Thailand

Thailand

The first day in Thailand, I went to the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo where I got to see some unique animals up close. First, they have an elephant that was trained to pick people up with its trunk for a picture. It was kind of scary because you really have to hold on to their trunk to avoid falling but it definitely made for a good picture. I think that was the first time I have ever touched an elephant and I realized how rough and thick their skin is. I also got to feed an elephant bananas, which they just eat whole with the skin and all. He ate about 10 bananas in 2 minutes so I can only imagine how many they could really eat without being full. We saw a tiger show, which was basically like a circus where the tigers jumped through fire and did some other tricks. Then we saw a crocodile show and if you didn’t know crocodiles are quite lazy so the trainers basically had to drag them around to make them move. The main attraction there was the trainers putting their heads in the crocs mouths, which I got some good pictures of. After that we got to hold a baby tiger and feed it milk in a bottle, which was by far my favorite part of the day. They had lots of baby tigers that were very cute and I spent a lot of time just watching them play and taking lots of pictures. That night we went to a city called Pattaya, which was quite an interesting experience. Thailand has been having a lot of problems with sex workers and so we witnessed many prostitutes that were everywhere promoting themselves and lots of older men who were not there for the food.

The next day, I went to a Red Cross Rehab center for one of my classes. The owner of the center was a doctor who started it about 30 years ago and has really built it up into one of the best and only rehab centers in Thailand. The patients were mainly victims of brain and spinal cord injuries as well as amputees and autistic patients. It was very impressive how this one doctor had done so much in this particular field of medicine and even at 75 years old, he was still running the place and going strong. We got to tour the facility and actually see the rehab patients being helped and it was very obvious how much rehabilitation can increase a person’s quality of life from almost nothing. After that, my friend and I made the 90 minute trip to Bangkok where we spent the next 3 nights. I was surprised at how modernized Bangkok was; it really almost looks like New York City. There are lots of tall buildings, taxis and vendors everywhere and 7-11’s on every corner! The first thing we did that was on our to-do list was get a traditional Thai massage for next to nothing in terms of money. It was very different from a typical massage in America because they basically stretch your entire body and even stand on you some of the time. I enjoyed it very much and felt incredibly stretched out and relaxed afterwards. That night, we went out to dinner and then to one of the main strips called Khoa San Road in Bangkok. It was really cool because as you walk down the street, they have a night market where you can shop at the vendors and get delicious pad thai made in front of your eyes from a cart. Bangkok is known for having a big nightlife scene and so there were lots of people out and we ran into many Semester at Sea friends just walking down the street.

The next few days were filled with sightseeing, shopping and a couple of foot massages (an hour long foot massage costs about $7). Bangkok has many canals where you can ride boats around to different destinations like Venice. We took one of these to go see the Grand Palace, which is the most famous Buddhist temple in Thailand. It was pretty spectacular. Most of it is made from tiny colored pieces of glass that are put together to form a beautiful sight. There is also lots of gold used on the rooftops and the detail is just incredible all around. There was also a magnificent shrine with a Buddha on top, which the people come to pray to. Every now and then I saw monks around Thailand and they are not allowed to sit next to or touch women. There is a sky train that goes through Bangkok and they specifically reserve seats for the monks, which was kind of interesting. The sky train was very convenient, cheap and fast because there is a LOT of traffic in Bangkok and it can be very slow moving. The difference between the traffic in Thailand and India was that everyone drives faster and they don’t honk, which was a nice bonus. The food in Thailand was delicious every time we ate. Although it was a little different than what I’m used to in Thai restaurants in the U.S., it was still very, very good! Next time I go to Thailand, I would like to see the North, which is supposed to be very different from the South. There are jungle and beach cities such as Chang Mai and Phuket which sound like very interesting/beautiful places from what my friends have said. Now I’m already going to be in Vietnam tomorrow, which is going to be much different and I hope to learn more about the Vietnam War and see it from their perspective because they actually call it the American War. That’s all for now, miss you all!