Thailand!!!!

Our hotel lobby!------------------->


























So we got home safely last night from Thailand. It was an amazing trip and I learned A LOT! I have so much to write I am overwhelmed! I have hundreds of pictures too!

So we left Friday afternoon. We took a shuttle bus to the airport and got checked in and grabbed some food at a subway sandwich shop. (A turkey sandwich at a subway at the airport is more then $9) We got on the plane and headed to Taiwan. We had a 30 minute layover in Taiwan then we got to Bangkok around 11pm. We were supposed to meet up with a taxi driver Danny set up for us but he never arrived. We called him 4 times and finally we gave up around 1:30am. We bartered for a cheap taxi to take us to the hotel and were introduced to Lek. They walked us past all the regular taxis and we crossed the street and we were escorted into a small car that was at at least 15 years old. They spoke Thai to each other then the guy that had brought us there laughed and left. I was scared to death. We were in a old small car that didn't have any signs of being a taxi. The taxi driver asked where we were going and I told him the Grand Hotel in Bangkok. He didn't know where it was!!!!!! But luckily I knew the street names. It was a forty minute drive to the hotel but it seemed much longer. I held Eddie's hand tightly as the little car sped through Bangkok. My mind was racing wildly.. I was imagining each scenario in my head... none of them ended well. As we neared the hotel he started talking to us about what we were doing in Thailand and where we were from. I felt much more comfortable towards the end of the ride which I was thankful for because my heart was really pounding. We arrived at the hotel around 2:10am and I had Eddie check in (we had to register under his name at the hotel because they charge American's $20 more per night and since his last name is Kim we got a cheaper price... complete racism it seems). Lek (the taxi driver) offered to pick us up in the morning and take us around Bangkok for 1,200 baht (roughly $40). Since Danny had arranged for us to do that with our other taxi driver (that didn't show up) for 1,500 baht we decided to go with Lek the following morning. The room was nice but the bathroom had dirty water and cockroaches... I'm not a big fan. Eddie was excited since he has a strange fascination with animals and insects. But I was more unhappy about his new friends so I caught one and squished the others... The net morning we had a big breakfast at the hotel then headed into town with Lek around 10am. He took us to the Palace and offered to be our tour guide around the Palace for 50 baht an hour ($1.80) so we said sure(He didn't really know anything about the history but he showed us all the places to look)! We went to the resting Buddha temple and then headed towards the market for some lunch. A few older woman had huge pans of food sitting out on stools on the side walk. I got a bowl of spicy shrimp and rice and Eddie tried some chicken. It tasted pretty good and was cheap we both had a meal and got bottled waters for about 120 baht ($4). After lunch we headed down a dirty alley then we found a older guy sitting on a bench and Lek talked to him for a while. We negotiated the price for a boat tour down the river and we were off. Lek came with us as a guide since he got to ride for free. We stopped at a floating market (lots of boats selling things) and bought some fruit. It was a dollar (30baht) for a bag of mango slices and other fruits!! YUMMY! We walked around a big regular market and found a little park. Then we headed further down the river. On either sides of the river there were floating houses with people sitting on porches and watching TV. Kids were swimming in parts of the river and lots of other tour boats were floating by as well. We stopped to throw some bread out to feed a bunch of fish then saw the royal boats and after 2 hours we were back at the docks again! We went to a nice shopping market and Eddie got some shorts. I bought a elephant statue and we both got some ice cream then Lek took us to a restaurant with Phad Thai and we had a nice dinner. After dinner we walked around a park then Lek took us to get a Thai massage. It was pretty cheap and felt great but after the women demanded that we give them a huge tip (more than the actual massage).
After Lek told us there was a show near the market that tourists always go see that was a dancing girl show with magic tricks. We misinterpreted that as a traditional Thai dance or some kind of show but it ended up being a whole lot more than that.... We had no idea what we had just payed for as we walked up the stairs to "the show". Ask me about it in person if your curious....

We left half way through the show and told Lek we were ready to go to the night market. He asked if we learned anything.... ummmm hmmm....We walked around Put Pang market for a while and found a few little things. After the wandering around the market for a while, it was about 10:30pm and we were ready for bed (there's a 2 hour tie difference so it felt like 12:30)! So he took us home we gave him a big tip and he said he'd be back in the morning to take us out again. He picked us up around 11 and we headed for Safari world. It was like any safari world but it also had dolphin and elephant shows which I had never been to before. Somewhere in all the fun I managed to loose my cell phone so I am currently cellphoneless... But I hope to get a new one this week!!

Around 4pm we were ready to head back to the hotel. We swam in the pool and ordered room service (phad thai of course). Monday morning Lek took us to Pattaya which was about 2 hours away. He brought his girlfriend with him and when we got there he took us out to lunch!!! It was a little funny to be friends having lunch with our taxi driver. Lunch was seafood soup (everything included) and barnacles, muscles, and octopus and a whole fried fish! I ate it all... Then he bought us some fresh fruit and we walked around the beach. He took us to Walking Street and I tried to use my credit card for the first time.. but it didn't work. I was convinced my bank thought it was fraud so had frozen it so I contacted my mom later to see what was happening. That night we swam in the pool at Pattaya and had dinner at the hotel.

At this point we had just enough money to pay Lek to pick us up from Pattaya on Thursday night and then take us to the airport. I assumed my credit card would be working so we spend a little money Tuesday at the beach and then we ate dinner. Wednesday I found out my bank doesn't work in Thailand and Romania... Everywhere else in the world its fine!!! Lucky for us Eddie and I both bank there!!!! So we literally had no money!! I was freaking out! Wednesday we used my $15 Starbucks card to get some croissants and smoothies but then we had nothing. We tried to contact Kenny who had just arrived in Thailand to try to borrow money from him but we never could! Thursday we headed back to Bangkok but still only had enough for the taxi. We did eat that day except for the toast we got free at the hotel in the morning. For dinner we had hotel tea and I ate a salt packet! We didn't even have water so we went down to the fitness center and drank a cup of water there for free. We swam in the pool a bit then walked around looking for a place with internet. The hotel charged $5 for 15 minutes of internet which was money we really didn't have(most places only charged 30bht for 1 hour!). We couldn't find an internet spot so we walked back to the hotel and I tried to exchange my Japanese yen I still had in my wallet. The cashier was extremely rude and refused to exchange it because there was a small rip in the bill... So we just waited for Friday morning to come so we could get the free breakfast and get out of Thailand so I could have some money!!! We watched movies on HBO for a few hours then fell asleep.

The flight stopped over in Hong Kong so we got to look around the airport for a while but it looked like every airport I had seen so not too exciting... but i have officially been to Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea in the past 6 months!

We got to Korea around 8pm and I thought I ask to see how much a taxi would be so we wouldn't have to take the shuttle again. The man clearly said 16,000won so we excitedly agreed since it was 9,000 per person on the shuttle. The ride home was about 40 minutes and when we got there the driver told us that the toll gate fee was not included in the price so I gave him 16,000 plus the 7,000 for the toll. He looked at me strange and said no 67,000!!!!! We had heard the man wrong he wasn't saying 16 he was saying 60!!! AHHHHHH!! That is more than we paid Lek to drive us for 13hours in Thailand!! I paid him and said goodbye but we were both pretty upset!! It was about 9pm and it was Eddie's birthday so we went out and saw a movie. We got home at 12pm and I crashed! I worked today for a couple hours and later we are gonna go out for a birthday dinner for Eddie and get a cake. Overall it was a interesting trip. I have learned a lot. Never before have I HAD to go without food. Its a scary feeling. And that first taxi ride was pretty scary too I had no idea what would happen! We ate some great food, swam in the ocean, got to hold miniature monkeys, got to go on some tours, met Lek, and overall had a pretty nice time. I do wish my credit card would have worked for the last part of the trip but I learned I should bring more cash!! I have hundreds of pictures I will try to upload the good ones!!

In other news my family is coming in 6 days!! Tomorrow I am cleaning the house most of the day!!