Category: Thailand (1999)

Today was the coolest day. We arrived at the sister hotel on the beach, and got to play in the pools. I had a good lunch, and then headed for the beach. It was so sunny and great. I had about 100 dollars left, so I bought some more CDs and spent the rest on jet skiing and parasailing. I parasailed first, and it was soooo cool. I’ve always wanted to do it, and I finally got the opportunity to, and I am so glad I did it. It was so amazing. Your view is only the air, you don’t see any strings attached to you, and it was soo awesome!! So, after doing that, we all got jet skis and were out in the bay for about 40 minutes. It was so much fun–so much that I might consider getting one when I get home!! That day went way too fast though, and we were rushed for dinner, because Maya and I had to go to the airport that night. Most everyone else was staying–to do Bangkok–since they came later than us. We had a really nice dinner, and it was hard to say goodbye to everyone–most of who I might not see again ever. SO, we were off to the airport, and boarded the plane, and flew back to Bangkok. The only bad part, is we arrived at about 11:00pm and had to wait for our flight back to Tokyo the next morning at 7:00am! But, I used the internet some, and the time passed quickly. So, we flew back, and it was a nice flight, but boy were we ready to be back at Sakura Heights! When we landed, we got out and got on the train back to Tokyo. After a 3 hours of traveling again, we finally arrived, and it was so nice to be back and have a hot shower and sleeepppp!! All and all though it was one of the best experiences I’ve had, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see Thailand. It is just the beginning though of all my Asian travels this year!!

The next morning, we boarded a bus that took us to a temple that had tons of monkeys!! That was a lot of fun! We then went on a boat down a river for a while and the mountains were sooo cool!! We stopped at a dock on some random island and had lunch. We then took the boat back, and went back to the hotel, then out to Pathong Beach where I found a lot of good cds again. We ate a great dinner at some restaurant. We then took the bus back to the hotel.

The next morning, a couple others and I got up early to visit the market where Pop’s aunts have worked every day for the past 20 years to sell their food. We went to buy food for the monk that comes every morning. The food consists of a meat, rice, and dessert, and it is to signify a meal for yourself in your after life. So, everyone brings out a meal everyday for the monks to ensure they have food in their after life.

This morning, I woke up at 6:00am to see the aunts at work. The aunt’s worked every day of the year since they were teenagers at the local market. I mean everyday–these were the first days they have not worked in years…and knowing that, I felt a lot toward them. They had both really hard lives growing up. When Pop’s mom was born, the mother died giving birth. The father, soon after died, at which the 17 year old daughter–Pop’s aunt, had to take care of several children–including about 3 boys who were stolen from her to work for someone else. I don’t believe she knows anything of them from that point on. So, the 17 year old raised Pop’s Mom, along with the other sister. She worked everyday making her food and going every morning to the market from 3 to 8, selling her food. As she was raising her siblings, she would be so scared at night, that she would take medicines to calm her–which has now caused her to go practically deaf. She is not allowed to leave the country, and is almost a prisoner in Thailand due to her work not being important enough to come back to. Quite a sad story, and I don’t see how anyone couldn’t be affected by the kindness they showed us during the entire time we were visiting. Beautiful ladies they were. So back to my story, at the market, we bought a meal–to give to the monks that come by in the morning, every morning at 6:50 sharp. So, you buy a meat, a rice, and a desert–giving it to the monk will ensure you have a meal in your next life, so most people give every morning…feeding the monks who come, and those back at the temple. It was definitely a sad goodbye at the airport. They had been so great to us, and I for one was really sad to say goodbye. Here we also had to say goodbye to Whitney–she was going to stay in the North a little longer, and then later go to Laos–who knows where she is now!! Now on the plane to Phuket, it was so nice to see the ocean and shore from the plane. We arrived at the airport, and met up with 3 Japanese girls that Monica knew. We then took a bus to the hotel with all our stuff, and got in our rooms. We were in Phuket town, so not too close to the beach–a 30 minute drive. Most people when we arrived wanted to take a nap. We just hung out the entire night.

We took a cab with ALL our stuff to the train station to meet up with Pop and everyone. Surprisingly everyone was on time! We were really glad to see everyone, and we knew then it would be such fun with everyone for one last time. We boarded the train, and got situated for the 12 hour journey ahead of us. Needless to say, we passed a lot of interesting country sides–again reminding me of my trip to Russia, how I had to ride the train for 20 hours instead, but just as interesting. The landscape was really interesting, with mountains and fields everywhere. We finally arrived at night, after a nice ride–we all got to renew our friendships again, and got to know everyone a little bit better. I especially enjoyed my talks with Whitney, who will be writing a book soon about her life experiences including some interesting stories about her mother’s life as well. Such an interesting girl. We were greeted at the trainstation by the 2 aunts and a cousin of Pop. We were all shoved into a small open back truck, which ended up to be our main way of transportation…so Thai!! We got to our guest house, properly named, Ben’s Guest house, got our rooms, which were really nice. I mean, it should be since we paid a whole dollar fifty. =) So, we went back out with the cousin, who was about 28 or so, and went out to a restaurant on the river. It was really nice, and I had a great brownie sundae–that chocolate fix again. We came home, by that same mode of transportation, and got to bed.

While the other kids were sleeping I went out to the market behind our hotel, and bought some movies and cds. They are of course black market, but hey they were cheap! That afternoon, we went to the weekend market. A huge place with all sorts of blackmarketed goods. So we all bought our little Oakley bags, fake stuff left and right. We then headed back to the hotel, and went to Thai Boxing. That was really cool, but we had to cut it short because Maya and Julia had to go back to the suit place to get fitted. So, after not remembering where the place was, we went back to the hotel so the girls could call and tell them that they weren’t coming, and they needed it delivered. Surprisingly, they agreed, and brought it right to the hotel. We then packed up and got ready to leave with everyone the next morning to Chaing Mai.