Th th th Thailand! (Bangkok & ChiangMai)

This past week or 8 days during my recess week which is a mid semester break so basically a "spring break"  I went to Thailand to spend my recess week there with quite a big group of us, around 8 people. I can say that this was one of the most exhilarating, challenging, and one of the most enjoyable weeks I have had in a while, despite feeling quite groggy at the end, and being overwhelmed by mosquitoes. ><  From long train rides to TukTuks to climbing the mountains, riding elephants, playing with tigers, alligators, checking out temples, and much more, it was one of the craziest weeks ever and found a new sense of appreciation for Thailand and even Singapore haha.... funny how I seem to appreciate and enjoy Singapore a bit more every time I come back from a different country. Well enough of that and i'll give you a day by day update on how my week in Thailand was spent.

Day 1 (Saturday)
- Took a 2 hour flight from the budget terminal in Changgi (singapore airport) to the Bankkok airport, and now I realize why it was a budget flight haha small, cramped seats, no food/drinks served at all, but w/e as long as it took us from point a to point b I was satisfied. As soon as we arrived in Bangkok, we took a cab to the hostel (dee ta lak), took quite a while to find it because it was hidden inside this sketch neighborhood, and for a sec was getting kinda worried because it looked so sketch that I didn't think our hostel would be here. However it was haha, and I was very satisfied with it and it was quite clean, and well kept, much to my liking, I would actually recommend that place, only prob is that it is quite far from everything else in Bangkok, but there is a MRT station near by so guess you can manage by that. Besides that, we were quite hungry, so went to this random mall by the mrt, and got food at the food court/hawker center there, was quite annoyed by the process of getting food there, because for some reason, they refuse to accept the cash and you have to first figure out how much your food is going to cost you, then going to the front desk, buy a cash card and put how much you want on it, go back to the stall and hand them the card. Quite unncessary if you ask me, but I was already liking the food already and could get used to the food there, since to be honest Singapore food isn't that great compared to these other southeast asian countries as Singapore doesn't really have their own authentic food and seems to just borrow food from other countries, very westernized compared to all these asian countries. Besides eating, we also tried to check out this muay thai boxing match that night, but it was ridiculous how expensive the price was about 1500 baht for the cheapest which is only $30 in U.S., but still it was really expensive in thailand, so we would decide to watch it a later day at Chiang Mai which is north of Thailand and quite cheaper there. Besides that, checked out Khao San Road which is the backpackers hotspot, filled with cheap hostels/inns/ cheap street food, and very cheap vendors to bargain for clothes/gifts/etc. So it is the tourists hotspot in bangkok, which we would end up staying in when we came back after chiang mai. oh, also bought myself a pair of fake ray bans for only $5 so satisfied. Besides that, kept the night short because we had a early mrng train to catch to Chiang Mai to begin our trekking on Monday :)

Day 2
-Basically consisted of a 12 hour train ride which took up the whole day almost, woke up at 6 30 ish, left our hostel, arrived at the station, and what's interesting is at 8am, everyone just stopped what they were doing, and stood up and paid their respect or pledge to the picture of the king and queen for a few minutes, and then went back to what they were doing. Quite interesting, and other then that, the train ride was interesting, reminded me a lot from my 24 hr train ride from tumen to beijing, except they actually served us food/snacks/drinks, wasn't that uncomfortable and since we left in the day time there was actually quite a good amount of sights to see, such as temples, mountains, random monkey jumping up and down from a temple. When we arrived in Chiang Mai, checked in at our hostel, Deejai, I was very pleased with the quality, and the friendliness of the staff for they would be helping us out quite often after our trek when we went back to this hostel for 2 more nights. Kept it easy that night, went to the local night market, looked around, and had dinner, and surprisingly ran into Xiaozhen, roberta, and jenny, haha small world though we knew they were going to be here....

Day 3-4
Our 1 night 2 day trek began in Chiang Mai in the Samueng Region where it would consist of elephant riding, trekking through the mountains, staying in a local Karen Village, and ending it off with bamboo rafting. Though I knew what we were going to see, and the itinerary, it was still nothing like I had ever imagined in a good way of course. It was quite physically daunting, clothes smelled horribly by the end of the day, mosquitoes every where and such but I still had a blast and was possibly one of the most exciting trips I have ever taken, along with the company that made this trip exciting as well. In the beginning of the trek, we were able to start off by riding the elephants which was on my bucket list in Thailand, it was exactly as how I pictured it, just riding through the forests on elephants, but I still enjoyed it and learned some new elephant language too (Heung!  It was the 8 of us, including 2 European couples whom just like us didn't know what they were getting into, for they had quite the difficult time keeping up especially with the hike in the mountains, I felt really bad for them and wished I could help them out but we were struggling a lot as it is. Luckily, our tour guide Boon was very helpful in this situation, slowing down for them, carrying their luggage, and even calling the motorcycle to pick up the couple and take them to the village where they would eventually meet us. The "hike" was nothing I have ever experienced, we basically went off road the entire time, barely any man made trails, crossed over logs, lakes, and Boon even had to cut the way across for us to get through. After all this ordeal, we eventually ended up at Karen Village or what I would like to "Animal Farm" haha, though the villagers there were very reserved or kept to themselves, they were still very friendly, especially this one adult or the head of the village I think, whose name we never got, but was very hilarious and just kept repeating his limited English phrases over and over again, at first we thought he was drunk, but he was still the same the next morning haha.....Besides him randomly singing "jingle bells/ happy burthday according to him" , and always saying "oh my buddha" haha, it was still quite entertaining for he kept us entertained a good amount of the very first night as well as teaching us some interesting games as well. There was also a bonfire at the end of the night hosted by the children from the other local karen villages as well, where they would sing to us, entertain us and ask for donations which would in the end go towards their books/clothes/ etc. I was quite surprised by how this village was basically a minority group in Thailand, from Burma, where they would speak their own "curei" I think that's how its spelled language along with thai too. Always makes me appreciate the smaller things in life, and just not to take things granted as well, seeing how there is still so many people living in these villlages in these conditions to this very day. Next morning we would head off bright and early, and say our goodbyes and slowly make our way back, reaching a nice waterfall on the way which was very refreshing and a good time to rest and grabbing lunch near the place we first rode the elephants. We ended it with bamboo rafting, which wasn't as peaceful as I imagined, as soon we got on, the workers would start hitting their paddles in the water splashing us, trying to make the other boat sink, and just all sorts of nonsense haha....Other then that it was all fun, except June cutting her feet, but despite all that, I think this trek was a success and was probably my favorite part of the trip in Thailand.
Oh, at the end of the day, went back to the same hostel (dee Jai) and then ended our day with some legit Thai Massage, which was incredibly painful, I swear my body cracked every single time my masseuse would put pressure on my body, but it was very relaxing and a good way to end the day after a long 2 day trek.

Day 5
- this was a very relaxing and calm day compared to the other days so far, but I think we needed it. In the morning we checked out the tiger kingdom, played with some tigers, petted them/laid on them and etc, despite my thoughts of these tigers being drugged, I'm pretty sure they're not seeing how playful they were at times, playing with each other, playing with toys and etc, they were just grown in a human environment and would continue to do so rest of their lives that they're just conditioned and attached to humans. After that, since our cab driver was paid for by our hostel, and would maybe gain some more money by taking us to nearby attractions, he also took us to a alligator show which was very overrated, except for the fact that I got to hold a baby alligator, and go alligator hunting, but the show was quite overrated. They also had monkey/snake shows but after the alligator show we all agreed that the others probably wouldn't be worth it. After that, we had lunch at a local restaurant the hostel workers recommended, it was one of the best meals I had in thailand because it was something the workers recommended for us, instead of us just going to a random place and ordering whatever. They even wrote it down in thai on what to order, so we just showed them the paper at the restaurant and they brought our food. from what I remember, it was some bomb northern thai sausages which reminded me a lot of soondae, pork in green curry sauce I believe, and many more. Checked out tons of temples, and end of the day ended it with Muay Thai boxing match, which seemed quite sketch, especially the entrance and that the stadium being inside a warehouse haha. Other then that, saw people my age or younger boxing, kids boxing, girls boxing, and 5 people blinded folded boxing too, so I think I got my moneys worth, probably wouldn't go again though.

Day 6-8
Because I think this is getting too long, and I'm getting tired of this, i'm going to combine the rest of the days now haha. So took a bus back to bangkok this time, thinking that bus wouldn't be bad from what I heard and cheaper as well, but I was in for a surprise. Nonstop AC/ water dripping from the ac/ ghetto graffiti marks on the back of the bus/uncomfortable seats with metal sticking out would sum up my bus ride back to bangkok. Arrived around 6 30 am fri morning, all cracked out, and raining, and 7 of us needed a hostel, and despite much trouble and hours of going back and forth, got a pretty decent hostel at Mom's guest house in Khao San Road. I was wondering why it was soo cheap, but at the end of the night, when I was trying to go to sleep, finally knew why, nonstop bumping music at 3 am might explain the reason for the price. Other then that, my trip in bangkok revolved around, eating street food, checking out random temples, getting hustled by tuk tuks, friggin hate tuk tuks now, jay and mike getting a suit, and the floating market, which might have been one of my favorite part of bangkok. The floating market was basically on a river, where bunch of boats or canoes would be lined up or rowing by selling bunch of fruits/vegetables/food/clothes/ and etc. They also had stands lined up on the side of the huts/buildings if people didn't want to go by the boat, the sight alone was very amazing to grasp since I have never seen anything like it and I thought it was a great way to end our  trip in thailand with something much more calm, away from the city.

Other then that, I think this trip was a success, despite some difficulties, and was a week well spent and ridiculous how cheap thailand is too. I think I prefer Chiang Mai over bangkok, bangkok is just way too hectic for me, and you can get quite annoyed by all the tuk tuk drivers/ vendors pestering you.

I'll upload the pictures on a new post since this is quite long. If you actually read through all this, props since this is quite long, sorry about that. Had a lot to talk about, and wanted to not miss anything.