Leopard Sharks and Seahorses

So I just returned from what was the best trip I've had in my life. The Similan Islands are one of the top ten dive sites in the entire world, and I spent last week diving there while living on the boat the West Coast Explorer.

The Similan Islands are in the Andaman Sea, north of Phuket, and are gorgeous even above water. I took a 12 hour bus to Khao Lak, spent a day drinking on the beach and getting a massage before setting sail on my liveaboard scubadiving trip. My friend Charlie Waters was my dive partner all week and we saw more marine life than I could have ever expected. I kept a log of all the species I could identify during the dives, from blue sea stars to a banded sea snake to a frimulated moray eel. We saw two pretty large leopard sharks and a little seahorse that just tugged on my heart strings. I've never had so much fun.

This was our daily schedule:

6:30-7:00 wake up

7:00 snack

7:30 dive 1

8:30 breakfast

10:30 dive 2

11:30 lunch

3:30 dive 3

4:30 snack

5:30 dive 4

6:30 dinner

7:30 chatting and drinking

We did four dives a day (14 dives total) and we even did 1 night dive (my first) which was pretty awesome. Everyone was older than me, and mostly European men, but they gave me such a hard time for never wearing a wetsuit until the last day. Come on, we're in the tropics, you aren't going to get that cold! Every dive was 30 meters for about 50 minutes. Pretty fabulous considering I'm only an Open Water Diver.
After the trip we all stayed a night in Patong Beach in Phuket which was pretty raunchy, good fun. One of our divemasters owned a bar on Soi Gonzo named Magic Bar and we had quite an evening there. Old European men on a stripper pole can only happen in Thailand.

I'm hoping to get some underwater pictures emailed from some friends on the trip, but until now these must suffice. I will be heading home in several days and I can't believe my trip is ending! Not yet! The fun is just beginning!

P.S. check out my new obsessions: Lady GaGa (american) and Tata Young (thai)

Stranded in Paradise

As I'm sure you all have heard, protestors of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in Thailand have taken over the domestic and international airports in Bangkok. At first it didn't sound so bad, but there have been no flights in and out of Don Muang or Suvarnabhumi in several days. Tourists stuck here, businessmen stuck elsewhere, Thailand is losing an absurd amount of money such that many Thais that were sympathetic of the PAD party now are ashamed at the reputation Thailand has for political unrest.
Despite all this unrest and the small bombings we hear reported, some of us took off for a nice weekend at the beach :o). Back to Koh Samet in the Gulf of Thailand, Dan, Ruby, Pai, Steph and myself got a nice bungalow and played in the water while the chaos persists in Bangkok. Steph is Ruby's friend from the University of Connecticut who was visiting her here and is now STILL visiting her because she cannot leave the country and may not be back in time to take her final exams. "Chaos" is a tough word to use for this situation though. I go to aerobics in the morning, we go to movies and shopping in town... nothing is changed except international travel which doesn't apply to me... yet. We have heard that this should blow over by the King's birthday on December 5 which is plenty of time before my flight back to the US.

Back from the beach, we celebrated Thanksgiving! I was expecting rice and more rice, but our friends spent all afternoon cooking the most incredible Thanksgiving dinner at our friend Amber's apartment downtown from the cranberry sauce to the stuffing to the corn cobs to the sweet potatoes. It was the most delicious meal and it was so fun to be with so many friends in a fancy western-style apartment with a sofa for the evening.

On Saturday I went to Cambodia! My student visa expired November 30 because that's when my official study abroad program ended at KMUTT, so I had to go to Cambodia to get a tourist visa. I called the Immigration Burreau to see if I could get a new visa there, but they told me to drive to the border. Very funny. Either way, the Kingdom of Cambodia was great for the 30 minutes I spent there before taking my van back. Thanks ThaiVisaRun.Com!

I bought tons of Christmas presents for my family at the Chatuchak Weekend Market on Sunday... very successful indeed. This upcoming week I'm going on a pretty wild adventure: scuba diving in one of the top ten dive sites in the entire world... stay tuned!

Note: Our friend and advisor P. Mee called Angela Friday night after the airports were closed--

P. Mee: Angera? I think perhaps you should not go into Bangkok tonight.

Angela: What? We're actually already in town, why?

P. Mee: I think perhaps there is going to be a revolution.

Angela: ...okay?

Shape Up or Ship Out

So as it turns out, I've gotten myself into a pretty fun workout schedule. I'm back going to aerobics in the park every morning, and to top it off I've started to get into running. I have made it a personal goal to get into ship shape. Around June of next year there will be a memorial run in honor of my Uncle Peter, an avid runner, who passed away several months ago, so hopefully I'll be able to run the entire thing. I've been running several kilometers in the park in the morning and being back at the house by 8:15am to start my day. Although I'd only been training for over one week, I ended up registering to a "Quarter Marathon" in the Bangkok Marathon! I found it to be quite a personal accomplishment.
Hok Duean: 6 months. I've been living here for exactly 6 months and it's the kind of time frame that you realize that you could absolutely stay here if it ended up that way. I have my park I work out in, a school campus, new friends, a movie theater I like, a great apartment, my own furniture, a good Kareoke place, good study habits, a perfect coffee shop, I know the bus routes, etc. You know how sometimes you wake up and you're a little hungover and the last thing you want in Asian food? That's one of the things I've had a hard time getting used to. Don't get me wrong, it will be very exciting to come home, but it's great to know that I'm so comfortable here.

I thought I would include this image of a note we received from a neighbor. We had been tying our clothes line to a little pipe between our townhouses but I guess its a pipe for their air conditioner? Whatever, at least they have one!

I'm very series.

The Morning in Mourning

I just went on a little trip in eastern Thailand to do surveys for the past 5 days.

We did over 500 surveys in the Bangkok area, then we did 125 surveys in each of the following provinces: Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat. We ended up getting everything done ahead of schedule so we were able to spend the night on the island of Koh Chang and spend a day in the sun and swimming in the Gulf of Thailand.

What are these surveys you ask? Well since my semester ended, I have working on my Nuclear Feasibility for Thailand research project. A huge part of our work is public opinion, so we have been gathering just that. As a group we have no surveyed over 1000 Thai people and now we have to start tallying and analyzing the results.

The phrase from this title sounds like: "dichan pen naksusa techno bahngmod chuay grough ka moon di mi ka?" or, for my English speaking friends, "I am a student at KMUTT, will you please help me by filling out this survey?" Although we surveyed 1000 people, we probably asked at least 2000 people who were too busy, confused, angry at the subject, or illiterate.

Now, back to analyzing all this data!

Oh yeah! The reference of the title "the morning in mourning" is due to that I went to aerobics and ran laps this morning but I wore all black. Everyone in Thailand is wearing black today because the King's sister died one year ago today, and today will be her cremation. It's half mourning half celebration of life.

Pride

Obama wins!!! I celebrated at the Roadhouse BBQ and Bar from 9am-11am to watch the results as the polls were closing back home. Friends were buying rounds of beer early in the morning to celebrate and I couldn't have asked for a better place to enjoy the company of fellow Americans in Thailand. I wore my "Bangkok for Barack" shirt with glee.

I am proud of:

p1. North Carolina votes for a democrat president for the first time in 32 years with Jimmy Carter. Yay Barack Obama!

2. North Carolina has a female governor for the first time in history. Yay Bev Perdue!

3. North Carolina has a democrat senator for the first time in at least 30 years. I'm sorry madam dolie. Yay Kay Hagan!

Times they are a-changing. I'm so sorry Uncle Rick! I love you!

Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551!

October 17: my parents, my brother Andrew, and his girlfriend Jenn arrived sleepily from 18 hours of airplane fun and I met them with sign in hand "Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551" with matching t-shirt on. We walked around the Nana area and had dinner at the India Hut before getting some much-needed sleep at the Manohra Hotel which was quite nice with a rooftop garden.

October 18: bus ride to Kanchanaburi. We booked two rooms at the Noble Night Guesthouse in town after much ado with bungalows we found that were too crappy or too luxurious. We ate some good Thai food (ahan thai) and walked around a Chinese cemetary for World War II casualities in Thailand that was in utter disrepair. We poked around a weird spirit house garbage pile.

October 19: met up with a tour guide and now good friend Anngee that took us to a geothermal hot spring next to a cooling river that was nothing like I'd ever seen or swam in before. We visited a huge waterfall, rode on a old train, visited the Bridge on the River Kwai, crept in a Buddha Cave, and walked through Hellfire Pass that was park of the slave-labored railway construction of World War II.

October 20: back to Bangkok, we stayed in a huge family room at the Grand China Princess in the heart of Chinatown. Immaculate room, amazing view, and revolving restaurant on the roof. We ate a late lunch at the Shangrila where we ate a very delicious Chinese meal and where we accidentally devoured and paid for a $125 King Lobster. Don't be fooled by the dainty words 'by weight' when you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Delicious little fella though. Happy Birthday to Phillip on this day!

October 21: we spent the morning on a ferry boat on the Chao Praya River past Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) to the Grand Palace and Wat Prakao. I got in free with my student idea and a lot of smiling. We flew to Chiang Mai in the far north of Thailand and booked a room at Penon Peng Guesthouse that was family-run, adorable, and very quaint. We ate dinner at The Zest where my father realized his love of any food served in a pineapple. The band at the Zest was two men, one with guitar and one with banjo. I told the man I loved his banjo and that I have one of my own to which he responded by dedicating the ballad of Old Susanna to me next.

October 22: a taxi driver gave us a tour of some of the major temples in Chiang Mai's "old town" inside the moat area that was once used as defense against neighboring armies. I released several birds from a cage at a temple for good luck. We ended up at Doi Sutep, a temple on the top of a mountain that made for some amazing views and incense-fueled spirituality. Dinner at El Diablo's Heavenly Burritos was exactly what the doctor ordered.

October 23: Outside of town we went to an elephant camp where we rode on the backs of elephants, travelled by oxcart, watching an elephant trick show, and took a bamboo raft down the river. My first time on an elephant! One elephant was trained to lift people up with its nose between their legs and my dad just walked right up to it and did it! I was too chicken at first, but I couldn't let him show me up. Went to the Night Bazaar to explore the trinkets and excitement.
October 24: back to Bangkok, we booked a room at the Zenith Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 3 and went to Siam Ocean World in the center of town. The huge aquarium was one of the highlights of the trip with more undersea life than I could have imagined existed. I will have to go back! Afterwards it turned out, much to the happiness of my brother and his girlfriend who are both graphic designers in New York, that we accidentally ran into the Bangkok Design Festival! Very cool artwork at the Bangkok Center for Cultural Arts. I also ended up showing the family around my campus a little bit at KMUTT and having a mediocre lunch at The Frog.
October 25: Andrew and Jenn flew back to New York while my parents and I grabbed a flight to Phuket, the largest island in Thailand in the Andaman Sea. A lazy afternoon of eating food on the beach, shopping, and relaxing around the Sugar Palm Resort. Note: every towel on the grounds is printed "SUGAR PLAM".

October 26: a boat cruise in the Andaman Sea of the most gorgeous karst landscape I'd ever seen. We visited the James Bond Island where "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed. We canoed through several bat caves and grottoes that were perfect. At one point we jumped off the boat and swam to an island where two monkeys were sitting on the sand and we fed them oranges. On the cruise back to Phuket, two of the boat's crew members ended up dressing up as Ladyboys and performing a quite strange sexy dance on board. I met a very nice girl from Israel on the boat and I hope to stay in touch with her. Apparently Israelites travel to Thailand all the time, as one Israeli guy on the boat said "If I wanted to see this many Jews I would have just gone to Tel Aviv." Happy Birthday to Zena on this day!

October 27: sunning ourselves on the Haad Kata and Haad Karon, I ended up going parasailing as part of my birthday present. Very exciting to see the island and water from so far up! We bought some nice sarongs and went to the FantaSea cultural and lights and dance show. Pretty gaudy and much like Disney World on the outside, it was a nice experience but a bit too much going on.

October 28: flew back to Bangkok then took a chartered car from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Ayutthaya. We stayed one night at Baan Lotus where I stayed months ago with my friend Greg. Very quaint, great teak homestead with very kind family owners. We took a tuk tuk tour of many temples at sunset and saw them lit up at night in an eerie beauty. We ended up at the Night Market for dinner and smoothies along the canal before turning in for the night.

October 29: after sleeping in and nursing my mom's cold, we took the public bus back to Bangkok and a taxi to my apartment. I gave my parents a tour of campus and we ate Mama Tom Yum at Ann's noodle shop at the Girl's Dorm. My father and I bought matching windbreakers with the name of my school in Thai on the back. We stayed at the Grand Mercure Park Avenue on Sukhumvit Soi 22.

October 30: spent the afternoon at Muang Boran just southeast of Bangkok where we rented a goftcart and travelled through mini-Thailand in park-form. It was a ton of fun and my parents realled loved it. It was very comfortable outside although we ended up getting caught in the rain and instantly soaked. Bought lots of nifty gifties. That evening we ate dinner at the Andaman Restaurant on Thanon Henri Donut and bought some beautiful scarves at Jim Thompson's Thai Silk store.

October 31: we toured Baan Jim Thompson and admired his gorgeous teak home from the 50s and 60s. He opened the international market for Thai silk decades ago and at the height of his fame, mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia. I gave my parents a tour of the park near my apartment and took them to the roof of my graduate school building for a nice sunset view. I sent them back to their hotel so I could prep for a sweet Halloween/Birthday Party. I dressed as a Zebra (in Thai: Ma-lai) and was absolutely proud of how it turned out. We had a bunch of friends over and then went out to Kao Sahn Road (mini-Franklin Street for Halloween as it turned out) and had a really great time. I didn't pay for anything all night and we met these really funny Thai students at one bar and danced with them all night. At midnight I was screaming "WON GERB CHAAAAAN" which was "ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!" and fun was had by all.
November 1: My official birthday, my parents flew back home in the morning and I relaxed with my friends all afternoon. Nothing's more fun than celebrating your twenty first birthday in Thailand dressed as a zebra. We will celebrate my birthday again on the second so we've got bookends of happiness around my bday.

Hello Juvenile Thornback Cowfish!

I took the photo above from the front page of the Bangkok Post. Seems pretty intense! Two were killed in police/protestor riots earlier this month, one from a car bomb he set off himself, and one girl killed by impact of a police shotgun fired canister of tear gas. Her Majesty the Queen attended the girl’s public funeral.

I spent the past 7 days in Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. This island is directly north of the island I previously visited in June, Koh Phangan. The week was very eventful because I took full advantage of my Open Water Diving certification for the first time since I received it in May in the Florida Keys. I went on a total of 6 dives which was about all I could afford, but I went to the following dive sites around the island: Aow Leuk North, Aow Leuk South, Chompon Pinnacle, Twin Peaks, Shark Island, and Southwest Pinnacle. Underwater visibility was variable and the currents weren’t bad except at Twin. My favorite dive was at Southwest Pinnacle though, a series of underwater rock formations that look like mountains but don’t even break the water’s surface.
To list a few of the species I was able to identify: Queenfish, Blue-ringed Angelfish, Black-and-white Clownfish, Scorpionfish, Jan’s Pipefish, Elegant Sea Slug, Scribbled Filefish, and Remora. Let me tell you a little story about a Remora that I came to hate with a dreadful passion. The Remora fish are known as “suckerfish” because they find something interesting and nibbled on it. Yes, it’s true, apparently I’m interesting. There was one Remora that wouldn’t leave me alone and even when I would bat it away underwater it would come back from more tastes of my thigh. Eventually I moved along and he stayed back, but lord knows I’ve had enough of that little guy.

My dive master Mel from Big Bubble Divers was a load of fun and we hope to keep in touch through email. Our whole trip, with Kevin, Angela, Elizabeth, and myself: our accommodation was a little bungalow 10 feet from the water for 6 nights for a total of about $35 per person. Mind you, that’s the total for all 6 nights and we got to go snorkeling with the Big Bubble boat for free if we didn’t want to dive. Controlling my buoyancy underwater was a lot of fun and we even watched Mel cut some fish net off of the reef and save a trapped crab.

We took one day off during the week from diving when Angela finished her certification dives and we rented 2 motorcycles to check out the rest of the island. Elizabeth hastily jumped off the back of Angela’s at one point and burned her leg on the spinning tire, but aside from that, it was easy going. I absolutely love driving the motorcycle. This was probably my last time though, don’t worry momma. We closed our trip with some healthy drinking at Bubbalo Bar on the beach with some friends we made from Austria. We smoked some shisha (we call it hookah in the US), and ate many an American-style breakfast for sure.

I will not update my blog for the next 2 weeks because: Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551! My parents, brother, and his girlfriend are arriving in Thailand this very evening. My parents will be here 2 full weeks and my brother and his girlfriend just the first week, but I’ve got a lot of fun trips and adventures planned. I’ve done some vigorous planning so I’m very excited about going to places I’ve never been yet! This is the longer time frame in my entire life that I’ve gone without seeing my parents! I can’t wait to see their shining faces and get some jetlagged hugs and kisses. I can’t help but wish Philly Cream Cheese was hopping off the plane too…Enjoy the rest of the pictures from Koh Tao! Once my family leaves I will be off break and back into hardcore research. I have just under 2 months left in the Land of Smiles and I hope it doesn’t go by too quickly!