Thailand

" Sa Wat Dee Kah"

This statue of Ronald is in front of every McDonald's in Thailand.

Since when does Ronald know Thai etiquette? It's Kinda funny!

My wonderful visit to the Pattaya Orphenage, Thailand...

Thailand was amazing! On our first day there I visited the Pattaya Orphenage and played with the children for a few hours. I was the bus leader for that trip so that was also fun. The orphenage visit was very sad on one hand but also heartwarming because the staff and volunteers really give the children a lot of love and attention. There were over 160 children there ranging from 1 week old to 18 years old. Although we couldn't communicate with them verbally because they didn't know any English, it was amazing how we were able to communicate non-verbally. The children were so sweet and loved playing with us.

After the orphenage 4 of us did some independant travelling and flew to the Island of Phuket. We stayed at a very remote part of the island for 2 nights and then we went into the more populated part of the island (Patong) for the last night. Our 3 days in Phuket were really relaxing-it was the first time that I felt like I had a break from work and students. The town was very touristy but it was still a nice getaway. We almost went parasailing but didn't end up going. Rather, we spent some time walking the beach and checking out the town. We didn't have a set schedule so that was the nice part of this trip.

We went out each night for good meals and new adventures. I hand picked my lobster one night and it was absolutely delicious! If you've ever been to Phuket, then you know what I mean by adventures. The night life is very interesting there being that there is such a huge transgender community (these folks are known as "Ladyboys" in Thailand and they love to put on drag shows for the visitors). One night we went to a drag show and one of my colleagues (who will remain nameless) went up on stage and danced with the ladyboys. She looked like a natural!



To commemorate the crazy winds and rain that we experienced there, I took a picture under an emergency evacuation sign...kinda scary to think about when you are on an island in the middle of nowhere!

On day 2 we booked a nice day tour to Phi Phi island (pronounced pee-pee) for some snorkeling and exploring. Despite the hurricane-like weather for the first half of the day, we had a lot of fun. I had been snorkeling a number of times before but I especially loved the snorkeling at Phi Phi island. I saw some really beautiful fish, including clown fish, which I had only seen in Australia prior to Thailand. I also found this cute little hermit crab that I named "Hermie"-how original, right?.

As we walked around Phi Phi Island there were tons of souvenir shops selling typical touristy-type souvenirs (mostly junky dust collectors or cheap jewelry). We passed an art gallery and as I watched one of the artists paint a really beautiful piece of art, there was a painting that cought my eye-the elephant painting on the right of the photo . I thought to myself, I haven't really bought anything for myself yet (I am not a very big souvenir buyer) and that it would be a really unique item to buy because it it represents Thailand (Elephants are a symbol of Thailand). So, I asked to see the painting up close, decided to buy it, and when I was getting my money out to pay, I saw the zebra painting (on the left) and loved that one too. I stared at both of them for a while and went back and forth and finally since I couldn't decide on which one to get, I took my mom's philosophy and got both! I am not exactly sure where I will put them but I can't wait to have them framed. I just love the photo that I posted above with the paintings and their respective artists who posed for me.

I have been maintaning the 3rd place position in our Student Life Amazing Race game since Hawaii, so I am doing pretty well considering that there are 10 of us playing. For this round, I had to take a photo with a live elephant (among many other things) so we asked our driver, Alee (we used him the entire time we were there because he was a really nice guy and spoke pretty understandable English) to stop at the elephant trekking attraction for us to take a picture. For only 100 Baht I not only got to feed them an entire basket of bananas, but I also got to take a few photos with them!

We have 6 days at sea before we arrive at our port in India. On the way there we dock in Singapore for a day but sadly we don't get to get off the ship. India is one of the countries that I was most excited to visit prior to the voyage. I can't wait to see the Taj Mahal!