#81 Phi-Phi

May 17

Today was a "love your choice" kind of a day. We set off on an excursion to Ko Phi Phi, an island just off the coast of Phuket. With legendary views and clear water, we were pretty excited to go.

However, we ended up waiting for two hours outside to get on a "speedboat" that was more like a big sightseeing ship with no windows, only a few uncovered seats at the head of the boat. We snagged the seats with the view and tried our best to cover up our sunburns.

Our first stop was at a tiny island with a tiny beach that was in some film with Leonardo DiCaprio. They dropped us off and said "you have 40 minutes." The boats covered the tiny shoreline so I sat in the sand and drew pictures. There were so many people I thought maybe Leo was one of the island amenities but alas, the only activities available were buying a drink or using the toilet. 20 minutes later we boarded.

The next island was the main island of Phi Phi (I am betting you are guessing how this is pronounced. Perhaps you've tried "Fee Fee" or "Pie Pie" because of course it couldn't be "Pee Pee"--how non PC would that be?! Tough luck. You have to say "Pee Pee" like everyone else! Don't worry; you'll stop blushing soon).

We had a decent lunch under a huge canopy. I understand that a lot of Muslim fisherman live on this island so fish is the food to eat here. I had a kind of blah attitude up to this point but I think I was mostly hungry, or as we call it in our family "hangry." I picked up some shells and coral and walked along the shore and felt much better. Again though, it was only 40 minutes before our exuberant guide beckoned us to back to the boat.

Our next kind of stop was passing by "Monkey Bay" where we saw some cute furry friends and the crew blatantly ignored the sign requesting people not feed the wildlife. Bananas!

The final stop was at this teeny tiny maybe the size of half a football field island for "locals" where there were so many tourists it was like hard to not bump into people in the water. Then they persistently tried to sell us drinks, 30 minutes on the beach chairs and even to use the toilets (trust me, if I had to go I was not above peeing in the water). I have a feeling we would have been out of there within 40 minutes but the clouds gave way to the deluge they had been battling against all morning. Man did it pour! I half expected it to be another trap where we would have to pay to stand under the porch.

I decided to entertain myself with people watching. I found a man with the most awesome side profile. I totally would have recruited him for my portrait drawing class back in the day. Since that wasn't an option I decided to practice my paparazzi skills. I'm sad to say I couldn't be creepy enough to get a very good shot.

Eventually we made it back into our boat and sped to shore.

Good things about the trip:
1) This guy (on the top--not the sea-sick guy in the corner). I don't know if the picture does him justice but he was just chillin up there grinning his heart out, rain and shine. He knows how to make his happy.

2) This scenery. I mean, it is pretty breath-taking

3) Practicing being a journey person, not a destination person.
4) The waves were super choppy so at times the boat felt like a legit roller coaster. We caught air more than once. I loved it!...But the guy using his doggy bag?... not so much.
5) Returning to shore:)

Then to top off the night I ordered a delish banana shake and yummy shrimp noodles, took a solitary stroll down a few streets and did a little retail therapy. Behold:

Also can double as brass knuckle;)

#81 Phuket: Zip-lining

May 16

I remember in 12th grade Mr. Cullimore observing that Macbeth was better than Hamlet because at least Macbeth made a decision. Hamlet's indecision left things to fate and lets face it, that story didn't end so well. Murder is obviously not the best decision but Macbeth at least owned his own destiny.

I think about this idea a lot because I hate making decisions. I can't even pick out a restaurant in Provo when I am with my friends. I guess it comes down to wanting to find the BEST option or wanting to avoid people being mad at me. But the funny thing is, I don't know if there is always a best option and I can never please everyone. I think also part of it is not knowing what I want and hating to commit to things. I'll leave it to my therapist to help me figure that out haha. But I am realizing that many of the best times I have had were times when I quit agonizing over options and just did it.

The decision-making complex rears it's head often when I am traveling. Therefore, I typically follow the crowd. This often works out well because then I try new things I wouldn't have tried otherwise. However, sometimes I opt out of other activities I want to try when no one will go with me.

Yesterday, Ashley mentioned in passing that if I wanted, I could go off on my own. It was one of those "Hey, guess what? You are a big girl now. You don't need permission to do what you want" moments. Sometimes I forget that I can be Macbeth.

For a while I had been eying this wall of like 50 brochures advertising various adventures and today I decided to quit Hamlet-ing around and do something I've wanted to do for a long time: zip-lining.

As the blackout curtains make 10:30 look like 6:30, I had to wait for the afternoon time slot. The con to an afternoon trek through the jungle is that I was glistening like Edward Cullen swimming at midday. The huge pro is that I was the only one there so I had two guides and a 2000m course all to myself.

Mon and Rao (my phonetic spelling of their names) led me through the awesome jungle. I only got stuck on the line twice and luckily for you, it was on camera. (I am unwilling to spend monies on editing software and not savvy enough to rotate this on my own--sorry)

Here are more photos that Rao took. I'm just impressed she could multitask zip-lining and photography so well!

I hope you observed glorious Bozo the Clown hair

Also sun + bug bites = sexy legs

Moral of the day. Macbeth-it if zip-lining in Phuket (not murder) is one of your desires. Also, if I can use a squatty potty, you can too!

Now off to find a banana smoothie.

#81-- Chiang Mai, #3 Ride an Elephant

May 13

Good news is that I survived the overnight train. Not nearly as ghetto as feared. We arrived at our hostel bright and early (note crazy bed head)

...and decided to rent mopeds for a drive up the mountain to see a temple and/or palace. The admonition to "always have a prayer in your heart" never had more meaning to me than during this 5 hour period.

Some shots at the palace grounds:

On our way back, we stopped at a cool water fall



...and then we got a 2-hour Thai massage. I want to rave about how awesome it was. I'm sure it would have been awesome to people who like to be massaged. To me it felt like I was being simultaneously bruised and tickled for two hours. Seriously, I was ready to give up national security secrets to Jack Bauer.

I laughed a lot...to keep from crying, so at least I saved some face in front of a random Thai lady I will never see again. I will admit in hindsight though that my body felt really good afterwards.

May 14

Woke up bright and early today to (#3) ride elephants!!!! It was an hour ride from our hostel to Baan Chang elephant reserve. Once there we dawned charming denim scrubs and then our guide, Tom, gave us a brief overview of the elephant reserve.

The first item on the itinerary was feeding the elephants a snack. Apparently, elephants spend four hours a day sleeping and spend the rest of their time eating (maybe elephants are my spirit animal haha).

We also got some kisses from this cute little guy. His style is more airy than I expected.

After a practice ride, we hopped onto (some of us heaved ourselves onto) our elephant. Ashley and I shared an elephant. I was glad to have a buddy. Here are some unexpected lessons from elephant riding:

1) Pie= go (again, spirit animal), goo-ay= turn, how= stop
2) Ugly outfits= less chaffing
2) But you can never escape chaffing
3) Best leg workout ever if, like me, your legs are locked in a death grip around an elephant's neck.
4) I'm certain an hour riding uphill and downhill on a bareback elephant is the equivalent of 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
5) Bathing an elephant might result in it bathing you

#81 Bangkok, Thailand

May 11

Ever-faithful jet lag ensured I was up and ready way before our departure this morning. Art, our new Thai friend (friend of a friend) kindly arranged an awesome excursion to the Tiger Temple, a complex three hours south of Bangkok. The long ride gave us ample time to play the "people you might know" game (shout out to our common BYU-H friends) while basking in the air conditioned goodness of the van, serenaded by Adele, The Lumineers, and even my girl T-Swift.

When we got to the complex (in our not-too-bright-or-the-tiger-may-attack-you clothing), we excitedly got our tickets and made our way inside.

So here's the 411 on this place--it was founded by a Buddhist monk for the refuge of tigers who are neglected/abused or abandoned pets. It is now a reserve for over 100 tigers. It runs purely on donations and volunteers. Not only do the monks care for the tigers, but regular people can volunteer for a one-month period (min) or longer. Buddhists believe in preservation of life but also letting life take its course so they care for the animals but they don't sedate or medicate the tigers. The tigers we saw (a select ten or so) had been raised with so much human interaction that they were ok being around people as long as people didn't act stupid.

So to be honest, like most everything here, this experience was surreal. I mean, I played with tigers today--real, gorgeous, magnificent tigers.

That said, every part of the day felt like one of those how-I-see-me/how-others-see-me memes.

Examples:

A) Walking a tiger

See mom, you CAN walk a cat!

B) Photo shoot with tiger

So for one photo, my Thai guide/photographer told me to pick up the tiger's tail. I was like "You want me to what?" He repeated his request. I was like "The tail...this here [pointing]...pick THIS up?" He said something in Thai that could be loosely translated as "FML" and started snapping away. Obviously we can see the point of the photo is to both show off my tail-mic karaoke skills and also prove that I can indeed give a tiger a prostate exam.

C) Playing with tiger cubs

D) Feeding tiger

E) Washing tiger

I don't know if you've noticed but there is a lot of tiger hiny-washing and touching going on. A couple of reasons for this. First and foremost, a tiger will rip your head off if you touch his. Second, the tailbone is the trickiest place for a tiger to reach adequately, thus we provide the greatest service by cleaning/scratching/petting said area.
...I may have made the last part up but it sounded legit.

Here's some other fun shots of the reserve.

We followed it up by delicious food at a gorgeous restaurant...:)

PS I don't know how people learn to speak Asian languages with any kind of fluency. I learned "thank you" and "hello/good-bye" about 10 times today and still struggling!

PPS lots of gratitude that it didn't rain

PPSS a HUGE thank you to Art who spent his whole Saturday hanging out with us and watching out for us. What a guy!

May 12

We went to Wat Pho today, aka the Reclining Buddha. I guess people covered this Buddha with mud to hide and protect it from enemies but then it lay forgotten for years before being rediscovered.

I don't know why but in my mind, I pictured a Buddha sitting with his legs traditionally crossed but tilted on his back. Like Buddha was doing crunches or something haha.

When we entered the building housing the statue, I was taken aback by the presence of the statue. It is ENORMOUS! And very lovely. And to clarify, he is reclining on his side:) The feet even had designs inlaid with mother of pearl.

The rest of the Wat Pho complex was also very impressive. The detail of it all blows me away!

From there we made our way on the river ferry to the weekend market.

For the last leg to the market, we convinced a driver to cram all 5 of us in a single tuk-tuk. There was a general consensus that our mom's would probably kill us for such recklessness...love you Mom! Happy Mother's Day! :D

The weekend market reminded me a lot of the Old City in Jerusalem--lots of vendors, bright colors, interesting smells, genie pants, and lots of good people watching.

We took the sky rail back to our hostel. Luckily the lady there was very kind and let us come back to shower even though we were not staying there that night. Then we crammed again (this time into a legit taxi) and made our way to the train station. After a tasty noodle dinner, we boarded the train and settled into our beds.

Ok so if you weren't fortunate enough to witness my last train experience, you've probably heard about it. I'm a recovering germaphobe, and the overnight train in Egypt just about did me in. I'm really quite embarrassed--except it WAS THAT awful. You'll be pleased to know that the overnight train experience in Thailand was a vast improvement. I used the potty without crying and everything.

Now it's off to sleep. Good night Bangkok, good morning Chiang Mai!

#81 Pt. 1-- Beijing, China

After lots of waiting and sleeping and waiting and time traveling and waiting, we are FINALLY here! We landed in Beijing at 5-ish in the morning on Friday. We were worried about our tour guide not showing up but were relieved when we saw him holding up a sign with our names. He introduced himself as Oliver. Didn't you know that was originally a Chinese name? Haha, to be fair we did give a good college try to pronouncing his real name but I think it's best we just stuck with Oliver.


So we packed ourselves in a van and headed off to the Great Wall. (PS Rachelle, any opinions you have about Utah drivers might change if you ever experience driving here haha). On the way , Oliver told us the history of the wall. I'll be honest, I don't remember/had a hard time understanding all of it, but I did catch that it is about 6800 km in length and built over a span of about 2000 years. Wild, huh?

When we got there, we had the option of either walking up or taking a tram. I am SO glad we took the tram because to be honest, the walk would have been a 30 minute hike to rival the monestary trail that stole my dignity in Jericho. So here is the sketchy ski lift that took us up to the GREAT WALL!






 And the view looking back. I had to not think about it too much as to avoid having a panic attack.

When we reached the top, Oliver took us through a restored section of the wall and also showed us part of the wall that has not been restored so we could see the difference.









I LOVE that we got there so early because there were maybe only five or so other tourists we ran into. In what world do we get to have one of the seven wonders practically to ourselves!?






Now, some of you come to me and say, "You know, I am not convinced that the ancients had buns of steel." To that I say behold the stairs!

It was the like the Destiny's Child song "Bootylicious"

Stairs: "Beyonce, can you handle this? Tiffany, can you handle this?"

Me: [Panting but trying to stay cool]

Stairs: "I don't think you can handle this!"

Me: [Panting but giving up on the cool part]

Stairs: "I don't think you're ready for this jelly"

Me: [Legs trembling like a paper bag in the wind] "Touche stairs, touche."

Despite the jelly leg, we made it to the top (apparently, I had to sacrifice my lower leg to get here?....honestly who decided that was a cute pose, Tiffany?)

Oliver told us more stories at the top and even graced us with a few traditional Chinese songs. He also sang us an English song he knew but we hadn't heard of it. So we offered to teach him a song we did know. "You Are My Sunshine" was the classic we chose.

Oliver did try to teach us a Chinese song but I think he was tired of hearing his language slaughtered so we sang "You Are My Sunshine" all the way back to the entry point.

AAAHHHH! I just can't get over this view! It just keeps going and going!











Ok, now here is where Park City meets China, because in addition to the ski lift ascension, we took a tobaggan ride down--take that Alpine Slide! Teresa took some awesome video footage but I'll have to get it from her later. For now, just know it was pretty awesome....and I definitely did NOT ride down like an old lady in a skort.

 

When we reached the bottom, we were suprised to see the mass of students here for a field trip. Like I said, I'm glad, we made it here so early! 

From Beijing, we flew to Bangkok, arriving at our charming little hostel (the Smile Society--yup that's really it's name) around 9:30pm. I was never so glad to shower in my life. Now I'm up at the butt crack of dawn (thank you jet lag) but I'm excited to see what our first real day in Bangkok brings :) Stay tuned!