Thai Trip

I am back from Phuket, Thailand. It was an extremely long trip back and not only because I had an 8 hour layover in Shanghai (thank goodness there was a motel where you could rent rooms by the hour inside the airport).

The first night I got there and I saw my room I was extremely happy and excited. I started jumping up and down and saying "YES! YES!" Here's a picture of what I walked into:

Not pictured is the TV, the sofa, the fresh fruit basket, and the balcony. A 4 star hotel that was so cheap it was easy for me to afford! I was on cloud nine when I was laying in my fluffy bed.

The next day I was energized and ready to hit the beach to waste away the day and wait for one of my best friends to come join me in this gorgeous place. I woke up to this view from my balcony:

You can't see it in this picture, but at the top of that hill is a big white Buddha statue I saw every day in Kata:

Here's my favorite Thai beer relaxing on the beach:

I got pretty burned which was kind of a bummer but it turned into a bit of a tan so it wasn't so bad after all.
Later that night I received a crushing blow when I found out Katie wasn't coming after all. I can't even tell you how upset I was and I don't want to. I didn't sleep that night and the next day I tried desperately to enjoy where I was but I just kept wishing she was there. I had a good vacation but honestly I really didn't want to be there alone and thinking about my friend bailing on me like that is still extremely upsetting.

But I was in Thailand, and I was determined to make the most of my vacation. So I booked an elephant ride and a boat trip to Phi Phi islands. I knew someone on facebook that was going to Thailand alone so I messaged her and she and I made plans to meet for dinner. I had a delicious seafood clay pot full of prawns, shrimp, mussels, clams and some delicious noodles.

 

Banana daiquiri and pad thai on the beach anyone?

The how about an elephant ride?

I got a new hotel just to change it up a bit but I still stayed in Kata. This room was amazing:

I wanted to do some souvenir shopping. I went to the lobby and asked how much a taxi was to Patong and when the woman told me it was 400 baht I said "too much!" and just went to the computer to check my email before going to the street to get a cheaper cab. She came back up to me 2 minutes later to tell me there was someone who wanted to share a cab and that's how I met my new friend Alex. She was a 20 year old English girl on a 10 day tour group through Thailand. She asked me to come to dinner with her and her friends and it was really fun and so nice not to be alone. As a side note, when roaming a street in Patong we were asked if we wanted to either see a ping pong show, take a tuk tuk ride, or buy some crap EVERY 2 SECONDS. They are very aggressive. Here's Patong:

We went out, bought some crap, had some fun.

I had to get up really early for the Phi Phi islands trip. I wasn't too sure about this because I had heard it was too touristy and the boat ride was rough. Those people were right- it was AWFUL. I felt awful on our hour long speed boat rides, it rained practically the whole time, and there were people and trash EVERYWHERE. I wish I had skipped it and had a spa day instead (I mean I had already gotten a pedicure for 3 dollars and a cheap facial but I could've used a massage). I was lured in with "hey,everyone should see it" and "you get to see where they filmed the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, 'The Beach." I fell for it. Here's some pics:

I met some people on the trip who were also teachers in Korea on their vacation and they were pretty awesome. This trip was so awful that we were just laughing practically the whole time. One of the girls said I want point "I want to shoot myself in the face" and me and the rest just busted up. It brought me back to times when my sister is being negative and there's just nothing to be done and me and my cousin Erin just laugh our butts off. So all in all I had fun even though it was an absolutely horrible trip itself. Thank goodness I met such lovely people. 

Writing this down was an ordeal. I need ice cream.