Thursday, November 13 7:28 pm US
Our flight from Taipei to SFO took 11 hours and Ryan and I ended up watching mostly movies during that time. We saw "Tropic Thunder," which Ryan kept laughing out loud at and bothering all the sleeping Taiwanese people. j/k And we saw "Wall-E"... well I watched out and Ryan sorta watched it. Anyhoo, we pretty much only slept about 2 - 3 hours total so we're kinda zonked right now.
But we are happy to be home right now. Guess what we ate first? Usually we make a straight line for the nearest Chinese restaurant. Not this time since that's too close to Thai food. Hee hee, MEXICAN! Yummy! Tamale, enchilada, and burrito in our bellies.
So this last entry is more or less a conclusion for our entire trip. First off, the people we met along the way:
1) Nok, our guide in Bangkok: She lives 32km outside of Bangkok but was born to a farming village. She attended secondary school and then went on to the university school where she learned more English. However, she decided to not go on to further study English as a lot of the other guides do. She was working as a human resource for a construction company but had to leave her job when the economy went downhill. So now she has been touring for a few years.
She was definitely one of the nicest guides we had in Thailand. She often took us to markets to teach us about foods and also tried to teach us some Thai words (sorta worked). Also, when we were taking the train to Chiang Mai, she stayed until we boarded the train to make sure that we were on the correct train. Not many guides would have done that!
Lastly, she was the most courteous person we met! She thanked EVERYONE, Thai or fa-reng (foreigner) and always willing to learn things from us (ie how to pick out a good laptop, English words for certain things - we hope we taught her the right words) and she always thanked us for teaching her. She even remembered the donuts we gave her for her birthday and she thanked us again for them on our last night in Chiang Mai. Oh yeah, she's rooting for us to have a baby soon! No pressure, eh?
2) Phong, our guide in Chiang Mai: he was born to a poor farming family that grew ganja (he said he never tried it, though) and legal crops too. He was always hungry so he joined the monkhood cuz he knew he'd get free room and board (hey, he said it; we didn't make that up!). He stayed in the monkhood for 3 years and told us that he had to wake up at 4:00 am every morning and he was sooo sleepy while doing his morning chants. He also wanted to become a monk because their English was so good and he wanted to be like that. He'd practice on the visiting tourists. He finally left monkhood because he wanted to do other things, but plans to become one again when he's old. Oh yeah, he also left because the other monks said that he's too lazy to be a monk. Ouch!
He eats SUPER FAST... we mean, he literally inhales his food and doesn't look up at us at all. And he eats a lot even though he's super-duper skinny. His favorite food is fish... no wonder we ate that almost every day! Because of his farming background, he knows about every fruit and tree in Thailand and often picks fruit off trees for himself and for us. Pretty cool huh? Ryan and I think that he'd be able to survive anywhere! Also, he loves to trek in the rainforest! Dude, he treks in regular sandals and manages to keep his balance while walking downhill on slippery rocks and mud or when we have to hop across rocks to cross streams!
His dream is to travel abroad but he reported that other countries require Thai citizens to have at least 100,000 baht in their savings before travelling. He always asks us about America and how much things cost. Probably because he's a master bargainer too. He loves going to local markets and flea markets to bargain hunt there. And to buy more food... his other favorite food is sticky rice cooked in bamboo. He bought us so much that we can't eat sticky rice for at least a month.
LOL oh yeah, we love his expressions. Here are some examples: lady-boy, lonely man karaoke, lion-dog, tiger-dog (or -cat), "good taste, good taste". And he loves all animals, but especially dogs and cats. He always whistles to them and calls them over so he can pet and feed them. Must be from his monkhood.
3) Somyot, our driver in Chiang Mai: he is super funny and really nice. His hidden talent, even from the owner of the tour company, is his skill with origami! He made us fishes of banana leaves (he even made 2 fish mobiles for us from dried banana leaves; we're going to hang them in our house); stars of plastic straws; hexagonal ball of paper; and paper cranes. Apparently his next love is movies, especially Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Predator. Seems like Arnold Schwarzenneger is his fav actor. But hates Harry Potter because the plot is too predictable! LOL.
His favorite line to us is: "Mind your head" as we enter/exit his van. We were really good at that except for me one day. He had put up the mobiles and surprised us and I happened to look up at them as I entered the van. Oh man did I hit my head hard on the ledge of the van! He doesn't speak much English but he has the greatest one-liners: "I'm a chaffeur" as he drives; "I'm a maid" as he swept our bamboo veranda in the Karen village with a bamboo broom; "I'm a bellboy" as he carries our bags (he never lets us carry our bags EVER); "spicy" as he scoops a teaspoonful of Thai chilies into his food or tries to put it on our food.
He also collects stamps so we'll be sending him a postcard from home and some US stamps for his collection. If we run across Thai-subtitled movies, we'll send them his way.
4) Randy, the owner of the tour company: we got to hang out with him all night during the launching of the Khom Loi balloons at Mae Jo University and he's pretty interesting. He's an American, raised in Texas and had been stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. After returning to the US after the war, he was spat at and treated poorly as a vet. He then had a messy divorce where his ex took A LOT of the money that he had made with his river boat cruise business. He then turned to Christianity and volunteered in various countries. He then was offered a position to teach at a university in Thailand for the AV department. And now he's lived in Thailand for 20 years. He has returned twice since then to the US (Texas and Oregon) and cannot stand the bland culture of the US. As he put it: "The people are still the same and doing the same things. They don't experience anything new in life."
He personally experiences all the trips, treks, and activities in his tour programs. In fact, he did the zip line when it first opened about 1 year ago and he was scared to death of it. He wanted to get down at the 2nd platform but the guides said it wasn't possible. So he finished all the platforms AND then the guides told him that they could've gotten him down but they wanted him to finish the course.
Our final overall impression of Thailand:
We loved the Thai people! They are truly nice and genuinely enjoy talking with fa-rengs. They are crazy-ish drivers but somehow they don't get into any accidents as they are courteous to each other and never have road rage. In fact, we never saw any Thai person get angry or yell others. We never saw angry faces on their faces either... even Nui or Ning when they had to book our last-minute flight back to Bangkok. Also, it's true that the Thai people are conservative. We never see anyone holding hands or displaying PDA on the streets. In fact, the Thai people frown upon that and Randy even had to politely tell an American couple to stop kissing and grabbing each other's butts in public because it was offending the Thai people standing near them. Oh yes, as for clothing, rarely did we see Thai women in tank tops or shorts and that's why you'll see me in only T-shirts and pants of some kind. We only wore shorts once or twice even though it was hot! Plus, we visited so many Buddhist temple grounds that we had to wear long pants.
The food is amazing! Everything is super fresh and organic. And, of course, super CHEAP! The portions are just right (about half of what Americans eat) but they eat often since there are a million vendors everywhere. The amazing thing is that, despite the massive intake of food, we didn't gain any weight. We think it's because the food's not as processed (more organic) and we walked a fair amount. The fruits are super good, especially if you go hiking in the jungle. We ate fruits on the plane and they tasted HORRIBLE! We don't know what we're going to do since we're spoiled on that yummy fruit!
Bangkok is definitely dirty, congested, and hectic but Chiang Mai is more relaxed and feels less touristy. Thaton was one of our favorite towns since it's WAY away from tourists and our favorite lodging was there. But it's just peaceful and nice to get away.
Our favorite experience is definitely the stay with the Lisu hill tribe, a good experience for "spoiled Westerners". Next would be all of our trekking since it was so calm, peaceful, and beautiful! Plus, the fruits were to die for (as mentioned before).
Final count for our trip:
Clothes: 4 T-shirts each for Felicia and for Ryan; 2 pairs of shorts for Felicia, 4 pairs of shorts for Ryan (he only wore 1 pair once);2 pairs of pants for Felicia (1 long pants, 1 capri), 2 pairs for Ryan; 2 pairs of shoes for Felicia (running shoes and ballerina flats), 1 pair for Ryan; 2 jackets for Felicia (1 hoodie, 1 outer jacket), 1 jacket for Ryan; 2 pairs of wool socks each for Felicia and Ryan; 1 long-sleeve shirt each for Felicia and Ryan
at least 20 Wats visited
20-ish times of squat toilet use for Felicia, 0 for Ryan
at least 12 visits to the Internet cafe for our online travel blog
12 mosquito bites for Felicia, 16 bites for Ryan
6 boat rides In Thailand
3 jungle treks
3 times of stepping into a stream for Felicia (always the left foot), 2 times for Ryan
3 times almost getting hit by a car/motorbike
2 Khom Loi balloons released by Felicia and Ryan
1 krathong made each by Felicia and Ryan
1 14-hour train ride to Chiang Mai
1 flight to Mae Hong Son
1 elephant ride
1 mini-car accident
1 bamboo hiking pole each for Felicia and Ryan
1 jar of Tiger Balm bought at Night Market
1 First-Aid kit brought from home
0 bugs eaten
0 bouts of food poisoning
So, yup we had a really good time in Thailand despite some homesickness and are glad that we did it together! Look at for newly posted pictures in the gallery (and not to worry, we'll be sending out an official online album later on)!
(oh yeah, right now I'm in my flannel pjs cuz it's a "freezing" 71 degrees out here. LOL Ryan refuses to turn on the heat and who can blame him?)
