On Top and Down Under: 10 days in Thailand and Australia
Before I left on vacation, my friend Andy in NYC said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Have the time of your life!” And it sorta made me realize that I may never be able to do this again. I mean, maybe I can, but if I plan on it then I may not—you know how those things can work out. With that, I set out to have just that: the time of my life. Of course, my cousin was joining me and he’s apparently been having the time of his life for the past 30+ years, but that’s neither here nor there and would not serve to discourage me or lessen any fun just with thoughts of being able to do this forever.
Sam came up Friday night before my departure so that he could bid me farewell the next morning. We boarded the Airport Limousine (I never have understood why they call big buses limousines...) and headed to Incheon International. I checked in, went through customs, and hopped on a Thai Airlines flight bound for Bangkok International. Five and a half hours later, I was in the very humid—and therefore somewhat comforting, even—country of Thailand. Welcoming visitors was one of the grumpiest women I’ve ever encountered: overweight and hair so tight you wonder how it’s still attached, a frowning Thai woman who loudly growled at me when I responded that I didn’t know where I was staying. She told me she couldn’t let me in unless I had a destination. Crap, I thought. My cousin is meeting me here and I can’t even make something up! “Main Street” – yeah right! So I again told her I really wasn’t sure and explained the situation. She said she couldn’t let me in. So I turned to the Canadian girl at my left (who was dealing with a much nicer servant of immigration) and said, “Where am I going?” She said, “Koh Samui.” So I turned back to the crab and said, “I’m going to Koh Samui.” She rolled her eyes, stamped my passport so hard that I thought the desk might have an everlasting imprint, and let me through. They really should work on greeting.
I went through customs and the line of waving friends for others on my flight and made it outside. My first pleasant surprise was a row of Toyotas as taxis. (The brand is few and far between in Korea). I soon located my cousin and we headed to the hotel to drop our things. We went to an outdoor restaurant (pics of this trip already emailed) where I had the best Thai food I have ever had in my life. I’ve even had Thai food since and it didn’t match the delectability of the 3 dishes we had, along with beer, for a total of about five bucks. What a STEAL! Not only that, but the humidity was enough to make you sweat within five seconds of exposure, but unlike my airport greeter in the air conditioning, our waitress was always smiling and looking like she’d just found out some great news. No wonder they call it the Land of Smiles! We walked through the area known as Nana around Sukhumvit and the Soi (pronounced “soy”) streets and saw some of the seedier areas, which seem to be preferred by my kin. We made our way over to Lumpini Stadium so that we could see a Thai boxing match. Apparently everyone in Asia who wants anything to do with boxing comes to Thailand, and after seeing these 16-year-old –looking boys beat the daylights out of each other, I guess I understand why. Next we walked around Lumpini market, a collection of small boutiques with everything from pillows and jewelry to clothes and masks. Even at prices that are considered affordable to the average American, these shop owners must have made a killing off of tourists with “I have no idea how much this is really worth” tattooed across their foreheads. And such was the end of Saturday’s festivities.
Sunday began with breakfast at the hotel before heading out to see the Emerald Buddha at the Royal Grand Palace. According to my research, it was a “must see” for the city. And it was nice, but I’ve seen about a billion temples since I’ve been in Asia, so if I don’t see another before I die that’ll be too soon. This one was particularly ornate and I took pictures of the shrine and all the excitement, but honestly, I hardly saw what all the fuss was about. I still took my shoes off and refrained from pointing my feet to the deity being respected and taken seriously by many around. We walked around the grounds and saw lots of different buildings, paintings, and statues before hopping in a tuk tuk (which is, if you can imagine, a motorcycle with a station wagon type seat on it for passengers—they’re pretty cute and a breezy ride since the only cover you have is a flimsy top to protect your head from bird droppings. They aren’t ideal if you are in the exhaust of a bus, but they’re a pretty common, affordable and fun way to get around the city) so we could go down to catch a boat tour of the lesser seen side of Bangkok. Perhaps something about this reminded me of home, Cypremore Point, or other hidden parts of Louisiana, but I absolutely loved it! And you know that when you see a dilapidated house with people sitting outside beating their rugs with a broomstick and just spending their days lounging, when somewhere in the midst of that is a Coca Cola sign, they must have one heck of a marketing department. The ride was more than an hour and absolutely enjoyable. We watched fish being fed, passed by a floating market, saw the palaces from their back side but no less decorative and, in my opinion, saw what a lot of the country was all about.
Shortly thereafter was time for my cousin and I to part, him for the airport, me for another hotel. I initially checked with the Miami Hotel, based on location and price. However, the ladyboy, (ever common and accepted and indicative of what to expect here) working the front desk made me question the establishment as a whole, as well as the safety of a white, solo, female foreigner, and thus I went elsewhere and managed to bargain the price of my room (you can bargain ANYTHING in this country!). I decided to go for a swim before heading back out into the city to shop for some souvenirs and get dinner at an Indian restaurant. I met a cute couple, the girl a native and the man from Iowa. They were new to Indian food and initiated the conversation by asking me how it all worked with the nan and roti and whatnot. We sat talking at the restaurant until closing!
The next morning was Monday and I decided to take the recommendation on reliable and trustworthy dentists of the couple from the previous night and have my teeth laser bleached. I want them to be unnaturally white, and for $130, I got them five shades lighter than they were. And from my dentist I also located a driver, whom I hired for about $25 for the remainder of the day to drive me to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand where I could ride an elephant. He waited around while I did everything, took pictures of me with the large animals, drove me to a few more temples he thought were worth seeing, and then to the airport a day earlier than originally planned. I’d had my fill of the country, my cousin managed to get me a little closer to the seedy industry than I would have liked or done independently, and an English-speaking place sounded pretty appealing.
Nine-and-a-half hours later, my second Thai airways flight touched down in the Land Down Under, with scores of people whose accents I could listen to for eternity and every native on the plane being easy to spot because of beach gear. Seriously, if they weren’t wearing tanks, flip flops, braids in their hair, the hats you always see that somewhat look like those for cowboys, or carrying a beach bag, they probably weren’t Australian.
I zipped through customs, hopped in a cab and headed to the Central Business District, where I would meet my friend at the Deutsche Bank building. I apparently looked like I’d spent the last half day in an airport, so I freshened up before going over to the Opera House area and meandering around the area to see what all it had to offer. I discovered a cathedral, a park, the Harbour, Circular Quay (said "key"), etc. I took plenty of pictures before meeting my friend again for a Thai massage and dinner at Fish Face, a pricey restaurant whose chocolate something-or-other with sorbet dessert beat any I’ve ever had in my short life—and I’m definitely a dessert person! The following day, I went out to Taronga Zoo via a day pass on the ferry out of Circular Quay. I watched a really impressive bird show by a guy who really knew his stuff. For about half an hour, he made all sorts of different birds do different tricks, including taking money out of audience member pockets. I took a ferry about sunset out to Manly beach, where I walked around checked out boutiques. I headed back after dark and got some night photos of the area—it was really beautiful. I met my friend and we went to MindBodySpirit for a 90minute session of hot yoga. And when they said hot, they didn’t mention that the instructor looked like Hugh Jackman! With an Aussie accent? Deadly, mate. After we'd sweated any remaining energy out via stretches, we grabbed my friend’s favorite Thai food in all of Sydney, for 10x the price I paid in a place that had the real stuff. It was great food, but I’m probably going to be a Thai food snob after having a meal as delicious as those in Bangkok!
So the next day it was off to Cairns (pronounced “Cans”) for me! I stayed at a hostel in a room with 5 other girls. I had roomies from France, New Zealand, Australia, England and I’m not sure where else. It turned out to be a pretty respectable group—though I spent little time with them, even the items of nearly no value that I left unlocked were still there when I returned. I booked a snorkeling and diving trip out the next morning. On the 730am departure boat I met a guy from Malta, an Italian-German, an older couple from Oregon, a cool girl from England I hung out with most of the time, another English teacher in Korea, and a recent MBA grad from Miami. My snorkeling trip was like none other I’d ever been on before. Maybe that’s because the extent of my snorkeling has been in swimming pools or murky bayous. I was amazed at the colorful coral and tame schools of fish from the first instant I sunk my goggles below the surface. Seriously! I just stuck my head under and I came back up and said, “WOW!” (maybe even aloud) and then went right back down and didn’t surface for a while. While diving, other groups saw turtles, and ours saw a sleeping shark. It was pretty cool. The boat made a speedy return to shore and we were left with the remainder of the afternoon to explore. As it turns out, the other English teacher was staying at the same hostel next door to me! So we meandered around the city, grabbed some souvenirs and dinner, and even listened to a band play oldies I recognized. I didn’t particularly care for the band, but was simply excited to hear songs I knew that I really enjoyed it!!
I flew back to Sydney the following day and helped my host prepare a formal dinner party. We got recipes from a Baton Rouge cookbook as well as epicurious.com and whipped together New Orleans BBQ shrimp, tenderloin of beef with vegetable-mustard ragout with port reduction, green beans, sensation salad, a trio of granitas (amaretto coffee, lemon-mind, and Muscat-orange blossom) and Alfajores with home-made dulce de leche. The meal turned out far better than either of us expected and seeing as there was no kimchi on the table, I felt right at home! Our entire group was 8 people, 6 of whom opted to go out after we finished several bottles of wine and port at home. The clubbing was short-lived though, except for Nick and Ali. It was really a great way to experience the life of a local in Sydney!
I journaled about all I did and realized that I had many opposite extremes to balance my 10 days: family and friends vs solo time, formal and informal events, time hiking and probably 30 hours flying, time in the water and on ferries, time exploring and time sleeping, a foreign land and language and another with many more familiarities... and so on. Sunday afternoon after having this wonderful excursion, I hopped on my plane and headed back to the country I will call home for a few more months.
Next week's installation will include a tale of the De-Militarized Zone as well as the Army Birthday Ball.
Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed
Sam came up Friday night before my departure so that he could bid me farewell the next morning. We boarded the Airport Limousine (I never have understood why they call big buses limousines...) and headed to Incheon International. I checked in, went through customs, and hopped on a Thai Airlines flight bound for Bangkok International. Five and a half hours later, I was in the very humid—and therefore somewhat comforting, even—country of Thailand. Welcoming visitors was one of the grumpiest women I’ve ever encountered: overweight and hair so tight you wonder how it’s still attached, a frowning Thai woman who loudly growled at me when I responded that I didn’t know where I was staying. She told me she couldn’t let me in unless I had a destination. Crap, I thought. My cousin is meeting me here and I can’t even make something up! “Main Street” – yeah right! So I again told her I really wasn’t sure and explained the situation. She said she couldn’t let me in. So I turned to the Canadian girl at my left (who was dealing with a much nicer servant of immigration) and said, “Where am I going?” She said, “Koh Samui.” So I turned back to the crab and said, “I’m going to Koh Samui.” She rolled her eyes, stamped my passport so hard that I thought the desk might have an everlasting imprint, and let me through. They really should work on greeting.
I went through customs and the line of waving friends for others on my flight and made it outside. My first pleasant surprise was a row of Toyotas as taxis. (The brand is few and far between in Korea). I soon located my cousin and we headed to the hotel to drop our things. We went to an outdoor restaurant (pics of this trip already emailed) where I had the best Thai food I have ever had in my life. I’ve even had Thai food since and it didn’t match the delectability of the 3 dishes we had, along with beer, for a total of about five bucks. What a STEAL! Not only that, but the humidity was enough to make you sweat within five seconds of exposure, but unlike my airport greeter in the air conditioning, our waitress was always smiling and looking like she’d just found out some great news. No wonder they call it the Land of Smiles! We walked through the area known as Nana around Sukhumvit and the Soi (pronounced “soy”) streets and saw some of the seedier areas, which seem to be preferred by my kin. We made our way over to Lumpini Stadium so that we could see a Thai boxing match. Apparently everyone in Asia who wants anything to do with boxing comes to Thailand, and after seeing these 16-year-old –looking boys beat the daylights out of each other, I guess I understand why. Next we walked around Lumpini market, a collection of small boutiques with everything from pillows and jewelry to clothes and masks. Even at prices that are considered affordable to the average American, these shop owners must have made a killing off of tourists with “I have no idea how much this is really worth” tattooed across their foreheads. And such was the end of Saturday’s festivities.
Sunday began with breakfast at the hotel before heading out to see the Emerald Buddha at the Royal Grand Palace. According to my research, it was a “must see” for the city. And it was nice, but I’ve seen about a billion temples since I’ve been in Asia, so if I don’t see another before I die that’ll be too soon. This one was particularly ornate and I took pictures of the shrine and all the excitement, but honestly, I hardly saw what all the fuss was about. I still took my shoes off and refrained from pointing my feet to the deity being respected and taken seriously by many around. We walked around the grounds and saw lots of different buildings, paintings, and statues before hopping in a tuk tuk (which is, if you can imagine, a motorcycle with a station wagon type seat on it for passengers—they’re pretty cute and a breezy ride since the only cover you have is a flimsy top to protect your head from bird droppings. They aren’t ideal if you are in the exhaust of a bus, but they’re a pretty common, affordable and fun way to get around the city) so we could go down to catch a boat tour of the lesser seen side of Bangkok. Perhaps something about this reminded me of home, Cypremore Point, or other hidden parts of Louisiana, but I absolutely loved it! And you know that when you see a dilapidated house with people sitting outside beating their rugs with a broomstick and just spending their days lounging, when somewhere in the midst of that is a Coca Cola sign, they must have one heck of a marketing department. The ride was more than an hour and absolutely enjoyable. We watched fish being fed, passed by a floating market, saw the palaces from their back side but no less decorative and, in my opinion, saw what a lot of the country was all about.
Shortly thereafter was time for my cousin and I to part, him for the airport, me for another hotel. I initially checked with the Miami Hotel, based on location and price. However, the ladyboy, (ever common and accepted and indicative of what to expect here) working the front desk made me question the establishment as a whole, as well as the safety of a white, solo, female foreigner, and thus I went elsewhere and managed to bargain the price of my room (you can bargain ANYTHING in this country!). I decided to go for a swim before heading back out into the city to shop for some souvenirs and get dinner at an Indian restaurant. I met a cute couple, the girl a native and the man from Iowa. They were new to Indian food and initiated the conversation by asking me how it all worked with the nan and roti and whatnot. We sat talking at the restaurant until closing!
The next morning was Monday and I decided to take the recommendation on reliable and trustworthy dentists of the couple from the previous night and have my teeth laser bleached. I want them to be unnaturally white, and for $130, I got them five shades lighter than they were. And from my dentist I also located a driver, whom I hired for about $25 for the remainder of the day to drive me to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand where I could ride an elephant. He waited around while I did everything, took pictures of me with the large animals, drove me to a few more temples he thought were worth seeing, and then to the airport a day earlier than originally planned. I’d had my fill of the country, my cousin managed to get me a little closer to the seedy industry than I would have liked or done independently, and an English-speaking place sounded pretty appealing.
Nine-and-a-half hours later, my second Thai airways flight touched down in the Land Down Under, with scores of people whose accents I could listen to for eternity and every native on the plane being easy to spot because of beach gear. Seriously, if they weren’t wearing tanks, flip flops, braids in their hair, the hats you always see that somewhat look like those for cowboys, or carrying a beach bag, they probably weren’t Australian.
I zipped through customs, hopped in a cab and headed to the Central Business District, where I would meet my friend at the Deutsche Bank building. I apparently looked like I’d spent the last half day in an airport, so I freshened up before going over to the Opera House area and meandering around the area to see what all it had to offer. I discovered a cathedral, a park, the Harbour, Circular Quay (said "key"), etc. I took plenty of pictures before meeting my friend again for a Thai massage and dinner at Fish Face, a pricey restaurant whose chocolate something-or-other with sorbet dessert beat any I’ve ever had in my short life—and I’m definitely a dessert person! The following day, I went out to Taronga Zoo via a day pass on the ferry out of Circular Quay. I watched a really impressive bird show by a guy who really knew his stuff. For about half an hour, he made all sorts of different birds do different tricks, including taking money out of audience member pockets. I took a ferry about sunset out to Manly beach, where I walked around checked out boutiques. I headed back after dark and got some night photos of the area—it was really beautiful. I met my friend and we went to MindBodySpirit for a 90minute session of hot yoga. And when they said hot, they didn’t mention that the instructor looked like Hugh Jackman! With an Aussie accent? Deadly, mate. After we'd sweated any remaining energy out via stretches, we grabbed my friend’s favorite Thai food in all of Sydney, for 10x the price I paid in a place that had the real stuff. It was great food, but I’m probably going to be a Thai food snob after having a meal as delicious as those in Bangkok!
So the next day it was off to Cairns (pronounced “Cans”) for me! I stayed at a hostel in a room with 5 other girls. I had roomies from France, New Zealand, Australia, England and I’m not sure where else. It turned out to be a pretty respectable group—though I spent little time with them, even the items of nearly no value that I left unlocked were still there when I returned. I booked a snorkeling and diving trip out the next morning. On the 730am departure boat I met a guy from Malta, an Italian-German, an older couple from Oregon, a cool girl from England I hung out with most of the time, another English teacher in Korea, and a recent MBA grad from Miami. My snorkeling trip was like none other I’d ever been on before. Maybe that’s because the extent of my snorkeling has been in swimming pools or murky bayous. I was amazed at the colorful coral and tame schools of fish from the first instant I sunk my goggles below the surface. Seriously! I just stuck my head under and I came back up and said, “WOW!” (maybe even aloud) and then went right back down and didn’t surface for a while. While diving, other groups saw turtles, and ours saw a sleeping shark. It was pretty cool. The boat made a speedy return to shore and we were left with the remainder of the afternoon to explore. As it turns out, the other English teacher was staying at the same hostel next door to me! So we meandered around the city, grabbed some souvenirs and dinner, and even listened to a band play oldies I recognized. I didn’t particularly care for the band, but was simply excited to hear songs I knew that I really enjoyed it!!
I flew back to Sydney the following day and helped my host prepare a formal dinner party. We got recipes from a Baton Rouge cookbook as well as epicurious.com and whipped together New Orleans BBQ shrimp, tenderloin of beef with vegetable-mustard ragout with port reduction, green beans, sensation salad, a trio of granitas (amaretto coffee, lemon-mind, and Muscat-orange blossom) and Alfajores with home-made dulce de leche. The meal turned out far better than either of us expected and seeing as there was no kimchi on the table, I felt right at home! Our entire group was 8 people, 6 of whom opted to go out after we finished several bottles of wine and port at home. The clubbing was short-lived though, except for Nick and Ali. It was really a great way to experience the life of a local in Sydney!
I journaled about all I did and realized that I had many opposite extremes to balance my 10 days: family and friends vs solo time, formal and informal events, time hiking and probably 30 hours flying, time in the water and on ferries, time exploring and time sleeping, a foreign land and language and another with many more familiarities... and so on. Sunday afternoon after having this wonderful excursion, I hopped on my plane and headed back to the country I will call home for a few more months.
Next week's installation will include a tale of the De-Militarized Zone as well as the Army Birthday Ball.
Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed
posted by LSULiv | 2:08 PM
1 Comments:
I just realized I never leave comments here!
What an amazing trip! You are so lucky to get to experience all this... and you're right, now's the time to do it. I don't know when I'd ever be able to do all this with my very limited work-vacation schedule. *sigh*
I'm always interested in the food you get to eat! I'm such a foodie, haha. My sister Jeanne is in St. Petersburg, Russia right now and she emails me about all the meals she knows I would love!
Anyway, glad to hear you are having so much fun! :)
Love, Becky
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