Amazing Thailand!

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I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about visiting Thailand because of my ignorance- with the prevalent sex industry there, but as you can see from the photos, Thailand offers so much more and am glad that I went. The people are so relaxed and easy-going, the food was fantastic and the scenery- wonderful.

I ended up learning how to say, "I am not Thai- I am Vietnamese"- some...MOST mistook me for a local. They would laugh- "so much like Thai!" my response- "yes, same-same, but different" ;D

The first week, I was in Phuket- diving the Similan islands and then for the next 2 week, did a tour of northern Thailand. I booked the trip pretty last minute and not wanting to be hassled by the logistics of it all, signed up for an organized tour with Intrepid adventures. To my surprised and dread, there was to be a 3-day trek through the mountains to visit the hilltribes. I was not sure that I would make it- considering that I had no hiking shoes and being a heavy cigarette smoker and all. But, thanks to a porter to transport my backpack, I did not slow down the others- who, brought their hiking boots and did not have Malboro lungs...

Often, we had to take cold water bucket showers and slept on bamboo mats with mosquito nets. We visited small villages where our homestay was privileged with a car battery for light at night. Orchestra of roosters crowing and dogs barking would wake us up in the wee hours of the morning- it was cool- I was happy to experience that.

Yes, I saw the girls waiting for the old & rich foreigners to come visit them at the bars, the lady-boys trying to lure in the clueless and people stopping to show me a menu of shows featuring various sexual acts that their club was offering, but it didn't affect me as much- no, Thailand was so much more than that.

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Comments

[Giao]

I love your pics and stories behind them