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Hello all!
I hope everyone's Easter went well! I had the opportunity to spend my spring break in Thailand and I can now officially say I've been to three continents and I hope to check them all off my list before the age of 30! (One of the many goals I have travel-wise) But anyway, there will be more than one post about Thailand, one about what I learned while I was there and what I did, and then one with some tips for travelling in Thailand (from my own experiences of course!)
Things I learned:
-THAILAND IS HOT: I know this is obvious, but it's humid and 100+ everyday so you will sweat, whether you like it or not
-Not everyone you meet is bad: 90% of the people we met were very friendly and patient with the language barrier that was between us! The police were very kind and looked out for us. They told drivers to turn on their meters, told us to watch our bags for pick pocketing, and were always open to trying to answer our questions (even if they didn't understand)
-There's more stray animals than domesticated animals: There were so many dogs and cats everywhere just walking on the street with the people, but most were ridden with rabies and were underweight, so it was very sad to look at
-Everything is cheap: Their dollar is worth .03¢ for us…I only spent about $200 for the 5 days I was there including all the meals and taxi rides and shopping, which isn't bad at all!
What I did:
Saturday
We had trouble finding the apartment at first because it was very far down the street, but once we found it, it was very easy to find the room and get settled in! We used airbnb for our accommodation and it was such a great experience that I will definitely be using airbnb again! We had a great view of the city from our balcony and it fit 5 people perfectly (two king beds and a comfy sectional couch) We got in late, so we just went out to this restaurant called Beer Garden and it was good! It was playing American music and looked very westernized on the inside but had Thai food! Then we passed out when we got back because we were all exhausted!
Sunday
We went to the weekend market to shop around and look for souvenirs and trinkets to bring home! It was a very lazy day because we didn't have a plan for the day like we did for the rest of the week, so we just went with the flow and hung out around town!
Monday
This was supposed to be the day for the elephant sanctuary and we had arranged a ride to pick us up from our apartment, but there was miscommunication of where we would meet and timing (we were standing there 30 minutes before and one hour after). We felt bad because they drove two hours to pick us up (the actually sanctuary sent a person to pick us up), but there was no way to contact them for two hours since they were closed at the time we were getting picked up and they weren't responding to emails. The problem was that they didn't know where to pick us up because our apartment was very far down the street and you had to look closely for the address number. We decided to switch our Tuesday and Monday plans and we all changed and went to the temples. My friend Sara and I didn't have the proper clothes for the temples (knee-length dresses with sleeves, or nice pants or skirts that were long enough with a shirt with sleeves) so we stopped at a stand with skirts before going in and Sara and I both picked up skirts to wear. The Grand Palace was the first temple we went to and it was beautiful. Pictures can't do a justice to the elegance and elaboration of the architecture and design of all the buildings. It's definitely something I suggest seeing if you're planning on visiting Thailand because it's something special. After the Grand Palace we went to Wat Pho where the famous reclining Buddha is located. I couldn't prepare myself for the immense size of the Buddha because it is 150 feet long. We had to remove our shoes and some people had to wear robes the temple provided because their outfits weren't "respectful" enough. They weren't wearing risqué clothes; it just didn't meet the standards of the temple. This day was one of the hottest days we were in Bangkok at a whopping 110 degrees and it was humid. Although it was so hot, I still feel like my group was the only ones that were sweating. After the temples, we were all exhausted from the heat so we rested for the remainder of the day.
Tuesday
Today was my favorite day because we got to go to the elephant sanctuary. It was a two-hour drive down to where the sanctuary was, but we were all too excited to sleep on the way down there. When we arrived we made sure to lather on the bug spray and sunscreen since it was a small less populated area of Thailand (more susceptible to Malaria in small villages). We got a tour of the whole sanctuary first, which was the best part. We heard how they rescued their animals and their names and we got to get close to them (strict hands off policy, but they'd come up to us in their cages (huge play areas really) They had gibbons, an otter, an alligator, bears, macaques, langurs, a few boars, and many more animals! My favorite animal (besides the elephant of course) was a gibbon named Ploy, and if you want to hear about our interaction with her and why it was so special, then just email or message me somehow! (I'm not allowed to post about it per the sanctuary rules). The gibbons were so lively and funny because they scream to be territorial in this funny tone and the end of it sounds like a Mario game where he gets downsized or dies (I'll try to upload videos, they aren't seeming to want to load for some reason). After seeing their animals we had a traditional Thai lunch, which was delicious! After lunch we got to take our elephant, Boonmee ("virtue" in Thai) on her walk. We walked beside her and fed her fruit every ten steps to get her to follow us. It was an experience I'll definitely never forget. After the walk was her shower, which we all sprayed ourselves with hoses during it because of the intense heat. I never thought I'd be jealous of an elephant, but with 5 people brushing her and getting sprayed with cool water while she ate fruit made me a bit jealous. We got to drive around to meet their other elephants in their open enclosures (they have a ton of land with separate enclosures for certain groups of elephants). This whole experience took about 7 hours so we all passed out cold on the way home.
Wednesday
This day we were supposed to go zip-lining and do a rope course through the jungle but mother nature had some other plans…We left our apartment to get a quick breakfast before going to the meeting spot where the business was going to pick us up (only a few blocks down from us) and when we got outside it started to rain. It wasn't bad until we got halfway to the coffee place down the street when it started to MONSOON. We all had our rain jackets because we knew there was a chance of rain, but nothing could've prepared us for that. Locals would giggle as we passed by because we were laughing and yelling at each other to keep going since the rain was coming down so strong and loudly. We decided to call the place and request a refund since there's no way we could do anything in the forest with the mass amount of lightning and rain. They were cooperative (even though their website said no refunds within 24 hours in advance) and understood, so we all got a refund. We went to a breakfast buffet instead since it was only 8am and it was delicious. The rain stopped by the time we were done, but we had another problem on our hands, massive flooding. The water was almost up to our knees and we avoided it as much as possible, but there were some spots where we just had to accept it. The second we got home we all changed and put our wet clothes and shoes in the washing machine and left them out to dry over our balcony. The roads were clear by the afternoon so we went to the huge mall down the main road and did some shopping! It was a very relaxing day after having a couple busy days.
Thursday
This was our final day in Thailand and we found the best way to end the trip, a spa day! We discovered that spas in Thailand were a fraction of the price they were back home, so we took advantage of that fact and all got 2.5-hour massages! We all felt like brand new people after the massage because our skin felt clean and we were all nice and relaxed for our 9-hour plane ride home. Even though we still had 7 hours until our plane took off, we went straight to the airport to get settled and just chill. We couldn't check in for our flight for another two hours by the time we got there, so we got food and waited. It took about another hour to get through customs and passport control before we got to our gate (it's a very long and stretched out airport), but then we had time to get snacks for the ride and explore a bit. Once I was on the plane, I slept on and off until we landed (it was good since it was overnight), so it wasn't bad at all! We all loved Thailand, but we were glad to be back at our "home away from home" and get back to normal here in good old Melbourne.
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