Singapore Day

Today, I explored Singapore by foot!  This is probably the most walking that I've done since since EBC.  It felt good!  I also went on a short (free) walking tour. I was going to go on one that cost money (but came highly recommended). I opted for the free one instead.  A few interesting things I learned:

-86% of singaporeans live in government housing. You can only live there if you are married.  Until then, you live with your parents.  If you're over 35 and single, they let you into the government housing.

-The racial mix in the government housing must be proportional at all times.  They won't let you in if the mix isn't right.

-Singapore was founded by a Brit named Stamford Raffles. Best name ever.

-You cannot buy gum here.

-Gambling in public is illegal.

Walking along the river

$1000?! Doesn't that seem a little extreme?  That's around 700 USD.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Outside the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, looking back towards the city

View of the city from the observation deck of the SwissHotel (71st floor)

Chinatown.  Looks suspiciously clean and organized, right?

Buddhist temple in Chinatown

The street my hostel is on

Singapore

I successfully made it to Singapore this evening. Unfortunately, prices have more than doubled here. I miss the cheapness of Thailand already. But, I'm excited to explore the city for the next few days!  

The rainy season is coming

This knocked out the power for a couple hours last night.

The music of Thailand

These two songs are extremely popular at the beach parties of Thailand.  AKA, you'll hear each of them at least 3 times a night.  Given that I OCCASIONALLY have the musical preferences of a 13-year old girl, I quite enjoy them.



la gente esta muy loca....hahahah

Last few days in Thailand

I can't believe that my time in Thailand is almost over!  I'm flying to Singapore on Monday and staying there for a few days.  Then, I'm headed to Bali on June 1st, and I'm SOOOOOOO excited that my friend Tatyana is going to join me for a couple weeks!

Books I've read so far:

What is the What - lost boys of Sudan
Marco Polo Didn't go There* - collection of travel stories
The Price of Everything - nerdy econ book I picked up in the airport
Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them* - the title sums up the theme
Screwtape Letters - fictional collection of letters from the devil to one of his minions
Master and Margarita* - Russian book, also about the devil
Something Blue - sequel to Something Borrowed
The $100 Startup - again, title says it all
Freedom - novel about a dysfunctional family

Currently reading: Cambodia's Curse -- Nonfiction.  A little heavy, but interesting.  And book clubbers, I know that I'm supposed to be reading For Whom the Bell Tolls.  It is next on my list.  Don't worry.

*I'll confess, I didn't finish these books and only got halfway. 

Big day

I graduated from SPF 30 to SPF 20. I've come a long way from 50!

Needless to say,

I did not purchase a drink from this stand.

  

Over here, "Sara" is actually the brand name of a drug that is like tylenol.  I'm not sure if that came in the drink or not...

Koh Phangan

I'm currently residing in Hat Yao, which is a beach on the island of Koh Phangan.  I'm staying at what might be the best place ever.  For 500 baht per night (approx $16) I get a bungalow to myself.  The resort is super-laid back and chill.  There's a great pool, so I don't even need the beach.  But, if I do, it is just a two minute walk away. The resort has a restaurant and bar, so I don't really need to leave if I don't feel like it.  Which I don't.  Unfortunately, my visa runs out on the 29th, and I still haven't decided what to do.  Now I'm thinking about Cambodia.  Word on the trail is that Malaysia is somewhat expensive, but Cambodia is ridiculously cheap.  

I've got a few days to think about it.  I have three days here, and then I might head to Koh Tao for a couple days.  The beach here is amazing.  The sand has the texture of powdered sugar.  It is incredible. 

My home for the next few days.  This is my first non-airconditioned adventure of the trip.  I think it it will be OK though.  The islands seem to cool down at night.

Awesome sunset tonight with a longtail boat in the foreground

Errand day

Today, I accomplished a number of important errands:

1. walk on beach for exercise
2. arrange transport to Koh Phagnan tomorrow
3. arrange accommodation for Koh Phagnan tomorrow
4. get laundry done tomorrow
5. Determine how to extend Thailand visa if I want to
6. lay on beach

Today.

Relaxing in Koh Samui

Safely arrived in Koh Samui this afternoon. I'm staying at a hostel within throwing distance of Lamai Beach.  Things seem pretty slow here, because it is low season, but that is kind of nice. I'm sharing an 8 bed dorm room with just one other girl.  Trying to decide what my next move will be.  My Thailand visa expires on the 29th.  I can fly directly from Koh Samui to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, or Hong Kong.  Otherwise, I would probably have to route through Bangkok.  Right now, I'm thinking that I'll head to Bali via Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.  Anyone have any suggestions?

F$&@!

Bangkok

Made it to bangkok!  My hostel is pretty sweet, especially for $10/night.  However, it is 100 degrees outside and the interweb says that it "feels like" 108. I might die of heatstroke.  I might just have to plot my escape back down south.  Or maybe just all the way to Australia -- where it is winter. Or maybe just to an air-conditioned mall or movie theatre.

Tiger Day

Today, I got to pet baby tigers.  I paid for the CD of pictures of me WITH the tigers, but I can't upload them until I get to a computer with a CD drive, so they'll have to wait.  The place was called Tiger Kingdom.  I almost didn't go, because I had heard rumors that the tigers were drugged. However, I read the reviews on tripadvisor.  There are a few places where you can pet the tigers, and Tiger Kingdom actually had pretty good reviews.

I knew I would regret it if I didn't at least go check it out for myself.  So, I hired a car through my guesthouse (for about $11) to go out there.  The facility was actually really nice--waterfalls, music, nice people, etc.  You only get about 10-15 minutes with the tigers.  You can also choose which size you want to interact with.  You can interact with the biggest cats, all the way down to the 2-6 month olds.  I chose the smallest tigers, which were also the most expensive.  Something about lying down next to a full grown tiger just seemed unnatural.  I figured that if I loved the babies, I could still go in with the big ones if I wanted.  The babies ended up being enough.  You could actually get really close to the big tigers anyway (in their cages).

I'm not totally sure that they weren't drugged.  I don't really know much about that kind of stuff. They were all pretty sleepy.  But, all cats can be sleepy and lazy when it is 95 degrees out and people are petting them.  They certainly weren't stumbling around or anything, and they looked perfectly healthy.  Overall, it was a great experience, and certainly something you can't do at home!  More pics of me with the tigers to come later.

here is a guy with one of the big tigers

my baby tiger friend

some of the bigger tigers playing with a coconut

still chasing that coconut

the "baby" tiger's paw was still as big as my fist!

Tourist Trap

So Chiang Mai is well known for its outdoor adventures.  Trekking, elephant riding, ziplining, etc. are the things to do here.  I signed up for a cooking class/trek combo for 1450 THB, which is about $45.  Not a bad deal for two full day activities including transportation.  The cooking class was a hit, but the trekking adventure wasn't.

It wasn't totally bad, just not as awesome as it sounded.  Basically, we rode around in the back of a pickup all day and got dropped off in a "hill tribe," elephant "trek," waterfall trek, and whitewater "rafting."  All of those things are normally cool, but they are less cool when you just get dropped off and simply told "OK, now you ride the elephants," or "OK, now you do the trek."

The visit to the hill tribe basically consisted of a 15 minute stop while some village people tried to sell us handmade bracelets or various other pieces of junk.

hill tribe people selling us stuff

hill town

me on an elephant!

The elephant trek was substantially long (about 40 minutes).  The elephants wandered on a trail .  You could buy bananas to feed to the elephants during the trek.  For some reason, my elephant driver (handler?) took all of my bananas (two bunches) and gave them to the elephant all at once!  I didn't even get to feed it!









The waterfall trek was actually pretty cool.  We hiked through the jungle for about 40 minutes, and got to go swimming at the end of it. It was a much needed swim, considering the heat!

waterfall at the end of our trek

"Rafting" was more like floating in a shallow muddy river.  I think we went down exactly one thing that you could call a rapid.

Overall, it was good to get out and get some sun, and see part of the countryside that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.  However, my review of Chiangmaitic tours on tripadvisor will not be good!  I'm just glad that I got a good deal on everything so I don't feel like I wasted a bunch of money!

Cooking Class

I took a cooking class in Chiang Mai, and it was awesome.  I must say, that it was the best food that I've had on the entire trip. Probably because I cooked it.  We got to cook 6 courses, and eat ALL of them.  I don't think I'll need to eat again for at least two days.  My menu included: coconut chicken soup, pad thai, panang curry w/ chicken, sweet & sour veggies w/ chicken, papaya salad, and mango w/ sticky rice. As a general rule, I don't post pictures of things that I cook or eat on Facebook or my blog.  However, there are exceptions to every rule...

chopping veggies for pad thai

making panang curry

cooking panang curry

sweet and sour veggies and panang curry

me and the instructor, with my graduation certificate

Online number

Hi friends, I set up an online number.  Hopefully this will make it easier for me to communicate with all the airlines and insurance companies about my (still) MIA luggage. (I wish I had thought of it sooner.) The number is 206-855-6733.  It supposedly accepts text messages and voicemails. If I'm online, I'll pick up, otherwise you can leave a message.

Railay Beach

I spent a few days in Railay Beach, which is a small beach town near Krabi in Thailand. It was a really chill place.  Unfortunately, there weren't too many budget lodging options, but my hotel DID have a pool, and I got my first sunburn of the trip.  For some reason, wifi was impossible to come by in railay, so I didn't get a chance to update until now.

Railay Beach is well known for its rock climbing, which I got a chance to do yesterday.  It was pretty fun!  It was the first real exercise that I had since the trek, and it was the first time I had been rock climbing in about a year. Combine that with heat and humidity, and it was definitely challenging.  I went on a 1/2 day course (4 routes).  That was more than enough!  Since it is low season, it was just me and the guide. The guide didn't really do all that much besides belay me.  It was weird...he asked if I knew how to belay.  I responded "yes," and then he just started climbing.  Good thing that I wasn't lying, because he could've died if I didn't!  We got rained out for a bit, but there was a spot on the island that that stayed dry.

Monkeys!

Chiang Mai

Safely arrived in Chang Mai! Heading out to explore. Thai cooking class tomorrow and elephant trek the day after!

Ko Phi Phi

This place is amazing.  Ashley and I stayed here much longer than we planned.  Each day we would wake up and say "Do you want to leave?"  The answer was always no--so we would book another night. Good nightlife, good shopping, good beach, and good weather. What else to you need?  We stayed May 1-6; I could've stayed longer and I'm contemplating going back. :)  Oh, and for the record, apparently I'm going to look awful in all pictures from this trip.  In Nepal, I was wearing men's  trekking clothing and didn't shower for weeks at a time.  In Thailand, I have procured some women's clothing, but I'm drenched in sweat and/or saltwater 24/7.  Not that I'm complaining....

Birthday Scuba

So, on my birthday, I went scuba diving for the first time ever. I was totally terrified to go.  In fact, Ashley asked me long before the trip if I wanted to go while we were in Thailand, and my response was "hell no." Ashley and our new friend Katie went on May 3rd.  Katie was a first timer too, and after she reported back about how cool it was, I decided that I needed to go too.  Ko Phi Phi has some of the best diving in the world--I couldn't leave without trying it.  Ashley was already certified, and Katie ended up getting her certification while we were in Ko Phi Phi. So, we stopped by the dive shop and signed up for the next day. We also ended up going out drinking with most of the dive instructors that night--awesome! If you ever go to Ko Phi Phi (which you should) I highly recommend Aquanauts.  They were great!

Here is a photo of me and Ashley underwater:

Then I was trying to pose for a picture with my guide, Chris.  I wasn't very good at controlling myself underwater.  This was one of those times when I was floating away.

And, we're back in business.

We saw SO MUCH stuff during the dive. This is a lionfish...

And obviously, this is an eel...

We did two dives that were about an hour long each. Since I wasn't certified, the deepest that I could go was 12m. That was fine by me.  I still never got quite used to it. During our second dive, the current was really strong, which made swimming hard.  However, the second dive was definitely our most scenic.  The end of the dive was actually the scariest part.  When we got back up to the top, the waves were 2M high!  Not sure if you've ever tried to get on a boat from the water with 50 pounds on your back in 7 foot waves, but it isn't easy. One of our guides hit his head on the boat, and Ashley's leg and hand got banged up a bit.  Luckily, I managed to escape without any injuries!

travel day

Headed to Chang Mai tomorrow, via Patong Beach tonight.  Hoping that it is cooler up there!

Railay Beach

Chillin in Railay Beach.  There is no wifi anywhere, so no pictures for awhile. Might head to Chang mai in a couple days

Railay

We made it to Railay Beach today, outside Krabi.  It's no Ko Phi Phi, but I think it will be OK for a couple days.  The hotel we checked into today is pretty lame, so I'll probably move somewhere else tomorrow.  Ashley leaves tomorrow :(  The climbing is supposed to be really good here, so I'm excited to check it out!

EBC pics

And finally, here are some pics from the EBC trek!

This was day one, heading over our first suspension bridge.  This was also the last day that I wore that hat in any photos. 

Our first sighting of Everest, from Namche Bazaar.  It is the one that looks incredibly small in the middle.

The last picture where we were all still relatively clean.

Group pic from the top of Chukung Ri @ 5500m. I believe the mountain behind us is Ama Dablum

The path is so well marked...

This sharpie sign is the only think marking your arrival at EBC.

Our co-pilot, reading the newspaper on our way back to Kathmandu from Lukla.

Riding in a taxi in Kathmandu.  The pollution is terrible--we weren't doing this to be funny :)

Ko phi phi

Amazing! It feels so good to be in a tropical place finally! Last night we cheered on our new canadian friends in an amateur Thai kickboxing match. Today, we laid on the beach and worked on our tans. Between that and lunch, it has been a big day. So now we are heading off for dinner and a massage!