“Into the Sweaty Fist”

To begin…

WHEW!

Thailand truly has been an adventure so far. After an epic (ahem, not so much) 32-hour long trip, including 13 hours in the Seoul airport and one brief, fuzzy trip to a Buddhist temple in Seoul, we arrived in Bangkok at around 10 p.m. on Friday, October 22nd. And into the sweaty fist indeed…it was a lovely 85 degrees when we landed, with more humidity than I have ever felt. My hair has been one wild ride and I don’t anticipate that changing.

The first night was rather terrifying, landing among 8 million people, about 4 million of them partying in the tourist district of Bangkok, but we found a decent hostel (with A/C–and we proceeded to shiver all night) and got about 4 hours of rest thanks to jet lag.

The next day…we were off! We ran errands, got a bus ticket to get out of the city–a joint ticket, including a boat to the island Ko Tao–and began to discover how FRIENDLY everyone is here. A kid on the street led us to the tourist office, everyone wanted to discuss Schwarzenegger’s impact on California with my cousin (who hails from that state), and a random teacher put us on a tuk-tuk to see the reclining Buddha, and, inexplicably, a sapphire export company. The Buddha was completely incredible, and we caught our first sights of the Thai Buddhist monks in their head-to-toe orange outfits. We also learned that they are not allowed to touch women…I’m not exactly clear what happens if they are to accidentally brush against one, but they even have spots on buses and boats to avoid this situation.

The next day, after a loooooooong overnight bus ride and a morning ferry ride (which included a stop over in Chumphon and the viewing of a truly terrifying horror movie–Orphan) we arrived at the paradise of Ko Tao Island, in the Gulf of Thailand.

For all of you lucky enough to get postcards, prepare to get realllllly jealous!

We have a perfect little bungalow overlooking the beach, and it is perfect I can almost forgive the toilet, the bucket-flush kind (which is the norm here!). The jet lag is slowly beginning to recede and I get to dive soon, so stay tuned for THAT!

note: I still have nightmares from that movie “Orphan.” It was apparently the most traumatizing part of that trip!

**All photos courtesy of me or my lovely cousin Courtney. The better ones are generally hers.**

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