Thai Holidays

Thursday, December 24th, 2009. Christmas Eve. I departed from Busan at 8:30am and arrived in Bangkok at 12:40pm. Tan had to work, but before heading there I had met two good LDS girls online, and one of them (Ivy) picked me up at the airport. From there we went back to Keng's apartment (the other LDS girl I met through Tan) and met Keng. I dropped my bags there and we walked to the local shopping center and had lunch. After Tan finished work, we met her at Siam Paragon, a huge and very nice mall in Bangkok. We decided from there to eat dinner and saw Avatar in 3D. After the movie I went with Tan to her family's house, who were gracious enough to let me stay there for Christmas. Of course they are Buddhist and don't celebrate, so there were decorations, presents, or tree in sight.

Friday, Christmas day Tan gave me a tour of Bangkok. We took a boat ride on one of the main rivers in the city and were able to get off at the pier closest to the Grand Palace. This place was amazing, as I'm sure you will see in the pictures. It was really hot but I couldn't wear shorts because its considered a sacred place. Men or women wearing shorts or skirts were required to buy or borrow a big wrap to cover their legs. That night after we finally got home, Tan's mom was super nice and took us to a Thai massage place, her treat. It was so nice!

Saturday morning Tan took me to a local street market where you can buy just about anything, and I bought a few souvenirs and gifts for friends back in Korea. Then around noon I caught a plane down to Phuket. Arriving in Phuket, I took a minivan with other vacationers to the main beach area called Patong Beach. The driver didn't really know where my hotel was, so he dropped me in the wrong place and I had to walk around for 15 minutes until I found it. Then, the desk worker told me my room was broken. I guess a water pipe broke. So I asked what he was going to do for me. He said come with me, and we jumped on his scooter and he took me to a brand new hotel, closer to the beach, for the same price. His hotel paid the difference. So actually I ended up getting a better deal! That evening I had some dinner and just explored Patong a bit.

Sunday and Monday there is not as much to talk about. I pretty much spent both days laying on the beach, drinking from coconuts, having lunch and dinner at a different place each time. I had steak, fish, crab, shrimp, prawns, mexican food, italian food, and the best part is I never spent more than $10 on a meal.

Tuesday I had booked a one day tour of the local islands. These included Khai Island, Phi Phi Don and the famous Phi Phi Lae. I left at 8:30am and didn't get back to the hotel until around 6:30pm. The first island on the tour was Khai Island. Its very small and no one lives there, but a few huts were selling snacks and drinks. This island had the most perfect sand and clear water I had ever seen. There were also a bunch of fish that people would feed with bread they bought there. Next was Phi Phi Lae, which has Maya Bay. This is where Leo Dicaprio's movie The Beach was filmed, if you didn't know. It was sooo amazing. I thought it might be overhyped, but I really loved it, even though we could only spend 45 minutes on the beach. Next was Phi Phi Don, which is just north of Lae. This is where the hotels are and the beaches are decent, but not as good as the previous two islands. On the boat trip back to Phuket I met a girl from Australia, but her family is actually from East Timor. She was pretty nice, but with her family and so couldn't really hang out with me, but we exchanged Facebook info. Hahaha.

Wednesday rolled around, and I still hadn't seen much of Phuket Island other than Patong beach where I was staying. So, I rented a scooter for the day and drove up and down the coast to all the other beaches on the west coast. I was a little nervous since I had to drive on the left side and some drivers there are a little scary, but it was fun! I stopped at the different beaches, took some pictures, and spend the afternoon relaxing on Kata beach. Quite the life I must say.

Thursday, which was New Years Eve, I decided to spend the day relaxing on the beach again, which was nice. That night I returned to the beach for the countdown festivities. The beach and streets were packed with people. Everyone was buying big paper lanterns and letting them float away into the night sky to bring good luck for the next year. Of course I had to do it too. Then they had tons of fireworks, which were awesome too. The whole scene was like nothing I'd experienced before. The funny thing about Phuket is that I was pretty much the only American. Everyone I saw spoke other languages, besides a few Australians and Brits. But most of the people were European and spoke languages I couldn't even recognize. I think there are lots of Scandinavians there, or so I hear.

Friday, the 1st day of the new year, I flew back to Bangkok. Tan was away with her family so I met Keng and Ivy again and they decided to take me to the floating market in Amphawa. It was also super crowded but I'm glad we went. We took a boat cruise down the market area of the river and out into the less crowded part to see fireflies in the tries alongside the river. We had dinner that night at a cool Thai restaurant with performers dancing and singing traditional Thai music. We even had crocodile, which was very tasty!

Saturday, my last day in Thailand, Tan met us again at a shopping market area and we did a little more shopping and had dinner. That night I flew back to Busan at midnight. I had so much fun and definitely want to return again when I can. This Christmas I really missed my family and friends, but at the same time I had an awesome experience I will not soon forget. I love you all and wish you a happy new year!!