I would just like to say that I have been to Thailand many times. This particular trip was probably the 19th or 20th trip or so that I have been there. The reason I go there so much is because almost every summer (there are exceptions where I go during my winter break) for about a month I go to visit my mother (who lives there). The reason I only stay for a month is because with an American passport, you can stay a month in Thailand without needing a visa, so I do it for the convenience (and because I am too lazy to apply for a visa). My choice of airline varies, it really depends on price. Before 2007, I would take US based airlines that fly to Bangkok such as United Airlines and Northwest Airlines. This was convenient because I can just book one airline all the way through from Buffalo to Bangkok and then fly up to Chiang Mai. However, as we all know, ever since 9/11, US airlines aren't what they use to be because they started cutting costs by reducing customer satisfaction and competing by price only. So 2007 was the first year I started looking into Asian or European based airlines. The problem was that Buffalo is such a small airport that those carriers don't fly to Buffalo but they do fly to Chicago and New York City (both were one non stop plane rides to buffalo) so I was finding airlines departing from those cities. What I have found was that going to Thailand via Europe (flying east) was much more expensive then flying to Thailand via Pacific Ocean (flying west) so that essentially knocked out all of the European based airlines. This particular year I was lucky because Thai Airways had a non-stop flight from New York City - Bangkok - New York City which was very convenient because that would reduce me to only 2 connections rather than the usual 3 (usually i flew Buffalo - Chicago/Detroit (depending on United or Northwest) - Tokyo - Bangkok). The price for the flight was very good so I jumped at the chance. What I did was just bought a JetBlue flight from Buffalo to New York and a Thai low cost airline from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. With everything, the cost came out to be something like $1600 round trip, which really wasn't that bad. Mind you this was before gas prices shot up in price. I also usually buy plane tickets 6 months before flying because it is usually cheaper. Now to the trip...
Sophomore year of college was over and I was excited to go visit my mother because I hadn't seen her for a year. My trip started off like it always does, me having to catch an early flight out of Buffalo, I believe this year the JetBlue flight left at 8am or something. And every year, the night before leaving I always get butterflies in my stomach (both from excitement and nervousness because I am terrified of flying) leading me to not being able to sleep. Its ironic really that I am afraid of flying even though I have done it many times before. I never used to be afraid of flying, it was when my grandmother showed me the movie 'Alive' at the age of 10 that changed my perception completely. Ever since then, I am terrified to get on a plane. So I was groggy as usual arriving at the Buffalo airport but that is good because that means I will be tired and sleep on the airplane. This was the first time I have ever been to New York's JFK airport (I usually connected through Chicago/Detroit) so it was a good experience. It was nice that they had an AirTrain because I had to get from Terminal 6 to Terminal 4 or something. In Chicago, I usually had to walk under the tarmac to get to the United International Terminal. It was weird that day, I have heard that JFK was a very crowded airport but that particular day it wasn't crowded at all. I got through security very fast. Perhaps it was still early in the morning. You can see the picture of the Thai Airways plane that took me to Bangkok above. The flight itself was good but long. It was 17 hours but the flight attendants made sure we were all comfortable because the plane was packed. The aircraft was an A340-500 with the configuration of 2 x 4 x 2 and because I always get the window seat, I only had 1 person next to me. On the way back to New York City, the plane was not full and I had no one sitting next to me, which was awesome because I could just lay flat on the two seats to go to sleep. I always pick the window seat by the way. The reason for this is because through experience, it is the best seat. My argument for this is, with a window seat, you can see the awesome view (even though I don't tend to look out of the window because I am scared of flying). It also gives you a place to lean against when you are trying to go to sleep, I like to lean on something rather than sleeping up straight. Lastly, there is no one waking you up for you to get up so that they can go to the bathroom. I tried sleeping but couldn't so I ended up being even more tired when I got to Bangkok. The food on the airplane was excellent...at least I thought, I mean the airplane food wasn't gourmet but it was good for being on an airplane.
You can see it was rainy at the Bangkok Airport when we landed. It usually is this time of year because its the monsoon season. The flight up to Chiang Mai was fine, when I arrived at the Chiang Mai airport I was glad to see my mom because I was both tired and hungry. I don't know why I was hungry, I had eaten everything that was served on the airplane because I couldn't sleep. Perhaps I was craving the awesome Thai food. That night I slept like a baby. Jet lag for me varies by year, some years I have jet lag for like a week, while some years it goes away just with a night of sleep. What I mean having jet lag for a week is this, for about a week, I would be so tired at like 5pm or 6pm and can't stay up anymore and go to bed and wake up at like 4am or 5am. It was pretty bad because there isn't anything going on 5am...
This is my mom's house and my childhood home. Its nice, my parents built it up from scratch. Not they themselves of course, they had a contractor do it. My mom also has like 5 dogs. Some years I would go visit her and see 2 dogs, the next year I would see like 7. She is like a dog lady haha. In Thailand, dogs aren't like what they are in the US. In the US, most dogs are inside dogs but in Thailand they are outside dogs. My dogs would never go on the inside of the house, they would be outside 24/7 roaming in the yard and sleeping on the patio. It is also rare to see Thai dogs that are purebred. They are usually mutts and you see a lot of stray dogs in the streets. Actually my father, when he was living in Thailand, was riding a motorcycle once and veered off to miss a stray dog in the street and ended up breaking his collar bone. Lets just say he will never ride a motorcycle in Thailand ever again haha.
In Thailand there are many 'wat' or temples. It is essentially the signature of Thailand's past. One famous wat in Chiang Mai, Thailand is perched up on a hill over looking Chiang Mai. The name of the hill is Doi Suthep so the temple is named Wat Doi Suthep. I sorta make it a tradition to go up to visit there every time I visit home, even though I have been there many times before. There is a road leading up the hill which is convenient. Most tourists take either a bus, van, or something called a songthaew which is essentially a red pickup truck with a cover on it, and customers sit on the bed of the truck. I would say songthaew is the cheapest option if you want to go up there, there is a stand for them at the bottom of the hill right before the Chiang Mai Zoo. The fee is negotiable, but as a foreigner they might try to charge you more. I have never personally taken it because I usually go up Doi Suthep with a car, but I wouldn't imagine it being more than 100 baht ($3). The stand can get quite crowded during the tourist season so expect to wait in line for a songthaew. This particular year I went with one of my friends from when I went to school in Thailand and wanted to take the songthaew up. However, it wasn't really the tourist season and we were the only two waiting at the stand and because the driver won't waste gas to go up the hill just to bring two people, we were told we had to wait for more people to show up. We didn't have to pay the 'tourist fee' because both my friend and I can speak Thai but I was too lazy to wait so I just told my friend to drive me up the hill in his car. There are many waterfalls on the hill before getting to the wat and we stopped at one. When you think of a waterfall, you are thinking of like the Niagara Falls or some big waterfall but Thai waterfalls are usually pretty small with many levels. It is just how jungle waterfalls are I guess. After we parked and before walking up the steps to get to the wat (to get to the wat you have a choice of either hiking up stairs or paying and taking a trolly up) there was a guy with an elephant who was selling food for people to feed it. I decided to feed the elephant for good karma. This is quite common, and because this is a tourist area, the parking lot is full of vendors, food stalls, etc. You see people selling stuff as you are walking up the steps as well. The wat was nice, you have to take off your shoes before entering the 'main' wat area. From there you can see Buddha statues, bells, etc. The wat also gives you a good view of downtown Chiang Mai. I was lucky because that particular day was quite clear so I was able to see all the way to the mountains to the East (Chiang Mai is in a valley).
Tips on getting around Chiang Mai: If you ever decide to come to Chiang Mai, you will find that it is much different than Bangkok. In Bangkok, there are metered Taxis everywhere. In Chiang Mai, there are very few and you will only find them in heavily tourist areas like the Night Bazaar. To get around, one option is to hire a driver. This can be expensive or quite a good deal depending on who's driving and how good your haggling skills are. Definitely sharpen your haggling skills before coming to Thailand by the way. You will be doing it a lot when you decide to buy clothes, souvenirs, etc. from street side vendors. The only thing you pretty much can't haggle with them is if you were buying food. But that shouldn't matter because Thai food is very cheap, compared to US standards at least. In the US I would get an OK lunch for about $5. In Thailand, I could get a very satisfied lunch for about $1.50. Back on topic...another option to get around is Taxis. You will rarely see locals using a Taxi because it is too expensive and there are way cheaper methods of getting around. Tuk Tuks (if you don't know what it looks like, search it on Google because it is hard to explain what it is), or motorized rickshas I guess, is another common way for tourists to get around. Be sure to setting the price before getting into the tuk tuk though. Also, be sure to speak clear and slow English because most of those drivers don't even speak English. You can wave tuk tuks down almost anywhere, there are tons of them in touristy areas. There are bus lines in Chiang Mai, but I am not really similar with it because it was only implemented a couple of years ago, sorry. Renting a motorcycle is also another option but I don't really know what the formalities of that are. Last but not least is the most common form of transportation and that is the songthaew. I explained what it was earlier. Locals use these all the time. What you have to do is, wave them down on the street (the red color ones). Go up to where the driver is and tell him/her where you want to go and ask him the price for it. If he is going that way, he will nod his head and you can proceed to the back to get into the bed of the truck, if he is not going that way shake his head and you can just wave down another one which you will find shortly after. They are quite common and there are different color ones. The red ones are the ones you want if you are just getting around the city. There are also yellow ones which are used to transport people to different 'counties' of the province. I think there are green ones as well but not really sure what they are used for. Songthaew rides around the city are very cheap, only about 20 baht (60 cents). You can also find Songthaews in Bangkok as well.
I celebrated my 20th birthday in Thailand and I went out to dinner with a lot of people. Something interesting happened at dinner though. There was some guy with an elephant going around the restaurant selling food for people to buy to feed the baby elephant. I thought it was pretty random that one moment I was sitting there eating grilled pork and the next moment seeing a baby elephant walking around the restaurant (the restaurant was outdoors). Of course knowing me, I had to feed the elephant so I did. Man I missed doing that, can't do that stuff in Buffalo haha.
When I took this trip to Thailand, I told my mom that I wanted to go to Phuket as well. Phuket is an island in the south of Thailand and during the tourist season there are ALOT of tourists there. The beaches are beautiful and because I usually go to Thailand in the non-tourist season, I figure Phuket would be pretty quiet.
Phuket was exactly as I suspected...not very crowded. You see that from the amount of people that are on the beach. I was actually surprised that they had the island pretty much cleaned up from the tsunami. It was nice to relax on the beach for once, because there aren't really any good beaches in Western NY. The hotel pool had a bar in the middle of it which was kinda cool. Overall the Phuket trip was nice, I sampled a lot of local seafood (my favorite type of food by the way) and it was so delicious because it was so fresh. There were areas to the island that were more crowed with tourists, like areas near nightclubs and bars but I steered clear of those areas this trip because I was with my mother. Plus, I wanted to relax and not spend days trying to get rid of a hangover...it was a tough semester. Note: drinking age in Thailand is 18 but you can essentially drink at any age, as long as your parents say it is OK.
From Thailand I also went to Nanning, China but that will be in another entry. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
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