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Published: October 24th 2009
If I had to describe Thailand in one word it would be: WOW I arrived last Friday after a long and strenuous trip. I flew from Nairobi to Doha, Qatar and sat next to a very nice man and his daughter from Katmandu. They were extremely sweet and bid me a safe journey as they gave me their business card and told me to come stay with them in Kathmandu anytime. I will most definitely be taking them up on their offer. From there I ran straight to my plane and flew from Doha to Bangkok. The flight was not horrible, but my time in the Bangkok airport was spent standing in the customs line and running around the airport trying to figure out if I was supposed to pick up my bags and re-check them or not. I must have run four miles by the time I gave up and just accepted the fact that my bags would probably not arrive in Surat Thani. Completely exhausted, I boarded my last plane and flew to my new home.
As I stepped off the plane the humidity hit me like a thick stew. I immediately began sweating and perspiring with worry
about finding my bags. Thank heavens they both arrived! I was surprised but thankful to the airline gods. I pushed my luggage through the doors and saw a very beautiful Thai woman holding a sign with my name on it. Her name was Duen (pronounced “doin’”) and spoke English with a very British accent, which totally threw me off. We loaded up the van and began the 20 minute drive into Surat Thani (called Surat by the locals). I was amazed at how modern and beautiful and lush everything was. Though I was delirious, I was extremely happy.
She took me to the house that I will be staying in for the next year and my draw dropped at how big it was. A full kitchen, a living room with a pool table, flat screen tv and comfy couch, my own bedroom with air-conditioning and a balcony, and a big bathroom with good plumbing and hot water! It’s like a five start hotel compared to how I was living in Tanzania. Not that I didn’t love living at JBFC, it was just a bit more “rustic” than my house here. After Duen left, I unpacked and took a shower.
I intended to take a nap, but instead bumped into one of my new housemates, Paul. He’s a 33 year old guy from Scotland who is very nice and lots of fun. That afternoon we got to know each other and trekked out to a huge shopping complex called Tesco. This was the equivalent of a Sears or Walmart in America, but ten times bigger and three times cheaper. We grabbed some groceries and headed home. That evening for dinner we ate at a tiny spot right across from our house with another teacher named Michelle who is from Iowa. She and I have become fast friends already, both being from the Midwest and all.
The food here is sensational, by the way. I’ve never tasted so many good spices mixed together before. My spice tolerance is also a lot stronger than I gave myself credit for. It must be genetic considering that my father is the King of Hot Sauce. The curry here is fantastic and you can never go wrong with fried rice, noodle dishes and soups. However, the thing that has thrown me off is how much dairy they use here. Ice cream and shakes can
be found at any restaurant and yogurt is big here. The only thing you can’t find is good cheese…difficult for a girl from Wisconsin.
You can find 7/11’s on every corner, which really weirded me out at first. Anything you need you can find at the 7/11’s and they are open 24 hours, which make for good late night snacks. Plus, everything here is so cheap! You can eat a big meal for $1.50 and get snacks from the 7/11 for thirty cents. Fresh fruit is everywhere and the fruit smoothies are fabulous. I will really have to motivate myself to exercise while I’m here.
The ex-pat community in Surat is very cool. There are about 60-70 English teachers here teaching for various schools and who are from various places. My other housemate, a 24 year old Canadian girl named Michelle, arrived on Sunday. The three of us are going to make great housemates and have a lot of fun this year. I’ve been meeting all of the other teachers around here and haven’t met one that I don’t like so far. Everyone is very open-minded and up for having a good time. The night life here in
Surat is very busy. Bars stay open until the wee hours of the morning and you can often find people sleeping in the streets after a long night of drinking and dancing. It’s been hard for me to keep up with the late night crowds, but I have done some dancing and drinking this last week. There is a local beer called Leo, which is pretty good and a local liquor called Samsung. However, it is rumored that Samsung is laced with amphetamines and keeps you up all night, then hits you hard the next day. I think I’m going to keep my distance from that one.
On Wednesday, my two housemates, a girl named Emily who is from Minnesota, and I decided to take a trip out to an island called Koh Samui, before the new semester starts and we all get too busy. Paul and Emily both have motor bikes (an extremely common form of transportation in Thailand), so Michelle and I jumped on the back of them and we headed off. We took a ferry across to the island and arrived in the early evening. We found a cheap place to stay and enjoyed the fact
that we are now living in Thailand! The next morning we got up early and took off to find a beach that Paul had heard about. After driving for about 15 minutes we wound up at a place called Lamai. We surveyed the plethora of hotel options and settled on the Lamai Coconut Resort. We got clean beach-side rooms with air-conditioning, hot water and cable for $20 a piece! We were quite pleased. The second we got into our rooms we shed our clothes and skipped out to the beach in our bathing suits. It was literally like a Corona commercial. We lounged in the sun, splashed around in the crystal clear water and marveled at the landscape as it slowly sank in: we get to spend a year in one of the most beautiful places on earth…holy cow!
That evening we roamed around for a dinner venue. We stumbled across a night market with various food stalls selling very cheap but delicious delicacies. We split multiple dishes between us and feasted on tiger prawns, curried rice, and spring rolls. On our way back to our hotel we saw some very beautiful, yet scantily clad women holding up signs
for a show. We looked at their flyer and realized that they were not women, but very very beautiful men; known in Thailand as “lady boys” as politically incorrect as it may sound. They were advertising for a transvestite cabaret show, so the four of us looked at each other and said, “Why not?!” We walked into a bar named Zodiac and our draws dropped at how beautiful and believable these women/men were. We sat back with the rest of the tourist audience and enjoyed the musical numbers performed for us. As crazy as it was we were blown away by how good these women/men were. They were all so beautiful which really confused Paul, who got quite a bit of attention from the performers who came out into the audience; he got a few kisses and some awkward hugs, but was a good sport about it. After the show ended the women/men came out into the audience and shook all of our hands and took pictures with us. We told them how beautiful and talented they were and they were very appreciative. Definitely a great experience, we had so much fun!
We lounged on the beach one more
time before heading back to Surat and made it back just before nightfall. An amazing vacation before the semester starts on Monday. This weekend I intend to find the local yoga studios and kickboxing dojo’s, as well as seek out a bicycle so that I can get around town easier. Overall I am so happy here. I am excited to start teaching and can’t wait to get to know the city better. Hooray for Thailand!!
Fun Facts about Thailand:
- You can’t flush the toilet paper here because the sewage system can’t handle it
- Local taxis are called “tuk tuk’s” - pronounced “took took” and cost about 20 cents
- Thai people love their iced coffee, but drink it with condensed milk and tons of sugar
- Thai people don’t kiss each other with their lips, but rather put their face up to you as if they are going to kiss you, but instead sniff you
- It is good luck to eat the last piece of something at a Thai meal
- If someone offers you a gift it is very impolite to refuse
- It is very acceptable for women to wear short shorts and skirts
here, but it’s scandalous for women to bare their shoulders
- Foreigners in Thailand are called “farang”
- It is very impolite to point your feet at people in Thai culture
- For a two hour Thai massage it costs about $6
- During the rainy season (right now) it rains almost everyday usually at the same time (2 or 3pm)
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Laurie
non-member comment
Wow...Thailand looks wonderful and you look very happy! I continue to love to read your blog (and read it out loud to Tom) while traveling along with you! Be well.