Shake'n it Up

Spending six days in Bangkok, one night on a sleeper train and seven days in Chang Mai, I was more than ready slip into my swim suit, lather up the SPF 30 and head to the beaches of Thailand. I splurged on a plane ticket which cut my travel time from 24 hours to just under 3 hours. Thai Airways was flying at its finest. I had a short 45 minute hop from Chang Mai to Bangkok, where I was served lunch, water, tea and some overly-sweetened substance that they refer to as orange juice. My version of orange juice is sticking a straw straight through the orange and sucking the tangy goodness straight out. The Thais prefer the florescent orange powder stuff, highly visible with a black light. I tried it...I'll try everything once, and if I like it, I'll try it again. I've tried to follow that philosophy for the past few years, but it's been heightened quite a bit during my adventures in Thailand. Back to my hop to Bangkok. This must have been the shortest flight, even beats out the trip from Seattle to Portland. I didn't even have a chance to finish my chicken sandwich or my pineapple almond biscuit. My guess is that the pilot was trying to make up mad time in the air because I was right on target for missing my connection to Samui. As soon as the plane touched down, I made friends with a group of Israeli's who were also traveling to Samui. I figured I would stick with them...if I missed my flight, at least I would be in good company. Israelis are everywhere in Thailand. It's fantastic. Thanks to my two months of studying abroad in Tel Aviv, two years of Hebrew at UofA and my knowledge of Israeli Hip Hop, it's been very easy to make conversation. They all have so much to say about their country, their service in the army and they have always provided excellent recommendations for future holidays. The Israeli crew was on top of their game. They were a few steps ahead of me and were able to connect with the flight crew, who instructed us hop on a train to the other side of the terminal and run through the security check point. Just one minor mishap. One of the Israelis surrenders his hair gel. It was more than the 4 ounces of goodness...I couldn’t help but laugh! From security, we approached the gate and my heart jumped when I noticed that there was no plane in sight. I just wanted to get to the islands, was that too much to ask?! We soon learned that we had to take another bus from the gate to the actual airplane which was sitting on the runway waiting for us late arrivals. In Thailand, you can’t get from point A to point B without making at least 4 stops and 2 various modes of transportation. The shortest distance is never a straight line. They don’t believe in that here. The chaos soon melted away as I made my way to paradise. Two of my friends from Portland had already arrived in Samui a few days earlier and were waiting with open arms. Hannah and Molly are fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed traveling on my own and have learned a lot, but I’ve also been very fortunate to have connected with a taste of back home. The three of us all had a similar agenda for the islands...stay tuned for the adventures of the Ptown Trio.