Academics:
International Studies
Tina F.
Semester At Sea
Journal #7
October 9, 2003:
Sa-Wat dee Kah!
We spent four days in Thailand, and it was wonderful! The first day we went to Sir Racha to the Tiger Zoo. I got to hold crocodiles and a baby tiger there. We also saw a crocodile and tiger show. After the zoo we went to a temple in Pattaya.
 Once we got to the ship we took a two hour cab ride to Bangkok to a hotel by the airport. We spent the night there, and got up early the next morning for our flight to Chiang Mai. When we arrived in Chiang Mai our cab driver took us to an elephant village. Here we took a 45 min. elephant ride through the jungle, and in the middle we took and break and fed the elephants some bananas. Then we took a 15 min. ride on an ox cart and then another 30 min. on a bamboo raft down the river.
On the raft, the guide let us each take a turn steering the raft with a long piece of bamboo. We also got some lunch and walked around for awhile.
After the elephant village our cab driver took us to a monk hill tribe. This was basically a small village on a hill with some places to buy souvenirs. On the way back to the hotel, our sweet cab driver stopped and bought us some flowers.
 We got to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner in a nice little restaurant down the street. Next we went to the spa where I got a Thai massage and my eyebrows waxed. Unfortunately when she pulled my eyebrow hairs out she also pulled a lot of my skin off too! Hey, what do you expect for 100 baht (there are 40 baht to one dollar). We also went to a tailor because some of the girls wanted to get some linen pants made. I had some made in Vietnam, so I just went to keep them company.
The next day we just walked around Chiang Mai and enjoyed the city. We took a Tuk Tuk ride, which I don't know how to explain to you what that is, a half motorcycle, half car type thing.
That night we ate dinner and had a few drinks before hitting up the night bazaar. We got our souvenirs, and then headed off for a Thai boxing match. My friends think it was real, but it looked pretty fake to me. They had cock fights too, but we didn't want to watch that.
We got up early the next morning to fly back to Bangkok, and then take the ride back to the ship to get ready to take off to India.
Thailand was beautiful, and the people are so friendly. Now I understand why its nickname is "The land of smiles". Everyone speaks English very well, and loves to talk to foreigners.
It is more westernized than Vietnam, but not quite as much as Japan. I would have to say that I love Thailand as a vacation place, but Vietnam I liked better because is was so different from America. Thailand thrives on tourists, so there are Italian, Mexican, German, etc. restaurants everywhere. They have elephant villages, orchid farms, butterfly farms, snake farms, etc. They are all created for tourists; I don't know how many people asked us if we wanted to go see these farms and the shows that they put on while we are there. You can pay to get your picture with anything. I had a lot of fun anyway, I love all of the countries we got to!
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