One word to describe Thailand...AMAZING! So I decided I should do some kind of documentation- and since I don't scrap book and my journaling leaves much to be desired I'm doing it this way!
Many people have asked me to tell them about it- how the heck am I supposed to do that!?!? So here goes- we're doing it bit by bit....
Step 1: Board the plane... first to San Fransisco than onto Taiwan than finally to Thailand
I'm sure we looked funny with circles of people playing cards...but I guess I've seen stranger in the airport! We boarded the plane- I was sitting next to a guy with a sweet English (though it sounded Australian) accent. We chatted for a bit than he turned and asked the Chinese guy next to him if he spoke English- the man said very little so the guy next to me broke out in Chinese and started talking to him- he later said he speaks 6 different languages that he was at one time fluent it- Dang! I have a hard enough time with one. After we were on the runway they announced due to delays in San Fran our plane would be delayed 2 hours...great way to start my 20 hours of flight!Step 2: Pit Stop in Taiwan
This guy was in the Taiwan airport- I would have loved to hear the conversation that lead up to building him..."you know what we are really missing here in the Taiwan airport?.... Surely nothing else- we have all the planes and security we need....What we are missing is a life size figurine of a man with a tomato for his head....Perfect! Much more original than Mr. Potato Head. Lets through on a I Love Taiwan shirt- he'll fit right in!"
We went on a guided tour through Taiwan-our guide was what you may call interesting- he was funny, I was impressed he could talk for 8 strait hours! At some point during the ride he announced that our bus driver had driven through the night to get to the airport at 6:30 to pick us up for our tour. He said that the driver was chewing on what he called beetle nut to help him stay awake. He offered it to anyone that wanted to try some. 2 guys went to the front of the bus and placed it in his cheek and slowly started to chew. Than our tour guide stated something about how it was something like cocaine. The boy trying the beetle nut alarmingly said that it was making his tongue feel numb and
This guy was in the Taiwan airport- I would have loved to hear the conversation that lead up to building him..."you know what we are really missing here in the Taiwan airport?.... Surely nothing else- we have all the planes and security we need....What we are missing is a life size figurine of a man with a tomato for his head....Perfect! Much more original than Mr. Potato Head. Lets through on a I Love Taiwan shirt- he'll fit right in!"We went on a guided tour through Taiwan-our guide was what you may call interesting- he was funny, I was impressed he could talk for 8 strait hours! At some point during the ride he announced that our bus driver had driven through the night to get to the airport at 6:30 to pick us up for our tour. He said that the driver was chewing on what he called beetle nut to help him stay awake. He offered it to anyone that wanted to try some. 2 guys went to the front of the bus and placed it in his cheek and slowly started to chew. Than our tour guide stated something about how it was something like cocaine. The boy trying the beetle nut alarmingly said that it was making his tongue feel numb and it turns your mouth red...he wasn't a fan of it!
I loved how green everything was! It was cloudy and misty- way cool looking! It was also very mountainous. We wound our way up the mountains which was quite freaky especially going around a mountain on a skinny 2 way road in a big bus passing another big tour bus... We literally came within inches-yep-I will never drive a bus! Our tour guide said that we were getting ice cream than took us to this rock... It was pretty sweet. This is my roommate Michelle.
We made our way to an awesome market the problem was that it started to rain...hard. It was packed in the skinny market- and the added umbrella's really didn't help!
Did I mention it was rainy? Yes- I wish you could see how hard it was raining in this picture! Our tour guide told us to make our way up to the temple- we figured it would be at the end of the road...silly us! I guess you had to make a few turns along the way that he forgot to mention... so there was plenty of time to get plenty wet!
We finally made it to the temple. It was pretty cool- the man in orange in the far left is our tour guide James. Once we got started taking pictures with the 20 different camera's a few lady's lit up some incense and started waving it around in the air- thus the smoke.
Along the way our tour guide asked us who wanted beef & noodles (33) and who wanted seafood & rice (7)- somehow the numbers got switched and we ended up with 33 plates of seafood so I ended up with seafood instead of beef...we were unable to name all the different types of seafood in the dish...quite interesting but not bad. While we were eating the midst turned completely white- it felt like we were eating in the clouds!
The roads were packed with motorcyclist. I love the signs- I don't see how anyone can read them!
The rotary club greeted us at the airport at 2 in the morning with flower lays- they smelt awesome! They also had a few signs to welcome us- one was also hanging in front of the hotel and school.
Did I mention it was rainy? Yes- I wish you could see how hard it was raining in this picture! Our tour guide told us to make our way up to the temple- we figured it would be at the end of the road...silly us! I guess you had to make a few turns along the way that he forgot to mention... so there was plenty of time to get plenty wet!We finally made it to the temple. It was pretty cool- the man in orange in the far left is our tour guide James. Once we got started taking pictures with the 20 different camera's a few lady's lit up some incense and started waving it around in the air- thus the smoke.Along the way our tour guide asked us who wanted beef & noodles (33) and who wanted seafood & rice (7)- somehow the numbers got switched and we ended up with 33 plates of seafood so I ended up with seafood instead of beef...we were unable to name all the different types of seafood in the dish...quite interesting but not bad. While we were eating the midst turned completely white- it felt like we were eating in the clouds!
The roads were packed with motorcyclist. I love the signs- I don't see how anyone can read them!
The rotary club greeted us at the airport at 2 in the morning with flower lays- they smelt awesome! They also had a few signs to welcome us- one was also hanging in front of the hotel and school.
