This past week was a Korean holiday called Chuseok. It's kind of like Thanksgiving for Koreans, but it's a lot more family related,and there is a lot of prayer to ancestors. The best part is that it's a three-day holiday right in the middle of the week. The school decided to give us the Friday off as well. We all wished we had gotten the Monday as well, then we could have had 8 days to travel, but no dice. I decided to go to Thailand for the vacation because I'm getting a little sick of Korea right now. Plus my friend Tim from university lives there with his Thai boyfriend, so that meant no hotel costs!

I flew out of Seoul on Tuesday morning, I went to the airport with Alex and her mom (who were going to China). I actually flew through China, and I really hated their airport. The souvenir places would take my credit card, but not the food place, and neither would the ONE place that was selling water. I got into Thailand late, but Tim was there to meet me! We went straight to his place and then went and got food. Thailand is a pretty cheap place, especially if you know your way around. Being a foreigner, Tim said prices might be high for me, but I had him and Nate to help me out.

The next day I adventured out on my own. I had to take a bus, a sky train, and a riverboat to get to downtown Bangkok, but it was only like 30 minutes. I started out near Chinatown and went to a really big flower market. Flowers are big in Thailand because they are used for prayer. The market was huge, and wet. Oh and I forgot to say, the temperature in Bangkok was ridiculous, I was pretty much sweating my ass off for the whole day. Anyway, I walked past the flower market and wanted to go to the Museum of Siam. Apparently I looked lost because a very friendly Thai person came up to me and gave me good directions of some places to see, and then he put me in a tuktuk (a little motorized, open car). the driver took me around Bangkok for two hours for only 40 Baht (about $1.30). First I went to the Lucky Buddha, where I ran into another very friendly Thai who was telling me about the temple. A lot of the temples restrict pictures, so I couldn't take any of that place. Then I went on to Wat Benchamabophit. This was my first big temple that I had seen, and let me tell you, it was impressive. Everything was ornately designed, with lots of detail and gold embellishments. I can't even begin to understand how an ancient culture can make something so amazing without the technological advancements that present society has. It was really mind blowing. And it's not just the one temple, all the temples in Bangkok are like that. And they are all right in the middle of the city too.

After that I decided to go back downtown to the Grand Palace. I didn't actually go in because one, it was expensive, and two, they require that you wear long pants, close-toed shoes, and your shoulders must be covered. The thought of doing that in that heat almost made me pass out, so I decided against it. Instead I walked around for a while, I found a really cool amulet market where I bought a few things that I have absolutely no understanding of. Then some more walking,
I made it to the foreigner section and got some lunch. I wanted to try street food, but I didn't know what anything was, so I decided to wait for the next day when I went out with Nate. This place had a lot of souvenirs, and people selling stuff. One guy tried to sell me a night with a Thai boyfriend, only $10! I tried to find this curry market i read about, but to no avail. For the whole day, I drank four giant bottles of water (which, by the way, were only 20 cents each) and I only peed once! That's how much I was sweating. I eventually made it back to Tim's for a well needed shower.

Then, once Nate came back we headed out for my bachelorette party! I don't want to go into the details, but it involved alcohol, Mexican food, and a strip club.

The next day I had Nate all to myself. We started out with a  breakfast of green curry and begin our day at Wat Arun, which again I couldn't get into because I wasn't wearing appropriate attire. But it was fine, seeing it from the outside was still great. Wat Aurn is a really old stone temple, which again has great detail. I ran into a group of Koreans, and had a little convo with them, that was fun.

After Wat Arun, we went to Wat Pho, which is home to the Reclining Buddha. Again, housed in a huge, ornate palace, the Reclining Buddha was huge. Luckily, I was able to get in because they gave out ugly, over-sized shirt to wear for us people in tank tops. the Buddha is a 50-meter long, gold plated statue or immense proportion. We walked around the temple for a little while longer, it was a big maze of buildings and entry ways, and gold and Buddhas. After that we walked around the riverside, basically where I was the day before. We got some street food which was pretty spicy, and then to another temple called Wat Bowonniwet. More gold, more Buddhas, but this one had a great carving of Buddha's foot print (which I think is important), and withing the etched lines, people had balanced coins for good luck. A monk came up and talked to use for a little bit about it which was cool. We tried to find the curry market again, but we still couldn't find it.

We soon went back to Tim's house, and then set out for Ko Samet. We drove for a long time to a beach area where we got hooked up at a hotel for high ranking naval officers. Nate is in the navy, and it boss really likes him, so he made a reservation for us. The next morning we headed to the pier to go to Ko Samet (an island about 200km outside Bangkok). We had to wait for a while to get the boat, and the pier was really sketch. I've got this fear about walking over things that I can see through, especially when I see water underneath, especially when I'm carrying heavy suitcases. Anyway, the boat took about 45 minutes and cost 100 baht ( a little over 3 bucks) and our room was literally two feet away from the water. We got settles at about 1 o'clock and went straight for the beach. Nate and I got some food at the little place right by the room. Then I rented a chair (100 baht for the whole day) and camped out. I went in the water which was amazingly warm, it felt great. For a while we had to stay away because I member of the royal family was coming ashore. Oh, and I forgot to mention, in Thailand, there are just tons of stray dogs and cats, just chilling, walking around, causing no problem. I loved it. There were also a ton on the beach. How great would that be, to be a stray dog living on an island, hanging out on the beach, getting food from people all day. i was pretty jealous of the dogs. Anyway, back to the beach, it was great. There weren't a ton of people, just a big group of speedo-clad Russians. So we were on the beach for a while, then explored the in-land area. When night came along we wandered down the beach to this outside restaurant where we sat on mats on the sand. We got a HUGE meal, two meat skewers, two cobs or corn, spring rolls, ribs, noodles, two alcohol buckets, and a hookah, all for $45. Plus, there was a fire show! A bunch of fit Thai guys throwing sticks of fire into the air, pretty bad ass. We stayed there for a few hours, watched the fire show and partook in some on-stage dancing. After a while though I was pretty tired so I went to bed.

The next day was another day or fun in the sun. Tim got some pretty awkward sun burns on his leg, his belly button, and hear his speedo line. We stayed there until about 3 pm and then took the ferry back. I had to be at the airport by 10am the next morning, so we had to leave the night before in order to get there. At the pier on the way back I tried some strange fruit and got a few presents for my kids at school. We then drove to Bang Saen to stay for the night. This was another place on the beach. We got a pretty decent room for 500 Baht ($16) with two beds. After a well needed shower we went to get some food. Again, great meal for cheap. We got crab legs, a spicy mussel salad, and a sour-spicy fish soup, all for about $13. And of course there was an adorable cat who I had no problem giving my fish bones to. After the filling meal, we went to get a Thai massage, something I had been waiting for for days. Tim and I went together, and we got a full hour for only 250 Baht ($8). Nate told them to go easy on us because we were sunburned, but usually it's a bit rougher. It felt great though. And Tim was talking to them in Thai which was fun. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some more weird Thai fruit, it was all decent tasting, nothing spectacular though. The night sucked, because I swear the beds were made out of straight concrete, and in the middle of the night it felt like little concrete midgets were punching me all over my back.

We got up the next morning to go to the airport, and we stopped by a cool looking Chinese temple in Bang Saen, again I couldn't take pictures inside, but the outside was pretty fascinating. After another hour in the car we got to the airport, early, I had to wait for the ticket counter to open. I brought about $250 dollars with me, and i actually had a hard time spending it all. Even with the travel, paying for the hotels, food, souvenirs, gas, I still had about 1,500 Baht to spend at the airport. So i did my last bit of souvenir shopping, got things for my kids' parents, something for my grandma, and a shot glass for my collection. I never figured out what to get for Daniel, so I got him a bottle of Jack form the duty free shop (he loved it). I must say, it was only five days, but I missed him terribly. It was kinda annoying seeing all the cute couple on the island, and not being one of them. I was happy to finally get back (which didn't happen until 1am Monday morning because my freaking plane was delayed in China and I missed my last bus).

All in all, it was a pretty great trip. The weather was hot, but the goods were cheap and the food was great. The stray animals brought my heart up, but I missed my boo. It was great seeing Tim, and I had a fun bachelorette party. In the end though, I was ready to go home. I am definitely going back though!

You can see all my pictures here in my Facebook album!