we walked up, the entire crew motioned for us to come dance. So, of course, we did! They were all wearing neon green matching shirts, and the youngest people were about our age. The older Thai woman immediately started demonstrating how we should move our hands. It was the traditional Thai dance and we were getting it all wrong! Even the Thai boys were better at it than us. Forget that both of us have almost a lifetime of dance experience, the Thai hand gesture was just not coming so easily. Everytime we thought we had it down, someone new would come up to us and bend our fingers back even further! Tilt our head from one side to the other or pull our arms up and down. It was such a lovely time though, and they loved that we were actually trying! Later we found out that all these people were teachers at a school a few hours North of Bangkok.

These boys really dance better than us

yes, I sang with them- Ricky Martin & JLO!

Assistant director the baseball cap, all members were wearing these cool neon tshirts

We met the English teacher and the director and got offered jobs right away. The assistant director even expressed how lucky he felt to have met us and was so happy to hear us speak the few broken thai phrases we knew. They kept refilling our drinks all night and were sad to see us go a few hours later!

Amanda + sun salutations

The next day we were up early and walked around the island and found a really perfect secluded beach. (emphasis on perfect) We spent the entire day in the sun, the waves were absolutely perfect. The water was the perfect temperature. The fruit lady came by with the perfect coconut and the perfect strawberries. 

We hopped around boulders and swung in hammocks

Should have been in the shade..

Later ,we walked to the town center, checked out the temple and huge Buddha, burned some insence and possibly gave a scammer donations for the temple! I was a bit surprised to see a monk with such a huge belly. But typical Thai food isn't the healthiest, so anything is possible. He motioned us to approach the Buddha and handed us some incense to offer to the shrine. He then showed us some small key chains of Buddhist figures and asked for a donation, Amanda handed him a 20 and I gave him whatever coins I had. I saw he dropped the coins in the offering box then walked away with something green in his hand (which could have most likely been the 20 Baht bill Amanda donated) Nevertheless, it was nice and peaceful to be at the temple and just what I needed after a long day at the beach. We walked the entire way back down the island with our glowing sun & dust kissed skin & hairs.

Monk + dog leading the way

Amanda and Buddha

Early the next morning, we hopped on the ferry to the Ban Phe Pier, it was time to find our bus back to Bangkok. We had plenty of time to get back to the city, drop bags and get to the airport for our evening flight to Siem Riep, Cambodia! While waiting on the bus, Amanda did some shopping and later met me at the coffee shop accross from the station. We met a man that was actually American! Living in this tiny town in Thailand, married to a Thai woman, they had children together but he was beginning to feel frustrated with his life there. He expressed his desire for his children to be able to have a future, to have a real education and he was looking into moving back to the States. His issue was that he was already retired, and at his age, it's really difficult to get hired by any company. He wished us a safe trip back and noticed Amanda's severe sunburn. He suggested she take a bath with tea bags, since we had no access to a bathtub- It was time to improvise! Amanda gathered some tea bags and a cup with ice. For the 4 hour bus ride to Bangkok, Amanda gently applied tea bag juice on her skin. I was happy for the encounter with a fellow American and for the quick remedy for her painful condition! 

Amanda applying tea bag juice all over her body during our bus ride

It's funny how once you meet people abroad, you always run into them everywhere else. We met JJ, an Australian pilot living in Tokyo on the secluded beach the day before. He ended up being the only other Westerner on our bus back to Bangkok the next morning

Then we ran into him again on the metro! We also ran into some French people that didn't know Amanda and I are both fluent in French. Who could blame them? They heard us speaking English like Americans and would have never guessed. As they stood around talking about shoes and fashion, they looked down and noticed my vibram 5 finger toe shoes and made some comments about how funny looking they were. They were actually pretty sweet about the way the made fun of me and it was really satisfying to be able to say,"Pardon!" on the way off the train in the loudest, most French way possible. Amanda did the same thing, too! It was pretty hilarious to all of us!

The metro station is just accross Ekkamai Bus Station, we took the escalator up and took it to the stop nearest to the hostel I stayed in the first night. Before heading to the island, I asked them if it was possible to keep my big backpack in their storage closet during my 2 day trip to Cambodia. I didn't want to make the mistake of getting luggage charges on a flight again! **

** Side story- when I was leaving Trivundrum to meet Amanda in Bangkok. I thought I was going to be able to take my backpack as a carry-on. I was able to bring it on the plane with me all the way from Chicago, to Amsterdam, to Frankfurt, to New Delhi, to Mumbai, to Trivandrum- so why would things be different this time around? I didn't take into account that I would be flying on Tiger Air, a budget airline. Like most budget airlines, the flight itself is really affordable, but you have to pay for any extras, inlcluding luggage! I was excited to get to Thailand, I got to the airport 3 hours early! (this is unheard of for me!) I get through security, but when i go to check into my flight, the check-in agent says, "Can we please weigh your bag?" -my heart sinks! Then I remember reading that we can carry on 20kg, so I was thinking, ok ok this will be under 20! but actually you are only allowed on 10kg total! oops! my bag is 16kg. I feel the tears fill up my eyes, why was I so upset? I have no idea, maybe I was tired, I was sad to leave India, but ready to move on, I felt so many emotions, I didn't want to spend the money, I felt regret for not paying ahead of time and now getting charged double what I would have paid before, I felt frustration towards the agent. "Why would he ask me to weigh it??" "Why does he care?" "Nobody else asked me to weigh it before!" Then I calmed myself down and said, "Ok fine , I will throw everything in my bag away!" (dramatic, I know- but I was having a mini emotional crisis/ breakdown) I put my bag to the side and start throwing items out. All of my clothes were handwashed for the past 2 months, which equals faded, worn-out, not so clean! I thought to myself, "Ok, I don't need any of these clothes- I will just keep the essentials." I threw my yoga mat to the side too, most clothes, I even did a couple of double takes on my saree. I was so sad, I should have weighed my bag before, now the line to check in was getting longer and longer. Everyone stared at me, I decided ok, I can wear all this clothes! They can't ask me to weigh myself. I had a couple friends tell me they had similar experiences before and they wore all the clothes on their body instead. So I layered on the skirts, the shirts and scarves. Then I stopped and asked myself, ok it's only $100- do I feel unabundant,? Why is this such a big deal? Am I being mindful, am I acting recklessly? I've spent money on these items, why am I going to throw them out now? Will I be confortable in all these clothes? So I wiped my tears, packed all my things back in my bag. Then I got annoyed again, cause my bag was packed oh-so-perfectly before this mess! Now I couldn't get things back in the bag, it was bulkier than before, etc, etc. So I go back to the agent, I give him my card and I say, "Ok, I will pay..." He says, "Ok, you have to go the lady at the front and present her your payment, tell her you will be purchasing 10kg weight credit." I'm about to lose it again, why can't I just pay him directly? I go to the lady and all the girls around her see the tears in my eyes, they keep asking me if I'm ok, don't people know you can't ask someone that when they're already on the verge of tears? It ignites something! So, I say that everything is fine, that I didn't want to spend $100 on luggage fees, that I had a long week of traveling, and that I'm just ready to see my friend Amanda's face. I pay, but that's not it, I'm told when I get to my layover stop in Singapore, I will have to find the Tiger Air counters and pay the rest of my luggage fee- the surprises never stop! At this point, I'm ok again, I just want to get on the plane and sleep. It was a red-eye flight, leaving India at midnight, landing in Singapore in the wee hours of the morning. I was so happy to hangout at the Singapore Airport, it's been voted best airport in the world, has a movie theater, a rooftop garden, indoor zen spots, shopping and tons of free entertainment (internet)! I didn't get any sleep on the plane like I planned, I was next to the cutest Indian baby in the world, painted eyebrows, jump-suiit-wearing and all. But poor thing, must have been his first time on a plane, he was so tired but so scared, cried lots, he ate my cookies and that made him smile, but I couldn't blame him or even be mad at him for crying. 

My adorable flight companion, eating biscuits I gave him to distract him from crying

The flight was so uncomfortable for me, I can't imagine for him, or worse, for his tiny momma, forced to carry him for 5 hours in her skinny arms. I tried helping her as much as possible, but there was nothing I could do but give her passport and pass her things from her purse when she needed. 

A rose, a gift from up above! (Women's day presents from Singapore Airport)

Singapore was a relief, I ran into a German girl I met in Varkala, she was actually on my flight. It was nice to pour my heart out, speak English and have a friend around for a bit. I eventually lost her in the huge airport, but I was ready to be on my own again. I got the perfect 3 hour nap on some chairs, had my first starbucks in months and learned a great lesson about luggage charges on budget airlines! *

*end side story

Sunflowers are my favorite ( @ Singapore Airport)

The hostel in Bangkok agreed to letting me keep my big bag there for free- yay! I was really happy with the hostel, it was new and they were doing such a good job! The location is good, close to Silom and the fancy shopping mall, the price was affordable. Plenty of toilets, showers and sinks. Free tea, coffee, water and internet! I found them through Booking.com - This is my favorite website to book a room! It's nice because most all hotels and hostels are on this site and you can see tons of reviews, and another major plus is that you don't have to pay until you get there. Some sites ask you to pay online with a card, but most places on booking are refundable and you only put your card info down to reserve your spot, then you pay when you get there. 

After a quick metro ride, long-ish walk, we made it to the hostel, to my delight- I found my flip flops! My lucky trusty flip flops, that aren't actually mine! I think they belong to my sister, but they really are the best flip flops in the world. I have walked in them practically everyday (minus the 2 days on the island, cause I forgot them, so I was forced to walk barefoot to most places / wear my toe shoes #notcool)

Updates on our Cambodia adventures and more on Bangkok to come soon!

We found love on Koh Samet Island

-GIA