Malaysia & Singapore: Day Three

Hello again, everyone!

Our Sunday morning, and our last day in Kuala Lumpur, got off to a very early start. We woke up super early to get to the Petronas Twin Towers to stand in line for free tickets to go up the tower. Everyone we’d talked to told us to get there early, because the line gets long fast!

We took a taxi to the towers and got a spot in line. However, the small lobby quickly filled with people as the morning crept by slowly. We got to the towers before 6:30 am, but the ticket office didn’t open until 8:30. A security officer came by and told us that we couldn’t stand in line as a group for the sake of space, so I held our spot in line while Amanda, Maria, and Margarida grabbed breakfast. I’d already had a donut and milk, so I waited until Margarida came and took over for me. I’d started to get a little hot from all the bodies packed so tightly together, so I went and sat down with Amanda and Maria.

We finally got our tickets, but they wouldn’t admit us until 4:15 that afternoon! We tried to take a taxi back to our hostel from the towers, but our driver went the long way and we discovered his meter was increasing the rate too fast. We were being ripped off! Instead of paying around 5 Ringgits, we were being charged 30 Ringgits at the halfway point! We had him pull over as soon as possible and caught another taxi back. At the hostel, we checked out so that we wouldn’t be charged for staying past noon and had them keep our luggage for us until we got back.

We still had the entire morning and most of the afternoon to do what we wanted, so we made a trip by city bus to the outskirts of the city to the Batu Caves.

It was an amazing sight! Pulling up to the caves, which are set inside a beautiful riverside mountain, you see a gigantic golden statue of a Hindu deity. You also see the long staircase that leads to the entrance of the caves.


I balked at the climb we had to make, but Margarida reminded me that after the Great Wall, this would be “peanuts.” Keeping in mind her words, I set off with the others up the staircase to the top.

I hadn’t realized that the Batu Caves were a holy site for the Hindus, and the majority of the cave visitors were Indian. I’m not too sure about this practice and its significance, but many families carried their infants up the stairs, and the infants were bald and had chalky powder rubbed on their heads. I’m not Hindu, so I do not know the meaning behind it. I did see one adult man with his two children, and all three had shaved heads and chalk. My guess is that it is a Hindu practice comparable to a Christian baptism, but again I’m only guessing.

On the way up the stairs we also saw A LOT of monkeys! They were just hanging out and playing with one another. They seemed okay until someone had tossed a coconut to them. It almost hit one of the babies, and the biggest one (I presume the father) flipped out! He ran toward the group of tourists closest to him, shrieking. Everyone backed off quickly, and things settled down.


The monkeys were everywhere, not just on the stairs but in the caves as well. They were very fascinating, but the aggression from the papa monkey reminded me of my monkey bite in Bali, so I was cautious.

One monkey had found a bottle of milk and was trying to drink it. I thought monkeys were smart, but this one didn’t seem it at all. He couldn’t figure out how to get the milk out, even though the cap was off and he could have drunk it like a human. He managed to poke a hole in the bottom, and it began pouring out, but he didn’t drink from it either. Instead, he decided to use his hand to scoop out the milk from the top, but milk is liquid and just fell out of his hand. In the end, all he managed to do was make a mess on the ground and his face, and he tossed the carton aside.

Another monkey stole a plastic bag full of groceries from one man. I bet the food was intended for an offering or something, but the monkey got to it first. I had to laugh as the man began chasing after the monkey, but he gave up and just let it go. The monkeys had a field day going through the food, tossing the plastic bag back to the tourists.

Coconuts were everywhere at the caves. I don’t know if they had coconut trees nearby or if people had brought them from somewhere else, but either way the monkeys got a hold of one of them. They had a hard time figuring out how to open it, and although most of them gave up one was (sort of) smart and pushed it down the stairs. It hit a couple of legs along the way, but eventually it opened up and spilled coconut milk all over a bunch of tourists. Another monkey got to it before the one who pushed it. Smart idea, but a good way to lose your lunch to your buddies. Stupid monkeys…

Monkeys weren’t the only animals at the caves. There were also a few roosters, who kept cock-a-doodle-doing even though it was noon. One guy also had a snake wrapped around his arms and neck like a scarf, and he was letting tourists pet it.


The caves themselves were amazing. There were a few Hindu temples built inside the caves, which were actually in use! There many Hindu statues and paintings built into the cave walls, and it was really cool to observe Hindus worshiping and smell the incense burning. One thing I will miss about Asia, and especially the temple I live next to in Macau, is the smell of incense burning.

The cave wasn’t long; it was just a couple of large chambers before it ended. Apparently you can hike ten kilometers into the caves, but we couldn’t find that part.

The caves had openings in the ceiling, which let natural sunlight fill the caves.


The caves were amazing, but there wasn’t too much to see. We soon turned back and climbed down the stairs, where we found a group of taxis that would take us back into the city. However, no one would use their meter and would only haggle the price.

Maria fought with them until they agreed to 20 Ringgits. The only catch was that we had to go see the batik, pewter, and watch factories if they would take us for that price. We asked them why we had to go, and they said that the factories had deals with tour agencies as well as taxi drivers. The more tourists they brought to these places, the more times their name would be entered in a drawing for a free vacation. We decided, hey, why not? We had plenty of time before we had to be back at the Petronas Towers for our tour, so we went along with it.

We got to see how batik fabric was made at our first stop, and they also showed us different ways to wear batik wraps, using Amanda as a model. We didn’t buy anything, but it was cool to see how they were made. The next stop was a watch factory, but they didn’t show us how it was made. Our taxi driver wanted to take us to the pewter factory, but at that point we were tired of factories and just asked him to take us to the city.


It was still fairly early when we arrived at the towers, so we decided to do a little shopping at the mall, which is located in the first few floors of the towers. We had lunch in the food court, and I treated myself to dessert at Starbucks as we sat outside by the small lake at the base of the towers.

The time finally came for our tour of the towers, but we were rather disappointed that they didn’t take us to the top (or rather, THEY were disappointed; I was perfectly fine with that). Instead, they took us to the sky bridge between the two towers on the 40th floors. We had a fantastic view of the city from the towers, but we figured we could go to the top of any office building in the city and have the same view; it was great, but not worth getting up at the crack of dawn to wait in line for two hours.



We went back to our hostel, where we e-mailed our families before heading out for one last shopping trip. We still had to pick up some toiletries (since mine had been taken at the Singapore airport), and I needed a Malaysian Sim card to call my family while in the islands. Unfortunately, my phone wouldn’t accept the Sim card, and we wasted a lot of time waiting for the employees trying to make it work. Maria went to exchange more money and Amanda and I stopped at the ATM. We’d heard they didn’t have ATMs in the islands, so we withdrew all the money we thought we needed for the next five days.

We hurried back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the bus station. Since we still hadn’t eaten dinner, we stopped at the Pizza Hut next to the station. Unfortunately, Pizza Huts aren’t considered fast food restaurants in Asia, and we were seated and ordered from a menu like in a normal restaurant.

We made it in time for our bus after a hurried dinner. I had tried to use the bathroom at the Pizza Hut, but it was located in the mall and didn’t have its own bathroom. I wandered all over looking for the restroom, and when I finally found it on another floor I found out I had to pay to use it! I’d left my wallet in my purse, which was downstairs in the restaurant with my friends, so I just gave up and went back to the restaurant. Instead, I used it at the bus station, where I also had to pay. Luckily, I had my wallet with me this time.

After loading up on the bus, I settled in for the bumpy eight-hour ride…

Coming up next, “Malaysia & Singapore: Days Four through Eight.”

Love,
Kati

Malaysia & Singapore: Day Two

Hello again!

We woke up early the next morning and immediately checked out of our disgusting hostel. We had found another hostel on the internet the night before and decided to check it out. After lugging all our suitcases and backpacks down the broken street, we found out we were going the wrong way and had to double back in the other direction.

The only good part about getting a little lost was that we passed by the bank on our way and were finally able to withdraw money from the ATM, which closes down during the night.

When we finally found our new hostel, BackHome, we were immediately impressed. The place was clean and simple, but well-decorated. We asked to see a room before booking, and we were very impressed. A sign at the front desk displayed an award for “Third Best Hostel in Asia” by Hostelworld.com. I was extremely pleased to find such a nice, cheap place in the middle of nasty Kuala Lumpur.

After dropping off our bags in the room we immediately hit the showers. They were outdoor, but surprisingly clean. It was actually refreshing to take a nice, cool shower in the hot, humid outdoors. We had felt so dirty from all of the running and stress from the day before, and I swear it felt like one of the best showers of my life.

After our showers, we went to the front desk to ask the clerk about what there was to see in KL before we left for the Perhentian Islands. He was extremely knowledgeable, and he outlined everything we wanted to see on a map for us. He even knew how we needed to book our bus tickets to the islands. It felt like we had a free travel agent!

After a quick lunch at McDonald’s (where I had a mango McFlurry for the first time), we took the Metro to the bus station and bought our tickets to the islands. It would be an eight-hour trip, but it would leave at 9:30 the next night so we could sleep the whole way.


As soon as we got our bus tickets we hopped back on the Metro and hit the local markets the BackHome clerk showed us on the map. We figured we’d spend the day exploring the city and experiencing the culture that was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


We were very lucky to be in KL that day, because it was the “Colors of Malaysia” festival. The main festivities were in Merdeka Square (which amused my Portuguese companions, since it means “shitty” in their language). However, we saw many other celebrations taking place, including a dance performance by a young Malaysian boy outside Central Market to Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us.”


As the day went on, we realized that Kuala Lumpur was a unique place when it came to culture. While Islam was obviously the dominating religion, I also saw a large number of Indian Hindus, Chinese in Chinatown, and a wide variety of other Asian cultures present. The result was certainly a unique blend, but somehow everyone seemed to get along and coexist peacefully with one another.

In regards to architecture, KL is definitely a rapidly-developing city, so there were plenty of Western-style skyscrapers around. However, among the skyscrapers were Islamic mosques and Hindu temples, and even a couple of Chinese temples in Chinatown.


When we arrived in Merdeka Square for the main celebrations, we saw a number of musical performances, including Indian pop, Chinese ballads, and even one Malaysia’s most famous musical artists! They spoke and sang in many different languages, and I began to understand the meaning of the “Colors of Malaysia” slogan and its relevance to Malaysian culture.



After the festival we headed to dinner at the restaurant/bar street area. Every place had a person shoving menus in the faces of passerby to bring them to their already busy restaurant. We finally picked one and sat down to eat at a little table with orange, plastic stools outside. We were treated to a fun musical performance by two guitarists, who wandered up and down the street playing for the different outdoor restaurants.


After dinner we hit the KL “Times Square,” which was jam-packed with locals and tourists alike. It was a nice mall area, with many familiar Western restaurants like KFC and A&W. From there, we walked a few blocks to the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world.


The view at night is what they are most known for. They are lit up beautifully, and that is the image we most often see in photographs of the towers. It was hard to fit them in one shot, but here is my best take:


After taking a taxi back to the hostel, we found out that our 8-bed dorm was co-ed! At first it was a little strange, but we quickly got used to it and weren’t harassed at any point from them. Actually, my whole experience at BackHome took me back to my dorm days at Northern Arizona University, and I began feeling nostalgic.

We waited until the guys were out of the room before changing into our pajamas, and after setting our alarm clocks for 6:00 am we fell fast asleep, exhausted from all the walking we did that day.

Coming up next, “Malaysia & Singapore: Day Three.”

Love,
Kati

Malaysia & Singapore: Day One

Hello, everyone!

A couple weeks ago I went on a trip with my new Portuguese friends, Amanda, Maria, and Margarida, to Malaysia and Singapore. Since we had Friday, May 21 off from school for the Buddha’s Birthday holiday, we decided to extend our three-day weekend into a 10-day trip.

Yes, we missed the last week of school, but I made arrangements with all my teachers and finished all my work before leaving, so no judgments! I never miss classes for vacations!

Anyway, Friday we spent the entire day traveling. Generally I wouldn’t write an entire blog entry about my time in the airports, but this day is quite noteworthy in itself, as you’ll find out later. ; )

We woke up, packed, and took taxis to the Macau International Airport. However, when we arrived and checked in, we found out that our flight to Singapore was delayed for two hours! It concerned us a bit, since we had a connecting flight from there to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. However, there was nothing we could do at that point, so we took a taxi to Cuppa Coffee, our favorite coffee shop in all of Macau. We hung out there for a little bit and had a small lunch before heading back to the airport.

When we got into the taxi to go back to the airport, I showed him my taxi translation card to indicate that we wanted to go to the airport. We said “airport” out loud, and when I showed him the card, he got offended.

“I know, I know! I know ‘airport.’ When you say ‘airport,’ I know what you are saying, because I speak English!”

It was surprising, because most taxi drivers in Macau don’t speak much English. Sometimes you can say “airport,” and they understand that word, but generally that’s about it. Forgive me if I assume that you don’t speak English when I’m in a Cantonese-speaking country!

Anyway, we got to the airport and went through security and Immigrations. Because Margarida had contact solution that was over 100 ml, they had to discard it. She needs special solution for her allergies, so she was really bummed when they took it. She asked them to save it for her to pick it up when she returned, but they told her no.


The flight to Singapore was about three and a half hours. As it got closer and closer to the departure time to our connecting flight, we got more and more nervous. We asked the flight attendants if they could do anything for us, but all they were able to do was move us to empty seats toward the front so we could get off first.

However, that planned didn’t work out too well, since people stood up and blocked our way as soon as the plane landed. We hurried off as fast as we could, and as soon as we stepped down onto the runway we took off running into the airport toward Immigrations.

The reason we had to enter Singapore, claim my luggage, check-in, and legally exit Singapore in Immigrations was because Tiger Airways does not have connecting flights. Instead, you have to purchase two or more separate flights to reach your destination. This really hindered us when it came to catching our next flight, since our time was only twenty minutes before departure!

The line to enter Singapore at Immigrations didn’t take us too long, and my luggage had already come out when we were through. We ran outside to get to the Arrivals door, and begged the employees at the check-in counter to give us our boarding passes. Originally, they told us we would have to book a new flight to Kuala Lumpur, but we told them it was the airlines fault that we were late. They made a couple of quick calls and decided to finally check us in and give us our boarding passes.

Although Amanda, Maria, and Margarida had packed lightly enough that they could fit it in their carry-ons, I had a large suitcase with me that needed to be checked. They told me that there was no time to check it and that I would have to run with it to the airplane, which was waiting for us!

We ran through Immigrations, and luckily there was no line to get our Passports stamped. We ran through Security, and we were about to run to our plane with our airport employee escort when the man at Security stopped us.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said to me. “I need you to open your luggage.”

I tried to explain that there was no time, but he refused. I understood that I needed to comply with airline policies, especially since they weren’t used to full-sized luggage at this checkpoint.

I started getting very angry, since he demanded to take an individual look at ALL of my toiletries, putting them back if they were “okay” and taking them if they were not. I asked if he could save them for me on my way back to Singapore in eight days, but he said no, unless I paid. I asked how much, and he told me $8 SGD. I said that was fine and reached for my wallet to pay. He told me that I couldn’t do that here; I had to do it at the beginning and do it prior to the Immigration check point.

He asked to look at all my liquids, and began to take them away. He took both bottles of my (very expensive) Bed Head brand shampoo and conditioner, my special lotion for my Eczema skin condition, my Clinique make-up remover from home, my Colgate toothpaste (also brought from home), and a couple of other things I don’t remember in the rush of taking them out of my suitcase.

I that point I lost it, since my toiletries were very expensive. The shampoo and conditioner cost over $30 each, and everything else was around $15. I started slamming down everything on the counter, and things started falling onto the floor in my rush.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, you need to calm down,” the man told me.

“No, I don’t!” I shouted at him. “It’s not my fault that my flight was late and you guys made me bring my luggage with me! I’m trying to get to my flight, and you’re just preventing me from doing that!”

He didn’t respond.

I slammed my suitcase shut after I’d removed everything and took off running for our flight. Our escort ran with us and directed us to our gate, where employees were waiting to take our boarding passes. An employee took my luggage and ran toward the cargo area, which made me realize that there was no point in surrendering my luggage! And why didn’t our escort say anything to the security man?

We made it to our flight, although we sat down all sweaty and out of breath. At that point it was after 9:00 at night, and we were completely exhausted from all the stress of rushing around. I was fuming the entire flight (although it was only an hour) from my encounter with security.

When we finally got to Kuala Lumpur, we went through Immigrations and collected my baggage from the luggage claim. We tried to withdraw Malaysian currency (Ringgits) from the airport ATM, but it wouldn’t give us any money. Maria had Hong Kong Dollars that she changed at the airport currency exchange counter, so she had to pay for our taxi into the city to our hostel.

It took an hour to drive into the city from the airport, and when we finally got to Chinatown, where our hostel was, our driver got lost. We drove around for twenty minutes trying to find it, but the taxi driver had to keep stopping to ask for directions.

We finally found our hostel, Wheelers Guest House. The area was extremely dirty and “sketchy,” but our room was completely unbearable. The public bathroom was co-ed, with tiny stalls with dirt and God-knows-what-else on the floor in wet puddles. Inside our room, we expected to see cockroaches at any minute.

We left the hostel to see if we could find some dinner and an ATM, but at this point it was around midnight. The local 7-Elevens were open, but all we got was a small, hot dog-like sandwich.

The ATMs all over would not give us any money, and then we found out from the 7-Eleven employee that they closed down at night and would be open in the morning. Maria had to pay for our dinner and the hostel fee apart from the taxi, and I felt extremely nervous walking around a foreign city without any money.

Walking around KL’s Chinatown at night was a nightmare. The streets smelled awful, and we even saw cockroaches and HUGE rats running around in the streets. I saw a small, thin cat chase after a mouse, but if there was a fight between the cat and the rat, I’m not so sure the cat would win unscathed…

We decided to skip the nasty shower and just go straight to bed. I was exhausted, but my disgust with our hostel made it a little difficult to fall asleep.

We vowed to wake up early the next morning and find a new place to stay for the duration of our time in Kuala Lumpur.

Coming up next, “Malaysia & Singapore: Day Two.”

Love,
Kati

Thailand: Day Four

Sawatdee kaa, all!

For our last day in Bangkok we didn’t have much time to go do much sightseeing before the airport. However, after breakfast we made a trip to my mother’s favorite bead store in Bangkok, and where my dad is obligated to go on each Thailand visit.

We took a taxi to the bead shop, and the driver waited for us to come back, which I thought was strange. But again, the way taxis work in Bangkok is completely different from what I’m used to. The driver also agreed to drive me to the airport later to catch my flight.

The man that worked at the bead shop was very nice, and since he’s familiar with my mother’s tastes in crystals he brought out some of his finest for us to sift through. I also convinced Dad that we needed to send back something besides just crystals, like he does each time, so I picked out some beautifully-colored stone beads in different shapes to send back as well.

The shop owner even let me pick out a necklace as a gift from him, since my parents are such good customers of his shop!

On the way back to the hotel, the taxi driver tried to convince Dad to go to the airport earlier than planned to avoid the traffic from the riots of the Red Shirt political protests. Dad kept refusing, saying that his flight was much later than mine and he didn’t want to hang around the airport for so long. The driver was insistent, saying that the riots were getting worse that day.

When we got back, I wanted to stop at the end of Soi 11, the street our hotel was on, to buy souvenirs from the street vendors. However, we were very surprised to find that all the street vendors were gone. Dad said that it was a little spooky that they were all gone, and I think that’s when he decided to go to the airport early with me that afternoon.

After checking out of the hotel our former driver was already waiting for us outside. On the way to the airport his son called asking him to come home to avoid the riots. I started to wonder if things were getting bad that day, and figured it was probably a good thing that I was leaving when I was.

I found this out after I got back to Macau, but while Dad was waiting for his flight he got an e-mail from the US government warning all its overseas employees to not travel to Bangkok. I can’t help but be amused at the irony of it.

We stopped at the Starbucks in the airport to get some drinks before I had to get going for my flight. Since I couldn’t get a souvenir for my sister, I bought a Starbucks Bangkok-themed mug for her.


I was sad to have to say goodbye to Daddy and have to leave him, but I was looking forward to getting back to Macau and settled again. Unfortunately, I had a mountain of schoolwork waiting for me when I got back.

I think sometimes I forget that I’m in Asia to study, not travel. Oops!

That’s it for my Thailand blogs! I had a great time, despite the political situation affecting our plans throughout the weekend. I was just happy that I got to fulfill my long-time dream of visiting Thailand. I’m sure I will be back one day, and hopefully things will be much better when I do. Besides, I still have to see Phuket and the Phi Phi islands! ; )

Love,
Kati

P.S. Keep a lookout for my blogs from my recent 10-day trip to Malaysia and Singapore! Coming soon!

Thailand: Day Three

Sawatdee kaa, all!

We got up and went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. When the tour guide arrived, Daddy and I hopped in the van, where we picked up an English couple and a French couple at other hotels. We were dropped off at a bus stop where we climbed on a large tour bus with other tourists. However, the bus was fairly empty considering its size, and again I was reminded about the effect the Red Shirt riots were having on Bangkok tourism.

The first place we went to was Bang-Pa In Palace, which is north of Bangkok on the way to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.


Because I was not “properly dressed,” I had to put on an oversized, tacky yellow t-shirt to cover my sleeveless shoulders. I thanked the Lord that I was wearing pants that day, because if I was wearing shorts I would have to wear a sarong (wrap skirt) around the entire palace grounds.


Because of Daddy’s knee, we separated from our tour group and rented a golf cart to explore the palace grounds, but it was nice to have the breeze to cool me off. Already I was growing tired of Bangkok’s hot, humid weather. It was much hotter than Macau, but at least a bit less humid.

Bang-Pa In Palace was built in the 1800s by the royal family as the Summer Palace, but now it is not inhabited and very rarely used by the current royal family. The grounds were absolutely beautiful, and the groundskeepers keep the place pristine.


Although they had traditional Thai buildings throughout the grounds, most of the building were very European. However, there was a beautiful Thai temple that sat in the middle of a small lake, and there was even a Chinese-style building on the grounds as well.



I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the bushes, which were trimmed to look like various animals, like running rabbits and a family of Thai elephants. There was also one that looked like a man, but I'm not 100% sure...




It was great to get to the palace right at opening time, since there were very few tourists besides our group on the grounds. Since we left our tour group, it felt like we almost had the entire grounds to ourselves, just Daddy, me, and our golf cart. Admittedly, I wanted to try driving the golf cart, since I really miss driving my car back home, but I didn’t want to screw up and crash the golf cart or anything. : )

After turning in our golf cart, we stopped for a snack before our tour bus took off. I had some red dragon fruit, which you can’t find too often in the US. Honestly, it tastes fine but you can find better-tasting, more flavorful, sweeter fruits.


We left Bang-Pa In Palace and headed further into Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, where we stopped off at Wat Maha That. The ruins are very old, and there are a number of headless Buddha statues around the grounds. Apparently the statues were defiled after the Burmese invasion in the 1700s. As much as I wanted to take a picture with my head in place of one of the statues, we were specifically told it was not allowed.



One of the coolest parts of the visit to these ruins was a fallen Buddha head. It was wrapped in the roots of a tree, which had grown around it, but eerily leaving the face perfectly exposed. It’s a very famous image of Thailand, and I had learned about it in my Tourism Destinations class. It was really cool to be able to take my picture with it. But when I went over to take my picture, security personnel came over and asked me to bend down when next to the head, as a sign of respect.


After exploring the ruins, we went to an elephant place, where they offered elephant rides and elephant shows where they would perform. They had super-huge elephants, but they also had sweet baby elephants that were shorter than me! I fed a baby elephant, and he was so cute and sweet! One of the bananas was really tiny, and when I gave it to him he kept his trunk held out for another one. Like the elephants at the Siam Niramit show, these creatures were obviously very intelligent. I also watched a man giving the elephants a bath with a hose, and the elephant would get the spots he missed by using his own trunk to squirt water on himself.



Our tour bus ended with a lunch cruise down the river back to Bangkok. The buffet lunch was really delicious, and when we were finished Daddy and I went onto the deck to see the view.


On deck we sat next to a Spanish couple, whose tour guide spoke Spanish to them. I tested myself to see how much I could understand, and I was quite surprised by how much I understood. I got very excited about it, and shared what information I understood with Daddy.

From the boat we could see from miles away the smoke rising from the city center, where the riots were taking place. The Red Shirts were burning tires to create lots of smoke and keep the military at bay. But despite all the signs throughout the weekend that there was trouble going on, I still felt very safe.

When we were dropped off at the end of the cruise, we hung around a coffee shop rather than return to the hotel. At 6:00 we were expecting another dinner cruise to pick us up at the same spot. I’d heard a lot about this dinner cruise from my mom when Daddy took her a few years before, and saw pictures of my dad dancing in the traditional Thai way. It was sure to be a great time.

Before we went onto the dinner cruise I went inside the mall to use the bathroom. Dad gave me some Thai currency, and I asked why. He told me it was common to have to pay to use the restroom in various places around Asia. I thought it was a little strange. What if you really have to use the bathroom, but don’t have any money on you? What do you do?!?

Anyway, when we were finally on the dinner cruise, unfortunately, only three tables were occupied. Daddy and I had one, a Western couple had one, and a group of four older Westerners had the last table. However, the staff was very friendly, and I had an absolutely great meal (although I was afraid of the shrimp, so Dad had to take them away and peel them for me).


There was a musical performance by one girl, who played a xylophone-like instrument with floppy, rubber mallets. It was beautiful music, and I loved listening and looking at the instrument. I think the girl was happy I took such an interest in her music, especially since the other groups on the boat had really bad attitudes throughout the whole night. They hardly clapped for any of the performances, and when it came time to participate in traditional Thai dancing they refused to leave their seats. The Western couple didn’t even watch the dancing, but just stared out over the river the entire night. Why they paid for a dinner cruise and not even enjoy it, I have no idea.


A pair of girls came out and danced in different costumes throughout the night. They danced very traditionally, and to classical Thai music.


Another girl came out and danced and was joined by a White Monkey. The White Monkey seems to be a theme in a lot of Asian stories, like the performances I saw in Bali and in Beijing as well. The monkey was a jokester, and he had a bit of fun with Dad, poking his belly and laughing.


And then it came time for audience participation in some traditional Thai dancing. I was chosen to learn some Thai dancing, along with one of the older Westerners. The woman only danced a little before sitting back down, so basically I was the only one dancing. It was a little embarrassing, but rather fun. : )


After the cruise dropped us off at the end of the night, we took a taxi back to Soi 11, the street our hotel was on. We went to Dad’s favorite massage place to get some massages for fun, but it was closed down. We found another one which seemed alright, but when we were led upstairs I thought the place looked pretty sketchy. And by sketchy I mean it looked like a brothel!

Rather than have massage tables they had thin mattresses lined up on the ground, which could be separated by hospital curtains. Dad and I were lucky and got our own individual cubicles, but it still had the bed mattresses and not the massage table. There was even a sign on the wall that said (I kid you not) “NO SEX.”

However, the massage was nice. I opted for the traditional Thai body massage, since I was in Thailand, after all! I knew I would need to work out all the kinks in my body, especially before the cramped, economy-class flight back to Macau the next day.

Coming up next, “Thailand: Day Four,” the final installment in my journey to Thailand!

Love,
Kati

Thailand: Day Two

Sawatdee kaa, everyone!

Day two of my trip to Thailand got off to a very early start. I had to wake up at 5:30 am to be downstairs for breakfast in our hotel at 6:00 am. Our tour bus was supposed to pick us up at 6:45 am, but when we were at breakfast the front desk received a phone call from the tour guide. Apparently, traffic around the city was really bad, and they would be really late. Like, a couple hours late. Due to the political riots by the Red Shirts, people had to drive around the city center rather than through it, and as a result traffic was impossible.

We went back to the room, and I went straight to bed to take a nap. We went downstairs to meet them at 8:30 am, where we met our female tour guide and our male driver, who drove a large white van. I was surprised to find out that we would be the only ones on the tour that day, and again I got to see how hard the tourism industry was being impacted by the riots.

We drove through the city a bit (and even got to see the Thai Chinatown), before we got to the Temple of the Golden Buddha. The temple is quite small compared to the others in Bangkok, but we had to climb some stairs to get to the top. Dad has a bad knee which made it a bit of a struggle to climb up and down, but it was okay.

The Golden Buddha was discovered only in the 1930s, and at that time it was covered in plaster. It wasn’t until the 1950s when they discovered that underneath the plaster it was made of pure gold, making it the world’s largest golden statue. The temple that houses the statue is of typical Thai architecture, the pagoda/stupa style with the spire on top.



The next stop was the Grand Palace, a must-see tourist spot in Bangkok. While the royal family does not live at the Grand Palace, there are accommodations on the grounds for important visiting diplomats and foreign leaders. For the most part, the Grand Palace is a collection of stupas and pagodas and temples, including the temple of the Emerald Buddha.


Each time I entered a temple in Bangkok, I had to take off my shoes. Although I’ve been to other Buddhist temples in Asia, this was the first time I was required to take off my shoes. However, in other temples I was not allowed to take pictures, where in Bangkok each temple had a different procedure. In the Temple of the Golden Buddha I was allowed to take pictures, whereas I could not take a picture of the Emerald Buddha (except I was sneaky and did it from the outside). Some temples I could take a picture of the Buddha, but not with me in it. Another place, which I’ll talk about in my next Thailand blog entry, required me to kneel next to the Buddha. Thank God we had a tour guide at each temple that knew the specific rules for each statue, because I don’t know how to keep all the rules straight!

The Emerald Buddha is famous not for its size, since it’s rather tiny, actually. It’s also not known for being made from jade, since there is a more famous Jade Buddha out there. Actually, this Buddha is special because it changes golden outfits for each of Bangkok’s three seasons: Summer, Rainy, and Winter. There is a ceremony involved where the Thai king changes its outfit to match the appropriate season in Bangkok. We went when he had his summer outfit on.



I know this sounds a little disrespectful, but I think it’s really cute that he changes outfits! Like a little Buddha doll, they dress him up and change his outfits, so like Barbie, he’s prepared for any situation and occasion!

Our next stop was Wat Pho, which is a very large complex full of Buddha statues. However, Wat Pho is famous for its Reclining Buddha statue, which is huge! He’s 150 feet long and 50 feet tall! He has gold plating on his entire body and mother of pearl lining on his feet and eyes.


After the temples, we went to a jewelry store to see how jewelry is made. Thailand is known for its rubies and sapphires, and we got to see how they cut down the stones and make into jewelry. Dad let me pick one out as an early birthday present, and I got to go home with a beautiful new ruby ring!


When we left the jewelry place, they asked if we wanted to see more temples. By that time it was after 1:00, and since I hadn’t eaten since 6:00 that morning, I was feeling a little queasy. We asked for them to just take us back to our hotel, where we would grab lunch. Unfortunately, the trip home took over an hour because of traffic.

It was a great experience to see all the beautiful temples of Bangkok and all the famous statues I’ve learned about in my Tourism Destinations class at IFT. However, when I got back to Macau and began going through my pictures and writing this blog, I had a lot of difficulty figuring out which temple was which, since they all have the same style of architecture, and there were so many Buddha statues that I can’t tell them apart on my own. I had to do a lot of research before labeling the captions in my picture album on Facebook and writing out this blog entry!

That night we were supposed to go to another show, but unfortunately we found out at the last minute it was cancelled. Because the hotel where the show was at is within the street barricades where the riots are at, there was no way to get to the hotel. Instead, we just went out for dinner along Bar Street and observed the Bangkok nightlife.

After returning to the hotel, we had an envelope slipped under our door telling us that our tour for the next morning would be a few hours late picking us up. I was elated that I got to sleep in a little and not have to wake up at 5:30 am again the next morning. That night I went to sleep exhausted, despite the fact that our night was relatively uneventful.

Coming up next, “Thailand: Day Three!”

Love,
Kati

Thailand: Day One

Sawatdee Kaa! (“Hello” in Thai)

I’m so sorry I haven’t updated sooner! I meant to write my Thailand blogs before I left for Malaysia on May 21 (Buddha’s Birthday holiday). However, as soon as I got back from Bangkok I was overloaded with schoolwork. It was nice to have some homework for once, but it seemed to all explode at once, so I ran out of time to write before leaving.

Anyway, Thailand is one of the places I have wanted to go to for a very long time. My father was looking to get a job post there when I was a junior in high school, about three and a half years ago, and I was supposed to go live with him for a semester. However, the job fell through due to Thailand’s political issues at the time, so I didn’t get to go. My dad travels to Bangkok quite a bit for business, and my mom has even been once.

I’d been trying to organize a Thailand trip all semester, but it’s been a little difficult with their recent political issues. If you haven’t seen it plastered all over the news, there have been recent uprisings against the government by a group of rebels called the Red Shirts. The Thai government has issued warnings against tourist visits to Thailand due to the violent nature of the riots.

However, after speaking with my dad, he told me he would meet me in Bangkok one weekend, and that the news was exaggerating the political environment in Bangkok. We would be perfectly safe, and I would get to realize my dream of a trip to Thailand!

So on Friday, May 14 I headed to the Macau International Airport and took off to Bangkok! The flight only lasted a couple hours, but I still had to skip my one Friday class in order to make my flight on time.

When I first got off the plane, I was really happy to feel the heat. Macau weather has been awful lately; not very hot, but extremely humid and muggy. When I felt the drier heat, I was instantly reminded of home and felt very comfortable. However, I found that I liked it less and less as the weekend went by, and I realized it was still much more humid than I’m used to in Arizona.

After traveling quickly through Immigrations, I went to pick up my baggage, which came out first on the carousel. I breezed through customs and met Dad outside, and it felt really nice to see family again. Admittedly, I’ve been missing the comforts of home lately, so it was a nice relief to be safely with my dad, who I know will always take care of everything for me when he’s around.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Asia and I’ve been having a blast the past four months. But as the semester is drawing to a close I’m getting into the mindset of going home. Even though I’m used to my life in Asia, there are still daily struggles that I have to deal with by myself, so it’s nice when I have Daddy there to take care of it for me. Living abroad for many years as he has, he’s very experienced in dealing with situations you encounter when traveling. With Dad, I know things will be taken care of, and I don’t need to worry.

Anyway, after I met up with Dad we were led to a taxi in the parking garage by the driver, who had accompanied Dad into the airport. I didn’t know this, so when he asked to take my bag I refused. In Asia, there are always scores of taxi hawkers waiting for people to come out of the airport, so I assumed he was just another one of them. I was a little weirded out that he seemed to be following us out of the airport, but when Dad got in the taxi with him I figured it all out.

Dad and I caught up in the backseat on our way into the city. Apparently, Dad was worried he wouldn’t be able to pick me up on time. On the way to the airport the highway was closed off because the Thai prince was traveling.

Travelling into the city went smoothly. You couldn’t even tell that Bangkok was having political issues…until we reached the city center. Traffic suddenly got awfully backed up along the streets, but I just assumed it was typical Asian traffic, which is a problem everywhere in Asia.

But then I began seeing the groups of soldiers stationed along the roads. They were outfitted in full army gear, dressed in green camouflage and helmets, and had large guns in hand. Many of them patrolled street barricades, and behind the barricades you couldn’t see any signs of life. No shops were open, no pedestrians strolled along the sidewalks, and no cars could be seen. I asked Dad why there were barricades, and he told me that they were containing the riots so civilians wouldn’t be in danger (and more Red Shirts couldn’t join their ranks).

However, the soldiers seemed at ease, talking and laughing with one another. City life was bustling around us, only coming to a halt at the barricades. Dad said that a big-news killing had occurred only the night before, where a military sniper shot one of the Red Shirt leaders, a “rouge” general. But judging from the scene in front of me, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that any significant events like that had happened.

In comparison to my Beijing experience, I felt more uncomfortable coming out of the Forbidden City into Tiananmen Square. There, soldiers stood stiffly along the bridges out of the city, scolding tourists for lingering to long. Their red arm bands sounded off alarms in my mind, mentally shouting “Communists! I’m an American surrounded by Communists!”

In Bangkok, I didn’t feel any sense of danger. I knew it was an internal political issue, with Thais verses their own government. The riots were well-contained by the military, and as a visitor to their country I knew that I was not involved whatsoever with what was happening.

However, I was surprised to find out that our hotel was on a street just blocks away from the street barricades I saw. But the street, Soi 11, seemed completely carefree. It was actually a very Westernized street, with nice hotels and plenty of nice Western restaurants. After checking into our hotel, the Grand President Bangkok, we went across the street for lunch at a small, local grill.


As I came to find out, my dad stays at the same hotel each time he visits Bangkok, and he’s very familiar with the locals. He was introducing me to the staff, and he knew everyone by name (at least their nickname, since Thai names are crazy impossible for anyone but a Thai to say).

We went back to the hotel, where we relaxed, unpacked, and watched a movie before dinner. Dad said, “The pig comes off the spit at six o’clock.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but I found out later when we went to a German restaurant across the street.

There was a giant pig roasting behind a glass window pane. Apparently they roast a pig every Friday night, and they start to serve it at 6:00. For dinner, I ordered roasted chicken instead, but I was still really full from lunch and didn’t eat too much. But it was still extremely tasty, and I tried some of the delicious pig as well.


After dinner we went outside to catch a cab. I noticed the taxis in Bangkok were very clean and well-taken care of, not to mention extremely colorful! We were offered rides from tuk-tuk drivers, as well as on the backs of motorcycles, but we refused.



Unfortunately, the taxis don’t use their meters here. Instead, Dad bargained a price with a driver, and we were on our way to our show. I’ve noticed that each place I go in Asia has a different way to do taxis, but so far Thailand’s way was the most strange. The driver asked if we needed to be picked up (Thai people speak English quite well), and Dad said yes, at 9:30 we would be done with the show and would need a ride back to the hotel. The driver agreed to pick us up at that time and take us back to the hotel for the same price. And then they exchanged phone numbers, so the driver had Dad’s number and Dad had his cell as well. And it was not the first time this happened during the weekend, and I began to wonder how many taxi driver numbers my father has collected during his many travels in Bangkok.

We finally got to the theater to see our show, Siam Niramit. Apparently, this is “Thailand’s Must-See Show,” and the theater is in the Guinness Book of World Records for their impressive theater, which has 2,000 seats, a long stage, and even a river that they interact with during the performance.


At the entrance, we were greeted by a woman dressed in a traditional Thai dancing costume, and she pinned flowers to our shirts and took pictures with us. We proceeded into the venue’s courtyard, where we spend a few minutes browsing the unique souvenir shops.

When I entered the courtyard, I was rather taken aback to find myself face-to-face with an elephant! After sitting down for a bottle of water, I begged Dad to let me feed the elephants, which was only a dollar for a basket of small, sweet bananas (which they eat without removing the skin, by the way).

I had a blast feeding the elephants! They’re very intelligent creatures, and they’re obviously used to being fed. As soon as they saw the basket of bananas in my hand, they instantly reached out their trunks and waited. I wasn’t really sure how to feed them, so I just held one out and waited to see what would happen. One of them wrapped the end of their trunk around it and popped it in his mouth. I was impressed with their dexterity, since the bananas are quite small for their large trunks. They were actually quite impatient, since they ate quickly and I had to feed the two of them only one at a time. They would reach out to take it from the basket, but I had to yank it away out of their reach. I wished I had more bananas, since they seemed to run out too fast, and I was having so much fun interacting with the elephants.



After the elephants we sat and watched traditional Thai dancing performances in the courtyard before the show began. When we were called inside for the show to start, I was asked to check in my camera, which is their standard procedure. I wasn’t really comfortable with giving up my camera to strangers in Asia, and I actually asked them, “Do I have to?” But I got it back in one piece at the end of the show, so my concerns were abated when it was safely in my hands again.


The show itself was spectacular! It was a performance of ancient Siam, the former title of Thailand. It was a performance of its history with amazingly beautiful backdrops and scenery and remarkable costumes. However, the theater, which seats 2,000 people, was not very full, and there were probably only around 100 people maximum. It was my first glimpse at how much tourism in Bangkok has been affected by the Red Shirt riots. I was surprised to see so few people, because Bangkok is completely full of Westerners, much more than any place I’ve seen in Asia so far.

At 9:30 our taxi driver was waiting to pick us up, and he dropped us off at the hotel. He had to go the long way to avoid the street barricades, but otherwise the ride home went smoothly.

Back at the hotel, Dad told me he had a jam-packed schedule planned for the weekend, and that we were waking up at 5:30 am the next morning! After calling Mom (and complaining profusely about the injustice of waking up so early on a vacation), I took a quick shower and went straight to bed, excited about the mysterious itinerary Dad had planned for the next day.

Coming up next, “Thailand: Day Two!”

Love,
Kati