Day 53 (03-12-09)

Karaoke Night was tonight. It’s one of the big events that my planning committee is responsible for here on the ship. I was supposed to be the emcee, but I still lack the energy and voice required to do such a job. No worries, maybe I’ll host the dating game next month. It was a good show though. Some great acts, some terrible ones. That’s what makes karaoke so much fun.

I’m thinking that I’ll start posting pictures again in the meantime between Thailand and Vietnam. Again, sorry for the delay between uploads… hopefully I can just have a mass session where I get all of South Africa, Mauritius, India, and Thailand done at once. We’ll see.


Day 54 (03-13-09)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today we had our cultural pre-port meeting to gear up for Thailand. I’m actually pretty excited about it, and recent developments have made me even more so. There’s a city in northern Thailand called Chiang Mai. It’s pretty far from Bangkok, but it’s the gateway to most of the jungle trekking that takes place in the country. I just found this unbelievable deal online that includes:
-Overnight bus ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (6pm-6am)
-3 day jungle/mountain trek with English-speaking guides
-2 nights accommodations in jungle with tribal villages
-All meals
-Elephant riding/bamboo rafting/white-water rafting in jungle
-Overnight bus ride back to Bangkok

Grand total: 2200 Thai Baht. Translation: 64 American Dollars. I was looking up treks last night and this one was buried somewhere within the depths of the Google search. I e-mailed the company and its British owner sent me a very quick response.
A few hours later, there were 5 of us booked on a trip up north. It fell into place quite nicely. Problem though: How do I get to Bangkok? Our ship is docking at an industrial port in Laem Chabang because the port in Bangkok isn’t large enough to hold our ship. Unfortunately, Laem Chabang is 2 hours away from Bangkok, and taxi service to the city isn’t easy or cheap. Plus, the bus we need to take leaves at 6pm, and I already have a trip planned with SAS that lasts from 12:30pm-5:30pm. It’ll take some maneuvering, but I’ll figure something out.

Day 55 (03-14-09)

Halfway. The trip is halfway over. 54 of 108 days have passed. What have I been doing? There’s no way it’s possible. From now on I can’t say, “Oh it’s fine, we still have over half the voyage left.” We don’t. Not anymore. It’s the homestretch. The final countdown. The end of the world as we know it. And guess what: I don’t feel fine. I’m not okay with this. Can we just turn around when we get to Guatemala and do it again? That would be okay. Summer is overrated anyway. Who needs a job at Dorney Park? Dominator will still be there when I come back. What’s the rush? And money is overrated, too. Plenty of travelling can be done with little to no money at all. I’ve seen people live in boxes and slums, begging on the street and still getting by, day-to-day. A bunch of crafty Americans could certainly do the same with even the smallest of budgets. Come on. Please? Maybe? *Sigh*

Alright, I think I did it. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to get to Bangkok without even sacrificing my plans on the first day. Here’s the scoop. First day in Thailand: SAS trip to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. See a tiger show. Feed a tiger cub. Hold it. Make my friends jealous. Etc. From the tiger zoo, I’m leaving the group early. Here’s where it gets tricky. I hired a private chauffeur online to pick me up at the tiger zoo and take me to the touring company in Bangkok. The company confirmed online that they processed my request, and a driver will be waiting for me at the zoo at 2:30pm. I have no cell phone to contact them. I have no real idea of what I’m looking for. But I’m just going to wing it and hope the dude shows up. Otherwise, I’m royally screwed. And if you’re judging me for taking a chauffeured sedan: chill out man. It’s Thailand, taxis aren’t the greatest, and they certainly aren’t reliable. Plus, it’s a 2-hour drive. And it’s still cheap compared to what I’d pay for the same service anywhere outside of Southeast Asia.

Stayed up really late again tonight. Oops. Not like India, though. No 5am crashing this time around. Maybe 3am. But. We were outside in the 75-degree weather. Staring out at the lights coming from other ships. And from the shore. And I was thinking about how absurd this whole concept is. I’m on a cruise ship. We’re about to dock in Thailand, after coming from India via Singapore. Are you @!$%$& kidding me right now? Am I living in some alternative past life as Magellan’s spoiled sidekick? This isn’t real. Thailand tomorrow. Thailand. Thailand. If you say any word for long enough, it doesn’t sound like a word anymore. It’s just a blur. Inconsequential. Nonsensical. My experiences have been the same. Replaying them over and over again. Taj Mahal. Shark diving. Sahara Desert. Chocolate con Churros. Safari. Ocean. Beach. Mountain. Europe. Africa. Asia.

This isn’t real.

Day 56 (03-15-09)

Happy Birthday Kelsi!

There’s no diplomatic briefing this morning. And my trip doesn’t leave until 12:30pm. I love sleep-in days. I got my passport from the Union and grabbed my giant pack-o-stuff. Clothing for 5 days. Camera. Sleeping bag. Let’s go. I met up with the other 95 students going to the Tiger Zoo and we boarded the buses to Sriracha. Our Deans weren’t kidding: Laem Chabang is in the middle of nowhere. It’s a giant container ship port (20th largest port in the world) and there’s not much sightseeing to do nearby. Container. Crane. Cargo ship. Military building. Dirt. Barbed wire. Nothing says “Thanks for visiting Thailand” like all of the above. Now: Tiger Zoo. It was actually kind of sad. It was a great concept and an even better tourist draw: Take a few dozen tigers, 10,000 crocodiles, some elephants, orangutans, scorpions, wallabies, and pigs, and have them perform interact with the guests. The tiger show was interesting, but the animals didn’t seem very happy to be there. They kept swiping and growling at the handlers. They’d sometimes run away from them. I might be reading more into it, but they just didn’t seem like happy zoo animals. The small animals were fun though. I broke from the group early and wandered over to the tiger cub center. Here, I was able to hold/play with/feed a tiger cub for a few minutes. He was a playful little guy. He kept trying to put his front paws on my shoulders and then handlers would just grab his tail and pull him down. Then I got some warm milk in a bottle and held it up for him while he sat on my lap. It was great. Next up: Crocodile. They had a 3 or 4-foot-long croc and a foot-long baby croc there to hold. They tried to take my picture while holding both, but the little guy was too feisty and kept running up my arm. So I just held the big guy for a little while. Their mouths were taped shut, so it wasn’t dangerous. But it would’ve been sweet if they weren’t. And I was just holding on to a couple of crocs with mouths agape. I’m not a smart person sometimes, I know. Moving on.

Afterwards, I checked out the rest of the complex. The park owns 10,000 crocs and I’d say most of them are on display. I’ve never seen so many crocs in one place before. They were in the water, on logs, on the grass, all in droves. Crazy. The saddest thing I saw, though, was the bench with the orangutans. I saw them sitting on the bench and thought it would be great to sit between them and have my photo taken, and it was fun. Woo hoo, who does this? I’m sitting between orangutans! But then I looked at the photo and I stepped back to look at the animals, themselves, and they didn’t look happy at all. Why should they? They sit on around all day and wait for idiot tourists like me to come up and pose with them. They aren’t hanging from trees in their natural habitat. They’re sitting on a bench like puppets while their handlers move their limbs into photogenic positions. No bueno. And there was a scorpion lady exhibit, too. Basically, it was a depressed Thai woman with 30 scorpions on her shirt. You could have a photo taken with her and have some scorpions put on your own shirt as well. But I had already paid for the other 3 tourist-trap photo-ops, so I opted against it. All in all, the trip gave me some great photos, I just wonder about the conditions and maintenance standards of the place.

Moment of truth. It’s 2:15pm. I head outside to the parking lot/taxi drop area to see if my driver came a little bit early. No luck yet. So I wander around the gift shop for a little while. Check out the food stand. Oh look, a Thai delicacy: Crocodile penis. Pass. 2:30pm. Time to go. Nothing. I ask the taxi drivers if they’re familiar with the company I’m using. They’re not familiar with the English language I’m speaking. No help. 2:45pm. Where would I be if I were a fancy car driver? I’d be standing at the exit with a sign that says “Christopher Deatrick.” Or a sign that says “Christopher Deatrix,” like my confirmation e-mail. 3:00pm. The SAS group is leaving in 20 minutes. I guess I’ll just have to go with them. It’s a half an hour past our meeting time. There’s no one here. I’ll have to find other people on the ship that don’t have travel plans. We can probably just split a cab and spend a few nights in Bangkok. I didn’t pay for the private driver or the Chiang Mai trip yet, so I’m in the clear financially. Oh well. 3:15pm. I guess I’ll walk back over to the entrance where the SAS people are meeting in a few minutes. Hey, who’s that guy in the suit? It looks like he’s waiting for someone. He just checked his cell phone clock twice in 2-minute period. “Excuse me, are you a driver? You are? Are you waiting for Christopher Deatrick?” Hallelujah. Miscommunication. He was at the entrance. I was at the exit. I wandered all around the outside of the complex, the taxi pickup, bus pickup, parking lot. Everywhere but the main entrance. No worries. We’re rolling now. I’m on my way to Bangkok. 2 hour drive. Plenty of time. Air-conditioned sedan. Big back seat. Cold water. Nap time.

Holy crap, Bangkok is big. Sprawling is probably the best term. I had no idea. This city just goes on and on for miles. The freeway that runs through it (or over it) is really nice, too. We make it to Khao San Street and I find the touring company. It’s not even 5pm yet. My 4 fellow travelers haven’t shown up. Here I’ve been worrying about my trip this whole time and I wind up here first. I hope they find the place okay. I mean, a 3-day jungle trek would be fine by myself, but it’s nice to have some familiar faces. After some walking along the vendor-infested street, I made it back to the touring company and my friends had arrived. We changed the itinerary of our trip to a 2-day/1-night trek, and a 1-night stay in the company’s hotel in Chiang Mai. This allows for the 18th to be a completely free day in the city before we pick up the bus to Bangkok that night (and we’d later discover that this was by far the best choice we could possibly make). 6pm. Bus ride. Overnight. On a tour-style bus. No special amenities. Just a seat that reclines. Air conditioning. A toilet. And 12 hours of fun. Long. Atrocious. Hilarious. Uncomfortable. Sticky. Banana Chips. Wake up, it’s morning.

Day 57 (03-16-09)

We get off the bus and they transfer us to their hotel/Chiang Mai headquarters. Here, we’re given 3 hours in a hotel room to nap and shower before our program starts at 9:30. Awesome. By the time 9:30am rolls around, we’re all tired already. But it’s time to move. The five of us hop onto some benches in the bed of a covered pick-up truck alongside a couple of vacationing guys from Quebec, the newlywed Israeli couple, and a South Korean kid that didn’t say much. It was a good group. We ventured forth to the town of Pai, northwest of Chiang Mai. Stop number one: Orchid Farm. They grow orchids. The orchids are big. We looked at them. Self-explanatory. Stop number two: Snake Farm. They house snakes. There are snake shows. A guy pisses off king cobras and then kisses them. Then he shows you that the snakes are still poisonous by opening their mouths and squeezing the venom into a jar (Kelly, I know there’s a difference between poison and venom, but I don’t remember it… try not to cringe whilst reading). Snake Man then did a demonstration with water snakes, then jumping snakes, and finally, the Burmese Python. Burma (now called Myanmar), shares a border with Thailand on the Northwest side, and these pythons can be found all around the area. The python crawled into this seemingly small water area in the floor. So Snake Man went after him… by doing a nosedive into what was actually an 8-foot-deep water pit. They splashed around for awhile before Snake Man came out of the water with the snake wrapped around his neck. He looked rather uncomfortable… pythons are constrictors, after all. After all this cutesy nonsense was over, we got down to some serious jungle trekking.

Well, we got lunch first. At the base of the mountain, they cooked us some rice and noodles and it was delicious. Oh, I forgot to mention breakfast at the hotel. It was a banana pancake with honey. I was thinking banana pancake would be some ghetto flat pancake with a banana on the side. But no. Big fluffy pancake with banana baked into the batter. Delicious. And the Pad Thai at lunch was incredible also. The thing about Thai food: It’s amazing. A professor on the ship gave an intro about it and said that while living here she’s never had a bad meal. I agree. This entire 5-day stay in Thailand: never a bad meal. Not to get ahead of myself, but yes… I love Thai food.

We started up the mountain with our packs on our backs and our bamboo walking sticks in hand. It seemed a bit ridiculous at the time to have bamboo walking sticks. But they really helped a lot in the long run. It’s the dry season here, so much of the jungle flora and fauna weren’t in their peak lushness, but that’s okay. It was still jungle-y. Lots of big banana and coconut and pineapple trees. Some snakes here and there. Streams. Waterfalls. Mosquitoes. Oh man, mosquitoes. They’re huge. And they’re everywhere. When it’s 85 degrees with as much humidity as you can get… they show up in droves. Some people on this trip were eaten alive. One girl got 30-40 bites on each leg, plus wherever else they were. But, for whatever reason, I am still a mosquito’s worst enemy. I never get bug bites, and this continued in Thailand. Unscathed. Zero. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I taste bad. I won’t complain.

3 or 4 hours later, the sun was setting over the mountains as we finally reached our camping destination. Tonight, we stay with the Lahu Tribe in their village. The Lahu have been in this jungle for over 30 years now, after migrating from China into Myanmar, and finally into Thailand. They showed us to our lodgings for the evening: a big summer camp-style, one-room bungalow with 20 thin mattresses on bamboo perches. Oh, and the entire bungalow is about 6 feet off of the ground on the front side. It’s up on bamboo stilts. I thought that was weird until we went to the other side. The building is built into the side of the mountain. The back half of the building is about 25 feet off of the ground. So we’re just cantilevered over the mountainside for the night. Awesome. Dinner: fried chicken and rice with potato soup. I had fourths. Fantastic. The evening concluded with a fireside sing-along with our guides and the village children. We all sang our respective national anthems (except for the 2 Canadians who didn’t know theirs… they said they only ever sing it at hockey games). And after some hilariously terrible renditions of Under the Bridge, No Woman No Cry, and Zombie, we went to bed. Another full day tomorrow. Yikes.

Day 58 (03-17-09)

9am wake up. Great night of sleep. Big pancake. Watermelon. Pineapple. Mango. The fruit here is so sweet. Reluctantly, we start the climb back down the mountain. Jell-o legs kick in immediately. Why s the climb down harder than the climb up? Maybe I’m tired from yesterday. Maybe the giant bag on my back alters my center of balance. Maybe my up-climbing muscles are toned better than my down-climbing ones. Who knows. But today’s trek was rough. After an hour or two, we reached a huge waterfall, nestled in the rock, secluded from everything. We stopped for a swim and “shower.” I can honestly say that I’ve never felt as disgustingly sweaty and dirty as I have in these past two days. The hiking. The dirt. The humidity. The water. The bugs. The sweat. The air. All of it. Add a night’s sleep cycle to let it all soak in, and I am one gross kid by the start of today. And then I started it all over again. Beautiful. The waterfall was refreshing, and another 2 hours of less strenuous hiking followed until we made it back to the elephant village for lunch. We had some Pad Thai, and it was glorious. After 3 plates of food and some more pineapple, it was time for the elephant ride. We rode like kings on the back of our elephant all the way around the complex. Up the hill. Over the river. Through the woods. Didn’t make it to grandma’s though. Next up: white water rafting. It was pretty lame, but comical. Rapids were only class 2 and maybe some 3s. And the river was really shallow, so we bumped into rocks a lot. But it was still fun. When the water calmed down, we switched over to a bamboo raft and floated lazily down the river for another 40 minutes or so. And it started raining. Just a light shower as we meandered downstream. It was perfect. But then it ended. We got out of the water and back into our pickup truck for the drive back to Chiang Mai. Once there, we got our hotel rooms, showered and napped. Great nap. I love naps. They were so overrated back in high school… seriously, who wanted to nap in high school? But then I rediscovered them in college, and now I can’t get enough. They’re the best. Anyways. We got some dinner at a little restaurant up the street, and the sour pork with rice was delicious. As was the dessert: Banana Split sans Banana. It was supposed to be a banana split. But there wasn’t any banana. Vanilla/Strawberry/Butterscotch ice cream with butterscotch sauce. But no banana. Weird. There were some other SAS kids in a vegetarian restaurant that we passed on the street, so we stopped to talk to them for a little while. We found a 7-Eleven (it wasn’t hard… 7-Elevens are everywhere in Thailand. They’re like Starbucks in the States. There were multiple intersections that actually had 7-Elevens at 3 of the 4 corners. Craziness). I got a phone card and called home. We got some snacks. We were trying to find a bar or something keep us occupied for next couple of hours, but then it started to pour rain, so we just went back to the hotel lobby with our snacks and crashed for a little before bed. We said goodbye to our Canadian friends, as they were leaving the next morning for Bangkok. Chiang Mai awaits tomorrow.

Day 59 (03-18-09)

Wake up. Breakfast. Banana shake. Pancake with mangos/bananas/strawberries on top. What to do today? Wander. We split up to walk around the city at our leisure. Saw some temples. Saw some monks. Lots of great little shops. There was a really cool art shop that was maze-like. Narrow walkways, split-level staircases. Trees growing out of the floor that you had to duck underneath as you went. Plus, it had great artwork. I found a chocolate shop in the old city called Chocolate Fact. It was very modern and my Caramel Chocolate frappe was tasty. The chocolate had more of a bitter taste than what I’m used to… not that super-sweet Hershey’s or something. But it was very good nonetheless. 1pm. You know what time it is? Cooking Class. 3 of us decided to book a cooking class at the vegetarian Thai food place from the night before. It was great. 4-hour class. They had all of our ingredients set out for us. Then they took us through each dish, step-by-step. We got to do it all ourselves, with them watching the whole time. It wasn’t like they did the work while we had minimal participation. Oh and we made 11 dishes between the 3 of us. 2 appetizers. 1 soup. 7 entrees. 1 dessert. When we were finished, our other 2 friends joined us and we ate it all. Best 11-course meal I’ve ever had. Highlights: Spring rolls, Heaven rolls, Pineapple fried rice, Pad Thai, Sticky Rice with mango. Incredible. I’ve decided that I need a rice steamer. I’ll just make steamed rice and sticky rice all the time. It’ll be great. Mmm… carbs. After dinner, we had to catch our bus back to Bangkok. 6pm-6am again. Joy. Except this ride was worst than last time. Same bus. But I couldn’t sleep. Grand total of 20 minutes of sleep, judging by the songs I slept through on my iPod. And instead of the 3 stops we made on the trip up, we only stopped once this time. So we got back to Bangkok early…

Day 60 (03-19-09)

…It’s 4:45am in Bangkok. Now what? The usually bustling Khao San Street is empty. The city is dark. The homeless are sleeping peacefully as we walk past. We found a café inside of a travel agency that was still open. So we stopped for food. I had some Pad Thai at 5am. I love dinner for breakfast. Is it breakfast? What day is it? What time is it? Where am I? Delirium. After food, we found our way to an internet place, and snagged some time online. Talked to dad for the first time. Tried to call sister, didn’t work. Skyped with Kelsi. It was pretty successful and it killed some time. Now. 8am in Bangkok. What to do? There are a lot of Buddhist sites to see. Some monuments. Some markets. But we couldn’t agree on a specific gameplan. So we split. Some people wanted to take a water taxi around the city. Some wanted to see certain things. And I was in my typical “let’s just wander around and find stuff” state of mind. So I did. I had a few hours to walk the city before I had to be at the bus pick up location, where that was. Our bus was stopping to get us at some giant shopping mall in the center of the city. I started walking in that general direction and stopped anywhere along the way that caught my eye. There was the Democracy Monument, the Palace and Temple for King Rama III, Bangkok City Hall, and the Golden Mount, which is a really big temple on top of a hill. I hiked the stairs to the top, grabbed some pictures, and left.

A little while later, I saw a street behind the main road with several people on it, so I veered off course to see what was happening. It was a rundown street in the shadow of tall buildings. The same type of street that can be seen in any big city. Its inhabitants were just going about their daily lives. Washing their clothes. Reading newspapers. Selling some food. Living the simple life, whether by choice or by circumstance.

It’s really hot outside. Not that that’s surprising. But it’s impossible not to notice, and still worth commenting on. I’m walking down the street towards the shopping mall, which is still a few miles away, and I hear my name from close by. I look up, and a friend of mine is in a taxi asking if I need a ride somewhere. I politely decline. My bag is heavy and my back hurts. It’s hot and miserable outside. The street signs are in a foreign language. I think I’m heading the in right direction, but I can’t be sure. And still, getting in a taxi is the last thing I want to do. Why let the city pass me by through the window of a taxi. What if I want to stop in a craft shop? What if something catches my eye down a side alley and I want to explore? I can’t do that in a taxi. All I can do in a taxi is listen to my driver try to rip me off in broken English. No thanks.

I finally made it to the shopping district, and it was unbelievable. At least 5 malls were just thrown down right next to each other. The smallest was 5 stories tall. The tallest, 9. There were at least 4 movie theaters, one of which had an IMAX screen. One mall had an aquarium. One had daily fashion shows and an art museum. One had a Ferrari dealership. It was unbelievable. The most exciting part? Auntie Ann’s. I got a cinnamon pretzel and it made my day brighter with its sweet and salty goodness. At the mall, I see a mass amount of SAS kids for the first time since leaving the tiger zoo. It’s a comforting feeling knowing that we’re all back in one place again. After the bus ride to the ship, I ate a terrible dinner that made remember how god-awful the ship food really is. Some chats with friends ensued, and then bedtime. Finally. Sleep, how I love and miss thee. Farewell Thailand, you kicked my ass and I love you for it.

Day 61 (03-20-09)

I only have one class today after Global Studies. And it’s at 4:15pm. I think I’ll sleep all day. We have cultural pre-port for Vietnam tonight. What? We just got back on the ship. How do we have pre-port already? Oh right, because Vietnam is in 2 days. This is ridiculous. Oh and the ship’s crew is holding a talent show tonight. I’ve heard good things about it, so that’s exciting. Settlers of Catan. Enough said. Hopefully pictures can be uploaded tonight. I’ll work on it. Hasta luego.