THAILAND!!!!

In Korea, Christmas is not a huge holiday and people don't get much time off work for it. This came as quite a shock to my teaching mentality of having at least two weeks off at Christmas time. My students actually had to attend school on Christmas Eve! It was only a half-day, but still! Well, I only got a week off, which was absolutely not enough to go home for Christmas. What is one to do when they are without family for the holidays? They travel! I was lucky enough to travel to Thailand with my wonderful friend, Tamra. We spent four days on the island of Phuket (pronounced poo-ket), and four-ish days in Bangkok. Here's a photo log of the amazing journey.
My computer is having formatting issues, so I apologize if the pictures seem to be in a strange order. Also, this is only a fraction of the pics. If you want to see the rest, you can check my Facebook account.
This yummy goodness is nothing but ice and watermelon. It costs about a dollar, and I drank my fair share of them.

This is Karon Beach, and in the distance, in the trees, is Karon Cliff, a hidden oasis of quaint bungalows far enough away from downtown to be relaxing, but close enough to walk there for dinner or a Magnum bar.

Sunset on the beach.

At the hotel, this is where we sat every morning for breakfast. Seriously, it was like a dream.

Though Thai food is at the top of my list of cuisine that I like, the culinary highlight of the trip was at our hotel. Every Sunday night, they have an open-grill buffett. Ribs, chicken, fish, hamburgers, potatoes, garlic bread, Thai dishes, and salad for about nine dollars.

The first adventure was elephant trekking through the jungle. Our elephant was Sadah. She was four years old. It was a great time. Something I never thought I'd do. It was followed by a visit to the Big Buddha at the top of the mountain. Visiting those types of monuments always makes me a little sad.

































I have family friends who loved to get things tailor-made in Thailand because it's so cheap. Well, I can't really buy clothes in Korea and I didn't have a cute coat to wear with dress clothes, so I figured I'd just go for it. It was strange being fitted for a winter coat when it was 95 outside, but I loved the outcome (This is not a final photo. It actually turned out to be about two inches shorter. Doesn't sound like much, but it makes a huge difference.)









Thai massages on the beach. One hour for nine dollars. This is the life!















Next adventure. A three island tour (no, not a three-hour tour). First was Maya Bay where the movie "The Beach" was filmed.






























Next: Phi-Phi Island (yes, pronounced with two p's, not two f's, and no one giggled). This inlet is called Monkey Beach for obvious reasons. Each time we disembarked, we had to wade through knee-deep water to get back to the boat. This time, going back, the mixture of rocks and the currents caused me to lose my balance and my camera went into the water for a fraction of a second. It's ruined. This is the last picture I took. But Tamra is a good friend to me, and let me take whatever pics I wanted with her camera.


The third island was Kai (which means egg) where we ate a great lunch and relaxed on the beach for the rest of the day.













Next stop: Bangkok. New Years Eve began with a ride in a water taxi. It was interesting, but a bit of a let down with the smell of diesel and the murky water.












The reason for the water taxi was to visit the royal palace and temple. This was one of my favorite parts of Bangkok. Quite beautiful. This pic is the temple...
















...and this is the palace.













New Years Eve night was spent with some people from Seoul. Tamra met them at orientation a year ago. I thought it was pretty amazing to be with other Seoul people in Bangkok.

















New Years day was spend shopping, shopping, shopping. I'm not a huge fan of shopping, but I LOVE haggling for a good price. It's my drug of choice.

































Magnum Bars = heaven. I found these with Dad and Anneli in Finland, then again in Spain. They aren't sold in the States, and are, in my opinion, much better than a Dove bar. I bought one nearly every day.


Next adventure: The Floating Market. This is literaly a market place on water. We were taken in by boat to buy goods from other people on boats. Amazing. This is also where I saw a kamodo dragon in the water! Holy cow!
















A stop to see the bridge where the Japanese transferred it's POW's from coutries all over Asia and some from the US.














Final adventure: Tiger Temple. Tigers everywhere! Not sure if they were drugged or actually sleeping on their own. I'm hoping the latter. This is reportedly where monks take in abandonded or injured tigers in order to restore them back to their natural habitat. They make a pretty penny while the tigers are there. It was really cool to touch one, though.
































At the airport, not so ready to go back to freezing cold Korea. But the trip ended the way it should...with ice cream. And from Dairy Queen, no less! It was truly an adventure. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to see this amazing country and with such an amazing friend!