Thailand

We had originally planned to head for the airport at about 2am Friday morning so that we could make our flight in time (we have to take a ferry & then an hour bus ride to the HK airport), but we got a phone call from Andrew (who is living in HK) that evening so we decided to head over to his place at about 8pm, stay over and then go to the airport in the morning. Friday morning, we woke up at about 4:30am to catch a cab to the Airport Express for 5am. We were going to take the 24 hour shuttle bus, but Andrew said that the express was much easier. So, we got to this express train station, but it was completely empty, no one in sight & finally heard a recorded message saying that the first trains don't run until 6am. Darnit! That wasn't going to work since we had to meet our group at 5:45am. So, instead we wandered around until we could find a cab at that time in the morning & headed to the airport in a cab. over $300 HKD later, we arrived at our meeting spot. Oh well.. at least we got there in time!

The flight was about 2.5 hours & then had to take our tour bus to our first destination. We went to an "Amusement Park" about an hour outside of Bangkok and about an hour or so away from Pattaya. I wish I had known what this "Amusement Park" actually was beforehand as the English translation paints pictures of rides, candy & fun in my mind. I won't go into details because I would never wish for anyone to experience this place. All I can say is that my initial impression of Thailand was that it was animal exploitation to the extreme, filled with 'Monkey shows', elephant "rides", and shooting ranges. We were expected to tip everyone that we encountered and I may have been the fun ruiner, but there was no way I was willingly encouraging this establishment any further. Anyways...

We drove for about another hour to get to Pattaya where we checked into our beautiful hotel & relaxed by the gorgeous pool. Because we are on a tour, all of our meals are set and paid for, so when we go to a restaurant, we're just given a set meal. We were told that on a Chinese tour, you will always go to a Chinese restaurant and receive 8 dishes & one soup as the meal. We were also told that Chinese people can not handle Thai food nor do they like the spice, so unfortunately while in Thailand, the majority of our meals were exactly the same, from one Chinese restaurant to the next :( However, Hong & I did get a couple of opportunities to have some Pad Thai & Mango sticky rice. Mmm Thai food is so yummy!

That night we went to a Magic Show - Thai style. Very interesting. & then went to 'Mike's mall' which is essentially a giant market inside of a building. We tried out some of our rusty bargaining skills at this place but failed miserably. I think their rent must be much higher than in other places, because prices were too high & they were less willing to budge in price. So, we didn't buy anything there. We were absolutely exhausted by the end of this day & slept very well in our quiet hotel. It's odd that a hotel is so much more quiet than our appt in Macau!

On Saturday we woke early to take a boat ride to another island in Pattaya. Our first stop was just off shore where dozens of companies gave Parasailing rides. This was the sketchiest thing I have ever seen!! I have some pictures of it.. there were literally about 50 boats zooming around very close to each other, tugging a parasailer behind them. & how the rider is attached to the parachute is very different from anywhere else.. you are hooked on by two small carabeaners and dangle from the attachment points. Needless to say... I did not feel comfortable trying this... but Hong was willing to be the guineapig! She loved it!

We continued our boat ride to the beautiful beach where we just relaxed by the water all morning. There are lots of people around trying to sell you stuff & take you on jet ski rides, etc.. but overall it was pretty nice. There was only one unfortunate incident where an old man from Nepal had approached Hong & I separately & was asking to take pictures of me .... it was really odd & uncomfortable. I said no, repeatedly, as I was in a bathing suit & thought that he was very creepy.

We had lunch at a restaurant just up from the beach, & had the usual Chinese 8 dishes & one soup. One constant that no one ever eats is the fish. It really doesn't look good. We were told that when you get fish that is deepfried or pan fried & covered in sauces (spicy sauces), that means that the fish was most likely dead for a long time before it was cooked & they deep frying & sauce is a cover up for the fishy smell & taste. It wasn't recommended that we eat it. Hong tried a little & said that it didn't taste good at all. Right after lunch we took our boat ride (about 1/2 an hour) back to the mainland Pattaya. This boat ride was quite the adventure. We were flying over massive waves & crashing down to the water like it was no big deal. I felt like I was on a half hour roller coaster.

We then went to a Massage place to get a 2 hour Thai massage. Quite the experience. We were all in a huge room with multiple beds, and many of the people in our tour fell asleep except for Hong & I... we always had one eye open because of how different this experience was. The two ladies were just killing themselves laughing when we would squirm or giggle when they manipulated our limbs, etc in odd poses. One shocking moment was when they are working on your neck & head area, they twist your head to the side & crack the whole top area of your spine & neck... it surprised the heck out of me! & then I thought, you can definitely kill someone that way. I was just hoping that they knew what they were doing!! After the massage they wait in the little changing area with you until you give them a tip. So we gave them $50 B, which was the amount that was suggested by our tour guide & my masseuse gave me the nastiest look & then her & Hong's lady just started yelling in Thai. We didn't know what we did wrong... but I think they were expecting more from us.

That evening we went to the 'Lady Man' show. It was neat... but I think I expected more. The costumes were great & the men really looked like women, but the dancing was awful & the lip synching was even worse. They have to do these shows multiple times in one evening, so I can understand that the enthusiasm and pizzaz would fade pretty quick. I was fascinated by how much these men resemble females... everything about them was so feminine. Almost all of them have had some form of surgery... it's quite the transformation that they must go through in order to qualify for this lifestyle.

We left early Sunday morning to go to Bangkok (a.k.a in Chinese - "Munhkok" meaning traffic jam). On our way there, we stopped at this dry/preserved foods store. Everyone in our tour went crazy over this stuff! Some people bought boxes & boxes of dried food. Hong & I just bought some snacks to try some things. My favourite was Tamarind, which is a fruit, but it was dried & then sweetened. It was sour, spicy & sweet all at once, so delish! Next was the Chinese herbal/medicinal shop. I wrote a little bit about it in my pictures, it was quite the experience. They sit you in this private room, make you watch a video which just spews out the ingredients of the products that they have, and then some man comes in & gave us a shpeal for about half an hour (in Chinese) about the products. It was really awkward after the talk because they kind of just stand there... don't let you leave.. almost as if they are waiting for you to buy something before you can leave. Hong & I didn't get anything though, we had no idea what was going on!

On Monday we went to the 9 Sacred Temples (/Buddhas), the other temple where we had to take a boat ride to, & also saw the four faced Buddha. I feel like an idiot writing about all of the things we saw because I know nothing about them, and I don't even know what they are called because everything we went to, they spoke in Chinese about it. I'll just have to do some research.

Tuesday was a short day as we were flying out that day. We went to a "Honey shop", which was strikingly similar to the Chinese Medicinal shop. After that we went to Baiyoke Hotel, which is the tallest tower in Thailand. This was lots of fun and is much like the CN tower or Calgary tower. I found this sign, but unfortunately didn't take a picture of it & on it, it had a list of the tallest towers & buildings in the world. But the CN tower was no where to be found!! At first I thought that maybe it was only a list of the tallest buildings in the world, but then I noticed many other towers listed... but still no CN tower :( Poor Canada, we were left out.

After a long trip... we had to catch the 10pm ferry to Macau, for an hour ferry ride. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but it felt good to be back!