Kanchanaburi

After being at school for a week, we were all anxious to travel again on the weekend before midterm exams. I traveled with 3 of my French friends, Agnes, Fanny, and Alix to Kanachaburi, which is about 2 ½ hours northwest of Bangkok. A few other friends, Kiki, Joe, and Jack came later that night. We arrived in the late afternoon and went to the Death Railway Bridge over the river Kwai. The river and bridge were beautiful and especially at sunset. We stayed at a hotel called Jolly Frog which was awesome. We had an awesome breakfast with really good coffee for really cheap. The atmosphere was very laidback at the Jolly Frog and was located right next to the river. Kanachaburi is a very quiet and peaceful place, a great change from Bangkok for the weekend.

We took the local bus to Erawan Falls which has 7 different tiers. We were able to stand behind one of the falls, and also slide down another with the some local Thai students who took a field trip to the falls. I think they were filming a movie at one of the falls as well! It was a fun day hiking to all the tiers. We came back to Bangkok that night so we could have the weekend to study for midterms! However, I didn't receive the warm welcome from Bangkok I was hoping for, instead, I had food poisoning! I need to be a little more careful about eating shrimp from the street vendors. It was the first time I have been sick in Thailand, and hopefully the last!

Captured a beautiful butterfly in flight at the falls!

My friend Jocelyn and I went to a restaurant called Cabbage and Condoms. It was a really cool restaurant! All the profits goes towards AIDS research. It was a very creative idea and the food was awesome.

hotdog bun+ ice cream+ nuts=an ice cream sandwich in Thailand!

traveling around southern Thailand...

We began our 10 day excursion by hopping on a train at 10:30 at night on February 5th that took us to Surat Thani which would be about a 10 hour train ride. The train was freezing!! It was the first time that I was really cold in Thailand, it reminded me of winter in Wisconsin (well maybe just a taste of it!) Once we arrived in Surat Thani, we caught a ferry to Koh Samui which is an island located in the Gulf of Thailand. Once on the island, we found a bungalow to crash in and then we just hung out on the beach and rested from all the traveling.
The next day we scheduled a boat tour to Ang Thong National Marine Park which was amazing. The park is made up of 40 small islands with limestone cliffs, beaches, lagoons, and heavy vegetation. We snorkeled in the morning and saw some very colorful fish and schools of fish, when you fed them bread, they would swarm you! After that, we went to the park headquarters where we had the option to either hike to a cave, hike to the highest view point of the park, or sea kayaking. Our guides said we only had time for one activity, and of course that meant that I had time to do them all!! (Not without a little effort though!) My friend, Paul, and I first ran to and from the cave in 20 minutes, and then at lunch really fast, and then we climbed, crawled, and scrambled to the view point because we only had 30 minutes to get to the top and back before kayaking. It was 500 meters straight up! I was extremely sweaty by the time we got to the top, it looked like I had jumped in the sea! We got back just in time to hop in the kayaks and kayak along the cliffs to a secluded beach. I was glad I did all three activities, but I was extremely sore the next day!



After the Marine Park, we took a ferry to another island called Koh Pha-Ngan which is where the Full Moon Party takes place. It is a huge party that takes place on the beach when the moon is full. I don’t think I’ve seen so many people packed onto one beach before. It was definitely something to experience once in your life, and everyone in our group survived the party without too many injuries or lost objects. I also did fire jump rope at the full moon party which was really scary, but quite the adrenaline rush. My goal was to not get burned which I did successfully!


We ended up not sleeping at all during the full moon party because we scheduled to take a ferry at six in the morning that would take us back to Surat Thani so we could continue to travel south to the town of Krabi. After a traveling on a shady bus for three hours that was extremely hot and would take corners way to sharply, we arrived in Krabi! We decided to continue our journey to the jagged peninsula of Railay. We took a long boat that dropped us off on Hat Rai Leh on the eastern side. The tide was low, so we had to walk through a lot of mud to get to the shore. With the low tide, we were able to hike along the rocky shoreline to a more secluded beach called Ton Sai. Ton Sai is less developed and is a more attractive location for backpackers and rock climbers!

We ended up staying on Ton Sai for 3 nights because the bungalows were really cheap and it was such a beautiful location, we didn't want to leave. In the mornings, you would wake up to monkeys banging and throwing things on our roofs, and when you would walk outside, it looked like you were in the forest, but then you would walk down the hill and there would be the beach! My friend Rachel and I did a full day of rock climbing the next day with a local named Sammy. It was an amazing experience to be able to climb on cliffs over the sea and look at the scenery once you got to the top of the climb! Outdoor climbing in Thailand will be something I will cherish forever! After Rachel and I couldn’t climb anymore because our fingers were cramped, we hiked to a lagoon which was just as hard as rock climbing and really challenging after rock climbing all day! The lagoon was really eerie and secluded and definitely worth seeing. We ended up hanging out with the Thai locals who took us rock climbing that night and we talked about rock climbing and growing up in Thailand, they spoke English really well! Ton Sai has been one of my favorite places in Thailand so far because of the laid back atmosphere, the local people, the limestone cliffs and rock formations in the sea, and the mango sticky rice for only 30 baht!
The next day we took a boat tour that took us to Koh Pi Pi, Bamboo Beach, Monkey Beach, Chicken Island, and Maya Beach (which is where the movie “The Beach” was filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio!) After 10 days, I was ready to get back to Bangkok and rest for a while and go to school of course! However, I didn’t receive the warm welcome I was hoping for, instead, I was welcomed with food poisoning! So I had to miss class on Monday because I was feeling under the weather, but I felt better after 24 hours or so. It was the first time I’ve been sick in Thailand, and hopefully the last! I think I’ll be a little more careful about eating seafood on the street!

Here is a picture of my friend Pat who studied abroad in Wisconsin last semester and now she is back in Bangkok going to Chula with me. She has shown me around Bangkok and has helped me settled in to the Thai culture.

Chula vs. Thammasat

We went to the 75th Traditional Futbol Game between Chula and Thammasat. Thammasat is a rival school of Chula but both located in Bangkok. The game was a lot of fun, but sadly Chula lost 2 to nothing. Everyone bought pink Chula jerseys and painted their faces. The game was comparable to a badger game back in Wisconsin, minus the tailgating parties! The fans were really into the game and very clever with signs, also they had many "cheerleading" teams that would walk around the track and perform for the audience. Sometimes it seemed more entertaining to watch them than the game!

Ayutthaya

A group of us traveled to the ancient city called Ayutthaya where we biked around the city and visited the various ancient ruins. Some of the more memorable ones included Wat Pra Mahathat where a Buddha is enclosed in a tree, Wat Phra Sri Sanphet, and Wat Ratburana. We also went to a place called Elephant Kraal where we were able to feed and play with baby elephants! The baby elephants were pretty rowdy and they wrestle with each other like puppies do!

Amphawa

The BBA Program at Chulalongkorn took all of the exchange students on a weekend field trip to Amphawa, which is about an hour and a half from Bangkok. We traveled in a very fancy bus to our destination and we even got box dinners! We visited a local market and then took a boat tour on the river to see the fireflies that are in the trees along the riverbanks. It was pretty amazing seeing all of the fireflies, it reminded me of chasing fireflies (lightning bugs) back home in the fields! The next day we woke up at 5:30 to give food offerings to the monks. They would paddle up to the dock in their canoes and after we gave them their food, they gave us a blessing. It was a surreal experience that I will cherish. We also visited the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, where instead of walking to different vendors, we visited the different vendors by boats! It was a very fun weekend and we all learned a lot about the culture in Thailand, we also ate at a chinese restaurant which was very delicious and I ate a ton of seafood!

During the week a few of my roomies and I were given the chance to go to an orphanage where we played with the children for 2 hours and also fed them. It was an amazing experience and we plan to go back every week. You can tell that the children don’t have a lot of human contact, so we are going to try to give them as much love and attention as we can!