Tok Toks in Thailand

Hello from Thailand!

The long plane ride was rough! 22 hours in a plane. We had two layovers, one in Japan and one in Taiwan. I was only able to sleep a few hours out of the whole flight! We landed in Bangkok where we spent only two days. Bangkok was very dirty; my lungs would fill with smog every time I walked outside. There are so many people in Bangkok 5.2 to be exact. There are so many street vendors selling anything you could want: food, drinks, fruit, appliances, etc. We have eaten off the street vendors and the food was awesome. Pad Thai is the best, with fresh pineapple being a close second.

One funny story from Bangkok:

Only being out in the city for about an hour I already got scammed... WE were turning the corner at a busy intersection and all these vendors start bombarding us. This one lady comes up to me and puts a bag of corm in my hand. I try to get away but she insists that I feed the birds. And so after a few moments of trying to get around her, I take the bird seed and go over and throw it down for the pigeons. Well, then she comes up with a second bag puts it in my hand and then shoves me to feed them again, I finally start catching on to her scheme, but it way too late. The lady wants me to pay her a dollar for feeding the birds. I try to walk away, and Troy was trying to help me, but she tracked us both down screaming "MONEY" at us. WE finally break away and don't pay the lady anything. But we honestly didn't have any money to give this lady. But it was a lessoned learned, I won't even take flyers now from people on the streets.

We spent the first couple days just sight seeing around the city. We visited many Buddhist temples which included seeing many famous Buddha depictions: The Emerald Buddha and the Golden Buddha. We also took a canal trip down the river in Bangkok. The water was a thick brown-no wonder they don't let you drink the water here. :) We took rides on tok toks, which are like knockoff golf carts that go on the streets. This was fun, but the drivers were all a little crazy.

Next we took an overnight bus (again didn’t sleep) down to a port city about 7 hours south of Bangkok. Here we boarded up onto a ferry which took us to Kho Tao, where we are currently. Kho Tao is beautiful, a huge step up from Bangkok. We are staying in bungalows that in the U.S. would probably cost 200 bucks a night. Everyone in Thailand is very friendly and the language barrier here isn't so bad. Most of the locals who work in restaurants, hotels, etc speak a little English.

We just got in from snorkeling, well I went snorkeling, and the rest of the group went Scuba diving. We saw tons of cool fish, and the reefs here are in great shape, not a lot of coral bleaching at all. The sun is extremely hot, but I have been wearing my sunscreen Grandma.

Tomorrow we leave to go camping in the rainforest and also to visit some caves. Should get to see a ton of wildlife!

Hope all is well in good old Ohio, and that you are all braving the winter :)

Peace,

Megan