So far Thailand has been great! While I was in Bangkok, I felt like I was at home. The way the city looked, how everything smelled, and taste reminded me of Vietnam. But it wasn't.
When we finally arrived in Chinatown of Bangkok and was fully rested and ready to go the next day, we did a lot of site seeing, mainly seeing temples. I've been to many temples in my life, and non of them can compare to what I saw. These temples were huge and designed so beautifully. The Reclining Buddha was our first stop. I don't think this is the biggest buddha statue in the world, but this thing was huge. I walked around the entire thing and went back to pray in front of it and then gave a donation to drop coins into these buckets. I've prayed so much here in Thailand its ridiculous, my mum would be proud.
When we went to go get lunch, Kanako and I were familiar with all the foods so it was easy for us to get what we wanted. For the others, they were a little nervous to try some of the food, but ended up liking them. I also go to speak to one of the people selling food in Teochew (a chinese dialect). It was a son and mother selling noodles for a livjng. Our conversation was short, but it was a nice feeling for me to be able to talk to the locals. I even got to talk to the one of the workers at the hotel we were staying at. It was an interesting way of speaking. I spoke Teochew and she spoke Cantonese, but she understood Teochew and I understood Cantonese. So thats our conversation went.
On the 24th, we left for Koh Tao. During our little stay at the train station, Kanako and I wandered off on our own for a bit. While having dinner there were these French couples having a beer and I wished I could talk to them and see what they were doing in Thailand. There was a cat just hanging around the place and I tried to lure it with a piece of shrimp that I didn't eat. The cat didn't take the bait and the French woman said, "She doesn't fancy it" or something like that. That's how our long conversation started. They were going to travel through Thailand, to Laos, and Cambodia. It was so cool! I'm really glad that I talked to them. I think they will keep me inspired to continue traveling after this trip.
Koh Tao is a very tourist area, and I thought I wouldn't like it at first. Actually, it was kind nice. The rest of the day was spent doing homework, relaxing after being on a crazy train ride, playing on the beach and snorkeling. The next day was so much fun. We went scuba diving in the after noon. The first place we dived at, I don't remember the name very well, but it was something like Shark Bait Pinnacle? When it was time to jump in my BCD and regulator weren't cooperating. When it FINALLY did start to work and I jumped in, my mask fell off and I had to swim for it. I'm a terrible swimmer and it took me a long time to get it also, I forgot the part to fill up my BCD too, which probably would have helped. Ooops.
Anyways, going down was really neat! I was really nervous at first since I'm not a big fan of the water so I held Nikki's hand. Thanks, Nikki! We saw lots of neato fish that I have yet classified, gotta get on that, and we saw at least 4 bull sharks. All within about 4-5 feet of us. It was quite a sight. At the next diving area Green Rock, I had no issues except my mask kept fogging up and I had to do a full mask flood to fill it... Not a pleasant feeling for your eyes. But we did see 2 Trigger Fish. One of them was defending its territory against the other. Also it tried to attack our Dive Master. We also got to play with Christmas tree worms. Its so funny when you wave your hands in front of them and they retract back in. It's even cooler when you can hear them go in.
After our dive we showered up and head out to town for our last night. Not too much can be mentioned about our night out, but it was a very good night. Also I will say we met a Canadian friend named Eric that hung out with us. He's going to be traveling all across Thailand for 3 months. Neato!
Our next stop was to this National Park. I can't really spell it out right now, but it was a long traveling day to get there. A few of the group members got sick including me for a bit. But my chinese did come in handy when we were at the train station. I was able to negotiate a bus ride to see a cave and for them to take us to this beach where we would be staying at. The first night at the park wasnt too eventful. I got attacked by mosquitoes and almost ripped off my legs from them. We did hang out on the beach and found lots of hermit crabs and crabs. Later that night we had a long class discussion about it.
In the morning, today, at 6, a group of us walked out to see this cavern. The cavern was an amazing sight. When we first arrived there it was dark, but it was nice to wait until there was enough light to come in from the hole in the top. You could see all of these trees that were growing only where the sun was shining. On the way back from the walk, we saw lots of Dusky monkeys that weren't far from us either. Cute little bugers.
Then it was time to pack up and go. Right now, I'm staying somewhere in Thailand waiting for dinner and then bed. We have a long hike to do tomorrow through a jungle/tropical dry forest kind of dealio at 4:30 am. This should be pretty interesting.
Till then :)
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