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Published: August 26th 2008
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I'm going back in time here because I don't want to write too much as one entry so go along with me here. Let's pretend it's August 24th...
The 21st we had a whole day in Bangkok. It was an amazing day! After catching up on computers we walked around a little and found a Swensen's. It's an American ice cream shop, but we don't have one in Alaska so it's still unique for us. It was spectacular! I had an icecream sundae with macadamia ice cream, brownie, butterscotch, and fudge. Basically amazing! It's good we didn't find this place earlier when we were in Bangkok or our wallets and our waistlines would be suffering! Then we took a taxi to the movie theater. Our intent was to watch a movie in the VIP seats, essentially couches. When we got there we found out that The Dark Knight was showing in iMAX! At exactly the perfect time! So we decided to go see that and still got the VIP seats even though it was more expensive that way. It was still only $10 per person for couch seats, literally couches, and iMAX movie. Which in the US would've been way more!
iMAX
That's right, Batman in iMAX! And Brendon decided that this whole day was my birthday present since we hadn't really ever done anything for my birthday. It was the perfect present! The Dark Knight was amazing in iMAX! Brendon had already seen it twice but it was the first time for me. It was very well done! But I still don't understand why Batman had to take the blame instead of them saying it was the Joker.....
We had popcorn and soda at the movie so our food for the day consisted of: breakfast-2 donuts, lunch-icecream sundaes, mid-afternoon snack-popcorn and soda. Very healthy.
Then we had to get back to the hotel for our group meeting. We thought we had enough time, but that was without counting in taxi trouble. First we had to wait in a really long line for a taxi. Then none of the drivers knew where our hotel was. Finally we found one but within the first 30 seconds he got pulled over by a cop! We don't know what he did because we don't usually even see cops here, but he argued for a while before finally paying. The meter was running this whole time so we asked him if
we could restart it since the amount hadn't even had a chance to go up before we stopped and had only gone up while we were sitting there. Once he finally understood he reset it and then told us to get out of his car because he wouldn't take us. I have no idea why; we were really confused. So then we ended up walking down the street (and it was a busy street) trying to find a taxi. The first couple we talked to either didn't know where our hotel was or wanted to charge us 200 bahts instead of using the meter (which came to about 80). Finally we found a taxi but we were 20 minutes late to our meeting. By that time it was practically over. We went out to dinner as a group which was nice. This group is all young people (16 of us), I think because there are beaches involved. Mostly 20-25 year olds so I'm still the youngest and Brendon is one of the youngest too. They're all pretty nice. Everyone practically is travelling in pairs, either couples or friends. There are only 2 single travellers. They're all willing to meet new
people though which is good!
In the morning on the 22nd we found a post office and had a delicious milkshake from Swensen's. We also had a smoothie and a delicious falafel sandwich. It had falafel, hummus, tahini, lettuce, and some spicy red sauce. It was on a baguette that was fresh-baked in their brick oven. Falafel is one of my favorite things in the world and fresh baked bread is another, so it was perfect! In the afternoon we got on our overnight train.
The 23rd we arrived in Khao Sok National Park in southern Thailand. Our hotel is called Morning Mist Resort. Each pair of us has our own little bungalow right in amongst the jungle trees and flowers. I was expecting the hotels for this tour to be basic because that's how it was advertised since it's a cheap trip, but they're actually really nice! Especially the New World Lodge in Bangkok. So far at least...
After settling in, Brendon and I walked down to the national park and went for a short hike to San Yang Roi, a scenic overlook. The overlook was still right in among the trees so we couldn't see much.
The hike was incredibly hot! We were dripping sweat. Literally. Dripping. It was bad. But the jungle was nice! It's more jungly here than up in Chiang Mai, that was more foresty. This is more like a rainforest. After our hike we went tubing down a river with most of the people from our group. It was very relaxing and there were even some rapids! We saw a huge snake wrapped around a tree branch and a couple monkeys.
The 24th Brendon and I and 2 other people from our group (and our group leader) joined with 5 other tourists and went to Rajjaphapa Dam and lake in the national park. We rode there in the back of a pick-up truck doing at least 60 km/hr, probably more. Not the safest thing in the world... The lake was spectacular! All over this area there are huge limestone cliffs that just stick up everywhere. They are literally cliffs so they kind of just stick up and then drop straight off again. We went boating in amongst them and then kayaking, went to a coral cave with stalagtites and stalagmites and had a delicious lunch at the Plernprai Rafthouse where you can spend the night in floating bungalows. It was absolutely gorgeous and a really fun day! Really hot too. The rainforest in this area is supposedly older than the Amazon because there was no ice age.
Now on to Krabi...
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Kallie
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Wow Sounds like you have been busy but having lots of fun! IMAX with couches sounds very fun! The Jungle sounds amazing...I am in a jungle pretty much right now and it is so pretty! Love ya!