Amazing Thailand

“Seek to make your life’s path long and its purpose the service of your people” - Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation, 1768-1813

So...I have been home from Thailand for a little while now and I figured it was about time for me to document my trip. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for helping me get there and I hope you will be excited to share my experiences.   

Our flight left Salt Lake City at 9:00pm on June 9^th 2010.  We had more than 24 hours of travel ahead of us and we were greeted on the flight with an announcement that we would be delayed on the tarmac for about an hour and 45 minutes…before we even started out trip!  The final destination was Phang Nag, Thailand where we would finally arrive around 11:30pm on June 11^th after some ridiculous number of hours of travel.  For the record lavender essential oil is a wonder drug on long flights.

We ended up with a 12 hour layover in Taiwan but instead of hanging out in the airport all day we boarded a tour bus and hit the town.  I can’t say that Taiwan was my favorite place in the world but sight seeing sure beats sitting around in an airport all day.  It was pouring rain but we still were able to see a few beach towns (Bitou Beach), discovered squat toilets, had lunch in a cloud on the roof of a restaurant (with a rat or two for company), tried some pig’s blood cake and visited Yehliu National Geopark.  Altogether it wasn’t a bad one day trip to the country.

My travel group of students

Squat toilets

Yehliu National Geopark

Once we arrived in Thailand though, I immediately liked it better than Taiwan.  We arrived late at night but still received a warm welcome.  We still had an hour and half drive to our hotel but we finally made it.  It was a lot nicer than I was expecting and it had an actual bed so I could care less what the rest of the place looked like. We went straight to bed because, well because we had been up for the 48 or something like that.  Besides, we had to be up bright and early to head over to the school and see what this trip was all about.

The view from our hotel room.

Our room.

The neighborhood